Yo!
Not a lot to say about this chapter, though I would like to take a second to explain my personal opinions on Neji as a fighter, and where I feel he stands in terms of power, because I feel like a lot of people underrate him.
Neji has 2 big fights in part 1: His fight against Hinata, and his fight against Naruto. He beats Hinata without suffering a single wound, but I think that the fact that he loses to Naruto is used to assume that he's much weaker than people say he is. Lee calls him the strongest Genin, after all.
Despite this, I think Lee's wrong. Lee is actually stronger than Neji, but not by as much as people give him credit for. I think the Gaara fight is often overblown, and that Lee isn't that much stronger than a lot of the other fighters. I mean, Lee beats Sasuke handily at the start of the Chuunin Exams, Loses to Gaara, and then Sasuke, after gaining the curse mark and Chidori, is able to suddenly fight Gaara evenly, up until his transformation into Shukaku, at which point, practically any Genin other than Naruto would lose to him. (Hell, most Jonin would)
But Naruto is able to beat Gaara, though, and I feel like this gets undersold a lot. Neji losing to Naruto is a big deal, but like, pretty much everyone would've lost to Naruto, except for specific match-ups. I think Naruto beats every Genin in the series at that point, with the exception of Lee, because of a stylistic difference, and maybe Sasuke (Without Gamabunta)
Basically, Neji's accomplishments are underrated, Lee's are overrated, despite all of that, Lee's still stronger than Neji, but Neji had a plan going in, and was just a bit smarter than his opponent, which let him scrape away with a draw.
Alright, I'll step off of my soapbox now. I didn't actually get many complaints about the fight, and even the one's I did get were simply people outlining their reasoning's behind why they think the fight should've gone Lee's way, so thanks for being cordial!
Without further ado, shan't we begin?
Chapter 19: A Quiet "Thank You."
"Alright, Miss Kidnapper-Lady-"
"I resent that."
"Good for you." Sakura hissed out. "As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, what the hell is it we're doing?"
Anko had taken her through numerous rooms and hallways in the large tower that housed the Chuunin Exam's Second Test, until they'd finally arrived in a room that looked a bit like the arena they'd previously occupied. It was smaller, much smaller, but it was rather well lit, and would easily accommodate mock battles, which she assumed was the space's purpose.
"We're sparring?" The woman answered, looking at Sakura as if she were stupid. "What else would we be doing?"
Sakura tried to internalize the annoyance she was feeling but, judging by the deep sigh that poured out of her a moment later, she was fairly sure it hadn't worked.
"Alright, fine, what am I doing."
Anko looked around the room, her hand massaging the tip of her chin as she seemed to ponder something. She pulled a kunai out of her bag and sat down, bringing the sharp edge down onto the cold stone floor beneath them, carving a shallow circle around her.
"OK," The woman stood back up, stretching as she continued to speak. "You can do whatever you want to me. Try and stab me to death, or throw bombs at me, or use whatever Jutsu you want, but your only real goal is to knock me out of this circle."
Sakura was just a tad confused as to the point of this.
"You're not… going to teach me anything?"
Her new mentor stared back at her, a stick of dango in her mouth, already looking a bit bored.
"Wasn't planning on it, no."
"Then… what's the point of this?"
"Oh, right," Anko pulled the now empty stick out of her mouth, taking a small moment to chew, and then spoke up again. "I just wanted to see your curse mark once you get all freaked out and angry, I'm not actually expecting you to beat me."
Sakura felt the small bubble of annoyance, the one she'd been keeping down ever since this woman had pulled her away from her friends, begin to fester. She felt a real, palpable rage as the woman laughed at her, even if she knew that was just what her new mentor wanted.
The woman snickered under her breath.
"I'm honestly not even expecting you to hit me, so don't worry about-"
A torrent of water connected with Anko's body, drenching her from head to toe. She sat in what seemed to be mortification for a moment, before looking back up at Sakura, who was doing her best to avoid showing the joy she currently felt on her face.
"W-what was that you said," Sakura asked, trying not to break out into giggles as her smile grew to shit-eating proportions. "About not hitting you?"
Anko's expression grew dark, and just for a moment, she thought she might have pissed the woman off, but a second later, her new teacher laughed, arching backwards and holding herself up with her arms.
"Oh, Sakura…"
The woman's expression grew almost feral as she stepped outside of her makeshift circle, drawing her weapon in front of her, and disregarding the rules she'd previously set.
"I think I'm going to like you."
/-/
"So… is anyone gonna' talk about Sakura, or…?"
"Nah," Zabuza's attention never left the arena below them, even as he yawned, using the back of his hand to cover his bandaged mouth. "She'll be fine."
"You sound awfully sure of that…" Sasuke spoke from beside Naruto, his eyes narrowed in minor annoyance.
"Yeah, well, that woman did have a missive from the Hokage. We can say whatever we want, but that old man wanted that her training Sakura, so we don't have a choice."
Naruto couldn't help but feel like that was just a bit unfair but decided to keep those thoughts to himself as he looked around, trying to find their leaders shadow around the arena.
"Hey, Zabuza?" Naruto asked, turning back to look at his stand-in teacher. "I thought you would've brought Haku with you, where's he at?"
"Ah, that brat?" The assassin hissed out, annoyance making it's way into his tone. "He's over there, enjoying the spoils of war."
Naruto followed the man's finger, over to where Shikamaru, Choji, and Ino, along with their Sensei, were standing along the opposite balcony to them. Upon second inspection, he noticed that there was another figure standing just beside the blonde girl of the group, making idle conversation with her.
"'Someone's gotta' comfort her after her loss,' he said, 'I guess I'll have to go and talk with her!' he said." Zabuza growled under his breath, accidentally bending the iron bar supporting his weight. "Damned idiot doesn't see that his puppy crush is the most obvious thing in all of Shinobi history."
Sasuke coughed, and then, when Zabuza turned to look at him with a deadpan expression, he began to whistle.
"Don't think I haven't been noticing the looks you've been giving your girl either." Zabuza sighed, massaging his face with his hands. "I'm happy to know that I, at least, was never this bad."
"What!?" Sasuke spoke up, a small blush on his cheeks as he spat out denials. After a second, the boy seemed to become fed up with Zabuza's accusations. "What the… I'm sure you were just as much of an 'idiot' as all the rest of us are!"
Zabuza chuckled, looking back towards Sasuke with an eyebrow raised.
"I doubt it."
"Why's that?"
"I literally killed everyone I went to school with." Zabuza outlined in a bored tone. "Couldn't really fall for a corpse, now could I?"
There was a moment of silence as both Sasuke and Naruto remembered the man's story, before Sasuke spoke a second or two later with a quiet "Oh."
"Now quiet, next match."
Naruto tried his very best to forget about Zabuza's murder-filled past, turning towards the screen and silently hoping he'd be chosen. He'd been sitting around on this balcony doing nothing at all for far too long!
When the screen came to a stop, Naruto jumped up, raised his fist in the air, and gave a mighty whoop.
Temari vs. Naruto Uzumaki
"Finally!" He exclaimed, finding himself a bit short of breath as he ran towards the stairs, taking them two at a time in his rush to get to the center of the arena. "Finally, I get to fight!"
By the time he made it down, which was maybe 15 seconds later, his opponent was already there. She was a blonde girl a few years older than him, wearing a fairly simple dress and what seemed to be a fishnet under-outfit, which Naruto couldn't help but think mustn't have covered much.
She also wore a giant metal object across her back, although judging from how one of her hands was resting upon it, Naruto couldn't help but think she would draw the instrument the moment their fight began.
The proctor talked to them about the rules of their fight, going over the same things he had with everyone else, but Naruto had been listening to him during Sakura's fight, concerned for his friend, and had already heard it all.
He instead chose to use that time devising a strategy from what he could see of the girl in front of him.
Well, to start, she's going to be using that thing on her back for something, or else she wouldn't be lugging it around. Naruto concluded fairly obviously, scratching his chin. The problem is that it could be anything, but I won't really know until the fight starts.
It aggravated him to no end that no amount of thinking, something he'd resolved to use to try and be a better fighter, would actually help him this time around.
Fine, fine… I guess I'll have to adapt on the fly.
Naruto smirked, taking a stance as the proctor asked the two if they were ready. He drew a kunai from his pouch and prepared to summon a few shadow clones as soon as the fight started.
If there was one thing Naruto knew he was good at, it was bullshitting his way out of difficult situations. He was fairly confident he'd be fine.
"Then let the Fourth Match of the Chuunin Exam's Second round… BEGIN!"
Naruto raised his hands into the shadow clone almost immediately, allowing 4 clones to pop up around him, and had them all immediately charge forward, just to get a read on what he'd be dealing with.
His eyes widened when, a second later, every single one of them was banished in a single swing of the girl's weapon, which turned out to be a massive fan. The winds it blew across the arena even buffeted him back, despite him being a good 20 feet away.
Well… That's interesting. Naruto thought to himself, already running small scenario's in his head for what he should do about this new development. Not good, of course.
But interesting.
He wasn't surprised when the girl took a few steps back, creating distance between the two of them with a small smile on her face all the while.
Alright, idea #1: This girl's a long-range fighter, and she doesn't want to get close.
Let's test it.
He took a step forward and felt a small sense of satisfaction as the girl mirrored his action, stepping back with the same foot. She was retaining the distance between them.
So, idea #1 proven. Idea #2: if I get close to her, I can win a close-range fight.
That one was a little iffier, but Naruto felt like it was his safest bet at present.
His opponent shot off a large gust his way, and he couldn't even try to dodge with how big it was. He instead chose to put his hands in front of his face, and take the blast on his arms. He was rewarded with slices down his sleeves, as the sharp winds bit and tore into his clothes, and, more worryingly, his flesh.
When he lowered his arms, he couldn't help but notice that the girl rested the fan behind her, smirking to herself in satisfaction. A small idea began to form in the back of his mind.
Alright, so… Sasuke says to analyze anything that seems weird, so… why wouldn't she just keep bombarding me with that wind? Naruto couldn't help but wonder as he sent out another few shadow clones, just to buy him time to think. I mean, even if it takes an immense amount of chakra, I'm still going to be down after 6 or 7 of those.
Naruto kept his train of thought going as he narrowly dodged out of the way of the slicing gale, and then ducked underneath a kunai the girl threw at him a second later, which only served to further his thought process.
Ok, so a kunai is obviously inferior to a blast from her fan, so that leads me to only one conclusion…
She can't use that fan attack continuously.
He looked back to her, as she drew the fan along her back and seemed to sit idle for a moment, an idea came to him.
Is she charging it?
It made sense, after all, if after every single blow she seemed to hesitate to follow up, then that could only mean she needed the time to charge for another strike.
He decided to bank on this theory, and instead of backing off when she dispersed the next set of clones, he charged in.
The girl's eyes widened for just a moment, before, in a move that caught him off guard, she swung her fan at him a second time.
What!? But I thought –
It was too late to dodge, and it was going to hit him dead center. Naruto could do nothing but raise his arms as he was knocked backwards, landing several feet away and rolling pitifully to a stop. He rose immediately, not wanting to be declared unfit to continue, but found his legs weak as he did.
He looked down at them, and found himself bleeding from several cuts all over his body.
Feeling a bit… woozy as well…
He could vaguely remember Iruka Sensei telling him that was bad.
Like… really bad.
"Hmph." The girl across from him had a cocky smile on her face, her fan drawn back across her back with a victorious expression adorning her features. "Honestly, if that's all you can do, then please spare us all the effort and just concede already, I'm getting bored."
His anger flared up, and he could feel, with a small sense of relief, a few of the cuts around his body start to heal themselves as a minuscule amount of the Nine-Tails chakra coursed through him.
He knew that he should analyze the situation calmly, think carefully about his next move, and execute on a plan. That was what Sasuke had taught him, and at this point, he knew that the boy was right far more often than not.
But the anger boiling inside him told him to summon a few dozen shadow clones, grit his teeth, and punch that girl square in the jaw!
And that was just what he'd do.
"Talk down to me!" Naruto brought his hands up in front of him, but before he could use a good half his chakra on a veritable army of shadow clones, a shouting voice called out to him.
"Idiot! Don't fall for it!"
He turned back around, a bit dumbfounded, and looked up towards Sasuke, who was breathing heavy, sweat dripping down his face as he called out with all his might.
"You're angry, Right!? Well use it!" The boy held his fist out, smiling widely. "Prove you're stronger!"
Use my anger? …What the hell is that supposed to mean.
Wait… could he mean…
He smirked, before letting his hands fall back to his sides, abandoning the army of shadow clones he'd been about to summon, and instead raised his fist up to mirror his friends.
"Will do, Sasuke!"
The Uchiha gave him one last encouraging smile, before Naruto turned back around, cracking his knuckles, and beginning to circle the girl in the center of the arena.
I get it, Sasuke, you're saying that she's trying to get me riled up, so she can use my anger against me. Naruto nodded sagely, feeling proud that he was able to decipher his friends code. You didn't want to shout it out, though, because if she understood she'd been found out, then she'd abandon her strategy.
Naruto smirked, nodding.
Right. If I were to use 50 shadow clones, they'd just dissipate the moment the girl hit them with a single strike. But…
What if I were to use that same amount of chakra on one, single shadow clone?
He'd tried it before, just the once, when he'd been sparring with Sasuke. It hadn't been particularly useful, not against the boy's fireball jutsu, which had hit it straight on to the face, but Naruto had a theory that, against something less destructive, the clone would be able to take more than a single hit before dissipating.
Especially against an attack as indirect as Temari's wind.
Still, there's no way I'll know until I use it, and if I do, and it fails, that's half of my chakra down the drain.
But there was no way he was going to be Hokage one day without being willing to take some risks. He brought his hands up, focused hard upon the chakra that swirled within him, took a generous portion of it, and then said the words.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
A single, solitary puff of white smoke enveloped him, and, after it cleared, there was another copy of him to his left. His doppelganger looked towards him, smirked, and nodded.
The girl before him must've sensed something was up, because she took a few steps back, reached into her ninja tool bag, and drew forth a contraption Naruto knew quite well.
"Paper bomb!" He exclaimed, dodging to the right as his clone did to the left, avoiding the explosion that went off where he'd just been standing.
He looked back over towards the girl with a small grimace, but his eyes widened a second later as a massive squall came towards him, carrying pieces of the floor with it as it cut it's way across the arena.
"That's bad!" Was pretty much the only thing Naruto could vocalize before he was bombarded by blades of streaming wind. He did his very best to avoid taking any serious damage, but couldn't quite stop the cuts from adding up on his body, legs, arms, and chest.
He fell to the floor in a heap, the ground cracking around him as he did.
And yet, in a moment when his defeat was all but certain, an idea came to him. He kept his laughter to himself as he did, feeling the cuts on his body begin to patch themselves up.
The reason why his opponent swung her fan back across her back every time she attacked, even if she could keep the assault up, the reason she only brought out her paper bombs after he'd shown prowess, and the reason she was, even now, still smirking to herself…
She was overconfident.
She thinks she's so much better than me… I wonder… This'll be a gamble, but if it works…
He brought his hands in front of him and used his specialty, even as a devilish grin spread across his face.
"Transform!"
/-/
Temari was feeling pretty good about her odds of winning as the boy's clone burst into white smoke, having been as easily dealt with as everything else he'd thrown at her. Her teacher had told her that something odd was up with him, and to not underestimate him, just in case, but just like with all of her other opponents, she'd had no trouble in dispatching him.
She'd done her best to reign in her overconfidence, preventing it from dictating the state of the match, as it had a tendency to do, but she couldn't help but gloat as she walked over to her opponents real body, laughing all the while.
"Welp, nice try I suppose. The shadow clones surprised me, but it wasn't ever going to be enough."
She heard movement on her left, and turned with her weapon drawn to meet it, expecting a trick from her opponent, but found only the exam's proctor, standing there with an odd smile that didn't at all match his features.
She took a breath, letting the last of her worry flow out of her as she drew her fan closed, holding the large metal instrument towards her opponents face on the ground.
"Yield."
The boy turned to face her, looking up at her with a small smile. He drew his hands together, forming the sign for the shadow clone, but Temari was faster, easily knocking his hands apart with the end of her fan, and then bashing his face with it, causing the back of his head to collide with the stone floor.
It was a bit cruel, but she couldn't mind that. They were going to destroy this entire village, after all. If she couldn't deal with hurting one little boy, she'd never be able to fulfill her duty.
"Perhaps you didn't hear me." She spoke again, bringing the fan down once again to rest near his face. "Yield."
The boy below her sighed, but put his hands beside his head.
"I yield."
She sighed in relief, pulling back as she stood fully, and walked back towards the proctor, waiting for him to call the match.
As one second turned to two, then three, she felt a bit of unease work its way into her mind.
"Excuse me, sir," She tried to be as polite as possible, assuming that this was perhaps a home bias towards Leaf genin, and that maybe, by endearing herself to this man, he would allow her the victory she'd earned. "Naruto Uzumaki has surrendered. Wouldn't you please call the match?"
"Naruto Uzumaki has not surrendered." The man spoke calmly, coughing a second later. "Thusly, I cannot call this match over."
He hasn't… What!?
She turned back around, looking back towards where her opponent sat in a small crater, and found him still lying there. He was injured, and probably had a concussion. Standing only a few feet from her was the proctor, walking towards her at a lax speed, hands in his pockets.
She turned back around to the proctor, anger working it's way into her system.
"Look over there, don't you see him!" She complained, pointing back towards the boy in the floor. "He's down, and he surrendered!"
"Miss Temari, I'm sorry." The man before her gave just the tiniest fraction of a smile, like a small crescent the day after a new moon. "But the surrender of a clone does not count as a loss."
Her instincts flew as she swung around, drawing her weapon as fast as she could, but the clone in the hole was already dissipated. She backed away, looking around the arena.
The hole where I banished that bastards clone, the place where I destroyed the other clone, the exam's proctor…
The exam's… proctor…
Her eyes widened as she turned back around, where a second proctor stood, smiling lazily, as if this were all just the tiniest bit amusing.
She swung her weapon behind her with blinding speed, trying to catch the fake proctor with her weapon, but the man ducked underneath it, sending an uppercut straight to her jaw, which had her reeling as she was knocked backwards.
Shit! Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!
He'd tricked her by pretending to be destroyed before, but really, the white smoke hadn't been that of a shadow clone dissipating, but of a transformation jutsu being used!
He'd transformed into the exam's proctor, walked calmly towards her and into her worst range, and landed a solid hit!
I have to summon my –
Before she could even think about biting into her finger, she was knocked back, kicked straight in the stomach, and felt her breath leave her. She tried to recover, tried to raise her guard, but the boy was relentless, summoning more copies of himself and overwhelming her, until, with one last attack, he pushed her to the ground, drew a kunai, and held it to her throat.
"Yield!" The fake proctor spoke, eyes shining with mirth that shouldn't have been present on his face.
She growled under her breath, tried to think of any way out, but blanked. She sighed a second later, fell back on the stone floor beneath her, and admitted the truth.
"I lost."
/-/
Naruto shot up immediately, raising his hands above his head, and shouted in victory.
"I won!" He ran around in circles, hollering and whooping, and generally feeling like he as on top of the world. "I won, I won, I won!"
Someone behind him cleared his throat, and Naruto turned around to see the exam proctor with a quiet smile on his face.
"We're all very happy for you, Naruto, but if you wouldn't mind…" The man actually blushed, though Naruto could clearly tell it was out of embarrassment. "Could you release your transformation jutsu? Watching myself do all of this is a bit odd."
Naruto looked down at his body to find that he was, in fact, still in his disguise. He smiled and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.
"Y-yeah, sorry."
With a puff of white smoke, Naruto was suddenly two feet shorter, and more than a little tired. Transforming for a few seconds was rather easy, but keeping the illusion up for minutes at a time could be difficult.
It wouldn't have been for anyone else, and he'd heard stories of ninja's staying in disguise for weeks, but they didn't have to deal with a monster's chakra coursing through their veins at all times, constantly interrupting the flow of their own chakra as it did.
Having kept up the transformation for a few minutes was a thing to be proud of for Naruto, and he smiled remembering the look on the girl's face as she realized his trick.
That'll teach her to get cocky! He chuckled under his breath, starting to walk up the stairs to leave the arena, but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder.
"Excuse me, but shouldn't you go on ahead to the infirmary?" The proctor spoke, putting his hand back into his pocket. "Blood loss is not to be underestimated."
"Ah… about that…"
How do I say 'well, the demon in my chest has already healed my wounds, so I'm totally fine.' Without actually saying that at all?
"Don't worry about him, the demon in his chest already healed his wounds, so it's no biggie." Zabuza said as he walked down the steps, taking Naruto by the collar and dragging him up. "Thanks for looking out and all."
The proctor seemed rightfully stunned, but, a second later, seemed to come to the conclusion that this was all beyond his pay-grade, because he simply sighed, turned around, and began muttering to himself.
"So that's the Nine-Tails brat, huh?" Naruto thought he heard him say.
He turned back towards Kakashi's stand-in, with just a bit of indignant annoyance.
"Shouldn't you be keeping the whole Nine-Tails thing a secret!?"
The Demon of the Mist looked back down at him with a tiny sneer.
"Not from Jonin, kid. They already know about your existence already, and especially one's from the leaf." Zabuza shrugged. "No reason to keep it hidden from your allies, right?"
Naruto grumbled under his breath, but also couldn't really see a reason to refuse, so he stayed quiet for the most part as the man pulled him up the remaining flight of steps, only questioning why he was being dragged in the first place as he got to the top.
He was just about to complain about it when Sasuke stepped up next to him, looking equal parts proud and annoyed, which Naruto couldn't help but think was a bit funny.
"I thought you said you understood." His friend spoke evenly, not seeming terribly upset, but more confused.
"What are you talking about?" Naruto asked, feeling a bit of confusion himself, but realizing a second later what his friend must have meant. "Oh! You mean the plan, right? Yeah, thanks for that, you really helped me!"
"…But you didn't follow my idea at all."
"What?"
Sasuke tilted his head to the side, eyes narrowing as he leaned forward, as if trying to peer into Naruto's soul.
"I said to use your anger… and instead, you kept a level head, dealt with the situation intelligently, and persevered with a well-thought out plan." The boy's eyes narrowed even further, looking at him out of slits. "Completely unlike you."
Naruto couldn't help but blush a bit at the praise.
"W-well, you said to use my anger, and I realized that you were trying to send me a coded message!" Naruto nodded proudly, with a 'please praise me more!' look on his face. "You were trying to tell me to calm down, since she was using my anger, right?"
Sasuke sighed, massaged his head with his hands, but smiled a second later, laughing quietly all the while.
"I meant for you to use the Nine-Tails chakra." Sasuke explained, a residual smile still set upon his face. "After all, don't you need to be angry to reliably use it?"
Naruto honestly had no idea if there were any such restrictions on the Nine-Tail's chakra, but he could see how the boy might've figured that, given that his only experience with power-ups recently were when Sakura got mad and when he died.
It might've also had something to do with how Sasuke got his new three Tomoe Sharingan, through the rage of seeing his best friend fall before him.
So… does he think the only way to gain power is to get angry?
…That's pretty edgy.
"Er… I don't know if that's how the Nine-Tails works, to be honest."
"Oh, Sorry, I didn't know."
"Nah, it's fine, like you said, your words still helped out."
Sasuke smirked, leaning against the metal bar in front of him as he gazed out over the arena.
"I wonder who'll be next."
"Well, it's random, so it could be any-"
"Excuse me, Naruto?"
The new voice had Naruto turning to his left, where, just beyond Sasuke, a small, blue-haired girl stood waiting, a tiny vile in her hands as she shook ever so slightly.
"Oh… Hinata?" He wondered what the girl was doing up here, and as he stepped around Sasuke, who walked over to stand with Zabuza, he asked her.
"Oh, I… wanted to give you this." The girl drew herself into an incredibly deep bow, holding out a small container of… something towards him. "F-for your wounds."
'Actually, my wounds are already healed, thanks anyways.' Felt like the logical thing to say, but Naruto couldn't help but feel like that would've been a little bit rude.
"It's a gift." The girl's sensei, who Naruto was fairly sure was named Kurenai, spoke up from behind her, smiling indulgently as she shook her head. "You should accept it, even if you have no need for it now. Keep it with you, just in case."
He nodded to the woman, more out of respect than anything else, and reached out for the vile. When his hand touched Hinata's as he took it, the girl flinched, and Naruto couldn't help but feel a bit bad about that, like he'd accidentally kicked a puppy.
"Thanks, Hinata." He tried to give his best smile, the one Sasuke told him once looked like the sun, but he couldn't help but think it came off a bit forced, not quite reaching his eyes. "I'll take care of it."
"A-ah!" The girl stuttered, putting her hands into the pockets of her jacket, and taking a step back. "D-don't worry about it, I'd… I'd rather you use it" She was playing with the strings on her jacket now, twirling them with her fingers in intricate little patterns that seemed to command Naruto's attention for whatever reason. "I… you don't need to take care of anything that I-"
The girl seemed to cut herself off, before, with a pale face, she took another bow, and went back off to join her team. Her sensei sighed as she watched the girl go, before turning to Naruto again with a small, sad smile.
"Thanks for that, Naruto. That girl… well, she doesn't have a lot of things that she likes doing, or people she likes to talk to." The woman's smile became a bit brighter, but it was like sunlight peaking out from behind storm clouds. "But I think you give her… Well, it's not my place to say anything else."
The woman stepped back, waving as she walked to stand behind her team.
"Good luck with the next stage of the exams."
He couldn't quite help the feeling that he was missing something as Sasuke stepped back to stand next to him, a quiet sadness playing across his features.
"Hinata Hyuga…" His friend spoke quietly. "I hear she was outed from her clan after her little sister defeated her in combat."
"I… didn't know that." The last bit of joy from his victory was snuffed out in the somber mood between the two of them, and as the minutes ticked by, and the arena floor was finally fixed, the room turned once again to see who would be fighting next.
When the roulette came to a stop, Naruto gasped quietly, looking back to the girl he'd been speaking to just a moment ago with no small amount of fear.
Misumi Tsurugi vs. Hinata Hyuga
For her part, Hinata didn't look nearly as terrified as he'd figured she would. She wasn't composed by any sense of the word, shaking slightly with nerves. She took careful steps towards the stairway, but the way she walked seemed almost fake, a bit too wooden, a bit too calm.
'Do something.' A voice in his mind commanded.
Do what? He couldn't help but think. I don't even know what I'm expected to say!
"But I think you give her… Well, it's not my place to say anything else." He remembered Kurenai Sensei saying, as the woman walked back towards her own team.
Give her what?
And yet, as the girl began to descend the stairs, he realized he didn't have the time to think this one out.
And yet, even still, he called out to her.
"H-Hinata!"
The girl turned back to look at him, her face a bit pale, but a blush present upon her cheeks.
"Y-yes?"
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see all of the members of Hinata's team, Kiba, Shino, and most of all their Sensei, Kurenai, giving him approving nods as he stepped up in front of the girl, preparing to say his piece.
"Good luck out there," He held his hand out, giving her a thumbs up, and a smile that, this time, managed to reach his eyes. "I'll be rooting for you."
The girl before him gaped, her mouth hanging open for a few seconds, before, with a small squeak, she ran down the steps, taking them two at a time. When she made it to the halfway point, she stopped, and mumbled something that he just barely caught.
It was a quiet "Thank you."
End Chapter 19
Aight.
Weeks to Hiatus: 0!
I know, I skipped a week, but the move is catching up to me, and so I am afraid this story will be going on a quick, two or three week break.
Despite that, you should still expect a chapter by the second or third week of August, and if one's not out, spam the shit out of me, I've probably managed to forget to update this fic, because that sounds like something I'd do.
Welp, that's all from me, see you guys in a few weeks!