"Hmm, that was quite a skilled fight, wouldn't you say?" The Third Hokage took a long drag on his pipe, the way he always did when he wanted to stall for time or look thoughtful. "I'd say your daughter has great potential as a shinobi, Rasa – indeed, I feel certain she will be promoted to chūnin after this."

Rasa was not really paying attention. His eyes still lingered on the arena below where Temari had been carried off on a stretcher. Her stomach at least would be healed easily enough – Tsunade herself would see to that, he did not doubt. What she had said to the Uchiha, though… Of his three children, she was the only one old enough to remember their mother Karura, though he had half imagined that she too would have forgotten that brief time they spent together in the sun, raising her to one day take up the mantle of Kazekage… until the birth of Gaara had turned those prized memories into poison.

"Well I thought it was no good at all," Chiyo muttered besides him. "The silly girl went and got herself stabbed instead of the enemy. Seems to me a chūnin should know which end of a sword goes where."

"I thought she fought quite valiantly," Yūra said, before flinching away from Chiyo's glare. "I ah, I only meant that considering she was forced to fight the last of the Uchiha, it was not an easy match for her."

They all turned to look at the boy with the Uchiha crest on his back (How did she lose to someone that young?) who was ambling back up the stands as though he did not have a care in the world. Chiyo's expression hardened as the boy joined up with his teacher, and Rasa frowned as he realized why. This whole situation's complicated enough already, without ancient grudges thrown in as well.

Still, he sent a few specks of gold dust across the arena to sink into Hatake Kakashi's clothes and skin, just in case.

"It is time for the next match," the examiner announced. "Please enter, Gaara of the Desert and Yoroi!"

"Ah, now this should be an interesting one," Hiruzen hummed, still tugging on his pipe and puffing out small clouds of smoke. "Are you looking forward to seeing your son in action, Rasa?"

"There's nothing to be seen," he said as Gaara entered the arena. "That boy… cannot be defeated."

The examiner slashed his hand downward, and the Leaf ninja sprang into action. A handful of thrown shuriken was blocked instantly by sand blasting from the gourd on Gaara's back as the boy stood there impassively, and then the sand came rushing at Yoroi like a flood. The Leaf ninja dodged the first wave and the second, but then the sand blasted apart in every direction at once. It spread out over the entire arena until the area below appeared to be covered in a thin mist, and then each individual mote of sand homed back in on their target all at once, leaving it utterly impossible to evade them all.

Rasa idly rubbed the gold ring on his finger as he watched. He and the boy had almost the exact same ability, but Chiyo's experiments to replicate Shukaku's power had come out differently each time. The Third Kazekage had been granted mastery over iron; able to forge any weapon at a moment's notice, and Gaara had the full might of the Desert behind him, but Rasa… Rasa commanded gold. It was too soft to use as a weapon, too heavy to be practical, and above all it was far too precious to waste.

They said that the mind and soul of the shinobi determined the nature of their chakra: That hotheads ended up brandishing fire, while calm and logical people wielded water. It would be the height of irony, he reflected, if the very concerns for his country's economy that drove him to seek such power had laden him with so weak a weapon. A malign spirit's twisted sense of poetic justice, perhaps…

That very spirit was now burying its opponent under a mound of sand; the Leaf shinobi had been covered by more and more of the desert's body even as he struggled to escape. It was starting to look like Gaara would bury him alive, when suddenly the sand loosened and fell lifelessly to the ground. Yoroi burst forth and went on the offensive, casting a technique that sent a raging torrent in Gaara's direction, and although more sand rose up to block the attack it quickly became dark and heavy with water.

"I did say it would be an interesting fight," Hiruzen remarked with satisfaction. "Yoroi can drain the chakra from anything he touches, and his water will slow down your son's sand until he is no longer able to defend himself. He has the perfect skillset to fight Gaara, and he benefits from the Will of Fire: A Ninja of the Leaf will never give up, but seek a path to victory no matter what the odds may be."

As if in response, Gaara raised one arm and bade the wet sand to float up into the air like a looming thundercloud. He condensed the sand into hailstones, and hurled them down faster than gravity's pull allowed, pelting the earth around Yoroi with a heavenly onslaught. The Leaf genin desperately raised a barrier of water to block the attacks, but the hailstones rained right through and one of them crashed into his knee with a crunch of shattered bone. As he shrieked out in agony yet more hailstones pelted him into the ground, striking his arms, legs, chest and head. Then the cloud itself condensed into a jagged spear of sand that zoomed down and homed in on its target like a thunderbolt.

"Stop!" shouted the examiner. "I'm calling the match!"

"As you wish," said Gaara. He lowered his arm even as the sand speared into the Leaf ninja, impaling him in a spray of blood. "I have stopped, and so has the match, but it seems that gravity did not listen."

For a moment, there was deathly silence. Even the audience was still for once.

"See," Chiyo said at length, "I notice that the boy managed to impale the correct person in just one try. Perhaps once these exams are over he could give your daughter some pointers on how it's done?"

-o-

Naruto watched as the Leaf ninja's remains were carried away, the bile in his stomach seeming to roil and churn in an effort to escape through his mouth. He had seen Gaara kill before – he could still hear the sound of that Rain ninja's wet and bloody coughs – but this time it had been in front of everyone. Gaara had killed that Leaf Ninja right in the middle of the Arena in broad daylight and nobody had done or said anything. Even Naruto had done nothing, just sat there and watched like everybody else.

He was still sitting there, staring at the crimson spot on the earth when his match was finally announced.

"If the participants would move into the arena and get ready…"

As Naruto descended the stairs to the arena, he tried to focus his thoughts on the trial ahead, having barely considered his upcoming match in detail – his mind flinching away from the painful prospect when he tried. Yet no matter what she had prepared this last month, Naruto did not see how Sakura could possibly hope to defeat him: She was a support ninja, skilled in medical techniques and illusions by virtue of her perfect chakra control, but a fighter she was not. Naruto was a front-line brawler, with incredible stamina and healing afforded by the most powerful spirit in existence. He was personally trained by one of the legendary Sannin, and she had what? Some minor water techniques?

Expecting her to face off against someone like Naruto really was incredibly unfair.

At last he saw her, striding into the arena grounds from the open gate on the other side. She was dressed in the white robes of the Konoha medical division, the snake on her chest symbolising healing and rebirth – all to make a good impression on the medics standing by, no doubt. Her eyes were bound with linen bandages, thin enough to see through while still shielding her from Naruto's blinding light. On her back she carried a meter-long scroll, similar to what Naruto had used back in Waves.

Even her hair had been cut short.

"Sakura-chan…"

She walked up to Naruto calmly, no trace of emotion on what could be seen of her face. "Hello, Naruto."

The examiner looked between them expectantly, perhaps waiting for them to engage in some verbal sparring before the match in order to excite the audience and fill some time. Battles between ninjas were as short as they were brutal after all, and many in the audience had come from so very far away to watch them fight… surely it was not so much to ask for Naruto and Sakura to give them a bit of a show?

Perhaps Naruto would have, if there had been anything left to say.

"All right then…" The examiner slashed his hand downwards. "Begin!"

Naruto jolted into action, fumbling to form the seals for the Shadow Clone technique even as Sakura rolled open her scroll and aimed it in Naruto's direction. As the clones rushed at her in unison, a thick jet of water blasted from the seal at incredible speed and slammed into his clones, taking them out instantly even as she angled the scroll to hit the original Naruto as well. The water crashed into him with such force that he lost all sense of direction, tumbling backwards as he washed away with the current. At last he found his footing and he emerged coughing and spluttering, barely managing to cast the shadow clone technique again before the jet of water struck him and he went under once more.

This time his clones lasted long enough to create more copies of their own, and they threw themselves at Sakura with numbers too great to eliminate all at once. Still their memories hammered into Naruto with such frequency that he lost all sense of space and time: One moment he was charging at Sakura only for her to lash him with a watery whip, the next he was rushing her in a group when the water rose up in a wave that crashed into them all at once. He was falling, swimming, sinking drinking and drowning, water forcing its way down his mouth and throat and burning his lungs while his arms flailed around helplessly, he was dying and there was nothing he could do-

An earthen wall rose up to block the stream and he felt strong arms grab him, tugging on his shoulders and pulling him out of the water. In his panic he almost fought back, but then he remembered that nobody was actually trying to kill him. He spluttered and coughed up what must have been litres of water, searing his lungs coming up almost as much as when it went down. When he could finally breathe again he found himself looking up at his own young face, bright blue eyes staring back at him.

Right... of course.

Sakura was still fending off a whole slew of clones, using the water that spewed out of the scroll like a geyser to cast her techniques with maximum efficiency – lashing out with whips of water and launching waves in every direction at a speed he never would have imagined from her. All of her attacks were low lethality but that made them ideal for fighting clones, and the surging water on the ground disrupted Naruto's usual tactics because he had never mastered water walking on account of his poor chakra control and she knew that about him. Above all the sheer volume of water coming from that scroll was incredible – even with an entire month to work with Naruto had no idea how she could have-

Oh. Tenten.

Naruto glanced in the direction of the stands where he imagined her sitting. Of course the budding seals mistress would have helped Sakura prepare against Naruto, since she still had a score to settle with him for beating her teammate Lee. He really had not properly prepared for this fight at all.

"Uhm," he heard his own voice say. "Shouldn't we, uh, change tactics or something?"

Naruto sighed. His clones were identical to him, yet somehow they still looked to him for leadership. He drew blood from his thumb with a knife, formed the seals for his new technique and slammed his hands on the surface of the shallow water. Two monstrous creatures appeared in front of him: Gama, the giant orange toad that Jiraiya had introduced him to earlier, and a smaller yellow toad with an especially moronic expression on its broad flat face. The former greeted him with a mournful croak.

"Use your water technique to attack her from a distance," he ordered the yellow toad. "Me and Gama will circle around and attack her up close." He jumped on top of the orange toad and glued himself to its back with chakra, and then it set off with great bounding leaps. I'm sorry Sakura-chan, but I can replicate your chakra nature with a single technique – no matter how hard you try, you still can't beat me.

As Sakura fended off the last of his clones, she switched and ran through the seals for her genjutsu technique. Naruto immediately called for Gama to pick up the pace, its bounding leaps nearly causing him to lose grip and fall into the rising waters below. Her genjutsu targets an area instead of a single person like Sasuke's: All I gotta do is move fast enough and she won't be able to catch me in it.

Right then a jet of water struck Naruto from behind and he tumbled head over heels down and into the water, though this time he managed to scramble to his feet right after. Gama croaked painfully as the jet of water slammed into his rear, and Naruto realized with a curse that it was coming from his own toad that he had just summoned – Sakura's genjutsu had never been intended for Naruto in the first place.

"Stop, you idiot! The target is the girl, not the toad!" Hesitating only a second, Naruto cancelled the technique and sent the yellow toad back to where it came from, but it was already too late: Sakura had run up to the still recovering Gama, her hand glowing green with chakra as she brushed upon its flank. At once boils and sores erupted all over its skin, green blood running down its body in rivulets as it croaked and moaned in anguish before collapsing on the spot and disappearing with an intake of air.

"Gama!" Naruto twisted to face Sakura, who was still standing there with that unreadable expression on her face. "What on earth did you do that for? He was just a dumb toad, you didn't need to-"

"Calm down," she said, speaking at last. "I didn't kill him: I only used my Mystical Palm technique to inflict epidermal injury. Funnily enough, it turns out the trick to being a medic is learning how not to kill your patient." It was hard to tell with the bandages covering her eyes, but her lips seemed to quirk in a humourless smile. "Besides, didn't you hear Sasuke earlier? When you send animals out to fight on your behalf, they tend to die – that's something you're only supposed to do with other people, you see."

He stared at her, unsure what to make of that. "What's the matter with you? Why're you doing this?"

"Why am I doing this? Why am I doing this?" She tore the bandages from her face, and at last he could see the simmering fury in her eyes. "Why are you even here, Naruto? I'm taking part in this blasted exam because I need to become a chūnin so I can join the medical division, and Sasuke is – well he has to become stronger for his own reasons, but what on earth are you doing here?"

"I…" Naruto started to give her one of the many reasons he had come up with in advance, but when he opened his mouth a different sound came out. "I have to beat him. I need to show him and everyone here that he's wrong: That being insane or unreasonable doesn't make you stronger, it just causes you to forget about protecting the things that are most important to you."

"Who, Gaara?" Her green eyes searched him vainly, looking to make some sense of his words. "What is it to you? You don't know him, he's not even from the same Village as you – he's not your problem!"

"Nothing around here is ever anyone's problem," Naruto protested, remembering how everyone had just ignored the fact that Gaara killed those Rain ninjas in the forest. He saw again how the audience just stood by and watched as the Sand ninja killed Yoroi, revelling in the bloodshed. "If I don't stop him, he's just gonna keep on fighting other people, and they'll die too!"

He remembered how pained Kurama had sounded while talking about his lost little brother. "His voice stays with him always, babbling lunacy and hatred into his ears, forever looking for an opening to destroy all life. Your Enemy is, and has always been, madness." And finally, he remembered the Fourth's letter, and the words Jiraiya had repeated to him for as long as he could remember: "Even I can tell that the darkness is spreading, but I believe the day will come when people truly understand each other. One day we'll change it, you and I…"

"Someone," he said, swallowing, "someone's gotta start taking responsibility for things that are not their problem. And maybe, maybe if they all see me do it… maybe other people will learn to do it too."

"And if, if even we can come to talk like this… maybe it's not so hopeless… after all…"

She was still staring at him, her expression only growing more fixed as her facial muscles hardened. At last she pulled her bandages back over her eyes, obscuring her face once more. "Fine," she said. "I already knew that trying to reason with you was never going to work. I'll just have to do this the hard way."

"Wait," said Naruto. "Hold-" She opened her scroll and the jet of water blasted him yet again, sending him sprawling away from her once more. He hastily cast the shadow clone technique even as he tumbled and fell, seeking to distract her from his real body.

He raised his head above the stream and gasped for breath. "I just want to-!"

She flicked through more seals and the water rose up all around her, a veritable tidal wave that crashed into Naruto's clones and threw him under, tossing him around like a ragdoll before finally dumping him onto the other end of the arena.

Fine then, Naruto thought, a simmering fury rising up in him like boiling water. The hard way it is.

He channelled his chakra into his own element of Wind, needing no seals or fine control to send all the water hurling away from him with crude brute force. For a second he stood in the centre of the maelstrom, droplets of water raining down all around him, and then he charged at Sakura. She aimed the scroll at him again, but he ducked underneath the stream and blocked what he could not dodge with his aura of wind. She formed seals and sent another raging torrent rushing at him, but this time he leaped over it effortlessly, the water barely touching his feet as his chakra responded to his will like never before. At last she discarded her scroll and created illusory clones all around her, an academy-level technique that she knew Naruto had never learned to see through properly, and charged right back at him.

-Tiny water droplets, falling and passing through the first four images but not the fifth-

His fist impacted her face and she careened backwards, her body twisting and flailing as she struck the water, and for one horrible moment he thought he had hit her too hard but then she half rose to face him again.

She brushed her bruised cheek with the back of her hand, examining the blood with vague distaste. "Is that all? Were you planning to defeat Gaara like that, by throwing just one punch?"

For a second he was at a loss for anything to say, but then his anger gave answer. "What's it to you? Who do you think you are, telling me what I can or can't do with my life? You just told me not to interfere with other people's problems!" His fists balled involuntarily, frustration giving rise to a rage coming from a place he did not know. "You and Sasuke are always talking down to me, deciding what I should do and treating me like a child, but you'd never accept the same from me, not in a million years!"

"It's not the same," she whispered. "You are my problem." She took hold of her bandages and pulled them loose, strands of linen cascading from her clasped hand. "They say that if you save someone, they are forever after your responsibility, so that if they kill someone then that makes you a murderer as well. I suppose it's meant to make you consider the consequences of your actions, but the stories never say what to do if you fail to save someone. If someone dies on your watch, doesn't that make you even more responsible? I'm starting to think that perhaps it should be the other way around…" She stared up at him, her green eyes begging him to understand. "What if… what if you remain innocent as long as you try your hardest, but if you do nothing even once then you're guilty of whatever happens after?"

Naruto stared at her, his anger for once leaving him without a retort. "Sakura-chan…"

"Forget it," she mumbled. "You're right: I'm always lecturing others and talking down to them, but I have no answers to offer, not really." She rose, letting the bandages slip from her fingers to swim freely in the ebbing waters at her feet. "Just… please promise me you won't die to him, Naruto."

As she walked away, he found his voice only belatedly. "…I'll try not to."

The examiner looked between them and nodded, apparently satisfied. "Winner: Uzumaki Naruto."

-o-

And then it was time for the first semi-final match.

"Oh, this is so exciting," said Tenten. "I can't wait to see what the last of the Uchiha is capable off!"

"Shhh, don't remind her," Ino whispered, a tad too loudly to prevent Sakura from overhearing. Ino shot a worried glance in her direction. "It's probably best if you don't bother her right now…"

Sakura sat there quietly and watched until the examiner announced the next match, and she was still watching quietly when the contenders entered the arena. Sasuke looked imperial, standing tall though his shoulders ever so slightly slumped: A sign of exhaustion from his last match that would have been imperceptible to anyone who did not know him as well as Sakura.

(Although… did she? Sasuke had told Temari that he was 'already accounted for', but what did that mean, exactly? Even after all this time, she still could not tell what he was really thinking at all...)

The pale-skinned Hyūga facing him was the opposite: He bore none of the fatigue, but his right arm was still raw from where the wires had cut into his skin, and there was a wild look in his eyes like that of a cornered animal, eerily reminiscent of the desperate men Sakura had fought in the Land of Waves.

A particularly naïve person might have concluded that this made him a less dangerous foe.

The two warriors met in the centre of the battlefield, staring off as the examiner raised his hand. "Please prepare yourselves," he said. He watched the two of them like a hawk. "If you are both ready…"

Neji lowered his headband, obscuring his white eyes from sight. Of course: He can still see everything this way, but Sasuke can't use his genjutsu. The Byakugan really is the perfect counter to the Sharingan…

"This seems familiar," Sasuke remarked with a smirk, though his spirit did not really seem into it.

The examiner slashed his hand downwards. "Begin!"

"What are you implying?" Neji asked with gritted teeth as he shifted into his clan's taijutsu stance. There was a strange marking on his forehead, Sakura noticed, like a hooked cross that was etched into his skin…

"I believe your teammate Lee employed the same trick against my comrade," Sasuke said idly. "He is also a master of taijutsu like you, and yet you seemed to look down on him – saying he lacked talent."

"What of it?" Neji's stance remained perfectly still as they squared off. The examiner looked between them in bemusement but said nothing, content to watch. "His delusions are not your concern, Uchiha."

"I'm merely curious," Sasuke said as he assumed his own stance. "What exactly makes you so different from him? Is it the fact that you can shape chakra? But your clan refuses to learn even basic elemental techniques, insisting on only using chakra in its purest form so as to better show off your eyes' ability. Tell me: What is the difference between someone without potential, and one who refuses to fulfil it?"

Neji charged at Sasuke, who instantly leaped backwards and threw a handful of shuriken at his opponent – which Neji instantly deflected and plucked out of the air. No, it was not going to be that easy to force him to waste chakra, Sakura thought grimly.

"I asked how you're any different!" Sasuke formed seals and sent lightning darting from his fingertips even as he dodged the shuriken that were thrown back at him, but Neji raised his hands and the lightning bent around an invisible wall of force to harmlessly strike the earth behind him. "If you were the one to fight Naruto and he had dug into the ground the way he did against Lee, what could you have done about it?"

"I would have used the Byakugan to recognize what he was doing and stopped him," Neji snapped back. "Or else I would have located him below ground and used explosive tags to flush him out." He charged again, and this time Sasuke spat out countless tiny fireballs which Neji extinguished with a brush of his hands, only for more shuriken to be revealed within. Wires coiled around Neji even as he dodged the shuriken, but this time he was prepared for it: Even without spinning, chakra erupted from every part of his body and blew the shuriken away – broken wires and all. "I am different because I am better!"

Sasuke breathed the last of the fire onto his sword and rushed at him, driving Neji back and forcing him to avoid not only the flaming blade but also the burning lance Sasuke had revealed he could unleash from the tip. "You say that," Sasuke chided, "but explosive tags are hardly –" He gasped as an invisible force from Neji's palm hurled him backwards, causing Sakura's heart to jump.

Sasuke stood up painfully, his sword extinguished. "All right," he grunted, "your versatility is decent, but…"

"Stop talking!" Neji scattered smoke bombs around Sasuke, covering the area in fumes that his bound eyes could surely see through but which the Sharingan could not. Then he threw his own shuriken through the smoke which Sasuke moved to dodge despite his lack of vision, only for a blast of force from Neji's palms to hurl the shuriken straight into Sasuke's path, tearing into his arms and legs. "Be silent!"

"Sage's Sacred Tools…" Tenten's hands went to her mouth. "Neji's destroying him."

No, thought Sakura. You're only looking at the facts, but you should look at his eyes. The truth is always in his eyes…

Neji came charging forward once again, and this time Sasuke body-flickered away – only for Neji to body-flicker after him and send him crashing to the ground with another burst of invisible force.

And yet, somehow, Sasuke still thought he was winning. No, more than that, it was like he was not looking at Neji at all...

"You're the one who talks too much," Sasuke said with a grimace as he pulled a shuriken out of his leg. "Trying to break Hinata just because she's the heir to the Hyūga clan and you're a branch member – as if it were somehow her fault. Don't you think she would prefer it too if your positions were switched?"

"Shut up!" Neji lunged at him with one hand, and Sasuke raised his right arm to block in reflex, but the limb shuddered upon contact and fell lifelessly to Sasuke's side. For one second Sasuke's eyes widened in panic, but then he turned his body and blocked Neji's next attack with his right shoulder instead, which slumped as well. "You don't know anything!" Neji struck out again, but Sasuke kept interposing the same already numbed body-parts, reducing the effect of the Gentle-Fist strikes. "You Uchiha always think you're so clever, with your smooth tongues and your hypnotic eyes, manipulating everyone while pretending to be above it all. Everyone acts like the Uchiha were this great and noble clan because they were so afraid of them, but meanwhile everyone hated their guts!" He sneered viciously at Sasuke's change in expression. "That's right: Your entire family was a nest of vipers and everyone in the Village knew the fact, yet it's amazing how much more likable they became in death!"

On the surface, Sasuke's face was slack. His right arm was numb, his body torn and bloody, but his eyes… his eyes were like she had only seen them once before; right before Sasuke had fought Haku back in the ice and snow, right after he had seen Naruto fall. His left hand was shaking ever so slightly.

"Oh Kami," Sakura said with dawning horror, "he's going to kill him."

"No kidding," said Ino, aghast. "Sasuke-kun should give up already, before it's too late!"

Sakura ignored her, rushing from her seat to – to do what? She hesitated, her hands on the railing of the arena. She could jump in and call for the match to be stopped of course, except… if she did that, Sasuke might never forgive her. She looked around furtively, searching desperately for some way out, and saw –

…five solemn figures dressed in white, the central a regal figure placed in a seat of honour. Hyūga Hiashi.

She rushed towards them without thinking, not even pausing as one of them rose to stop her before Hiashi shushed him down. "Lord Hiashi, you have to stop the match," she cried, fumbling for words. "I think… I think Sasuke might kill Neji, if he keeps insulting his family like that!" Her outburst was met by snorts of disbelief from each of the Hyūga except for Hinata and Lord Hiashi himself, the latter of whom only looked at her curiously, as though trying to determine what would make her say such a thing.

"F-father," Hinata said hesitantly. "If… if Sakura-san says it, then… I think, perhaps, it might be true."

Neji meanwhile had given up on using his Gentle Fist style, aiming instead to pound Sasuke into the ground with raw unfocused punches, his attacks clumsy and ineffective with rage. "Do you think nobody noticed when your family was being slaughtered? We all heard the screams, and they were like a lullaby to us! As far as the Hyūga clan is concerned, your brother was the only noble Uchiha that ever lived!"

Hiashi watched this disaster with a measured gaze. "If my nephew wishes to provoke the Lord Uchiha into killing him, then that is his decision," he said at last. "I shall not take that right away from him."

Sakura stared at him, aghast. "But he is your brother's son. How could you just watch that happen?"

"Do you see that mark on his forehead?" asked Hiashi. "It is a cursed seal, and it is what binds the branch house of the family to serve the main house." One of the Hyūga half-rose to protest this admission, but a single glance from Hiashi shut him down. "A hand sign which is known only to the main branch of our family may activate the seal and kill or torment the bearer at one's leisure, and should they fall into enemy hands it can seal their eyes as well – all to protect our clan's bloodline." He let out a small, pained sigh. "There exists… a certain kind of person who would sooner choose death than live even a single day in servitude, and I fear my brother was of that type. Following a certain incident, he elected to die rather than to be punished at my hands, and I could not bear to deny him that last remaining freedom." He watched Neji, who looked like he was finally starting to tire of beating on Sasuke. "Perhaps it runs in the family? Who knows but that I would have done the same, were I in their position…"

Seeing an opening, Sasuke's left hand grasped his right and forced it into position to form a seal. Darkness sprang into existence around the two, a globe of pure blackness five meters across that obscured all vision – even that of the Byakugan, Sakura realized with a start, if it was made of chakra.

"But that is Uchiha Madara's technique!" One of the Hyūga rose up in shock, even as a choked scream escaped from the darkness – a high and piercing note of agony that cut straight to Sakura's spine.

"Senju Tobirama's, actually." They all turned to stare at Lord Hiashi, whose milky-white eyes seemed to be misting over as his Byakugan poured over Sasuke's technique. "Everyone knows it was Madara who commanded the darkness at the Valley of the End, but it was the Second Hokage who first invented the Bringer of Darkness technique. Genjutsu he called it, even though it could be seen by everyone in sight." A wry smile appeared on his lips. "And of course, they all insist it was the noble First Hokage who came up with the Will of Fire, despite the obvious fact that it was the Uchiha who possessed fire-nature chakra. Ah, but I fear mere history and fact carry little weight relative to what people feel ought to have occurred."

Sakura turned her gaze back to the arena, uncertain of what she should think or feel or what she should do if anything could even be done at all. Before her eyes the darkness faded – disappearing as though it had been an illusion after all – revealing Sasuke looming over Neji's prone form, standing tall despite his injuries. In his eyes shone the crimson light of the Sharingan, and Sakura saw that Neji's headband had been raised once more, revealing a pair of pale white eyes that stared out at nothing.

"Perhaps you're right," Sasuke said softly, his voice strained as though he had to force out every word. "You are the servant of a great clan, while I am Lord of nothing and Master of nowhere, so perhaps neither of us is better than the other and we both talk too much. Yet if you insult my family again, I will not forgive you so easily, because I do love them even if they were never perfect." His red eyes bored into Neji's. "In order to protect something that precious… surely you can understand, just a little bit?"

As the examiner called the match, Sasuke slowly limped in the direction of the medics that were rushing into the arena, but Hyūga Neji kept lying there and stared at the clouds for a little while longer.