A Nugget Of Advice, Chapter 5

One Day Until The Chūnin Exams…

Days were winding down, and the month was coming to an end. In a day, Naruto would be fighting Neji. He learned a few more earth release ninjutsu for his teacher. However, he came to realize that his techniques were more defensive and supplementary in nature; stuff that was more offensive, Naruto only learned two techniques.

The first one was a C-rank Earth Release technique named "Doton: Ishi no Kōu" which uprooted hardened pieces of the earth from the ground, and dropped them down on the head of target, or targets. Supposedly, more chakra fed to the technique, and the larger the size of rocks became. Naruto hadn't tried it out, because his target when using it was Ebisu-sensei, and he was trying to get down how to plain using it anyway.

The second technique was a technique he was practicing for the last few days trying to get down: Doton: Kengan no Jutsu. After applying a few hand seals, and placing his arm in the ground, Naruto encased it with hardened stone, giving him the ability to strike at his opponents with a hardened punch. It was like a gauntlet made of rock itself. Naruto could do one of his arms or both. Granted, the downside of this technique made it nigh-impossible to form hand-seals correctly due to the rigid form of the rocks on his limbs. His arsenal of techniques that he knew how to use without hand seals was also pretty low, so that also was a problem. Nevertheless, it was still a good technique for him, fitting his close-range style of fighting quite a bit.

The best technique Naruto managed to snag was the Doton: Moguragakure no Jutsu, hands down. Hiding underground was an amazing ability, for a relatively low-ranking technique that took a very generous amount of chakra from him. It was incredibly surprising for people who didn't see it coming, and combined with his shadow clones, Naruto could completely control the flow of the battlefield most definitely. However, it wasn't offensive at all, which could be a problem for some of his potential opponents. Neji wasn't the only person Naruto had to worry about in the Chūnin Exams.

Every other technique was not made to be offensive, but Ebisu-sensei assured him that when fighting Neji, it wouldn't matter, since the point of the battle was to make sure Neji never had the chance to touch him, and to end it relatively quickly.

Although they trained on hours on end getting Naruto a little more familiar with utilizing his earth element, Naruto noticed they spent much less time focusing on strategies on beating Neji. It took him a little bit to realize that, "Hey! Neji isn't going to be only guy you're fighting in the Chūnin Exams, dumbo!" Instead, they came up with a bit of strategies for everyone Naruto could possibly fight in the exams.

Neji: Take him down as quickly as you could, and disable his ability to use his chakra. If he lacked that, Neji would fall. Not to mention his clones would be key in the match, as will his new abilities in Earth Release.

Temari: Take away her fan, and fight her that way. Temari made a showing in the last part of the exams to stay away from her opponent, giving her room to shoot off waves, and funnels of wind. As Shikamaru added when Naruto last talked to him, a big strong piece of info Shikamaru had given out was Temari's reliance on her fan to use Wind Release techniques – perhaps over-reliance on her fan. That could work in his favor if he somehow found a way to get her to stop using it.

Kankurō: Almost the same as Temari. If you could make sure he couldn't use his puppet, he would be just as helpless in battle.

Shikamaru: Make sure you got in closely, but watch your surroundings, and do not rely heavily on using the Doton: Mogurakure no Jutsu. Sensei explained that Shikamaru could extend his shadows to great heights in complete darkness, as the hole made. In battle, Naruto will be quite hard-pressed to cover up the holes he made when he used the Doton: Mogurakure no Jutsu. If Shikamaru could see where Naruto was tunneling at, extended his shadow to the hole, he could completely immobilize Naruto underground. Instead, Naruto had to make sure he got a good hit on Shikamaru and put him down for the count. Using shadow clones without hand seals might also be a good thing for him should he get pinned down by the Nara's shadow hold technique.

Shino: Fight him and overwhelm him with sheer stamina. Shino could immobilize his opponents using his bugs to drain his chakra. However, those bugs could absorb only so much, and Shino could summon only so much. Shino, like Temari, Kankurō, and Shikamaru, liked fighting at a distance, so he needed to get in, and fight him. Unlike them, however, Ebisu-sensei insisted that he didn't to worry about Shino restricting his movements because Naruto had too much chakra to absorb.

Sasuke: Knock him out quickly. Ebisu-sensei had based Sasuke's skills as a prior showing at the Chūnin Exams preliminaries as he excelled in close-range combat, combining his skills in taijutsu, Katon ninjutsu, shurikenjutsu, and his bloodline, the Sharingan, which worked on predicting body movements of the opponent. The strategy for fighting Sasuke was still in the process of being constructed. Sasuke definitely gotten stronger in the month where he was being focused on by Kakashi-sensei. Ebisu-sensei stated Naruto would have to get more information about Sasuke when Naruto watched him in battle against Gaara. However, there was a big thing Naruto caught on about that one. Ebisu-sensei spoke in a tone that Naruto didn't have to worry too much about Sasuke. However, it wasn't because Ebisu sounded confident in Naruto being able to defeat his teammate/rival.

It was because Ebisu sounded like Sasuke was going to lose to Gaara from the jump. Every time he mentioned a scenario where it would be him vs Sasuke in the exams, he would start by saying "If Sasuke made it that far..." in the tournament. It was a very little detail that Naruto caught on, especially when Naruto asked a few times about fighting Sasuke. So, what? That meant Gaara was stronger than Sasuke? No way. Now, granted, Gaara was strong, definitely. The redhead from Sunagakure managed to defeat Rock Lee, one of the strongest and fastest taijutsu users he have ever seen, in the exams. Full-out, Rock Lee had been faster than that bastard Neji, the mutt Kiba, and Sasuke-teme, who were already fast in their own right. Rock Lee had proven that so as long as the person was fast enough, they could get past Gaara's supposed "Absolute Defense."

However, Gaara's mighty defense and sand-kinetic abilities proved to get the best out of Rock Lee in the end, and ended up almost killing Lee in the end, with the boy still recovering in the hospital. Even after being hit by Lee in that devastating taijutsu attack, even after Lee thrashing his ass around several times, Gaara had still came up on top, and was still in the tournament.

Which lead to the final possible match-up in the tournament: Naruto vs Gaara. Ebisu had stated quite simply to him: "If you cannot find a way to get past his sand, forfeit the match." Which prompted Naruto to, when told that initially, to get slightly annoyed. Ebisu-sensei then calmly shook his head and explained to him afterward.

"Gaara's sand prevents him from getting hurt from anything, even when he himself does not see the attack coming. It almost thinks on its own. Gaara's main method of attack is to capture his opponents in his sand, and then crush them. Close-range combat is out of this one, and you lack anything sort of mid-range or long-range attack. He also can use his sand to create attacks for all ranges as well. Your earth ninjutsu can not do much to him. You must understand that fighting him will do you no good, Naruto. If you want to become a chūnin, you must remember that sometimes it is better to retreat when you know you cannot win, to survive another day."

And after calming down, and mulling it over… Ebisu was right on all accounts. Gaara could defeat one of the most strongest genin in Konohagakure he's come to know in the past month – Rock Lee. Lee was also the fastest one as well. Naruto and Ebisu worked on his ninjutsu, some of his taijutsu, and mostly on his chakra control in these weeks. Hell, they even spent a few days working on hand-seal speed because Ebisu personally found Naruto's speed with hand seals to be almost insulting! Speed was a little different, and it took a while to refine that. Yes, Naruto felt a little faster in his time of training with Ebisu, especially when they sparred, but Naruto was far from the level of Rock Lee, and was still behind Neji and Sasuke in terms of speed as well.

So Naruto decided that it was the right call to forfeit in case he didn't find a way to defeat Gaara, so he could avoid getting hurt. However, that didn't mean Naruto wouldn't try. He would try, because there was no way he would give up so easily against that guy! That just wasn't his style, dattebayo!

Still though, Naruto had hopes in his teammate, Sasuke, to kick Gaara's ass, and defeat him before Naruto had to worry about the Suna nin. He had more hope in Sasuke than Ebisu-sensei, definitely.

Besides all the mulling over the Chūnin Exams, Naruto found himself having the training sessions everyday last less and less. Ebisu-sensei stated that Naruto had been taught everything the tokubetsu jōnin wanted to teach him this month. All that was less to do was further refining of the techniques Naruto had been given, and some more small things like working on Naruto's hand seals. Everything else Naruto personally wanted to, was to be done on his own time. So training lasted from approximately 7AM to 10PM, before Ebisu left out to enjoy his day and telling Naruto to enjoy his.

Today, for at least one hour, Naruto had trained for a bit on his own in a public training grounds. However, he found himself not doing much, except a bit exercise practicing his earth chakra, and applying earth chakra to a few of his weaponry. Other than that, Naruto hadn't done much, nor accomplished any sort of new feat. Disappointed a bit, Naruto found himself – instead of training – wandering back to the village, slowly trekking out the training grounds.

It looked like there wasn't much else to do today.

Naruto did what he usually did when he was bored: he wandered the village, looking for stuff to do.

Naruto found himself in a shop. A little thing that was mostly out of the way from the usual places in the Shopping District of Konohagakure. Frankly, not too crazy of a place, but that was fine with him. Usually, the big stores had people that were far from likable for his taste. The usual stink on how he was a "demon child" this, and "bad kid" that. Before, years ago, that would have effected him, but now, it was like an annoying little thing that kept bother him. The guy behind the clerk's counter – a tall man with a black, scruffy beard and not much hair on his head – didn't shoot him a glare at all, and nodded towards him, but other than that, didn't say or do anything that showed how he felt. Naruto thought it was refreshing nonetheless, and nodded back.

The shop didn't specialize in selling ninja weaponry, so you wouldn't find kunai, shuriken, swords, exploding tags, sealing paper, etc. Instead, it simply was for ninja attire. You would find bandages, scarves, pants, t-shirts, sandals of different colors, and even different colored forehead protectors. The protectors were situated behind where the cashier and his register was at. Of course, this store only sold those protectors to people who were ninjas. Best way to show you were a shinobi was wearing your own standard blue forehead protector the Academy gave you. They had jackets too; ninja-styled gi in colors of white, navy blue, dark red, and black; fishnet shirts; and vests. They had a lot of stuff on racks that Naruto could spend hours looking through, and he was no fashionista. He just liked shit he liked.

Looking at all had an effect on Naruto. The genin took a second to inspect his own jacket and pants, and found his favorite combination of orange and blue had a lot of wear and tear upon it. Holes, shallow cuts and slashes painted his orange/blue jacket all around, and his pants were almost no different. All of them came from older missions, especially from the mission back in Nami no Kuni, and the fighting in the first half of the Chūnin Exams. Pretty soon, he would have to get rid of his jacket anyway (he could see some of the inner cotton come out), which saddened him a little. He got the jacket as a gift to himself when he turned 11, and had it ever since. He quite loved the jacket, despite people disliking it. Not like he gave a fuck what they thought anyway.

Naruto shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe I'll find something like my current jacket here."

So Naruto decided to shop for things orange, and blue. Fortunately, he found some blue. Unfortunately, there was little to nothing that was orange, and all of them were t-shirts and stuff like that. He was looking for a jacket that was like his. If it was an exact copy, he would be even happier with it. The more time progressed, he didn't see anything like his jacket. There was a whole lot of blue, dark green, and black however. Some of them, he admitted, looked good, but he was determined to find something with orange on it – something!

Naruto took so long finding things, the clerk from behind the desk came by, and asked him if he needed some help. Naruto drew a breath he was holding in. "Do you guys have orange-colored jackets like the one I have on?"

"Um," The clerk started with, scratching his scruffy chin. "To be honest, kid, not many ninjas these days rock orange at all. Not exactly the most… inconspicuous color, if I say myself. I doubt you're going to find anything orange in this shop."

"Ah, I see..." Naruto trailed off, thinking about leaving the store. Then again, he was checking the prices on the jackets and clothing he seen, and the prices were looking nice. He already still had some pay left from the A-rank mission in Nami no Kuni still, and the D-ranks his team took on a little bit afterward.

"But, I think you should keep looking. You might find something with orange on it, just not a jacket primary orange though. If anything, we do have red jackets. That's the most closest thing to orange I can think of." The clerk shrugged.

Naruto nodded, noting that in his head. "Thanks, I'll check around."

The guy gave Naruto a friendly smile, before returning back to his place in the store, behind the cash register. Naruto meanwhile decided that he might not be able to find orange here, so maybe he should look for other colors. He liked black, and blue; wasn't against red, green, or white; and hated anything that looked girly. In his mind, he figured purple, yellow, and pink to be the "girly colors". Like any 13 year old boy, he wanted to look cool.

He found something closely resembling his orange and blue jacket. A red jacket with black on the shoulder parts, but no white tassels or collar. It was even missing the red swirl that he liked strangely on the things he usually brought. Still, it closely resembled his current jacket, and since he didn't see anything orange at all at this point, his options were limited. Just as he was reaching for the red jacket, he saw something else, and dropped it all together. It was a mostly black jacket, with a dark orange collar. Its orange collar then connected to an orange middle, and the bottom of the jacket was orange also. On the left shoulder, a red swirl that he always associated with Konoha stood pronounced and it reminded him a lot of the red swirl crest that was on his current jacket. Out of curiously, he inspected the jacket some more, and found the jacket's inner lining was orange, and was delighted to see so.

The jacket was a three-in-one combination, because it also came with a set of fingerless black gloves, and matching pants that had an orange inner lining like the jacket. He imagined himself with the jacket on, folding up the sleeves of the jacket, and the bottom of the pants, and he would have that dash of orange like he wanted it. It would be perfect.

Taking the jacket with him to a fitting room nearby, he discarded his beat up orange jacket, and took off the orange pants he had on, and put on the black ones. He liked it a lot, enjoying how it felt on him. The orange jacket was a lot bulkier than the black one, as the black one was more tailored to his actual size, and hugged him better. The black gloves were cool too, and if he didn't want to put them on, he could always leave them at home somewhere. However, he was feeling with all this black on, his forehead protector and sandals – both blue – was looking out of place.

"Time for a new pair of sandals and a protector then." Naruto commented to himself with a smile. He quickly took off the new jacket and pants, and put back on the clothing he came in the store with. He left the room, walked to the shoes' section, and grabbed himself a pair of black sandals in his size.

Naruto approached the counter where the clerk was. "Excuse me, but can I get a black forehead protector from in back of you?"

"Sure, finally got a style you like, huh, kid?" The clerk grabbed two forehead protectors for Naruto to choose from. "Now, a short-style bandana, medium, or long?"

"Long." Naruto was liking how the long one looked. The clerk nodded, and put the protector of Naruto's choice onto of the jacket and pants.

"Anything else?"

Naruto shook his head. "I'm good; how much?"

After paying, Naruto decided that he was going to wear his new clothing outside, and returned to the fitting room. Placing the old jacket, pants, forehead protector, and sandals into the bag his new clothing was supposed to be inside, he left the shop feeling good.

The Day Of The Chūnin Exams

The crowd was alive, shouting for matches to come. Hundreds, maybe even thousands, of people were here, filling the stadium from all sides. Naruto, dressed in his new outfit, felt a little nervous. So many people's eyes were on him today, so many would be judging. It was at that moment he knew that he would either do himself and everyone he knew proud, or prove that he still was the weakest genin in the group. For years, he had been mocked and vilified by his own classmates – most of the people he would call friends – because of his grades, and slacking off in school.

But it had been just about half of a year since then now. Things changed, and so did he. They didn't know about what he went through to get here; the hardships he faced to just do so. One month to shape up, or lose in the first round. He wouldn't be losing to anyone today. He counted on it. He would not only being doing this to shut Neji up, and avenged Hinata, but to avenge his own self. He was out here, to prove that he improved, and he was worthy of respect.

So, come Neji, come Temari, Shikamaru, Sasuke, Gaara – or anyone else he had to fight. Naruto Uzumaki would beat them all the same.

The contestants all were down here, allowing the crowd to see them. Naruto stood nearby his opponent, Neji, and even here, he could feel his blood boil for this guy. He was the same type of asshole that needed a good ass-kicking to show him the way. Naruto should know, of course, because he was once that type of asshole. However, training with Ebisu-sensei opened up Naruto's eyes quite a bit. Naruto had much to learn, so much so. He had no more time to act like a kid to do anything of that. He had to grow up, and become that legendary shinobi he saw in his dreams.

Naruto could barely hear the proctor call his name, as the rest of the contestants are no longer in the arena. Neji and him separate; he's on one side and Naruto is on the other. Neji is already in his family's fighting style, while Naruto moves to a more looser stance. He remembered what he had to do, and it didn't involve thinking he was going to fight Neji head on.

For what seemed like a while of just staring at each other, Neji was the first to say something. "That's a nice, newer outfit than the clown outfit you had on last month, Uzumaki. You should have not bought it; it's just only going to end up ripped and tattered."

Naruto snorted. "Like you're going to be able to touch me, guy."

"I assure you, it won't be hard. I know how much of a loser you really are. You're a slacker who barely graduated from his class, who won against his opponent by farting in his face. How you've gotten here was based on sure luck – nothing more. For people like you, or Hinata, or anyone who hasn't been born into the greatness, there's only one place you'll be: in second. It is your fate to be so."

For a second, Naruto felt rage into his body. How dare this self-absorbed, senseless prick, who spewed nothing but that "fate" shit out his mouth, talk about his cousin like that? He was used to people talking shit about him, but not people like Hinata. She didn't deserve that at all, or the beating Neji gave her last month. For a second, Naruto was about to shout back an answer in anger, let his rage get the best of him.

However, he took a second to let the words settle in. After a bit, he realized what this was. Neji tried this before against Hinata, and he saw right through it. Neji was one of those guys who had to hurl insults at people just to make them more sloppier. He liked to discourage, or anger people, and then when they made a mistake, Neji would swoop in, and beat them. It almost worked on Hinata, had Naruto not told her to stand up, and although she lost, she fought harder to prove him wrong. Naruto had seen the fire in that girl's pearl eyes, and it spoke something to Naruto.

Hinata was a lot like Naruto. Both were mocked and teased because of their ways. Hinata was the meek, shy kid, and Naruto was the loudmouth who didn't seem to stop getting in trouble. People like Neji liked picking on them because they seemed like easy targets, and had their own heads shoved so far up their asses, that the shit fumes started confusing them, and they started believing in the crap they were spewing. They thought they were superior, unbeatable.

But they were far from it. They were just bullies, and bullies wouldn't stop bothering their victims, until their victims stood up, and knocked their fucking lights out. Naruto would do so, shape this anger he felt inside into energy he could use to show the world he was no longer that dumb kid from six months ago, who relied too much on luck, and less on actual skill.

Neji had planned for this: to come in battle, nose high, sneer deep, teeth bared. A few insulting words would aid him, their purpose to make Naruto get worked up, and to make the Uzumaki make a few slip ups to make him lose the match faster. Naruto knew really what Neji was pulling. Mind games, and Naruto would not being playing it.

"So you came to talk down on me, or actually fight me? How long have you been out the Academy? A year and some change, and you're still on that kid shit? You best worry about fighting me serious, Neji. I heard all that stuff all before." Prodigy or not, Neji was not leaving here without a knot knocked upside his head.

Neji just smirked at the Uzumaki, and wordlessly activated his clan's dōjutsu, the Byakugan. The proctor had gave his consent to start the match, and already Naruto had started the plan. His hands went up to use his favorite technique: the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu.

Neji had seen the move, and was waiting for them to be summoned. Much to his surprise, he saw nothing, and Naruto put his hands down. Neji had seen the surge of chakra inside Naruto's body, but seen nothing, nothing at all. Something did not sit well in Neji's stomach; he kept his guard up.

Next thing he knows, he's barely blocking a strike from his left from his blond-haired opponent. Neji didn't take time wondering how the hell did the Uzumaki manage to make a shadow clone without him know, and instead attempted to counter, slamming a palm into the clone's head. The clone went up in smoke, blowing away from Neji.

The Hyūga smirked over at the Naruto original who kept standing there, "It was a foolish attempt to-"

He didn't finished his sentence when he "saw" rocks raining down from above his head. Neji moved to the side, and dodged five large rocks dropping into the space he once occupied. They were large enough to almost boulders. Again, he had not seen his opponent do so, which he found strange. Was this a technique Uzumaki could use without hand-seals or was he fast enough to be seen? And he noticed that it was stones, so that meant an affinity with earth. Interesting.

Then, he watched as four clones approached him, running swiftly to him with kunai in their hands. Neji waited for them, and swiftly defeating them without much of a sweat. He couldn't help but to snort derisively at this. "This is your plan, Naruto? To throw clone after clone after me? Why don't you try something else? All you're doing is wasting time-"

Neji however could not reach fast enough to Naruto's next attack as a clone – or the real Naruto himself – jumped out of the ground with a fist, uppercutting him in his chin. Neji heard the crunch in his chin, and he wailed in pain as he flew back. He then saw four other Narutos jump out the earth itself and slam their knees into his stomach.

The Hyūga boy wheezed in pain. 'He hits just as hard as Lee.'

He felt all of the clones hold his extremities, as he attempted to move but it was in vain.

Naruto appeared at Neji's head, and peered down at him. The blond looked into the Hyūga's eyes, and asked, "Didn't I tell you to take me seriously?" At that comment, the four Naruto clones started attacking Neji, slamming their fists into his face. The Hyūga wailed in pain, trying to squirm away from them, but find it impossible.

The real Naruto, who stood over Neji, looked impassively at him. "My clones have glued themselves to the ground. You're not going to be moving anytime soon."

"We will see about that." Neji growled, "Maybe you should take me seriously!" And then the clones were blown back by an invisible wave of chakra. The clones flew and exploded into clouds of white smoke, popping when they hit the ground.

It was an experimental technique Neji had been working on for the past month. Much like he knew his clan had the ability to expel chakra from their tenketsu, Neji learned the ability didn't stop at their hands or feet. His opponent had been so busy talking and giving him a "scary" look, that he didn't even guard himself. He saw the Jūken before, and knew they could use their hands to expel chakra, but the idiot didn't count on him being able to expel them Neji had relished in the surprised look Naruto had gave him, before jumping back to his feet and speeding off to the now retreating Naruto.

He closed the distance easily and slammed a powerful palm into his chest, spreading chakra through him to damage his internal organs. That would be enough to stop Naruto, he was sure. Much to his anger however, he hit nothing but a clone, and watched it explode into smoke. He growled, wondering where the hell was the real Naruto while holding his now burning jaw. Now, things were to be taken seriously, and Neji had little use for taunting the boy now. Not only was it not working like he wanted to, but he had almost lost to the urchin! 'I swear he's not getting the drop on me again.'

Neji was feeling paranoia settle in, as he scanned the field for Naruto Uzumaki. So far, his opponent had eluded him, and has been sending clone after clone to him, never attacking him head on himself. Much to Neji's horror, he couldn't tell which Naruto was the real one. Each one of the clones – he had some time peering into their chakra systems with his Byakugan – had exactly the same amount of chakra, and the Naruto that was standing in front of him before had had the exact same amount of chakra that they had. His kekkai genkai would do nothing to help him here, except anticipate where they were coming.

But he wondered something more horribly as a thought came on. 'Those clones… they came out of the ground, and he has already shown his earth affinity. What if… he has the ability to travel underground?' That made sense to him, as he legitimately did not see the clone from the underground who popped him once in the chin coming. His eyes couldn't do much to help him. He couldn't scan the entire battlefield's grounds – even if the Byakugan could see through it. His opponent could be hiding anywhere. Another horrifying thought came to his head, and he wondered if Naruto could track him as well. Another thing that made sense, because Naruto's clone knew exactly where he was, and where to strike his chin. If that was the case, then that would make things more complicated and more a problem to deal with.

He didn't know how many clones Naruto could make, but he seen how much chakra the guy had, and it astounded him. The Kage Bunshin no Jutsu was not like the normal Bunshin no Jutsu where it made incorporeal, immovable clones that served as a distracting illusion, instead of an actual attack. These clones were solid, could move, could attack, and could act for themselves without any sort of interference. Plus, they were an exact copy of their creators, down to their chakra levels. That could not take a small amount of chakra to make – at all. That meant, Naruto could have several clones who – if his theory was correct – travel underground while tracking his opponent, and never have to show up to actually fight.

Neji couldn't help but sober up. His once superior attitude towards the Uzumaki had dried up, and he was feeling some sort of fear well up inside of him. Neji did not have a lot of tools to help him in this match, and he doubted he could outlast his opponent. All he could really do was wait until Naruto came in, and approached him – which was looking like more and more of a dumb idea to do, and his blond-haired opponent was proving to be less and less dumb than he looked.

Neji, for the first time in life in battle, didn't know what he could do to win. Which meant something he had only one option left. Neji sighed, swallowed his pride, and held a hand up. "Shiranui-san," he started addressing the proctor who was looking coolly in his direction, "I forfe-"

But before Neji could finish those words, he yelped as he was dragged underground by a pair of hands, his head being the only thing above the dirt. Naruto's black sandals came into picture, and Neji watched a fist made of rock fly to his face.

Darkness followed for Neji only after that.

Naruto walked back, feeling strange as he walked back up to the Fighter's Booth, listening to the crowd's loud cheering but barely registering it. Huh. That match was… "disappointing" was the word for it, he supposed. Neji had really never been able to touch him at all in that fight. Like, really. Sure, he got his clones, but that was only because Naruto had allowed him to do so. Even when he thought he caught Neji before, all it took was switching with an underground clone – which he had created since the beginning of the match – with Kawirimi no Jutsu and Neji was none the wiser. Then after the clone had been "killed", Neji stood there, like a sitting duck.

Naruto scratched his head. Victory was his, but Neji hadn't even put up much of a fight for him, surprisingly. Maybe all that worry about him for the past month was all for nothing, eh? Ah well, he was sure he done pretty well enough to impress the judges, Naruto was sure, and even if he didn't, he was going to the next round against whoever won the next fight. Naruto was sure he would be getting a newer match to show off some more of his skills.

That, he could count on.

End.

A/N: And so, I finally finished the chapter. Sorry it took a while but I was trying to see what I could do for this match. Sorry if it felt "anti-climatic", but I realized that Neji had – just like in Stop The Future – had a really bad match-up against Naruto. Neji's Byakugan can't do much for him, Naruto knows how to abuse his Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, and if Naruto can hide underground, what the hell is Neji going to really do? So, I decided to cut it down. The original version was shorter – mind you – but it was even more "anti-climatic". Ah well.

Finally, I am quite sorry that this seems MUCH shorter than the last chapter, but I wanted to set the story's background first, and then get to the action. It may seem like a lot of talk – and it was – but I did want to shape Naruto's training a bit before going into the exams. Don't worry, we got more things ahead of you. Unlike Stop The Future, I quite want to be finished with the exams Already. So, up next: the next part of the Chūnin Exams and (hopefully) the beginning of the Konoha Crush arc!

Note: I'm thinking about just having this story's genre "Adventure" instead of Adventure/Humor since the "humor" aspect has not REALLY clicked in as of yet.

Translation List:

Doton: Kengan no Jutsu – Earth Release: Fist Rock Technique

Technique List:

Earth Release: Rainfall of Stone (Doton: Ishi no Kōu) – The user shoots several rocks from the sky. The more chakra added, the larger these rocks get, to the point they become boulders. The smallest of chakra added can create a "rainfall" of rocks, hence the name of the technique.

Rank: C

Technique Class: Offensive

Type/Classification: Ninjutsu

Hand Seals: Snake → Bird → Snake

Range: Short-range

Users: Ebisu, Naruto Uzumaki, Jiraiya