Hello? Err… I hope you guys are still there, somewhere.

Usually here is where I'd talk about some IRL problem that got in my way and caused the delays here. There wasn't much of that this time, I did have to sacrifice some lunch breaks to rest instead of write but that's not the biggest reason.

That was just the story itself. Though we had only two fights remaining, this chapter has a word count of around 22K words before my notes and line breaks (which somehow add a lot of words per break) and about 80% of it is just the two fights... they were long and very, very difficult to plan and write.

But all the effort, I think, paid off. You guys will be the judges of that but I think this chapter is one of my best, and my NPCrusader's feedback was very encouraging too, on top of their great beta'ing.

I'm eager to share this with you guys! I just hope that I manage to earn your trust by now, because I think the first fight might disappoint a lot of you at the start when you realize who I chose for it, but… like I said at the end of last chapter, please trust me.

There's a reason this first fight alone has almost 10K words. I hope you'll like them both as much as I did.

One last note: I went back to Chapter 29 after realizing the alcove did not mean what I thought it meant, and altered some of the descriptions of the arena to better pain the picture for you guys. But I'm also brute-forcing it right here just in case: it's basically the prelim arena but circular-shaped, without a statue, without a ceiling, and with a giant tree in the middle. My apologies for sucking at description, though i think most of you must have assumed this overall layout anyway

The Chunin Exams arc

Chapter 30: Clash, part 2 (v1.0)

Hinata's heartbeat accelerated as she watched the team of medic-nin taking Lee away after his clash with Gaara.

Up until the moment where the boy from the desert crushed Lee's leg, the only word Hinata could have used to describe their match was… spectacle.

She wasn't much of a fan of seeing people brawling it out, but there was a certain beauty in witnessing Lee's incredible speed pitted up against Gaara's formidable sand defenses, even if she couldn't quite keep up with Lee's movements.

Yet part of her wasn't there looking at the fight.

No… she was dreading her own, worrying as Hinatas were prone to do.

Even the incredible duel playing out in front of her couldn't fully take her mind out of it, for Hinata knew there were exactly three possible foes she could fight either immediately after that fight or as the tenth and final preliminary match.

She would feel horrible if it was Naruto after the time she spent helping him once he was done devouring his lunch. It had never been her intention, but once she had seen him struggling with his chakra control, she hadn't been able to help herself despite the boy's insistence that he could handle it.

She owed him that much, yet then she was supposed to stand directly between him and his dream… could she do it?

Yes. She could.

No, she would—Naruto deserved no less than her best!

But that didn't mean she wouldn't hate every second of their fight if it came down to it, even though he could always take the exam again if she won was no stranger to taking exams again, unfortunately.

Now, with Tenten… her brain told her that was the worst outcome. It had to be. She had seen the older girl in action plenty of times over the months they spent together, and Hinata knew Tenten was honing herself to be a weapon specialist.

Yet only once had Hinata seen that side of Tenten. During spars with the younger genin, Tenten had never used more than the odd shuriken or kunai to attack at range, not even against Sasuke or Shino. Her weapons, and the pressure she could exert from afar, Hinata had only seen it through her Byakugan during a C-rank mission that went slightly askew. Nothing like the mission to Wave, but enough that Tenten took her opponents more seriously.

It would be an exceedingly difficult fight, and Hinata couldn't imagine how to effectively close the distance if Tenten was going all-out, never mind that even as a Hyuuga outplaying the girl at close-range was easier said than done.

After all… she had Neji Hyuuga as a teammate to train against.

Which brought her thoughts to the final possibility. The one that her brain told her wasn't as bad as Tenten, physically, but that her heart told her would be so, so much worse on an emotional level that she even entertained the idea of fighting Gaara instead if she could choose.

Her mind was a weird little thing though. Even with her upcoming fight bouncing inside her skull, her eyes were glued to Lee's unconscious form as the medic-nin retrieved him from Guy down in the arena, and not in the monitor that would sooner or later show her name on it.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?"

"Naruto would you stop yelling at my ears!?"

Hinata's soul almost escaped her body at Naruto's scream, just like the last time. She whirled to see him cowering from Sakura. He seemed to be mid-apology before their gazes crossed and he waved at her.

"Good luck out there, Hinata!"

Her eyes went wide.

It was sooner.

Sakura began to turn, perhaps to echo Naruto's sentiments, yet Hinata barely caught her movement as her eyes glided to the monitor.

Her heart froze for a long, unspeakable moment in which the words on that screen were the only things that existed.

That is, until Shino softly called her name, drawing her attention back to reality.

"Hinata. Are you going to go down to fight?"

Shino's question was a loaded one.

She had been his friend long enough to spot the hints of doubt in his usual monotone. He was a person of logic, and of course… logic would tell him that doing anything but raising her hand and echoing Temari's words would be an exceedingly illogical idea, a waste of everyone's time.

It stung more than his bugs ever could if they bit her.

Hinata then felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Kurenai smiling at her, with the comforting aura she has come to associate so deeply with her dear sensei.

"Hinata, no one would fault you for not taking this fight. But it's up to you."

There was no comfort to be had in her words. Just… shame. Pain. Because those words betrayed the woman's thoughts, and even though they weren't far from Hinata's own it still hurt.

Not even Kurenai believed in her. That was why she was giving her a way out. That's why she was talking like she already knew what Hinata would do.

Her shoulders sunk, and she turned toward teams 10 and Guy, avoiding looking at anyone that might or not have been staring at her. Her gaze focused on a lone figure going down the stairs, his long brown hair moving slightly with the wind but not wildly so, as it was tied down at the end perhaps for that very reason.

Her opponent in the ninth match: Neji Hyuuga.

Without realizing it, without replying to either Shino or Kurenai, Hinata dazedly moved to follow him, as if some force was drawing her in.

Her stupor was shattered seconds later by Ino's grip on her wrist.

"Hey, Hinata! Are you alright?"

It took her brain almost three seconds to process the question, but it wasn't enough to give Ino a satisfying reply.

"I… I don't know. I think?"

Predictably, Ino's worried frown just deepened, and if her mind was working straight she'd imagine a similar expression on Chouji's face, perhaps even Asuma's.

"Good luck, I guess."

She jolted and her head whipped toward Shikamaru, who just nodded at her as if he hadn't said something ludicrous.

Of course… he would have the highest opinion of her skills out of anybody there, after seeing what she did back in the cavern. She felt proud of her performance back there, but for all his genius, Shikamaru didn't seem to be considering that somehow an entire squad would be less of a problem for her than the person waiting for her down in the arena.

Or maybe he just didn't want to upset her?

"Now get going before they yell at you. Trust me, that's a pain."

That comment though accidentally struck a few of her many anxiety-rooted weak spots, causing Hinata to dash away from them with a stuttered thank you faster than she, herself, could process.

She didn't even try meeting Tenten's gaze as she ran past her, afraid of what she would see, then went down the stairs… until, finally, Hinata froze at her first step into the arena itself.

It lasted no more than a few instants. At that time she sensed the proctor's slightly impatient stare boring down on her, but more importantly, she felt her opponent's eyes on her.

A Hyuuga's eyes were infamous for being hard to read for most people. But Hinata had zero trouble deciphering his gaze.

The judgment, the challenge, the disappointment, the contempt, the disgust. All things Hinata had been so deeply exposed because of her father, her clansman, that cruel girl on the mirror and inside her head, never mind Neji himself, that they might as well have burned and scarred her very soul.

The girl swallowed dry, her legs took her ever so closer towards her destiny. If it was in spite of her fears, or because of them… Hinata couldn't possibly fathom.

It took all of Neji's willpower not to shake his head at the pathetic display in front of him. Perhaps, if they hadn't been in public he would have remaked his disgust at seeing Hinata cowering, hesitating before their match even began.

But for better or for worse, until the right time came he had to show respect. For that was his station, his place in fate's cruel machinations.

His curse.

However, part of him was undeniably glad at the outcome. There were already three foreign shinobi in the finals, and getting an opportunity to move to the next round without showing even an iota of his skills could be the difference between winning and becoming chunin or having to go through an entire exam again.

'But perhaps this isn't completely true,' he allowed himself to think as Hinata meekly approached her designated spot, her eyes long since lost in his own unwavering gaze.

What he was about to do was, indeed, a skill that he'd show to everyone.

Hinata stopped moving at her mark across from him. Her posture was curved, making her seem smaller than she truly was, or perhaps as small as she always had been, with no hint of a fighting stance to be seen.

Not that he took a fighting stance either.

He wouldn't need it.

"Proctor, if I may? There's one thing I need to tell Hinata-sama before our fight."

"Is this really necessary?" Hayate groaned lowly and probably rolled his eyes. Neji didn't know, for he was focused instead on how his foe flinched.

"I promise you, this will likely save us all a lot of time and trouble."

"Is that so…? Hm. Fine then," the proctor said with a hint of interest. "Go ahead."

Meanwhile… anxious, curious, and completely unaware that their battle had in fact just started, Hinata had raised her eyes to meet his again.

"Um… w-what is it?"

There it was. That obnoxious stutter.

"Hinata-sama. Why are you wasting everyone's time with this?"

She recoiled in shock as he put a heavy, unseen blame atop her shoulders. Purposefully.

"W-What? B-But I—"

"Currently, the exams no longer considers us as squads. Your teammates no longer need you: one has already passed, the other was sent to the infirmary, reeling from the internal damage he took."

Recounting that to her, who had watched it happen, might have seen pointless… except Neji knew it painted an image inside her mind. An image of the past, and if his aim was true, of her future.

"And in regards to the Hokage's project, this too is of no concern. This match and the next will both result in two of the project's students passing. Which people win or lose won't compromise anything."

There was no subtle way to weaponize his words on that matter, so Neji didn't. Instead, he watched her features closely.

He knew Hinata wasn't very smart. But she showed no signs of surprise.

"I see you've considered as much, perhaps even as you walked all the way down here. And yet you still stand in front of me as if you truly intend to fight."

Neji allowed his words to hang in the air, an unspoken question shot right past her mental defenses.

From the way her body trembled—most easily spotted by watching her hands—and her equally shaky gaze, Neji already knew he would get no straight answer.

He almost would say he didn't care, but he was slightly curious.

"That's… t-that's… I-I…"

She couldn't justify it. To him, to everyone watching, perhaps not even to herself.

"The mere idea scares you. This is why you just took a step back as if to flee. This is why you're keeping your arms in front of your torso as if to protect yourself. This is why you're not even looking at your opponent. This is why you practically dragged yourself to this arena, unlike everyone else that fought today. You don't want to be here."

Her breathing was speeding up.

Neji kept his expression stoic.

"You never wanted to be here. You always disliked fighting. You're averse to conflict. You hate the idea of hurting others, and are afraid of hurting yourself. You're a spoiled girl with a soft heart and a weak will who was never meant to be on a battlefield to begin with."

The way her body shook wasn't even subtle anymore.

"Even your posture shows this, always slouched to make yourself as invisible and submissive as possible to not get in anyone's way. The fact that you still stand here knowing all of this shows a complete lack of respect to all of us. There's nothing for you to accomplish here. You're just wasting my time, yours, and everyone else's."

It was outright embarrassing to see her cowering from mere words. Words could be devastatingly powerful when wielded right, but in battle, they were only weapons to be used against the weak.

Like Hinata.

"Perhaps this wouldn't be as true had you been pitted against anyone else. But fate chose me to stand in your way, a fellow Hyuuga. Tell me, Hinata-sama, how many times have you fought someone from our clan before? How many times have you ever come close to winning?"

Neji had fought her before. Multiple times. It had been years since then, but not enough that she'd have forgotten how he looked like towering over her fallen form in the Hyuuga manor's dojo. It didn't take too many fights before their instructors realized the gap between them was too wide for either to learn anything from each other.

He went on to practice against people quite a bit older than himself. Hinata, instead, returned to private instructors until they all, one by one, deemed her a lost cause who would lose even to her much younger sister.

It was pitiful.

All the things Neji chose to say to her, she was already aware of. But the final piece of the puzzle still seemed to elude her.

That, Neji realized, was why their destinies crossed right there and then. If his job was to enlighten her, to show her what was her place in the world, then that was exactly what he would do.

Oh so gladly.

"Hinata-sama, you can't change fate. Those who are meant for greater things will accomplish them, and those who are meant for nothing will never keep up. If you stand here in front of me, it is only because of your ignorance of this, if not your refusal to accept your place. Lee is someone that falls in the latter category, but have you paid attention to the last fight? A failure will always remain a failure, no matter how much they struggle. It's pointless to fight it. This is what Lee refused to accept."

His voice lost some of the cold edge it had. Lee could be annoying and embarrassing, but on a personal level, Neji never wished him harm. It was only to avoid a catastrophic outcome that he felt the need to be so brutally honest to his teammate. But he didn't listen, and the consequences…

He shook his head. It wasn't time to dwell on his pseudo-rival.

Neji focused back on Hinata, whose head was hanging low, leaving her bangs to hide her eyes. He watched how her chest moved, the effort she was putting to tame her lungs.

"We both know the outcome of this fight if it were to happen," he continued. "It is pre-determined. We both know you can't win and that you don't have what it takes to be a chunin. Your lack of self-confidence and self-worth, your crippling shyness and inferiority complex, the way you'd much rather follow along quietly than stand for yourself, none of those traits are desirable for a leader. Any leader."

This was the final attack. A reminder of all the prestige she lost, of the birthright that she had proved to be unworthy of. Hinata hadn't lost her title of heiress just yet… but from what he heard from his clansmen and the brewing rumors, that was only a matter of time

As was the outcome of their fight. He had hoped Hinata would have the dignity to end it on her own terms, but alas, Hinata was like a boulder, only moving when someone was there to push her.

Her head still hung low. She was shaking like a leaf, but unwilling to do what needed to be done

He would have to end it himself

"Hinata-sama. Give up."

"I will not."

Time froze.

Her tone was so soft, and her volume was so low, that he was sure he misheard her. The only proof she had even replied was that he saw her lips move immediately after he spoke.

But then she raised her head high, and in that instant, the briefest fraction of a second when Hinata's lavender eyes met his out of her own volition…. it was the first time Neji would see it.

He saw—

"SHUT UP ALREADY!"

Everyone in the arena turned to stare in shock at a singular, orange-colored point.

Naruto Uzumaki.

The boy was leaning so far against the railings on the edges of the upper floor that the slightest breeze might have sent him crashing to the ground. His expression, even from afar, was wild and furious.

Neji scowled at him—had he no common sense?

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!" he bellowed at the top of his lungs, meeting Neji's frosty glare with a burning one of his own before his blue eyes shifted a bit toward Hinata.

"Don't let this bastard talk you out of this, Hinata! We make our own paths! This whole talk of fate is complete bullshit! If we keep going at it we can change anything, you know that, don't you!? It doesn't matter how many people say that we can't do it, we just gotta try harder and harder and prove them wrong! All of them! Right, Hinata!?"

It took every ounce of strength from Neji not to jump at the boy and throttle him. What did he know about fate? Nothing! Naruto was no better than a blind beast, charging forward to his doom without any semblance of direction.

Neji felt his forehead burning at the thought of changing fate, even if it was a phantom pain born from his nightmares.

Destiny was immutable. Nothing and no one could defy it.

And yet, as he turned to face Hinata, he could sense that he'd find that very word.

Defiance.

And idiocy.

Hinata still was staring at that annoying brat in orange, beaming fondly. The sunlight shining down on her side of the arena coupled with that small smile made her look radiant, completely at odds with her shaken semblance until that point.

She then turned and fixed her eyes on him, leaving that happiness to vanish into a forlorn expression.

"Neji nii-san. You're right. Neither my teammates nor the project we are part of need me to be here anymore. Of course those were reasons why I signed up for this… but even if that project didn't exist, even if this exam didn't require a team to enter and…"

She shook her head, cutting that thought off.

Then, determination.

"Even if everything about this scares me, I would still be here in this exam, and here before you. Not for anyone's sake. For my own."

Neji wanted to laugh. He almost did. "Yours? What do you even have to gain?"

It couldn't be a promotion. The last thing someone like Hinata who could only follow people around would want was a position of leadership.

"…Freedom."

He no longer found any humor in her words, and it was not because he could see wetness gathering in Hinata's eyes.

"Neji nii-san, you're right. Everything you said about who I am… you're right. You've always been right. But I don't want to be that Hinata anymore! A coward that keeps running away without ever accomplish anything and only leaves things undone behind her…. I-I want to change!"

Despite the anguish tainting her voice, Hinata assumed a fighting stance, not breaking eye contact even once.

"I promised to myself, that I'd try my best, that I'd move on. The exams were the perfect chance for that. And I… I won't go back in my words! Not anymore."

Her Byakugan came to life.

The message was clear.

"So much for saving us time," Neji barely heard the proctor's annoyed mutterings, and it only made him angrier.

He entered his fighting stance, mirroring Hinata.

"Very well, Hinata-sama. We will fight. But I warn you," his Byakugan flashed, "you will fall here."

She held her stance and her gaze on him without flinching, as if he had said nothing.

Neji would almost attribute that change in behavior to that blond clown's rousing speech from earlier.

But that fire. Her eyes were blazing with it moments before Naruto even opened his mouth. Those flames were always somewhere within Hinata, he realized. In his attempt to talk her down, he had unknowingly stoked that fire, the Uzumaki merely made it burn brighter without knowing she had already decided to stand her ground by then.

He could still see something burning behind her lavender orbs

Yet defying fate was a fruitless effort, and that was what Neji was determined to show her.

"If you're both done, then match nine—"

The cruel truth of their world.

"—begin!"

…Stillness.

Neji had always known that of all lacking aspects of Hinata's Gentle Fist, her offense was the biggest one. He felt no fear of playing to her strengths—if you could say that—as a more defensive fighter.

But no. He wanted her to come to him, which caught her off-guard and she was bracing to be rushed by him.

Yet as soon as she realized she was not under attack, she subverted his expectations and jumped back.

Neji's brain failed him for an instant as Hinata's chakra patterns changed and focused on her lungs as she wove seals. That same instant before he was spurned into chasing her was just enough for her to complete a jutsu.

"Water Release: Pressure Shot!"

His foe spat a thin, high-pressure stream of water at him, Neji swerved to the left, but Hinata tracked his movements and her attack followed, forcing Neji to pump chakra into his legs and disengage entirely.

Chased by the water, Neji dashed toward the tree, but instead of walking along the trunk he jumped and bounced from it, flying past Hinata's technique.

The moment he touched the ground, Hinata's stream faded.

"I see. So was that your plan, Hinata-sama? To rely on things beyond our clan's taijutsu? Things you haven't even been using for more than a few months?"

She gave him no reaction other than reaching into her leg pouch and throwing shuriken at him. He was forced to dodge, and that gave Hinata another opening for her technique.

'Foolish. You're not the only one that learned something from those ninjutsu classes.'

This time Hinata began by aiming between Neji and the tree, cutting that escape route before seeking his position. Not that Neji felt threatened by that move either, instead he drew a shuriken of his own and shoot at her before fleeing.

His spread forced her to dodge in the opposite direction Neji ran. She didn't cancel her move, but her angle widened so much that Neji was able to pivot and dash in her direction before she could catch him.

Hinata's brow furred a bit as she tried to catch him with her stream, but she aimed too high and Neji simply rolled forward under it and ended her stupid plan of making this duel anything but a Gentle Fist fight.

She was within his range.

There was one thing about Might Guy's philosophies that Hinata once overheard him discourse passionately about, on how fighting another person is just like conversing with them. Except you felt their words and emotions through their blows. She had just found it humorous at the time, believing it to be just one more of the jonin's intense antics, especially with how flowery he had worded it.

Now, Hinata understood.

"I'm not going to let you run away from me, you coward," she heard from the very first palm thrust Neji sent her way as he closed in.

Then as the next blows followed, a flurry of attacks and dodges from both sides, she kept hearing his silent words.

"I'm more skilled than you," she heard each time she twisted away from his chakra-laced fingers, dodging the brunt of his moves but not fully escaping from the pain that followed.

"I'm faster than you," she heard when her brain struggled to process the waves of blows coming her way, and where they came from, barely keeping up.

"I'm smarter than you," she heard as her feints failed to create any opening, when he never bothered to trick her. He didn't need to resort to that.

"I reach farther than you," she heard as she struggled to dance away from his longer arms to try landing her strikes, as his steps forward expanded his reach more than hers could.

And above all else, for the entirety of their fight—each attack, block, counter, dodge or lull in-between—she heard one thing loud and clear.

"What are you doing here?"

His palm crashed against her chest, chakraless, sending her backward and off-balance to the floor.

…Perhaps the words she heard were nothing but her anxiety and fears yelling at her, but they shook her nonetheless.

"Do you see now, Hinata-sama?"

The coldness in his tone was the perfect contrast to the burns all across her torso. Her arms burned worse as she raised herself. Even her eyes burned, though only because of what she supposed to be the sunlight when she tried to stare back at Neji. That made her recoil and keep her head down.

"You have learned new tricks, but you aren't proficient enough to make them anything but useless. And your Gentle Fist is just the same as it always has been. As it always will be."

Hinata had gotten back to two feet, breathing labored and with her right hand clutching the opposite arm. Neji's words stung, but his actions stung more despite not hurting her physically.

'That last attack… he could've killed me if he used any chakra.'

He was toying with her.

No.

Not just toying. He wanted her to accept her fate. She was not to be beaten into submission, but to willingly surrender to destiny's schemes. That's how he wanted to win—by forcing her to admit it to herself, to everyone.

To him.

Her heart, which Neji had spared from his chakra, now burned with things Hinata couldn't name.

Things that shackled her. But also things that fueled her will.

'No… not this time!'

Yet he had a point. In a traditional duel she couldn't possibly overcome him. She had to do something different to force an opening.

Her hands whipped to her hip pouch a simple idea came to mind: using a kunai to extend her reach and mix in stabs with Gentle Fist forms, perhaps even mixing the untested ones she had been practicing because of her Water affinity…

Yet when her hand dove inside the pouch, the first thing her fingertips touched made her freeze.

'I… I didn't realize I still had this on me!'

An idea—fragile in every sense of the word—sprung to her mind soon after.

Neji was curious. Hinata had drawn a kunai from a pouch and thus drawn Neji's attention to it, and he thought it looked off. Slightly lighter to his Byakugan than the other kunai they both had.

His mind chalked it up to differences in metal composition between brands, if anything, and he didn't spare that entire thought process more than two seconds.

Not because Hinata threw her weapon at him. Instead, after grabbing it, her arms went limp.

He saw the flow of chakra around her eyes normalizing—her Byakugan had deactivated.

A loud gasp came from the audience, then the unmistakable voice of Ino Yamanaka. "No way!"

'Yes way,' he thought. Despite her initial show of defiance, she had broken her fighting stance and there was only one possible reason why.

She realized the futility of her actions.

He, too, broke his stance.

"So now you understand it, don't you, Hinata-sama? That it is—aaaugh!"

Unseen flames assaulted Neji's eyes and forced them shut as he recoiled from the sensory overload.

Yet his Byakugan still witnessed how that instant was all Hinata needed to close the gap to turn the tables.

He was the one that barely keeping up with her flurry of blows.

The one struggling to find his footing to counterattack or disengage

The one whose body was set on fire by the stings of a chakra needle.

A lesser fighter might have panicked at so suddenly being cornered by a much weaker foe. But not Neji.

No, he was furious instead. And that fire fueled him forward, each second into their exchange giving back more of the advantage to him.

Hinata's blows soon began to miss their mark, burning less or not at all as Neji recovered his stance, fought defensively and forced an opening.

Or almost.

Hinata leaped back an instant before he could properly counter a mistimed palm swipe.

He let her, taking a moment to breathe, attacking her with just a glare.

"What did you do?" he demanded. Neji didn't actually expect an answer, but he got one.

"Genjutsu comes in many forms."

Those words made him falter. 'That's impossible!' was his immediate reaction; however… the Byakugan didn't make him invulnerable to illusions. They were just easier to detect, dispel, or even fight through.

And her team's sensei was none other than Konoha's lead specialist on the subject.

A subject he knew Hinata was trying to learn…

'No… could it be?'

He had seen no chakra build-up in her body, nor his own. Genjutsu was an impossibility.

Yet he once more recoiled as his eyes burned, just as Hinata dashed with a kunai in hand. Neji could still see everything, no signs of illusions whatsoever, but that precious second he spent analyzing Hinata almost cost him.

He still managed to leap back before her thrust could land, and brought back his own kunai in a defensive stance, knowing Hinata would try to throw the weapon at him.

Yet she didn't. She just stood there and pocketed the weapon again.

Neji's fighting stance wavered.

This was not Hinata being a coward. He wouldn't put it past her, but she seemed to have a plan and wanted him to approach. A plan beyond simply relying on her comparatively stronger defensive style. And her bringing up genjutsu was nothing but a lie to make him waste energy thinking about, a distraction.

It had to be.

'I'm missing something. Probably something ridiculous,' he theorized with rising frustration until a thought made him stop.

Hinata's Byakugan was still inactive.

The chakra flow to his eyes ceased, restoring his natural eyesight…. yet nothing stood out to him.

'What is happening here…?'

His foe gave him no time to ponder, her hands quickly forming seals before she spat water in a low, sweeping trajectory, forcing Neji to hop back.

But that was it. No follow-ups.

'She's not low on chakra just yet', Neji thought, remembering how her reserves were shining brightly moments before. Hinata always had an unusually high amount of chakra, so it was easy to keep track of her levels.

His Byakugan flared to life and he dashed forward, throwing caution to the wind. Whatever Hinata might be setting up, Neji knew he could handle it. His hesitation was just a waste of time.

Hinata merely took some steps back, her hand went up to her kunai and…

'Not again!'

Yet this time he was mentally prepared for it. He almost stumbled, but even with the sudden spike of sensitivity in his eyes, he powered through it, guided by the Byakugan's unaffected sightlines.

He heard a gasp from Hinata when he closed the distance to attack as if nothing had happened. His form wasn't as pristine as he prided himself on, between that mysterious stunning force and the few hits Hinata landed consequently wearing him down somewhat, but against an opponent using a kunai, he wouldn't need perfection.

And Hinata knew it, preferring to invest precious seconds in withdrawing her kunai to rely on their clan's pride instead.

Those seconds were her downfall.

He wove past her hasty guard, his palm connecting hard and true against the center of her chest. He put more physical strength than usual into it, pushing the girl to the ground. Yet as this was far from a fight to the death, he held back on the chakra front.

Slightly.

Neji heard wet, strained coughing from his fallen foe. His Byakugan receded, and as planned, he saw blood dripping from her lips.

"Whatever tricks you're relying on, they aren't enough."

Hinata was trembling from the internal damage he dealt her, yet her eyes still shone with that flame he had seen, making him frown as she rose and shakily reassumed her Gentle Fist stance.

'All three times she has stunned me, she held that kunai. And she still hasn't reactivated her Byakugan….'

More curious than actually threatened, he drew a blade himself and rushed her. Neji mostly ignored kunai especially as melee weapons, but one couldn't graduate from the academy at the top of his class without knowing the fundamentals well.

To his mild surprise, not well enough to break past her defensive tactics with the Gentle Fist. That spoke more about the style than the user, at any rate, but Neji had a theory to test—she never once brought out her own kunai in defense. For all of the Gentle Fist's advantages, parrying a kunai strike without another weapon was impossible and there was merit in bringing another kunai to force that opening.

Instead, Hinata bewildered him. She insisted on taijutsu, but… not quite Gentle Fist. Her form had changed in a way he'd never seen before, yet she was absolutely trying to inject her chakra into him, as a quick reactivation of his dojutsu proved. Her fingertips shone with her chakra.

She aimed further into his guard than before, and her motions resembled swipes more the pokes.

'Were the rumors true, then? Well, whatever.'

He let her land a hit where it wouldn't matter. His forearm burned and he dropped his kunai, letting it clang dully on the floor as he hopped back a little. With a perceived advantage, Hinata went toward her kunai…

Instantly, he erased the distance between them with his eyes closed and head hung low. In a single motion, fast but traceable, Neji drew and swung a second kunai from his holster, forcing a gasp from Hinata as she instinctively raised her blade to shield herself.

A crash.

Neji's attack sliced through Hinata's weapon, leaving a broken handle in her hands and the blade itself shattered completely in the floor between them.

The noise was deafening enough that both of them on pure reaction jumped back, resetting all progress Neji had made closing in.

Yet as he turned off the Byakugan again, Neji realized the trade-off would be worth it.

"So that was the trick."

To his Byakugan, it looked so close to metal it had fooled him. But without it, it was unmistakable. The kunai was made of glass.

'Now everything makes sense. She was reflecting the sunlight into my eyes, which didn't blind me because of the Byakugan but still caused a sensory overload. That's why she didn't approach me earlier: I was in the shade.'

He grit his teeth a little. Failure or not, he had underestimated how clever his cousin could be, exploiting a flaw of the Byakugan that he himself hadn't realized was there—a flaw she careless exposed to multiple foreign ninja.

Yet she, too, hadn't respected his intelligence enough.

The girl's eyes kept darting between him, the glass shards on the floor, the broken handle in her trembling grip... he could feel her rising panic now that her strategy was null and void.

He made sure to wait until she looked at him to say:

"Was that all?"

"…Yes. I'll be forfeiting now. I'm sorry for wasting your time."

That was what the last reasonable part of Hinata's mind wanted her to say.

Yet she held her ground in silence, even though she had messed up. Badly. She managed to force out multiple clear openings, yet couldn't capitalize on any of them. Not as much due to a lack of skill or speed—though those were undeniable factors—but also fear.

Twice now, he'd landed a hit right on her chest. Twice, she could've died if he'd put a significant amount of chakra in her system… and it shook her.

Hinata wanted to punch herself for letting that hesitation and fear get the best of her, holding her back from diving in when she got those openings.

Her eyes darted to the stands above, yet Hinata found no support from there. As she battled Neji their positions changed and the only people she could see high above were the foreigners.

But when she gazed back to Neji and saw the challenge in his glare, she felt that was all the encouragement she needed. Even if he also made her want to run away.

Her body slipped back into her stance and her eyesight returned to black-and-blue, though not before she slid the broken mirror-kunai's handle into the pouch on her leg.

"Are you truly going to insist on this foolishness?"

She could tell he was growing angrier at her refusal to back down.

Perhaps that could be to her advantage, just as much as his incredulity gave him pause... and to her, perhaps, a few precious seconds.

'Alright, Hinata. Think.'

The girl knew that if there was any hope of beating her cousin, it would be through catching him off-guard or exploiting some sort of weakness of the Byakugan, if not both at once.

She got a few hits in but so did he, thus a pure taijutsu duel would still be something to avoid. Ninjutsu was starting to feel shaky as Neji already knew how to fight around her Pressure Shot. Though Kakashi had imparted another jutsu to her, it was an area control technique that could backfire unless she had a clear plan for it.

Genjutsu... was a completely idiotic idea. The Byakugan would immediately alert him of any such shenanigans as she had seen herself during her brief duel against that Sound kunoichi. She did make him nervous at suggesting an illusion earlier, but…

Neji returned to his stance and Hinata's thinking time was up. She threw herself forward, weaving around the sharp glass to reach her foe.

Saying she was going to fight was easy. Committing to it was the difficult part.

Neji narrowed his eyes at her but held his ground, once more daring her to approach, and soon the two were trading blows again.

There was still one faint glimmer of hope, which Hinata had realized at the moment her hand found the mirror Ino had forgotten with her. Even if the altered Gentle Fist her father and Guy-sensei were helping her develop was a work-in-progress and not as good as the original in a straight fight, it had been designed so Hinata could flow from it to traditional stances as needed.

The sudden shift in attack patterns always caught Neji off-guard, ever so slightly. That was the key—to abuse of the element of surprise. To push her brain to its limit. She knew she wasn't clever-but now she had to be.

The slight pauses before his reaction time and battle experience took over were just enough that Hinata managed to nick him a few times, and weave out of his range before taking much damage herself.

Keyword: much.

They disengaged.

She was breathing harder than him. His stance was pristine, as if no attacks she got in had ever accomplished anything. Meanwhile, the burns on her arms were starting to become too much for adrenaline to numb.

'Of course, he also beats me when it comes to stamina,' Hinata thought with gritted teeth. She hadn't expected otherwise. The only thing unexpected about their fight was Neji not dispatching her faster because he wanted her to forfeit.

Refusing to entertain that idea, she broke her fighting stance and darted in his direction, molding chakra in a way she knew Neji would recognize by then.

"Water Release: Pressure Shot!"

She moved together with her attack this time, sweeping low at the ground. Neji grunted as he backed away from her and for a few seconds she merely chased him down around the battlefield while her stream acted as a barrier to dissuade his own approach… and it had a second purpose too.

Then, a wave of shuriken made her duck and cancel the technique

"Very well," Neji spoke up. "You have my back against the tree. What now?"

Hinata felt her spirit draining at his challenge. 'He knew…? No. Of course he knew.'

He willingly let her maneuver him into a bad position. That's how little she threatened him. He was content with letting her take the reins of the fight, knowing he could turn the tables whenever.

'He wants me to keep trying new things so he can counter them all,' Hinata realized, scowling as indignation swelled up inside her. That was how he intended for her to desist, by crushing her spirit under the weight of her failures.

She almost slapped herself. His insulting approach could only help in her goal of surprising turning his continuous expectations of a straight Gentle Fist duel against him.

Her hands wove more seals instead—different seals than before—yet a wave of steel reached Hinata faster than she could complete her attack.

The girl threw herself at the ground and shot another stream of water. This one much thicker and without the pressure to damage anything.

The small puddle ended up only a few feet away from Neji's position, not even forcing him to dodge. He raised an eyebrow at it and re-assumed his stance as Hinata rose.

"Setting up a source of Water for a faster execution on another jutsu, I see" he pointed out, referencing something Kakashi had shown to them once before… yet took no advantage out of her fall.

All but proving her theory.

Frowning, Hinata flashed forward to melee range where Neji eagerly waited to meet her. It was the same song and dance as before, if slightly slower due to their piling wounds… or it would have been, had Hinata not realized Neji had turned them around as they traded blows.

The big tree stood right beside them both, while the puddle Hinata created was now behind her.

'This isn't bad, this isn't bad' she reminded herself, despite her anxiety spiking.

She took a step back to avoid a finger poke at her dominant arm, weaving that same arm to try and drag her water-based chakra needle across Neji's own.

He hopped away before she could drain anything meaningful, and Hinata took that chance to jump backward herself.

She felt water splashing on her sandals, having landed right on the edge of the chakra-laced puddle before she skidded back to solid ground.

Neji immediately charged.

'There!'

Their clash never happened.

Hinata backed away once more before he reached her, and with something akin to a yelp, Neji's equilibrium shattered the moment he touched the puddle she had stood on, the chakra within reacting wildly to the foreign presence.

It was the Water Release: Slippery Stream, a technique Hinata had first seen used on Kiba during Kakashi's bell test, not a mere Water reserve for a different technique like Neji surmised.

That, was when Hinata forced herself to throw away her fears, her hesitation, and pounced.

A lesser genin would have crashed on the floor, but Neji was at the top for a reason. He fought gravity to earn his stability back, only just enough that he could launch himself toward the nearby tree and use that to prop himself back up.

That cost him only a couple seconds. But it was all Hinata needed to finally land her first true strike in the match.

Not a mere glancing blow—she had dove with her family's tradition ablaze in her hands and struck deep. Neji could only do so much with his back to the tree and his dominant hand planted on the trunk to regain his balance. He tried to sweep her away with his other arm, only to get said arm set on fire when Hinata's fingers sunk on the flesh right beneath his elbow.

With a growl, Neji pushed himself off the tree and bashed Hinata away with his shoulder, forsaking the grace of a Hyuuga warrior for a crude brawling tactic.

That reset their battle once more, but briefly so as Hinata rolled backward from the impact and recovered only in time to try defending herself from a trio of shuriken using a kunai.

Metal struck metal only once. Two of the shuriken landed, one grazing her thigh and the other cutting up her knee.

Pushing through the sting of pain, Hinata was on her feet again before Neji had sidestepped her puddle, tossing her kunai at him as alarm bells rung inside her head—she'd be the one trapped against the tree if she didn't move!

'But maybe...'

Neji's arms struck mere wind. Not because Hinata dodged left, or right, or narrowly evaded his thrust.

No.

She had backflipped and made the tree her floor.

Neji's arm recoiled at being kicked from an impossible angle for anyone but a ninja.

'She wants to take the fight up this tree?' came the incredulous thought to his mind as he backed off.

The attack didn't hurt much as Hinata barely had time to put any strength behind it, but still.

At every point where he felt he had outplayed and outsmarted her enough, that she'd finally admit her own impotence against the wills of destiny… she came up with something new to throw him off, to buy her just a few more precious instants in which she could close the gap between their abilities and experience.

He saw her walk backwards on the tree before metal rained on him, and as he dodged, Neji began to feel that this fight would have no true winner: that while Hinata would not beat him and move on, he would also be unable to get her to accept her place in the world.

Not unless she woke up on a hospital bed after losing to him.

That idea made him hesitate. Not due to any positive feelings that lingered from his childhood—there were none. He'd be almost happy to have such a decisive win against this person who was so unworthy of everything she was given.

However, he was from the Branch house. That was his inescapable curse.

Would… there be consequences if he pushed too far? Even if Hinata wasn't looked at fondly by the Main house, there was no question that they'd favor her. To make Hinata submit could be seen as an affront to the Main house as a whole, and how they viewed Hinata perhaps mattered not. Their pride would be at stake.

What fought against his sole insecurity was his anger. That after so much Hinata still refused to see reality as it was, how she still clung so desperately to such delusional ideals… it made Neji's blood heat up within his veins.

Not even Lee made him upset like this! Why Hinata had this effect on him he didn't understand, but it made the idea of personally putting her in her place more and more compelling to him as their duel prolonged itself far beyond what he had imagined.

Mentally, he kicked himself. Chasing this self-satisfaction wasn't worth the risk.

Hinata turned and began to run up the tree.

He'd have to continue foiling her plans until either her will or her cleverness ran out, unless the proctor ended the match himself. And there was one thing he could do to force Hinata's forfeit and cripple her strategy all at once… even though he'd rather not show his hand to the foreigners just yet.

'So be it, then.'

Neji followed Hinata's steps, defying gravity as he stood on the trunk.

He was miffed. Guy had drilled into his team's head to always feel verify one's reserves before attempting a bigger climb. Neji did that almost without realizing and immediately noticed his chakra reserves weren't quite as full as he thought.

'Odd. I don't have any techniques that'd consume this much chakra. Did she… no. It doesn't matter. This is probably just the strain from the second test.'

Throwing that thought away he chose to merely walk up the tree, giving her time to put her brain to work, to show her how little her tactics worried him.

His target turned around to face him. She'd put quite the distance between them, one he slowly reduced with each calm step toward her.

'What are you going to do now?'

Her answer was the same old and disappointing combination of seals she'd relied on throughout the fight.

Yet he froze as the realization bore down on him. The jutsu was the same, the terrain wasn't.

If he jumped normally he'd fall and lose distance. If he chakra jumped he'd have the force to challenge gravity for a while, but his trajectory would be easy to track with a sweeping motion and he couldn't chakra jump too much to either side without falling. He didn't have the chakra control to roll on a tree. There were no walls to bounce off.

'I'll need to take this a little more seriously.'

The stream fell upon him with increased velocity, and he responded in kind by dashing to the diagonally to the right with more speed than he'd allowed himself to show before.

The tree's cylinder-like shape meant Hinata couldn't aim at him forever like on the floor below. Hinata began to move while attacking as soon as she realized this, but Neji was much quicker and kept changing directions whenever she came too close.

'Looks like I turned your strategy against you again,' he thought with the slightest of smiles.

He noticed Hinata wasn't just trying to get an angle on him, she was still backing off which only doomed her attempts further. One could only go so fast when going backwards, and it was an obvious sign of her fear taking control once more. He'd bet she hadn't even noticed she was doing that.

They kept that game of cat-and-mouse for a while longer until he was too close for Hinata to keep wasting her chakra.

She advanced to meet him head-on.

When it came to fighting up close, the fact they stood parallel to the ground made little difference. The perspective shift that could've been disorienting to any other human was trivialized by the Byakugan. Neji and Hinata saw each other from the exact same angles as before.

Their actual movements, however, were changing. As their little dance had them moving farther and farther up the tree, Hinata was starting to slow down, and he was starting to catch on to her attack pattern shifts and get the strikes he sought even if he took a couple hits in the process.

The last of these hits was when Hinata ducked under an attack aimed at her chest. Neji reacted quickly and lashed out at her with a kick, yet she leaned away from his leg and swiped at his calf.

He grunted and stepped back, but before but he could shrug off the blow…

His eyes went wide.

Hinata, still crouched, dissipated the chakra on her feet and let gravity pull her down.

Neji watched her fall in complete bewilderment, and his confusion only grew when the girl straightened in midair, chakra flashing on her soles once more to stick on the tree.

He turned around to face where she was, but she took off to the left instead of fully retreating.

'What was that even meant to accomplish?' he thought incredulously as he quickly adjusted his hair.

Then he remembered.

His Byakugan honed in on a specific spot of the tree, and he found something he had completely overlooked when he'd been weaving around her water attack earlier.

The explosive kunai Sasuke Uchiha had left behind in the very first match.

'Did she plan this? No, surely she—!'

He stopped that thought, eyes narrowing.

He dashed to the left as well as downward, despite Hinata had fallen too far for him to beat her to it. He kept running until the curve of the tree faded enough that he could throw shuriken, but by that point she had completed a sequence of seals and sent another high-pressure blast of water to delay his approach.

Hinata reached her target. She had to crouch and pull it to get it unstuck from the trunk, and barely had time to pocket the explosive before Neji was invading her space with deadly chakra-laced strikes.

Their exchange lasted perhaps not even half a minute until his arm wove past her raised guard and struck her right in the stomach

Hinata stumbled but Neji gave her no reprieve, landing three more blows until she escaped.

She had cut off her feet's chakra again, jumping off before gravity took over.

This time, Neji knew she wanted to get back to the floor.

His response?

He began to walk, descending the tree just as calmly as when he'd begun to ascend it

"This match is over now," he muttered to himself.

Pain.

Hinata's mouth was frozen in a wordless, breathless scream as her body crashed on the floor again after bouncing violently off it.

She didn't understand what had just happened.

No. She did, just not how.

The moment her body went in free-fall she sent chakra across the backside of her entire body to cushion the fall. She just had to roll immediately and she'd be up on her feet in maybe three seconds, completely unharmed.

But for some reason her chakra was… sluggish. She couldn't gather enough to fully protect her anywhere!

The Byakugan dismantled on impact, her word going pure white and her lungs throwing out air and blood as pain took over her senses.

Somehow, her mind hadn't blanked out too.

'I… must… keep going…!'

She couldn't back out now, she still had something to accomplish.

That thought fueled her. She gathered air back in her lungs.

Though slower than she'd like, and hurting more than enough to make her regret every movement, she rolled on her side, planted on hand on the ground and pushed to a crouch.

By that time, her vision had returned somewhat and she saw the proctor's wary gaze on her. Hinata could tell he was considering halting the match right there and then, and that only made her resolve burn brighter and she pushed herself up fully, if not as fast as she'd like.

Hinata's posture was so shaky she almost fell back, but she managed to stand on two feet, struggling to remain upright as blood leaked from her lips.

Everything was hurting.

"I take it you don't understand why your chakra wasn't obeying you."

It was Neji, who was now entering her field of vision and was only a few meters away from the ground.

"Turn on your Byakugan again," he said as he kept walking down the tree. "Look at yourself. Focus."

Fear seized her heart, but she did as he said only to grow confused. She gathered her chakra as if, again, to break a fall, and only then she realized it.

How wide the gap between them truly was.

"N-No… y-you can see them already!?"

"Yes." He kept walking in her direction. "I can see and close your tenketsu. Our style isn't very intensive on chakra, so normally you would only realize it when your blows grew to do no damage or if you tried ninjutsu again. But I guess you found another way to discover it. Congratulations"

Hinata felt the blood draining from her face, her Byakugan fading with her hopes. She knew he was an insight-type and thus he'd develop this ability much faster than a farsight-type like herself. And she knew he was holding back, and but… by that much?

How was she supposed to have a chance at victory?

"I trust you realize there's no point in continuing this."

"…"

She didn't dare to look up at the audience. She knew what she'd see in their eyes, each and every one of them.

Except for Naruto.

But… what if even he…

No.

…She couldn't bear to look at him.

Just like her younger self never dared to approach him, to risk being rejected by the very person that had inspired her to not give up, she found herself in that same darkness that she'd worked so hard to claw out of in the past few months.

But then his words came back to her. His impassioned speech that helped her commit to her beliefs. And with them, the warmth that had filled her heart from knowing someone believed in her. That someone knew what it was like to be in her position, against all odds but trying anyway, pushing forward despite how hard life attempted everything to make progress impossible.

"…You're smiling?"

Her eyes found Neji's confused stare. Surely if he didn't think she had a screw loose already…

Her Byakugan flashed again, and she winced from her eyes protesting from the two activations almost in a row.

With a deep breath, Hinata did her best to reassume her form and stared Neji down. Battered and bruised, inside and out, but not defeated. Not truly.

Her cousin's incredulity would almost be amusing, but she kept her expression serious to show her commitment.

Then she rushed forward to meet him.

The rules of their fight hadn't changed. She needed to surprise him, somehow, and that'd be the only possible way to triumph. Her speed was impaired but the shock she gave him by rising to challenge him, added to how he'd wandered too close to where she'd fallen, gave her an opening.

One hand went toward the pouch on her leg and saw Neji's whole body tensing—all due to the kunai with the explosive tag she had retrieved.

She lighted it as soon as her finger touched it and dashed forward in her foe's direction, giving him little choice but to chakra-jump backward as far as he could to put space between them lest she blew them both up.

Of course, she wasn't crazy enough to kill herself and take him down with her. All she did was force Neji to move.

She pumped chakra into her arm and let the blade fly in his direction.

Her kunai landed somewhere behind him and close to the tree. He couldn't move in either direction, nor could he dash at Hinata when she was coming right at him, so his only choice was to chakra-jump again but toward the arena's walls.

As soon as Hinata saw the chakra building up in his legs she swerved in that direction and sped up, uncaring of how her own legs throbbed at the exertion.

The kunai exploded while Neji was still in the air.

The moment he landed was when Hinata revealed to him that she was crazy enough to bring back that broken glass handle to the fight instead. Because she had fallen on her back it hadn't suffered more damage, and there was still a jagged point beyond the handle, about as big as her thumb and much sharper than when it had been just a mirror.

It was also very light, and she could swipe with it about as fast as she could do a palm thrust, so she lost almost no speed and had a bit more range.

She pressed him with her blade on her dominant hand, and because she didn't need to put force into her attacks like with a real kunai, her other hand was free to attempt Gentle Fist strikes.

Obviously, her attack patterns would be rough and unpolished seeing as she'd never attempted something like that before. But Neji had never fought something like it before either. She used the glass-blade as a pressuring tool to ward off his own attacks and make him think twice before exploiting a perceived opening.

However pathetic some glass could be compared to a real weapon, it could still cause deep wounds and it was that threat that Hinata posed each time his hand got too close. She gave him no time to draw a weapon to attempt a parry. Even if he tried, he'd get caught by her other hand's chakra needle with such a slower attack.

'Not too bad for a spur of the moment decision!'

For once, Hinata felt how it was on the other side of fighting someone that was second-guessing their approach.

Their little dance didn't last long, however.

Instead of aiming at her torso like usual, Neji soon swapped targets to her arm itself. It didn't take long before he landed two well-timed pokes there, forcing the handle to fall from her hand.

…and Hinata had known that would happen from the start.

When she felt her arms aflame and her grip slackening, that was the moment she grit her teeth and pushed through the pain, taking a bold step forward before the glass shattered by her feet, pushing it away with her leg.

Her fingers dug into Neji's arm before he retracted it, making him hiss and step back from her range. But Hinata chased him, fingers curling into a closed fist.

At the sound of glass crashing on the floor, she launched a sequence of attacks completely alien to the Gentle Fist's teachings.

The first punch grazed his ribs, the second he blocked with the arm she had just pierced, and the pain he felt from that block let her swing her leg and kick right where her other punch had landed.

Hinata spun her body to launch a palm thrust with her other hand, but Neji leaned out of reach at the last second.

Suddenly, the one having to defend against a barrage of punches and kicks was herself.

Neji launched faster, stronger and more accurate blows, breaking her shaky guard and spreading crushing pain all over her body before, in a maneuver she'd only seen from Lee in his fight with Gaara, a devastating spinning kick sent her flying.

She was sprawled on the floor, moaning in pain.

Again.

"This, Hinata-sama, is what Strong Fist is supposed to be," he spat almost venomously. "Did you really think a slower style in which you're an amateur at and that I'm used to fighting against could ever work?"

She didn't answer, focusing all her energy on her quivering limbs to prop herself up. Much easier said than done after all the injuries she'd sustained.

The Strong Fist wasn't as deadly as the Gentle Fist—no normal taijutsu style could hope to be—but it was named as such for a reason. It wasn't something to casually shrug off if you were on the receiving end, designed to break bones and swiftly incapacitate targets.

Her bruised legs quivered and she almost fell back when a violent spike shot up on her right arm when she put her weight on it.

But she ended up on her feet.

Again.

Even though she was curling on herself, with one arm clutching the other as if to try and stop the incessant pulsing pain. Even though the taste of iron was overwhelming in her mouth.

Finally, she answered his question.

"You… know I didn't have choice."

His glare pierced her soul.

"Only if one starts from the principle that you'd keep insisting in this farce. I've sealed enough of the major tenketsu in your dominant arm. You're unable to properly mold chakra for any ninjutsu, and any Gentle Fist strikes from that arm will be relatively harmless even in a direct hit."

He was, of course, correct. She'd known that from the moment he sealed her arm he'd take her more lightly, as she wouldn't be able to damage him. That's why she opted for the Strong Fist, despite not having that much experience with it, every student of Guy-sensei had learned its fundamentals.

…Neji included.

She rewarded his logic by assuming her stance again.

"I… can still fight," she said more for herself and for the proctor than Neji, who was completely unamused by her declaration.

"Tell me, Hinata-sama. Is this it? The change you so desperately were seeking?"

His question only made the simple act of breathing harder than it already was.

"You moved away from our clan's fighting style because of your ineptitude, you diverged your focus from taijutsu to seek a ground to stand on. You've attempted several different and unorthodox strategies this whole fight. But this is not change, Hinata-sama. You are just running away."

"I'm… not!" she managed with difficulty, but Neji just kept going.

"You are. You're running away from your own weakness. From the fact that even despite being the firstborn of the main house's leader, you are inept. Unfit to both leadership and combat. You never had the strength to be anything but a failure and you never will."

His voice then grew louder as his anger finally slipped through the cracks in his mask.

"This was your destiny ever since your birth and no matter how much being a Hyuuga hurts you, you can't change it! None of us can change our fates!"

He accepted her challenge, matching her stance once more.

For the final time.

"I will not say this again, Hinata-sama. Give up!"

Through labored breaths, Hinata finally saw the cruel truth behind Neji's words.

"…Are you… listening to yourself?"

Neji's posture wavered ever so slightly, perhaps from her despondent expression more so than her question.

"I'm not… the person running away here. You are."

"…"

His bewildered expression morphed into something so intense that Hinata couldn't name, and it scared her.

"What could I possibly be running away from when y—!"

She silenced him.

Not with words, but with a simple gesture: a singular hand sign that almost nobody in the arena would recognize the meaning of.

But Neji did.

"From this."

His curse.

…Hinata realized at that moment that this was the thing she'd been looking for all along. Just like that day when he caught her training her affinity before her father sent her to the cemetery, Neji completely froze at the sight of the hand sign she showed him, trembling in terror.

Because of course he did. She'd seen and heard what it could do to a person, and it horrified her even without her ever feeling that pain herself. Hinata would never activate his cursed seal—ever. Even if it meant losing that match.

It's not like she could even mold the chakra to activate it anyway and he had to know that. Neji had nothing to fear from her on that front, even putting her personality aside.

But if he was so happy to cruelly use her traumas and past against her, for no good reason, she felt zero guilt in merely showing it to him to make him crumble. Not anymore.

Just... sadness that is brutal effectiveness.

Had her body not been so weakened already, that would be where she'd have dashed at full speed to turn the tables on him

Instead, the only option she had left was to use his own strategy against him.

"Y-You're… who was hurt the most for being a Hyuuga… aren't you? And that's why you fight… isn't it? Even if you're from the branch… y-you want to show them… that you can shine too… right? In the end… you're just like me!"

These words, albeit shaken and weak, slipped by the cracks of Neji's armor and speared his heart.

The temperature dropped.

"…How dare you."

Neji flew at speeds far beyond what he'd shown before, a cloud of killing intent emanating from him.

Yet for all his speed, time seemed to slow down for Hinata, practically to a standstill.

'This is it,' she thought. 'My last opportunity. Make it count, Hinata!'

With her body damaged all over and her dominant arm unable to gather enough chakra for her clan's traditional taijutsu style to work, let alone ninjutsu… her mind had only come up with one last idea.

The only thing she had left that Neji was unaware of.

Her trump card.

Hinata couldn't pump the chakra needed to harm someone with a Gentle Fist strike—unlike Neji whose hands glowed so bright they were like small blue suns—but there were enough working pathways in her hand that a chakra needle was still feasible, as Neji himself had told her.

The bloodlust in the air was nowhere near strong enough to rattle her, especially not after Orochimaru. It instead pacified her.

She knew exactly what Neji was going to do. She had known all along. The only question was…

'Am I fast enough?'

No. That wasn't a question.

She had to be fast enough.

The chakra from her pointer and middle finger wove together in a spiral, connecting perfectly at the end. She wondered if Neji could see the difference.

'Three...'

She planted her feet back, bracing for the inevitable impact.

'Two…'

Neji was close. Too close.

'One…!'

Hinata took one last breath.

'Now!'

She thrust her arm forward with all her might.

His strike was true.

It was only in that moment, where his left palm was planted firmly over Hinata's chest, while hers only barely touched his …that Neji wondered in a stray thought how things went this far. How nobody stopped her madness before he could.

He knew how.

Because of Hinata's determination. That blazing fire that he couldn't put out no matter what he did must have convinced the proctor that, however disadvantaged, she still could fight.

If the proctor truly believed that just because one small strike could be devastating that their fight should've continued, he was an idiot. But it wasn't his fault that he lacked the Byakugan to see that unlike before, Neji had put much more chakra behind his strike.

Main house be dammed, how dare her try to bring him down to her level, of a failure who refused to accept her place in the world and squirmed incessantly in denial instead of facing reality as it was!

The gap between them was insurmountable. How blind was she!?

And to bring up his seal like that, to lord his sole fatal flaw over him like he was at fault for it… it was maddening!

Neji had never taken pleasure in physically hurting someone. Ever. But as he saw Hinata crumpling in front of him, using her other hand to latch onto his stretched arm to support herself as she vomited blood on the ground… that's when he realized—

"…Glugh!"

—that his chest was on fire.

And so was his arm.

In those last moments, one small part of Hinata wanted to laugh. One sick, twisted part that was probably only surfacing because the rest of her mind wasn't even working straight—or at all—at that point.

She felt Neji spitting blood all over the back of her head. Him spitting on her while still allowing her to hold on to him for support, somehow it felt like the perfect way to describe their match and it was funny to her somehow.

What wasn't as funny was how her insides felt like they were collapsing—like her Byakugan just had. Yet something about fully expecting the pain that was about to come had let her push through it all.

Hinata had known exactly where Neji would aim. His fury left no doubts. The moment his arm went for her chest, hers went for his… but her palm strike was angled, and her chakra needle caught his arm.

What would have surely been a fatal chakra discharge—somehow the thought didn't faze her anymore—became far, far weaker as her finger slid over his skin, draining that chakra.

She couldn't possibly empty his arm of chakra. Hence why she felt like there was a hole somewhere around her lungs and heart. But she'd gathered enough of his chakra to charge her own strike, overloading his most critical pathways just like he'd done to her less than a second prior.

If Hinata were to be generous, she'd say she took about half of his blow's power with her right hand.

And the left was all too happy to inject her chakra as usual on his arm while she clung to him, until he noticed and pushed her off.

She stumbled a few steps backwards.

Then forward.

…And finally, her legs failed her, pathetically tripping on air and leaving Hinata on all fours on the ground.

Her body didn't agree with that sudden movement—or that entire fight, really—and she promptly threw up more red liquid on the floor.

A lot more.

"That's enough! This fight is over! Stop!"

She looked up to see the proctor standing between her and Neji, pushing him away.

Had he… attempted to do something?

"The winner is Neji Hyuuga!"

'And so it ends.'

It was like her strings were cut. Everything that was pushing her forward until that moment practically vanished, leaving just her wounds behind.

She immediately heard a bunch of noise coming somewhere behind her… footsteps. The proctor went around her to address the newcomers.

"They're both going to need medical attention!" he called out, meaning the steps were the approaching medical team overlooking the exams, spurred by the urgency in the proctor's tone.

'I wonder if he regrets not stopping this earlier,' she thought idly.

Then raised her head a little.

Lavender met pure white.

Lavender met red, not just at his mouth and chin and shirt, but his eyes—her cousin absolutely tried something.

"…"

Her arms grew weak, and Hinata let herself fall on her side, wincing as she hid from his burning gaze.

'Have I… only made things worse?'

She couldn't find an answer. Her mind was becoming foggy from the damage she took and all the energy she had spent, but for once, she had just enough fire inside to not black out.

Her eyes closed as the medics approached her.

"Hinata!"

She forced her eyes as shut as possible the moment she heard his voice.

'I'm so sorry, Naruto-kun… I tried.'

Mercifully, the medics took her away too fast for him to catch up to her.

The only thing Hinata's hazy might could affirm with certainty was that she could not face Naruto right there.

There was only a single thing that had occasionally managed to wrestle Tenten's attention from the duel that played out in front of her, and that was one Naruto Uzumaki, her future opponent in the final match of the day.

First, of course, had been when he so boldly interrupted Neji to encourage Hinata to not cower from his words, challenging the older genin's entire philosophy. Yet Tenten kept glancing back at the boy in some of the pauses that happened later during her teammate's fight, curious.

Tenten knew Neji had some very strong opinions about life and fate. He'd dragged Lee, Guy and occasionally others into such discussions, and the other party had never been very pleased in arguing with a wall. Naruto himself had been among these, once. But this time Neji's speech was meant to break Hinata… and by accident, left Naruto completely revolted.

Not just from being angry because of Hinata. No. Naruto was taking it personally as if Neji had aimed those sharp words at him the entire time, and these two feelings mixed.

Dangerously so.

She hadn't been the only one seeing it. Sakura had been worried enough that he'd pull an idiotic stunt that she was practically clinging to his shoulder to stop him just in case, even after she had successfully pulled him away from the edge of the stands after he encouraged Hinata.

When Neji began to talk down to his cousin again near the end of their duel, she heard Kakashi scolding Naruto, who had escaped from Sakura's grip. She didn't know if he was really going to jump down there at the time, though.

But the moment the proctor called the fight and was forced to stand between them to stop Neji from attacking Hinata while she was down…

'Dammit, Neji!'

That was the moment Tenten leaped to the arena. She didn't even look at Naruto—she knew he was going to be there, and hearing him call out Hinata's name proved her right.

And unlike Sakura, there was no way Naruto was escaping her grip when she pulled him back by his shoulder.

He whirled around with her pull, ready to lash out until he saw who stood behind him.

"Huh? Tenten!?"

Clearly he had expected it to be Sakura, or even Kakashi.

"Hey. You were about to do something stupid, weren't you?"

Her bluntness caught the boy off-guard, he stuttered a bit, unable to form a cohesive reply until she pointed at the commotion up ahead.

The medics had already stepped in. Some were moving Hinata to a stretcher and asking her questions, which she responded albeit without opening her eyes, and Tenten pointed at them to direct Naruto's attention.

"Look. She's conscious and getting treated, she'll be alright soon, okay? There's nothing you can do now."

Tenten felt some of Naruto's tension dissipating at that, but still held him firmly as their attention shifted to the rest of the medic-nin, who were trying to move Neji into a stretcher as well. She wasn't close enough to make out his words but he appeared to be trying to convince the medics he was fine.

Only to start coughing blood again.

She rolled her eyes as Neji still resisted the medics. 'Boys and their stupid pride,' she noted as they began to walk away, Neji having failed to escape the examination but somehow convincing the medics that the stretcher wasn't needed.

That brief distraction was just enough that she somehow missed Naruto trembling under her hand.

"Hey! You!"

She jolted, and her grip on Naruto tightened even though he made no move to pursue Neji.

Tenten could feel the entire room looking at them—at Naruto yelling and pointing at towards the medics, all of whom stopped in their tracks to stare at the boy.

And with them, Neji.

"You're going down. You hear me!?"

"…"

What was almost akin to a declaration of war from Naruto was met with nothing but complete and utter contempt from Neji. Even from afar, Tenten could see her teammate looking at the younger boy as if he were nothing but a fly: a small, harmless, disgusting annoyance that wasn't worth the time to squash.

…She was not surprised in the slightest that Neji simply turned around, giving his back to Naruto, and kept walking forward as if nothing had happened.

"Grrr!" Naruto growled as he stomped the ground. "That bastard!"

"Hey! Settle down!"

Tenten pulled his shoulder so Naruto was facing her, placing a hand on his other shoulder to keep him in place.

"Look, I know you're angry. I'm not happy about how he treated her either! But listen: you can't focus on that now! Have you forgotten your dream?"

She intended to use her words as a bucket of cold water, and from the shock in his face, it worked.

"If you wanna be Hokage, you gotta be a chunin first. And if you wanna be a chunin or even if you just want a shot at Neji, you're gonna have to go through me first. And I'll tell upfront: you have zero chance of beating me unless you get your head back in the game."

She released him, confident he wasn't going to run off.

"Plus, Hinata would be pretty upset if you lost to me because her match distracted you, wouldn't she?"

Naruto flinched at that and looked away. "…Ugh, she totally would. Again."

Tenten raised an eyebrow but didn't press further.

"…Yeah. You're right, Tenten."

He raised his head. Even if his blue eyes were tinted with anger, she could see his usual determination shining through.

"Good, seems like you're ready to fight me now. Or at least try to," she said with a wink.

For a moment, she saw his expression shifting as if he had only just realized who he'd be stepping on the ring with. Was it dread she was seeing in his eyes?

It did her ego some good to see she caused that reaction, that even though she was a clanless girl he still saw her as a threat. But it was brief, as his face settled into a friendly-but-competitive grin which she eagerly mirrored.

"I'm going to do more than try!"

"Hah, are you?"

Coyly, Tenten turned around and headed toward one of the darker spots on the floor, which marked their positions.

On the way she glanced back to the exit where Neji and Hinata had left, seeing no hint of them. The only traces that the fight happened were the scorch marks where Sasuke's kunai had exploded quite a distance away from them… unlike the other evidence of the fight that just took place: the bloodstains.

She could see them on the floor around them. Most were small. But the biggest of them was almost a puddle of blood, and it was literally right beside what would be Naruto's starting position.

Tenten watched him as he approached, his eyes drawn to that blood. The memory of Hinata spilling her guts right there while Neji was ready to… to kill her, was all too vivid in her mind.

Naruto stopped at his designated place, but he wasn't looking at her.

"Now then," the proctor cleared his throat. "Are you both ready?"

"I'm ready," she replied as anger began to bubble up inside her. Naruto was not focusing, were her words meaningless?

Tenten opened her mouth to tell him off: that if he didn't want to be chunin, she wanted… only to freeze in confusion when he crouched down.

'What is he… oh my!'

She gasped, her hand covering her gaping mouth.

When Naruto rose, it was with a fist closed and pointed at her.

A fist stained red with Hinata's blood, which was dripping to the floor from his fingers.

"I swear it. I'm going to defeat you, and then I'm taking him down!"

His gaze was so intense she shivered.

"…I'll take that as a yes," the proctor said, unimpressed, which dispelled her shock.

'I can't let my guard down,' Tenten realized, shaking her head. As romantic as Naruto's declaration had been, it also made something clear to her: 'He's going to come at me with everything he has.'

Then, she felt herself smiling as the proctor announced the day's final match.

'Good.'

"Begin!"

Instantly, Naruto's hands formed his favorite seal, followed by small poof-like noises and little smoke clouds.

One of them was not his doing, however, and in one motion Tenten put away an empty summoning scroll and swiped to catch the weapon it released.

Naruto and all four of his clones hesitated when they saw what she chose for their fight.

"One, two, five. With this baby here, I don't think it matters," she taunted, twirling a simple wooden pole bigger than she was, with a curved blade at the top. The spear-like weapon—the naginata—was a perfect choice for that match-up, giving her the range and lethality to dispatch any silly clones that got near before they could punch her.

Meanwhile, the blunt wooden end enabled non-lethal takedowns, since they weren't fighting to the death she wanted to have that option always available, as well as to attack if she ended up unsure of which Naruto was the real one.

Plus, it also would totally give any of the foreigners the wrong idea about her actual specialty in battle, if she could get away with just using that one weapon.

With a chorus of battle cries, the clones advanced on her as one, only to die as one when two precise curved slices destroyed them all.

Tenten couldn't help but notice the smoke clouds they left in their wake seemed bigger and thicker than she remembered from Naruto. They also lingered for a few seconds more than usual—that could spell trouble, she realized.

With a scowl, Naruto summoned more clones, seven of them, and sent them forward. However, the clones were spreading out as if they intended to surround her.

'Oh no you don't.'

Tenten charged. The clones almost immediately tried to close formation on her, with only a few going for attacks, but Tenten predicted that. It was exactly how his clones behaved in one scenario Asuma had them play out on his tactics lessons, where they had to defend a merchant caravan from him.

They had succeeded then, but she hadn't been in the field that day.

Tenten wove out of their range, stabbing and slashing at the chakra constructs. They were smarter this time, spreading out to force longer motions from her, but she was still too fast for any to get close.

All the while Tenten tried to keep an eye out for the original Naruto. She had expected he'd flee and try to wear her down in an endurance match but he surprised her, dashing in a straight line to meet her with an angry yell with a fist winded up.

She smelled a feint. Naruto could be an idiot but usually not in battle, so Tenten just thrust forward, aiming at where his left shoulder would be. A quick, debilitating blow.

That missed.

Naruto dove to the ground, letting the blade sail past his head. Tenten reacted and tried to slam the edge of her weapon into him but a cloud of smoke erupted from the floor. One of the three clones he summoned ended up right beneath the naginata went to grab it, pushing back against her.

The other two tried to capitalize on the opening and rushed her from two sides, but Tenten drew her weapon back so her blade would slice the first clone's skull, killing him and freeing the weapon. Then she swung in a wide arc to kill another clone a while using the momentum to carry into a spinning back kick on the final clone's head.

She regretted it the instant that the first clone's smoke began to clear, revealing Naruto at the end of a sequence of seals for his only other known ninjutsu technique.

"Wind Release: Gust Cannon!"

Now Tenten was the one throwing herself at the floor, knowing she was in no position to jump away from the ball of shredding winds safely.

As she rolled to get back up, she wanted to laugh. Tenten knew she had the advantage in their fight, but if Naruto kept going for the weirdest possible combat options like that, she could see herself losing to something stupid sooner rather than later.

She held her naginata just with her left hand, and her right dove to her weapons pouch.

'Time to up the ante.'

"Ah shit," she heard Naruto curse. He stopped raising himself to summon more clones, who stood in front of the original as if to act as a shield.

Four clones, four shuriken, four hits

'Seriously,' she frowned, 'what's up with this smoke?'

The cloud was so thick she couldn't see Naruto at all.

Not until he chakra jumped high into sky.

Very, very high, away from the central tree.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Frowning, she dropped her naginata, both hands went to her pouches for more shuriken. She was ready to destroy all the clones and make sure the original would regret leaving himself so exposed in the air, but the poof sounds from the clones didn't come from the sky.

"Now!" six clones shouted in unison as they ran toward her while making seals.

In one motion all her shuriken flew and ended the clones before they could do anything. Tenten's gaze immediately went back to the sky. A bunch of shuriken were falling down, courtesy of Naruto, so she crouched and picked up her naginata again to bat away what she couldn't dodge.

Her instincts flared. She turned her head just in time to see one of the clones was still coming at her while making seals… with a single shuriken stuck on his left shoulder which reflected a bit of sunlight.

'That's not a clone!'

"Wind Release: Gust Cannon!"

Tenten hopped backward, using chakra to get enough distance to avoid the Wind shot and the falling shuriken, only to realize the former was nothing to worry about.

The ball dissipated much earlier than she expected it to. It didn't come close to hitting her.

'Huh. What was that?'

Tenten had seen Naruto use that move before, and one glance at the angry grimace he wore told her that hadn't been intentional from his part;

"Dammit, again!?" she caught him cursing, and that's when she pounced, weapon primed to sweep him off his feet.

She swung with the blunt wooden end of the weapon to sweep him off his feet, then twirled the naginata, leaving her blade resting just above his neck.

"Sorry about that, Naruto, but it looks like I win," she smiled with a bit of sadness. They weren't close but she knew how much was at stake for him, especially after the previous match.

Still, she had her own dreams to worry about.

"Ah… it's alright, Tenten." He gave her a shit-eating grin. "Cause I haven't lost yet!"

Her eyes went wide as an explosion of smoke engulfed her. Some… force knocked her naginata skyward and out of her hands, and she was too late in raising her guard to block a bloody fist that crashed down on her face.

She let the blow's momentum carry her so she could tumble away from the smoke while at the same time her arm lashed out in front of her with a swift chop that hit Naruto on the nose right as he tried to chase her.

Her eyes scanned him. His nose was bent and bloodied, and the shuriken she saw earlier near his shoulder was gone.

'So that really was a clone,' she realized. 'He must have transformed himself into that shuriken and stuck it to his clothes. Then he canceled the transformation to disarm me. Clever boy…'

"Argh," Naruto groaned, cradling his nose. Now she didn't know if the blood there was his or Hinata's. "I knew you were strong but, dammit, that wasn't even a punch…"

She smiled, flattered. "There's more from where that came from."

In a second she was on to him, forcing them both into taijutsu. Tenten was pleased to see that Naruto's extra training with her sensei was paying off: his form was much better, based on an actual fighting style rather than uneducated street brawling even though those roots still shone through. He was faster than she remembered too...

But nowhere near good enough to last long against an actual specialist like herself. In less than a minute she got past his guard and had her fist buried into his stomach, doubling him over.

And… Naruto burst.

Together with Tenten's patience.

"Are you kidding me!?"

She rolled forward and spun, hoping to surprise Naruto if he thought she'd be jumping back again.

Only nothing happened.

Naruto was… gone.

Tenten turned around, scanning the floor like a hawk as she tried to listen to sounds… nothing. Not even a hint of Naruto anywhere in the arena floor.

She groaned quietly, her eyes drifting to the massive tree that loomed over them all. "Great… he's probably on the other side by now. This is going to get annoying."

Except, she happened to be directly under Team 10's part of the stands, and interesting conversation caught her attention.

"Odd, isn't it? You'd think we'd see a guy in bright orange running away from up here," she heard Chouji wonder between munches.

"That's because he didn't go that way at all," came Shikamaru's annoyed reply, though with a hint of humor.

"Wait, what?" That was Ino's voice. "No way! There!? B-But is that even allowed!?"

Tenten knew Ino had just tried to sense Naruto's location, if she didn't actually spot him somewhere.

Asuma began to chuckle a bit. "The proctor did say there were no rules."

"Leave it to someone as troublesome as Naruto to push that to the limits."

Shikamaru's words made Tenten freeze. 'He's doing something ridiculous again.'

"Maybe we should go to where forehead is just to be safe…"

'No way.'

Tenten remembered the clone that had chakra jumped away from her. He hadn't jumped toward the tree, but he hadn't landed on the ground either.

"There's no way," she echoed her thoughts aloud.

She looked at the proctor, who seemed to be having a rather unpleasant chat with someone over a radio in his hand.

"Hey! Tenten!"

When Tenten's gaze shifted up toward the stands on her far left, just above the staircase she had ignored earlier, and what she saw confirmed her logic.

A small squadron of Narutos, looking very pleased with themselves and acting as if they were part of the audience. Some were making faces at her, too.

"Looking for someone?" one of them yelled a taunt her.

Her eyes narrowed. "Unfortunately for you, yes," she grumbled and dashed forward. It would fall on her to approach him then.

Naruto wasn't going to make it easy. Tenten saw most of them doing seals and knew a barrage of wind would be coming her way.

Twirling, she angled herself toward the tree instead and pumped chakra into her legs while keeping an eye on her foes.

'If what he let slip earlier is true, he's struggling to control his Wind jutsu for some reason,' she thought as her feet began to take her up the trunk. 'We're too far apart for it to hit me if it's not reaching its max distance, but…'

Since there were some clones not doing seals she kept her guard up, just in case, and when those Narutos let loose a barrage of Gust Cannons she was rewarded for it.

The balls of wind didn't come anywhere near her, but the power behind the move remained and the Narutos that hadn't used the technique instead threw kunai and shuriken at her. The winds were so strong that the steel projectiles got caught in the blast and rocketed forward much, much faster than normal.

'Hah, someone was paying attention to Sasuke's fight!'

But all Tenten had to do was chakra-jump away from the tree, letting everything sail past her harmlessly. It cost her a couple of seconds of climbing but a multitude of poofs coming from the stand told her Naruto lost more than she had, while giving away a critical flaw in his strategy.

'So the clones can't handle more than one shot. Interesting,' she noted as she flew upward the tree, only halting when she had quite a bit of height over Naruto on the stands.

Tenten drew two of a very specific item from the pouch on her back as she heard more clones coming to life.

Pumping chakra into her arms, Tenten let her little surprises fly.

They landed on the ground before the clones completed their Wind technique.

"Oh sh—!"

Two clouds of black smoke engulfed the entire area of the stands which the Narutos were at, which quickly turned into one single massive smokescreen.

"Gotcha," she smirked.

Her smoke bombs were custom-made by her primary weapon supplier—her father and his weapon shop. The gas wasn't poisonous or anything, but it wasn't healthy to breathe in either and was bound to force her targets to flee so they could get pure air once more.

Naruto was no different, but with the stands being so narrow there wasn't much room to flee and she soon saw white-ish smoke added to the mix and more than a few curses and coughs.

"Guess they are killing each other by accident while trying to escape," she wondered as her hands went into one of her pouches. "Well, let me help you along… sorry in advance, Naruto!"

She leaped from the tree, this time with a red scroll in hand. Unfurling it in midair, she twisted it around and sent a wave of chakra along a seal drawn across the scroll.

A second later, and the forecast for Naruto became a storm of small throwing weapons: shuriken, kunai, daggers, knives, senbon, chakram, sickles, axes. You name it, Tenten had it.

She usually didn't take pleasure in hurting people but there was a certain satisfaction in hearing a chorus of Narutos crying out in pain and the poofs that followed, mixing their smoke with her own's.

But the weapon enthusiast couldn't rest on her laurels just yet. What if any of the Narutos escaped?

Before she even landed another scroll was on her hand, from which she took a bow and a small handful of arrows with tags. The moment she landed on the ground Tenten drove all but one of her arrows through the stone floor, and nocked the final one as she took aim.

Her target? The staircase that connected the stand to the arena below—even though she now knew everything was the arena.

The moment she saw orange her arrow pierced the air, hitting a Naruto on the leg—

"Boom."

—and exploded.

The tags were another custom-made item from her father's weapon shop, which she had recently incorporated into her arsenal after her Fire affinity got strong enough to trigger the explosive. While nobody would want to challenge the concussive force they delivered, the tags were by no means lethal.

…Unless you were a clone, as the few Narutos that tried to jump over the railings soon discovered. She shot arrows like lightning, taking the clones out before they could even touch the arena's, each arrow taking multiple clones with the explosions.

Eventually only one arrow remained, and there was no orange to be seen.

'Oh, dang it, I got carried away. I forgot something is wrong with these clones too,' she cursed herself as she nursed her final arrow.

In her eagerness to shoot each and every clone in sight, she inadvertently caused another smokescreen to rise from the destroyed clones.

"Come out, Naruto. I have a ramen bowl just for you," she taunted in a singing tune as her eyes darted all over the arena. Could it be she had knocked out the original already? Or maybe more clones were lying in wait… would she have to climb the tree again?

A voice cut down her thoughts.

A female's voice.

"Geez, you don't need to be mean about it. You know how long it's been since I last had ramen?"

The arrow slipped from Tenten's hand, crashing to the floor at the same time her jaw did.

Without a care in the world, Naruto walked out of the smoke cloud.

Yet it also wasn't Naruto. The blond hair, the whisker marks, the clothes were all there. But the body…

"Then again you're not holding back at all, guess I shouldn't be surprised," she giggled.

It was a girl that stood before her. Blonde spikes became long pigtails that matched her stature. What before were loose pants were now clinging to thick thighs like a second skin. The shirt and his torn jacket rode up to expose feminine curves and a flat midriff. The zipper on the damaged jacket was in a losing struggle contain the sheer volume of what was underneath, threatening to burst at the slightest provocation.

Tenten felt part of her soul die, and if the long groan she heard from Sakura somewhere on the second floor was any indication, she wasn't the only one.

"Naruto, what the hell are you even trying to do…?"

The blonde tilted her head to one side, her pigtails bouncing with the motion. "Huh? What's wrong?"

Tenten motioned wildly in his—her?—direction. "You, of course! Why did you transform into a girl? This is pointless, I know it's you!"

She had heard legends from the other rookies about Naruto's oldest jutsu, the Sexy Jutsu. But from what they told her Naruto always went for a naked woman and obscured the naughty bits with some sort of smoke, perhaps because he never got to see what was actually supposed to be there. It was a cheap seduction technique and Tenten wouldn't be surprised to see him resorting to that if not for the fact that she was also a girl.

A wild thought entered her head. 'No way. Don't tell me he thinks I like—!'

"What do you mean transformed?" he—she?—huffed in indignation, hands on her—his?—hips. "I've always been like this! You just ruined my disguise with that storm of sharp stuff. Like seriously, I almost died! And do you know how much work it takes to keep that up every day? A lot!"

"That's the biggest lie I've ever heard!"

The accusation had no effect. The… person, they just stretched lazily in response, making her clothes ride up even further. "Ah, but I guess there's no hiding it anymore. All that work to keep these hidden, a waste. At least I can breathe normally now though!"

"Who even told—"

"Not," the smuggest smirk spread across her lips as she cheerfully cut Tenten off, "that you'd know anything about that kind of problem, hm?"

…The bow Tenten was holding during that entire exchange?

She snapped it in two.

"You're so dead."

Tenten dashed low to the ground, in one single motion dropped the bow's broken halves, picked up the fallen explosive arrow, and tossed it like a kunai at her foe's feet.

"Aiiie!"

The female Naruto curled up on herself rather than trying to dodge which miraculously let her avoid the arrow, as Tenten had accounted for her to jump back. The blast still caught her, the rising smoke of the explosion mixed with the telltale white smoke from a transformation or clone engulfing her opponent.

But before her brain had a chance to latch on to that last detail, the explosion sent something orange flying high into the sky, its shadow briefly engulfing Tenten as the wind carried it away.

"Nooo! That was my favorite jacket!"

Tenten growled at hearing the feminine voice whining again, but her eyes went wide when the still-transformed Naruto dashed out of the smoke to meet her, with a black shirt on full display.

Her eyes were instantly drawn by the shuriken on Naruto's hands, which she sent flying. Because Tenten was paying attention she recognized her foe was aiming low, to force a jump, and Tenten was more than happy to oblige leaping forward.

The projectiles flew below her as she transitioned to a flying kick, yet her leg crashed against two crossed arms, which blocked the blow then pushed them both back.

Nonetheless, the match was over already as far as Tenten was concerned. Naruto had barely managed to react in time to block, and now they were in brawling range. Tenten knew that if this girl had been a clone she wouldn't have tried to protect herself, as her life would be expendable.

It was just a matter of applying overpowering taijutsu to close it out.

She was just about to pounce when a voice rang out from somewhere behind her: "Catch!"

Tenten pivoted only to see a normal-looking Naruto spinning as he threw the naginata she had dropped earlier in the match.

The polearm whirled in her direction like a fuuma shuriken ready to behead her, forcing Tenten to jump away. In that instant she opted to prioritize a future offense, and tried to leap over the female Naruto.

Tenten spun in midair as she readied shuriken to rain down on her unsuspecting opponent only for her eyes to go wild as the girl twirled to face her, naginata in hand.

Naruto swung it like a club, making Tenten pay the price for being in midair and unable to change her momentum when she landed and almost sunk to her knees.

"Shit…!"

The extra height and longer limbs from the transformation were just enough to make a difference. The naginata's blade caught her right calf, mercifully missing the tendon but still going deep enough to cause major pain and a major problem.

She no longer had the advantage.

"Alright!" the female Naruto cheered, hands forming a singular seal. "Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu"

"Oh no you don't!" Tenten grit her teeth as she drew and tossed a bundle of shuriken. This jutsu was dangerous but had a critical weakness in how Naruto had to stay still for a few seconds before his army of clones fully spawned.

"Wind Release: Gust Cannon"

The male Naruto destroyed himself to spit a ball of wind, the gusts managing to reach just far enough that they got in front of the female Naruto and knocked Tenten's shuriken away, ensuring his sacrifice hadn't been in vain.

At the first poof-like noise, Tenten pumped as much chakra as she could on her legs and powered through the pain to rocket upwards, taking her far away from her opponent.

She landed painfully on the railings of the second floor's stands, exactly where Naruto had fled to earlier. It still was littered with her weapons.

After one glance to ensure there were no clones around, Tenten hopped off the railing, winced, picked up the unfurled red scroll, and sent chakra down a specific seal. In a flash, the weapons were sealed back into the scroll, pulled by the nigh-invisible strings attached to every single one of them.

When she turned back, doing her best to ignore the violent burning down her right leg, there were so many Narutos down below that she couldn't possibly count them.

"Forward!" the female one commanded, pointing at Tenten, and the boys all followed with a chorus of battle cries.

But Tenten wasn't cowered by them. She threw the open scroll in the air, but right before her chakra could release all her weapons at the orange army, she heard the female Naruto bark another order as she began to back off:

"Blast that with winds! Quickly!"

The clones all responded with some variation of "Yes, boss!" as they stopped and went through the seals for the Gust Cannon.

Tenten frowned.

Steel poured down onto the Narutos, but a literal wall of wind came forth to protect them from a pointy, unpleasant death. The many balls of wind mixed and repelled all of Tenten's weapons, sending them all to clang uselessly on the floor close to Tenten's position. That would all but ensure the army's survival if not for the clones all dying anyway from the strain of the jutsu they cast.

Smoke engulfed the arena. Tenten wasn't bothered though, as the real Naruto—who was still transformed for some goddamn reason—stood outside of the smoke.

Even from a distance she saw that the female Naruto once more formed the cross hand seal to summon a single clone then remained in that position, signaling that another Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu was underway.

And Tenten was forced to let it happen. She was too far to close the distance safely, she couldn't summon a spare bow and take a shot quickly enough, and any kunai or shuriken she could toss would be shot down by the clone.

Heaving a regretful sigh, Tenten was forced to face reality as her hands went for her pouch, this time drawing a pair of black scrolls. 'I really, really wanted to save this for later,' she mourned as she placed the scrolls on both sides, then executed a sequence of seals.

'But congratulation Naruto. You're making me use this on you first. Hope you survive!'

She channeled chakra down her legs and spun as jumped high toward the giant tree.

"Twin Rising Flame Dragons!"

The scrolls burst in a dragon-shaped cloud of red-tinted smoke that spiraled after her in the sky, following Tenten until she landed on the tree with a cry of pain.

But as she gazed down at the growing orange army below, she knew it would be worth it.

An entire armory of weapons began to pop from the scroll. However, now they were only her heavier, bigger tools such as maces, spears and axes… and they were all on fire, thanks to the excellent quality metals her father used that could handle infusion with Tenten's Fire-attuned chakra.

With a higher number of weapons, with more weight, and doused in the chakra element that countered Naruto's, Tenten was betting all her chips on this move being able to beat his barrage of Wind blasts.

She'd feel a bit insecure about this on a normal day, but then, it wasn't a normal day for Naruto and his chakra control.

Even the clones seemed to know that as they saw the cloud of blazing steel that was about to bring their demise, and it all started with Tenten's battle cry.

"Boss, get away from here!" one of the clones screamed at the female Naruto before joining the others in preparing more Gust Cannons. The leader took but a single step back before realizing that this time there would be no escape.

Tenten had the high ground—nowhere was safe.

Perhaps in a panic, the female Naruto threw herself to the floor amidst all the clones, and Tenten lost sight of her entirely as metal and Fire clashed against Wind.

Once again—and for the final time—there was smoke all over the place.

Tenten panted from the exertion of tossing so many things, but she wasn't worried. She was no Hyuuga, but she had a birds-eye view of most of the arena from her position. There wasn't anywhere for Naruto to hide from her.

So she waited until the fog-like cloud lifted, revealing that the floor was completely trashed by Tenten's onslaught. The Fire she had used didn't survive against Naruto's wind, and talking about didn't survive…

Her eyes locked onto Naruto's prone form.

He was lying on his back, and his untamed blond spikes were drenched in red, blood dripping to form a small puddle and Tenten felt her heart stop.

Had she gone too far? Surely the proctors would have…

No. Her mind flashed back to the past two fights, the state Hinata and Lee had been in.

Feeling all the color draining from her face, Tenten cut the chakra from her feet and landed. A spike of pain shot up in her leg, making her cry out in pain as she tried to ignore it and ran toward Naruto.

Once she got close enough, she saw the culprit and sagged in relief. It was an axe, but only its head was bloodied, not the sharp blade. Naruto most likely wasn't dead.

Probably.

"Whew…", she wiped the sweat from her forehead as she turned to face the proctor who was walking towards them to examine Naruto. "I made it…!"

It was over.

All that was left was to put away all her tools, it was the part she always had hated. First, she was going to retrieve her bigger weapons so that the medics would have a clear path to Naruto, then the smaller ones on the other side of the arena where they had fallen after being buffeted by the first barrage of winds and…

Those thoughts gave her pause as she looked around.

"Huh?"

Her final attack exclusively used her most dangerous and denser tools, built specifically to endure elemental chakra.

So… why there were kunai and shuriken mixed in with those weapons?

Tenten gasped as a hand seized her ankle and her world became engulfed in white smoke.

"Get her!"

Arms shot out from every direction and Tenten screamed as they violently pulled her down to the ground.

'No, no!'

She looked up just in time to see a Naruto jumping toward her. Then another, and another, and another, and all she could see was the color orange until even that began to darken as the weight upon her body increased and the light couldn't really reach her anymore.

Tenten could picture her situation perfectly, buried under a mountain of orange clones,

"No… I can't move…!" she growled out as she tried to move every limb, any limb, but even with chakra she couldn't lift herself up, not even her head, and tears of frustration welled up on her eyes.

Some of the clones began to laugh, on top of the unpleasant smell filling her nose.

'Ugh, did he get vomited or something?'

"Well, well. I guess that's it, right Tenten?"

She felt a vein popping on her forehead at the high-pitched voice. "Drop that stupid transformation already!"

"Give up first then!"

"Arrrgggh! Fine!" she yelled, "I give up!"

She heard a single poof before the proctor declared Naruto Uzumaki as the winner, followed by a deafening chorus of cheers coming from the clones all around her.

Naruto made them all pop after but a few seconds, mercifully, but that left her drowning in a cloud of white smoke

"Let me clear that up for you real quick, stay down" Naruto warned—and no longer with a woman's voice.

Tenten then felt a rush of untransformed Wind pass her by, cooling her skin and clearing up the world for her once more.

She tried to get up, her wounded leg making it anything but an easy task. Noticing her plight, Naruto offered her a hand and Tenten almost took it until she noticed it was still caked with blood.

"Oops," he retracted his offer then used his other hand, which only had a bit of blood on it. Tenten accepted and rose, her stance was shaky thanks to the gash on her, which left her former opponent frowning.

"You all right?"

"I'll be…" she sighed, then looked at him in the eyes. "Let me be the first to say, congrats for making it to the finals!"

Tenten gave him a smile, even knowing it would be tainted by her sadness at the results. Naruto though? His smile was almost blinding.

"Thanks! You sure didn't make it easy on me!"

Tenten laughed a bit. "Well I tried my best, but you just outfoxed me at every turn…"

Naruto actually seemed a bit unhappy at the remark. "Not like I could do anything else! Really, I couldn't even get close for more than like, two seconds. You're just too good at close range! And the other ranges too," he said with a bit of a frown.

Tenten laughed once more, but with more spirit into it. "But clearly there's more to fighting than just combat prowess, and you reminded me of that." She shook her head at herself. "My way of thinking was too straightforward. At times I knew you're doing something but took too long to catch up to your shenanigans until you finally nailed me."

She then fixed him a hard look. "Could've done without the insults though."

A fight was a fight. Naruto had no reason to be ashamed of his tactics and Tenten knew she had no right to be angry at his choice, but she was still pleased when he scratched his head and looked away in embarrassment anyway.

"Sorry about that. I didn't mean anything I said, really. I was just repeating some stuff I overhead two kunoichi talking in the hot springs back when I was trying to perfect my Sexy Jutsu!"

"Huh?"

"They were talking about some mission, but then one of them said stuff like that and the other girl almost drowned her. She was so mad, it was really scary. Nasty stuff. I didn't really get what she meant but when I asked Iruka-sensei sometime after he, well, he scolded me," Naruto said with an indignant huff, "then he said to never say something like that to any girl unless I wanted to get her really mad."

"Oh..." Tenten's shoulders fell as she heaved another sigh. She supposed it wasn't too hard to guess that a tomboy like herself might feel insecure about her femininity at times—not as much anymore now that she no longer had to deal with most of her old classmates—but that had been a fluke. Naruto didn't even understand what that woman's insult was going for before parroting her in battle.

And she fell for it anyway, giving him the opening he needed to turn the fight around in his favor.

"Wait a sec," she frowned, "did you said you went to the hot—"

"Excuse me."

A female medic-nin interrupted them.

"I believe you both have at least one wound that needs healing, correct?"

Before the medic-nin was done with Tenten's leg and Naruto's nose, the proctor came up to them.

"The winners of the previous matches, please report to the back of the arena," he pointed at a place behind the big tree, close to where the Hokage and his man stood in the audience. Afterwards, he faced Tenten. "You're the only other member of your team available right now, please stay here. You'll be representing Neji Hyuuga for the closing segment of the preliminaries."

Tenten nodded, downtrodden now that she no longer had a fight to keep her mind from Neji and especially Lee's conditions. "Understood."

"Wait, there'll be more fights?" Naruto barged in as the medic took her leave.

The proctor seemed amused. "No, no more battles or trials for today at least. Don't worry, you'll see," he said before walking away.

With little else to do before they waited, Tenten faced Naruto again. "Look, if you don't wanna tell me it's fine, but I was wondering… how did you avoid all my weapons like that? And how did you get behind me to throw my naginata?"

"Oh, the naginata? I had a clone transform into a small rock after you gave me some cover with that explosion's smoke, then I ripped out my jacket to hide that I was actually throwing something out there."

Tenten felt her shoulders sag. "You mean to tell me it wasn't my explosion to took your jacket off."

"Came pretty close actually, but no," Naruto shrugged. "That was some bad luck for you though, if my chakra control wasn't messed up I wouldn't have kept the clothes like that to make it easier on me."

That got Tenten's attention. "Yeah, I did notice something was up with your clones and your Wind jutsu! What was up with that?"

"Ugh… that's a long story," he rubbed his forehead. "My Transformation was also messed up. I can become small objects just fine, but anything bigger and it gets all warped. That's why I kept my clothes when I used the Sexy Jutsu you know!"

'That explains from where the nonsense about being a girl all along came from,'

"If it wasn't for Hinata staying with me after lunch to help me figure my stuff out, not sure I would have won. Not even the Substitution was working right at first! If I knew it was that bad I wouldn't have said no the first time she offered…"

Tenten's eyebrows shot up yet Naruto kept going before she could press him about that.

"Oh, and about why I'm not full of holes right now? Well, I got the idea after I saw your weapons didn't pierce through my clones. So I had a bunch of them jump on me like some sort of shield, kinda like what I did to you there at the end. I also transformed into a shuriken again, so I'd be harder to hit!"

Tenten felt the last pieces of the puzzling falling into place. 'So that's why he dived into the clones back there…'

She nodded to herself. Now, knowing how she lost, she also knew where to improve on.

Their conversation came to an end. Tenten's gaze fell on one of the two staircases at the edge of the arena, where Gaara and Kankuro had emerged from with Dosu staying a few meters behind them.

Naruto's attention, however, went to the people coming down off the stairs at the other side. "Hey!" he waved, "You guys, over here!"

Tenten turned her back on the foreigners to meet the other rookies approaching them… and Kakashi, who was there too for some reason.

"No need to scream, Naruto," Shikamaru drawled. "We can hear you just fine."

"Oh let him, Shikamaru," Choji laughed. "He just won, cut him some slack."

"Fine, fine… congrats by the way."

Sakura sped up then, drawing close to Naruto and herself in no time, putting a grin on the boy's face.

"Sakura-chan, you saw that!? I won!"

"I saw it, and almost had a heart attack," she said with a hand on her chest, looking at Tenten. "When I saw you making a literal rain of weapons I thought for sure Naruto was done for. And that happened three times!"

"And it got beat three times," Tenten shot back, placing a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "Have a little faith in him, alright? He deserves some credit."

Naruto smirked smugly at that, earning an eye roll from Sakura.

She did smile at him after it, though. "Good job, Naruto."

"Hehehe, thanks Sakura-chan!"

"Now now," Kakashi walked up to them, "don't encourage him too much. He was still on the back foot almost the entire match."

"Ugh, I know!" Naruto pouted. "Don't need to remind me of that!"

Tenten backed off as Kakashi got closer, and was rewarded from it when the jonin began to ruffle his student's wild blond spikes, making Naruto trash around in a futile attempt to escape

"Oh but I do. Still, it was an excellent fight. I'm proud of you, Naruto."

"Argh! Stop that!" Naruto yelled as Kakashi released him, the moment completely ruined before it could begin. "Why are you even here, Kakashi-sensei!?"

"Same reason as Tenten is still here, except for Sasuke."

"Oh."

"Now let's go to the other side of the arena, the Hokage should be down there by now."

The walk was quick and short, with the only noises coming from Naruto after Shino congratulated him as well.

The next moments were a bit of a blur for Tenten. The Hokage and the proctor took some minutes to congratulate everyone, which only made her feel worse about her loss as she clearly didn't belong there, so she found herself not focusing at all until they began to explain the final details of the third exam

A knockout tournament, where winning didn't necessarily mean winning and where losing could end up being winning. It was just as subversive as she had expected.

Then, finally, the part she was there for: to draw a small numbered ball from a box and decide Neji's opponent for him. Each number corresponded to a position in the bracket, which was shown on a drawing board.

For the first round of the tournament: number 1 would fight 2 and 3 would fight 4 on the left side of the bracket, whereas 7 fought 8 and 9 fought 10 on the right side.

In the second round, 5 and 6 would get their first fight against the winner of 3 vs 4 and 7 vs 8 respectively. Those who emerged victorious would, in turn, fight the winner of 1 vs 2 and 9 vs 10 in the semi-finals, which would decide the competitors for the final match of the exams.

It wasn't exactly fairly designed, with some people fighting more than others and with more or less rest time between rounds, but as the Hokage explained, these circumstances would all be useful for letting the judges decide if they should promote someone or not. Losing a fight would not necessarily cost a promotion after all.

'Well,' she thought when she it finally became her turn, 'time to see what fate has in store for you Neji, huh?'

She drew a ball with a 2 on it, and stared dumbly at the number.

"Oh no."

She knew who would be Neji's first opponent.

"Number?"

Tenten faced the proctor, showing it to him, then walked back to where everyone else stood, eyes fixed on a certain someone.

Naruto stared confusedly at her as she stopped besides him. "Why're you looking at me like that?"

"No way," Sakura gasped, before pulling the boy's shoulder and pointing at the board. "Naruto, look!"

The proctor had just finished to write Neji Hyuuga's name, directly to the left of contestant #1's name: Naruto Uzumaki.

The range of emotions she saw in Naruto's face worried Tenten. Excitement, disgust, fear, and so much anger.

'Oh, this is not gonna be a pretty match, one way or the other,' she thought with a wince.

Tenten turned back and tried to focus on the upcoming matches, before anything else, and she was wide-eyed at what she saw on the drawing board.

The right bracket was loaded. The second match of the day would be Sasuke against Shino, with the winner having to face Gaara. On the other side of the bracket, perhaps most fitting of all, was Shikamaru getting the free first round like Gaara. He'd have to fight the winner of Sakura vs Kankuro afterward, leaving Chouji to face off against Dosu at the end of the first round.

The proctor then gave the final instructions: everyone would have a full month to train, and they would reconvene at the Konoha Stadium to fight with everyone's eyes on them.

Tenten, once more, sighed. It could've been everyone's eyes on her skills and her father's weaponry, it could be the boon their business needed to flourish, but it was not to be.

Then with a little hesitation, she faced Naruto. Sakura was also gazing at him with unabashed worry, whereas he had his blue eyes set on his own hands, still painted red by Hinata's mostly-dry blood.

"Hey, Naruto."

She got his attention.

"You did a pretty good job with all those tricks you pulled to avoid getting into a pure taijutsu duel against me. But you know Neji's never not going to let you get away with any of that, right?"

"…I know. But that doesn't matter!"

His blue eyes blazed as he thrust his fist in her direction, just as he had before their fight started.

"I made a promise and there's no way I'm gonna break it."

Tenten felt herself blush at his intensity. Did he even realize how utterly romantic his actions were!? She just knew Hinata would outright faint if she heard or saw what Naruto had done, and she wouldn't blame the girl. Tenten couldn't even imagine how much she'd be freaking out in Hinata's place if something like that happened to her.

If the little Hyuuga wasn't already so openly smitten with the oblivious Uzumaki, Tenten was sure that would do the trick, on the spot.

"That's all well and good," Kakashi butted in, placing a hand on Naruto and Sakura's shoulders, "but I think we need to have a talk about how this month is going to go down."

And as the genin split up to return to their quarters and prepared to leave the tower, Tenten was left with an unshakable curiosity as she stayed behind to gather all her weaponry.

Naruto was, to be frank, utterly and completely outclassed by Neji in every way she could think of, besides his cleverness, but that could only go so far against a Byakugan user as smart as Neji.

She had no reason to consider he could win, even after he beat her.

Yet something in Naruto's shining blue eyes when he made and later reaffirmed his promise… Tenten had the feeling she couldn't count him out just yet.

'Not that Neji would believe me.'

Kakashi had led Sakura and Naruto back to the room they were sharing with Sasuke. There was a brief diversion once Naruto saw Sakura's clothes hanging even though she seemed to be wearing them already, forcing an explanation out of the girl.

Except midway through, before she mentioned her hospital gown, he cut her off saying: "Oh, so you're walking around just in your underwear. I always wanted to do that!"

'I swear, this boy will be the death of me,' Sakura grumbled to herself after Kakashi quickly intervened before she could whack him with anything more deadly than a pillow.

The two genin sat down on their beds while Kakashi leaned against the wall, facing them both.

"Let me say this again: congratulations to both of you, again. You met and exceeded my expectations, and they were quite high to being with."

Sakura and Naruto shared a smile and high-fived each other at that.

"But now there's the matter of your training. And… I suppose in this case it's a good thing I can get to talk with just you two."

"Huh?"

"Why is that, Kakashi-sensei? Did something happen to Sasuke?"

"Oh, nothing. He's still asleep like a log for now. The problem is what will happen to him during the next exam."

"You mean Shino?"

Sakura frowned at Naruto. "No. He means Gaara."

"Yes, Gaara. Listen. While I'm exploding with happiness from seeing my full team pass with decisive victories, I'm only one teacher, and you are three. I can't train all of you if you're potentially going to fight each other."

His expression grew serious.

"In a normal exam, I'd get a different instructor for all three of you and relax with my books for a full month, but this isn't a normal exam and Sasuke isn't against a normal opponent. I just wanted to make this clear to you two: I'm not ignoring you, I'm not playing favorites. That boy will be fighting to kill and he might just do that if Sasuke isn't ready for him. I have no doubt Shino will pose some resistance, but Sasuke should be able to overcome him."

Kakashi paused, letting his words sink. Sakura didn't need that pause, she understood Kakashi's position perfectly and would have done the same in his place.

"…But what about us?"

"Well. I talked with Kurenai—don't look at me like that, Sakura."

She gave him no reply.

"I talked with her. Shino is the only one from her team that passed and you both are unlikely to meet in the exams. So I asked if she could train you, and she said yes, as long as you are okay with it. And I hope you'll make the right choice."

Sakura looked away. Her distaste for the Genjutsu Mistress was something she had made no effort to hide for a long time already, but… it was a golden opportunity. They even had the same primary chakra nature. Objectively, there likely wasn't a better teacher for her to spend a whole month of training with.

"Alright."

It didn't mean she would have to like it though.

"Good. And you, Naruto… well…"

"I don't like the sound of that! Spill it Kakashi-sensei, who're you pawning me off to!?"

Kakashi sighed.

"Unlike with Sakura, I'm not giving you a choice here. The seal Orochimaru put on you has to go, even if you did great at dealing with its presence, and to that we need a sealmaster."

"Oh the old man told me that already."

"I know. And that same sealmaster will be your teacher for this month."

"…Wait, what?"

Sakura's mouth fell. Of all ninja arts, fuuinjutsu was by far the least suited thing she could think of for Naruto. Even genjutsu felt more fitting, if he had the talent for it with his trickster mindset he'd be terrifying, but fuuinjutsu?

She had looked up seal theory once after Tenten told her about it, and Sakura had been positively lost. It was far too convoluted to just get the seals ready never mind applying them in combat!

Yet, glancing at Naruto, Sakura saw a somber expression crossing his face and it made her mind come to a halt.

"…What's wrong, Naruto?"

He instantly beamed at her in turn. "Nothing Sakura-chan!"

"...Okay."

Kakashi cleared his throat. "He's quite the character, but I think once you realize who he is you'll agree with me that you got a good deal out of it. I'm sorry I can't give you more one-on-one instruction, Naruto."

He waved Kakashi off. "No… it's okay."

Kakashi seemed to ignore the poorly-concealed disappointment in his student's face, and faced her instead.

"Sakura, I'll let Kurenai know you agreed to it. Head to Team 8's usual training ground tomorrow at 7, ok?"

"Yes, sensei."

"As for you Naruto... the sealmaster hasn't arrived in Konoha just yet, but I think by tomorrow morning an ANBU should be knocking on your window to take you to Hokage-sama so you can meet him. So if you get woken up by an ANBU, don't worry about your prankster days catching up to you."

Sakura scratched her chin. 'So Hokage-sama is involved…'

"Very funny, Kakashi-sensei," Naruto huffed. "I'll be waiting then."

"Good," Kakashi straightened up. "Now up pack your things and meet up with the other rookies in the cafeteria. Asuma should take you guys back to the village."

"Wait!" Sakura sat up, "What about Sasuke, Hinata, and Lee? And even Kiba! Can we see them?"

Naruto perked up at that too, only for Kakashi to shake his head.

"Unfortunately not. I'll be keeping watch over Sasuke for today while I get some extra help to deal with Orochimaru's little present on his end, but otherwise he's just asleep right now. Don't worry about him. Kiba should be released pretty soon, but Hinata is in observation right now. She's not exactly fine but she needs to rest for a few more hours after the healing session she went through. And Lee…"

Kakashi's tone shifted then, and Sakura's hand went up over her heart. If Kakashi was hesitating…

"Guy didn't have the full picture for me when I went up to him earlier. I really can't confirm anything about his situation just yet. But in short, I'm sorry, but you'll have to meet them up another day."

She sighed. 'Figures…'

"Extra help, huh… wait a second."

Sakura turned to Naruto.

"Why is the guy that is gonna help me not going to help Sasuke? Is his seal that much more fancy?"

…She wondered when she'd stop feeling surprised about how Naruto could be so perceptive in one moment but so ridiculously oblivious in others.

"That might happen a few days from now," Kakashi said in an airy, evasive way that made Sakura's stomach turn. "I'll be contacting you two again so we can eat some food together as a team later this week. I've heard some good propaganda about a certain ramen stand lately…"

Naruto jumped up "Yes! Ichiraku time!"

Sakura shook her head, yet an amused smiled bloomed on her face just the same.

"But let's no waste any more time. Don't leave the Asuma and the other kids waiting. Being late is quite rude."

Sakura and Naruto didn't think twice before throwing their pillows at him.

A/N

This arc is finally over. Holy crap.

Thank you to everyone that made it this far with me! I know the wait was long, but I hope it was worth it, and worth trust me like I asked for.

I know some people might be mad at me going for Hinata vs Neji and having her lose so Naruto could face him instead, but I felt this was the absolute best path for the character arcs of all three parties as well as the relationships they have with each other, and this is just the start of my thesis on that.

I had been planning this fight since the fic's release, but actually putting everything I wanted together in a coherent sequence was a huge undertaking. Not that Naruto and Tenten's fight wasn't challenging either, Naruto can very easily end up checkmated against as I came to find out while piecing together the fight. She was glossed over in canon but, ask any fighting game fan and they'll tell you how dangerous projectile-heavy characters are in most games.

But now it's over, and we can move on the the next arc: the Chunin Exam Finals! I think it deserves to be its own separate arc, don't you?

Anyway, my plan for the story between the two phases of the exam is to have about 3 shorter chapters. We have a lot of things going on between multiple characters, including the likes of Danzo and Orochimaru, but first on the list is Kurenai making Hinata deal with the aftermath of her fight. Look forward to that!

Before moving on to the guest reviews of the past chapters, I humbly beg for reviews of this piece right here. I work very hard on all my chapters but this one right here, if there's one chapter I can say I poured my heart and soul on, it was this. A two-fight chapter of all things. (Chapter 20 with the big Hinata/Hiashi moment is a strong contender but then again Hinata was the one piloting the car for me so it doesn't count)

So PLEASE, I'm dying to find out what you guys thought of it. Even a simple comment on which fight or moment you enjoyed more (if any) I don't mind it being short, but please drop a review. We already smashed the 1000 threshold for favorites and followers, now we only need to get there with reviews to restore the balance to the Force.

I'm counting on you.

Guest Review Answers

Guest (Oct 9th) - Thank you!

Guest (Oct 13th) - Hehe, i feel oddly proud of that one.

Guest (Nov 5th) - I don't get what you mean by hanging True Potential, especially when you follow it by "don't hang this story". I'm not DryBonesKing... and it seems your definition of "developing characters" is "give them X or Y ability", considering you said i'm not developing people well but argue for wood release and other stuff. I don't think our viewpoints align at all, unfortunately.

Guest (Nov 7th) - Sorry... this is literally 3 months too late, but here I am! Ugh.

Guest (Nov 15th) - Thanks! I literally try to make sure there's at least one such light-hearted cute or funny moment for you guys to remember my chapters by, haha.

Guest (Jan 9th) - I am alright, actually, see the A/N at the start for reference. Also... two months? I think my average has become 3 months for a good while already.

Guest reader (February in general) - I'm glad you liked the story enough to comment multiple times! I'm... not sure I get your first review, but i liked seeing your excitement over later chapters haha. (also yes, ffnet sucks when the reviews become bugged)

Guest (Feb 1st) - It's a pity that, as a guest, I can't click your profile to see what this 10/10 rating you got me is stacked up against, but thanks a lot for the praise!