(AN: This chapter is dedicated to the first reviewer I ever got - DatWriter who has always lent support through reviews and amused me with observations. There ya go, man, I said I'd do it and I have. Bet'cha thought I'd forget, huh?

Kage of the Graves:
Reflecting upon Recriminations.

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There had been many instances throughout Hyuga Neji's life where a certain blonde had surprised him. He had witnessed countless acts of complete reckless abandonment in regards to the life of a friend or even a loose comrade. Naruto, the Hyuga prodigy had long ago decided, was completely insane - however functional he appeared.

It had started many years ago at the Chuunin exams, when Naruto had accomplished a task that should have been an impossibility for the blonde - he had defeated Neji, who, he would shamelessly admit to himself, was an extremely skilled opponent. Although Naruto had climbed the ranks rather quickly, Neji had still outranked him virtually from the start. He had - much as it had galled the urchin-headed one at the time - made ANBU a full year and a half before Naruto, who had coveted the position above all but one other. Neji had been the third youngest member to achieve his position within a decade, having done so less than a month before Naruto's return, making him just under sixteen. However, after his promotion, Neji had seemingly gone stagnant. The truth was, he hadn't known what to do. Naruto, as usual, had been the one to solve things.

He had one day proposed a challenge to Neji, a final test of fate as it were. Each would take one year away from their ANBU careers, and one year only - for neither could conceive of their task taking any longer than that - to see who could turn out the best squad of Genin. The terms were set before the Hokage and accepted. Each would pick their three students - an even mix of academics, instincts, and excellence - and would have the time before the Chuunin exam to train, condition, and mold as they saw fit. At the Chuunin exams, if neither of them had a single passing member, the one whose students made it farthest or had the highest points by the end of the exams, won. The one stipulation entered into the equation by Tsunade-sama had been that the loser of the challenge had to take on however many students remained as Genin.

Ironically, Though Neji had been the winner - with all of his students passing - he had chosen to remain the teacher. Naruto had inadvertently shown him the light as it were, and he had thoroughly enjoyed taking on team after team as the years progressed. He now held the record, having had three teams passed completely in three years running, for consecutive Chuunin advancements. For that, he would be eternally grateful to the blonde urchin, and he would never forget the kindness. Right now however, despite all the wondrous things the blonde had done for him and his family - along with the rest of Konoha Neji supposed - he would give away the Hyuga fortune to quit thinking about the stupid loudmouthed blonde.

For all the good he had done, Naruto had now committed several horrible sins. Hinata was nearing a breakdown, Ten-Ten had suffered a complete collapse in her sex drive, and Hiashi had become even further withdrawn. It would seem odd to an outsider, to consider the old man adversely affected by Naruto's suicide, but the truth was in the insult it had delivered. Not half a year before, Hiashi had made an unofficial adopted member out of the boy, and Naruto had seemingly thrown it away.

All these thoughts however, were depressing him, so with a sigh, he stood up and left the dojo behind, deciding that meditation was a loss for the moment, he decided to meet his newest team and drill the fuck out of them until they were all to exhausted to think.

Just like Naruto used to do.

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-"Well, it's nice to see some things don't change. Neji still deals with emotions by making his students miserable."-

-"Just like you used to do, eh, Naruto?"-

-"Shut up, teme."-

The two specters were continuing to drift around near all the people Naruto was close to in life, Naruto wasn't sure why he was subjected to this all, but Sasuke mentioned something about it anchoring him - whatever that meant.

-"Y'know, dobe, out of all the ways I thought, wished and hoped for your death over the past year and a half - I never expected it to be suicide."-

-"Eh?"-

-"I'm serious. It just never seemed an option with you, I mean… it's just… not Naruto-ish."-

-"Bastard! Why did you want me dead?"-

-"Well, it might have had something to do with the fact that, even now that I'm dead, I'm still blind. Someone did rip my eyes out before slitting my throat after all. Someone with blonde hair, and… - Well, they were red at the time but usually - blue eyes."-

-"Well, if someone hadn't been such a moody, brooding, stupid, ugly bastard… that someone might not have had me running all over Rice Country painting the town crimson to get to that certain someone so that I could rip their eyes out and slit their throat, now would they?"-

-"Hn. Anyway, thanks. I'm not sure if you were able to hear that over the gurgle of blood and air escaping the gapingly wide smile across my neck."-

-"Nope. It was more like… 'Urglglgl… Shhhnggggks,' so I was kind of curious at the time. Why thanks, anyway?"-

-"Ugh, moron. Thanks for cutting through the haze - no pun intended by the way, so wipe that grin off your face - of my insanity. I'm still mad at you for ruining my ambition and dream, but… eh… death goes on right?"-

"Heh, I suppose it does at that. Uhm, what were we talking about anyway?"-

…Sigh… -"Baka."-

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(AN: Alright, I admit it. I needed a little bit of humor damnit. It's really hard to make an entire story angst driven. Death-humor is one of my favorite kinds, and I was really running dry on inspiration for this chapter because I - in my infinite wisdom - decided to take a break about a third of the way through. Which means, for those readers and writers out there who don't suffer from the same problems, that I had absolutely no idea how to get it back and running again. I struggled at first, so I decided to throw a bit of humor into it, and the story picked right back up. Next time, there'll be more plot development as far as Ghost Naruto goes, although I don't know who the next person I write should be - any suggestions would be very helpfull at this point - cause I've got no set pattern here. Although I know Ino - his love interest - shall be revisited atleast once or twice more before I wrap this up - possibly some other important figures as well - I'm just.. kinda goin "Damn.. who should I do next?" so yeah, help?

Dirtwater.