Disclaimer: Refer to chapter 1.

AN: Chapter Title: Naruto vs. Neji

'Naruto should be waiting to head down in a few minutes. I've got to talk to him before he fights Neji. Probably won't be able to stand after that match, probably be angry too.' The Nara was determined to speak with his friend. No, he was determined to get his friend back. 'I can do this. I have a plan, thought of it while I was fighting that girl.'

The match was fairly standard in a lot of ways. She knew about his technique, knew the limits of it, and he had tricked her. He had ended up threading his shadow through the shadows of all the weapons her brother's puppet had launched. Connected it behind her when she thought she was safe behind her fan and the line she had drawn. He had her beat. Everyone knew it.

Then he had forfeited.

"Temari of the Sand wins her first round match against Shikamaru Nara. She advances to the second round." Anko's voice, near laughter, followed the dark haired Nara as he walked up the steps to where the other participants waited and fought the urge to yawn as he neared the top of the steps.

'Need to talk to him before Neji beats him.'

He didn't need to go far at the end.

"Your showing was impressive Nara." Shikamaru looked to the armored blonde that had been waiting for him at the top of the stairs with a smile. "Your mastery of the battlefield and mastery of a mind such as yours, is most impressive." The tired Nara didn't know what to think. Naruto was talking to him. He had been planning to approach the Genin. Talk to him. Talk sense into him. Get his friend back.

The smile on his face, the light in his eyes, they told him Naruto Uzumaki was standing in front of him.

"Really?" Shikamaru sighed. "I thought I was unimpressive. I was trying to get out of being promoted with how much of a drag all the extra work would be."

"That is what makes it impressive." Naruto's smile was the same as the one in his memories. The Naruto Uzumaki he knew was standing in front of him. "You had your opponent defeated, made her experience the utter anguish of knowing there was nothing she could do to challenge her fate, and you allowed her to suffer such mental anguish before showing her how powerless she truly was against you." He chuckled, filled the room with the sound. "You showed her how pathetic she was with such a disgraceful victory."

"I guess I did." This was wrong. The Naruto Uzumaki he knew wouldn't talk like this. He wouldn't laugh at what he had done.

"What the hell do you think you're doing Shikamaru! What happened to being my right hand guy? I can't have a Genin be everybody else's boss!"

He should have been shouting at him, call him a lazy ass, he should be complaining about the noise he was making. He should be trying to go to sleep, tell Naruto to worry about his own match. This shouldn't be happening. None of this should be happening.

He should be the one talking. He should have seen that smile, the light in those blue eyes, when he knew he had his friend back. He shouldn't be seeing them now. They shouldn't exist now. They should still be trapped in the past. Trapped beneath the mask Naruto was wearing, hidden away thanks to whatever had made him change like he had.

Naruto Uzumaki shouldn't be standing in front of him. The crazy stranger that wore his face should be.

"You should take more pride in such an achievement Shikamaru Nara as it is all you have." Danger. His senses screamed to him danger when Naruto laid a hand on his shoulder. It felt like a crushing rock, felt cold. It made him want to fall but he wouldn't. He had to stay standing, look at the Genin across from him. "Defeat is still a disgraceful thing."

The hand on his shoulder was heavy. The despair he felt was heavier on his heart.

'Naruto…' He could see finally. He saw Naruto Uzumaki where Naruto Uzumaki stood. 'Naruto…' He didn't know how he wasn't crying. 'Naruto…'

The past was the past. Naruto Uzumaki was, and always had been, standing in front of him. There was nothing he could do. He could finally see the truth for what it was, see Naruto Uzumaki as Naruto Uzumaki and nothing else.

'This really is you. There's…There's no point talking to you, is there? There's no point talking to you because this is you, right?'

The blue eyes that had once belonged to a friend stared at him. Something slipped away and he turned away before he could see what laid within.

"Allow me to show you what true victory is." He stepped past him. Shikamaru remained where he was.

"Naruto…" His voice was a whisper. Only Shino cared to look at him. Lee was focused on watching the arena outside, Gaara stood by himself and his eyes followed only Naruto, and Neji was waiting for the proctor to give the announcement for the start of his match. "Why?"

He wouldn't receive any answer.

"You!" The Suna Kunoichi stormed towards him. Her eyes were filled with fury, embarrassment, even a silver of fear. "What the hell do you think you were doing out there?"

"What?" Shikamaru forgot about Naruto, turned to the enraged girl who ripped him off his feet by his jacket. "What did I do to piss you off so much?"

"You know exactly what you did!" Temari shook him, he didn't try to fight it. Too much work to fight an angry woman. "You had the match won, out maneuvered me the entire time, and you just gave up in the end? You sprouted some bullshit about not having Chakra but you lied so what made you quit?"

"I wasn't lying." Shikamaru wasn't concerned when her grip tightened. "I don't have a lot of Chakra, I couldn't pull the same trick off in the second round so why even bother? I would only embarrass myself in front of a bunch of people so I forfeited."

"If you were going to forfeit, why did you waste so much Chakra?" Shikamaru wouldn't admit it now but this girl, Temari, knew the right questions to ask. She was moving him into a corner just like how she tried to put his back against the wall for her Wind Release techniques so he would have nowhere to run. "You planned a counter to my every move, lured me to the perfect spot, and trapped me with your shadow before I could figure any of it out." She drew him close, almost uncomfortably close for the Nara. "Why do all that if you were going to forfeit in the end?"

"I guess I thought I could win when it started." Shikamaru did his best to shrug his shoulders. "Can you put me down now? I want to catch up on my sleep while this thing drags on."

"This isn't over." She threw him back, his feet hit the floor, and he let himself fall against the wall. She stormed away. He knew she was heading off to check on her brother in the medical area. He had wanted to do the same when it came to Ino but his match had called him to the arena halfway there. She probably would have been there with him if another match took their spot.

His eyes moved to their red headed brother and he couldn't help but shake.

For some reason, he knew the boy didn't care about his family.

"That almost turned nasty." Shikamaru looked up as Shino leaned back on the wall he had slid down. "I hope you're alright."

"I'm fine." Shikamaru let his head rest on the wall. "Are you alright with your match coming up soon?"

"I am prepared as I can be." Shino joined him on the floor a moment later. "I trained with my father and he replicated Gaara's techniques. I believe I have the proper strategy."

"Good to hear." Shikamaru let his eyes drift close.

He didn't get any sleep.

"N-" Anko didn't get to clarify which name she was calling first before the two Genin were on either side of her. Neji looked at Naruto with nothing in his eyes and Naruto's blue eyes held only amusement at the sight before him. Neji's eyes narrowed, the only sign that he would enjoy turning the amusement in those eyes into nothing but agony and despair.

And then finally have them show nothing at all.

"Alright kiddos, before you start, the Seal of Confrontation." Anko's demand was met with laughter from Naruto. He refused to do it with such an outburst.

"Do you truly believe I view the boy before me as equal enough to have my respect? He is nothing but an enemy to be crushed." Naruto laid a hand on the hilt of his blade, his eyes shifted to Anko and he chuckled once more before he spoke again. "I refuse to view this cretin as anything but my foe. He is not an ally and we shall not be comrades once I defeat him."

"You don't want to be a Chunin then?" Anko responded back, turning to face Naruto and laying her hands on her hips. "If you don't do it, you get kicked out the Exams."

"Truly?" Naruto looked to her and she nodded, a smile on her face. "I will solve this then."

The Praefectus Castrorum appeared in a burst of smoke, kneeling before Naruto.

"Caesar."

"My clones are me. He will perform the seal."

"I don't care." Anko turned to Neji, jerked her thumb towards Naruto. "Do the same and you two can fight."

Neji's eyes didn't leave Naruto as the Praefectus Castrorum and the Hyuga exchanged the Seal of Confrontation. The Byakugan took hold of his eyes as Anko looked back to Naruto. The Praefectus Castrorum vanished from sight and Naruto looked to Neji with bored eyes.

"I hope you two kill each other." Anko's smile was wide and her voice cheerful. "Now start!" She vanished.

Neji struck with a basic Gentle Fist strike, Naruto blocked it with the flat of his Chakra coated blade. The two broke away before anything else could be done and the Hyuga observed the Uzumaki for a moment with the abilities of the Byakugan. He seemed to see something as he smirked.

"This may not be as boring as I thought." Naruto spoke no words to Neji's taunt. He simply shifted, faced Neji with his side, extended his blade towards Neji, and brought a hand across his chest. In the same way his Legate had beckoned Ino to attack, Naruto did the same now.

Neji answered him. A trio of kunai came forward first, Naruto easily knocking aside two and dodging the last with a single step to the side. Nei was upon him then, unleashing three blows of the Gentle Fist Taijutsu style that did not care for armor or size. His Byakugan allowed him to target the small tenketsu invisible to most Shinobi. He aimed for the arm.

'The same way I planned to beat the Uchiha.' Neji struck the arm three times in the time it took one to blink. He drew back and looked on as Naruto looked at the armored arm, saw nothing wrong with it.

"Your technique will not work against me." An aura of Chakra consumed his arm. Neji ignored the burning blue glow that filled his enhanced eyes as he threw another kunai forward, his eyes following it and the sword wreathed in Chakra that sliced it in half with ease. "Your Chakra is like a twig attempting to dam a river."

'He's using his Chakra to remove any block I place.' Neji's mind ran a mile a minute. A solution came to his mind by the time he had taken three steps forward.

Naruto's sword was aimed for his fingers as the blonde Uzumaki reached him first, the raze sharp arc of Chakra it created with its swing not something the Hyuga wanted to face. It was a razor sharp crescent he narrowly avoided by turning to the side and Naruto pressed his attack. Neji recovered before he could be caught unaware, even with such a thing impossible with his Byakugan focused on his sole opponent. He dodged a thrust to his stomach, dodged a swing aimed to cleave his head in half from the end of the thrust, stepped back from a downward swing aimed for the blade to cleave into his shoulder, and dodged the swipe to the side by leaning his body back while putting a few steps worth of distance between himself and his opponent. He was about to press the attack as Naruto was in a brief recovery phase when the Uzumaki seemed to take note of such a thing. Chakra surged across the blade in that moment, easily seen by his Byakugan. A second arc of Chakra came towards him with a swing of Naruto's blade at speeds most would fail to react to but he took in the entire technique, from start to end, with his Byakugan within moments.

A single blow from his fingers let Chakra lance through it as was customary of any strike using the Gentle Fist style of Taijutsu. The attack was dispersed as a blue mist that failed to even disturb his long hair. It could no longer rest in the air, lacked the shape to cut through it, so settled around him at his side before vanishing from sight as it grew to lack the necessary concentration to remain visible. Naruto looked at him for a moment before grinning.

"I wonder how many more times you can do that Hyuga." Naruto moved his sword out to the side, Chakra ignited across the blade like it was a flame instead of what it truly was. Neji knew he, and the arena, were bathed in an azure light from the power running from Naruto arm, into the sword in his hand, and out to the world as an aura around the blade. It grew brighter. He did not look away. The Byakugan showed him the Chakra surging from the Genin to the weapon in his hand. It was the prelude to some attack but he didn't know what. He could hardly keep his focus with the sheer amount of Chakra gathering before him. It was only a drop from an ocean of power somewhere within Naruto.

'So much.' Neji had never seen so much Chakra in truth. Not even from the rare times Gai had gone further than he needed to on mission. Not even when he had unleashed some of power that had made him renown as the Green Beast of Konoha and a worthy rival equal to Kakashi Hatake. 'How can he have so much Chakra when he's so young?'

"Show me your skills Neji Hyuga! Show me how many you can stop!" Naruto slashed to his other side.

A wall truly did come towards him this time. The Chakra Naruto threw into the swing bathed not only the arena but the seating area in azure light, showed everyone a taste of his power. A blue beacon of light shined into the sky from the stadium, allowed all around Konoha to see a glimpse of the might of Naruto Uzumaki.

'No choice then.' The Byakugan showed him all. It showed him the range of the technique, where the power had been focused, and how dangerous it was to even attempt to stop. Neji had no choice as escape to the side, to the air, was impossible.

He could only 'escape' the attack by facing it head on. He did not shy away from the challenge in front of him. He almost welcomed it as the veins around his eyes bulged.

"Allow me to show you a glimpse of the fate that awaits you Naruto Uzumaki." Neji entered a specific stance, the same stance he had entered in his match in the preliminaries. Chakra burst to life around his hands, did not match the ferocity of the inferno that burned around Naruto's sword but it cloaked his hands in a blue haze. "Your attacks, like all others, are nothing when they come against the powers of my eyes, the eyes of the Hyuga Clan!"

Neji surged forward and met the wave of Chakra.

"Eight Trigram Vacuum Palm!" He didn't strike the wall with his palm flat on it, they were angled, the force of the blow was dispersed across the wall. It was rendered unstable.

"Two palms." He truly did strike with two palms, powerful blasts of Chakra rippling across the wave and further dispersing it, further weakening its ferocious might but Neji could not advance. He hadn't even brought the wall Naruto had so casually unleashed on him to a stop.

"Four palms!" He struck with four palm strikes, four powerful waves of Chakra rippling over Naruto's attack once more and blue eyes watched in delight as the attack was weakened. He nearly laughed as Neji still was forced to backpedal form it.

"Eight palms!" Eight blows came against the wall of Chakra that still remained, eight blows came and it at last began to truly show signs of damage. It bulged, its entire form bulged and began to slow. Its unstoppable path was still proven true as it was not yet stopped. It was slowing.

"Sixteen palms!" Neji struck out once more, his strikes impossible to follow. Each further distorted the wall Naruto had sent against him, further dispersed the Chakra on the edges, and further showed the Hyuga truly was a prodigy.

"Thirty-two palms!" Neji began ripped away the attack at last. Its shell was broken, it was slowed to a crawl, if not stopped entirely, and he continued his attack on it. He gained ground. He began to step forward, force the great wall of Chakra to drag itself back with the force of blows that shook it.

"Eight Trigrams Sixty Four Palms!" Neji delivered those thirty two hits in rapid succession and without leniency. Each released enough Chakra to kill the normal Shinobi, leave them crippled at the least with their ability to form and shape Chakra obliterated along with their Chakra Pathway System, and the last blow was delivered with a smirk.

He was panting for only a moment before he regained full control of his breathing. He was keeping himself upright at the unexpected expenditure of Chakra but he was standing without issue as the wall of Chakra, the unassailable wall that had been the attack was dispersed into harmless motes of Chakra around him. An azure shower of motes of Chakra was all that remained of the mighty attack that had once been a herald of devastation. Those same motes of Chakra let a shine take hold in the air, created a rainbow as it functioned as a prism to the light around the Hyuga. He let his hands fall to his side, took inventory of his Chakra reserves and found them depleted but nowhere near enough to stop him from fighting, and smirked at the Uzumaki across from him.

"Do you see a glimpse of what awaits you by the end of today Naruto Uzumaki?" Neji was a member of Team Gai, destroying the technique would exhaust any other Shinobi but functioned only as a warmup for him. He was ready to continue the fight without a moment to take a rest he did not need. "Your techniques are powerless against the might of the Byakugan, against my technique you are trapped in a hopeless match. Fate has decided the outcome already and it is only your complete defeat Naruto Uzumaki."

"You have stopped one attack Hyuga." Naruto returned his sword to his side, stretched out his arm once more. "I did not command you to show me how you could stop one of my attacks with the ocular might of your Byakugan and your skills with the Gentle Fist you Hyuga are known for. I commanded you to show me how many of my attacks you could stop." Chakra reignited across the blade, an azure flame of Chakra burned away from his hand and coated the sword in its shining embrace. He smirked at the look that crossed the Hyuga's face, the fear that came across his face no matter what he did to try and hide it from his sight. He chuckled as the flame burned brighter, the power flowed with less restraint, and he allowed a glimpse of the ocean of might he held. "I will not be denied and will have my answer before the end of this match."

"Now stop the second one!" Naruto slashed to his side. A new wall of Chakra roared forth. It filled the arena and filled the seats with its intense light, fired a beacon into the air that announced its presence to the entirety of Konoha, and came towards Neji with almost savage excitement despite it not being able to express such a thing. It was simply a new mass of Chakra unleashed by the Uzumaki against his opponent. It was nothing but a new test for the Hyuga while the Uzumaki amused himself with the match.

'It's the same as his first attack.' Neji readied himself, knew he could not perform the same technique at the same intensity twice to destroy it. He could do it of course but it would be a massive waste of Chakra when his Byakugan showed him a better way, one that allowed him to keep more of his reserves.

"Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm!" Neji threw a palm forward, unleashed the forceful attack against the wall as he raced forward after it. Naruto rose an eyebrow at the sight, at the Chakra that leaked from across the Hyuga's form as blue wisps.

'Impossible.' It did not show on his face but surprise and rage filled Hiashi in that moment as he looked upon the boy beneath him. His Byakugan, one of many of the Hyuga in attendance, activated to take in the sight before him in detail. 'That is a technique exclusive to the Main House! A member of the Branch House could not possibly know it! Especially one so young!'

'Neji.' Hina couldn't help but feel pride at the boy who fought in the arena. 'You have no idea just how much you've helped the Branch House, how you've helped us all.' She fought down the smile that wanted to come across her face.

'That's impossible!' Hanabi Hyuga was of the same mind as her father but her young face showed his anger. 'I haven't even mastered that technique yet! How can some boy from the Branch House have it?'

'You're a genius neji.' In one of the seats next to Hiashi, Hinata fought her urge to smile and she nearly failed. 'You can't beat Naruto-kun but you're a genius to figure out the-'

"Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven!" Neji threw himself into a spin, was blanketed in a roaring dome of Chakra, and struck the weakened section of the wall of Chakra before him.

He ripped through it, emerged on the other side to find Naruto gone as he allowed himself to come to a stop. He held himself at the ready to continue the fight but it was worthless with his opponent missing.

A third wall of Chakra struck the second from the other end of the stadium. They clashed for only a moment before they dispersed each other with twin blue shockwaves.

'H-He moved to the other side.' Neji turned, spotted Naruto on the other side of the stadium. He did not let any new fear color his expression. He breathed as Naruto returned the blade to his side, allowed Chakra to race from his outstretched arm to the blade and ignite a new azure blaze on the blade.

"I told you to stop my attacks Neji Hyuga, not to evade them or to move through them. You were to stop them with the power of the eyes you are so proud of, eyes I am to believe are the strongest Dojutsu in all of Konoha, but you fail to show me such things when you use such a tactic as that." Naruto did not swing his blade once more. He did not unleash a fourth wall of Chakra and see how Neji was to overcome it. He looked at him with something approaching disgust. "You have failed to entertain me as you should have."

Naruto ended the titanic flow of Chakra to his blade, placed it away as Neji was blinded by the azure mist that hung in the air before it moved away. The Uzumaki held his now free hand out to his side and his other joined it on the other side.

A pilum appeared in each hand. Naruto gripped the long weapons towards the center and shifted them in his grip, rested the shaft on his armored arms and left them pointed upright behind him while the blade at the head of each pointed downward. Neji's Byakugan allowed him to see the power that was swiftly spreading from his hands to the blade at the end of the weapon he held in each. The Uzumaki shifted his stance, spread his feet out, and hunched himself slightly with a grin on his face. Power took hold of the weapons then, burst to life as a flaming blue aura, before it faded and they were left plain once more.

"I'll have to entertain myself another way it seems."

AN:...Why do I even put this here if there's nothing?