…Uzumaki Naruto vs Uchiha Sasuke," said Genma.
The arena went quiet. Never in a million years had anyone from Konoha thought this would be the match up. However, that silence didn't last. Everyone soon heard heavy footsteps walking down the looked to the sound and saw Naruto face down. Even as he reached the middle he didn't pick up his head. Sasuke jumped off the balcony and walked towards Naruto. He smirked as he saw the redhead's face not looking at him.
"Scared to meet my eyes?" asked Sasuke as he activated the sharingan.
"Finally activated those damn eyes huh?" Naruto replied. He picked up his head with a manic smile and the Ketsuryugan activated. The smile sent shivers down everyone's spine, "Hayate. Start the match, this bastard's gonna pay for what he said about my family," said Naruto.
Hayate nodded, "-cough- HAJIME!"
Sasuke jumped back, keeping his eyes on the Uzumaki. He grit his teeth, he would obviously have to make the first move, something he REALLY did not want to do. He pulled out a kunai and rushed Naruto. Naruto stood there not moving. Sasuke went for the attack and as he was about to connect, Naruto did something he didn't think he would do. He caught the kunai in between his fingers, and grabbed Sasuke's hand.
"Wrong move, Uchiha," Naruto said.
Blood started to pour out of Naruto's eyes and the blood from his hand started to levitate. Sasuke's eyes widened as the blood turned into sharp needles. At the last second, he was able to get free of Naruto's grasp and dodge the blood senbon. He looked into Naruto emotionless eyes. He knew those eyes, that man had those eyes.
"HOW DARE YOU! HOW DARE YOU MOCK ME WITH THOSE EYES!" he yelled. He rushed through hand signs and took a deep breath.
"KATON: GOKAKYU NO JUTSU!" he exclaimed. A giant raging ball of fire flew at Naruto. The boy in question just raised his eyebrow. The ball impacted him making everyone else speechless. When the smoke died down, they saw a wall of blood protecting Naruto from the blast.
Up in the stands, Hinata saw the blood, making hers run cold. He began to shiver and held her right hand to her left arm. A few feet from her, Kakashi saw this gesture and frowned. He knew how her family treated her. Naruto had told him during the Nami mission, could that have led to a life of fear of blood? He decided to put it off for later and turned back to the match.
Sasuke looked shocked at the wall of blood.
"HOW! HOW DARE YOU HAVE THIS! IT SHOULD BE MINE! AN UCHIHA'S!" he screamed.
He sped through hand signs that only a few people recognized, Kakashi especially. He held his left arm with his right hand, where lightning began to crackle. He looked at Naruto, with a crazed look on his face.
"IT'S FUNNY YOU SHOULD FAMILY DOBE. CAUSE YOUR ABOUT TO MEET YOUR FAILURE OF ONE RIGHT NOW!" he yelled, "CHIDORI!"
He ran at the blood wall, and when he was about 15 feet away, he stuck his hand out. He plunged through the blood wall, and an explosion was made.
"CLANG!" rang all throughout the arena. When the smoke was cleared, everyone stood there in awe. There Naruto was, holding a bone, with the blade of the Kubikiribocho stuck into the floor. Sasuke was on the other side of the giant sword, fist smashed into it, no longer enveloped in lightning.
"Uchiha. I've told you, TO NEVER SPEAK ABOUT MY FAMILY!" exclaimed Naruto.
Everyone saw as his fist became enveloped in a black fire and wind, causing it to fit his hand like aglove. He thrust it around the sword and hit Sasuke in the gut.
"AAAAAAUUUUURRGHH!" screamed the Uchiha in pain, as he was sent across the arena, into the wall. Hayate went over to check on him, and saw that he was knocked out. He turned to Naruto and held out his arm.
"Winner, Uzumaki Naruto!" he announced.
The arena was quiet. No one dared to make a sound. The blade returned to blood, and the bone fell to the ground and crumbled away. Naruto sealed away all the blood for later usage and put away his scroll. He walked back up to the balcony without saying a word. He passed the Suna team, who were dead silent, and passed Team 9. He stopped when he got to Team 8, noticing Hinata was holding something out to him.
"N-Naruto-kun, th-this is for y-you," she said, holding out a duplicate of the box she gave to Kiba.
Naruto, realizing this was the healing ointment she had given him the last two times, took it and thanked her. But he had one more thing to say before he passed her.
"It worked well the last two times," he whispered to her. This made her already present blush even darker and she was trying hard not to faint. Naruto went to stand in between Kiba and Kakashi, the latter having moved to the guard rail after noticing what jutsu Sasuke was using.
Kakashi looked at his little brother and eye-smiled, "Good job," he said, giving him an eye smile.
They looked back at the screen and saw it blurring through names again. It started slowing down. Slower, slower, stop. The names that it stopped on surprised everyone. But it terrified one, and made the other have a gleeful smile on their face.
"Tenth Match, Hyuga Neji vs Hyuga Hinata," said Hayate.
…
The two Hyugas meet in the middle, Neji scowling at Hinata.
"I never dreamed we'd find ourselves fighting each other Hinata-sama," he said spitting out the last part.
"N-Neji-n-niisan," stuttered Hinata.
Hayate looked at the two, "HAJIME!" he yelled.
Neither Hyuga moved.
"Before we begin," started Neji, "There's something you should know. You are not cut out to be a shinobi. Forfeit!" he growled.
Hinata began to tear up.
"You're sweet, you want to make peace, and you're not a leader," he said, "That's why your father sent you to the branch family. You're a disappointment!"
Hinata looked down at the floor.
"Look at you, no self-confidence. Your inferiority complex is the biggest I've ever seen. You'd be more comfortable staying a genin. But to compete in the Chunin Exams, you must enter as an entire squad. But you couldn't bear to let down your teammates. The truth is, your participation has been reluctant from the very beginning."
N-no, I w-want t-to ch-change-" said Hinata.
"You can't change. Once a failure, always a failure," interrupted Neji.
Naruto was getting more rage filled by the second, it was taking the combined forces of Gai and Kakashi to hold him down. That didn't mean that they weren't having trouble. He had already started to draw on some of the Kyubi's chakra, even while the fox was trying to hold back.
"It's because of our unchanging nature that different people are born. Those who are "elites" and those who are "failures." It doesn't matter who you are or where you come from. It's unchangeable," snarled Neji as he activated his byakugan.
Hinata's tears began to fall.
"Shut up," said a dark voice.
Neji turned to the voice. He saw Naruto on the ground, with a struggling Kakashi, Gai, and now Kurenai holding him back from ripping out his throat.
"She can change, anyone can change. You can't decide things for other people. So shut the fuck up. Hinata can change," he said, now seeping out small amounts of red chakra.
'Naruto,' thought Hinata.
"Come on Hinata, show him what you're made of!" said Naruto.
'Naruto, thank you,' thought Hinata. She now had a determined look on her face, all her fear.
Neji looked back at his cousin, seeing the determination in her eyes.
"So, you're not going to forfeit. Then I won't be responsible for what happens here," he said.
Hinata activated her Byakugan, and got into the juken stance. Neji got into the same stance, and the Hyugas ran at each other. Hinata went for the first blow, which was easily blocked by Neji who went for a strike to her gut. Hinata weaved her way out of the blow with ease, looking just like Yugito. The two went at it like this for several minutes until Hinata went for Neji's shoulder.
'If she hits me there…" thought Neji.
He went for the most vital spot on the body. Everybody saw Hinata spit out blood, landing on the floor. She was still conscious, a good sign. She pulled her arm back, and went for another blow to his shoulder. Neji caught her arm and "poked" her elbow.
"Let me show you, Hinata-sama, why you can't hurt me," he said, grabbing her sleeve about to pull it up.
Hinata's eyes widened. She tried to break free of his grip, but that only made him hold tighter. He rolled up her sleeve, but what he saw, made everyone freeze. All across her arm her red spots where he had blocked her chakra, but that wasn't it. All across her arm were small cuts, obviously made intentionally.
Up in the balcony Kakashi looked down at Naruto, he wasn't moving. He couldn't imagine what he felt. He told him he had sworn to protect Hinata. Naruto probably felt as if he failed right now.
Kurama was wide-eyed and speechless. She was just like his kit. Except she never stopped hurting herself.
Kiba and Shino were wide-eyed in horror. How had they never noticed?
Naruto was the worst of all. He began to hyperventilate. Why? Why couldn't he ever protect the ones that meant the most to him. He failed. He began to radiate more red chakra. Kiba, Shino, Shikamaru, and Asuma ran over to hold him down. Shino with his bugs, Kiba and Akamaru in their beast form, Shikamaru holding him with his shadow, and Asuma pushing down with wind. And they were still struggling. The other genin looked at the struggling shinobi. This was all to hold down one genin?
Hinata looked at her arm. She looked at Neji, who had a disgusted look on his face. He threw her aside.
"Pathetic," he said, "Proctor, this match is ove-"
"NO! DON'T END IT!" screamed Naruto.
Neji looked at Hinata, who was getting up from the floor.
"So you still want to fight? Well, don't blame me if I kill you," he said, getting into a stance.
Hinata's eyes widened in fear at the stance.
"Hakke Rokujuuyon Shou!" Neji yelled, "Two palms, four palms, eight palms, sixteen palms, thirty-two palms, sixty-four palms!" Neji yelled.
Hinata held the place where her heart was in pain. Everyone knew where all those strikes were aimed. And seeing how Naruto reacted to just the taunts, it scared them how he would react to this. Hinata stumbled two steps back, four, then landed on her knees. She began to hyperventilate heavily. Neji walked up to her.
"Nobody can change, remember that. If you live to remember it," he said as he kicked her in the chin, sending her to the floor several feet back.
"MEDICS!" screamed Hayate in panic. He looked towards Naruto who had a blank look on his face.
What Neji did was the last straw for Naruto, he created a shockwave of red chakra that sent everyone holding him flying and he disappeared in a red flash. Next thing everyone knew there was a crash on the stadium wall. They saw a red and yellow glow, the red looking like a fox, and the yellow coming off the fox and creating an 'X' shape on the wall. When the dust cleared everyone saw Naruto with a red chakra surrounding him, with golden chakra chains holding Neji to the wall.
"Give me one good reason that I shouldn't rip out your balls and your throat," Naruto said in a demonic voice.
Neji couldn't say anything, so he just glared at the Uzumaki.
Naruto pulled his arm back, and a swirling purple chakra began to form.
"NARUTO!" yelled the Hokage.
Naruto stopped what he was doing, he looked at Naruto with cold, sad, and rage-filled eyes. He dispelled his jutsu and dropped Neji. He walked over to where Hinata was laying down with the medics.
He looked down at the medics with a passive face, but tears in his eyes, "Will she survive?" he asked in a choked voice.
The medic looked at the concerned boy, "It's hard to say, but the only thing keeping her stable right now is a separate chakra," the medic replied.
"Y-you mean, the curse mark?" Naruto asked in horror.
The medic raised his eyebrow, obviously wondering how he knew. Maybe he was there when it happened, but he nodded.
Naruto went quiet and clenched his fists, the only thing keeping Hinata alive was the damn thing he'd sworn to get rid of along with the Caged Bird Seal, and he didn't even know how long she had. He watched as the medics picked her up and carried her out of the arena. Naruto walked slowly up the stairs and down the balcony. He had an aura around him that made even Gaara keep quiet. Sakura looked at the aura and her eyes widened in fear. Naruto had an orange-red aura around him that was shaped in nine fox-like tails.
"M-m-m-monst…" she began but was quickly shut up by Kakashi's glare at the word she was about to use.
The shinobi heard the screen buzzing through names again. They looked at the names, not that they needed to.
"Final Match, Gaara vs Rock Lee," said Hayate.
Gaara sand sunshine and the ever-eccentric Lee did a backflip to shoulder roll off the balcony.
"FACING SUCH A YOUTHFUL OPPONENT MAKES ME VERY HAPPY!" screamed the mini-me of Gai.
"...hmph" grunted Gaara.
Hayate smirked at Lee, "Contests ready? HAJIME!"
Lee rushed at Gaara as he called out his attack, "KONOHA SENPU!"
The blow never connected as sand blocked Lee's kick before it could even get near Gaara. The sand tripped Lee up and sent him tumbling.
"Agh!" Lee grunted.
Lee got up, attempting to hit the sand again, but it blocked his attack. He went behind to kick and it was blocked. Lee retreated, already exhausted from his offense.
'He blocked all my attacks, without even moving a muscle,' thought Lee.
Again, he went for a punch but it was unsurprisingly blocked by the sand.
Finally, Gaara made his move. The sand went for Lee's legs, only for him to backflip off of it onto the giant statue. The two shinobi looked at each other. Lee looked at his sensei who had a smile on his face.
"LEE! TAKE THEM OFF!" Gai yelled with a thumbs up.
"B-but Gai-sensei, you said to only take them off when protecting those precious to me!" Lee responded, saluting to his sensei.
"IT'S OKAY! I'LL ALLOW IT!" Gai yelled back.
"Really? REALLY?!" Lee exclaimed. The genin sat down and removed his orange leg warmers. The other shinobi saw weights attached to his legs. Lee took them off with a relieved smile on his face. Gaara looked cautiously at the green-clad ninja. Lee stood up and dropped the weights.
"YOSH! Now I can move freely!" he yelled.
'You really think you'll be able to keep up with Gaara's sand just by dropping a couple of pounds of weights?' thought Temari.
BOOM! Craters were made as the weights hit the floor.
Before anyone knew it, Lee was behind Gaara, throwing a right hook that was just barely blocked, and he disappeared again. He repeatedly hit the sand then disappeared, confusing it. He appeared on top of Gaara springing and then axe-kicked the Suna genin.
"Well, looks like I finally hit you," said Lee as he slid back. Gaara glared back at the Konoha genin.
"Is that all you have?" Lee asked, attempting to aggravate the Suna genin into attacking, 'His defense is amazing, even if I was able to hit him… my only shot to beat him is…' he looked at his sensei who gave him the same look with a nod, 'THE LOTUS!'
Lee began to unwrap the bandages around his arms and he began to run circles around Gaara creating a cloud of dust. Gaara stared wordlessly at the many after images that Lee was creating. "Come on, hurry up," he said. No sooner had he said that than he was kicked in the chin and sent into the air by Lee. He was kicked several more times, the sand being useless to Lee's relentless attacks. Lee wrapped the bandages around Gaara, with Gaara's head being higher than Lee. The genin began to rush towards the ground at immense speeds, and as they were about to hit the floor, Lee jumped away at the last second leaving Gaara to crash into it. Everyone on the balcony stared at Gaara's corpse which stayed motionless on the floor. Suddenly the body began to crumble, revealing it to be a sand clone. Everyone's eyes widened and Lee felt a shiver go down his spine as he felt Gaara's presence behind him. Before he could react Gaara sent a wave of sand into Lee, throwing him into the wall leaving an imprint of the genin. Gaara sent another wave of sand that Lee was just barely able to dodge. Lee rushed towards Gaara, dodging the different spears of sand as he did so.
Guy looked down at his student pensively, realizing Lee's plan. Lee put his arms in an 'X' formation, and his skin began to darken in color.
"SHOMON! RELEASE!" yelled Lee.
Veins began to become visible on his forehead as blue chakra came off of him. Lee ran at Gaara who was immediately kicked skyward harder than before, this time from his back. Gaara faced the roof, attempting to cocoon himself with sand, but Lee was too fast for it. He began to attack Gaara with ferocious speed, sending him in many different directions with his attacks. Once again, Lee appeared above Gaara, poised to strike.
"THIS IS THE END!" Lee exclaimed as he punched Gaara in the solar plexus. As Gaara crashed into the same crater, it created a shockwave, making the hole even bigger. He stayed on the ground, nearly unconscious from the blow. Lee fell to the ground, exhausted from opening the gate. Gaara turned his head towards Lee, holding his hand out. Sand began to envelope Lee, but before Gaara could end his career, he remembered something from the past.
…
"That's why I protect Gaara. It's love, Gaara."
…
'Uzumaki Naruto, how can I be more like you?'
…
Maybe this was the first step to truly being happy, to be recognized for something good. So Gaara slowly opened his mouth.
"Give up, I don't want to have to kill you…" he said weakly.
The genin squad from Suna's eyes widened. Who was this? Gaara would've shown no mercy. Naruto heard the words of his fellow jinchuriki and smiled. He looked at Yugito who looked at him and shook her head with a quiet laugh.
Lee was already breathing heavily. He knew he wouldn't be able to get free of the sand. Slowly, he turned his head to Hayate and nodded. The proctor raised his hand and pointed it to Gaara.
"Winner, Gaara!" he announced.
Gaara let go of Lee, who promptly fell unconscious, medics rushed over to Lee, while Kankuro and Temari ran down to get their brother. The Ichibi jinchuriki looked to them apologetically, "Kankuro, Temari, I'm sorry… for everything," he said in a choked voice.
"It's okay Gaara, you're our little brother," said Temari.
The siblings picked up their brother and carried him to the balcony.
…
All the genin who passed the first round were lined up in front of the Hokage.
"We will now be choosing numbers to choose you you will be facing in the finals," he announced. Anko came up with a box full of papers as each genin came up.
"1," said Naruto.
"9," said Gaara.
"3," said Shikamaru.
"2," said Neji.
"10," said Yugito.
"8," said Kankuro.
"6," said Sai.
"5," said Karui.
"4," said Temari.
"7," said Shino.
The Hokage nodded, "Very well, the match-ups will be: Uzumaki Naruto vs Hyuga Neji. Nara Shikamaru vs Temari. Karui vs Sai. Shino vs Kankuro. And Gaara vs Nii Yugito," he said. Naruto glared at Neji, giving off a noticeably large amount of killing intent.
"The finals will take place in one month at the Konoha Arena. During this month you can choose what to do, however I consider training," explained Hayate, "Now, you are free to go!"
…
Naruto had just gotten out of the forest. It's not like a hard time, He was radiating so much killer intent that everything stayed clear of him. He walked towards his designated training ground and began to pound at the training posts. He began to lose control of his chakra, making chakra chains pour out of him, impaling the ground and surrounding trees. He began to create giant winds, and fire chakra began to light everything on fire. He was so enraged that he didn't notice when he had started crying. But he did notice someone walking up to him. No, two people. He turned around with his still angry and teared up face and saw Kakashi and the Hokage looking at him worriedly. The old man walked up to Naruto and hugged the broken boy. Naruto leaned into his surrogate grandfather and cried. He cried his heart away. Kakashi looked at his little brother with tear-filled eyes. The boy had lost so much. And now it was possible he would lose the person he loved most because of family-feud. Naruto cried until he fell asleep. The Hokage got up and nodded to Kakashi. The copy ninja picked up the redhead and took him to his apartment and laid him down. Kakashi laid down on his couch, not trusting to leave him by himself.
END
Ya, people are gonna hate me after this chapter. BUT DON'T WORRY. I got a plan and it will work out so just bear with it! Please? Hopefully you can stick around for the happy ending that I have planned.
