Another chapter is here!
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Hinata couldn't help but feel that her cousin was truly talented as he unleashed the Kaiten, deflecting the rain of projectiles and sending them askew. He must've taught himself how to do it, given how no one from the main branch would have taught him out of tradition, a true genius of their generation. She'd often thought that it was a mistake he was born in the branch family of their clan when he was so talented.
"Oh, come on!" Kiba shouted from next to her as the technique came to an end and revealed her cousin standing in the center of a smooth crater formed by the spiraling dome of chakra. "He almost had him!"
In contrast to her agitated teammate, Hinata felt relieved he hadn't been hurt by Naruto's attack. She didn't want them to fight to begin with. At the same time, she didn't see how Naruto could win now. The Kaiten was the perfect defense of their clan and her cousin had the upper-hand at close-range combat.
"Grrr… Naruto, better have something else up his sleeve," Kiba continued. "I swear, if he loses now after all that talk from before I'll never let him hear the end of it."
[0-0-0]
Naruto couldn't keep the surprise off his face as his opponent stood in front of the clones unbothered and self-assured. In his defense, Hinata hadn't mentioned he could do that. Even if she had, it didn't change the fact that beating him would be much harder now.
"There is no need to be surprised," Neji calmly stated. "Like I said before, your Fate was determined ahead of time. You cannot defeat me. No matter what you do, you will lose here."
That wiped the look of surprise off their faces and replaced it with a series of frowns. The original Naruto gave the signal for them to attack while getting ready to swap with a pre-prepared tagged clone that was under the Transformation technique. That was when Neji threw down several smoke bombs of his own and turned Naruto's own strategy against him, using the grey veil to conceal himself from their view. The clones that were inside of the smokescreen began dying in earnest and, before Naruto could make a swap with one of the clones he had set up for that purpose, the spares were speared with kunai and their destruction triggered the tags attached to them.
"I pity you," Neji said from within the smoke cloud. "Just like Lee, your ambitions will come to an end against an opponent whose ability was simply able to undermine your strategy. Your efforts were in vain because you could not see what was written in stone from the moment I was your opponent."
Don't listen to him, Naruto thought to himself as he grew increasingly aware of the dwindling number of reserve clones. It was almost as if he felt their demise through a phantom sense of pain from within the veil, but he instinctively pushed that to the back of his mind as he focused on defense. He pulled out the Barrier Tags and set them around him in the four points of the cardinal directions, holding a fifth one in his off-hand while a concussive-tagged kunai found its way into his dominant one.
A trio of kunai with explosive tags of their own broke through the smoke towards Naruto, who flung his own towards them. All four went off on impact and blinded Naruto further as the force and smoke billowed, forcing him to cover his eyes. He channeled chakra into the Barrier Tag in his hand to be safe, and it fed that chakra into the four surrounding him to form a defensive barrier invisible to the naked eye.
That was when a spread of five shuriken broke through the smoke from the front, meant to make him move. The Hyuuga came from the side in an attempt to flank him when he did so, having thrown the shuriken so that they curved. It was useless as the five shuriken impacted the barrier and fell to the ground, leaving Naruto with no need to move as Neji skidded to a stop two feet away from the barrier.
"Had Fate been kinder, perhaps you could have prevailed against one of the others," he said before spinning in place while wreathing himself in chakra and expanding it. A deafening, screeching noise came from the grinding of the Kaiten against the invisible bulwark erected by the Barrier Tags set around him. The two chakra-based defenses clashed against one another while the lingering smoke dispersed at the gale created from the rotation, but the difference between them was evident.
One was meant to repel through what amounted to a thin film of chakra made into a bulwark, while the other was meant to be the whole solution as both an offense and defense. Even if the Kaiten hadn't sheared it open faster than his chakra could replace the layer being scraped away, the ground gave out from the constant grating and unanchored the perimeter tags.
The net result was the same in the end. Naruto's defense failed and the Kaiten fully expanded, allowing the spinning dome of chakra to sweep him up entirely. The only mercy was that he hadn't anchored himself to the ground with a variation of the Wall-Walking technique. If he had, it would have ground away at his flesh and bones until they were scraped raw and turned to dust. Instead, it shredded the front of his jumpsuit and the skin of his forearms instinctively raised in defensive before it tossed him aside violently.
I can't lose like this, he thought as the world spun from his head smacking the ground as he tumbled messily. He bit down on his own lower lip to avoid losing consciousness from the impact and then tensed his legs and hands while flooding them with chakra beneath the surface. They caught the ground on the next impact and allowed him to remain on all-fours as the compacted earth gave away from the momentum, leaving him digging a trench several feet long as he skidded to a stop and panted.
[0-0-0]
Sakura found herself wincing at the sight of Naruto on his hands and knees, bleeding from the impact of the attack and the bad spill he took. She'd seen him take worse beatings on their missions and in the Forest of Death, but those weren't from people who came from the same village. They hadn't expected that last attack and now her teammate was paying the price for it.
"That looked really bad," Ayame said, a sisterly sort of worry in her voice and eyes at the sight. "Someone should call the match before he gets hurt anymore."
"He still has a chance if he can get around that defense," Sakura told her as she glanced to Karin. The girl was completely silent, but her face and body language made it clear that she was feeling a whole slew of negative emotions.
Her eyes were wide with worry, at the same time angled into an expression of pure fury at Naruto's opponent. Her jaw was tight from clenching her teeth behind her pursed lips so hard they were trembling. She unconsciously rubbed a spot on her arm like there was a nervous itch there and it looked like she was doing all she could not to rush out of her seat to be by his side.
That was when a shout that eclipsed the majority of the crowd nearby came from one of the rows above them. "GET THE FUCK UP NARUTO!"
Sakura turned her head towards it to see Kiba standing up, an almost feral expression on his face. Next to him was Hinata, who looked horrified at the sight of Naruto being injured by her cousin. There were actually tears in her eyes, which only seemed to further fuel the Inuzuka's rage. He jumped down and past them until he reached the railing that separated the audience from the field.
"I DIDN'T LOSE JUST SO YOU'D HAND THE WIN OVER TO THAT BASTARD!" he yelled at Naruto, likely held back from jumping over it by an Anbu officer appearing next to him and setting a finger to his forehead. Whatever they did worked quick enough that he only managed to get another two words out before he passed out. "Stand… up…"
Sakura watched as the officer disappeared with him in a Body Flicker, likely to go and give him a dressing down in private. Either way, the encouragement did seem to have some effect. Because when she turned back to the field, Sakura saw Naruto was on his own two feet again.
[0-0-0]
It said something that, even with the roar of the crowd, Naruto could hear Kiba yelling at him to get up. Everything hurt, blood seeped from the tears in his skin and his mouth, and the world seesawed. But Naruto managed to get back up onto his feet and faced his opponent once more.
"Surrender," Neji said from the distance. "If we go any further, I can't guarantee you'll survive. There's no shame in accepting the defeat that Fate has laid out for you. The more you struggle against it, the more it will hurt until the very end."
"Not after everything they've done for me this last month and the promise I made," Naruto said. He had to beat him with what Karin and Sakura taught him, and it had to be under his own power if he was going to keep his promise to Hinata. Otherwise, it really would all be meaningless. He drew a kunai with a tag on it and beckoned his opponent forth. "Bring it on!"
"So be it." Neji darted forward and Naruto threw the kunai. The Hyuuga dodged the tagged kunai and threw a shuriken towards it upon recognizing it was a transformed clone. He wouldn't let him risk pulling off another substitution or being caught in the explosion that could follow. Then he skidded to a stop in front of Naruto in the Gentle Fist stance. "You are in range of my divination. There's no escaping now."
Naruto only stilled his lungs and smirked as Byakko pounced from behind and suddenly exploded in what looked to be a fresh veil of smoke.
[0-0-0]
Sasuke found himself thinking that Naruto had been all talk when his opponent saw through the final transformed clone. Of course he would have seen through it when Naruto had done that very same thing earlier in the match. His assessment changed when he caught sight of the green-rimmed tag on the kunai since his Sharingan allowed him to perfectly memorize details and he had caught sight of all of the ones that Naruto had used to this point during the match.
It wasn't like the others, but his opponent didn't know that. He didn't think twice about it, believing that Naruto had run out of tricks and focusing solely on the finishing strike. That was why he didn't see the clone holding a mask and attaching the tag to it before the shuriken impacted the clone.
The hit dispersed it, but not before the mask tumbled free and Sasuke caught sight of what looked to be blood on the back of it. A chakra construct formed from that point and touched down on the ground for a split-second. Then it pounced, upturning the dirt around its paws as it speared towards the Hyuuga.
His opponent's eyesight spared him from having his bones broken as he twisted his body to avoid the impact, but the surprise of it left him breathing in the smoke that came from the tag on the mask before he jumped back further. Naruto meanwhile used his chakra to anchor his hands on the tiger and was pulled out of the smoke cloud, gasping for air as the tiger ran alongside the wall using chakra on its paws. It came to a stop at a safe distance, leaving Naruto mounted on its back and staring down his foe.
"When did the Leaf get their own puppeteers?" asked the girl from Hidden Sand on the other end of the contestants' booth. They were separated from the rest of the audience to avoid sabotage from the shinobi who were in the audience, though they personally divided into sides from their different villages. Her voice gave away her shock at the fact that Naruto pulled something similar to what the guy with war-paint on his face could do.
"Not a puppet," the puppeteer said. "No strings attached. It's probably capable of some level of independent action. Might be a summoning?"
"Doubt it," Shikamaru said from his seat on the bench, head perched on his chin as he watched with a bored expression. He kept his voice lower so that the others from Leaf could hear it. "I didn't see him making any hand-seals."
"Perhaps his tutor provided it for his match?" Shino offered as an answer while he stood in front of the railing and observed the match. Unlike his teammate, he at least kept his composure while watching the match. "Naruto had been confident that he could defeat his opponent before now, so he likely trained with it over the month. He must have a plan, otherwise he would have used it from the start."
Or because he didn't want to give away all his secrets when I was up against him next, Sasuke reasoned. If that was the case, he'd watch to see what it was capable of. Because when Naruto won it would be Sasuke's turn to deal with it, after rolling over Gaara of the Desert. And while he couldn't use the Chidori against his teammate, that didn't mean he hadn't considered a way to make use of his secondary-element better.
[0-0-0]
Naruto removed the expended sealing tag from Byakko's mask. Either the poison was in his opponent's system or it wasn't and he'd simply beat Neji the old fashioned way. He anchored himself to the tiger and kept low as he gave the order. "Just like in practice, Byakko."
'Understood.' Byakko exploded in movement at the command, rushing forward fast enough that it upturned the ground in a straight pounce. The Hyuuga's flexibility saved him as he managed to dodge, but his Gentle Fist counterstrike did nothing against Byakko. It used its momentum to keep going forward before bouncing off the ground, against a tree, and then back at him at another angle as Naruto dropped a concussive tag in their wake.
The explosion forced Neji out of his stable guard, allowing Byakko to clip him on a third pass. The speed and weight of the tiger managed to dislocate or break a shoulder, leaving him only one arm to work with as the tiger came around for another angled attack. Neji gritted his teeth as he released chakra from every point in his body and unleashed the Kaiten as they came in again.
"Up!" Naruto commanded as he created a bulk of expendable clones in front of the spiraling dome of chakra. Byakko hit them and pushed upwards with it forelegs, sending it into aerial roll over the top. It landed on the other side as the dome sputtered out and Neji held his head from Karin's poison spreading faster with the increased activity. "Let's do the finisher we practiced!"
'Understood!' Byakko lunged for Neji again, who moved to avoid it with a notable lack of grace. Naruto jumped off mid-pounce and used the forward momentum to deliver a flying kick that landed solidly and Neji staggered backwards. Shadow Clones popped into existence right then and hit him with the combo.
"U!" One clone delivered a right cross to the face that left him seeing stars. "Zu!" Another used a jumping knee to the chest to knock him into the four clones raising their legs to kick him into the air. "Maki!" Then the white tiger dropped down on him from above and bounced off his aerial supine figure, sending him downwards. "Tiger Barrage!"
Neji hit the ground hard enough that he bounced up by a foot and a pained cry was forced out of his mouth. His entire body trembled as he tried to stand again. Byakko promptly placed one paw on his chest and pushed down to pin him into place. "This can't be…"
"Not quite as easy as I expected, but it's over," Naruto said. "The poison's in your body now and Byakko's got you pinned. You're done."
"P-Poison?" He struggled to breathe with how hard the tiger was pressing until it lightened with a gesture of Naruto's finger. "When?"
"That last smokescreen Byakko released had poison mixed into it." He held up the spent tag. "It's not fatal, but it did make you sloppy. A backup plan that I was planning to use on Sasuke, but you forced my hand when you pulled that spinning trick out of nowhere. I don't think even Byakko would've been able to get past it if you didn't brush off that last tagged kunai as another explosive-rigged clone and got caught by surprise."
"A trick," he insisted. "Fate has—"
"Been beaten," Naruto finished for him. "I'm the one standing here and now, thanks to everything the others did for me over this last month. Sure, if they hadn't helped me and given me the encouragement I needed, you might've won. There's only so far you can go alone, but with others you can break free of whatever chains Fate has wrapped around you."
"… Do you …" There was a note of caution in his voice. It was almost as if he was afraid to ask. "Do you really think it's possible to escape Fate?"
"Believe it," Naruto said in absolute certainty. "Now are you going to call it or do I have Byakko bat you around like an oversized toy because Fate insists that I'm going to lose?"
Neji seemed pensive at that for a long moment. Then he deactivated his eyes. "I am no longer able to fight. I forfeit the match."
On cue, the proctor showed himself from whatever shadow he had been hiding in and called it. "The winner of the first match is Naruto Uzumaki!"