It was the day of the third part of the chunin exams and everyone except for a certain blonde avenger stood within the chunin exams arena and the one to realize this was Ino. 'Where are you Naruto? Please hurry, I have a very bad feeling about all of this like a dark cloud looming over us all.'
Soon the proctor stood in front of them and the young Yamanaka saw as the audience (nobles, town leaders, all five of the kages/hidden village leaders, civilians, and the genin that had been eliminated early on) started to pay more attention and even started leaning forwards a bit. When the jounin spoke he was loud enough for everyone to hear him without it being considered screaming. "Will round ones contestants Naruto Uzumaki and Neji Hyuuga please stay while all of the other contestants move up to the contestants box in the stands."
Everyone except for Neji walked away. Said Hyuuga scoffed. "Of course he's a no show, it was his destiny to lose to me anyway."
Dark clouds gathered in the sky and lightning flashed in random intervals. When the third big flash of lightning came down it illuminated a silhouette of the blonde genin. "Destiny? I don't believe in such a concept, not after all that I've been through."
Jumping down from the top of the arena wall Naruto landed softly on the ground with two kunai already at the ready.
Neji growled lowly. "You know nothing of pain you insolent fool!"
A calm look that actually scared many of the other leaf genin was plastered to the Uzumakis face as he looked to the proctor. "Please start the match proctor-san."
With a quick 'hajime' the jounin jumped back leaving the two genin to their fight. Within seconds Neji was on Naruto attempting to hit him with palm strike after palm strike In rapid succession but the blonde dodged each of them easily before ducking under the last one and sweep kicking him, as he came back up Naruto pinned the Hyuuga down with his kunai by throwing them into the other boys sleeves.
Standing over Neji Naruto 'stared' down at him in apathy. "I'd like to know where your idea of destiny came from, you're a branch member of the Hyuuga clan that's mostly self taught in your clans taijutsu and yet you're stronger, faster, and far more precise than most main family Hyuuga could even imagine being and yet you're bitter towards them for some unknown reason and believe everything is controlled by some unseen force."
At this Neji ripped his robe sleeves on his way up. "You wish to know? Fine, I've been meaning to get this information to the public for a while anyway."
At this Neji spoke loud enough for all in attendance to hear. "Nine years ago we were at war with Kumo and attempted to call off the war through a treat but they used it as a way to attempt to kidnap Lady Hinata to raise so she'd be there loyal breeding stock on her eighteenth year of age but her father had caught on to this before it was too late and killed the ambassador. Kumo of course denied all of it and demanded that Hiashi be executed and his corpse be given to them as compensation for the loss of their ambassador but instead of Lord Hiashi the elders killed my father in his stead and delivered him to them due to him having this…" He pulled his forehead protector off to show a seal on his forehead which was an X in between two lines. "... On him, this is called the caged bird seal and it's used as a means to not only seal away our Byakugan upon death but torture any branch member who steps out of line. I've only been spared so far because of how many people are here!"
Naruto pulled his blindfold off and looked straight to the audience and to the Hyuuga elders then at the seal on Neji's forehead. "I see, while I do hate the idea of placing seals on family that gives others an easy way to torture each other that gives you no right to be so hateful towards Hinata or anyone else just because they were born within the main family. I'll make you a deal though, if I can not only defeat you but win this entire tournament of an exam and have a better seal made that will completely get rid of the torture element of the caged bird seal then you are obligated to give Hinata-san and little Hanabi-san the chance to have at least one kind family member… you."
Neji moved into an advanced form of the gentle fist. The blonde smirked as he moved into his own stance. "I'll take that as a yes then." The young Hyuuga ran at the blonde again and went for another palm strike but instead of Naruto ducking he deflected it with his left hand and went in with his right hand in a palm strike to the chest.
The branch member grabbed Naruto's wrist just before the hit could connect which led to the young avenger pulling his arm back bringing Neji with it into a powerful knee to the gut.
This gave him the opening he needed to free his wrist and roundhouse kick Neji into the wall where he was once again pinned but this time by a small rock wall.
The match was called in Naruto's favor and he released the other genin before walking away.
As soon as he was in the contestants box he was swarmed by the other genin of Konoha. They all started talking over each other so he quieted them down with a loud 'enough!' before pointing to the girl who faced off against Temari in the preliminary rounds. "Yes, you with the insane amounts of weapons?"
The girl smiled. "Yeah it's TenTen, how the hell did you do that with the lightning and storm clouds?!"
Naruto smirked. "That's actually quite simple, I mixed three different advanced elemental training exercises that my clan created and that's the results. It's not lethal to anyone but it's great for a flashy and badass entrance."
The next one he pointed to was the taijutsu specialist that faced off against Gaara. "Yes, the injured training psycho with huge eyebrows."
"My name is Rock Lee, what was the name of that taijutsu style you used? I'm not familiar with it!"
The blonde had to rub his ears to sooth them after that very loud question. "Yeah first please tone it down, some of us have sensitive hearing, and second you wouldn't have heard of this style because it's been lost since the beginning of the third shinobi world war. It's a taijutsu style created by my ancestors many generations ago called the whirlpool fist due to all of the fluid movements and hard hitting kicks and punches. If I were to compare it to anything you'd know about I'd say it's a mix of the gentle fists fluidity and quick reflexes and the hard fists brute strength and speed."
Naruto noticed out of the corner of his eye Sakura helping tend to Neji's wounds and smirked. "So she's really taking her new position seriously huh? I'm glad to see she's not letting what happened stop her."
That's when Kurama spoke up. "You should go talk to her, the last time you two saw each other you completely ignored her the moment she showed the slightest amount of hesitation then walked away from her when she chose to transfer."
The blonde sighed mentally. "I know there's no excuse for the way I acted but I wasn't in the best place then and it was made worse by the fact that Haku-san continues to live to this very day."
Deciding it was best to patch things up as best he could he followed Sakura and the other medics who were carrying the Hyuuga in between them into a small medical wing.
When Sakura noticed him she took a few steps back in shock and a bit of fear. One of the male medic ninjas noticed this and moved in between them where he attempted to be intimidating towards the blonde. "Is there a problem here?"
Naruto shook his head, not even noticing the intimidation attempt. "No, just here to talk with an old teammate."
The man looked back to Sakura then to Naruto. "That's going to be a no, it seems your mere presence scares her so I'm afraid I'ma have to ask you to leave."
The blonde sighed. "Fine. Sakura, if you're even listening right now I want you to know that I'm sorry for the way I acted before. I have no excuse for the way things went down and am ashamed of myself for my actions. Congratulations on your training and good luck."
With that Naruto left the medical wing and was on his way back to the contestants box. In the meantime he was speaking to Kurama. "Well that could have gone better."
The preteen mentally nodded. "Yes but it could have been a whole lot worse, I was tempted to just knock that guy out and anyone else who might have tried to stop me. My anger may not be being amplified by Orochimaru's influence anymore but it's still very volatile if uncontrolled. I need to do more mental training if I'm ever to fully be in control of myself."
There was a determined glint in his eyes at this as he moved out of the dark tunnel into the light of day.
(Scene change: with Sakura)
Three months, Sakura had spent the last three months doing non-stop training, building up her chakra and stamina reserves, relearning how to control her chakra with pinpoint accuracy, learning how to make and properly use medicine, multiple types of medical ninjutsu, etc. She thought that if she ever spoke to Naruto again that she would be able to look at him without fear but she was so focused on healing Neji's back from the damages done to it in his fight that she didn't hear said blonde come in. So when he called her name she got scared.
One of the older doctor's saw this and stood in between them. Sakura had expected many things at this moment, for Naruto to put the doctor under genjutsu, to kill him, to knock him out in a single punch, anything but to just give up and what he said was so simple and kind that it shook her to the core. That boy that she'd come to see as a monster was not what she'd pictured that he'd become.
Tears started rolling down her cheeks. 'I'm sorry too, I misjudged your actions that day an painted you as some kind of demon. But no more, I will never think of you like that again and do what I can to help you achieve your goals!' With that she continued her job and quickly healed Neji.
(Scene change: Kage box)
Hiruzen was quite pleased to say the least, the Raikage A, the Tsuchikage Onooki, and the new Mizukage Mei Terumi have arrived and as soon as they got their they discreetly informed him that they have jounin planted within the audience and the rest of the village to join the fight against sand and sound should they go through with their plans.
Now they have just watched Naruto and Neji's fight and are discussing it. A scoffed. "Such a flashy entrance is unbecoming of a ninja, he should be here on time and quietly like everyone else."
Mei smiles. "Oh you're just saying that because he has access to lightning ninjutsu that you'll never have, it's pure jealousy. Now onto that taijutsu style he was using, he made use of each situation to keep the advantage on his side of the fight and didn't drag it on which in my opinion deserves high praise and to be promoted to chunin."
Onooki nodded with a grunt. "Yes, and that quick use of the rock wall jutsu to pin the Hyuuga was ingenious for one so young."
Both A and 'Rasa' both nodded in agreement although reluctantly on A's part. The third hokage was getting pretty suspicious that the Rasa beside him wasn't the real Rasa but didn't let it show as he discreetly informed his allied kages.
XXXAN: hello guys and gals, welcome back to the newest chapter of one difference changes all.As you can see I'm attempting to get Naruto and Sakura to work together, no idea if Sakura is going to end up with Naruto but I doubt it seeing as I've read to many fanfics where Naruto has both Sakura and Ino so the old best friends share a guy thing has gotten pretty old to me.If anyone has anything they want Sakura to learn or a different guy for her to be with please let me know.And as always MCL homies.