Naruto and Kin had had a rather eventful month. Naruto knew that Danzo had kept the status quo in Konoha, and he also knew that the defenses of the village had been subtly fortified. He walked through the village, with kin at his side, calmly. Nobody really looked his way, mistaking him for just another citizen. That would, of course, be due to the henge he wore. Even the shinobi were avoiding paying him any direct attention. They moved to the stadium, having only an hour before everything began. He had to be present, or he risked being disqualified.
During the Month, Naruto had gained a better understanding of his power, and learned more about his psionic abilities. He'd learned this his psionic techniques were solely of the mind, and they took no energy to perform. However, they could only affect the mind itself. If he wanted to make his thoughts reality, such as summoning fire with a mere thought, it took energy. The larger and more complex the thing he wanted to summon, the more energy it took. Fire was the simplest, being the least complex thing that he could ever possibly summon, as it was already energy. Through a few cruel tests on some bandits that would no longer be terrorizing people, he had learned that the fire, when summoned, would also burn the mind. So far, fire was the best thing he could summon. He could do water as well, but it proved unstable, and quick to explode... violently.
As for his chakra itself, he found he could will it to do anything, provided he understood how what he was doing worked and occurred. For example, if he wanted to form a sword, he had to understand how the chakra was meant to form the metal of the blade, and how the metal would react in numerous cases. A smith had helped him learn this, though Naruto had focused on Obsidian, due to it's dark color and ability to shine when hit by light correctly. It took most of the month, but he was finally able to learn how to form numerous weapons out obsidian. Sadly, it also took a good chunk of chakra, though he could do it fairly easily.
He hadn't had the time to study much more than that, as he had focused on helping Kin train her body up as well. He found, rather quickly, that he liked Kin. She was fairly easy going normally, though she could be pushy or submissive whenever she wanted. It was a little creepy to him, but he learned to enjoy her company.
Kin had learned quite a bit about chakra control, being trained to see it how Naruto himself saw it. Rather, as an extension of oneself, instead of as a wild, untamable energy kept within her. Her control had skyrocketed, and she quickly learned to shape it into some of the more basic jutsu she knew. That being the bunshin and the kawarimi. She knew the henge, but her chakra tended to resist it a little, so she avoided learning it. While the bunshin jutsu wasn't the best, she made it useful. She could summon as many bunshin as Naruto could summon Kage Bunshin, losing about the same amount of energy doing so too. She had also learned to switch with them using the kawarimi, finding that it was easier to switch with them than it was to switch with anything. She had also learned, through those bandits mentioned earlier, to switch with other people. She quite liked doing this, to cause confusion and despair among multiple enemies. It helped that she could switch with a bunshin, then switch the enemy as well. Lead to many enemies being placed in traps... or compromising positions.
Both Kin and Naruto had learned that they didn't really seem to have any chakra affinity to the elements. Danzo had provided chakra cards with the jutsu scrolls, as well as instructions on how to use them and what to expect from them. All the cards had done was become super charged with chakra and grew in size a bit. That didn't interfere with their learning of the jutsu in the scrolls however. They didn't learn them all, but learned what they could. Kin had learned the Doton: Shinju Zanshu no Jutsu, as well as the Suiton: Kirigakure no jutsu and Raiton: Ranshinsho. Overall, she chose to be the stealth specialist of their duo, wanting to ambush unwary or distracted enemies and either quickly finish them off, or mess with them enough to give Naruto a clear shot.
Naruto had chosen to learn the Suiton technique Kin learned, as well as Katon: Hibashiri and Futon: Kaze no Yaiba. Naruto had also learned that he now passively enhanced his body with chakra. He had not, however, learned anything of the jyuuken like he had intended to. He decided he would move to the stadium a little more quickly though. The faster he could beat Neji down, the happier he'd be. He felt saddened by the realization that Neji was indeed irredeemable. But, he would not back down himself.
Entering the stadium was only somewhat difficult, as the chunin tried blocking access saying 'demons were not permitted'. That was easily fixed by outright ignoring the chunin. Naruto had come to realize that his power had hastened and greatly improved his mind, setting it where he needed to be. Or at least, where he felt more comfortable with who he was. That permanent sense of inner peace certainly helped keep him calm.
He stood with the other genin. He had already told Kin not to hold back anymore than needed. He was not concerned if she killed any of his fellow leaf nin right now, as this was an exam and death was expected, even if it came from the same side. He was however, concerned that some in Konoha would try to kill her simply to get back at him for whatever slight they wanted to imagine.
"Stand tall, you're all representing your villages here. You are the stars here." Naruto barely managed to repress a snort at that. While what Genma said was true, he didn't say it because it was. He said it to boost the egos of the genin here. Naruto idly wondered where the other proctor, the one that had been present for the preliminaries, was now.
"What happened to the other proctor Genma-san?" Naruto asked calmly, quickly brushing the man's mind to find out.
"He's currently unavailable. I'll be your proctor for this stage until he returns." So he was dead? A shame. Naruto simply nodded his head, having the information he wanted. He zoned out, waiting only Neji and he were left on the arena floor. He looked to the proctor, calmly signaling that he was ready to begin. Neji held a cocky smirk on his face, believing that he had already won due to the scores Naruto had in the academy.
"Give up dead last, fate has already decreed that I will win this match." His tone was even, and haughty. He saw no way he could lose this match.
"Fate has also decreed that you will forever be a genin, Hyuuga."
"Fate has decreed no such thing."
"Has it? Your judging me based on my scores from the academy. Is it so wrong then, to turn that ignorance against you? You didn't score as high as a jonin would have Neji. By your logic, that means you will forever remain a genin."
"I have grown stronger since then."
"Have you? Then show me, and we'll see who's gotten stronger." Neji only grit his teeth, confused and annoyed by the enigmatic genin before him. He took his stance, preparing for Naruto's attack, but Naruto simply remained standing where he was, glancing at Neji's mind to see his plans. Charging in would only result in him losing.
After waiting about five minutes, Neji got irritated. Why was the dead last not charging in? Didn't he know what he was supposed to do? Was he so dumb that he didn't understand he was meant to throw the match to Neji? Just as Neji was about to start yelling out, he saw Naruto start performing Hand signs, unknowing that Naruto was taking the technique from a jonin in the audience.
"Wind Style: Severe Wind Blade!" The wind quickly whipped up around Naruto, before lashing out as a giant blade at Neji. Neji had no time to adequately dodge, and got a serious slash mark on his chest. Neji only barely caught the look in Naruto's eyes. What he saw made him freeze in fear, as realization struck him. Naruto wasn't looking to let Neji leave. Naruto was looking to kill. The dead last of Konoha, the one no one believed in, was the most prepared to kill to get ahead in life.
He froze for only a moment, but it was enough for Naruto to perform a few more quick handseals, and launch another wind technique at him.
"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" The wind hit with enough force to send him flying into the wall on the other side of the stadium, leaving Neji to gain a massive concussion and a headache to go with it. The broken bones and fractured skull didn't help him any. Of course, Naruto wasn't done, and Neji wasn't lucid enough to react to the next fatal move.
"Wind Style: Deadly Wind Drill!" The wind itself formed a thousand blades into a deadly drill, rotating at speed high enough to create a shrill screeching noise. It was like a thousand angry tiny little birds, charging at Neji to bring instant death. The jonin proctor had no time to react, and Neji was pierced through the heart. The blow was fatal instantly, and Konoha lost a genin for it.
Hiashi was less than pleased, but he was also shocked. He had just lost his nephew to ninjutsu. To something the Hyuuga deemed below them. He was confused as to how something other than the jyuuken could kill someone from his family, but thinking on it allowed him to see how it was possible. Neji had no defense against such things, he had never used his kaiten.
The civilians were very uncomfortable with the result of the match. They had expected to see a loud, weak, and pathetic genin getting his butt kicked by a prodigy genin from one of the great clans. They had expected to see the demon of Konoha, the one they believed to be the Kyuubi itself, get beaten down. But it had not happened. They had forgotten that the Kyuubi was dangerous.
I'm going to have to end this here. I've had this at this point for several days now, and I just noticed it was here. There are other things taking my attention now, such as learning java and how to mod minecraft, and they are taking up a large amount of my time that I would usually use for writing. I have no intention of stopping writing, but updates and the l;ikes may be slow for a while.