Author's Note: I have a difficulty writing this chapter. For some reason I got a writer's block on how to write a nice action chapter. What I should do with Naruto's fight against Neji, without making Naruto looks like a complete jerk. On the other hand I also had to choose who against who, among Lee, Kabuto, and Gaara, and how the fight will proceed.

Part Twenty

"You will not win! Fate decrees so!" said Neji.

"There is no such thing as Fate. Fate is only created by people who have weak will. Those who can't think on their own feet," Naruto smirked. "Those who put the blame of everything on something that does not exist, so they won't feel guilty."

"KISAMA!!" Neji dashed toward him in rage, but Hayate stopped him.

"I haven't even said 'begin' yet," he said calmly to the glowering Hyuuga.

"Impatient much, aren't you? Tut, tut, temper, temper!" Naruto's teammates sighed. Trust Naruto to provoke his opponent.

"HAJIME!" this time Neji chose to not attack him head on. He knew that Naruto was goading him. He had seen how Naruto toyed with Lee before he disabled him with that weird dangerous genjutsu. Lee was still having nightmares about it. The blond had many tricks on his sleeve and it wouldn't do to fall on those tricks.

"What's the matter? You told me that by The Fate, you'd win. Why did you stop? Or is that because you are…afraid?" Naruto suggested.

Neji gritted his teeth. "I will fall to no such trick!"

Naruto chuckled as he circled the long black haired boy. "Then show me your worth. Show me the power you Hyuugas were proud off," he grinned predatorily, before he suddenly stiffened, earning him confused glances. He sniffed the air and looked, watching a jounin with Sound hitae-ate. Naruto narrowed his eyes. He hadn't felt him after the race in the 2nd exam. The man must be able to suppress his chakra to hide himself, although it somehow leaked out when the serpentine eyed man was watching his match with glinting eyes.

"Who're you looking at, Uzumaki? Your opponent is here!"

"Just someone who isn't supposed to be here," he glared at Orochimaru, not glancing at Neji when he said it. Naruto snapped out of his mind. If he won this match, the ticket of his freedom would be on his hand. The only thing he should do was to complete the exam. He sure as hell didn't want this snake to ruin his chance by taking his attention when he was fighting. He turned to Neji. "I apologize. There is a small distraction. Let's finish this!"

"GO, NEJI!" Lee cheered up from the balcony. Tenten was giving her teammate a thumb's up.

"I'll defeat you," Neji took a stance.

"What makes you think you can defeat me?" Naruto took his kunai and used his red fire to envelope it, lighting it like a torch. There were some gasps from the audience. "Remember when I told you that my ability would be able to counter your bloodline, Hyuuga? Well perhaps not your bloodline, but your famed family technique to disable your opponent." Naruto had told Neji when the older boy confronted him after he put the genjutsu on Lee on their match in Wave.

"You're just bluffing," he scoffed, while watching the fire engulfing the sword and Naruto's right hand warily. The blonde boy didn't seem affected by the crackling fire on his hand. He would have thought it to be an illusion for the boy didn't use handseal to create the fire, but the heat coming out of the kunai scratched the idea. He knew that people could enhance his weapon with chakra, but pure element? Unless it was this ability he was talking about. Frankly he didn't see anything special from it to be able to counter his technique, unless he knew where Neji would strike.

"Am I? I admit your technique will work on most people, but I'm not one of those most people." Neji watched wide eyed with his byakugan when more chakra started to pour out of his tenketsu holes. There was a chakra build up on Naruto's body and he felt the steady rise, informing him that it was controlled. A stream of red chakra overflowed the holes, engulfing the blonde's body like a cocoon, making his chakra available to be seen by normal eyes. Naruto smirked and grinned maliciously, releasing part of his killing intent to the air. He smiled cheekily at Sandaime's grim look, telling him that he would follow their agreement, but that didn't mean he wouldn't toy with him. He turned back to Neji who seemed to be shaken up. "Oh, and by the way when I was talking about countering your technique, I didn't mean about my fire ability," Naruto said, seemingly able to read Neji's thought.

With that Naruto made the first move. He disappeared only to reappear in front of Neji 10 meters from his spot, and slashed his burning kunai downward. The black haired Hyuuga quickly took out his kunai and held back the kunai from cutting his body. Naruto's body was still in the air as he pressed his body's weight on his kunai, causing Neji to grit his teeth, because Naruto was using Neji to balance himself in the air. Worse thing, he was feeling the heat of the flaming kunai. The Hyuuga gathered his power and deflected Naruto's kunai, forcing Naruto to flip back and landed 3 meters in front of him. The blonde boy didn't seem to be irritated. If anything he was smirking.

Temari and Kankurou were shifting uneasily on their feet. That blonde boy down there had the same feeling as Gaara and his chakra felt as malicious too. Could it be that Konoha had their own monster too? They turned to their brother and noticed his bloodthirsty look, as he stared at the duel below.

"Uzumaki Naruto, your blood will prove my existence," he stated with a crazed look. His big brother and sister gulped and took a step back. This was not good at all.

Naruto smirked as he dashed at his opponent. "Challenge is accepted, vessel of Ichibi," he said to himself, seeming to hear what Gaara had just stated.

Hinata's cousin was considering his next move. If it was a normal kunai he'd be able to do his usual kaiten to deflect the weapon and then proceeded to use his 64 hands technique. The fact that his opponent was using a burning kunai meant that he had to use kaiten faster, so he wouldn't be hurt by the flame or enveloping chakra on his hand to take care of it. It seemed that the match wouldn't be as easy as he first thought. He either needed to end this quickly to avoid being exposed to the flame for long or to wait his opponent got chakra exhaustion. He was sure that the flame needed much chakra consumption.

Neji shook his head. No, he wouldn't wait. He wanted it to be a spectacular battle, not an attrition battle, in which he would show that bastard who was the boss. Fate had decreed that he would win, and thus he would face this battle bravely. If his tenketsu closing technique wouldn't work like the boy had said then he would destroy this nuisance's innard to make sure he wouldn't be able to become a ninja anymore.

Neji focused his chakra on the tip of his opened palm, creating a small blade of focused chakra.

"This will be your end, Uzumaki Naruto," the Hyuuga genius stated.

Naruto simply smirked. "Prove it then, Hyuuga-boy," he swung his kunai and let the red flame raced toward his byakugan-user opponent. Neji's eyes widened a fraction, as he dodged. He didn't calculate that he was able to throw flame too. That meant that Naruto wasn't just a short-ranged attacker, while he was one.

The flame passed by the Suna's siblings on the balcony who felt like they were back on the desert. Kankurou took a glance at his younger brother and noticed the crazy look plaster on his face.

"Kill, kill, kill, KILL!" a couple of ninjas were looking at his brother as if he should be sent to mental asylum, which he agreed with. The puppet user gulped and stepped closer to his sister for reassurance.

"I really hope he's not loosing control right now or we'll be in trouble if the plan is screwed before we even start it," Temari grimaced.

"That boy is another monster like Gaara," Kankurou said in tremble.

"No need to tell me about that," she scowled. "He doesn't seem to be as bloodthirsty as our brother though," Naruto was smirking maliciously. "…Nevermind. But at least he seemed to be able to control it."

"Better suppression you mean. If he's truly another demon vessel like Gaara, there is no way he's able to control his demon. The only thing he can do is to suppress it. And when they blow up in madness, it's not good to be around them, lest we become their victims."

"Let's not think about them blowing up, okay? I don't feel good imagining that, especially when we're here with them right now," her brother nodded in agreement and turned to watched the fight once again.

"…You know, if he's truly a demon vessel and he's Leaf-nin, he can endanger our plan," Kankurou whispered.

"…Yes. But until we receive new order, we'll stay quiet and just observe," his sister said. "Baki-sensei will tell us what we should do later."

Down in the dueling field, the fight was still ensuing. "You know nothing about me!" The Hyuuga shouted.

"Well, I don't want to know anything about you," Naruto quipped with a sly smirk. "Beside, shouldn't we, oh I don't know, fighting instead of exchanging life story?"

Ignoring his bait, Neji continued on. "You know nothing about suffering!"

Naruto yawned, as he sent a fireball against Neji who dodged it. The searing flame was still able to singe his clothes though. "Oh come on, not the angsty-ridden talk. And what do you mean I don't know about suffering?" Naruto was starting to get annoyed at the accusation. Perhaps he should finish the older boy sooner, but hearing him talking like the world revolved around him was so funny that he couldn't help but prolonging their battle. "My life is more angsty than you, but you don't see me complaining or brooding."

"That's because you channeled your brooding by pranking others and annoying them," Sasuke mumbled under his breath. Sakura and even Kakashi nodded in agreement.

Below in the arena Naruto rolled his eyes, hearing Sasuke's whisper. At least his way was better than his whole my-life-is-a-crap-and-I'll-get-revenge-by-any-means-possible kind of brood that the Uchiha had taken as a mantle.

"You can't have a worse life than me!" Neji shouted.

"Uh huh. Care to bet?" Neji blabbed about the death of his father to save Hinata's father, his duty as a branch member and the cursed seal he got. "Hum let's see…well I'm an orphan and am actually hated by most people in this village, not that I care much about them or their feelings, they can go to hell for all I care. And the worst thing? It was because of my father it happened. And I was just a newborn too! Could you believe him? Thank heaven he was already dead or I'll be the one to do the deed of sending him to hell. And seal? Well I have a seal too! And what do you know? It's a cursed seal too! Placed by my own father no less. Although the seal could be counted as blessing under disguise. It kinda helped me actually."

Sasuke and Sakura were even more confused of Naruto after he said that. And Neji didn't seem to believe his story. Many others were wondering who his father was. The Leaf jounins knew that the only one who matched his description was the Fourth who sealed Kyuubi inside him. Could it be that he was yondaime's son? But there was no mention about him having a girlfriend or anything. The jounins turned to sandaime who had a serious look on his face. They also noticed that Kakashi was frowning with a knowing look plastered on his face. They turned back to Naruto and checked him. Blonde hair? Check. Blue eyes? Check. Spiky hair? Check. Now that they were truly observing him, he did resemble the Fourth.

Orochimaru also had reached the same conclusion. He was gripping the handrail tightly. How he hated Jiraiya's student who stole the Hokage title from under his nose. Kabuto was having a thoughtful face on his observing place.

"Hm…the one whose life is similar to mine would be him," he pointed to Gaara. "Though thankfully I don't turn out like him. Sure killings are fun and all, but hatred? Nah, that's just too tiring and troublesome. Why start to hate when you can get them annoyed to the ninth hell?" he added cheekily. His teammates and jounin instructor sighed, along with sandaime and others who had known that Naruto was the mysterious prankster (all whom had tasted his pranks more than once). "Beside, hacking people to pieces is unbelievably easy. Now…making their lives hell on the other hand, need more careful planning, wits, and creativity! Bwa ha ha ha ha," Naruto cackled evilly, causing others to sweatdrop and reconsider his sanity. "Rather than being a brooding avenger I prefer to be a trickster."

Sasuke was seriously considering about what Naruto had said. It was true. Although killing Itachi would prove difficult, making his life hell where he would have to tear his hair out and let out a scream was definitely more difficult. But that was the challenge. It would be more satisfying if he succeeded. He'd like to see the day when Itachi was cursing his decision to let him live.

As fast as he had the idea, he squashed and buried it deep.

What was he thinking? A trickster? His family would roll their eyes on their graves. He was spending too much time with Naruto for even considering such act! Kakashi and Sakura stared at him as he waved his hand frantically to shoo the invisible thought out of his mind.

"I think we've talked too much, don't you think so? Kage bunshin no jutsu," five clones appeared and circled Neji. Every clone took out his kunai before red fire enveloped the weapon. It wasn't as hot as the real Naruto's fire and the clones' chakras were drained from the effort, but it would still be able to bring damage to those who received the end of it. The red cocoon that covered Naruto was now invisible.

Above, in the balcony, Gai cornered his silver haired rival. "Was his claim true, Kakashi?" the Leaf ninjas, including the genins although they didn't know that Naruto was claiming to be the Fourth's son as they didn't know about Kyuubi being sealed inside him, were listening in.

Team 7's jounin stared at Gai before he turned to sandaime who nodded grimly. He didn't know that the boy actually knew about his heritage and he decided to tell the secret out front in public where other village's ninjas were there no less. But if this was truly what he wanted… He decided to talk to Naruto about this later and also to the jounins. He didn't want Iwa or other yondaime's enemies to chase after Naruto, especially after he gave him the pass to go outside Konoha without company.

"Yes," and that caused the jounins to gasp and murmur among themselves. "And I'm sure that sandaime would like to keep it quiet," he hinted, telling them if they leaked it they'd be punished for it. Sasuke, Sakura, Lee, and Tenten were staring at their jounins in curiousity. "Sorry, but you don't need to know about it. Village's secret and all," Kakashi told his team, causing the genins to be more curious of Naruto's life and family. Meanwhile Gai was worried. If what Naruto said was true, did that mean that he had a semblance of control over the seal and thus the demon chakra?

Back to the fight, Neji were fending off Naruto and his clones with difficulty. Naruto seemed to toy with him and just as he thought that he had breached his stupid flaming kunais and launched attack to a Naruto clone, it blew up on his face, literally. Thankfully he had leapt backward when he saw there was something wrong when the clone grinned.

"Ah, yes, I forget to tell you that my clones will blow up when you dispose them," Naruto added good-naturedly. Neji was lucky that the clone had used most of its chakra to use the flame or the blast would be bigger, but he didn't know that and now he was pissed off, especially when his blonde opponent created another clone with its flaming kunai. He was on the verge of blowing up of frustration and slammed his head into nearby wall.

He was just-just impossible!

Hayate raised his eyebrow to Neji when he heard the sound of his teeth clenching. There were many who had dealt with Naruto shared Neji's sentiment of the boy.

Meanwhile Naruto was having the fun of his life. Really, annoying arrogant and prideful people were truly wonderful. Sure they would be hard to rile up for the first time, but if he knew how to push the right button it would be as easy as turning over his hand. And when they were frustrated, they blew up spectacularly. It was funny to see a stoic face turning red with veins and eyes bulging in rage, promising murder. Naruto bit the inside of his lip to prevent himself from laughing outloud, seeing Neji's furious face.

"Well, Destiny Boy, what's up? Scared?" he taunted. His clones jumped toward the black haired boy.

"In your dream!" he said with conviction. He didn't believe what he had said. It was just a ploy to distract him. "Kaiten!" he rotated and deflected the kunais. The clones flipped backward and in unison breathed blue fire. Aside from team 7 and several individuals, all eyes were wide open at the attack.

Shocked, Neji stumbled on his defense, causing a stream of fire to burn his left arm. He quickly fortified his defense and rotated faster to create a vaccum area around him. One by one, the clones poofed out, their chakras being spent on the attack. Neji stopped rotating, breathing heavily for air and clutching his wounded arm. Sweats covered his face, as his skin felt the scorching blue flame that circled him.

There was a silhouette of shadow behind the flame that was no doubt Naruto. The boy walked toward him and the fire parted on its own. Naruto had no problem walking on the fire. It wouldn't hurt him, but it would to his clothes and he certainly didn't want to burn his clothes in front of these many people. Even though it was fireproofed, it still couldn't stand his special blue flame.

Neji narrowed his eyes when Naruto smirked as if he was beneath him and he saw none of his burning kunai on his hand. "I'll show you my destiny! 64 hands! 4 hands!" Naruto deflected the hands by his own. "16 hands!" a couple of the attack went through, but to his surprise, there was an invisible shield around his body that distorted Neji's chakra enhanced hand and caused it to fail from closing the blond's tenketsu.

"I hope you remember my chakra shield. I don't let out my chakra just for show off," Naruto grabbed his wrist and whispered near his opponent's ear with a chuckle, before another of his hand caught Neji's arm and then threw him to the floor harshly. "It seems that your destiny is to be defeated by me," he raised an amused eyebrow as his 2 fingers were on Neji's throat, ready to strike him.

"Fuck you!"

"What happen to the ever polite noble Hyuuga?"

"The winner is—"

"Give me a minute to deal with him, Hayate-san!" Naruto told the examiner.

"Can't do that, Naruto (cough). The match is (cough) finished," The sickly jounin said.

"By the way, you still don't believe me, do you?" Naruto ignored Hayate. "Then let me take you to my memory lane. It's very real, I assure you." Naruto flicked off Neji's hitae-ate and gathered chakra on his hand before touching right in the center of his caged bird seal before someone (i.e. Gai, Hayate, or sandaime) could stop it. Neji's eyes glazed and his struggle was stop. "Finished!" Naruto said with a smile and stood up, leaving unresponsive Neji on the floor.

"Neji!" Gai leapt down toward his beaten student in concern. "What did you do to him?" he demanded with a glare.

"Nothing much. I don't destroy his mind if that's what you're worried about. Let's just say that since he didn't believe me, then he'd need visual demonstration. He'll sleep for…ah let's just say a week, and he'll see the memory of my first 7 years. Perhaps that will correct his attitude and let him know that there are many who have worse lives than him. If he's still the same even after this experience, I don't know what else to do to him aside from beating the crap out of him. Oh, almost forget. When he wakes up, tell him about the law. You don't want to have your student to be executed for blabbing, do you?" Naruto jumped back to the balcony, where everyone around gave him a wide berth. "What?" he looked around him and asked innocently.

The jury sighed. "Winner of the match: Uzumaki Naruto!" no one was clapping. All of them were staring at the blond. Sandaime was frowning at him, but Naruto simply raised an eyebrow. The screen then showed the contestants' names. "Next match: Yakushi Kabuto Vs. Rock Lee!" Lee smiled, but he didn't cheer. The image of his beaten self-proclaimed rival that he hadn't able to defeat was flashing on his mind.

Baki, Temari, and Kankurou backed away when Gaara's hand bent the railing. He's agitated, was what they all thought, knowing that he didn't have a chance to shed blood and would pass through the 2nd exam without fighting.

Kabuto fixed his glass. If he could, he'd like to be the one who passed without fighting, but it seemed that he was unable to do that. He had to make sure to hold back his power. The traitorous genin walked down the stairs casually, instead of leaping down like his opponent.

Naruto narrowed his eyes. From what he could gather from his clones' memories, Yakushi was a medic-nin. His chakra scalpel was dangerous. Lee was unlucky to be his opponent. Although both excelled in hand-to-hand combat, he had a slight advantage over having chakra to back him up. Another thing was his high regenerative ability. It was beyond normal. Not to mention that he seemed to have data about Lee. The 2 genins faced each other on the field. The blue fire had died out, leaving trace of burnt floor.

"Hajime!" Lee dashed toward his opponent and launched a spin kick that was caught by Kabuto's hand. Undeterred, Lee swung his other leg while he was still grabbing his leg. Kabuto loosened his hold and ducked, sweeping the floor with his leg, just as Lee landed on the floor. Lee's legs were caught but he backflipped thrice, creating a gap between them.

"Yosh, Lee, keep it up!" Gai shouted.

"Hai, Gai-sensei!" backed by his sensei, Lee attacked once more. This time Kabuto enhanced his hands with chakra and opened his palm. He deflected Lee's furious attack, allowing himself to be hit more than twice. He was surprised however when Lee kicked him on his cheek on the place where he put his weight band. Kabuto was thrown to the wall nearby, breaking his bones. He hissed angrily. He felt his regenerative ability dealt with the wound, avoiding another barrage of punches and kicks. He cut Lee's tendon on his leg when he performed a kick cleanly. Lee cried out as he fell on the floor, his balance was thrown.

"LEE!" hearing his voice called, he flipped and winced when his wounded leg made contact with the floor.

"Give it up. I know where to cut the right muscles to make you down. Unless you want to be permanently damaged for the rest of your life, you will surrender."

The weight was wearing down Lee's wounded leg. He was forced to take both of them out and threw them to the floor. The others were surprised to see the craters they created when they landed on the floor.

"I'm sorry, but I can't give up!" with that Lee disappeared from Kabuto's sight. The taijutsu user winced as his wounded leg hindered his speed, but he forced the leg to work anyway.

I underestimate him, Kabuto thought as Lee was beating him. But I won't lose against him. Kabuto was forced to reveal more of his strength and retaliated against Lee, slashing his chakra scalpel on the spot where he thought Lee would attack next. Some of his guesses were right and more of Lee's muscles were cut. Some of the cuts were done poorly. Those slashes would be harder to heal. He had thought that he'd cut his muscles in the right place where they would be easier to heal, but Lee didn't give him the chance. Idiot! If only he complied, he won't be wounded like this. As time went on and both contestants received their wounds, Lee's muscles were beginning to wear down and his speed was slowed down. Lee was an offensive fighter and his defense was his attacks, but now with his body weakened, he created an opening on his defense that Kabuto used to launch his attack on his heart. The chakra enhanced hand was an inch above where his heart laid.

"I win this match," he said with conviction to both examiner and his opponent, wincing at the bruises he got. He was lucky to have high regeneration.

Lee was biting his lip, sad that he was defeated. With the excitement over, his legs buckled and he dropped to the floor. Hayate nodded and confirmed the winner of the match. Gai jumped down worriedly and checked his student. The group of medic-nins put Lee on stretcher. One of them was raising his eyebrow at Kabuto when he noticed the clean cut that would allow them to heal him easier. Kabuto shrugged and went back to his spot on the balcony with a small satisfied smile, performing healing jutsu on his sickly blue skin.

"Wow, for someone who had failed his exam many times, he sure was strong," Sakura said. "Wonder why he wasn't able to become chuunin before this." Kakashi was suspicious of the boy who wore glasses on his face and so were some other Leaf ninjas.

Sandaime rose from his seat with a smile. "The second exam is over. The last exam will be held in a month, allowing the participants to rest and train, so they will be able to perform in their best condition. This exam would be a tournament where you would be judged and watched by the spectators. Many Lords will be invited to the exam and I expect you to do your best for your villages! This year's last match will be different from previous years. Instead of one on one match, it will be a battle royal tournament." There were whispers around. The foreign ninjas were muttering about unfairness, since there was a chance that the Leaf genins would join into a group to gang upon the other villages' ninjas and only after then going against each other. "It is hoped that with this battle royal tournament, the participants will be able to display his prowess when fighting under pressure and from all sides. It will be more like the real ninja's battle, rather than just a match. I strongly remind you all to not come late," the glance was directed at Kakashi as a warning, "As you'll be disqualified and thus loose your chance to become a chuunin. With this, now I proclaim that this part of the exam is over."

Naruto smirked. "A battle royal, eh? Sounds interesting," he said before he disappeared.

TBC…

Bet none of you think about that! Personally I think a battle royal will be more fun.

Now the participants would be:

Sand: Gaara, Kankurou

Leaf: Tenten, Sasuke, Naruto, Kabuto (though he was a spy of Sound)

Gaara was itching for blood! Man, it's so difficult to create a story of battle when your vocabulary is rather limited. Now review, please.