Hello again. Thanks everyone for the reviews. Warning: there's a little bit of Kakashi-bashing in this chapter. Now…ONWARD!
It took every last drop of Naruto's will power to not dance from toe-to-toe. 'Finally!' The blond shot a glare at Neji, who was only a few people away. The Hyuuga genius just pretended to ignore him.
"You there, stop fidgeting and present yourself proudly to the spectators." Naruto blinked. He hadn't even realized he'd been shaking. After a moment longer, the proctor showed the fighters the new roster before he spoke again. "Alright, everyone but the first combatants go to the waiting area. The first match: Naruto Uzumaki versus Neji Hyuuga is about to begin!" The other competitors filed away into the waiting area as Naruto and Neji went to opposite sides of the arena. "Begin!" Neji smirked at Naruto.
'He has no self-doubt. He believes he can beat me.' "All the better. I can't wait to see despair cloud your-"
"Oh shut-up and fight, bastard." In a blur of speed, Naruto charged the other boy, fist already drawn back. Neji just smirked at Naruto's idiocy as he launched an attack to seal off the tenketsu in the offending arm. Every shinobi in the crowd gasped as the punch connected, and sent Neji flying.
"How!?" Neji growled as he regained his footing. He knew he struck him! How was the blond's arm still usable? At his angered expression, Naruto couldn't help but smirk.
"Is that the power of the Jyuuken? The power of the destiny that controls you?" Neji wiped the blood away from his mouth.
"You will lose, Dead Last. Destiny commands it."
"How do you know?" Neji seemed taken aback by the question.
"How do I know? I know because one's value is decided at birth. Once a failure, always a failure. Once an elite, always an elite." Just then, Naruto started laughing, once again catching the Hyuuga prodigy off guard.
"You dare mock me!?" Naruto wiped a tear away from his eye as he slowly regained his composure.
"I can't believe Konoha calls such weak people their strongest."
"What!?" Neji's blood was reaching a boiling point.
"You bow down to an unproven idea without even trying to test it, and not to mention that you guy only employ one thing: your taijutsu! If someone figures out how to block that, you're screwed." Neji managed to gather his lips into a smirk.
"Nothing can defeat the Jyuuken or destiny."
"Oh? Then why are none of my tenketsus sealed?" Naruto displayed his arm proudly, and to Neji's utter horror, his previous attack really did do nothing.
"A-A fluke."
"Isn't that sort of against the whole 'Destiny' thing?"
"You don't know anything!" Neji charged Naruto, who simply sighed.
"Fool." The blond just stood there as blow after blow rained down from Neji until eventually the prodigy had to stop to catch his breath.
"H-how?" To Neji's utter disbelief, Naruto's tenketsu were fine, and none of his organs were damaged.
"And they call you a genius? Very well, I'll explain. Your pathetic little fighting style attacks an opponents chakra pathways and tenketsu in order to deal damage. But the thing is, if the defender's chakra is denser in that part of their body than the burst you release, nothing happens." Naruto assumed a stance that struck horror into several jounin and the Hyuuga head up in the stands. "But my style isn't so picky!" Naruto charged Neji, who only had time to raise his arms up to block before the blond's fist connected. The Hyuuga genius went skidding backwards, and when he finally stopped, his arms fell limp.
'My arms feel like jelly, and I can't push chakra out of them!' Neji started to panic as Naruto started to come closer, but it didn't take long for that fear to turn into anger.
"You're a fool! You have no idea what the real world is like!"
Gai stormed up to Himaru as his student began his tale of the Main House's cruelty. "What are you thinking, teaching a genin the Akaken!?" Himaru turned a lazy eye to the green-clad jounin.
"Oh, hello Gai-san, hello Kakashi-san." The white-haired shinobi used his one eye to glare at Himaru.
"This kind of foolishness will rob you of your students, Himaru-san." Himaru waved them off.
"Relax. He swore to be careful with it. All he did was render the little prick's arms useless for a little while. Any medic worth their salt could fix him." Himaru focused his gaze on Gai. "And hey, you taught your student to use the gates. Hypocrisy is un-youthful." Kakashi sweat-dropped as his 'eternal rival' was brought to tears, and more painfully, shouting about youth. Doing his best to ignore the shouting, Himaru refocused on Kakashi.
"I've no grudge against you, Kakashi-san, but if you get in the way of my student's progression to their full potential…" A beam of focused killing intent hit Kakashi like a mallet.
"I WILL see you dead." The sentence reverberated in Kakashi's mind, and it took all the jounin had to calmly walk away instead of run screaming. Once both jounin were gone, Himaru turned his attention back to his student's match.
"Well, aren't you brave, Himaru-kun?" The normally sexy purr made Himaru pale.
"Done yet?" Naruto said with a yawn as Neji finished his story. If he could move them, the boy's fists would have clenched in anger.
"You mock my pain!? You have no idea what it's like to lose your own father, and to have a mark that damns you to be considered lesser than others!" A sudden wave of killing intent washed over the entire arena, reaching all the way up to the kage's booth.
"Do you truly believe that you're the only one who's ever suffered?" Naruto's voice came out as a growl. "From the day I wan born I had nothing. From the day I wan born I was treated like trash. Yet you, you had a father, and you still have a family in the Branch House. Everyone respects you and people love you, whether you realize it or not." The killing intent seemed to intensify with each word until dark blue chakra began to emanate from Naruto's body.
"And now I'm going to prove it!" Naruto charged again.
"Kaiten!" Neji cried out desperately as he began spinning, and didn't dare stop, even after Naruto's initial attack was deflected. The blond smirked as he beheld the whirling shield of chakra.
"Forgetting something?" Naruto reached out and grabbed Neji's hand, the one point where he couldn't release chakra anymore, effectively stopping the Hyuuga's rotation. Neji could only watch as Naruto's fist slammed into his face, rendering him immobile on the ground, but still conscious.
"I fought destiny and won." Naruto's voice returned too normal. "You can do the same. After all, you're not a failure like me."
As Naruto passed Sasuke on their respective ways up and down the stairs, he whispered into the brunet's ear. "Kyuubi talked to Gaara's demon. He should be a little calmer now, but be careful." Sasuke just smirked and put his hand on his sword.
"Relax. Ryuuchi (Dragon Blood) and I can take care of him." Naruto just nodded and continued his way up to the top and quickly shared this information with Sakura as well, though in hushed tones to avoid other's hearing. Sakura was visibly relieved at the news.
"Thank goodness." Meanwhile, as Gaara went down the opposite stair case, Temari and Kankouro discreetly watched his back. He'd been acting so strangely lately, and he had even slept!
'Has Shukaku finally taken you over, Gaara?' Temari wondered as she watched her little brother face off against Sasuke.
"Tell Uzumaki thank-you." Sasuke was a bit taken aback by this statement. "There is an attack from my village and Oto coming soon. I have warned your Hokage, and now you should carry this information to Uzumaki." Sasuke smirked at the redhead.
"Well thanks, but for now I wish to test my blade against your sand." Gaara nodded and smirked back.
"Then let the contest begin." Sasuke leapt back and began forming several hand seals.
"Doton: Doryuudan no Jutsu (Earth Dragon Blast Technique)!" Even as the dragon was still forming, Sasuke unsheathed his blade, and just as the dragon of earth fired its attack, Sasuke unleashed a wave of fire from his crimson sword, basking the projectiles in flame. As Gaara's sand reached up to block, Sasuke was on the move, using his Sharingan to predict where any of the unused sand would rise as he performed more hand seals: Dragon-tiger-monkey-ox-hare-dragon. A ball of golden flame enveloped Sasuke's hand and shaped into the head of a dragon as he charged, leaving a trail of sparks in his wake.
"Odama no Ryuujutsu: Nenshouga (Ultimate Dragon Art: Burning Fang)!" The dragon head roared as it plunged into Gaara's chest. Sasuke's eyes widened.
'Eh? No sand shield?' Suddenly, 'Gaara' burst into sand and wrapped around Sasuke's arm.
"Not bad, Uchiha, but not good enough." To the Jinchuuriki's surprise, Sasuke smirked.
"Too slow, Gaara." 'Sasuke' turned into a log, and was right behind Gaara. Before the sand could react, Sasuke planted his foot in Gaara's face, sending the other boy skidding across the ground. While Gaara righted himself, Sasuke tried to catch his breath.
'Damn. What I wouldn't give for Naruto's chakra reserves.' Sasuke popped a pill into his mouth before charging Gaara again, this time his hand on his sword. The Suna ninja sent wave after wave of sand, but Sasuke cut each down with a swift sword slash.
"That is an impressive blade, Uchiha," Gaara stated as Sasuke came closer.
"Let's see if you're still so fond of it in a moment!" Sasuke blurred out of existence, eerily reminding Gaara of an equally eerie genin. The redhead was unable to move in time, and received several shallow cuts along his body. Was it not for his armor, he'd have been sliced to pieces.
"Blood…" Gaara took a shaky breath and tried to calm the voice in his head.
'Kill him! He hurt you!'
'It's a fight, Mother. He must.' Shukako reluctantly quieted after that. When Gaara opened his eyes, feathers were falling from the sky.
"It appears our fight is on hold, Uchiha." Sasuke reluctantly nodded and dispelled the genjutsu from himself as Suna and Oto shinobi poured into the arena. Temari and Kankouro jumped down to their sibling's side, though carefully, and readied to fight Sasuke.
"You will stand down."
"W-what? But Gaa-"
"I do not want to have to kill either of you." That shut his sibling up, both in fear and surprise. Gaara sighed as he saw Baki coming. "You will stop where you are if you wish to live." The Suna jounin stopped in his tracks. Meanwhile, Gaara turned to face Sasuke and the newly arriving Naruto and Sakura. "I will see if I can…deter my fellow shinobi from this battle. Temari, Kankouro, come. Baki, stay where you are." With that, the Sand Sibling disappeared in a whirlwind of sand. The sound of Naruto's knuckles cracking got his teammates attention.
"This'll be fun."
Short, but oh well. Hope you liked this chapter. Please read and review.