"This is possibly my most powerful jutsu. The chakra cost alone could take down a majority of the shinobi in the village, and then there's the temperature. All the same, there's a fire pent up in my bones, and I just gotta let it go. HELLFIRE CANNON!" ~ Naruto
"You, how did you, I JUST BEAT YOU!" Neji yelled, the twinges of fear seeping into his voice. Standing before him was an unscathed Naruto, who looked almost smug at Neji's thunderstruck look.
"I told you I sparred with Hinata for two days, and you didn't think I picked up on how your beloved eyes work. For instance, I'm aware of the small blind spot behind you, which I've hidden in the entire time you've been fighting. I'll admit; it was difficult to stay hidden since you were constantly moving, but I made sure you were distracted enough as to give me time to move." Naruto admitted, smirking at how Neji looked almost ready to pee his pants.
As if signaling the changed Genin, Naruto's attire had changed from how his clone had appeared, symbolizing his former strength to his current.
His tracksuit jacket had elongated in most direction, better resembling a trench coat now, although the former eyesore orange had been toned down to more of a reddish-orange that, since a light breeze was blowing, gave the impression of flames licking around Naruto. It was left open, letting Neji see his ninja mesh undershirt, offset by the black-chain that hung around his neck, along with a small pendent which he could make out with his eyes. His pants were a jet black, but looser than standard shinobi attire, they flowed seamlessly into his combat boots. But the most startling change was in Naruto face.
His eyes now held the confident gaze of a leader, with two or three bangs hanging eyelevel, the rest of his untamed mess held at bay by his headband. Prominent on his cheeks were six black lines, thin like fine calligraphy. He wondered at there purpose, other than to intimidate his opponents.
Pushing himself to his feet, he also noted one last thing about Naruto; he had grown several inches over the month break.
"Ha, it figures you would resort to some trick in order to survive." Neji smirked, thinking Naruto would lose his cool, although had he done the same thing as Naruto, and read the reports that were in the public records, he'd know that Naruto didn't lose his cool easily.
"Tricks. You mean you don't use tricks when fighting, and you call yourself not only a shinobi, but the Rookie of the Year? No offence to Panda, and Lee, but your year must have been pretty crap." Naruto said, tilting his head like a confused animal. Neji growled, charging at the insufferable blonde.
"Oh, and now he attacks straight on like a green Genin." Naruto smiled joyously, turning Neji's vision red as he leaped at the blonde, his strikes coming like snakebites. But Naruto weaved smoothly around them, before spinning on his heel, the backside of his coat brushing across Neji's face as he was momentarily blinded.
Neji was shocked awake by this as he realized his Byakyugan had shut off, probably due to his distinct lack of chakra. Now he'd been lured into a trap as Naruto planted one hand on the ground to brace himself as he kicked outwards, catching Neji under the chin as he was sent skyward. He couldn't defend himself as a kunai came right at his face, his life flashing before his eyes as the kunai sliced across his face.
He expected it to hurt more, and so shut his eyes in preparation, only to feel nothing except the hard ground crash into him, knocking his breath out, and causing him to cough up blood. It took several critical moments for Neji to get his bearings as he stood up, albeit woozily, and glare at Naruto. He felt his cheek, not feeling any blood as he looked at Naruto with a superior gaze.
"If you can't hit a defenseless target, then maybe you shouldn't be a shinobi either." He hissed out, and Naruto smiled knowingly.
"Ah, but I'm the dead last, and who said I was aiming for you." Naruto said; spinning his finger, something glinting as the light caught it. Naruto tossed it to the ground in front of him, allowing Neji and the spectators to see it.
It was a headband.
Immediately covering his forehead, Neji's fears were confirmed as he couldn't feel his headband, and Naruto was so clearly still wearing his. The Hyuuga sent a smoldering glare at Naruto, who didn't seem to notice.
"I don't know why you even wore it anyways. You certainly aren't a good Konoha shinobi, attacking teammates, and family, getting tricked so easily, it makes me wonder if maybe my teachings, or lack of, were better than yours." Naruto smirked, bowing at Neji, as if daring him to make a move for the dropped headband.
He needed to use his secret weapon, but first he needed his headband back.
Reaching into his pouch, he pulled out a soldier pill, as well as a blood pill to repair the damage done to his body. It was no secret that he underestimated his opponents, but this time it had come to bite him in the backside. Focusing on the task at hand, he promised to take this failure down.
"Maybe if said family hadn't squandered every chance she was give, I wouldn't have beaten her so easily!" Neji spat out, giving the pills time to kick in, he could already feel his reserves building back. He almost smiled at Naruto's frown.
"Squandered every chance, Hinata-chan wasn't even given a single chance. Your elders disregarded her from the first time they saw her." Naruto growled out, his knuckles whitening as he fought back the urge to leap on the Hyuuga prodigy.
"Is that what she told you? Those lies are nothing more than the whining of a spoiled brat who can't get over her lack of ability. Maybe if she'd spent less time whining about her problems, and more on actual training, she may not have had to be replaced! You hear me Hinata, you are, always have been, and always will be a failure, whose only saving grave is that you can be marri-" Neji, looking back on that moment, probably shouldn't have looked away from Naruto, but he hadn't expected the blonde to literally fire across the field and full-body check Neji.
"YOU DISGUSTING PIECE OF FILTH! AFTER ALL THOSE WRINKLED STAINS ON SOCIETY HAVE DONE TO YOU, YOU'RE GOING STAND HERE AND DEFND THEM?!" Naruto yelled, his hands blurring as he went through hand seals, inhaling as he breathed out, a stream of fire carving into the ground, as Neji had the saving grace of bouncing across the ground for several yards more, putting out the flames, although the field was now sliced cleanly in half by the crevice.
"Don't talk about my father, you dead last!" Neji shouted from his side of the field. The new landscaping, courtesy of Naruto, had left both on one of side of the crevice. Which worked wonderfully for Naruto being able to hurl jutsu all day, but he had come into this match with a purpose, to show Neji up in Taijutsu. So Naruto picked the discarded headband, and flung it across the field, where it sunk into the wall beside Neji's head.
Growling, the Hyuuga boy pulled it out, tying it around his head as he charged at Naruto, leaping at him as he came with a straight punch, something Naruto wasn't expecting considering it went against his Taijutsu style. Even so, Naruto had the quickest reflexes in his year, in several years if one were to judge.
Leaning back, Naruto saw Neji land harmlessly behind him, only to be caught off guard this time as Neji rolled to absorb the impact, and stood, his hands in the Ram seal. "Open, Gate of Opening!" he called out before rushing at Naruto, sliding under him as he struck with a straight palm-thrust upwards into his exposed back, sending the blonde into the air as Neji flipped over, springing into, and catching the blonde in midair in a familiar move.
Meanwhile, in the stands Lee looked to his sensei in question, but Gai was stone-faced. Several seats down, Tenten was watching the match calculatingly.
"First Lee and now Neji. Was this what he and Gai-sensei did over the break?" But she'd get no answers from the stone-faced Jounin.
"So, you finally broke down and explored outside your comfort zone, that's good; if I wasn't about to be slammed into the ground, I'd congratulate you." Naruto still had that insufferable voice, and Neji smirked, leveraging himself as he flipped on top of Naruto, charging up his palm as it glowed slightly, and slammed the Jyuuken palm into Naruto, gut, knocking the blonde's air out as he was sent hurtling into the ground. "Frontal Palm Lotus." He heard Neji say as he groaned.
However, Naruto wasn't completely helpless as a sudden gale shrouded him; Naruto felt the wind claw at him, but just as quickly, the wounds healed before he crashed into the ground below, his momentum slowed enough that his vision swam momentarily, before he swung outwards, throwing Neji away, who looked confused.
"How did you do that?" It's a perfectly clear day, with very little wind, and yet the wind came just at the right moment to aid Naruto who was now clambering to his feet, shaking his head clear.
"Many people believe my power is the absolute control of fire, but that is a lie." Naruto confessed, smirking.
"What, we've all seen you control those flames with no hand seals, explain how you could do that without an absolute control over fire!" Neji demanded, but Naruto was back to his self-assured persona as he smiled knowingly at Neji, who growled.
"Fine, you don't want to tell me. I'll just beat it out of you!" Neji hissed, activating his eyes which glared eerily at Naruto. "Second Gate, Gate of Healing, OPEN!" Neji cried out, his body flooding with chakra a he sped across the ground at Naruto, who smirked, grabbing his wrist as he struck, flipping the Hyuuga in a judo throw, tossing him away, and hitting him in the chest with an open palm for good measure. However, Neji righted himself in mid-air, sliding on the ground, bringing his glowing palm up to feel where his skin had blistered lightly from the contact.
"I believe that's a point for me." Naruto said smugly, retaking his stance as Neji charged the blonde, his hands a blur as he jabbed at Naruto, the Uzumaki trying his best to dodge, but his eyes couldn't keep up with the hand movements as Neji ducked beneath a straight palm strike, grinning viciously. Before Naruto could react, he sent a rapid flurry of jabs into Naruto's torso, pain shooting through the boy's body as his chakra points were forcibly closed. Adding insult to injury, as Naruto bent over to spit up some blood, Neji kneed him in the chin, sending him reeling back, before the Hyuuga began to spin, his empowered Kaiten sending Naruto flying.
"You're done, Failure. Just as I proclaimed, you can't beat me, no matter how much you try to change yourself, you will always be a failure, and failures don't beat geniuses." Neji said; turning away from the groaning blonde as the proctor leaped down to declare the match.
"Tsk, I thought he had the match in the bag." One of a pair of Chunin spectating spoke, his partner chuckling lowly.
"But what more can you expect from the prodigy of the Hyuugas. He wouldn't be beaten so easily, and the blonde did have a tendency to spare him when it comes to crunch time. Arrogance has been the downfall of many a great shinobi; and it looks like it has a new victim." The other one responded.
"The winner-" Genma shouted, only to hear wry laughter. As one, the stadium looked as Naruto pushed himself to his feet, wobbling slightly.
"Do you always talk this much? If your elaborate, fail-proof plan was to nag me into submission, to break my spirits with idle chatter, then I have news for you." Naruto said, his face breaking into a wide grin. Suddenly, he clapped his hands once, the sound reverberating throughout the stadium as he took a step forwards, embers sprouting to life around him.
"You better turn up the heat, or I'm going to leave you smoldering!" he snarled, the happiness gone as he switched gears to his serious face.
"How do you keep coming back to oppose me. You're like a weed, just give up already. You have no chakra now, and you can't beat me in straight Taijutsu." Neji said, taking a step towards Naruto, only to step back in shock.
"How about me take this fight to a new level?" Naruto smiled slightly.
"Do you not hear me, I can blatantly see you have no chakra points left in your torso, and you look ready to collapse on the spot. The future I have seen will happen, and you should just give up now!" Neji said, slowly advancing on Naruto, who chuckled. "What's so funny, as I doubt you're laughing at your own pitifulness?"
"You ask me what's so funny? I'll tell you, silly Neji. You claim to have eyes that can see the future, but I can copy you by blinding myself!" Naruto declared, his finger coming up to flick his headband down, covering his electric blue eyes.
"Why you! For your impudence, I'll make you pay!" Neji spat out acridly, sending an open palm strike at Naruto, who didn't seem to notice, until his body moved as Neji neared him, ducking out of the way as he head butted the Hyuuga boy in the gut, knocking his breath out. Neji stumbled backwards, trying to get air back into his lungs.
"How did you?" He mumbled, only to grit his teeth as he began sending a barrage of jabs at Naruto, who weaved around the attacks fluidly, retaliating every few seconds, small blisters rising on Neji's skin as Naruto struck him.
"Grrr, I don't know how you're doing this, but dodge this. 8 Trigrams: 64 Palms!" He cried out, beginning the attack, only for Naruto to easily dodge them, knocking his attacks aside as if he were simply batting flies away.
"How, how can you do this?" Neji breathed heavily, the chakra that lingered around him dissipating as Naruto retook his original stance. Lifting his headband, Neji saw that Naruto's eyes were the same as before, nothing having changed about the blonde.
"A true shinobi never discloses his secrets." Naruto answered, staring evenly at Neji, who growled. He tried to strike Naruto, only to be sent flying back by a swift, and sudden, kick courtesy of Naruto. Neji dully noted that no burn patterns marked him this time.
"Now then, say my name. Tell them who beat you, who's the failure now." Naruto ordered, and Neji growled, spitting out the name with hatred, "Failure." Naruto grabbed the Hyuuga by his neck, lifting him into the air.
"I said, say… my… name." Naruto ordered, hissing as Neji spat at him.
"You are the dead last failure!" Neji growled out, struggling with each word as his air began to run out.
"One last time, say… my…name!" Naruto snarled out, his hand heating up, Neji feeling the building heat on his neck.
"Uzumaki… Naruto." He said, Naruto dropping him as he gasped for breath.
"I… AM… NARUTO… UZUMAKI! THE WILL O' THE WISP AND I WILL NO LONGER BE THIS VILLAGE'S TOY!" He yelled to the heavens, Sarutobi's eyes widening at his proclamation. This would cause problems.
"You shouldn't leave your back wide open, failure!" Neji snarled out, rising as he harnessed all his remaining chakra into one last strike at Naruto's back, aiming for the blonde's heart. However, in a red flash, Naruto spun around, sending his attack wide as Naruto growled out, a glowing ball appearing in his opposite hand as he spun on his heel, time slowing down for the pair.
"I didn't want to use this, but you need to be knocked down a few pegs. You know what happens when you compress gas down this tightly, and light it on fire. Combustion 101, now then, tick… tick… boom! Blistering Bomb." As the tightly compacted ball of gas touched Neji's chest, it exploded outwards, sending Neji soaring as fire exploded outwards.
Neji collided with the outer wall, his body slumping to the ground only to have the sun overhead blocked out by something. He barely managed to get his eyes open enough to see Naruto standing over him, holding something.
"You know, I learnt something interesting from Hinata these last few days. Turns out, if you were to get the blood of a Main Family member on that seal, you would lose your precious eyes, and slowly be driven insane by the nerve-ending pain. I got this vial of blood from Hinata intending to use it on you after the match." Naruto revealed, and Neji wondered why the proctor hadn't called the match yet, saving him.
"But, Hinata begged me not to do it. She asked me not to hurt her Neji-nii-san, even after all you've done, all the pain, the suffering, the insults, she begged for me to not to do this. How does that make you feel, knowing that your life was spared by the so-called failure?" Naruto asked, walking away as he dropped the vial of blood on the ground, the glass breaking instantly as the blood stained the ground, seeping into the dirt as Neji was left thunder-struck as the realization hit him.
"Winner, Naruto Uzumaki." Genma called out, seeing that Neji wasn't getting up. Silence reigned for a few moments, until the crowd erupted into rumbling cheers.