(A/N) And we are back. Today is finally the day of the Hinata vs Neji fight that I have had planned since I started planning the exams.

It's also a beautiful day outside so I'm typing on my deck!

So without further ado, on with the story!

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Chapter 32: Fighting Fate

The moment Genma said "Hajime" and leapt off the field Neji charged at Hinata with astounding speed. He launched a flurry of palm strikes at Hinata, who danced around each one of them, without even trying to strike back, all the while having a frown plastered on her face. Hinata broke off of the engagement by backflipping away from Neji.

Neji scoffed at Hinata's actions, and said "Why do you attempt to avoid combat? Is it because fate has decreed you too weak to even fight me? Just like fate has decreed that I will always live to serve the main branch."

Hinata's frown deepened at this, and she did not answer Neji. Angered at the lack of response, Neji rushed Hinata once more, this time faster than the last.

(In the stands)

In the Hyuuga clan section sat seven members of the Hyuuga clan. Five were the elders who made up the Hyuuga council of elders. The other two were Hiashi and Hanabi.

One of the elders said to Hanabi "Watch closely, Hanabi-sama, as the strongest branch member of our clan destroys the traitor. We have trained him over the last month for the sole purpose of showing what happens to those who betray our clan. We will not have our pure blood be tainted with a demon's!"

Hanabi inwardly frowned at the elder's words, and thought "Nee-chan, be careful!"

(In the fight)

Neji was trying his absolute hardest to hit Hinata now, but he couldn't seem to be able to even touch her. He saw no openings in her stance as she twisted around every single one of Neji's strikes. He looked up at her eyes and gasped. She didn't even have her Byakugan activated.

This time it was Neji who broke off of the engagement. He stood back and said "Why do you continue to fight against your fate?"

The frowning Hinata responded "And tell me Neji, what is this fate that I am appearently fighting against?"

Neji grimly responded "Death by my hand."

Hinata took a deep breath and slipped out of her Juho stance and let her arms hang by her side. She then said "Very well. I will prove to you that fate is not set in stone. You were once such a kind boy, and I've always wondered what happened to that boy. I believe that the elders warped you into what you are now." She then held her arms out and looked Neji straight in the eyes before saying "I will allow you one free hit. You may use it however you wish."

Neji scoffed again and said "The elders have made my mind clear. They have shown me that fate has designated you as both a demon and a traitor, and that it is my duty to end your life. It is your funeral to give me a free strike, but I intend to use your pathetic kindness to end your life!"

"Then do it!" shouted Hinata angrily, "Prove to me that it is my fate to die! I will destroy all doubts in your mind that fate is predetermined!"

At this, Neji charged Hinata and slammed his palm straight into the flesh above Hinata's heart.

Hinata crumpled to the ground and Neji turned away, deactivating his Byakugan and said "Procter, it is over. She is dead."

However, Neji froze when he heard a familiar voice say "I'm dead am I?"

Neji whirled back around and saw Hinata standing up. She had a trickle of blood coming out of her mouth. She wiped away the blood as Neji stuttered out "B-but t-that's i-impossible! I know I stopped your heart! Fate had determined that you would die there!"

Hinata gave a sad smile and said "You're just a poor bird trapped in a cage, who has been manipulated by the cage's owners. The owners have made you think that fate is not controllable and in doing so created the perfect tool. Fate is never set in stone. Fate is determined by your own actions. You tried to make my fate death by stopping my heart, but I made my fate life by healing my heart with my special foxfire!"

Neji was completely frozen in place as Hinata's words went straight to his core. Hinata began walking towards him as she continued "It was also not your father's fate to die to protect the main branch. I know the truth of what happened! Hizashi chose to go to his death to protect his family, his brother, and most of all, you! He made chose death for his loved ones as his fate, and escaped servitude to the main branch by doing so. You say that it is your own fate to live sealed as a branch member, but I will help you fight that fate!"

By now Hinata was right next to Neji, and she reached up and untied Neji's Hitae-ate. Neji was still too stunned to do anything as Hinata unwrapped the bandages on his head and revealed the cage bird seal.

Hinata whispered to Neji "If you were a free bird, what would you do with yourself?" as her right hand began glowing with lavender flames. She placed her hand on Neji's forehead, and slowly swiped it across the seal.

As Hinata's hand moved across his head, Neji felt his head become clearer and clearer. Hinata finished moving her hand and removed it from Neji's forehead. She looked Neji straight in the eyes and smiled a genuine smile.

Neji saw in Hinata's eyes the reflection of his now unmarked forehead and quietly asked "I'm free?"

Hinata responded "Yes cousin, you're a free bird now."

Neji then smiled for the first time in years, and looked back at Hinata. He opened his mouth to speak when suddenly he saw Hinata's eyes widen in horror, and she vanished from his sight.

Neji then heard the unmistaken thump of five Jyuken strikes hitting a body behind him. He slowly turned around and his eyes widened at what he saw.

He saw Hinata standing there, with a trickle of blood coming out of her still smiling mouth. She was completely cloaked in a glowing shroud of lavender (this is Hinata's version of Naruto's Orange Flash Mode, it does something different though), and her five tails were wrapped around the source of the Jyuken strikes.

Her tails were wrapped around each of the five Hyuuga elders, one per tail.

One of the elders screamed out "You bitch! How dare you rob us of our most powerful tool! I knew we should have killed you when we killed your weak mother!"

All of the ninja who were listening in to the conversation with chakra enhanced hearing quietly gasped, and Hiashi muttered "Hitomi! I never knew…"

Hinata's expression quickly changed from one of shock to one of anger, and the sound of multiple bones breaking filled the air, followed by the screams of the five elders, whose ribs Hinata had broken by squeezing them with her tails. She then disengaged her chakra shroud.

Suddenly, the Hokage along with five ANBU appeared in the stadium in multiple swirls of leaves. The Hokage then said in a deathly serious voice to the elders "I find all five of you guilty of murder of a clan matriarch, and attempted murder of a ninja of the leaf. Your punishment is immediate execution!"

The ANBU started to move in when Hinata said "Wait! I want to hear why they killed my mother."

The ANBU stopped moving and looked to the Hokage, who said "Very well. What do you five have to say for yourselves?"

One of the elders spat "The woman was weak! Do we really need another reason besides that? Besides, she was trying to find a way to remove the caged bird seal. If she succeeded, the Hyuuga clan would have been ruined!"

The elders then screamed in pain again as Hinata began crushing them once more with her tails. She then said "In other words, you saw my mom as a threat to your total control over the clan, and deemed that she had to be removed. My mom was not weak! I looked up her file. She was a jonin by 15, and she was a master of water jutsu. However, as soon as she began deviating from the standard Hyuuga style of Jyuken, you all saw her as a weak failure, just like you see me. You all are the weak ones for sticking to such a stagnant style. I've seen more flaws in Jyuken than I care to count. And yet you see Jyuken as flawless! There is one word for people like you, and that is fools. The caged bird seal is ruining the Hyuuga clan! It is only one of the many reasons why I left the clan. However, I have now started the process of freeing the clan from itself. But for some reason when I freed Neji, you all made the move to attempt to kill him. Is it because that you are scared of what he will do once he is free? Or is it because you are afraid that he has surpassed you, and without a method to control him, he is too much of a threat to be left alive?"

One of the elders responded by saying "Quiet you demon whore! You have no business with the clan anymore, so what do you care anyways?"

"I may not be a Hyuuga anymore," responded Hinata, "But I will not stand for slavery! That is all the caged bird seal really is. The seal was given to the Hyuuga by the Uzumaki clan as a way of controlling prisoners in wartime, but it is now used to enslave members of the same clan! You use it to ensure your continued dominance inside of the clan by enslaving those who you deem a threat, or just killing those who you can't find a valid excuse to put the seal on. The seal is really not even good at protecting the Byakugan, which is the "reason" that you use it. It only activates upon death, so it is quite easy for enemies to steal the Byakugan from a branch member who is living, and it's also just as easy to kill a main branch member and steal their eyes. Face it, the Byakugan is only protected by the strength of the one who owns it! And that leads me to another thing, the seal also weakens the one who has been sealed over time, along with limiting the strength of the sealed Byakugan, and the potential growth of the afflicted! The branch members of the clan are all being held back from their true potential! Without the seal, the Hyuuga clan would be many times stronger than it currently is. However, in your greed and lust for power, you have weakened the clan so that you may remain in a lofty position!"

The elders were shocked by what Hinata said, and one of them asked "How do you know of the seals side effects? We were ensured that our ancestors had destroyed all records of them!"

"All records but one." Responded Hinata, "They were unable to destroy the record that the Uzumaki kept of the seal for their archives. The clan archives were not kept in a building in Uzushiogakure, so they escaped being destroyed when Uzushiogakure was wiped off the map. Instead, the archives were kept in an extremely powerful seal. The archives were physically handed down from heir to heir in the family, and they ended up in Kushina Uzumaki's possession. When Kushina secretly married the Yondaime Hokage, Minato Namikaze, she entrusted the archives to him. Minato placed them securely in the Namikaze clan vault, where they would await the next heir. My husband is that heir. We opened the archives and found many things, but the truth of the caged bird seal was what shocked me the most. Now all of the shinobi here know about the truth, and I have to say that the Hyuuga clan will lose a lot of respect from this."

"YOU BITCH! YOU'VE RUINED THE HYUUGA! WHEN OUR ENEMIES LEARN OF THIS, THEY WILL ATTACK WITHOUT MERCY! WE WILL ALL BE KILLED!" screamed one of the elders.

Suddenly, Hiashi appeared in the stadium in a swirl of leaves, and said to the elders "No. Hinata has not ruined the Hyuuga. She is saving it. She is attempting to follow in her mother's footsteps, and is succeeding where Hitomi failed. She is attempting something that I have long forgotten that I promised Hitomi to do. She is making the Hyuuga whole again." Hiashi then turned to Hinata and bowed down on his knees and said "I am truly sorry, my daughter. I have been blinded by my own arrogance and grief. I blamed you for both Hitomi's and Hizashi's deaths, and treated you like trash. I did not ever see you as my own daughter. And when you appeared before the council kissing the Uzumaki boy, I completely lost it. I started training Neji the moment you left for the sole purpose of getting revenge on you, and I have actually started to see him as my own son because of our shared hatred of you. Neji truly was trying to kill you today, but you saw past that and freed him from his seal. You even selflessly shielded him with your own body from a fatal attack. Seeing you today doing these things has reminded me of Hitomi's wishes, and has reminded me that you truly are Hitomi's first born daughter. You are like her in more ways than you can imagine. For this, I humbly ask, no, beg for you forgiveness, even though I truly deserve to be hated by you."

"Hiashi, stand. It is not fitting for a clan head to be in that position in front of all of these people." Said Hinata. Hiashi stood, and Hinata continued "I have never hated you, father. Even after you treated me so coldly, and refused to give me praise, I never hated you. I did, however, lose all of my respect for you. I have said before that my respect is earned, not given. But seeing you today bow to your knees and ask for my forgiveness in front of a stadium full of people has proven to me that you deserve some of my respect. I forgive you for your past mistakes, father, and I only wish that you will take the initiative and act like a true father from now on with Hanabi. I will help you restore the clan to its former glory by removing the caged bird seal from every branch member, but it is up to you to fully heal the rift that living divided has caused. I am no longer a Hyuuga, and I have no desire to become one ever again, but I have always wished for the Hyuuga to become one. When I see that you have fully achieved that, you will have fully earned both my complete forgiveness and respect."

Hiashi had tears in his eyes as he listened to Hinata and he said "You truly are Hitomi's daughter, Hinata. I can now see that you are much happier living as a Namikaze. I wish you luck in your new life, my daughter, and you will from now on be always welcome at the Hyuuga compound as an honorary member. But now we have some real trash to deal with. What should we do with these traitorous old fools?"

Hinata grinned and said "Instead of carrying out an immediate execution, how about we let Ibiki take care of them for a while. I'm sure they have a lot of dark secrets that they are hiding."

Hiashi nodded in agreement, and Hiruzen said "Very well. ANBU, take them away!"

The five ANBU stepped forwards and applied chakra and paralysis seals to each of the elders, before taking one each and shunshining away.

The Hokage then said "Hiashi, if you would please return to your seat. This match is still going on." Hiashi nodded and shunshined away, and then the Hokage shunshined back to his box. Once there, he announced to the crowd "I apologize for that unexpected interruption. We will continue with the fights as planned. Hopefully we will not have any more unexpected interruptions."

Hiruzen signaled to Genma, who then said to Hinata and Neji "Please continue when you are ready."

Neji started raising his hand when Hinata cut him off by saying "Don't forfeit cousin. I will now actually take this seriously. I want you to experience just how much you were limited by the seal."

Neji nodded and let his hand drop back down before getting into his Jyuken stance and activating his Byakugan. He immediately gasped when he did.

Hinata grinned and went into her Juho stance, also activating her Byakugan, and said "I take it that the improvements are immediately visible with the Byakugan?"

This time it was Neji's turn to grin, and he said "Everything is so much clearer! I can see so much further as well, and I have even more control with my telescopic vision! Alright cousin, here I come!"

With that, Neji lunged at Hinata with even more speed than ever before. This time, Hinata was forced to actively deflect a few of the palm strikes as she danced around the majority of them. To the untrained bystanders, it looked like the two were a blur of constant motion as they moved around the stadium.

However, even with Neji's improved speed and vision, he still was unable to land a strike on Hinata. Anything that she wasn't able to dodge, she would just knock away. Hinata then suddenly backflipped high into the air and went through a few rapid hand seals, before shouting "Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!" and releasing a huge fireball from her mouth.

Neji grinned as the fireball flew at him, and started spinning, creating a dome of chakra, and shouted "KAITEN!" The fireball smashed into the dome and dissipated. Neji stopped spinning and grinned at Hinata, who had just landed, and said "Did you think that I wouldn't know the kaiten by now? I was taught by both the elders and Hiashi-sama for the sole purpose of beating you. While I now see that that purpose is flawed, I have still gained many skills."

Hinata just grinned at him and started going through hand signs again, this time shouting "Suiton: Suiryudan no Jutsu!" Many of the more experienced shinobi in the stands were amazed as Hinata formed a giant dragon of water in front of her without a nearby water source. The dragon shot towards Neji, who used kaiten to deflect it, splashing a large portion of the crowd with water in the process.

As soon as Neji stopped spinning, he suddenly yelped in pain as he felt something bite his leg. He looked down and saw the blue fox that Hinata had appeared with gnawing on his leg. Neji was very confused as to how he didn't notice the fox with his Byakugan, but filed the thought away for later pondering. He shook the fox off and looked back to Hinata, only to see another water dragon heading his way. He quickly jumped out of the way as the water dragon flew into the wall behind him, leaving a large dent in the stone.

Neji once again focused on Hinata, only to see her standing absolutely still with her eyes closed. He then noticed what appeared to be green chakra gather from the surrounding air and mesh with Hinata's chakra system.

Hinata opened her eyes as silver pigmentation appeared near her eyes. Her once lavender eyes were now a shining silver, and Hinata's tail and ear fur had silver highlights in it.

Neji was shocked by Hinata's transformation, and he asked "What are you?"

Hinata giggled and said "I'm a lot of things, but I'm guessing that you are referring to this transformation. Let's just say that I'm a snow fox sage, and leave it at that for now. Anyways, I've decided to end this now."

Neji was instantly on guard at Hinata's cryptic words, but it wasn't any use. Hinata completely vanished from his sight, and reappeared in front of him. Neji struck out, but Hinata stopped his strike with one finger. She whispered to Neji "You're strong, cousin. But you are not strong enough. Become strong so that you may protect the ones you love, and never give up. Help my father rebuild my old clan, and look to the future, but don't forget about your past mistakes. Rest now, as you'll need all of your strength later today."

With that said, Hinata tapped Neji on the forehead, and he fell unconscious. Hinata caught Neji in her arms and walked to the center of stadium. The medics rushed out and Hinata handed Neji to them and said "He'll wake up in around half an hour. You don't really need to treat him. Just put him in a comfortable bed."

The medics nodded and headed off of the field. Genma then stepped forwards and announced "The winner of the first match of chunin exam finals is Hinata Namikaze!"

The crowd was dead silent at first, but the Hokage began clapping, followed by several of the higher ranked ninja. Gradually, the stadium began filling with applause as everybody reflected on the match and how Hinata had shown how selfless she was.

Hinata just smiled and warped back into the contestant's box, where she was immediately met with a huge kiss from Naruto. Breaking away from it, Naruto said quietly "Amazing job, Hime. That went better than we had planned. By the way, have I ever told you how beautiful you are in your sage mode?"

Hinata smiled sweetly and whispered back "Only every time I enter it. But I love hearing you say that."

When the applause for Hinata finally died down, Genma announced "The second match will be Kiba Inuzuka vs. Ino Yamanaka. Will the fighters please come down to the center of the arena?"

Ino and Kiba headed down into the stadium, and stood a ways from each other. Genma then announced "It's time for the second match! Kiba Inuzuka vs. Ino Yamanaka. HAJIME!"

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And that's a wrap. I bet that none of you expected me to redeem Hiashi. Hinata also had a reason for using sage mode when she really didn't need to. But I'll explain that reason later.

Anyways, next chapter will probably have fights 2, 3, and 4 in it, as none of those fights are major enough to get a full chapter. But they will be interesting nonetheless.

Until next time,

Slice N Dicer