Naruto took one last look at the audience in the arena, as the other candidates made their way to the spectators' balcony. He, Neji, and Genma were the only ones left on the battlefield. Genma had just finished relaying the updated information about the final competition to the candidates. Dosu had mysteriously dropped out so Shikamaru had one less fight to go through, and the order of fights had changed slightly. Once Sarutobi finished his address to the audience with the Kazekage at his side, he announced that Sasuke's match would be postponed slightly since he was not yet at the arena. Naruto noted that he was feeling a strange almost familiar vibe from the Kazekage and his four assistants. Other than that the only negative emotions Naruto felt were from the other competitors, and the slight bit of contempt aimed towards him from the people who knew of Neji. High ranking Jounin and especially Hyuga clan members had already considered this match to be over in Neji's favor. After scanning the audience for a little bit Naruto by chance found Hinata's little sister, Hanabi. He noted that the stoic figure next to her must be her father. A few moments later he was able to hone in on Hinata's overpowering sense of worry. Naruto was really starting to dislike whenever Hinata felt like that, but once he knew she was watching he was ready to square up against his opponent, Neji.

"By the look on your face I can tell you want to say something to me." Neji stated in contempt.

"The only thing I have to say to you, is that I vow to win." Naruto shouted as he raised his right arm towards Neji.

"That's good to hear. You won't be able to sucker punch me this time. The look of despair on your face when I defeat you will be all the better." Neji retorted as he activated his Byakugan.

'He seems more calm, more confident. This may be more difficult than I anticipated, but the result will be the same.

"Let the match begin!" Genma shouted

Hundreds of shadow clones into the match, and Neji decided it was time to go on the offensive. He had merely observed Naruto's shadow clone assault to attempt to distinguish which Naruto was the real one. Neji noticed that one Naruto in particular had been specifically keeping himself out of his range, and once Neji zeroed in on him he charged. As soon as he struck the Naruto, the shadow clone dissipated, and Neji fell right into Naruto's trap. Neji saw the real Naruto and several clones that still remained lunge at him and with limited time he had no choice but to display his secret jutsu. Eight Trigrams: Palm Rotation.

Naruto was shot back as the full force of his blow was redirected back at him.

"What the…?"

"Did you real think you had won? And you thought you could be Hokage? Think about how many people truly get to be Hokage. They don't just become Hokage after a little hard work. They were born destined to be Hokage. Only a fool would try to surpass the limitations they were given at birth, A failure will always be a failure." Neji scoffed as Naruto got himself to his feet.

"Not this nonsense again. Who gave you the right to tell people who they can or cannot be!" Naruto yelled in slight frustration.

"It's a mute point wasted on you, but tell me Naruto what are you hiding?"

"What are you talking about?"

"There aren't very many genjutsus the Byakugan cannot see through, and yet you of all people are using one. While I cannot see through it I can still see it's there. What exactly are you hiding behind your right eye?"

Neji's question shocked Naruto, but he wasn't really sure why. Up until that point he had really just assumed that the genjutsu was perfect since Hinata had never mentioned it.

"What's it to you?" Naruto responded.

"Well I guess it doesn't matter since you're going to lose anyway."

"Oh yea! I'll have you know it actually does matter. If you're so curious then I'll show you." Naruto responded as he performed a series of hand signs.

Naruto laughed at the look of shock on Neji's face. "HOW!? How does someone like you have the Sharingan?"

As Neji shouted the huge revelation spread across the arena. Muffled conversations could be heard everywhere. Naruto could feel the disgust coming from all of the Leaf citizens who hated him.

"You must have stolen it!" Neji accused.

"Actually believe it or not it's mine." Naruto stated as he deactivated it to prove his point. "Only someone with the Uchiha blood can deactivate and reactivate a sharingan eye. The only two people I know of that have the Sharingan still have theirs. Also, thank you for putting on such a wonderful display of the Gentle Fist style." Naruto slid into a Gentle Fist stance as he finished speaking.

"Why you! So this whole time you were watching me? Copying my every move?" Neji looked at Naruto incredulously.

"Yeah, but that's only part of the truth. I watched your fight with Hinata remember, and I've been training with her for a while. I've kind of been working on this in secret for a bit now. It's time to put all of my training to the test. But one more thing before we start again. Can you do that spinny thing again. I really didn't see how you did it since I was focused on punching you in the face and all." Naruto proclaimed. He could still hear the commotion in the stands. He focused on Sarutobi for a second, and he could feel the disappointment from him. He was not angry. He probably had just hoped Naruto would have given him a heads up before dropping the bombshell in front of the whole village.

Once Naruto looked back at Neji he saw that he had calmed himself back down, and his look of confidence had returned to him.

"I must admit that your little secret caught me off guard there for a little bit, but before this event I did a little bit of research, since I was sure I would have to fight Sasuke. From the looks of your eye, it's not complete yet, you're missing a tomoe, and that's how the Sharingan measures it's maturity. You can't copy my moves perfectly just yet, and on top of that you don't have the Byakugan so you won't even know what you're aiming the Gentle Fist at. What good is a sword without a properly trained swordsman behind it. You're a bigger fool than I thought. Well then come at me so I can put you back in your place, loser." Neji prepared himself for the attack he knew he had just instigated.

Naruto lunged at Neji and shortly after the two began the Gentle Fist dance. They bobbed and weaved in between each others strikes expelling massive amounts of chakra with each blow. To most of the audience the fight seemed pretty even, but to those who had the Byakugan it was clear that Naruto's form was not very good and Neji did in fact have the advantage. It was not long before Neji saw an opening and struck Naruto in the side sending him reeling.

"See I told you it was pointless, and now you're in my range!" Neji shouted as he changed his stance. "Eight Trigrams: Sixty-Four Palms!"

Neji began his onslaught and before long he had struck all of Naruto's chakra points, effectively shutting down his ability to even wield chakra.

"I have just shut down all of your chakra points, and judging by your deactivated Sharingan, you're finished. You're lucky to even be breathing. Just stay down. It's over. I don't have anything against you personally." Neji was shocked when he saw Naruto begin to stand up. 'He shouldn't even be able to move.'

"Well that's funny, I have plenty against you."

"I don't know what you mean."

" So you don't remember what you did to Hinata. How you played on her feelings with your mind games. Tearing her down when she worked so hard to get here. And then there's all this destiny crap you keep talking about. The Hyuga clan and all that branch family nonsense. It doesn't give you the right to tell anyone they're a failure."

"Okay then, fine. Since you're so interested I'll tell you about it." As Neji spoke he removed his head band and revealed the curse mark on his forehead. He went on to explain how the main family used it to guard the secrets of the Byakugan, but more importantly keep the branch family members in check. He also told the story of his father, Hizashi, and Hiashi (Hinata's father and Hizashi's twin brother. Naruto felt the sadness and spite in Neji's heart as he told the story of his father's death.

Neji tied his headband back on and spoke again, "You see we are all given a destiny at birth, and it is foolish to try and go against it." As he finished he struck Naruto once more knocking him to the ground.

"Hold- hold on. Don't walk away from me. I- I'm not finished yet. I don't give up and I don't go back on my word, that's my ninja way."

"I've heard those words before."

"All this destiny crap, if you truly believe in it why are you the one walking away."

"You! You don't know what it's like to be branded with a mark, a mark that sets you apart, a mark that can never be washed away."

"I- I know exactly what that's like. So what big deal. Get over it. In fact, you've told me about your's, so now I'm going to tell you about mine."

"What are you talking about."

"You lost your father, and you're mad about that, I get it, but at least you got to know him. Do you know what it's like to not know your parents at all. You have always had something. You cry about being set apart from the main family, but at least you've had a family to begin with. Let's face it, among the rest of the village the Hyuga, branch family or not, are seen as royalty. Just having a stupid kekkei genkai can get you so much in this village, but you see I didn't have any of that. I don't have a family or a clan, I'm all alone, and to make things worse this mark that sets you apart, I have one too. The problem is my mark doesn't divide me and the rest of my family, it divides me and this entire village. You don't know what it's like to be all alone from the moment of your birth, and then have the entire village not just disregard and ignore you but actually hate and try to kill you. All because something happened that was completely out of your control. A lot of the people here see me as a monster and a colossal failure. I'll prove you and everyone else wrong. It may be the Hyuga way to cave into destiny, but it's not mine. If you want to give up then fine, Just sit there and take it."

"I had no idea we were so similar, but it's pointless to try now. You can't even form chakra anymore. Just-" Neji stopped speaking when he saw chakra begin to flood into Naruto's chakra system. It was different from before. Then he saw it. He saw the mark Naruto spoke of and what it was holding back.

"Impossible! What are you? I can see chakra swirling around you, or is it even chakra at all?"

"This is what sets me apart. This is why everyone hates me. Before I i beat you, I want to test something out." When Naruto finished speaking he lifted his left arm and fired one of his chakra chains. Neji had never seen anything like it before. He could see that it was made of chakra, but not any kind he had seen before. The chain startled him such that he didn't have time to react and he got hit straight in the forehead. He didn't get knocked back like he thought he would. The chain embedded itself in his forehead briefly before being pulled out as quickly as it had been shot out. It was then that Neji felt a searing pain in his forehead. He knew what the pain was. Somebody had activated his curse mark, but before he could think about it for too long it went away. He felt something was wrong. He felt devoid of something, almost as if someone had stolen something from him. As he composed himself he looked back at Naruto, and was shocked by what he saw. Not only was his chakra back to normal but his right eye was back to its Sharingan state, and more shocking his left eye had become pupiless and an extremely light and pale shade of blue. When Neji saw the veins bulging around Naruto's left eye, he realized what had happened.

"So that's how you do it. With that chain jutsu of yours you steal kekkei genkai, is that it?"

"I guess you could say that. I honestly don't get how it works yet, but I didn't steal anything from you. You still have both of your Byakugan. Now I just have one of my own."

"Well what are you waiting for? Let's finish this." Neji spoke as he got back in his stance. It didn't take long for Neji to realise that the chains had actually affected him, and that he was a lot weaker than before. Naruto on the other hand was a lot stronger, and before Neji could react Naruto punched him directly in the face, almost knocking him out completely. As Neji fell his headband slid off as well.

"Neji when I become Hokage I'll change the way of the Hyuga Clan, I promise. But until then you tell the Hyuga Clan that if they want to put that stupid mark on you again, they're going to have come put one on me first." With the last words Neji realised why his forehead had hurt before. His mark hadn't been activated, it had been removed. A calm sense of release washed over him as he lied down on the ground too exhausted to move.

"The winner of the first match is Naruto Uzumaki!" Genma announced.

The proclamation was met with loud cheering and applause, much to Naruto's surprise.

A/N: Thank you to everyone who has been supportive so far. This is where my story makes one of its biggest turns. To avoid confusion I will preemptively tell you all now that Konoha Crush does not happen. From now on I have planned to try and break away from the canon more, but this being my first story we'll see. My updates will probably take a lot longer than I have been doing. I hope you all enjoy where my story goes. I don't own Naruto.