Chapter 14: The Third Phase

A month had passed and the Third Phase was going to begin shortly. Hono had gone to Ichiraku's and was about to enjoy a nice bowl of ramen when a bunch of familiar faces walked in. Zabuza and Haku accompanied by Mei Terumi and her students.

"Oh Hi Zabuza. I had to thank you anyway. Your jutsu were really cool to use in the preliminary matches."- the white haired jinchuuriki knew that hif he kept this up, the former murderer was sure to get enraged.

"You're becoming Kakashi. A copying monkey."- he replied. Hono had a hard time containing his laughter.

"Don't be so butt hurt Zabuza, I've got news for you. You know how your sword was confiscated? I cashed in a favor and it's mine now."- he taunted before laughing like a maniac as Zabuza tried to jump at him, being stopped by Haku.

"I'LL KILL YOU!"- he shouted. Hono couldn't stop laughing. The Kiri girls were shocked at the disrespect that Hono showed towards the powerful jounin. Well, except Mizore, but Mizore didn't give a fuck about anything.

"Whatever, I have a question for you guys. Zabuza is a missing nin and tried to assassinate the Mizukage. Why are you all together instead of destroying each other?"- he asked, turning to his bowl of ramen. The two jounin blushed.- "Oh, I remember, you used to be all lovy dovy."

"It is good to see you, Hono san."- Haku said with a smile. Hono smirked.

"It's good to see you too Haku. Sorry I put you in the hospital. I heard you've been hanging out with the Uchiha guy."- he replied. Haku blushed.- "Anyway, I'm done eating. Good luck for the Kiri babes, good life for the rest of you."

"Where are you going?"- Teuchi asked. Hono threw a big roll of ryus at the table.

"I'm going to fight Neji. That's for everything I ate here before, for today and for whatever they want."- and he left, leaving them dumbfounded. Teuchi took the money and went to the kitchen to leave them alone.

"Are you sure that he can help us?"- Mei asked Zabuza.

"He's your guy. If you still need convincing, I'll admit it. That guy gives me the chills."- he admitted, Mei almost coughed out the ramen she was eating.

"What?"- she asked.

"I don't know how these guys did it, but that kid is fucking insane. He'd join any mission as long as you told him he got to kill people."- he said, eating his ramen. Mei Terumi's eyes narrowed.

"Well, you've got your ways and I've got mine."- she said, turning back to her bowl. Zabuza got up with Haku.

"Whatever. We used to be pretty close and that is why I had you meet this kid. He is powerful enough to protect you. Just be careful."- he turned around and walked away.

"He scares Zabuza san? This boy seems like something from a dream!"- Akasha said with hearts replacing her pupils. Moka turned her face to her.

"Akasha, you're fucked up."- before turning around again and eating her ramen.

Minutes later, all of the fighters were in the Konoha arena which was filled with screams and laughter of thousands of citizens and feudal lords. Bets were being made over who would win. Hono couldn't be more happy. Though he couldn't kill Neji because of his promise to Hinata, he could still beat the living shit out of him.

Hayate was missing, so the new proctor was Genma Shiranui, a tokubetsu jounin that always had a piece of twig between his lips. The first match was between Hono and Neji. Every big clan was watching. The leader of the Hyuuga clan, Hiashi, was watching as well, accompanied by Hanabi.

"Hono, Hyuuga Neji, please step forward."- the jounin asked and the two fighters took one step towards each other.- "The rules are the same as the preliminary matches. The matches end by KO, death or my command."

"You should just give up, you know. The Hyuuga will always be the strongest clan. You don't stand a chance against one of us. You are destined to lose here."- Neji taunted. Hono smirked.

"Are you a psychic?"- he asked.

"What?"

"You said that it's my destiny to lose here, but only psychics see the future."- the white jinchuuriki explained.

"I'm not a psychic."- Neji answered.

"Good, it's better for you to not even imagine how hard your ass is going to get kicked today."

"BEGIN!"- both quickly ran at each other. Neji threw a strike aiming at Hono's chest, but his palm never reached target. Hono had jumped over him and kicked with him both legs in the back, sending him forward. Neji turned around to see that Hono had taken out his sandal blades and looked like a small whirlwind. There wasn't much that the genius could do to fight it. He either dodged or tried to attack and got hit, so he decided to do the only thing he could. He started rotating and blue chakra came out of him.

"KAITEN!"- he spun very fast around himself, making a force field of chakra. Hono scraped it various times with the blades but jumped back. He took out the 10 cutting shuriken that Higashi had given him and threw them, controling them with his chakra. Neji rotated again, but he couldn't stop because the shuriken kept coming, hitting the field, going and coming back again.

"Yes!"- Higashi shouted, proud of the use of his weapons.

"YOU FUCKING IDIOT, YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO DEFLECT THEM, HAHAAHAHAHHAH!"- Hono shouted as he pulled the wires and tied them around Neji's force field, performing handsigns. Snake, Dragon, Rabbit, Tiger.- "KATON: RYUUKA NO JUTSU!"

"WOW!"- the croud shouted as Hono got covered in fire that spread through the wires and envolved Neji's forcefield. After a bit, Neji stopped spinning and the fire disappeared. The white-eyed boy smiled.

"Is that all you've got?"- he asked. Hono simply smirked. Suddenly, the air above Neji ruffled and a fire tornado struck down to the ground. Neji dodged it by mere inches, shocked.

"That pretty rotation jutsu causes the air to shift above you. My fire disappears but the oxygen you've shifted makes it light up again."- he smirked.- "You know, Hinata told me about everything. Your dad, your bird cage seal and the rest."

"So what? Do you think you understand the pain I've been through? Because you don't!"- Neji shouted. Hono laughed and performed a variant of the tiger seal that only had his right index finger up. He closed his right eye and opened it, showing it was completely white.

"Byakugan!"- everyone in the arena gasped.

"What the hell? Who are you?"- Hono then closed his left eye and performed the actual tiger handsign. He opened his left eye to reveal a red pupil with three tomoe.

"Sharingan!"- he said. Everyone was silent, looking at the boy with the white and red eyes.

"You think that you've got it so hard because you're in the secondary branch of the Hyuuga family? You think your life sucks so much just because your father died?"- Hono asked him, with a sarcastic smirk.

"My father was murdered!"- Neji replied, furious.

"No. Your father volunteered to die so that your uncle wouldn't. I've read on it and I've confirmed its truth. Your father said that volunteering for death was the only free action he could have done in his life. So don't bitch around. You don't know what others have been through."- Hono explained, looking at Neji straight in the eyes.

"Who the fuck are you?"- he shouted, getting ready to fight.

"I am the only member of the Hyuuga's Third Branch and one of the two surviving members of the Uchiha family."- the arena was quiet, eyes either set on Hiashi or on Hono.

"W-What? That doesn't exist! You're lying!"- Neji ran towards Hono and tried to hit him with a palm strike, but was deflected. They engaged in a Gentle Fist fight.- "How? Only members of the Hyuuga clan can fight the Gentle Fist!"

"Exactly."- he replied, kicking Neji and making him fall on his back.- "In December 12th of 1997, the Third Branch of the Hyuuga family was created. I was born. Your father, Hizashi and your uncle Hiashi had a younger brother, Hirachi, my father. Your father and uncle married normal people, no one with a distinctive blood line. My father was different. He married my mother, Uchiha Lana. His father and my mother's father found out about it. They called the conjoinment of the eyes an abomination and killed both of my parents with a single blow before me. They were about to end my life when they received a message, saying that the Kyuubi's host died and they needed someone to seal it in. Two light bulbs appeared over their heads as they decided that an abomination like me was fit to host such a demon. I was set apart from the family and they destroyed any evidence that ever existed regarding the Third Branch. I was forced to live on the streets and scrape garbage bins for food. I was beaten up more times than I could ever count and these damn eyes keep reminding me of it. As you can see, I was born to be a loser and a renegade, yet I am here, overcoming someone that should be above me."

"AAAAAAH!"- Neji shouted, spinning and creating the rotation again. Hono quickly jumped up and was about to fell on top of Neji's rotation when he rotated himself, creating another Kaiten technique. Both clashed and continued to spin, sending sparks everywhere.

"WOW!"- the crowd shouted.

"Impossible!"- Hiashi shouted. The two Kaitens were still sending sparks as they clashed but suddenly, it shined more and more until it actually hurt to look. After a moment, it exploded. The shockwave was so strong that most people had to grip something to not be blown away. After a bit, the dust settled. Neji was slowly standing up and Hono was grinning, looking down at him.

"I-Impossible..."- the Second Branch offspring muttered.

"The only person that determines how far you can go, is yourself."- Hono said, getting into a stance where his left leg and arm were in the front, his arm pointing down, and his right arm and leg were behind, the arm pointing to the sky. Hiashi stood up.

"How did you learn that?"- he shouted. Hono looked at him and smiled before looking at Neji again.

"Jukenho: Hakke Rokujuyon Sho!"- everything turned black and white for Hono and he could see in almost 360 degrees with both of his eyes in Byakugan. He spun and hit Neji twice at the same time.- "TWO BLOWS!"

"GAAH!"- his opponent yelled. He spun again and hit him twice two times.

"FOUR BLOWS!"- and on went a massacre.- "EIGHT BLOWS! SIXTEEN BLOWS! THIRTY TWO BLOWS, SIXTY FOUR BLOWS!"

"GAH!"- Neji yelled again, being sent flying away, tumbling on the ground. Genma approached him, but he managed to get up, even if shaking and trembling.

"Your tenketsu are closed, you can't use chakra at all. It is over."- Hono slowly walked towards him, spun and blasted him away with his gloves. Neji crashed against a wall and fell down, using his remaining energy to turn around and look at the sky. Hono approached him.- "You say that the Main Branch rules over you. I ask you one thing, has Hinata ever used the bird cage seal on you?"

"Your winner, Hyuuga Hono."- Genma announced as Neji fell into unconsciousness. Hono walked up the stairs to cross paths with Shino.

"Are you ok?"- the Aburame offspring asked. Hono sighed.

"I've never been ok in my life."- Hono replied.

"I see."- Shino started walking towards the arena.

"Shino, the less there are of them, the best for us."- Hono advised.

"Yeah, I know."- Shino went on to the arena's center as Hono approached the Sand siblings. Everyone in the arena had a sad look on their faces, hearing Hono's story, except for Shikamaru who was merely contemplating, Gaara, who knew how hard being a jinchuuriki could be and Akasha who was smiling.

"The plan has been created. The Sand nin will support the Leaf nin and erradicate the Sound nin. The Snake will not go unpunished for killing our father."- Temari muttered to him. Hono placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I'll make sure he won't."- he said, kissing her cheek and walking away. He looked down to see Shino avoid Dosu's attack and disappearing into a mist of bugs as his enemy used a soundwave. Dosu looked around to spot his opponent but was suddenly struck with a realization. He turned around to see the bugs turn into Shino as he punched Dosu's gut, piercing him with his tiny spikes and injecting bugs into him. This time, though, Shino didn't snap his fingers. He rose his hand and the insects inside of Dosu flapped their wings. There were so many of them inside him that he started flying. After he reached a certain altitude, Shino simply lowered his hand and Dosu fell down, crashing to the ground and dying. Shino didn't even wait for Genma to name him winner before going back up. Hono approached Temari and Shikamaru.

"Go as far as you two can without killing each other. If the snake gets suspicious, we'll never get a shot at him again."- both nodded their heads and headed down. Their match was amazing. The crowd didn't like it much, but the intelligent viewers loved it. It was very strategic. Shikamaru barely won.

After a ten minute break, Gaara and Sasuke walked down to the arena. The match was interesting. Sasuke put out a few Katon jutsus that Gaara managed to block with his sand, but after a bit, Gaara made a shell around him, more specifically a sand globe. This granted Sasuke the opportunity to use Chidori, the jutsu Kakashi had taught him. He managed to avoid Gaara's defense strikes and stuck the lightning punch right through the globe before taking out his blood covered hand.

"MY BLOOD!"