Nawaki watched as Hizashi and Obito faced off. There was an air of tension in the arena. Even Shikamaru looked worried as he declared the start of the match. Most of the spectators looked just as confused as Nawaki felt, but he noticed that some of them had worried or understanding looks. Apparently, Konoha had yet another secret regarding the Hyuga.

Hisa came to stand next to him on the balcony. She sighed as she saw who was fighting, and shook her head regretfully. That was more than Nawaki could take.

"What's going on?" he demanded.

Hisa kept her eyes focused on her brother as she replied.

"Family issues. It looks like everyone's going to find out anyways. I'm glad it was Obito instead of me. He can probably handle this."

"Handle what?" Nawaki asked, annoyed by her vagueness.

"You'll find out soon enough." she replied mysteriously.

Nawaki knew that there was no point arguing with Hisa. When she didn't want to talk, she wouldn't talk. If you tried to make her, you usually ended up with your head in a wall. Nawaki turned back to look at the two Hyuga. Neither had made a move since the match had started. Obito was the first one to speak.

"Hizashi." he said quietly. "Fight me please. Don't quit before it's even begun."

Hizashi kept his face expressionless, but there was a hint of anger in his voice when he replied.

"What's the point in fighting you?" he asked "You're the Hokage's son, a prodigy. I'm a simple branch family member with skills that are barely good enough to graduate. It's my destiny to lose to you."

Nawaki sighed. Apparently preaching about fate ran in the family.

"Don't be like this." Obito pleaded. "My dad failed the academy graduation exam tons of times and now he's the Hokage. Your dad was a prodigy like me, but Naruto still beat him in the exams."

Hizashi snorted.

"Yes, I'm sure he was brilliant. He lost to the class failure! Besides, if he was so good then how come he died in the war? Surely if he was so talented he could have avoided a few kunai."

Nawaki was confused by this. Kunai? Didn't Hizashi know that Neji died protecting Hinata and Naruto? What was going on here?

Apparently, Obito had the same questions.

"How much did your mother tell you about Neji?" he asked quietly.

Hizashi scowled.

"She told me enough. He was a fool who got my mother pregnant at seventeen then died uselessly before I was born."

Obito kept his face calm but Nawaki could see his fists shaking. Obito was angry, at who, Nawaki didn't know.

"Did she say that?" Obito asked in a dangerously quiet tone.

"Not exactly." Hizashi replied carelessly. "She doesn't like to talk about him, which is understandable. But she told me enough for me to get the picture. He failed her, and created me. I was born a failure, and I will always be one."

"You're wrong." Obito said "Your father never failed anyone. If you knew what he did for my family then you wouldn't speak about him like that."

Nawaki could see that Hizashi wasn't going to agree. His face had gone back to the blank mask. Hizashi raised his hand, trying to signal the proctors.

"Wait!" Obito said quickly. "Please, just fight me. It doesn't matter if you win or lose, you'll still have more dignity then just quitting."

Hizashi laughed bitterly and pointed to his forehead.

"I'm forced to walk around every day with a neon green x tattooed on my forehead. You try having dignity with this."

"Please." Obito said again "If you won't do it for yourself, do it for your mom. She's watching you right now."

Obito seemed to have struck a nerve. Hizashi rushed at Obito and Obito barely dodged the strike.

"Shut up!" Hizashi snarled "What do you know about my family? Just 'cause your mom's the head of the clan doesn't mean you own us!"

Obito dodged another strike. Nawaki had never seen Hizashi so angry. He was holding nothing back. But Obito was still too fast for Hizashi to hit.

"My mom has never acted like she's better than you." Obito said quickly when Hizashi paused to catch his breath. "The reason I'm trying to get you to fight me is because I care for you. You're my family."

"Why should I care about family?" Hizashi asked, aiming another blow at Obito. "I don't want to be a Hyuga, especially not Neji Hyuga's son. To me, my only family is my mother."

"Why?" asked Obito. "Why do you act like this? I'd understand if you're mad at my family for what happened to Neji, but instead you seem to be mad at Neji for dying!"

"Of course I'm mad at him!" Hizashi screamed "I'm furious! Do you have any idea what my mother went through because of him? She loved him, and he left her alone with a bastard child. And because he was a Hyuga, there was a huge scandal. You have no idea what my life has been like!"

Nawaki could see Obito getting more and more confused. It seemed like neither Obito nor Hizashi knew the full story. But Nawaki could think of one person who might know exactly what was going on.

!

Hinata watched worriedly from the Kage's family area. Matsuri stood next to her, looking just as confused as most of the audience.

"What the hell are those two talking about?" she asked.

Hinata sighed, watching her son try and reason with Hizashi.

"To be honest, I'm not sure myself. If I'm going to figure this out, I need to find someone and it needs to be private."

They glanced at the guards assigned to protect them. Two of them were playing rock paper scissors, and one of them was asleep. Only the fourth guard, a Hyuga, was actually paying attention to his charges.

"Get going." muttered Matsuri "I'll cover for you."

She walked over to the Hyuga and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Excuse me, could you show me the way to the bathroom?"

Once the two of them had left, Hinata slipped quietly over the railing. The two guards were engrossed in their game and didn't notice her leave.

Once she was hidden in the crowd, she activated her byakugan and scanned the crowd for a familiar face. Her old teammates Kiba and Shino were there, along with Kiba's sister. She looked further and further until she found the person she was looking for. She deactivated her eyes and slipped through the crowd.

Once she had found her target, it was easy to slip into the empty seat next to her. Tenten kept her eyes focused on the match, but Hinata knew she had noticed her.

"Hello Tenten." she started.

Tenten barely glanced at her.

"Hey Hinata, shouldn't you be with Matsuri?"

"Yes." Hinata agreed "But I couldn't help wondering why your son is so… unhopeful about fighting Obito. I was also wondering why he seems to think of Neji as a huge villain."

Tenten sighed, finally taking her eyes off the match.

"To be honest, I've been wondering that myself for some time now. I don't talk much about N…Neji, but I've never been bitter about him. At least, not in front of anyone, especially not Hizashi."

"Then why is he so angry at Neji, and why doesn't he seem to have any self-confidence?"

Hinata pretended not to notice the way Tenten winced everytime Neji's name was mentioned. The day Neji died, Hinata had lost her big brother. But Tenten had lost more than that. Hinata knew that Tenten was an orphan. Neji, Lee and Gai had been her only family. But there had always been more between Neji and Tenten than just friends. If you asked Hinata, Neji and Tenten had been soulmates. She had seen the way her cousin had acted around Tenten. If they weren't soulmates, then they were definitely lovers. Now, even though fifteen years had passed, Tenten still had a haunted look in her eyes, a look Hinata had seen many times on both Sasuke and Kakashi.

But this was all old news to Hinata. Right now, she needed to figure out what was wrong with Hizashi and Tenten was the only one with the answers.

"Hizashi isn't a very… talented shinobi. He has his strengths, but the Byakugan isn't one of them. He feels like he's a waste of space, and he's just a kid. When you're angry about your own faults, it's easy to find someone to blame. Especially someone who isn't around to defend himself."

Hinata thought about Tenten's explanation. It did make some sense.

"So you're saying Hizashi is ashamed at his lack of talent, and he vents his frustration by blaming it on his father?"

Tenten nodded, her eyes back to watching the match.

"I think that's part of it. The other part is probably my fault. I've given him the wrong impression of Neji. I thought he wouldn't notice how sometimes people were hard on us, but he did and came up with the wrong conclusion."

"Why didn't you tell him that Neji died protecting me and Naruto?" Hinata asked.

Tenten smiled sarcastically, but there was no real malice behind her words.

"That worked out great for your dad last time with Neji didn't it? If I told him his father died protecting you, the clan leader, he might hold a grudge against you."

"Do you?" Hinata asked quietly "Do you hold a grudge against us?"

Tenten's eyes widened and she looked at Hinata in disbelief.

"Why the hell would I hold a grudge against you? I understand why Neji did it, and I definitely have a grudge against that Obito Uchiha guy-I don't care if Naruto thinks he's changed- but I'm not stupid enough to hold a grudge against you for being alive. I'll try and talk to Hizashi after the Exams."

The crowd roared and Hianta watched as Obito struck back, hitting sixteen of Hizashi's chakra points in one go.

"I'm not sure you'll need to." she said as she watched her son "Obito's a good kid, he can handle Hizashi for now. I'll have a talk with Hisa as soon as possible and explain this to her. Hopefully she can help too."

Tenten nodded. She looked back down to where her son was fighting his heart out.

"Neji knew what he was doing." she said calmly "Hizashi's not a bastard. He's the only piece of Neji I have left."

Hianta didn't know what to say to that, so she left quickly. Her next mission was to find Hisa. Hisa would need to know the full story about Hizashi, and Obito too when he finished the match.

!

Nawaki's eyes were glued to the field. Ever since Hizashi had gotten angry, the match had gotten a lot more intense. Obito kept trying to reason with Hizashi, but in the end he was forced to focus fully on the fight.

Both Hyugas were fighting with the Gentle Fist. Obito moved quickly and his strikes were deadly. Nawaki could see why people called him a prodigy. Hizashi on the other hand, was fuelled mainly by anger. He struck wildly, not caring how much damage he took as long as he managed to hit Obito, which happened about half the time.

Nawaki knew something was wrong when Oki started mumbling about déjà vu again. Sure enough, as Hizashi stuck out his arm in a messy attempt to hit Obito, Obito grabbed his arm and held it firm between his two hands. He pulled back the sleeve of Hizashi's long sleeved black top. Several red marks were visible underneath the skin.

"I've cut off all your chakra points in your right arm. Are you sure you want to keep fighting?" Obito was staring at Hizashi with unreadable eyes. It was as if Hizashi was doing some kind of personal test. He stared back at Obito for a minute, then he nodded slowly.

"I'll keep fighting." he said, pulling his arm out of Obito's grasp "What do I have left to lose?"

Obito gave a small, proud smile and suddenly Nawaki realised exactly what kind of test Obito had been giving Hizashi. Even though Hizashi fully believed that he was going to lose, he would still keep fighting.

The two of them rushed at each other again, and after that it became a flurry of fists, feet and heads. They moved so fast Nawaki almost activated his sharingan to keep up with them. After a few minutes someone nudged him on the shoulder. He turned to see Oki looking apologetically at him.

"Hisa and I have to go for a while." she said "Our mom's want to talk to us."

Nawaki nodded and they walked away, leaving him on his own by the railing. He understood why Ino wanted to speak to Oki, but why did Hinata want to talk to Hisa? Did it have something to do with the match?

The match in question was almost over. Hizashi was trying his best, which was strange enough considering his attitude at the start of the match. Nawaki tried to think back to when Hizashi had snapped. It had something to do with Obito mentioning Tenten. Did Hizashi think his mother wasn't proud of him? That didn't seem like the Tenten of Sakura's stories.

Suddenly, Nawaki noticed a commotion down on the field. Obito had managed to pin Hizashi to the ground, and his chakra covered hand was hovering inches away from Hizashi's heart. The two boys were locked in a staring contest.

"Do it." Hizashi said "I know that it's my fate to lose to you, just like it was my father's fate to die uselessly and my mother's fate to be cursed with a bastard child. You can't fight things like that."

Obito stared down at Hizashi for a few minutes, before pulling back and standing up.

"I forfeit." Obito declared loudly.

There was a shocked silence around the arena. Not one person could believe their ears. Why on earth would he forfeit when he had basically won the match.

However, Obito had forfeited and Shikamaru had no choice but to declare Hizashi the winner. Nawaki watched as Hizashi got shakily to his feet, staring at Obito in shock.

"Why… why did you do that?"

Obito looked at him, and the intensity of his gaze made Hizashi take a step back.

"I owe your father everything." Obito said quietly "This is my way of paying him back."

Nawaki understood what Obito was talking about, but Hizashi was completely confused.

"What are you talking about?"

Obito turned and left the field, making his way quickly back to the balcony. Nawaki helped him climb inside. What was the point of the stairs when most of the competitors just jumped off the balcony?

Nawaki jumped when he heard a groan behind him. He turned around to see Hisa glaring at Obito.

"Why didn't you just tell him there and then?" she said angrily "Now I have to try and make him see sense. In case you haven't noticed, I'm not really a people person!"

Obito sighed wearily, running his fingers through his messy black hair.

"It wasn't the right time." he said "Besides, he'll probably lose before he has to face you. If he doesn't, I'm sure you'll do fine.

Nawaki sighed and turned away. All this confusing secret stuff was making him really annoyed. Half of the time he couldn't follow what was going on, and most of their reactions made no sense to him. Stupid Hyugas.

He turned around and watched as the next two names were chosen. There were only five of them left.

Would he be next?