I don't own Naruto or any of its characters, I'm just a fan I enjoyed the anime but I love the fanfics even more, they made me fall for the whole franchise.

Chapter 54

Hinata looked at Sasuke's presence who did not acknowledge her physically even though his emotions told her he did. He seemed calmer now like all that bottled-up stress got released productively. She knew how the Uchiha's heart worked, the mentality of Survival of the fittest was his go-to response to all problems. When Naruto solved problems, he did it with divergence. Sasuke was an action-man kind of guy.

Now she looked down at the arena, hurt by what she felt coming from her cousin. His anger was now at a level Hinata felt physically. Giving her shivers at how cold he seemed toward his teammate. Lee simply smiled bouncing on the balls of his feet before bending and stretching his left then right leg.

Hinata Hyūga Activated her dojutsu with but a thought, Surprising Kurenai and Some of the Rookies who have not seen her do so before. The heiress of the Hyūga clan quickly had to place her hand in front of her eyes and look away when a bright yellow light attacked her sensitive sight.

'Naruto-Kun.' Hinata couldn't help but smile at the warmth that hugged her from the big chakra source leaning on the railing in front of her. Hinata couldn't believe Naruto would go so far for her. Her precious person loved her so much that he picked her over someone she thought was so much better fit for the Golden blonde than herself.

Hinata wanted so much to walk up to him and lean on his back, hug his waist, and never let go. Then a thought entered her mind, If Naruto broke up with Ino because he loved her, did it mean they were now a couple? Hinata blushed red at the thought of being in a romantic relationship.

'How do I even 'date'?" Hinata was now in an impasse, did she have to wait a certain period before doing couples stuff with him because he just got out of a relationship or wait for him to initiate something? Hinata only found the time the proctor was using to explain the rules perfect for her inner monologues.

'I want to hug him.' Hinata thought looking at the blonde's back lovingly with a little smile blossoming on her soft features. Hinata's posture became dreamy a second later. 'I want to kiss him and play with his hair, lay in his bed, and talk away the night. Have picnics, and dinner dates, go to Ichiraku's and have eating competitions and call him my b-boy friend.' Hinata didn't even notice her fingers begin poking each other while she got further drawn into Naruto's emotions unaware of where she was going. Hinata's hand twitched wanting to go grab onto the one just laying limp over the railing a few steps away.

'I want this to never end, I want to be able to feel like this every day for the rest of my life.' Hinata giggled out loud, making many looks at her funny. The Hyūga heiress could not help it, she was so happy she couldn't contain some of it. NARUTO UZUMAKI LOVES HINATA HYŪGA!!!

'I can't believe it.' Hinata giggled again, this time gaining the attention of the blonde who looked back to her with a confused expression on his face which she only caught an outline of. Hinata shook her head, There was no way she wasn't going to stand beside him after he confessed his feelings and then proved it by taking actions to show her that he did not lie when he said he loves her, that he wasn't about to two times her and Ino to live every man's phantasy of having more than one lover.

Hinata gave him a big smile, a smile so full of happiness and affection that Naruto blushed at the beauty that shone on her face. Naruto smiled back a second later and beckoned her to come over with his head. Hinata felt his love for her, attract her love for him like a magnet.

All Hinata's thoughts were gone at that moment and she took a step toward him. The closer she got, the tighter his love seemed to hug her until she reached him and he lifted his left arm. It was automatic because Hinata Hyūga had an arm wrapped around her shoulders before she even knew it.

She loved it every time he did this back in the academy because she was literally at his side. The Hyūga heiress brought her hands up and grabbed his left hand, wrapped around her shoulder, and held it softly. This was nice, she thought.

"N-Naruto-Kun?" Hinata spoke up softly, Neji and Lee were circling each other with Hayate having jumped back after starting the match. Naruto hummed and looked at her. "I don't want to waste chakra on my dojutsu to see. C-an y-you maybe describe it for me p-please." Hinata deactivated her eyes while she asked, with the veins slowly crawling away from her features because she already felt his agreement before she finished asking, he was even happy she did and some of his troubles seemed to subside.

"Sure Hime, leave it to the great Naruto-Sama." Naruto agreed verbally and joked or not. Hinata giggled anyway and leaned on him a little, being unable to see people around making it easier to show affection towards her best friend and boyfriend. Hinata was still confused.

"Lee is running toward Neji, pay attention Hime this match is gonna be so badass you know," Naruto said excitedly to see the match between Lee and Neji. Hinata nodded and focused all her attention on Naruto's voice and emotions smiling the whole time like a fool.

««««««"»»»»»

"Yosh, my rival I will not lose!" Lee bellowed running over to Neji with great speed, his smile was so big because of how excited he was to finally get the opportunity to fight his teammate seriously. Neji simply waited for the green beast of Konoha to get close and he did a second later, jumping up and swinging his leg from left to right aimed at Neji's skull.

The Hyūga ducked letting the leg go over him before striking with his right hand, index, and middle finger outstretched ready to poke a tenkentsu. Lee retracted his leg barely dodging the attack and landed on his feet quickly dashing left and returning to Neji's right with a jab aimed at his chest.

Neji diverted the frontal attack and strikes with an open palm with Lee dodging by dashing to the side and attacking Neji on his left with a roundhouse kick which was dodged the same way as his previous kick. Neji refrained from using the same strategy twice and instead stood from his duck and grabbed onto Lee's leg before spinning with him and throwing the taijutsu specialist away from him.

"I do not have patients for you Lee." Neji said his first words since Lee had awoken from his slumber on the first day of the exams. The Hyūga was very angry, fate had betrayed him, and fate had decided it would change for others and yet not for him. Did fate want to make him into a laughing stock, did fate want to turn him into its little plaything?

"Quit while you are still able to Lee." Neji activated his eyes and even that made him angry. His dojutsu was not even up to par with the weak Hyūga heiress, all his talents and hard work spat on by fate deciding to give Hinata an olive branch.

"I will not quit Neji-San, all my life I have tried to be someone able. Someone people can count on, I have trained every day for this chance to show what a hard worker I am." Lee's determination burned in his soul and he took back his strong fist stance. "My flames of Youth will burn bright today!" Lee shouted to the heavens and Neji tsk'd.

"Then I will break you." Neji simply said and this time he took the initiative to dash at Lee who stood his ground and waited. When Neji got close Lee attacked with a right jab, he was dodged. Left jab, he was parried. Right hook he was blocked and his left uppercut was weaved away from.

Neji after moving right to escape the powerful uppercut from his teammate took the initiative by throwing a left palm aimed at Lee's face that was easily dodged by the speed freak. Neji threw his right arm out palm open with Lee moving to dodge it only for Neji to smirk devilishly.

"8 trigrams: Vacuum palm." Lee was sent blasting away, not seeing the second attack as a feint. Still in mid-air Lee performed a flip to lend on his feet and skidded a few more feet before stopping with his hand rubbing his now sore abdomen. The pain was there but he was already used to pain from his intense training and sparring with Guy-Sensei.

"Don't sleep." Lee's eyes opened wide when he heard Neji's voice behind him before he felt a kick behind his right leg that brought him to one knee and he registered a kick to his skull that rattled his brain and sent him twisting and rolling onto the pavement floor.

Lee continued rolling knowing Neji well enough to know he would never stand still and wait for him to catch his breath. Luckily for Lee, his gamble paid off because Neji came down from above a second later in his previous position with a palm strike that was laced with chakra leaving a hand mark on the pavement floor.

Lee placed his hands on the floor over his head at a 90-degree angle and used them to fling himself onto his feet. The centipede eyebrow boy spat the copper in his mouth and grinned with his bloody teeth at his rival. It was okay he was only starting, he would not let the match end before he gave it everything he got.

"You are strong Neji-San, but I will defeat you my rival!" Lee bellowed before jumping up and high until he was on top of the statue making the tiger seal. "You are my teammate Neji but you are also my rival and I will honor you by not holding back." Lee bent over and unclipped his leg warmers/ weights and held them out for all to see before releasing them to fall.

«««««"»»»»»

"Woah!" Naruto exclaimed and Hinata felt his awe at whatever just happened, it was not long before she understood as well. "Lee just dropped his stylish orange warmers Hime, they are so heavy they left craters." The Golden blonde said excitedly hands still hooked around Hinata's shoulders where she had intertwined their fingers unintentionally.

"Lee just vanished," Naruto said a bit more calmly but Hinata could still feel his excitement, he was like a little kid at the park.

"He is in the far left corner." Hinata informed Naruto who had lost sight of Lee but she could still track him with her sensory abilities, Lee seemed ecstatic to be in this match the opposite of Neji who was plain furious with the world it seemed.

"Man you are so awesome, I completely lost sight of him and I am the one seeing things." Naruto said with a chuckle while tightening his arm around Hinata bringing her even closer. The Hyūga girl was a blushing mess at his words but she accepted them all with swirly eyes.

"He reached him, woah! It looks like Neji is now on the defensive." Naruto was about to start explaining the match but Hinata squeezed his hand, making him stop.

"It's Orochimaru, he is approaching us." Hinata indicated to the Jonin of the sound ninjas approaching them before leaning on the railing next to Naruto looking interested in the fight going on.

"I am sure you both know who I am." Orochimaru in disguise said in a soft voice that only traveled to the two genin close to him. Itachi was looking at the man in suspicion, including the rest of the senseis on that side of the railings.

"The guy who sleeps with snakes kukuku."Naruto said With a small chuckle that had Orochimaru looking at the blonde funny before smirking.

"You Naruto Uzumaki are playing a very dangerous game." Orochimaru told the blonde making his quiet laugh die out. Naruto looked at the snake Sanin seriously and narrowed his eyes. Hinata only sighed at the misunderstanding on both sides. Orochimaru said what he said because he felt Naruto was mocking him by laughing like that, why he felt like that? Hinata did not know and Naruto got serious because he thought Orochimaru somehow found out his secret through that cryptic warning.

"Naruto-Kun is not mocking you, he just likes laughing like that sometimes." Hinata explained to the traitorous Sanin who looked at her with interested eyes before looking back to Naruto who was openly glaring at him dangerously because his eyes stayed on Hinata for too long in his books.

"How would you know what I feel girl?" Orochimaru asked with Hinata able to feel his evil intentions for her and her hand subconsciously held onto Naruto's hand tighter making the blonde look at her and notice her worried expression. His protectiveness for her had him ready to throw Orochimaru under the bus and sell him out to the rest of the people around.

"What do you want here freak?" Naruto was not enjoying the snake's presence anymore especially because he felt so powerless in front of the guy. What made him angrier was the fact he felt like this before, and that was in the presence of the masked man.

"Kukukuk….. I am only interested in the son of someone I hate very much, you wouldn't happen to know who that is would you?" Orochimaru was trying to play to Naruto's emotions, due to his age, and the best way to gain his interest would be to use the information on his nonexistent family to do so.

"Just get the fuck out of here before I send every ninja around for your head." Naruto warned dangerously making Orochimaru frown at being spoken to like that. Hinata felt that the Sanin's interest in Naruto became unpleasant because of the dismissal and the warning he received, for his attempt did not even work on Naruto.

"You should watch your back Uzumaki, there are many people out there who will finally get a good night's sleep with your death due in effect by your bastard of an old man." Orochimaru told the blonde before walking away from the two genin. Naruto kept an eye on the man and a second later.

"Should we tell them he is here?" Hinata asked softly and Naruto shook his head in negatively looking to the Hokage who watched the match going on below.

"Let them solve their own problems." Naruto said with his anger towards the Hokage soaring, eclipsing the one Neji projected. Hiruzen stiffened and looked up, feeling a sudden killing intent. He could not identify its source because of how suddenly it came and went but he did look around suspiciously. Orochimaru sent his genin here he might be involved.

The third narrowed his eyes at the sound Jonin walking away from the Uzumaki and Hyūga who seemed to be having a staring contest with the Hyūga having both her hands on each of his cheeks.

He planned to understand that relationship as well Itachi would be a great source but for now...

"Ibiki, have a team approach the Jonin-Sensei of the sound genin after these exams," Hiruzen said softly with Ibiki nodding seriously and walking away from the arena casually.

'What are you plotting Orochimaru?' Hiruzen thought concentrating his attention back on the future of the Hidden leaf village. This is where Hiruzen wanted to be the most, being there and being able to experience the talents firsthand was an experience that brought a smile to his face.

«««««"»»»»»

Lee thought when he revealed his newfound speed he would be able to take Neji by surprise but that was only for a second. Neji was quick to point out to him that his speed meant nothing to his all-seeing dojutsu, that the fact he was fast meant nothing if he was still in his line of sight. That's not all he said because he was still talking.

"I am not in a place to play Lee. Give up or bring out your little trump card so I can show you the fate I have deemed yours." Lee took a deep breath and ran at Neji again, which only brought a sneer from the lavender-eyed boy.

Neji turned on his axis and blocked Lee's punch with his hand, Lee of course would try to use his superior strength to yank his hand away and Neji was ready for the maneuver. Instead, he pushed Lee's hands away with the boy losing his balance.

Neji found himself in the youthful centipede brow boy's guard and Lee understood immediately what was about to happen. Neji was a genius in combat, when it came to the two of them it came down to technique and foresight. Neji had him trumped on both sides.

"You are in my line of divinity." Neji said already in his stance. "Eight trigrams: 32 palms!" Neji struck and Lee acted, he understood that his sensei said he was not ready to use it in combat but he wanted to win. Lee's rivalry with Neji was one-sided unlike his sensei and his eternal rival who were always on a one-point difference.

"FIRST GATE OF OPENING!" Lee bellowed with his chakra spiking with great speed and force blowing debris away and picking up a gust of wind. Lee moved and the match seemed to pick up momentum faster than lightning

Authors notes...

I really got nothing to say, I can see people angry about Akamaru's death, but would you guys not want to see a different Kiba? I mean think about it a real savage like Kiba, blood thirsty like a bloodhound, brutal and efficient worse with biff against the Uchiha... I really want to see where authors-San will go with that...

The late reply is cause I got tired of waiting for that 100th hit on the favorite section of the story...

Enjoy kind of rushed chapter but next chap will be all about Lee and Neji. I like using fights as ways to build plots. For my own plans of the story because for real I plan on hitting up shippuden era and It will definitely not follow canon, I just like the original series canon even fuck the fillers otherwise it's a cool plot...

Enjoy