Naruto climbed the last step to his teammates still beaming from his win. The moment he saw their grinning faces, he let out a whoop and raced towards them, getting a return whoop from Sakura and a quiet laugh from Sasuke and Kakashi.

He was shocked when Sakura picked him up bodily and gave him a hug. Sure, it was obviously a friend hug, not a friend friend hug, but it felt good none the less, and he returned it cheerfully. When she set him back down, he found Sasuke standing there, fist out. "That was a good fight, dobe," he said, with a degree of sincerity that Naruto had never heard from the Uchiha.

He bumped fists with Sasuke, giving him an even wider grin. "Thanks, Teme." Sasuke's eyes sparkled with mirth at the cheerful and insolent insult. Man, what a good day I'm having, he thought. My team kicked butt, we're all heading for the finals, and I nailed Shikamaru so good in a fight. I'll be dreaming about the look on Shika's face when that clone had caught him unawares for months.

Naruto turned when he heard the sound of Akamaru barking loudly and looked at the board. His eyes lit up as he saw the names.

Inuzuka Kiba and Akimichi Choji.

Kiba was already on the floor, grinning and standing in his tough guy pose. The fluffy edged gray jacket did little to help his tough guy persona. Neither did Akamaru, his little puppy companion, who was flopped over his head like some sort of boneless puppy hat, yipping every few seconds and wagging his tail.

Choji did not look nearly as enthused. He had decided to take the stair, and even as he made his way to the center of the arena he continued to munch rapidly on a bag of potato chips. Compared to the muscular and strident Kiba, Choji looked like a chubby, dumpy little boy wearing his dad's oversized clothing, but the way he was eating had an almost rodent-like ferocity to it.

"Kiba's got this in the bag," said Sakura cheerfully as she leaned over the railing to watch. Behind her, Naruto gave Sasuke a cheesy grin and rubbed his forefinger and thumb together and nodded at Sakura. Sasuke got the message, and while he wasn't sure about the odds, Naruto of all people should be good at spotting long shot winners. Why not?

"If you're so sure about that," said Sasuke, leaning over to match Sakura's pose exactly, "Maybe you want to bet on it? I think Choji might have a chance."

Sakura looked at him, eyebrows raised in surprise. "What's the terms?"

Sasuke opened his mouth, then closed it. What the hell could they bet? Neither one of them was swimming in cash, and neither one of them was poor, so money had no special value. And as far as he knew, there was nothing he wanted from her, or her from him. In the end, he shrugged. "What terms do you want?"

She grinned with far too many teeth at that. "Ino would kill me if I used that opening to press for a date, and so would you, I think." Sasuke frowned, and she gave him a playful wink. "Instead, let's bet on what we both will want soon. Time."

"Time?" asked Naruto.

Sakura nodded. "We're all going to be training like crazy until the finals. We'll need all the time we can get. So until the finals, loser does the winner's housework. All the cleaning and shit we have to do to keep our homes operating reasonably. I win, and Sasuke does the household chores I am normally given by my parents. Sasuke wins, and I have to clean his house, or whatever it is he does with his home."

Sasuke only needed a moment to think about it, but it seemed like a good deal to him… if he won. He had a small apartment on the edge of the old Uchiha compound, a small thing that served as a place to eat and sleep when not training. He was fairly orderly, but not insanely so. If he won, she'd have some work to do, but not a particularly onerous amount, and he'd have that much more time to practice.

If he won. His eyes flickered slightly in Naruto's direction, and the boy shot him a discreet thumbs up.

"Deal," he said, settling down to watch while Sakura grinned like a bandit.

Down on the floor, Hayate had an arm out as he prepared to start the fight. He asked Kiba if the boy was ready, and he gave a lazy stretch. "Yeah, I guess if chubby here is ready to get his ass beat, I'm ready too."

Hayate looked at Choji and was about to speak, when he heard the voice of the orange genin, Naruto, calling out from the side. "Hey, Choji," he shouted cheerfully, "Did Kiba just call you fat?" A few feet away, Shikamaru ran a hand over his face, partially to hide a grin. He'd been trying to figure out how to gracefully get his friend worked up, but sometimes the most graceless of people can be effective too.

Hayate looked at Choji, slightly confused, just in time to see the bag of chips explode in the boy's hand as he made a fist. "Start the match," he said, his face going red. Hayate nodded and lifted his hand. "Begin!"

Kiba was ready to shout back at Naruto for putting words in his mouth, but he was suddenly too busy. Choji inflated into a perfectly spherical shape, his limbs and head hidden within, and began spinning. Kiba had seen this transformation before, but seeing it chasing down a enemy was quite different from seeing it from the front end. Kiba threw himself to the side, allowing Akamaru to jump away as well, and he heard the pavement crunching on the floor as Choji passed.

Kiba stood and dusted himself off, watching as Choji made a wide turn and raced back at him. This time, Kiba dodged in a more timely fashion, watching carefully as Choji tried and failed to veer in his direction. Easy win, Kiba thought ferally.

"Fine! You wanna play ball!" He dropped to all fours, flooding his body with chakra and using it to force his nail to grow into sharp talons. "We're good at it!" He whistled, and Akamaru jumped over to join him, landing on his back and yipping. "Let's do it, Akamaru! Human Beast Clone!"

With a puff of smoke, Akamaru turned into an exact copy of Kiba, down to the feral claws on his hands. With matching snarls, both lunged into the attack. Choji chose one to focus on, rolling as fast as he could, but even as he did so, the other hit him from the side, sending the human ball bouncing and tumbling across the arena. One of the Kiba let out a howling laugh, then turned to the other and said, "Akamaru, fetch!"

The other clone nodded and chased after the clone, moving at an incredible speed for a genin, although not as fast as Lee could. He dashed past Choji, then turned and delivered another strike, sending the spinning back back to Kiba.

For almost a minute, Kiba and Kiba kept pounding on Choji, knocking him back and forth between them. With each hit, the ball would reorient at them, pushing to gain control, but with each hit, the two Kiba would change position and strike him on the side again.

Eventually, the real Kiba noticed that his companion across the way was starting to pant heavily. Akamaru does not have nearly the chakra I do, he thought, and I'd hate to disable him with a soldier pill just to win such an easy match. He waited for Akamaru to kick Choji back, then shouted, "Let's wrap this up, buddy!" Akamaru jumped over to Kiba with a yip, and they both watched Choji finally gain control and roll, with a slightly wobbly path, right at them. "Let's go!" shouted Kiba, "Fang Passing Fang!" The two Kiba started spinning at a ferocious rate, forming two powerful whirlwinds of claws and strength. They both hit the rolling Choji dead on, sending all of their kinetic energy into the impact.

Choji flew away from them at incredible speed, and Kiba started to crow. Then he hit the arena wall, dead on, and the spinning orb of Choji's body deformed briefly into a spinning ellipse under the pressure of the comparatively immobile object, the spin pulling him up the wall slightly on impact. Doing so angled the resulting crater upward as well, resulting in a very, very short barrel of wall aiming down directly at Kiba.

Then the compression forced on Choji's body by the impact, reversed by the impact with the wall, sent him sailing at Kiba at nearly the same speed as he'd left. Most of his spinning inertia had been killed with the wall impact, leaving him as just a large round projectile heavy enough to crush pavement moving at a speed it would not normally be able to move with even the hardest of effort.

He hit both Kiba, which, combined, had far less than half the mass of Choji, and almost no inertia at all. Both Kiba received the sudden dose of gifted kinetic energy with the time honored tradition of accelerating rapidly away. Unfortunately, with their much lower mass, that energy was more than sufficient to send them flying into the opposing wall with a tremendous thud.

It was sheer luck that Choji was aimed directly between them, thus hitting at an angle and sending them back at that same angle. It was also sheer luck that their combined masses did not variate Choji's own trajectory significantly. The happy result of this luck was that, despite being in no condition to move, they none the less avoided the impact of Choji hitting the wall and coming to a very sudden and very final stop.

After a few seconds of silence, Choji pulled himself out of the crater in the wall, his legs wobbling.

And up in the stands, Sasuke smirked at Sakura, who was glaring at him with surprising fury for such a small bet. "Sucker," he said, eliciting a laugh from Naruto.

Up in the stands, only three people did not smile or laugh or joke about the fight. All three were fully focused on the match announcing board.

Neji stared with bored disinterest. Between his own talents, and the techniques Kakashi had taught him, he knew he would be the victor. It was simply impossible for him to fail against the remaining foes. He would win. It was fated.

Hinata stared with nervous tension. She knew she was hardly the strongest shinobi there, and she also knew that Neji-ni… Neji-san was a possible opponent, and he might possibly be the strongest, although Hinata was beginning to wonder about that after seeing Naruto's team fight. And her other possible opponent was well experienced, even if he had not passed the exam before.

Kabuto stared at the board with a mask of anxiety plastered on his face as his mind raced. He had strict orders to follow, as his time in Konohagakure slowly ran to an end. Against Neji, under those constraints, he might end up losing in a fair fight if he limited himself. But how the hell could he possibly make his loss look good against the nervous little girl Hyuga?

Finally, the last match popped up, and Neji got an ugly look on his face as he snarled. Tenten looked at him nervously, having only rarely seen him express emotions. She hesitantly reached out and gave him a pat on the back. "It's ok, Neji, none of this counts until the finals."

He shrugged off her hand with an angry flick. "I don't want to get into the finals without a fight," he growled, his voice low. Then his anger faded, to be replaced by a cold, cruel smirk. "Still, at least I get the pleasure of watching my cousin fall to the weakest genin I have ever met, besides her."

"Last match," said Hayate, coughing into a balled fist. "Hyuga Hinata, Kabuto, please come down."

When Hinata saw the board light up with her name, she was almost ready to faint. She had been quite close as it was when she realized she might face Neji on the arena floor, and the relief of not having that task before her kept her moving, even as she advanced down the aisle to take the stairs.

She saw Naruto ahead, talking rapidly with Sakura-san and Kakashi-sensei. Her heart pounded in her chest, her ears filled with the sound of her own blood rushing, and she did her best to keep moving forward and ignore everything but her next footstep.

Then Naruto saw her approaching and turned to face her fully, with a big cheerful grin on his face. She froze, terrified, as a single horrifying thought landed in her mind and flashed behind her eyes. I am going to lose in front of Naruto-kun, and he'll never respect me. She bit back the tears that threatened to escape and gave him a timid, shaky smile.

He stepped forward and held out a fist. "You kicked my ass so many times during training. I'm sure you're gonna kick his ass just as hard. If you have to, pretend he's one of my clones, and smack him around. You can do it, Hinata!" He still stood there, a little awkwardly, fist out and waiting for her to return the gesture.

Sakura leaned in and whispered something in Naruto's ear, and he suddenly brightened. "Hey, good idea, Sakura-chan! Hinata, fight as hard as you can, and when it's over, we'll go get some ramen, my treat! Win or lose, just do your best!"

A date! With Naruto! For just a moment, her eyes lit up slightly… then dimmed again. He wouldn't call it a date. Just him and the loser, hanging about. She nodded timidly to acknowledge his offer and moved to pass by team seven. Naruto turned to follow her, slightly confused, his fist slowly dropping unacknowledged.

Kakashi leaned down and whispered in Naruto's ear, and in his rush to give his apparently bummed friend a boost, Naruto didn't even stop to think as he repeated, "Win, and we'll call it a date wait WHAT?" Naruto turned to glare at Kakashi, who nodded in Hinata's direction. Naruto turned and realized that Hinata had stopped moving completely, not even breathing. He looked at Kakashi again, and the man gave another nod in her direction while giving him what could only be called a death glare. Naruto was confused, so he shrugged to himself and followed Kakashi's lead. He'd done right by his sensei before, after all.

"Yeah," he said, trying his best to sound cheerful in spite of his confusion. "Yeah, we'll call it a date! So go kick his ass, Hinata-chan!" After a moment, without any sort of acknowledgement, she started to move again, her steps even more shaky. Naruto turned to Kakashi and quietly whispered, "Are you sure about this, Kakashi? She looks even more demoralized now!"

Kakashi smirked under his mask and gave his cute, stupid little genin a pat on the head. "Trust me."

Kabuto watched his foe approach and suppressed a sigh. The timid little thing was walking out, head down and index fingers pressing rapidly against one another. Cute and all, but it does me no good if she passes out with a single blow. His mind raced as he considered his options. He did have a few medicinal preparations he could try, but most of them would have harmful side effects, either physical or mental, and he was not supposed to cripple anyone here.

"Are you ready?" asked Hayate. Kabuto gave a distracted nod.

Hayate glanced at the girl, who gave a tiny nod.

"Begin."

And Kabuto suddenly felt much more enthused about his problem, because his opponent ran to get at him.

He knew a lot about the famed juken martial arts practiced by the Hyuga. With a single touch, a proper juken strike could close down a chakra coil completely for a long period of time. Without chakra, most shinobi were unable to operate at all, never mind in combat. Juken could also be used to directly attack the organs in the target, bypassing skin and bone to directly slice into the chakra that infused the organs of every living thing, which could easily destroy those organs. Both of these were good cause for concern, now that his foe seemed motivated.

The girl lashed out at him viciously, bringing her arms around in long arcs and attacking him from various directions, trying to hit with even the lightest tap. He spun and dodged where he could, and where he could not, he deflected her hands carefully, making certain not to let her fingertips touch him. Juken was difficult to defend against for that very reason, and Kabuto found himself hard pressed to avoid every attack.

Then he raised his arm to deflect another strike, only for the girl to abandon the initial attack and drop to the floor, scything her leg at his own. What the hell, he thought, That's not a juken move! Kabuto jumped, easily avoiding the slightly awkward leg sweep… and felt like slapping himself in the face when the girl remained close to the ground and started trying to tap his legs while he was still in the air. With no ability to deflect or dodge in the middle of his jump, he did the only thing he could do and started shifting his legs randomly before each tap. She got in six fluid, rapid taps before he hit the ground.

When he landed, he threw himself away from her as hard as he could, rolling into a crouch well out of her reach and hissing in pain. He had managed to prevent her from striking his chakra coils, which would have taken his legs out completely, but halfway through her attack, she had noticed his defense and switched to the less precise organ damaging blows. They were not terribly effective on muscle tissue, but they did have an effect, and his legs burned horribly as he stood up from his crouch. He saw her, panting hard but arms up and ready, and favored her with a smile. "I guess I'll have to take you seriously, Hyuga-san," he said cheerfully.

A blue glow began to infuse his hands as he formed his chakra scalpels. They weren't nearly as precise as the juken, but they could cut flesh and bone, and would allow him to make the fight look less one sided for the observers.

This time he pressed the attack, charging forward with a much more direct and graceless style, barely any better than the academy form for little kids. She tried to parry his first attack, then swiftly pulled her arm back when he flexed his fingers and tried to tap her arm. After that near miss, she started fully evading instead, twisting and turning with every blow he tried to strike. In this, her tiny little girl body aided her immensely, as did her own natural agility. But no defense is perfect, and Kabuto finally spotted an opening.

He lunged, plunging his fingers from above into her shoulder. He could have simply cut the muscles without any outward sign of injury, but he wanted to make an impression, so he cut through the skin as well. His fingers went deep, breaking her clavicle and almost severing her supraspinatus. Then his hand stopped, both by the remains of her broken shoulder, and by the small hand wrapped around his wrist.

The girl looked up at him, even as she grimaced in pain and clamped down harder on his arm, using the leverage of her grip to push his hand hard against her injury to trap it. Then she smiled, and quietly said, "You are in range of my divination."

Kabuto fought back a smile of his own. Perfect.

Then pain happened.

The Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms maneuver, a core technique of the Main Branch juken of the Hyuga family, was designed to knock an opponent back, keeping them off balance as the juken user systematically closed the major chakra coils of their opponent. Unfortunately, the technique also required two hands and an opponent that is not being held in place. Hinata could never complete the entire form as she and her foe were positioned.

So she settled for shutting down only the half of Kabuto's body she could easily reach instead.

She released his hand with the final blow, shoving him back as hard as she could. Normally, between his greater mass and her own high agility, low strength build, it would have done little, but with Kabuto's entire left side immobilized, he stumbled and fell into a graceless roll. Then the elation she felt over her seeming success fell apart as her shoulder screamed in pain. She grabbed her arm and sank to the floor, fighting the urge to scream.

She heard her opponent start to chuckle and lifted her head enough to see that he was managing to pull himself up carefully. "You got me good," he said, taking a single wobbling step before slumping to the ground. With a grunt, he began the process again. "But… I lost one side, and you lost the other." He fell over again, and started to crawl slowly towards her. "In a trade of one for one, I think I'll win. I'm more used to the pain, little girl."

Hinata's eyes started to water, and she leaned over, holding her throbbing arm. It seared with a sort of icy heat, a pain so extreme it passed through pain itself and became something more, some non-pain that hurt more in her heart than her body. She slumped to the ground, then struggled to sit back up against the overwhelming suffering.

"He's half down and crawling, Hinata-chan! Finish him off!"

She could hear Naruto shouting at her, although it felt like he was across a vast canyon from her, distant and invisible. But still watching. He's watching. She rolled onto her back with a pained grunt. He's cheering. She sat up, sending new shards of non-pain through her shoulder as her back muscles pulled at it. He wants me to win! She wedged one foot under herself, and leaning forward, managed to get into a crouch, then straightened.

Across from her, Kabuto was also crouched, his one arm dangling, the other arm sheathed in blue. He was smiling, but sweat was dripping down his face. "All I have to do is cripple your other arm, and I'll win. If it comes to it, I have the strength the kick you unconscious with one leg alone."

Hinata took a deep breath and prepared herself. It'll be worth it, she told herself. She then moved back into her normal stance, with one arm hanging limp. "That… would be true," she panted through the pain. "But I still have two arms." She reached over with her good arm and pulled the damaged one up until her undamaged muscles elsewhere in her shoulder could take over the movement. The agony made light flash in front of her eyes. Her shoulder became a ball of suffering as her broken bones were ground together, and as the last of her supraspinatus snapped. But slowly, surely, her arm rose, even if it did tremble as it did so. The movement is limited, she thought to herself as she grit her teeth to keep herself from yelling, because if my arm goes too down or back, I will need to lift it with the other arm again. The only advantage she had in this case was that she could still channel chakra, and thus, a touch from her damaged arm could still hurt her foe.

Kabuto looked up at her, panting, his face disbelieving. Then he smiled, and Hinata felt for a moment that smile was a little too cheerful for someone in his condition. He let his dead leg sag and rolled onto his back. "I give up. She obviously wants the win more than I do right now, thank you." He let out a bitter laugh that sounded a little forced to Hinata, then a cough. "Maybe next year."

Hinata managed to hear Naruto's whoop before she fell to the ground.

"There will be a one month break," said Hayate, as those who had passed and were able to move stood before him, "Between here and the final round. In this time, you will have an opportunity to heal and train to prepare yourself. Your matches will be decided now, before you leave." The board behind them began to flicker as it displayed the matches.

Sakura and Tenten grinned at each other as their names showed up.

Sasuke smirked at Kankuro, who gave him a stiff nod.

Gaara did not react, which did little to calm Misumi's nerves.

Naruto gave a thumbs up to Choji, who smiled back.

And Neji smiled grimly when Hinata's name showed next to his own.

"I can't wait to see you all next month," said the Hokage. "You're dismissed."

As soon as he got home, Neji went to his room and laid down in his bed. While he had not needed to fight in the preliminaries, the week before had been long and uncomfortable, and all he wanted was some rest. It was for that reason that he was deeply unamused when Hatake Kakashi opened his window and climbed in. "You shouldn't walk in uninvited," Neji said without preamble. "Especially not into a clan's holding. Does anyone even know you are here?"

Kakashi waved off Neji's objection as if it was irrelevant. "Your cousin will be in the hospital for a few days while the medics heal the broken bone," he said.

"Good," said Neji, without inflection.

"Your uncle is there too, of course."

"Good," Neji repeated, although this time he could not stop a little rancor from coloring his tone.

"Maybe you should talk to them."

"Maybe you should go read your book." Neji turned away from the window. He heard Kakashi sigh, then a rustle of cloth as he slipped into the room and quietly took a seat at Neji's writing desk. "I meant somewhere else," he grumbled. He looked at Kakashi, who was sitting in the chair, slumped over to get his face near Neji's.

"Neji, recall for me the options we discussed regarding your… clipped wings." He said this in a near whisper.

Neji sighed and closed his eyes, trying to remember their quiet conversations when Kakashi was training him. "Assassinate the seal masters. Assassinate the clan head. Foment rebellion. Petition Hokage for manumission and see if Jiraiya can help. Challenge Hiashi to a battle for my freedom. Hold the clan head and his heirs hostage."

"And you're missing none from the list? None of the options we discussed?"

Neji frowned, and re-examined the list in his head. After a moment, he grunted a negative.

"This is why you will never succeed."

Neji sat up quickly and glared at Kakashi, who stared back at him with the same mask of apathy he gave everyone. That apathy did nothing to calm Neji. If anything, it inflamed him. "Fine," he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm, "Tell me, oh wise one, what did I miss?"

Kakashi shrugged. "Political support."

Neji rolled his eyes.

"Really. You act like the main branch loves having you under the yolk. You treat them like they are a nameless mass, just one big foe to wrestle with and defeat. You treat them like faceless peons. Just like you feel they treat you. Surely you see the irony in that thought?"

Neji crossed his arms and only glared harder. Kakashi shrugged, then smoothly stood up and made for the window. "If I were you," he said as he stick one leg out, "I would go talk to them, and figure out how they feel. It might very well be that they're on your side, in which case you gain allies. And if not, well, you'll know to plan around them instead." Kakashi jumped away, leaving Neji glowering at his empty room.

"Neji-san? W-why are you here?"

Neji walked over to one of the chairs next to Hinata's bed and sat, glaring down at her, if only to keep from glaring at her father, his uncle, the one who ordered his father's death… He took a deep breath, and let his face settle into a stern look. "You are aware we are matched against one another in the finals?"

Hinata nodded.

"I want to know if you will use my seal against me when I crush you."

He stared hard at Hinata, watching her face carefully. He expected a sudden hot denial from her, or a sheepish stuttering mess that told him nothing. He did not expect her to look him in the eye and say "No," with a touch of horror in her voice.

He activated his byakugan to focus that much harder on her. "Why not?" he said in the same imperious tone.

"It would be wrong."

"Wrong to win in such a low way?"

Hinata shook her head, and a tear rolled down her face. "W-wrong to use it at all."

Hiashi looked at Neji, his face as carefully schooled as always. "Why do you believe this of us, Neji? Why do you think we are seeking an excuse to use the Caged Bird Seal against you?"

Neji could not keep the bitterness from his voice, nor the hate from his face, as he turned to Hiashi. "You've done it before," he said.

Hiashi sighed and hung his head, and for a moment, his mask of Hyuga decorum and calm fell. Neji expected an angry, bitter face, but all he saw was a tired old man. "Neji," he said heavily, "I understand your burden. I understand your anger. Yes, I did use the Cursed Seal on you. Once. As was required by me. This does not mean I enjoy it. It does not mean I want it. I am forced by my place to follow the traditions of our clan, regardless of my own desires." He frowned and looked at Neji, and the boy was struck by the weight behind his uncle's gaze. "In your words, it is my fate, and one that is not particularly kind, I think."

"Don't speak to me about fate," said Neji coldly. "Those fated to live through the murder of another have no right to speak of fate as if it is something to be suffered."

Hiashi sighed deeply. "This is about your father, is it not, Neji?"

"Always. I will never forget."

Hiashi reached into his robe and pulled out a small scroll. The scroll was old and worn, the edges run ragged by constant handling. Hiashi looked down at it, his hands clenching it tight. "I don't know why, but I was never able to give this to you. Even now, a part of me wants me to hold onto it still. It's the last testament of my brother, the last thing he did before he died, and I never wanted to let it go." He smiled at the scroll, a grim little smile. "In a way, my own greed for his last words may have cost his son his future."

Hiashi stood and placed the scroll on Hinata's bed, then turned his chair to face them both as Neji started to read it. The boy's face flickered as he did so, his eyes barely moving, his face twitching as he struggled between bewilderment, anger, and sadness. Finally, he set down the scroll and turned to his uncle, with a strange light in his eye. "Tell me the story," he said simply.

Neji stood, his mind jumbled. He looked at Hiashi, kneeling with his head pressed to the floor, begging forgiveness for something he wasn't even responsible for. He gave his uncle a short bow, at a loss as to what else to do, and began to walk towards the door.

"Wait, Neji-san."

Neji stopped and turned to look at Hinata. Her eyes were red, and her hospital gown was dotted with her tears. Neji felt touched that she cared enough to cry when even he could not.

"The Cursed Seal ends with me," she said, quietly but firmly, her fingers wadding up her blanket. "I cannot, and will not, abide by it. I will not have my sister branded for no reason but that she is younger than me. I will not have your children branded because of the misfortune of their birth. And I will not have anyone branded with the excuse of sealing away their byakugan in death while main house members operate freely as shinobi, exposed to the same dangers and yet expected to somehow be immune to misfortune." She said all this in an even tone, as if her words were to be engraved and posted in great metal sheets over every home in the clan, and Neji was astounded that his weak, stuttering cousin could even manage the words, never mind the tone of certainty.

She turned to her father, who had lifted his head, but remained kneeling. "I must train for the finals," she said, her voice a careful monotone, as if reading from a script. "We know I have not succeeded in the past under your guidance. I shall need a new teacher. One that is strong, and has proven their worth." She spared a glance at Neji, as did Hiashi. "Unfortunately, my trainer must know enough to train me. So he, too, must be trained."

Hiashi looked thoughtful for a moment, his eyes unfocused, then he gave a short, thin smile and stood. His own voice took the same singular tone as he said, "Not knowing who you may choose to teach you, I none the less feel that it is wise to accept any choice you make on those terms, to ensure your continued growth and safety as heir. I make an oath that I shall train someone who is strong enough to then teach you, when you find them. Have you found such a teacher yet?"

"Hyuga Neji, son of Hyuga Hizashi."

"I am shocked and appalled." Hiashi's voice did not change from his monotone, but his eyes crinkled slightly as he held back a smile. "However, as a man of my word, I cannot refuse an oath." He turned to Neji and gave a short bow. "Hyuga Neji, you have been appointed my daughter's personal trainer. To ensure the success of your duties, I will be personally training you in the Main Branch form of the jukin. Report tomorrow at dawn to begin your future duties."

Neji narrowed his eyes. "Can you even do this?" he asked skeptically.

"Do what?" asked Hisashi in the same dull tone. "I have made an oath before three witnesses. I would never abandon my honor or oath, as all Hyuga know. My daughter is obviously much smarter than I give her credit for, shame on me for letting her fool me. Still, at least she has a good grasp of political bargaining."

"Three?" Neji turned and did a very undignified jump when he saw Kakashi sitting on a chair in the corner, face still in his book.

"Yo," he said casually in greeting, before flipping a page and giggling.

"This will change nothing," said Neji with a frown.

"This will change everything," said Hiashi, standing from the floor, returning to his normal voice. "In my time there was never a powerful example of the equal strength of the Branch house to show the elders. Already, others think of you as a prodigy, in both houses. In due time, with your example as a visual aid for those who might oppose her, Hinata may very well be able to change our people." He gave a short bow to Neji, a formal one, and then rose. "Will you accept this new duty, Neji, son of Hizashi?"

Neji paused to look at Hinata, who was beaming at him, then to Kakashi, who gave him a thumbs up without looking. Finally, he turned and gave a short bow to Hiashi, lower than the one he had been given, as befit his status.

"Yes, Hiashi-sensei."

Author's Notes: I'll go into detail on training arrangements and a few other things next chapter. From there, I'll be spending a chapter each on the members of team seven, possibly an additional chapter covering others. And somewhere in there will be the Omake I thought of a month ago that I've been sitting on all this time because of timing. It'll be a thing of beauty…

And then, we'll hit the finals. Ohhh, I can't wait for that. That "wow" feeling you got from Sakura's fight? You'll feel it again somewhere in the finals, I am certain. It might be different places for different people, but you will be surprised and/or pleased at some point.

Let's face it, Kiba WOULD be the sort to "Shout his Attacks." At least in a semi-friendly contest. I could not imagine a fight for Kiba or Choji that would not end in a farce for at least one of them, so I ran with it. And yes, it was cartoon physics. So is walking up a tree while perfectly horizontal. Just roll with it, no pun intended in this case.

I feel slightly bad that I imagined "Beautiful Green Wild Beast" (The music playing during Lee vs Gaara, and one I think of whenever I think of a character handing out a beatdown) running in my head when I was rereading Hinata v Kabuto for editing purposes. I feel slightly good that it fit, even if he did let her win. So why did I title this chapter "Hinata's Fate?" Because I wanted to torture you with the idea that I finally slipped and allowed myself to do the least original option. Seeing her real fight must have felt great after that. You're welcome.

For you shippers out there, don't get your hopes up. They are 12. If you've never seen a 12 year old date, be prepared to be disappointed, because I have, and it is hardly romantic.

In the end, I am fairly content with this chapter. I reached important points (breaking Hinata's massive anxiety, and Neji's uninformed anger) without casually saying "whatever" and throwing those traits away on a whim (And don't think Neji is all mellow just yet, either). I felt I handled things appropriately for how I have bent the cast, but I value your opinion on the matter. And I did gloss over what happened to Neji's dad. I am assuming, if you are reading this, you already know.

All that said, I find myself deeply enthused, because at this point, I have a combined favorite/follow of over one thousand, which is ten times what I expected when I started this fic. Large volume of competition, as it were. Thanks to my experiences here, I am helping someone edit what will eventually be an e-book (pro-bono, because frankly, I'm not THAT good,) as well as kicking around an idea for a publishable novel to write. This had done a great deal for my writing self esteem, and I thank you for that.

Fanfic Rec: if you have not caught it (I assume most of you have seen it, but just in case,) I am NOT Going Through Puberty Again by EvilFuzzy9 is hilarious crackfic time travel bullshit that takes nothing, not even itself, seriously, and I highly recommend it. It is also still updating, and the last few chapters changed focus to a new and humorous direction.

Thanks to Heaven's Eagle for the beta, as always. She also gets at least some credit for Kabuto v Hinata. I was unsure how to make that fight work initially, so I figured I would go Neji v Hinata and play up the "fate" angle of it, but she commented on Kabuto's fighting style, and this idea cropped up. Both would have worked, but this was more original, so it got the upvote.

, I am PROUD I woke your girlfriend and dog up indirectly with your giggle. Proud, I say! And as for sending Sasuke to Orochimaru, wait for it. It's gonna be great when I get to that point in the timeline.

Cute Kirby felt that Temari's dishonorable attack was a little OOC. While I kindof agree, in rewatching/rereading Naruto, I felt that in the Chunin arc she is a bit of a hot tempered bitch, and this time around, she has a reason to care about the outcome of her test… you'll see. But yes, if that had come up after the end of the Chunin arc, it would have been grossly out of character.

Pentecost thought Naruto was showing off. I highly agree, and I felt it was in character.

serialkiller simply said, "That was fucking amazeballs!" Good sir/madam/other, should I decided to post a few sample reviews in the first chapter to make myself sound even more pretentious, rest assured, I shall be including yours.

Death276 mentioned mild disappointment that Temari held back. To be honest, I felt even if she did not, the fight would fare little better. Early in Naruto, until she pulled out the summons, her attacks consist of wind, more wind, lotsa wind, and hit it with a fan. I don't even know if she carried anything other than her fan, I don't recall an equipment pouch on her outfit. In such an enclosed space, more wind would not do much more to disperse that smoke any faster, so I felt there was nowhere to go but to the wrapup. They also asked about some points from her fan being destroyed, which I cannot answer because shhh, spoilers. All that being said, I am glad one of the most strident Shikamaru supporters I have talked to yet was happy with his match.

euroteres spotted the trike clone thing, then forgot about it until it hit. Full points none the less.

HE-SpecOps and JustKy mentioned that Naruto's tactic last chapter seemed specially made for Shikamaru. That's not as intended. The additional rules were, but it's a viable technique in a story where army killer jutsu will be rare and costly to use. In canon, of course, anyone post-shippuden would simply wave a hand and blast them (and a area the size of a city block) away. Just wait. it'll be back.

An Anon under the label "Human" pointed out a few details on the supraspinatus and how it interacts with the arm and shoulder. As I am not a medical or anatomical expert, I appreciate that they helped correct me, and I have now edited the details to fit.