Naruto wasn't prepared for all eyes to be on him. He was expecting it when Kakashi told them about his plan for their "stylish" entrance, but he was not ready for what felt like the entire village to be staring at him, or more specifically him and his team. Ordinarily, he would probably be grinning and puffing his chest out to make a show of himself in front of all of the people he'd be presiding over as Hokage in the future, but as he scanned over the raucous crowd and his gaze inevitably swept over the Kage booth, he didn't really feel like soaking in the attention and adulation (of which was mostly split unevenly amongst the three of them anyway).

"Seriously, Kakashi?" deadpanned an annoyed jonin with a senbon in his mouth as he approached. "Couldn't make an exception to be on time just this once?"

"Relax Genma," Kakashi replied with an infuriating eye smile. "The spectacle is half the fun. That is why we're all here after all, right?"

"Whatever," Genma sighed. "You're lucky your brats weren't first up anyway."

Genma then turned to address the crowd, and only then did Naruto realize that this was a different proctor than the one from the preliminaries.

"Let the final stage of the chunin exams get underway!" He announced, and the crowd roared in anticipation. "The first bout of the finals will be Shino Aburame vs. Kankuro of Sunagakure!"

"I withdraw!" Kankuro suddenly declared, silencing the crowd and bringing all attention to the end of the line where the Suna genin were standing.

"…What?" Genma questioned, unsure if he had heard him correctly. The crowd was also hoping that they had all misheard him.

"I withdraw," Kankuro repeated, confirming the audience's fears. "I won't be competing."

There was a beat of silence in which Genma, the other genin, and the spectators all stared at Kankuro in a mixture of confusion, disbelief, and incredulity. Then, boos erupted from the crowd like an alarm blaring across the village, and suddenly, Naruto felt relief that all of the attention was ripped away from his team and focused squarely on an indifferent Kankuro.

Well, he was indifferent until the jeering really kicked into gear. Chants of, "You suck," "coward," "bitch," and even, "desert scum," rained down on Kankuro alongside already empty wrappers and containers. Naruto could have sworn that he even heard, "Just like a filthy sand rat," amongst the onslaught. That was a bit uncalled for in Naruto's opinion. Kankuro, on the other hand, barely looked to be fazed by the vitriol of the crowd until a tomato struck the back of his head.

"Ow!" he barked, turning and scowling up at the section of the crowd behind him. "Who the hell threw that?!"

"You look like a girl, you fucking pussy!" was the hollered answer he received from someone leaning over the guard rail. Kankuro would have jumped into the crowd to show who said that what for, but the fact that it came from the mouth of a frail, old lady caught him off guard just long enough for Genma to regain control of the proceedings.

"Kankuro of Sunagakure has forfeited his place in the tournament!" Genma announced, and then he turned to Shikamaru, who had the misfortune of standing between Shino and Neji, the only barrier preventing a grievous mauling from occurring (likely in a mutual effort). "Shikamaru Nara, since you were set to face the winner of this match anyway, you'll just be slotted into Kankuro's place. Is that fine?"

Shikamaru stared blankly at Genma in response before his eyes briefly darted to the ominously buzzing Shino on his left and then back to Genma. "Do I have a choice in the matter?"

"Not really," Genma answered, returning Shikamaru's blank stare with one of his own.

"What a drag…" he sighed, but he remained on the field nonetheless, idly feeling the glares of both Ino and his mother in the crowd daring him to forfeit the match.

"Now, then, let the finals of the Chunin Selection Exams officially commence!" Genma declared to the crowd's roaring approval. "All competitors not named Shino Aburame and Shikamaru Nara are dismissed to the competitors' box."

Now that they were guaranteed a fight, the crowd was on their feet once again. The insatiable bloodthirst of the usually docile populace was so palpable, in fact, that it brought a bead of sweat down Sakura's forehead.

"These people are rabid…" Sakura muttered with a bit of trepidation, and Naruto couldn't help but agree.

Behind them, Kakashi sighed. "Like I said, the spectacle is half the fun, and the bloodsport is just part and parcel of the spectacle."

Then, he somehow ruffled all three of their heads at once. "Good luck, you three. I'll be watching the whole time."

With that, he vanished in a swirl of leaves, and Team 7 was left to exit the battlefield with the others.

"Wasn't that already a given?" Sakura asked, confused as to why their sensei felt the need to assure them that he'd stick around for their matches.

"Don't think about it harder than necessary," Sasuke muttered as he followed the departing Suna trio and Neji toward the nearest tunnel.

"Fair enough," Sakura sighed, the weight of her new, tan trench coat bearing down on her slumped shoulders. "Come on, Naruto, let's grab a good spot in the booth."

Naruto nodded and followed his teammates, but his mind was still mostly elsewhere. Putting on the hood of his new jacket that was really similar to his old one beyond having a black upper half and a hood in place of a collar, he tuned out every other bit of stimuli and focused on his thoughts. Whereas they were dominated by the crowd and Sandaime when he arrived, they were harkening back to something that had been eating at him for the past week.

"It's unsettling you, as well."

'Yeah. Jubi's been quiet. Way too quiet.'

"Which is why I'm perplexed at you wasting time on a pointless promotion in lieu of locating my other half. You are risking my existence for the chance at receiving a meaningless vest that we both know you won't be granted in any event."

'Okay, fuck you, first and foremost. Second, I couldn't just ditch the team and run off to find the stupid temple. No way Kakashi and Anko-sensei let me go without a really good explanation, and if the village found out about the Jubi inside of the cursed seal, I'd either be executed or locked away forever.'

"Your freedom is less crucial to me than my continued existence."

Naruto audibly sighed, unknowingly grabbing Sakura's attention. 'Yeah, I know.'

"Are you okay, Naruto?" he heard Sakura ask, and he turned to see that she was looking at him with a bit of concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he waved her off. "Just talkin' to the fox."

"I have a name."

'You gonna tell me what it is?'

A loud, dark snort echoed through his mind. "No."

'Didn't think so…'

"Oh," Sakura muttered in interest, and she quietly considered how to ask the question that was on her mind as they made their way up the stairs toward the competitors' box. Sasuke, who was just ahead of them, had also turned an eye back to listen in on the conversation in interest, and they were fortunately the only people in earshot.

"…What's he like?" she eventually asked, and Naruto had to pause and really think about that.

Fortunately for him, the fox in question chimed in to provide him with a proper response.

"The unquantifiable magnificence and unyielding splendor of me, the most powerful natural being in all of creation, cannot properly be done justice through a simple description from the mouth of a lowly human. One must be blessed to be in the presence of a creature so regal and omnipotent to truly feel the breadth of their puny existence be dwarfed before the might of the Kyubi."

"…He's really high on himself," Naruto finally answered.

"Kiss my furry fucking ass, you degenerate flesh bag."

Sakura placed a hand over her mouth to stifle a laugh, and even Sasuke let loose a snort with a small smirk, almost as if they could feel the indignant ranting going on within the seal. Maybe they could. The Kyubi's anger was incredibly potent, after all.

When they finally made it into the booth, the match had already begun, and Team 7 sidled to the rail and got a front-row spot for the action a healthy distance away from the other competitors. On one end, Neji didn't even bother watching the fight, instead opting to stand with his eyes closed and his arms folded in the corner nearest to the exit. On the other end, two-thirds of the Suna team was watching the fight from the edge of the viewing deck (when Naruto wasn't catching Temari sending their team lingering glances, at least), while Gaara was openly staring at Naruto with nothing short of homicidal excitement in his wild, teal gaze.

That kid was weird.

The Jubi snapping its head in the direction of Gaara while still not saying a word (long string of gibberish?) didn't ease Naruto's mind one bit.

'So… how do I find the Uzumaki temple, and could you tell me more about them at some point?'

A loud yawn echoed through the mindscape. "The clan library within the Senju Compound would be the ideal place to begin your search."

Naruto brightened at that information, though he didn't know if the Kyubi was answering one or both of his questions. 'Awesome! Where is that?'

"How the hell should I know?"

The brightness faded from Naruto's countenance with slight annoyance trickling in to replace it. 'You've lived in this village a lot longer than I have, so I figured you would've remembered it or something.'

"Live is a really strong word, human. It's more accurate to say that I've been held prisoner inside of human vessels in this village for six times as long as you've been alive."

'Do you know where the goddamn compound is or not?'

Naruto could hear the Kyubi's careless shrug. "I'd know it if I saw it. I wouldn't be able to guide you there, though. Perhaps if you sent out shadow clones to comb the village, I could confirm if you're on the right track through whatever memories are sent back when they stumble onto something. Most of the village is here in the arena, so the likelihood that you'll run into distractions out there is also minimal."

Naruto's resulting awestruck expression was taken as intrigue regarding the vicious game of cat and mouse between Shino and Shikamaru down below. 'That's… actually a fantastic idea. You're wicked smart, Kyubi!'

"Of all of the Biju, I was the one that went to college."

'What?'

"Shadow clones, human. You're wasting time."

'Right, right.'

Naruto nearly formed his signature cross seal, but he stopped short when it occurred to him that he probably shouldn't just spawn a bunch of clones out of nowhere and have them leap into action right in view of everyone. That would surely cause a brief panic among the present shinobi before they realized it was him, but the panic felt by the civilians probably wouldn't be so brief, and causing a case of mass hysteria would do nothing but complicate things. He needed a way to be low-key about it, but how…

His train of thought drew his gaze to the swarm of kikaichu pouring out of Shino's coat and emerging from the dirt underfoot to surround Shikamaru despite him having been caught by the Shadow Possession Jutsu. The swarm was imposing, but the bugs themselves were very small…

Small enough to go unnoticed if a few were to fly away from the stadium. Jackpot.

With a grin, Naruto quietly stepped away from the viewing platform and walked back into the hallway, telling Sakura and Sasuke that he'd be back in a sec before vanishing into the darkness.

"Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!" he whisper-shouted before an army of clones popped into existence around him, nearly filling the hallway to the brim. Moments later, each clone transformed into a fly and flew down the hall, entering the battlefield and slipping out of the arena under the cover of Shino's swarm.

"Mission underway," Naruto snickered in self-satisfaction.

Some of the clones would revert to human form once they made it out of the arena while the remaining flies would continue towards the edges of the village where many of the clan compounds were situated. While the flies were scouring the village, the human clones would check the Konoha library for information on the Senju Compound and, if he was lucky, any information on the Uzumaki name. If they had a special temple that somehow held the answers to regaining the half of the Kyubi that the Yondaime took with him to the Shinigami, then maybe they were of some level of importance.

It begged the question of why he was so alone if they were…

He shook those darkening thoughts out of his head. One plot thread at a time. He'd get the memories of his clones if they found anything useful, and then he'd go from there.

The call of, "Winner, Shino Aburame!" from Genma and the resulting roar of the crowd brought him back to the present. However, as he turned back to reenter the booth, he was nearly knocked over by Neji harshly brushing past him without even sparing him a single glance. It took everything within Naruto to not chase him down and wring his neck right there for everything he had done; instead, he took several deep breaths and let him continue down the dark corridor. He was Sasuke's opponent, so he'd get his teeth kicked in either way. Besides, Naruto didn't really want to be around the dark aura permeating from Neji like a pungent cloud any longer than he had to.

Turning around again, he smiled when he saw Sasuke heading in his direction, presumably also to the field.

"Where'd you scamper off to?" Sasuke asked with a quirked eyebrow.

Naruto's smile dimmed, and a look of contemplation settled over him. There really wasn't any reason to not tell Sasuke the whole truth about the urgency of his cursed seal, but it would probably be easier to tell him and Sakura at the same time. With that in mind, he could still broach the other subject of his search to Sasuke.

An abnormally sober, cerulean gaze met onyx, and Sasuke was once again faced with a scarily contemplative Naruto. It was a sight that he had been slowly getting used to over the past month, but it was still a jarring juxtaposition to Naruto's typical empty-headed presentation.

"…If you felt like something big was being hidden from you about your clan, and you found a way to potentially figure out what it was, how far would you go to do that?" Naruto finally spoke, actually taking Sasuke aback with the question.

"…Does this have anything to do with your parents?" Sasuke responded in kind, and Naruto nodded while giving a so-so gesture.

Naruto could tell that Sasuke understood that there was more to this, and he could also tell that Sasuke wasn't going to pry. Instead, he mulled something over for a silent few seconds before meeting Naruto's gaze once more.

"I'd go far enough to know not to ask my teammate any questions if he was planning on doing the same," Sasuke carefully answered.

Naruto chewed on that response for a bit, but he eventually accepted it with a nod and raised his hand for a high five to send Sasuke on his way. Sasuke flatly stared at the offered hand, trying (and failing) to ignore the growing grin on his teammate's face before he eventually caved and begrudgingly high-fived him.

"Was that so hard?" Naruto snickered.

"Hn," was all Sasuke offered in reply as he continued on his way down the stairs.

"Kick his ass, Sasuke!" Naruto hollered from the top of the stairs, and Sasuke nodded with a confident smirk.

That smirk vanished when he reached the bottom of the stairs and came face-to-face with Shino on his way back up to the booth. He was standing in the middle of the corridor, unmoving as if he was waiting specifically for Sasuke. Sasuke had a sneaking suspicion as to what the interaction would entail, but he silently allowed Shino the floor, nonetheless.

"It is forbidden for Konoha shinobi to use lethal force on a comrade," Shino clinically began, and Sasuke's suspicions were confirmed. "However, it is merely frowned upon for such to happen during a sanctioned event such as the chunin exams."

Upon Sasuke's slow nod, Shino continued. "If, for whatever reason, unforeseen circumstances lend themselves to Neji Hyuga coming down with a severe case of death, neither I nor any of my team would hold it against you."

Yep, that definitely was what Sasuke was expecting. He couldn't exactly say that he was surprised, nor did he blame Shino one bit for making that request without actually saying anything that could constitute treason. He'd be a pretty fat hypocrite if he did.

With his piece said, Shino continued past Sasuke and began scaling the stairs toward the competitors' booth. Suddenly, though, Shino stopped to address Sasuke one last time. "I, however, will hold it against you if you defeat him, yet he is still able to walk away on his own power."

With that, he continued back on his way, and Sasuke simply turned and made his way toward the battlefield.

"Finally, one of the brats is up," Anko grinned, plopping dango into her mouth from her stick with a flourish. Looking over to her right, she offered some of her dango to Kurenai sitting silently beside her.

Ordinarily, Kurenai would turn down the offered treat as she wasn't really a fan, definitely not to the level of Anko. However, after a moment of dispassionately staring down at the dango, she lowered her head and bit down on the stick, making Anko smile. At least one of them was able to.

Anko could tell that her friend was still grieving (understandably so), and the chunin exam finals were probably not the greatest place to be after watching your student who was as close to a surrogate daughter as one could get be mauled to death by her cousin in another sanctioned setting. Watching that very same cousin take the field with an expression so cold that it felt right at home in the latest Princess Gale movie definitely wasn't helping matters. However, her other student was participating in the finals, and he had just won his match, so duty called.

Anko sighed, ready to take the acceptance of the dango as a small victory before Kurenai spoke up, her hardened gaze focused on the two genin taking the field like laser sights.

"You trained Sasuke Uchiha, right?" Kurenai questioned. "With Kakashi?"

Anko nodded. "Yeah. Kakashi wanted to train them into monsters to be able to handle what's certain to come in the future, and he needed help doing it. I was uniquely qualified to assist in their situations."

Kurenai nodded in understanding. All of the jonin had been briefed about the situation with Team 7, particularly Naruto and Sasuke. Those two were already labeled flight risks for different reasons, and the addition of cursed seals from Orochimaru just made the situation more pressing in the eyes of the Sandaime. While she understood the rationale behind treating their defections as a real possibility, she didn't really agree with handling them as if defection was a foregone conclusion, but she also wasn't the Hokage.

Still, flight risk or not, cursed seal or not, and neglected jinchuriki or not, none of those kids were as much of a clear danger to others as Neji Hyuga, the psychopath who brutalized his cousin because he blamed her for his father being born minutes after Hiashi Hyuga. Her expression darkened, but she was able to keep the emotions out of her countenance; she had done enough crying and had shattered enough training posts this month.

"Do you think Sasuke can beat him?" she asked Anko instead, finally tearing her gaze away from the object of her fury and leveling it at her closest friend.

Anko hummed, tapping her chin with her stick of dango. "Well, the Hyuga kid is tough… and brutal. He's really fast, and the Gentle Fist is a deadly style to go up against as it is. Won't be an easy fight, that's for sure."

"But will he lose?"

Anko smirked.

Many eyes were focused squarely on the two vaunted genin in the arena. The reputations of the Uchiha and Hyuga Clans spoke for themselves, even if the entirety of one of those clans was standing in the center of the arena. Word of a faceoff between the young prodigy of the Hyuga and the lone scion of the Uchiha had traveled far and wide, and the hype had reached a fever pitch. This battle was arguably the one that most in the stadium had come to bear witness to, particularly those who had traveled a great distance. Everyone wanted to see who would come out on top between the Byakugan and the Sharingan.

Everyone except Hanabi Hyuga.

All she wanted was to see a glorious mural painted on the walls of the stadium with the blood of her sister's murderer.

Her gaze, like everyone else's, was focused on the two in the center of the arena. However, hers was so intense that her Byakugan unconsciously activated at points. She wanted to see justice carried out. She needed to see justice carried out.

Beside her, her father could read her thoughts like a children's book. The concoction of heartache, sorrow, and righteous fury was written all over her face, and the occasional bulging veins of her Byagukan only ensured that they were written in all caps. The thought of chastising her for allowing herself to be read so easily briefly crossed his mind before he squashed it. She was allowed to grieve, just as he was. He would have been lying if he said that he wanted anything less than to murder the Raikage and tear Kumo asunder with his bare hands when Hizashi was offered up to them in his place.

The dark thought that Kumo was responsible for his brother's death and indirectly responsible for his daughter's death also began to burgeon, and he did not squash that one.

Sasuke gaze, as black as the one-piece jumper he sported, was focused on the white pools of barely contained loathing sitting in Neji's sockets. It wasn't purely directed at him, either, but rather the world at large. While it wasn't exactly akin to looking in the mirror, Sasuke was still reminded of his own gaze when he was much younger. Fresh off the massacre, so many different emotions swept through him like a morose riptide: confusion, betrayal, heartbreak, rage, and most prominently, hatred.

So, how does a traumatized seven-year-old make sense of and express those complex feelings without lashing out at anything and everything? Well, by isolating himself and stewing in his festering hatred, of course. Focusing that hatred into an ultimate goal to live toward, one to build the foundation of his existence on, was the one thing that kept him going. He would grow strong enough to avenge his clan, discarding the paltry bonds and distractions that were forced upon him by the village if he had to. Nothing mattered beyond retribution…

…At least until he found himself on Team 7 and was forced to interact with people who understood loneliness and trauma just as well as he did, even if in different manners. Sakura never spoke about it, but the subtle flinches and lengths she'd sometimes go to when hiding certain parts of her body didn't paint a fantastic picture, and Naruto was a bucket of unaddressed trauma in and of himself. Interacting closely with equally broken preteens with no one to seek comfort in was a shock to Sasuke's system. Apparently, it was possible that he wasn't the only severely traumatized child in a military settlement full of orphans and families of orphan-making mercenaries. Also, apparently, trauma was a fantastic bonding agent, and having someone of a like mind who could potentially understand and empathize to talk to went a long way.

Go figure.

With that in mind, the trauma bonds he forged with his teammates wouldn't win him this fight. The agonizing month of brutal, nonstop training he underwent alongside his trauma buddies, though…

"Sasuke Uchiha," Neji coldly addressed, his Byakugan flaring to life in a narrowed glare as he leaned into a stance of the Gentle Fist. "Six years ago, your brother annihilated the refuse that once populated your clan. Today, I will finish the job."

Sasuke's Sharingan spun to life, as well, matching Neji's glare as he entered the stance of the Interceptor Fist. "If you think this fight will be the same as you bullying your wallflower cousin, you've already lost."

"It was her fate to die by my hands, just as it will be yours," Neji callously replied.

Sasuke derisively snorted. "It's my ambition to eliminate a kinslayer, so I suppose this will be good practice."

"The Main House is no kin of mine," Neji spat. They are our slavers. Nothing more, nothing less."

The tension in the arena was rising faster bread in the oven. Sasuke could feel the anger pouring off of both Neji and the contingent of Hyuga in the audience. The fact that he just came out and blatantly said that told Sasuke that Neji had nothing left to lose, so this fight legitimately becoming a deathmatch was all but guaranteed, at least on Neji's end.

Welp. Sasuke held no great love for kinslayers, so this was no skin off his nose. Someone had to put this mad dog down before he hurt anyone else.

"The next bout, Sasuke Uchiha vs. Neji Hyuga!" Genma announced to the crowd that was waiting with bated breath. Even he was intrigued about how this fight would play out.

The two-tomoe of Sasuke's Sharingan spun dangerously while the veins of Neji's Byakugan burned in anticipation. The tension was so thick that if one tried to cut it with a kunai, it would get stuck.

Then, Genma raised his arm before slicing it down to initiate the fight. "Begin!"

Neither combatant wasted any time darting for each other and launching into a heated exchange of blows. Neji struck quickly and violently, every single jab and palm thrust poised to slam into a vital area in an attempt to do away with Sasuke as quickly and as brutally as possible. Sasuke, however, dodged and parried the blows with just as much grace, returning fire every step of the way. It was a deadly dance of two highly skilled martial artists on the path to mastering their craft, and to the eyes of most of the crowd in attendance, the boys were evenly matched.

The truth was a bit more complex than that. Neji was fast, far faster than most chunin in the village, in fact, but Sasuke had no issues keeping up with him. His Sharingan had grown beyond a point where deciphering and deconstructing Neji's offense was possible, and his body had been ruthlessly trained beyond the point where executing those counters was possible. The trouble was that even a glancing blow from the Gentle Fist could cause considerable damage. Blocking and deflecting Neji's strikes was simple. Doing so in a way that didn't eventually leave Sasuke a defenseless mannequin was much less so.

So, while Neji was lagging in a straight taijutsu contest as he couldn't really string together a series of landed hits onto Sasuke, Sasuke was steadily feeling the effects of the chakra pouring out of Neji's hands slamming into his chakra system, and it was ever so slightly slowing him down. Batting away an incoming strike aimed for his throat at Neji's wrist, Sasuke swiped a kunai out of his pouch and swung right at Neji's eyes. Just as expected, Neji met his kunai with one of his own, occupying one hand and leaving the other to do the remainder of the work.

Sasuke intercepted another jab from Neji's free hand with his fist before sliding his fingers between Neji's and completing a horse seal. That caught Neji off guard just long enough for Sasuke to kick him in the knee and complete a tiger seal. Neji caught on to what was happening and forced his other hand out of the kunai struggle, but it was too late, as Sasuke used him as a stepladder and launch pad to propel himself into a corkscrew backflip before blasting a blazing hot fireball right at Neji from point blank range. Neji narrowly dodged the first one, and the margins were even slimmer on the second and third ones that came in succession.

As he skidded to a stop, the fourth and final Fireball Jutsu came into view, and this one was substantially larger than the previous ones. He could feel the heat radiating off the apparent mini sun that Sasuke had just fired at him long before it even reached him, and Sasuke, as well as the crowd, witnessed the ball of flames slam into the spot Neji was standing and erupt into a brilliant blaze. There was an audible gasp through the arena as it appeared that Neji had been swallowed up by the inferno, but Sasuke knew better. Only moments later, the flames dispersed into the makings of a cyclone, and there stood Neji relatively unharmed with a disdainful sneer.

The crowd launched into an excited murmur at Neji's shocking resistance to fire, but Hiashi didn't share that excitement. His brow crinkled in a fusion of incredulity and wonder at exactly how Neji escaped near certain immolation.

"Impossible…" he muttered aloud.

Beside him, Hanabi recognized it as well, and her frown darkened even further. That murderer was using Main House techniques. What gave him the right?!

"If this is all you have, then this farce will not last much longer, Uchiha," Neji spat before reentering his stance.

Sasuke gazed critically at Neji for a long moment, and then he procured two handfuls of shuriken and launched them right at Neji. Neji simply scoffed before dashing forward, weaving through and around the onslaught with practiced ease. He even snagged a shuriken through the hoop with his finger and batted away a few others with it before flicking that shuriken back at Sasuke.

With Neji quickly approaching, Sasuke dodged the shuriken with a simple lean of his head before firing a Phoenix Flower Jutsu at him. Neji's scoff was even haughtier as he shot out his palm, blasting a powerful, far-reaching wave of chakra directly from his hand. It was a more powerful spin on the Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm that he had been working on, and while the Vacuum Palm's narrower focus lent itself to a deadlier impact, this variation traded precision for a greater area of effect that would certainly overpower each of the flames of the Phoenix Flower Jutsu with little trouble.

Fortunately for Neji, it did just that. Unfortunately for Neji, it exposed the shuriken hidden within the flames that were not so easily dismissed by the empowered Vacuum Palm. In a panic, Neji was forced to halt his advance lest he run right through the incoming shuriken that were maybe a second away from turning him into a fatalistic pin cushion.

"Eight Trigrams Palm Rotation!" he bellowed, transforming into an impromptu dreidel while emitting chakra from his body to erect a spinning dome of chakra that blocked the barrage of shuriken, kicking up a cloud of dust all the while.

Sasuke was forced to jump back from the display and create sown distance, but his suspicions were confirmed. Neji created a wall of chakra to block that last Grand Fireball, which explained the twisting nature of the flames as it was dispersed. A fireball couldn't penetrate it, and neither could shuriken. It didn't leave Sasuke out of options, but a defense like that did all by guarantee that this would end up a battle to the death.

Neji, meanwhile, was both oblivious and uncaring of Sasuke's internal monologue. Once he came to a stop, he indulged in his assured victory by sending Sasuke a cocky smirk. "Now do you realize the folly of your actions in accepting this battle, Uchiha? The Eight Trigrams Palm Rotation is the ultimate, impenetrable defense, so your only option is to engage me hand-to-hand and be cut down by the Gentle Fist. It doesn't matter how special you believe your eyes to be; these eyes see all, and that includes your imminent demise-"

It was only the visual prowess of the Byakugan that spared Neji an embarrassing death via decapitation. So wrapped up was he in his self-indulgent spiel that he nearly missed Sasuke unsealing a tanto and covering the distance between them in a mere moment. He evaded the swing of the blade, but only enough to spare his neck from any pain, as a lock of his hair was sliced off for his troubles.

"You talk too much," Sasuke deadpanned, saying nothing else as he continued swiping at Neji with the tanto given to him by Kakashi for this very battle.

Neji now found himself tangibly on the back foot, as even with his Gentle Fist, attempting to go blow for blow with a sharpened blade would result in the loss of eleven of his fingers. He was forced to place all of his efforts into evasion and only striking during the split-second windows allotted by Sasuke's infuriatingly competent kenjutsu burst. If he wanted to regain the edge, he needed to remove that tanto from the equation, and there was one jutsu he could use that would assuredly do just that.

As Neji ducked under a swing meant to slit his throat, he didn't even bother calling out the name of his next move to focus the jutsu, rather just launching into a ferocious series of strikes for the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms. Even with the Sharingan, the lightning-fast burst of offense from Neji caught Sasuke flatfooted, knocking the tanto out of his hands and immersing him into a brand new hell. It was over just as quickly as it began, but the searing pain that lanced through his body at the sudden closure of about a fifth of his chakra network on top of the tenketsu that were affected at the opening exchange of the battle. It didn't knock him to the ground entirely, but it did bring him to his knees and all but cripple his ability to mold chakra with any degree of ease.

His gaze fell to the tanto sitting discarded to the side, but Neji kicked it away before he could reach for it and drove the sole of his sandal into Sasuke's face, breaking his nose with a loud crunch. That knocked Sasuke to the ground and sent him slightly skidding along the dirt.

"Now do you understand the hopelessness of your situation, Uchiha?" Neji began again. "It was always your destiny to fall here, just as it was your wretched clan's destiny to fall to a single man. Here you lay at the mercy of your better, just like the rest of them."

"You'd know quite a bit about that, wouldn't you, Branch House?" Sasuke sniped while on the ground, and the fury that washed over Neji's expression for a brief moment before it was ruthlessly quelled into a dark glower brought Sasuke a smile. No matter what, Sasuke Uchiha would never go out like a bitch.

"Do not speak of matters you know absolutely nothing about," Neji icily spat, bringing his foot down onto Sasuke's abdomen and grinding it into his chest cavity. "You'd do well to roll over like a dog and die, just as how I imagine your father did before his eldest."

Even if with Neji's foot in his chest and a well of rage bubbling within at the mockery of his family's slaying, Sasuke would not rise to the bait. The fact that Neji was so taken with posturing over him in his "victory" meant that he wholeheartedly believed that Sasuke was defeated and bereft of any means of escaping this predicament. Sasuke most certainly wasn't, but he did need some time to focus whatever chakra he could manage to drag up exactly where he needed it, so perhaps he could keep Neji talking in the meantime…

…After he got another cheap shot in.

"I guess that's one area we relate in if I'm not mistaken," Sasuke managed a rough chuckle through Neji's now still boot. "Our fathers rolling over and dying for someone else's selfish whims-"

Neji ruthlessly stomped Sasuke's diaphragm in a rage, but Sasuke wasn't done. "He died like a bitch, didn't he?"

Another stomp. "He was the sacrificial lamb, and now his body's laying discarded somewhere in a Kumo garbage heap-"

A third, more vicious stomp drove into his chest, and Sasuke coughed a bit of blood onto his taunting smile. He definitely wasn't finished. "And you blamed Hinata for it instead of accepting that it was your father's destiny to be disposable-"

"SILENCE, YOU IGNORANT WRETCH!" Neji roared, damn near foaming at the mouth as he attempted to stomp Sasuke's head into the ground, but his foot only left an imprint in the dirt as Sasuke slid his head out of the way. "You know nothing! You don't know a goddamn thing about my father! You don't know a goddamn thing about how he was callously thrown into the Branch House for the mere crime of being born minutes after his brother! You couldn't possibly understand the curse that was levied upon him, myself, and the rest of the Branch House for the crime of simply existing!"

Neji grabbed his forehead protector and ripped it off, tossing it to the ground and exposing the Caged Bird Seal grafted on his forehead to the world. "You have no idea what it's like to be branded with a curse that holds your destiny in its grasp, determining your path before you even had the opportunity to walk it!"

The look that he received from Sasuke was flatter than the plains sitting on the border of the Land of Fire and the Land of Rivers, but it went ignored as he continued his tirade.

"This seal signifies both my position as a Branch House Hyuga, but also as a slave to the 'pure' household. My father was a master of our clan's arts and far more proficient with them than his brother, yet he was forced to serve him like a dog under the threat of excruciating brain death should he ever step out of line. The same fate was laid at my feet when I came of age and was branded on Hinata's third birthday. Since then, I have been nothing more than a slave at the beck and call of a weakling who couldn't even earn the confidence of her own father!"

That statement rankled Hiashi in the crowd far more than anything else had, mostly because it was true.

"Hinata was never meant to be a shinobi!" Neji continued, unknowing and uncaring of the crowd paying rapt attention to the mid-fight diatribe. "She was far too soft, far too caring. She was gentle. She was weak. She refused to hurt her younger sister in spars and had no confidence in her abilities. How could you possibly expect someone like that to survive a shinobi's life?"

Neji stepped back away from Sasuke, appearing to aim his next words at several people in the audience. "Killing her was doing her a greater service than anyone else in this godforsaken village was willing to."

Anko acted quickly and shot a snake out of her sleeve to bite Kurenai on the neck, injecting her with a fast-acting paralytic before she could storm the field and do something that would get her headband snatched. It didn't stop the biju's worth of killing intent that radiated off of her, though.

Elsewhere in the crowd, Tsume had the scruff of her son's hoodie in an iron grasp as Kiba frothed at the mouth, violently fighting against his mother's hold in a fruitless attempt to leap the barricade and maul Neji. Hiashi, on the other hand, jabbed Hanabi in her blindspot and temporarily rendered her body inert the microsecond he spotted her preparing to leap into action.

In the competitor's box, Naruto had Shino in a reverse bear hug while the Kyubi's chakra poured out of him, covering him and Shino in a crimson cloak that kept his hive at bay. He didn't particularly care who saw at this point.

"Don't do anything stupid, Shino," Naruto warned. "You're smarter than that. Sasuke's got this. He knows what he's doing."

Buzzing violently in place, Shino slowly nodded, but the fury burning within him like a towering inferno was not quelled. If Sasuke didn't paint the ground red with Neji's blood by the end of the fight, Shino would, rules be damned.

Beside them, Sakura stood with her arms crossed between the blatant show of the Kyubi's chakra and a salivating Gaara, her cursed seal in full force and her gaze as hard as diamond. She was daring Gaara to make a move before his match with Naruto could begin, and the only thing keeping Gaara in his spot was Shukaku physically rooting his chakra in place to avoid tangling with the fucking Jubi, but he could only do so much for so long. Temari and Kankuro, meanwhile, stood as far away from them as possible, hiding in the darkness of the hallway in pure fear and disbelief alike that not only was someone willfully standing up to their brother without a hint of trepidation but also that there was someone with power far, far more intense than anything Gaara was capable of.

Neji chuckled, but the chuckle contained less mirth than a mass burial. "Killing Hinata was supposed to be the answer. Killing her was my defiance of fate, my rejection of the servitude that was foisted upon the Branch House for generations. Perhaps it wouldn't have freed me of my shackles, but it would have certainly made me feel better."

His gaze was nearly dead when it landed on Sasuke. It was tired, pouring with a quantity of exhaustion that Sasuke only remembered seeing in his father's eyes after returning from clan meetings at the Naka Shrine. His Byakugan were devoid of any natural gaiety and bordered on lacking humanity altogether.

"It didn't," Neji finally bit out. "Not only do I feel no better, but my already hellish existence only grew worse. Hinata is dead, and so, too, is the clan's reason to keep me alive. The elders have already made it clear that I am much too dangerous to have around. After all, a proper attack dog cannot grow out of the control of its owner, lest it turn back on them and strike."

He huffed, finally having vented all of the turmoil that had been storming through his mind for as long as he could remember. "Well, there it is. That is the undiscriminating hand of fate. Attempts to escape one's fate will only end in ruin."

Sasuke didn't have the opportunity to respond before a young, high-pitched shout came from the audience.

"DAMNIT, UCHIHA, GET UP!!" Hanabi Hyuga screamed at the top of her lungs after the feeling returned to her limbs, and she clumsily propped herself against the rail. "YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO QUIT UNTIL THAT KILLER FACES JUSTICE! GET ON YOUR FEET AND PUT HIM DOWN!!"

The raw emotion pouring from her pleas before her father settled her down was enhanced by the break in her voice on the last command, and it struck many in the arena right in their core. Neji, however, glared even harder at the idea of justice of any sort.

"Foolish," he scoffed. "There has never been any justice for me."

Meanwhile, Sasuke had endured just about enough of this pity party. Thanks to the length of Neji's rant, the chakra he had slowly been pulling from anywhere he could in his body had finally coalesced in a sufficient amount over and around his collarbone. With that in place, all he had to do was kick past the containment seal and allow the cursed seal a little bit of latitude.

A sudden burst of foul, violet chakra erupted from Sasuke's prone body alongside the scream that ripped from his throat. Neji was knocked onto his ass by the blast, and he subconsciously shuffled backward as Sasuke slowly climbed to his feet. In the stands, Anko was tense, as were the jonin and ANBU watching along. In the Kage booth, the "Kazekage" smirked under his veil.

Once Sasuke was standing, the flame pattern of the Cursed Seal of Heaven pulsated with power, and within moments, his tenketsu were forced back open, allowing his chakra to flow uninhibited once again. At the same moment, Sasuke clamped down on the seal with the mass of chakra he had pooled over it, and with the added flow of his reinvigorated chakra system, he quickly forced the cursed seal back into containment. The marks receded up his skin and toward the tomoes on his collarbone, and just like that, the oppressive aura of the seal had vanished.

In the audience, Anko breathed a sigh of relief, and then a grin developed when she put together what he had just done. Elsewhere in the arena, Kakashi was eye-smiling at the risky gambit paying off. In the Kage booth, the twitch of the "Kazekage's" eye was the only visible tell of his frustration, whereas an impressed Hiruzen was smiling in relief.

Back on the battlefield, Sasuke was smirking at a wide-eyed, incredulous Neji. Neji had clearly never encountered anyone forcefully reopening their tenketsu without assistance, and Sasuke would revel in it. Who would've guessed that brute-forcing chakra would've come in handy once again? Still, Anko's guidance was for damn sure worth its weight in gold, as even though he was forced to activate the cursed seal, he wasn't in a position where he needed it to continue the fight. He had more than enough in the tank to finish this now that he could actually mold his chakra again.

Neji's bewilderment soon became panicked rage thanks in part to Sasuke's mocking smirk, and he sprang into action once again, seeking to tear the Uchiha apart once and for all. Sasuke welcomed the charge, engaging in another fierce taijutsu struggle that once again demonstrated Sasuke's physical superiority in close quarters. However, Sasuke noticed that his edge over Neji had amplified since their initial clash, and not simply due to Neji potentially being fatigued. Instead, it was as if Neji's movements had drastically slowed down in Sasuke's vision, meanwhile, Sasuke could predict exactly where Neji would strike and how he'd follow with near-perfect accuracy. He was weaving out of Neji's offense and avoiding the chakra waiting in the wings to attack far better than before.

Unseen to Sasuke, the two tomoe of his Sharingan had become three.

Neji was growing increasingly frustrated with the state of the exchange, and that frustration compounded when Sasuke kicked his left leg out from under him and then kneed him in the face, returning the earlier favor by breaking his nose, as well. Neji skidded along the ground, clutching his face in agony before he was jolted back into action by the call of, "Dragon Fire Jutsu!"

Rolling back to his feet, he started spinning once more. "Eight Trigrams Palm Rotation!"

The dome of chakra flared to life right as the red-hot stream of fire reached him, slamming into the barrier and catching along the spin of the chakra, creating a spinning dome of fire on the outside. Feeling the overbearing heat, Neji was forced to continue spinning and maintaining the barrier lest the flames collapse in on him and burn him to cinders. He did so for a few seconds longer until the fire jutsu finally subsided, and he slowed his spin to an eventual crawl, finally dropping the Rotation.

What he saw next jolted him back into a spin, pushing every ounce of chakra he could summon back into a second Palm Rotation. Sasuke, left hand thunderously crackling with a Chidori, zoomed across the arena toward Neji with every intention of ending the fight one way or another. This would truly test if Neji's claim of the Palm Rotation being the ultimate, impenetrable defense would hold up to scrutiny.

Chidori met Rotation in a glorious light show, lightning cascading over the spinning dome as Sasuke drove his fist into the barrier while Neji frantically fought to maintain it. Everyone in the arena heard the crescendo of cracking that emanated from the barrier, and while it wasn't surprising when the Rotation finally gave, it was still a spectacular sight. Sasuke's Chidori finally shattered the Rotation like glass, but the force of the impulse jerked his arm slightly upward, causing him to scrape the Chidori right across Neji's face and uncovered forehead as he ran through the circle.

It all happened so quickly that Sasuke barely registered that he had made contact with anything until he was already touching the other wall of the stadium. What finally alerted him that he had was the blood soaking the bandages and belts on his arm as the Chidori dispelled, alongside the guttural cries of agony that bellowed from Neji behind him. Turning around, his eyes briefly widened before they settled back into indifference. Neji was clutching his face like a vise while blood dribbled down his hands and arms. His right eye was completely annihilated by the Chidori, and his forehead was devoid of skin; all that remained was torn, charred muscle, and visible patches of bone.

It was safe to say that he was done.

Then, Sasuke's gaze fell to his discarded tanto, and then it returned to Neji. Looking down at his fellow genin writhing on the dirt, he couldn't help but lament how things had gotten to this point for him. His story was unfortunate; Sasuke could at least admit that much. However, there were a lot of unfortunate stories in the ninja world, and many of them created monsters no better than Orochimaru or his brother.

Neji was granted the opportunity to verbally vent his turmoil for once, and in a cruel twist of fate, that turned out to be his undoing. Again, having someone of a like mind who could potentially understand and empathize to actually talk to went a long way, and Neji clearly never had that, so when offered that opportunity in a roundabout way, it was no surprise that he took it with both hands. Sasuke simply took full advantage of that.

As he walked over to the tanto and picked it up, it felt like lead in his hand. The gaze he sent back at Neji was less dispassionate and more pitying. Sasuke knew that he was dealt a raw hand, as were his teammates, and trauma tended to force people down the beaten path toward the void. However, he also knew that he wouldn't have to travel down that path on his own. Neji, clearly, had also traveled the same beaten path toward the void, only he blinked when the void stared back.

Staring down at Neji with the tanto in hand, a morbid sense of clarity came over him. This was what being consumed by hatred made a person become. This was what cultivating hatred and loathing, allowing it to fester, transformed a person into. Neji got his recompense for the crimes perpetrated against the Branch House, yet he was still empty of everything but his hatred.

And that was exactly what Itachi wanted Sasuke to become.

Well, fuck that.

Itachi wasn't going to dictate Sasuke's life more than he had already. The Uchiha Clan would be avenged, and Sasuke would do so on his terms, not Itachi's.

It was at that moment that Genma appeared by Sasuke's side and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"He's done," Genma sullenly said, appearing to read exactly what Sasuke was thinking. "I think we've had enough bloodshed amongst comrades in these exams."

Sasuke didn't reply, only resealing his tanto and turning to leave. The battle was over; both of them.

"Winner, Sasuke Uchiha!" Genma announced, and the crowd fell into applause, applause that soon grew into raucous cheering. Sasuke ignored every decibel and remained wrapped in his thoughts as he meandered toward the tunnel.

Meanwhile, Neji was loaded onto a stretcher and carried to the medical ward of the stadium to have his grievous injuries seen. He did not pay attention to Sasuke approaching him with the tanto, nor did he see Genma stop him and declare the match over before he could be put out of his misery. All Neji put together was him being horrifically maimed and the people of Konoha roaring in approval. It seemed that it wasn't just the Main House of the Hyuga Clan that reveled in the suffering of the Branch House.

The entirety of Konoha did, as well.

The search for the elusive MLP battle shonen continues...

Thanks for reading.