A/N: I have doubts about how well I explained this fight. Please let me know if it didn't make sense.
--
After so much stress, worry, and anticipation, Naruto didn't know if he could wait even a little bit longer for the Final Exams to begin. So, obviously, the first day started with him oversleeping and arriving late.
Running at full speed, which was quite a lot for him, he lost time rather than gained it as he bumped into three separate old ladies, knocked over one fruit stand, and stepped on the tail of a particularly irritable cat.
As he finally approached the arena, seeing the size of the great structure he was about to be fighting in, seeing just how many people were about to see him perform, to show what he could do…if anyone asked, that just made him more excited, but internally he was quaking.
He had seen what Neji could do, and while it wasn't necessarily that much greater than what Kiba could accomplish, and certainly not better than Zabuza or Haku (though Naruto wouldn't have really stood a chance in a one-on-one fight against either without Mikaboshi's interference, but he tried not to think about it), the sheer brutality he displayed, the overbearing confidence he held, the reputation he had developed…yes, he was a little scared.
As he pondered this, he noticed that Hinata was outside the arena, staring absently into the surrounding town until her eyes locked in on him.
"Oh, Naruto, I was a little worried. They already have the contestants lining up in the center of the arena to show off to the crowds, and when you and Sasuke weren't there I wondered if something was up. They've already called Choji up to be on standby, as apparently something happened to that Dosu kid."
Naruto rubbed the back of his head as he sheepishly responded, "ha, ha, yeah, well, I overslept, you know, with all that really tough training and all, and…wait, Sasuke's not here?"
Hinata nodded. "I was worried about you, so I came out here so I'd know it first if when you arrived."
Feeling that it was very sweet that Hinata was worried about him and Sasuke like that, even if it probably more for Sasuke, knowing how girls were, he was about to thank her and then hurry into the arena before something stopped him and prompted him to ask her, "hey, Hinata, you know, I'm going to be facing your cousin, I guess, in there, and, well," he didn't know how to finish that.
He had promised to take Neji down, and had no intention of backing down on that, but he was nervous, and also didn't want to admit to that, but sort of wanted to talk to someone about it. Hinata looked at him appreciatively.
"You know, Naruto, I seriously considered giving up before that fight even started, but when you spoke to me, it prompted me to try when I was scared. Thank you for that."
A part of him wondered if it wouldn't have been better for her to give up beforehand, given the results of that fight, but he shut that part right up. He knew full well how important it was to give everything you've got, to go as far as you can, and he realized that that shut up the parts that didn't want to actually go in and face this challenge up as well.
"Thank you, Hinata, you probably won't know why, but this was really helpful."
Her face turned bright red for some reason, and neither said anything more until they headed for the entrance.
--
The Great God-on-Earth sighed as Naruto sauntered in late, one of two of his own Village members to have apparently gotten it into their heads that they could show up to this event whenever they wanted. The Hem-Netjer-Tepi and the Marshall, both sitting beside him, said nothing, but were clearly judging the boy.
"Well," Hiruzen noted, "Sasuke still isn't here, so it's time to send Choji down and…"
"wait," the Hem-Netjer-Tepi responded. "Sasuke is meant to face Gaara, and I want my Village advertised by a real fight, one between say, the feared Gatekeeper and the last Amatsukami, not some random kid who barely made it past the preliminaries."
Glancing at him, the Great God-on-Earth responded, "Choji has shown great promise, even surviving a fight with a Dragon capable of full Manifestation."
The Hem-Netjer-Tepi didn't look like he was going to budge, and, honestly, this was not a matter that Sarutobi was about to waste political capital on.
"Very well, I'll let the proctors know," and then sent a servant to do just that.
"Y'all are really usin' this opportunity to show off yer Gatekeepers, ain't ya?" He looked down to where Fuu, Naruto, and Gaara were waiting, and shook his head. "There's no way in Hell that Dachu's givin' that gal a promotion, he just wants clients. But that leads me to you two. Ehekatoyaatl is safe and sound inside a young boy that the Village Hidden in Tall-Tales keeps in check, on account of the fact that we don't want the frickin' 'Living Hurricane' to escape and run amok in the Middle-World. Are y'all seriously tellin' me that yer actually puttin' Apophis and Mikaboshi in the same dangerous line o' work that all yer other little Villagers fight in? Do ya really wanna find out the 'ard way what'll happen if those kids die in a freak accident?"
There were hundreds of politically savvy reasons for using Naruto, but as the Marshall accurately pointed out, none of them really justified the risk. No, that was a simple moral decision.
"Naruto had no choice in sacrificing what could have been a normal life for the Village. I couldn't bear to deprive him of at least the choices every other Scion got. He's here because he wanted to be."
Both of the other leaders stared at him. The Marshall seemed to have some newfound respect, while the Hem-Netjer-Tepi looked ashamed about something. Gaara really was forced into this life, the Great God-on-Earth thought, he doesn't have a moral ground to stand on here.
Whatever the Mummy was feeling inside, out loud he simply stated, "restoring Ma'at in the world is more important than the will of an individual, and since the boy already carries Apophis as his burden, well, that burden gives him strengths, and who would I be to deny him the use of those strengths? What the Supernatural Men do is important to the world, and we shouldn't turn away any useful abilities, no matter how risky."
Looking between the two, and then down to the gathered lower-ranks hoping to have something to show for themselves today, the Marshall sighed.
"I s'pose, I guess I have to admit that it's easier to reject the Call of the West than it is to not become one of you fellers, so there are some things ah'll never truly understand. Still, you guys do send 'em out awfully young. Not that your yungun's don't pack a bite, I know first hand how much power they can hold, but it never sat right with me. I just hope ya know what yer doin'."
And with that, the three sat back and watched the show.
--
He had already heard it from Hinata, but Naruto was still proud of the fact that he had shown up before Sasuke. Then, when the announcer-guy started to get the crowd hyped up for all the fighting they were about to see, he started to worry about the fact that his bandmate was running so late. Whatever issues they might have had, he didn't want Sasuke to lose out on Rank because simply because he was late. If Sasuke was going to lose out on Rank, it should be because Naruto kicked his ass so thoroughly that those watching felt embarrassed, not a technicality.
His thoughts on the matter were interrupted when he realized that his name had been called…as well as Neji's. He was up first.
As the others shuffled away to the sidelines, a man, the same one who had watched over the preliminaries, Naruto realized, spoke to them both.
"Okay, fight until surrender, knockout, or death. I will try not to surrender on your behalf this time, so keep track of your health and don't be the idiot who died because his ego couldn't handle losing even one fight. One final reminder, your goal is to impress the higher-ups in the Village watching, not to win, so keep that in mind. We're not testing your one-on-one combat skills, but your leadership skills."
Neji nodded in understanding, but Naruto was confused. "Why is the test one-on-one combat then…?"
"Only questions about confusion over the rules are allowed. Now, if you have animal companions or other followers, they must be summoned to you before we begin."
Neji whistled to Remus Bane. Naruto, disappointed as he kind of wanted this to be a surprise, called on the same energies from the Contract earlier…and was only able to summon one of them. He was grateful to see Xanthos again, but really wanted all four. Unfortunately, his Ichor wasn't channeling it and the proctor was clearly getting impatient, so he acknowledged that he was ready.
"A new trick? It won't change anything. Fate has already decided this battle."
Having only the vaguest memories of Fate and how it worked from his studies in the Academy, Naruto scratched his head. "Did you use the Prophecy Purview, or is that what it's called? Is it property, no, that doesn't make sense…."
Neji grunted in frustration. "It's 'Prophecy,' you had it right the first time, and no, I didn't need to foresee what was going to happen today; it was decided when I, the genius of my year, was put up against you, a failure with delusions of grandeur who only gets others hurt by telling them to be what they cannot be. It's my destiny to teach you a lesson about your place here, and I am proud to be your instructor."
"Well, maybe Fate brought us here today so I could avenge Hinata and teach you a lesson about being such a jerk, and hey, if this 'Fate' thing really did decide that you were going to win today, well then, screw Fate! I'll show him!"
"You guys can start now," the proctor reminded them.
--
Neji need not be reminded twice. Already having activated Animal Communication before the fight began, he ordered Remus Bane to forgo their initial plan for now and take out the horse. It would make things harder for his next opponent to analyze, and he preferred the idea of beating this upstart Naruto kid by himself anyways.
"War Purview: Warrior Ideal!"
"Darkness Purview: Shadow Bodies!" Naruto shouted in response, not seeming to be even mildly perturbed.
Well, that was frustrating, but not much of a problem. As the various black silhouettes of Naruto surrounded him on all sides, Neji merely intoned "Melee Arete," and, using his pilum like a held spear, stabbed, struck, and blocked all the pitch-black forms coming at him. Seeing that one had been staying away from the crowd of bodies surrounding him, Neji smirked in spite of himself, shouted "Marksmanship Arete," and used his Strength Knacks to jump up above the Bodies and toss his pilum straight into what he assumed to be the real Naruto.
While it struck true, it did not have the effect he was expecting. He landed right outside the throng of Naruto's, sword drawn, and let the shock of seeing it fade away as just another shadow construct distract him for just long enough for a dark imitation of a knife to slice into his shoulder.
Rolling out of the way before more attacks could land, he stood up, casually parrying and slashing at the charging Naruto's while he observed the battlefield.
Remus Bane was more than happy to attack the walking meat for master. The large, heavy, plant-eater looked like delicious prey, strong prey in the hands of the right mortals, but prey nonetheless, which meant without orders it would panic at the sight of him…why was it staring at him so hungrily?
Meat! Master Naruto has summoned me to battle, and given me meat! She hadn't had any true meal since eating former master Diomedes and being 'pacified' by Heracles, so this wolf looked outright delicious.
Neighing ferociously, Xanthos charged straight at her would-be predator, chomping into the stunned wolf with blunted teeth. The horse closed her eyes in pleasure as she finally tasted meat, real meat, for the first time in centuries, and even if it didn't taste as good as human, it was still so wonderful that she let herself get distracted savoring it, which turned out to be an incredibly stupid thing to do when in melee with a wolf.
Her opponent ripped himself away from the horse's mouth, leapt to the side, then exploited Xanthos's distraction to pounce onto her back. It was the great enemy of horses everywhere, their large backs with no natural defenses and not many ways for a horse to get something off of it, that had been the target of competent predators for all of time and even the means by which humans first broke their kind into beasts of burden.
She, unfortunately for her opponent, was no mere wild mustang and didn't waste time just trying to shake him off. Instead, Xanthos rushed for the walls of the arena, trying her best to ignored the pain and blood loss from the wolf biting into her neck, and slammed her side against the arena's walls.
Remus Bane refused to let master down. Even if stupid prey tried to knock him off by battering against large white barrier, Remus Bane would obey master. And so he held, biting deeper and deeper, teeth cutting into the horse's neck, as his bones cracked from the repeated slamming and he had to fight his instinct to whimper in pain.
--
"Some of the more squeamish mortals aren't going to like seeing the animals tear each other apart like that," the Hem-Netjer-Tepi noted.
"We control a lot for their benefit, but we can't fine-tune everything," The Great God-on-Earth responded.
"Ah'll admit, it don't do me no good feelins either to see a horse get like that, as many times as ah've seen it happen. In the battlefield, 'gainst starvin' coyotes is one thing, but…"
"I'm not stopping the match because some people can't handle seeing 'poor animals' go through the same thing they eagerly anticipated the children of our Villages going through," The Great God-on-Earth snapped.
The Hem-Netjer-Tepi held up his hands in surrender. "I'm not saying that the standards are right, just reminding you that you do have to hold this fight to theirs if you want to ensure profits for our Villages. People get weird about animals, especially the kinds they keep as pets."
Sighing, Hiruzen realized that his fellow leader was right, but there was little he could do about it now. "The other purpose behind this whole ordeal is to see their leadership skills, so I will be evaluating whether or not they're keeping track of the ones under their command's wellbeing. Now, that's the last I want to hear about this matter."
--
While still struggling to get the upper hand against the Shadow Narutos, but not losing any ground either, he had the presence of mind to notice that Remus Bane was in serious trouble, and he had no intention of letting his companion die. In spite of his earlier desire to keep things between himself and this upstart who thought he could defy Fate, he also recognized that the first one to lose an animal companion would be at a severe disadvantage against the other, and so barely avoided another barrage of knife attacks as he ducked and weaved to retrieve his pilum.
Having to take a jab to the arm in order to have the space and time to grab it (seriously, fighting this many enemies at once was a pain), he still managed to leap back, aim, and, guided by his Arete, toss the javelin straight into the horse's heart…thanks to the continued interruption of the pitch-black humanoids, miss by inches and strike into it's abdomen instead.
While that still caused it to whinny in pain and start flailing about randomly rather than continue bashing his wolf against a wall, it wasn't the near-instant death he was going for and also, by inducing sudden and unexpected flailing, managed to knock an injured Remus Bane to the ground, struggling to stand up and barely managing it.
"Xanthos!" Naruto screamed and rushed to the horses side, in his distraction his Bodies following along. Had he still had his pilum, this would have been the perfect opportunity to end the fight, but it was currently impaling this 'Xanthos' figure and also he wanted to see what was going on with Remus Bane.
That wolf was thus far one of the few aspects of his Fate that he had actually liked, and if he was going to get it killed in a fight, then it was not going to be a fight to determine his political standing in the Village. So they ran to their companions, looking over their injuries, and then glaring at one another.
It occurred to both of them that they were in a stalemate, neither wanting to ignore their animal companions but neither wanting to give the other an opening, until Neji finally broke it.
"This fight is between us. In spite of the advantages they offer, there is no reason to sacrifice either of them here."
Naruto was shocked. Was Neji showing…kindness? Naruto agreed with him here, but didn't the boy just want to shout about how it was their 'Fate' to fight and die alongside them?
"Yeah, okay," Naruto brought himself to say, and then they turned to the proctor and asked if they could remove Xanthos and Remus Bane before resuming the match.
Said proctor seemed to be at a complete loss before some other Scion leapt down and informed him that the Great God-on-Earth, watching the affair, decreed that it was allowed.
"He is honored by your noble decisions," the new Scion explained, and then in a whisper that the recording devices broadcasting for the audience wouldn't catch, "and also, many of the mortals watching and funding thushave pet horses and the wolf looks close enough to a dog that they were getting uncomfortable about that fight."
Naruto grimaced in some degree of annoyance while Neji merely accepted the fact that Fate made him a more acceptable target for violent entertainment, and then they merely stood in opposition to one another until their animals were taken away to be treated.
"What's your deal?" Naruto asked of his opponent while they weren't immediately trying to beat one another into oblivion. "Don't you want the weak crushed, to 'accept their fates?'"
"The weak accepting their fates doesn't mean they'll be crushed. It means they can find what happiness there is to be found in their weakness, rather than wasting time trying to find a strength that can't be found. Fate decrees what path we'll take on the day we're born, and trying to defy it will only lead to misery. Remus Bane's Fate is to fight beside me as a wolf in a pack, and maybe one day to die for me, but if that is his Fate then it's to die saving my life or in some situation equally dire. Doing so today would be unnecessary. Unlike you, I understand what Fate has in store, why it has these things in store, and why it's important to stand by it."
"Find happiness in their weakness, huh? I guess that's something you can believe if 'Fate' made you strong."
Neji actually laughed at that. "I am Fated to be the strongest among the weak. I will never be among the strong."
Naruto thought back to what Kakashi had told him about Clan Dodekatheon, about that division between Greek and Roman children that he honestly really didn't get…
"I know a little about your Clan and how you're a 'roaming' Scion or whatever, but do you really think you can't change things? Or, if Fate really does control everything, that it doesn't want us to be better?"
Neji's laugh turned into a glare. Rather than answer Naruto, he pulled off his headband, revealing something written in an old alphabet from the World-That-Was.
"Romane, as this brand was put on my forehead to remind me. I am a 'Roman' Scion, the child of Quirinus, and if you really 'know a little' about my Clan then you should know what this brand means. It means that I'm lesser. It means that I'm a servant to the Ellinikes. It means that I am fated to be nothing more."
For the second time since these Exams began, and for the third time in the last year, Naruto found himself empathizing with someone he assumed to be a terrible person. Maybe this 'Fate' thing that Neji kept going on about wanted him to see what he could have turned into and learn from the experience, or maybe it saw that he escaped what these people turned into, and that he was the one who could save them from themselves.
"I may know more than you think about being branded as 'lesser' by forces outside of my control."
Neji smirked, cruel but mirthless. "I am aware that you have been deemed the worst of your peers, and that is something you should accept. My mortal caretaker was like you, you know, thinking he could be better than he was, except he had even greater reason; by right of his mortal lineage, he should have been Clan Head, but his mother chose to lie with Sol Invictus and thus he was cast down in favor of his half-brother who had the fortune to be born of a union between the then-Clan Head and Aphrodite while he himself was branded in such a way that the 'proper Greek children' could control him at their whims. Thinking he could defy his Fate, thinking that he could find solace in changing the Dodekatheon, he fought as a reformer on the inside and an advocate on the outside, even encouraging his wife, my mother, to take a Roman into her bed. Do you know what the final results of his efforts were?"
Naruto guessed that he didn't succeed, but didn't consider it tactful to say so. Unlike what Sakura would have thought, he was sometimes capable of tact.
"The teeth of Ladon are a sacred treasure that Clan Dodekatheon holds as its own, only ever removed from the inner sanctum when one of the Gods wants them to gift as a Birthright. The Dragons of the Village Hidden in Fire think that Ladon was one of them, and thus any part of his body rightfully belongs to them. The potential supernatural properties that the teeth hold are, I'm sure, completely irrelevant to this conflict."
Sneering even more cruelly, he continued.
"So, they hatched a plan. While the Broodkeeper and the Great Terrae-Theon were negotiating an end to their war at the time, knowing that peace was so fragile, a team broke in and, failing to find Ladon's teeth, instead tried to kidnap Hinata so they could hold her ransom. Her mortal father, the famed Hiashi "Aphrodite" Dodekatheon himself, killed them, but not without cost. Since the Dragons denied any attempt at a robbery, and the last survivor of the Brood sent after her was some kind of scientist that was able to hide all of the evidence, the peace was in jeopardy, with the Broodkeeper claiming that Clan Dodekatheon had launched an unprovoked attack. The war would resume unless either the teeth or Hiashi's head was delivered to the Village Hidden in Fire. My mortal caretaker, my father in the Middle-World, looked similar enough to Hiashi that they could take a third option. After all, who would miss a Romane?"
Neji's smirk grew less cruel and more bitter.
"So, my deluded comrade in weakness, that's the final result of defying Fate. Fighting his whole life, refusing to allow his son a better one, none of it kept him from being sacrificed for his betters when it was convenient, because that was his Fate. Nothing we can do will change it; we are both destined to be among the dredges. Find comfort in knowing that, when you lose today, it's because there never really was another option."
--
"Should ya really be lettin' that kid air out yer Village's dirty laundry where all the mortals can see it? If the Broodkeeper is watchin', Ah'll bet he's madder than a gremlin who found the out the machine it was about to infest is just a toy."
The Hem-Netjer-Tepi agreed with the Marshall. "The sight of animals violently beating each other to death is no longer a concern, so now we can return to the proper and civilized sight of teenage boys violently beating each other to death."
The Great God-on-Earth's inclination was to let the fight play out as it would organically, so long as they didn't spend so much time talking and not fighting that the audience got bored, but they had a point.
Exposing Clan Dodekatheon's inner conflicts and the trick they had played on the Village Hidden in Fire all those years ago to ensure peace to the mortal population that was normally satisfied knowing that the Supernatural Men worked for them…a small part of him wondered if it weren't for the best. Let them see what the creatures they confine to Villages and make fight for them actually live like.
--
The Broodkeeper, as the leader of a Village at peace with all the participating Villages, had a complimentary crystal ball that he could use to watch the Rank Exams if he so desired.
He actually wasn't at the moment, as he had what he considered to be far more important matters to attend to (he was pretty close to finding the sources of Amachi's funding before he had found Isaribi-with the girl's assistance, he was able to pin it down to either the Village Hidden in Sacrifice or a mysterious group of mercenaries known as 'Daybreak'). He wasn't certain what either party would have wanted with Amachi's research, but they were willingly working with a Rogue Dragon, which meant that they and the Village Hidden in Fire had matters to settle, and a small part of him still felt that there was more to look into here.
Thus, he was taken by surprise when one of his assistants who he had watching the Rank Exams for him in case anything worth noting happened let him know that two of the combatants had stopped mid-fight and started discussing the failed operation to steal Ladon's teeth all those years ago.
He grimaced as he dropped what he was doing to briefly watch, slightly annoyed as he learned how they managed to trick him (he had destroyed an entire building when he later learned that Hiashi was still alive after clearly getting his head delivered), and then started to calculate.
"Nobles from the Land of Gold are there, aren't they? They're going to want an explanation about this."
Mortal Public Relations were always his least favorite part of the job, especially since he had come to view the entire incident as a mistake in the intervening years, and not just because it failed utterly. It risked the peace that they really didn't know if they could afford to break (the ease with which the Scions agreed to his demands made him suspect they weren't in that good of a position, but the Dragons were definitely in dire straights), it lost him three good Dragons (and a fourth in the long run), and quite frankly even the cold pragmatist within him realized that it was wrong.
Now, of course, it was making him look bad in front of an international audience, though he could take some solace in the fact that the Scions weren't also coming out pure.
"Alright, prepare a statement reasserting the peace deal and our commitment to keeping the Land of Gold and the mortal population in harmony, and then reconfirm our commitments to defending the Village Hidden in Legends from any foreign aggressors. We have some half-built rumors that the Village Hidden in Sacrifice might be trying to plan something, so offer some troops in the event they try anything in the next month. Hopefully that should pacify the mortals until they move on to whatever the next scandal is."
--
Naruto stared at Neji, not entirely certain how the additional details to his story, as screwed up as they were, actually supported his philosophy. Rather than try to work it out, he merely responded to Neji by saying something Iruka used to say a lot whenever kids started arguing about which God was better to have as a parent.
"We are all the children of the Gods, and we should all be proud of that fact. If Clan Dodekatheon doesn't recognize that, then when I am Great Kunitsokami I'll make the Clan change its ways. Your mortal caretaker fought for what he believed in, and if that got him killed then that's only more reason that what he was fighting against was wrong! If you won't change your situation, then I will! Believe it!"
He was pretty sure that the proctor was about to cough and remind them that they were, in fact, in the middle of a fight right now, but it ultimately didn't matter, because Naruto ended that proclamation by rushing Neji.
Neji was better in technical skill, probably even without his Arete, and his Shadow Bodies were slowly dissolving from the time they had spent just standing in the sunlight, so Naruto mostly ended up getting a few strokes of a sword into his side for his efforts, but he continued on, desperately hoping that he could prove this bastard wrong through sheer determination, never mind how badly he kept getting hurt for it, thinking on the fact that Xanthos wouldn't want him to give up after he took the horse out of play…Naruto had an idea.
Sparing a quick glance to where Xanthos had been bashing Remus Bane against the wall earlier, he noticed a the crack that the horse had managed to leave. He then remembered the things he had learned from Jiraiya over the last month, summoning horses, using Stamina Knacks, and the last two, the ones that his teacher had thought would be useless in the upcoming fights in this arena. Safely Interred and Shadow Refuge.
Having a Shadow Body toss itself in Neji's way so he could dodge around the boy's sword and get as far as possible, he ran to the edge of the arena.
"Have you finally had enough? Have you learned what facing your Fate entails? Well, you can't run from it either!"
Neji tried to leap over Naruto's Bodies and go after the real one, but said Bodies weren't stopping him anyways. Naruto didn't want them to. Also, the sun had shone on them long enough that their remaining life-span could be measured in seconds.
Naruto flattened himself against the side of the arena wall, ensuring that all of him was under the small shadow it cast, and intoned "Darkness Purview: Shadow Refuge." His body was already pitch black from the effect of using Shadow Bodies, albeit his real self was poking through, but now his Ichor morphed him to match with the darkness surrounding him.
Mikaboshi felt like it was pleased. This didn't surprise Naruto, as it was the reason he hadn't even had to practice this one when training. He knew that he was now fully invisible to the naked eye, and would be so as long as he didn't step out into the light.
Neji halted in his advance, wary of any tricks as he came closer, glancing from left to right. He took a tentative step forward, quickly jabbing into where Naruto had been when he first turned invisible, but the boy had already taken a brief step to the side. Said boy caught Neji's sword with a knife as the Roman Scion tried to withdraw it, prompting Neji to swirl around and attack at where Naruto was now, prompting Naruto to dodge at the very last second and…there!
The sword got caught in the crack that the earlier fight between the horse and the wolf had left, and Naruto grabbed it as fast as he could and pushed it in deeper before Neji could react to his mistake.
Xanthos was strong, as Naruto had learned from the time she and her sisters had caused a landslide with their hooves. Remus Bane was also apparently strong, much more than a mundane wolf, if he could survive his bashing, and while on the outside it looked like a mere crack, they had actually damaged the structural integrity of a small part of the wall.
When Neji's sword got stuck, being blessed by the Gods to be far more durable than a normal sword, it jammed against a jagged piece of rock and got stuck. Neji had the most basic of the Strength Knacks, Epic Strength, and thus could pull the sword out against the stone while, thanks to the sword's aforementioned blessing, it would break the stone rather than the sword when the force got too much. On one hand, that meant that he could get his weapon back easily. On the other, that meant the stone holding up the wall immediately beside and above the pair was even more unstable.
Not knowing what Naruto was thinking and figuring that his annoying plan to take out Neji's weapon had failed, the boy in question swung again at where he thought Naruto's last location was out of frustration. He couldn't see the kid, of course, but he knew that Naruto was sticking to the shadows, which not give the fated loser of this fight a lot of wiggle room.
Hearing a grunt, Neji swung his sword at it only to get it caught in the crack again (to be fair, it was larger this time and thus he hit without striking into the same place), only to go through the same song and dance of pulling it out and swinging and pulling it out…"you have no recourse to turn this around! Accept your Fate! War Purview: Mortal Stroke!"
To Neji's knowledge, that didn't actually do anything to inanimate objects; had it simply struck into the crack again, it would have done nothing but, well, the same thing his sword had been doing this whole time. However, the fact that he had been provoked into using it again, against another reminder of everything that had gone wrong in his life, in another fight where he was forced to prove his philosophy against some upstart who refused to quit when they should, it might honestly have awakened another Strength Knack he hadn't mastered yet and he slammed his sword into the wall far harder than he thought he could.
Ripping it out in an increasingly blind rage, he didn't notice that the chunks he pulled out fell to the ground, the chunks right above them following without any lower support, and then…
--
The Great God-on-Earth was currently thanking whichever architect had first come up with the idea of putting some space between the walls that surrounded the arena the walls that held up the stands. This could have gotten very bad for the audience otherwise.
As the stones fell onto the unsuspecting son of Quirinus and the presumably more prepared son of Izanami, he realized that the events of this match would more than pay for it anyways. Naruto's status as the Gatekeeper was a secret to anyone looking over the participants to figure out where to place their bets, but his status as the dead last of his year, an abnormally young rookie, and his penchant for acting without thinking were in all the books, not that far from Neji's status as a prodigy of his year and a revered Scion of Clan Dodekatheon. He could see the faces of dejected gamblers everywhere and images of balanced budgets danced around his head.
"So, what do you think? Are you considering promoting either of them?"
The Great God-on-Earth sat back, rubbing his chin. "They showed quick thinking and skill, and that scene with the animals, as self-serving as it was on my part, did show that they already have a tendency to keep the interests of their underlings in mind. I'll have to compare it to the others before I make a final decision."
He turned to the Marshall. "So, one of yours is next. What are you looking for in your candidates, and what do you think the Seelie and Unseelie King might be thinking."
The Marshall snorted. "That poor Fae girl ain't gettin' a promotion and you know it. They just wanna show off some raw power for the clients. As to my feller, well, if I can see the properties of a leader, I'll see em."
Figuring that that was as good as he was going to get, the Great God-on-Earth nodded and looked down at the arena.
--
Gai really hoped that Neji had learned something from this. While Kakashi had been gracious enough, considering Lee's condition, to say nothing about the fact that he had won their bet in the preliminaries, there was no way he was going to ignore one of his own students beating one of Gai's, so there had to be something good to come of today. Please eat cheaply, Maito Gai prayed.
As Naruto crawled out of the wreckage completely unharmed, and the proctor, inspecting the same wreckage, called out that Neji was too injured to continue, he then moved his prayers to something more important.
May Neji think on this and start to question the beliefs and memories that pain him so.
Gai didn't know who he was praying to; his Divine Father wasn't really a God according to Yankee legend, and he hadn't put much stock into the idea of looking upward to the Gods for assistance when one could do better by improving one's self, but still he prayed to someone out there. He knew Neji never listened to him, so he had to hope that someone would.
--
As the medics carried him out the rubble, Neji stared at the victorious Naruto.
"You're the son of Izanami. Earth is one of her Purviews. I should have expected that. It seems Fate really has smiled on you."
Naruto seemed affronted by that, more than he was by most of the things that Neji had told him.
"I failed the Academy's test when I took it, because I couldn't use any Purviews. Not Earth. Not Darkness. Nothing. Do you know why? Well, I learned that it was actually because of something that happened to me when I was born. Something that made Earth impossible and stopped the teachers from letting me even try Darkness. It was something that I was Fated to. Don't tell me about how your life is determined when you're born; if it was, I'd be a monster hiding in the dark right now. Your birth affects you, yes, and Fate has whatever plans it wants to have, but you still have a choice. I'm an idiot, and I can see that, so if you're really the genius that everyone thinks you are then you can figure out how to surpass your Fate better than I can."
Neji said nothing. Naruto walked away.
--
Later, when Neji was recovering from his wounds, a man whom Neji had only seen once before walked in. His bearing was that of a patrician, but his build that of a warrior. Handsome, yet rugged, like a statue that was meant to be perfect, but then the artist changed his mind at the last minute and wanted to give it the appearance of someone who actually lived in the world. Neji wasn't actually certain whether or not it would be appropriate to refer to this being as 'Father' or "Quirinus," so instead he split the difference.
"Father Quirinus," he noted, trying to bow in spite of his injuries.
"At ease," the God responded. "I always preferred Romulus anyways. This habit us Gods have formed of Visiting our children to awaken their powers and then never seeing them again is something that…I can't condemn it, but I'm here now."
Dismissing the awkwardness between them, Quirinus continued, "I understand that you spoke with the wolf who raised me. Her spirit continues to live on, and I am grateful that there are still those who hold to it."
Neji nodded, uncomfortably. "I apologize for my rudeness, father, but why are you here?"
"Our thinking is in centuries, not years, so understand why I didn't act on this earlier, but I've been reflecting on my brother Remus, and how our family was destroyed by the question of who within it should have more power, and maybe that I should plant a seed to ensure that your family didn't suffer the same fate. I can't end the branding, not on my own, as I am bound by Zeus just as you are bound by Hiashi, but I wanted to remind you of what can be done in the Middle World; I was cast out by my parents to die as an infant, and instead forged an empire. One of the greatest that the World-That-Was knew. If my mother has come to you, then it's because you, too, can be cultivated into something greater than what the world seems to have in store for you at this moment. It means that, just as I once conquered the world but lost my brother in the process, you can conquer the rift in your family and do what I couldn't; make amends."
He stood up, seeming to want to leave. "You can start by asking Hiashi what really happened with the death of your mortal caretaker. It will help put things into perspective."