Naruto VS Neji
"Fighters ready?" Genma asks.
"Hell yeah I am!" Naruto is hopping back and forth from foot to foot.
"Yes." Neji casually says. He's not taking Naruto seriously at all.
"Begin!"
"Naruto, was it?" Neji smoothly slides into the opening stance for the Gentle Fist. "I've heard that you were supposed to be the dead last of your class."
"Hehe, yeah I got lucky. For some reason Jiraya-sensei wanted to train me! How cool is that? I do feel sorry for Alvarcus though, he got stuck being the dead last instead of me."
"Don't feel sorry." Neji calmly says. "It was destiny, you were destined to be chosen. He was destined to be the dead last in your place."
"Destiny?" Naruto tilts his head to the side in mild confusion. "Nah, it wasn't destiny. It was the shenanigans of an old pervert that's what it was!"
"Believe what you want, but it was destiny. Just like how today, right now, you're destined to lose to me." Neji lunges forward and slams a palm into Naruto's chest.
Or what was Naruto's chest, instead he shattered a log that Naruto replaced with. Naruto is casually standing next to the only tree in the arena. "Whew! That's one hell of a hit!"
"Interesting. Maybe you're not the dead last I thought you were. I'll have to take this seriously. Byakugan!"
"About damn time! Let's see how good those eyes of yours really are! Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto is joined by five copies of himself. "Get him!"
All five clones lunge at Neji. He's not even phased by it, in fact I'd say he looks rather bored.
Neji quickly strikes out five times. Each strike is accompanied by the death of a shadow clone. "You'll need more than five targets to overwhelm me."
"How about five hundred?" Naruto taunts.
"Please, someone like you can't-"
POOF
"I stand corrected. So this is what a Sannin's tutelage will do. This is what happens when you're given everything." Neji flies into action. He's a blur, and everywhere he goes smoke is quick to follow him. That kid is scary good at taijutsu, it's literally one hit one kill.
"Idiot clones!" Naruto shouts. "Don't engage him one at a time! Swarm him!"
Courses of "You got it Boss!" come from all of his clones. They collectively leap into the air straight at Neji. He has no hope of dodging this, there's just to many.
Neji plants a heel into the ground and twists his whole body. "Kaiten!" A blue dome of chakra shields him from every single one of the clones, no it does more than that. It destroys each and every one that touched it. That is one hell of a move.
"You think I was given everything? I earned this. It wasn't destiny that got me here, I got myself here. Nothing more, nothing less." Naruto himself engages Neji. There's no more clones for him to hide behind now.
"No, destiny smiled on you. Just like how it spits on me." They're trading blows at breakneck speeds, neither of them truly connect. At the best they just manage glancing blows.
"Dude, what is it with you and destiny? Destiny isn't something that's predetermined, it's something that's forged. You make your own destiny."
"Do not dare to think you can lecture me on destiny!" Fury makes it's way onto Neji's face. "I was born into the Branch Family, I'm bound in servitude to them. I'll never escape that! I'm forever branded as a second class member! All because of who I was born to! All because it's my destiny!"
Neji falls into an eerily familiar stance. He's prepping for something.
"Just like how it is your destiny to lose today. Eight Trigrams: 1 palms!" Neji slams his palm into Naruto.
"Ow. What the hell? Why can't I move my arm?" Naruto's left arm is limp, it's flopping around at his side. In any other situation I'd find this funny.
"That's what this technique does, it blocks your chakra pathways. Now, I'll finish this fight. 2 palms! 4 palms! 8 palms! 16 palms! 32 palms! 64 palms!"
Naruto remains on his feet for a fleeting moment, then he falls over backwards.
"Proctor, this fight is over. Call it." Neji orders as he turns his back on the blonde shinobi.
"This fight isn't over yet." An imposing chakra wafts off of Naruto. "I hate this part." A red haze forms around his body as he picks himself up. His eyes are red, his fingers sharpen to claws and his incisors grow.
He's using the Kyuubi's chakra. Imposing doesn't do it justice, it feels like hate. It feels like malice, like evil. But there's something else there, something hidden underneath all of that rage and anger. It's something I can understand, it's loneliness.
"What is that chakra?" Neji asks. "I've never seen anything like it before."
...
In the Booth
"What is that? It feels like hate." Shikamaru asks.
"Is that really Naruto's chakra?" Ino asks too.
"No." I cut in. "It isn't. It's something else."
Everyone in the booth turns to me.
"What is it then?" Kiba demands.
"A burden that he's forced to live with."
...
"Well? Up for round 2?" Naruto leans over and lands on all fours. He looks like a beast with all of the changes to his body.
"I'll ask again. What is that?"
"This is my curse. My equivalent to your Caged Bird Seal. Yes, I know about your seal." Naruto lifts a hand up to his face. He's looking at the red haze around it. "Like your seal I never asked for this, but I'm stuck with it."
"So destiny has ruined us both."
"No, it hasn't. Just because we carry our burdens doesn't mean we can't make them into our strengths."
"There's no strength to be found from my seal! Only pain and suffering!"
"Really? Are you sure? From my point of view it pushed you to become strong. You weren't given anything in life, you earned it all yourself. You know the true meaning of strength, it isn't power. It isn't chakra. It isn't being born to the Main Branch. It's being able to stand when everyone else tries to knock you down. It's getting back up and trying again even though the world is telling you to quit. True strength is never giving up."
"You know nothing!" Neji roars as he lunges at Naruto. They exchange a quick trade of blows. "You don't know how if feels to live with a death sentence always hanging over your head! You don't know how if feels to never be able to look in a mirror because all you see is chains! You don't know how it feels to be worthless!" Neji's hand shoots forwards, he's trying to hit Naruto right in the heart.
"I don't know how it feels to be worthless?" Naruto catches Neji's hand and doesn't let go. "You still have a family. I've never had a family. I've never had someone care for me. I've never had anyone call me gifted or give me praise."
Naruto slams Neji into the ground so hard there's an impression left behind.
"All my life I've been hated. I've been kicked out of more shops than I can count. I've been treated like trash since day one." He picks Neji up by the neck. "It's you who doesn't know what it's like to feel worthless."
Naruto throws him across the arena. Neji bounces of the ground twice and rolls to a stop.
"You have everything I've ever wanted." Naruto hisses out.
Neji pushes himself up to his feet. "Proctor, I surrender. I can't beat him. Not anymore."
Neji's left hand, the one Naruto caught, is a bloody mess. It's bent at a wrong angle and is turning a grotesque shade of black.
"Oh Kami I'm sorry!" Naruto does a complete 180. "I didn't mean to I swear! I don't know my own strength when I go red. Stupid! Jiraya-sensei told me to not use it! I should have listened to him!"
"What's done is done." Neji dismisses his apology. "You've given me a lot to think about, if the price is my hand then so be it."
"Winner: Naruto Uzumaki!"
...
In The Booth
"That was..." Choji trails off.
"Not what I expected." I finish. Naruto is nothing like how I imagined him. He's efficient, he's expressive and he's focused. And once you get past his bubbly mask there's a brittle cesspool of pain and suffering waiting to lash out at someone.
"Yeah. He's changed a lot since the Academy." Shikamaru adds. "I can't believe that's the same person."
"Our next fight is between Sasuke Uchiha and Gaara of the Desert! Contestants, please come to the arena!" Sasuke hasn't shown up yet. Not good.
"This is awkward." I say to myself. "OI! Proctor! Sasuke's not here yet! Could you skip his fight and come back to it?"
The proctor looks to the Hokage and the Kazekage. Orochimaru. That's Orochimaru.
They converse for a minute, then the Hokage replies. "We will postpone the fight. If he is not here by the time the last match of the first round is finished, he forfeits the fight."
Murmurs go throughout the crowd. "I came just to see him." "Is he going to be here in time?" "Where can he be?"
"The third fight, will Kankuro of the Desert and Alvarcus Mar come to the arena?"
Kankuro turns to me. "Ready to get beat, imitator?" He jumps down to the arena.
"That's it!" I've had enough of my awesome chakra strings being mocked! "Kiba! I bet I'll beat him without touching him once!"
"Deal! Loser buys the winner a new kunai set?"
"Agreed. Thanks for the kunai." I fly myself down to the arena like I did earlier.
Kankuro snorts. "Nice trick. You better be able to move your strings faster than that if you want to beat me."
I say nothing. He will learn his place.
...
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