Naruto stood in the middle of the crater their clash had carved into the sand, chest heaving. His right arm hung limply at his side, fingers still twitching from the aftershock of forcing the Rasengan through Rotation.
"…Heh… how's that, Neji…?" he panted, a crooked grin tugging at his mouth.
Up in the stands, Kushina shot to her feet so fast her chair scraped.
"That's my boy!!" she yelled, slamming her hands on the railing. "Beat some sense into that brat, dattebane!!"
A wave of sweatdrops seemed to pass through the nearby spectators.
Kakashi, a few seats away, scratched his cheek helplessly.
"As expected of Kushina-san… her cheering is basically verbal artillery."
Hiruzen's brows had risen when the Rasengan first formed; now they lowered again, gaze thoughtful.
"So he's already… mastered it to that extent," he murmured. "Kushina… you've been working him hard."
Beside him, the Kazekage's lips curved faintly under the cloth.
"That technique…" Orochimaru mused behind his disguise, golden eyes gleaming with interest. "Spiraling chakra that gouges through its target… the Fourth's legacy, is it? As expected of Konoha."
Hiruzen didn't answer, but the faint pride in his expression only deepened.
Across the arena, the Snow team remained composed.
Karin clicked her tongue softly.
"Heh. Not bad blondie."
Haku's gentle eyes followed Naruto thoughtfully.
"He used the previous clash as a blind spot," he murmured. "That was clever."
Kimimaro's pale gaze didn't waver.
"He waited for the moment Neji believed the exchange was finished," he said calmly. "Confidence is the easiest weapon to turn against someone."
"But… celebrating too early can invite disaster just as easily."
Down in the arena, the dust finally began to clear.
Neji's body slowly peeled away from the wall, gravel crumbling from the cracks around him. He slid down, landing on one knee with a rough thud.
"…Kh…!"
His hand pressed to his stomach, fingers trembling as pain lanced through his torso. The front of his shirt was torn, skin reddened and bruised in a spiraling pattern where the Rasengan had landed.
He forced himself upright, one foot digging into the ground.
Naruto's eyes widened.
"Hah?! You're still getting up?!"
Neji exhaled slowly, sweat sliding down his temple.
So that's… the jutsu he was preparing earlier…
He looked up, his expression smoothing out as he stared straight at Naruto.
"It seems… I underestimated you," he said quietly. "That technique… and that timing… that was no mere fluke."
Naruto blinked, thrown off for a heartbeat by the genuine acknowledgment in Neji's tone.
Then Neji's expression cooled again.
"But… it's over."
He stepped forward.
On the competitor balcony, Sakura leaned forward in alarm.
"Wait—Naruto's already exhausted, isn't he?!"
Sasuke said nothing, eyes narrowed, Sharingan spinning lazily as he took in the angle of Naruto's shoulders, the stiffness in his right arm, the subtle disruption in his chakra flow.
"…He took a lot of hits before landing that," he muttered. "If he pushes carelessly now… his body might give out."
On the sand, Neji's steps were steady despite the damage.
"Your chakra points… I struck more than enough of them," he said calmly, approaching Naruto. "If you try to gather chakra again, your body will break apart from the inside."
Naruto grimaced as he shifted his footing. A spike of pain ran through his torso, his chakra flow stuttering like a clogged stream.
"Tch… you and your stupid eye commentary…"
Neji stopped a few meters away, posture straight.
"Uzumaki Naruto," he said, voice clear enough to carry through the arena. "This is the difference between us. Genius and failure. Main family and branch family. Fate decided our paths long ago."
The murmurs in the stands grew louder. Several Hyūga in the clan seating leaned forward slightly, eyes sharp.
Beside Hiashi, Hanabi blinked up at her father.
"Father… Neji-nii is… talking like that again."
Hiashi's gaze stayed fixed on the boy below, unreadable.
Naruto's expression changed instantly, as if the words had flipped a switch.
"You're still going on about that?" he growled. "Even after I nailed you with that Rasengan?"
Neji's eyes narrowed a fraction.
"That jutsu was impressive," he admitted. "But it doesn't change the outcome. A bird with broken wings can't fly, no matter how much it flaps."
He lifted his hand again, fingers poised.
"I'll show you… how powerless struggling against fate really is."
For a split second, time seemed to slow.
Neji's palm cut through the air toward Naruto's chest.
It looked like his chest would be pierced in the very next instant...
--
Just when Neji was about to penetrate Naruto again in another corner of Konoha, even though the Chūnin Exam was in full swing and most of the village was focused on the arena, there were still some people who couldn't bring themselves to watch—for various reasons.
A group of men and women stood gathered near a storefront, talking and laughing as they surrounded a man who was energetically promoting his goods with a glib tongue.
The man was quite handsome, and combined with his smooth talk, it was easy for him to do business.
He attracted female customers first, and then the male customers naturally followed, drawn in by the crowd of women—forming a very effective little strategy.
Just as Mocha was feeling satisfied with how well his business was flourishing, he suddenly heard a wave of murmurs and gasps ripple through the street, making him frown.
"Eh? Who is that…? He's really handsome!"
"No way, is he a ninja too? He looks like he walked straight out of a romance novel…"
"Kyaa, did you see his jawline? And that hair… so cool!"
"That smile just now—my heart skipped a beat…"
A few of the girls practically had sparkles in their eyes, cheeks flushing pink as they stretched on tiptoe to get a better look. Even some of the guys glanced over with mixed envy and curiosity.
Mocha's eyebrow twitched.
"…Oi, oi, what's with that reaction?" he muttered under his breath, a vein popping comically on his forehead as a dark aura seemed to gather around him. "Since when did my customers come with a 'handsome-guy radar' installed…?"
Mocha's curiosity finally got the better of him.
He clicked his tongue, pretending not to care, then stole a reluctant sideways glance toward the source of all the squeals and gasps.
…Even as a man, he had to admit it—yeah, that guy was seriously handsome.
But unlike the others, Mocha's gaze didn't stop at the face. He noticed the metal plate tied around the man's upper arm, the engraved symbol catching the light.
A Snow Hidden Village headband…?
The man stood a little apart from the crowd—tall, lean, broad-shouldered, messy black hair falling just right over a too-handsome face. Dark shades hid his eyes, and that lazy, almost cocky posture of his made him look like one of those "strongest guy in the world" types without even trying.
A girl near the front of the crowd finally couldn't take it anymore.
Clutching the strap of her small bag, she shuffled forward on stiff legs, stopping right in front of him.
"Um… e-excuse me… I…"
She looked up.
Their gazes met—well, hers met the dark shades, at least.
Her mind instantly went blank.
"..."
Her face turned bright red in an instant, steam practically puffing up from the top of her head as her mouth opened and closed soundlessly.
"I-I… uh… um…!"
The man blinked once, then a slow, amused smile tugged at his lips.
He tilted his head down slightly to her height, one hand casually in his pocket.
"Whoa there," he drawled lightly. "You look like you're about to short-circuit."
He lifted his free hand and wagged a finger playfully in front of her.
"Careful—if you stare any harder, I'll have to start charging a viewing fee, y'know?"
"E-EH?!"
Her voice cracked adorably as her blush deepened, a fresh puff of "smoke" rising in everyone's imagination.
A few bystanders burst into soft laughter; others let out impressed whistles.
The man just chuckled, the sound low and easy.
"But hey," he added, tone turning unexpectedly gentle under the teasing, "thanks for coming all the way over here. Try not to overheat, okay?"
He stepped lightly to the side to let her retreat, giving her a lazy little half-wave as she stumbled back to her friends, who immediately grabbed her and shook her with sparkling eyes.
With his back to the crowd, leaving a few dazed admirers behind, he raised a hand to his glasses and slid them down just a little—just enough to reveal his eyes framed by long lashes and blood-red Sharingan spinning lazily.
A mischievous grin tugged at his lips.
"Alright then… here I come."
--
"It's my win…"
Neji's eyes widened a fraction just as he said those words.
Because in the next instant, the Naruto in front of him flickered.
—Shadow clone?! Since when—?!
His fingers passed through smoke.
Bang.
The "Naruto" vanished.
Above them, a shout split the air.
"Up here, teme!!"
Neji's head snapped up.
Naruto was directly overhead, body twisting in midair, fist cocked back with raw, physical momentum, every ounce of his remaining strength poured into one swing.
"Eat thiiis—!!"
Wham.
His punch smashed straight into Neji's jaw.
Neji's head snapped sideways, feet lifting off the ground for a brief, almost weightless instant before his body crashed back down onto the sand.
A gasp rippled through the stadium.
Naruto landed awkwardly, knees buckling as he hit the ground. He stumbled, caught himself with his good hand, then forced his legs to straighten.
"Ha… haaa… told you…" he wheezed, breathing like a bellows. "I'm not… losing… to some messed-up 'fate' speech…"
Neji lay on his back, eyes open, staring up at the sky.
He… he'd been tricked again with the same move… why?
…A shadow clone… positioned during the smoke from the Rasengan clash…?
Images flickered through his mind—Naruto's clones shifting earlier, feinting, retreating, circling. How many times had the real one slipped into a different position while Neji was focused on the more "obvious" bodies?
He's an idiot… but he's an idiot who moves while he's thinking.
Above him, a bird drifted lazily across the blue, wings cutting clean arcs through the air.
…Birds…
His chest rose and fell, each breath a jagged flare of pain from the Rasengan's lingering damage.
"Tell me something, Neji," Naruto's voice reached him, ragged but stubborn.
Neji's gaze slid sideways without fully turning his head.
Naruto stood there, swaying slightly, but his eyes were clear.
"You keep saying… people can't change. That everything's decided from the start," Naruto said, words tumbling out between breaths. "Then what about you?"
Neji's fingers twitched faintly against the sand.
"…What…?"
"You're the one who said you hated the main family or whatever," Naruto pressed, even though he didn't really know much about any of that. "That you were stuck in that stupid cage because of the branch seal. That no matter what you did, you'd never be anything but a tool."
He jabbed a finger toward him.
"But you're here, aren't you? In this arena. In this exam. You're fighting to prove something. If all you really believed in was fate, you would've just stayed in your little cage and done whatever the main house ordered you to do."
Neji's eyes widened, a faint tremor running through his pupils.
"…You… don't understand anything," he whispered, voice low. "You don't know… what it's like to have your life decided for you. To have a curse carved into your forehead… just because you were born a few minutes later…"
He could still see it—his father's back as he walked away that day. The seal burning on his own forehead. Hiashi's expression as the clan elders spoke of "duty" and "atonement".
Naruto's face softened, just for a moment.
"…You're right," he said quietly. "I don't know that feeling."
In the stands, Kushina's eyes flickered. For a heartbeat, the tension in her shoulders shifted, like some old hurt had been brushed against.
Naruto clenched his fists.
"But I do know what it's like to have everyone treat you like a lost cause from the day you were born," he went on, louder now. "To have people glare at you, whisper behind your back, act like you're nothing but trouble."
His gaze hardened.
"And I know what it's like to hate that. To want to flip the whole world off and prove them all wrong."
He took a step forward. His knees shook, but he kept moving.
"People used to look at me like I was just some noisy, talentless loser who'd never become anything," he said, a fierce grin breaking through again. "But look at me now, Neji."
He pointed his thumb at his chest.
"I'm standing here after taking all your hits. I pushed through your super fancy spin move. I nailed a genius with my own jutsu. That didn't happen because fate decided it. It happened because I… Uzumaki Naruto… refused to stay where everyone said I 'belonged'!"
He tilted his head back, shouting loud enough for the whole village to hear.
"If you think people can't change… then I'll change that 'fate' right in front of you!"
Silence spread through the stadium again, but this time it felt different.
From the Hyūga seating, several branch members stared down, expressions complicated.
Hiashi's eyes narrowed ever so slightly.
"…Naruto Uzumaki," he murmured.
Hanabi tilted her head.
"He… sure knows how to talk…"
On the jōnin platform, Kakashi's exposed eye curved in a smile.
"…He really doesn't know how to pull his punches. With his fists or his words."
Guy clenched his fist, tears streaming down his cheeks.
"Yosh!!! That's the power of youthful conviction!!"
"Can you not shout directly into my ear?" Genma muttered from his spot in the arena, one eyelid drooping as he watched the two boys. But even he couldn't quite hide the small smirk at the corner of his mouth.
On the sand, Neji let his eyes slide closed for a moment.
…So that's it.
He could hear his uncle's voice from long ago. His father's. The elders'. The weight of the seal etched into his forehead. The suffocating inevitability he'd wrapped himself in to justify his hatred.
And yet…
This idiot… who never had anything from the start… is still yelling about changing his future.
The heaviness in his chest loosened, just slightly.
"…You're… a fool," he said at last, voice low.
Naruto bristled again, as if the words rubbed him the wrong way.
"Oi—!"
"But…"
Neji exhaled, the breath leaving him almost like a laugh.
"It's because you're a fool… that maybe… you can reach something that geniuses, trapped by their own 'reason'… can't see."
His gaze turned to the sky again.
The bird was still there, wings beating against the endless blue.
"…Naruto Uzumaki," he said quietly. "It seems… my 'fate' wasn't as absolute as I thought."
His fingers relaxed against the sand.
"I concede."
The words were calm, but they fell like stones.
The silence shattered.
"E-Eeeehhh?! He conceded?!"
"He really said it! The Hyūga genius—!"
"He admitted it…!?"
Genma blinked once, then raised his hand.
"Hyūga Neji is unable to continue fighting," he announced, voice ringing out clearly. "Winner—Uzumaki Naruto!"
The stadium detonated.
"WOOOOOOO!!"
"HE DID IT!!"
"NARUTO, YOU IDIOT, YOU ACTUALLY PULLED IT OFF!!"
Kushina almost launched herself fully over the railing this time.
"Yaaay!! Narutooooo!! That's my son, dattebane!!!"
On the balcony, Sakura sagged in relief, nearly collapsing against the railing.
"H-He… he really won…"
"…Did he really have to say all that…?" Sasuke muttered, watching Neji's expression shift.
Neji actually looked… convinced.
Don't tell me… this idiot can actually brainwash people now, Sasuke thought in quiet horror. Tch… that's way more dangerous than any jutsu.
—
Haku appeared, balancing a small paper bag in his hands.
"I'm back. They were selling limited-edition snacks, so I—"
He froze.
Karin and Hinata were already quietly munching on the exact same snacks he'd brought earlier, cheeks puffed out just a little as they watched the arena.
"…You two started without me," Haku said, a helpless smile tugging at his face as he sighed and went back to get his own share again.
Behind them, Kimimaro sat with his eyes closed, arms folded, completely silent—as if the outcome down below had long since stopped being worth his attention.
All in all, none of them seemed particularly invested in the fight anymore.
It had been interesting at the start… but somewhere along the way, it had just turned into background noise.
—
Back in the arena, Naruto's shoulders slumped as the adrenaline finally started to fade.
This time, unlike in the "original story", he'd won without needing to use the Nine-Tails' power.
And he would've had an even easier time if he hadn't decided to hide his "trump card" for his upcoming matches—maybe against Sasuke, or that guy Kimimaro.
"Hehe… see that, Mom…? I… totally… ruled…"
His knees wobbled.
"Naruto!" Genma caught him by the collar an instant before he face-planted into the sand.
"Oi, oi, don't pass out in a lame pose after the announcement," the proctor sighed, hauling him up with one arm. "You'll ruin your own dramatic finish."
"Shu' up… lemme… have my moment…"
Naruto's protest came out more like a mumble.
Across from them, med-nin rushed to Neji's side, already checking his injuries.
As he was lifted onto a stretcher, Neji turned his head just enough to see Naruto's wobbly grin.
"…Naruto Uzumaki," he said, voice barely above a murmur.
Naruto blinked blearily.
"Eh…?"
"If there is… such a thing as 'changing one's fate'..."
Neji's lips curved, the faintest hint of a genuine smile touching them.
"Then… show me… how far you can go with it."
Naruto's eyes widened, then softened.
"You bet," he said, grinning tiredly. "Watch me, Neji. I'm… gonna be Hokage someday, y'know. That's… my Ninja way, dattebayo."
High above, clouds drifted lazily past as the first match of the finals came to a close...
...and far above even that, behind a Kazekage's veil, a serpent's smile widened.
"…Interesting," Orochimaru murmured. "Very interesting indeed."
Hiruzen's gaze stayed on Naruto's small, retreating form.
In that boy… there is a power to change others.
Even those who have been trapped in chains their entire lives.
He folded his hands back into his sleeves.
"The next generation…" he whispered. "Truly… they are something to look forward to."
Genma rolled his shoulders once, senbon tilting back to its usual lazy angle as he turned toward the competitor balcony.
"Alright!" he called out, voice cutting through the fading cheers. "That's one match down."
He lifted a hand.
"Next up—"
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