Naruto and Neji stood on the stage, under the glaring sun, facing each other in the eye.

Hayate looked at the two Genins in front of him. After clearing his throat, he gave them a side-glance and said, “Show your skills and tell them, you deserve to be a Chūnin.”

Hayate smiled on the inside and said. ‘Try your best, Naruto.’

“Fight!” With that, Hayate disappeared from the center, leaving the stage to them.

Naruto immediately took a huge step back and pulled on a few shurikens, ready to throw whereas Neji was standing calmly, neither taking an offensive nor a defensive stance. He simply looked at Naruto with his pupil less eyes.

“I hope you are ready because I-”

“Just my luck…” Neji interrupted Naruto and shook his head before continuing. “I seem to get all the losers in this competition… till now.”

“You…” Enraged, Naruto threw the shuriken towards Neji then suddenly rushed forward with a kunai in hand.

Tink, Tink

“Cheap tricks.” After deflecting the shurikens with his bare hands, Neji got into Hyūga’s Gentle Fist stance and waited for Naruto.

“I’ll show you.” Naruto threw the kunai towards Neji’s face.

“This again?” Neji quickly deflected the kunai and was ready to counter-attack when he found smoke coming out of the tags attached to the kunai.

Up in the stands, Shikamaru looked at the stage below and let out a yawn. “Heh, using Fuinjutsu. That was a nice trick but Neji has Byakugan.”

“Mhm.”

“But who knows, maybe Naruto will eventually win this match?”

“Mhm.”

Shikamaru looked at Raito, who was ignoring him, and looked towards where his eyes were looking, which were mostly reaching towards the ANBU and the Hokage box at the top.

“Something wrong?” Shikamaru asked in a low voice.

“Huh? Nothing really, I was just thinking.” Raito looked towards Kakashi and the other Jōnin instructors and mumbled.

Out of nowhere, Sasuke commented, “Naruto’s going to lose.”

Raito ignored the comment made by Sasuke and looked at him, who had activated Sharingan, and said, “You are really putting that eye of yours to great use, Sasuke.”

“I will do anything to get stronger,” Sasuke whispered then focused back to the stage.

“As long as you don’t…”

Shikamaru shrugged and looked at Raito, who was still looking around, then asked, “Seriously, what are you thinking about?”

Raito looked at the Hokage box and answered Shikamaru, “Just… there are lots of people with higher than average chakra.”

“… It’s Chūnin finals after all.” Shikamaru said and looked around. “I hope everything goes well.”

At the audience box, the Jōnin instructors, who were looking at the stage, continued looking down, but their topic of discussion had now shifted to Raito and Shikamaru.

Asuma sighed, “Look at your student, Kakashi. He is looking at the box.”

“Box…” Kakashi continued looking at Naruto, who was getting his chakra points blocked, and said, “Hokage-sama’s order was to protect the civilians and the other Daimyō.”

“He wants us to not interfere…. old man and his stubbornness.” Asuma took out the cigarette from his breast pocket and pulled one out.

“What about Raito?” Asuma looked at Kakashi and said, “It seems like he is going to take some risk.”

“…” Kakashi kept quiet then shook his head, looking at the flying Naruto, “Naruto needs to try harder if he wants to beat Neji.”

“[Shadow Clone]” Yellow haired Naruto popped one after another, nearly covering half of the stage.

Naruto and his clones surrounded Neji and threw kunai one after another at a slow pace and Neji blocked it easily.

“If that’s all you got…” Chakra covered Neji’s hand as he looked around, with his Byakugan flaring.

“I am just not done yet.” CLAP

As the clones and Naruto clapped hands, wind gathered around their arms, creating small dust cyclones around.

Locking at Neji, Naruto stretched out his hand with one hand, making a half Rat sign. “[Multi-Shadow Clone – Gale Palm]”

The strong currents of air targeted Neji in the center, carrying dust and debris with it.

Neji stood calmly in the center of the storm, and he even had a smirk on his face. “I have already seen this trick.”

One leg straight, facing forward and the other slightly to right, chakra exploded from the right half first making a bluish current. Then, under manipulation, Neji started rotating on an axis, making a dome of chakra with fast currents.

“[Heavenly Protection]”

Naruto’s Gale Palm and Neji’s Heavenly Protection clashed. Grinding, scraping and scratching. It continued for a dozen seconds before the clones stopped under Naruto’s command.

Neji also stopped and looked at Naruto with a confident smirk on his face. “Story of sword and the shield, it seems the shield wins.”

After saying that, Neji quickly covered his hands and feet with chakra and dashed towards one group of clones. “It’s my turn now.”

While Neji was attacking one group, the other clones grouped together and attacked using shuriken and kunai.

However, to Naruto’s dismay, Neji manipulated his clones to block the shuriken and kunai and then used another arm to cut down his clones one by one.

“His clones are getting destroyed so easily,” Shikamaru commented.

“That’s how clones are,” Raito replied, as he played with stone beads in his hands. “A few hits then ‘poof’.”

Sasuke frowned after watching the fight for a while. He then deactivated his Sharingan. He had already seen Naruto’s wild, unpredictable style of fighting, which only had few repetitive moves and as for Neji’s, it was practically useless as the gentle fist is focusing on chasing the chakra points in the body.

His gaze transferred to Raito, who was playing with stone beads that were giving an earthen yellow-brown glow.

‘Advance techniques.’ Hiding the shock and jealousy in his eyes, Sasuke looked back at Karu, who was looking at Raito from the start of Chūnin finals.

‘Raito will easily win.’ Sasuke concluded then looked further, at the Suna team; Gaara and Temari.

Remembering Kakashi’s advice and warning, Sasuke let out a breath and loosened his fist. ‘With these techniques, I can go against Gaara.’

After Sasuke collected his thought, he turned towards Shikamaru and made a confused face, as much as his stoic Uchiha face could make.

Sasuke could feel his face twitch as he turned around, no longer wanting to look at Shikamaru. ‘If only he wasn't lazy.’

Raito, who was playing with the stone beads, suddenly stopped and passed the two beads into Shikamaru's hand, then ran towards the stairs.

“I am going to toilet.” With that said, Raito hurried down the stairs and took the first right.

‘Liar.’ Shikamaru rolled his eyes and pocketed the two stone beads before turning towards the stadium. A frown slowly formed on Shikamaru's face, but disappeared a second after. He now had an expression that truly believed that Raito went to the toilet.

“Naruto may really win this match.” Shikamaru said suddenly, disturbing Sasuke's thought.

“What!?” Sasuke snapped his head and rushed towards the railings. He stretched his neck to see that the previously flat stage was now deformed.

Naruto hid behind the leftover trees, using them as coverage.

“It’s useless, Naruto. My Byakugan can see you.” Although he said that. Neji was sweating. seeing that many clones surrounding him. ‘Just how much chakra does he have?’

“It’s going to be dangerous.” Naruto shouted and took out shuriken from his pouch and so did the clones.

“Naive.” Neji crouched and was ready to activate his chakra anytime.

“You wish.” Naruto and his clones jumped back and reached the wall of the stage, then threw the shuriken.

Ox → Dog → Dragon → Rat → Dog → Boar → Snake → Tiger “[Shuriken Shadow Clone]”

The small barrage of shuriken multiplied six or seven times before some clones disappeared but the stage now had a giant dome made up of shurikens, encircling Neji.

“Just this?” One hand touching the front ground whereas the other was high in the sky. If one looked carefully, they could see chakra coming out as strings of light from his skin.

‘The clan’s greatest defensive technique.’ “[Heavenly Protection]”

“I am not done yet.” Tiger → Ox → Dog → Rabbit → Snake “[Wind Release: Great Breakthrough]”

After gathering chakra and wind inside his stomach, Naruto struck his stomach and expelled the wind from his mouth.

The wind complimented the shurikens, doubling their speed and rotation.

The speed at which the shuriken came at him made Neji sweat as he hurried with his technique.

The wind and the shuriken struck the barrier made by Neji, creating massive dust cloud on collision. The dust blew as high as the audience boxes, obscuring everyone’s views.

“[Wind Release: Erasing Wind]”

Before the dust cloud could get any further, a group of Chūnin standing in the front row made a series of hand signs before releasing a gust of wind, stopping the dust cloud from coming any further.

At the participant box, Sasuke had his eyes wide open and his Sharingan flaring.

Asuma looked at the dust cloud and sighed, “What a big mess?”

“He has always been messy.” Kakashi replied with an eye smile. “But…”

Thump. Neji kneeled on the ground and was breathing in large gulps of air. Feeling pain on his face, Neji traced the cut on his face and grimaced. There were several of those shallow cuts around his body.

“Naruto!” Neji shouted trying to find the source of his pain.

“Just where-” Just as Neji was slanting forward to stand up, he heard a faint noise from below, but it was already too late as a fist knocked off his chin.

“Argh.” Neji flew off the ground.

Landing on the ground, Neji tried his best, but could only move his hands. But other than that, he could do nothing.

Silence permeated the stadium as Neji fell on the ground and as Naruto stood with dirt all over his body.

A few seconds later, Hayate appeared beside Neji and raised his hand. He looked at the two and nodded, “Neji versus Naruto, Naruto wins.”

“That… Naruto won. He won against a Hyūga. How?” one of the Chūnin looked at Naruto in a daze and slowly his lips curved and a smile appeared on his face.

“It’s great.” The man laughed and clapped and with him, the people also clapped.

“I can’t believe that Naruto won.” Tenten sitting beside Lee looked at the stage in shock.

“Of course, he won. Naruto-kun must have worked so hard.” Lee looked with tears threatening to come out of his eyes.

“Naruto!” Ino stood up from her seat and waved her hand.

One by one, people started clapping and cheering for Naruto. Although there were still some groups who would rather die.

“Naruto won?” The event stunned Sasuke as he looked at Naruto, who had a gigantic smile on his face, waving his hand and running on the stage.

Asuma looked at Naruto on the stage and said, “He used [Head Hunter] to move below and used his massive chakra reserve to propel him upward.”

“Well, he came a long way in his Chakra Control. In this batch of new Genin, I can frankly say that Naruto has improved the most.”

“I never thought that Neji could not see this one coming.” Kurenai looked at Neji, who was being treated on the stage.

“I am just glad that he said nothing stupid, like in the preliminaries.” Ibiki walked slowly towards the group and tapped Kakashi’s shoulder.

Kakashi turned his head and looked towards the participant’s box, then sighed in his heart.

“I’ll go.”

Somewhere else in the stadium.

Raito slowed his steps and looked at the ANBU, guarding an insignificant door. There were neither people nor shinobi around.

Seeing Raito coming towards him, the ANBU raised his hand, signaling him to stop.

“I haven’t sensed you for quite some time, senior.” Raito stretched his neck and looked behind the ANBU.

“This area is off limits, head back.” The ANBU went for the sword on his back and warned.

Raito looked back at the ANBU with ‘[Observe]’ and smiled. “That thing you are trying to hide is very important, isn't it?”

“And that’s why you have changed into this ANBU outfit as soon as you heard me coming.”

“And I bet that those things inside the storage are really important for Orochimaru.”

“Tch, a brat.” The ANBU clicked his tongue and pulled out the sword.

“The brat, whose clone you just killed.” Raito snapped his finger and the body inside the storage turned into a cloud of chakra smoke.

“A high level clone?” The ANBU looked at the previously blood stained floor, then at Raito. The ANBU grew alert as he looked at Raito in front of him.

“Why would he wander around in this empty passage?”

“Why would there be two of same person?”

“One exposed to everyone’s eye and other in this dark place.”

Taking the mask off his face, Kabuto looked at Raito with a small smile. “We meet again, Raito.”

“I didn't know that you were this capable-”

Just as he was talking, three earth spears rocketed towards Kabuto from the storage room.

Kabuto was quite strong as he quickly shifted back, dodging the earth spears easily. “I never thought that-”

PLUNGE

The earth spear appeared from the ground behind Kabuto and pierced his right chest.

“[Spikes]”

Even before Raito could finish, Kabuto moved swiftly, cutting the spear at the back with his right hand, whereas his left hand pulled the leftover part of the spear.

“Argh.” A second later and his left hand would have countless earth needles in it.

Kabuto created some distance and looked at his wound. “How scary.”

“With a hole like that, you will lose a lot of blood and it will also affect your breathing.” Raito raised his hands and twitched his fingers. With that the earth spears turned into rope-like and returned to Raito’s arm, turning into a stone bead.

“Surrender yourself and you will gain treatment, otherwise…”

Kabuto stood with his eyes fixed on Raito and even though he was bleeding, his eyes had joy in it. “I was right. You are way more interesting than Sasuke and Naruto, combined.”

Kabuto suppressed his laughter then walked forward, step by step, and said, “More interesting than a Jinchūriki and Sharingan.”

Raito narrowed his eyes and took out senbons from his pouch. Channeling chakra from to the Purple Poison Mark, he added muscle relaxants to the senbons.

Kabuto quickly took out a red pill, the size of a baby’s thumb, and smirked before swallowing it.