Chapter 18 - Let the games Begin

Konohagakure also known as the hidden village among the leaves was a shinobi village among many others spread through the elemental nations. Normally one wouldn't find enemy shinobi walking around the village without a care in the world but today was a very special day. Today was the chunnin exam's finals.

Today the competitors from various countries would face against each other in mortal combat to prove their worth and try to gain a promotion to chunnin.

The sun was slowly rising on the horizon and a warmth breeze was felt flowing through the village. It was still early but the village was already booming with movement, stores were already open and many were seen walking through the streets.

After all the chunnin exams were a very important event anywhere. The early stages weren't anything special but the finals is another matter completely different. During the finals many nobles and the daimyo himself would watch the games. They served as an alternative to war and to prove the worth of the shinobi belonging to certain villages. What no one expected, at least from the civilian side, was that war was much closer than they thought.

The sun was coming up, slowly making his up to the sky. A beam of light managed to get through the window and wake up our favorite blonde by hitting straight in the eyes. The Sun, millions of kilometers away and yet deadly accuracy to blind Naruto.

"Uhmmm" - Naruto grunted as he tried to shift his eyes away from the sun. He looked down and saw that his angel was still deep asleep.

"Awake up Hinata-chan" - Naruto said in his sleepy voice slowly shaking her awake.

"Morning" - she said and gave him a quick kiss. Naruto made a kage bushin to go prepare breakfast.

"Come on, we have to get up" - Naruto said and she pouted mumbling five more minutes.

"Uhm what to do..." - Naruto thought and suddenly a light bulb flashed in his head nearly blinding Kurama. "Get up Hinata-chan, you have your cousin's ass to kick" - he tried to say with a straight face.

Hearing that Hinata perked up and immediately got up. "Let's go then" - she replied and he chuckled.

Then went to take a quick bath SEPARATELY to freshen up and to truly awake since Naruto tumbled his way towards the bathroom bumping into a few things. They had a heavily caloric breakfast since they knew that there would be plenty of action today. After all shinobi can eat pretty much what they want and still look good due to all the train and work they do.

After breakfast they began preparing their weapons since they both knew that there was going to be an invasion sometime during the finals. They walked to the middle of the room until Naruto bit his thumb and sprayed blood across the wall. The reaction was instantaneous as the wall glowed for a moment until it seemed to disappear and show another room.

In fact Naruto drew a blood seal on the wall that created space rift between his normal house and the Namikaze compound since he couldn't live there full time for now. The seal was based on the hirashin and opened a portal, so to speak, that allowed anyone to cross and literally walk up to the compound.

Of course the wall was protected by the blood seal and only Naruto and Hinata could activate it since Naruto added her chakra signature to the seal.

Naruto changed his outfit slightly. Since he knew that the sand was going to invade he decided to use proper clothes. He kept his traditional orange pants but he was wearing a sleeveless black shirt with mesh armor under it. He also had a grey chest plated armor similar to those wore by the ANBU and arms guards with storage seals along the wrists.

In his wrist band there were his special hirashin kunais, standard shuriken, fuuma shurikens and his personal favorites for crippling strikes, senbon. What many people don't realize is that senbon are deadlier than shuriken. It's extremely difficult to kill someone with shuriken unless it hits a critical area like the neck or the head otherwise it won't pierce enough to kill the target.

However with senbon one can hit one of many pressure points with them that can stun the enemy, put him to sleep and even kill them. Of course every weapons has its disadvantages and senbon are extremely difficult to learn how to use and even more to actually hit the enemy were it was intended.

"Hinata-chan were are the poisons?" - Naruto asked and Hinata replied saying that they were on bottom cabinet in the second scroll. Hinata was very proficient in making poisons. She wasn't a very good medical shinobi and let's be honest, she sucked at antidotes because she never had any training outside of reading but for poisons, let's just say she was a natural.

And poor Naruto was her guinea pig. Since he couldn't die due to any poison that he might get injected because of Kurama, Hinata usually tested them on him. She would occasionally through a senbon towards an unsuspecting Naruto and watch the results. Naruto knew that his shy Hinata must have a sadistic side to her.

Naruto opened the cabinet and unsealed the contents of the scroll to show three small vials with different colors and labels. The first vial was white and was paralyzing poison, this particular poison will shutdown the users nervous system from the neck down effectively paralyzing him. The second vial was yellow and was sleeping poison and like the name says it renders the user unconscious. The last and final vial was black and was killing poison, once infected it would spread extremely quickly and kill the user in a matter of seconds or minutes depending were the senbon hit the target.

Naruto dipped his senbon in these multiple poisons and sealed them in different seals so he could separate them. It wouldn't be much good if Naruto killed the person he was trying to capture.

Speaking of weapons Naruto offered his sword, the raijin no ken, to Hinata so she could use it in conjunction with her water attacks similar to how the Nidaime hokage did but she refused. Hinata preferred using her daggers she learned how to use during this month. Her daggers offered more fluidity in her taijutsu style and she could channel wind or lightning chakra through them.

In the end it looked like the raijin no ken was going to become what it was before it was stolen, a family heirloom until anyone decided to pick up the sword. Concerning Hinata's daggers they were somewhat special. Even thought they had a few missions, both of them didn't have that much money to buy worthy daggers so Naruto took upon himself and forged them to her. He bought chakra metal which is cheaper than buying already made weapons. (A/N: Check profile for picture of daggers).

He really outdid himself with them. The daggers were made of the best chakra metal and allowed Hinata to channel her elemental chakra through them to increase the piercing power. Their design was amazing, they truly were beautiful and deadly just like Naruto described Hinata. Naruto also printed a couple of seals on them to increase their resistance and durability. He also included a summoning seal that allowed Hinata to summon her daggers if she ever lost or threw them back to her hands.

Hinata was preparing her weapons and seals when she heard

CLANG

She rushed to Naruto to see what happened and saw him picking up a weapon he apparently dropped on the floor. She look at the weapon and her eyes widened.

"You are taking that?" - she asked not believing her eyes as she looked at the weapon Naruto was picking up and preparing to seal in his storage seal in his body. Kurama had told them the story of that weapon and a few like those. Apparently they were created by the Rikudou Sennin himself and were many times more powerful than any other weapon. To anyone not related to the sage himself these weapons had massive chakra usage and so, only a pure Uchiha or a Senju would be able to use those weapons properly.

"I'm up against a bijuu, give me a break i'm pulling all the stops against him" - Naruto pointed out.

"So am I" - Hinata folded her arms and replied.

"Uh?" - Naruto asked not understanding what she meant.

"You don't expect me to lose against Neji right?" - she asked

"Of course not" - Naruto replied.

"During the second round I'll be facing either Fuu or Yugito" - she stated.

"Yes but they aren't crazy" - Naruto said waving his hand trying to prove his point. "Let's hurry this up or we might be late" - Naruto concluded and sealed his favorite weapon inside his seal. He wondered why his father never used it, maybe it wasn't his style.

They quickly finished packing everything they needed. Naruto placed his hand on her shoulder and both of them flashed to the chunnin exams. This month after Naruto had uncovered the invasion he tried his best to spread his hirashin seals through the whole village. Now he could be virtually everywhere in the village.

## Konoha Stadium ##

They arrived just outside of the Konoha stadium and quickly made their way inside. The stadium was packed full. Among all of the audience there were daimyos, important business man and shinobi from other villages who just came to watch, after all the chunnin exams is where the best gennins are.

The kage box was located above de audience and they had a particular vantage point to watch the matches. They were the judges and so they needed to evaluate properly the contestants.

There were two kages currently sitting in the kage box. The hokage was the first and had two body guards. The first was Namiashi Raido. His most distinct feature is probably the weal-like scar on his face, running across the bridge of his nose and down across the left side of his face. He has brown spiky hair, dark eyes and wears the standard attire of the Konoha shinobi complete with a forehead protector and the standard flak jacket.

The other body guard was the self inducted super pervert, the gallant Jiraya.

In the third chair was A, the yondaime Raikage and his bodyguards, Darui and C.

"Seems like Uchiha Sasuke is missing" - A commented. Yugito was the strongest gennin they had in Kumo and he was expecting she could put all of these to shame, primarily the Uchiha.

"I heard he was training with his sensei Hatake Kakashi so maybe he picked up his bad habit" - the Sandaime said chuckling and A snorted.

The Hokage and Raikage were talking when they noticed the Kazekage arriving. The Kazekage was known for using his gold dust similar to how Gaara manages to use his sand.

"Greetings Kazekage-sama. I'm glad you made it, I hope you aren't tired" - the Sandaime said.

"Not at all Hokage-sama. It was good they were in the leaf this year. You aren't the young man you once were for long travels" - the Kazekage said.

"Don't treat me like an old man. I intend to remain the hokage for another five years" - the hokage said making A narrow his eyes.

"Seems like you missing the last Uchiha" - Kazekage said.

"Like I told Raikage-sama. He's sensei is Hatake Kakashi and he's notorious for being late." - the hokage said and the Kazekage nodded and took his seat. He sat in the second chair, in the middle of the hokage and raikage.

"Now, shall we begin?" - the hokage asked and they both nodded. The hokage got up and went to the edge of the balcony.

He used a voice amplification jutsu and said "Welcome ladies and gentleman to this year's Chunnin exams finals. This year we have many talented gennins from Konoha, Kumo, Suna and Taki. Now without further delays let's begin the matches" - the hokage concluded and the crowd cheered.

## With Crowd ##

"They can't start the matches without Sasuke-kun" - Sakura yelled.

"Chill out Sakura. He still has time before his match begins" - Kiba replied and she glared at him.

"Did Gaara kill the Uchiha?... I told him to lay low" - Baki thought looking at Gaara who looked surprisingly calm.

"Quiet down, it's about to begin" - Ino said and they looked at the arena and noticed Hayate was about to speak. (A/N: He's alive)

## In the Arena ##

In the arena Hayate was explaining the rules at the participants and they were pretty much the same as during the preliminaries.

"Let's begin..." - Hayate said but got interrupted by Hinata.

"Are we starting without Sasuke?" - she asked.

"He will have until his match to show up otherwise he will be disqualified" - Hayate explained.

"Anymore questions?" - Hayate asked and nobody said anything. "Hyuuga Neji and Hyuuga Hinata stay, the rest of you go to the waiting area" - Hayate said and everyone started to leave. They all left but Naruto didn't leave without saying goodbye and kissing her cheek much to her embarrassment.

## With Crowd ##

The rest of the gennins all made their way to the middle of the crowd and joined with their respective senseis and teammates.

"Hey Haku, Zabuza" - Naruto said waving at them. "It's a shame you didn't enter in the chunnin exams Haku" - Naruto said.

"Yes, my team wasn't ready yet. Maybe next time" - Haku replied. She was about to say something else when Zabuza spoke before her.

"Hey brat" - Zabuza started. "You better win this, I've got money riding on you" - he said.

"Are you serious?" - Naruto asked.

"Of course, after everything I saw you do, if you lose I'll have Haku freeze your balls" - Zabuza said and Naruto chuckled weakly while involuntarily bringing his hand to his manhood.

"I like the new hair style Naruto" - Haku said. She had to admit he looked good. He wasn't wearing any sleeves so she could see his muscles. They weren't large or bulky but they were of someone who trained hard and his hair style was quite unique and looked good on him.

"Thanks" - he replied and gave her a thumbs up.

"Look closely Hanabi, there is no one who received the Hyuuga Blood like Neji" - Hiashi said.

"Is he really that strong?" - Hanabi asked. She was the second daughter of Hiashi and the current heir to the Hyuuga Clan.

"He's very talented, nothing like your weakling of a sister" - Hiashi said.

"You are in for a very rude awake up call Hiashi. You are about to see the real Hinata" - Naruto thought as he overhead Hiashi speaking with Hanabi.

## Arena ##

"You should give up cousin, fate already declared me the winner" - Neji stated in his smug smile.

Hinata turned to Hayate and said "Your name is Fate?... I thought it was Hayate" - she said and everyone started laughing. (1)

Neji even glared at Hayate. "What?" - Hayate asked "It was funny" - he said.

"You are a weakling cousin, everyone knows that" - Neji said and Hinata just shook her head in disappointment. She figure since she got kicked out Neji would at least sympathize a little bit with her.

"Fighters ready?" - Hayate called out and they both nodded. "HAJIME" - he said and jumped back.

"You can't evade fate cousin. During the preliminaries you resorted to use ninjutsu. That only proved you aren't meant to be a Hyuuga" - he said.

"Then I shall defeat you using our taijutsu style" - Hinata said as she took the standard juuken stance, knees bent with left leg slightly forward. Her right arm extended with the palm facing Neji and her right arm coiled near her waist.

Neji smirked and didn't even activated the byakugan or took any stance. He simple ran forward and close the distance in no time. He went for the traditional juuken strike to the chest. Hinata waited for it to get close and faster than lightning she deflected the strike. She crouched down and swept his legs. Flowing with the momentum she completed her twist and gave him a strike to his chest and sent him tumbling to the ground.

"You should take this serious Neji" - Hinata said as she activated her byakugan without seals.

Neji spat a bit of blood coming from his lips and removed the dirt and dust of his clothes as he got up. He decided to show her how it was done and activated his byakugan and got into his stance.

## With Crowd ##

"Looks like they are getting serious" - Naruto said.

"Yes, that was nothing but a little skirmish" - Asuma said.

"Asuma" - Kurenai said getting his attention "You remember our bet right?" - she asked.

"Yeah I know but i'm confident Shikamaru will be promoted" - Asuma said trying convince himself.

## Arena ##

Neji quickly dashed towards Hinata and threw a few strikes. Hinata dodged them all as if she was dancing. She didn't even need to block his attacks, she simply shifted her weight and went with the flow.

"Dammit, why can't I hit her?" - Neji asked to himself getting frustrated and he was using his best moves and she dodged them all as if they were nothing.

Now it was time to Hinata to make her move. She tried a quick juuken strike to his shoulder but Neji blocked it. Neji quickly found himself in the defensive as Hinata was pushing him back and back. Each strike he blocked was a close call and if it hit him it was game over. She seemed to only be targeting his most important chakra points.

Neji decided to gain some space and back flipped but didn't expect Hinata to dash after him so fast. She went a juuken strike to his left shoulder.

"I can't let her hit me or she will disable my left arm" - Neji thought. Hinata watched him smirk and wondered what was so funny until she noticed he was starting to spin. She quickly realized what he going to do and jumped back to avoid his attack.

"Kaiten" - Neji yelled as he spinned in a blue dome of chakra.

## With Crowd ##

"T-That's..." - Hiashi stuttered as he watched the prodigy of the branch family pull the best defensive move of the main house. Kaiten was the Hyuugas pride and joy, it was their absolute defense, or so they thought.

"Unbelievable" - a Hyuuga elder thought as he watched Neji pull the Kaiten.

"Tou-san, isn't that..." - Hanabi asked but never got to finish.

"Kaiten. The main house absolute defense. To think he progressed so far without anyone to train him. He really is a prodigy" - Hiashi stated.

## Arena ##

Neji finished his kaiten and smirked at Hinata.

"Looks like it's you who is trying to avoid his fate. Kaiten is a main house technique" - Hinata said.

"A failure like you would never understand" - Neji said and dashed forward and quickly close the distance between him and Hinata.

"You are in my field of divination" - Neji said and got into his stance. "Hakke Rokujuuyonshou ( Sixty-Four Palms of the Hand)" - Neji called out and was about to start his best offensive attack when he saw Hinata start to spin. His eyes widened at what was about to happen but it was too late.

"Kaiten" - Hinata yelled and spinned creating her own blue dome of chakra and Neji was thrown out very fast and impacted with the wall.

## With Crowd ##

"That's my girl" - Naruto said as he cheered for Hinata. The rest of the gennin and most of the jonin were watching as the disavowed heiress kicked the Hyuugas prodigy ass.

Hiashi seethed his teeth as he watched Hinata flawlessly perform the Kaiten. He already knew she could use it but to that perfection he never figured.

"T-Tou-san. Nee-san just used the kaiten too" - Hanabi said as she watched the usual stoic Hiashi show his face of anger.

"Hiashi" - the elder said "Care to explain how your daughter can use the kaiten?" - he asked.

"How should I know?" - he asked and elder went back to his brooding like a certain Uchiha we know.

## Arena ##

"Still believe i'm a failure?" - she asked watching her cousin rise from the ground removing a few pieces of rocks from him. She noticed that his breathing was starting to get labored. After all the kaiten did sent him to the wall quite hard.

"I admit you're better than I expected. In the end it won't matter. I didn't think you could pull the Kaiten as well." - Neji replied as he watched her. During this whole match he was yet to land a single strike to her and yet she already delivered two strong strikes to him. He needed to end this fast otherwise he would lose and that he couldn't allow.

Neji ran as fast as he could towards Hinata. Neji approached her and threw dust he had in his hand towards her eyes. Hinata didn't expect such a low trick and could only close her eyes. Neji smirked and took this chance to end it.

"Hakke Rokujuuyonshou (Sixty-Four Palms of the Hand)" - Neji said as he got into his stance.

"Two Palms" - Neji said and close two chakra points in Hinata's network.

"Four Palms"

"Eight Palms"

"Sixteen Palms"

"Thirty Two palms"

"Sixty four palms" - Neji said finishing his strikes as Hinata was pushed back but stood on her feet.

In the stands Hiashi smirked in satisfaction as he watched her failure of a daughter put in her place.

"In the end you were nothing than a failure." - Neji said taking heavy breaths. He was about to talk to the proctor to give him the match when Hinata exploded in a puff of smoke.

Neji's eye widened when he saw Hinata disappearing in smoke. "Kage Bushin?" - Neji asked in thought. He noticed Hinata quickly running behind him and turned just him time to received her full attack.

"Hakke Sanbyakurokujuu Isshiki (Eight Trigrams Three-Hundred-Sixty-One Palms" - Hinata called out and began her onslaught.

"Two Palms"

"Four Palms"

"Eight Palms"

"Sixteen Palms"

"Thirty two Palms"

"Sixty four Palms"

"One hundred and twenty eight Palms"

"Two hundred and fifty six Palms"

"Three-Hundred-Sixty-One Palms" - Hinata finished. In less than five seconds she closed all the three hundred and sixty one chakra points in Neji's body. Neji hit the ground with a 'thump' completely knocked out and he was going to stay like that for a few hours.

"Winner by knockout Hyuuga Hinata" - Hayate called out.

## With Crowd ##

Naruto whistled was he watched Hinata perform as new attack. She looked like she was dancing. It was beautiful, in less than five seconds she completely shutdown Neji's entire chakra network.

Hiashi eyes were bulging out of his sockets as he watched her 'failure' of a daughter defeat their Hyuuga prodigy. Neji was supposed to be one of the best juuken users to ever grace the clan and Hinata defeated him without even breaking a sweat. The battle was completely one sided. Neji didn't even hit her once.

Hiashi was broken out of his thoughts when the elders spoke to him. "Hiashi, we must have that technique. Many tried to close the whole chakra system but they couldn't do it in a viable way. It's instrumental we get that technique" - the elder spoke.

"And how do you expect me to her to give it to us?" - Hiashi asked the wise elders.

"We don't care. Offer her the chance to rejoin the clan, give her anything. She may look different but she'll jump the first chance she gets of rejoining our clan" - the elder spoke smirking.

"Congratulations Hinata-chan" - Naruto said as he hugged her and spinned her around as she giggled.

"Thank you Whiskers-kun" - she replied and laughed like crazy at his face.

"Here they come" - Naruto said and Hinata got a confused face. "Your father and the elders" - he explained and she turned around to see them approaching her.

"Anything you need father" - Hinata said in a very sweet voice that gave shivers to the poor man and made Naruto chuckle.

"Yes Hinata. We would like to offer you a chance to rejoin the clan" - Hiashi spoke in his stoic voice.

"Why would I do that?" - she asked. "I'm happy with Naruto and there is nothing you can offer me" - she replied.

"We can offer you a painless life style befitting of a Hyuuga. Surely you can't like your life with that thing" - Hiashi said and Hinata narrowed her eyes and the painless part.

"Call him a think again and I'll kill you" - Hinata said and she activated her byakugan.

"Never mind. So do you accept?" - Hiashi asked.

"Uhmm... How about...NO" - she replied and laughed. Hiashi was starting to get pissed off and that is saying much to someone who most of the time is calm and emotionless.

"There is nothing you can offer me. I'm happy with the life I have, why would I join a clan of stuck up pricks." - she said and everyone laughed. "Besides you just want me because I defeated your prodigy and most likely you want MY new technique" - Hinata said.

"Enough of this" - an elder yelled and raised his fingers to form half of the tiger seal. "Activate" - the elder said and smirked.

A few seconds passed and Hiashi was looking at the elder and wondering if his old age was acting up.

"Something wrong?" - Hinata asked in a very sweet voice. She removed the lavender sash from her forehead revealed it to be seal less. The caged bird seal was nowhere to be found. "I'm a free bird tou-san" - Hinata said.

The elders, Hiashi and even the hokage were shocked. They never knew that the caged bird seal was possible of being removed without killing the victim.

"H-how is that possible?" - Hiashi asked.

"Let's just say that Naruto has a way with seals" - Hinata said and once again laughed at their shocked faces. Not even Jiraya who was a seal master himself knew how to removed the caged bird seal without at least permanently crippling the user.

"This is an outrage. We can't allow this Hiashi" - an elder yelled.

"Too bad you can't do anything." - Naruto started and gathered their attention. "The moment you disavowed Hinata she became an asset of the village. You no longer have any power over her. And since she is a shinobi and technically and adult you can't even claim her as your daughter now" - Naruto said chuckling at the anger face of Hiashi and the elders who seemed to be about to kill them both.

Hiashi took a step forward but immediately regretted it as he fell to the ground barely managing to breathe with the heavy killer intent Naruto was releasing.

"Be careful Hiashi-sama. Attacking a leaf shinobi is a crime, primarily with so many witnesses" - Naruto said in a deeper voice and pointed out to many people around him. Pretty much everyone was shocked that Naruto managed to remove the seal from Hinata.

"Demon" - Hiashi pointed out as he regained his breath and got up.

Naruto was prepared to end his life as he broke the thirds law but thankfully the hokage arrived just in time to prevent anything from happening.

"Hiashi are you mental?" - the hokage asked. "Naruto is right, the moment you rejected your daughter you lost any authority over her. She belongs to the village now and it will stay like that until she chooses otherwise" - the hokage said and Hiashi scoffed.

"We shall have words later" - Hiashi said in his regained stoic face as he turned around with the elders to their seats.

"That went well" - Naruto said and Hinata nodded. The hokage just sighed, that Naruto only gives him headaches. As if the civilian council wasn't enough know he had the Hyuugas on is ass too.

"I'm getting to old for this shit" - the hokage thought as he made his back to the kage box.