Turnaround

The fight started out with Naruto and Neji trading banter as Naruto started speaking his disapproval at Neji's actions. Neji didn't just take it either and sent back insults and other things that he really shouldn't have said. Amongst them was that the only reason Naruto got where he was today was because of me. I'll be honest and say that I definitely had my part to play in Naruto's current self but majority? Not a chance. All I did was help my friend have the same teachings and knowledge as he would have if the village hadn't mistreated him.-

Pretty much everything else though was gotten via his own determination and hard work. If anything Neji was way more spoilt growing up as even with the caged bird seal he still had the resources of the Hyuga at his disposal due to being so closely related to the main clan. Naruto on the other hand just had the public stuff and me. Lets be honest here though I barely taught Naruto anything besides perhaps the chakra threads and chakra control methods as far as being a shinobi was concerned.-

His path as a ninja was not my own or even similar for that matter so I didn't bother trying to teach him my stuff. Naruto proved this himself when he activated his self created technique to keep Neji from hitting his chakra points. The Hyuga clan was usually the nemesis of anything chakra based like that but it was an entirely different thing when the technique had a chakra pool like Narutos fueling it. At that point quality is no longer enough to overcome quantity, something Neji was learning the hard way at this moment after getting caught by the many threads covering Naruto.-

Sure Neji could cut through for or five of these restricting threads but ten, twenty or thirty? Not a chance. There was no mercy until Neji learned his lesson as far as Naruto was concerned and the beating the blonde gave Neji was downright humiliating. The Hyuga certainly tried to fight back but that was rather difficult when Naruto had one arm locked in place with his threads and was using his own free hands to punch the guy as hard as he could over and over. Unfortunately Naruto miscalculated the cost that his technique had when it had a Hyuga resisting it constantly and he couldn't keep it up anymore freeing Neji who retaliated furiously with the sixty four palms.-

For any normal person that would be the end of the fight as they would either be dead or chakra crippled temporarily. I almost stepped in when Naruto stubbornly drew from his already heavily depleted chakra pool and rather than use his own chakra started drawing out the nine tails power. The winds howled and the older shinobi who had experienced the things power before all tensed. Then it vanished just as fast as it showed up and I couldn't help but grin as I figured out what he did.-

It was simply really as Neji had closed all of Narutos chakra points and my friend being a wily bastard utilized the rush of power from the nine tails to pop them back open forcibly. In the same instance he utilized that chakra in it's entirety to summon a bunch of shadow clones as a distraction. Neji arrogantly thought that Naruto was amongst these clones and rushed into them confidently. He hadn't thought it was a trick however and as such hadn't used his byakugan to see that the real Naruto was in fact under the ground.-

Needless to say Naruto hit to arrogant dude with a vicious uppercut that was so hard it threatened to snap Neji's neck. Like that Naruto won much worse for wear while getting his point across to Neji through his fist.

 "You know you could have just overwhelmed him with your shadow clones right?" I asked my friend as I treated his wounds.

"Haha, now that you mention it ..." he laughed awkwardly and smiled while scratching the back of his head.

"Ha~ Sometimes I wonder if you even have a brain rattling up there with how rarely you seem to use it." I said with a tired sigh.

"Hey! you take that back!" I he argued and I just raised and eyebrow with a smirk.

"Or what?" I said challengingly.

"Uh you know , on second thought." he said quickly realizing the trap and backing out.

"I thought so." I said smugly.

The second battle came up shortly after they cleaned up the arena a little and this time it was between Temari and Shikamaru. I didn't bother watching the fight though as I was far more interested in grabbing my payout from Narutos fight with Neji. The bookies tried to play it slimy like they didn't know what I was talking about until I made it clear that wasn't going to be a very good idea.-

I ended up walking away with a nifty five billion ryo and some bookies with bruises in painful locations. It would have been one thing if they just gave me back my money but they acted like they never got it to begin with which was absolutely unacceptable. I thought it was rather amusing how I came up here not expecting to win all that much money only to walk away with enough money to be considered entry level rich.-

I could lose literally every other bet I made and still be happy with this outcome. 

"Since you won so much money off of me how's about ramens on you for the next month?" Naruto asked and Guy looked away guiltily after I returned.

"A months doable." I said with a shrug.

"What? I thought you'd put up more of a fight you know?" Naruto said confused.

"Guy probably let it slip that I won a bunch of money off your fight but he probably didn't tell you how much I won. Forget a month I could easily afford to feed you to bursting everyday for a year without using a third of what I won. Should have asked for more when you had the chance." I said with a grin.

Naruto didn't believe me at first but after Guy told him how much I won the boy looked heartbroken as I wasn't exaggerating at all. About six large bowls made the way he liked cost about twenty thousand ryo and you multiply that by three hundred and sixty four and you got seven million two hundred and eighty thousand ryo for an entire years worth of ramen compared to my five billion.-

The next fight for the tournament was Shino VS Kankuro and was a joke to say the least. I'm not hating on puppets or anything but against a swarm of thousands of insects they were about as useful as flyswatters against mosquitoes in Florida. Kankuro was quickly overwhelmed by the bugs and eliminated from the tournament before he could even force Shino to really try.