Chapter 7

Hinata's and Gaara's team smashed the record for the time to complete the second exam.

Arriving at the tower in under two hours, the two teams now had the rest of the exam time to be completely bored out of their minds. No matter how many times Kiba or Shino tried to tell her to avoid the Sand Siblings, Hinata still tried to have decent conversations when they would allow it. Sometimes, Temari and Kankuro would actually talk to her with some interest, mainly when they spoke about the village.

Every few hours, the five would catch Hinata using her Byakugan as she gazed out the window of the tower. When asked what she was looking for, Hinata would smile and insist that she was seeing if any teams were close to joining them. After nearly an hour straight of using her hereditary ability, Hinata would force herself to close her eyes for a while, since she reached her limit with the jutsu. Kiba and Shiba were plenty of help with guiding Hinata wherever she needed in that massive tower—

But she could always feel sand grains lightly surrounding her arm, just in case it was needed.

After a few days of being in the tower with three other teams joining the two already there, Hinata started to worry. Using her Byakugan, Hinata could see that Naruto's team was close, but fighting against a team that continuously used Shadow Clones. The opposing team was just trying to stall until time was officially up, so they could both not qualify for the next round.

Noticing her growing concern, Gaara asked the Hyūga girl just how close the fight was to the tower. After pinpointing the general direction and distance, Gaara wordlessly sent sand out the window without anyone else noticing.

At that fight, Naruto and his team was on the brink of exhaustion. After dealing with rounds after rounds of clones, they truly thought the vicious cycle would never end.

That is . . . until a swirl of sand appeared before them.

Although it momentarily confused everyone, Naruto couldn't have felt any more relieved when the sand morphed into a clone of Gaara, who looked as annoyed as ever. Before the opposing team could make a move or attempt to strike, Gaara's sand surrounded every single clone, climbing up their bodies until it made a choker around their necks. Squeezing tighter and tighter, the clones eventually vanished while the original trio passed out from lack of oxygen.

Satisfied, Gaara turned to look at Naruto, ignoring his two team members. Gaara warned the Uzumaki boy to hurry up. Time was almost up and their Byakugan Princess was growing more restless and worried by the second. With his over-confident smile, Naruto insisted that they would be there in just a few minutes.

As promised, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura made it to the tower with both scrolls with only minutes to spare. Arriving inside an arena hidden within the tower's walls, Naruto did notice the rest of the teams that made it through along with their senseis—

But he was too focused on his Byakugan Princess, whose moon-like eyes lit up with both relief and fascination.

Ignoring the protest that followed after his burst forward, Naruto embraced Hinata in a massive hug, lifting her off the ground. Naruto went on and on about how much he missed her, and how grateful he was that she didn't appear to be injured. Giggling at his eagerness, Hinata requested to be put down so many times before Naruto finally listened.

After reluctantly listening to her, Naruto merely smiled sheepishly before he turned toward Gaara's direction. With a giddy smile, the Uzumaki boy officially thanked him for his help earlier because they wouldn't have made it without him. Hesitating, as he was trying to choose his words carefully, Gaara insisted that 'thanks' weren't needed, because they were friends.

While everyone was trying to process such a strange conversation and circumstance, the Third Hokage believed it was time to announce the need of a preliminary round. With twenty-one genin passing the second round, at least half needed to be eliminated to continue with the final round. To determine who would proceed, the genin would spar against each other in randomized matches. The winners of each match would move on.

To summarize it quickly: some matches were entertaining while others felt a bit boring, only because it ended so quickly. Sasuke was the first to fight and the first to win. Due to his injuries from the second exam and his match, the Uchiha boy was forced to go to the infirmary instead of watching the rest of the matches.

When it came to observing the fights, Hinata offered to have Gaara and his siblings watch with her and her team. Before they could protest, Naruto exclaimed that it was a wonderful idea.

So, on one section of the raised observatory, Hinata stood in the middle with Gaara, his siblings, and his sensei on the side closest to the stairs. Naruto was on the other side with the remaining Leaf Village teams. Those few kept glancing over at the Sand shinobi, like they couldn't be trusted.

But really, who could blame them?

As for the matches, the victors were quite predictable with most being from the Leaf Village. Temari and Kankuro won theirs without breaking a sweat or getting a single scratch on them. Their opponents, for example TenTen, was lucky to be breathing after the match.

After waiting for what felt like centuries, it was finally Naruto's turn to fight against Kiba. Those Leaf genin who haven't fought yet groaned in annoyance. They were all hoping to fight Naruto because they believed it would be such an easy win.

They were more than surprised when Naruto easily held his own against Kiba. Most couldn't believe Naruto had the capability to stand up so many times after taking damaging hits. Being able to manipulate so many transformations on top of each other was incredible.

If they had to be honest, Naruto definitely deserved his win with how determined and how hard he tried.

But then came the next match that some hoped would never happen.

Hinata had to fight her still bitter cousin, Neji.

Before she joined him on the main battle floor, Hinata thought it would be best to remove her jacket and her ninja headband, so neither could weigh her down. That left her wearing just her under shirt—

And exposing the thin line of a scar on her neck.

Once she finally made it to the floor, Neji couldn't stop glaring at her. His entire attention was on that damn scar. He knew Hinata was just showing if off to rile him up—

For that scar was given the night before his father was murdered by the main branch.

Considering they were family, Neji tried convincing Hinata to give up before either one could make a move. Hinata stubbornly refused. She wanted to prove she has grown stronger and that she doesn't have to rely on anyone protecting her all the time. Neji scoffed at the idea, wondering how she could prove it when he was clearly the better taijutsu user between the two of them.

That's when Hinata had her genius idea.

Rifling through the pouch on her leg, she grabbed two particular items, throwing one at her cousin and purposefully dropping one at her feet.

Smoke bombs.

Most were taken back by the action. It certainly caught her cousin off guard, the smoke burning his eyes for a few moments. Everyone wondered what she was doing—

But Naruto knew exactly what Hinata planned, praising her so overly loud for such a wonderful idea. When the smoke cleared, most gasped in realization—

For they saw two Hinatas; one with a kunai in hand and the other with her family's bloodline trait, the Byakugan, activated.

Hinata and her double attacked her cousin first. It was quite impressive to see her fighting in two completely different styles. There was the traditional Gentle Fist style that consisted of blocking chakra points. Then there was her trying to land a few cuts anywhere possible, swinging her kunai like it was the only way she knew how to fight. Someone commented that it reminded them of Sasuke's style. Naruto agreed it was possible, knowing Hinata and Sasuke used to spar with each other as kids.

Those who watched her marveled at how much she was causing Neji to struggle. After being recognized as the strongest genin to come out of the Leaf Ninja Academy, he was having to actually try because of a clone. Although he managed a few hits here or there, Hinata actually caused the most damage when she gashed his arm and grazed his cheek.

Admittedly, Neji was growing frustrated. On top of all that obnoxious cheering drowning out his ears, he could feel Hinata growing so much more confident and bold with each strike she attempted—

And he wanted to put an end to that before it was too late.

So, after forcefully knocking the kunai Hinata away and on her back, Neji went after the Byakugan Hinata, who he believed to be the real Hinata. Before she could defend herself, Neji struck her in the chest as hard as he could—

Causing her to disappear in a puff of smoke.

Gasps rang amongst the entire arena, nearly covering the sound of Hinata's gagging cough. Although she had sat up from where she fell, Hinata was now hunched over on her knees, hands on her chest as she tried to regain control of her breathing. Every couple sips of air created a coughing fit, resulting in a few spits of blood.

She didn't think her clone vanishing would hurt so bad.

Noticing the way the poor Hyuga girl began to tremble uncontrollably, Sakura asked Kakashi-sensei why she was doing that when her clone was the one hit. The jounin calmly explained that, with the version of the jutsu she used, Hinata could feel every attack and pain inflicted on her clone once defeated. It was the same as when Naruto uses his clones.

Somehow, Hinata managed to breathe normally again, but she still couldn't move from her current position. All she could do was gaze up at her cousin, who glared at her so viciously. Neji warned Hinata to stay down, if she knew what was good for her. Then, he called her foolish for trying something so stupid by fighting him.

Surprising every person in the arena once more, Hinata smiled warmly at her cousin. She claimed the stupid one between the two of them was Neji. He was so blinded by his hatred toward the main branch that he made his own conclusion about what happened that faithful night so many years ago. Hinata acknowledged that he blamed her for the death of his father, when she was just the sleeping victim.

Either angered by the truth of her statement or the mention of his deceased father, they did not know. All they knew was Neji ran toward her with the intent to kill in his eyes.

Naruto was the first to react. Jumping down from the stands, Naruto stood partially in front of Hinata with a kunai drawn. His normal electric blue eyes were now a deep blood red with black slits for pupils. His lip was curled into a vicious snarl, teeth turning into fangs.

The fox wanted blood for the Byakugan Princess's injuries.

And he was not alone.

Before he could make it half the distance, Neji was forcefully stopped by what felt like a magnetic pull. Gazing down at himself, Neji was just as astonished as everyone else when he noticed hardened sand covering his hand and feet. He tried to move, but the slightest adjustment only caused the sand to squeeze tighter.

Eyes widening, Hinata gazed up at who she knew was responsible. Just like Naruto, Gaara radiated anger, his green eyes replaced with yellow irides and pupils in the shape of a black four-pointed star with four black dots around it. With his hand outstretched, Gaara slowly began to close his hand, which caused the sand to grow tighter around Neji until he groaned in pain.

"Stop . . ." Hinata managed to utter under her breath.

If he heard her, Gaara shows no signs of it as he moved his hand further into a fist.

"I said 'stop'!" Hinata shouted. "Shukaku!"

Everything and everyone paused once the named was called out. While a majority of the Leaf shinobi seemed confused, all those from the Sand flinched from habit. Gaara seemed the most surprised, his eyes returning back to their normal green hues.

"How did you . . ." Gaara trailed off in uncertainty. "I never said his name before . . . how could you possibly . . . ?"

Scrunching up his nose in momentary confusion, Naruto returned to his normal self when he made the connection. "Gaara . . ." Naruto began cautiously. "You have one too?"

By that question, the Leaf chunin, jounin, and Hokage finally understood why that name was so important. Gaara didn't care to take notice of their reaction. He was too busy staring into the moon-eyes girl, whose eyes narrowed slightly.

"You and Shukaku," Hinata warned sternly, "are not to hurt my cousin."

Holding her gaze for just a moment, the sand found its way back to the gourd as Gaara calmly vowed, "As you wish, Hinata Hyuga."