10

Proud Eyes

"This day…came way too fast." Naruto said as he sat up on his bed and looked out the window; the sun completely blinded the blond, the jinchuuriki was forced to close his eyes and open then little by little, so that they would adjust to the brightness on the outside. "I really hate days that are this bright" The genin remarked bitterly.

Naruto moved to the edge of his bed and tried to push himself up. Suddenly, the world completely froze for the blond as he found himself falling towards the floor. Naruto managed to regain control of his body and prevent his face from meeting the floor of his apartment. "What's going on?" The blond asked himself. "Nothing like that has ever happen, there was no pain or anything, just numbness, and the fox has stayed quite, normally he makes some sort of remark about the jolt of pain. This…this must be for a completely different reason…" The boy thought as he went back up on his feet. "What is going to happen today?" Naruto asked as he looked out of the window. Surely, the morning was just too bright.

The girl walked quietly through the halls of her house in search of her father; she finally found him looking at something in the garden. She walked up to him trying to stay quite; she knew that it was of no use and that her father had probably sensed her from the beginning. "Otou-sama?" The girl asked and was taken aback when her father jolted in surprise and turned around.

"Hanabi" Hiashi said to acknowledge his daughter's presences and trying to hide the fact that he had been startled.

The girl looked in the direction her father was staring so fiercely that he had left himself open to any possible attack. There sitting in the Branch Family garden sat her cousin.

Neji was sitting in the ground with his legs crossed and was gathering enormous amount of chakra throughout his body. Hanabi saw as a leaf was about to fall on Neji's shoulder, the black haired boy whispered something before his whole body was covered by chakra, which started to spin around him. The force of the chakra had cut the leaf into many pieces and was blowing everything else away.

"How is it possible?" Hiashi asked, "For him to create such a powerful Kaiten without moving his body at all, what type of training has he undergo in this past month?" The Main Family's head asked.

Hanabi wished she could answer her father, but she was completely hypnotized by the boy from the Branch Family to even try to formulate an answer.

"Did his hatred for the Main Family drive him to this point?" Hiashi whispered to himself.

"Do you really think he'll make his move today?" Jiraiya asked as he leaned against the window's frame in the Hokage's office.

Sarutobi removed the pipe from his mouth before responding. "I wouldn't doubt it; it would be the best time to try something like that." The Sandaime took a scroll from the cabinet and let it roll for the white haired sannin to catch it. "Please give this to Naruto when you deem the time is right." The older man requested.

Jiraiya examined the scroll on his hand with confusion until he finally figured out what it was. "You can give it to him yourself, it's not like you're going anywhere, right?" The white haired mans said as he looked at his former sensei, the look on his eyes was one of pleading for reassurance.

"Please," Sarutobi began. "For Minato-kun's and my sake, just in case…" The Sandaime said.

Jiraiya couldn't remember seeing his sensei this old before. The sannin sighed before securing the scroll in his vest's pocket. "Very well, I'll guard the scroll for now."

"Thank you Jiraiya-kun." The Sandaime said as he smiled at his former student.

The white haired sannin glared at the Hokage. "I though I told you to cut that '-kun' thing years ago." Jiraiya said as he crossed his arms and stood indignantly, all in an attempt to lighten the mood in the room.

Jiraiya behavior caused Sarutobi to chuckle. "I guess old habits die hard." The Hokage said.

"Just like you." Jiraiya said as he smiled at the man that was once, and he will always be, his sensei.

"Where are they?" Shikamaru thought as he looked at his surroundings, he could see the sand siblings, Shino, Neji, and a shinobi who had introduced himself as Genma, their referee for the conclusion of the Chunin Exam, but there was not trace from the two members of Team 7.

Genma looked up to where the Hokage and the other judges where sitting. The Sandaime nodded in acknowledge of the proctor. "If they don't appear soon then we will have to start without them, they have until their matches come up to arrive" Genma started as he looked at the genins in front of him. "If they fail to show up by then, they will be disqualified." The jounin finished.

Shikamaru's teeth gritted against each other, it wasn't like those guys to miss out of something like this. Especially Naruto after what they had talked.

– Flashback –

Naruto and Shikamaru were sitting at the park playing shogi; they had left the Hospital after almost causing Chouji, according to the doctors, a mental breakdown. During their time at the park, the two genins had talked about the Academy, their missions, and the previous part of Chunin Exam, it wasn't the most energetic conversation, but at least it was something.

Now they have finally gotten to the topic which Shikamaru was most interested, or at least slightly concerned, on. "So, what are your thoughts on the Final Exam?" The Nara asked as he moved one of his pieces in the board.

The blonde's gaze was fixed on the board as he responded. "Can't really say, there are too many variables to try to predict a possible outcome, I'm sure you have come to the same conclusion." Naruto said as he moved one of his pieces and finally looked up.

"That's true" Shikamaru confirmed as he took his time to analyze the game. "But at least tell me what your thoughts on Neji are; after all, he's your first opponent." The black haired boy requested as he made his move in the game board.

Naruto stayed quiet for more than a minute, during which his eyes never left his shogi pieces. "What do you know about the Juin Jutsu?" The blond asked moving a piece on the board.

Shikamaru frowned slightly as he tried to recall the information he had learned. "Not much" The Nara responded. "Just that it has something to do with the Hyuuga Branch family." The black haired genin moved one of his pieces before looking at the blond in front of him. "Why do you ask?" Shikamaru questioned.

The blond genin continued studying the game board as he answered the question. "As you may know, the Hyuuga Main family uses the Branch family as servants." Naruto waited for Shikamaru to nod before continuing. "Well, have you ever wondered why the Branch family has done nothing to stop them?" The genin asked as he moved a shogi piece.

The Nara frowned again, he never had given it too much thought, but now that Naruto had brought it out, he wondered. "What's stopping the Branch house?" The black haired boy thought.

After seeing that Shikamaru had no way of responding, Naruto continued with his explanation. "Juin Jutsu" The blond began. "It's a seal that is placed on every member of the Branch family. With this seal, if a member of the Main family deems one of them as rebellious, he or she will be able to destroy him just by activating the seal with a simple hand sign." Naruto finished as he looked up at Shikamaru.

The black haired boy's eyes were wide in shock; he couldn't believe that the nobles of Konoha were doing something like this.

"Sarutobi-jisan told me that at one point, the seal was used to protect the Byakugan from falling into enemy hands, but now it's merely used as a method of slavery, becoming the Caged Bird Seal." Naruto paused long enough to move one of his pieces. "Imagine it, all your life being forced to do the biding of someone that you are supposed to a call a relative, having no say over your life, living in fear of your superiors killing you just because they see it fit. Wouldn't you hate them? Wouldn't you take any chance you get to make one of them feel the pain they have imposed on you for years?" Naruto looked at Shikamaru straight in the eye. "If you get the chance, wouldn't you kill one of them just to make them feel what it's like to lose one of their own?"

Shikamaru was taken aback by what the blond had said and took a minute to recompose himself. "Are you making excuses for Neji's behavior towards Hinata?" The Nara asked as he examined the blond.

"I'm not making excuses for anybody." Naruto responded. "But if anything happens during my match in the Finals, I wanted you to at least know that motive for one of us." The blond said as he got up. "See you around, Shikamaru." Naruto said as he turned to leave.

The Nara watched the blond leave before his gaze fell down to the board once more. Shikamaru's eye's widened slightly in surprise before he smirked and said in a low voice. "You forgot to say Tsumi, Naruto." Shikamaru said, not sure if his friend had heard him.

– End of Flashback –

Shikamaru was able to decipher the blonde's cryptic message. "Neither Neji nor him will stop at anything in this fight, they both have their motives for which to win, but then… why isn't he here yet?" The lazy genin thought as he frowned at not being able to understand the situation.

"Well," Genma began. "I have to ask for the participants that are not in the first match to please leave the are-" The jounin was silenced when a small twister made out of leaves appear in the arena, inside the twister the figure of Kakashi and Sasuke appeared.

The audience gasped when the leaves started to move, but it changed to cheers when the Uchiha appeared. "Troublesome" Shikamaru muttered as he glared at the audience.

"Sorry we were late, Genma" Kakashi apologized. "Sasuke here got lost on the way to the stadium." The silver haired shinobi said as he pointed at his student.

"Liar" Sasuke said with a snort.

Genma sighed at his comrade's behavior. "Anyways, as I was saying, the participants that are not in the first match; please go wait in the stands so that we get this over with." The proctor said as he waited for the genins, and Kakashi, to move.

"I'll be in the audience with Sakura and the others." Kakashi informed the raven haired genin before ruffling his hair, which caused the Uchiha survivor to growl in anger, and leaving towards the spectators stands while Sasuke followed Shino, Neji, Kankuro, and Gaara to the waiting terrace, leaving Genma, Shikamaru, and Temari in the arena.

Shikamaru watched as the Suna kunoichi got into a fighting stance and Genma prepared to give the start signal. "This is such a drag." The Nara muttered since he knew that he needed to drag the fight for as long as his chakra reserves would allow him, to give a certain blond enigma time to show up.

A yawn could be hear through the trees of Konoha's forest as a certain white haired man tried to sneak a peak in the girl's side of the hot springs, so far Jiraiya had been unsuccessful of getting a clear image. "The brat's match should be coming up pretty soon." The sannin said to no one in particular. "Maybe I should start to make my way towards the stadium." The perverted author wondered as he looked at the sky.

A second yawn was heard as the sannin brought out a sake bottle. "Or maybe I should finish this bottle first." Jiraiya said in a more energetic voice as he removed the bottle's cap.

Shikamaru sighed as he arrived at terrace, the Nara had ended up giving up the match when he's chakra supply had run out, his strategy during the match had not been one of wining, but merely one to stall. "Well, it's not like I wanted to win, this way I don't have to compete again, but…" The black haired boy looked at the others in the terrace and sighed once again, this time of disappointment. "…He still isn't here."

The lazy genin looked down at the arena to watch Shino and Kankuro. "At least there is one more match before his, and best of all, he wasn't here to see me giving up." Shikamaru mutter to himself, knowing that the blond would never let him live that one down. The Nara frowned as something from the Suna shinobi caught his attention. "Is it me? Or is that guy so nervous that he's shaking?" The genin thought.

"Damn, this is not good." Kankuro thought as he quickly glanced towards the terrace, his gaze directing straight towards Gaara. "Temari's match was too long, Gaara is getting anxious." The puppet user could feel his brother's chakra and killer intent rise every second. "He won't be able to control it soon."

Genma looked at the two genins. "Are you two ready?" The jounin asked as he prepared himself to start the match.

"I give up!" Kankuro exclaimed, taking the whole audience by surprised and earning a gasp from them. "I don't know how long this fight would last, but I bet it'll be longer than Gaara's patience, if he doesn't kill someone soon we will all be in trouble." The puppet user thought to himself.

"Very well" Genma started. "The winner of this match is Aburame Shino."

Kankuro stared to make his wait towards the terrace, he could fill the glare of disappointment and anger from behind the bug user's shades, even if the Aburame's face remained stoic.

"Damn it" Shikamaru cursed under his breath. "I thought he had more time" The Nara thought as he watched Kankuro and Shino return to the terrace, and Neji descend to the arena.

Genma watched as Neji approached the center of the arena. "If Uzumaki Naruto does not appear in five minutes, he will lose by default." Genma announced to the participants and the audience.

Shikamaru could clearly see the frown on Neji's face. "I guess he doesn't want to win this way" The Nara thought as he felt the five minutes pass like seconds. "Well, I guess his time is up…" The black haired genin whispered in resignation.

"What are you talking about? I'm right here." Came a voice from behind the Nara. The voice made five out of the six genin present turn around in surprise. Naruto was leaning against the wall casually as though he were unaware that he was about to be disqualified.

Shikamaru had frowned the moment he heard the blonde's voice, but his frown soon leave to make place to smirk. "And where the hell have you been?" The black haired genin asked.

"Around" The blond answered simply, still no giving any sign of going to the arena for his match.

Suddenly, Shikamaru frowned again. "How long have you been there?" The Nara asked.

Naruto looked at the lazy genin in the eyes and something the resembled a smirk came into his face. "I saw you giving up, if that's what you're asking." The blond responded.

The black haired boy sighed as the blond stared to walk towards the end of the terrace.

"I came in halfway during you match, I was watching from the roof, sorry to make you worry." Naruto apologized as he jumped from the terrace window and landed in the arena.

Sasuke frowned at his teammate's behavior; he hadn't acknowledged Sasuke's presence or any of the other genins besides Shikamaru. In fact, after the Forest of Death, the little communication that they had had during he Chunin Exam had become almost nonexistent.

Genma watched as the blond walked to the center of the arena where Neji and he were standing, the jounin made a note of how much the killing intent in the arena had increased due to Naruto and Neji merely looking at each other.

"I was starting to think that you weren't going to show up" Neji commented as the blond stood before him.

"You should have known better." Naruto simply responded.

"Man, I feel like the temperature of this arena has dropped many degrees" Genma thought as he looked from one genin to the other. "The third match of the finals is about to start. Uzumaki Naruto vs. Hyuuga Neji" Genma called up as he raised his hand. "Commence!" The jounin shouted as he brought his hand down. A second later, the two genins disappeared.

Sound, sound was the only thing that alerted most of the audience that a match was underway. Those who had not train as a shinobi could only hear the clash of metal that indicated that the two boys had taken out weapons. Even some of the nins among the crowd were having problems following the fight, all they saw were blurs from time to time, and an image of the two genins when their momentum was broken every time their attacks met.

The two genins finally stopped in the middle of the arena, kunai against kunai, each boy tried to push the other. "How much strength are they putting in each blow?" Kakashi wondered as he watched them from the audience, their cloths were starting to become ragged from the backlash of their attacks.

"Just as I expected" Naruto thought as he stood in his ground. "We're about the same in armed combat" The blond concluded as he recalled what has happened during their exchange of blows, he had tried to attack every place where he had seen a shadow of an opening, and he was sure that Neji had done the same, yet none of their attacks came close as the other's blade was right there to stop the blow. "Let's make this interesting"

Naruto brought his kunai down, taking Neji by surprise and giving himself an opening. The blond tried to drive his fist to the side of the Hyuuga's face, but was stopped by the black haired genin's. Naruto was able to see a smirk for on Neji's face just before the Hyuuga move his hand and sent his kunai towards the blonde's face. Naruto had to step back to prevent the kunai from impaling his chin.

As soon as the blond stepped back, Neji started to gather chakra in the index and middle finger of his left hand, and jammed them into his opponent's chest, sending Naruto back.

Genma watched as the Uzumaki kid grunted in pain. "That attack was really close to the heart." The jounin thought as the blond put his hand on his chest where the blow had landed. "These kids aren't playing around." Genma whispered to himself.

Once the pain had resided slightly, Naruto looked up to see Neji smirk and get into a specific stance. The blond knew what was coming next and, for his sake, he had to stop the Hyuuga.

Neji started forward as he began his attack, the blond followed suit and rushed to the Hyuuga. Naruto was able to stop Neji's attack by intercepting the black haired boy's forearm, effectively nullifying Neji's momentum.

Naruto grabbed the Hyuuga's arm and closed his fist, preparing his retaliation for what the black haired boy had done earlier. At that moment, Naruto heard the Hyuuga mutter the words "Fudou Kaiten". Something in the blonde's mind told him that he needed to get away, after realizing that it wasn't the fox's doing but actually his own common sense, Naruto jumped back, less than a second later Neji was covered in a chakra dome.

Everyone in the audience who was familiar with the Hyuuga fighting style gasped; Neji had perform a stable Kaiten without moving his body, as far as the shinobi that were watching knew, that was impossible.

"So he brought it out" Hiashi thought as he watched his nephew from the stands.

The chakra dome started to disappear, leaving Neji standing unharmed; a ring had been formed around him by the spinning chakra. "Kaiten?" Naruto's question was answered by Neji's smirk.

"Even someone like you would see that advantage." Neji started. "By not being forced to spin along with the chakra, I'm able to freely retaliate. This technique is my new sword and shield."

Naruto snorted as he took out another kunai. "There's no sword I can't break or shield I can't pierce." The blond said before rushing towards the Hyuuga. Neji smirked as he started to emanate chakra from his body.

As soon as the kunai left Naruto's hand, the black haired genin willed that chakra to spin and protect him. After his kunai was deflected, Naruto took out a pair of shuriken and sent them towards the Hyuuga prodigy, whose chakra dome merely knocked them upward. Immediately, the blond started to make hand seals. "Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu" The genin said before the two shuriken in the air became two hundred.

The rain of shuriken fell on the chakra dome, but merely bounced of. "Useless" Neji muttered as he took out a couple of kunais and threw them at the blond one by one.

Naruto was caught by surprise by the kunais, he had been too preoccupied with figuring out a way pass the kaiten, the blond had to jump to dodge the kunais. "That boy has the Uzumaki kid stuck in a corner" Genma thought as he watched the genin land at a safe distance from the Hyuuga.

"Maybe if I add more power" Naruto thought as he made six bunshin appear. The clones rushed towards the chakra dome from all sides, the attack caused four of them to disappear and knock back the other two, a pair of kunais from the inside of the dome took care of the remaining clones.

"Why is Naruto wasting his energy by attacking with clones?" Sakura asked her sensei who had come to sit next to her. "I mean, it didn't work the first time…"

Kakashi answered his pink haired student without taking his eyes off the fight. "He's looking for Neji's weakness, at this point the only way for him to overcome a new technique is by trial and error, lets just hope that he finds a way around it before he runs out of chakra." The jounin said.

Neji observed with a smirk as the Narutos surrounded him, he merely took out a kunai and waited for the real Naruto to appear above him. "That trick was too obvious" The Hyuuga said when he saw Naruto appear above with his Byakugan. The black haired genin throw the kunai up impaling the blond.

Soon, Neji's smirk faded as the Naruto became a cloud of smoke. Behind the smoke the real Naruto smirked as he created one more bunshin. Using the clone's feet to propel himself down, the blond gathered chakra in his fist. He was traveling down way too fast for Neji to prevent his fist from connecting with the upper part of the chakra dome.

There was some sort of pulse that shook the arena the moment Naruto's fist clashed with Neji's shield, it was followed, half of a second later, by an explosion indicating that the shield had been broken. Neji had managed to jump out of the way to prevent from been caught in the explosion, as the dust settled, it revealed the blond taking his fist from the hole it had made on the ground.

"I told you I would pierce through it" Naruto said as he looked at the Hyuuga. "It was a pretty good defense, I give you that, but it's obvious you haven't mastered it yet." The blond continued in an almost mocking tone. "To release so much chakra from every part of your body, it was just a matter of time before its weakness became obvious. Normally it would be rather easy to control chakra that's released forward, and you can use the momentum created by it to move that chakra behind you if you get any problems, but to control the chakra above you while maintaining it harmonized with the one that's orbiting you, it's easy for it to become unstable" Naruto explained.

Neji gritted his teeth, he was aware of the Kaiten's weakness, but he never thought that it would become a hindrance against Naruto, he had completely underestimated the blond, and now his exhaustion was telling him that he was paying the price for his mistake.

The blond genin took note of the Hyuuga's weakened state. "And the fact that you're panting, it seems that pulling that stunt has taken a toll on you." Naruto teased.

"I still have enough strength to defeat you" Neji said as he got ready, lowering his body and tilting it forward, and with his right arm stretched back. Naruto could feel Neji's chakra concentrating and prepared himself for the technique that was coming. "Hakke Rokujuuyonshou" Neji said as he rushed forward.

2

The strike were met by Naruto's forearms, but missed their targets.

4

Only one of the strikes hit, the blond had managed to dodge the other two.

8

Half of the strikes landed.

16

Neji was getting frustrated when only six strikes hit, the Hyuuga pushed his body even further.

32

Twenty strikes hit, but the rest were stopped by the blond before they could hit their mark.

64

Neji pushed his body to the limit and landed fifty strikes on Naruto, sending the blond crashing down against a tree.

The audience cheered as they watched the Uzumaki brat being struck down by the Hyuuga prodigy.

Soon, the cheers started to die out as the blond struggled to stand up. Naruto walked towards the middle of the arena in silence, he stopped when he was in front of Neji and the audience had completely silenced.

Neji could see that something resembling a smile came to the blond genin's face. Naruto looked up and his gaze fell on the audience. "Look at them, every one of these persons that came to see that fight between Sasuke and Gaara, are looking at you right now Neji, the prodigy, the strongest Hyuuga of this generation. You don't know how jealous of you I am right now; all my life all I wanted was for someone to actually worry that I might lose, not praying for my defeat" The genin said.

Above the audience, in the judges' stands, Sarutobi's face saddened as he sensed the pain in the blonde's voice.

Naruto snorted before continuing. "These past months, I thought I had thrown all those petty feelings away, yet…" Naruto looked at Neji before looking down at the ground. "You have always been praised for those eyes of yours, your mastery with them is what sets you aside from the rest and causes others to be proud of your accomplishments, but, the same things that makes me unique, would only curse my life even more."

Neji remained silent and let Naruto continue as he tried to decipher what the blond was trying to say.

Still, without removing his eyes from the ground, the blond genin continued. "But now I've come to realize that, no matter what I do, my whole life will always be cursed, and I don't want to keep hiding who I am now that I know that the happiness I wished for when I was younger is nothing but a fool's hope!" Naruto almost shouted.

The Sandaime wouldn't have been surprise if he had felt tears running down his cheek, the pain in the boy's voice had turned into an anger that was long since due for its release.

"Naruto…, are you going to use it…?" Sakura thought as she watched her teammate and recalled what had happened in the Forest of Death.

Shikamaru frowned as he watched his friend from the terrace. "I knew there was something wrong with Naruto, but I never thought that…"

All the time, Kakashi had remained silent; the guilt inside him was too much to try to speak.

Even Sasuke was completely speechless at what he's teammate had said. "I didn't know…"

"Now" Naruto started again. "I'm not going to hide it anymore." Neji could see the gathering of chakra around the blonde's eyes. "I want you to take a good look at them Neji" The genin continued. "The eyes, that unlike you, I'm not proud of!" Naruto finished as he raised his head and looked at Neji straight in the eye.

Neji along with everyone in the stands gasped as one word entered all of their minds "Sharingan."

Tsumi – Checkmate

Fudou Kaiten – Immobile Heavenly Spin (Made it up, inspired by Virgo Shaka's Kahn from Saint Seiya)

Hakke Rokujuuyonshou – Eight Divination Signs, Sixty-Four Palms of the Hand