Chapter 17: 17. The Preliminaries for The Third Stage (2)

However, what came toward Temari now wasn't an ordinary long-range attack, but a powerful and large beam of energy derived from chakra. And, as such, ordinary wind couldn't do much against it.

Everyone inside the hall now had their eyes wide open, as this was the strongest clash they witnessed today, and from the ones, they were least expecting it. That large torrent of sharp wind waves suddenly got broken by a very large and scary-looking wave of opposing chakra energy.

Temari got hit straight to the body and painfully flew to the nearby wall with a thump, still not fully aware of what happened. Fortunately for her, Tenten still didn't master that attack, as she worked on it for just one month. The energy pressure released was still not perfect as it could be in the future.

Tenten jumped down to the floor and then started falling down to her back once Hayato declared her to be a final victor. After all, her usage of this technique was also still not the most efficient as it could be in the future. Surprisingly, Neji also noticed her current state in peril, and then he suddenly disappeared from his place, and quickly reappeared on the fighting stage, right behind her, quickly catching her up from behind. She opened her eyes wide in disbelief and blushed on her face, once it happened, but then she fainted due to chakra exhaustion, 'This girl has some really creative ideas, good job Tenten!', Neji thought while looking at her sleeping face warmly, 'This move has even more potential to be developed in the future. I will help her, however, the most she lacks is chakra!'

He then passingly glanced at the injured Temari on the other side of the ring, and then again at Tenten, in his arms, 'I guess this is the first time I changed the fate of this world. It doesn't feel bad, to be honest!', There is no way Tenten would've created that move had it not been for him to stimulate her. It seemed that she was really way more in love with the current Neji than the one of that other world, 'She is at least a low-level jonin now like Lee, while Temari is a high-level chunin!'  As Neji carried Tenten back to the watching stands, everyone still remained in awe at Tenten's jutsu.

Kankuro who picked Temari from the ground had his teeth clenched in anger, Gaara on the stands looked at Neji blood-thirstily, and Baki, their sensei, still had his eyes opened in shock. And everyone from the Konoha's side wasn't any better as well. Even Orochimaru looked a little thoughtful while watching Tenten and Neji, 'Are all of Konoha youngins this interesting now?'

"When did Tenten learn that move? You all never inform me of anything kids! And, since when were kids you so close, haha?", Might Guy spoke after he checked on Tenten's situation, from Neji's arms, and realized that she was right. He could've also picked up Tenten, back then, as well, but as he looked at Neji behind him, at that time, who also seemed to want to do it, he realized something and stopped his move. Lee was also surprised at both her new move and Neji's reaction just now.

Neji himself was also now getting a little surprised because of his previous unnatural reaction. But he felt like he was indebted to Tenten a lot. Teaching him fuinjutsu, and keeping his secret safe after realizing it. Also, she never brought him any problems, and for her overall understanding of him.

"Lee, you will understand one day! That is youth!", Might Guy suddenly held Lee by the shoulder and started comically crying. Even Neji found himself ashamed a little bit now as he face-palmed.

In the sixth match, Shikamaru went against Kin, of the Otogakure. Kin started by dodging the Shadow Imitation Technique and throwing senbon with and without bells, using strings to ring the bells from unexpected positions to divert Shikamaru's attention and attack him from behind. Shikamaru, however, managed to join her shadow with his, using the shadows of the strings she was holding. With Kin matching Shikamaru's movements, each drew a shuriken and flung it at the other. When it came time for them to duck, Shikamaru ducked successfully, but Kin, having previously retreated, banged her head against the wall and knocked herself out, which turned out to be the true goal of Shikamaru's battle strategy. Therefore, Shikamaru emerged as the winner of this battle.

The next match was between Naruto and Kiba. The fight went poorly for Naruto at first, especially after Kiba's ninken, Akamaru, joined the fight and transformed into Kiba with the Beast Human Clone technique. Naruto made a comeback by transforming in a layered fashion into Akamaru and then Kiba, so that, when Kiba attacked Naruto, the second Transformation (as Kiba) gave way to the first (as Akamaru), leading Kiba to attack Akamaru (still affected by Beast Human Clone). Kiba then focused on attacking intensively to keep Naruto from counter-attacking, until Naruto accidentally broke wind, which stunned Kiba, whose sense of smell was magnified a thousand times at the time. Naruto then beat Kiba by using shadow clones to perform a new technique, the Uzumaki Combo.

And with that battle being over, Neji finally got summoned to battle Hinata for the eighth match.

"Neji...",  Both Might Guy and Rock Lee suddenly turned a bit serious, already knowing the full history between Neji and the Main Branch of the Hyuga Clan. Tenten was already sent to rest away.

"Don't worry, I won't do anything excessive!", Neji however just smiled and jumped to the field.

"Hinata... You should withdraw!", Eventually, Kurenai sighed and whispered to Hinata down below.

Hinata herself started shaking from fear as soon as her name was called out against Neji's. She knew better than anyone how strong Neji currently was in using Hyuga's techniques. He was even called the biggest genius in the entire Hyuga clan's history. He was the sole reason her father was so cruel to her, not teaching her anything, not training her, and barely even speaking to her now. He gave all his attention to her sister Hanabi instead. He even always spared with Neji, but not with her.

Neji, under the watchful eyes of everyone, slowly came into the center of the field. He stood in front of shaking Hinata, and her sensei Kurenai, behind her, who was still bent down, and whispered something to Hinata's ear. If it was someone other than Neji, she wouldn't do that, but knowing full well what Neji was capable of, as well as his situation in the Hyuga family, she didn't want him to utterly crash her now to the point of no return. She still treasured this soft-willed disciple of hers.

Hayate suddenly found himself unable to do anything for a while, deciding to give them a few more seconds before announcing the match, having sympathy for the poor girl and her sensei as well.

And just then, while Hinata's shaking hand was slowly getting up to surrender, an obnoxious roar, from the stands, stunned everyone, "Hinata, come on, do your best, I believe in you!", It was coming from obnoxious blonde-haired Naruto who leaned against the fence and excitedly shouted down.

'Damn, that idiot, not now!', Kurenai bit her lips angrily. 'Naruto...', While Hinata suddenly woke up from her daze, unknowingly moving her hand back, 'He believes in me!', 'I can't disappoint Naruto...'

'I too can change like Naruto! Even if I lose, I will never give up...', After a few more moments of thinking, Hinata's previously scared face suddenly turned resolute. She smiled at Naruto, in the crowd and then said to Kurenai, "Sensei, this is something I must do! I can't always be so scared and weak-willed! I need to do this If I ever want to change!", Kurenai looked at her resolute eyes and slowly shook her head painfully, but then she cast another warning gaze with her pretty face to Neji.

She didn't say anything to Hinata and she went back to the stands, deciding to stop the match herself if Neji started to get cruel in any way. Orochimaru and Hirzuen looked down with interest.

"Lady Hinata, I must say, this truly isn't a logical choice.", Neji calmly started speaking suddenly and then pointed toward Naruto in the crowd next, "You're not like that blonde idiot over there! You're not special in any way whatsoever as him! We are all different beings, with different circumstances!"

"If he gave you the confidence to enter this fight now, then he truly harmed you in the end!", Neji slowly spoke, without revealing a hint of emotions.

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"Damn you, white-eyed bastard!", Right after hearing those words, Naruto wanted to jump down and do something, but fortunately for him, Kakashi suddenly held him back in shock, "Naruto!"

"Don't speak ill of Naruto! He didn't give me confidence, he just reminded me of something! I want to defeat you myself and get back the recognition of my father that I deserve! I don't want to live in your shadow anymore!", It seems that insulting Naruto really angered her and gave her more guts.

Back there in the stands, Kakashi spoke to Naruto about Neji's history and tried to calm him down, Gaara had a bloodthirsty look on his face, while Hayate Gekko finally called for the match to begin.

Hinata suddenly opened her Byakugan and took a stance. Meanwhile, stoic-faced Neji just stood in the same way. Apparently thinking that she wasn't even worthy for him to enter a stance, though he opened his Byakugan. Hinata didn't mind that and suddenly started running toward him to attack.

However, just when she came near Neji, she suddenly saw a very large rotational blue force coming straight at her. Knocking her backward through the air, "You're easy prey now!", She heard a voice coming down below her next, "You can't move now mid-air, double Vacuum Palms!"

"Damn...", Hinata's Byakugan converged on two different chakra waves hitting her precisely, all over, and sealing nearly half of her chakra points and organs in an instant. She fell down on her head.

"Hinata!!", Naruto yelled hard from the stands, while Kurenai bit her lips hard in worry, preparing to intervene.

And, seeing that she was still conscious, Neji added, "You see now, not to mention defeating me, you can't even touch me! You're lucky that I didn't want to hurt you any further because I pity you."

"Judge, let's end this match. I don't have any more time to waste. And you blond idiot, up there, stop yelling already, your squeaky voice is hurting my ears. You're the dumbest person I've ever seen in my entire life.", Neji really hated loud things and stupid people the most, he truly disliked and even held a great deal of disgust toward Naruto. He wasn't pretending, he seriously meant that.

However, as if some kind of God held grudge against him, he saw a limping Hinata in front coughing up blood and saying, "Don't... Insult Naruto...", Neji even laughed a little suddenly.

Seeing Hinata's weak voice defending him, and Neji's laughs at the injured Hinata, Naruto suddenly started shaking and leaking some nine-tails chakra all of a sudden. This time he was truly angered!

Hiruzen suddenly opened his eyes in shock, preparing himself to attack Naruto, and stop the Nine-Tails. While Orochimaru started dying of laughter internally from the scene, 'Haha, this Hyuga kid is so funny, maybe I could use him. Moreover, he mastered those two high-level Hyuga skills, at such a young age. He's a true prodigy, he could prove quite useful to me after Kimimaro dies in the future.'

Fortunately for Naruto, Kakashi quickly hit Naruto on the back of his neck, knocking him out, before it got any worse. Everyone in the crowd had various degrees of reaction. Gaara wanted to fight Neji right now, and couldn't wait anymore. Sakura started worrying about Naruto, while Neji's team rejoiced. Immediately after noticing Naruto's strange reactions, Hayato called Neji as the winner.

The next match was between Gaara and Lee. However, before the fight started, Neji, as he also had a bit of goodwill toward Lee, reminded him that he should surrender right away if his Gates don't work on Gaara. He explained that if got injured or disabled, he would then never be able to defeat himself. However, if he stayed safe, then he still had at least a theoretical chance after a few more decades. It was a crude method, but Might Guy agreed with Neji while Lee started thinking about it.

"Haha, didn't expect you to care about me so much as well, Neji! Don't worry I agree with you!", Lee suddenly held his thumb up, with a weird gaze toward Neji. His personality was truly different now than in the original series. Due to all the talking Guy and Neji did to him, he was now more realistic.

The match then started after a while and at first, none of Rock Lee's taijutsu attacks managed to penetrate or circumvent Gaara's Shield of Sand, until Lee removed the weights he was wearing on his legs. The boost of speed was such that Gaara's sand couldn't follow Lee's movements, and Gaara was hit for the first time in his life.

However, Gaara was revealed to be using Armour of Sand to keep Lee's attacks from working on him. Realizing that his normal attacks will no longer work, Lee then used his Front Lotus on Gaara, but in the end, it was revealed that it had been a sand clone.

Having no other way to end the match, and with Guy's permission, Lee then opened five of the inner chakra gates, the result being that Lee's strength was multiplied immensely for a short time, but also severely injured him. He then proceeded to continuously beat Gaara with his Reverse Lotus. However, as Gaara fell to the ground, he dispersed his sand gourd as a cushion to break his fall.

Different than in the original series, at this time Rock Lee quickly surrendered, on time, so the nearby jonin saved him from Gaara's next merciless attack that would have crushed his arm and leg.

After Gaara won, the next and final battle commenced between Choji and Dosu. Choji was reluctant to battle, instead wanting to forfeit, but tried after being promised food by his sensei, Asuma Sarutobi, if he won. Choji entered the battle with prior knowledge of Dosu's sound-based attacks, and quickly used Human Bullet Tank to plug his ears from the Oto ninja's attacks; however, Dosu overcame this by transmitting his sound through the water in Choji's body, thus defeating him.

After the preliminary ended, there was a drawing of lots to determine the first-round match-ups for the main tournament, there was a one-month period in which the remaining genin could prepare themselves. Various important dignitaries would be also invited to watch those main matches.