Chapter 18: 18. The Chunin Exam Finals

Many foreign shinobi, civilian watchers, and merchants were everywhere around the Konohagakure already. Today was one of the most important dates in the entire Ninja World. Eventually, even those feudal lords, the Daimyo, alongside their entourages, in luxurious line-ups came to the Konoha. The big finals of this Chunin Exams were a significant event for the entire Ninja World. Even some people from the countries that didn't participate in it, came in to observe this time around.

Every participating village wanted their shinobi to present their village in the best light later on the stage, for them to earn more missions in the future, from their Daimyo, and increase their reputation to all of the thousands of people that came in to watch from all around the Ninja World.

Somewhere inside a forest near the Konoha's village entry walls. There was some kind of a large clear training ground Neji kind of created himself through his many years of continuous practice there. At first, it was also full of trees and other vegetation like the rest of the large forest, but due to his continuous training, it became like that. Neji choose this location as it was on the completely different side of Konoha boundaries from the Hyuga clan's residence, so he doesn't have to worry about their spying eyes. Though, Neji made a secret, personal trail to it all the way from the Hyuga compound, full circle around the Konohagakure. With his speed, it wasn't a problem for him to come every day to train. The forest was also full of different wild beasts Neji used to fight while he was younger, but now, any of those predators somehow sense his strength and avoid him in fear.

"Rotation!", Neji's body suddenly spun rapidly as he expelled chakra from all of his tenketsu points at once. A familiar blue circle of chakra suddenly formed all around him, being both a protective shield and a deflecting attack tool at the same time, "Again just five meters in length. It seems that for now I still simply don't have enough chakra reserves for further range, my chakra control is not the problem.", Neji repeated something that he already knew. That was because he was still just a thirteen-year-old, and his body and chakra still weren't finished developing to their fullest potential.

Hiashi Hyuga could for example form a Rotation of somewhere around ten meters in length, if he gave it his all, in Neji's estimates. Neji, from the original, could at best do just two and a half meters around this Chunin Exams timeline. And it was not just Rotation for Hiashi, he could additionally perform all of the other Hyuga secret techniques in a much more superior way than Neji due to his age, body, and chakra development. This was one of the ways how Neji deduced that his strength could've already been on the middle Kage level, based on everything that Neji saw from him so far.

"However, with this now! I should have reached Hiashi's level already!", "Senjutsu: Rotation!",

However this time, Neji's range extended all the way to ten meters already, and the color it displayed was dark purple, almost black-like. A large hole in the ground formed all around Neji.

'Hehe, if you draw in too much natural energy, or do it without supervision, you will die and turn into stone? But what if you expel it right away, at the moment you absorbed it too?', Neji smirked.

This was why Neji needed just a way to gather around natural energy, without planning to use it, in the first place. He planned to expel it from his body, as soon as his body absorbed it, with Rotation.

To develop this move, during the past month, Neji needed to only determine exactly how much natural energy was safe to absorb and use because he already had the best method to expel it.

It was never stated in Naruto that you would die from absorbing natural energy, it was just stated that you would die from absorbing too much of it, or doing it irresponsibly. Therefore, during the past month, Neji spent countless hours just to figure out what exactly was this "too much" level. Eventually, after going through many methods, like doing it at significantly low speed, and then observing his body with his Byakugan's nearly microscopic internal vision, he caught on right after his first bunch of cells started slowly micro-deteriorating and then he barred it from further damage. And, with that, he finally discovered what was the maximum potential for this technique.

Maybe with age, due to his body development and strengthening, he could double the range of it, from ten to twenty meters for example. However, ten was the limit he was currently willing to go. Moreover, the range wasn't even the best part of this technique. Due to him expelling both his own chakra and natural energy toward his opponents. If hit multiple times, or at close distances, their bodies could even start deteriorating and turning into stone instead. And it also carried a stronger rotational force, and defensive shield capabilities, than an ordinary Rotation, due to natural energy being way more powerful and potent than ordinary bodily chakra. It was a true S-class technique!

It was a pity he couldn't incorporate natural energy with his Vacuum Palms as well. But, once he releases Orochimaru's senjutsu from his stomach, from his subconscious chakra control, it starts uncontrollably filling his whole body with natural energy, not just his arms, and only whole body Hyuga techniques like the Rotation could be used in harmony with it. It's way too dangerous otherwise, as the time required to bring the natural energy, potentially from his whole body to just his arms, for Vacuum Palms, with chakra control, was too much, and he would've probably turned to stone by then before he succeeded. The whole premise of this was that he needs to expel it all fast.

'I feel like with this, I could even stand on equal ground with Hiruzen, Hiashi, and Danzo. There are not many opponents stronger than me currently left inside the village, maybe only Guy-sensei and Jiraiya who was not in the village, he's late Kage level at least. And with this finally over, I feel fully confident to pressure disabled Orochimaru later into giving me that thing to finally deal with my curse mark!', Neji's face turned extremely happy and confident, especially for those plans for later.

'But pity, I still didn't reach a truly microscopic level of vision required for that. It seems that I really must take a look at that forbidden scroll once Orochimaru bares his fangs at the village! After all, training more soul power should increase my vision dojutsu strength.", Neji formulated more plans.

'Only Itachi Uchiha should have been stronger than me at this age. Therefore, I must keep my abilities a top secret until I resolve the problem with the curse mark at least.', Neji thought next.

Neji suddenly looked at the changing sky, 'It seems that the finals are about to start soon. Let's meet with Tenten and them next!', During the last month Neji also occasionally helped Tenten with her chakra control, paying her back for the time she was teaching him about fuinjutsu in the past.

He told her about many of his principles and showed her exercises, he formulated in the past, regarding chakra control so that she could use her Pressure Waves with more efficiency in the future, without passing out like that again so easily. He also complimented her many times on it.

***

Neji first met with Tenten, Lee, and Guy in their usual meeting spot on one of Konoha's rooftop terraces. Might Guy and Lee would watch exams from the stands, while he and Tenten fought.

"Neji, you finally arrived, we thought you were going to be late!", Tenten joyfully exclaimed while Guy and Lee started rooting for them, "Well, it's time, let's go!", Neji just smiled and nodded.

The finals of the Chunin Exams are held inside the large Konoha Stadium at the far left of the village. The Chunin Exams Arena was a large dome with patchy grass and a few trees and bushes. The areas that don't have grass on them seem to have a dry sandy color to them. On top of the dome were three buildings from where the audience usually watched the fights that took place.

Tenten and Neji soon entered the large fighting stage down below with large cheers accompanying them from the crowd. After all, Neji was currently the number one star of this exam unlike in the original universe where it was Sasuke.

"Neji, you're so popular!", Tenten exclaimed all of a sudden while they were approaching other participants in the center of the field, "No I think they're cheering for you Tenten!", Neji smiled.

Tenten just stuck her tongue cutely to him as a response, and they slowly came near the others. The judge this time was Genma Shiranui, as apparently, Hayate Gekko was nowhere to be seen. Neji of course knew what happened to him, as it was quite a memorable scene from the original series when he was caught spying on Baki, of the Sunagakure, and Kabuto, and then Baki murdered him.

Shino, Shikamaru, Kankuro, and Gaara, were already all there. Naruto, Sasuke, and Dosu were missing. Though Neji also already knew what happened to Dosu as well, he was killed off by Gaara.

Shikamaru was the only one to greet them to which Neji just nodded and found Gaara looking at him madly. It appears that in this universe, he placed greater importance on him than on Sasuke.

And, after a while, Naruto also came in a stupid and embarrassing way, like in the original, to which Tenten beside Neji chuckled suddenly, "Hehe, Neji, you were right the last time, he is really stupid!"

"Damn!", Naruto hissed immediately and wanted to start arguing, but Genma told him to get his car together and for them all to face the giant crowd next. The final round was finally about to begin.

The "Kazekage" of the Sunagakure village also came to the highest place to watch the competition together with the Hokage who now delivered a welcoming speech to all. They also allowed Sasuke to still participate if he came in before his exam started. Genma explained the rules to everyone, apparently, they still remained the same as in the preliminaries. Then only Naruto and Neji remained standing there as the first match belonged to them. Tenten giggled a little at Neji and went ahead.

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Hinata and Kiba came, at this time, to watch the battle together. Hinata clenched her fists while looking at Naruto down below, 'Naruto, I believe in you, only you can defeat that person!', Apparently she still believed in Naruto's victory even after her embarrassing defeat to Neji, one month ago, in a couple of seconds. It was the shortest fight in the entire Chunin Exams recorded history. After that, now her father and grandpa have even completely stopped speaking to her. The only positive thing left for her, at this moment, was her love and respect for Naruto and her team.

Sakura and Ino were also sitting together in the crowd. But, apparently, Sakura forgot to even cheer for Naruto, because of her worries for Sasuke, who didn't come, before Ino reminded her. Though both of them knew, that Naruto had zero chance of winning, having seen that all back in the forest. Though not many people noticed them, there were now ANBU members hidden all over the crowd.

Hiashi, Hirayoshi, and even the clan heiress Hanabi were also watching the battle from the stands. "Be careful not to miss any moments Hanabi, this is the biggest genius in our Hyuga clan's history!",

Down on the fighting ground, Naruto started shouting about something again, when Neji hinted at Genma to start the match quickly, as he hated seeing that ugly orange jacket and that stupid face.

And at last, the fight started. Naruto immediately summoned a bunch of Shadow Clones jutsu, avoiding first close combat with Neji, as it happened in the original, 'He has either gotten smarter or someone must've warned him in advanced, but it doesn't matter!', Neji opened his Byakugan.

Dozen of Naruto's clones started getting closer to him, therefore Neji just used an ordinary Rotation move to destroy them all. And just when his Rotation finished, he was nowhere to be seen. Suddenly he came right in front of the real Naruto, "What!", Naruto exclaimed in shock while Neji lightly double-taped him with his palms, messing up nearly all of his internal organs right away.

Neji realized who the real Naruto was just because of his perspirations and the speed of his beating heart. Neji, in this life, was now an expert in exploring physical characteristics more so than internal ones, like the internal chakra structure, which was comprehensively hidden by the Shadow Clones.

Everyone in the crowd was amazed at how quickly Neji found out that the real Naruto out of them.

"Damn!", Naruto slowly stood from the ground, ignoring all the pain and sickness he experienced due to internal organ damage, "Your chakra pressure points are next!", Neji, however, calmly stated.

This time Naruto realized that he needed to use his clones both as shields and as a means of attack, so he summoned five hundred of them this time around, depleting half of his chakra reserves then.

'Yeah, this time should be harder to find the real Naruto out as I can't individually check on all of them!', Neji suddenly thought, 'It was a great tactic for the current him, using his strengths to the maximum. Someone must've told him, or is he a little smarter here as this is the real world now?',

However, he's burning through his chakra reserves, while I'm just using my physical body to destroy them. He'll just get more time to stay in this match, but he'll still eventually lose unless Kurama helps him, "You're one trick pony, it's great luck that you're still alive with such a small toolbox!",

And just as Neji predicted, it took him a few minutes to destroy eighty percent of Naruto's clones, and locate the real him again, now alongside his internal organs, sealing even most of his tenketsu. He directly used "Eight Trigrams: One Hundred Twenty-Eight Palms" on the boy without resistance.

Everyone in the crowd cheered for him, while he was standing in front of Naruto's collapsed body. However, Neji still didn't believe that it was over since Naruto still didn't tap onto Kurama's chakra.

And he was right once again, just as Genma wanted to announce him as the winner, Naruto suddenly stood up, with some kind of dangerous orange chakra swirling all around him. Naruto suddenly got at least five to ten times more chakra than he had previously when the match began. As for all the internal organ damage and sealed Tenketsu points, the Kurama's chakra fixed it all.

'Okay, this is probably the end since Hiruzen would probably stop the match if he access Kurama's chakra any further!', Neji didn't panic, and when everyone in the crowd was still amazed by Naruto's state, he rushed right over at him, not wanting to allow him to drag it any longer by summoning more clones. And right while he was in the air, he used his fingers to manually open Second Gate.

Naruto blabbered about something like in the original, and they clashed, however, this time, Neji got an upper hand, as it wasn't even the first tailed beast transformation that Naruto used there.

He launched an attack straight for Naruto's heart, though not too vicious as there would still be a few plot points Naruto would have to reach later. Naruto reverted to normal and collapsed once more.

"Yeah, fate doesn't exist, or at least, it isn't set in stone! Right now I changed my fate!", Neji slowly murmured and smiled once he was called the winner by Genma and the whole stadium cheered.

"Amazing!", The young Hanabi watched the whole fight with her Byakugan open, really broadening her horizons of what is possible with Hyuga's skills. Hiashi and Hirayoshi just sighed all of a sudden. Thankfully, they always had him under control due to that. Fate was sure cruel to him, he was clearly way more talented than Hinata, and also Hanabi. He was the most talented Hyuga ever, but he was still just a servant, due to the one-second difference in birth between Hiashi and his twin brother.

Hinata's whole body was shaking while repeating Naruto's name, while Kiba attempted to console her. Sakura and Ino sighed as they expected such a result, and Guy and Lee jovially stood up and cheered for him. Hokage and Orochimaru also nodded a little in appreciation from the way up.

'Yeah, as expected of Neji! I can't wait to fight and win myself!', Tenten thought full of fighting spirit. Gaara barely contained his killing intent and started repeating something silently, "Gaara not now, please get it together, think about our plan!", Temari, Kankuro, and Baki immediately calmed him.

The second match, which featured Sasuke versus Gaara, was moved to be the last, as Sasuke hadn't arrived yet. Normally he would have been disqualified on the spot, but his match had been highly anticipated, forcing the Third Hokage to give in to the "Kazekage's" request to postpone the match.

The third match, which featured Shino versus Kankuro, was given to Shino on default since Kankuro forfeited to "keep his techniques a secret" before their planned invasion was launched shortly after.

The fourth match was Tenten versus Shikamaru. And surprisingly, as Naruto was in a coma, no one pushed Shikamaru down to the field to fight, so he forfeited which made Tenten disappointed.

However, somehow Sasuke and Kakashi still came on time, which made Neji think Butterfly Effect. Immediately after seeing them on the field, Neji suddenly informed Tenten beside him, "I need to go to the toilet.", Guy and Lee were somewhere down below to get a better look at this match.

'Neji... But why right before the match...?', Tenten looked at Neji's leaving back and suddenly had a really bad feeling. From the beginning of the finals, there was an abnormal presence of ANBU there.

Gaara versus Sasuke finally came around. Sasuke demonstrated that his speed had vastly increased, to the point where the sand guarding Gaara could not keep up. Sasuke also demonstrated Chidori, a technique he had learned from Kakashi and Kakashi's only original technique, to injure Gaara. Before the match could finish, however, a smoke bomb was set off in the Kages' box. Kabuto, who used the genjutsu to put almost everybody in the crowd to sleep, and the "Konoha Crush" started.