Free Bird

Hinata was done. In less than five seconds, she had shut down all 361 of Neji's chakra points.

Neji hit the ground with a thud, completely unconscious.

"Hinata Hyuga wins," Hayate announced.

Naruto sprang to his feet excitedly and whistled.

Hiashi Hyuga's eyes nearly popped out of his head. Neji was supposed to be one of the greatest Gentle Fist masters in history, yet Hinata had defeated him without any effort.

The Hyuga Clan elders said, "Hiashi Hyuga. Many have tried to shut down the entire chakra system, but none of them found a workable method. We must obtain that technique."

"What can we do?" Hiashi Hyuga asked the elders.

"We don't care how. Give her a chance to rejoin the clan, give her anything. She may look different now, but given the chance, she'll immediately come crawling back to rejoin our clan," an elder said smugly.

"Congratulations, Hinata-chan," Naruto said, lifting Hinata into his arms and spinning her around several times as she giggled.

"They're coming," Naruto said. Hinata looked confused. "Your father and the elders," he explained, and she turned to watch them approach.

"Father, what do you want?" Hinata's sweet voice made the poor man shudder.

"Hinata. We want to give you a chance to rejoin the clan," Hiashi Hyuga said in his calm voice.

"Why?" she asked. "I'm happy with Naruto. You have nothing to offer me," she replied.

"We can give you a life suitable for the Hyuga Clan. You surely can't enjoy living with that thing," Hiashi Hyuga said.

"Call him a thing again, and I'll kill you," Hinata said, activating her Byakugan.

Hiashi's eyes widened, and he took several steps back.

"I'm perfectly satisfied with my current life. Why would I join an arrogant clan?" she said, drawing laughter from the people around them. "Besides, you only want my new technique because I defeated your genius," Hinata said.

"Enough!" an elder roared, raising his fingers into half a tiger seal. "Activate!" the elder said with a smug grin.

After a few seconds, Hinata stared at the elder, wondering if his senility had kicked in.

"And then?" Hinata asked sweetly. She untied the purple bandage around her head, revealing an unmarked forehead. The Caged Bird Seal was gone.

"I am a free bird, Father," Hinata said.

The elders, Hiashi, and even the Hokage were stunned.

"How is this possible?" Hiashi asked.

"All I can say is that Naruto is quite skilled at undoing seals," Hinata said, smiling again.

"From the moment you cast Hinata out, she became a member of the village. You no longer have any right to control her," Naruto said with a laugh, seeing that Hiashi and the elders seemed ready to kill them both.

Hiashi took a step forward, but immediately regretted it. He could barely breathe as he collapsed to the ground, feeling the intense killing intent Naruto had released.

"Demon," Hiashi coughed, pointing at him.

Naruto was already prepared to end his life for violating the Third Rule, but fortunately, the Hokage arrived in time and prevented anything from happening.

"Hiashi, have you lost your mind?" the Hokage asked. "Naruto is right. From the moment you rejected your daughter, you lost all authority over her," the Hokage said, and Hiashi gave a mocking snort.

"We'll discuss this later." Hiashi regained his composure, turned around, and returned to his seat with the elders.

The old Hokage walked toward the Kage box, thinking, That Naruto actually managed to remove the Caged Bird Seal without killing the host. You would be proud of him, Minato Namikaze. He has already surpassed you in sealing techniques.

"Is everything all right, Lord Hokage?" the Raikage asked.

"Yes, Naruto is always causing me trouble," the Hokage said with a sigh.

Now that Hinata had revealed Naruto's ability to remove the Caged Bird Seal, the Hyuga Clan was bound to be in turmoil. Especially the main house, since they treated the branch house like slaves. If the branch house broke free of the seal, they would certainly rebel against the main house, and they outnumbered it by nearly five to one. That would definitely not be good for the main house.

"Indeed. To be so proficient in sealing at such a young age, he truly brings honor to the Uzumaki Clan," the Raikage said.

At this rate, he'll become a major threat in the future. What should I do? the Raikage thought.

That brat has become too dangerous. He might remove my curse mark too. I can't allow that to happen. I'll make sure he dies today, Orochimaru thought.

They haven't even seen the tip of the iceberg, the Hokage thought.

"Feng of the Hidden Waterfall Village and Yugito Nii of the Hidden Cloud Village, please come to the arena and prepare for your match," Hayate called from the edge of the arena.

"Are both contestants ready?" Hayate asked.

"Ready!" they answered in unison.

"Begin!" Hayate said, leaping away as soon as he finished. He knew they were both jinchuriki, and he had no desire to get caught up in their fight.

Yugito Nii rushed forward and threw rapid punches. Feng nimbly dodged, rolled aside, then sprang to her feet and tried to kick Yugito Nii in the chest. However, Yugito Nii bent her upper body backward and avoided the kick.

When Naruto saw Yugito Nii bend like that, he whistled. An ordinary human shouldn't have that kind of flexibility.

"Because the Two-Tails is a cat, its jinchuriki's body is especially flexible," Kurama explained to Naruto.

Feng and Yugito Nii traded blows and attacks for several minutes. Though the battle was intense, Yugito Nii clearly had the advantage in taijutsu. Feng had a hard time landing a hit on her.

"Cloud Style: Flame Slash!" Yugito Nii shouted, slashing horizontally at Feng.

"Water Style: Water Wave Waterfall!" Feng said, gathering water in her mouth. She quickly spat out a stream of water, swiftly extinguishing the flames.

"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" Yugito Nii shouted, launching a blazing fireball at Feng. Feng quickly leaped to the right and dodged it.

Yugito Nii instantly appeared beside her and said:

"Cloud Style: Surface Slash!" Yugito Nii performed an incredibly fast horizontal slash, cleanly severing Feng's head from her shoulders.

Yugito Nii had not expected to win so easily, and her instincts told her something was wrong. Sure enough, when she noticed that Feng had turned into a rock, she realized Feng had used the Substitution Jutsu.

"Water Style: Water Bullet!" Feng suddenly called out, firing several high-pressure water bullets from her mouth.

Yugito Nii turned around in time and swung her blade at astonishing speed, shattering each incoming water bullet without suffering the slightest injury.

Next, the audience watched in surprise as red chakra radiated from their abdomens, spiraled around them, and then came to a stop. When the dust settled, Yugito Nii and Feng were both enveloped in translucent red chakra auras.

"What happened?" Sakura asked.