The Main Event Begins

Takuma stood in the shadows of the competitors' waiting area, his back against the rough stone wall.

He closed his eyes and slowed his breathing. Beneath his clothes, the blue seal on his chest gave off a faint warmth.

"Hey, Takuma!"

He knew who it was without opening his eyes.

There was only one person in all of Konoha who would shout someone's name at that volume in the waiting area.

Uzumaki Naruto came running down the passage, his orange jacket glaringly bright in the dim waiting area.

Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke followed behind him, one looking exasperated, the other expressionless.

Takuma straightened up and rolled his shoulders. "Ready to get beaten up?"

"Tch. I'm not going to lose!"

Naruto waved his fist and grinned. "I'll use my new move to wipe the floor with them! Just you wait and see!"

Sakura put a hand to her forehead behind him and muttered, "Where do you get that confidence?"

Sasuke said nothing. He headed straight for a corner on the other side of the waiting area.

The horn sounded, signaling the competitors to enter.

The stands were packed with spectators. The daimyo of various nations sat in their private boxes, while the Forehead Protectors of the shinobi guarding them gleamed in the sunlight, each bearing the emblem of a different village.

Takuma looked up at the highest viewing box.

The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, sat in the center. The brim of his Hokage hat was pulled low, hiding most of his face.

Beside him sat the Fourth Kazekage, his face covered by a veil and his whole body wrapped in a voluminous robe, leaving only his eyes visible.

The Cursed Seal on the back of Takuma's neck gave a faint twitch.

"Attention, all competitors!"

Genma Shiranui walked to the center of the arena with a senbon between his teeth and raised a hand for silence.

He unfolded the match list. Amplified by chakra, his voice carried clearly to every corner.

"The Chunin Exams main event begins now. First match—"

"Uzumaki Naruto versus Neji Hyuga!"

Takuma joined the other competitors as they moved to their assigned places at the edge of the waiting area. He rested both hands on the railing and found a spot with a clear view.

Tenten sat among Team Guy, holding up a crumpled little flag with the words "Good luck" scrawled crookedly across it.

Their eyes met for a moment, and Tenten waved the flag enthusiastically.

In the center of the arena, Naruto and Neji had already taken their positions opposite each other.

"Give up."

Neji's voice was calm. "A person's fate is decided from the moment they're born. You're the dead-last Genin, while I'm a genius of the Hyuga Branch Family. The outcome of this battle was settled before you ever stepped into the arena."

"Quit yapping!" Naruto charged straight at him.

The fight was one-sided from the very beginning.

Neji's Byakugan and Gentle Fist worked together, every strike precisely closing Naruto's chakra points.

Naruto's shadow clones were knocked down one by one. His real body hid among them, hoping to catch Neji off guard, but Neji struck him in the chest without even turning around.

The chakra vortex of Eight Trigrams Palms: Heavenly Spin sent Naruto flying. His back slammed into the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Murmurs gradually spread through the stands.

"Looks like that dead-last really can't cut it."

"He's up against a Hyuga Clan genius. The gap's too big. They're not even in the same league."

"Still, making it this far is pretty impressive."

Takuma pushed his sunglasses up the bridge of his nose and watched the arena through their dark lenses.

Through the Neo Sunglasses, Neji's chakra appeared like a precise web, flowing through it at a steady, exact rhythm.

Every strike of the Gentle Fist landed along the nodes in those pathways.

Inside Naruto, meanwhile, a stream of chakra was seeping out, thread by thread, through gaps in his chakra points.

Naruto knelt on one knee, panting heavily. Bruises from the Gentle Fist covered his body—his arms, chest, and face. Almost no patch of skin was unmarked.

Neji stood a few steps away, looking down at him.

"I've closed sixty-four of your chakra points."

Neji's voice held no emotion. "Now you can't even stand up. That's reality. A dead-last will always be a dead-last. It's the fate you were born with."

Naruto's fingers dug into the ground.

His five fingers gouged five furrows into the hard earth.

He braced himself against his knee, his body trembling violently. Each effort came with a strangled growl, suppressed to the breaking point.

Slowly, he straightened up, swaying unsteadily.

"You said fate... You said dead-last..." Naruto raised his head.

His pupils narrowed to slits, his nails sharpened, and a beastlike growl mingled with the drool spilling from the corner of his mouth.

Red chakra erupted from his body.

The shockwave flung the sand and stones around Naruto into the air. Fine cracks appeared in the ground and spread outward.

The dirt beneath his feet gave off a faint, scorched smell as the chakra burned it.

Neji's Byakugan widened abruptly.

Takuma's hands tightened around the railing without him realizing it.

So this was the power of the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki.

Even a tiny leak was enough to threaten a jonin-level shinobi.

Naruto's skin turned a sickly red under the chakra's heat. It began to peel away, revealing bright red new tissue beneath.

The Nine-Tails Chakra strengthened him even as it tore him apart.

Rotation unfolded around Neji.

The impact of the Nine-Tails Chakra struck Rotation's barrier. The shockwave from the two forces colliding swept sand and stones across the arena.

Naruto used a shadow clone to block the opening, then emerged from underground.

Neji had just finished Rotation. His Byakugan caught the chakra moving beneath him, but his body couldn't react in time.

A sharp uppercut slammed into Neji's chin.

His body lifted off the ground, his back tracing an arc through the air before he crashed heavily onto the arena floor.

"Winner—Uzumaki Naruto!"

The blond boy still held his punching stance, his chest heaving. Dirt and blood streaked his face, and the marks of chakra burns stretched from his cheek to his arm.

"Actually, the Clone Technique is what I'm worst at! So stop going around saying things like 'fate can't be changed'!"

"Because you're not like me. You're not a dead-last!"

A system notification sounded in Takuma's mind.

[Witnessed the completion of "The Dead-Last's Comeback: Neji Hyuga vs. Uzumaki Naruto." Received one draw.]

Takuma suppressed the urge to draw for now and kept watching the arena.

Neji got back to his feet.

Naruto strode over and held out a hand to him.

"Maybe fate and all that really does exist."

Naruto was still catching his breath, but every word was clear. "But if fate tells me to give up, I'd rather fight fate."

Neji stared at the offered hand in silence for a long time.

Then he reached out and shook it.

Takuma looked away and leaned against the railing, letting out a long breath.

Tenten waved her flag at him from the stands. He answered with a gesture meaning, "I'll talk to you later."

Once the arena had been cleared, Genma Shiranui unfolded the match list.

"Second match—Uchiha Sasuke versus Dosu Kinata."

The waiting area fell silent for a moment.

Dosu didn't appear.

An Anbu used the Body Flicker Technique to appear beside Genma Shiranui and whispered something to him.

Genma's brow furrowed slightly, then smoothed out again.

"Dosu Kinata has forfeited for personal reasons. In the second match, Uchiha Sasuke advances by default."

Disappointed boos rose from the stands, mixed with a few scattered cheers.

Sasuke stood at the edge of the waiting area without changing his expression, then turned and headed back down the passage.

Genma Shiranui unfolded the match list again, and the electronic screen updated.

"Mori Takuma versus—"