My Pale Eyed Angel

(A/N: Hey all, Leonineus here. I'm posting what I currently have on the three fics I've written with the intention of possibly writing following the completion of Both Sides of the Kunai. I hope you enjoy this fic, and please drop me a review telling me your views so that I know which fic people really want me to write once I have completed Both Sides of the Kunai. Let me impress; this is like when I wanted everybody's feedback on whether I should do the fight scene with Orochimaru in the Forest of Death. About forty people sent me answers to that single question; I sincerely hope that people will do the same with this. Leonineus, out.)

Naruto stood up panting and glowered at Neji, "I appreciate you don't like Hinata, but really, I don't see how you could hurt a sweet girl like her."

Up in the stands, Hinata's head suddenly jerked up as she heard Naruto's words. Kurenai, sitting next to her, blinked. "He… he likes me?"

As if reading his cousin's mind, Neji's lip curled and he sneered, "You like her? You like the pathetic little whelp they call the Hyūga heiress?"

Naruto frowned, "Before now, I used to like the pink-haired girl on my team, Sakura Haruno. Eventually I decided that she wasn't worth the cranial trauma she keeps wreaking on me. Hell, all of the kunoichi in my Academy year are complete cows except for Hinata. She is the sweetest person in the world."

Hinata was now going brick red as Naruto spoke, and Neji's response only served to irritate all the people who were enjoying the exchange, "Your taste in kunoichi is pathetic, though that is just what I would expect from the dead-last."

Naruto scowled, "A word of caution, Neji. Do not insult Hinata-chan in front of me. You will regret it."

Neji gave a dry laugh, "You? Huh, I am a Hyūga! You are fated to lose this battle no matter what you do!"

Naruto frowned, "Let's test that, shall we? Because I know the Hyūga's techniques, or at least the basic idea. You fight by sealing your opponent's tenketsu so that they can't channel chakra. Well, let me tell you something; it doesn't matter how many of my tenketsu you seal because I'll just keep coming at you!"

Neji smirked, "Why bother? Why not just forfeit now, when it is obvious that you will lose?"

Naruto grinned, "You're on!" and formed a hand seal, "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

The battle raged for a full twenty seconds, then Naruto was lying flat on his back with every one of his tenketsu sealed. Neji took a step towards him and chuckled, "Fool. To think you could beat a Hyūga in taijutsu! Proctor, I claim victuuuuuukkkkkk!"

Naruto moved almost too fast to see with anything short of the Sharingan; he flexed his ankles, causing several sharp blades to project from the soles of his boots and then snapped one leg out straight. The foot on the end of that leg nailed Neji squarely in the family jewels, sending him buckling to the ground. Naruto rose, red chakra swirling around his body as his tenketsu reopened. "Im… Impossible…" whispered Neji, "Tenketsu cannot just be reopened like that!"

Naruto smirked, "I'm Naruto Uzumaki, the so-called dead-last who learned an A-ranked jutsu in a single night and summons boss toads without passing out. Impossible holds no meaning to me. Now," he stepped forwards and removed Neji's hitai-ate, revealing the Caged Bird Seal to the entire stadium, "This seal… this is what the Hyūga use to control you, isn't it?"

Neji, still bent over and barely able to move for the agony emanating from his crotch, nodded weakly, "Yes…"

"Well then," said Naruto, "Let's get rid of it. Stay still a minute, this probably won't scar too badly." He took a single step backwards, channelled chakra through the blades on his boot soles, and then pivoted on his back foot, slashing his other foot across the seal and leaving a row of parallel gouges across it. Neji bit his lip and whimpered as the seal was obliterated by the fox chakra Naruto was using. When Naruto retracted the blades and faced Neji again, blood was oozing from the cuts, but not much. "You see, during the last month, I researched seals pretty thoroughly, including yours. I found that any kind of overpowering chakra signature can disrupt a seal, even if it cannot be removed by normal means. I simply used some of the chakra belonging to a hairy little friend of mine to disrupt that seal. By the way, you'll still be able to have kids. Those blades don't cut anything unless I'm channelling chakra through them, all you'll have on your nadgers is a few bruises. Your forehead on the other hand will be scarred, but I somehow think you'll prefer that to being sealed again."

Neji snorted, straightening up and wiping blood out of his eyes, "It doesn't matter. They will simply seal me again, your chakra can't stop that."

"I never said it was my chakra. I said it was chakra belonging to a hairy little friend. There isn't any way they're sealing you again, with remnants of that chakra in the scars."

"No chakra can stop them, except the chakra of a… of a…"

"You figured it out then? My birthday, coincidentally, is October 10th, thirteen years ago now. That is also the Kyūbi "died"."

Neji stiffened, "A beast made entirely of chakra can't be killed. It can only be sealed."

Naruto nodded, "Indeed. I'm not all I seem. My chakra reserves are solely due to him." He looked up at the Hyūga prodigy, "You see what I mean? No matter what those old fogies try now, you can't have that seal put back. It's actually impossible now. You're free!"

Neji's eyes widened, "You mean I…?"

Naruto nodded and grinned, "Yeah, you don't have to serve the Main House of the Hyūga anymore. Not that Hinata really believes in that crap. She told me when I went to see her in hospital; that's not what she's like. She doesn't care for the separation of the branches; she just wants her "Neji-nii-san" back, the "brother" who always helped her with her Jyūken and her homework."

What happened next shocked every single Hyūga in the crowd; Neji Hyūga, the Hyūga who epitomized the word "stoic" dropped to his knees and his pale eyes filled with tears, "I… I…"

Naruto took another step forwards, "Apologize to Hinata, support her. If she remains the heiress, she has the power to abolish the seal regardless of what happens. But to do that she needs the support of the Head of the Branch House. If you can become that and support her…"

Neji stood, "I… I will do it."

One of the Hyūga elders in the audience stood up and turned to the Hokage's box nearby, "Hokage-sama! I must insist you end this bout at once!"

Sarutobi turned to the man, "Why should I?"

The man disregarded Sarutobi's killing intent and blustered, "There is a severe breach in the Hyūga clan's security right now and it must be corrected!"

When Sarutobi shook his head, the Hyūga elders simply shunshined into the arena. Naruto twisted round just in time to receive a chakra spike to the face. "NARUTO-KUN!" Hinata screamed as she saw one of the elders of her clan murder the boy she fanned a flame for right in front of her. Neji looked down at Naruto as he sank to the ground and lay still before adopting a Jyūken stance. As fast as she could, Hinata vaulted over the low wall and plunged into the arena as well, landing catlike and running to Naruto's side. She checked his pulse, activated her Byakugan, but Naruto's body was still; no chakra ran through his body and his heart was still. She checked his head, and her eyes widened, the brain tissue the chakra spike had shredded was repairing itself.

One of the elders kicked her, knocking her on her back at Neji's feet, before he stepped on Naruto's back and advanced on the newly-unsealed Branch family member who stood over his cousin with new resolve gleaming in his pale eyes as his Byakugan activated.

"Ow." The quiet sound caused all the Hyūga in the arena to turn around as Naruto pushed himself up, "What gives? That really hurt!"

The Hyūga gaped, "Impossible! You should be dead!"

Naruto shook his head experimentally, "Someone already said that to me today, and look what happened then; I got up and reopened all my tenketsu at once. Now, as far as I'm concerned you're wasting your time trying to reseal Neji. Those scars on his head, which seem to be healing quite rapidly, will prevent the seal from sticking."

The elder snorted, "Then we will just have to kill him."

Quicker than Hinata had moved earlier, Naruto jumped over the elder's head and took up a position in front of Neji, offering a hand out to Hinata and pulling her up, "You've already tried and failed to kill me once today, so when I say you'll have to go through me first, you guys are going to have a problem."

Hinata glanced sideways at the blond in slight surprise and more than a little embarrassment. She hadn't forgotten his public praise of her earlier, and now he was risking his life (not that that meant much to a guy who could recover from having a full-scale lobotomy) to protect her cousin from being murdered because he couldn't be sealed.

One of the other elders mused quietly and formed a handseal. Next to him, Naruto heard Hinata gasp and then Neji give a howl of pain and collapse, clutching his forehead. The elder looked victorious, "There are still enough remnants of the seal left for the jutsu to work!"

There was a sickening, meaty thud. The elder's hand dropped, and he looked down to see a kunai thrown by Hinata protruding from his chest. "Keep your filthy hands away from that seal, you wretch!"

All the people standing in the arena blinked as Hinata; meek, shy, unassuming Hinata, drew two handfuls of kunai, holding them between her fingers like claws and stepped in front of her cousin, her lavender eyes burning with fury.

As the impaled Hyūga dropped to his knees with a large red stain spreading across his front, another raised a hand and formed a chakra spike, which he flung at Hinata's heart.

Naruto didn't even recall moving; he simply stepped in the way and took the chakra spike in the lung. He coughed, a bit of blood spattering onto the sand in front of him as Hinata stepped around him, activated her Byakugan and charged.

Many of the ninja villages were of the opinion that emotions made you weak as a shinobi/kunoichi. Konoha did not subscribe to this theory, one of the few villages that didn't. so Hinata Hyūga's combined fury and fear, coupled with her drive to protect Naruto and Neji, almost seemed to grant her strength beyond what she should've been capable of usually.

Up in the stands, Hiashi Hyūga leaned forwards with his eyes open as wide as they could go as he watched his previously-disappointing daughter tear through the elders of their clan with an unnerving level of ease. Next to him, Hanabi Hyūga blinked and gaped as her sister ripped her left handful of kunai through one elder's throat before twisting on the spot, ducking another's chakra spike and embedding all the kunai held in her right hand into his heart.

The remaining two quickly realized that there was no way they could win, so they resorted to the Kaiten in an attempt to slow the berserk girl down. It failed miserably; Hinata stopped between the rotating spheres of chakra, charged her kunai with her own chakra, and flung each handful at the spheres. They passed right through the elders' chakras and thudded, one after another, into their chests. Each of the two elders slowly stopped rotating, staggered twice, and then toppled over.

There was silence in the stadium, and then as one, the nobles all rose and began making hand gestures towards the Kages' box. As Hinata helped Naruto to stay on his feet, Sarutobi rose, "In the light of this… unexpected occurrence… and at the request of a majority of the audience, I promote Neji Hyūga, Hinata Hyūga and Naruto Uzumaki to chūnin! All three of you will be placed onto a separate team from your current ones and will be assigned a different jōnin-sensei!"

All three looked at each other, "Huh?"

To be continued…