What is up people, Happy New Year first and foremost.

I received some PM's from a few people asking for an update, and I was actually touched that someone liked it enough to bother sending a message to me, thanks for making the effort people. So I am back, for how long? I don't know, this chapter is obviously shorter than usual, but that is because even when I try making time for writing the story, personal life interferes like a bitch that it is.

2013 was a bad year for me, I lost two grandparents, I lost my beloved Pet Dog, all within a space of two months, which was hard on everyone in my family. Plus there have been exams that I have had to prepare for, thus I don't find any time at all. I don't want any sympathy or anything, I just want to explain why I've not been in the mood to write. But if there is something that defines me, its my procrastination, I might be lazy and delay writing, but I WILL WRITE, I will finish this story, even if I have to do it by the time I'm 80 and on my fucking deathbed.

Read the note below in detail.

I DO NOT OWN NARUTO. I DO NOT OWN NARUTO. I DO NOT OWN NARUTO. OWN NARUTO I DO NOT. NOT I DO OWN NARUTO. URANOT OD TON I WON. ONA RUOD IO TN NOW. 235023-2384292-2349823-3249823.

-12847*&#W$^*& 39Sjhfbakjfh298134798357ryiuashf893247982347983247.

I swear these disclaimers make me go cuckoo sometimes.

A Week Before The Third Exam.

Sasuke groaned, this training was going to be the end of him, the childhood memories of his brother being kind and supportive were replaced by the memories of a hard taskmaster who was slave driving Sasuke into giving up. Right at this moment, Sasuke was involved in a spar with Itachi, he was hiding behind a rock when he heard a swoosh and peeked from behind the rock, a fireball was shooting towards him. Sasuke jumped out, dodging the fireball with an expression of alarm on his face.

"I told you" Itachi's voice called out from somewhere in the vicinity, "This time I would be going all out, and I'm doing just that" he said, before promptly shooting another fireball towards Sasuke. This time Sasuke was prepared though, as he countered the fireball with one of his own, the fireballs collided, there was blinding light, which Sasuke was prepared for, as he shot towards Itachi, prepared to take him from behind, the kunai was almost into Itachi's back before Itachi turned, at a speed that was incomprehensible to Sasuke's Sharingan eyes.

Before he knew it, the kunai was out of his hands, and on the ground.

"Getting better at this brother" Itachi said to Sasuke, before poking him on the forehead.

"Stop doing that" Sasuke said to him, he was still not used to the idea of his brother not being the monster he had been built up to be, he still had problems with him behaving like he used to around his little brother.

"Never, that's something I will always cherish as mine Sasuke, the pleasure of seeing your face when you're poked in the forehead"

Sasuke snorted, before picking up the fallen Kunai. He then proceeded to head to a nearby rock and sharpen the kunai, Itachi followed him and sat next to him as he began sharpening the knife.

"Your teammate, how is he?" Itachi asked Sasuke, who shrugged, Naruto had been gone with Jiraiya for a few days. Sasuke and Shikamaru had been tailing Yugito for the few days that Naruto was gone, of course the trail was now gone cold, Yugito just hung out with her teammates and trained with them.

"He's been gone with Lord Jiraiya, he'll be okay though, he's stronger than all of us" Sasuke said to him. Itachi smiled, his brother had changed, even if he did not want to admit it, he had become more humble, being friends with Naruto was probably the best thing that could have happened to him.

"There is no jealousy in your voice little brother" Itachi said to him. Sasuke nodded.

"That's because I'm not jealous, Naruto works as hard as I do, one day I hope to surpass him" Sasuke said to him. Itachi smiled at him.

"That's nice, I suppose you should begin now" Itachi said as he threw a kunai that just missed Sasuke by a hair.

This was going to be a long week.

Naruto: The Second Sage.

Three Weeks Before The Third Exam.

Land of Waves had become a whole new place after Naruto left it, he had come back to see more prosperity, of course, there was doom and gloom right now, as the bridge was still being repaired, Tazuna was still in a critical, but safe condition at the hospital.

Naruto decided to pay Tazuna a visit after he heard about what happened at the bridge, he was pissed at whoever it was that had destroyed the bridge, but he was going to find out, and hopefully administer a little justice to the person who was responsible for putting Tazuna in danger.

Naruto was also here because he realized that he needed to train away from the prying eyes of the village, and this was one place he could train, so he had taken permission from his godfather, and come here to train, he had his sealing books with him, he had gotten into the more advanced stages of sealing, and to his delight, he seemed to be excelling at it with minimal effort, something his godfather attributed to the Uzumaki in him.

From what Tazuna had told him in the few hours he had been awake, it was a missing nin from Iwa, the apology that the Land Of The Waves received from Earth Country also did not disclose who it was exactly that attacked and destroyed the bridge.

Naruto grit his teeth as he punched a large boulder, which instantly split into two, he could feel eyes on him from a distance, it was the fan girls again. He was sick of them, ever since the villagers found out that the 'hero' was back, he was constantly hounded by them. Naruto sighed as he heard them cheering him on, asking him to punch a mountain next, others just looking at him with eyes that were full of lust.

Naruto even considered taking advantage of one of them, or maybe all of them, or maybe all of them at once in a giant orgy. He then slapped himself for allowing that nasty pervert of his godfather to corrupt him.

Despite the fact that Tazuna was attacked and Naruto was worried about his safety, there was another person he was more worried about, and that was Hinata. He had seen the treatment she received from her own father and sister, and her cousin Neji, who seemed to have a stick up his ass.

Naruto punched another boulder in anger, he was going to rip that stick out of Neji's ass, and he was going to humiliate him, teach him a lesson, pay him back in kind.

If only the stupid fan girls ever went away.

-x-

One Day Before The Third Exam.

Sakura and Shikamaru were staring at the dead body of Zaku, who was supposed to be in the exam with them, facing Gaara.

"What the hell happened here?" Sakura asked Shikamaru. Shikamaru shook his head, indicating that he did not know what happened, but the fact was that he knew exactly what happened, a certain jinchuriki was satisfying his blood lust. Gaara was too strong to be stopped by him, or any other genin, which is why he was the person to beat in this exam. The only person who could match him strength wise was Naruto, and Shikamaru was worried. He had been gone from the village for a while now, he only hoped Naruto would come back in time.

As he stood there, thinking about tomorrow's exam, the ninjas of the leaf came up from behind them, Sakura reported to the ANBU captain Yugao Uzuki, whose boyfriend Hayate was found critically injured and had been taken back to the hospital just in time to be saved, he was going to be bedridden for a long time either way.

"Are you ready for the exams Shikamaru?" Sakura asked him after they were away from the chaos of the scene, it was clear that Sakura seemed a bit shook up with the whole thing.

"I might be, I have to fight Temari, she's strong" Shikamaru said, not in a very talking mood at that moment.

"Well, how do you feel about facing her, are you prepared for this?" she asked him. Ever since Ino and Sakura had resumed their friendship, they had taken to telling each other everything, which meant that the relationship Temari and Shikamaru had become a major talking point for both of them.

"I don't want you to get hurt" Sakura said when she realized that Shikamaru had stopped talking to her and was just walking alongside her.

"Thanks for your concern" Shikamaru said, curtly before leaving. Maybe he could get a game of Shogi with his dad to warm up his mind for the exam tomorrow, after all it was his strongest asset.

He had decided to set the feelings he had for Temari to one side and concentrate on the invasion, he was sure now that Gaara was going to be forced into attacking the village in his tailed beast form, which would then set off the invasion and the countries would pounce in an attempt to take over the strongest hidden village of them all.

The fact that Temari was involved in this at all sickened Shikamaru to the very bone, but it was not like he had much of a choice, he could do nothing to Temari, and turn his back on the village, or the girl he liked could get hurt, maybe even killed if not tortured for information later on.

Sake would be a really good idea at this point.

One Hour Before The Exam

Hiashi Hyuuga stared at an old photograph, a man like him, at his now rapidly advancing age realized that he had been doing that an awful lot lately, looking at pictures of his daughters, of his now dead wife, of his parents, of his twin brother, the one that died needlessly.

Fate was a funny thing, Hiashi was older by a minute, certainly not more than that, and yet that one minute later proved to be the difference between life and death for him, in the long run it perhaps had a more profound impact on the already fragile nature of his clan that he could have ever imagined. The branch house was not happy when Hizashi was killed, as to them Hizashi was the hero that stood up to the main overlords and proved to them that the branch was not something to be taken lightly, and sending Hizashi's dead body to Kumo had been a giant fuck you to the branch family.

Greater than the discontent for the main branch that the branch house were harboring was the hatred for it that was in the heart of one Neji Hyuuga. His nephew, a prodigy in every sense of the word.

Hiashi was an honest person, he loved his daughter, but she was more like her mother than he liked, kind, caring, strong yes, but more kind than strong, not cynical enough to run the house, Hanabi was better suited to run the clan as she took more after her father, but Hinata was just like a kind nurse, always willing to help the helpless, someone who shunned the Hyuuga pride and decided that she needed to be respected for more than her last name.

Hiashi admired her, she was braver than people gave her credit for. His love for his older daughter was so much that he did not have the heart to name an heir yet, something that was now coming back to bite him in the form of the clan elders pushing for him to name an heir already.

And the sound beating that she had received at the hands of Neji, who was probably looking for an excuse to humiliate her had not helped one bit. He was outraged when he saw his daughter, weak, spitting blood. The elders had even wanted to punish Neji but he had stopped them from doing so, he had realized that Neji was just taking out years of pent out anger, and that he needed to be dealt with in another way.

His opponent was even more of an enigma, not many people knew about what he could do, but he had begun hearing great things about Uzumaki, things like how he helped take down bandits, it was small, but the number of people who respected the blonde haired kid were growing. He had heard about Tsuneo Hattori, one of his most vocal haters doing a complete 180 for unknown reasons and allowing him in his establishments, maybe things were looking up for the lonely kid.

No matter how reputable Hiashi thought Naruto was, it was not going to help him against Neji. Neji was an unparalleled genius, someone who could not be beaten by a genin, by his own estimations Neji was already a Chunin, and was going to win the entire contest.

As Hiashi Hyuga entered the Chunin Exam stadium, he had not an inkling of how wrong he was going to be.

-x-

Naruto Vs Neji.

Naruto had arrived at the stadium a mere five minutes ago, had had barely any time for pleasantries with his friends before he was thrust into the proceedings, finding himself in front of a roaring crowd of at least 2000 people, most of them civilians, some of them who were ninjas in disguise, no doubt, prepared to deal with the invasion.

Naruto had heard that someone had told them everything that was going to happen, he wondered who the source was, but after the invasion the source was going to be taken by Konoha, and become an official asset of the village hidden in the leaves.

He could see Sasuke in the crowd, sitting beside what was a very handsome man that was being stared at continuously by every single female in the vicinity, this was Itachi no doubt. He could see the exasperation on Sasuke's face, perhaps for the first time someone better looking than him was stealing the attention away from him. Beside Sasuke was Haku, they were talking to each other, maybe it was about sex or whatever it is couples did.

Sakura was cheering him on, Ino had pompoms with her which she had probably brought on for Shikamaru. He was pleasantly surprised to hear more cheers for him, some villagers he had won over by helping them out at various things during D Ranks and the like.

Neji stared at him, impassive, but for Naruto, he was boiling over with rage. Neji had antagonized him every single time they had met, telling him how he would never amount to anything, and now he had harmed Hinata, probably the kindest of all his friends. Neji sneered at Naruto's rage.

"You are a loser, fate has declared you a loser, you dead last asshole" Neji said, smiling. Naruto grit his teeth.

"Start the match" he said to Hayate Gekko, the proctor, who nodded before saying 'Hajime'.

Nothing happened, many a great ninjas battles began the same way, with both men standing still. Naruto was waiting for Neji to come to him, while Neji was waiting for Naruto to come to him.

"Give up already Uzumaki" Neji said to him. "You are trash, the reason you are mistreated by the village is because you are trash, you will never be able to become anything, your hopes and dreams are useless" Neji said, taunting Naruto. The taunts seemed to have done the trick, because Naruto set off running towards the Hyuuga who smiled.

However as Sasuke, Sakura or Kakashi would tell anyone, Naruto was running too slow, and this was proved right when he up and vanished from view. Neji looked around getting more frantic by the second, there was no sight of Naruto anywhere, and then, all of a sudden Naruto materialized in front of him, and punched him straight in the face. Had Neji not turned away at the last second, the match would have been over then and there, but a timely turn of the head saved him.

The eyes of almost everyone in the audience widened as they stared at Naruto and his speed. He was fast enough to vanish from the naked eye's vision and stay that way for a prolonged period of time. Back on the ground, Naruto stared at Neji, deciding he was going to throw in a taunt of his own.

"Neji, you have great eyes right? Why don't you use them?" he asked, his voice mocking. Neji grit his teeth as he activated the Byakugan, the veins and nerves around his eyes became more pronounced.

"I thought I would have some fun with you, but you have pissed me off now, you're done" Neji said as he dashed towards Naruto, who seemed to freeze as Neji closed up on him, before unleashing his rapid palmed strikes.

"Eight Trigrams" Neji yelled as he began a flurry of strikes, each getting faster than the other. Naruto was having trouble keeping up, something that surprised Kakashi and Sasuke up in the stands, Naruto had shown them how fast he was in all-out spars, and this was not it, he was much much faster, and obviously capable of blocking or dodging Neji's move.

As Neji finished landing sixty-four shots, Naruto fell down, seemingly defeated, Neji turned to the proctor. "Call the match" he said to him, and Hayate was about to oblige, but Naruto got up.

Neji watched Naruto struggle to get up and groaned mentally. "WHY?" he asked Naruto, yelling. "WHY DO YOU RISE, STAY DOWN YOU PIECE OF SHIT" he shouted. Naruto's friends in the stands were looking at Neji with a mixture of loathing and awe.

"Neji" Naruto stuttered, the palm strikes not helping. "I know what happened with your dad" he said to him. "But I've had it way, way harder than you"

Neji's eyes widened. Naruto ignored him as he began readying himself to charge. "I've been shunned, ignored, hated all my life, and I don't cry like a bitch" Naruto said. Neji just charged towards him, intent on finishing the match by striking his heart.

"SO DON"T COMPLAIN ABOUT FATE" Naruto said just as Neji struck him in the heart. The entire stadium watched transfixed, waiting for something to happen, bated breath, it seemed like every one in the stadium had decided to breathe in at the same time. It was so silent you could hear a pin drop.

Naruto smiled at Neji, whose palm was firmly on Naruto's heart. Naruto's nonchalance seemed to rub Neji the wrong way, but before he could say anything, Naruto said it all.

"Boom"

The explosion that rocked the center of the stadium had the entire crowd covering their ears. It took a while for the smoke to be cleared, but when it did, it was clear that Naruto was nowhere to be found. Neji was holding one arm, he had managed to use the Hyuuga defense to save his life, but his arms were shot.

A figure jumped out from the audience and ripped out his travelling cloak, revealing himself to be Naruto. In the competitors box, everyone stared at Naruto in shock.

"What the hell?" Sasuke asked Sakura. "He was a clone this whole time?" Sakura nodded, amazed at the things his teammate could do.

"Thanks Neji" Naruto said to him, "You gave me all I needed" he vanished from plain view.

Neji looked around, but couldn't find him, even his eyes weren't helping. Naruto suddenly materialized in front of him, before punching him in the eye. Suddenly Naruto unleashed a flurry of punches aimed right at his eyes, faster than Neji, greater in number than him too.

It was not long before Neji began feeling the pain get to him, one of his eyes were completely shut off, the other was on the verge of shutting off, his face had swollen to an abnormal size.

"You seem to like your eyes right?" Naruto asked, almost sadistically. "Let's see you enjoy fighting without them"

'Without my eyes, I am just a sitting duck' Neji thought, helpless. Naruto just stared at him, Neji looked like a kid who was just separated from his mother, not able to think, not able to do anything productive, his head frantically moving from right to left.

"You seem to be a firm believer in Fate don't you?" Naruto asked him. Neji remained silent, his head had turned itself to the general direction from which Naruto's sound seemed to appear. "Well, now this is punishment, I will write your fate myself" Naruto said as he held up his right arm and a blue ball of chakra began forming.

In the stands, several Shinobi expressed their surprise at what Naruto was doing, most of them had recognized it as the Fourth's prized jutsu, Rasengan.

"Your fate" Naruto said as he broke into a run towards Neji, "Is defeat"

Blind as he may be, Neji was still not out, as soon as he heard the footsteps coming close to him, he spun. It was the legendary defense of the Hyuuga clan, the Kaiten which no branch member had ever perfected. Naruto smirked, Neji was not used to closing his eyes in a fight and had misjudged his location. He patiently waited for Neji to stop spinning.

It was a whole two minutes before that happened, but as soon as it did, Naruto slammed the Rasengan in Neji's stomach, making sure that he did not penetrate too deep. Neji was knocked out instantly.

As Naruto was announced the winner, his arms raised, people cheering on his awesome display, all he could see was one person who seemed to look at him with blood on his mind.

Gaara.

I won't lie to you, its been tough writing, I forgot what I had written and had to read the entire thing, it took me two months for a fucking 3,000 word chapter, call it laziness and writers block.

The chapters for some time will remain short, I will try writing like a boss to reach a 10k word chapter soon, no matter how unlikely.

Sorry if the quality is not nice, I really need a beta so if anyone cares, please, help me out.

Song Of The Week: DLZ by TV ON THE RADIO. WALTER WHITE. BITCH!

PEACE.