Stage Two was over. Team Seven had overcome all of its opponents and now stood proud among the victors. True, there had been a few moments when things could have gone either way—especially when that opportunistic scout had taken Naruto out with a psychic ninjutsu, while Sakura, in what couldn't possibly have been a coincidence, had simultaneously run afoul of one of the Forest of Death's natural hazards. But Sasuke had managed to save the day, though he was curiously reticent about the details. Naruto fully intended to trick him into revealing more later, in the hope that the full truth would be something embarrassing.

To Naruto's relief, Hinata's team had made it through unscathed. In fact, there was a very strong Leaf presence among the survivors, as all of Naruto's year were included in the eight passing teams, as well as (unfortunately) Neji's team and (even more unfortunately) Kabuto's. Perhaps this merely represented the high proportion of the host village's genin among the examinees, but Naruto couldn't help but wonder.

Naruto and Hinata exchanged experiences, including what they knew about what the different teams had done to get through the exam. Her own team, she told him, had made use of its natural advantage in being completely sensory-spec. Between Kiba and Akamaru's sharpened senses, Shino's scouting bugs and Hinata's Byakugan, it had been effortless for them to assess enemy strength and avoid any targets they didn't think they could overcome, while identifying the perfect timing to attack those they could. Then there were the cases when an entire enemy team would suddenly collapse from temporary paralysis, allowing leisurely retrieval of their tags. Hinata had put her foot down about Kiba and Shino's other plans, which involved an enemy ninja coming down with horrific and inexplicable symptoms, at which point one of the two would step in and politely explain (or brashly threaten) that there would be similar consequences for both of the others if tags were not transferred in a speedy fashion.

Ino-Shika-Chō, it seemed, had made it by taking out teams weaker than themselves and selling information to stronger ones. Circumstantial evidence suggested that a number of top teams had rushed to take each other on in order to exploit their new advantage, clearing the way for Shikamaru's team to quietly progress up the ranks.

As for Neji's team, Rock Lee had only been too happy to give them an excited account of their adventures. Apparently, Neji was not interested in careful evasion. Instead, his strategy revolved around setting traps (Tenten, whose name he'd finally learned, was a prodigy there) and making use of well-timed ambushes, as well as watching others' battles to learn their abilities, and then swooping in to take out the winner.

Kabuto's team… Naruto was not going over to talk to Kabuto.

Then there were the others. Nobody wanted to speculate about how the team from Hidden Sand had acquired its vast number of tags, and it was telling that the other winning teams were the ones who had stayed as far away from them as possible. There were already plenty of rumours flowing about them, mainly courtesy of the failed teams who'd contested with them during Stage One or narrowly avoided them during Stage Two.

A random sampling: Gaara was a convicted mass murderer recruited to boost Sand's numbers after the Wind Country's Daimyō decided to cut their state funding. Gaara was the Kazekage's own son, with free access to his library of forbidden techniques. Gaara was an ancient captive spirit recently unsealed to do Sand's bidding, and the "purpose" tattoo was really a seal that kept him focused on his task instead of going berserk. When he was still little, Gaara's mother had tried to assassinate him upon realising that she'd brought a monster into this world, and he had killed her in cold blood.

Hinata herself had a contribution to make to the rapidly-growing mythos. She quietly told Naruto that she'd once caught the red-haired boy at the edge of her Byakugan range, and observed that he seemed surrounded by a broad haze of chakra reminiscent of nothing so much as Naruto's own Dimensional Anchor Technique. Unwilling to move any closer, she'd asked Shino to send in some insects, since they had no maximum range, just a long travel time to get there and back.

A second after they entered the haze, most of them died instantly. The few that survived fled back to Shino in accordance with their instructions, traces of Gaara's chakra still lingering on them. But the second they settled on his skin, they were destroyed as well, by some unknown means, and then the boy had turned around and looked at her.

Stepping away from a memory that would probably return in Hinata's nightmares, they turned to the other unfamiliar teams. To Naruto's delight, Hidden Sound were there, ripe for the most horrific revenge ever seen by any Chūnin Exam invigilator. The deadly glares sent his way said louder than words that the feeling was mutual.

The only other team were those Hidden Grass guys whose leader seemed terrified of Shikamaru. They were putting on a good show of bravado, but it was obvious that they were not comfortable being so hugely outnumbered by Leaf ninja. They seemed especially attentive towards Neji's team—it did not surprise Naruto in the least that the pretentious scumbag had a gift for making enemies.

-o-

Naruto's enjoyable and only occasionally terrifying conversation with Hinata was interrupted by a soft tap on his shoulder.

"Would you mind lending me a moment of your time, my friend? Two exam stages later, I'm sure we have a wealth of information to share with each other."

Naruto did his best to suppress a shudder. He'd been desperately hoping to avoid any further interaction with Kabuto after that whole thing about favours, which practically screamed "I have blackmail material on you and look forward to using it." Given time, he could have come up with countermeasures, perhaps learned some major secret of Kabuto's to use as leverage, but of course the experienced information broker had managed to pre-empt him.

After a couple of seconds of internal flailing, Naruto managed to come up with one slightly counter-intuitive option.

"No," he said, "I think I'm happy staying where I am." He couldn't be blackmailed if Kabuto didn't get a chance to be alone with him.

For a split second, Kabuto looked taken aback. Then he rallied.

"Now, don't say that. We're not just talking about the basic stats that I showed you on the firstcard in the set. We're talking a comprehensive array of intelligence that could make or break an aspiring chūnin depending on what hands it ended up in."

Kabuto fanned out a set of cards that had appeared out of nowhere in his hand, holding them so that only Naruto could see them (and coincidentally layering them with a bunch of others so that the overlapping text could not be read by the Byakugan). Naruto was startled to see that his card was not among them. But then he read the names.

Haruno Sakura. Uchiha Sasuke. Hyūga Hinata.

He resisted a sudden intense urge to punch Kabuto in the face.

"Fine," he gritted his teeth. "Let's go."

-o-

Kabuto's eyes slowly swept over the walls and ceiling of the empty storeroom.

"Yes, I think that should afford us ample privacy, don't you?"

"So what do you want?" Naruto asked, trying to keep the hostility out of his voice for now.

"To debrief you, of course. Was that not obvious?"

Naruto frowned at the choice of words. "If you're going to blackmail me for information, why don't you just say so? I don't see why I should play along with your games in private."

"Blackmail?" Kabuto asked, a note of disappointment in his voice. "Then it's as I thought. I was wrong to give you the benefit of the doubt. Think, my friend. Remember when we first met. Why did I show you that card?"

Naruto had wondered about that. It seemed like there was no need for Kabuto to announce his blackmailing abilities in advance, instead of just walking up to Naruto at an opportune moment and going "I know such-and-such of your secrets; now do as I say if you don't want them getting out." So on the assumption that Kabuto's objective during that interaction had not been to set up for blackmail…

It hit him all at once in a burst of stunning clarity, like an unexpected snowball to the back of the head. "You were showing me that you had access to top-secret information, not just stuff anyone could gather with enough effort, and that you were able and willing to do something definitely illegal in the middle of a room filled with other Leaf genin and probably monitored by the examiners."

Kabuto nodded. "Meaning…"

"You're secretly an examiner yourself."

"Close enough." The smile returned to Kabuto's face. "I'm not here to examine anyone, not exactly. Among other reasons, I am attending this particular exam in order to ensure your safety, along with that of Uchiha Sasuke. It would have been a major blow to Leaf if a foreign nation had taken the opportunity to kidnap or assassinate you during Stage Two."

"We've had some pretty close calls," Naruto observed. "What if I'd been sliced up by Hidden Sound, for example?"

"Their objective wasn't to kill you," Kabuto said. "But I was on hand to prevent any accidental fatalities. It was well within my capabilities as a jōnin."

"All right," Naruto accepted, still suspicious. "But if that card was meant to clue me in to who you were, why did you have to sound like you were trying to blackmail me?"

Kabuto gave Naruto an ironic look. "Because a certain someone threatened me in front of a crowd of witnesses, and I did need a plausible response that reassured my 'clients' that I was still in control of the situation.

"When you first spoke to me, I thought I was being presented with an opportunity to subtly indicate that I was an ally, and to establish common ground for future cooperation. But then you jumped to the diametrically wrong conclusion. Did you honestly think that someone intelligent and resourceful enough to trade in classified information would then be foolish enough to do so right in front of two hundred witnesses and Morino Ibiki himself?"

Naruto chose to treat the question as rhetorical.

"I must admit," Kabuto went on, "that I had at least hoped you'd work the truth out in the interim, instead of forcing me to play the villain a second time. But never mind. Later, if you feel the need, you can go to either of the chief examiners and confirm my rank and the fact that I'm here on a mission. If you choose to check those two facts with them, do try not blow my cover to everyone else in the tower.

"Now, I wouldn't want to keep your beloved waiting, so shall we move on to the debriefing?"

"Hold on," Naruto said. "If you were assigned to protect me, why not just tell me so from the start? And why should I be reporting to you rather than directly to the examiners?"

Kabuto looked at Naruto appraisingly for a few seconds.

"It's easier for me to carry out my mission if there's no chance of you accidentally giving away my presence. That's not an issue anymore, so I am free to tell you in order to secure your cooperation. Besides, my friend, despite your impulsiveness and mistrust of authority, you do happen to have a high rating within your clearance category. You have a narrow social circle, you habitually watch your words and you are loyal to your fellow ninja. You've had plenty of opportunities to contact foreign ninja, but you haven't exploited them to your own gain, even though you know a very rare and valuable forbidden technique. There is also a standing ban in all villages on torturing enemy demon hosts for information, for obvious reasons. Factors of that kind do add up in your favour."

"You seem to know an awful lot about me."

"And there we hit the line for what your flexible clearance can let me explain," Kabuto said. "As for why you should trust me over them, someone has been leaking information relating to the exam. It's one reason why I've been giving everyone opportunities to sell me classified secrets. But while I do trust myself, and I've observed you closely enough to know you haven't had the chance to do anything, the examiners are not yet clear of suspicion.

"Sometimes," Kabuto noted in a slightly different, reflective voice, "I do miss the days when I only had one mission at a time."

Then his attention returned to Naruto. "In any case, since you and Uchiha Sasuke are priority targets, the high-ups need to know about any suspicious incidents either of you, or Haruno Sakura for that matter, witnessed during Stage Two. Unfortunately, protocol says you have to be debriefed one at a time, so there goes the rest of my break."

-o-

"Well done, maggots!"

Morino Ibiki was regrettably absent this time, meaning that there was nothing to stop Anko unleashing the full force of her personality.

"Your performance out there was pretty good—better than the last Chūnin Exam for sure—so I'm prepared to promote you all to caterpillars!" Anko announced.

"Now, I know you're all waiting to hear your exact rankings, and I can't wait… to disappoint you!" She grinned happily. "From here on out, any information you earn, you have to earn yourself. It's a matter of realism, and also of sadism.

"Any of you who're into that, see me after the exam," she added. "I'll teach you what it means to be a real specialist tool user."

She gave a pause during which the genin who knew what she meant tried to decide to what extent she was joking, given that apart from Kabuto's team, the ages of those present varied from twelve to about fifteen.

"OK, I do have to tell you the exam rules, my dears, because otherwise it would be chaos. And while I love chaos more than you can imagine, the Hokage decided to be boring and overrule me."

Her speech was interrupted by an unexpected hand in the air.

"Can you teach me how to be a real specialist tool user?" Tenten asked loudly in the tones of someone who'd finally finished screwing up their courage and was now letting it all out in one big burst.

Anko blinked, her momentum starting to flicker like a campfire running out of fuel.

"That's, um, very advanced of you, my dear," she said. "You remind me of myself when I was a genin, minus the blood and the screaming."

Then she brightened up again. "Unfortunately for you, Maito Gai is the most strait-laced man I've met in all my decades of fun, and at your age you're going to need his approval before I show you the ropes. So while I'd love to take the burning enthusiasm of your youth and use it to set various things on fire, you're going to have to take a cold shower for now.

"So. I'm sure you're all waiting for me to explain how Stage Three is going to work. And you can keep waiting. Because one thing I did manage to get out of the Hokage, in spite of his fun-hating tendencies, is a little something I'm going to call… Stage Two Point Five!"

There was a near-universal groan.

"Here's the deal. We've had you work in teams for the written exam. We've had you work in teams for the survival mission. And none of that simulates the real life of a ninja, where you can get assigned random partners you only know by sight, and told that your life or death depends on learning them like the back of your hand within a few days or hours.

"Can you see where this is going, my dears? That's right… 2v2 combat!"

-o-

The rules were, on the face of it, quite simple. All of them would be randomly divided into teams of two, and then the teams would be paired off against each other in a straightforward deathmatch to unconsciousness or surrender. Anko assured them that, while the selection was completely random (managed by an expensive device with a random number generator, even), by sheer happenstance nobody would get paired or faced with one of their teammates and receive a familiarity advantage.

Upon entering the arena (apparently, Itama Tower had one now that it was mainly used as a training facility), each team would be given one minute to plan strategy, while surrounded by a soundproof glass barrier. Of course, if anyone could read lips or otherwise spy on enemy plans, more power to them.

After a minute, the barrier would retract, and battle would begin. The catch was that as soon as someone managed to disable an opponent (or force them to surrender), they would also leave the arena. There would be no two-on-one battles unless a team deliberately managed to set it up that way, and the partners would also be forced to keep an eye on each other, since each could either focus on teamwork, or try to take out an opponent as soon as possible and win, even if it left the other member at a disadvantage. Anko explained this as the equivalent of getting an unreliable teammate, such as a coward or a glory hog, though Naruto suspected that she just wanted to get an early preview of the famous one-on-one Finals.

The one other rule was that, in accordance with the principle of not getting any information you didn't earn, there would be no spectators, just cameras for the benefit of the examiners and a judge to end the match or otherwise intervene if necessary. This, at least, was a straightforwardly sensible rule, since it meant that people who would end up fighting each other in the Finals didn't get an unfair advantage if, say, one of them was forced to reveal a lot of techniques while the other didn't due to an advantageous match-up.

The display screen, taking up a whole wall for no obvious purpose other than drama, began to blink, and everyone stopped what they were doing as their fates were decided.

-o-

"Oh, one more thing." Anko gave some sort of signal and the screen paused just as the wait became unbearable. "Does anyone know what happened to Waterfall Team Gensō? The one with the swordswoman in blue and white who always looks like she's got a naginata up her ass?"

No one spoke up.

"Damn, must've been eaten by the giant flying rafflesia again. Well, now I know what to do with the losers from Stages Two and Two Point Five. You guys will be helping me search the Forest of Death with a fine-tooth comb. And that will be literal if I think you're not working hard enough. The Hokage is going to have my guts for very sexy garters if we can't account for every genin that went in."

-o-

The screen reactivated.

"First match…

"Hyūga Neji…

"and Haruno Sakura…

"versus…

"Hyūga Hinata…

"and Yamanaka Ino."

They really were amazing things, random number generators.

-o-

Ino turned to Hinata. "Can you leave Sakura to me? I've been waiting to see what kind of tricks she's picked up since she graduated."

"Actually, I was going to suggest that you use your ninjutsu to back me up while I fight Neji and Sakura. From what I've seen, Neji normally fights alone, with the rest of the team coordinating their support around him, so he won't be good at pairing up with another taijutsu user. I mean, I think Sakura's a taijutsu user. I don't mean to be rude, but I haven't really seen her do very much yet."

"Nah," Ino shook her head. "Don't get me wrong, it sounds like a good plan, but I've been briefed by Shikamaru. He says that the second Neji decides I'm a threat, he's going to go right for me, and he'll go through me like I'm rice paper. I'm not saying I don't trust you to protect me or anything, but if he's stronger than you I'm screwed, and if he's weaker than you, then you don't need my support to take him. You with me on this?"

"I—I guess."

-o-

"Haruno Sakura," Neji began. "I have a favour to ask of you."

"Me? Really?"

Neji nodded solemnly. "You must tell Uzumaki Naruto to abandon his flirtations with Lady Hinata. He refuses to heed my warnings, but perhaps he will listen to someone he trusts. If he persists in inflicting his attentions upon her, he will bring certain disaster not only on her but also on himself."

Sakura thought for a second.

"Sorry, can't help you there. As far as I'm concerned, those two are good for each other. The more people to try and keep Naruto on the strait and narrow, the better. And even though Hinata must be crazy to date him, it seems to make her happy, and that's a big deal for a girl who always looks like she's scared of something.

"Why don't we forget Naruto and talk team strategy?"

Neji looked as if she'd just invited him for a refreshing roll in the mud.

"Do whatever you want, Haruno, as long as you stay out of my way."

-o-

"Begin!"

Sakura immediately broke into a run. She needed to close the gap to Ino before she got hit with the Mind Transfer Technique, and she'd picked up at least a couple of tips from watching her teammates fight.

"Clone Technique! Substitution Technique! Substitution Technique! Substitution Technique!"

Half a dozen Sakuras ran at Ino in a spread-out formation, zigzagging across each other's paths, the original now well and truly hidden among them.

Ino didn't waste chakra on trying to guess the correct target. Instead, she met the assault with a taijutsu defence, low sweep followed by spinning back kick followed by a series of punches. Team Sakura happily engaged her.

The Sakuras avoided direct contact while concealing the original's attacks, and whenever Ino managed to pop a couple, all the survivors would simultaneously use the Clone Technique again (or pretend to), replenishing their numbers. It wasn't a normal use of clones, compensating for their fragility instead of letting it dictate one's tactics, but it was working surprisingly well.

Ino took hit after hit from the real Sakura, wherever she was. She was forced to constantly stay on the defensive, retreating and circling while she waited for opportunities to strike back.

But of the two of them, Ino had always been the sensible, grounded one. Enough so, in fact, to actually ask her teammates for advice.

After some careful manoeuvring, she popped a couple of clones with one of her best combos, then jumped back and to the right instead of pressing her advantage. "Hey, Sakura, do you know what 'enfilade' means?"

Sakura just had time to realise that she and all of her clones were lined up in a row, and Ino was standing at one end.

"Mind Transfer Technique!"

-o-

The battle was over. Ino had sent her chakra in to overwhelm Sakura's mind, using the Yamanaka Clan's secret methods to pour all her consciousness into assuming direct control, unhindered by the fact that the chakra had no direct connection to her body. Now all she had to do, as Sakura, was raise her hand and announce, "I surrender."

Her mental projection formed, took in the curiously familiar sunlit plain of Sakura's unshaped inner world—and was suddenly taken off her feet by a massive uppercut.

"Finally."

Looking up from the ground, Ino saw a brief glimpse of a taller, more muscular Sakura, with eerie yellow eyes, before the punches began raining down. Ino tried to block the first few, but she was being assaulted with unrelenting, monstrous strength, and before long she could do nothing but try to shelter her face with her arms, while her body was battered, bruising, bleeding, her ribs beginning to crack…

"Inner Me, what the hell?"

There were two Sakuras. How were there two Sakuras, Ino thought flatly. That was a jōnin-level mental defence used by people trained in (or against) psychic ninjutsu. Even Sakura couldn't have learned something like that out of a book.

Ino needed to dispel her technique. Now, before the evil Sakura decided to finish the job and Ino's physical form got taken out by the backlash. But she was hurting, and scared, and the focus she needed wouldn't come.

Inner Sakura straightened up.

"Don't mind me, just destroying Ino for you. By the time I'm finished with her, she'll be curling up into a ball whenever she so much as thinks of the colour pink."

"You're not supposed to 'destroy' anything!" the normal-looking Sakura exclaimed. "She's my rival. I have to prove I'm better than her, fair and square, otherwise there's no point!"

They were arguing. Like they were different people. Defensive techniques didn't do that. Scary possessing demons from Yamanaka campfire stories did that. The kind that swallowed careless little genin whole.

The evil Sakura turned to face her counterpart. "This is what I was created for, isn't it? This is why I exist. To wipe out every last trace of Ino's domination from your mind. I couldn't stop doing it even if I wanted to, which, by the way, I don't."

Sakura had an inner demon designed especially to wipe out Ino. Ino was about to become a campfire story.

"You have to," the other Sakura, her only hope of survival, said fiercely. "I am telling you to stop."

Inner Sakura gave a low, harsh laugh. "You and I both know I'm stronger than you. Always have been. Again, you made me to be this way. You made me to be everything you couldn't. In a way, you've wanted me to be the real you all along. So if you really want to force this? Fine. It might be fun being the dominant persona."

Tension crackled in the air as the two Sakuras faced off against each other. Ino didn't dare to move (and wasn't sure if she could), but simply watched the confrontation.

Even a few days ago, it might have worked, Sakura Prime reflected. She wasn't good at dealing with conflict, and she was even worse when that conflict was internal. She wasn't a maker of tough decisions, she could admit in the (relative) privacy of her mind. She wasn't someone who faced up to difficult truths, or a person of deep inner strength and integrity like her parents kept telling her she ought to be.

But a few days could be a long time.

She looked at Ino's mental projection—Ino as she saw herself, not as she was seen by others—and it all clicked into perspective.

Ino had gorgeous blonde hair. Sakura had exotic pink hair.

Ino had a tall, slender build. Sakura… was actually almost the same height now, and slimmer.

Ino was brave. Sakura had faced down a rampaging Demon Beast and bared her heart in order to save the boy she loved.

Ino was cunning and sly. Sakura rocked tests and set traps capable of taking out chūnin candidates.

Ino was confident. Sakura's confidence was in the middle of beating her up.

Ino was compassionate. Sakura… well, Naruto was still alive, so that probably counted.

"You were wrong," she said to Inner Sakura.

Inner Sakura stared at her blankly, as if she didn't know the meaning of the word.

"I can't go back to being that little girl. She doesn't exist anymore. You spent years fighting alongside me to stop being that Sakura… and we won."

Inner Sakura sneered. "Oh, you think you don't need me now? Is that it? You think you can face the outer world on your own? I'm our spine. I'm the thing that holds us together. Without my pride and my anger, you're just a helpless child sitting there waiting for the grown-ups to tell you what to do."

She cracked her knuckles. "Enough talking. Let's throw down. It's time for you to learn what inner strength really means."

Maybe those words, in the context of this confrontation, were the final trigger. For the first time, it began to occur to Sakura Prime that Inner Sakura might have been wrong all these years about what inner strength was.

"You're right," she said calmly. "You are stronger than me.

"But I'm not alone, and you're not stronger than us."

The line of Sakuras behind her stretched from horizon to horizon. Some were familiar presences that walked by her side every day. Others were hints of paths not yet taken, brought forth from the farthest shadowed corners of her mind.

Resolute Sakura, arms crossed and feet planted solidly on the ground. Exam Queen Sakura, carrying a backpack bulging with amazing test results. Lover Sakura, with a wicked smile but gentleness in her eyes. Dutiful Daughter Sakura and Rebellious Preteen Sakura, holding hands with fingers intertwined. And as many more as there were facets to a human being.

All of them, in defiance of whatever laws of physics ruled the outside world, simultaneously put their hands on Sakura Prime's shoulders. One by one, they faded from sight, but the feeling of their touch remained, like the weight of a mantle on her shoulders.

Sakura Prime took a step forward. Inner Sakura took a step back.

"You are me," Sakura Prime said. "But I'm not you. I'm all of us. You're not my shadow, and you're not my true self."

She made a gentle beckoning motion.

Inner Sakura's lips twisted, though whether into a smile or a grimace it was impossible to tell. Then she melted away, rejoining the phantom host that comprised Haruno Sakura.

Almost as an afterthought, Sakura walked over to Ino and carefully but firmly pulled her up to her feet.

"I'm sorry, Ino, but I don't think you qualify as my rival anymore. Turns out that my worst enemy is actually myself."

Ino just stared at her wordlessly, eyes slightly glazed.

Sakura looked her in the eye for a few long seconds, then smiled.

"Why don't we start over as friends? Maybe this time we can get it right."

Before Ino could summon up the strength to reply, Sakura gave her a light push.

-o-

Back in what people who weren't in the Yamanaka Clan considered the real world, Ino, without any sort of compulsion or coercion, put up her hand.

"I surrender."

-o-

Lady Hinata and Neji faced each other, neither yet making a move.

"Lady Hinata," Neji said as gently as he could, "don't do this. You know you don't have the temperament for a fighter, and deep down, I'm sure you don't even want to be the clan leader. Step aside. Give up being a ninja. There are many careers out there which would suit you better. Perhaps you could be a scholar or a doctor. Hanabi can inherit the clan."

It was plain as day that Lady Hinata was a ninja for one reason only, and that was because Lord Hiashi would accept nothing less of his first-born child. Her taijutsu was timid. Her chakra reserves were mediocre. Her chakra control was acceptable, but she lacked the ruthlessness needed to draw on the full devastating potential of the Gentle Fist. Above all, she was not a killer, and Neji would sacrifice whatever it took to make sure she remained pure.

His cousin was a girl who had never raised a hand in anger. A girl who possessed the Hyūga nobility of spirit that set her above lesser beings, yet never hesitated to show kindness even to lowly branch family members. A girl who must not be plunged into the filth and darkness of shinobi warfare by a mere accident of birth.

Not getting a response, Neji went on. "Unlike so many others, you have the freedom to choose your destiny. So choose. Don't let yourself be trapped by the position you've been born into. Step aside from the shinobi world and let yourself find wherever it is you are meant to be, because I assure you it's not here."

She still wasn't saying anything. He'd never have a chance to speak to her again in such perfect privacy, with an unquestionable reason to be near her, no other Hyūga within Byakugan radius, and no one else present except an apathetic judge who was not going to involve himself in the internal politics of a noble clan.

He slid up his forehead protector, revealing the pale green Caged Bird Seal. "This is the proof that the shinobi world is cursed, Lady Hinata. This is what it feels like to be truly trapped by your destiny, knowing that at any time, someone from the main family can kill you for the slightest infraction, or for no infraction at all if they so much as fear that your Byakugan will fall into enemy hands. This is the world I cannot escape because I was born into the branch family. But you can, and you know you do not belong here. Why would you want to stay here for even a second more?"

Lady Hinata wasn't moving into a combat stance, but nor was she agreeing with his compelling argument. Neji knew why. It had to be that despicable parasite, the one who had latched onto his cousin to try to drag himself up from the filth where he belonged. He was the one sullying her innocence, abusing her trust and filling her head with ambitions that could only lead to her ruin. He was the last obstacle to overcome before she could be saved.

"It's Uzumaki Naruto, isn't it? He's the one that has poisoned your mind. Listen to me, Lady Hinata. You may find him charming and trustworthy, but the only reason he supports your desire to remain a ninja is so he can exploit you. He wants you to become the head of the clan so that he can take advantage of—"

"Enough!" Lady Hinata said in a very un-Hinata-like voice. It wasn't quite the Voice, but it was close enough to make Neji flinch. "I respect your opinion, and I know you're only trying to help. But you mustn't insult Naruto!"

There was nothing for it, then. Neji would have to be more direct.

He slipped into a perfect Gentle Fist stance. "If you will not listen to me, Lady Hinata, then I will prove to you with my own hands that you are not meant to be a ninja. I will show you what it truly means to do battle as a Hyūga shinobi, and why you can never be one."

Lady Hinata took her own stance. "And I will show you that Naruto isn't some kind of… of evil manipulator. I will show you how strong I've become through being with him."

They closed, both activating their Byakugan.

To an outsider, the Gentle Fist Style looked incongruously like an attempt to slap your opponent, but in reality a Gentle Fist strike could be deadlier than any punch. Precise needles of chakra emitted from the palms could pierce any of the more than three hundred chakra points a Hyūga could see on the target's body, blocking the channels along which chakra naturally flowed. A sufficient number of hits could do anything—disable a limb, shut down the lungs, stop the heart… a terrifying amount of power for an art that ignored armour and was dangerous even to block.

Lady Hinata attacked. She wasn't angry—Neji knew that she was above anger—but in her eyes he could nevertheless see a rising frustration that he did not recognise. What had that lowlife done to her, that she should so much as attempt to get angry on his behalf? Neji was going to hunt that worm down and teach him the price of attempting to corrupt her… but first he had to cure her of the dangerously wrong belief that she could be a ninja.

A battle between two Gentle Fist users did not remotely resemble taking turns. Rather, it was a constant dance around each other, arms almost intertwining as each attack turned into a block, and each block was reversed into another attack. Lady Hinata and Neji's limbs didn't stay still for even half a second, constantly shifting stance, the fighters leaning back and sideways and occasionally forwards as their hands moved in endless elaborate patterns that seemed completely independent of the motion of the rest of their bodies.

Given that Uzumaki had somehow managed to cheat his way to this stage of the exam, Neji had been concerned that he might have attempted to dye Lady Hinata in his colours by teaching her some underhanded technique to use in this battle. But even if he had, fortunately her attempt at aggression had trapped her at close range, where there was no room for anything but taijutsu. With two fighters using the exact same style, and no opportunity for surprises, the better one would definitely win.

Yet victory wasn't enough. Lady Hinata lacked talent as a fighter, but she was still of Hyūga blood, and she had clearly trained hard over the last several months. Neji was winning—that was as inevitable as the rise of the morning sun—but this wasn't the display of overwhelming skill that would convince Lady Hinata of her inadequacy as a shinobi once and for all. She could not be permitted to even think she could challenge him, or she would never free herself from the delusion that this was where she wanted to be.

The technique he needed wasn't one he was supposed to know. He'd been able to reverse-engineer it after spying on main family training, combined with his own experimentation. But to be caught using it could well mean death. The Heavenly Spin was bad enough, but at least that was something that could be legitimately reinvented through talent and hard work (as indeed it had been). This was a secret passed down from leader to heir, and its theft by a mere branch family member was as great a transgression as could be imagined.

Still, she was Lady Hinata. One of the first teachings of the shinobi was that some things were worth any sacrifice.

"You are within the range of my divination."

He saw the shock in Lady Hinata's eyes. Yes, she recognised the words. They were a death sentence, spoken by the main family to those they were about to destroy—or by one branch family member to someone he was about to set free.

He could see the pattern in his mind. The ancient circle of divination, its lines and curves a perfect image of the laws of chakra flow, a guide to motion that both followed and generated streams of chakra within the human body, resulting in movement that fed upon itself and grew ever faster, ever stronger with every step.

"Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Strikes."

Hinata knew the technique was far beyond her power to defend against. Every strike pierced a new chakra point, every touch brought a new sensation of weakness, disorientation, growing numbness. She could not even keep up with the awareness of how many blows had rained on her in a matter of seconds, never mind think of blocking them.

Her breath came heavily to her. Neji would not strike to cripple or kill, but the perfect aim of his blows was such that she could no longer lift her arms, could barely stand without falling.

Yet stand she did.

"Why, Lady Hinata?" Neji demanded. "Why do you do more for his sake than you would for your own? Why does that… that morally bankrupt, honourless, gutless imbecile anchor you in a world where you do not belong?"

Hinata did not know anger. She wasn't allowed to know anger. She didn't dare to know anger. She didn't even know if she could know anger. But she could feel something stirring inside her when she heard Naruto spoken of like that. And beyond that, there was something else, something new.

She realised that she wanted, just this once, to have someone accept that her decisions were her own.

It was good that Naruto wasn't here. He hated incomplete techniques. And Hinata would have been mortally embarrassed to have him see what happened next, whether it worked or not.

The one thing people knew about the Hyūga's unique abilities was that they had the Byakugan. The other, less publicised fact was that they could project chakra from any chakra point on their body, not just the ones on the hands and feet used by other shinobi. It was the foundation of Neji's Heavenly Spin (which she'd Seen, with amazement, in the Forest of Death), though that was the only technique Hinata knew of that made use of this ability.

Hinata had found it another application.

As Neji struck out with his coup de grace, Lady Hinata's body suddenly wasn't there. Before he could reorient himself, he felt an inexplicable numbing sensation around his left elbow.

Lady Hinata had somehow moved to his left. He turned as his forearm drooped downwards. He could see her, still breathing heavily, still barely on her feet, and she wasn't in anything that could even charitably be called a stance. But she was smiling a smile that he had never seen before.

"What…?"

She could not be allowed to fight back. She could not be allowed to gain confidence as a warrior, or she would fall straight into the palm of Uzumaki's hand.

Neji lashed out again, targeting a critical point in her chest. But somehow her entire torso swayed sideways with inhuman speed, then returned while he was still pulling back from the blow.

Another hit, this time to his shoulder. The movement was much faster than anything she should have been capable of, the withdrawal coming before he had a chance to strike the attacking arm. And Hinata was once again standing there with her arms down, body upright through sheer force of will, like a marionette whose strings had been cut.

He could See her channels. They had not miraculously become unblocked. Her muscles shouldn't have been able to move at all.

"You're wrong… about one thing… cousin. When something's incomplete… you don't give up on it… You figure out… what it needs… to make it work."

No. Not this. Yes, effort was important. Even the full radiance of the Hyūga could not manifest without intense training. But that was not the same as pouring all your energies into a doomed attempt to become something you were never meant to be. That was Uzumaki's way. That was what he was doing himself, and what he wanted to force Lady Hinata to do for his sake—and no matter what it took, Neji would not let Uzumaki have her.

Biting his lip, Neji withdrew for a second, then attacked with everything he had.

But Lady Hinata's body moved in a way human bodies just did not move, twisting and bending and leaning out of the way so fast he could barely keep track. It was like some greater power was in control of her, ignoring her physical limitations because it was not relying on the capabilities of her body. There were flickers of chakra around her, but he was too busy defending against her impossible motions to be able to figure out what that meant.

Then Lady Hinata's hands lashed out. Neji moved to block, but they snapped back faster than he could see, and then came out again, striking several times against his blocking arms. It was the classic move that raised the Hyūga above all other taijutsu users, for now his hands could only hang useless at his sides, leaving him unable to attack. Lady Hinata should have been the same after his assault, and it was beyond his power to comprehend why she wasn't.

How was she still standing? He could see her swaying slightly as if she was having trouble keeping her balance, for all the world the way a victim of the Eight Trigrams should look. Except that she was still smiling.

"I can't say it's 'Hyūga-style taijutsu'… because there's already one of those… and 'Hinata-style taijutsu' doesn't sound right… and anyway it's only a prototype for now… And it wasn't meant to be used… instead of normal fighting."

That smile, that unfamiliar smile, was back on her face.

"But one thing I did think was that maybe... even someone like me could learn to be a predator."

For just a few seconds, Lady Hinata was back in a Gentle Fist stance. There really was, Neji realised, something marionette-like about her movement. Only she wasn't being pulled by a puppeteer's strings from above, but pushed from below. He began to notice the glow of projected chakra, not instant this time but constant and steady, around parts of her body. Then, too late, he understood.

"I call it… Sidewinder Style."

-o-

Hinata struck out, flashes of chakra bursting from the back of the entire right half of her body like jets of flame, pushing a leg into place, swinging a hip forward, keeping a shoulder aligned, supporting a forearm to keep it level and raising a hand to face Neji's chest, all in one almost-instant motion. The blow knocked him down to the ground.

Hinata had spent a very long time dwelling on the humiliating failure of her first original technique. But somewhere along the line, dwelling had turned into thinking, and thinking had turned into insight. The technique had accomplished its original design goal—to use chakra emission from the palms to snap her arms back with more speed and force than her muscles were capable of on their own. But all that force had to go somewhere, and in the event it was absorbed by her elbow joints, which evolution had not equipped them to do.

Eventually the solution came to her. As a Hyūga, she wasn't limited to the chakra points in her palms, not limited in where and how she applied the power of instant chakra emission. All she had to do was apply it to more of her body at once, mimicking its natural motions and distributing the strain the way it was meant to be distributed—but with all the speed and precision of her clan's flawless chakra-directing ability. And with her technique no longer limited to one particular arm movement, it would gain extraordinary applications for dodging, allowing her to push her body out of the way of any attack she could mentally react to.

Or that was the theory. Right now, the motions were unoptimised, the chakra control was erratic at best, the mental and physical strain was still too high, the whole thing was an unbearable embarrassment to the Hyūga Clan in its level of execution, and until the very last second she hadn't been sure if it would even work at all.

Still in the forward stance she'd ended up in, unable to directly control her legs enough to reposition, Hinata looked down at Neji's dazed form.

"When I'm head of the clan… I'm going to do something about… the Caged Bird Seal. Until then… you're going to help me… and be nice to Naruto… and respect other people's… choices…"

The room was spinning around her. She'd never planned to give the chakra-intensive Sidewinder Style its first real test run when half her channels were blocked.

There'd been something else she'd meant to say, about projecting one's problems onto other people, but for now… she'd... just…