“It’s probably a good idea for us to mingle while they’re clearing the weapons from the last match,” said Sasuke. “Take some time to catch up with old friends… and future enemies.”

Naruto was still watching Tenten regain her bearings. “I’m gonna go see if she’s okay.”

“An entire room filled with nobles and potential opponents, and you manage to find the one defeated commoner.” Sasuke shook his head and smiled wryly. “See you later then, dropout.”

Naruto considered sending clones out so he could talk to the others at the same time, but it was probably not a good idea to waste chakra when he might still have a match himself. He found Tenten sitting on the balcony with her team, eyes closed as she rested against the wall. She looked up when Naruto approached. “Come to make fun of me for running away and crying at the end, have you?”

“Uh, no,” said Naruto. “I encountered the Sand ninjas in the Forest. I know how scary they can be.”

Her gaze softened somewhat at hearing those words, but Hyūga Neji shook his head and sighed. “See, this is why Kunoichi should not be on the frontlines – they are far too emotionally fragile. I am sorry Tenten, but engaging that foe in combat was incredibly foolish. You should have forfeited immediately.”

Naruto was about to angrily protest this, but then he remembered saying nearly the same thing to Hinata.

“You are wrong,” Lee said instead. “Tenten, I thought your performance was most youthful! There is nothing more glorious than fighting on despite impossible odds, no matter how foolhardy it may seem!”

Tenten sighed and turned back to Naruto. “So, why did you say you were here?”

“I wanted to see if you, uhm, you know.” Naruto fidgeted awkwardly. What was he supposed to say? I feel guilty because I knew those Sand ninjas were crazy and I didn’t tell you? “So uh, you like seals too?”

Her eyes lit up. “Oh, you’re a seal user? They’re just fantastic, aren’t they? You can store so many things in them, like food and weapons and scrolls with more weapons in them. I can only create basic seals so far, but if I could get a teacher to take me on as apprentice I just know I could be a true seals mistress!”

Naruto weighted the pros and cons of asking her what she thought about the seals Jiraiya had inscribed upon his palms, but then the examiner spoke again: “Next match, Yakushi Kabuto versus Temari!”

They looked around and found the information card shark in the midst of a deep conversation with Sasuke, despite almost certainly not being a noble. “This should be interesting,” Naruto muttered.

The more he thought about it, the more suspicious the older genin seemed: Failing the exam six times in a row while buying and selling information, and then suddenly breezing through the second round right when the class with all the clan heirs in it was participating? That just made it seem even more likely that he was here to spy on everybody else. But if that was the case then the Anbu and especially Morino Ibiki should have caught on by now… unless, of course, he was their spy. Now there was a scary thought.

The Sand Kunoichi leaped down from the balcony, her black kimono and crimson obi flapping in the breeze. As she landed she shot her foe a cocky grin. “Do try to make this entertaining, will you?”

Her bespectacled opponent ran a hand through his grey hair and smiled ruefully. “I’ll do my best. I have to admit my abilities are not very well suited to single combat, though.”

The examiner slashed his hand downwards. “Begin.”

“Well,” said Temari, “that’s too bad!” She grabbed the object on her back and swung it in one smooth motion, unleashing a hurricane that threw her opponent across the room like a ragdoll.

“What the hell?” said Naruto. “A fan? How the heck can she create that much wind with just a fan?”

“I’ve heard about this,” Tenten said excitedly. “She’s using a Gunsen war fan – Uchiha Madara was said to have one too, but nobody except the Sand Village knows the secret to making them. It’s beautiful…”

Its appearance was not what concerned Naruto. She’s clearly using it to amplify her Wind technique, but how’s she doing it? Are there seals on that thing to generate more force or something? Could I do the same to amplify my earth techniques by throwing a rock, or is there more to it?

On the far side of the arena, the older Leaf genin was standing up, his hand glowing faintly green as he moved it over his body where the wind-chakra had cut into his skin. A moment later he stood up and dashed towards his opponent, blue chakra-scalpels running along his hands, but the wind blew him back once more. The sand genin laughed mockingly at the sight.

“This is ridiculous,” said Naruto, whose frustration was rising like a building pressure behind his eyes. “After all that talk at the academy of the importance of support roles and making sure to pick your battles, they just throw us in an arena and tell us to start fighting? How the heck is that a fair test of our abilities?”

“It’s not,” said Tenten. “They can talk about teamwork all they want, but in the end the only thing that counts is individual strength – that or being born into a noble clan and having skill at politics.”

Down below, Kabuto had managed to raise a wall of earth to block Temari’s attacks, and was now flicking through a number of hand seals. He recognized it as the same genjutsu technique that Sakura could also use. Smart. She can deflect physical attacks, but she won’t be able to see this one coming.

“Watch out!” Kankuro called from the balcony. “He’s about to use genjutsu on you!”

Temari leaped away in a storm of wind, and then she was on top of her fan and floating above Kabuto, who barely had time to look up before she called down a hurricane: The storm bit into him like a scythe, cutting his flesh while also crushing him down into the ground. She landed on top of him and slammed the end of her metal fan into his ribs with a sickening crunch.

Naruto winced, but could not turn away. That whole fight had been wrong, in so many ways. “Hey examiner,” he called out. “Her brother revealed Kabuto’s technique just now! That’s cheating, isn’t it?”

Hayate looked doubtful. “Uhm, it’s not like she asked for his help – anyone could just yell something out. The winner is Temari, but uh… I might disqualify the next person who does that.” As the medics carried Kabuto away, he reached into his box once more. “Okay. Next match: Uzumaki Naruto versus Rock Lee.”

Naruto and Lee stared at each other, wordlessly.

-o-

“I will admit that you are not the person I was hoping to fight,” Lee said while adjusting the bindings on his wrists. “However, I am still more than happy to prove you wrong about the power of youth, Naruto-kun. I will show everyone here that there is no reality which hard work cannot overcome!”

“Okay,” said Naruto. “Then I’ll show everyone that there are pretty big advantages to not being crazy.”

Yet even as he said that, his mind kept going back to the one time when he had seen Lee in action. He moved in front of me so fast I couldn’t even see him… even if he can’t control his chakra, his ability to flare it is insane.

Lee smiled at him, not seeming put off in the slightest. “You may be smarter than I am, Naruto-kun, but that won’t help you. Intelligence is useless if you do not get the time to think.”

He was not wrong: In any other situation, Naruto would have started the fight with shadow clones, but if Lee beat him before he could so much as cast a single technique… the first second of this fight would decide everything.

The examiner raised his hand. “Ready?” Rock Lee shifted into a sprinter’s starting position, the muscles in his body visibly tensing. Naruto’s body burst into life as he flared his chakra pre-emptively, his hands going through the Dog, Boar and Ram seals even as the examiner’s hand slashed downwards. “Begin!”

A blast of chakra from his feet sent Naruto flying backwards as Rock Lee exploded towards him, his speed impossible to track but for Naruto’s chakra-enhanced senses.

His technique completed just in time, and the world flared into light.

-o-

Gasps of shock and pain went up around the arena as the audience tried to make out what was happening while at the same time shielding their eyes from the searing light. Sasuke in particular let out a painful hiss as he covered his eyes with both hands. As for Sakura, she was too busy trying to figure out how Naruto managed to emit that much light to even try and watch the match.

Dog, Boar, and Ram, in that order: Those were the seals for the Transformation technique – Sakura could have remembered them in her sleep. But the Transformation technique was the simplest illusory technique there was, and definitely not something meant for offensive use. She remembered Naruto’s surprise upon learning that it was considered Ninjutsu and not Genjutsu, and she had explained that the technique worked by bending light around the user rather than interfering with the enemy’s chakra flow.

She sucked in a breath as the realization dawned. “Bending Light…”

She turned to stare at her Uchiha teammate, who was still cursing softly as he rubbed his eyes. He had been watching the battle with his Sharingan activated, she realized with a start. Naruto… did you invent that technique just to fight Sasuke in the finals?

When Sasuke managed to open his eyes again, his look of consternation turned into a wicked smile.

-o-

Success! Naruto grinned triumphantly, having forced his blinded opponent to a halt with his repurposed transformation technique, and having gained the breathing space he needed. Half a dozen newly formed shadow clones charged his opponent like a conquering army with the blazing sun behind their backs, yet somehow Lee did not seem fazed.

“Very impressive, Naruto-kun… however, I told you not to underestimate the power of hard work!”

As the shadow clones descended upon him, Rock Lee pulled his forehead protector down and around his eyes. His right foot struck a clone in the chest and dispelled it, while his left hand shot out and tossed one clone into another, dispelling both. A fourth clone made to strike him in the back, but Lee somehow twisted around in time to take it out and headed for the sixth. A handful of shuriken aimed at his feet forced him to leap back, and then Lee was chasing after the clone, who escaped using the body-flicker technique to buy some time.

Naruto staggered, as much from the sudden intake of memories as sheer disbelief at what he was seeing. He’s fighting based on sound alone! What kind of genin learns to fight while blind? How on earth is that a priority? Still, his opponent was hampered by his lack of vision, and if Lee was forced to rely on sound… He created six more clones, and they each pulled out an identical copy of the scroll he carried in his pouch, each of which manifested kunai with explosive tags from the exact same storage space.

Soon the arena resonated with the barrage of explosions that were thrown around Lee’s feet, and with neither sight nor sound available to him, he had no choice but to run and hope to dodge them all.

-o-

“Ahhh, this is so unfair,” cried Tenten. “Poor Lee. He just doesn’t stand a chance against someone who has actual talent for ninjutsu. It doesn’t matter how fast or strong he is if can’t even find his opponent…”

Her sensei, Maito Gai, spoke without turning his eyes from the maelstrom of light and sound below. “You underestimate your teammate, Tenten. Lee has not lost yet! Go Lee, show them the fire of your youth!” Even so, Gai was gripping the railing furiously, as if it were all that prevented him from jumping into the arena and joining the fight himself.

Neji on the other hand looked entirely disinterested, slouched as he was against the balustrade with his back turned to the arena. Only the enlarged veins around his eyes betrayed his use of the Byakugan to watch the battle below. “He is right, you know. In fact, at this moment I would say that Lee is winning the fight. Watch carefully.”

Tenten looked down, squinting against the continuous bursts of light. The whole area was pockmarked with craters from where explosive tags had torn apart the stone tiles. The dust that had been thrown up was compounded by smoke bombs which Lee had scattered around the area in an attempt to negate Naruto’s advantage, reducing visibility to almost zero. Every now and then she picked out a flash of green as Lee sprinted around the battlefield at speeds almost too fast to follow, while his opponent tried to catch him with his clones and thrown weapons. At several points it seemed like Lee would be caught in the crossfire, but then he would wheel around instantly and zoom in to take out one of his attackers. So far the original Naruto seemed unhurt, but if she focused chakra to her eyes she could see that he was sweating profusely, while Lee showed no sign yet of slowing down.

Neji gestured at the scene behind him. “That Naruto has managed to secure an advantage, but he lacks the ability to capitalize on it. If he had properly trained his taijutsu he might have been able to defeat Lee with the edge he has, but as it is all Lee has to do is keep moving until his opponent runs out of chakra to create clones and use that light technique of his.” He smiled ever so faintly. “Perhaps there is something to be said for hard work surpassing natural talent, after all.”

Tenten stared at Neji as if he had grown a third ear, the battle momentarily forgotten.

-o-

This was, without a doubt, one of the most chaotic battles Rock Lee had ever fought.

The world was in darkness. Right from the start, he had been robbed of all vision, and then his hearing had been taken from him as well: His eyes still ached from the initial burst of light, and his ears rang with the constant barrage of explosions that were being sent his way. Only his chakra-enhanced sense of smell still allowed him to track his opponents, and even that was rapidly becoming harder with all the dust in the air. Between his speed and the smoke he had managed to avoid taking any major injuries so far, but it was just a matter of time before his foe got in a lucky hit, and then it would all be over.

No, that’s not how Gai-sensei taught me to think! He remembered what he had told Naruto in the forest, the first time they had met. “If I stopped doing something merely because I realized there was no reason to do it, then I could never trust myself to do anything ever again.” For that was the true power of precommitment: By refusing to accept the impossible, the merely difficult became trivial.

In his mind, Neji cast him a look of withering contempt. “What utter nonsense. It does not matter how much a hare dreams of soaring through the sky, it still cannot grow wings and fly.”

Lee shook his head. No, you’re wrong. I’ll prove it to you, and Naruto-kun, and everyone here… Even if I lack the talent for ninjutsu or genjutsu, I will still win this battle. I have to believe that!

His thoughts were interrupted by another series of explosions that forced him to dodge to the right. Based on his memorization of the arena’s layout, this sent him straight towards the sculpture of the two hands forming the Tiger seal. Rather than stopping for even an instant, he ran up the side of the statue before kicking off it and continuing in the opposite direction.

Sensing two more opponents closing up on him, Rock Lee leaped straight into the air and landed in a crouch directly between the two of them. As his mighty roundhouse kick destroyed the clones, he realized that the intensity of Naruto’s attacks had been decreasing. In fact, with those clones gone the attacks had stopped entirely. He chanced a moment to raise his forehead protector and see what was going on. At first he had to blink as his eyes stung from the smoke and the light of the arena’s torches, but then a sudden gust of wind cleared the area and revealed his enemy at last.

He stared at the sight. “Naruto-kun… what do you think you are you doing?”

-o-

“Would you care for another one of these fine soldier pills, Naruto-sama?”

“Why thank you, Naruto-sama, I would indeed.” Naruto took the foul tasting stimulant and swallowed it quickly. The two of them were sitting seiza on a traditional hanabi picnic mat that he had manifested from his scroll as they waited for their opponent to finally notice them.

He perked up. “Ah, Lee! Don’t mind us, we were just passing the time while you kept yourself busy. Would you like to try a soldier pill? They allow you to fight for three days straight without food or rest, or at least that’s what they say. They’re very premium… not that that’s an issue when your teammate is one of the richest nobles in the Village, and your dad is one of the Sannin and a famous author besides. I like to think of money as just another bloodline-ability, really – just like good looks, smarts and talent.”

Lee furrowed his thick eyebrows, making him look more homely than ever. “You will not manage to provoke me into attacking directly, Naruto-kun. I am not as stupid as you seem to think. The best way for me to win this battle is still through sheer attrition. Now, shall we continue the match?”

Naruto shrugged, making a show of nonchalance as he considered his next move. “I guess.” He stood up, his other self taking position behind him. “Hey, you said you were gonna prove to everyone here that Neji is wrong and that hard work can overcome any obstacle, right? Did you really mean that?”

The boy in green nodded fiercely. “Of course! I mean everything I say.”

“Then take a good look around you, Lee. You’ve proved nothing!” The boy in green turned to look at the audience, who had been watching the battle in awe and had now fallen completely silent. “Who do you think they’ve been watching? I invented Light-release ninjutsu, summoned an army of shadow clones and covered the battlefield in explosives, while all you’ve done is run around like a headless chicken. Who do you think they’ll remember after this? Even if you defeat me somehow, they’ll just call it a fluke! A ninja who cannot use ninjutsu or genjutsu… what a joke.”

Lee gritted his teeth, but it was Tenten who called out from the balcony: “No, that’s not true! Lee, we all believe in you. Don’t listen to him!”

Naruto put on his best sneer, taking inspiration from Sasuke. “Do you hear the fear and pity in her voice? She’s afraid of what my words will do to you – that I’ll crush your dreams and spirit. Is there anything more damning than your own teammate’s pity?”

Neji scoffed loudly. “If Lee is such a failure, and he is beating you, what does that make you Uzumaki?”

“And now Neji, who you were gonna defeat, has to stand up for you. He doesn’t acknowledge you as his rival at all!” The words were pouring freely now, each insult made without needing any time to think.

This time Maito Gai yelled in reply. “My prize pupil does not need defending! Lee, you are only weak if you listen to this nonsense. Now fight him the way I taught you!”

Lee’s eyes lit up once more. “Yes, Gai-sensei! Naruto-kun, prepare yourself. Here I come!”

Naruto cursed inwardly. That teacher has way too much influence over him… wait, that’s it!

“Oh, and as for your teacher? The way he dotes on you is pathetic. It’s obvious just from looking at him that he modelled you after him completely, like he thinks he’s someone to emulate, when in fact he’s a failure of a teacher who couldn’t even teach his students a single ninja technique.”

Rock Lee’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “Naruto-kun, I am aware that you are trying to provoke me for the sake of winning the match, and I will not hold that against you. However, I strongly suggest you leave my teacher out of this.”

“I even heard he goes around calling himself Kakashi’s rival, like anyone’s gonna take that seriously. Plus the way he talks about ‘youth’ even though he’s middle-aged… it’s totally obvious that he’s a failure who never accomplished anything in life, and now he needs his loser student to make up for it.”

The entire hall fell silent as the audience waited to see how Lee would react. “Very well,” he said at last. “If that is how it is, I shall give you what you want. You say my sensei cannot teach even a single original technique? Then watch closely, Naruto-kun, because this will only last one second.”

As Rock Lee began unbinding the bandages around his wrist, a surge of energy seemed to build up around him, while a commotion went up from where Maito Gai and Kakashi were standing. Seeing their reactions, Naruto immediately leaped back and summoned four more Shadow Clones, every one of them activating his Candle in the Darkness technique. They hurled their explosive kunai at the same time and the battlefield exploded with light and sound once more. Rock Lee vanished.

What?

Something took out the clone to Naruto’s right, causing the others to stumble as the memory struck them. Behind me? Two of the clones twisted around but were taken out not a second later. Naruto body-flickered to the other side of the arena and created four more shadow clones, each of which raised a stone wall up from the ground around them, coming together at the top to form an impenetrable dome. If I can just last until his technique wears off…

A loud bang reverberated through the structure as something heavy hit it from the outside, and the clones hastily pressed their hands against the dome’s walls to reinforce them with their chakra. A second blow struck the other side, and all four clones vanished from the force of it. Cracks ran all across the stone like cobwebs as dust poured down from the ceiling. With the third blow the ramparts crumbled. Metal objects burst through the walls as everything collapsed around him, and Naruto felt something wrap tight around his arms and legs.

“Naruto! This fight is over!”

Naruto’s body slammed into the ground, and then he was but a memory.

-o-

Rock Lee looked around the battlefield in a daze, one of the aftereffects of opening three of the eight gates that inhibited one’s chakra flow. His heart felt like it was going to burst, his body shook from the adrenaline and the pain from his torn muscles was almost unbearable. The final Naruto was gone, having turned out to be just another clone, yet no matter where he looked he could see no other.

He looked around the arena, confused. “Where did he go? Where is his real body?”

A hollow voice came from below. “Where do you think?”

Lee stared at the stone slabs in confusion, then anger. “No… no! You can’t. That’s not fair!”

“Not fair?” Naruto must have been shouting at the top of his lungs to make himself heard from below ground. “We’re ninja, nothing we do is fair! You wanted to know if hard work and determination could overcome any obstacle, right? Well as you can see, it can’t, and denying it will just get people killed.”

The examiner spoke from his spot near the stairs to the balcony. “Contestants are not allowed to leave the arena, but technically Uzumaki has not done so. Uhm, but if neither side can hurt the other I’ll have to call it a draw and fail you both.”

“Do you get it, Lee? You lost the fight right at the start, when I blinded you and dug into the floor with my earth technique. I kept my shadow clones above ground because I figured I’d have to actually beat you to pass the exam, but it was never possible for you to win.”

“No,” cried Lee. “I reject it!” He threw himself onto the floor and started prying at the stones with a kunai, his torn muscles screaming in protest. “As long as I do not accept defeat, nothing is impossible… that is what Gai-sensei taught me – that is what I have always believed!” His vision was blurring, and it was not just from having opened the gates. “I reject it…”

The examiner coughed. “Since it seems that both sides are unable to hurt each other…”

A searing pain ran down Lee’s side and he dodged instinctively, stumbling away on shaking legs with warm blood running down his side and pouring onto the floor. Naruto was standing before him once more, covered in dust from where he had burst out of the ground, holding a bloodied sword. “Looks like you finally lowered your guard. Sorry Lee, but this fight really is over.”

-o-

Naruto turned to the examiner, who looked about to call the match, but then stopped.

“No, please do not end the match. I can still fight.” With an impossible effort, Rock Lee was standing up. His entire body was shaking, blood dripping onto the ground where he stood, yet there was a desperate determination in his eyes that would not yield. “I… I am not done yet!”

“You can’t be serious.” Naruto stared at the sight in disbelief. “Look, I’m sorry about taunting you, all right? I didn’t mean any of that stuff. I’ll admit that hard work is important, and maybe it’s too easy to dismiss something as impossible when it’s just really hard, so saying we should try to do the impossible isn’t so crazy. But you’ll never be able to do the impossible if you can’t even admit it exists!” He gestured at the stone tiles that he had dug through with the hiding-like-a-mole technique. “The fact is that I didn’t even need to come above ground just now: I could’ve just sent my chakra up through a small gap and kept casting shadow clones, but I didn’t want to drag this out any longer. You’ve lost, Lee.”

Lee’s eyes hardened. “I never asked you to go easy on me, Naruto. It is just like you said: There is nothing more painful than being pitied by your peers. Now, get ready, here I come!”

“Wait, hold on!” Naruto raised his arms just in time to block Lee’s wildly flailing attacks. “Stop, please, just–” His opponent’s hand flashed out and struck his throat, and Naruto staggered back in shock at what could have been a fatal blow. At last a burning sensation rose up within him like bile. “Enough!” He kicked Lee in the chest, sending him reeling. “Why don’t any of you people ever fucking listen to reason?” He drove his knee into Lee’s bleeding wound, forcing him to his knees with a painful gasp. “You all think I’m so stupid, that I’m weak because I try to be nice, but do I look weak to you now?” He stepped forward and kicked Lee in the head, and the older genin tumbled backwards in a heap. “Did that one wake you up, Lee?”

It took Naruto a second to realize his opponent was not getting up again.

The examiner moved over to check Lee’s pulse. “Winner by knockout, Uzumaki Naruto.” He frowned. “Uhm, any harder though, and I would have had to disqualify you instead.”

“Wait,” said Naruto. “That’s not – I didn’t mean to…” He looked up at the audience. Everyone was staring at him, the same way they had stared at the Sand ninjas. “I… I wasn’t trying to…” Medical ninja arrived and carried Lee away on a stretcher, while Naruto just stood by and watched. I didn’t mean it…

He headed to the balcony with rising dread. At the top of the stairs, the others were already waiting for him.