Naruto: The New Sealmaster

Uzumaki Naruto vs Inuzuka Kiba

Now that was a fight of equal minds. Both dumb as bricks, but who knew what they'd come up with to solve their problems.

To Aoshi's surprise, it was actually a decent fight. Both held their own, but he was most surprised by how Naruto actually came up with a tactic to counter Kiba. Despite having an incredible sense of smell, Naruto managed to trick Kiba into attacking his own ninken. It was a surprise to everyone that Naruto could plan ahead.

But what was it that ended the fight? A fart. Naruto farted in Kiba's face, that's what ended the fight. Aoshi wondered what kind of foul thing Naruto had eaten recently as Kiba seemed completely incapacitated. He was then finished off by a rough copy of the taijutsu Sasuke used to end his fight. Which in itself was a rough copy of Rock Lee's move.

Naruto was congratulated by his peers. Hinata even spread some healing salve on him. Good for her! She has barely dared to touch Naruto before then.

Finally, Aoshi overheard what Kiba was saying to Hinata before the medics took him away.

"..if they pair you off with that sand ninja, withdraw immediately! And not just him. The same thing goes for Neji. If you have to face him, don't fight. Forfeit. He's so cruel to you, you'd be torn to pieces."

And then they took him away, leaving Hinata just standing there. She was staring into space when Aoshi wrapped his arm over her shoulder.

"He doesn't mean you're weak or anything Hinata, he's just scared you'll face a cruel fate."

She looked up at Aoshi with a question on her tongue, but she didn't dare ask it. He of course noticed it, so he slapped her on the back.

"Out with it! You can ask me anything you want!"

She looked down. He recognised all the signs from the old Hinata, the shy girl he knew years ago.

"Do you..do you believe in me?"

He smiled down at her with a familial smile.

"I do. You'll give any of those people out there a tough fight. But that doesn't mean I believe you can beat everyone. I believe that you will provide us all with a show."

That was when the billboard came alive again. Kiba must have been some kind of prophet, because the names on the board were just as he had warned.

Hyuuga Hinata vs Hyuuga Neji

Silence reigned as Neji jumped down from the platform while glaring at Hinata. Aoshi leaned in to whisper in her ear.

"Show him how much you have changed! He doesn't believe change is possible, so prove him wrong! I know you don't want to hurt your family, but it's for his own good!"

She looked at him with a grateful smile and bowed down as if thanking a teacher for their teachings. She then made her way to the arena.

Aoshi went back to the group. A lot of people around him had their things to say but he blocked them all out and focused on Hinata. This was a fight she never wanted to have, but it was a necessary one. But then it started, what he knew was coming.

Neji began his speech. It was ridiculous, infuriating and undermining. He told Hinata that she was unfit to be a ninja, that she was just a protected and sheltered little baby. He said that although she had her back straight, it was clear to him that she was just pretending.

When she tried to tell him that she had made an active choice to change, he continued his ridicule. Calling her a failure, calling her weak and telling her that there was no way she would ever become a strong ninja. For that was who she was, a weak minded little girl.

Aoshi couldn't take anymore of this bastard. He had to deal with him for years and he had been this way for as long as he could remember. To treat a girl who wanted to make peace with him, a girl who treated him as her brother, a girl with such a nice heart, like that was unforgivable. He was going to shout out, but another boy beat him to it.

"Yes she can! You can't just decide these things about other people, you fool! Show him, Hinata. Beat up this idiot!"

It was Naruto who shouted, and his voice could be clearly heard throughout the entire hall. Hinata had tried not to let Neji's words get to her, and she was doing a good job of it. But Naruto's exclamation clearly meant a lot to her as she looked upon her friends, eventually ending up looking at Aoshi. He smiled at her, and gave her a nod. Naruto had said it well enough. He walked over and put a hand on Naruto's shoulder.

"Well said, now let her deal with it. Hinata is not the kind of person to vengefully return insults after all, she will show him her growth."

And she did. The two used the same fighting stance and it was very quick so it was honestly quite hard to tell who was ahead. But Aoshi was used to the fighting style, having faced both competitors many times, and he could tell that Neji was goading her. 

He let her get close to hitting him a couple of times only to seal off one or two of her tenketsus. Eventually, that backfired as she got in a rock hard hit right in his ribs. He stumbled back, and Aoshi could feel that his chakra was in disarray. Neji was furious, and so he attacked for real.

As soon as he started that, it was clearer for those watching. Neji was a little bit better than Hinata at everything, which meant that he had quite an advantage when they used the same style. Soon, he struck her right in the chest and she fell to the ground.

But she got back up, while repeating the words Naruto usually spoke about his ninja way. It was amusing to see Naruto's face when he heard it. He seemed to be in complete disbelief that he had affected another person. Aoshi tightened his grip on Naruto's shoulder, and the fight down below went on.

Hinata was now struggling to use the Hyuuga style, so she used a variation with a few tricks Aoshi had taught her. It worked nicely as she soon got in another sneaky attack on Neji who stumbled back once more and spat out blood on the floor.

His rage bubbled up to the surface and he went in for a final time. Aoshi was furious as he saw that the strike he leveraged against Hinata was one which was meant to kill her. He used the classic Hyuuga killing move of sealing and cutting off any attachments to the heart, luckily Hinata managed to move out of its way so it hit her in the centre instead.

There she laid, on the other side of the arena completely bloodied. The match was called in Neji's favour but Hinata struggled to her feet.

Neji went on his spiel about fate and the main/branch family again as if it hadn't been proven incorrectly, but this time Hinata countered him.

"But you're wrong, cousin Neji. I can see it now..that even more than me, it's you who is torn and suffering. Caught between the destinies of the main branch and the cadet branch of our clan"

The look on Neji's face changed and Aoshi knew exactly what was coming. Whenever Neji felt slighted at the academy he had the exact same look. So before he even felt Neji gathering chakra, Aoshi let go of Naruto and used his technique.

Neji started attacking Hinata once more. The proctor for the exam tried telling him it was over, but before he could finish his sentence Aoshi had used his spinning trampette to reach the stage and punch Neji.

He didn't just punch Neji though, he slammed his fist into his head so hard that the two of them created a crater in the ground with Neji's head at the centre.

Four jounin came down an instant later to hold Aoshi back, but he was done. He had stopped Neji and he had gotten his point across. Guy kneeled down to check on Neji, and he was going to be well. The punch had made him dizzy and Aoshi had sneakily sucked out most of his chakra, so he couldn't stand up by himself.

Neji glared at where he thought Aoshi stood, and Aoshi returned the favour.

"You're a disgrace of a human being, Neji. That girl loves you and treats you like family, and you would have killed her today if I hadn't taught her to dodge that hit. I bet you would have made your father proud today.."

The last bit was said with dripping sarcasm and Neji was fuming, but Guy slapped the back of his head to make him faint. This was not the time. Aoshi looked at the proctor who now stood next to him. The jounins didn't hold him back anymore as he had made it rather clear he was finished.

"Rokushō Aoshi, I will not disqualify you this time as you stopped an attack after the fight was finished, although you were unnecessarily brutal with it. *cough* Do it again though, and you'll never be allowed to take part in these exams again."

Aoshi bowed down to the man and looked over towards Hinata. She was taken care of by her old classmates, she fell asleep with a smile on her face when she saw that Naruto was on top of her.

Kurenai inspected her wounds and grew more and more furious with Neji for every second. Soon the medics were with her and took her away. A moment later they took Neji away as well, leaving Naruto standing at the centre of the arena bending down at where Hinata had been bleeding.

He let the blood flow on his hand and brought it up as a fist into the sky.

"I will conquer this. I will take any hatred this village has to offer and win against it! Someone like Hinata should not have to just take this, and I will make it so! For that is my ninja way!"

He stood like that, letting Hinata's blood run down his arm, until Aoshi put his arm on Naruto's shoulder. It was only then that he noticed that his own fist had quite a bit of blood on it as well, both his and Neji's.

"I believe you. But let us finish this quickly so we can all go visit Hinata in the Hospital, okay?"

Everyone looked at Naruto, quite a few looked in confusion at Aoshi as well, as he lowered his arm and nodded. All genins went back to their places and the proctor had their attention once more.

"Winner of that fight was Hyuuga Neji. Let us move on to the next."

The billboard came to life once more and as soon as the result was clear, three things happened. The sand guy, Gaara, almost teleported to centre stage. Choji exclaimed his relief at not being selected. Finally, Rock Lee shouted in passion at being chosen for this test.

Gaara of the Desert vs Rock Lee

Aoshi was worried. He liked Lee, and believed he was a powerful person, but he didn't think he stood a chance here. This Gaara kid was next level trouble.

The fighting began. Gaara apparently controlled sand and used it to attack others, an interesting way of fighting. He sure was a part of the Kazekage's family. It resembled what he had read about in the books a lot, with their magnet release. Only this wasn't iron or gold sand, it was just regular non-magnetic sand. Aoshi was intrigued by how it was possible, and let his mind wander as the fight went on.

The crowd was very into it throughout, as Rock Lee was a physical monster. Few could match him in speed, power and control. His body was sculpted to perfection for his age, who knows how powerful he could become once puberty hit him properly.

"Lee! Take them off!"

Huh. Guy actually let Lee take his weights off. Aoshi had only really seen it happen once or twice in training, but to the people around him it was an absolute shock when the weights fell to the ground and shook the entire room.

It was then the fight actually started, and those who had written Rock off would start to wonder who would win. He came at Gaara with incredible speed, almost teleportation, and seemingly punched faster and faster for every hit until finally he managed to kick the sandy guy on the top of his head.

Silence reigned in the arena. Absolute shock was clear to see in all of the sand ninjas. Then Rock did the impossible. After Guy's exclamation to 'explode' he got even faster. Aoshi's eyes couldn't keep up with the fight anymore so he sat down and decided to use his senses instead. He was intrigued by how densely packed with chakra the sand was, but it was to no avail as Rock Lee completely outpaced it and slammed Gaara to the ground. To everyone's dismay, Gaara let out a manic laugh. He was protected by a layer of sand working as body armour so he wasn't actually injured, but he was excited. He was murderous. He was simply hungry for blood and nothing else.

Rock and Guy shared a look, and since the weights were already off Aoshi had a good idea what that meant. He only hoped he didn't go so far that he'd spend the rest of the year in a hospital. To Rock Lee, this was what it was all about. He wanted to show he was good enough against the most powerful opponents. He'd completely spend himself without caring at all if he had to be disqualified from the final. It was all about the present and his opportunity. His opportunity to show the world that they were wrong about him, and that he could do anything as long as he truly fought for it.

There were few people Aoshi had learned to admire more than Rock. For who he was, what he showed others and what he stood for. He was a remarkable person Aoshi wished he was closer friends with. Idly he wondered why he wasn't really close friends with Rock, but he quickly realised that it was his own fault. He didn't make time for socialising. He barely made time for Tenten after all.

After he made chunin, he told himself. That's when he'll change.

Down below, the fight was escalating for every second. Soon the third gate was released, and Aoshi was worried. Then the fifth one and that's when Aoshi had to stand up and see what was happening with his own eyes. Gaara was slammed into the ground harder than anything they had seen that day, but his fall was cushioned. The side effects of opening the gates were now showing and Rock Lee couldn't avoid Gaara's attack. An arm and a leg was completely crushed and Aoshi had to scream out.

"Rock! NO!"

But then he saw what was about to happen. Sand gathered around the poor guy in a circle, Gaara was about to kill him. By pure instinct, Aoshi was about to jump down there again but Hachiro caught him before he could get started. Good thing he didn't need to though, since Guy was already standing there. He swiped away Gaara's attack as if it was nothing and effectively ended the fight.

Gaara couldn't understand why someone would even help another, and Guy's proclamation of love for his student clearly wasn't absorbed at all by the mentally scarred kid. It did move everyone else though. Gaara was announced as the winner, but Rock suddenly stood up.

Aoshi already knew what was going on, as he tried sensing the guy's chakra. He was completely out of it. His instinct had told him to stand up even though he was unconscious. Rock Lee was one heck of a guy, and one heck of a ninja. That's for sure. He was a real one, someone who stood by their way through everything. As the medics took him away, even saying that he might never be able to be a ninja again, Aoshi silently vowed to honour his friend. Rock Lee was a role model, and Aoshi had to absorb what he could from him.

A solemn mood was spread through the Konoha genin as the next fight was announced.

Dai vs Akimichi Choji