Naruto looked at the other genin in surprised silence, and in response, Neji smiled grimly. Despite the number of cuts on his body, he stood firm in his confidence. Spreading his feet apart, he bent down sideways, touching the back of his hand to his foot.
"It's over now," said Neji coolly. "Gentle Fist Style: Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms..."
...
Naruto let out a sigh. If Neji hit him with that, things could actually turn quite dangerous for him. He'd wanted to take his time whittling the other genin down with his clones, but it looked like that wasn't possible now. He hadn't wanted to use this again unless he had to but...
Stepping back, he lowered his body, allowing his muscles to relax. He felt the chakra that ebbed through his body. At his urging, he usually manipulated it into becoming sharp and thin to channel it into his weapons. This time however, he twisted his chakra to curl in on itself into a ball, becoming tighter and tighter with each twist, until it began to vibrate. Sending it down his body, the ball expanded, enveloping his feet with a crackling sound.
As this all happened, Neji swung his body around and then threw himself forward with both hands outstretched towards Naruto. The prospect of victory gleaming in his pale eyes, Neji was just about to make contact with the other genin – when, with a sudden loud cracking sound, he disappeared.
A split millisecond later, Naruto was behind Neji, and before the other genin had even realized, he'd hit him hard on the back of his neck with the blunt end of his tantō. Slowly – as if even his body was refusing to accept it – Neji swayed, and then fell on his knees. He was unconscious before he slumped to the ground.
The crowd cheered animatedly.
Since Naruto could project his wind chakra into his weapons, he'd reasoned that he should be able to project his chakra through his body as well. But instead of wind chakra, which was best for offensive attacks, he'd decided to work on his speed. In order to do that, he had focused on manipulating his chakra into a different element – lightning.
The first obstacle had been getting down the feel for what lightning chakra felt like: It was very different, in both shape and feel from his natural affinity, wind chakra. As soon as he'd gotten the hang of it, Naruto had begun focusing on running the current through his entire body, with the idea of electrically stimulating his nervous system – and then almost immediately, abandoned the idea. He hadn't realized how painful it would be, or how much chakra it would consume to constantly be supplying his system with lightning chakra.
After some pondering, Naruto had next focused on localizing the stimulation to just his lower legs and feet; as the body parts most farthest from his brain, he'd theorized that boosting them would provide the greatest improvement in his speed. And sure enough – though it did sting quite uncomfortably, hence why he avoided using it whenever possible – when his feet were stimulated with the lightning chakra, his enhanced kickoff greatly increased his initial speed and made it look, to the untrained eye, as if he had suddenly disappeared and then reappeared elsewhere.
The sun was now high in the sky and it pounded on Naruto's neck as he looked down at Neji's prone body. A feeling he wouldn't have recognized before bubbled up inside him. But now that his eyes had been opened, he knew it as contempt – contempt for the trapped bird in a cage that had yearned to be loved by the cage.
"You're pathetic," he said coldly. Yet even as he spoke, he did not know who his words were for.
Naruto turned around and walked out of the arena, leaving the roar of the crowd's approval behind him.
...
Following Naruto's victory, the fight between Fū and the remaining Suna genin – an older boy named Kankurō – was short and decisive. Dressed in white with a dark skin-tone, she'd physically stood out starkly besides Kankurō, who was light-skinned and wore all black. And once the match begun, the difference in their skills was made clear as well.
Though he handled his puppet with clear talent, it was no match for the destructive cloud of termite-like insects that emerged from the red tube on Fū's back. Seeing the insects rapidly swarm across the ground towards him, Kankurō barely managed to get out of their way; as he did so, realizing that the insects could climb across chakra threads, he was forced to detach himself from his puppet.
In a matter of seconds, they completely covered and stripped away the puppet's exterior, leaving behind only a wooden carcass which then collapsed in on itself. Apparently having sated their appetite, the insects then returned to Fū's tube. However, with his weapon gone, and clearly shaken by the ordeal, Kankurō soon surrendered, and to the groans of his watching Suna countrymen, he sheepishly plodded off the arena.
After dusting herself off, Fū nonchalantly stretched backwards. Then, with glittering baleful eyes, she locked gazes with Naruto, who'd been blankly observing the battle. He stared back, and after a moment, she looked away.
As the jōnin proctor told the audience there would be a brief intermission before the final match, Naruto noticed that a masked jōnin had just emerged form the infirmary building. Though he gave the man no further indication of his recognition, the man soon came and sat down next to him.
"Hey," Kakashi greeted him. When Naruto didn't say anything in respond, he let out a small cough. "I'm sorry I missed your match against the Hyūga kid. I got caught up with medical paperwork...hm...so, do you feel ready for the final match?"
Naruto shrugged noncommittally.
Rubbing the back of his neck, Kakashi sighed. "I won't push you, Naruto. Just know that you're not alone in this. I'm here, and your teammates are here to support you... At least in spirit."
"Spare me the sentimentality, sensei," Naruto finally said, getting up. "There's no need for this. I'm perfectly aware of my current situation."
Kakashi looked taken aback. "And what situation is that?"
Naruto spread his arms wide in a sweeping motion. "This exam is a farce. Whether I win it or not, it'll make little difference in the way everyone looks at me. Even Mayu and Rai would turn their backs on me if they knew, and you know it."
Kakashi paused. "I haven't turned my back on you."
"...You're different, sensei." Nonetheless, Naruto fell back in his seat. The tendril of unfamiliar anger that had flared up inside him just a moment ago had already faded away, leaving behind only a crushing weariness. "But nobody else will think that way. Nobody will ever acknowledge me. What's the point in trying?"
"So you're saying your efforts were all to get people to acknowledge you? That doesn't sound like the Naruto I know."
Naruto didn't respond. After several minutes of taut silence, Kakashi moved away.
Looking out over the dusty, sand-filled arena and the rowdy crowd that filled the seats around them, Naruto cast his thoughts back to a time when he hadn't even been tall enough to open the window.
It was back when Naruto still hadn't known what chakra was. His caretaker at the time always refused to open the window for him, saying that if he fell out and died, she would be blamed for it.
So, in the summer when the nights were hottest and he found it difficult to breathe, Naruto would pile his wooden blocks on top of his tattered book of folk tales and carefully clamber on top of the teetering stack. Balancing his weight, he pushed up against the firmly closed window, and more often than not, he would lose his balance and fall over, the stack crashing painfully on top of him.
But sometimes, the window budged open just slightly enough for a thin cool breeze to enter the room, and he would be able to breathe again. On those days, his dreams were always pleasant. Sometimes, he'd even dreamed that his parents – though always faceless – were alive and lived with him.
Who'd have thought that in reality, it had been his own father who had sealed away a monster inside of him and sealed his fate forever?
Closing his eyes tightly, Naruto shook his head, trying to clear away the memory.
He'd once watched the sun set from that very window, hoping beyond hope that he would one day be accepted. He'd sworn that he would own the hearts of Konoha and that he would become Hokage. He'd fantasized about how people would regard him with awe as he walked down the village streets, looking at him with trust and respect in their eyes.
He hadn't realized then that he was a wolf in human skin, but they'd known all along. They must have been laughing as he studied and practiced for hours every night in a vain effort to become one of them. Laughing as they sealed his memories, watching him lose himself piece by piece until he was only an empty shell. He could tell that even Kakashi-sensei's concern stemmed from the pity one reserved for the most pathetic of creatures – the ones that tried to become what they were not.
A bitter smile stretched itself across his face.
The worst part of it all was that even knowing the truth, somewhere deep inside of him... he still craved their acceptance.