Re: Akimichi

As I want to rush into the arena and kick that Neji on his crotch, Shikamaru slapped my head.

"Hey! What was that for?"

"I know that face, don't do a stupid thing. You big oaf..." Shikamaru sighed, he shook his head. That made me wondered, and I just waited for him to explain himself. "Chouji, sometimes I impressed by your wits and bravery, and at the other time I was wondering about how stupid and rash you can be."

I gave him a confused face, I took a deep breath and frowned. Understanding my anxiety, Shikamaru opened his mouth and explained. "Although I too am upset that Hinata was beaten. But, this is an exam. There's no way that the examiner let the participants die at this stage, and who is Hinata? She is the Hyuga clan's heiress, even the Hokage-sama himself won't be able to soothe her family if something happened to her here."

A realization took over me as I calmed down, indeed what Shikamaru said was true. I let my emotion got the best of me, I sighed and slumped my shoulder. "You're right, but I saw Neji's eyes and... His eagerness to beat Hinata was so 'explosive'. And I felt wrath each time he hit Hinata-chan."

"I may know something..."

I and Shikamaru turned our head, Ino just back from the medical room where Hinata was taken by the medic.

"Neiji was Hinata-chan's Cousin, his father was the twin of Hinata-chan's father. Once upon a time..."

Ino told us Neji's story that she heard from her father when he was drunk. Neji was born as the son of Hizashi Hyuga, placing him in one of the Hyuga clan's branch houses. When the heiress of the main house, Hinata-chan, turned three years old, Neji's forehead was branded with the Hyuga branch clan's customary cursed seal by his uncle, Hiashi-san.

Despite how young he was at the time, Neji's natural talent with the Hyūga's trademark techniques was apparent to his father. For this reason, Hizashi-san resented that Neji was marked with a cursed seal, as he felt it bound him to a life of service to the main house when he should be destined for greater things. His anger would often manifest subconsciously, prompting Hiashi-san to activate Hizashi's cursed seal and punish him with pain from time to time, an act that traumatized Neji.

Shortly after Neji received his cursed seal, a Jounin ranked Shinobi from Kumogakure came to visit Konoha and took advantage of the peace treaty, he attempted to kidnap Hinata-chan in order to gain the secrets of the Hyuga clan's Byakugan. At that time, Hiashi-san was able to stop and killed the said Shinobi. In what became secretly known as the Hyuga Affair, Kumo denied the allegations made against its Jounin and insisted Hiashi-san's actions were a declaration of war from Konoha.

As the peace was as fragile as a paper at that time, the only way to avoid hostilities between the two big villages would be if Hiashi-san was turned over to Kumogakure as compensation. At that time, Hiashi-san was willing to do so if it meant protecting Konoha, although that, in turn, would give Kumo the Byakugan.

Hizashi-san, Hiashi-san's twin brother, volunteered himself to the Hokage to be Hiashi-san's body double since his cursed seal would destroy his Byakugan at the time of his death, a fate that he insisted upon over Hiashi-san's protests. Neji was too young to understand what actually was happening at the time, and apparently, over the years he came to believe that his father had been forced to die for the main house.

Of course, that mindset would not be shaped if he was told the truth about the incident. Unfortunately, that event was regarded as S ranked secret by the council. So, only the selected few that know the truth about the said event.

Hearing Ino's story, I realized that Neji too was a victim. We also can't tell him the truth as that would implicate Inoichi-san as he was the one that let the information leaked.

I now know that Neji became spiteful towards the members of the main house for what he believed they'd done to his father, thus he missed no opportunity to try and harm Hinata-chan. Ino also added that Neji also came to believe that the course of a person's life was determined from the moment of their birth and could be altered under no circ.u.mstances.

Anyway, the preliminaries finally ended. We were given a month's time before the next phase of the test began. We drew a lot to determine the first round match-ups for the third phase of the exam. The bracket for the tournament of the third exam goes like this:

---

[Yamanaka Ino v.s Uchiha Sasuke]

[Gaara v.s Akimichi Chouji]

[Aburame Shino v.s Nara Shikamaru]

[Hyuga Neji v.s Uzumaki Naruto]

---

Lo and behold, Neji was paired with Naruto. Hokage-sama also mentioned that the possibility of both everyone and no one becomes a Chunin.

Thus, something clicked inside me. I remembered that Neji looked down on Naruto, and he believed that Naruto could not win against him because he believes that was what fate has dictated them so. So, what if... IF Naruto defeated Neji?

There's a chance that his belief would be proven wrong, that too depending on how it happened. I discussed that probability with my team-mates, and they too somewhat came into the same conclusion.

Ino decided that she will ask his father to either allow her to meet with Hiashi-san to have a word with him or his father should do it for her, she wanted to tell the implication of Neji's miss perception and she wanted to try to persuade Hiashi-san to explain himself to Neji.

Shikamaru would ask his father to help Inoichi-san to convince Hiashi-san too. While I will somehow help Naruto getting stronger. Don't get me wrong, I won't train him myself. But, I was more than capable to find someone to train him either with money power or my family's connection, maybe both.

I can only sigh at myself, why do I have to be so meddlesome? But, if I let things take it course then Hinata-chan would be implicated in a bad way in one way or another. At least if I steer the path, I would be able to minimalize the bad effect that it may cause.

"Hey, let's go eat then to the onsen. I need to refresh my tired body..."

Ino's eyes sparkled when I mentioned onsen, while Shikamaru also looked interested in it. We visited Hinata-chan and Lee first, but seeing that they're resting we excused ourselves and went to have our lunch.

"Oh, you want to go to an onsen without inviting me?"

Asuma-sensei was approaching us, behind him was a bald man with dark eyes and very thick eyebrows. The said man wore the attire of something that made him looked like a monk.

"Yo, this is my old friend, Chiriku. Chiriku, these are my proud students, Chouji, Shikamaru, Ino."

We exchanged greetings and threw some pleasantries at each other. Chiriku-san was a very polite man, as far as I can tell, he appeared as a calm and composed individual.

"Anyway, I was kidding. You can enjoy yourself in an onsen by yourself, I want to accompany my old friend here. But, meet me the day after tomorrow at eight near the waterfall inside the Nara forest. You should rest for tomorrow, okay?" He waved goodbye, so we went to eat at the nearby restaurant.

We decided to went to the public onsen at the east edge of the village, so after our stomach was full, we went there immediately. We parted way, me and Shikamaru to the men section while Ino to the women section. As I and Shikamaru have done changing our clothes, we heard a voice...

"OOH---!!! WHAT CREATIVITY!!! YOU'RE A GENIUS!!!"

We came into the onsen and... we saw Naruto transformed into a n.a.k.e.d girl in front of a white-haired old man while doing a s.e.xy pose.

Maybe,

Just maybe, we have seen what we shouldn't.

Gosh, what has the world become?