To Heal a Broken Heart (Sequel to Torn Between Two)

Chapter 25

Today the final rounds were going to start for the Chunin Exams. After about two months of it being on hold, I spent it training and preparing for the next wave of assassins who would try and come for me. 

A lot has happened in the past month. Hayate ended up getting murdered and now Genma is in charge of the final rounds. 

I was walking with Kurenai and Asuma down to the arena. We decided we were going to watch the match together and I was rooting for Naruto of course.

We took our seats and I could overhear everyone talking about how they couldn't wait to see Sasuke's match or Neji's match. I even overheard some talking about that Sand ninja named Gaara. 

The Kages from the other villages were watching from a booth higher up and the competitors stood in the middle of the field. Two of them were missing though, that red-headed kid and Sasuke. 

This reminded me of the time when my team and I were competing in these rounds. I also remembered when Rin teased me for being jealous of Kuroshi's teammate because of how she kept using her "feminine charm" against Obito. Her words exactly.

I smiled a bit at the memory and snapped back to reality when everyone started clapping. I joined in too.

I looked around seeing that Naomi was sitting with her family and they weren't too far away from us. She nodded at me and I gave her a small smile and turned back to face the competitors. 

The first match was Naruto and Neji. 

I have to admit, I was a bit worried for Naruto since he's facing Naomi's little brother. From what Naomi told me, her brother was, even more, harsher than she used to be. He also inherited most of her strength too. She told me she helped train him. 

"He won't win," I overheard someone say. "There's no way he'll be able to win against a Hyuga,"

I rolled my eyes at how rude they were being towards Naruto. Yeah, I was worried, but that doesn't mean I'll doubt his skills. Jiraiya trained him, so I knew his skills improved way more than before. Jiraiya was able to train me pretty well, so I had some faith in him.

Naruto threw two kunais towards Neji first thing, but Neji caught it and caught the others that were being thrown at him. Naruto then attempted close combat, but then he realized that it wouldn't work against Neji since he knew how to hit chakra points.

I could tell Naruto was growing a bit weary at how many times he was dodging and being pushed away. 

Neji suddenly caught him off guard and hit him in the chest, then hit him in the right shoulder with his two fingers. I recognized that move. 

Naruto was smirking confidently and said something to him that I couldn't hear from here. He made hand seals and four clones appeared. They managed to land a few hits on Neji, but Neji was able to beat all four clones with his palm.

Neji was glaring at Naruto, but I couldn't tell what they were saying since we were sitting high up here. I did recognize that look though, but Neji's look was more intense than Naomi's was.

I glanced over at Naomi and she looked lost in her thoughts. I knew her relationship with Neji was strained, she kind of told me that things changed once her father had died and how her brother didn't take his death very well. 

I turned back around to face the fight and saw that Naruto had an army of clones attacking Neji, but Neji spun around quickly and knocked all of them back with a powerful force of chakra. I realized Neji was using the same move that Naomi knew, which was the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms. 

I winced when I saw Naruto getting hit by those. I knew exactly how that felt. I was also worried about him, since I tend to worry about him a lot.