Maybe

Naruto vs Neji

I hope you'll forgive me for my unimaginative chapter titles, I REALLY had no idea what to put...

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Finally, it was the day.

Today, when Sakura awoke, she stayed in her bed ; the amount of stress she felt making her want to curl up and stay in her bed for the next 24 hours.
Maybe, that way, the exam wouldn't happen.

But she knew it didn't work that way, so she slowly crawled out from under her comfortable duvet to face the world.
Literally.

By the time she was ready (she had spent a long time in front of the mirror trying to style her now short hair into something remotely pretty), it was already time to go.

Taking a small sandwich she had prepared the past evening Sakura sped towards the arena and forced herself not to puke as she ate.

It was huge.
Really, really huge.
Inside, thousands of people were huddled in the stands, nearly sitting on each other. This nearly made Sakura glad that she wasn't in the public.
Nearly.

Taking a seat next to Shikamaru, Sakura noticed that neither Naruto nor Sasuke were there yet, and she scowled.

Kakashi is a real bad influence! Never has Sasuke been late before. Never! She growled under her breath, having still not forgiven the jonin.

The silence in their stand was getting awkward when Naruto, orange suit, goofy grin and all, barged in.

"I'm not late, right?!" He asked, breathless. "I kinda got lost, but I still want to show Neji bastard my awesomeness and avenge Hinata-chan dattebayo!"

"How troublesome." they heard Shikamaru mutter, "Why can't we just get this over with so I can go nap?"

Naruto was about to reply, when the proctor, Hayate-san, coughed to get their attention.

The first match was about to start.

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It was crazy, and people were all yelling, commenting and cheering.

"NAAAARRUUUTOOOO!!Show him what you got!!" Sakura shouted, pumping her fist in the air.
"You better win, Shannaro-na!!"

Next to her, the other genin were giving her weird looks, but she didn't notice, or care, too focused on the match.

Naruto was strong. He had come far from his puny Academy scores and was great at improvising. He also had the weird ability to make any human cry and change their morals, regardless of their pasts.
Sakura had seen firsthand the kind of damage he could do during their fight with the demon of the mist, and she was supporting her teammate at 100%.

Also, Kakashi still wasn't here and Sakura needed to blow off steam before her match, which definitely wasn't happening anytime soon.
Denial was such a great thing.

And, speaking of It...

"Hey, Shikamaru, who are you going to be fighting?" She asked, curious. Sakura knew he was supposed to go against one of the Oto genin that had ambushed them, but she didn't see him anywhere.

"He isn't here so I'll either fight whoever wins your match." He drawled out, looking particularly hyped."This is such a drag."

Feeling a little nervous at the thought of having to fight both Temari and maybe Shikamaru, Sakura curled her hands into fists, her nails digging into her palm.

Calm down... Slow breaths... I might not even win against Temari, stop overthinking things!

Her gaze trailed down to the fight down below, where Neji was standing victoriously over a slumped bod -- clone. It was a clone. Smirking, Sakura waited to see what Naruto would do next, and she wasn't disappointed. The boy shot out from beneath Neji, and threw a powerful punch at the Hyuga's jaw, knocking him out cold.

"SHANNARO!! I knew you could do it!" She hooted, her voice echoing in the eerily silent stadium. Her shout seemed to shake the rest of the audience out of their trance, and the bleachers erupted in claps, congratulatory(and mostly surprised) cheers.

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Hayate waited until the clamor calmed down before looking questioningly at the Hokage. Sasuke still wasn't here, and his match was due now. But...he was the last Uchiha, and probably the reason why so many people had attended the tournament. When he received the signal to announce the next match, he couldn't say he was surprised.

"Now, Sabaku no Temari, against Haruno Sakura."

The jonin waited for the two girls to come down before getting out of the way.
He was curious.

The pink haired girl had been the one to save him on the roof, or so he had heard, and he never got to thank her for it.

The Suna girl...   she, he was incredibly suspicious of.
The information he had gathered that day had nearly cost him his life, and it was her sensei that had gutted him.

(Somewhat, the Sandaime hadn't seemed that taken aback by the threat of a Suna invasion, and had even ordered Hayate to go back to his, rather public, mission. The swordsman couldn't fathom why, but he guessed the Hokage had a worthwhile reason to send his shinobi in the open after being they had been targeted.)

So, it was with a wary glint in his eye, that Gekko Hayate, tokubetsu jonin of Konoha and proctor of the chunin exam, leaned forward and watched the match unfold.

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I do not know if it was obvious but I kinda (really) hate the Sandaime.

Like, really, really, really loathe him.

Do you guys like him or nah?