Uzumaki Naruto: Birth of the New Demon King by The Engulfing Silence

Chapter 8: Bringing Your A Game

A light breeze blew through the arena, kicking up a small cloud of dust that passed between the two opponents who were standing on opposite ends of each other. Naruto had a light smile as his face, his posture was somewhat slouched, and he looked for all the world like he wasn't about to face the kid who was last years Rookie of the Year. Neji on the other hand was sneering.

The long-haired Hyuuga genin opened his mouth to speak. He had found out a long time ago that if you insulted people while remaining as cool and collected as possible, it made your opponents angry and unable to think clearly. And because all Hyuuga were taught to read other people, and keep an impassive face at all times his mocking was made even more effective.

However, before he could even get a word out of his mouth, the Hyuuga prodigy found a foot being smashed into his face, hard. It felt as if the entire right side of his face had caved in, and his jaw had cracked. There was a moment where his head was snapped to the side, right before he was sent flying backwards. So surprising and painful was this hit that he couldn't even flip himself around to land on his feet, and ended up eating dirt. Neji skidded back across the ground for several feet, leaving a decent sized trench in his wake before skidding to a stop. For several seconds he just laid there, wondering what the hell had hit him.

What he hadn't seen and the entire audience had, or to be more accurate, seen but couldn't keep track of was Naruto. The blond had noticed Neji had been about to open his mouth, and already knew the overrated Hyuuga boy had a propensity for flapping those gums of his. So he had decided to act before Neji could say anything, making liberal use of Shundo to appear in front of the long-haired genin and plant a boot in his face.

The speed technique wasn't as effective as it usually was, Naruto figured it was about four times slower then his normal shundo. Not that he hadn't expected something like that. Naruto was not using his youki, as that was poisonous to any human that was not a Jinchurikki - and he didn't want to kill the prick, just make him suffer - and even they would have trouble with his youki. Instead he was using his human chakra, which while much stronger then any genin and on par with a Kage, was no where near as vast as his youki.

'I can't use to many of those,' he decided as he checked his chakra stores. That one move had used 1/4th of his reserves. That was the soul reason only high A or S class demons could use Shundo, because it required vast reserves of power that most demons simply didn't have. 'I'll rely on my normal techniques from now on. Still, I'm rather pleased how this match has started out.'

Not wanting to lose his advantage Naruto blurred as he ran towards the just now getting up Neji. The older genin saw him coming and if the slow widening of his eyes and the dilation of his pupils were any indication, he was rather surprised by the blond's speed.

Neji was only just able to block the blond's first attack, a palm thrust to the chest. He used the fluid style of the Hyuuga clan, the Jyuuken to redirect the attack. At the same time he poured chakra into Naruto's arm, knowing that even if it wouldn't be as effective since he had yet to get the chance to turn on his Byakugan, it would still hurt the blond attacking him.

However, once more to Neji's shock, it seemed as if Naruto was completely unaffected by the invading chakra. The blond merely twisted his body and launched a reverse heel kick, one which Neji dodged effectively by moving to the side. As the blond continued to attack, Neji continued to block. Even without his eyes he could see the boys movements, even if just barely.

Little did the Hyuuga prodigy know that all of Naruto's attacks were merely a distraction. The blond Uzumaki's true plan came to the front when several hands sprung from the ground and grabbed onto to Neji's feet and legs. Said boy looked down in shock. "What -" he didn't have a chance to say any more then that as Naruto grabbed the boy by the head and launched a devastating attack with his knee into the boys face. The clones disappeared and once again the Hyuuga prodigy was sent flying.