the first fight

Yawning loudly. John sat up in bed. He rubbed his eyes as the sun just rose up over the horizon right into his bedroom, disturbing his sleep John got out of bed and got dressed and cheaked his bag to make sure that he had everything he might need with him. He met Hinata at the door to the house

" John I'll be cheering you on. Kiba, Lee, and Tenten too, we'll all be cheering you on" Hinata said

"Yeah, thanks, Hinata" John said with a smile in return, John and Hinata as they step out of the house they walked towards the stadium. John had to part with her when they came to the main entrance. While Hinata would have to take a seat high above the arena while John would enter with the other contestants through a large gate.

There, he met up with Ino and Sakura, who were waiting there among with the other contestants. "So John you ready to become a Chunin?", Sakura asked with a smile. John could tell something had boosted her confidence a great deal. But whether it was Kurenais training or her being happy to see him after not seeing him for a month

John nodded of course with a confident grin. "Of course. I'm ready to see us all become Chunin, Sakura" he said, making both of 'his' girls grin in return. All they anxiety was blown away by this simply sentence.

He looked around. Temari was there, sticking close to her brother. But, as she noticed his eyes on her, she turned and gave him a small, almost unnoticeable nod, which John returned. Then there was Neji. John fist tightened as he recalled the promise he had made to avenge Hinata. Then he noticed that shino was missing "hey where' shino at, John asked

"he dropped out so i'll be fighting Gaara" Shikamaru

"Everyone ready?" the proctor asked and then motioned the Genin to follow him. Doing as they were told, the ten finalists walked into the arena where they were greeted by a roaring crowd. John could see Ino and Sakura swallow nervously there for a second. Not that he could blame them.

They lined up in the middle of the spacious arena where the Special Jounin and then the Hokage appearing along with the Kazekage up on a balcony gave a speech. John looked at the cloaked man ' that's not Temari and Gaaras father', he thought.

But his attention was quickly drawn back to the here and now. "The first match! John Doe vs Neji! Hyuuga" the same proctor with the bandana-headband, shadowy eyes and coughs announced loudly to the assembled crowd.

At the mark, the other participants retreated to a balcony that was let into the wall of the arena. Now, it was just John and Neji and the referee down here in the battleground, The two youths stared at each other for a moment, {you got anything to say to me" Neji asks

" i vow to win this fight for Hinata" John says

Seeing both contestants were ready, the proctor looked between the two one last time and yelled "Begin!".

John was quick to jump as far back as he could. 'Okay, just remember: This guy is great at close range fighting, can't let him touch me or I'll end up not being able to use my chakra.' John thought to himself as he brought out a few kunai. and threw them up in the stands, John comrades watched as John and Neji began their fight. "Good thinking John, keep your distance.", Kiba muttered as Tenten grinned. "Don't worry about John With little hints I gave him about Neji and with him seeing how he fights, John has an edge over that jerk."

Hinata also wanted to add she had told John a few tricks to the Hyuuga way of fighting but kept quiet about that little information for the moment. It wasn't the time to be saying such things anyway, seeing as her boyfriend was about to fight.

"shadow clone Jutsu!" John called out as he crossed his fingers and formed a sign, as a small goup of the shadow clones popped into existence around him. "Let's see if those eyes of yours can tell the real me apart from these.", the John clones all said together. Nejis scowl on his face caught many off guard, wondering why the Hyuuga prodigy was reacting this way. But the judges watching the match just grinned as much as any who had figured out John tricks

"Well now, that's an interesting trick. Because the shadow clones distribute chakra equally, the Hyuugas eyes can't tell the clones apart from his opponent.", one judge said with a smirk.

"Pretty clever, using his strength against him and turning it into a weakness.", the other judge added as they noted down the strategy being used by the silver shinobi before them.

Neji however then grinned as he charged towards the mass of clones before him. "I don't need to know who is the real one, since you would place yourself as far from me as you can, I need only find the one at the end of the line!", Neji yelled as he began destroying clones left and right before making it to the last John. "Now I have you!", Neji yelled as he hit the John right in the stomach.

Everyone watched with held breath as it seemed the Hyuuga had put an end to the match quickly before the John before him grinned. "Rule number one of being a ninja: Not everything is what it seems!", he said before disappearing in a cloud of smoke that made everyone look in surprise

meanwhile when Neji is attacking the clones John was summoning Pakkun and the rest of the ninja dogs to attack Neji from underground. pakkun told him that they will need some time to reach him.

"stop Hiding John Fate has decided I win this match from the beginning, it is useless to think otherwise." Neji stated as he looked to find John

"Fate, huh? Well, let me tell you something." John said as he walked out from behind a tree "I don't believe in such things, especially that we are unable to do something about it" John said, looking across to his opponent

"Really? Well then, I suppose I should tell you about the curse of the Hyuuga clan.", Neji said as he got a reaction from John he wasn't expecting John started to laugh.

"Hehe, your a little late to tell me about that. I already got told by Hinata about your clans way of seperating the two houses, about that seal on your head that marks you as a servant to them and makes you have to do as they tell you, and so what?" John asked as Nejis scowl grew. "When you were fighting Hinata-chan in the preliminaries, you weren't fighting her." John said as a grin came to his face.

"You were fighting the fate you use as an excuse to give up." John said

Neji responded angrily. "Well then, if you're so wise, why is a weak main house allowed to be happy when a strong cadet branch is not?", Neji asked

John laughed bitterly again. "Who said Hinata was happy?" John grinned at Nejis unreadable face. "When Hinata told me about it, she was so sad that her cousin was forced to do something he didn't want to, but you know what she did to change that?" John grinned

"She reached out and found people to support her and while you go on about how your fate is determined, she is still trying to make it better for you. See, because I made several promises to Hinata-chan and one of them is that I will change the Hyuuga clan when I become Hokage." John said

Neji sneered. "To be the Hokage, you have to be strong and born to that title. You however are a failure and so you have no chance to ever get it.".

"Now, Neji Hyuuga, I'll show you why you should never think fate determines anything!" John said as he started running towards Neji ana focusing his chakra in his hand when John was ten feet away from Neji, Pakkun and the rest of the ninja Dogs jumped out of the ground and latched onto Neji to keep him from moving "Rasengan" John yelled as he hit Neji and sent him flying into a wall

"The winner of the match is John Doe"