My Belated Apology - Hyuga Neji x OC Fanfiction

Chapter 7

Shiyuki's POV

It's almost 1 year since Neji-kun nearly killed me.

The impact of Gentle Fist often makes me sick. I cough frequently, sometime I cough blood. Every time season changes, I catch a cold. Beside, my stamina is not good, so I fall behind everyone in training. Guy-sensei saw that I struggled to finish my 50 laps around the village, then collapsed. As a result, he reduced the intensity of my exercises, then inceased it gradually, so that I can catch up with my allies. Luckily, I learned some simple healing technics to heal myself when my sickness recrudesced.

Hinata and I became close friends. I found out that she liked some blond boy named Naruto. Neji-kun, as usual, sometime blurts out sarcasms whenever I'm exhausted, but less than before. Plus, we often have a silly and childish fight. Lee and I have learned so much from Guy-sensei - the best teacher in my opinion. Lee learned something called The Eight Inner Gates that gives him monstrous strength. He has improved considerably. Tenten and I help each other practise. She lent me her chakra weapons, and I helped her with the chakra control skill.

***

"Hey, did you hear? For the first time in five years, there're going to be rockies in this Chunin exam." Lee stands up.

"No way!  It's probably some stubborn jonins in competition or something." Tenten says as she plays with a kunai in her hand.

"No, the story is that three of them are the students of Kakashi."

"That Kakashi? Wow! I'm excited now!" I exclaim, rearranging my chakra weapons in my bag.

"Interesting... But in the end..." Neji opens his eyes after mediating. "You have to feel sorry for them."

Team 3 is ready for the Chunin exam!!

Oh, there are piles of people here. We all want to enter the room number 301, but two of the participants block it.

They punch Lee.

"Is that all you got? And you want to be a chunin? You'd better quit now."

"You're just a little kid." The other says.

"Please let us through." Tenten walks toward the door. But they punch her on the face.

"Hey!" I shout, then check if Lee and Tenten are ok.

"Intolerable!" Someone declares.

"What did you say? Don't you understand? You think that the Chunin exam is easy? Even we have failed it three straight times. Those that take this exam and end up quitting as shinobi, those that die during the exam, we've seen it all."

"Moreover, a chunin often becomes captain of military teams. The failure of a misson, the death of a comrade. That is all the captain's responsibility. It's not a position that someone inexperienced like you can undertake. And what's wrong if we just thin out those that will fail anyway on behalf of the judgers?"

"Good reason, but..." Some raven-haired boy says. "You'd better let us pass, and remove this surrounding created with genjutsu... We need to go up to the third floor."

"What is he saying?"

"...So you look through it?"

"Sakura, you know it the most clearly, right? You are an expert in genjutsu." The boy speaks to a pink-haired girl standing beside him.

"Of course! This is the second floor." She confidently says.

"But just looking through it... IS NOT ENOUGH!"

The participant starts to fight the boy. But quickly, Lee stops him with an unbelievablly swift movement. Uh-Oh.

"Hey." Neji raises his voice. "Why do you break your promise? You said that we shouldn't draw attention to ourselves."

"Because..." Lee looks at the pink-haired girl, blushing.

I face-palm. I know what this means.

"Oh no no no..." Tenten shakes her head.

"My name is Rock Lee!" Lee walks to the girl. "You're Sakura, right? Let's date! I will protect you!" Lee grins brightly, gives her a thumb-up. The nice-guy pose...

"Absolutely... no." Sakura replies.

While we are laughing, Neji calls the raven boy.

"Hey, who are you?"

"When you want to learn someone's name, you should give yours first."

The blonde, maybe Naruto, going with Sakura seems to be very jealous of the Uchiha boy. And Tenten seems to be into that Uchiha boy. Interesting.

As we are all walking to toward the third floor, Lee stops.

"Come on, Lee. What are you doing?" Tenten asks.

"Please go ahead. There's something I'd like to test. I will follow you later."