A Flash to The Future - Naruto FanFic

Chapter 18 - Neji

(A/N: A special shout out to Torishu from FanFiction for inspiring a part of this chapter. Please check out their little NejiTen Oneshot. Its short, sweet, and to the point.)

Neji ignored the looks from his uncle, cousin, and teammates as he walked towards the sealing array. He knew for a fact why they were looking at him like that. His abrupt shout about wanting to go next had caught them off guard, but to be totally honest, he head surprised himself as well.

At the beginning of the meeting, he had already resolved into taking a turn into seeing his future. The Hokage had ordered it after all. But he was not looking forward to it. I mean, who would want to see themselves living a destiny that fate had already decreed, as nothing more than a servant. But those thoughts were quickly thrown out the window on the first future he had seen.

He had of course heard of Naruto. For a brief time, the boy had been in his class when he tried to pass the Genin Exams for the second time and had failed. From what Neji had heard, he had only passed this year on a technicality and was the year's dead-last. To put it in simpler words, he was destined for failure.

Yet the informationn present, contradicted any of those stories. Not only did the boy grow to become a Kage, he had grown extremely powerful even surpassing the First Hokage. Hell, he was probably the strongest genin of their year. Those things along brought along other questions. Within a short amount of time, the dead-last who no one really cared about became an enigma that everyon was trying to figure out. An event like that is unprecedented and should not have happened, yet it had. Or will happen. Maa, time traveling was confusing.

That managed to shake his belief in fate, but the boy would have chalked it up to the boy being an anomaly. Yet, it happened again. The shy and weak-willed Hinata had grown into being the confident mother of eleven children, which was more of a shock to the boy. She also was able to stand beside such a prominent and powerful figure. Again, that defied the wheel of fate.

With his belief being shaken at its core, Neji felt something he hadn't felt since the death of his father. Hope. Maybe.....just maybe, there was a chance for him. A chance for what exactly? He had no idea, but something....more?

Was he selfish for his thoughts? For hoping for a life beyond the grip of the Hyuga Clan? For a family to call his own? All he ever wanted, was to live a long and happy life......

Fate was a cruel mistress in the seduction of life. It was a tango of destiny.

Once Neji was on the matrix, he began to pump chakra into the seal. The seal once again glowed a brilliant blue. The screen reappeared a projection of Neji's future began to play.

Was sitting in a bed the medic ward of the Chunnin Exam stadium. He couldn't believe it. Naruto Uzumaki. That orange wearing idiot. The dead-last. Had defeated him. Him, a prodigy. A genius of one of Konoha's most prominent clans. The Hyuga Clan. The blonde was fated to lose. It was his destiny. He was a failure. So then the question was how? How did Naruto Uzumaki, an idiot dead-last, defeat him, a genius and prodigy of his clan?

"Isn't that like two months from now?" Shikamaru said curiously.

"It would seem so" the Hokage commented as he continued to watch the screen.

His mind went back to the conversation they had upon his defeat. He scolded himself for being defeated by the blonde's signature ability. However, what had shocked him was the blonde's words. Upon winning, Naruto had revealed that clone techniques were once his worst ability. Before the proctor declared the winner, Naruto told him to stop holding his natural genius back with trivial concerns about fate. He said that we created our own destinies and while for some it comes natural, for others, it comes with hard work.