Naruto Repurposed

Chapter 16

He was as ready as he could hope for as he walked to the stadium, remembering his promise to his Jiji last night about not trying to stretch himself too thin, and concentrate on the fight in front of him. They had met for a meal at Ichiraku's, and were able to talk for a bit about the supposed upcoming invasion they still expected from Sound and Sand, and how the Hokage had started criminal proceedings against the three corrupt members of the Civilian Council. All of their findings had been turned over to the other Council Members just last night, in an attempt to implicate and catch another pair of them in a compromising position that would warrant their removal as well.

He was still unsure how much to listen to his Jiji's warnings though, as he could still keep most of his focus on the matches in front of him, his clones were a very valuable resource and were aplenty throughout Konoha. After he left dinner last night, he had continued spawning clones, a hundred at a time that he split off to spread out throughout the underground tunnels underneath Konoha. Along with the several thousand that were already present, Konoha was currently playing host to over 20,000 Naruto shadow clones just lying in wait under every sector of the village except the one that he had yet to penetrate, but suspected led to another section of underground tunnels that were currently being used by someone else.

The clones were all lying in wait for any signal that an invasion started, and were instructed to help out as much as possible by defending the civilians and protecting Konoha and his precious people. Just that morning he had gone by Ichiraku's with clone-pins for Teuchi and Ayame, before loading up with a generous portion of his favorite food to start the day just right. Now he was slowly making his way towards the stadium, thinking about everything that had happened recently, and hoping he and his clones were ready for what he was expecting to come today.

"Good luck, Naruto," came the small voice of Hinata Hyuuga, as the lavender haired girl ducked her head shyly, as Naruto came upon Team 8 wishing Shino Aburame good luck as well, and getting the other members of her team to turn towards him with varying expressions on their faces.

"Thanks Hinata," whispered Naruto back quietly, "I'll teach Neji a good lesson too ...just for you."

"N-Naruto-kun?" gasped Hinata in a blush as her crush moved away from her after smiling and winking, not having any idea how he made her feel.

Hinata ignored the grumbling of Kiba, who had been complaining about Naruto's underhanded tactics still, gave Shino another smile and nod before taking Kiba's and Kurenai's arms and leading them inside to get good seats. She wasn't missing this for anything, and was also still thinking about Naruto and how strong and confident he looked and acted now, nothing like his earlier goofier self, and wondered how that translated to his actual skills. He had defeated Kiba so quickly, cheating if you asked Kiba himself, but she hadn't really seen him fight for long or go all out against anybody, and she wondered if he was going to be strong enough to defeat Neji, as her cousin was considered a prodigy for a good reason.

Hinata took a moment to notice that she was sitting nearby some of the other rookies from her class, as she spotted Ino and Choji with their team leader Asuma, who Kurenai instantly went to sit with. She also recognized Tenten from her cousin's team, and got to watch as Sakura arrived shortly after her and instantly started bickering with Ino. She looked up into some of the better surrounding boxes, seeing the Hokage in the nicest of them all, but mostly looking at the one belonging to her Father and Clan, and knew that they were all excited to see their prized Neji fight, and gave a small smile as she hoped and even expected Naruto to dash any hopes they had.

Naruto arrived in the competitors booth on the opposite side of the stadium from the Hokage booth, and noticed that everyone seemed to be present already except his teammate. Gaara and the other two sand siblings were casually standing at one end, while the remaining Konoha fighters stood opposite them trading glares. Shino and Shikamaru were both giving the Sand genin a lot of room, and seemed to be standing together more out of necessity than any real camaraderie, as neither boy was overy social.