With the other finalists departing to the preparation area, only Naruto, Neji, and the referee, Shiranui Genma, now stood in the middle of the vast and now seemingly empty field.
The cheers of the audience began to grow louder.
At this moment, Naruto and Neji stood facing each other, separated by a distance of several meters that felt so far yet so close.
Genma Shiranui stood right between them, slightly to the side, observing them carefully with his sharp peripheral vision, the senbon in his mouth moving slowly.
"Now is the first battle of the third round and final stage of the Konohagakure Joint Chunin Selection Exams,"
Genma began his official announcement with a voice slightly louder and clearer to be heard by all the spectators in the now quieting stadium, waiting with bated breath.
"Featuring, from Konoha Village, Uzumaki Naruto! Against, also from Konoha Village, Hyuga Neji! Are both parties ready to begin the fight?"
The latter was the latter.
Neji snorted softly, almost inaudibly, a very clear hint of sarcasm on his thin lips as he looked at Naruto:
"It seems you have something you want to say to me before we start, you talkative loser?"
Naruto clenched his fists even tighter until his knuckles turned white, his blue eyes unconsciously narrowing slightly, looking at Neji with a sharp and determined gaze.
He extended his right hand and pointed straight with his index finger towards Neji:
"I told you before in the preliminary round, didn't I, Neji?! I will definitely win against you today! And I will prove to you and to everyone that the damn fate you always talk about can be changed with hard work and an unyielding spirit!"
In the spectator stands, Hinata Hyuga, who had just arrived with her father, Hiashi Hyuga, immediately covered her mouth with both hands in shock and slight worry seeing Naruto's courage.
Naruto's confident actions and words were a very clear reminder of what Naruto had said when she was knocked down and almost killed by Neji in the preliminary round.
At that time, amidst her pain and despair, Naruto swore to avenge Hinata and change Neji's view on fate.
Neji merely looked at Naruto with a cold and flat gaze, as if looking at an insignificant little insect that could only make noise.
This person's eyes, Naruto's, were indeed full of overflowing confidence and looked so sincere, and he didn't seem to be just trying to act brave or bluff without substance.
But... confidence alone would never be enough to change a fate that had been determined since birth.
"This is precisely what makes it even more fun and interesting,"
Neji finally smiled indifferently, a smile that looked so disdainful and full of conviction in his own victory.
Thick blue veins began to faintly protrude around Neji's temples, connecting directly to his pale white, pupilless eyes, indicating that his Byakugan was now fully active and ready to analyze every movement of his opponent.
As Naruto's reflection was clearly mirrored in his snow-white pupils, Neji assumed the Hyuga clan's signature fighting stance, Jūken (Gentle Fist), with a solid stance and open hands ready to strike chakra points.
"I really can't wait to see the expression of panic, despair, and destruction in your eyes when you finally face the bitter reality that the fate of a loser like you can never change, no matter how hard you try."
"Stop talking nonsense about fate and losers, you arrogant bastard!"
Naruto exclaimed loudly, his eyes now remaining calm yet radiating a determination that burned like fire.
Although his anger from all of Neji's insults was beginning to smolder within his chest, somehow he managed to remain relatively rational and focused on the upcoming fight.
Perhaps because of Hana's mental support, or perhaps because he had indeed learned a lot from previous experiences.
Naruto could face his opponent with relative calmness, which was actually an insult or an anomaly to the word 'Naruto' that was usually always synonymous with carelessness, impulsiveness, and thoughtless shouts.
But then again, although this person often looked impulsive and foolish on the surface, he also turned out to be quite organized and calculating when the situation was truly urgent and he was serious, and he could always produce some surprising and unexpected results at the last moment.
Shiranui Genma glanced at the two of them alternately with more scrutiny.
He was also one of the spectators present during the preliminary round, so of course, he knew exactly about the rather heated personal feud and the very strong ideological difference between these two Konoha Genin.
Wasn't now the most opportune time to start this long-awaited fight?
The right and controlled amount of emotional fluctuation from both fighters could sometimes make a battle much more extraordinary, more dramatic, and more interesting for everyone to watch.
He also, frankly, was slightly looking forward to what kind of performance the Kyuubi Jinchuriki brat, Uzumaki Naruto, would show this time.
The wind picked up again slightly at several points in the vast arena, but this time the gusts of wind no longer carried the sound of cheers or whispers from the spectators.
Instead, the wind seemed to press down on Naruto and Neji, lifting fine dust from the arena surface like a small whirlwind dancing wildly in the sky.
A strong sense of oppression and a very thick hostile aura now radiated from both of them, colliding violently with each other in the middle of the arena and continuously increasing in intensity with each passing second, creating an atmosphere so tense it felt suffocating.
Shiranui Genma looked at Naruto with a hint of surprise hidden behind his flat face.
He didn't expect that the brat who usually looked the noisiest, most careless, and most underestimated would have such strong and stable momentum and aura pressure, almost on par with that of the Hyuga genius, Neji.
But now he was the referee, and his duty was to start this fight as soon as possible.
Seeing that the atmosphere had almost reached its peak and both fighters looked ready to destroy each other, he raised his right hand high and swung it down with a fierce, fast, and decisive motion in front of everyone's expectant, bated breath:
"First match..."
"BEGIN!"
As those words were spoken loudly and echoed throughout the stadium, Shiranui Genma instantly disappeared from his position between Naruto and Neji in the blink of an eye, as if swallowed by the air.
The use of the Shunshin no Jutsu technique had become a basic and mandatory skill for high-level ninjas, and Shiranui Genma's Shunshin was clearly no weaker than that of an average Jōnin, perhaps even much faster and more efficient.
However, the main focus of the spectators and also the two fighters now was not on him as the referee who disappeared in a cool and mysterious way, but on the two contestants who began to move at high speed immediately after he finished speaking and gave the signal for the fight to start.
Naruto was the first to react. He immediately formed hand seals.
Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!
A large amount of light blue chakra exploded from his body simultaneously with the completion of the hand seals, turning into a thick puff of white smoke that instantly filled most of the area around him, obscuring vision.
POOF! POOF! POOF! POOF! POOF! POOF! POOF! POOF!
Neji's body, which was just about to move forward gracefully to launch the first signature Jūken attack, suddenly stopped.
He frowned slightly, his smooth forehead wrinkling as he looked at the dozens, perhaps even nearly a hundred, identical Naruto figures now appearing simultaneously all over the field at almost the same moment, surrounding him from all directions.
The Hyuga clan's Byakugan indeed possessed an extraordinary and greatly feared ability, namely to be able to see through various ninjutsu, high-level illusions (genjutsu), and even analyze and predict an opponent's physical techniques (taijutsu) with terrifying accuracy.
Its function in terms of "detection" and analysis of chakra flow and circulation system within an opponent's body far exceeded the capabilities of the Sharingan.
Ninjas from the Hyuga clan could use their Byakugan to clearly see every Tenketsu point and chakra flow within an opponent's body, ignore the activation of low to mid-level illusions, and see and predict every movement of an opponent's physical techniques with very high accuracy, making them very difficult opponents to face in close-quarters combat.
However, the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu technique used by Naruto was very magical, unique, and annoying for Byakugan users.
This technique worked by dividing the user's chakra evenly and perfectly into several equal parts to then create physical clones that were truly identical to the original body, not just mere optical illusions.
These shadow clones also had the special power to be able to use various ninjutsu, illusions, physical skills, and even in some very rare cases, kekkei genkai (bloodline abilities) of the original user, albeit with certain limitations on the endurance and amount of chakra each clone possessed.
Because each shadow clone had the exact same amount of chakra as the original body (divided equally) and was a real physical entity itself, not just a shadow or illusion, this technique was very difficult to see or differentiate by both Byakugan and Sharingan.
Shadow clones were almost indistinguishable from their user's original body, even by eyes as sharp as the Byakugan, except for the fact that they would instantly disappear into a puff of white smoke upon receiving a sufficiently strong attack or running out of chakra.
The main reason why Neji, the Hyuga genius, stopped moving forward was because he couldn't see or differentiate which was the real Naruto among the dozens, even hundreds, of shadow clones now surrounding him from all directions.
They all looked exactly the same to his Byakugan, emitting identical amounts of chakra.