Chapter 15! Kinda. It's way short, but it's what I had. GUYS I HAVE NO EXCUSE... well... I kinda do... BUT THE POINT IS I'M GETTING BACK IN THE GAME! So now I need all your help to remind me of things that I promised you and plot holes that need fixing. ENJOY!

Last time on Underneath the Underneath:

Naruto, not really understanding the proceedings but wanting to input anyway, resorted to her usual loud self, "Yeah! Go Hinata! Kick his butt!" Naruto and Hinata locked eyes for a moment and Hinata's resolve strengthened.

"I-I won't give up," she replied and turned to the stairs.

Neji on the floor raised a cynical eyebrow for a moment, What a bunch of losers, his lips twitched into a hateful sneer for half a second before regaining his usual indifferent appearance.

"Hinata-sama."

"Neji-nii-san."

"They're related!?" Naruto screamed disbelievingly.

They both stood in Jyūken forms after Hayate had started the match, waiting for the unspoken signal to begin. In an instant they were at it, exchanging blows almost faster than the eye could see and ending with Hinata being shoved away from the center of the exchange to land on one knee.

The tension between the two was enough to stifle even Naruto's cheers.

"Neji-nii-san," Hinata started with her head bowed, "you were always more talented at our clan jutsu than I was," she glanced up at the stands where Naruto was before looking back down to where Neji stood. Instead of the fear or defeat Neji expected to see her clear eyes held a determination that was entirely foreign to him in his cousin.

"Giving up then, Hinata-sama?" he asked with a sneer.

Her eyes hardened unexpectedly, "I will not give up, Neji-nii-san, I will never give up again," slowly she stood and reached a hand back to her pouch, "you might be better at our clan jutsu, but that isn't the only way that shinobi fight."

She was moving forward then, kunai in hand. It was unexpected but not unavoidable and Neji stepped neatly to the side as Hinata threw the blade using her forward momentum for added speed. It flew forward and embedded into the wall underneath the stands, near the floor.

"Too simple," Neji supplied and made to counter attack as Hinata came close.

She knew a counter attack was coming so Hinata ducked a Jyūken strike on instinct as she twirled past continuing her forward movement. Neji turned quickly to face her just as she pivoted on one foot and launched another kunai. Again Neji deftly avoided the knife and it lodged into the wall opposite the first at about the same height.

Neji wondered at the blatantly simple change in Hinata's strategy, she hadn't completely dodged him as she ran past, he'd closed another two of her tenketsu even as she ducked the full strike. Yet her eyes remained defiant to her fate. Neji scoffed at the notion that she seemed to think she could do something against him.

She was on the attack again, falling back into an exchange of Jyūken blows. Neji easily kept her pace and matched her strikes, closing her tenketsu as he went. Her strikes were becoming less and less effective as the match continued on and she wasn't even aware yet. Neji took a step back to re-center his balance before the next round of blows but found resistance to the move. Just at that moment Hinata launched a strike meant to unbalance him further and he suddenly found his back foot unable continue moving back.

Neji shifted seamlessly from offensive strikes to the defensive form of Jyūken and he struggled more than he would admit out loud to regain his balance and the upper hand. In a move that was worthy of his prodigious nature Neji blocked a particularly vicious strike and pushed back, giving him a few precious moments to bend back onto a hand and kick out with his feet. Hinata was pushed away several meters as Neji completed the flip and was finally given a few seconds to figure out what had knocked him off balance in the first place.

Fine-grade wire had been attached to the kunai that Hinata had thrown before and now there was a nearly invisible line stretched across the room. The Hyūga branch member berated himself for not seeing it before, then he noticed the low level genjutsu meant to divert attention attached to it.

"Clever, Hinata-sama," he looked back to the main family member with a victorious look in his eyes, "but it's not enough."

Hinata had finally noticed his closing of her tenketsu and she looked to him in horror because she realized what it meant. Her Jyūken no longer had any force behind it without the use of her chakra. Once again, however, instead of the defeat or helplessness Neji expected her horror turned back into determination, "I will not give up!"

"Then I'll just have to force you to accept your fate," Neji replied. Now aware of the placement of the wire he easily dodged over it in a viciously quick forward attack, Hinata nearly didn't have time to block and did so only sloppily. Off balance now she had no hope of avoiding the full force of Neji's powerfully precise hits.

The barrage lasted only a moment longer before Neji finished it with a final blow that sent his cousin to the ground unconscious.

"Winner, Hyūga Neji!" Hayate called out. Kurenai appeared on the ground to care for her student while Neji walked calmly back to his place in the stands with a self-satisfied smirk firmly in place.

"Call for the medics!" Kurenai suddenly shouted, "She's not breathing!"

Neji ignored the commotion behind him as he walked. His last strike had been aimed to disrupt the chakra pathways around her heart, true, but it was nothing that a good medic couldn't fix. In all honesty he had been planning to do much more than just that, but her trick with the wire had actually impressed him slightly. Maybe her fate wasn't as low as he'd first estimated.

He ignored the expected disapproving looks from his sensei and teammate. He had kept his promise to not use the match in his grudge against the main branch, at least mostly, so he saw no reason why he had to answer to them.

What he didn't expect was a little blonde loser to stalk up to him.

"You didn't have to go so far!" she shouted in his face.

Naruto watched with frantic eyes as the medics rushed into the room right after Kurenai's announcement, only Kakashi's hand on her shoulder kept her from jumping the rail like Kiba and Shino had both done, "you'll only get in their way," her sensei said not unkindly.

She only looked away when the medics had Hinata moved to a stretcher and taken from the room. Seeing as how they had both finished their matches Kiba and Shino followed after. Her blue eyes found the person who had caused this and she stalked right up to him (ignoring Lee's warning cry of "Naru-san!").

"You didn't have to go so far!" she scolded loudly to the Hyūga boy, earning the attention of most of the crowd.

His resulting sneer, while probably intimidating to normal genin, had little effect on Naruto, used to the glares and mistrust of nearly the whole village, "She is weak and will remain so. It is a mercy to show her that fate now."

To the Hyūga's surprise, however, that only made Naruto smirk right back at him, "If you think that Hinata-chan is weak, then you're in for a big surprise. She may be out of this tournament now, but just you watch! She'll come back stronger! That's her nindō! She'll overcome anything to accomplish her goals, even you! Datebayo!"

In a deceptively calm voice Neji replied, "Her destiny it to fail. There's nothing she can do to change that," and without another word he turned on his heel and headed out the door. He didn't need a wannabe kunoichi giving him a headache.

He didn't pause in his steps when the blonde shouted after him to stop and listen and was soon out the door.

Naruto glared after him, Kakashi sighed near her glad he didn't have to stop yet another attempt at fighting outside the ring.

"Neji-san has always believed this, Naru-san," Lee came up beside them, looking after where his teammate had disappeared to.

"Well it's a load of crap!" Naruto glared in the same direction, but her face fell as she thought about her past, "Destiny doesn't have anything to do with it, 'tebayo."

Lee, perceptive as he was, recognized her tone as an emotion that he shared, "Which is why I will prove him wrong through the power of Hard Work!"

Naruto looked over at him and his ridiculous pose and grinned, "Yeah!"

The screen above the area flashed again, cutting off anymore conversation.

Dosu Kinuta - BYE

Dosu scowled underneath his bandages in response. He had wanted to get some payback on the other genin for not having found Sasuke in the forest. He turned without comment and left the arena hall, having no more purpose to be there.

"Dosu Kinuta will advance to the finals with a bye," Hayate called. The screen flashed again.

Sabaku no Gaara – Kin Tsuchi

Before much else could be said Kin shouted, almost sounding fearful, "I forfeit!"

Hayate rolled his eyes, but proceeded, "Sabaku no Gaara will proceed to the finals."

Akimichi Chōji – Uzumaki Naru

Ino snorted, "Pft, this should be easy. Go get him, Chōji!"

Chōji calmly ignored her and turned to Shikamaru who had narrowed his eyes in the direction of the cheering Naruto as she jumped the rails to the floor below.

"Troublesome," Shikamaru muttered, "Don't underestimate him."

Chōji nodded in return and pulled himself over the rail to meet his opponent in the ring.

And Scene! Okay. like I said it was super short. BUT I needed to get something out there to let you guys know that I'm starting again. for reals. I finally finished the math degree that was consuming my soul (mostly my time and creativity) and started a full time job where I only work 40 hours a week (instead of full time school plus two part time jobs). And now that I'm kinda settled and happy I have some time to get back into my writing because I totally promised you guys that I wouldn't abandon this story. I DIDN'T LIE! So over the next little while I'll be going back over it and maybe rewriting and replacing some stuff before putting up more chapters and more fem!Naru goodness. Just so everyone is aware you should all thank the following people for keeping me motivated to write even after so long: suicune4ever, Dragon-of-Chaos, RatchetTheWrenchThrower, ytygr, ofpixies, Faery66, Cirno is baka, sefyr, ZoidTheVoid, silverhawk88, divergentlover523, and several guests and other people that I'm sure I'm missing.

Let me know what you think! Pakkun will be very happy with you if you do! ;)