18 Chapter 18: Cousin-in-law reasoning without Flaw

Oden looked down on the village of Konoha...

'Certainly... this is a city, not a village...' Oden thought with a sigh.

Konoha had 130,000 people in population, amongst them, about 20,000 were shinobi.

Oden stared down at Konoha from the top of the first Hokage head statue.

He knew hard times were coming as the first two tests of the chunin exams had already passed.

2 out of the 3 teams that he sent for the exam had succeeded on the test while the third failed. The third group of genin stumbled onto Orochimaru, and as they had been warned, they were about to escape.

But they couldn't escape him and Orochimaru ended up killing two while one escaped thanks to luck.

Now Oden has a personal vendetta to clear with the snake.

"Sigh... so many dilemmas, what path should I take...." Oden said to himself as he felt burdened by not knowing what to do.

'Ah right, the preliminary fight for the third exams is about to begin, I should hurry along.' Oden thought as he hurried to the stadium where they were supposed to meet up.

The preliminary fights took place because too many had cleared the earlier tests, and the third exam was more of a show-off contest to attract more clients. So this fight was really about shaving off the weaklings, leaving the best fighters to attract the money.

The Hokage escaped a few of the best Jonins to stand guard here because the Jonin leaders from the other villagers would also be here and it was good to show off a bit.

In a big stadium, all the genins that cleared the

earlier test stood in a clump, looking towards the Hokage.

The Hokage had a lot of jonins standing behind him, mostly wearing green vests, which are the color of Konoha.

Behind the Hokage, the closest to him were the test examiners Ibiki Morino and Anko Mitarashi, and beside them were Oden Zaraki, Might Guy, and Kakashi Hatake followed by more Konoha Jonin.

Oden was wearing the standard green vest but instead of blue clothes underneath, he wore black. And above it, he wore a black Haori with his clan emblem on the back.

The Jonin team leaders from other villages stood slightly further away but still near the Hokage.

Oden looked at the genins, he saw many faces he knew from his past life but hadn't seen until now, such as Garaa.

Then he saw his genins, finally behind a few people, was a meek-looking Hyuga that was hiding. She had been staring at Oden since he arrived and she had gotten red, so she hid herself to continue staring at him using the Byakugan without anyone's knowledge.

The was another Hyuga that was also staring intently at Oden, but his eyes were scrutinizing.

'Hyuga... Vergil? what was his name now again? Ah right, Neiji.' Oden thought as he felt the Hyuga boys glare.

Anko Mitarashi, the examiner of the second exam stepped forward.

"Now Lord Hokage himself will explain about the third exam! Listen up and take every word he says to heart!" She shouted in warning, making all the genin listen carefully as they didn't want to miss a detail.

"They're all your my lord." She said as she stepped back.

"Very well." The Hokage uttered.

The third Hokage first explained what the third exam was really for, which made most genins nod in understanding, while others disagreed with the reasoning.

And when the time for the third exam finally came, another sickly-looking man stepped forward.

Tokubetsu Jonin Hayate Gekko, explained that the third exam was simply fighting but because there were too many, they had to have a preliminary fight which would take place instantly.

As the names were being called out for the fights, Oden felt like something was amiss.

'Eh, Ino Vs Tenten? Hinata Vs some canon fodder? Oh right, my clan members are making things slightly different.' Oden realized why the fights were slightly different

As the fight went on, it was finally Hinata's turn to fight, but as she stepped forward she looked really nervous.

She barely had any confidence, and she was even more nervous at the fact that her future husband was watching

"Hinata, as long as you do your best, you won't regret no matter the outcome. And as long as you'll do your best, I'll be happy." Oden stepped forward and spoke before the fight started, as he saw how nervous she looked.

"Cough Cough, Oden-Sama please step back and refrain from speaking to the contestant unless they are your students." Hayate the examiner spoke.

Oden complied, but he had already achieved what he wanted as Hinata Looked happy at what he said, and way more confident now.

'He is right... as long as I do my best there won't be any regrets.' Hinata thought as she clenched her fists.

The fight started and to everyone's surprise, Hinata won easily. In fact, even Hinata was surprised.

Because she was lacking in confidence she thought that she would barely be able to resist her opponent so she went all out from the beginning.

Only Oden nodded as if the outcome was obvious.

Hinata just looked at her own hands for a few seconds in confusion, before her eyes turned towards Oden.

She saw how everyone looked surprised, except for him, as if he could see that she is a kunoichi with a bright future.

Suddenly a smile broke out on her face as she looked at Oden, it wasn't the usually meek, shy smile, it was a smile that was genuine without fear.

Sadly that only lasted a few seconds as Oden smiled back and she only then realized what she was doing. Then her face got pink again.

As she ran back to the clump of genins waiting for their turn. Hyuga Neji, her older cousin stepped towards her.

"Lady Hinata, don't feel too proud just yet." Neji spoke as he caught her attention.

"What?" She said in surprise.

"A leopard doesn't change its spots, you defeated someone lowly so this was expected of even you." Neji said, totally bringing her down from her high.

"A failure will always fail, with my all seeing Byakugan I can see the deepest part of your heart, your confidence is nothing but a bluff. Desperate to hide your true self, desperate to hide from your fate, but fate is inevitable. Fate is what chains you to be a failure." Neji said as he got ready to activate his Dojutsu.

"N-NO I-I- R-really...." Hinata tried to argue back but she had become afraid once again.

Behind the others, a yellow-haired Jinchuriki felt very angry at the words he had heard from Neji, as Naruto himself had decided to overcome his fate and become the Hokage.

To Naruto, Neji had attacked not Hinata but himself instead so he was fuming, and just as he was about to step forward, someone else did.