Naruto: The Birth Of Fenrir and his Keeper

“That guy’s leaning a bit heavily into the whole showmanship thing don’t you think?” Keitaro asked Neji who was seated next to him.

“It only makes sense for him to show off a bit. If he doesn’t set the right tone then things could go off the rails pretty quickly.” Nejo muttered, not taking his eyes off the first competitor who had stepped up to bat.

Unlike what Keitaro had thought would have occurred, The participants were allowed a few minutes of time before they had to throw their weapons to walk around the competition area so that they could scope out the various targets scattered around the competition grounds. 

Just as the announcer had said. The targets were color coded and the targets colored orange and purple were placed in such a way that it was much harder to hit them. 

The competitors had to stand in a circle at one end of the field and throw a total of ten shuriken and five Kunai that they were given. It was going to be a challenge of skill and wit like none other.

Or at least none that Keitaro had had the pleasure of seeing before.

Everyone would have to weigh the pro’s and con’s of every target before deciding what to do. Whether to play it safe and target the easier marks to ensure that they managed to get some points under their belts, or to take risks and aim for the much harder targets instead. 

If you managed to hit the more distant and difficult to hit targets dead center, then great for you! You’d be able to really pull ahead of the other competition and would have even gotten a chance to show off for the crowd of spectators.

Of course if you accidentally managed to hit the middle ring instead, even though you objectively would have hit the more difficult target and displayed a higher level of skill, you'd be deemed to have bitten off more than you could chew and would still get the same amount of points as someone who played it safe and had instead targeted the much safer targets. 

While the game presented itself as a simple hit the target game, there was a certain physiological aspect of it as well. The constant thoughts of whether it was better to play it safe or whether it was better to push your limits and risk it all were bound to cause a few people to perform sub optimally under the pressure.

Of course a shinobi was supposed to be able to handle all sorts of situations and hardships so something like a little pressure should be nothing to sneeze about. 

“Are you going to take part in any of the events today?” Keitaro said as he looked away from the competitor who was still walking around and looking at all the various targets. 

“I’m too young. My dad and I have been training but it's mainly in the clan's unique Tai-Jutsu. I haven't really started my chakra training or anything like that.” Neji pouted a bit, clearly unhappy about the situation.

“I wanted to at least take part in the Tai-jutsu competition. Even if I didn’t win I think I would have done a pretty good job. Plus I’m younger than everyone else so my loss wouldn’t have been a problem.” 

“Let me guess, your dad told you that it would have affected the Hyuga clan’s prestige or something along those lines?” Keitaro asked.

Neji nodded his head as he sighed dejectedly. 

“Yes. When I complained to dad about it he said that some of the guests may have taken it as the Hyuga being…arrogant, if I took part in the competition.”

“I see,” Muttered Keitaro as he thought about Neji's words, “I guess I can see how that would be a problem.”

And while he personally didn’t think it should have mattered, it wasn’t impossible for Keitaro to see the Hyuga being seen as arrogant and overbearing by some stretch of the imagination by putting Neji forward.

Neji while a prodigy in his own right was still a child and while he may not have mastered any of the techniques that would make him a true Tai-Jutsu threat as of yet, just the fact that his Byuakugan was most likely already awakened meant that he’d most definitely be able to put more than a few of the others flat on their ass. 

Knowing that everyone that was taking part in the celebrations was in some way connected to the higher echelon of the village and the other various clans of the village, it meant that all of the kids that were put forward for the evenings events would be some of the best of the best. 

For them to lose to the Hyuga clan's representative, members of a clan known for its Tai-Jutsu mastery was one thing, but for them to lose to a child from that clan who hasn’t even attended a day at the academy was something completely different. 

If anything, if Neji was allowed to take part, then the more people that Neji managed to defeat as the fights continued, then the more people would be embarrassed about the entire thing. It would be as if the Hyga were using the event as a chance to say that they were superior in every way. 

And no one likes to hang around someone who’s too full of themselves.

Of course there was always the chance that the Hyuga were instead choosing to avoid the limelight purposely. The Uchiha had already unveiled their once in a millennium genius that was Itachi, graduating from the academy at the age of 6 due to his teacher unanimously agreeing that he had long since reached and even surpassed the level needed to be considered a qualified shinobi and had pushed him for early graduation. 

In fact, Itachi was already well known and had been making waves as a genin ever since. 

Given how often the two clans were compared to each other, it was inevitable for Neji, the resident genius of the Huyga, to be compared to the genius of the Uchiha. Of course there was no need to even contemplate for a second which of the two was the more monstrous genius and it would have only served to embarrass the Hyuga for them to push Neji forward in such a situation. 

Add to that the fact that Neji was a branch family member and not of the main lineage and the embarrassment would have been more than enough to make the Hyuga the laughing stock of the village in the eyes of the various clans. 

“Still I can see why you wouldn't be too pleased with the way things played out. I bet you were looking forward to a chance to spar with some of the others.”

Neji simply nodded in agreement as he looked off to the side. 

“I only ever get to spar with my dad and uncle Hiashi and Hinata. I would have liked to see how I measure up when it comes to Tai-jutsu compared to the other clans.”

“Well even if you can’t fight personally, you can still learn a lot by watching today's fights. Maybe you can even convince your father to let you challenge a few of the competitors after the fight to widen your horizons so to speak. 

“Maybe,” Neji said non-committedly, “I’ll think about it I guess, but it looks like that guy’s ready to start.”

Keitaro looked back at the field and noticed that Neji was right, the competitor had returned to the designated throwing space and had started to pick up a few of the shuriken from the table. He held two shuriken in each hand and took up a pose before nodding towards the announcer. 

Once the announcer gave the go ahead the competitor took a deep calming breath before whipping his hands downward. At some point during his hand movement, the sirens had been released as they flew down the field. 

The whistle of the wind as they cut through the air was the only indication for Keitaro that the shuriken had been thrown at all and soon the satisfying thunk of metal sinking into wood signaled that their flight had come to an end. 

Without missing a beat the competitor  reached out once more to the table and with another flourish of his hands, four more shuriken flew through the air. This continued until the shuriken had been tossed out.  

Finished with them, the competitor then turned to the Kunai. Unlike the shuriken that he threw three and four at a time, he only took up one Kunai at a time. He would take a second to get a feel for the balance of the Kunai before throwing them down the field with a grunt of effort.

In the end all of the throwing weapons had been depleted and the competitor stood there waiting for the results to be displayed. 

Not wanting to keep the crowd waiting too long, the Targets were soon brought forward for all to see while some more were used to replace them. Surprisingly the competitor had seemingly targeted quite a few of the more difficult targets as out of the 20 targets brought forward, there were 10 orange, 7 blue, two red and shockingly enough, one purple.

The crowd were clearly expressed as commendable amount of applause was awarded the competitor who bowed to the crowd with a slight smile managing to work its way onto his face. 

Of course hitting the targets was one thing, the amount of points that he managed to get on the other hand was a completely different matter. 

The announcer seemed to agree as he was quick to point out that of the ten orange targets, six of them had been hit in the middle ring resulting in a half point penalty on those, three had been hit on the outer ring resulting in the points being doubled, and one had been hit dead center resulting in a ten times point multiplier.

The blue targets were not much better off as similarly while one had been hit dead center, the remaining six were all in the middle ring, the Two reds were thankfully both dead center and the most surprising result of all was the fact that the purple target had been hit dead center as well!

“Alright everyone, Let's give a loud round of applause for our first competitor who opened us off with an impressive total score of one hundred and forty seven!”

Another round of applause resounded as the next competitor stepped forward and the competition continued on.