Disharmony of the leaf

by iamgoku


Onto the Arena!

Naruto woke up early that morning, not exactly feeling well-rested. He kept having strange dreams involving Neji striking all of his Toad Summons, resulting them turning into sand. Naruto could do nothing as he sunk into the ground, while Discord floated by waving little flags with a chibi-cartoon-version of Naruto's face on them. Naruto tried calling out for his help, but found that he couldn't speak.

"Cat got your tongue, Fishcake?" Discord asked.

Naruto opened his mouth to respond, but hundreds of meowing and screeching cats poured out of his mouth.

"GAHHHH!" Naruto quickly sat up and started grabbing at his tongue. It took a minute or two longer than Naruto would have cared to admit for him to realize that it was just a dream. D*mn, he couldn't even dream about becoming Hokage or beating Sasuke and Neji. Naruto silently cursed again when he realized that even his own personal thoughts were subject to Discord's meddling.

Naruto stretched and got ready for the big day. He sighed when he realized that he had a good five hours to kill before needing to be at the stadium.

When Naruto came out of his room, he found that Discord was still asleep. Tiny sheep were sawing logs above his head. Instead of disturbing him, Naruto left a simple note that read,

'Went for a walk. Be back an hour before tournament starts.'

Naruto quickly and quietly packed all of his supplies that he thought he would need, and set out in a random direction. As he walked, Naruto couldn't help but think about his match, along with what he had heard and seen about Neji.

Kakashi-sensei had said that not even his Sharingan could track Neji's movements, while Lee had mentioned that Neji was amazingly powerful and a genius.

"I'm probably severely outmatched, here…" Naruto muttered.

"Naruto-kun!" a woman's voice shouted.

"Huh?" Naruto turned to face Ayame, who was waving at him from Ichiraku's entrance.

"Come here!" she smiled at the blond.

"Hey," Naruto greeted, slowly approaching. He smiled at the girl and Teuchi. Well, it was more like a grimace, and he knew it.

"Have you eaten breakfast yet?" Teuchi asked.

"Don't really have an appetite this morning…" Naruto shook his head. His stomach disagreed with him by rumbling loudly, causing the boy to blush.

"Have a seat," Teuchi said, and he began preparing a meal.

Naruto was shocked. Ichiraku never did breakfast, and only opened around eleven on weekdays.

"But…" Naruto started to protest, but he didn't get to finish. Ayame was asking him questions about where Discord was, how his training was going, along with any other subject other than his upcoming match. Slowly, Naruto began to feel more relaxed, as his mind was forced to focus on other things.

There was a *pop!* and Discord showed up and yawned. "Good morning, all."

Somehow, neither Ayame nor Teuchi reacted to Discord's sudden appearance, other than a simple greeting. The only reason Naruto failed to react was because he had gotten pretty used to Discord popping in and out of places. He also didn't bother to question how Discord knew where to find him. He'd probably say something ridiculous like "plot convenience" or something like that.

Teuchi then set a large bowl of ramen in front of Naruto, filled with quality cuts of meat and shellfish.

Discord was presented with an equally delicious-looking bowl of ramen topped with whipped cream and marshmallows.

"Here we are, enjoy." Teuchi said simply.

Both Naruto and Discord were surprised.

"Good luck today," Teuchi said with his back to them, as he began cleaning up. "And watch Naruto-kun's back today, won't you, Discord-san?" It sounded more like a demand, than a request.

"Of course I will!" Discord threw his claw around Naruto, but didn't linger too long. Discord could tell that the blond had quite a bit on his mind.

"Good luck today, Naruto-kun, Discord-san." Ayame smiled at them.

~0~

After thanking Teuchi and Ayame for the breakfast, Naruto and Discord headed towards the training grounds. By now, the villagers began exiting their homes, and most of them gave the pair a pretty wide berth. Others simply ignored or (somehow) didn't notice the hovering Draconequus. There was a pair of guys talking about Neji Hyuuga, how they were looking forward to his match, along with hurrying to the stadium so that they could get good seats.

"Heh…" Naruto paused briefly. "It won't be so bad…I mean, I can summon a Toad, and you're in my corner, so it'll be okay!"

"That sounded rather forced, Fishcake." Discord smirked. "Maybe I should cause a bit of chaos…?"

"NO!" Naruto said much louder than he intended.

Naruto blushed slightly as he ignored the momentary stares and whispered, "You can cause chaos later, but right now, especially now, isn't a good time!"

"Then calm yourself," Discord said with a hum, suddenly wearing a guru outfit, and gongs sounded from nowhere.

Naruto gave Discord's appearance a deadpan stare.

As Discord and Naruto made their way to the training grounds, Discord asked in a slightly bored tone, "Remind me again why we are here, Fishcake?"

"Because this is the place where I became Genin," Naruto answered. "It's also the place where I became teammates with Sakura and Sasuke… plus, coming here'll probably help calm my nerves…"

Heading over to the posts, Naruto noticed someone he recognized.

"Hinata!" Naruto smiled, while in his mind he thought of the last time he had seen her: bloody and beaten by the one who would be his opponent. Yeah, he had sworn revenge on the guy for doing such a thing to Hinata, but saying one thing and actually doing it was another thing entirely.

"EEP!" Hinata squeaked, and slightly hid herself behind the nearest post.

"N-Naruto-kun!" Her cheeks burned. Just then, Hinata noticed that Naruto wasn't alone…he was with some thing… Her eyes went wide as she observed the mishmash creature. "N-Naruto-kun…what-what is that behind you?"

"Excuse me, Miss," Discord said, replacing the post Hinata had been poorly hiding behind. "But I'm not a 'what', I'm a 'who'." He floated up and extended his lion's paw. "The name's Discord, number-one chaos causer. See? I have a plaque and everything." Discord produced said plaque and even a degree or two to prove it. "I'm Fishcake here's new partner."

"Fish-c-cake?" Hinata hid the hint of a smile on her lips while Naruto rolled his eyes and briefly glared at Discord. "I-it's so nice that you have a n-new partner, N-Naruto-kun…"

Hinata nervously poked her fingers together, avoiding Naruto's gaze. This caused Discord to quirk a bushy eyebrow and glance between the Fishcake and the girl.

"Yeah," Naruto was saying, scratching the back of his head. Naruto was talking about how he had accidently summoned Discord, while the Draconequus had one thought on his mind: Hinata clearly liked Fishcake, and he clearly didn't even know it! Discord then started plotting and planning. While he normally caused chaos, he wouldn't mind playing cupid for a while.

Naruto then asked Hinata a more serious question. "Neji's a relative of yours, right? Is he strong?"

Hinata stared at the ground. "…Yes." Hinata then smiled slightly. "But you might be able to win, Naruto-kun."

"Yeah, I am pretty strong after all!" Naruto laughed. He really didn't sound convinced.

"I bet you can win, Naruto-kun." Hinata said with sudden conviction, her stutter gone.

"Eh?" Naruto looked at Hinata.

"You know, when you cheered for me, I felt stronger than I ever have before." The girl continued to poke her fingers together. "When the preliminaries ended, I came to like myself just a little."

Discord had to frown. Why was this girl so clearly filled with self-doubt? She almost sounded worse than that Fluttershy pony back in Equestria for Celestia's sake, and her name had the word 'shy' in it!

Unaware of Discord's inner thoughts, Hinata continued. "From someone else's standpoint, it may not look like anything's changed, really…But…" a somewhat more visible smile showed on the girl's face, "I feel like I was able to change."

Naruto said nothing, but he was clearly thinking about Hinata's words. His eyes widened somewhat as Hinata added, "I've been thinking that it was thanks to you, Naruto-kun."

Instead of laughing or even giving a smile, Naruto put his head down. "You really think so, Hinata?"

"Huh?" both Hinata and Discord sounded (Discord even more so).

Naruto finally had to confess something that he hadn't shared with anyone. "I may look strong to you, but…" he sighed, "All I do is mess up. And I act tough because I'm frustrated-"

"It's not like that!" Hinata's voice was much louder than even she intended, but she didn't seem to notice.

At this point, Discord was eating popcorn, very much enjoying the show.

Hinata smiled, much bigger than she had been earlier. "Even when you messed up, in my view, you were always a proud failure."

Naruto looked as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"When I look at you, it…it impacts my heart." Hinata suddenly seemed to realize that she wasn't acting as shy as she normally did, so her blush and slight stutter slowly returned. "Y-you're not perfect, so…so, it's because you mess up that y-you have the strength to rise up from that." Her blush became stronger. "I-I think such strength is true strength, Naruto-kun. I think you're an incredibly strong person."

Hinata hid herself behind the now-normal post that Discord had initially replaced, a smile on her face and blush on her cheeks.

Naruto smiled, his nervousness having been alleviated. "Thanks, Hinata!" Naruto's face broke out into a genuine grin. "Even though I was always the bottom one, I was tense in the shoulders somehow." Naruto flexed to loosen himself up a bit. "I was depressed, which was totally not my character. But I feel better now!"

Hinata smiled, and Discord had to smirk as well. There was something about this girl that brought out something in Fishcake that no-one else could.

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata smiled as well.

"Well, we're off to the match!" Naruto declared.

Naruto with Discord following, started to leave, but Naruto paused and turned back to the girl. "Hinata…I kind of thought you were…" both Hinata and Discord watched Naruto carefully. Hinata's inner thoughts were going nuts. What was Naruto going to say to her?!

"…gloomy, hesitant, and weird."

"Naruto…" Hinata muttered miserably.

Discord face-pawed.

"But I quite like people like you!" Naruto finished, as he walked away.

Discord noticed that Hinata's eyes were wide in shock and her cheeks were red.

"Oh, yeah!" Naruto turned back. "Be sure to come watch us kick that Neji's butt!"

Discord felt a pull of some kind that made him realize that he liked the fact that Naruto included him without a second thought. Discord also realized that he didn't mind too much, either.

Just then, fireworks set off, diverting their attention to the situation at hand.

"Uh-oh! Time to run!" Naruto realized. "This is bad! We can't be late!"

Naruto started to run, but Discord created one of his classic cotton candy clouds and scooped the blond up and they set off.

Seeing that he didn't really have to worry about watching where he was going for a minute, Naruto turned and waved to Hinata. "Bye, Hinata! Cheer us on, alright? And thanks again!"

They were off much faster than Hinata could respond, but she smiled. She didn't even realize when Kiba came up behind her apologizing for being late, and talking about Shino's upcoming match. Hinata was still in slight shock from having the longest conversation she had ever had before with Naruto, plus the fact that he had said that he liked her…well, not in the way that she hoped, but it was a start.

Kiba paused, sniffing the air. Something was strange. It smelled sweet, sort of like cotton candy, but Hinata didn't have any on her and she clearly hadn't eaten any. So why…? Never mind. The two set off towards the arena.

Meanwhile, Discord was flying towards the arena with Naruto in tow.

"Hey, Fishcake."

"Yeah?"

"You do realize that Hinata girl likes you, right?"

"What do you mean? We're just classmates…"

"Oh, Fishcake…" Discord sadly shook his head. The boy was truly dense.

~0~

Meanwhile, at the arena…

People were waiting for the competition to start, but seeing as how a few people who really needed to be there weren't present, the competition couldn't exactly start. Shikamaru had to grimace in annoyance, because even though Naruto had Discord – a creature that could manipulate reality – he was still late. How troublesome.

Just then, there was an explosion of pink smoke in the center of the arena, and at first everyone thought it was an attack. Instead, there was a fanfare accompanied by a banner that read "CHAOTIC EXPRESS" and explosions of confetti. Shikamaru sighed heavily and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"HHHHEEEEERRREE'S DISCORD!" the Draconequus proudly called out, striking a pose. "And I'm not alone, lovely ladies and gentle-ninja!"

"It's him!" Ino seethed, pointing accusingly at Discord.

"Whoa…you were telling the truth!" Sakura honestly couldn't believe her eyes. What was that thing?

"Presenting the number one knuckle-headed ninja and soon to be Hokage, NARUTO 'FISHCAKE' UZUMAKI!"

As the smoke cleared, Naruto was wearing a ridiculous outfit that put his usual bright orange to shame. It consisted of a feathered boa, high heel red boots, and a bedazzled technicolored suit that had his name literally written all over it. In short, the blonde's outfit could have outdone Liberace.

"Of course he would be the one to summon some freak of nature like that…" Sakura muttered. But then she paused. Naruto could summon things? Why had he summoned this thing before his match even started? That was a foolish waste of Chakra! "…What an idiot!"

Naruto briefly glared at Discord but quickly removed the horrendous clothing, revealing his usual outfit underneath.

"Sorry I'm late!" Naruto called out, taking his place where all the other contestants were standing. The banner and clothing all disappeared in poofs of pink smoke, and Discord took his place slightly hovering about Naruto.

"…Okay…" The proctor eyed Discord curiously. Clearing his throat, he said, "Now that you're here, may all other contestants save Neji Hyuuga, please go to the waiting booth in the stands."

Once all the other Chunin hopefuls left the arena (Naruto idly wondered where Sasuke was), the proctor said, "The first match of the Chunin Exams is about to begin!"

Naruto gulped but remained steady as he glared at his opponent, who was standing several yards away from him looking stoic but kept an eye on the floating Chaos Spirit in the corner of his pale eyes. This was it.

"FIGHT!"