Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Road to Chunin ❯ Chapter 16 ( Chapter 16 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Chapter 16

The crowd was about to see something that had never been done even once in the history of the Chunin Exams. Neji and Hinata were actually holding hands as they entered the field. No two competitors had ever done that before.

“Oh damn, that looks bad,” muttered Hiashi.

“I like it,” said Hanabi. “I think it makes a statement about our family.”

“Yeah, and that statement is, `We Hyugas are a bunch of pansies.' I never thought Neji would do something embarrassing like that.”

Neji and Hinata met Shikamaru in the center.

“Alright,” said Shikamaru. “Neji I hate to bring this up but…”

“It won't happen again,” interrupted Neji. “I was totally out of line with what I did the last time we fought. If you say stop, I'll stop.”

“Good,” replied Shikamaru. “Because you two have the capability of seriously hurting each other. Are you both ready? FIGHT!”

Both of them activated their Byakugan.

“Gentle Fist!”

And with that the two of them were at it hammer and tongs. If Hinata was having any trouble whatsoever keeping up with Neji she certainly wasn't showing it.

“She's gotten faster,” thought Neji. “And this time she's not recklessly attacking. I can't get a single opening.”

The absence of Naruto was actually making it easier for Hinata. While she did want to impress her father who was watching, the pressure was not as severe. She was more patient, more relaxed, and more focused than their last meeting. And this time she knew she had less to be afraid of now that Neji had mellowed in his attitudes. This was starting to result in a clear-cut stalemate. They'd been fighting for over two minutes now and no one hand landed a hit yet.

Neji leaped back a few feet.

“Eight Trigrams: Two Palms!”

No good, she easily blocked him.

Hinata held up two fingers and focused her chakra. Neji wondered what she was up to. He didn't have to wait very long to find out. Hiashi had done his geological research as promised and indeed there were veins of groundwater running close to the surface of the field. The rise in temperate had made them thaw.

“Protection of the Eight Trigrams: Water Javelin!”

Several long thin shots of water sprang out of the ground straight at Neji. He blocked the first barrage but found it to be painful to do so. Water style jutsu have a number of ways to hurt an opponent. They can crush through huge mass, they can drown, or in a thin stream they can cut like a knife. This was what Hinata was trying to do. And she didn't even need any complicated hand signs. This particular technique was one she'd used to kill bugs but she'd never tried it on a human opponent.

Having seen the bad effects of blocking, Neji tried dodging. This was what Hinata had been hoping for. She'd intentionally held back somewhat knowing full well he could block any number of attacks. Once he started dodging she sent three times the number of Water Javelins flying at him at a much faster rate of speed. Try as he might he couldn't evade them all. One hit him in the leg and blood flew out.

“Eight Trigrams Empty Palm!”

Even with a slight injury, Neji was a pro who could shrug off pain and never lose his head for a moment. His rotation sent the water flying back at Hinata.

“Protection of the Eight Trigrams Sixy-Four Palms!”

Hinata had a slight advantage over Neji. This technique blocked with blades of chakra rather than a hand charged with chakra. She easily blocked the water without any risk of injury to herself. And while doing this, she was more mobile than Neji was when he was using a rotation technique. While still using the technique, she advanced on Neji.

“Heavenly Spin!”

The two attacks collided. Sparks shot out. Both tried to push the other back with all their might but to no avail. It was another stalemate. Both of them stopped around the same time. All of the sudden Neji saw an opening. He struck Hinata in the midsection with Gentle Fist.

Hiashi had been observing carefully from his seat.

“Hanabi, did you see that?”

“See what? Hinata getting hit?”

“Silly girl, pay attention! Hinata sure did.” Hanabi looked confused. Hiashi sighed. “You have much to learn. Hinata saw it coming and knew she couldn't avoid it but managed to move just enough so that he missed his intended target. She positioned herself in a way so that he'd hit an area where little if any internal damage would be caused. Not only that, she got him to hit the wrong chakra point. He nailed one that will actually accelerate her chakra. She and I spent hours going over that.”

Indeed, Neji had failed. Not only that but Hinata managed to punch him in the face, sending him flying backwards. He certainly hadn't expected a fellow Hyuga to attack in such a manner unless their chakra points were blocked. Thus he never saw it coming. The punch had spun him around 180 degrees as he fell. He had a mild concussion and momentarily, his Byakugan deactivated. And something else…

Kakashi looked over at Kurenai.

“Did she just do what I think she did?”

Kurenai nodded.

Neji picked himself up, dusted himself off and resumed his stance. But to his utter horror he could not seem to reactivate his Byakugan.

“What's going on?” he thought to himself. “That's never happened before. Did she hit me harder than I thought?”

Hinata gave him no time to contemplate this. She raced at him immediately with Gentle Fist. If she had a Byakugan activated and he didn't, it would give her the advantage and he knew it. This was bad. He could still activate his own Gentle Fist and use it to defend himself as best he could. He might not be able to see much but he could still see Hinata's hands coming at him. Or so he thought.

“AH!”

Neji had been struck in the side. Now all of the sudden the pain brought him back to reality and he realized exactly what was happening. His Byakugan had indeed been activated the whole time but he had been fooled into thinking otherwise. In the one moment when he had fallen, his back had been turned to her and his Byakugan temporarily shut off because of the impact. In that moment, Hinata had put him under a genjutsu. He had been fighting a mere figment of his imagination while the real Hinata had snuck up and waited for just the right moment. Her Byakugan was way better than his. She knew she'd only get one chance so she found a prime target to hit. It was a spot between two ribs on his right side. The internal damage she'd done was bad but even worse was that she'd nailed a vital chakra point. Neji was coughing up blood and he could feel the intensity of the chakra in his right arm dragging down. Her attack had diminished the power of his Gentle Fist in his right hand.

“I should have seen that coming,” he said. “A student of the best genjutsu user we've produced in the last thirty years other than Itachi Uchiha fights me and it doesn't occur to me she'll use it just because she hasn't before. I should have my head examined.”

“Or your lungs,” warned Shikamaru. “That looks kind of bad. You might want to consider stopping now.”

“I'm still good. When I am not still good you will be the first person I inform but right now I'm still good.”

“Suit yourself,” said Shikamaru. “But if things get bad I'll end this.”

At Choji's hospital room, everyone watching was amazed.

“No wonder I lost to her,” said Ino.

“Maybe it's a good thing I got disqualified,” said Choji. “I think she'd have beaten me.”

“Don't sell yourself short, kid,” said Inoichi. “You've got plenty of skill yourself.”

“You know,” said Sakura, “I think I know what she's trying to do. She's trying to prove to the judges that she's a good strategist. Last year that was the factor that earned Shikamaru the only promotion.”

“More like trying to prove to her father that he shouldn't regret not letting that Cloud ninja take her,” grumbled Shikaku. “I hate that guy.”

At that moment, Hiashi sneezed rather loudly.

“That's odd. Pollen count should be about zero this time of year.”

On the field, Neji was rubbing his side vigorously.

“You've gotten much better, Hinata,” he said. “Glad I didn't go easy on you.”

“Coming from you, that means the world,” she said. “More than it would mean coming from Father himself.”

“Let's show him he was right to give us both a chance,” said Neji.

Hinata nodded. She lunged forward and the two of them slugged it out with Gentle Fist yet again. While Neji might not have been able to attack with much power using his right hand, it didn't inhibit his defense. The two of them were starting to look as though they'd reached another stalemate.

Just then, some sweat got into Hinata's eyes. Since she wore her headband around her neck she was more vulnerable to this.

“No!” hollered Hiashi. “Don't close your…”

Too late. With her eyes closed just one moment longer than usual during a normal blink, it was all Neji needed.

“Eight Trigrams: Two Palms! Four Palms! Eight Palms! Six…”

But that was as far as he got before Hinata blocked him. With his right hand impaired, he had to perform each strike with only his left hand which took too long. He had only managed to hit fourteen chakra points. Hinata was breathing heavy. She now had quite a few internal injuries of her own and her chakra wasn't flowing as well.

“Protection of the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms!”

Neji had no intention of letting her get close enough to hit him with that even if its intensity had indeed died down.

“Eight Trigrams Mountain Crusher!”

The blast completely negated Hinata's weakened technique. She was sent flying and rolled several times as she hit the ground. As she struggled to get up, Neji appeared standing over her.

“Gentle Fist!”

This time he'd really done it. He hit her in the back. Her spinal cord swelled. She lost all sensation in the lower portion of her body. She was temporarily paralyzed and could not get to her feet.

“I'm so sorry,” she said.

“For what?” asked Neji. “You fought well.”

“No,” said Hinata. “Sorry for what I'm about to do.”

“What do you… AAAAAAHHHHH!”

Neji screamed out in pain loud enough to wake the dead. For a moment he couldn't understand why he felt such an agonizing pain in his head. Then all of the sudden it occurred to him just what Hinata had done.

“My… curse seal!”

“Please just surrender!” begged Hinata. “I don't want to hurt you.”

Neji fell to his knees.

“HINATA! STOP!” screamed Hiashi from up in the stands.

“I'm sorry too, for what… *I'M* about to do!” said Neji weakly.

With that he punched Hinata in the back of the head with all his might, knocking her out cold. He collapsed, struggling to breathe. The pain had subsided.

Suddenly Hiashi appeared in a puff of smoke standing over him. An instant later, four Anbu appeared around him with drawn katanas.

“The proctor has not yet ended the match!” one said angrily.

“I know,” said Hiashi quietly.

“We have to eject you,” said another. “You will not be allowed back in for the remainder of the tournament. And there will be a stiff fine.”

“You will allow me to say one thing to my nephew first,” said Hiashi.

“Make it damn quick.”

“Neji I swear on my very life that I did not teach her that. I don't know how on earth she learned to do that.”

“I don't know WHY on earth she learned to do that,” replied Neji.

Hiashi closed his eyes. He looked troubled. “Please, I beg of you not to hold this against her. She was only trying to demonstrate that she could use all available means at her disposal to defeat an actual enemy in the most desperate of situations rather than lay down and die. And she wanted to show she could exploit an opponent's weakness. This was no reflection of you being branch on her part. She's not like that. I know her too well.”

“I know,” said Neji quietly. His feelings were still hurt.

Hinata started to come to.

“You shouldn't have done that!” said Hiashi angrily. “Where did you even learn how?”

“I heard you and Grandfather talking once about where the scroll was hidden,” she said weakly.

“I ought to burn that damn thing,” he said.

“Alright, enough talk, let's go,” said the ANBU. They marched him right out of the stadium.

“Just a moment,” he said as he neared the gate. He looked back over his shoulder. “You two are both amazing. Thank you for bringing me such pride and joy.” He walked the rest of the way of the field.

“Winner: Neji Hyuga!” announced Shikamaru.

Hinata started to cry. “Neji, I'm so sorry. I'll just die if you don't forgive me. I love you so much and I only wanted…”

Neji pulled her into a sitting position and hugged her tightly. “I know. I do forgive you and I do understand.” The crowd broke into applause over this gesture of family affection.

“I feel so bad,” said Hinata between sobs.

“Weren't you the one who said you needed to stop feeling guilty over stuff like this?” teased Neji. “You're like a sister to me and blood runs thicker than water.”

“If they don't stop all this hugging and crying, I'm going to barf,” moaned Kakashi. “Is this a martial arts tournament or a daytime talk show?”

“You don't get it, do you, you big jackass,” said Kurenai angrily. “In a few months they went from a situation so bad that we literally had jump on him to stop him from murdering her to what you see now. Don't piss on a miracle.”

Back at the hospital, the group gathered there watched the medical team attend to Hinata and Neji and the crowd filing out for the intermission.

“So, looks like old Hiashi has a soul after all,” said Choza.

Shikaku did not answer.

“Come on, you have to admit what he did there was noble,” said Sakura.

Shikaku nodded. “Um, I'll be right back. I have to go do something.”

Quickly he ran out of the hospital and onto the streets. He had to act fast if he was going to find what he was looking for. In a few minutes, they'd be crowded with spectators. He jumped up to the rooftops and had a look around. His eyes saw something familiar. He jumped down back to the street.

“Hey there,” he called out.

Hiashi Hyuga turned around to see who was talking.

“Oh. Hello, Mr. Nara.”

“Sorry you can't be there to see the rest of this thing but if you're so inclined, my friends and I were going to sit down and see the final together on TV. You're welcome to join us.”

TO BE CONCLUDED…

Disclaimer: Naruto is the creation of Masashi Kishimoto