A strange new life

3.16

Naruto and Kiba’s fight wasn’t bad. Kiba was a good fighter, and it was clear he had trained a lot. Unfortunately for him, so had Naruto.

Kiba did get Naruto at times with beast mode, transformation, and twin clones with Akamaru. But he never stood a chance. Naruto wouldn’t stay down, and was better at combination attacks than Kiba. Naruto was also better at transformation, managing to fool Kiba even with the other’s enhanced sense of smell. I did notice Naruto having trouble with his usual techniques, which was probably because of his messed up seal, but even so it wasn’t enough to stop him.

In the end, Naruto had more stamina, had trained harder, and was used to fighting stronger and faster opponents. He used one of his many clone combinations to finish the battle. I cheered. He was becoming cool-ish. Still a brat though. Other shinobi present seemed to appreciate the effort. When Naruto came over, I even gave him a hug.

“Good job Naruto-kun. You really improved.” Kakashi-sensei praised, much to Naruto’s delight.

The electronic panel lit up again. Out popped two names: Hinata versus Hyuga Neji.

Eighth match was fate all over again. Fate or manipulation. I was sure some of the Hyuga higher up pulled strings to have Neji fight me. And I was sure the Hokage allowed it. Not that I cared or minded, even if I sounded petulant about it.

I high-fived Naruto, nodded to all other shinobi in my path, walked down to the arena where Neji already waited for me. I bowed to the proctor. Debated if he should receive my good impression package. After the fight, I decided.

From across the arena, Neji glared at me. I waved at him. He scowled. What was his problem?

“It’s not personal.” Neji said, although his glare said otherwise. It reminded me, just a bit, of how Orochimaru looked at us in the forest.

“Are you ready?” Hayate asked. I nodded. Took my stance. Neji did the same. He activated his byakugan, took the gentle fist stance: left palm open and in front of the body, right palm open and pointed down. Left feet in the same line as the left palm, body slightly to the side. His right leg was bandaged up, spots of blood on the fabric. Neji favored that side as well. It was a shame, I wanted to fight him at his best. Didn’t want anyone saying I won because he was injured.

I took a few kunai. Some with exploding tags, others without, and one very special kunai. One I was sure Neji’s byakugan would see. I didn’t know if he would understand what it meant.

A small part of me – the almost forgotten part that was the original Hinata – was really afraid of fighting Neji. The gentle fist was dangerous and deadly. How do you fight someone who excels in taijutsu and will absolutely destroy you if you get close? The answer was simple, at least for me. Speed, speed and more speed. I was serious when I said I wanted to kick butts and take names. It was past time I started on the whole Black Flash thing. I didn’t want to just defeat Neji. I wanted to make sure he understood he never stood a chance, hence the special kunai. It was a gamble for sure, but one that wasn’t that risky, while the payoff could be immense.

“Start!” Hayato called out.

Unlike every overconfident person out there, Neji didn’t dash in to attack at the start of the battle, even more with his injured leg. That wasn’t how he did things. His gentle fist excelled at reacting to attacks, more than being the aggressor himself. Or at least this was how I thought he fought.

“You don’t have that fuinjutsu seal to protect you here,” Neji called out, white eyes staring into my soul, “you have no chance.”

Fuinjutsu? That was what he thought it was? Good for me. It was time to start and to end this. 

I threw my kunais. As expected, Neji reacted to the special one, more than the exploding ones. He didn’t let it near him, he threw a shuriken and deflected the kunai far away from him. The weapon hit a wall and got stuck there. The remaining thrown weapons he dodged or avoided, the explosions not even bothering the strongest genin.

With Dreams of Black Flash in my mind, I pumped my body full of chakra. I had already disabled all my seals before even moving down to the arena. I moved. What does the ability to see all around him matter if Neji couldn’t react in time? What did it matter that he could see meridians, block my chakra, if he couldn’t match me in speed?

I was at his side. Neji’s eyes were wide. He had started to turn when I hit him. And I hit him hard. Felt the bones in my hand creak. Even through the attack, Neji’s hand lashed out, his chakra burning on his fingers, ready to disable my channels. Damn scary good reflexes. I flickered behind him. Roundhouse-kicked Neji away. He didn’t react in time. I flickered above Neji, drop kicked him onto the ground. The boy hit the arena’s floor, bounced up, coughed blood. I flickered to his side, kicked Neji higher. I flickered above him, smashed Neji onto the ground again.

On and on I went until someone grabbed me. I had my leg up, about to stomp Neji’s head into the floor.

Hayate had his fingers pointed at my forehead. Kakashi held my leg. Gai had his arm around my neck. Even Kurenai was there, holding my arm.

“It’s over, you won.” Kakashi-sensei said. “Any more and you’ll kill him.” His stare was calm, not judgmental. I guess they really were bound to protect the precious Hyuga offspring. Politics. Bah.

I nodded. Kakashi released me, so did the others. I took my foot away. Bowed. Croaked out. “Thank you for stopping me sensei.” My throat hurt, and I felt blood pooling in my mouth. Speaking was still a no go. I got a few raised eyebrows for that. A group of medic-nin hurried inside the arena. They checked Neji, rushed him away. 

Time for the finale.

Clone-chan, who had just plummeted Neji half to death, unpopped herself. I, who had disguised myself as the special kunai, still stuck to the wall, released the transformation. 

That caused a commotion alright. You see, I knew the byakugan could see chakra, but could it identify a shadow clone? From what I knew, no dojutsu out there could tell a shadow clone from the real thing. What about if I pretended to be a kunai? Could Neji tell the difference? I did transform before arriving at the arena. I was sure Neji would figure it out if I tried the transformation in front of him. But if I did outside his view? It would be just a kunai full of chakra. One he singled out at the start of the battle, deflected, and made sure it was out of the way. The original idea to do this wasn’t really mine, but something I read so long ago. It got stuck in my mind for some reason.

I walked to the jounins that stopped me. Their stare was a bit intimidating. Time to salvage things. I popped my good impression kit to everyone. “Thank you for preventing me from committing a mistake.” I wrote. I bowed again. Kakashi-sensei chuckled. Kurenai took my pastries with a smile. Hayate didn’t seem to care one way or another. Gai looked at me like I had grown a third head. I turned around and fled.

I hadn’t expected clone-chan to lose her cool like that during the fight. I wanted to defeat Neji, not kill him, maybe. I knew my clones tended to behave like they didn’t need to care for the consequences, but even so. Dangerous. I might need to think more carefully next time I decide to use a clone like that.

I jogged toward Naruto enduring the stares. I ignored it all. I stopped in front of a smiling sunshine brat. Took a pose. Did a V for victory. “Easy!” I hoarsely yelled, to more blood inside my mouth. It made people look at me even funnier, but I was past caring about that. I didn’t even mind the hug Naruto gave me.

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