Hyūga Hanabi knew she was a strong Kunoichi. After all she was classified as a A-Rank threat to the opposing villages, with a do not engage alone order. That had to stand for something, right? Though many people five years her senior have become A-Rank threats before her.
There were Inazuka Kiba, Akimichi Choji in tandem with Nara Shikamaru, Haruno Sakura and Hyūga Neji. Each one of them was able to to turn the battle in favor of their forces as soon as they entered the battlefield and now she was considered such a person too.
She was proud of herself, proud of her family style and satisfied that all her training paid off. She had trained whenever she could find time and her body wasn't aching too much from missions or training. While the process was relatively slow, she had found herself, two years into her hard training regimen, far more noticed by other people.
So when she was sent to a battlefield in Takigakure, an important battle, as it could be a major stronghold for either side of the war, she was happy that even the Hokage recognized her skills to sent her there, even if she was with Sakura and Kiba sent to take a stronghold.
The first few days were fine, they won a lot of ground and almost had the whole of Takigakure taken over before it happened. He entered the battlefield. With his grey attire and Otogakure headband he stood out to everyone. His presence was fully comprehended as soon as he lay waste to the first few soldiers.
Soon the fight began with chunin and Jonin trying to overpower him with numbers. As she had expected he was far too strong and pushed them back, to right were they had started. He seemed to help the opposing forces, but everyone knew better. As soon as a major turning point in the war was almost reached he appeared, turning everything back to the beginning or the war would have ended a lot sooner.
This was the first time she saw him and he didn't use his power house of techniques, no with simple speed and sword play he reduced everyone in his way to little more then amateurs trying to match a pro. Though she had no intention of giving this up without a fight and by the footsteps besides her neither did Kiba and Sakura.
She and Kiba rushed in, their attacks as coordinated as was possible for a Inazuka and Hyūga. Kiba rushed in while she moved in to defend the Inazuka after a missed attack from him. She was surprised he hadn't landed a hit on her yet, but she didn't focus on that, instead pressed the advantage of three versus one.
The Iwagakure shinobi and Konoha ones kept their distance, watching the battle take place, rather then fight among themselves. He whipped out a few shuriken, throwing them at the back of Kiba that had missed his attack again and she took that chance to move in for a critical blow on his one arm.
She heard the sound of akamaru howling as he got hit by a shuriken defending his master. Though her move was evaded as if child's play and he leapt back just in time to dodge a killing blow from Sakura. His Sharingan spun as he read the movements around him and suddenly he was on the offense against the three of them.
He kept Sakura locked in close combat, easily avoiding her hits and landing blows on her. She had finally a little bit of time to look at him battle. He moved far faster now then before as she had fought with him and she knew she had no chance alone against him and how outclassed she was.
Alone by his movements, how his eyes took everything in, how he reacted to even the smallest shift in his opponents posture, she knew that he was born for the battlefield. That fighting was his reason to live, to worry just about the moment and nothing else. He flourished on the battlefield, while others wilted.
She tagged in with Sakura as soon as she could, he defense was better then the pink haired Kunoichi's, but at the same time she was slower. He slowed himself down again, she noticed as his movements became easier to read and she kept a decent pace, though no hits in on him. She noticed a second to late his eyes had changed and then everything became black.
She awoke three days later in Konoha hospital, not knowing what happened in the time and only fought with him again and again until she had his movements memorized and had landed a blow on him. Besides her in the other beds she noticed lay Sakura and Kiba, with akamaru at the ground by his bed.
Both were covered in bandages from head to toe, while she herself had none. Soon a nurse came and she was checked on and then the Hokage himself met her. Uzumaki Naruto, one that had proven himself in the last five years to be valuable, stood with twenty at the height of his power, unmatched in the whole village and only a handful people in other nations could match him.
She didn't doubt before that he could match the Uchiha that was his teammate, but now she wasn't so sure. The Uchiha seemed too strong for anyone and he had kept the war going for over two years, always destroying the forward movement on major objectives.
She was positive no other strives in war like the Uchiha, no other used such speed and precision to end lives without extending even an ounce of Chakra other then to keep the Sharingan going. Now she understood how her sister could watch a person fight and admire them for doing so, even if she admired a complete different one. In the end she was mesmerized by his fighting skills.