Gentle
As night fell, a ninja squad of three was making its way through the forest about half a mile from the village on its way to deliver medicine to a neighboring town for an illness that had begun spreading through the farmers there. Iwashi Tatami and Shimon Hijiri were led by Hoheto Hyūga, who'd taken point to scan the perimeter with his Byakugan.
"Hoheto," Iwashi said in his usual nervous tone, "do you think we'll get back from this mission by morning?"
The jōnin turned his milky eyes on his compatriot and taunted in the typical low voice made famous by the Hyūga. "Why, do you have somewhere to be?"
Iwashi gave a closed-eyed chuckle of embarrassment. "Well actually, you see, I've got a date."
"A date, huh?" Shimon said with faux interest, peering at his teammate through his hanging brown bangs. "What's her name? Wait, let me guess, she goes to a different village?"
This got a rare chuckle from the Hyūga.
"Hey, shut up!" Iwashi said with a red face. "She's real, she works in a shop in the center of town!"
"One that's closed during the day, I'm sure," Hoheto smirked. Iwashi's blush turned almost purple. Shimon let out a hearty laugh.
"We're just messing with you, Tatami. I'm sure your very-real girlfriend is a catch." They both chuckled at the banter, until Hoheto stopped on a branch and gave them a hand signal to halt and keep quiet.
Turning his head from left to right rapidly – a hard habit to break, even when you can see in almost every direction – he finally caught what he was looking for. "Get down!"
The three ninja quickly descended from their perches just in time to avoid the senbon that passed over each of their heads and embedded themselves in various tree trunks and limbs.
"We're under attack, defensive formation!" The two chūnin stood shoulder-to-shoulder at a very slight angle, with Hoheto taking position directly between them on their rear, covering their backs. "It's just one. He's sitting on a branch to our ten o'clock."
Unsheathing a kunai, Shimon said, "is he preparing to ambush us?"
The Hyūga gritted his teeth. "No, I mean he's literally just sitting on the branch. His back is leaned against the trunk, I'd think he was napping if he weren't looking right at me."
Iwashi's anxiety got the better of him. "Show yourself!" he shouted nervously.
"Be quiet, Iwashi!" Hoheto growled. "We are on defense. We have the advantage for the moment, don't blow it by showing your hand."
The inexperienced chūnin gulped and nodded. "Right, sorry Hoheto."
Bird
"Earth Style: Falling Earth Spears."
"Move!" Hoheto commanded, and they all rolled forward in time to avoid the rocky spikes that exploded from the ground where they were standing.
The assailant smirked.
Just as Shimon recovered to a knee, another spike protruded from in front of him at an angle and impaled him in the ribs, just below his left lung.
"Shimon, no!" Iwashi began running toward his comrade in a panic; so panicked, in fact, that he didn't notice the senbon aimed at him before it pierced his right shoulder, wedging itself directly in the joint and rendering the entire arm useless. "Agh, damn it!"
Suddenly, a man in a white coat and black mask appeared in front of Iwashi. The chūnin couldn't react before the backs of both of the man's fists collided with his chest in a monkey strike and he was sent flying backward.
Hoheto sneered but did his best to cool his temperament before settling into the Gentle Fist stance. He watched as their attacker let out a slow, calm breath and lowered his hands back to his sides. The unknown man turned and set a masked gaze on the young jōnin.
"Identify yourself," Hoheto said calmly but sternly.
The man looked into the sky. "My name is Nemui Tatsu, of the Sand." He noted the confused expression on the Hyūga's face. "I'm here to hunt and kill the ninja of this village."
His brow deepened into a scowl. "Why?"
Tatsu returned his stare to his opponent. "Because no one can stop me from doing so."
Hoheto's teeth bared in anger. "You're crazy." Before Tatsu could retort, Hoheto made his move. Flashing forward, he aimed a palm strike at his foe and landed it in the center of his diaphragm.
'Direct hit,' he thought.
Then his hand passed through the man's chest and out the other side. Hoheto's eyes went wide as his target crumbled into sand and fell to the floor.
'A sand clone!'
He had no time to consider the situation due to the sole of a sandal connecting with his lower spine. He let out a cough as he was sent into a tree trunk. He started to rebound off it, but the back of his head was caught by a rough palm and he was slammed face-first back into the tree. Tatsu followed through and yanked backwards, throwing Hoheto by his skull several meters through the forest.
Just as he landed and stopped rolling, he felt the toe of a sandal land just between his shoulder blades. He saw the man balance on one foot and spin in place, extending his other leg and dragging it through the dirt to create a circle. Once it was complete, he leapt a few feet outside the perimeter.
Snake
"Earth Style: Earth Trap," he muttered. The ground within the circle turned to mud, causing Hoheto to sink several inches. It then hardened like steel and trapped him inside on his belly. His arms and legs were submerged, as was his mouth.
Without missing a beat, Tatsu straightened himself and walked over to Shimon, who was breathing uneasily as he bled slowly on the earthen spike that still pierced his torso. Grabbing a handful of his shaggy brown hair, he pulled the young chūnin's head back, exposing his throat. With his left hand, he pushed his coat aside and took hold of the blade handle on his hip, removing it to reveal an old, black karambit knife. He took a moment to make eye contact with the trapped jōnin before sinking the blade into the young man's neck just below the jawline. He could hear the muffled shouting coming from Hoheto as he removed the knife and let his hair go, allowing his head to loll back down as the blood flowed freely across his chest and onto the ground. He was dead in seconds.
He started toward Iwashi who'd finally made it to his feet. The man noticed the state of his team and emotion overtook him. He rushed Tatsu, unable to hear Hoheto's warnings to run. With a fist raised, he extended it in a straight jab directed at Tatsu's masked face, but just as it was to connect, he dodged it like water around a stone at the bottom of a river and landed an uppercut to Iwashi's gut. The young ninja didn't even finish his pained gasp before he took a left forearm to the right cheek, followed by a right knee to the nose aided by Tatsu's free right hand on the back of his head. He staggered back but was stopped by the same powerful hand grabbing the back of his head once again and driving his karambit into the ribs, severing the liver. Iwashi's eyes went wide knowingly as Tatsu pulled him in and touched the chūnin's forehead to his.
"You are brave," he said sincerely. "I mean that. Most who come to understand their position against me do not intend to stay, let alone pursue me in battle. You are an honorable man, worthy of being called a ninja." He slowly removed his blade, forcing a shaky gasp from Iwashi as he did. "But brave is not the same as strong, and bravery and foolishness are not mutually exclusive." He wiped the blood from the blade onto Iwashi's right sleeve, then returned it to its sheath beneath his coat.
"I hope they honor you as you have honored them."
Tatsu released the young man's head and allowed his now-lifeless body to fall to the ground as it let out its final breath. He turned to see hateful tears falling from Hoheto's eyes. "I know this is unfair. You were just doing your job and your luck landed you in my path. I sincerely apologize for your misfortune."
He walked over to the prone ninja, never breaking eye contact. He crouched in front of him, placing his left hand on his head in a sincere manner.
He ignored the muffled screams of anger, raising his right hand in a unique hand seal – his index and little fingers were extended upward, his middle finger, ring finger, and thumb were all bent and touching at the tips, somewhat like a one-handed Bird seal – and closing his eyes in concentration. Small sparks began to dance around his left hand, but before the technique was complete, Hoheto released a burst of chakra from every point in his body. It gave Tatsu's hand a decent shock, but more importantly, it practically disintegrated the mud encasing his body.
Caught off guard, Tatsu was unable to defend against the horizontal palm that struck his stomach with full force, throwing him back and causing him to roll a great distance through the trees.
'I missed,' Hoheto thought to himself.
Pushing himself up onto his hands and knees, Tatsu lifted his mask to spit blood on the grass before placing it back down. He smiled to himself.
'Finally.'
He rolled out of the way to avoid the axe kick that cratered the ground where he'd been just an instant before. Once on his feet, he clapped his hands together in the Snake sign to channel chakra.
Rat – Snake – Tiger
"Earth Style: Mud Wave!"
The ground broke beneath Tatsu's feet and exploded to form waves of earth, elevating the rogue ninja into the sky and bringing him in a semicircle around Hoheto.
Snake
"Earth Style: Mud Needles!"
The wave trailing behind him began creating thin spears of rock. Soon, there were dozens of earth shards, each about two feet in length, all hovering above the ground. Tatsu held the Snake sign.
"Hah!" he yelled, willing the spears to all be fired directly at Hoheto in unison. The young Hyūga gritted his teeth and readied himself, his left palm extended before him, his right positioned to his side. The first spear to reach him was dodged with ease as he spun to his left and directed a chakra-infused forearm into the side of the spear, breaking it in half. The next flew alongside his face once he tilted his head backward and let it fly into the ground. Turning again, he dodged a third spear, then brought his left elbow in a circle to shatter that one as well.
He proceeded to evade the spears, destroying them as he could, until they had all been dealt with. Tatsu was still circling him on a wall of dirt like a surfboard. He closed the distance between them and landed a Jūken strike on the wall with both palms, shattering it to dust. The venerable Sand shinobi easily leapt from the rubble and landed gracefully on the grass. Removing three senbon from the pouch on his thigh, he threw them at Hoheto's feet to force him to retreat, then flipped backward. Sticking the soles of his feet to the trunk of a tree that was behind him, he pushed off with the force of a bullet. Having just landed after dodging the senbon, Hoheto didn't notice Tatsu as he drove both forearms – crossed over his head – into his torso. He followed through, forcing him through the forest for what seemed like an eternity, then recovered as they were losing momentum and slid on his feet, watching the Leaf jōnin grind to a halt on his back.
"This is much better!" Tatsu yelled, a sick smile hidden behind his mask as he made the Snake seal once again. The ground began to rumble as static electricity filled the air. Sitting up to gaze upon his opponent, Hoheto saw their hair and clothing billow in the raw energy that soaked the atmosphere around them. "I must say, I wasn't expecting this from one of three random nobodies I came across in the woods! I must thank you for that!"
Hoheto stood, choosing not to waste any more time listening to this murderer and closing the gap once more, throwing a barrage of Gentle Fist palm strikes. Tatsu responded in kind, avoiding what he could and retaliating when the opportunity presented itself. He took several direct blows to his extremities, but nothing fatal. He mostly stayed on defense for observational purposes.
Unfortunately, he wasn't observing closely enough.
Tatsu missed the kick aimed at his left shin, taking a hit to a chakra point just above the ankle. His leg flew back, causing him to lean forward into a left elbow to the side of his neck, followed by a backfist to the opposite side of his face. Hoheto pulled back and then drove his left forearm and right palm into the stomach and chest - respectively - of the deadly ninja.
Blood sprayed into the inside of Tatsu's mask as he flew to the ground ten feet behind him. He rolled backward and landed on his feet, but the strike did legitimate damage, causing him to hunch over and grab at his midsection with his left hand. This caused an earned smirk to form on the face of Hoheto.
Then Tatsu laughed.
"It's been a while," he said softly, attempting to straighten but the pain forcing him back down, and another infuriating chuckle to escape his lips. "I have to be honest, I'm impressed. You…" he finally found the strength to fully extend his body, wagging a finger at the Leaf ninja, "…you're good. Better than you've been given credit, I'd imagine. How long have you been hidden from the world by the walls of this village, I wonder?"
Hoheto ignored him, his eyes narrowing in concentration.
Tatsu brought his right hand to his chin and grabbed the mask he'd been wearing since he'd appeared, then pulled it off his face and let it fall onto the grass at his feet. "You don't deserve to die staring at emotionless porcelain."
This got a growl from the white-eyed jōnin.
"You deserve to see the face of the one who fells you, because you're a warrior."
"Iwashi and Shimon were warriors," he spat back.
"No." The sternness of that word caused Hoheto's eyes to widen slightly. It was a severe shift in tone from the aloof attitude he'd shown until now. "Those… boys were no warriors. I absolutely despise the concept that because someone is brave or committed, they deserve to be revered as a warrior. Refusing to die does not make one a fighter. Fighting makes you a fighter."
Hoheto's face had twisted into that of a man possessed. "Those men, they were my men! They were strong and kind! No matter what you say, they are my heroes and I will avenge them!"
The formerly-masked ninja let out a loud laugh. "Then come and do it!" They met equidistance between them, Tatsu throwing the first punch, which passed almost whimsically along Hoheto's high left cheekbone. The young shinobi smirked, but his confidence grasped his focus and he was unable to anticipate the scorpion kick from the murderer's right leg as it craned over his back and connected squarely with Hoheto's mouth and nose. Wincing at the stinging feeling in his face, Hoheto spun away to his left and tried to rebound, but Tatsu wasted no time.
The Sand rogue rolled through his attack and before he was even upright again, he'd let off two senbon, burying them both in the mid-thigh of the emotional Hyūga. He took the man's grunt of pain as an opportunity to close the gap between them and land a left uppercut to the gut, then spinning to the right, he continued the assault with a back-right elbow into the face. Before Hoheto could fall, he was grabbed by the throat and thrown behind the frighteningly powerful ninja.
He'd only been airborne for a moment when another fist bored into his diaphragm, followed by a back kick to the face, spinning him around. Right as he'd completed his one-hundred-eighty degree turn, yet another fist met his face, sending him back in the opposite direction. 'How the hell is he so fast?' he thought to himself, unable to fathom this man's ability to seemingly be in multiple places at once. 'His speed is even greater than Genma-senpai's.'
He wasn't afforded much time to contemplate his situation as the heel of a shinobi sandal came down in an axe kick and imploded his face as it drove him back-first into the unforgiving earth. He could feel his eyes and nose filling with blood. Before his Byakugan shut itself down due to shock, he was able to identify a crack running from his upper-right canine to his right orbital bone, practically splitting his face into two pieces.
'I'm… going to die here.' There was no mistaking. He'd underestimated his opponent, and because of it, this fight was over. 'I can't move at all. I'm not out of chakra, but I think the force of his kick broke my neck. If I'm not paralyzed, I'm close to it.'
His thoughts were interrupted as the face of his adversary came into focus, looming over him amidst the settling dust.
"I have not been given a fight this rewarding in almost three years." If he could, Hoheto would be snarling. Was he supposed to find comfort in that? "I knew I'd made the correct decision when I chose to return to the Leaf."
The prone boy opened his mouth, coughing before trying to speak as blood ran from the corner of his mouth. "Y-... you won't… find… what you're loo- looking… for."
Nemui Tatsu tilted his head. "And why's that?"
A smirk formed on the beaten man's lips. "N- Na-... Naruto… Uzumaki will… s- stop you."
The bearded man's mouth curled into a genuine, happy smile at these words as he unsheathed his karambit once again, twirling it in his left hand. "I'll never forget you, Hoheto Hyūga."
The Leaf ninja's smirk dissipated, but before he could inquire as to how this monster knew his name, a flash of metal turned off the moon, and he was plunged into darkness.
Standing, Tatsu wiped the blood from his blade with a piece of cloth he then discarded on the forest floor before returning it to its home on his belt.
Naruto Uzumaki will stop you.
"It seems I'll find what I'm looking for, after all."
Author's Notes: Despite his incredibly short appearance in the series, Hoheto made an immediate positive impression on me. It was probably the hair. Either way, it was oddly difficult to kill him, so I hope it was worth it!