"Hinata, scout one kilometer up, would you?" asked Kiba-kun.

Hinata looked at him doubtfully, but did as he said. "There's a fight between three sand genin and rain genin."

To her surprise, Kiba-kun said, "Wahoo! Let's go check it out!"

Both her and Shino-kun tried to dissuaded him, to no avail. Hinata sighed as they ran towards the fight. Really, all she wanted to do was get out of this creepy forest as soon as possible. They had already gotten their scroll, so all they needed to do was get to the tower, but Kiba-kun was being stubborn.

When they reached the scene, Akamaru started shaking. Hinata looked at him fearfully when Kiba-kun explained that the big rain guy that was facing a red-haired, black-rimmed eyes was trouble.

The rain genin made a rain of needles fall upon the red-haired sand genin, but to Hinata's surprise, the genin had sand defend him. 'That defense is good. It is probably as good as, or better, than the Kaiten,' thought Hinata.

The tall sand genin started talking. "Gaara can control the sand in his gourd and the sand around him with his will. You guys never had a chance."

Hinata watched in horror as the three rain genin were killed mercilessly by the red-haired boy. Her horror turned to fear when the sand genin with the gourd turned towards their hiding spot and spoke. "I'm not done yet."

Hinata and her teammates shivered. They had to get out of here!

Thankfully, the boy's siblings talked him out of it. They certainly weren't close siblings, observed Hinata. The red-haired boy only sneered at their attempts to placate him, but left the area.

Hinata exhaled in relief. Kiba-kun cleared up what he said earlier. "What Akamaru was talking about was that the rain guy was in trouble. That sand kid was going to kill him." He shivered. "We've got to avoid him as much as possible, you guys."

Shino-kun nodded. "Now you see that we must head towards the tower as fast as possible."

They all agreed mutely and set off.


A pale sickly man asked them if they wanted to quit. Sasuke would've snorted if the pain wasn't so bad. Much to his surprise, Kabuto quit. He looked at him and then turned his attention to all the people that passed.

His eyes narrowed when he saw Gaara. He really wanted to fight him. A Hyuuga boy was in front of Lee. 'Is that the strongest Leaf genin?' he wondered. His neck burned in pain, but he grit his teeth. He had to bear the pain because he wanted to fight so many people. He had to test his strength.

Sasuke finally looked at Hinata. 'Looks like her team made it.' He smirked. Maybe then he would finally get to fight her as well.

Sakura cut through his thoughts. "Sasuke-kun, it hurts, right?" He looked at her in an annoyed way. "Please, Sasuke-kun, quit! You're in no condition to be fighting, so please!"

He stared at her. "Shut up, Sakura. I have to do this, so mind your own business." He watched her bite her lip. He sighed. He knew he was being harsh, but he had to do this!

"Ok, we'll have the board select your opponent. For those of you who are not fighting, please step up to the stands," coughed the proctor.


Hinata watched Sasuke's match with interest. He was holding up pretty well against the chakra stealing genin. Sasuke finished the battle with a complicated taijutsu move. Her eyes narrowed. She had seen Neji-niisan's teammate use that once before. 'Has he fought Lee-san before? If he has, then he must've copied it with his Sharingan.'

Hinata looked at Kakashi-sensei curiously when he took Sasuke away. She thought Sasuke should've gotten medical attention for sure.

She turned her attention to Shino-kun's match. He won easily. "Congratulations, Shino-kun. Th-that was great." He nodded.

She looked at Naruto-kun's team in surprise. Kakashi-sensei was back. She excused herself from her team and hesitantly walked towards them.

"H-hello, Sakura-san, Naruto-kun, Kakashi-sensei."

The trio looked at her. Sakura-san gave her a cold smile. "Hi, Hinata-san."

Hinata looked at her and gasped. "W-what happened to your l-long hair?"

The pink-haired girl ran a hand through her newly cut hair. It was cut a few inches above her shoulders. "Ah, I decided on a new image. How does it look?"

Hinata smiled. "It looks g-great, Sakura-san."

To her surprise, Naruto-kun whined. "Ne, ne, Sakura-chan, I really liked your hair when it was longer!"

Hinata felt a familiar ache in her stomach. 'He'll never notice me,' she thought sadly.

Sakura-san gave him a hard punch, then turned her attention to the board and inhaled sharply. "I'm against Ino."

Hinata looked at her with a sympathetic look. 'This is going to be a hard match.' She remembered when the two used to be good friends. They suddenly stopped talking during the third year in the academy, though. She heard it had been something about Sasuke.

At the thought of Sasuke, she shivered inwardly. 'Thank Kami none of the fangirls beside Sakura saw his blush that day.' If a fangirl's love for Sasuke could break up friends, what would happen to her when they saw her as a rival? She didn't want to think about that. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Kakashi-sensei eying her oddly. She offered him a small smile and mouthed 'Sasuke.' He nodded with an amused glint in his eye.

Hinata watched the two girls' match. They used basic ninjutsu and taijutsu but they were doing better than she'd ever seen before. 'I guess when you're fighting against your rival, your whole fighting style gets better.'

Sakura's chakra control was near perfect, she observed. She created three bunshin and focused her chakra to her feet without missing a beat, wasting no chakra. To her surprise, Ino cut off her long hair in anger and attempted her clan's mind jutsu. Hinata was astonished when Ino told Sakura it was just an act. 'They're both different from when they were in the academy.' She was happy for them, but she also knew that she herself was different from before. With her teammates' help, and her two wonderful sensei, she had been able to improve herself immensely.

Her confidence slightly ebbed away when her match finally came. 'I'm up against N-Neji-niisan?'

Hinata's heart thumped wildly as she faced her cousin. Forcing herself to stay calm, she observed his body language. 'He's confident. He thinks that it will be an easy win!' she thought in dismay.

"I never thought I'd be going up against you, Hinata-sama," said Neji-niisan lightly.

"N-Neji-niisan…" she stuttered softly.

Her sharp ears picked up Naruto-kun's conversation with his team about the Hyuuga clan. Kakashi-sensei and, to her amazement, Lee-san, explained to him about the Main and Branch houses and the Hyuuga fighting style. 'I didn't think he knew so much.' She glanced at the bowl-cut haired boy. His eyes were slightly narrowed as he stared at Neji-niisan. 'His rival is Neji-niisan?'

"Your match may begin!" coughed Hayate-san.

She turned to face Neji-niisan apprehensively. "Hinata-sama, before we begin I would like to tell you something. Give up now. You will lose to me; it is something fate decided before we were born."

Feeling anger beginning to build up in her, she asked him a stiff question. "What makes you think t-that I'll let fate d-decide my future?"

To her satisfaction, Neji-niisan's calm face distorted angrily. "It was written in our destinies! You are weak and you have no confidence in yourself! Your peaceful nature will overrule your abilities as a ninja, Hinata-sama."

Though she tried not to let it show, she was slightly shaken by his words. She couldn't help but remember her nightmares. Ever since she had that dream before she met her genin team, it had become a recurring nightmare. Only after the mission to guard Tazuna-san did they stop. Now the memory of it was hitting her full-force as Neji-niisan's words hit her. She started to shake uncontrollably.

"You want to run away from here, don't you, Hinata-sama," said Neji-niisan. "I can see your feelings with my byakugan. Right now you are fighting a losing battle. You are weak," he hissed.

She clenched her fists, trying to stop herself from trembling. She felt hopelessness well in her. Suddenly, a loud voice cut through her vapid thoughts.

"HINATA! DON'T LET THAT GUY BRING YOU DOWN!" She looked up and stared at Naruto-kun in amazement. He smiled winningly at her. "Don't you remember how you handled that eyebrowless freak's clone? And how you saved Sasuke? You're AMAZING, HINATA!"

Naruto-kun's cheer filled her with inspiration, but it wasn't until she stared into Kakashi-sensei's pride-filled eye that strength flowed into her. Confidence flooded her and she steeled herself.

It was time to fight her own rival.


Kakashi felt his heart clench with anger at the Hyuuga boy's words. Hinata had worked so hard and the boy couldn't see it. His hateful words were bringing down Hinata's hard-earned confidence. Kakashi could see that she was beginning to lose it.

To Kakashi's surprise, Naruto shouted out at her loudly, cheering her on. Kakashi looked at Hinata and saw that the girl was looking into his eye. He smiled at her, trying to convey his faith in her.

It worked. The girl smiled softly at him before turning on her byakugan. "Let us fight, Neji-niisan!"

"I see that you will not back down." The boy slid into his stance. "I'm not responsible for what happens here, Hinata-sama."

The girl nodded. "This is my choice to fight you, niisan. For you are my rival!"


Hinata jumped back, swiftly making a hand seal. She knew that Neji-niisan had the upper hand in taijutsu so she would have to catch him by surprise. "Mizu bunshin no jutsu!" She made six water clones. All six ran towards Neji-niisan.

With Neji-niisan now occupied, she did a back flip, landing on the wall behind her. She watched with satisfaction as one of her clones landed a hit on Neji-niisan.

When only one clone was left, Hinata jumped off the wall and dashed towards him full-on, pumping chakra to her legs. She sent a chakra-filled palm strike to Neji-niisan's chest. It hit him hard and sent him flying.

Neji-niisan stood up slowly and glared at her. "You got lucky, Hinata-sama. Now it's time for you to face defeat."

His byakugan flaring, he ran towards her. His speed surprising her, she just barely moved out of the way and slapped his arm away. His other arm came up and caught her unawares, hitting a tenketsu in her shoulder.

Hinata grimaced and pushed him away, carefully landing a two-fingered strike on his side. Giving her no time to rest, Neji-niisan turned towards her and the two engaged in a fierce battle of chakra-filled taijutsu.

Hinata knew she had to end this quickly. Her shoulder was numb and she could already feel her chakra moving sluggishly in her body from all the closed tenketsu.

A sharp kick from Neji-niisan sent her flying backward. She landed on her back in the water from her water clones.

She looked up blearily, trying to ignore the pain. One of Kakashi-sensei's lessons came to her as she struggled to sit up.

"Hinata-chan," said Kakashi-sensei. "As a shinobi, you will be forced to fight opponents that are physically stronger than you." A ten-year old Hinata nodded in understanding. "How would you defeat someone stronger than you?

Hinata contemplated this. "I would… have to outsmart them.

Kakashi-sensei nodded, his single eye smiling. "That's right. Using your mind and intuition, you can find a way to beat an opponent by exploiting their weakness and using it against them. Now let's work on your spur of the moment thinking. In a fight, one must be able to adapt to any situation." Hinata nodded unquestioningly.

'Neji-niisan is stronger than me, so that means I must come up with a plan to outsmart him,' thought Hinata in dismay. 'How will I do that, though? Neji-niisan is not known as the prodigy of the Branch family for nothing!'

Hinata watched in alarm as Neji-niisan ran towards her with his byakugan eyes glaring at her. Seeing his eyes made her remember something. 'The blind spot of the byakugan!'

With that in mind, she swiftly dodged his attack and turned off her byakugan, making Neji-niisan narrow his eyes. Hinata molded her chakra and whispered, "Hidden Mist no Jutsu."

A thick, heavy mist filled the arena. Hinata closed her eyes and picked through the sounds in the mist. Neji-niisan's breathing came from a spot… behind her! She spun around and threw a pair of shuriken at him. As she expected, he deflected them with his kunai perfectly. His distraction allowed her to do a jutsu she had seen Naruto-kun do many times. Three shadow clones popped into existence.

She couldn't make many clones because her chakra reserves were not nearly as immense as Naruto-kun's, but the clones definitely gave her an advantage in a fight with another byakugan user. Even byakugan could not discern between the clones and the user.

This meant that Neji-niisan could not tell which of her was real. This would allow her to target his blind spot with no complications.

She and her clones ran towards Neji-niisan with their eyes closed. Neji-niisan defended himself against her and her clones attacks, albeit with difficulty.

Hinata made two more clones and sent them towards Neji-niisan just before he sent a two-fingered strike at her. She quickly kawarimi'd with one of her clones and appeared from behind him, the tips of her fingers just barely ghosting his neck before he spun around and sent a powerful palm strike to Hinata's heart.


Kakashi was surprised when Hinata suddenly turned off her byakugan after being thrown away by Neji's kick. 'Has she run out of chakra?' he wondered.

His surprise turned into understanding when a heavy mist filled the arena. 'She's going to use Zabuza's method.'

"Wow, Hinata-chan is using Zabuza's technique!" yelled Naruto.

"I wonder where she learned it," said Sakura. Kakashi smiled at the hint of jealousy on her face. 'Usually it's Hinata that's the jealous one. Now it's Sakura's turn, I guess.'

Kakashi turned to her. "She probably had her byakugan on when Zabuza used it. Hinata can copy techniques in her own way with her byakugan." His smile widened at his genin's and Gai's look-alike's shocked faces.

"How does she do that, Kakashi-san?" asked Lee.

"You know how the byakugan can see the chakra circulatory system?" The three genin nodded. "Well, from seeing how a person molds their chakra and memorizing their hand seals, she can copy a jutsu effortlessly. I've been teaching her different types of ninjutsu this way for years now. It takes a few tries, but she usually gets it."

"I did not know Hinata-san was so incredible," said Lee with a strange fire in his eyes. "I now wish to fight Neji's cousin as well! YOSH!"

Kakashi's eye crinkled with mirth. 'First Sasuke and now him. I wonder if he'll get a crush as well.' He doubted it, judging from the boy's sidelong glances at Sakura.

"Hinata really is amazing," said Naruto in an awe-filled voice.

To his surprise, Sakura looked down in a depressed way. "Sakura," he said. The girl looked at him. "You are strong in your own right. You've gone a long way from the follower of Sasuke to a bright kunoichi." He was relieved when she brightened up.

Kakashi wondered briefly why he had reassured her and why it mattered to him that she wasn't depressed anymore. He usually didn't bother trying to comfort kunoichi. With their dangerous mood swings, he tried to avoid them mostly.

His question was forgotten when Hinata flew out of the mist and hit the ground hard.

"HINATA!" yelled Naruto, his hands clenching to the railing.

Kakashi felt the fear he felt when he saw Hinata covered in needles well up in him when she stood up, only to go down on her knees coughing up blood.

She coughed like that for a few minutes before the mist cleared up completely, allowing everyone to see her opponent.

A low hush filled the room when everyone saw Neji. The boy looked like he had taken a few hits but was still standing tall. His voice filled the area, oddly strained.

"You see, Hinata-sama," he said between breaths. "Your destiny was to lose against me in this match."

To everyone's surprise, he started coughing up blood as well. Hinata stood up shakily and shot him a soft smile. "Neji-niisan. It s-seems like my h-hit's finally affecting you," she said in a soft, panting voice.

"It was a lucky hit, Hinata-sama," denied the boy. Kakashi snorted at this. Hinata had obviously hit him because of her well thought out plan.

"N-Neji-niisan," said Hinata as she slid into her Hyuuga stance. "It seems to m-me that you are the one fighting y-your destiny."

The boy's eyes narrowed dangerously. "What do you mean, Hinata-sama?"

"Y-you are fighting so hard against m-me because I am from the m-main family. You wish to break away f-from the division and b-become your own ninja." Hinata's byakugan flared to life. "I will not let you win so easily though, because you… you are my precious rival!"

With that said, she ran towards Neji, her palm held out offensively. Kakashi watched the boy's angered expression as he also ran towards Hinata. To Kakashi's disbelief, Neji pushed aside her palm and slammed her in her chest.

The girl flew backward and fell to the ground, unmoving. Feeling his chest tighten, he watched as the match was called and Neji named the winner. Immediately afterward, the boy landed on his knees, coughing up blood.

Kurenai, Gai, and himself jumped down. Kakashi held her in his arms as Kurenai called for medical attention. "Hinata," he whispered.

The girl's eyes fluttered open. "I lost," she muttered weakly.

"Yes, but you proved your point, Hinata-chan. That was good enough." Kakashi smiled as the girl nodded and fell into unconsciousness.

Kakashi carefully handed her to the medical nins. It was only until they left the room that he realized the answer to his earlier question.

'I had to reassure Sakura because… because she reminded me of Hinata.' Kakashi looked at the closed door in shock. 'Hinata's changed me this much.'