In A Time Where Kunoichi Didn't Exist
Neji had a bad habit of provoking his opponent before they actually fought. He'd first begin by trying to figure out, along the lines, of what his opponent was thinking, he'd verbally abuse them (if he could find call to), and then he'd attack them when they were still thinking about what he said. True, this was superfluous, as he could easily win most fights, but in truth, he enjoyed inflicting emotional pain more than physical pain.
It wasn't that he had turned into a sadist since Hinata's 'death'. Oh, no, quite the contrary—forcing others to feel emotional pain, or simply to remind them of it, reminded him that he wasn't the only one who had been hurt, and, in fact, some were worse off than he was.
So, even though he had no clue that the person standing before him was really his little sister, just because she was a girl didn't make any difference to Neji. He would not go easy on someone who was a kunoichi, just because they were the 'fairer sex'. In fact, Neji thought it was rather silly to go easy on a kunoichi, for they were in the same line of work as he, and it could be lethal to underestimate anybody at any time.
"You're facing me with so little doubt in your abilities. You are about to suffer a severe wake-up call," Neji said haughtily. Hinata was startled that he had changed so quickly from a fighting stance to taunting her. 'No, he's still prepared to fight… He might be my brother, but he's jaded now from the life of a ninja… He's trying to throw me off-balance!' Hinata reminded herself.
"Well, Hyuuga, what else would you expect me to do? Come to this match and beg for mercy?" Hinata asked, her tone sounding foreign to even herself. She was basically copying the confident tone that Sakura and Ino had whenever they fought each other, but on herself… It just didn't seem right.
"With this Byakugan, I can see through what even a complete stranger is thinking," Neji replied coolly. Hinata was slightly worried that her words had made no impact on her, but as one of his teammates would point out, if they were still conscious, the fact that he was already using the Byakugan was proof that her comment had made some sort of impact on him.
In a quick movement of veins and his eyes, which was all too familiar to Hinata, he exclaimed, "Byakugan!" Hinata desperately wished to, herself, activate her own Byakugan, but that act would immediately give off her true identity.
But was it really bad that he knows who she really was? After all, he did used to be her most important person. He was her brother, after all. She was her brother, after all…
"The way your eyes just shifted signifies that you are contemplating something that fate has forced against you. The way they shifted downwards after that shows regret or sadness. The way your body stance softened from a full-out fighting stance to an almost normal stance shows that you are shocked that my predictions are completely correct," Neji foretold.
"Ch, it's not like you'd know anything about me," Hinata said bravely. 'Not about my present self, in the least,' she thought ruefully.
"Oh? Well, I know you're not as strong as you're pretending to be. You were practically shedding tears with the Midori girl was fighting Temari," Neji pointed out. Hinata's eyes grew wide in surprise, and Neji scoffed. "Yeah, I noticed. You two, even though you're not on the same team, must share a deep bond, probably close to that of sisterhood… Do I need to describe what you're thinking, or is it obvious?"
He barely got the sentence out. When he finally looked back at the girl he was, just a few seconds ago, taunting, he had to dodge out of the way of the fireball. His eyes grew wide at this, and he smirked.
"So, was it you that started that fire and killed that team of ninja?" he asked with a small smirk, as if he knew that that comment would hit harder than words.
He was right. Hinata basically froze in shock at this, still somewhat mortified at what she'd done. Neji took this opportunity to run forward, his hands covered in the chakra of the Juken (though it couldn't really be seen by the naked eye). She noticed it too late, but avoided a direct hit from Neji's actual hand. However, she had to keep in mind that the Juken chakra extended about two and a half inches away from the part of the hand that was extended the most. So, even though she dodged a direct blow, she had still sustained internal damage to her right kidney, even if it was only shallow.
She gasped out from the pain and resisted the urge to hold her side. Neji came forward almost as quickly as Hinata could blink, and Hinata was forced into the defensive, which was really not a favorable position, as Hinata was a better distance fighter than hand-to-hand combatant.
Neji noted that she had enough sense to block and push his arms away in a manner so that the chakra surrounding his arms never touched her. How she could possibly know that that was what was inflicting damage, he couldn't be sure, but maybe she was just either lucky or winging it.
"Stop fighting it. Your fate is to lose to me!" Neji growled. His hits were getting harder, and Hinata noticed in a panic that, with each hit, he was pushing her closer and closer to the wall behind her. If he got her against the wall, blocking wouldn't be a choice.
Her blocks were getting worse and worse as she panicked more and more. Neji continued taunting her, acting as if he knew every thought that went across her mind. From above the stadium, Naruto watched as the girl who was so kind to him put up an amazing fight. He was surprised that someone like her could act as cold, but it dawned on him that that was all it was—acting. He began to feel bad for her, and the fact that the girl who shared the deepest bond with her (if Neji was right) was unconscious and probably in critical condition.
Though he knew that his teammates probably wouldn't look upon it happily, Naruto leaned, almost falling off the rail, to encourage her. "Don't listen to him! He doesn't know you, and he doesn't know anything about you! Screw him!"
Hinata laughed inwardly at this, and Neji faltered for a half second, a half second Hinata cursed herself for not taking advantage of. Neji went back to verbal abuse, trying to reinstill the fear and nervousness from before.
"You know what I see when I look at you? I see a little girl who doesn't want to admit to herself that that's all she is," Neji growled as he continued the flurry of attempted punches, slaps, and hits.
"You know what I see when I look at you?" Hinata quoted, though she had no clue what to say. Then, it dawned on her, as if Naruto's words had given her a sudden thought. True, Neji didn't know about her past. But, Hinata knew about his, even if it was only a vague idea of what it could have been like.
"I see a boy who lost his younger sister, the most important person to him when he was still in Konoha's Academy. I see a boy who hides behind snide comments even though he is, inside, mourning the loss of his little sister, even after all these years," Hinata was proud of herself for not letting out any information, and even prouder that her tone was constant. However, she felt a twinge of sadness about his past, for it involved her more than it did him.
She expected his movements to slow. She expected him to lose accuracy. She didn't expect him to freeze. "How…?" he began, but without even thinking about it, Hinata formed a few seals. Her arms were sore, for the Juken had injured them deeply. Her side was also sore from the internal damage she suffered from the first hit, and the fight needed to end quickly.
With the last seal, she cried out, "Suffocating Earth Prison no Jutsu!" A dome of earth formed around him, enclosing him tightly. Holding the last seal, she turned to Hayate. "That prison of earth will keep getting smaller and smaller until it crushes him. There is no need to suffer a causality in something such as the preliminaries needlessly, is there?" she asked quite calmly, though on the inside, she was shaking like a leaf. Hollow thumps could be heard from inside the dome, as if Neji was beating on the inside of them.
With a sigh, Hayate proclaimed, "Winner… Naru," he said, pausing to make sure that Neji wouldn't jump out of the dome at any second. As soon as the words left his mouth, Hinata let go of the seal, and the dome dissipated. Neji sat there on the ground, gasping for air, his lungs taking in sweet, sweet oxygen greedily.
"Gomen… about your sister…" Hinata said as she walked past him. Her tone finally showed how she felt—it was hollow, empty, and showed deep regret. She knew she probably wouldn't have won the fight if she hadn't basically cheated, but it had to be done.
"How… how did you know?" Neji asked as he stood from the kneeling position on the ground.
"I got the information from a reliable source," Hinata responded back automatically, knowing she couldn't say that she was his little sister and have a family reunion.
"Ah," he choked out, before allowing himself to be led away by the medic nin, who also led Hinata away to be checked upon.
----
Neji sat in the room, staring down at his hands. 'How dare she! She used that information against me… I've been extremely careful not to let that leak out into the public, and now, practically everyone will know! What kind of a bitch would use something like that against me?' Neji asked himself, rage and enmity towards the girl growing inside of himself.
A soft knock issued from outside the door, and Neji bade that whomever it was to enter. His father walked inside, his eyes stern, though Neji knew that this was all an act he pulled in front of others. He closed the door behind him. Neji expected his expression to soften, but it stayed stern, which showed that he was either upset with Neji, or he had serious news. Maybe both.
"I heard about your loss," Hizashi began as he took a wooden seat and pulled it closer to the bed Neji was sitting on.
"Gomen, chichi-ue. I did my best," Neji said, bowing lowly to signify that he was really sorry.
"Don't be. Wins and loses happen, and you learn from both, but you learn most from losses. You will not lose again, given a similar situation, ne?" his father asked. His tone was soft, and so was his comforting gaze, but he switched back to the stern persona. "However, that is not what I came here to discuss. I… have simply decided it is time you knew the truth of your family," Hizashi explained.
Neji froze. What truth? Hadn't he been living in the truth? This, needless to say, interested him, to say the least. Hizashi sighed before beginning. "I was born second in a set of twins. In normal times, the eldest would have been chosen to be the head of the Hyuuga family. However, when we were older, my older brother, Hiashi, was unable to bear a son with his wife. Instead, he birthed two daughters—Hinata and Hanabi. Because he could not bear a son, and only a ninja could lead the Hyuuga family, he and his family was sentenced as Branch family members, while I was chosen as the Head, for I bore one son—you. You are cousins to the late Hinata and Hanabi, not their brother," he simplified. He paused, gauging Neji's reaction.
Neji was shocked, to say the least. He was frozen in wonder, curiosity, and mounting rage that, all his life he had been misled.
"That is only the beginning of the story, Neji. You see, just after Hanabi was born, the Cloud and the Leaf signed a peace treaty, one that the Cloud broke by sending a Cloud nin into the Hyuuga compound. They attempted to steal you away, Neji, but Hiashi—your late uncle—saved you, but killed the Cloud nin. The Cloud deemed this a breech of the treaty on the Leaf's part, and they reached an agreement that, if they had my head, they'd leave it be. However, Hiashi had different ideas. You see, he refused to allow me to die, and his head was sent in my place, for as we were twins, they wouldn't know the difference."
"But, chichi-ue, what about… the curse seal?" Neji asked, unable to help himself.
"They didn't see the head before it was taken off. After death, the seal disappears," Hizashi explained calmly, although he knew he had explained the seal and all of its characteristics to him before.
"Ah," Neji replied simply, no longer looking at his father's face, but now, once again at his hands. 'Not my sister…? Wait… that girl… wouldn't she have known that? In the books, I'm sure it says we're cousins. But… How could she know that I thought she was my sister?' Neji asked himself.
"I'll leave you to your thoughts," Hizashi said with a small bow. "And… forgive me for misleading you all these years. However, I have never treated the two of them like anything but my own. Please, treat Hanabi no differently than you would if she was really your sister," Hizashi said, dismissing himself from the room.
----
Tsunade, Kurenai, Shizune, Uzuki, and Anko were all immensely proud of Hinata for making it to the third exam. They were currently celebrating Hinata's success, before the massive training she'd undergo during the third exam in a month. At the end of the night, after all of them had had their fun, Uzuki took Hinata to the side.
"Have Sakura or Ino told you what happened after your match?" Uzuki asked, grabbing her shoulders, showing what had happened was urgent. Her tone was panicky, and she was obviously worried.
Hinata was shocked, but shook her head in reply. She had been in the medical room during the last match between Kabuto and Satoshi, and during the briefing of the last test, but had been filled in on the information about the last exam already.
Uzuki sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "Well… the silver haired ninja, Kabuto Yakushi… He didn't fight. He forfeited his match. He just suddenly nodded after your match, and disappeared in a puff of smoke, as if he'd never been there, in Sakura's words. This isn't good. He… before the first exam, he was selling information. He was collecting information on you, Hinata. For some reason," Uzuki explained.
"Why… Why would he want information on me?" Hinata asked, now worried as well.
"I don't know. But that's never good," Uzuki determined with a small sigh. "Never," she finished definitively. "However, there's something else we need to talk about, something much less grave," Uzuki said, starting to smile, now.
"What?" Hinata asked, intrigued at the other news.
"How would you feel about being my apprentice? Sakura has Tsunade, Tenten has Anko, Ino has Kurenai… And you're already doing so well! Having a teacher would make you scores stronger," Uzuki offered.
"Really? That… that'd be great!" Hinata cried out happily, forgetting about Neji, forgetting about weird spies gathering information about her, and threw her arms around Uzuki's neck in excitement.
A/N: Finally! I've finally gotten away from canon! D Now it shouldn't be really, really, really, really, really boring to those that have read the anime and watched the manga (I typed that on purpose, I swear). Well, I hoped you enjoyed the new chapter, and I hope you're all pleased that it's gotten creative now! Bwahaha! XD