Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.


Playing the Role of the Byakugan Princess

Chunin Exam Arc: Part Three

Chapter twenty-eight

Okay.

I need to think of a plan to defeat this guy as quickly as I possibly can before he decides to split into two individuals.

I glance over at the blue-haired guy as he stares boredly back at me, waiting for me to break out of the net of webs.

Well, I hope he has a lot of patient because I am not leaving this spot until I am done planning… or until he threatens to go after Sasuke to lure me out. Whichever comes first.

From what I remember, and what I just seen, this guy's brother is able to travel his body parts inside of his brother's body to help him fight. This shouldn't effect me at all since my Byakugan will be able to see inside of my enemy's body and I will be able to see the changes of movement inside and block or dodge his attacks. The brothers can also split their bodies apart, though I think the other brother gets tired easily because he isn't used to moving around as much as his other brother so I am going to make a mental note of that. Finally, they can transform into a monster because of their Cursed Marks.

I hope there isn't anything major that I am forgetting.

So, I should stick to a tactic that involves relying on my speed, Substitution Jutsu, and Shadow Clones to confuse my enemies and to avoid getting attacked by him. Since we are going to be fighting in a forest, I have the home advantage so I can blend in with my surroundings better than he can and I can freely use my Substitution Jutsu. However, I cannot overuse it because I don't want to run low on chakra. I am already about to fight these guys at not my 100% because of all the chakra I used during my planning and fighting I've done today so I need to watch my supply during this fight.

A loud sigh escapes from the Oto teen's mouth, disrupting my thoughts.

"Are you going to spend all day in there?" he asks me. "Frankly. I'm getting quite impatient. Whatever you are planning isn't going to work on me so why even bother?"

I narrow my eyes. "Someone thinks they're tough shit."

The teen smirks. "Is that a bad thing?"

"Only if you can't back your attitude up," I tell him.

He runs a hand through his hair. "Oh, trust me. I can. Get out and I'll prove it to ya."

I grant his wish and start slashing through the web strings. He straightens his body up and starts to bounce on the tops of his feet until I get down to the last layer of web strings. As soon as I cut through it, he hurls a kunai at me and I leap into the air. In a flash, he jumps over there with me and throws a punch towards my face. I hold up an arm to block his attack and he attempts a roundhouse kick to my stomach. I lift up my knee and he hits it instead. Then, an arm emerges out of the guy's leg to strike me. I stop the impending attack by grabbing his brother's wrist and bending it backwards with my free hand until I hear a small popping sound. The arm quickly retracts back to the leg and I exert out a small chakra blast to knock my enemy away from me.

As he soars backwards and lands on a branch, I throw down two smoke bombs and create two Shadow Clones. As the smoke clouds around us, the three of us split up and decide to go hide nearby, masking our chakras so he has a harder time of sensing us. I get settled behind a tree just as the smoke clears away and I hear my enemy growl in annoyance. I watch him with my Byakugan as he keeps moving his head around to try and find us by sensing our chakra. After a few seconds, he turns his head in the direction of one of my Shadow Clones and starts to step forward to take off after her. That same clone jumps out of her hiding spot and charges after the enemy. He pauses in his tracks and goes on the offensive to strike by putting his hands up in front of his face. My clone gets closer to him and he swings his fist around to give my clone an uppercut to the chin, with two more arms appearing underneath his own. My clone performs a somersault over the blue-haired boy. As she lands behind him, a leg shoots out of the teen's back to kick my clone aside, but she suddenly turns into a log when the leg makes contact.

As she substitutes away, my second Shadow Clone breaks away from her hiding spot to join my other clone. Shadow Clone #2 shoots out chakra blades from both of her hands towards the direction of the enemy. He leaps into the air to dodge the attack, but the blades follows him into the air and wraps themselves around his ankles. My clone yanks him back down, but two feet grows out of his back and they push off the branch towards Shadow Clone #2. A hand sprouts out from the top of the guy's head and turns into a fist to punch my clone. Shadow Clone #1 springs over the other clone and goes to slam her palm into his stomach when another arm pops out of her targeted area and grabs the clone's arm. She exerts a small blast of chakra out of her tenketsu to knock the guy away from her. Shadow Clone #2 follows up by waving her hands to her left to sling him aside and she breaks her connection with the chakra blades as he crashes into a branch.

Both clones tagteam up and take off our the enemy. He rolls over to the side as one of the clones go to strike and the other one manages to graze his hair with a kick as he leaps forward to avoid it. The clones do not let up and continue after him. They both start to simultaneously strike and kick at him while he quickly avoids all the attacks in a blur. Even though he is speedy enough to evade the attacks, the clones are not letting up in the slightly to allow him to strike back or to escape. After a couple of minutes of this, one of the clones is finally able to land a strike on his shoulder and sends him flying backwards. As the clones rush towards him, he seems to time their approach perfectly and reaches out to stop them by grabbing their necks.

"You two are starting to get annoying!" the Oto teen growls. "And, you're only clones! I know the real one is out there hiding like a coward!"

I lift up a finger to get rid of my Shadow Clones and the guy drops his arms, scowling. Suddenly, a flash of red starts to travel across his face and body and turns into black spotted markings. With my Byakugan, I notice an increase in chakra and the flow is moving through his pathways even faster.

Crap. He's already going into his Level One Cursed Mark form.

"Seriously, Sakon? You're already resulting to the Cursed Mark?" the head chilling out on the guy's questions.

Sakon clenches his fist. "Yeah. So, what? This bitch is already overpowering me with just Shadow Clones.

Sakon's brother sighs. "I know that. I've been helping you out. I just don't think it is necessary to go this far yet."

Sakon snorts. "Easy for you to say when I've been doing most of the work, Ukon."

"Don't worry, brother," Ukon replies with a grin. "I'll come out to play whenever you need me to. Just don't get to carried away with the girl. You know what our real goal is to accomplish."

"We'll see," Sakon says, licking his lips. "Now, where did she go?"

Okay, I guess it is time for me to actually fight the brothers since I have an idea of their fighting style by watching them and my Shadow Clones go at it. Sakon typically attacks first while Ukon only comes in if Sakon is in trouble or if Sakon's attack calls for a third arm or leg. They seem to like to do a lot of combo techniques. They are also quick on their feet and pretty good with taijutsu, but I haven't seen them use any ninjutsu or genjutsu. I am hoping they just stick to taijutsu and I able to defeat Sakon before Ukon separates fully from his body.

I pull out two kunai and attach one explosive tag to one while attaching three to the other one. I peek from around the tree and hurl the first kunai towards Sakon. He notices it coming, crosses his arms in front of his face, and jumps out of the way to defend himself. As he waits for the tag on it to explode, I toss the second kunai while he is in mid-air and it sinks into his side. He widens his eyes just as I lift up a finger to set off the three tags. Just as I do so, Ukon's arm shoots out to pull out the kunai and throw it aside. A huge explosion occurs and I frown as I watch Sakon land perfectly on a branch, only minorly injured from the kunai.

I dash through the smoke anyways to launch my suprise attack as I watch Sakon keep his guard up and looking around for me. Activating my chakra scalpels, I run full speed out of the smoke, leap into the air, and manage to land on top of Sakon. I aim to slash his neck, but Ukon's arm reaches out to grab me and I end up slicing clean through his arm instead. A yell of pain rips out of Ukon's throat, but I ignore that, and the splatters of blood that flicker onto my face, and spin around to kick Sakon. He catches my leg and I extend my palm out at his face and shoot out a chakra blade. From the close proximity, the chakra blade hits him without fail and pierces through his forehead, traveling to his brain. Before it can do so, Sakon grabs my arm and forcefully pulls the blade out of his head.

Damn, he is too fucking fast and strong. That chakra blade would've have totally killed both him and his brother.

Sakon goes to punch me in the gut, but I shove it aside and quickly take a step back to get into my fighting stance.

"Eight Trigrams: Sixty-Four Palms!"

I dive right in and swiftly start to strike his chakra points. Since I am striking him with my chakra scalpels activated, I am slashing through various parts of his body as I go at it. As I attack him I am pushing him forward and forward until his back is now against the tree. The force of my strikes starts to break the bark behind Sakon and we both burst through the tree and I keep on going. After my strike, he soars backwards and crashes into another tree. He is bleeding all over the place from his many open wounds and appears to be in bad shape.

Now, it is time to finish him off while he's down!

I sprint over to Sakon and raise my hand up to land the final blow: slashing the brothers' heads right off. As I go to do so, Ukon fully slips out of Sakon's body in a flash and grabs my wrist. He pulls out a kunai and aims for my chest. I use my free arm to shield my chest and he stabs it instead. I wince slightly in pain and proceed to headbutt Ukon. He instantly let's go of me and stumbles backwards as I throw a smoke bomb after him. It explodes into a cloud of smoke and I turn to end Sakon really quick but pause as I see he is already starting to transform.

Shit.

Instead, I drop a handful of explosive tags on the ground and decide to flee. As I shoot out of the smoke, I lift up my finger, once I am a decent amount away, and the tags go off behind me. I hide behind a tree to catch my breathe and recoup.

Sakon is transforming and Ukon has separated from his brother. The two things I did not want to happen happens. I am pretty sure Ukon is going to go and transform now so it is totally going to be two against one and they are a hell of a lot stronger than I am now. I mean, I could barely keep up with them in their Level One mode.

Okay, calm down. I can just create Shadow Clones and make it three against two. Ukon seems to be the weaker one between the two of them so I can have my Shadow Clones distract Sakon and get him away while I deal with Ukon. Then, the three of us can take down Sakon.

I sense movement going on from behind the tree and I watch as the smoke clears up and out reveals two creepy ass looking horned monsters. They seem to have gotten away from the explosion, but they still have some burn wounds on them. But, what I am surprised to see is that Sakon's multiple gashes are gone and Ukon has two arms now instead of one.

What the hell?! Don't tell me they can regenerate or heal themselves somehow?

"You know, you're truly something, I must admit, if you can push us to transform like this!" Sakon calls out. "But, the fun has only begun! You're going to wish that you had just stayed out of our way and let us capture Sasuke!"

Ukon gives his brother a sideways glance. "No, we are going to play around with here. Now is not the time, Sakon. We still have a mission to carry out."

Sakon grins. "Fine, fine. But, I'm the one that gets to kill her!"

Ukon shakes his head. "We'll both kill her."

The brothers split in their search to find me.

Good. They have split up. Let's try to keep it that way.

I create two Shadow Clones and they stalk after Sakon while I creep after Ukon. I silently slip through the trees, trying to keep myself at a decent distance away from him, as he slowly takes his time looking for me by peeking around every single tree he goes by. Then, he whirls around and slings a kunai in my direction. It whizzes by my ear and strikes an innocent squirrel behind me. Ukon watches carefully as the squirrel falls, dead, to the ground and he rolls his eyes.

"Cripes. Getting all on an edge over a damn squirrel," Ukon mumbles.

He turns his back to begin searching again and I take the opportunity to strike back. I pull out a kunai and flicker from branch to branch towards him. I leap out of the brushes in attempt to stab Ukon in the back. He spins around and matches my kunai with one of his own. We glare at each other for a second before hopping back and hurling a handful of shuriken at one another. The shurikens collide and they start to fall to the ground, but I pull my batch back with some wire and direct it towards Ukon. He raises up his metal looking arm to deflect the weapons, but I wiggle my fingers around and the shurikens zoom around Ukon's torso instead and restricts him.

Before he can try to break free, I shoot out my chakra blades and have them coil themselves around the line of wire and around the parts constricting Ukon. I allow the last bit of the blades move away from the wire and through both sides of Ukon's shoulders. I quickly start to pump some extra chakra into the blades and it starts to flow through Ukon's network, slowly spreading out and blocking his chakra pathways. Ukon scowls and bulges his muscles to rip through the wire, but struggles with breaking the chakra blades. I start to use all of my strength to keep him restrained as I watch the chakra continue to do it's job inside of Ukon. By now, the areas in, or near, his shoulders and upper chest are blocked and starting to shut down.

Just a few more seconds until the heart gets damaged. Almost there.

Suddenly, Ukon let's out a loud roar and tears one arm through the chakra blade. He reaches out to pull the chakra line to drag me closer to him, but I quickly break the connection. As the chakra blades fizzles away, I charge after Ukon and go to strike his chest. He sidesteps and goes to punch me, but I twirl out of the way. I push off the branch to strike him, but he leaps over me and turns around to place a hand on my back. Activating my chakra scalpels, I spin around to slice his arm off again, but I see he is gone. I look around for him, but he has disappeared! Then, that is when I notice something a little too close to me over to my side. I turn my head and gasp when I see Ukon's head staring back at me.

"Surprise!" Ukon shouts.

I swing my arm to smash in his face, but it moves backwards instead and rests itself on my back as if someone were pinning me down. I start to run towards the tree to ram Ukon out of my body, but they stop moving and I drop to my knees.

"What's going on?" I demand to know. "How did you get inside of me?"

Ukon grins evilly at me. "Pretty unique technique, huh? It really comes in handy when assassinating someone. When I placed my hand on you earlier, I broke my body down to a cellular to enter your body and then reconstructed myself to my original form once inside."

Fuck, this does ring a bell. I faintly recall now them being able to do such a thing. Damn it!

"Well, can you kindly get out of my body?" I ask, struggling around.

Ukon chuckles. "Ha! You're funny, kid."

I frown. "You're not going to be laughing after this!"

I quickly pull out a kunai with my free hand and stab my shoulder with it. I cringe from the pain, but I continue to dig it in deeper.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Ukon exclaims as he spats out some blood.

"If your cells are merging into my body, I am assuming whatever pain I feel you are going to feel!" I reply.

"So, suicide is your idea? You're insane!"

"I would rather kill myself in attempt to end your life instead of dying in your hands!"

I pull my kunai out of my shoulder and go to stab my chest.

"No!" Ukon shouts.

He quickly hops out of my body and skids to the ground right as I stop the kunai merely centimeters from my chest. Instead, I spin around and throw the kunai at him. It sinks into his leg and he clenches his teeth, seething at me.

"You bitch! You tricked me!"

I arch an eyebrow. "As if I would be stupid enough to give myself a fatal wound while fighting you. I knew you would leave my body if I went straight for my heart. I don't have a death wish."

Ukon snorts. "Funny. I thought otherwise when you stepped in to fight us!"

I ignore his taunt and lift up a finger to dissipate my Shadow Clones. Their memories flood back to me and I quickly watch their fight with Sakon. It was more of a game of cat and mouse as the clones basically evaded and ran around Sakon in attempt to tire him out. I recreate my Shadow Clones and the three of us surround Ukon. One Shadow Clone rushes in first to attack Ukon. He leaps into the air to dodge her, but my other clone quickly jumps up with him and smacks him back down. As he lands, my first clone kicks him over to me while my second clone lands behind him and lifts him up. Before Ukon can try to escape, I get into my favorite fighting stance and start going to town on him.

"Eight Trigrams: Sixty-Four Palms!"

Ukon yells out in pain as I strike him and he collapses to the ground once I am finish. My clones and I regroup and surround him again. One shadow clone bends down to restrain once more while the other pulls back his hair.

"W-what do you think you're doing?!" Ukon shouts, struggling to move. "Let me go!"

I activate my chakra scalpels and mimic the evil grin he gave me earlier. "Die."

I slice my hand clean through his neck and his head instantly rolls off. A shower of blood sprays all of me, but I try to focus on Ukon's head instead. Just to make sure he cannot regenerate his head, I stab my hand through his head and into his brain. I tear the brain into pieces and then I go over to his fallen body and rip out his heart. I toss the heart aside, did away with my clones, and sink to the ground, closing my eyes.

Okay, that was very gory and brutal. I have blood all over me, I tore up a guy's brain, and ripped out his heart. I am proud to say I am not about to freak out, yet, nor have I… Bleh shit. Here it comes!

As expected, I start to vomit all over the place and I rub my mouth.

Damn. I'm so attractive right now.

Okay, let's get my head back in the game. I can feel sick and vomit all I want later. Sakon is the only one left now so I need to focus on going after him. But, damn. I'm starting to run low on chakra and I'm exhausted. I've been going at it all day and have been continuously using chakra. I'm going to have to strategically fight Sakon and only attack when I see important openings. I may have tired him out by now and have attacked him a few times already, but he still has a shit ton more chakra than I do and he is stronger and faster than me. If he was stupid, I might not be this worried and can just outsmart him. But, he's not stupid so there goes that plan.

"Ukon! Ukon, damnit! Where are you?" I hear Sakon yell out from a distance.

I expand my vision to see Sakon coming towards my direction from my left.

Okay, time to go hide and then I will follow to ambush him!

I leap away from the gruesome scene and emerge myself within the thickest part of shrubbery on the tree. I mask my chakra, slow down my heart rate, and keep my breaths low and steady. After a couple of minutes, Sakon comes into view and his eyes fall upon his dead brother. He widens his eyes and just stares down at Ukon for a long minute. Then, his body starts to quiver as he clenches his fists and throws his head back.

"WHERE ARE YOU, YOU FUCKING BITCH!" he roars. "YOU'RE GOING TO PAY FOR THIS! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"

He flickers away from his spot and starts crashing through the surrounding trees in a fit of rage. Branches and leaves are starting to hail down and he is leaving decent-sized holes in the tree trunks.

He's going to find and kill me in no time in this state if I don't get out of here!

I get up to get out of there, but Sakon suddenly changes courses and rushes over to my direction. I drop down as he slams through the shrubby and I land on a lower branch. I start to sprint off, but Sakon catches up to me and gets in my way. He raises up his arm to strike at me, but I block the punch with my own arm and bounce away from him. He hops over behind me and goes to kick me, but I backflip over him and continue to run away. He growls and chases after me. I conjure up my Shadow Clones to slow him down, but Sakon just rams through them, causing them to instantly poof away, and continues his pursuit on me. He takes out a handful of kunai and throws them at me. I dart over to my right to avoid them and he pushes forward and manages to land a kick on my back. I crash into a thick branch and quickly jump back up onto my feet, my head starting to hurt now from the fall.

Sakon yells out in rage and charges after me. I wave my hands around to create a small chakra barrier and it sends him backwards. He gets up again and charges after me once more and I swiftly shoot out a barrage of chakra blades. Sakon takes the attack head on, allowing my chakra blades to stab through his body. He rushes over towards me and I quickly break my connection with the blades, but that doesn't matter to him. He jumps into the air and tackles me off the branch. As we fall, I try to knock him off of me with a small chakra blast, but I realize that I am too low so only a tiny blast comes out, not doing anything meaningful. We both crash to the ground, hard, and I swear I hear a few of my ribs cracking as we do. The landing doesn't seem to faze Sakon as he continues his enraged pursuit for me and jumps up to kick me against a tree. My body slams against it and I roll over on the ground to catch my breathe.

Ignoring the pain, I jump to my feet after finding my breathe and put myself in a defensive position to protect myself from another attack. However, Sakon just stands in front of me, breathing loudly. The fury in his eyes are gone now and he seems to be calming himself down. After a few seconds of eyeing him down, he stands up straight and gives me a malicious grin.

"You know, I just thought of an even more brilliant way to make you pay for killing my brother," he tells me, eyes shining with excitement

Before I can blink, he flickers over behind me and grabs my left arm. He jerks it back and bends it in an unnatural way, snapping it in half. Pain surges through me and I yell out in pain. He goes to grab my other arm, but I bring my hand back and manage to backhand him in the face. I recoil my arm back and start to run away, but he hops over in front of me and punches me in the gut. I double over, blood spattering out of my mouth. Then, Sakon grips me by the throat and starts to bash my head into the tree behind me multiple times. As he does so, my vision is starting to waver and my head is starting to hurt and fill up with pressure at the same time. After awhile, he stops bashing my head in and I can feel streams of blood trickling down the back of my neck.

This… This is a bad situation I am in. I'm having a hard time even thinking right now.

Then, I find myself struggling to breathe as the hands around my neck begins to squeeze. Sakon lifts me up into the air and has completely cut me off from inhaling any oxygen. I feel my throat filling up with unreleased air as I flail my legs around to breakfree. I raise up my unbroken arm to conjure up whatever chakra I have left to form a blade and a tiny one shoots out of my palm. Sakon merely slashes it in two without batting an eyes and grasps my neck even harder. I drop my arm in defeat and I feel my body starting to relax and grow numb as I start to see dark spots in my vision.

Am I going to die? Is this really how I'm going to die?

I feel my eyelids start to close by themselves and then I'm suddenly dropped to the ground. Oxygen rushes into my lungs and I find myself being able to breathe again. I start coughing and gasping, trying to soak in as much oxygen as I can, when Sakon leans down to get eye level with me and cups my chin.

"Now, did you really think I was going to let you die so easily?" Sakon taunts, giving me a look of amusement. "You haven't even begun to face the consequences of your actions."

Face the consequences of my actions? If he isn't going to let me "die that easily" then he must have decided he wants to torture me for killing his brother by putting me on the verge of death.

"Answer me this," Sakon continues. "How would you feel if I killed any of your loved ones? The guy who was with your earlier… you guys look alike. Same eyes and similar looking appearance. A sibling or close relative, perhaps? What if I just killed him right in front of you?"

Well, I'm pretty sure Sakon and his brother have killed many people during their lifetimes so I do not feel bad for killing Ukon.

I choose not to answer and instead I spit in Sakon's face. Sakon narrows his eyes, let's go of my chin, and slaps my face. I glare at him, resisting the urge to flinch from the pain, as he wipes my saliva off of his face.

"You fucking bitch," Sakon mumbles.

He grabs me by my hair and starts to bash my head into the tree again until my vision starts to waver once more. After slamming my head in a few times, he kicks me in the stomach, and then goes back to choking me. His hands wrap around my neck even tighter this time around and I swear I feel like my eyes are going to bug out of my head and my lungs are going to burst from lack of air. My throat is starting to hurt like hell now and I can bet anybody that I will not be able to talk/will have a hard time doing so if I tried. Finally, Sakon drops me to the ground and I quickly start gasping for air.

You know, I've never been so thankful in my life for oxygen. Though, I would be even more thankful now if some miracle happened and just get me out of my situation. My body is in the worse condition it has ever been and I honestly feel like I'm going to die at any second. The pressure inside of my head keeps on increasing and the blood will not stop gushing out from the back of it. My left arm and ribs are broken, my vision keeps on going in and out, my throat is bruised and very damaged, and I feel like I'm going to vomit from all of this coughing and gasping for air.

I should probably be freaking out, but I'm too exhausted and in too much pain to even be doing that.

Sakon yanks back my hair so he doesn't have to bend down this time to talk to me; probably actually doesn't want me spitting on him again.

"You are not making things fun for me," he says to me. "Most of the time, my prey will already be begging and screaming for their lives." Awhh, I'm so sorry that I'm disappointing you while you beat the shit out of me. "You know, I'm feeling a little generous. If you make this worthwhile for me, by begging and screaming for your life, I won't go interupt my teammate's fight with your relative and kill him myself. I'll just quickly kill you instead."

Oh, wow. That's a wonderful deal. I'll have to think it over.

Yeah, right. If he even thinks about touching Neji he will regret it. I don't know how in the state I am in, but I will make his life a living hell.

"F...f...fuck y...you," I barely am able to whisper, all the while hurting like hell.

Sakon just shrugs at my response. "You're really not going to let me have any fun, are you? Damn, you sufck. Oh, well. Smart choice I guess because I wouldn't have gone through with my end of the deal anyways. I would've forced you to watch as I killed your relative and then go back to slowly beating you to death." Sakon taps his chin. "Though, I guess having you watch your relative get killed wouldn't have much of an effect on you since it is kind of hard to see out of one eye."

I scrunch up my face in confusion and he chuckles. "That's right! You heard me. Only out of one eye as in: I will be ripping out your eyes right out of your sockets before and after you watch your relative get killed!"

I tense up.

Fuck that shit! He is not stealing my Byakugan nor killing Neji!

I attempt to push off my feet to tackle him, but he easily knocks me back with a smack of his arm and I fall back to the ground. He grabs me by the neck again to pin me against the tree, but doesn't choke me this time around.

"Yes, your eyes are just so precious and interesting," Sakon says, excitedly. He starts to trace one finger around both of my eyes "They would make a great gift for Orochimaru-sama or even for me. Yes, maybe just for me. I like that idea better. You took my brother from me and now I'll be taking your eyes from you! Sounds like a fair trade, don't you think?!"

This guy has gone psycho!

I aim to spit in his own eyes and raise my right fist to punch him, but he moves his head to the side. He let's go of my neck and turns away to wipe his face off. In a flash, he spins back around and sticks his hand straight into my left eye socket and rips my eye right out.

"Aiyahhhhh!" I scream out loud in pure pain and terror.

No no no! I can't see! I can't see out of my left eye!

I reach up and covered my left eye socket.

Oh my god… I'm bleeding. I'm bleeding so fast! My eye is gone! It is missing! There is nothing there!

I watch with my right eye as Sakon starts to roll my eye around in his dirty hands and I immediately double over and vomit on the spot.

No… no. This can not be happening!

Sakon grins as he is getting extreme pleasure from watching me flail around in pain.

"This is what you get for killing Ukon, you fucking bitch!" he shouts. "Fuck your fucking clan! Who cares you're the spoiled bratty ass heiress of it! This eye is now mine and the other will be never soon! Ha ha ha ha ha!" He starts laughing maniacally.

Fear overwhelms me and I feel tears start to stream down my face as my body starts to quiver and I bring my arm to my head, shaking it. I close my eye.

I'm going to die. I'm going to fucking die and this motherfucker is going to have my Byakugan! I'm such a fucking failure! All I wanted to do is just go off and protect Sasuke and everybody else and this fucking piece of shit is going to kill me and take my damn eyes!

Suddenly, I hear Sakon screaming in just as much ure pain and terror as I was just seconds ago. I snap my eye open and see he has dropped my eye and is clasping onto the top of his head. He continues to yell as he takes a few steps back, his eyes widen, and then starts to claw at his head. From the intensity of the pain, Sakon instantly transforms out of his Cursed Mark from and back to looking like his old self.

What…? What the fuck is going on?!

A figure jumps down in front of me and I recognize from the long hair that it is my father. A wave of relief rushes over me.

Oh my god. My father is here… he's going to save me… I'm not going to have to die now! Oh my god oh my god thank you…

"How dare you do this to my daughter and try to steal the Byakugan!" my father shouts, sounding enraged. I've never heard him so angry before. "You thought you could get away with it?! I will show you what happens when you mess with the Hyūga clan! We do not show any mercy to the likes of you!"

My father takes a step forward towards Sakon and the teen screams even louder. My father just stands there and watches Sakon for a few seconds as the boy is now on his knees and pulling his hair out. Then, my father flickers over to him and slams his palm into Sakon's chest, instantly killing the boy. His eyes widen from the impact and his lifeless body falls to the ground.

That… that all happened so fast. Sakon just… died. So quickly!

My father goes over to pick up my eyes and I hear him sigh. He turns around, walks over to me, and bends down.

"Oh, Hinata," he whispers, giving me a sad look. He runs a hand through my matted hair and carsses my face. "Look at you. I'm so sorry I didn't make it here earlier. You put up a good fight, though, it seems. Now… now it is time for you to rest."

Before I can react, he easily jams two fingers into a pressure point on my neck and I instantly blackout.


"Hinata?! What's wrong with Hinata?!"

"Neji, too?!"

Whoosh. Crack. Boom!

"NOW!"

Beep. Beep.

"Go! Go! She's losing a lot of blood!"

Beep. Beep.

"Her eye… not sure… roughly out"

Beep. Beep.

"...shattered… weeks… knows?"

"Life threatening…

Beep. Beep.

"H..in..ata…"

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Birrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

…..

…..

…..

…..

I feel… light. Everything is light. I see light. I see her, but barely. She is blurry. She is waving at me. She doesn't look happy. I can't really see her face, but I can sense it. Did I do something wrong? Where am I at? Who is she? I think I know her.

Mother? Is that you?

The woman fades away and everything goes back dark.

No! I don't want to be in the dark anymore!

I try to snap my eye open, but all I see is complete darkness.

No, no, no! Am I blind? I can't be blind! I was just seeing light moments ago! Sakon only took one of my eyes!

I rub my right hand over where my eyes should be and feel something soft.

Soft? I take care of my skin, but it isn't this soft.

It feels like… feels like a piece cloth.

I mess around with the soft area and then carefully attempt to remove whatever it is if I am able to.

"No!" I hear my father's voice shout and I immediately drop my hand.

What is my father doing here?

I hear footsteps rush over to me and I feel him grab my hand. "I know you must be scared to suddenly waking up to the dark, but it is only a bandage. It is to help heal your left eye after the surgery."

Surgery? Surgery as in putting my eye back into my eye socket? It better be my eye and no one else's. But, I've been out this whole time? Strange. I could've swore I heard voices. And, that light and the woman… I've must've been dreaming. I do remember my father knocking me out.

"Now, I know you must be very confused and so I will try to answer any question that you would've potentially asked if you were able to talk," my father explains to me.

I drop my jaw in surprise.

Wait, what?! I can't talk?!

My father must've seen my reaction and clears his throat. "Let me rephrase that: Yes, you are able to talk. However, not at the moment. Your throat is severely damaged and it is being healed this very second with chakra and medicine."

I sigh in relief and then wince slightly in pain from the huge breath of air that rushed through my throat.

"Yes. Don't be doing that either," my father says to me and I visualize him giving me a small, amused smile. "Let's see… where should I begin? I was off defending the village when Hizashi comes over to inform me that you and Neji had gone after the Uchiha boy and two Kumo Shinobi had decided to trial you two. I am pretty sure they were using the invasion as an opportunity to kidnap you, or maybe even the two of you, and steal the Byakugan. The two of us hurry after the enemy and confronted them. After telling us their motive, they attempted to attack us and we easily stopped them and turned them for questioning after everything settled down."

Okay, my father really needs to stay away from Kumo Shinobi. He's going to actually end up killing one and then end up getting him or his brother killed to prevent a war.

"At that moment, Hizashi told me he was getting a bad feeling so he and I decided to see how the two of you were faring before we returned back to the village. Hizashi's feeling was correct as we saw the critical conditions and dire circumstances the two of you were in. We took off after our respective child and immediately took you both to the hospital shortly after. The two of you were in a very terrible state and we were informed that nobody knew if the two of you were going to make it or not. Neji was able to defeat his opponent, but collapsed from chakra exhaustion and had a deep wound where he was struck in a vital spot. You were, also, dangerously low on chakra and was starting to bleed out from your head. Blood clots were starting to from and it was cutting any circulation to your brain. You and Neji are okay, now. You both have been properly treated and are just bedridden for now and you have been out for three days."

Three days?! Damn.

Life threatening.

I remember hearing those words when I was out. Were Neji and I really that close to death? I'm glad the two of us were able to push through it. I need to see him soon.

"The invasion is over now and while a fourth of our men were killed, it is still a significantly lower number than what it would've been without your insight."

Insight? Really? I think the word superawesomeplanningandobservationalskills would be a better fitting. "However, all that will be discussed later. The village took a good amount of damage, though," my father continues. Discussed later? With whom? What does he mean by that? "Orochimaru, all of Otogakure, and Sunagakure retreated after our men started to overwhelm the enemy and Gaara's transformation was dismantled by your friend, Naruto. The Uchiha and anyone else involved with that mess survive with minor to moderate injuries, including your teammates."

Yay, Naruto! I figured he would save the village from Gaara like before, but I'm just happy to hear that he did! Maybe everyone will start being nicer to him now. And, Sakura, Shikamaru, and everyone else are okay? Good. I wonder if Sakura defeated that Oto girl or if somebody came in to help her out like mine and Neji's fathers did.

"However, back to Orochimaru. He retreated with everyone else, like I mentioned, but not before he badly injured Hokage-sama," my father goes on. "As of now, nobody knows for sure if he will survive or not. He appears to be in a deep coma, but that's all the information I know as of now. I know that we are going to have to a temporarily Hokage until he wakes up. Though, I heard they are trying to get Jiraiya-sama and Tsunade-hime, if they manage to find her, to take up the role. We shall see how that goes."

Ha. Good luck with trying to convince Jiraiya and Tsunade to become Hokage. But...how the hell did the Hokage not die? I mean, I didn't want him to die, but I was kind of expecting he still would no matter how much backup he had. Does that mean Orochimaru never got his arms sealed? That would cause a lot of problems if he hasn't. Plus, what about Asuma and Kabuto? What happened to them? I'm assuming those two faced off while the Hokage and Orochimaru faced off, both duos backed up by their own mini group of subordinates. Maybe having Asuma and the other Anbu as backup really saved the Hokage's life.

I move my fingers around to spell out my sensei's name in sign language.

"He is doing just fine. He has some minor injuries. That is all."

I move my fingers some more.

K-A-B-U-T-O?

"Kabuto?"

Shit. Does nobody not know yet that Kabuto is working for Orochimaru? I thought they would since the invasion is over. Surely they've started some sort of investigation already!

I point at the hospital sheets, hoping they are white, and then I point at my hair, running my hand back to resemble a low ponytail.

Okay, I know the Four-Eyes has ash-grey hair, but it can be mistaken for white. Like, a dull white.

"I know who you are talking about," my father tells me. "I was just repeating the name to make sure I read your signs correctly. You're kind of sloppy when it comes to signing."

I frown.

Well, how about I show you my middle finger and then you guess what sign that means, father?

Jerk. Insulting me while I'm pitiful and weak.

"Anyways, I do not know what has become of him," my father says. "Though, it is known now that he is not only a Genin. He is working for Orochimaru and probably has been for a while now."

I nod in understanding even though I already know this information.

My father makes a movement that sounds like he is walking away from me and pauses. "That is all I have to say for now. I've been up here with you these past three days so I am going to go back to the compound to rest since you are conscious again. I suggest you get some rest as well. I will be back later with Hanabi."

I nod and close my eyes to rest as he leaves, and recap on what my father just told me. Then, I realize he didn't answer one question that I really wanted the answer to. What the hell happened to Sakon right before my father showed up? He was suddenly yelling and grabbing his head in pain. I know that I didn't do that to him. Was it my father? But, what kind of jutsu can cause a person's head to suddenly hurt without being near them? Was it Sakon's fault? Did he spend too much time in his Level Two Cursed Mark form and starting to feel the effects of it? Also, what did he mean about "we will discuss it later"? I guess I will just ask him about it when he comes back.

However, things turned out pretty good at the end. While people still died, which was sadly going to happen during an unexpected invasion, my father mentioned it was a low number so my plan must've helped out a lot of people. The Hokage came out alive, for the moment, and nobody that I really care about died. Even though Neji and I got our ass beat, we managed to pull through, as did Sakura, and prevented the Sound Four for going after Sasuke. Naruto ended up stopping Gaara like he should and Sasuke is still safe and sound from Orochimaru's clutches, for now, and is Cursed Mark free.

The only bad thing I can think of his that Orochimaru's arms didn't end up getting sealed and that can possibly be a bad things for Sasuke as he might continue his pursuit on him once he has recouped and recovered. I hope he doesn't try anything soon while Konoha is busy repairing the village and sensing their elite Shinobi on missions to stay on guard and watch out for other potential villages or nations from attacking while we are down.

I guess another bad thing is that I totally got my ass beat by Sakon. That… that was brutal and terrible. I hope I never get myself in a situation like that again. I seriously thought I was going to die and all because I wasn't strong enough to take him and his brother, Ukon, on. I mean, I trained so hard this past month and I did improve, but that fight made me realize that I need to train even harder. Yes, I may be Chunin material and I am better than your average Genin, but that isn't good enough for me. I need to get better. I need to learn more than just my clan's techniques. I need to learn some more ninjutsu, especially long-range ones, build up the muscles in my arm, and start sparring with my teammates and friends so I can get more experience in hand-on-hand combat. I cannot always rely on my tactic skills and speed to defeat my opponent.

I need to become a more well-rounded Shinobi.

What I would really like to work on is developing on my elemental chakra. I already know what my chakra natures are so all I need to do is start mastering them It can really come in handy if I mix it in with the Gentle First, especially Lightning Release chakra. For example, I can infuse lightning into my Gentle Fist and not only shock the shit out of my enemy but still block their chakra pathways. Hell, it would be cool if I was able to, then, control the lightning inside of their body and channel it throughout their whole system to paralyze them. That would be useful if I was able to do that with a long-range attack or something.

Actually I don't know if that makes any sense. I'm just throwing out ideas.

Another thing I got out of fighting Sakon is that I am able to at least stand my ground until my last breathe, or until he jerked my eyeball out of my socket. I am surprised that I didn't back down one bit. No matter how much pain I was in or how frightened I was, I tried to fight until I couldn't anymore and then I just started to spit in his face.

I mean, I am traumatized as hell from my fight with Sakon, but I am Shinobi so I will need to just try to get over it. Plus, I'm good at trying to see the light out of a bad situation or making a joke out of it to repress the negative feelings. So, I guess that is why I am not feeling any sort of negative feeling right now as I am reflecting back is because my mind has went ahead and repressed everything as usual.

On the other hand, I learned from killing Ukon that I can pretty much handle being gored all over and only vomit once!

Damn… that's a terrible bright side to things .

Just then, the door opens, disrupting my thoughts. On instinct, I jerk up, alarmed, before wincing in pain.

"Easy. Settle down," I hear a voice say. It is Shikamaru. "It is just us."

I relax my body as I sense five chakra presences, obviously to the five people that I have been around the most lately, and give my friends a wave.

"How is Hinata suppose to know who "us" is?" Naruto asks. "She has a blindfold on!"

"You idiot. Only one of her eyes is being treated. The other one is fine and she is able to still use her Byakugan with it," Shikamaru replies.

Umm, Shikamaru should be calling me an idiot instead because I have not thought about seeing through my blindfold with my right eye. That would've made conversing with my father earlier a little bit easier.

I nod as if to agree with Shikamaru and quickly activate my Byakugan in my right eye before anyone questions my reactions and body language.

Sakura walks over to my bed and sets down a notepad and a pen. "Here. We pick this up on the way here so you will be able to communicate with others until your throat gets better."

Oh thank goodness! That is going to make my life a hell of a lot easier.

I pick up the pen and pad and start scribbling on it.

Thanks! You guys are the best!

Ino flips her hair. "Yeah, we know! We also bought you some flowers! Well, it was all Shikamaru's idea. I suggested that he get you a colorful arrangement of daisies, since that is typically what you give to someone who is in the hospital." She crosses her eyes. "But, he had other ideas."

Shikamaru rolls his eyes. "Shut it, Ino." He pulls out his hands from behind his back and reveals a small vase full of lavenders. "I remember you telling me once that these are your favorite kind of flowers. So… here you go."

He walks over and sets the vase on an end table beside of my bed. I look over to admire them and then give Shikamaru a thankful smile.

Awh. You do have a sweet side.

Shikamaru huffs. "Don't start. Can you just thank me like any other normal person would?"

Fine. Thank you!

Shikamaru nods his head in approval as Ino arches an eyebrow in concern. "So, this is probably a stupid question but is standard to ask this, how are you feeling?"

Naruto snorts. "Yeah, that was a stupid question. Just look at her. How do you think she's feeling, Ino?"

Ino narrows her eyes at Naruto and smacks the back of his head. "I was asking a question to Hinata! I wasn't asking you "Will you please act like a smartass, Naruto?"!"

I try to giggle at their antics, but it the action starts to hurt my throat so I cough instead.

Damn. I sound like Asuma when he coughs after he smokes.

Be nice, Naruto! And, I'll live. That is all that matters. How did your roles in the invasion go?

Naruto slips out of the headlock that Ino now has him in and begins to launch into the story on how he defeated Gaara with Ino and Shikamaru pitching in here and there. It went pretty much like before except Ino stayed back to fight Temari after Sasuke and Shikamaru was able to take on the Oto Shinobi that were tracking him by himself because of his ambushing skills. Next, Sakura went into detail about her fight with Tayuya and it sounds like Sakura was able to defeat her pretty quick. None of the girl's genjutsu techniques worked on Sakura so the only problem my teammate really had was staying away from Tayuya's Summonings. She was able to defeat Tayuya before she transformed into her Level Two Cursed Mark form with her the technique she used on Kin and Ino and the new technique she learned from her training with Kurenai.

The technique she has used on Kin and Ino is called Mist Servant Jutsu and allows Sakura to create eerie illusions of herself and making it seem like she has many clones coming out of random places to attack her enemy. When the clones are "attacked" they multiply and this typically wears down the enemy and causes them to have a mental breakdown from everything that is going on. After Tayuya was wore out and briefly distracted, Sakura uses her newest genjutsu and it is called Demonic Illusion: Tree Binding Death. When starting out this illusion, Sakura disappears into a haze to approach Tayuya without being noticed. When she gets close enough, she is able to prevent Tayuya from moving as she seeing a tree wrap itself around her body. Then, Sakura "emerges" out of the trunk of the tree and she proceeds to stab Tayuya in the neck with her kunai. Tayuya had fallen to the ground and Sakura says she felt a rush of adrenaline go through her and she finishes slicing the girl's neck before she freaked out or hesitated.

"After that, I did freak out for just killing her but Kurenai-sensei comforted me later once I was with her so I feel a little better about it now," Sakura finishes. "I just feel strange for killing another human being, but I don't feel bad for killing her."

After Sakura, Shikamaru informs me that no one has seen Asuma these last two days. He isn't registered in the hospital or anything and none of the other elite Shinobi will tell him where he is at. I would think he's chilling out wherever the Third Hokage is hiding out at the moment, but I'm not going to say anything because I don't want to trigger Naruto into searching for "The Old Man".

Other than those things, nothing else is going on. No one mentions how my fight went or anything about Orochimaru. Instead, I just learnt that the five of them have been helping out with the cleaning of the village and repairing it.

After visiting me for about half an hour, a nurse walks into the room, widens her eyes, and crosses her arms. "What are you all doing here? This patient has a limit of two visitors, max! I'm afraid I'm going to ask for at least three of you to leave."

Sakura snaps her head towards Shikamaru. "Hey! You said that we wouldn't get caught!"

Shikamaru shakes his head. "No, I said we wouldn't get caught going to Hinata's room if we signed in individually saying we were visiting other patients."

"Run!" Naruto hollars and dramatically rushes out of the room.

Damn, Naruto is so used to getting caught by pulling his pranks that it seems to be a natural reaction for him now to run away when caught in situations he isn't suppose to be in.

"What the- Naruto!" Ino shouts, chasing after him.

Sakura turns around and waves at me. "Uh, it was good seeing you! I promise to come back tomorrow!" I give her a wave back and she leaves the room.

Only Shikamaru and Sasuke remains.

The nurses sighs as she eyes the two boys and mumbles sudden under her breath about the "youth of today".

"I was just coming to see if you were awake," the nurse tells me. "I'll be back later to check you out and see how everything is progressing." She throws a dirty glance at my boys once more and leaves.

I pick up my pen and write: Well, she's lovely.

Sasuke snorts in agreement and then shifts his eyes over to Shikamaru. "Do you mind waiting in the hall for a few minutes? I need to speak with Hinata, alone."

Shikamaru shugs. "Sure. But, I'm probably just going to go ahead and head out. I'm supposed to be running a couple of errands for my mom and she'll kill me if I don't make it home by dinner."

Come back tomorrow with Sakura!

Shikamaru gives me a half smile. "I was planning on it. Someone needs to water those flowers." He flicks up his hand. "See ya."

He walks out of the room and shuts the door behind him to give us some privacy.

As soon as Shikamaru leaves, Sasuke strides across the room and sits on my bed. He presses his fingers together and sighs.

What's up?

"Nothing important," Sasuke replies. "Just don't ever land yourself in the hosptial for me ever again." I lift up my pen to write, but Sasuke holds up a hand. "No. Don't protest. I mean it. I know you helped stopped those guys from coming after me, but I hate seeing you like this."

Well, at least he isn't blaming himself. But, I wanted to stop the guys for him. I needed to.

I'm alive. That's all that matters. But, don't worry. I don't plan on getting myself in another situation like that. I'm just going to have to train even harder to get stronger!

Sasuke blinks. "Well, that was easier than I thought. I figured you would argue back or say something with the words "next time" somewhere in the sentence."

Well, I really can't say anything at the moment.

Sasuke smirks. "Smartass. You know what I mean. Anyways, I've already thanked everybody who helped out so I'm thanking you now. I really appreciate you from wanting to protect me from that snake bastard, but I'm serious when I say that don't get yourself in a situation like that. I mean, Ino is my teammate and I care for her. The same for Kakashi. But, you and Naruto are the two I really don't want to see anything bad happen to that can make me lose ya'll." Sasuke pauses and then narrows his eyes. "If you tell the dobe I said that about him I'll put you back in the hospital when you get out."

I smile and wave my hand, hinting that I won't.

You'll never lose us. Naruto and I are too stubborn to go anywhere.

Sasuke nods his head. "Good."

I'm so happy to hear that Sasuke has people that he really cares about. Me, Naruto, Ino, Kakashi. Maybe he won't end up taking the evil path to Orochimaru after all.

But, if you don't want me protecting you all the time then you better not slack off. Like I wrote, I'm planning on training even harder when I get out of here.

Sasuke snorts. "Hn. Whatever. You don't even know how much I've improved over this past month. Well, nobody really got to since my match got cancelled."

You don't know how much I've improved either since you didn't come early enough to watch my match. Rude.

"Blame Kakashi. He's the one that wanted me to get a new outfit for the Finals. He just had to pick out the one that came with a bunch of bands. Those things took awhile to slip on."

I blink.

Are you serious?

Sasuke arches an eyebrow. "Yeah, why?"

I sweatdrop.

I just can't believe a fashion disaster is the reason you were almost disqualified, twice.

"Like I just said, blame Kakashi."

If you had just worn your normal outfit, you do realize that would've actually gotten to fight?

Sasuke squints at me. "You're never going to let me live this down, are you?"

I shake my head.

No, but I'll keep it our little inside joke.

"But, I don't find the joke funny."

I grin.

I do!

Sasuke groans. "Of course you are. Whatever. Anyways, that offer to spar together sometime is still up for grabs whenever."

Oh, yeah! We need to set a time and date when I get out of the hospital and everything has calmed down.

"Sounds good." Sasuke is silent for a second and then speaks. "Do you mind if I ask how did your fight went? The others didn't want to ask, but I want to know how you did. I hope you at least put up a good fight."

I fake a frown.

Too soon.

Sasuke slightly widens his eyes. "Oh, um. Really?"

Nah, I'm kidding.

Sasuke sighs. "Why do you always do stuff like that?"

Don't complain. I've been unconscious for three days! Shikamaru isn't around so I need to be sarcastic to somebody. But, my fight went pretty okay until I started to get beaten up on like a training dummy. My opponents was actually two people who were able to combine their bodies into one being, but were also able to separate and transform. Anyways, I was able to kill one of them and land some hits on the other.

Sasuke smirks. "Sounds like you handled yourself pretty well in a two against one type of fight like that."

You better be impress because that was the most difficult fight I've ever been in. And, it probably only gets worse from here if Orochimaru decides to come back for you.

Sasuke drops his smirk and clenches a fist. "I'll be ready for him next time."

I promise to be more careful for you, but I will be waiting for him right with you. I will not allow him to take you, Sasuke.

A smile tugs at Sasuke's mouth, but he remains serious. "You won't have to worry about that. I won't allow him to."

We just stare at each other in silence for a moment when a flicker in my vision catches my attention. I expand my vision a little to see Hizashi and my father walking down the hallway towards my room.

Why are they both coming to my room? I thought my father was going home to rest.

I pick up my pen. My father and uncle are on their way to see me.

Sasuke nods and stands up. "Well, I guess I will head off then so you can spend some time with them. I'll try to make time to see you tomorrow, but they have me helping out with repairing some buildings on the outskirts of the village so that's quite a ways from here."

I understand. Just come by whenever you have time!

We weave at each other and Sasuke pulls a "cool Sasuke move" and leaves by jumping out of the window just as my uncle and father walk in.

I can feel the atmosphere in the room tense up as my father closes the door behind him. The two of they look at me with matching stone-faced expressions. If I didn't know the two of them well enough, I wouldn't be able to tell them apart they look so much alike right now.

Finally, my father speaks. "Hinata. I know I said I was heading back to the compound, but my brother and I need to speak with you first about something now that you are awake."

I tilt my head to the side.

About what?

"We need to talk about your future with the Hyūga clan."

Shit.

This doesn't sound good.

Author's Note: Another chapter is out! This officially concludes the end of the Chunin Exam Arc. Whew! Finally. Now, it is on to bigger and better things! The next arc is going to be a mini one and then the one after that is going to be a major one that revolves around Hidan! Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I've been waiting awhile to write this because I've thought of the Hinata vs enraged Sakon scene for a while now and have been eager to write it out! Nerd alert: I even listened to Orochimaru's theme song over and over again while I wrote out the scene to get the whole intense feelings coming in. Now, time to recap! How does Hinata plan to get stronger? Will her eyesight be the same since her eye was ripped out? Will the Third Hokage live? What do people think of Hinata's actions that saved many lives, as her father mentioned? What exactly happened to Sakon before Hiashi came to the rescue? Will Orochimaru come back for revenge?

Lol sorry for all the dramatic questions. I just feel like I just wrote a season finale. Anyways, like always, reviews are very much appreciated!

Side note: Somebody asked a couple of chapters back if I can make a list OC Hinata's techniques so here they are really quick:

Shadow Clone Jutsu

Substitution Jutsu

Transformation Jutsu

Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms

Protective Eight Trigrams: Sixty-Four Palms

Gentle Fist: One Blow Body

Byakugan (duh)

And then, she can also use chakra scalpels and is able to manipulate her chakra blades to a great length and in any direction.