Part Twenty-Nine: For the Honor of Friendship
"Good luck," Neji said, placing his hand on Yassa's shoulder as the hour drew to an end.
She nodded. "Yeah, thanks."
"I'll be cheering for you," he said, and then he left.
Gaara followed him without saying good-bye to Tara, and the two sisters glowered at each other.
Arcin sighed and watched as Shikamaru approached the center of the arena. "The fourth match of the day is about to begin. It will start in five minutes, so please be seated and ready."
Neji reached his seat, noticing that the woman who had joined them was still where she had been before. She hadn't moved, it seemed.
She smiled at Neji as he came into view. "How are they?"
"Ready."
"Good," she replied. "This is the match all of us have been waiting for."
He nodded and sat down beside Sakura.
The dead body of the ANBU ops he and Gaara had stumbled on had been reported to another ANBU he had seen, and the other ANBU had said he would take care of it.
Neji still felt that something was out of place.
He shivered.
The next five minutes dragged by, and finally the proctor called for the two of them to enter the arena.
Tara dropped from the competitor's box, landing with ease and walking towards the center of the arena.
Yassa was about to follow when Arcin grabbed her by the arm and stopped her. She looked up at her. "Win, alright? Even if she doesn't have any connection to us anymore…I think I am still your sister, in some sense."
Yassa nodded. "A-alright."
"Good luck." She let go of Yassa, and the other girl dropped into the arena as well. She approached Shikamaru and Tara, and the two looked at each other.
"Are you both ready?"
"Yeah."
Tara nodded.
"Begin!"
Yassa situated her feet and held her hands before her.
"No matter what you do, it's useless," said Tara as she also situated herself. "I know more than you do. I have accepted my trait, my talent. I have absorbed more information than you have. I have learned more techniques than you have. I am superior in every way."
"You judge me so readily," replied Yassa.
"I only judge what I see," she replied. "And what I see is failure. You might be the second-best in your village, but there is not one better than me in mine."
"We come from the same village," Yassa pointed out.
"That village was destroyed the day my family was killed."
"You're still hurting inside, even if you say you aren't," replied Yassa.
"It doesn't matter," she said. "What's happened has happened."
"Instead of pushing us away, why don't you try letting us inside?" asked Yassa. "We can help you, and in turn, we can help each other. We can go through this together."
"The only thing I want to go through is your heart."
"You said once that I was already dead."
"You are."
"Then why dwell upon something so trivial?"
"Because I want to see you squirm."
"I don't squirm."
"Oh?"
Yassa smirked. "I make others pay their debts."
"What debts have I?"
"The debts of the lives you have taken."
"Are you still upset about that?"
"You took the life of someone dear to someone I know," she replied. "I will not let you get away with this."
"You're too just for your own good."
"Justice is the law of life. It keeps us in harmony."
"If it's harmony you seek, you won't find it here."
"I will find it wherever I search."
"Who do you fight for?"
"Myself," she replied, "and those dear to me that you have hurt."
"Then you fight for no one."
Yassa smirked and leveled herself. "If you're trying to make me mad, it will not work."
"You're too stupid to get mad."
Here Yassa's eyes narrowed. "You don't want to make me mad, let me place it in that manner."
Tara sneered and launched forward, kunai and shuriken appearing on her body. She launched them.
Yassa lifted her arms, as if to block herself, but from her arms shot her own shuriken and kunai. They collided with Tara's.
Tara rammed into Yassa, and Yassa in turn collected chakra at the tips of her fingers and shoved them into Tara's side.
It was a battle of titans.
"This is pointless," said Sakura softly. "Neither one of them can win, if they have the same abilities."
"They don't have the same abilities," replied the woman at the end of the bench before Neji could speak. "Tara's abilities are more advanced than Yassa's, but Yassa is stronger than Tara."
"What?" asked Naruto.
"I can admit that I am shocked at how well Tara has learned her trait and how to utilize it, but she's too overconfident. Yassa's calmness and level-headedness will help her to succeed."
"But Tara's cold-hearted," said Sakura. "She won't stop until Yassa's dead."
"She will."
"How do you know?"
"I just do."
"Wait a minute," Neji said slowly. "How do you know any of this? Before, you had no idea what was going on. Sakura had to explain everything to you. How is it that you know how Yassa and Tara are so different?"
"He's right," said Sakura.
"Who are you?" demanded Neji.
The young woman looked over at Neji and replied calmly, "I'm a friend."
"Not good enough. I need a name."
"I find it very interesting that you should be so worried about me instead of your friend."
"You just said she would be fine," replied Neji, "and I agree with you. Now tell us who you are, or I'll call an ANBU."
"You don't want to do that," she replied softly. "You see, I don't have a ticket." She smiled innocently. "And besides, I really came all this way to see this match, and the next one. I am very curious to see how these three have grown."
Neji narrowed his eyes, but could do little without disrupting the fight, and doing that might cost Yassa her life.
Yassa ducked as Tara shot her hands at her again. She managed to grab Tara by the legs and flip her onto her back. She got on top of her, but was thrown off by Tara shooting her with more kunai and shuriken.
Yassa landed and got up as the shuriken and kunai were absorbed into her body. She was breathing hard, sweat rolling down her face. It had been nearly five minutes since the match had started, and still neither of them had the upper hand.
She began to get angry.
Not at how long the match was taking, but at the fact that everything she was doing was hardly phasing Tara. The girl was evil, she was a murderer, and she was going to get away with it.
That was the part that made Yassa angry the most.
She didn't know if she could stand the fact that Tara was going to get away with that cocky grin.
Miss Hyuuga had died because of this monster, and Neji was suffering, even if he wouldn't admit it.
Yassa closed her eyes and focused all of her chakra. She had to win. There was no going back now, and besides…she had an honor of friendship to uphold.
Tara chuckled and tossed her hair out of her eyes. "You're going to die, here and now, and there's nothing you can do about it, dear sister."
Yassa gritted her teeth. This girl was just pushing every button she had.
She opened her eyes, feeling the chakra flowing through her. "That's where you're wrong. About both. I'm going to be the one who wins, and you are no longer my sister."
Tara rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Either way, you'll be just as easy to kill as the Hyuuga brat. As soon as you tire out, you'll be dead, and I'll have your knowledge and powers."
Yassa raced towards Tara and screamed, "Don't you dare talk about Miss Hyuuga that way!"
Tara laughed and dodged the attack, moving swiftly to the wall of the arena. She started to run around the edge, Yassa on her heels.
"I'll kill you!" screamed Yassa. "I'll fucking kill you!"
Tara laughed and stumbled. "I'd like to see that!"
They ran around, faster and faster, until they were just a blur to the untrained eye.
Neji had his Byakugan focused on them, and three seats down, the woman had her pair of Sharingan out, watching as well. She smiled. This was what she had been waiting for.
Yassa focused her chakra into her body and suddenly her skin stretched out from her limbs, catching Tara by the ankles and dragging her to the proverbial ground. She lifted the other girl into the air, her skin twisting around Tara's body. She swung her around over her head and shot her into the other wall.
Tara's body blasted into it, making an enormous hole. She sat up slowly, her body aching all over.
No one had ever managed to hurt her like that before.
She looked around, searching for Yassa.
"Looking for me?" Yassa called, running up the side of the arena. She decked Tara in the jaw and then grabbed her by her pony tail, her skin wrapping about Tara's body once more. She shot the girl into the other wall before her bones had completely healed.
Tara groaned as she sat up again. She looked around, Yassa once more coming at her, this time from the side.
Tara was ready this time; she stood up and fixing her bones as fast as she could, she braced for impact. Yassa's hands and her hands clenched against the others, and they held each other, their eyes on fire.
Before Tara's eyes, Yassa's skin began to slide off of her bones again, stretching out and wrapping around her own flesh.
Yassa grinned.
Tara screamed as Yassa's skin tightened around her wrists, breaking them. She was flung into the ground, and Yassa jumped down after her, her muscles changing density. She forced chakra to her feet and began to spin around, changing and adjusting the Kaiten into an arrow.
She landed on top of Tara, an explosion resounding around the stadium.
When Yassa pulled herself up, her legs having broken from the impact and now repairing themselves, she looked into the crater.
Tara was slowly getting to her feet, blood gushing from a wound on her stomach. Her own bones were rearranging themselves, snapping back into place, crunching and groaning with the weight of her muscles and skin. The wound in her stomach healed.
Three Blood Clones appeared from the blood that had come from her body. They also lifted up, and Yassa frowned, pushing her hair from her eyes.
She raced towards them, jumping into the air. She spun around, her muscles and bones disconnecting and her foot becoming heavier. She hit one of the Blood Clones in the face, and it burst, the blood going towards the other clones.
Yassa stretched her skin to its limit, grabbing one of the Blood Clones and smashing it into the other one. They both collapsed and were gone.
Yassa landed, her skin reattaching itself to her muscles and her bones. She looked up at Tara, sweat rolling down both of their faces.
For the first time in her life, Tara felt fear.
She felt fear that she might actually die.
Yassa smirked and lifted a kunai. "I've figured out how you can die."
"Y-you have?"
Yassa nodded. She raced forwards, and Tara jumped out of her way, but Yassa slung her skin around Tara's foot, yanking her back to the ground with a smash.
She jumped on top of Tara and drove the kunai into her chest. Before her skin began to take it inside, she pulled it out and thrust her skin into Tara's chest and surrounded her heart.
"How does it feel to have someone else's hand around your heart?" she asked. "How does it feel for you to be near death, huh, sister?"
Neji was standing up, Gaara, and all of the others in the stands along with him. His eyes were wide. Was this really Yassa? Was she really going to kill Tara?
The woman at the end of the bench had her eyebrows raised. She had known that Yassa was capable, but seeing her actually get this close to killing Tara was something rather unexpected.
Tara leaned her head back. "Fucking finally!"
"What?" Yassa asked, confused.
"Kill me already!" Tara had her eyes closed. "I'm waiting! Just do it!"
Yassa let her hand slip away from Tara's heart. She pulled out of Tara and backed away, watching as the wound resealed itself.
"What the fuck?!"
"I was just about to ask you the same thing," replied Yassa, her eyes wide with terror.
"Damn it!" screamed Tara. She stood up and grabbed a kunai. "Kill me! God damn you, kill me!"
Yassa stumbled away from her. "What the hell is wrong with you?!"
"Kill me or I'll kill you!" she screamed, launching herself at Yassa. The two of them rolled around in the dirt, ending up in the center of the crater a few seconds later.
Yassa finally managed to knock Tara unconscious. She stood up and looked at Shikamaru.
Shikamaru approached the crater and saw that Tara wasn't moving. "Takura Tara is unable to fight. Yassa is the winner."
The stadium slowly came to applaud her effort. She wiped her forehead with her hand and looked around, her eyes resting on Neji.
He smiled back at her and sat down, glad that at the last moment she had let go of revenge and let Tara live.
Arcin dropped into the arena. She ran over to where Tara was being loaded onto a stretcher and where Yassa was bent double, breathing hard.
Arcin looked around. "I think I'm going to forfeit."
"What?" Yassa asked. "Why?"
"Because that was too amazing, and anything I do would be nothing compared to that. It was…excellent, to say the least."
"Are you sure that's what you want to do?" asked Shikamaru.
Arcin nodded. "She is my sister, after all."
Yassa smiled up at Arcin as Arcin placed her hand on her back gently. "Thanks."
"Arcin has forfeited the next match, so the winner by default is Yassa," Shikamaru announced.
The entire stadium burst into applauds and boos, some people pleased, and some displeased.
So that was that. The exams were over, and the results would be announced after the Hokage, Jounin and current Cuunin had a chance to discuss the rankings and who would be awarded the title of Chuunin.
People began to leave the stadium, and Tara's body was carried off.
