A Hero
Chapter 37
I don't own Naruto. I also don't intend on having that many more preliminary matches shown after this one. I also experimented with Hinata's style a bit for plot's sake.
"It's time to call up the next contestants," Genma called out as Hayate began fishing a pair of numbers out of the jar, "And the lucky competitors are. . ."
"Number 12 and Number 7," Hayate stated, suppressing a cough as he spoke, "Please step right up."
Moving simultaneously despite being a few seats apart, Hinata and Neji each glanced in the other's direction, seeming surprised to be facing against each other. Nevertheless, they made their way to the field, both intent on doing their best to win.
Leaping into the field to get the competitors' names, Genma asked, "What are your names?"
"Hinata Hyuuga," Hinata said as Genma checked her name off of the list in his hand.
"And you?" he asked, turning towards Neji.
"Neji Hyuuga," Neji replied, watching Genma mark off his name.
"Alright," he said, returning to his post near Hayate, "The contestants of this match are Hinata and Neji Hyuuga! As was stated previously, the winner of the match will go on to the official matches and have the possibility to become a chuunin. Now, begin!"
As soon as those words left Genma's mouth, Hinata and Neji were both on move, their Byakugan active, each attempting to rush their cousin and keep them on the defensive. Upon reaching striking distance, Hinata quickly moved to get a hit on Neji's shoulder, only for her cousin to bat aside the strike, and attempt an immediate counter-attack.
Pulling back from the blow, Hinata quickly aimed for his side, intent on getting the first strike, at the very least. Immediately, Neji leaped out of the way of the attack, knocking her hand out of the way as he jabbed at her stomach. Fluidly leaping out of the way of his attack, Hinata repositioned herself more to Neji's left. Once she was in position, she immediately followed with two strikes, one at shoulder height, and the other directed towards his hip.
Rapidly turning to counter, Neji blocked the first strike, but missed the second. As he pulled away from Hinata, blocking another attempt to hit his shoulder, he said, "You've improved, Hinata-sama, but it will take more than that to win."
Planting his feet firmly into the ground as she tried to feint a strike to his stomach, followed by a legitimate attack on his other hip, he quickly knocked the blow aside and executed three attacks as she attempted to regain her balance, one to her right hip, one to her left shoulder, and one to her stomach.
Regaining her footing as quickly as she could, Hinata pulled away the strike to her stomach, but missed the one to her right hip, though she fortunately managed to redirect the shoulder strike to miss entirely. It was, however, a misfortune that she had gotten the strike to her hip, as her strategy was largely based in mobility, in order to counter the solid stance that most of their clan, Neji included, were trained to utilize. Her disadvantage was made more apparent when she barely managed to dodge an attempt by Neji to strike the her other leg.
Acting as quickly as she could, she attempted to get a blow in on one of his arms, only to be blocked or redirected for each move she tried. After a few more seconds of this, Neji quickly tried to press the advantage, his hands almost a blur to the audience as he unleashed a flurry of strikes, which Hinata tried to dodge, easily evading most of them, only to get struck in her right shoulder just as she tried to pull back, her injured leg preventing her from moving quickly enough to get out of the path of the blow.
Her mobility limited, and her ability to attack and defend brought to a decreased efficiency, Hinata still continued to fight for as long as she could, focusing on defending herself so she could stay in as long as possible. Eventually, however, Neji managed to get a strike on her left hip, before performing a sweep with his good leg to send her to the ground. After a short period of Hinata trying and failing to rise, Genma decided the match was over and called out, "Winner! Neji Hyuuga!"
The moment that the jounin called that out, Neji reached down and offered Hinata his right hand to help her up. Accepting his aid, she gripped his hand as he pulled her off the ground. Once Neji had his cousin's uninjured arm over his shoulder, the pair began to slowly make their way to the waiting medics to get their injuries treated, while their respective romantic partners walked up to them to congratulate them both on how they'd done in the match.
As this was going on, Jiraiya found himself sitting in a large armchair, examining the copy of the seal he'd been studying as he attempted to look at ways to improve the condition of the one it had been applied to. The sessions were going well, and he was getting a good amount of time to work over the seal, but he still had no idea how long it would take before he figured out just where the weak spots were, and just how to deal with them properly without harming his "patient." Looking up from his work, he gave a pleased smile as he observed Sai and Yakumo interacting. It seemed that things were going well in regards to the pair, at least, with the boy seeming to develop and understand emotional cues, while Yakumo seemed better off mentally with someone to discuss art with. Idly, he contemplated how different the pair were from when he'd first introduced the them to one another.
His musings were cut off, however, by the sudden arrival of Kakashi Hatake and Anko Mitarashi. Going by their expressions, whatever they intended on talking about was not going to be as pleasant as his current project had been, thus far. Tucking the seal into his kunai pouch, he sat up straight, intent on finding out just what the bad news was.