Nawaki watched calmly as Hisa lunged. He sidestepped her punch, before turning around and jumping into a nearby tree. Even though he had revealed his sharingan, he still didn't want to fight Hisa. Even if he won, he would be low on chakra and would have wasted a lot of time. But there was no way he was abandoning Oki, and if Hisa chose to put the mission first then he would just rescue her on his own.

Easier said than done. Hisa glared up at him angrily. He kept his face as impassive as he could.

"Are you going to run away?" she growled.

"Just let me go." he said, starting to get angry. The fight was almost inevitable at this stage.

She continued to glare at him.

"Shinobi risk their lives all the time on missions. What makes you so special that you can choose to just ignore that?"

Nawaki shrugged. He didn't exactly have an answer for that. He was just… following his heart? There was definitely something inside him that was telling him that he needed to save Oki. He turned back around, and jumped to another tree. Maybe she would just decide he wasn't worth it and let him go.

No such luck. He felt her presence behind him and turned just in time. She tackled him and they smashed through at tree branch, before she slammed him against the trunk. She pulled back her fist, and Nawaki kept his expression blank. For a second, she hesitated, but then her fist came down. Nawaki winced as her knuckles cracked against his jaw. Whoever invented the phrase 'you hit like a girl' had clearly never met Hisa. He felt his lip begin to bleed from where he had accidently bitten it.

Hisa stared down at him, not moving. Nawaki expected her to throw another punch, but she just sat on top of him. She was clearly trying to find a way to make this entire scenario work out, but Nawaki knew it wouldn't work. As much as he hated to admit it, he was an Uchiha, and she was Naruto Uzumaki's daughter. Even though Nawaki didn't believe in fate, fighting Hisa felt like something he was born to do.

So he ignored the pain in his jaw and turned his head until he was nose to nose with her.

Then he spat in her face.

That got a reaction. She punched him again, harder this time. Then she grabbed the collar of his fake ANBU uniform (Naruto's crazy idea had caught on, and now half the genin in the leaf village wore these clothes. Needless to say, the ANBU weren't happy with this) and tugged him up. She raised her hand back to punch him again, but he reached forward and grabbed her chunin jacket.

As powerful as Hisa was, she was still younger and smaller than him. He pushed upwards, taking her with him, until he was standing and she was hanging from his hand. Their eyes met, and Nawaki was saddened to see that she was glaring at him with pure hatred. For a second, he wished that he had just gone along with her, but then he thought of Oki, and that man running his hand down her cheek.

He dropped Hisa.

As she fell he punched her hard in the stomach. She was sent flying backwards and smashed through two tree branches before slamming against a trunk and falling to the forest floor. He pretended that he hadn't noticed the blood that she had coughed out of her mouth.

At that moment, Nawaki finally admitted that he did care for Hisa. It was a bit too late to tell her, but he considered her a friend. They had fought before, but never like this. Sparring and fighting to see who was better was one thing. But now he wasn't fighting her for himself. He was fighting her for Oki. He knew that she cared about Oki, and he knew that she was fighting for Oki too, but in a different way.

That didn't stop him from running down the tree trunk, intent on finishing her. But Hisa wouldn't go down that easily. As she lay on the ground, she stuck out her hand. Nawaki was right above her when she shot her Almighty Push at him. Gravity seemed to work backwards and instead of landing on the forest floor, he was shooting up towards the sky. Then his head connected with a tree branch and gravity began to work again. As he fell, he noticed that Hisa had jumped onto a branch. He fell past her, and threw a kunai at her which she blocked almost lazily with shuriken. Nawaki realised that she was holding back, but he didn't know how long that would last for.

He landed on the forest floor, swaying slightly as he recovered from the blow to his head. He turned around just as Hisa landed opposite him. Quickly, he made the hand-seals, before flinging the shuriken.

"Fire Style: Art of the Phoenix Flower!"

The volley of shuriken became covered with fire-infused chakra. The flaming shuriken rushed straight at Hisa, who didn't even blink. She wove through them expertly, barely avoiding being singed by an inch. While she was distracted, Nawaki ran behind the shuriken and puched her in the face. Once again, she was sent flying into a tree trunk.

She lay there for a few seconds, panting slightly.

"You're faster than before." she said at last "I suppose that's one of the Sharingan's abilities. I'm guessing that you can also do genjutsu with those eyes."

Nawaki ignored her. He never really liked to talk during a fight (he hated flashbacking even more). Instead, he charged straight at Hisa. She was still lying at the bottom of the tree trunk. His fist was aimed straight for her throat, with a kunai in his other hand.

He was going to end this.

!

Hisa had the strangest feeling that she should be flashbacking right now. She didn't really know why, perhaps it was something that she had inherited from Naruto. She had heard that he could make fights last for hours, simply by flashbacking, or making his opponent flashback. Right now, Hisa got the sense that this would be the perfect moment for a flashback. The problem was, she didn't have any deep or important memories. She didn't really feel like flashbacking about her past interactions with Nawaki, and she didn't have any sad childhood memories.

Well, her childhood hadn't been normal, but very few shinobi had normal childhoods. Hisa had two loving parents and an older brother, she knew she was lucky. However, ever since she could talk people had told her about her father's greatness. She had been determined to live up to the hype, and had trained every day. It hadn't been enough for her, so she had devoted her entire spare time to training. By the time she was five, she had been classified as a prodigy. But the downside was that she had no friends other than Oki. Hisa had never really known what it felt like to have a large group of friends, so it didn't bother her. Then the Rinnegan came along…

Damn it. She had started flashbacking.

She looked up just as Nawaki's hand connected with her throat. His other hand came forward to slash at her with a kunai. She was glad to see that he wasn't aiming to kill, just to knock unconscious. Still, she wasn't going to let that happen.

She grabbed the first thing her hand found, which was her sword. She unsheathed it from her back and brought it forward to block Nawaki. The sound of metal on metal rang through the trees, and Hisa grit her teeth as she imagined the missing-nin watching them, laughing at how stupid and childish these Konoha shinobi were. She had to show… She had to do… something.

She pushed her hand forward and yelled "Almighty Push!" As Nawaki was pushed away from her, she got to her feet and jumped into the trees, knowing that he would probably be up already. She was worried, and for the first time, she wasn't sure that she could beat Nawaki. Her special kunai, which had become a big part of her fighting style, were useless and Nawaki's sharingan meant that he could now match her in most jutsu areas.( The Sharingan was the most annoying doujutsu ever, and that was coming from her.) That left her Rinnegan, which Hisa never liked to use much. It required a lot of chakra for a single jutsu, and she still got worried that she would lose control. The only jutsu she felt safe using were the Almighty Push and the Universal Pull, and each of them required a five second rest before reuse. Still, she wanted this to be over, so she decided to pull out the big guns.

She slammed her hand on the ground. "Summoning jutsu!"

When the smoke cleared, Hisa was standing inside the mouth of a giant snake-tailed chameleon. She knew that Nawaki would be able to see her with his sharingan, even if she turned invisible. But there were other uses for this summon.

She gave a small smile. Time to get serious.

!

Nawaki watched tensely as Hisa jumped inside the chameleon's mouth. As the creature turned invisible, Nawaki focused his sharingan on seeing chakra. With it on, he could see the two different chakra networks-Hisa's and the chameleon's. He let the chameleon blunder forward. It was neither fast nor agile. Then, as the chameleon got close, he jumped up onto a different tree.

Suddenly, he felt something wet and sticky wrap around his foot. He looked down in horror and saw that the chameleon had wrapped its snake-tail around his foot. Nawaki grabbed a kunai and tried to stab the tail, but it pulled him down and wrapped him up some more, until his arms were pinned to his sides. Only then did Hisa come out.

She walked along the tongue until she was directly in front of Nawaki. Nawaki looked at her, expecting to see hate or fury in her eyes. Instead, she looked sad and uncertain.

"Nawaki, we need to stop this. I know I've never said this before-and even now it almost chokes me to say it- but you're my friend. This fight does nothing, it just wastes time. Please just agree to come along and rescue the kids first?"

The way she said 'first' made it clear to Nawaki that she didn't know what would happen after they rescued the kids. That was why he only hesitated for a second before bringing his eyes up to meet Hisa's

"I'm sorry." he said as his eyes spun slightly.

Hisa crumpled to the ground, and Nawaki took a deep breath. The genjutsu would only last for around thirty seconds, but that would hopefully be all the time Nawaki needed.

The snake-tailed chameleon was panicking, unsure of what to do now that its master wasn't responding. Its hold on Nawaki loosened slightly, and that was all Nawaki needed. He reached into his pouch and grabbed some kunai, before pushing with all his strength. The tail loosened enough to allow him to free his arms. Before the snake-tail could tighten again, Nawaki flung the kunai at the chameleon with deadly accuracy. Nawaki had gotten the idea from the story his mother had told him about Uncle Itachi fighting Nagato. Apparently, Nagato had also had a chameleon, although apparently his one had been bigger.

Still, they both seemed to have the same weakness. As the kunai hit the chameleon in his eyes, he let out a shriek of pure pain, before vanishing in a puff. Nawaki dropped to the ground, breathing a small sigh of relief. He never liked being trapped.

Suddenly, he heard a noise from behind him. He turned around just as Hisa grabbed him and lifted him into the air. Her height made it hard for her to dangle him off the ground, but she managed to do it with one hand. Her other hand came forward and dug into Nawaki's stomach. Nawaki went cold as he remembered the only time she had tried this jutsu on him before. It had left him shivering and feeling low for the whole day.

"I thought you promised never to use this jutsu on me again!" he yelled.

Hisa didn't answer him, but her expression said enough. He was breaking the rules and abandoning the mission, not to mention the fact he had been hiding his sharingan from her. Why should she treat him like before? He didn't have any idea how to persuade her, so he dangled helplessly from her hand.

The Preta Path was the third path that Hisa had mastered. It was also the last that she planned on unlocking. The ability to absorb chakra had been very useful on missions, but now Nawaki wished that she had kept it sealed. As long as his sharingan was activated, Hisa was able to drain his dhakra through his eyes. She was careful to avoid eye contact with him, and he knew he would have to fight dirty.

As she sucked his chakra from his body, he feigned a look of shock and pointed behind her.

"Oki!" he gasped.

Hisa whirled around to look at where he was pointing. It took her a second to realise he had tricked her, but Nawaki used that second to slam both his feet into her. She dropped him and tumbled backwards, but got back up just as quickly. This time, she looked downright murderous.

"Who are you?" she spat "The Nawaki I know would never have manipulated people like that. Oh wait, I don't know you. Why are all you Uchiha's such pricks?"

Hisa didn't normally curse, but they were doing a lot of things that they would normally never do. Nawaki kept his mind focused. Beat Hisa. Rescue Oki. It became a mantra in his head. Beat Hisa. Rescue Oki. He didn't allow himself to think any further than that. He ignored all the hurt he saw in Hisa's eyes. All he wanted to do was rescue his friend. Why did he have to hurt Hisa in the process?

He stopped himself there. Thinking about how complicated the situation was would get him nowhere. His mind slipped back into the mantra. Beat Hisa. Rescue Oki.

He grabbed a kunai, and rushed at Hisa. Her sword was waiting readily in her hand. He stabbed downwards and she blocked, grating the kunai against the sword. She twisted her hand slightly and her sword pushed the kunai away, before stabbing down at Nawaki's stomach. His other hand came up with another kunai and blocked her stab, before his free hand swiped at her. She jumped backwards to avoid the kunai.

They paused for a second to assess the damage they had caused, before they both realised that they were running out of time. Nawaki wished there was a way to stop time, but he didn't have the Mangekyo Sharingan, so he couldn't use the Tsukuyomi. All he had was his determination.

That wasn't quite working for him at the moment. Hisa had put her hands together and Nawaki could see that she was straining. It took him a minute to realise what she was doing. His blood ran cold.

"You can't." he said hoarsely "Naruto banned you from using that technique. You'll kill yourself Hisa."

She kept her eyes focused on her hands.

"Kill you? There's a good chance that might happen. Kill myself? Not so much"

"Don't-" he began, but it was too late. Hisa had opened her hands.

Hovering in between her two palms was a small orb of black chakra.

"Planetary Deviastation." Hisa said calmly.

Nawaki ran forward, not quite sure what he was planning to do. All he knew was that he had to destroy that orb. Hisa gently lifted her hands upwards, and the ball floated out of her hands and into the sky.

Nawaki looked up desperately. Already he could feel the pull, although nothing had reached the orb yet. His mantra had changed. The main priority was to destroy the orb, Hisa would have to wait.

He racked his brains, trying to think of an idea. He knew that Naruto had managed to escape this jutsu twice. But the first time was because of Kurama, and the second was because the ball had been hit by Itachi's Susanoo, Naruto's Kyubi chakra and Killer B's Hachibi chakra all at once. All Nawaki had was his kunai and a few chunin-level ninjutsu.

Still, there were a few things different about Hisa's version and Pain's version. Firstly, Hisa wasn't as strong as Pain had been, so the strength of the jutsu was a lot weaker. Nawaki could tell just by looking at her that the jutsu had almost exhausted Hisa. She had already used up a lot of chakra, how much power had she been able to put into the orb? Secondly, the orb had yet to gather enough debris to cover it. If Nawaki attacked right now, he would have a clear shot at the orb.

His decision made, he reached into his pouch and pulled out a kunai. Then he focused on his chakra. He could feel the natural fire that came with his chakra. Usually, he was able to blow it out onto his shuriken. But this time he needed to channel it through his hand-which he wasn't even sure was possible. He focused all his chakra on his hand, almost like he was water-walking. This time, he kept the fire infused with his chakra as it moved along his pathways. His hand soon began to feel like it was burning, but he ignored the pain as best he could.

He glanced quickly at Hisa. She was staring at him calmly. If Nawaki didn't know her, he would say that she looked completely confident. However, he could see the slightly nervous look in her eyes, and the colour of her skin was still a few shades too pale. She wasn't attacking because she felt overconfident- it was because she was trying to regain her energy.

The burning in his hand had reached its peak. Nawaki focused it all into his fingertips, and began to press it out. Chakra-infused fire shot out of his hand and surrounded the kunai. If it had been normal fire, it would have burned out immediately on the metal. But the chakra kept it burning along the blade.

Once the blade was fully coated in flames, Nawaki ran straight at the orb. The orb had managed to cover itself with a layer of earth, but it wasn't very thick yet. He jumped into the air, and let the orb pull him towards it. He stuck out his kunai, aiming for the centre.

He slammed into the orb, burying his kunai up to the hilt. For a second, he hung from the orb by his kunai. Then a bright white light streamed out of the orb, followed by a second, then a third.

"Uh oh." Nawaki muttered, realising a flaw in his plan. If the orb exploded, what would happen to him?

He let go of the kunai and frantically tried to push himself towards the ground. He ended up hovering in middair, thrashing around as if he was in the middle of a swimming race. Below him, Hisa had taken shelter under a sturdy tree. Above him, the orb had begun to shake and an ominous rumbling sound was coming from it. Nawaki had just enough time to cover his face with his hands.

Then the orb exploded and everything went haywire.