Nawaki groaned into the mud. He flexed his fingers and found that he could move his hands without pain. The rest of his body however, was a different story. He was struggling to breathe, and each forced breath caused a jagged pain in his abdomen. He had a feeling that he had cracked a rib or two. As well as that, his legs were badly bruised, but he could stand the pain of moving them. His head felt numb, which was never a good sign.

He needed to assess his injuries properly. He could push himself to his feet, but Hisa was right behind him and could easily slam him back down. He needed to hide for a few minutes.

He quickly substituted himself with a log, although it caused the pain in his torso to get worse. Panting, he sat behind a tree, hoping that Hisa couldn't hear him.

What was he doing? Hadn't he believed that he could win this easily? Why was he running and hiding? She caught him by surprise, but he wouldn't leave himself open like that again.

He jumped onto a tree branch and looked down at Hisa. She noticed him and scowled.

"I underestimated you." he said "This time I won't give you any cha-"

Suddenly she was right in front of him.

"Shut up." she said calmly.

The next thing he knew, he was being smashed through tree after tree. His chest was in agony, and he couldn't help screaming. Hisa kept a firm grip on his neck, slamming him faster and faster into the trees. He finally hit a sturdy oak and crashed down onto the forest floor. Hisa landed gracefully beside him.

"Last chance to consider that therapy." she informed him.

He just snarled at her. She had thrown special kunai all over the place, so there was no point attacking her here. He needed to find a place where she couldn't throw them. The river.

He was up and running, running as fast as he could back to the statues. She kept up with him of course, a look of half amusement half pity on her face. That made him even angrier. One thing he didn't want from Hisa was pity, not after she had mocked him and his cause.

When she saw that they were nearing the edge of the river Nawaki knew she would take action. What surprised him was how she took action. She disconnected her hand from her wrist, pulling out a thin cord with missiles attached to it. The missiles all honed in on Nawaki, and even using the Almighty Push a few got through. It was only thanks to the Sharingan that he managed to dodge them.

He stood there, breathing heavily, watching as Hisa reconnected her arm.

"You opened the Asura Path." he said.

She nodded.

"Not just the Asura Path, the Human and the Nakara Path too."

"Why?" Nawaki asked "I thought you decided that you never wanted to use them."

"To fight you." she explained "You have all Six Paths activated. I needed them activated too to keep up with you."

"I see." he said.

As much as he wanted to fight, there was another thing bugging him that he couldn't fully ignore.

"You asked me why I wanted to fight you and I explained, so now I will ask you: Why do you want to fight me? Why did you come out here alone when the whole village is prepared for my attack?"

She seemed to mull it over for a minute, before finally speaking.

"I could say it's because it's our fate, but I don't really believe in that." she said "I could say it's because you were my first real friend, but that would be a lie. Oki was my first real friend, and although you were my teammate and my friend I'm not here to save you from yourself or from the darkness or whatever."

Were. She had referred to him in the past tense. It made sense, he supposed, that she didn't consider him a friend anymore.

"I could say that it's because you're attacking Konoha, and that would be partly true, but it's not the main reason." she shrugged. "The truth is simply that I enjoy kicking your ass. That's why I'm here."

Nawaki frowned. He knew that he had changed, but it seemed to him that so had Hisa. She had always enjoyed toying with enemies that she knew couldn't beat her, but she never acted like that when fighting with Nawaki. She had either been half-hearted and bored, or intense and serious. She had never been so… light. It unnerved him slightly, to see her like this.

"What happened to you Hisa?" he asked "Where did all that seriousness about proving yourself go?"

She seemed to think about that for a second. Then her face broke into an unsettling grin.

"Do you know what Nawaki? It was your death that caused this change. It made me realise what was really important. My friends and my family are important. They are the ones I'm trying to get respect from. But strangers and people who I don't even like? Why should I try and prove myself to them?"

"What category do I fit into?" he couldn't help but ask.

"Normally, you'd be in the friends and family category." she informed him. "But today, you're both a stranger and someone I don't like."

He had no reply to that.

She had let her guard down slightly during all this talk, but in his injured state Nawaki knew that he shouldn't attack here. Instead, he ran as quickly as he could towards the Madara statue. Hisa followed behind him, but with his back turned he couldn't see her expression.

He reached the top of the Madara statue and heard her land on the Hashirama one, struggling to catch her breath. It was exactly like a few minutes ago, except Nawaki was hurt and more cautious.

He realised now that it had been a mistake to engage her in a fight. He had been far too overconfident, and had paid the price. Sasuke was the priority; the best thing to do here was to leave.

He took one step forward, and that's when Hisa spoke.

"Running away after all that talk? Well, aren't you a coward. You think you can beat Sasuke if you can't even fight me?"

He gritted his teeth. It was annoying how she'd known exactly what he was planning to do. It gave her yet another advantage. Nonetheless, she had a point. He needed to beat her before getting to Sasuke.

He turned back around, his Rinnegan flashing. She countered him perfectly, the two Almighty Pushes meeting in mid-air. Neither could beat the other, but Hisa didn't seem worried about this at all. In fact, she seemed downright cheerful. And she thinks I need mental help?

"It's funny isn't it?" she commented "If I had told anyone a few years-no, months- ago that I'd be defending the village against Nawaki Hachino they would have told me I'm crazy. You were always that nice orphan boy and I was always the bratty Hokage's kid with too much power. Who would have thought that I'd be the good and you'd be the evil? Most people would have predicted that this would be the other way round."

"There is no good or evil." Nawaki repeated "Only winners and losers."

Hisa just shrugged.

"Seeing as I'm going to win, it's the same thing isn't it?"

He maintained his cold expression. If she was going to act immature then he would just ignore it.

"I'm done messing around here." he informed her "Either you start acting serious or-"

She barrelled into him, knocking him over and pinning him down. He glared up at her in annoyance. Couldn't she let him finish the sentence? And how was she still catching him by surprise? He noticed that she was careful to avoid looking at his sharingan. He had the advantage when it came to genjutsu. However, seeing as she was sitting on top of him, it was safe to say she held the advantage in the current situation. He needed to get her off him before she could do some serious damage.

He focused on his fiery chakra, letting it fill up his lungs. He couldn't make a fireball without the hand-seals, but he could breathe out some fire-infused chakra. It blasted straight into Hisa's face, the heat making her flinch backwards. It was all Nawaki needed to push himself upwards and shove her off.

He jumped to his feet just as she swung her sword. He grabbed a kunai from his pocked and used it to block the blade. Her free hand reached towards his stomach and he could feel his chakra pooling there, ready to be sucked out. He jerked backwards and the kunai slipped slightly. Hisa pushed down harder on the blade, her other hand still groping for Nawaki's chakra.

He jumped upwards and snapped both his legs outwards, catching her in the stomach. She flew backwards, tumbling a few times before pushing back onto her feet. He didn't give her time to recover. Using her own style against her, he ran in close until he was right in front of her, his hand inches from her face.

"Almighty Push." he said.

She shot across the waterfall, flipping through the air before crashing into the Hashirama statue. Once again, she recovered quickly, climbing upwards until she was directly across from Nawaki.

He quickly made a clone, and started pooling chakra into his hand. He needed to finish this quickly, so the Rasengan would have to do. Hisa seemed to be thinking along the same lines. Her eyes were closed, and she was muttering a string of words too low for Nawaki to hear. His guess was that she was going to do an Almighty Push.

He kept his right hand behind his back, and held the Rasengan in his left hand. There was some strange rippling chakra forming around Hisa's right hand. She noticed him staring at it and grinned.

"A new technique I invented." she explained "A mixture of the Almighty Push and the Heavenly Pull. The pull keeps it in my hand, but the minute it makes contact with something it'll explode outwards. Would you like me to push it into your face or your stomach?"

He ignored her. His Rasengan fully formed, he let the clone vanish, before charging at her. She mirrored him, jumping off the statue the same time that he did. Their jutsu met in the middle. Nawaki gritted his teeth and pushed, but it was clear that Hisa's jutsu was slightly stronger. Luckily, he had been prepared for that.

He saw her eyes widen as he swung his right hand around. The second Rasengan that he had been hiding behind his back slammed into her ribcage from the side. She screamed as she was flung down the waterfall. Nawaki raced after her, determined not to give her any chance to recover.

She hit the water, but to his surprise she didn't come up. He looked around and noticed her laying against a tree on the river bank next to one if her special kunai. Her chunin jacket and ANBU uniform were torn, and the skin beneath it was raw. The jacket seemed to have protected her from the worst of the Rasengan, but she was still badly injured.

He walked over to her, smirking slightly. She glared up at him, her face contorted in pain.

"You were saying something about winning?" he jeered.

Suddenly, her hand flicked out. His sharingan watched the senbon come close to him, and calculated how to easily dodge them. But to his surprise, she made another hand seal and the number of senbon tripled. Caught off guard, he managed to dodge most of them, but he could still feel one or two prick his skin.

"Senbon Shadow Clone Jutsu." Hisa whispered, a triumphant smile on her face.

Nawaki didn't know what she was smiling about, until his vision started to grow fuzzy.

"You used poisoned senbon." he managed to get out, before falling onto his knees.

She nodded, struggling to push herself to her feet.

"The poison isn't strong enough to kill you, but it's enough to knock you out for a few hours. Enough time for me to drag you back to Konoha."

He expected her to leave it at that, but she was staring down at him curiously. Something seemed to be nagging her, and as Nawaki couldn't seem to work his legs anymore, he had no choice but to wait for her to spit it out.

"How do you have the Mangekyo?" she asked "I don't have it, and one of my eyes is yours."

"The Mangekyo is something you get from the trauma and guilt of watching a loved one die." Nawaki said. "You may have my eye, but you didn't see Sasuke stab Sakura and even if you did it wouldn't have affected you the same way."

"Ah," she nodded "But that still doesn't explain why you have it."

"Because I watched my mother die!" he yelled, confused as to why she wasn't getting this.

Her eyes widened, and she opened her mouth to say something, but Nawaki didn't want to hear it. Her guard was almost down, and although his hands seemed to have gone numb he could still feel the chakra flowing into his eyes. All he needed to do was stun her for a single second.

"I'm secretly gay for your brother." he said.

Her eyes widened for a spilt second and Nawaki struck. His left eye spun as the Mangekyo came out. His eye met Hisa's and the genjutsu began taking effect. He pushed all his chakra into it, but he knew it wasn't enough for a full Tsukuyomi. The blood began running out of his eye, but he kept pushing his chakra. Hopefully, it would be enough to knock her out for a few hours.

"You fight dirty." she muttered as she fell to her knees.

"I do what I have to." he tried to shrug but his shoulders wouldn't move. "But if it helps, that was a complete lie. I still have feelings for Oki, but they've been pushed aside until I can avenge my mother."

She glared at him, looking annoyed. He could understand anger or pity, but annoyance was strange.

"You're an idiot." she informed him, her words slurring. "You seriously don't know anything."

"What, why would you say that?" he forced his jaw and tongue to work.

She tried to talk, but the genjutsu had taken effect. She gave him one last look, as if to say Oh Nawaki, you simple, simple fool.

Then she collapsed face first into the dirt.

He felt a familiar chakra signature coming towards them, but he couldn't tell if it was friend or foe. There was nothing he could do anyway, seeing as his world had started to fade and his vision was growing black.

Strangely enough, his last thought was of Oki.

Then he fell forward and joined Hisa in the dirt.