Previously on Path of Shadows, Path of Lights

"Now, can Neji Hyuuga and Hinata Hyuuga please come to the ring?"

Hinata gasped and shrunk into her coat, while the white-eyed Hyuuga shot a withering glare at her, then at Team Seven, then at Team Yugito, and finally at Hinata again.
"Oh no..." the Hyuuga heiress murmured, clearly on the verge of fainting. Neji strode coldly to the ring, his blank white eyes hiding a burning hatred for the Main House's failure of an heiress, the useless idiot she clearly harbored feelings for, the idiot's teammates and, worst of all, the Kumo team those absolute traitors had been fraternizing with.

Once both competitors reached the floor of the ring, Neji pierced Hinata with a frigid stare. "Hinata-sama...you should forfeit now, while you are not still a complete disgrace" he said coldly, the other Hyuuga squeaking and trying to retreat further into her coat. "You have no talent as a shinobi whatsoever. All you do is hide in your jacket and fail to live up to even Hiashi-sama's pathetically low standards. As heiress, you should have the strongest Byakugan in our entire clan, yet you remain pathetic and weak in every single regard."

Hinata attempted to debate Neji's point. "N-Neji-n-niisan, I-!" she began, before being shut down again.

"You can't even complete a sentence without stuttering. You would be best off accepting your fate and remaining a Genin forever. You are fated to be a failure, now and forever." Hinata grew more and more disheartened by the second hearing Neji's words, but just before she could forfeit, Naruto's voice cut through the quiet atmosphere in the arena.

"HINATA! DON'T LET THAT PRICK DICTATE TERMS FOR YOU! REWRITE YOUR OWN FATE, AND BEAT HIS ASS!" the blonde shouted.

"You said it, Naruto! Kick his ass, Hinata-chan!" Kiba joined in cheering for the Hyuuga heiress.

"Ganbatte, Hinata-chan!" Ino and Sakura cheered.

"Go get him, Hyuuga girl!" Karui cheered.

Even Satsuki let a small smile cross her face. "Teach that prick a lesson, Hinata..." the Uchiha whispered.

Any doubts Hinata had about herself all but evaporated from the outburst of support from the audience. "C-Come at me, Neji-niisan!" she shouted half-confidently.

"As you wish...Hinata-sama" the Branch House prodigy said, a bone-chilling undertone seeping into his voice.

"Begin!" Hayate coughed, and the two immediately sprung into action, taking a unique taijutsu stance. "BYAKUGAN!"

Veins bulged around both their eyes, as the two Hyuugas slowly circled each other. "Byakugan?" Naruto asked.

Karui nodded. "One of the Three Great Dojutsu, along with the Uchiha Clan's Sharingan and the semi-mythical Rinnegan that supposedly belonged to the Sage of Six Paths. The user can see nearly three-hundred and sixty degrees around them, see chakra pathways and colors like the Sharingan does, and is capable of peering through solid surfaces."

"Figures that the girl from Hidden Cloud would know a lot about the Byakugan..." Kakashi thought, eavesdropping on the conversation.

Naruto pondered this for a moment, before noticing the odd stances the two had gotten into. "What with that taijutsu stance?" he asked.

"That" Shino began "Is the Gentle Fist, secret technique of the Hyuuga Clan. By using the Byakugan in conjunction with bursts of chakra from their body, they can disrupt an opponent's chakra network and close chakra points, disabling an opponent with incredible precision. This is why the idea of fighting in hand-to-hand against a Hyuuga is considered lunacy."

The blonde remained silent for a few moments, before starting again. "Then theoretically, couldn't the teme copy-!" he began, but was interrupted when the two combatants began exchanging a flurry of palm strikes, deflected chakra bursts flashing in the air before dissipating.

Hinata hit a glancing blow, damaging Neji's right side, then lined up for another strike. "Neji-niisan...you're within my range of divination!" the Hyuuga heiress thought, aiming a followup strike towards the elder Hyuuga's stomach...

Only to spit blood up when Neji struck a chakra point right beside her heart, while simultaneously shutting down the flow of chakra in her right arm. "Oh no...!" Sakura gasped. The Hyuuga heiress attempted to recover, only for Neji to sidestep and block the chakra flow in her other arm, before delivering a brutal blow to the chest, causing her to collapse to the ground.

"HINATA!" Naruto shouted in horror.

Hinata slowly climbed back to her feet under Neji's cold gaze. "Surrender" the boy said. "You were fated to lose from the moment you set foot in this ring. This is as immutable a truth as you being in the Main House and me being of the Branch House."

Hayate stared at the younger Hyuuga, worry etched on his features. "Hinata Hyuuga cannot cough continue. Neji Hyuuga is the winner!" he declared. "Medics!" Hinata, however, got back to her feet, a determined glint in her white eyes.

"N-N-Neji-nii-s-san...you're suffering the most here...over the condition of the two families..." she said, wobbling slightly. "I...I will...change that" she managed to get out, as the cold expression on Neji's face contorted into pure rage.

"Be quiet already!" he roared, charging at Hinata readying a killing blow. "The match has been called, dammit!" Hayate called, but Neji ignored him. The other Hyuuga was too weak to even hope to dodge...

At the last moment, however, before Neji's attack could connect, in a puff of smoke, four Jonin had completely stopped Neji's forward momentum. Kurenai's bandages on her right arm had come undone and were wrapped around Neji's midsection. Gai had one impossibly strong limb placed in front of the boy's chest, Hayate had drawn his sword so that its' tip was barely touching Neji's forehead protector, and Kakashi had a kunai casually pressed sideways against the boy's throat. "When I say the match is called, the match is called!" Hayate snapped, a rare loss of composure for the Jonin in question.

As medics carted Hinata off to make sure she didn't go into cardiac arrest, Neji climbed the stairs and leveled a cold stare at the other contestants as he went to take a water break. "Those whose fate dictate them to be failures...will never be anything but. Defying fate will only result in a premature death" he stated in a frigid tone, with the venom in his words directed specifically at Naruto, the Kumo trio, Kiba and Sakura. "Of you, none of you stand a chance of beating fate in a fight against a prodigy like me except for other prodigies, like the Uchiha...and even then, we are shackled by fate in other ways." With that, he departed, ignoring the killing intent being radiated by several of his peers.

After a few moments of silence, Kiba finally spoke up. "What a fucking prick" he growled, out of an anger born from worry for his teammate.

Before anyone could comment further, Hayate called for the next contestants. "Suigetsu Hozuki, Tenten, please come to the ring."

The blue-haired shark-toothed boy sipped his water, then got to his feet. "Alright...let's break some bones" he said confidently, patting the large wrapped item on his back.

"Good luck, my youthful teammate!" Lee said, as the brown-haired kunoichi got to her feet.

"Thanks, Lee" she said half-heartedly, still conflicted after what had happened in the previous match, where she had been cheering for her other teammate. As she reached the arena floor, she tried to ignore the disturbing sharp-toothed grin that her opponent was giving her.

"Tenten, Suigetsu...are you both ready?" Hayate asked.

"Damn right!" Suigetsu said all-too gleefully.

"Y-Yeah" Tenten said, still not quite all there.

"Begin!"

Tenten immediately withdrew two large scrolls and leapt into the air, unraveling them to reveal intricate sealing characters within. "Ninpo: Unsealing Technique!" the brunette shouted, pressing her hands against the scrolls. In a large puff of smoke, a shower of kunai, shuriken, maces, swords and other assorted sharp objects flew towards Suigetsu.

"Tenten is a master of fuinjutsu and bukijutsu - when it comes to using weapons, she's a once in a century prodigy!" Lee declared, stars in his eyes. The objects flew towards the Kiri shinobi who yawned casually.

Then the weapons passed through him like nothing had happened, and gasps of surprise rang through the arena. "H-How?" Sakura asked.

"Suigetsu is a member of the famous Hozuki noble clan of Kirigakure. They have a Kekkei Genkai that allows them to dissolve themselves into water" Haku explained politely, before he smile fell. "Kami, I hope he doesn't go too far with that poor girl...he doesn't know the meaning of 'restraint'."

"Dammit!" Tenten cursed, unraveling the scrolls further and launching another volley towards Suigetsu. This time, before the projectiles could reach him, Suigetsu pulled the package off his back, the bandage wrappings coming off to reveal a peculiar item that resembled a large scroll with a blade on one side and a handle at the end.

Omoi's eyes widened uncharacteristically. "Holy shit, is that what I think it is?" the white-haired Kumo swordsman exclaimed.

"The Blast-Sword Shibuki, of the Seven Swords of the Mist" Haku confirmed.

Down in the ring, Suigetsu lazily swung the sword's non-bladed side, revealing a long roll of paper. Shikamaru's eyes widened. "Explosive tags...a LOT of them!" he shouted, bracing himself for the worst.

"Let's shed some blood, why don't we?" the Hozuki shouted gleefully, as the tags all glowed and Tenten's face paled in horror.

Then the entire section of explosive tags detonated in a burst of heat, light and force. The entire tower shook, and the audience shouted in fright and surprise. The smoke cleared just in time for everyone to see a sickening sight. Tenten had been impaled by a number of the weapons she launched at Suigetsu, bleeding from deep wounds in her chest, shoulder, abdomen and legs.

"TENTEN!" shouted a horrified voice from the top of the arena. Naruto and several others whirled around to see Neji, face etched with horror, standing in the doorway.

"The match is over, Suigetsu is the winner! Medics, NOW!" Hayate shouted.

"Wait a minute, mister proctor" Suigetsu said, advancing on Tenten's prone form. "She's not quite dead yet, is she?" he asked, switching to the bladed side.

"Don't do it, Suigetsu!" Haku warned.

Before the Hozuki could finish off the injured kunoichi, his attack was stopped on the flat of Zabuza's Kubokiribocho. "Brat, you may be a prodigy in the art of murder like your brother...but this fight is over" the Mist Jonin warned. "Tch" was all Suigetsu had to say, exiting as the medics carried away Tenten.

"We will now have a fifteen minute intermission" Hayate declared. Several of the other Genin walked up the stairs, ignoring or shooting glares at Neji, who was still frozen in stunned shock.

As Shino passed the Hyuuga, he stopped for a moment. "You had best be regretful of your previous actions. Why? Because you clearly do not enjoy the consequence of the precedent you set in your match with my teammate." The other Genin filed out for the intermission, leaving a stunned Neji Hyuuga to stew in his own thoughts...