Chapter 34: Fighting destiny

Truthfully, not once had she granted Hyuuga Neji anything more than a passing thought.

Not to hear the praise heaped upon the boy during his years at the academy was impossible, of course (at least, not when you knew how and where to listen). What little information Kagome had gotten out of the Hyuuga heiress pointed to an unlikeable personality paired with real, prodigious talent. Despite all of the hatred the two families had sported for generations, the whole thing lost a lot of importance after the Uchiha compound became a home for only two. While her training made sure at least part of her kept an ear to the gossip going around the village, it still failed to catch her attention. So, the boy was apparently a snobby prodigy...why exactly should she care?

There were more important things to care about.

His name had appeared in her thoughts again after the fateful day she'd descended to the archives. The loyalty of the byakugan users possessed towards the village was indisputable; at some point, that whole clan would become an obstacle, that was an undeniable reality. Still, as far as their plans went, that was something that wouldn't happen anytime soon. Years from now, they'd have to consider it; but until then, that name had been quickly forgotten once more. Naruto's secret, the clan's treason, and the village's betrayal...Itachi's actions...they were all bigger and more pressing thoughts. Old clan rivalries and their members simply slipped from her mind.

And then, the prelims happened.

Higurashi Kagome's feelings changed.

It wasn't about principles; cold reading was a valid skill to hone and use against an opponent. Kagome herself was in the habit of baiting her enemies. Provoking someone else, mentally ripping them apart was something she had been taught and trained to do. In any other situation, the girl may have appreciated the technique.

Before the numbness that came after the massacre, though...she had seen them.

The half-faded bruises beneath Hyuuga Hinata's long sleeves...

Similar to the ones she, herself, was adorned with whenever the Uchiha head got overeager to see her advance through her taijutsu skill level. The first time the bruise failed to heal before Itachi saw it, there had been a cold, freezing anger inside the boy's eyes before he'd decidedly made his way to his father's studio. The sets were too advanced, he'd told her later, no one reasonable would ask her to master them so quickly...and yet, those blue and purple stains on her skin were still different from the one in the other heiress's. Kagome's healing was faster than most people, the bruises genuine accidents from pushing her too far. For all of the faults from their caretakers, not once was sparring used as punishment. The azure-eyed kunoichi could clearly remember the panic in the lavender gaze of the other girl as she noticed how her stare fell on the discolored patch of skin.

And then...there was that word.

Destiny.

It wasn't until she heard it from the Hyuuga prodigy that the full meaning of the word seemed to weigh on her. The meaninglessness of it all against that one small, single word. Not until Hyuuga Neji began spouting his monologue about destiny had Kagome realized how much she despised the very concept of it all.

No.

The name of her opponent didn't fade in the background this time around. If he was so in love with using destiny to justify his way of living, then she would make sure that idea crumbled on itself.

"Alright guys, this is the final test." The main proctor did not look so interested, though interestingly enough, this was not the same man who'd refereed the prelims. "The arena is different, but the rules are the same as in the preliminaries; there are none. You fight until one of you dies or acknowledges defeat...if I determine that the fight is over, I'll step in and stop it. You got that?" A glare was sent toward the Hyuuga.

"Now, for the first round, Higurashi Kagome, Hyuuga Neji, those two stay here while the rest of you go to the waiting area."

Entirely ignoring her opponent, the girl turned to face her teammates, a calm smile on her face as she pushed back the anxiousness she'd felt since the night before to focus on this fight. Distractions during a fight could become dangerous, and judging from how his last match ended, maybe even fatal.

"Go on, I'll follow after you once I'm done."

"Hmph, don't play for too long." The Uhicha's words were directed at her, but he was clearly glaring at the Hyuuga behind her.

"Tch," Naruto grumbled, clearly following the other boy's example of trying to knock her opponent with just his eyes. "Kick his ass."

"Yes, yes, but the match won't start until you're back upstairs." Keeping a smile on her face, the girl gently pushed her two over-protective teammates.

Silent murmurs were now replacing the cheers from before as the field began to empty. Right, to those in the know, this match carried the weight of two potential threats. To those who didn't, then the hushed whispers and renown of the Hyuugas were more than enough to make this an exciting fight.

"Worried about you?" Neji's sneer was expected, almost as much as his derisive look.

"Was that what it looked like to you?"

Careful, she reminded herself. This was not Haruno, unlike her former classmate who came from a civilian background and had no reputation to fall back on, the Hyuuga prodigy hat to be taken seriously. Kagome would have to watch her words if she wanted her image to remain intact.

"That's some confidence," he scoffed. "It'll be fun to watch as it crumbles..."

"Shall we save ourselves some time?" Her smile was still gentle, everything in her relaxed and unbothered. "Cold reading is not going to work on me after all, and besides...I'm pretty sure it was you who've already lost in that regard during the prelims."

Judging from the frown immediately marring the older teen's face, he hadn't ever faced someone who didn't break under psychological pressure. Cocky and overconfident, yes, she could definitely work with this.

"The first match officially starts...Now!"

With a single jump, the girl increased the distance between them, slender needles already resting between her fingers as she landed. This would need to be handled with care. Knowing injuries taken from the juken could be healed was good, but using too much reiki before her preparations were ready could force her to change tactics.

For now, she'd play to her image.

"Already running away?" The taunting was going to continue, then. "Guess there's a reason for your preference for poisons."

"Oh, please don't worry about that." Carelessly, the girl twirled one of her long needles, allowing the tip to slice her skin, drops of crimson falling to the ground. "Believe me, I won't use a single drop of it. I have no use of it, after all."

Measured words and weary steps, this was a fine line she needed to walk on, but her words were definitely having a reaction. Really, the boy was too used to having the upper hand if something this simple was already tempting his control.

With a frown, the Hyuuga prodigy closed the distance in a dash, hand extended, surrounded by the soft blue of chakra.

Not too much.

Just one step backward, her skin almost brushing his before giving a fast kick, broadening the distance between them.

Not too fast.

In terms of information, she had the advantage even without counting that she'd learned from Hinata, Kagome had gotten to see far more of his fighting style than he had hers. Neji had only caught a glimpse of her at her worst. No matter what kind of research he'd made, the impression of that match was likely to be stronger than logic.

She could control the pace of this fight.

Another hit barely missed her flesh. The speed was too low; if this was the person Lee trained so hard to beat, there was no way he was going full speed. So he was being somewhat cautious then, or perhaps just overconfident. Unwilling to admit he needed to use his full abilities against her.

"Dodging like that will only delay the inevitable."

"Inevitable?" she echoed, already knowing where he was going.

"You will lose here; it has already been decided."Pale eyes glared at her with distaste. "Your destiny is one full of losses. You can't run away from it."

A destiny of losses, huh?

So he was still going to try his hand at it.

Sending a psychological attack.

A few months ago, it may have worked, but it was more than just anger that the girl had learned to bury deep inside as she kept smiling at the people who harassed and took advantage of her childhood friend. To pretend to be calm as he insulted the blood-related family that Kagome could not remember was so much easier in comparison.

Another dodge, this time, she moved to his left. The senbons on her hand not managing to even graze him.

His reactions were fast but still too slow for him to be taking her seriously.

One more missed hit. One more jump. Her breathing was forcefully ragged, her shoulders heaving as the Higurashi heiress moved through the arena.

"You really love this idea of destiny, huh?"

"It's not an idea," he bit out, cold and cruel and self-confident. "It is reality."

One misstep.

Her scream was swallowed back. Even practicing getting hit with Hinata did little to numb the pain. Her knee bent, narrowly missing another hit as her right hand flew to hold her injured shoulder.

And she turned back.

Smoke filled the area as she let go for just a second, fingers releasing the quickly grabbed explosive tags and let them go. A pointless move. A seemingly desperate one.

Not too fast.

Kagome could hear his laughter as he continued in his pursuit. Stumbling against the rocks and slim trees scattered in the center of the arena, a groan left her. It was all going to plan.

"See, this is where it ends."

"Yes." Her words were soft as she pivoted, turning around to face him. "I think our little warm-up ends here."

With a burst of energy, pink enveloped her hand. Ghost pain went ignored as her left wrist flickered, sending the long weapons between her fingers. Her forward momentum unexpected, faster.

This time, it was her jumping against him.

A thin crimson line was seeping into the Hyuuga's arm bandages. His reaction delayed for just the slightest period of time due to the shock before he could retreat.

"Healing was a specialty of my family, you know." Her words were light as a senbon twirled between Kagome's arm. "Also...please don't tell me you really thought that was as fast as I could go."

This time, the girl allowed a smile to show when his pale glare narrowed. Not once had she used her bloodline on plain view, and the heiress knew for a fact that Kakashi had kept quiet about the specifics of their talents when talking to the other jounins. Even the short explanation given to Maito Gai had been purposefully misleading.

Control the flow of information and the pace of the fight, and her plan could work without too much trouble.

A strong-motion had the wires between her slender digits pulled taught. The hidden blades went flying, the explosive tags already igniting. Pale lavender eyes widened for the split of a second before the older teen made his move. Chakra radiated from him as the Hyuuga prodigy spun at an accelerated rate.

A defense move, azure gaze sharpened on the rapidly spinning body, one capable of dispelling both the force and the heat of the explosions. That was not within her gathered information; Hinata had not mentioned anything like this even once.

Good, she was forcing him to become a little more serious.

Perhaps, he had given the girl too little credit.

Her jumping down to rush and intervene during his prelims match had made it clear who she was sympathizing with. Her obvious friendship with the loud blond had, admittedly, lowered his expectations to the ground. After all, how competent could someone be if they agreed with such foolish comments?

Yes, Gai-sense had warned him the girl had a sharp mind, capable of handling tricky situations. But from what Tenten had been able to gather, that seemed to refer more to get forgiveness for her teammate's rudeness and stupid ideas. A useful skill in some aspects, but not for combat. Though apparently, she wasn't quite that useless.

He'd also forgotten about her kekkei genkai.

It had been a big unknown factor considering no one alive had ever seen the thing used other than her own team. Still, it also meant she had no one to learn from; maybe there had been something salvageable from the ruins. Even then, the chances of her training being complete were slim at best. His eyes narrowed as the Hyuuga followed her movements, the girl was smart enough to keep her full potential from being well known, but there would only be so much advantage that could give her. Healing the damage of the juuken did not mean she didn't suffer through it, and her energy was not eternal, there was no way Higurashi could keep doing that throughout the whole match. Going so far as to make this complicated trap also meant she still didn't want to get too close to him.

He just had to close the distance.

"Cheap tricks like this won't work on me." He focused his byakugan on her vitals, she'd been racing her breathing and heartbeat on purpose, and now they were returning to normal. "No kind of projectiles will work either."

"So you say, but I just made you bleed." She was still smiling, the same infuriating smile she'd sported from the beginning.

Was it or was it not poisoned?

That was the one thing that could become troublesome. For all of her words and promises to not use the thing only an idiot would believe her. It might be true; it would certainly look better if she managed to win without using something that had such a stigma as poison, it might also be a trap to lull him into a trap. Even then, the fast-acting toxin the Higurashi had used on her last opponent had needed some time for the symptoms to begin to show. Killing someone from the same village would leave a stain on anyone's reputation, even if it was technically allowed. It couldn't be immediate. It couldn't be fatal.

As long as he kept this fight relatively short, it should still be fine.

"The destiny of loss that follows you..." Her pulse accelerated just a little, though her expression remained the same. He was getting to her, little by little. "I will bring it to you once again."

"Projecting is not a good look for a person as talented as you, Neji-san." The girl's smile refused to falter.

The young prodigy lunged forward, unlike during the beginning of their match, this time his opponent was properly dodging, even risking pushing back. It looked like he might need to speed up soon enough. Unless one of his comments finally managed to unsettle her enough for her to make a mistake, it would be up to him to change the pacing. On one thing, at least, Higurashi had been entirely truthful.. cold reading was giving him almost nothing to work with.

"This is going to be your end." The cold self-assured words that would usually get his enemies to tense up got no reaction. It mattered not. "You cannot escape...Juuken, 64 hands of Hakke."

His sight seemed to sharpen even more, forming a perimeter around him. She could not escape this time. They were strong hits, and yet, with bursts of pink energy, all the damage was swiftly undone. Forcefully, the Hyuuga prodigy pushed down his irritation. It was still good; she'd tire herself out keeping up like that.

Explosive tags were sent his way once more, the explosions little more than an annoyance as he spun on his heel. Neji would win while using the techniques the main family so zealously guarded. Jutsus he'd learned in secret, and that had now surpassed even those from the main branch's.

It took a second for the pain to hit him after he felt something pierce his skin, sinking into his shoulder. A long needle dug into his flesh in a way that shouldn't be possible. He stopped, his balance thrown off.

"People often forget," she said as she played with another senbon, her tone almost mockingly comforting. "that to survive during the old shinobi wars, medical jutsus and seals would never have been enough."

"This is...reiki."

"I did say it. I have no need for poison."

Curses ran through his head, fingers roughly pulling the senbon off of his flesh. She was leveling the playing field. Never letting him keep the upper hand for more than a few moments. And now, more attacks were sure to follow. Her reaction time was probably just fast enough to force him to interrupt the flow of his hits...likely, Higurashi was as fast as Lee had been after taking his weights off. Sure, he could just keep blocking and dodging her projectiles the common way, but the girl had to have taken that into account. After the first surprise shot, this little trick would not work again. Something of this level wouldn't cut it, it would not bring her victory, but he'd be forced to be more careful.

"You seemed to really love the idea of destiny." Her voice was still neutral, unflinching politeness in every word. "Or...is it just an excuse for something else?"

Stalling, for sure.

Should he cut her time for planning short or take the time for himself? The risk was undeniable, but keeping things the way they were, also had the danger of pushing her enough for her to resort to poison once again. He could still block any risky attack; he wasn't as confident he could avoid getting scratched, though.

Her breathing was also agitated now, far subtler this time, and it was evident the Higurashi heiress was doing all she could to keep him from noticing. It was real now; she was beginning to tire.

"Excuse?" Some time for reassessment, then. "I speak of nothing but reality."

"You're certainly talented." Her smile was far too sweet to be friendly. "All more the pity, you're really insistent on lying to yourself."

"What? You also believe in the same moronic ideas yourfriend does, that a loser can win against their chosen betters?"

"Oh, I don't think so at all since I don't believe something as convenient as destiny exists in the first place." There was a strained tone as she spoke the word...so that's what was getting to her.

"Convenient?"

"Of course, a perfectly convenient little lie." They were walking in a wide circle now, waiting to see who'd make the next move. "A perfect excuse to hurt others who have nothing to do with the situation you hate."

"What do you know about me?" The words escaped him in a hiss before he could stop them. "What do you know about lies?"

There it was, the slightest bit of a reaction Neji should've noticed, would've noticed...if not for the anger rising to a boil inside him. Because how dare she...how dare she, who kept on defying the destiny of those around her with her mere survival, speak about lies and excuses...

"You said it yourself, Hinata-chan had no choice in the matters and suffers, as well, but it's her you direct your hatred towards...too scared to accept the truth, so you aim at someone who won't defend herself out of sympathy."

"You know nothing." He was being baited, conned, but anger dripped from his words, and rage dulled his thoughts. "Nothing about the curse I live with."

His fingers went to his headband without permission, and he could no longer stop himself from revealing the cursed seal the whole village pretended not to know about. It was still supposed to be a secret, something talked only in hushed whispers, not planned to ever be shown outside the clan compound.

"When the Hyuuga Head's first daughter turned three, I was turned into a bird in a cage through this curse, all because I was a member of the branch family." His tale was spilling from him, lured by the fake pity goading him from azure pools. "This curse is the absolute fear of death given to us by the main family. With a single secret hand seal, our minds can be easily destroyed...death is just as easy, of course." Bitterness wrapped around every word depicting details that were never meant to be in the light of day. Her heartbeat was beginning to speed up. "And this curse will only disappear after death, sealing up the ability of the byakugan along with it. With this jutsu, the branch family is allowed to live only to protect the main one. No disobedience is allowed. It's an effective system created to eternally protect the advanced byakugan blood of the Hyuuga...

"To escape this horrible curse...there's no method but death."

"Oh, my...seems like he may have been right." There was something in her eyes that flickered as she laughed with wan amusement. Something Neji was in no state to analyze and vanished in a second. "These bloodlines of ours, don't they all seem to be cursed?

"But, you know...you're really not that special." Her voice was back to its usual polite tone, though, with the volume she was using was unlikely the audience could hear her. "All the pain you felt, so many more have suffered it as well. It's just...it was not some sort of divine intervention, you see, it is all the result of human action. Someone did something that leads to something else. You speak of destiny while doing nothing, sitting motionless within your chains."

Surprise stopped his words for a second. If there was one thing he hadn't expected was for her to agree to anything he said. In fact, he thought she may explode like the blond moron, and yet...There seemed to be the slightest hint of something else that he may have caught, were his emotions a bit less chaotic.

"But, well..." Her voice was loud and cheery again. "Now that we've both caught our breath, shall we finish this?"

Her rush at him almost took him off guard. Pale gaze snapped to her hands, forcefully refocusing his attention to the match. Higurashi would begin alternating between normal, and reiki charged weapons, hoping to get to him. He would not give her the opportunity. He couldn't.

Bright pink light exploded in front of him, blinding him to the point of pain. Jerky motions sent him back, eyes closed as pain pierced his flesh, blood starting to drip from the new wound. His arm could still move, nothing too important torn, then.

Forcing his eyes open once more, this time without chakra enhanced vision, his hazy retreat froze as his brain took in the sight of the field around him. Without the byakugan, the bright pink had become deep azure scattered all throughout the arena. A bright delicate butterfly landed on the girl's extended hand.

"Pretty, aren't they?" There was amusement in her voice as she looked at him. "Were they just as bright to those eyes of yours?"

A forced sneer made its way to his face.

How many more damn tricks was she hiding under her sleeve?

"They're not really useful in combat; however, with you as my opponent, I figured they could still have some use."

So she purposefully used the reiki charged needles to have him focus on her hands, staring directly at the spot where her energy would explode point-blank. All to blind him for an instant. No, these things could still be used as decoys. Placing herself behind a bunch of them before sending charged projectiles to stop him from noticing. Bitterness filled his mouth; he had disregarded the girl for her performance during the prelims, clearly exhausted and ready to drop. Evidently, that had been a mistake.

The Higurashi had been a founder clan, after all.

That kekkei genkai was proving to be too much of an unknown risk to keep ignoring. And the way the girl kept controlling the timing of her abilities meant the Higurashi heiress had done her research on him...right...Lee talked to the blond and his group, and Gai-sensei had that stupid rivalry with their teacher. Getting information on him was probably not as hard as he would've liked. Her attacks had all been in preparation for this.

It didn't matter.

All he needed was one good hit to her center, and that would be it. Higurashi couldn't keep running forever. Relying so heavily on such a strategy made it unlikely for her to be able to keep up if the fight remained solely physical. And the anger and hatred the girl just laughed off...it would be taken off on her. He'd crush the Uchiha after this...that was if the boy managed to beat his own opponent in the first place. Rookies who lucked out to survive this long would not make it any longer.

Neji rushed forward again. He had to close the gap between them, not let her hide behind the reiki-created butterflies. As long as he could keep a close distance, he would win.

"This will make no difference."

"Is that my destiny?" she asked mockingly.

"It is."

With the byakugan active once again, the Hyuuga prodigy charged ahead. Unlike Hinata who'd foolishly thought she could stop them, Higurashi Kagome was actually succeeding in blocking a good portion of his hits. The threat of poisons and charged senbons giving her just the proper leeway to let her take a jump back and sent a volley of weapons his way from behind a cluster of butterflies. Butterflies that flew away the second he got near them. His hits were still connecting though, perhaps not the spots he'd prefer but making damage nonetheless.

This was taking too long.

It took an instant for his brain to register the pain...the fact that from his right, a series of needles were smugly piercing his limbs. In front of him, the Higurashi heiress stood still, a polite smile on her face...the cold sting of the metallic blade of a hidden tanto against his neck making no sense.

"You know, if you're going to stew in hatred, the least you could do would be to direct it towards the right target. You said it yourself; Hinata-chan is also suffering from this while having no choice on the matter, and yet, it is her your anger is harming." The fake in front of him spoke loudly, clearly. "Such a waste..."

"Genjutsu..." Because clones would've been detected without a doubt, an illusion was the only thing that made sense. "How..."

"When I activated my shikigamis for the first time." This time, the words came from behind him, her voice as kind as it had been in the beginning. "I've been laying the tethers on them, little by little. I figured the brightness of the butterflies themselves would hide my chakra. You had the right idea to keep away from them, just not for the reason you believed."

His left arm jerked, fingers carelessly pulling the needles off of his right arm. It was useless, Neji couldn't even tell if the real girl was behind him or not. Rage still moved his limbs, blood spraying as he forced his right hand to push against the girl's solar plexus...only for nothing to happen...his chakra was not being sent into the girl's system.

"Chakra points are certainly small, but I've trained to hit for smaller targets. Sooner or later, even with these eyes I would've found them. Reiki should have a similar enough effect on them, if only for a little while." She was smiling softly, not bothering to get away from him.

A bout of hysterical laughter got caught on his throat as the realization dawned on him. Higurashi had stolen his attacks. A non-Hyuuga had managed to copy his attacks, and this was the scenario she'd been aiming for from the very start.

He didn't move to avoid the high kick that sent him tumbling to the ground, nor did he attempt to avoid the blade resting against his neck once more. The weight on top of him confirmed this was the real Higurashi heiress. His right leg felt heavy on the floor.

"You can try again, but you won't be conscious when you leave the arena."

High-speed taijutsu, traps, ninjutsu, genjutsu...the girl had used it all against him, carefully making him walk into her trap without noticing. In the end, it had been him who'd deluded himself with the idea that he controlled the fight.

"I've lost." With his words, the view around him flickered for just an instant before settling back down.

"The winner of the first match is...Higurashi Kagome!"

"You may be right." Her voice was soft in comparison to the yells of the excited crowd. "A destiny could be imposed on us from the very beginning, but even if that were to be true...I would break the chains with my own hands...or die trying.

"Here, I tore open your tendon." With a single move, the girl was now kneeling beside him, blade sheathed once more and her hands delicately grabbing his arm. "It could be tricky to heal with only chakra."

"...why?"

A slight warmth covered his hand for a moment before retreating. The pain remained, but his fingers felt less numb than they'd been a minute ago. Confusion filled him as she rose to the ground, a glance sent his way with a mix of pity and something else, something that he only now realized had been there from the start.

"Because it's not you who I should target."

Letting the byakugan deactivate, Neji could only gaze as the Higurashi heiress moved back to the center of the field, one arm raised as the blue butterflies danced around her. Quickly gathering on her hand, the small insects swiftly turned into slim pieces of papers. Another technique unique to her clan that had been long forgotten from the mind of everyone else.

How much had the girl hidden from the village?

At the beginning of the fight, Higurashi Kagome said cold reading wouldn't work on her. She'd been right, it was clear the clan that took care of her made sure to train her to hide her emotions, but his eyes were special, the insight he had was far more than anyone in this stadium could ever obtain. Even if she'd managed to stop most of her physical reactions that he couldn't get a proper reading, it had still been enough for him to notice she'd reacted to his words. Something was lurking on the back of her eyes as she kept everything in the dark. The words spoken within the privacy of her genjutsu betraying a different meaning he couldn't quite peg.

Just like the quiet comment she offered before standing up.

Ohh.

This was her.

There was not a single percent chance that this was not her.

Scarlet eyes shone from his place on one of the balconies reserved for the nobles attending to see the spectacle. The loud pigs that clapped and cheered without being able to fully appreciate the being within the stage were disregarded as his stare followed her form. He, on the other hand, was different. Just as different as the young girl, who was currently smiling and bowing to the audience, was from the rest of the trash around him.

Because it was her.

The shade of her eyes was an intense azure instead of amethyst, and her hair held a wave she had lacked. But this was still very much the head of the Higurashi clan. Once more, she was in front of him. And it was all he could do to keep to his seat.

It had been his mistake. The attack was never supposed to end in a massacre, but the person in charge of completing the plan had gone off-script. Oh, his fury had consumed him when the report of the result got to him he'd been so close to destroying the village himself back then...for years, he'd scoured the continent, filling them with informants that could look for her. Because for all that shinobi clans liked to pretend their blood ran only within the limits of their acknowledged families, there were always some civilians that shared some blood. She would come back, surely, she had to come back. If even one drop of Higurashi blood ran inside someone, it would happen. So year after year he kept up with the dull reports from his spies.

When the news of a Higurashi competing in the exam, hope had rekindled in his chest. Even if this one wasn't the rightful heiress, their next kid was sure to be. But this...this was definitely the rightful heiress, the next head of the clan.

No, she wasn't identical to her, but then again, none of them had ever looked the same.

The last one he'd been lucky enough to encounter before they went into hiding had sported the same straight hair he'd loved so much. However, her eyes had a bitter chocolate shade instead of the midnight locks he still longed to caress, her eyes an unusual coffee for the clan.

Eyes that burned with repressed hatred before the young woman decided to use the technique that would allow her people to escape and take her own life in the process. Like so many others before, choosing death for their own misguided ideals. But he was nothing if not persistent, time after time, he'd try and fail...but this time, this time, he had a better chance. Without the rest of her clan and raised without that foolish ideology poisoning her mind. The chances for his hands to reach her were so much more likely now. And at last, he would have her at his side.

He had to contain his excitement, though.

Because of course, those bothersome Taisho had also made an appearance. The signature long silver hair and lavish clothes impossible to ignore. Here they were once more, trying to get in his way, no doubt. But it was alright; it was only a matter of being more cautious.

To begin with, there would be no more outsourcing. Unwilling to trigger any alarms and give them an early warning, the man had made sure to keep away from the limits of the clan's barriers. Supposedly, the shinobi he'd contacted should've been more than capable of locating the head and capture her without taking her life. He'd trusted them to follow through, but it turned out they were incapable of keeping their own dogs on a proper leash.

It wouldn't happen again.

Not if he had any say on this.

A/N: Aaand here it is, I'm so sorry for the delay but this event I was helping organize ended up falling right before exam week and the projects they asked for were far too time consuming this time...hopefully that should not happen again, so fingers crossed.

It's a bit on the shorter side but the fight took too long and I didn't want to start the next one in this chapter, also Kagome's decision about things is slowly growing firmer and firmer. Also, is it just me who just could not agree with the whole "I'm fighting destiny by deciding to die for someone I love who just happens to be a part of the main family so I would've had to die anyway" kinda...not satisfying, like at all. And then having Naruto who was supposed to be dead set against that ideal end up being the reincarnation of basically a god who was destined gain power slowly at first but then just prodigious left a bitter taste when re-reading this fight...

There's also a couple of hints on how it's all connected in the new POV for those who can catch it.

Anyway, as always thank you guys so much for reading, and any review/comment/criticism is greatly, greatly appreciated!