Naruto belongs to Kishimoto. Please review.
Neji kept the scowl from his face as Hinata — very purposely from the defiant little quirk of her brow — chatted with the Uzumaki boy, congratulating him no doubt. She could show a little more camaraderie, Neji thought (not bitterly at all); Kiba was barely carted out the door to the infirmary before she was offering the Uzumaki her mother's salves. Sure she offered it to Kiba first, but still, the Uzumaki beat her teammate. He didn't deserve it.
Hinata caught him watching her and narrowed her eyes in a very 'this is your fault' way. Neji turned back to his remaining teammate. One thing Lee did very well was be distracting. His round eyes locked on the black announcement board like it held the meaning of life. Neji wouldn't mind getting paired against Lee, just to see what Gai had been teaching him in their private sessions. But then there was still that boy from Sand, the one whose own team was scared of, whose chakra grew and faded in strange waves depending on if a fight was active or not.
And did she really have to laugh so much with him? Not that Neji was paying attention. One day he was really going to have to let go of this over-protective feeling for his sister. Not today, but soon. And Hinata was right after all, he was the one who convinced her to not give up before the preliminary fights. It might have taken threatening to reveal to said Uzumaki the real reason Neji suffered from violent fantasies about his demise, but Neji hadn't gotten the chance to see Hinata in a true fight since she'd become a genin. He was curious. Besides, if she happened to lose in the preliminary round (not that he wanted her to) then her grandfather couldn't be mad at her for giving up without trying.
The matches had been interesting so far, if nothing else. He was curious what happened to the Uchiha; his chakra wasn't normal by the end of that fight. And it was too bad Tenten ended up facing the girl from Sand. Neji knew her skill first hand; anyone else that had fought so far she'd have been able to battle with ease, but someone who could throw her weapons back at her . . . It was the worst possible match. Though that only made him more curious about the few foreign genin left. What talents did they have?
Hayate coughed, quiet and quick but it silenced everyone left on the observation balconies. Next to Neji, Lee gripped the metal railing, his eyes sparkling with anticipation. (Neji was beginning to think Gai had some sort of powder or cream that made their faces shine like that.)
"We'll now announce the next match," Hayate wheezed.
All eyes locked on the black board flipping bright yellow lights in deceiving patterns. One character overlapping another in strange morphed names that held no meaning except hope or terror. Who would be next?
The silence's tense grip on the room held fast as the yellow lights stopped, displaying in unnatural strokes mirrored names: Hyuuga Hinata vs. Hyuuga Neji.
"Siblings have to fight?" Sakura was the first to break the quiet. She stood near Hinata with a few of the other rookies, all looking as dumbfounded by the names as Sakura sounded.
"How horrible!" Lee cried, tears welling up in his eyes. "To have to fight your own beloved sister!"
"Are you kidding me," Hinata said with a sigh deep enough to drag all them all into the great unknown abyss. "Neji-niisan's loving this. Aren't you?"
The laugh he'd withheld so well up to that moment burst out in a deep, echoing bellow. It was too perfect. He couldn't have asked for a better outcome. To be able to test her himself instead of merely watching from the sidelines hoping the challenger was skilled enough to really put her talents to the test, someone was smiling down on him today.
Neji's lip curled up into a sinister little grin as his pale eyes ignored the flood of confused faces all gaping at him and settled on his resigned little sister. "I expect a good fight."
"At least Grandpa can't complain I didn't make it to the finals," Hinata said with a sad little chuckle. But beneath the childhood conditioning that made her loathe being tested against him and the worrisome knowledge that she'd have to tell their grandfather she lost to Neji once again, her lips twitched up into a smile for the briefest second.
It really had been too long since they fought properly.
"Kick his ass, Hinata!" Naruto cheered in an obnoxious voice that burned brimstone in Neji's ears before shoving Hinata forward with an encouraging slap to the shoulder. Neji was about to tell her not to count herself out until the fight was over anyway, but he didn't need that idiot screaming through the whole match. Supporting her or not.
Neji started down from the balcony, knocking into Naruto's shoulder just to see the anger flare in his eyes as they took their place in the arena below. It was a little strange to stand against his little sister the way all the others had stood against their enemies, fighting with all their might to be a chuunin. He hadn't wanted to face off against her in the exam, but now that the opportunity presented itself the way it had, in a preliminary only they would see, Neji was glad. There'd be no problems in the clan if Hinata lost a proper match. It was only her first chuunin exam; not many passed the first time around. He just wished he didn't see surrender in her eyes.
"I want a real fight, Hinata," Neji said, a smile reserved for her warming his otherwise serious face. "Don't give up yet."
"We both know who's going to win this, Neji-niisan."
Neji's smile turned down and he ran his tongue over his teeth as he eyed his sister. "Which would you rather tell Grandpa, that I beat you in a fair fight or that you gave up before you tried?"
"I'd rather not tell him either," Hinata murmured, not fully meeting his gaze.
"Well then," Neji laughed, falling into his jyuuken stance, "win."
Hayate coughed shallow into his hand and nodded to each in turn. "Begin."
Chakra flooded the pathways into his eyes, shifting and enhancing the vision of his sister into chakra and understanding. She was still hesitating. Still looking for a way out of the fight. It seemed her teammates had yet to harden up that tender temperament of hers. Neji continued scrutinizing every twitch and avoidant shift in her fair features, and the grin returned to his face. Her team had done her good after all.
"I'd rather you fight me seriously, even if you think you might actually hurt my chances at being chuunin," Neji said, rather proud Hinata worried she was capable of it. "Telling Grandpa you beat me would be worth staying genin."
Hinata rolled her eyes and slipped into her jyuuken stance. "That wasn't what I was thinking," she lied.
"You should be."
A flash of blue, unseen by the spectators above, encased Neji's outstretched palm as he slipped lightning-fast to strike low on her abdomen. She parried, shoving his hand down and twisting to try and counter on his outstretched shoulder, but he was too fast. The strike, the parry, the turn and counter-turn, move by move matched in their all-too-familiar dance. He had power and force, she flexibility and speed. Better speed than he remembered, in fact. No doubt thanks to Kiba's help. But then Neji was stronger than the last time they'd sparred, too. It promised a good match, an interesting match, if only she wasn't doing just that. Sparring. She wasn't fighting, she was sparring. Even after all he told her, she was still sparring with him. Well, she only had herself to blame for what he did next.
Fixing his chakra against the ground to brace himself, Neji dropped the chakra from his hands and slammed both palms into her abdomen, sending her sprawled on the ground. She recovered quick enough, but the lack of chakra must have been enough to signal the change in him. She met him, byakugan to byakugan.
'Fight me!' he glared.
She glanced down, 'I am.'
His brow rose, 'Fight me or—'
'Or what? You'll tell Grandpa?'
A smirk danced across Neij's lips as his pale eyes, iris ringed in chakra veins, rose to meet a pair of blue avidly watching the fight from above.
"Neji-niisan," Hinata said, her voice both shaking and threatening.
Neji ignored his little sister's warning. She might know how to get under his skin when she was annoyed with him, but he knew just as well how to motivate her. "Hey, Uzumaki, you want to know why I can't stand you?"
He expected the sudden sprint forward, the flash of blue around her fingertips, but when the chakra turned to a feint and her arm twisted into his own, the shock was enough to let her follow through. Her lithe body twirled around him with ballet grace until their backs pressed against one another and his free arm was just as entwined as the other. Like the mother boar from his first mission out of the village, Hinata bucked Neji straight over her back and chucked him across the arena floor. He barely had time to tuck and roll to stop himself before he slammed into the back wall.
"Now that's the fight I wanted," Neji laughed.
Hinata glowered at him, face so red Neji had to wonder how there was any blood left for the rest of her body. Her mouth contorted in hollow attempts to speak, but all that came out was a wheezed whine, or perhaps a whispered shriek. Forfeiting further efforts to verbal speech, Hinata pointed at Neji, the negation of his very existence so raw in her eyes not even byakugan could translate it into words.
"Guess you'd better keep me busy," Neji said, smirk teasing her more each second, "who knows what I'll say if I'm bored."
A cross between a whimper and a battle cry escaped Hinata's locked jaw as she forced her fisted hands to flatten and relax in her jyuuken stance. Now the fight would really begin.
The comfortable dance they'd begun disappeared in a frenzied but orchestrated mess of subtle blue light, barely touching limbs, and slowly rotting chakra veins. She struck harder than before, harder than he'd seen her in any spar. Though fierce, her attacks were more controlled, more focused. No doubt the improved accuracy stemmed from her need to hit a fast moving or quickly dispersing target. Her tactics were still Hyuuga at least. Whittle them down and wait them out. Always a good plan when a single end-strike wasn't possible. Would have been a good idea against Neji even, to see whose chakra lasted longer, if only he hadn't picked up a few new tricks since the last time they fought.
Slowly, so as not to draw any unnecessary attention to her ever-watchful gaze, Neji shifted his attacks from chakra-only to slightly physical. A brush here or there against her skin. A hard hit to her abdomen to shove her off balance. He let her get used to the feel of his hands in the fight and waited for the recognition he wanted to see appear in her eyes. He was faster than her; fast enough to hit skin on skin and not just chakra. It was all the cover he needed.
He focused deeper, following the all-too-familiar pattern of his sister's chakra pathways to the tenketsu he'd been studying most of the fight in preparation. He'd practiced a few times on Lee and Gai in fights, once or twice on Tenten (with her permission), but they didn't understand what it meant for him to already understand it without someone teaching him, what it will mean when the clan found out. Hinata would — if she noticed.
The first hit was to her left shoulder, closing one of the three major pathways leading to her arm. Two quick strikes to her right forearm to impede reflex and dexterity in the fingers. A series up her left arm — wrist, elbow, triceps — to reduce flexibility (which she had an amazing abundance of).
He aimed for her right bicep — to weaken the muscles — but Hinata parried with panic's speed. She tucked down and swept high to force him back, giving her the chance to retreat to the far wall. Neji could've followed, but the way she moved wasn't needing a break because she was tired. He relaxed back and waited, watching her flex and extend her fingers as if each bend was a message she couldn't quite hear.
"Something wrong, Hinata?" Neji asked, a detached lilt in his voice.
"What have you done?" Hinata never looked up from her hands. The thoughts beneath those pale eyes were coming together, building the complete picture.
Neji grinned. "Whatever do you mean, little sister?"
And then it clicked. Hinata pulled back her sleeve to reveal the small bruises forming from his attack on her tenketsu. Neji scrutinized her every blink, every sidelong glance, searching for the silent markers of her reaction. But it wasn't the silence that spoke first. It was laughter. The sad kind of laughter that kept something worse from coming out.
"Can't you not be good at everything?" Hinata said, letting her sleeve drop in defeat. "I can hear Grandpa now."
"And I can't wait for you to show him you can do it, too." Neji stared at her until she lifted her head and met his gaze. He wasn't going to let her give up on herself so quickly. "Do you really think I'm not going to teach you how to do it before Grandpa finds out?"
The dejection faded from her face and a sneaky little smirk struggled to form. "You can actually keep from showing off that long, Neji-niisan?"
Neji fell back into his jyuuken stance. "Oh, you're going to pay for that."
The start of their fight was routine, the middle was heavy and forced, but now that she was finally fighting for herself and not because he was threatening her, the end would be the fight he wanted all along. It was Hinata without fear of failure. And seeing her like that was worth the entire chuunin exam.
Not that he was going to let her win. The tenketsu attacks were showing. The chakra that still made it to her hands was too weak to do any real damage, and though she was getting very creative with some of her kicks, it was only a matter of time. But for the first time in a very long while, Neji saw the kind of passion in her eyes that he hadn't seen since before they'd become genin, maybe even before their grandfather had beaten her confidence down so far.
Without chakra behind her, Hinata fused jyuuken with normal taijutsu, landing a solid kick and turning his shin into a mass of violent, live nerves every time he shifted his stance. A slight weakness she took full advantage of each chance she got. And she was stronger than she let on; he'd have some interesting bruises for the next few days. He returned the favor, hitting her hard, both physically and with chakra.
Strike to her abdomen. Missed sweep to his legs. Counter to her head, dodged. Return to his forearm, skirting the muscle.
Neither blinked. Neither wavered. Faster they moved despite the pain, adrenaline and excitement fueling their finale. It wasn't a question of who would end, but how much damage would she do before she could go no further. Obviously, she was determined to take as much of him down with her as possible.
Neji recognized the feint to his arm and slipped in to strike her chest, anticipating her counter and knowing he'd still clip her left shoulder with enough chakra to render it almost useless. Her pale eyes easily read his move and her stance fortified to withstand the block.
It all happened so fast. Too fast to stop when the fear filled her eyes. Too late to stop the chakra expelled from his hand positioned perfectly over her heart, as if resting there to feel the steady beat beneath her skin. A beat that didn't come.
Neji leapt forward, cradling his little sister's falling body against him. Her eyes stared wide and her chest jerked as she struggled to breathe past the blood filling her mouth.
"Medic!" Neji screamed over and over, begging for someone's help, anyone's help. He stroked Hinata's cheek, smearing the blood into her pale skin so that she looked as pink as when she was embarrassed around Naruto.
He didn't know who pulled him away when the medics arrived. He just watched them hurry her out of the room. "She was supposed to dodge," he whispered in a shaking voice he didn't recognize. "She was supposed to dodge."