Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the
characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.
Author's Notes: Ah, some action, for those who have been waiting I imagine, and also the fateful meeting between Draci Xi and Hyuuga Neji. The true story really begins here with the two of them.
Dragon Ninja Before Sunset
Hyuuga Neji would find Draci Xi sitting quietly in the middle of the training field his team had always used. The scene was surprisingly peaceful compared to what Neji had expected from a ninja Gai had described as a killer. Xi was just sitting there, eyes focused far off into the distance. He did not appear to see Neji's stealthy approach.
He had chosen to come in from the surrounding trees, and do his very best to not be detected. This was partly because Neji knew he needed the practice, just coming out here had shown that he wasn't at full strength yet. Give me a day though, he decided. The new Hokage is an incredible healer, she has some blessed talent. However, his condition was good enough, and he pushed it to the back of his mind. So far, Draci Xi had not impressed him. Does he know I'm here? What kind of killer is this supposed near-sennin if he can't even notice me?
Xi's appearance was rather unusual, Neji admitted that much. His difference in coloration, with a blue-green flak jacket as opposed to the slightly different color used in Konoha, and the base uniform beneath that was blue as well, not green. The dragon ninja wore no bandages on his body, unlike most high-ranking ninja. Instead he carried additional weapons, a secondary kunai holster, and a nekode on each thigh. Neji was of course familiar with the climbing tools, but they looked to be worn on Xi as quick- draw weapons. An odd choice, they would have a shorter reach and be less useful than kunai, why fight with them? The most interesting piece of Xi's outfit was the hunter-nin mask fastened to his flak jacket. It was shorn in two vertically, so that if worn it would likely just fall off, and could never cover the face. Why would a ninja keep such a thing? Neji wondered. A foolish sentimentality.
As he was considering how to make his appearance, Xi looked up. He stared directly at the place where Neji hung, and bored into his eyes. Looking back, Neji almost screamed. The eyes had turned red, with a double- layered iris. Within that frightful framework the pupil was a slit-like, an otherworldly thing that never belonged in a human face.
Those eyes bore into Neji, and he felt fear. It came from somewhere he could not recognize, overwhelming and terrible, and fear that had a source in those terrifying eyes, piercing the mind. From those eyes a human was nothing, a life comparable to an ant, something to not even consider tossing aside. His thoughts were sucked down like a whirlpool, striking nothing, spiraling off each other, confusion spreading everywhere. The body lost focus under that assault, and his muscles began to spasm. His organs started to behave oddly, twisting and jolting under the influence of that fear, a fear that his mind could not even comprehend, much less combat. It struck everywhere, a sensation Neji had never experienced. What is happening? His brain managed to shriek. Parts of him where beyond terror, parts of him completely unaffected, and something from beyond where he knew men should see was staring at him.
It was unclear whether or not he was even aware of Xi anymore, but Neji knew when his blood began to lose control. Aware of the chakra circulatory system within himself innately after so much use of the Byakugan, he could feel his blood begin to flow the wrong way, and his heart to lose its rhythm. Past that, he could see the charkra within him, the flow was distorted, as parts of him tried to function normally, and others sought to move the fear-laced chakra his brain was outputting away, anywhere away. My body is afraid of itself! Neji realized with another spasm of terror. For a moment he almost drowned beneath that backwards flow, but then he realized something, a think that he clung to instantly. Not all of me is afraid! Parts of me cannot feel this fear. With terror overwhelming his mind it took Neji a long period to process that information, at which point he felt as if he were slowly dying once again. I have already felt this sensation, it will not overwhelm me. Then, he had it.
As a user of the Byakugan the flow of his own chakra circulatory system was constantly in his minds eye. Knowing that, he now manipulated the flow in his own body, trapping the panicked chakra where it stood, and channeling the portions of him that were not terrified everywhere else. Slowly, his body became cleansed, and with that the fear dissipated.
From a blinded obscurity of fear, Neji felt his senses return, and the world returned to focus once again. He found that he had not moved, though it felt he had run for miles, and was still standing on the branch where he had been watching Draci Xi. Worried, he forced himself to look back to where the dragon ninja had been sitting.
There was no one there.
"Come down already, Hyuuga Neji." The voice spoke in matter-of-fact tones, an unfriendly voice, but a mundane one.
Draci Xi stood directly below Neji's hiding place. Neji looked down and saw that he had normal eyes once again, simple and plain brown eyes. He breathed a sigh of relief in spite of himself. I have the Byakugan, I have looked into the Sharingan, but what eyes where those? Where did that terror come from?
Neji dropped to the ground in front of Xi.
The two were quite the contrast. Xi was slightly below average height, whereas Neji was tall for his age. The dragon ninja's black hair was cut short, but straight, not in a bowl like Gai's, while Neji's long brown hair extended down his back where it was tied together. Neji had the pale skin and pupil-less eyes of the Hyuuga, while Xi had darker skin and brown eyes, he appeared positively average to the exotic Hyuuga. Only a slight scar down his forehead marked his face. Neji could now see that the scar matched the break in his Hunter-nin mask, and appeared to have been burned there.
"You shouldn't have tried to sneak up on me Hyuuga Neji." Xi said. "It's unwise to try that on an assassin and a spy, especially when he knows you're coming.
"So you saw me, any Jounin could have." Neji snapped back. "I was trying to see if you're worth training under."
"Strong words from a man who just felt the Dragon's Eye." Xi remarked. Neji blanched, not knowing how long he had stood frozen in terror. "Though you do not know it, they are actually warranted. You mastered the defense against that technique immediately. It is essential that a dragon ninja do so, and I know of no one who has ever succeeded so quickly."
"Succeeded?" Neji couldn't help the remark. "I must have been frozen for many seconds." To be frozen in place in front of an enemy was death for a ninja, and Neji knew Xi could easily have killed him then.
"You were frozen for a time, yes." Xi said, and continued in a lower tone. "Yet the Dragon's Eye can kill a man who meets it unprepared as you did, surviving the first exposure without my needing to aid you is remarkable."
"Hmph," Neji replied. "If I can overcome your lethal techniques that easily, then perhaps it's not worth learning from you." The remark was part bravado, and part serious question. If that truly was capable of killing me, and I overcame it so easily, perhaps the Byakugan is more powerful than anything he can teach me.
Xi's face twisted in anger. "I knew you were arrogant boy, but not that much. Haven't you learned not to underestimate opponents?" Xi took some obvious satisfaction in the sour look that Neji gave him. "Fine, think that I can't teach you. I'll prove it otherwise right now."
"How?"
"You haven't made your decision yet have you?" Xi asked, and Neji answered with a quick nod. "Very well. What you showed me against the Dragon's Eye erased any doubts I had about your potential to be a dragon ninja. I will make certain you chose to learn from me. I offer you a contest. We will fight, here and now. Then if I win you will agree to learn the ways of the dragon ninja, and obey me as your sensei until I deem you are ready. If you win, well I will say that I have nothing to teach you, and I win absolve Konoha of the debt I am owed anyway, you will have won them from me."
Xi's offer crystallized the situation for Neji, offering him a simple way to chose, let it be decided by battle. Except..."Hardly fair, I'm still recovering, and you are considered to be at the very top of the Jounin level at least. How can I have any hope to win?"
Xi laughed, a soft sound that was barely audible, but filled with amusement and energy. "Oh certainly, if this were a true fight. But I will handicap myself severely. I will fight without using any ninjutsu or genjutsu."
"What?" Neji couldn't believe it; this ninja would fight him without anything but Taijutsu? Even Gai-sensei would have some difficulty with that. Unless he has a way to match the Jouyken, he cannot win.
"I will not use genjutsu or ninjutsu, its quite simple. In fact, with this arrangement you should have the advantage. I am a skilled taijutsu user, but I would place my skills slightly above that of Rock Lee, and I do not use Lotus. That should actually give you the advantage." Xi gave him a half-smile, an under-exaggerated motion of his slim mouth.
That would give me the advantage, Neji knew that easily. But why does he have that expression? He must be supremely confident to risk all these debts in such a way. Why? Does he have some trick? "Why would you give me the advantage and still expect to win. That is foolish."
"Because I am a dragon ninja, Hyuuga Neji, and I will show you why you must become one." Xi's smile faded. "Are we agreed?"
Even if he does have some trick, I have a good chance of winning. This is my best opportunity to take back my life that I owe this man. Neji decided quickly. I will beat him. "Agreed."
"Very well then. Do not hold back, for I shall not." Xi said flatly. He pulled a Kunai from his holster and stepped back several feet. "There are no judges, so we will begin when the Kunai hits the ground."
Neji nodded.
Xi tossed the weapon high into the air, spinning straight. He dropped immediately into a fighting pose. His left leg dropped back, and his right knee bent. He extended both arms, keeping his hands extended in tight blades, pointed slightly downward.
"An unusual stance," Neji called, as he moved easily into the Jouyken fighting posture with one arm bent and the other outstretched, palms up, fingertips curled.
"For Jinnen fighting." Xi replied, unmoving. "A lightning style."
The kunai descended rapidly. "Byakugan!" Neji said aloud, calling on his specialized sight. His field of vision widened mightily into the great sphere the Byakugan revealed, and his well-trained mind processed everything he saw to a great distance. He looked at Xi and saw the chakra pouring through his circulatory system. The man had a great store of chakra, but otherwise seemed nothing special. Just as the kunai struck the ground though, Neji thought he saw something strange in the dragon ninja's chakra, but there was no time to consider it, for Xi immediately charged in.
Foolish, to try and fight me in close combat. Neji hurled several shuriken at him anyway, and slashed to the right. This should have forced him to break the steady charge, which was coming on at tremendous speed.
That did not happen. Xi's raised hands moved with blinding quickness, knocking the shuriken away with precision movements, applying just enough strength to deflect them aside. Neji saw the chakra flare in the man with every movement, precisely focusing just the right amount of energy necessary to deflect the attack. As for the charge, chakra flowed into Xi's right leg, increasing the power there, but not into his left, moving him back in line toward Neji without ever missing a stride. Impossible! To use chakra with that focus, to channel it into only one limb and still run with both at a speed to match Lee's. His technique is nothing special, but this level of control rivals my own, and I have the advantage of the Byakugan.
Neji jumped sideways and back, leaping aside from the attack. Xi spun on his left leg, raising his right to reach down for the kunai there, and threw the full four contained in the holster. Due to his position Neji had only one hand with which to defend. It doesn't matter; they won't all arrive at once. The pattern is like this. An instant, and he saw it. His right hand moved with graceful speed, knocking them all away. Still, it was hard to fathom the presence of self to know how to throw all the kunai accurately while spinning on one foot. Neji focused further, watching his opponent's movement with a baleful gaze. "Impressive. Is that how you thought to beat me?" He asked Xi.
"Hardly." The dragon ninja replied. "I simply wanted you to understand my capabilities, even with my abilities your Byakugan more than matches them."
Indeed, Neji had come to that conclusion himself. Still, if I had a level of natural control that he did...how did he get there? Neji pushed the question away. It doesn't matter. I have to win.
Xi smiled inside at the tiny paused in Neji's focus. He's beginning to see.
Neji replied by attacking.
He charged forward, ready to strike a crippling blow. Don't hold back, the man had said, so he prepared to strike Xi with enough force to nearly kill the man by blasting the organs in his chest. Xi stood ready, not moving, but he had changed his guard to a more standard posture. The dragon ninja made no move to draw weapons or dodge aside, even as Neji came crashing in.
If he does not dodge, I will crush him, he cannot block my blows, I will devastate his arms or legs should he try. Close combat against me is foolish, and he should know it.
Still, too late.
Neji's charge was blisteringly fast. Not as fast as Xi's had been, but it would have been terribly hard to dodge, and blocking was useless, but Xi did nothing.
The Hyuuga's palms came forward with a terrible force, to strike Xi in the chest and smother his lungs. So you fail! Neji saw.
The two came together with the brutal sound of flesh smacking straight into flesh, and bodies coming to a stop.
Neji found himself staring at Draci Xi straight in front of him. The dragon ninja had extended his hands and taken Neji's blow full force, but had managed to grasp Neji's own hands in return.
Neji's eyes and mouth spread wide in shock. "Wha-a-t?"
"Simple." Xi said. "Unless the blow is lethal, you can accept it and deal a crippling reverse strike. You did it facing Kidomaru, but you were not fighting like a dragon ninja right now." Xi's hands were terribly bruised, and he was likely unable to channel any chakra through them, but Neji found himself tossed into the air. Before he could raise a defense the dragon ninja struck him hard in the chest with each elbow, and then launched a terrible kick at his midsection. Neji coughed and spat out blood. He went flying back, to slam into the ground hard.
Underestimated him, he decided, but he didn't do too much damage, and now his hands are useless to channel chakra. I can still win.
Neji got up to see that Xi had wasted no time, and was charging in at him.
The dragon ninja was blisteringly fast, the distance too small. Can't block normally, have to-
"Kaiten!" Neji cried out the word as he spun, using the divination whirl, the absolute defense that dashed all attacks to the side with the force of his spinning chakra.
Xi's reaction was equally fast, he slammed his left foot into the ground and launched himself over Neji. Landing solidly on the other side. Still, his body strained from the use of chakra in the move and the acceleration.
Neji turned to face him quickly.
"So that's the Kaiten?" Xi raised an eyebrow. "Impressive, but never believe in an absolute defense boy."
Neji said nothing, but dropped into a crouch, flinging his arms to each side. In his mind, and protected by Genjutsu to Xi's mind, there appeared a ring of symbolic circles, the divination of the Byakugan vision. He had block an ordinary attack like that, but not this. Neji gave Xi a cold smile. "Hakke Rokujyu Yonshou!" The ultimate Hyuuga attack of sixty- four strikes was launched at Draci Xi.
Neji's hands, each with two fingers extended, came in at Xi. As he did so, Neji saw a surge of Chakra through Xi, his whole body twisted and maneuvered. The first two strikes struck, but that was what Xi had anticipated, and intended, for he was already falling downward and back. Those hits only pushed his body down further, and left Neji's following strikes too high, he could see where they must go, but his body could not change them enough once the motion had been launched with those first two blows.
Two tenkenstus closed over Xi's stomach, bad that didn't matter at all to his feet, which kicked out an up with great strength. Neji was struck on both hips, and flew backwards many feet to strike the ground with a tremendously violent thud.
The Hyuuga barely managed to stand up in time to see Xi charging at him, a kunai in his horribly bruised right hand.
The quickness of it all astonished Neji. Xi gave no quarter, but came on mercilessly, never pausing to regain his breath or his chakra. Relentless, unbelievably relentless. If he hits me with the kunai I lose. I have to whirl...now!
"Kaiten!"
Hyuuga Neji timed the move perfectly, so that the spin came across just as Xi's leading attack would hit. But though he saw it, Neji had not had time to interpret one thing, the Kunai was in Xi's left hand, but his leading arm was the right.
The Divination Whirl slammed into the dragon ninja, but he used every ouch of speed and strength to reach out with his right arm and grab Neji's left, leading the spin.
Chakra whirlpooled up in a great and stormy burst, battering both ninja mercilessly. It crashed like a great wave all into the right side of Xi's body, and the backlash slashed with gruesome pain up Neji's left arm, and smashed him in the face and left side.
The spin still carried the two ninja around, but it stopped abruptly, with both battered ninja facing each other.
The damage they had suffered was almost equal, and incredibly painful to both, considering the amount of chakra released in the spin, and both men had taken far more than an opponent simply thrown back would take. It's like when Naruto and I collided, Neji recalled.
The difference then had been that Naruto had managed to think a through the pain and got a final step ahead of Neji.
The difference with Draci Xi was that the dragon ninja had fully intended this, and had a kunai in his left hand.
With his relatively undamaged left leg Xi pivoted forward, and the kunai brushed against Neji's throat. "I win." He said lightly, and smiled at Neji.
Neji nodded. I've lost. I've been outsmarted again, but who would have thought he'd fight like that. What ninja could make himself fight that way?
Xi released his deathgrip on Neji's arm, and without that to support them both ninja fell over immediately. The two lay gasping for breath for a moment, and then Xi managed to sit up. Grabbing the dragon ninja's left hand with his right, Neji pulled himself up as well.
They sat facing each other.
For a moment the two ninja just looked at each other. Neji looked on Xi with a newfound respect. He beat me, with nothing but Taijustsu, he beat me. Neji also looked at the dragon ninja completely differently for another reason. He didn't have to beat me that way, he knew it would be painful, he put himself through that just to make a point. What was that point? Something he said during the battle. Oh, 'unless the blow is lethal you can accept it and deal a crippling revere strike.' Is that what he means by being a dragon ninja? To strike to kill so that can never happen? The idea frightened Neji, but it also intrigued him. My Byakugan does not easily kill, unless I strike the heart, there is always a counter. How do you always have a lethal strike? There were enough questions there, Neji knew. He knew that is was probably better that he had lost, that he did indeed have something, many things, perhaps everything, to learn from Draci Xi. He also understood now how important this considered it to teach him, and wanted to know why.
Xi in return, looked at Neji with respect, and reevaluated him. He does not try to say he was tricked, as he did when Naruto beat him, excellent, and his skills are superb. He is smart enough in battle. He changed tactics quickly when I showed him one method would not work, and he reacted with great speed when I attacked him. His chakra control is as I imagined, with only a little refinement he will be capable of anything. He can control his chakra as well as I now, and I better he can improve to almost double that. Yes, the right choice, precisely, and now he's willing to learn from me. Xi smiled. "I think that may be it for training between us for a while. I feel like my body has been used as a target dummy. I imagine it's about the same for you, perhaps worse." Xi chuckled in that quiet laugh again. "A bit different from you first day with Gai, yes?"
Neji took the comment well. This man lives a dark path, but still has a sense of humor. It made him feel better. "A bit yes." He quipped back, and joined Xi in soft laughter.
When they were quiet again, Xi struggled to stand. Neji did the same, but they ended up leaning against each other. "Well, this is not good."
"Indeed," Xi replied. "Between the two of us we make perhaps one working human. Still, it's not late afternoon, I think we can probably crawl back into Konoha before sunset."
Neji considered the distances seriously for moment without thinking. "I think we can." He said only partly in jest.
"Good," Xi said absolutely seriously. "This will be the first night in eight years to see two dragon ninja, and I'm not spending it collapsed in a field."
A dragon ninja? Neji pondered the words. I suppose that is what I am now. It was a strange feeling, as he and Xi supported each other on the painful walk back, that he had become something different this afternoon. Maybe though, I'm the same, and I've just decided to show a different part of myself. Neji didn't have the answer, but he expected he would find out soon enough.
The two dragon ninjas, one old and one new, were smiling as they staggered into Konoha just before the sun fell below the treetops, to the amazement of everyone on the streets.
Author's Notes: Ah, some action, for those who have been waiting I imagine, and also the fateful meeting between Draci Xi and Hyuuga Neji. The true story really begins here with the two of them.
Dragon Ninja Before Sunset
Hyuuga Neji would find Draci Xi sitting quietly in the middle of the training field his team had always used. The scene was surprisingly peaceful compared to what Neji had expected from a ninja Gai had described as a killer. Xi was just sitting there, eyes focused far off into the distance. He did not appear to see Neji's stealthy approach.
He had chosen to come in from the surrounding trees, and do his very best to not be detected. This was partly because Neji knew he needed the practice, just coming out here had shown that he wasn't at full strength yet. Give me a day though, he decided. The new Hokage is an incredible healer, she has some blessed talent. However, his condition was good enough, and he pushed it to the back of his mind. So far, Draci Xi had not impressed him. Does he know I'm here? What kind of killer is this supposed near-sennin if he can't even notice me?
Xi's appearance was rather unusual, Neji admitted that much. His difference in coloration, with a blue-green flak jacket as opposed to the slightly different color used in Konoha, and the base uniform beneath that was blue as well, not green. The dragon ninja wore no bandages on his body, unlike most high-ranking ninja. Instead he carried additional weapons, a secondary kunai holster, and a nekode on each thigh. Neji was of course familiar with the climbing tools, but they looked to be worn on Xi as quick- draw weapons. An odd choice, they would have a shorter reach and be less useful than kunai, why fight with them? The most interesting piece of Xi's outfit was the hunter-nin mask fastened to his flak jacket. It was shorn in two vertically, so that if worn it would likely just fall off, and could never cover the face. Why would a ninja keep such a thing? Neji wondered. A foolish sentimentality.
As he was considering how to make his appearance, Xi looked up. He stared directly at the place where Neji hung, and bored into his eyes. Looking back, Neji almost screamed. The eyes had turned red, with a double- layered iris. Within that frightful framework the pupil was a slit-like, an otherworldly thing that never belonged in a human face.
Those eyes bore into Neji, and he felt fear. It came from somewhere he could not recognize, overwhelming and terrible, and fear that had a source in those terrifying eyes, piercing the mind. From those eyes a human was nothing, a life comparable to an ant, something to not even consider tossing aside. His thoughts were sucked down like a whirlpool, striking nothing, spiraling off each other, confusion spreading everywhere. The body lost focus under that assault, and his muscles began to spasm. His organs started to behave oddly, twisting and jolting under the influence of that fear, a fear that his mind could not even comprehend, much less combat. It struck everywhere, a sensation Neji had never experienced. What is happening? His brain managed to shriek. Parts of him where beyond terror, parts of him completely unaffected, and something from beyond where he knew men should see was staring at him.
It was unclear whether or not he was even aware of Xi anymore, but Neji knew when his blood began to lose control. Aware of the chakra circulatory system within himself innately after so much use of the Byakugan, he could feel his blood begin to flow the wrong way, and his heart to lose its rhythm. Past that, he could see the charkra within him, the flow was distorted, as parts of him tried to function normally, and others sought to move the fear-laced chakra his brain was outputting away, anywhere away. My body is afraid of itself! Neji realized with another spasm of terror. For a moment he almost drowned beneath that backwards flow, but then he realized something, a think that he clung to instantly. Not all of me is afraid! Parts of me cannot feel this fear. With terror overwhelming his mind it took Neji a long period to process that information, at which point he felt as if he were slowly dying once again. I have already felt this sensation, it will not overwhelm me. Then, he had it.
As a user of the Byakugan the flow of his own chakra circulatory system was constantly in his minds eye. Knowing that, he now manipulated the flow in his own body, trapping the panicked chakra where it stood, and channeling the portions of him that were not terrified everywhere else. Slowly, his body became cleansed, and with that the fear dissipated.
From a blinded obscurity of fear, Neji felt his senses return, and the world returned to focus once again. He found that he had not moved, though it felt he had run for miles, and was still standing on the branch where he had been watching Draci Xi. Worried, he forced himself to look back to where the dragon ninja had been sitting.
There was no one there.
"Come down already, Hyuuga Neji." The voice spoke in matter-of-fact tones, an unfriendly voice, but a mundane one.
Draci Xi stood directly below Neji's hiding place. Neji looked down and saw that he had normal eyes once again, simple and plain brown eyes. He breathed a sigh of relief in spite of himself. I have the Byakugan, I have looked into the Sharingan, but what eyes where those? Where did that terror come from?
Neji dropped to the ground in front of Xi.
The two were quite the contrast. Xi was slightly below average height, whereas Neji was tall for his age. The dragon ninja's black hair was cut short, but straight, not in a bowl like Gai's, while Neji's long brown hair extended down his back where it was tied together. Neji had the pale skin and pupil-less eyes of the Hyuuga, while Xi had darker skin and brown eyes, he appeared positively average to the exotic Hyuuga. Only a slight scar down his forehead marked his face. Neji could now see that the scar matched the break in his Hunter-nin mask, and appeared to have been burned there.
"You shouldn't have tried to sneak up on me Hyuuga Neji." Xi said. "It's unwise to try that on an assassin and a spy, especially when he knows you're coming.
"So you saw me, any Jounin could have." Neji snapped back. "I was trying to see if you're worth training under."
"Strong words from a man who just felt the Dragon's Eye." Xi remarked. Neji blanched, not knowing how long he had stood frozen in terror. "Though you do not know it, they are actually warranted. You mastered the defense against that technique immediately. It is essential that a dragon ninja do so, and I know of no one who has ever succeeded so quickly."
"Succeeded?" Neji couldn't help the remark. "I must have been frozen for many seconds." To be frozen in place in front of an enemy was death for a ninja, and Neji knew Xi could easily have killed him then.
"You were frozen for a time, yes." Xi said, and continued in a lower tone. "Yet the Dragon's Eye can kill a man who meets it unprepared as you did, surviving the first exposure without my needing to aid you is remarkable."
"Hmph," Neji replied. "If I can overcome your lethal techniques that easily, then perhaps it's not worth learning from you." The remark was part bravado, and part serious question. If that truly was capable of killing me, and I overcame it so easily, perhaps the Byakugan is more powerful than anything he can teach me.
Xi's face twisted in anger. "I knew you were arrogant boy, but not that much. Haven't you learned not to underestimate opponents?" Xi took some obvious satisfaction in the sour look that Neji gave him. "Fine, think that I can't teach you. I'll prove it otherwise right now."
"How?"
"You haven't made your decision yet have you?" Xi asked, and Neji answered with a quick nod. "Very well. What you showed me against the Dragon's Eye erased any doubts I had about your potential to be a dragon ninja. I will make certain you chose to learn from me. I offer you a contest. We will fight, here and now. Then if I win you will agree to learn the ways of the dragon ninja, and obey me as your sensei until I deem you are ready. If you win, well I will say that I have nothing to teach you, and I win absolve Konoha of the debt I am owed anyway, you will have won them from me."
Xi's offer crystallized the situation for Neji, offering him a simple way to chose, let it be decided by battle. Except..."Hardly fair, I'm still recovering, and you are considered to be at the very top of the Jounin level at least. How can I have any hope to win?"
Xi laughed, a soft sound that was barely audible, but filled with amusement and energy. "Oh certainly, if this were a true fight. But I will handicap myself severely. I will fight without using any ninjutsu or genjutsu."
"What?" Neji couldn't believe it; this ninja would fight him without anything but Taijutsu? Even Gai-sensei would have some difficulty with that. Unless he has a way to match the Jouyken, he cannot win.
"I will not use genjutsu or ninjutsu, its quite simple. In fact, with this arrangement you should have the advantage. I am a skilled taijutsu user, but I would place my skills slightly above that of Rock Lee, and I do not use Lotus. That should actually give you the advantage." Xi gave him a half-smile, an under-exaggerated motion of his slim mouth.
That would give me the advantage, Neji knew that easily. But why does he have that expression? He must be supremely confident to risk all these debts in such a way. Why? Does he have some trick? "Why would you give me the advantage and still expect to win. That is foolish."
"Because I am a dragon ninja, Hyuuga Neji, and I will show you why you must become one." Xi's smile faded. "Are we agreed?"
Even if he does have some trick, I have a good chance of winning. This is my best opportunity to take back my life that I owe this man. Neji decided quickly. I will beat him. "Agreed."
"Very well then. Do not hold back, for I shall not." Xi said flatly. He pulled a Kunai from his holster and stepped back several feet. "There are no judges, so we will begin when the Kunai hits the ground."
Neji nodded.
Xi tossed the weapon high into the air, spinning straight. He dropped immediately into a fighting pose. His left leg dropped back, and his right knee bent. He extended both arms, keeping his hands extended in tight blades, pointed slightly downward.
"An unusual stance," Neji called, as he moved easily into the Jouyken fighting posture with one arm bent and the other outstretched, palms up, fingertips curled.
"For Jinnen fighting." Xi replied, unmoving. "A lightning style."
The kunai descended rapidly. "Byakugan!" Neji said aloud, calling on his specialized sight. His field of vision widened mightily into the great sphere the Byakugan revealed, and his well-trained mind processed everything he saw to a great distance. He looked at Xi and saw the chakra pouring through his circulatory system. The man had a great store of chakra, but otherwise seemed nothing special. Just as the kunai struck the ground though, Neji thought he saw something strange in the dragon ninja's chakra, but there was no time to consider it, for Xi immediately charged in.
Foolish, to try and fight me in close combat. Neji hurled several shuriken at him anyway, and slashed to the right. This should have forced him to break the steady charge, which was coming on at tremendous speed.
That did not happen. Xi's raised hands moved with blinding quickness, knocking the shuriken away with precision movements, applying just enough strength to deflect them aside. Neji saw the chakra flare in the man with every movement, precisely focusing just the right amount of energy necessary to deflect the attack. As for the charge, chakra flowed into Xi's right leg, increasing the power there, but not into his left, moving him back in line toward Neji without ever missing a stride. Impossible! To use chakra with that focus, to channel it into only one limb and still run with both at a speed to match Lee's. His technique is nothing special, but this level of control rivals my own, and I have the advantage of the Byakugan.
Neji jumped sideways and back, leaping aside from the attack. Xi spun on his left leg, raising his right to reach down for the kunai there, and threw the full four contained in the holster. Due to his position Neji had only one hand with which to defend. It doesn't matter; they won't all arrive at once. The pattern is like this. An instant, and he saw it. His right hand moved with graceful speed, knocking them all away. Still, it was hard to fathom the presence of self to know how to throw all the kunai accurately while spinning on one foot. Neji focused further, watching his opponent's movement with a baleful gaze. "Impressive. Is that how you thought to beat me?" He asked Xi.
"Hardly." The dragon ninja replied. "I simply wanted you to understand my capabilities, even with my abilities your Byakugan more than matches them."
Indeed, Neji had come to that conclusion himself. Still, if I had a level of natural control that he did...how did he get there? Neji pushed the question away. It doesn't matter. I have to win.
Xi smiled inside at the tiny paused in Neji's focus. He's beginning to see.
Neji replied by attacking.
He charged forward, ready to strike a crippling blow. Don't hold back, the man had said, so he prepared to strike Xi with enough force to nearly kill the man by blasting the organs in his chest. Xi stood ready, not moving, but he had changed his guard to a more standard posture. The dragon ninja made no move to draw weapons or dodge aside, even as Neji came crashing in.
If he does not dodge, I will crush him, he cannot block my blows, I will devastate his arms or legs should he try. Close combat against me is foolish, and he should know it.
Still, too late.
Neji's charge was blisteringly fast. Not as fast as Xi's had been, but it would have been terribly hard to dodge, and blocking was useless, but Xi did nothing.
The Hyuuga's palms came forward with a terrible force, to strike Xi in the chest and smother his lungs. So you fail! Neji saw.
The two came together with the brutal sound of flesh smacking straight into flesh, and bodies coming to a stop.
Neji found himself staring at Draci Xi straight in front of him. The dragon ninja had extended his hands and taken Neji's blow full force, but had managed to grasp Neji's own hands in return.
Neji's eyes and mouth spread wide in shock. "Wha-a-t?"
"Simple." Xi said. "Unless the blow is lethal, you can accept it and deal a crippling reverse strike. You did it facing Kidomaru, but you were not fighting like a dragon ninja right now." Xi's hands were terribly bruised, and he was likely unable to channel any chakra through them, but Neji found himself tossed into the air. Before he could raise a defense the dragon ninja struck him hard in the chest with each elbow, and then launched a terrible kick at his midsection. Neji coughed and spat out blood. He went flying back, to slam into the ground hard.
Underestimated him, he decided, but he didn't do too much damage, and now his hands are useless to channel chakra. I can still win.
Neji got up to see that Xi had wasted no time, and was charging in at him.
The dragon ninja was blisteringly fast, the distance too small. Can't block normally, have to-
"Kaiten!" Neji cried out the word as he spun, using the divination whirl, the absolute defense that dashed all attacks to the side with the force of his spinning chakra.
Xi's reaction was equally fast, he slammed his left foot into the ground and launched himself over Neji. Landing solidly on the other side. Still, his body strained from the use of chakra in the move and the acceleration.
Neji turned to face him quickly.
"So that's the Kaiten?" Xi raised an eyebrow. "Impressive, but never believe in an absolute defense boy."
Neji said nothing, but dropped into a crouch, flinging his arms to each side. In his mind, and protected by Genjutsu to Xi's mind, there appeared a ring of symbolic circles, the divination of the Byakugan vision. He had block an ordinary attack like that, but not this. Neji gave Xi a cold smile. "Hakke Rokujyu Yonshou!" The ultimate Hyuuga attack of sixty- four strikes was launched at Draci Xi.
Neji's hands, each with two fingers extended, came in at Xi. As he did so, Neji saw a surge of Chakra through Xi, his whole body twisted and maneuvered. The first two strikes struck, but that was what Xi had anticipated, and intended, for he was already falling downward and back. Those hits only pushed his body down further, and left Neji's following strikes too high, he could see where they must go, but his body could not change them enough once the motion had been launched with those first two blows.
Two tenkenstus closed over Xi's stomach, bad that didn't matter at all to his feet, which kicked out an up with great strength. Neji was struck on both hips, and flew backwards many feet to strike the ground with a tremendously violent thud.
The Hyuuga barely managed to stand up in time to see Xi charging at him, a kunai in his horribly bruised right hand.
The quickness of it all astonished Neji. Xi gave no quarter, but came on mercilessly, never pausing to regain his breath or his chakra. Relentless, unbelievably relentless. If he hits me with the kunai I lose. I have to whirl...now!
"Kaiten!"
Hyuuga Neji timed the move perfectly, so that the spin came across just as Xi's leading attack would hit. But though he saw it, Neji had not had time to interpret one thing, the Kunai was in Xi's left hand, but his leading arm was the right.
The Divination Whirl slammed into the dragon ninja, but he used every ouch of speed and strength to reach out with his right arm and grab Neji's left, leading the spin.
Chakra whirlpooled up in a great and stormy burst, battering both ninja mercilessly. It crashed like a great wave all into the right side of Xi's body, and the backlash slashed with gruesome pain up Neji's left arm, and smashed him in the face and left side.
The spin still carried the two ninja around, but it stopped abruptly, with both battered ninja facing each other.
The damage they had suffered was almost equal, and incredibly painful to both, considering the amount of chakra released in the spin, and both men had taken far more than an opponent simply thrown back would take. It's like when Naruto and I collided, Neji recalled.
The difference then had been that Naruto had managed to think a through the pain and got a final step ahead of Neji.
The difference with Draci Xi was that the dragon ninja had fully intended this, and had a kunai in his left hand.
With his relatively undamaged left leg Xi pivoted forward, and the kunai brushed against Neji's throat. "I win." He said lightly, and smiled at Neji.
Neji nodded. I've lost. I've been outsmarted again, but who would have thought he'd fight like that. What ninja could make himself fight that way?
Xi released his deathgrip on Neji's arm, and without that to support them both ninja fell over immediately. The two lay gasping for breath for a moment, and then Xi managed to sit up. Grabbing the dragon ninja's left hand with his right, Neji pulled himself up as well.
They sat facing each other.
For a moment the two ninja just looked at each other. Neji looked on Xi with a newfound respect. He beat me, with nothing but Taijustsu, he beat me. Neji also looked at the dragon ninja completely differently for another reason. He didn't have to beat me that way, he knew it would be painful, he put himself through that just to make a point. What was that point? Something he said during the battle. Oh, 'unless the blow is lethal you can accept it and deal a crippling revere strike.' Is that what he means by being a dragon ninja? To strike to kill so that can never happen? The idea frightened Neji, but it also intrigued him. My Byakugan does not easily kill, unless I strike the heart, there is always a counter. How do you always have a lethal strike? There were enough questions there, Neji knew. He knew that is was probably better that he had lost, that he did indeed have something, many things, perhaps everything, to learn from Draci Xi. He also understood now how important this considered it to teach him, and wanted to know why.
Xi in return, looked at Neji with respect, and reevaluated him. He does not try to say he was tricked, as he did when Naruto beat him, excellent, and his skills are superb. He is smart enough in battle. He changed tactics quickly when I showed him one method would not work, and he reacted with great speed when I attacked him. His chakra control is as I imagined, with only a little refinement he will be capable of anything. He can control his chakra as well as I now, and I better he can improve to almost double that. Yes, the right choice, precisely, and now he's willing to learn from me. Xi smiled. "I think that may be it for training between us for a while. I feel like my body has been used as a target dummy. I imagine it's about the same for you, perhaps worse." Xi chuckled in that quiet laugh again. "A bit different from you first day with Gai, yes?"
Neji took the comment well. This man lives a dark path, but still has a sense of humor. It made him feel better. "A bit yes." He quipped back, and joined Xi in soft laughter.
When they were quiet again, Xi struggled to stand. Neji did the same, but they ended up leaning against each other. "Well, this is not good."
"Indeed," Xi replied. "Between the two of us we make perhaps one working human. Still, it's not late afternoon, I think we can probably crawl back into Konoha before sunset."
Neji considered the distances seriously for moment without thinking. "I think we can." He said only partly in jest.
"Good," Xi said absolutely seriously. "This will be the first night in eight years to see two dragon ninja, and I'm not spending it collapsed in a field."
A dragon ninja? Neji pondered the words. I suppose that is what I am now. It was a strange feeling, as he and Xi supported each other on the painful walk back, that he had become something different this afternoon. Maybe though, I'm the same, and I've just decided to show a different part of myself. Neji didn't have the answer, but he expected he would find out soon enough.
The two dragon ninjas, one old and one new, were smiling as they staggered into Konoha just before the sun fell below the treetops, to the amazement of everyone on the streets.