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: First, my sincere apologies on taking so long to get this chapter out, I've been busy with end of the semester school work and other things, so it's taken a while. However, the next couple chapters should come much more rapidly. So this chapter is Neji's big fight, against the guy who beat Gosain, its pretty interesting. This is also the second to last fight of the exam, so after this chapter we can finally move on to more interesting things (though I have been trying to insert bits of plotline as this goes).
Again, thanks to all the reviewers, and apologies for taking a while with this chapter.
Sight in Stone
Neji strode down to the field slowly, trying to maintain his composure. The stone ninja Tsukabe Ota walked beside him, matching him stride for stride in spite of Neji's slightly greater height. There was only one moment when they said anything to acknowledge each other. At the base of the steps, before they entered again into the open stadium, Ota turned to Neji. "Now that the Grass ninja is eliminated we can conduct this as it was intended." He said without inflection or any other marks to show his feeling.
"Ah." Was all that Neji said in reply.
They entered onto the field into a scene of confusion. Shiren was walking toward the stairs with a team of medics carrying bandages. A second group of medics, led by Acade, carried the body of Tonetero on a stretcher. They kept their eyes off the grim corpse, still filled with thorns.
Neji passed by Shiren, and he stopped for a moment. For a long instant they just looked at each other, and without saying anything the sentiments were exchanged, gratitude, confidence, and support. Neji broke the silence when that was done. "You are not hurt too much I hope?"
"With a little help from these medics I'll be all set for the finals." She replied with a soft smile. "Don't worry, I'll still be able to watch."
"Ah." Neji muttered. "Thanks."
Then they passed by each other, Shiren going back up the stands, and Neji out into the stadium grounds. For a single second a thought crossed Neji's mind. If I win, then I will face Shiren in the final match. He pushed that uncertain thought away immediately after it arrived. I will focus on this match first, that is more important. Indeed, Ota stood ready in position.
With a steady gait Neji walked over and took his position opposite the stone ninja, measuring him. He recalled the fight versus Gosain, the armor and the power behind the fists, and the weakness to that stone armor. Contact with the ground. It is his weakness, but how can I make use of it? Tsukabe Ota looked at him in turn, but Neji knew the older ninja had neither his sight nor a serious fight to go off for determination of his strength. He has not seen the true extent of my abilities, but I am certain he has the strength to provoke them.
They watched each other while they waited for Acade to return, the Examiner was caught in a violent discussion with several Grass ninja up in the waiting room, and seemed preoccupied. The crowd grew restless.
Above all this Xi looked on, watching Neji. It was finally the turn for his pupil to face a serious challenge. This stone ninja will not be brushed by so quickly as the others. This opponent will be as difficult as someone like Gosain, and he has that armor, a defense that is almost designed to thwart a method like the Jyouken style. Your attacks cannot penetrate that armor. Xi was not certain he could see a solution for Neji. Dragon techniques could easily rip apart that defense, a single rend would shred this stone ninja just like any other, but I have forbidden it. I expect you will hold to that prohibition Neji, but if you do, how will you win? No Hyuuga technique will break that armor.
As Acade returned to the field Neji found himself considering those same things. He had many ideas, but he had no way of knowing just how they would work without seeing the armor up close. I will have to wait until he calls upon it to formulate a strategy. Damn.
Acade walked between the two ninja. "Now." He spoke quietly to the two of them, so that the crowd couldn't hear. "I would hope that you two refrain from any incidents like there were in the last match. We don't need any more injuries in this exam. It's been ridden by enough trouble as it is. Understand?"
They both nodded.
"Good." Acade replied tersely. He stood back simply, face still grim, and waited for the crowd to quiet. With an offhand glance at the far off Kage's the examiner raised his hand high. "The second match of the semi-finals: Tsukabe Ota of Hidden Stone versus Draci Neji of Hidden Leaf!"
"Begin!"
The examiner was out of the way instantly, and Neji's match had begun.
"Byakugan!" He called on the power of his eyes first; as Ota brought forth the same armor that he had fought with against Gosain. Looking at that armor Neji found he had few options. It is not a construction of chakra, he has actually brought stone over the entirety of his body, there is no way to force it aside, and I doubt even my strongest strike would be felt through armor that thick. However, Neji noted that the armor restricted Ota's movements. How will he attack me? Unlike Gosain I have no weapons to seize to bring me close, and even in close combat I could block his moves.
So Neji simply stood and waited, watching for Ota to make the first move. At the least he cannot maintain that armor forever, it must cost chakra to hold himself up under the weight. It would be strange to simply wait him out, but time plays in my favor, not his.
Unfortunately for Neji, Ota was not about to oblige him. "If you will not attack, then I will." He spoke, words crumpled and grinding beneath that stony armor. His hands moved slowly and deliberately, forming seals. Neji looked at him, seeing the seals form, watching chakra gather. He did not recognize the technique, could not see what Ota planned to use his energy for.
It was his eyes that saved him.
"Earth Element: Open Jaws of the Mountainside!" Came the call of Ota's jutsu, a powerful and deadly attack that came from a completely unexpected direction. Below.
The earth opened beneath Neji, reaching outward like some great mouth had been rent in the ground that wished to swallow him up completely. The ground heaved and yawed, and the loud cracking sound split the air.
Yet Neji had seen, his Byakugan reached all about him, even to the bottom of his feet, and having learned that vision he always watched in all directions. He could not be so easily surprised. So as the ground split open beneath his feet Neji leaped high, flipping through the air to come around behind Ota, and spinning rapidly to face the ninja's back.
The stone ninja, confused, tried to turn and follow his opponent's move, but his speed was limited by the stony armor. Twin kunai thumped solidly into that armor then, propelled strongly, sinking deep, but not penetrating. Damn! Neji thought. Well, it's to be expected, there's no easy way through. I have to separate him from the ground somehow.
"You almost had me," Ota said, turning. He gave Neji a curious look. "I was wide open, and you threw kunai. You must have known that wouldn't work, why do that?" He asked, seeming quite perplexed. "Surely you have an attack that could break through."
I do, Neji thought without answering, but it would kill you, and I have said I will not do that. Taijutsu and dragon jutsu, those are my only techniques, and all the dragon jutsu kill, I have no other technique that can penetrate that skin of stone.
"Well, if you will not attack then I will!" Ota roared with energy and his hands slashed into crude seals. "Mountain Burst no jutsu!"
The ground exploded beneath Neji, an attack much faster than the maw that had been used before, one that could not be easily dodged.
"Kaiten!" Neji began the whirl and let the force of the blasting stone carry him up and forward, propelling him toward Ota. The stone ninja is distracted, holding his seal, perhaps if I strike now...
The whirling dragon ninja slammed into the armor of stone, the tremendous force of Kaiten detonating against that stone skin, and driving Ota back, and off balance. He fell, dropping slowly, and Neji watched, hoping for separation from the ground.
It came close, but Ota was skilled, he moved knowingly when struck, falling backwards, but his heels held firm to the ground, and he did not separate from it. So when he slammed to the soil his stone armor remained intact.
Neji, reaching down in search of an opening, was caught off guard, and so he could only scramble to block when Ota's fist flashed up with great speed to counterattack.
The blow slammed hard against Neji's arms, and he coughed in pain as he flew high into the air. Yet Neji retained his focus, and despite the pain he controlled his flight and landed some distance away, to face the standing Ota again. Ouch, that is a truly strong blow. I can't take many of those, but I need to find a way to break through that armor. How? How?
There was no respite, Ota stood facing Neji and blasted the earth beneath him again, only to watch the dragon ninja spin aside. He repeated this a second time, and then a third, but while dirt blasted about the stadium and the ground shook and moaned in agony he could not strike his opponent, who guided by his eyes could predict the potent attack.
Breathing hard Neji faced Ota, covered in dirt and scratches, feeling the bruises begin to form on his arms. There has to be a way, I need to break through, once I do that I can defeat him. I need a way!
"You're good." Ota grunted. "But you can't keep dodging forever. If you can't defeat my armor you might as well give up. Fighting the ground of the mountains is not easy."
"I won't give up." Neji barked. There has to be a way, he tried to think on it, searching for an answer, but his mind moved immediately to focus on the ground beneath him, leaping ahead to Ota's next attack. The ground now bent and blasted from the hard fighting it had seen all day long. The ground, broken...
Suddenly Neji had found the way.
His hands flashed down to his thighs, to where the nekode rested, sharp and keen, undrawn thus far this day. He grabbed them free of their slots, slipping his hands into the perfectly fitting weapons, and then bringing them up to a ready position, the position that presaged Rend.
What are you doing Neji? Xi looked down in anger and dissapointment. Are you going to break your word and defy me? I won't allow that, you had better be able to show control during an exam, or you never will on the battlefield as a chuunin. This surprised Xi, and he felt shocked and disturbed, having believed he knew Neji better than this. His hands slipped to their own nekode, recognizing that he would be forced to do something terrible if Neji broke his word here.
Ota's eyes narrowed beneath their glaze of stone, but he brought his hand up in the sealing pattern, as before, believing nothing had changed. "Mountain Burst no jutsu!"
The ground exploded beneath Neji, but he was already rolling forward, a tight spiral upon the ground he traced, and then planted his feet and launched himself up, standing only a few feet from Ota, less than arm's reach away.
Before the stone ninja could recover and strike Neji's hands dropped down, and he felt and watched the chakra move in his hands, controlling it ever so perfectly, forming blades sharper than steel, stone, or even Tonetero's grassy blades. The visceral blue glow of chakra emerged beneath the nekode.
Eyes throughout the stadium closed in at this moment.
Neji plunged his hands into the dirt. "Explosive Rend!"
Down and cross, and then back up, the same pattern that could destroy a human form traced sharp lines in the dirt, deep cuts that could have shorn through the hardest stone, but they did not stop with simple cuts.
The Byakugan possessed Neji's eyes, and through that all revealing white gaze he saw the lines, the openings, and he channeled his chakra into them, more and more and more, until they swelled and bent, and then, in a chain reaction of more stress than any object could withstand, even this portion of the mountain's earth, they burst.
Ground blasted apart in front of Neji, streaking apart as if smashed by the club of a giant, a great crack rent open then, slashing forward and sounding of the loudest thunder to ever sweep across the sky. Then Tsukabe Ota was in midair, the ground beneath him gone.
The armor fell away almost instantly, and Neji could see it crumble as the connections that held it to his body vanished, and so he could see exactly when the opening to strike came. He hurled aside the nekode and leaped at Ota, striking before other ninja had done anything more than began to fall.
"Hakke Rokujyu Yonshou!" Neji's hands came in at Ota, two fingers on each extended, and the attack began. Two strikes, four strikes, eight strikes, sixteen strikes, thirty-two strikes, and finally sixty-four strikes, as he slammed chakra into every tenkentsu in his opponent's body, smashing them closed and blocking all chakra flow. Ota slammed to the dirt meters beyond the great crack Neji had opened, and Neji came down above him, ripping out a kunai and holding over his opponent's neck.
The two ninja were breathing in long gasps, but Ota didn't move so much as an inch, and he seemed unable to find the strength to say anything.
Acade was there then, looking down at the two. He took only a moment's examination, and whipped the disappointment from his eyes, before raising his hand. "Winner: Draci Neji!"
So, you win Neji. Xi thought from above, and prove yourself more creative than even I credited you with. My own fault, to forget that move. Xi was glad though, that Neji had not done as he expected, had not broken the prohibition against killing. Though he wondered. He has used a dragon jutsu in a way that does not kill. Inovative to be sure, but it will drive him even further from what I have been trying to teach him. This exam has provided complications that were not needed. Looking ahead Xi suspected that the complications were just begun. There's still one match left.
Examiner Acade stood in the center of the exam stadium. "We will pause now before the final match, to insure that both fighters are in their best form. The final match will be Draci Neji, representing Hidden Leaf, and Senirai Shiren, representing Hidden Cloud!"
Hearing the examiner's words Neji's head jerked around, and he found himself recalling that yes, he would face Shiren next. He had avoided thinking about it during the fight, but now he was forced to recognize that. So, the two of us will meet in another mock battle, for the first time to test our full abilities since that day I met you in Konoha. Neji found a strange feeling within, one that upset the equilibrium of his composure. I need to speak to Shiren, he realized with desperate urgency. I need to speak with her before we begin this match. There was something that had to be said.
Author's Notes: First, my sincere apologies on taking so long to get this chapter out, I've been busy with end of the semester school work and other things, so it's taken a while. However, the next couple chapters should come much more rapidly. So this chapter is Neji's big fight, against the guy who beat Gosain, its pretty interesting. This is also the second to last fight of the exam, so after this chapter we can finally move on to more interesting things (though I have been trying to insert bits of plotline as this goes).
Again, thanks to all the reviewers, and apologies for taking a while with this chapter.
Sight in Stone
Neji strode down to the field slowly, trying to maintain his composure. The stone ninja Tsukabe Ota walked beside him, matching him stride for stride in spite of Neji's slightly greater height. There was only one moment when they said anything to acknowledge each other. At the base of the steps, before they entered again into the open stadium, Ota turned to Neji. "Now that the Grass ninja is eliminated we can conduct this as it was intended." He said without inflection or any other marks to show his feeling.
"Ah." Was all that Neji said in reply.
They entered onto the field into a scene of confusion. Shiren was walking toward the stairs with a team of medics carrying bandages. A second group of medics, led by Acade, carried the body of Tonetero on a stretcher. They kept their eyes off the grim corpse, still filled with thorns.
Neji passed by Shiren, and he stopped for a moment. For a long instant they just looked at each other, and without saying anything the sentiments were exchanged, gratitude, confidence, and support. Neji broke the silence when that was done. "You are not hurt too much I hope?"
"With a little help from these medics I'll be all set for the finals." She replied with a soft smile. "Don't worry, I'll still be able to watch."
"Ah." Neji muttered. "Thanks."
Then they passed by each other, Shiren going back up the stands, and Neji out into the stadium grounds. For a single second a thought crossed Neji's mind. If I win, then I will face Shiren in the final match. He pushed that uncertain thought away immediately after it arrived. I will focus on this match first, that is more important. Indeed, Ota stood ready in position.
With a steady gait Neji walked over and took his position opposite the stone ninja, measuring him. He recalled the fight versus Gosain, the armor and the power behind the fists, and the weakness to that stone armor. Contact with the ground. It is his weakness, but how can I make use of it? Tsukabe Ota looked at him in turn, but Neji knew the older ninja had neither his sight nor a serious fight to go off for determination of his strength. He has not seen the true extent of my abilities, but I am certain he has the strength to provoke them.
They watched each other while they waited for Acade to return, the Examiner was caught in a violent discussion with several Grass ninja up in the waiting room, and seemed preoccupied. The crowd grew restless.
Above all this Xi looked on, watching Neji. It was finally the turn for his pupil to face a serious challenge. This stone ninja will not be brushed by so quickly as the others. This opponent will be as difficult as someone like Gosain, and he has that armor, a defense that is almost designed to thwart a method like the Jyouken style. Your attacks cannot penetrate that armor. Xi was not certain he could see a solution for Neji. Dragon techniques could easily rip apart that defense, a single rend would shred this stone ninja just like any other, but I have forbidden it. I expect you will hold to that prohibition Neji, but if you do, how will you win? No Hyuuga technique will break that armor.
As Acade returned to the field Neji found himself considering those same things. He had many ideas, but he had no way of knowing just how they would work without seeing the armor up close. I will have to wait until he calls upon it to formulate a strategy. Damn.
Acade walked between the two ninja. "Now." He spoke quietly to the two of them, so that the crowd couldn't hear. "I would hope that you two refrain from any incidents like there were in the last match. We don't need any more injuries in this exam. It's been ridden by enough trouble as it is. Understand?"
They both nodded.
"Good." Acade replied tersely. He stood back simply, face still grim, and waited for the crowd to quiet. With an offhand glance at the far off Kage's the examiner raised his hand high. "The second match of the semi-finals: Tsukabe Ota of Hidden Stone versus Draci Neji of Hidden Leaf!"
"Begin!"
The examiner was out of the way instantly, and Neji's match had begun.
"Byakugan!" He called on the power of his eyes first; as Ota brought forth the same armor that he had fought with against Gosain. Looking at that armor Neji found he had few options. It is not a construction of chakra, he has actually brought stone over the entirety of his body, there is no way to force it aside, and I doubt even my strongest strike would be felt through armor that thick. However, Neji noted that the armor restricted Ota's movements. How will he attack me? Unlike Gosain I have no weapons to seize to bring me close, and even in close combat I could block his moves.
So Neji simply stood and waited, watching for Ota to make the first move. At the least he cannot maintain that armor forever, it must cost chakra to hold himself up under the weight. It would be strange to simply wait him out, but time plays in my favor, not his.
Unfortunately for Neji, Ota was not about to oblige him. "If you will not attack, then I will." He spoke, words crumpled and grinding beneath that stony armor. His hands moved slowly and deliberately, forming seals. Neji looked at him, seeing the seals form, watching chakra gather. He did not recognize the technique, could not see what Ota planned to use his energy for.
It was his eyes that saved him.
"Earth Element: Open Jaws of the Mountainside!" Came the call of Ota's jutsu, a powerful and deadly attack that came from a completely unexpected direction. Below.
The earth opened beneath Neji, reaching outward like some great mouth had been rent in the ground that wished to swallow him up completely. The ground heaved and yawed, and the loud cracking sound split the air.
Yet Neji had seen, his Byakugan reached all about him, even to the bottom of his feet, and having learned that vision he always watched in all directions. He could not be so easily surprised. So as the ground split open beneath his feet Neji leaped high, flipping through the air to come around behind Ota, and spinning rapidly to face the ninja's back.
The stone ninja, confused, tried to turn and follow his opponent's move, but his speed was limited by the stony armor. Twin kunai thumped solidly into that armor then, propelled strongly, sinking deep, but not penetrating. Damn! Neji thought. Well, it's to be expected, there's no easy way through. I have to separate him from the ground somehow.
"You almost had me," Ota said, turning. He gave Neji a curious look. "I was wide open, and you threw kunai. You must have known that wouldn't work, why do that?" He asked, seeming quite perplexed. "Surely you have an attack that could break through."
I do, Neji thought without answering, but it would kill you, and I have said I will not do that. Taijutsu and dragon jutsu, those are my only techniques, and all the dragon jutsu kill, I have no other technique that can penetrate that skin of stone.
"Well, if you will not attack then I will!" Ota roared with energy and his hands slashed into crude seals. "Mountain Burst no jutsu!"
The ground exploded beneath Neji, an attack much faster than the maw that had been used before, one that could not be easily dodged.
"Kaiten!" Neji began the whirl and let the force of the blasting stone carry him up and forward, propelling him toward Ota. The stone ninja is distracted, holding his seal, perhaps if I strike now...
The whirling dragon ninja slammed into the armor of stone, the tremendous force of Kaiten detonating against that stone skin, and driving Ota back, and off balance. He fell, dropping slowly, and Neji watched, hoping for separation from the ground.
It came close, but Ota was skilled, he moved knowingly when struck, falling backwards, but his heels held firm to the ground, and he did not separate from it. So when he slammed to the soil his stone armor remained intact.
Neji, reaching down in search of an opening, was caught off guard, and so he could only scramble to block when Ota's fist flashed up with great speed to counterattack.
The blow slammed hard against Neji's arms, and he coughed in pain as he flew high into the air. Yet Neji retained his focus, and despite the pain he controlled his flight and landed some distance away, to face the standing Ota again. Ouch, that is a truly strong blow. I can't take many of those, but I need to find a way to break through that armor. How? How?
There was no respite, Ota stood facing Neji and blasted the earth beneath him again, only to watch the dragon ninja spin aside. He repeated this a second time, and then a third, but while dirt blasted about the stadium and the ground shook and moaned in agony he could not strike his opponent, who guided by his eyes could predict the potent attack.
Breathing hard Neji faced Ota, covered in dirt and scratches, feeling the bruises begin to form on his arms. There has to be a way, I need to break through, once I do that I can defeat him. I need a way!
"You're good." Ota grunted. "But you can't keep dodging forever. If you can't defeat my armor you might as well give up. Fighting the ground of the mountains is not easy."
"I won't give up." Neji barked. There has to be a way, he tried to think on it, searching for an answer, but his mind moved immediately to focus on the ground beneath him, leaping ahead to Ota's next attack. The ground now bent and blasted from the hard fighting it had seen all day long. The ground, broken...
Suddenly Neji had found the way.
His hands flashed down to his thighs, to where the nekode rested, sharp and keen, undrawn thus far this day. He grabbed them free of their slots, slipping his hands into the perfectly fitting weapons, and then bringing them up to a ready position, the position that presaged Rend.
What are you doing Neji? Xi looked down in anger and dissapointment. Are you going to break your word and defy me? I won't allow that, you had better be able to show control during an exam, or you never will on the battlefield as a chuunin. This surprised Xi, and he felt shocked and disturbed, having believed he knew Neji better than this. His hands slipped to their own nekode, recognizing that he would be forced to do something terrible if Neji broke his word here.
Ota's eyes narrowed beneath their glaze of stone, but he brought his hand up in the sealing pattern, as before, believing nothing had changed. "Mountain Burst no jutsu!"
The ground exploded beneath Neji, but he was already rolling forward, a tight spiral upon the ground he traced, and then planted his feet and launched himself up, standing only a few feet from Ota, less than arm's reach away.
Before the stone ninja could recover and strike Neji's hands dropped down, and he felt and watched the chakra move in his hands, controlling it ever so perfectly, forming blades sharper than steel, stone, or even Tonetero's grassy blades. The visceral blue glow of chakra emerged beneath the nekode.
Eyes throughout the stadium closed in at this moment.
Neji plunged his hands into the dirt. "Explosive Rend!"
Down and cross, and then back up, the same pattern that could destroy a human form traced sharp lines in the dirt, deep cuts that could have shorn through the hardest stone, but they did not stop with simple cuts.
The Byakugan possessed Neji's eyes, and through that all revealing white gaze he saw the lines, the openings, and he channeled his chakra into them, more and more and more, until they swelled and bent, and then, in a chain reaction of more stress than any object could withstand, even this portion of the mountain's earth, they burst.
Ground blasted apart in front of Neji, streaking apart as if smashed by the club of a giant, a great crack rent open then, slashing forward and sounding of the loudest thunder to ever sweep across the sky. Then Tsukabe Ota was in midair, the ground beneath him gone.
The armor fell away almost instantly, and Neji could see it crumble as the connections that held it to his body vanished, and so he could see exactly when the opening to strike came. He hurled aside the nekode and leaped at Ota, striking before other ninja had done anything more than began to fall.
"Hakke Rokujyu Yonshou!" Neji's hands came in at Ota, two fingers on each extended, and the attack began. Two strikes, four strikes, eight strikes, sixteen strikes, thirty-two strikes, and finally sixty-four strikes, as he slammed chakra into every tenkentsu in his opponent's body, smashing them closed and blocking all chakra flow. Ota slammed to the dirt meters beyond the great crack Neji had opened, and Neji came down above him, ripping out a kunai and holding over his opponent's neck.
The two ninja were breathing in long gasps, but Ota didn't move so much as an inch, and he seemed unable to find the strength to say anything.
Acade was there then, looking down at the two. He took only a moment's examination, and whipped the disappointment from his eyes, before raising his hand. "Winner: Draci Neji!"
So, you win Neji. Xi thought from above, and prove yourself more creative than even I credited you with. My own fault, to forget that move. Xi was glad though, that Neji had not done as he expected, had not broken the prohibition against killing. Though he wondered. He has used a dragon jutsu in a way that does not kill. Inovative to be sure, but it will drive him even further from what I have been trying to teach him. This exam has provided complications that were not needed. Looking ahead Xi suspected that the complications were just begun. There's still one match left.
Examiner Acade stood in the center of the exam stadium. "We will pause now before the final match, to insure that both fighters are in their best form. The final match will be Draci Neji, representing Hidden Leaf, and Senirai Shiren, representing Hidden Cloud!"
Hearing the examiner's words Neji's head jerked around, and he found himself recalling that yes, he would face Shiren next. He had avoided thinking about it during the fight, but now he was forced to recognize that. So, the two of us will meet in another mock battle, for the first time to test our full abilities since that day I met you in Konoha. Neji found a strange feeling within, one that upset the equilibrium of his composure. I need to speak to Shiren, he realized with desperate urgency. I need to speak with her before we begin this match. There was something that had to be said.