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: Hah! I have a faster update this time, and an important chapter too. The final fight of the chuunin exam, and then its on to different things once more, things that aren't so hideously bogged down. I think this chapter is a good one, and I put a good deal of effort into it. Certainly this is an important chapter.
Thanks to the reviewers, apparently FF.net dislikes this story and I was not aware of it. If someone could describe the problem I'll see if something can be done about it.
Some answers to questions/comments: SilverKnight7: This story will go until the conclusion of the events that make up Xi's past, most importantly what happened in Lightning eight years ago. There have been allusions to a certain 'she' at points previous, and I'll let slip that there very important to the overall scheme of things. Neji technically already a dragon ninja, he will remain Xi's student until he masters all of the jutsus.
Zsych: Mock battle, nah, what's coming is rather more serious, the chapter hopefully explains itself though.
Hattuteline: About Ota's armor, its not a chakra construction, its literally plates of stone that conform to his body, kind of like Gaara's armor of sand but ten times as solid. Neji couldn't take it off with chakra cause he's only using chakra from underneath it to allow him to lift the weight. Rend, however, can cut through anything, even steel bars, it could slice through the armor and the blades would penetrate directly into flesh, like taking a diamond cutter to plate mail. It cannot cut the armor off though, just through it.
Dance of the Ninja
The wind whipped across the face of Draci Xi, as he stood at the railing of the exam stadium in Hidden Stone, his eyes dry and focused. There he watched his pupil, Neji, be escorted off the field by the stone medics, to be taken away from view so that his wounds would be healed and prepared for the finals. The dragon ninja's thoughts were dark, and he found that he wished the battles of the day were done. Shiren and Neji, to fight in the next match. Unfortunate.
It was a pointless match, Xi knew that, and he saw it reflected in the eyes of the on looking Kage's. The strengths of the villages had already been measured, the choices made. These two who would fight in the finals were both from Xi's team. Regardless of whomever wins, the honor will be mine, not Cloud's or Leaf's. This match will influence no ones' decision on who shall become a chuunin; at least, I suspect such decisions have already been made.
So, Xi wished the match would not occur, but knowing that it must prepared to watch it seriously. He suspected Neji would win; of course, Shiren had never beaten him before, but there was danger in the match all the same. Xi recognized the relationship that grew between the two ninja; he was not blind to such things. What can this fight mean for them? They are both soon to be my students. It is strange, two that I saved, perhaps the only two I ever saved, have come back to learn from me, to let me teach them to kill. Xi remembered Neji's somber face when he lay dying in the forest outside Konoha, the simple acceptance of death he had seen there. He remembered the young girl who had looked up at the dead lightning ninja and the masked man who had put the kunai through that bloody neck without fear, unflinching against the chaos. Xi's right hand fell to the mask that hung suspended from his belt. One who was saved by the Xi of lightning, and one who has been saved by the Xi of no village, these are my students. The cold thought had Xi staring off in the distance, to the high mountains of ice, wondering.
"What a contemplative look for a dragon ninja." A voice whispered from Xi's left. "Something has you out of sorts perhaps?" The remark was not snide, but given seriously, though Xi did not find it either amusing or appropriate.
"Be careful with your words, Dar." Xi replied. "Someone might not appreciate them."
"Apologies then." Dar remonstrated.
"I thought you were going to protect that young grass ninja?" Xi raised an eyebrow. "Have you abandoned that task?"
"Well, since your student removed that little threat from the list I thought I should at least watch the final match. It looks to be very interesting, the young dragon ninja versus the lady of lightning who defeated the monster of grass." Dar cracked a stony smile.
"You are not disappointed Tsukabe Ota lost?" Xi wondered, noting that most of the Stone ninja had expressed great disappointment over that.
"They'll make him a chuunin anyway." Dar said. "Besides, I don't care, this village isn't my home, just where I lay my head to rest. My life is-"Dar stopped speaking suddenly, sensing that he was about to say too much.
The sword, your life is the sword, Xi filled in the words. "We all have our burdens." He said, having the courtesy not to mention anything more.
"You know, it is quite rare for members of the same team to fight in the finals." Dar said, changing the subject. "They try to structure the tournament so that it doesn't happen."
"That is so no country appears truly dominant, it is an artifice." Xi replied.
"Yes, but this is rather unusual isn't it, since the team in question represents two different countries." Dar remarked. "And one of those the only leaf entry in the exam."
"A boon for the leaf that." Xi remarked. "But Cloud and the Leaf have a treaty, having a mixed team is not impossible. There was a mixed Stone and Waterfall team three years ago in Konoha, as I recall."
"Yes, but how will your team handle fighting itself?" Dar asked bluntly.
"We shall see, stone ninja." Was the only response Xi gave.
Dar's question was the same one plaguing Neji's mind at that very moment, as he sat in a couch next to Shiren while the medics treated them both. Shiren's injuries were far more severe, but the power of medical jutsus was amazing. Neji watched as cuts simply vanished, and bruises faded to nothing before his eyes. Yet he recognized that it was all useless in the face of death, of the lethal techniques he knew, and even that Shiren knew. No medical ninja can save those who face a dragon ninja and lose.
All this was secondary to Neji though, as he lay with Shiren near him, but the cold and impersonal medics making any conversation essentially impossible. Instead he ran through his mind what he should say to her, how he might address the fact that they had to fight, but he could find no answers. What do I say? I cannot lie, but what is the truth? That I don't want to fight her? No, Neji recognized that he was willing to fight Shiren, in fact he wished to see the full extent of her new abilities from up close, and measure them against himself, but there was something deeper, something he could not quite identify. His puzzled over it, ignoring the medics until, suddenly, they were finished.
"Rest for a moment, the match will begin shortly." One of the stone medics said before leaving the room, and leaving Shiren and Neji alone.
Neji turned toward Shiren almost instantly, but he found he had no words, and so he was simply staring.
Shiren broke the silence. "Neji, don't worry. I know you'll beat me." She said the words happily, with a smile on her face, and not a false one. "I may have improved, but I can't match your skills. Still, we should do everyone the honor of putting on a good show."
The words shocked Neji, but the also wiped the uncertainty from his mind. Shiren had already accepted that this match was coming, and that they were not evenly matched. She has eliminated the competitive element, Neji recognized, and he saw that this was what he had wished himself, that they should fight simply as friends, and not oppose each other. "I would not say that the conclusion is that forgone." Neji answered. "You were most impressive against your opponent."
"I master one tricky technique that I've been trying to learn for years, while you make the ground explode." Shiren laughed softly. "Really, Neji, you have a talent I think it's almost impossible to match, but thanks for the complement."
"We'll see." He answered. "It will hopefully impress those onlookers."
"Heh." Shiren laughed softly again. "With any luck we can impress Xi and those old Kages."
"Shiren, I think you've already impressed the Raikage." Neji returned the smile, and stood up slowly, testing the strength in his limbs.
Standing next to him Shiren loosened her limbs up as well, and carefully stowed a grand supply of weaponry that the Stone medics had left next to her couch. "Not my own," She mumbled. "But these mountain ninja know good workmanship."
Neji fixed the bandages that wrapped about his left arm, which the stone medics had removed, his own version of the ritual Shiren had just gone through with her weapons. With that done, they were both ready.
The two teammates stepped out into the hall.
Acade was waiting for them. "You are ready?" He asked simply.
The pair nodded.
"Good. Let's go." Acade guided them back through the passages of the exam stadium, back to the waiting room and down the long steps. When they reached the bottom and steeped out into the late afternoon sunset the crowd roared, cheering the competitors in the final match.
Standing there Neji was conscious of what his position meant. To be in the finals, it was not just to be in the final stage, just one of the best the villages had to offer, but the very best, the one who had struck down the best of other villages, who had fought through successive matches against strong opponents battle tested by the mountain snows, and emerged victorious. That was what it meant to stand here, to be a representation of country, team, and of all ninja. It was a heady feeling, but in some ways it made Neji uneasy. I am a Leaf ninja, but my teammates are from a different villages, as is my sensei, I am a Hyuuga, and I am a dragon ninja. On this field whom do I represent?
Looking up to the stands Neji saw the seated Kages, the leaders of the Hidden Villages, turning his head he saw Draci Xi, standing with a stone ninja he did not recognize, and then all the gathered ninja from many villages. Looking at them Neji did not think it was to any such groups, be they from Leaf or Cloud, which he belonged to. He turned his head and looked at Shiren, walking next to him. I represent my team, and myself. He decided.
Acade let the crowd have their moment, and then he motioned Shiren and Neji into place. He turned to the crowd and spoke. "The final match, to decide the victor of this tournament and conclude this chuunin exam of Hidden Stone, shall be Draci Neji of Hidden Leaf versus Senirai Shiren of Hidden Cloud. Both have faced many challenges and defeated many opponents to reach this point. Now they stand as the best of the ninja youth."
The crowd roared again, and Acade waited until they quieted before turning back to Neji and Shiren. He met the eyes of each in turn, checking their readiness. When he saw that both ninja were prepared he raised his right arm as before.
"Begin!"
To Neji the arm seemed to fall in slow motion as the Byakugan came over his eyes almost without thought, widening his vision to encompass an almost complete sphere about his body, an awareness that could not be matched. He felt and saw the chakra within him, and within Shiren, two sets of vessels that were remarkably similar, with chakra flowing not randomly, but only as directed, controlled and ready to be molded to the wills of the ninja who would now call upon their bodies' power.
Acade's arm reached the bottom of its arc and the stone ninja jumped away, clearly the field of distractions. It was now only Neji and Shiren.
Shiren's right hand slashed through the air, and suddenly three shuriken scourged a path toward Neji, ready to take away his eyes, but Neji had seen the move, and had already rolled forward, coming up with nekode in hand.
The metal climbing tools rang clearly and loud when they met the kunai in Shiren's hands, each strike parried, and then again and again, as strike followed strike, repeatedly, arms twisting and seeking, feet sliding along the ground, looking for any opening.
Suddenly Neji found one, and his right hand came in from below.
Shiren sprung back, and a spray of shuriken forced him to block, disrupting the countermove, and so they were matched, no damage inflicted.
Neji and Shiren took a breath in unison, and they clashed once more.
Draci Xi watched from above, noting each and every motion of the two competitors, every meeting of kunai and nekode. Neji's eyes gave him and edge, but Shiren's ability to attack from any range countered it, set them equal as they came together again and again.
Many in the crowd looked at the fight in surprise, and disappointment. They had expected powerful jutsu to fly about, lightning and the spinning moves of the Hyuuga, not this strange match of taijutsu.
The truly skilled in the crowd understood why these moves were not used, and looked on in awe as Neji and Shiren spun and swirled, leaping over ground and air, and the constant sound of metal on metal that announced the parry of technique to technique. Kataishi Dar gripped the rail next to Xi with his left hand, while his right gripped his sword, and his grip on that blade shifted constantly, as if imaging himself in the midst of this battle. The Raikage stood tall, his gaze fixated on the center of the stadium, unblinking. Likewise Tsuchikage, the old man's staff now forgotten as he stood with his robes whipping in the wind to watch the display.
To use jutsu is pointless for these two teammates. They know the techniques; they know the counters or the way to dodge. It would only be a waste of energy and precious seconds. It is speed, strength and endurance that matter now, a single mistake will spell defeat in a battle this highly charged, with Neji's sight and Shiren's accuracy. The mind reasoned this as it saw the display, wondering who would prove the victor.
Neji grunted as Shiren's kunai impacted his nekode again, and he deflected a shuriken behind his back with his left hand, then jumped and spun, landing behind her, weapons coming forward only to be spun aside by a kunai with a confounding string attached. He cut the string, but was forced to dodge another flurry of quick Jinnen strikes, with littered obstacles all about, confusing his footwork. There was no thought now, simply instinct and reaction, the haze of red swallowed about the eyes from the force of fighting so hard, and it was an effort to see through it. Sweat seeped out from every pore and each breath burned with raw pain. The rest of the world had faded, and only two imperatives remained, that of block and strike, block and strike. Deflect the incoming kunai and slash back with sharp nekode, or shuriken. The ring of metal on metal denoted that the fight would go on.
High above, Xi's mind raced, tracing the fight, tracing the pattern, and looking for the overall conclusion. They are both good, the skill is tremendous, all the perfect control of a dragon ninja, every move with no loss, uninhibited by the weakness of the body or its normal motions, instead trained to react with perfect efficiency to any strike from any angle, and to always strike again, with suddenness and severity. It would be the first mistake the brought the winner, the first strike to penetrate those shimmering halos of metal. Xi thought, and he recognized something. Neji does not make mistakes.
So it was, as they spun about in the open stadium Neji suddenly leapt up into the sky to Shiren's left, she turned to block, but forgot the things that had been pushed so far outside awareness in the focus on move and countermove, that she was looking up and into the west.
The red glare of the sun slashed across Shiren's face, and so, for the shortest of moments but for an eternity in the context of that fight, she closed her eyes.
The nekode ripped across her hands, slashing loose the kunai, and then striking hard into her side, slamming her backward in that moment when vision vanished.
The reaction came equally fast.
With the sudden distance imparted by the blow Shiren filled the air between her and Neji with six weapons, thrown into the shape of a star. Her hands flashed and lighting arced between them.
Neji spun aside and to the ground, dodging under the spark star with ease, but the fight had suddenly changed. A moment of space had been achieved by his act of damaging his opponent. With hazy vision he saw Shiren take the next logical step.
The mind moved on instinct, without conscious thought, and the hands followed commands that had no time to be processed or considered, there was only reaction as Shiren's right hand reached down into the low kunai holster on her leg and flipped the weapons into the air. The parity of battle had been lost, so the reaction was simple, strike now with everything that remains.
Neji reacted as well, and stood with legs spread, arms at the ready, as Shiren sucked in air and took the first step forward. "Hidden Cloud Style: Thunder and Lightning Strike!" The words ripped free from Shiren's mouth with her exhalation as her feet dug into the churned dirt and chakra slammed through the channels of her limbs to do its deadly purpose.
Shiren's steps carried her forward in that beaten earth, even as chakra flowed into Neji as well. His mind reacted the same way, and seized on the one weapon it had to counter this move that blew past any defense, a move that struck aside any attack and back to slash apart the attacker at the same moment.
The clawing whirlwind.
Eyes slammed out of focus on the fight as the observers realized what had happened, but they were too late, and too far. Even as Xi's hands propelled him up over the railing, and the Raikage's blade pulled free of its scabbard, they knew they were far too late, even Acade's hand hung useless as it pulled forth a kunai.
Shiren's feet left the soil in the first of the slashing arcs that brought thunder and lightning to its point of impact, and Neji felt the chakra move in his limbs, directed to every pore, calling forth images of blades. Yet for a moment he could think, as his eyes followed Shiren through the air there was a second of pause, and in that instant he saw the impact of his move, of the body destroyed by a thousand knives, the body of Ryukin covered in blood, and the words of Draci Xi rang out again in his mind: "You shall not kill anyone in this exam!"
Draci Neji's eyes snapped wide open as a streaking thought clawed through the haze of battle that gripped his brain and he realized what was happening. He saw the body of Ryukin in his mind's eye, only it was not Ryukin, it was Shiren, and he realized what he had been about to do.
There was no time for more then, as Shiren switched directions, and came on, the sharp glint of her kunai visible in the red light of the setting sun. There was nowhere to dodge, and no way to raise a defense to block that attack. Thunder and lightning were going to strike him.
So Neji did some he had never done before. His right hand shot up, and in a clear voice he shouted. "I forfeit!"
The words traveled throughout the stadium, and would hang strangely on the faces and in the minds of all those who observed, but it was not to them that Neji looked, but straight forward, into the eyes of Senirai Shiren.
As his own had done Shiren's eyes snapped wide, and a look of horror splayed across her face, but there was nothing she could do more than that. Her kunai came in from above and slashed down, and Neji had raised no defense. The move, having a life of its own, could not be stopped.
Sharp metal bit down into Neji, taking him cleanly in the upper chest, below the collarbone. The strike struck with the explosive power of thunder, and the pain was like nothing Neji had ever felt before, but he clenched his teeth and refused to scream. The blow drove him to the ground hard.
The fight was over.
Shiren was next to Neji instantly, pressing her hands to the wound, tears streaming from her eyes as blood flowed over them. "Neji," She barely managed the words at first. "Neji, I'm so sorry!" It was almost a scream. "I never, ever, ever meant to..." She stopped again, running out of breath. "Please, please, say something, don't just...don't please, Neji." It was a whisper.
The pain made Neji want to scream, as he never had before, a brutal hole in him, agony like he had not felt even as Ryukin burned him. The Byakugan was gone from his vision, and he saw the world normally, though he found that he was crying as well. It was hard, but he forced himself not to scream, inside he took in a shallow breath and spoke. "Damn...that's a hard...hit." He repeated the same words Shiren had said when he defeated her, what now seemed so long ago, on the library rooftop in Konoha.
Tears streaming down her face and blood covering her hands, Shiren smiled, a full and truly open smile that enveloped her whole face. "Then I'll never do it again, ever." Shiren said, putting her bloody hands, thick with Neji's blood and her own from the cuts he had inflicted earlier, around his right hand.
"Right...never again...ever." Neji said, and he found himself smiling, despite the pain inside. He wanted to say more, but he couldn't find the strength.
Shiren took the bandages from his left arm and wrapped it around the kunai embedded in his chest, and held it there until the medics came. The lifted Neji and put him on a stretcher, and he found his strength fading, and his eyes fluttered, and then closed in sleep, but he held the image of Shiren in his mind, her hands over his own, as he did so.
The medics pushed Shiren away at the edge of the wall, not letting her go with Neji. She almost launched into an attack against them, but then she felt strong hands grip her arms. "You cannot go." Examiner Acade spoke. "As much as you might want to, your teammate forfeited, so you are the winner of this chuunin exam, and must be proclaimed it."
Shiren turned to face Acade, and her face showed that she did not consider that at all important at the moment.
"Would you have all that happened today, the deaths, the wounds, even this last match, be pointless?" He asked sternly. "Bear up, and finish this quickly. Then you can go. Until then, you have won."
Acade raised Shiren's left hand, covered in blood though it was, high with his own. "The winner of the Hidden Village of Stone's Chuunin Exam! Senirai Shiren!"
Author's Notes: Hah! I have a faster update this time, and an important chapter too. The final fight of the chuunin exam, and then its on to different things once more, things that aren't so hideously bogged down. I think this chapter is a good one, and I put a good deal of effort into it. Certainly this is an important chapter.
Thanks to the reviewers, apparently FF.net dislikes this story and I was not aware of it. If someone could describe the problem I'll see if something can be done about it.
Some answers to questions/comments: SilverKnight7: This story will go until the conclusion of the events that make up Xi's past, most importantly what happened in Lightning eight years ago. There have been allusions to a certain 'she' at points previous, and I'll let slip that there very important to the overall scheme of things. Neji technically already a dragon ninja, he will remain Xi's student until he masters all of the jutsus.
Zsych: Mock battle, nah, what's coming is rather more serious, the chapter hopefully explains itself though.
Hattuteline: About Ota's armor, its not a chakra construction, its literally plates of stone that conform to his body, kind of like Gaara's armor of sand but ten times as solid. Neji couldn't take it off with chakra cause he's only using chakra from underneath it to allow him to lift the weight. Rend, however, can cut through anything, even steel bars, it could slice through the armor and the blades would penetrate directly into flesh, like taking a diamond cutter to plate mail. It cannot cut the armor off though, just through it.
Dance of the Ninja
The wind whipped across the face of Draci Xi, as he stood at the railing of the exam stadium in Hidden Stone, his eyes dry and focused. There he watched his pupil, Neji, be escorted off the field by the stone medics, to be taken away from view so that his wounds would be healed and prepared for the finals. The dragon ninja's thoughts were dark, and he found that he wished the battles of the day were done. Shiren and Neji, to fight in the next match. Unfortunate.
It was a pointless match, Xi knew that, and he saw it reflected in the eyes of the on looking Kage's. The strengths of the villages had already been measured, the choices made. These two who would fight in the finals were both from Xi's team. Regardless of whomever wins, the honor will be mine, not Cloud's or Leaf's. This match will influence no ones' decision on who shall become a chuunin; at least, I suspect such decisions have already been made.
So, Xi wished the match would not occur, but knowing that it must prepared to watch it seriously. He suspected Neji would win; of course, Shiren had never beaten him before, but there was danger in the match all the same. Xi recognized the relationship that grew between the two ninja; he was not blind to such things. What can this fight mean for them? They are both soon to be my students. It is strange, two that I saved, perhaps the only two I ever saved, have come back to learn from me, to let me teach them to kill. Xi remembered Neji's somber face when he lay dying in the forest outside Konoha, the simple acceptance of death he had seen there. He remembered the young girl who had looked up at the dead lightning ninja and the masked man who had put the kunai through that bloody neck without fear, unflinching against the chaos. Xi's right hand fell to the mask that hung suspended from his belt. One who was saved by the Xi of lightning, and one who has been saved by the Xi of no village, these are my students. The cold thought had Xi staring off in the distance, to the high mountains of ice, wondering.
"What a contemplative look for a dragon ninja." A voice whispered from Xi's left. "Something has you out of sorts perhaps?" The remark was not snide, but given seriously, though Xi did not find it either amusing or appropriate.
"Be careful with your words, Dar." Xi replied. "Someone might not appreciate them."
"Apologies then." Dar remonstrated.
"I thought you were going to protect that young grass ninja?" Xi raised an eyebrow. "Have you abandoned that task?"
"Well, since your student removed that little threat from the list I thought I should at least watch the final match. It looks to be very interesting, the young dragon ninja versus the lady of lightning who defeated the monster of grass." Dar cracked a stony smile.
"You are not disappointed Tsukabe Ota lost?" Xi wondered, noting that most of the Stone ninja had expressed great disappointment over that.
"They'll make him a chuunin anyway." Dar said. "Besides, I don't care, this village isn't my home, just where I lay my head to rest. My life is-"Dar stopped speaking suddenly, sensing that he was about to say too much.
The sword, your life is the sword, Xi filled in the words. "We all have our burdens." He said, having the courtesy not to mention anything more.
"You know, it is quite rare for members of the same team to fight in the finals." Dar said, changing the subject. "They try to structure the tournament so that it doesn't happen."
"That is so no country appears truly dominant, it is an artifice." Xi replied.
"Yes, but this is rather unusual isn't it, since the team in question represents two different countries." Dar remarked. "And one of those the only leaf entry in the exam."
"A boon for the leaf that." Xi remarked. "But Cloud and the Leaf have a treaty, having a mixed team is not impossible. There was a mixed Stone and Waterfall team three years ago in Konoha, as I recall."
"Yes, but how will your team handle fighting itself?" Dar asked bluntly.
"We shall see, stone ninja." Was the only response Xi gave.
Dar's question was the same one plaguing Neji's mind at that very moment, as he sat in a couch next to Shiren while the medics treated them both. Shiren's injuries were far more severe, but the power of medical jutsus was amazing. Neji watched as cuts simply vanished, and bruises faded to nothing before his eyes. Yet he recognized that it was all useless in the face of death, of the lethal techniques he knew, and even that Shiren knew. No medical ninja can save those who face a dragon ninja and lose.
All this was secondary to Neji though, as he lay with Shiren near him, but the cold and impersonal medics making any conversation essentially impossible. Instead he ran through his mind what he should say to her, how he might address the fact that they had to fight, but he could find no answers. What do I say? I cannot lie, but what is the truth? That I don't want to fight her? No, Neji recognized that he was willing to fight Shiren, in fact he wished to see the full extent of her new abilities from up close, and measure them against himself, but there was something deeper, something he could not quite identify. His puzzled over it, ignoring the medics until, suddenly, they were finished.
"Rest for a moment, the match will begin shortly." One of the stone medics said before leaving the room, and leaving Shiren and Neji alone.
Neji turned toward Shiren almost instantly, but he found he had no words, and so he was simply staring.
Shiren broke the silence. "Neji, don't worry. I know you'll beat me." She said the words happily, with a smile on her face, and not a false one. "I may have improved, but I can't match your skills. Still, we should do everyone the honor of putting on a good show."
The words shocked Neji, but the also wiped the uncertainty from his mind. Shiren had already accepted that this match was coming, and that they were not evenly matched. She has eliminated the competitive element, Neji recognized, and he saw that this was what he had wished himself, that they should fight simply as friends, and not oppose each other. "I would not say that the conclusion is that forgone." Neji answered. "You were most impressive against your opponent."
"I master one tricky technique that I've been trying to learn for years, while you make the ground explode." Shiren laughed softly. "Really, Neji, you have a talent I think it's almost impossible to match, but thanks for the complement."
"We'll see." He answered. "It will hopefully impress those onlookers."
"Heh." Shiren laughed softly again. "With any luck we can impress Xi and those old Kages."
"Shiren, I think you've already impressed the Raikage." Neji returned the smile, and stood up slowly, testing the strength in his limbs.
Standing next to him Shiren loosened her limbs up as well, and carefully stowed a grand supply of weaponry that the Stone medics had left next to her couch. "Not my own," She mumbled. "But these mountain ninja know good workmanship."
Neji fixed the bandages that wrapped about his left arm, which the stone medics had removed, his own version of the ritual Shiren had just gone through with her weapons. With that done, they were both ready.
The two teammates stepped out into the hall.
Acade was waiting for them. "You are ready?" He asked simply.
The pair nodded.
"Good. Let's go." Acade guided them back through the passages of the exam stadium, back to the waiting room and down the long steps. When they reached the bottom and steeped out into the late afternoon sunset the crowd roared, cheering the competitors in the final match.
Standing there Neji was conscious of what his position meant. To be in the finals, it was not just to be in the final stage, just one of the best the villages had to offer, but the very best, the one who had struck down the best of other villages, who had fought through successive matches against strong opponents battle tested by the mountain snows, and emerged victorious. That was what it meant to stand here, to be a representation of country, team, and of all ninja. It was a heady feeling, but in some ways it made Neji uneasy. I am a Leaf ninja, but my teammates are from a different villages, as is my sensei, I am a Hyuuga, and I am a dragon ninja. On this field whom do I represent?
Looking up to the stands Neji saw the seated Kages, the leaders of the Hidden Villages, turning his head he saw Draci Xi, standing with a stone ninja he did not recognize, and then all the gathered ninja from many villages. Looking at them Neji did not think it was to any such groups, be they from Leaf or Cloud, which he belonged to. He turned his head and looked at Shiren, walking next to him. I represent my team, and myself. He decided.
Acade let the crowd have their moment, and then he motioned Shiren and Neji into place. He turned to the crowd and spoke. "The final match, to decide the victor of this tournament and conclude this chuunin exam of Hidden Stone, shall be Draci Neji of Hidden Leaf versus Senirai Shiren of Hidden Cloud. Both have faced many challenges and defeated many opponents to reach this point. Now they stand as the best of the ninja youth."
The crowd roared again, and Acade waited until they quieted before turning back to Neji and Shiren. He met the eyes of each in turn, checking their readiness. When he saw that both ninja were prepared he raised his right arm as before.
"Begin!"
To Neji the arm seemed to fall in slow motion as the Byakugan came over his eyes almost without thought, widening his vision to encompass an almost complete sphere about his body, an awareness that could not be matched. He felt and saw the chakra within him, and within Shiren, two sets of vessels that were remarkably similar, with chakra flowing not randomly, but only as directed, controlled and ready to be molded to the wills of the ninja who would now call upon their bodies' power.
Acade's arm reached the bottom of its arc and the stone ninja jumped away, clearly the field of distractions. It was now only Neji and Shiren.
Shiren's right hand slashed through the air, and suddenly three shuriken scourged a path toward Neji, ready to take away his eyes, but Neji had seen the move, and had already rolled forward, coming up with nekode in hand.
The metal climbing tools rang clearly and loud when they met the kunai in Shiren's hands, each strike parried, and then again and again, as strike followed strike, repeatedly, arms twisting and seeking, feet sliding along the ground, looking for any opening.
Suddenly Neji found one, and his right hand came in from below.
Shiren sprung back, and a spray of shuriken forced him to block, disrupting the countermove, and so they were matched, no damage inflicted.
Neji and Shiren took a breath in unison, and they clashed once more.
Draci Xi watched from above, noting each and every motion of the two competitors, every meeting of kunai and nekode. Neji's eyes gave him and edge, but Shiren's ability to attack from any range countered it, set them equal as they came together again and again.
Many in the crowd looked at the fight in surprise, and disappointment. They had expected powerful jutsu to fly about, lightning and the spinning moves of the Hyuuga, not this strange match of taijutsu.
The truly skilled in the crowd understood why these moves were not used, and looked on in awe as Neji and Shiren spun and swirled, leaping over ground and air, and the constant sound of metal on metal that announced the parry of technique to technique. Kataishi Dar gripped the rail next to Xi with his left hand, while his right gripped his sword, and his grip on that blade shifted constantly, as if imaging himself in the midst of this battle. The Raikage stood tall, his gaze fixated on the center of the stadium, unblinking. Likewise Tsuchikage, the old man's staff now forgotten as he stood with his robes whipping in the wind to watch the display.
To use jutsu is pointless for these two teammates. They know the techniques; they know the counters or the way to dodge. It would only be a waste of energy and precious seconds. It is speed, strength and endurance that matter now, a single mistake will spell defeat in a battle this highly charged, with Neji's sight and Shiren's accuracy. The mind reasoned this as it saw the display, wondering who would prove the victor.
Neji grunted as Shiren's kunai impacted his nekode again, and he deflected a shuriken behind his back with his left hand, then jumped and spun, landing behind her, weapons coming forward only to be spun aside by a kunai with a confounding string attached. He cut the string, but was forced to dodge another flurry of quick Jinnen strikes, with littered obstacles all about, confusing his footwork. There was no thought now, simply instinct and reaction, the haze of red swallowed about the eyes from the force of fighting so hard, and it was an effort to see through it. Sweat seeped out from every pore and each breath burned with raw pain. The rest of the world had faded, and only two imperatives remained, that of block and strike, block and strike. Deflect the incoming kunai and slash back with sharp nekode, or shuriken. The ring of metal on metal denoted that the fight would go on.
High above, Xi's mind raced, tracing the fight, tracing the pattern, and looking for the overall conclusion. They are both good, the skill is tremendous, all the perfect control of a dragon ninja, every move with no loss, uninhibited by the weakness of the body or its normal motions, instead trained to react with perfect efficiency to any strike from any angle, and to always strike again, with suddenness and severity. It would be the first mistake the brought the winner, the first strike to penetrate those shimmering halos of metal. Xi thought, and he recognized something. Neji does not make mistakes.
So it was, as they spun about in the open stadium Neji suddenly leapt up into the sky to Shiren's left, she turned to block, but forgot the things that had been pushed so far outside awareness in the focus on move and countermove, that she was looking up and into the west.
The red glare of the sun slashed across Shiren's face, and so, for the shortest of moments but for an eternity in the context of that fight, she closed her eyes.
The nekode ripped across her hands, slashing loose the kunai, and then striking hard into her side, slamming her backward in that moment when vision vanished.
The reaction came equally fast.
With the sudden distance imparted by the blow Shiren filled the air between her and Neji with six weapons, thrown into the shape of a star. Her hands flashed and lighting arced between them.
Neji spun aside and to the ground, dodging under the spark star with ease, but the fight had suddenly changed. A moment of space had been achieved by his act of damaging his opponent. With hazy vision he saw Shiren take the next logical step.
The mind moved on instinct, without conscious thought, and the hands followed commands that had no time to be processed or considered, there was only reaction as Shiren's right hand reached down into the low kunai holster on her leg and flipped the weapons into the air. The parity of battle had been lost, so the reaction was simple, strike now with everything that remains.
Neji reacted as well, and stood with legs spread, arms at the ready, as Shiren sucked in air and took the first step forward. "Hidden Cloud Style: Thunder and Lightning Strike!" The words ripped free from Shiren's mouth with her exhalation as her feet dug into the churned dirt and chakra slammed through the channels of her limbs to do its deadly purpose.
Shiren's steps carried her forward in that beaten earth, even as chakra flowed into Neji as well. His mind reacted the same way, and seized on the one weapon it had to counter this move that blew past any defense, a move that struck aside any attack and back to slash apart the attacker at the same moment.
The clawing whirlwind.
Eyes slammed out of focus on the fight as the observers realized what had happened, but they were too late, and too far. Even as Xi's hands propelled him up over the railing, and the Raikage's blade pulled free of its scabbard, they knew they were far too late, even Acade's hand hung useless as it pulled forth a kunai.
Shiren's feet left the soil in the first of the slashing arcs that brought thunder and lightning to its point of impact, and Neji felt the chakra move in his limbs, directed to every pore, calling forth images of blades. Yet for a moment he could think, as his eyes followed Shiren through the air there was a second of pause, and in that instant he saw the impact of his move, of the body destroyed by a thousand knives, the body of Ryukin covered in blood, and the words of Draci Xi rang out again in his mind: "You shall not kill anyone in this exam!"
Draci Neji's eyes snapped wide open as a streaking thought clawed through the haze of battle that gripped his brain and he realized what was happening. He saw the body of Ryukin in his mind's eye, only it was not Ryukin, it was Shiren, and he realized what he had been about to do.
There was no time for more then, as Shiren switched directions, and came on, the sharp glint of her kunai visible in the red light of the setting sun. There was nowhere to dodge, and no way to raise a defense to block that attack. Thunder and lightning were going to strike him.
So Neji did some he had never done before. His right hand shot up, and in a clear voice he shouted. "I forfeit!"
The words traveled throughout the stadium, and would hang strangely on the faces and in the minds of all those who observed, but it was not to them that Neji looked, but straight forward, into the eyes of Senirai Shiren.
As his own had done Shiren's eyes snapped wide, and a look of horror splayed across her face, but there was nothing she could do more than that. Her kunai came in from above and slashed down, and Neji had raised no defense. The move, having a life of its own, could not be stopped.
Sharp metal bit down into Neji, taking him cleanly in the upper chest, below the collarbone. The strike struck with the explosive power of thunder, and the pain was like nothing Neji had ever felt before, but he clenched his teeth and refused to scream. The blow drove him to the ground hard.
The fight was over.
Shiren was next to Neji instantly, pressing her hands to the wound, tears streaming from her eyes as blood flowed over them. "Neji," She barely managed the words at first. "Neji, I'm so sorry!" It was almost a scream. "I never, ever, ever meant to..." She stopped again, running out of breath. "Please, please, say something, don't just...don't please, Neji." It was a whisper.
The pain made Neji want to scream, as he never had before, a brutal hole in him, agony like he had not felt even as Ryukin burned him. The Byakugan was gone from his vision, and he saw the world normally, though he found that he was crying as well. It was hard, but he forced himself not to scream, inside he took in a shallow breath and spoke. "Damn...that's a hard...hit." He repeated the same words Shiren had said when he defeated her, what now seemed so long ago, on the library rooftop in Konoha.
Tears streaming down her face and blood covering her hands, Shiren smiled, a full and truly open smile that enveloped her whole face. "Then I'll never do it again, ever." Shiren said, putting her bloody hands, thick with Neji's blood and her own from the cuts he had inflicted earlier, around his right hand.
"Right...never again...ever." Neji said, and he found himself smiling, despite the pain inside. He wanted to say more, but he couldn't find the strength.
Shiren took the bandages from his left arm and wrapped it around the kunai embedded in his chest, and held it there until the medics came. The lifted Neji and put him on a stretcher, and he found his strength fading, and his eyes fluttered, and then closed in sleep, but he held the image of Shiren in his mind, her hands over his own, as he did so.
The medics pushed Shiren away at the edge of the wall, not letting her go with Neji. She almost launched into an attack against them, but then she felt strong hands grip her arms. "You cannot go." Examiner Acade spoke. "As much as you might want to, your teammate forfeited, so you are the winner of this chuunin exam, and must be proclaimed it."
Shiren turned to face Acade, and her face showed that she did not consider that at all important at the moment.
"Would you have all that happened today, the deaths, the wounds, even this last match, be pointless?" He asked sternly. "Bear up, and finish this quickly. Then you can go. Until then, you have won."
Acade raised Shiren's left hand, covered in blood though it was, high with his own. "The winner of the Hidden Village of Stone's Chuunin Exam! Senirai Shiren!"