Rules of the fight: author gets to write from whoever's perspective he wants whenever he wants, author get's to say whoever's thoughts he wants. This stuff is hard, and you do not want line breaks from me every other sentence. Fuck third person limited.

Some of you seem to think it's going to be a draw. Come on, guys. I'm not going to cop out that much. Hehehehe...


Who's the Edgiest of them all, #2

The Hyuuga hadn't expected the crowd.

"I hadn't expected the crowd."

Itachi smiled from across from him. "It's the finals, Neji."

"There were less people in my other matches. People are more excited to watch this fight, it seems."

"We've both been crushing the competition up to now." Itachi noted. "This is probably the only match that's going to take more than twenty seconds."

"Assuming I let you last that long." Neji pointed out.

"I know we're working on your sense of humour, but now isn't the best time for jokes." Itachi dug back.

"Are both contestants ready?" Asked the proctor.

Both nodded.

"Lets make this a fun one." Itachi decided.

Neji smiled back. "Give the audience a show."

"Begin!"

"Great fireball jutsu!"

"Rotation!"


Hinata hadn't expected the crowd.

"I hadn't expected the crowd." She mentioned.

"Did I not get across that this was the event of the year?" Chuckled Gekko, leading her and Sasuke into the centre of the arena. "The money changing hands...you two better not be accepting bribes, because if anyone gets caught there's going to be riots."

Their competitors, teams and jonin-Sensei were in a lowered area of the stands closer to the match; there sat Naruto, Jiraiya, Gai and Kakashi.

"Last chance to make a bet." Jiraiya reminded Naruto.

"I'm not betting against my teammates." Naruto dismissed. "Why is it even such a big deal?"

"Prominent ninja clans, same age, obviously rivals...yeah, the odds are all over the place." Kakashi summarised.

"And their dojutsu are an interesting matchup?" Naruto guessed.

Kakashi blinked at him. "Dojutsu? Oh, you mean the fight. No I was talking about the bets on who will end up dating who."

"What?"

"The gambling is getting heated among the jonin-sensei and the ANBU." Chuckled Jiraiya. "The smart money is on you and Hinata, given that she's been stalking you for years, but a lot of people think she's going to get with Sasuke, because of what Kakashi just said. The next most popular is that you and Sasuke are going to get together-"

"Stop It..."

Up in the important peoples' box, the best seats were occupied by the Hokage and the Kazekage, both making the kage equivalent of idle chatter (insults, subtle threats that concealed even subtler threats, and the occasional thrown kunai). Itachi was statuesque behind the Hokage's shoulder, head of his personal security. Hiruzen had offered to let him watch this match with his family. He had politely refused.

Down in the centre of the arena, Hinata squared off against Sasuke. "I know we said we were going to be civil about this, but I'm afraid I absolutely have to win. Family reasons."

Sasuke nodded across from her. "It's okay. Turns out I absolutely cannot lose, either. Family reasons."

"Then it seems we are at an impasse." She got into stance.

Gekko coughed to get their attention. "Alright, rules are the same as for the preliminaries. You fight until your opponent is dead, unconscious, is otherwise at your mercy, or forfeits. The match isn't over until I say it's over, but when I say it's over, it's over. Losing control of yourself afterwards...well, it looks bad. Other than that, may the best ninja win."

"Thanks." Said both contestants at once. "I will."

Gekko rolled his eyes. He looked up to the Hokage's box, and got a nod from the red hat. Then he he'd his harm straight out forwards. "Alright then. If both combatants are ready..." they both nodded. He swept his hand down. "Begin!"


Neither had even bothered with training seals that day. They blitzed towards each other. Sasuke palmed a storage scroll right as they were about to collide, making a puff of smoke about his torso. There was a glint.

Hinata threw her upper body backwards as the blade swung over her head, then span in place as it stabbed down. ("I told him not to try and behead her." Murmured Itachi from the Hokage's left) Hinata cartwheeled away from its edge before jumping back to get some distance between her and Sasuke. Then she scowled. "Cheap move."

Sasuke readied Raito and grinned. "We're ninja."

"Fair enough."

Both pairs of eyes narrowed.

"Sharingan!"

"Byakugan!"

Their dojutsu flared to life.

In the stands, Naruto prepared to watch the most dramatic fight of the exams so far.


Thirty seconds later, the most dramatic fight of the exams so far hadn't started yet.

"Uh..." Naruto glanced sideways.

"Genjutsu battle." Kakashi explained. He had revealed his Sharingan, and was watching the two children standing still quite intently. "Sasuke's Sharingan means his illusions and hypnosis are much stronger if he can make eye contact, and Hinata's too proud to look away."

"Like when he made Tenten fall asleep?"

"Precisely. But Hinata's Byakugan can see the chakra, so she knows exactly what he's doing and is perfectly equipped to stop it."

"Sounds interesting."

"It is."

"I was being sarcastic. When does it finish?"

Kakashi rolled his eyes. "Give them a few more seconds, they'll realise they're wasting time."

A few more seconds passed, and the most dramatic fight of the exams so far was back on. They clashed in the centre, both dodging warily around each other's strikes. Then Hinata put a palm out towards Sasuke's incoming sword, and blocked it. Using a carefully controlled burst of chakra, she was able to nullify the lightning release chakra in the blade and blunt it. She gripped it and threw her other palm forwards, but Sasuke ducked it and twisted his sword free of her grip, swinging again towards her shoulder. The pace of the duel increased as the distance between the pair shrank, now much more comfortable pummelling into each other. Chakra clashed as the sword struck Hinata's hands, and as Sasuke got much more comfortable using his offhand to try and keep her off balance. Dust was kicked up between them as they fell into a twisting, dancing mess. She swept, and he jumped, and then he was slamming his sword down onto her. She caught the flat of the blade and for a moment held Sasuke's weight on top of herself. Then she heaved, and with another blast of chakra sent him hurtling up and away. He sheared the sword midair and flashed through hand seals, bringing his fingers up to his mouth. "Great fireball jutsu!"

The sphere of flame launched towards Hinata. She shifted her stance slightly. "Eight trigrams; Rotation!"

She turned, and the spinning blue dome appeared around her just as the fireball hit. It impacted with a roar and was swept into the rotation, resulting in a massive fire-whirl that extended upwards over fifty metres into the sky. The crowd 'ooh'ed.

Sasuke landed outside the cyclone, knowing damn well Hinata could see everything he was doing, and started making a long string of hand seals. Just because you can see it coming doesn't mean you can stop it.

A strange chirping noise filled the arena.

The rotation ended and the fire whirl dispersed, to reveal Hinata making her own set of hand seals with a shocked expression. Sasuke blitzed towards her, a blade of lightning extending from his hand.

Hinata jumped, finishing her hand signs, and lightning chakra began to form in her hand as well. Sasuke angled his strike upwards. Hinata twisted and struck down.

Both Chidori slammed into their target's bodies.

Both shadow clones dispelled.

The real Sasuke and Hinata walked towards each other, both genuinely surprised.

"He taught you the Chidori?" Sasuke shouted.

"He taught you the Chidori?" Hinata yelled

"He taught them the Chidori?" Itachi exclaimed.

"You taught them the Chidori?" Jiraiya gaped at Kakashi, who shrugged. "An A rank assassination jutsu? That's...that's like me teaching Naruto the rasengan!"

"Incredibly irresponsible and a terrible idea?" Kakashi dryly responded.

"Exactly!" Jiraiya shouted. "And now I'm going to have to do that just to avoid being outdone!"

In the arena, the fight was moving again. Both had gotten their shadow clones' remaining chakra back, but given the immense cost of the 'thousand birds' that refund was pittance. Sasuke's chakra reserves were around half now, and he knew Hinata's must be about the same. He resolved to try and conserve what he had left, darting in with his sword.

Hinata apparently had decided no such thing. There was a burst of smoke, and then an owl at least twice Sasuke's height was stood in front of him. He stabbed Raito flat down into the ground just as a massive gust of wind tore through the arena. Sasuke gripped onto his blade's hilt and saved himself being thrown bodily across the floor, but was helpless to stop Hinata leaping on top of the owl.

"This boy is not your enemy." It cautioned her.

"No." She told it. "But he is in my way."

"Drama queen." It huffed, but said no more, spreading its wingspan and taking off.

From the floor Sasuke grimaced, and began to throw an inordinate amount of shuriken at the flying menace. Making the most of his Sharingan assisted trajectory calculation, he had ninja stars bouncing off each other to hit the bird from just about any angle. Hinata made the most of her own dojutsu and her tree-walking expertise (her chakra control put even his to shame) and clambered around her mount, striking away every single projectile he sent towards her. The owl paused in midair to put its claws together, and a cluster of white arcs hurtled down towards Sasuke. The summon, it seemed, had mastered the important wind style technique of making the air really fucking sharp. He ran, the blades tearing up the concrete beneath him and launching dust and rocks up into the air. At which moment he realised two unrelated things:

1: that dust would do nothing to hide him from her and

2: she couldn't use the rotation technique while she was on the owl, or it would ruin it's flying.

Grinning, he formed some more seals.

"Phoenix fire jutsu!"

A rapid series of smaller fireballs blasted up towards Hinata, and her owl was forced to make some evasive manoeuvres as it came under (quite literally, hehe) anti-air fire.

"We may need to adjust our strategy." It hooted.

"I have an idea." Hinata told it. "Dive."

"Of all the foolish, overconfident summoners-"

It obeyed, tucking its wings in and diving straight towards the floor as Hinata explained the rest of her 'plan'. Pulling up, it ended up gliding barely across the floor, and Sasuke was faced with a very angry looking bird blitzing straight towards him with an even angrier looking Hyuuga riding it, who had just finished gathering what his Sharingan helpfully informed him was lightning release chakra.

He held firm, and put his hand on his sword.

"Thudershock jutsu!" She shouted, launching a bolt of electricity towards him. It was a stunning technique, not a lethal one, meant to keep him from moving while the owl hit him. But move he did. He drew Raito and caught the bolt on the blade; it reacted with the lightning chakra in the sword and intensified, just in time for him to twist and swing. Blue light crackled along the sword as he hurled a wave of electricity at his attackers. Hinata jumped off in time to avoid it, but the owl screeched as the lightning stunned it, causing it to crash into a slide along the ground. Hinata's leftover momentum sent her flying forwards and Sasuke was able to land a double kick to her midriff, knocking her away and propelling himself towards the owl, which he landed on and stabbed through the skull as it came to a stop. It desummoned, and he sheathed his sword on his way to the floor. Hinata got to her feet.

"That." Sasuke said, breathing heavily. "Was the coolest thing I've ever done."


Hinata glared at him. She was hurt, not injured, but her chakra reserves were low. She could manage perhaps one more chidori before falling unconscious, or only a handful of rotations. Her primary attack strategy didn't require much in the way of chakra, allowing her to spend it in large chunks without much worry, but since Sasuke had found a counter to the gentle fist...Her annoyance was building.

"Surrender." She called across to him.

"Not a chance." He called back.

She growled and tensed.

At this rate, she was probably going to lose. If she lost, she probably wouldn't be promoted to chunin. If she wasn't promoted, she'd have to wait another six months to try again, to get access to her family's secrets and to higher difficulty missions. People might get hurt because she wasn't there to help them. Neji certainly wouldn't die as early. And if she was forced to stay behind as Naruto was promoted...

So to summarise, if she lost this battle, the world would suffer. That fulfilled her vow, didn't it?

Looking deep inside herself, she mentally gripped a certain one of her tenketsu.

"First gate! The gate of opening!" She shouted. "Open!"


"He taught you the gates?" Sasuke shouted.

"He taught her the gates?" Itachi muttered.

Kakashi gaped at the arena as chakra swirled about his student before rounding on Gai. "You taught Hinata the gates?"

"She was very insistent." Gai defended himself, grimly, before bursting into enthusiasm. "And incredibly talented! Learning to open even the first gate in under a month? It's an amazing display!"

"What he said! This is awesome!" Naruto was leaning as far as he could over the bars without destabilising.

In the arena, Sasuke had figuratively shit himself. He had considered attacking Hinata while she was charging up, but eventually decided that might just make her attack sooner and elected instead to throw shuriken over the arena while running far away. It didn't help. Hinata blurred across the ground, sending brick dust and shuriken scattering in her wake, and Sasuke's Sharingan barely let him react fast enough to stop her punching a hole in his chest. As it was he went skidding backwards, forearms smarting, then she was gone and she hit him in the back. He blocked the next two punches, took the knee to the stomach, then the elbow to the side of his face sent him to the floor. He rolled away from the stomp and disengaged from the first grab, so she punched him in the stomach and grabbed him again, throwing him halfway across the arena. It was then that she realised she knew the gentle fist, and chased him with palms open.

"That's why I made her promise to check her nindo before activating the gates." Said Gai, sheepishly. "They tend to make one...irrational..."

"Get out of my WAAAAAAY!" Hinata yelled gutturally.

"Does Lee get like that?" Jiraya asked.

"Lee's...always like that." Naruto explained.

In midair, Sasuke made three shadow clones (feeling light headed from the effort) and they landed in unison, two wielding swords and two unarmed. They met in the centre of the arena in a clash of steel and flesh. Hinata was in her element, striking like lightning, and Sasuke? His eyes were throbbing. She was just too fast. His Sharingan was darting about like nobody's business trying to keep up with her, but she was just barely quicker than he could track and it hurt.

She was going to win. One of his shadow clones popped, and then another. He attempted to make more, and got a kick to the forearms for his trouble. She was winning and there was nothing he could do about it. For a split second he caught the eye of his father and a few other members of his family in the crowd. Fugaku was looking straight at him, completely impassively.

No.

Sasuke couldn't lose. Not when he was this fucking close. The pain behind his eye spiked to a maximum and his mouth opened in a wordless yell. Hinata blew apart his final clone and turned on him, aiming a palm strike straight at his forehead.

He caught it.

For a moment Hinata just stared at him, dumbfounded. Six tomoe and a grin stared back at her.

Grimacing, she threw another series of strikes, all of which were blocked, then she fell back into a lower stance. "Eight trigrams! Sixty four palms!" She screamed, then launched into the combination.

Sasuke realised that he knew what she was going to do. His eyes saw every twitch in her muscles, and extrapolated every move she was going to make. Not to mention; he'd seen her do this technique before with the Sharingan, practically recorded it. With tight, efficient movements, still outclassed in raw speed, he began blocking the strikes.

"He evolved his Sharingan?" Kakashi gaped.

"He evolved his Sharingan?" The Kazakage murmured.

Oh fuck he evolved his Sharingan. Hinata thought, dimly.

"You see that?" Shouted an incredibly excited Itachi, grabbing the shoulders of the nearest person to him. "That's three tomoe! He's fully evolved his Sharingan! In a matter of months! Not even I could do that, he's so amazing I'm so fucking proud of him-"

The Hokage coughed. "Yes, thank you for your input Itachi. Please release me."

The Kazekage snickered.

Down in the arena, both combatants staggered backwards.

Hinata was struggling to understand that Sasuke had just blocked the sixty four palms.

Sasuke was struggling to understand that he had just blocked the sixty four palms.

Well, mostly. He'd had to let eighteen of the last thirty two through, the technique's exponentially increasing speed made it just too fast for him to block, but while his movement was limited, his chakra was still barely flowing. He put his hands together while she was still recovering.

"Great fireball jutsu!"

She was able to react, spinning into another rotation, but not to get out of the way, as another burning tornado appeared around her.

Sasuke didn't let up, launching concurrent blasts of fire that turned the ground around Hinata red. The exhaustion the first gate was causing her was beginning to show; even though Sasuke couldn't see her past the firewhirl, the size of her rotations waned as she was forced backwards across the arena yes yes yes-

Inside the firewall Hinata was fuming. After all that he was beating her again. This couldn't be happening, she'd come too damn far to let him wear her down into submission now. What did she have...a frontal assault was impossible, she didn't have enough chakra to summon anything big enough to survive the flames, his sword could stop her lightning jutsu, damn that Uchiha! When had he started specialising his kit just to beat her?

Of course, there was always...

Anything. I don't care anymore. This bastard has it coming, anything to beat him!

She stopped spinning, and the rotation collapsed.


Sasuke was a little worried when the firewhirl fell in on itself and his fireball blasted forwards across the arena, straight through where his teammate should be; but this was Hinata. A little burn wouldn't hurt her too much, and besides she probably had some strategy in play. He cut the jutsu, chakra reserves smarting and almost empty, and fell back into a ready stance, eyes tracking across the arena to see what would happen. He probably should have expected her to burst through the fire and charge straight at him. He hadn't expected the black markings that spread all across her body and the feral look on her face. She was even fucking faster, blitzing forward and punching him in the stomach in a move that definitely cracked one of his ribs and sent him flying across the arena.

He stumbled to a halt and glared at her. "You activated the curse mark?" He shouted. "Just to beat me? You bitch!"

Well fine then if that's how she wants to fucking play it-

He felt for the seal on his neck and broke it with a burst of chakra. When Hinata next jumped at him, he kicked her away, black spreading across his own skin and violence in his eyes.

"Are their curse marks on?" Naruto gaped at the fighters, before looking back at Jiraya. "I thought you sealed them away!"

"I did." The sannin bit out. "They activated them deliberately."

"They're going that far? Guys..." Naruto whined, turning back to the arena where the duo were staring each other down again. "Be nice..."

"When are they going to stop escalating the fight?" Asked Jiraiya.

"Well, Sasuke's dad is using carrot and stick to make him win at all costs, and Hinata gets access to more 'kill Neji' points if she wins." Kakashi pointed out.

Naruto furrowed his eyebrows. "So either Sasuke has to...or Hinata has to...oh my god they're going to kill each other stop the match!"

The match did not stop, and the gladiators fell upon each other like banshees.

The following fight could be accurately described as two very strong children beating the stuffing out of each other.

All pretence of technique or skill was gone, Hinata punched Sasuke into the air then jumped after him; he grabbed her arm and spun in a circle, throwing her down into the concrete.

Beat him beat him beat him-

Beat her beat her beat her-

She landed making a small crater, and kicked him sideways when he fell down towards her, crashing him into the side of the arena and then chasing after him again. She punched and he ducked out of the way, so she punched again, smashing well over five holes in the wall before he grabbed her by the shoulders. He headbutted her. She headbutted him back. So he put a foot in her chest and booted her back towards the centre of the arena.

Both realised that this wasn't very effective.

Crush him crush him crush him-

Crush her crush her crush her-

In unison, they started making hand seals.

"Oh no." Kakashi grimaced from the stands.

"Is that-" Naruto gestured.

"CHIDORI!" Both combatants yelled.

"Sensei stop the match please." Naruto turned to grab Kakashi's sleeve.

"I can't." He grit his teeth. "Fights in the chunin exams are allowed to lead to death, nobody is supposed to interfere unless-"

"Sensei! Please!" There were genuine tears in Naruto's eyes. "Don't let my teammates die!"

Kakashi froze.

In the arena, Sasuke and Hinata started running. The pair barrelled towards each other, clan dojutsu honed for centuries picking out every weakness, every bead of sweat and burst of lightning chakra.

They closed on each other, distance shrinking to twenty metres, fifteen, as they started moving faster and faster; like a game of blink where neither had any plans to stop.

Kill him kill him kill him-

Kill her kill her kill-wait, what?

With a blur, Hatake Kakashi jumped the railing.

For Sasuke, time seemed to slow even further. He could win. He knew damn well he could. Hinata was going too fast, his Sharingan could read her every movement like a book and he knew exactly where she would be at the point of the clash. There were a dozen different ways he could angle himself, a dozen ways he could reduce her chidori to a glancing blow while putting his right through her stomach. Winning...by killing her.

Was that really what he wanted?

Of course. Kill her, for your father, for your name, for your pride-

That was the curse mark, opening it was a mistake, and he struggled to think of the counter arguments he knew were there, that were putting such a horrible feeling in his chest. He fought to free his mind from its influence, to regain some sense of lucidity. Of course he wanted to win. He wanted, so fucking badly, for his father to look down at him, smile, and say he was proud of him. But kill his opponent? No, kill Hinata? He couldn't do that. Why couldn't he do that? Why why why dammit why-

Inside his head, he felt like he just broke the surface of a dark pool of water. Because Hinata was his teammate. She was his friend. And next to that, everything else faded into obscurity. Sasuke made his choice.


As Hinata continued in a straight line, a second from making contact, Sasuke shifted, digging one foot into the ground and sticking it there with chakra. The resulting moment pivoted him in a circle with enough force to tear all the muscle in his lower leg, but pulled him off his intercept course. Hinata moved past him, surprise registering past the rictus of hate on her face, as Sasuke buried his chidori into the ground in a massive, final explosion.

"I forfeit!" He yelled.

There was a moment of silence. Kakashi had stopped dead halfway across the arena towards them.

Then Gekko shouted "Uchiha Sasuke forfeits! Victory goes to Hyuuga Hinata!"

The crowd erupted into applause.

Hinata was frozen on the spot for another second, before the Chidori dissipated from around her right hand. Then the first gate closed, and the curse mark reverted, and her legs couldn't hold her up any longer. She collapsed, joining Sasuke on the floor.

A lot happened in the following moments. Medic-nin came on stretchers to pick up both combatants, who both suddenly realised they were in a lot of pain.

Gekko glared at Kakashi, who gave him a 'try me' look and walked back towards Naruto and Jiraiya, the latter holding the former by the scruff of his neck to stop him running towards his teammates.

Itachi had turned away from the arena and his superiors. If anyone had seen him, the expression on his face would have been very hard to describe.

Down in the seats, Fugaku stared straight at his son, unblinking. His expression was very easy to describe. Sasuke met his eyes and Fugaku, very slowly, shook his head. Sasuke just gave him a victorious smile.


Aaight look.

Y'all need to understand how busted the Sharingan is.

It literally lets you learn all your opponent's moves and predict them the moment they throw them. And see faster. And Sasuke has been training with Hinata for months now. He'd already be proficient in the gentle fist if he could see the tenketsu; the only reason he always lost in taijutsu to her before is because (a) immature Sharingan and (b) gentle fist is such a bitch to fight against. A Hyuuga can literally paralyze you while blocking.

The first gate is a five times multiplier to your base speed and strength, as stated by Gai. That's canon. But it sure doesn't help your precision and perception of time any. Hinata has had barely one month's training with the gates, she was only able to unlock it right at the end of that. So she hasn't had the time to practice using it with the gentle fist. 1st gate Hinata could beat three-tomoe Sasuke in a taijutsu spar, but it would be close.

Then there's the curse mark, which is a flat increase to your physical strength by absorbing senjutsu chakra (making Sasuke about ten times stronger, stated). It's more significant than the first gate alone, at least at this level, and it doesn't stack with it. So Hinata is only a bit stronger and faster than Sasuke, and his eye is busted.

In the end, the outcome of this fight was up to him.

I hope you enjoyed it, I tried to make it as interesting as possible as both sides used as much of their kits as possible. Next chapter, the fallout. Sasuke has done his share of character development, but now...what are his teammates going to think?

Also Holy Shit, 100 reviews? Hello? When did that happen? Thanks!