Article 9 - Chapter 7 - The Arena's Champion
Warnings: I do not own Naruto, it's intellectual property is owned by none other than Masashi Kishimoto. I own the OC's that I've added to the story and nothing more.
- I had a lot of fun coming up with ideas for this chapter, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did :) -
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Cheers engrossed the entire arena after both Neji and I began walking out. The shouts made it difficult to even think while being bombarded by the constant roar.
People were holding up signs for both of us, but I could tell that I had the most supporters in the arena and I knew Neji could tell too. Our eyes were stuck in a deadlock which only helped to build the tension and anticipation for the match.
A feeling of contentment and joy rose over me flooding my body with endorphins. It felt incredible.
"Contestants take your places!" the sound system boomed.
The arena began dying down. People began leaning forward in their seats to enjoy the spectacle.
I walked over to the blue marker on the ground and Neji stood on the red. He flashed that confident smile of his while I showed him my own. After all, It wouldn't due if I couldn't at least exude the same confidence he had.
"In the red corner, the challenger Neji Hyuga, 6 years and 9 months old has his sights on an upset. I'm told he underwent intense training specifically for this match, let's all hope he has a good showing!"
A round of applause rang out. Neji still had a fair amount of supporters or perhaps it was the underdog mentality. Because they had him pegged to lose they just wanted to see him break expectations.
Neji's face grimaced at that but melded back into a neutral expression with his eyes never looking away from me.
"And in the blue corner, Mina Hyuga of only 4 years and 4 months old, the pride of her clan, will fight to protect her title 'Prodigy of Prodigies.' She is the holder of two Kekkei Genkai, the only in our village! Let's all send out a round of applause for our champion!"
I was surprised to hear a greater roar from the crowd which drowned everything else out. People were giving me standing ovations which confused me as to why I deserved this preferential treatment.
"Alright! The rules are simple, blunted weaponry, fatal strikes are forbidden, and will be decided by forfeit or knock out. If the match isn't concluded in 10 minutes our judges will determine the results! Since we got that out of the way, Let's get ready to start everyone! The countdown is about to begin! 10! 9! 8-"
Neji had taken his stance first, a strong neutral stance which could either defend or attack. The usual stance he would take during our spars.
'I hope you have something new for me Neji-kun' I said in my head.
"5! 4! 3!"
I squatted lower to the ground to assume my aggressive charge stance. I could feel a smile creep onto my face but I didn't even want to hide it. My whole body felt energized like it was raring to be put to use. "Byakugan!"
"1! START!"
The chakra I had cultivated near my heels was pushed into the ground and I jolted forwards. Neji had taken a step backwards as he took out kunai from behind him, likely in his pouch.
He launched them at the direction I was traveling toward and I shot them out of the air with my bone bullets. After seeing this he aimed the rest of his kunai into the ground and I noticed that they were all strung with wire strings.
"Hm… that's new." I thought.
I stopped my advance temporarily as I eyed the terrain. I started scooting sideways to circle him. I likely still had superior close range capabilities, so I would abuse that.
As I was feeling him out he continued to throw kunai into the ground strung with wire strings.
It looked like he was trying to create chokepoints I couldn't easily run over, but the same lack of mobility that hindered me would hinder himself.
I started prodding him from a distance with my kunai to limit the amount of traps he could set before I could blitz him.
I saw his hand reach behind him again and I saw my opportunity. I extended a bone through my hand and lengthened it like a pole to extend my swing.
Neji caught on instantly and ducked under the attack before striking it with the palm of his off hand. A shockwave was sent through it and pushed my arm into the air before I retracted the bone.
He leapt off the ground flinging himself into the air and looping his wire strings around my wrist.
I felt a pang of danger resound through my being before cutting the wire by morphing the structure of my bone to more serrated and jagged edges.
The wire snapped.
AIR PALM!
"WHAT?" I blurted in disbelief.
A thick slab of chakra was approaching me quickly.
I didn't have time to dodge, so I reinforced my palms with gentle fist enhanced chakra and slapped at the energy blast hoping to knock it off course.
I caught the edge with my palm and shoved it off course.
YES!
Movement… Neji was closing the distance between us… why? With the air palm he has superior mid ranged tools, why wouldn't he exploit that? Does it burn chakra too fast?
My mind was moving a mile a minute.
I should still be superior short range, Ill lock down his arms with mine and wrap him with my spine for my win condition. Simple enough If i can get him to overextend both hands, I'll let him get into a position to get near my chest.
My smile widened.
Neji was on me in an instant. He jabbed out his palm a few times but they missed and I could tell he wasn't activating the air palm again because the chakra hadn't formed in his hand the way it had before. The attack was too telegraphed to work on a byakugan user with similar skill after i've seen it once.
Then I saw it, the way he pushed his chakra into both arms I could tell it would be a reinforced strike.
I leaned forward anticipating the strike.
Instead as his hands got closer they joined into a hand seal?!
Dog, Boar, Ram. Transform!
Neji became taller, and instead of 2 arms, he now had 8. Even as his arms approached me I could see the arms all contained tenketsu one the hands and could see the chakra swirling between them. It was a majestic sight that made me appreciate jutsu even as simple as this deserved respect.
Fingers made contact with my body all over as tanketsu's were ruptured simultaneously. I threw myself backwards into a handstand while I drew my spine from my back. I grabbed ahold and unleashed a whip slash incase he continued to advance.
He stopped and gave me a cheeky grin.
Chakra was sucked into the palms of all 8 hands as they faced me. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
8 simultaneous air palms approached me. They were layered so they would still cover distance but I would be hit with no less than 2. I poured chakra into the spine I still held and slashed one of the air palms splitting it in two and missing.
That didn't stop the rest and I crouched under the impact only getting caught by 1.
The damage I sustained was significant. It was hard to channel chakra through my body, through the maze of working and unusable tenketsu. It burned and the pulse that hit my body seemed to have shocked my system a bit.
I was not in a good position in this fight, I had underestimated my opponent. I hadn't expected him having the air palm technique, and he caught me by surprise with his 8 arms transformation.
Neji was a brilliant fighter which just made me respect him even more. I had pushed him to this. He made all of these techniques just to counter me, I should feel honored!
But the frustration of losing was clouding over that quite a bit.
He moved closer and I lashed out with my whip and I wrapped it around Neji's ankle. I tugged and released bone fragments into him latching on so that I could rob him of his mobility and yank him off balance if he chose to start trying the air palm technique.
I started reeling him in like he was a prized fish. But he crushed the bone with an overhead smash with several of the arms. They looked hardened and flush with chakra.
Yes this is it!
I grinned.
I threw kunai into the air so they would rain down upon him like hail.
It was all just a distraction.
I would be the first person to beat Neji with the old 'under the ground trick.'
I burrowed a bone tunneling underground and spreading out towards Neji while reaching for more kunai.
He was too preoccupied with defending himself from the kunai rainstorm that I had stacked with another layer of straight thrown kunai. Both waves converged and Neji fought off the storm of kunai brilliantly.
I pushed my bones up and wrapped my spine around him as it snaked up his body.
By the time I can get the spine to the throat he will have lost.
His arms grabbed for my spine which slithered over him like snakes as they were swatted from reaching too high.
He had enough of them and the root in hand to yank them affixing me to the ground.
I saw energy build up in two hands overhead
I would need to dislocate the bone from me or go for the neck. A certain dodge or a draw at worse?
The shouts stopped.
Neji stopped.
The blasts had just been released from his palms and they froze mid air.
My bones were at the top of his chest and I couldn't raise them anymore.
Neji's mouth twitched.
"How are you enjoying your reincarnation?"
It was Neji's voice, but it felt so unnatural.
I could see that everyone in the arena were frozen in place. They were like statues.
"BEING-X?! What an unpleasant reunion!"
I glared daggers at the form of Neji but the idea of Being-X.
"It would seem you still hold no faith." he said.
"I'm not so weak I would need to cling to the metaphysical!'"
"I was going to keep my interference to a minimum, but It appears I will need to discipline an unruly lamb..." He said.
"DAMN YOU BEING-X! I will not submit. I will not relent."
A dark sadistic smile spread across Neji's face, his eyes are now painted black.
Movement. I directed my attention to a figure that leapt from the stands. It's eyes were also black as midnight and he approached me.
"What is this Being-X?"
They both continued with their creepy smile as the one still was approaching me.
Shivers were being sent up my spine. "Danger! Danger!" my mind kept telling me.
It stopped in front of me, the fully black eyes were unnerving from inches away.
"Is this fight important to you?" It asked in a mocking voice.
The figure walked forward until stopping at the blasts Neji had discharged.
It used its fingertips to move the blast around until dragging them both closer to me. It kept moving closer and closer until the blasts were straight in front of me.
"YOU'RE JOKING? THIS IS RIDICULOUS?! YOU CAN'T MEAN TO START TIME BACK UP WHILE THESE BLASTS ARE BUT AND INCH FROM MY FACE! I WON'T BE ABLE TO DO ANYTHING LET ALONE BRACE FOR IMPACT!"
"Unruly lambs must be shown their follies."
"THIS IS SHIT! FUCK YOU!"
I watched it practically dance back to the seat back in the stands. It looked so damn happy with itself. I would break it, that damnedable Being-X. I would cut it into pieces and feed it to the most devout believers of his faith. I would slay the god and have them eat it in a artistic recreation of communion! It would be glorious…
I tried to distract myself with my delusions of grandeur, but It wasn't for long.
Everything started moving.
My body was pelted with so much energy that I couldn't keep my eyes open.
It hurt everywhere.
I hadn't been able to brace for the strike in the slightest, If i knew when time would have started perhaps I could have in the least released chakra from all my tenketsu at once to soften the blow, but no.
I opened my eyes much to my shock.
I was in the hospital.
A blank spot in my memory between when I got hit and here.
I had thought after getting hit I had just gotten knocked over and closed my eyes, but now after opening them it tells a different story.
I must have passed out.
I noticed Neji sitting in a chair next to me, he saw that I woke up and got up and left the room with a smile.
That smug bastard doesn't have a clue that I was cheated out of my win. It wasn't fair! NOOOOOO!
I found myself screaming inside my head to vent my frustration. I was imploding. How can I compete with such a unfair God? Whenever he wants to win he just freezes time and exploits my helplessness?!
The door opened and I looked up to see Hiashi. I didn't even want to look him in the eyes, I knew the disappointment he must feel after losing in such a way.
"Im sorry Hiashi-sama… I was too careless."
A fire burned in me, an inferno. I wanted to burn the whole world to the ground just to spite Being-X. It would never be enough, I would teach him to fear me.
"It was indeed a lackadaisical showing from you. That you could not dodge the blow or restrain him was pitiful, but besides that It was a good display and no doubt will keep the village talking… I am told you have many fans that want to see you get better, so stay and rest for a while before coming back to the compound." He said before leaving the room.
It was now just me and Neji.
"I too am surprised that you were cornered so easily." Neji said with a nod.
"I guess some things just aren't meant to be…" I whispered while biting my lip.
"Indeed. It would appear I have won the bet." He said with a big grin.
I felt miserable. I lost like that and now I would have to change his honorific. DAMNIT!
I thought about saying screw it, to pretend like I forgot all about the stake and faint memory loss… but unlike 'Being-X', I can be the bigger person.
"It appears you have… Neji-senpai…"
I will never forget the face he made in a million years, in a thousand cycles of reincarnation even. He looked so satisfied. I wanted to crack him over the head with something and hug him all at the same time. It was definitely a strange feeling, one that I would not soon forget.
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Authors Notes: Zemptai-sama again, Being-X likes to teach our OC that it is superior and won't be belittled by such a existence!
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