Konoha was not in a good position at the moment. Currently, it was being invaded by two cooperating villages in the form of Sunagakure (Sand Village) and Otogakure (Sound Village). The Hokage was battling Orochimaru and many Shinobi were being brutally murdered.
To Ino Yamanaka, Kiba Inuzuka, and Choji Akimichi, the sight of fellow Leaf ninja being murdered from many directions at once made them want to puke. They were fully aware that they too could end up like the bodies littering the village of Konoha.
And that would terrify any rookie Genin.
Kurenai had her fears as well. Every ninja did. However, being more experienced than the three rookies, she knew how to hide her fears and put on a brave face.
There was only one thing that Kurenai feared so much that if it ever came to fruition, she would never be able to live with herself. And that was…
The death of the Genin she would look after. The death of any other ninja she was with for that matter.
Kurenai Yuhi didn't care about her own life as much as others. She could accept death gladly. If she died for those she was close to and for the village, then she would serve her purpose.
But if fresh, promising ninja died because of her...then she had no right to even call herself a ninja. This was Kurenai Yuhi's greatest fear...one that she knew she would never be able to conquer.
And unfortunately for her, that fear began to rise to the surface when she saw a light blue-haired woman begin to walk towards them with a sadistic smile on her face.
Kurenai stepped in front of her Genin. She could tell just by how this person walked that she was powerful. Stronger than the three rookies combined certainly. Kurenai herself had doubts that she could beat her, but if she didn't try to, then she and the three Genin were already dead.
"You three, stay behind me!" She commanded with a firm tone. "You are not to engage battle unless I say so."
"But sensei-"
"I don't want to hear it, Kiba!" Kurenai interrupted, shutting her student up immediately. "This woman is too strong for all of you...even I don't know if I can beat her. As of right now, you guys will act as my backup!"
Ino's mouth quivered as her hands began to shake uncontrollably.
"Ease your fears, Ino. Do not let the enemy see your weak side!" The Genjutsu Mistress said with a strict voice. Her tone then softened with what she said next, "Don't worry. I swear on my life that I won't let any of you die."
"How touching." Their opponent chuckled. "Comforting students before their inevitable deaths. My heart wrenches whenever I see such poor souls." As she spoke, her hands were covered by a thin sheet of nearly transparent crystal.
Kurenai narrowed her eyes at the sight. Shoton (Crystal Style)? That is...
She wasn't able to finish her thoughts due to Guren beginning to dash towards them with great speed. She reacted quickly, pulling out a kunai and jumping forward.
She aimed for a slash towards Guren's body, only for the opposing women to simply lift up both of her arms in front of her. Kurenai thought she would slash right through the crystallized hands, but to her surprise the kunai stopped dead in its tracks with a loud clang.
"What?! But that's impossible!" Kiba cried out loud as he witnessed what just happened.
"Fools. My crystals could be so hard that a mere kunai would break. Obviously, it costs more chakra to increase the hardness but I think I have enough to go around!"
Kurenai gritted her teeth as she separated her kunai from Guren's crystal hands. She moved to thrust her kunai forward, hoping for a different effect. However, this time, Guren sidestepped the attack, grabbing her right arm with her left and forming a fist with her other one.
"My crystals don't just increase defense..." Guren cocked back her fist and threw it forward. It connected with Kurenai's abdomen, earning the women's long gasp as she the air in her lungs were pushed out. "They can increase my strength as well."
Guren smirked. As Kurenai was still bent over clutching her pained stomach, the follower of Orochimaru traced her hand over to her left breast, right above her heart.
"It's disappointing, I expected more from a Konoha ninja. Well, I guess this is good-bye. Shoton: Suishoutou (Crystal Style: Jade Crystal Blade)!" Extending from her forearm, a blue crystal blade appeared, piercing right through Kurenai's chest and heart, protruding out of the other side of her body with blood spewing out like a water fountain.
"KYAAAAAH/KURENAI-SENSEI!" Ino and Kiba screamed out of horror respectively at the sight. And, while Choji didn't release a scream, he was still frozen in his tracks, eyes widened from what he had just witnessed.
Guren calmly removed the blade from Kurenai's body, seemingly not fazed by her actions at all. She narrowed her eyes, when all of a sudden, she spun around on her heel while swinging her left arm at the same time.
The person behind her leaned backwards as if they were playing a game of Limbo, avoiding getting decapitated by a mere inch. The person lifted up their foot, kicking outwards and hitting Guren in the chest, causing the kunoichi to stumble backwards.
She would have stepped on Kurenai's corpse, but…
It wasn't there anymore.
"Genjutsu, eh? Not bad...this might be a little more fun now." Guren said as she looked at the person who kicked her, seeing Kurenai alive and well. She looked at the blade sticking out on her left arm to see no blood whatsoever, as she expected. "Hmm, it seems I underestimated you. Better not do that again."
"I am a Jonin of Konoha. And right now I'm going to show you what I used to achieve that rank!" Kurenai declared.
"Oh, is that a challenge? Then please, don't disappoint me! Shoton: Shuriken Ranbu (Crystal Style: Shuriken Wild Dance)!" Guren extended her arms out to her sides as multiple crystal particles formed around. They condensed into numerous shuriken as they continued to circulate around her.
One by one, the shuriken were launched towards Kurenai at high speeds.
The female Jonin placed her kunai between her teeth, making the Tiger, Hare, Boar, and Dog hand signs in rapid succession, proceeding to slam her hands onto the ground.
Doton: Doryuuheki (Earth Style: Mud Wall)! She internally recited the name of the Jutsu as a wall of material composed from the earth shot up from the ground in front of her.
"Fool..." Guren muttered with a smirk as she formed a hand sign.
As the shuriken connected with the wall, the earthen material began to crystallize. As the shuriken hit the now crystallized portions of the wall, they broke through.
Kurenai had to cling to the ground in order to avoid getting hit.
By the time Guren had thrown all her shuriken, very little of Kurenai's Mud Wall was left standing.
"Shoton allows me to convert any matter into crystal, whether it'd be physical material or the mere air. This extends to natures like earth and water, so obviously, Doton Jutsu are completely useless." Guren said with a mocking tone as Kurenai rose to her feet, kunai back in hand.
Guren held out her left arm, another crystal blade formed extending from her forearm to her hand. Armed with two blades, she ran forward. The ninja leaped into the air, prompting Kurenai to look up.
The Genjutsu Mistress also sprung into the air, holding her kunai upward, hoping to stab Guren somewhere on her body.
She miscalculated.
She didn't take into account how far the crystal blades reached, so when she tried to get close to Guren, she was forced to lean backwards to dodge the strikes thrown at her. Doing this, however, left her completely open for attack.
Taking advantage of this, Guren crashed her body onto Kurenai. The two dropped to the cold ground with a resounding thud. As she used the Konoha nin as a cushion of sorts, Guren suffered very little pain from the fall while Kurenai's back ached with it.
Guren stood up, and then readjusted, placing her knee on Kurenai's midsection to restrain her. She moved the blade on her left hand over to Kurenai's throat, prepared to cut right into it, which would in turn kill the woman.
While this scuffle occurred, three Genin Kurenai was supposed to be looking after looked on in horror, with Kiba in particular seething with anger, fist trembling and all.
This scene…
It looked familiar, and not in a good way.
Yes...it was a day he would never forget.
The day his teammate and best friend, Akamaru, got hurt on that joint C-ranked mission with Suna.
Akamaru seemed to identify with this, as a low growling sound could be heard from the ninken. And Kiba, his owner, could easily tell that the animal was remembering the same period of time he was.
"Kurenai-sensei…"
Akamaru barked with a gruff and angry tone.
"Alright, I had enough of this! Akamaru!" Kiba called out to his partner, who jumped out of jacket and onto the ground.
It all happened so fast that Ino and Choji didn't realize Kiba and a transformed Akamaru had rushed forward until it was too late.
"Gatsuuga (Fang Over Fang)!"
"Kiba!" Both Ino and Choji yelled as said boy and his partner began to rotate rapidly towards Guren in an attempt to save Kurenai.
Guren turned her head slightly to the right, glancing at the oncoming Kiba and Akamaru. She couldn't help but let out a smirk.
Taking her knee off of Kurenai and turning to the attacking Genin, all she did was throw her hands in front of herself, as a thin sheet of crystal moved to cover her entire body.
Kiba and Akamaru's attack connected, and Guren was hit in multiple areas of the body by many rapid strikes. She didn't let out a single sound as the two let out their barrage of attacks.
She tanked it all. No, it was like she was embracing it.
A Genin's attack didn't mean anything to her. It just seemed like child's play dodging an attack that wouldn't even do much in the first place.
When the attack was done, Guren was thrown backwards, tumbling across the ground, making no attempt to stop herself.
"Kiba!" Kurenai exclaimed out of shock. "I thought I told you to stay back!"
"But sensei! If I didn't do anything, you would have-"
The sound of feminine chuckling made Kiba's blood go cold. He turned to where Guren's body was to see the woman standing right in front of him with a smile on her face.
He took a step back, a frozen look of fear on his face. Akamaru whimpered at the sight of his master in danger.
"I'll admit…" Guren started looking at her arms, which noticeably had cracked armor and no crystal blades. "I let you hit me. But I didn't expect that you were strong enough to break my blades and slightly damage my armor as well. Not bad…"
She gripped Kiba's collar.
"For a Genin!"
She raised her other hand, prepared to form a crystal blade to finish the job, however…
"Ninpou: Shintenshin no Jutsu (Ninja Art: Mind Transfer Jutsu)!"
Guren's body tensed, her mind and body being completely taken over by the will and soul of a certain Yamanaka. Obviously, due to her usage of the Jutsu, Ino's body collapsed to the ground.
Kiba gasped as he found his feet touching the ground, Guren's hand leaving his collar.
"The hell?!"
"Kiba! Get away, now!" Ino, in control of Guren's body shouted. "It's me, Ino!"
"Ino?!" Kiba repeated out of confusion before a lightbulb went off in his head. "I see...you used that one Jutsu that takes over the mind and body!"
Ino nodded frantically, "Get going, you idiot! I can't hold this Jutsu for very long! This woman...her will is strong..."
"Got it! Come on, Akamaru!" Kiba shouted. As soon as his dog barked, the two leaped away to safety.
Ino turned her head towards Choji, who had a determined look on his face. "What are you waiting for, Choji?! Hurry it up and come hit me already!"
"Understood! Baika no Jutsu (Expansion Jutsu)!" Choji's body bulged, his torso growing significantly and becoming more round as a result. "Here we go! Nikudan Sensha (Human Boulder)!"
And with that single exclamation, Choji began to storm towards Guren's body rolling at great speeds in a similar manner as a bowling ball. As Choji approached, Ino formed a hand sign.
"Release!"
Ino's mind was transferred back into her original body, and Guren was now back in control of her body. What she didn't expect was a rolling Choji coming her way.
At this moment, Guren showed genuine shock. She widened her eyes, quickly forming hand signs and throwing out a wave of chakra in front of her, immediately forming a large crystal wall in front of her which Choji crashed into.
Choji let out a battle cry as he struggled to break through the wall, but to no avail, the crystal wall seemed to be so strong that it was impenetrable to his attack.
Eventually, Choji had to stop rolling. He returned his body to its original state as he couldn't move very well in his expanded body.
Guren smirked. The three Genin had their shot at her. Now, she was going to finish them off one by one.
"It's time for you all to die!" She declared as she formed a crystal blade extending from her forearm, leaping upwards to target the closest Genin which just so happened to be Choji. "Farewell, ninja of Konohagakure!"
"CHOJI!" Ino screamed at the top of her lungs.
She pointed downward, ready to deliver a deadly blow that would more or less kill Choji. The boy couldn't help but shut his eyes and cradle up out of fear, not wanting to look into the eyes of his killer.
He waited.
And waited.
But no blade never came.
Choji opened his eyes, looking up to see Kurenai towering over him, her kunai currently in a bladelock with Guren's crystal blade.
Kurenai pushed upward, throwing her opponent up into the air and away from Choji.
"K-Kurenai-sensei…" Choji ushered the name of his savior with a pale face due to how close to the afterlife he just was.
"Don't worry, Choji." Kurenai looked at the Akimichi, giving him a smile of assurance, "I promised myself that I wouldn't let anything happen to you guys! Not under my watch."
All Choji could do at the moment was nod.
"Now, I'll say this again...let me take care of this." The red-eyed kunoichi said with a calm and comforting voice. "I will try my hardest to make sure that we end up victorious!"
From atop the crystal wall, Guren laughed loudly. Kurenai glared at the woman, not taking her eyes off of her.
"Oh please! With teammates like those, do you really think defeating me is possible?! You'll need the help of competent Shinobi to even come close to beating me!"
"Then how about adding me to the mix you bitch!" A new voice yelled.
Everyone turned to the source of the voice to see Anko Miturashi dashing towards them with an angry expression. A kunai was in her hand ready to be thrown.
"Let's go, Choji!" Kurenai told the male Genin. The two of them ran away from Guren's wall undetected due to her being distracted by Anko. When they made it to safety, Kurenai turned around to what was happening between her enemy and fellow Konoha ninja.
"Oh? A new challenger approaches I see. Very well, then!" Guren jumped off the crystal wall and onto the ground, not even paying the slightest bit of attention to Kurenai and her platoon anymore.
"No one gets to beat the shit out of Kurenai!" Anko shouted as threw her kunai towards Guren, only for it to bounce off of her crystal blade. "The only one who gets that right is me!" The former disciple of Orochimaru held out both of her hands. After a quick moment, multiple snakes erupted out of her sleeves.
"Snakes?!" Guren cried out loud, slamming a foot onto the ground to halt her dash, trying to retreat fast enough so she could avoid the snakes, but to no avail. The snakes slithered around her body, tightening when they move anymore and entangling Guren as a result.
Kurenai walked towards Anko, giving her a smile of gratitude. "Thank you, Anko. I appreciate the help!"
The violet-haired woman grinned. "With this, I have another one up on you, Kurenai. You seem to be slacking in your duties. Now…" She returned her attention to Guren, who was struggling against the tight grip. "While I would like to kill you right now, you might have useful information if under custody! I think Ibiki will be overjoyed to see you after the battle is over."
Anko licked her lips, tightening the grip on her snakes, causing a strangled cry to escape Guren's lips.
"Anko." Kurenai said. "Don't prolong the fight by torturing her. Just knock her out now and be done with it."
The Tokubetsu Jonin pouted, "You suck, Kurenai! Ahh, fine!" Anko emplaned her foot on the ground, swinging her arms around and as a result taking Guren and the snakes along with them.
The woman let out a surprised yelp as she was launched off her feet and into the air.
"No! It won't end here!" Guren yelled, gritting her teeth as she tried to break out of the snakes.
"It won't work!" Anko called out to the aerial ninja. "I'd just give up and accept your fate you bitch! This is for trying to hurt Kurenai and those bratty Genin!"
No...with the speed she's swinging me, I'll lose consciousness the moment I hit something! At this rate...I'll fail Orochimaru-sama once again! And then...I'll have nowhere else to go! Guren thought to herself as she tried forcing her arms to break the snakes. I cannot fail this! For the sake of Orochimaru-sama!
Guren began to yell out loud. Not out of pain, but out of ferocity as she mustered all the strength and determination she could and pushed as hard as she could.
She knew she was strong enough! She was Guren, follower of Orochimaru and user of the rare Crystal Style. There was absolutely no way she would lose to ninja from the same village that Orochimaru abandoned!
SNAP!
Anko's jaw dropped, "She…"
Guren, after forming a couple of hand signs, formed a thick sheet of crystal all over her body. She made harsh contact with the ground, twisting and tumbling more than she ever had before. She dug her right arm into the ground, her crystal blade halting her rolling to an abrupt stop.
She supported herself on a single knee, letting out deep breaths due to the air she lost from the snakes, not keeping her eyes off her opponents.
"I can't believe she broke out of your snakes!" Kurenai exclaimed with a look of worry.
"Damn it!" Guren cursed under her breath. "I can't handle the two of you at once…" She looked around to see Choji, Ino, and Kiba watching from the side, attempting to conceal their presence. They all stiffened when she laid her eyes on them.
Guren smirked.
If she couldn't beat them then she could at least injure them!
The next thing Anko and Kurenai knew, Guren was on her feet and storming towards the three spectating Genin, who had broken out of their trance.
The three split up so Guren couldn't take all three of them out at once.
"No!" Kurenai shrieked, immediately running after Guren with Anko following suit, frantically chucking shuriken towards her enemy in an attempt to stop her.
Due to panicking from the pressure, Kurenai screwed up her throws. almost all of her shuriken missed. Some even came close to hitting the fleeing Genin.
Only one shuriken hit Guren.
One shuriken had engraved itself into Guren's shoulder, slightly hindering her speed.
But it would make no difference.
Guren has her sights set on Choji, who certainly was not the fastest due to his size and the fact that Guren was as strong and fast as most Jonin.
She easily made it to the poor Akimichi within seconds. Slashing upwards, she sliced into Choji's back, ripping his clothes and cutting clean into his body.
"CHOJI!" Ino squealed out of concern, hating herself for being too weak to do anything at the moment.
Choji let out a scream, stumbling from the blow before fully collapsing to the ground with streams of blood gushing out of his wound.
Walking right next to Choji's fallen body, Guren stomped on the wound with all her might.
Choji screamed once again, the amount of blood coming from his wound increasing even more as a result of the damage done to his fresh wound.
"Get away from him!" Kurenai bellowed, leaping towards Choji's body and trying to give Guren a hard left hook, only for the woman to kick her away after blocking her strike.
Immediately after, Anko appeared right in front of the Sound ninja with her right arm pointed towards her.
Once again, multiple snakes flew out of her sleeve. This time, instead of entangling Guren, the snakes actually bit her on the side of her neck.
The snakes let out a pained hiss, something that Anko was not expecting, and no bite mark formed on Guren.
"Fool! I have crystal armor over my entire body! Biting me won't work on my actual body as long as this thing is still here!" Guren said with a mocking tone, proud of herself for tricking her opponent. "Now! Here is some payback from me to you!"
With her crystal blade, Guren thrusted forward, right towards Anko's heart.
The special Jonin reacted by trying to jump to the right. She managed to avoid getting stabbed in the heart, but her shoulder wasn't as lucky.
The blade impaled Anko's shoulder. The woman grabbed the blade as an instant reflex, holding back a cry of pain. She wasn't going to let her enemy get the satisfaction of hearing her feel agony.
As both fought each other in the battle for dominance over the blade, Guren glanced up to her right. She saw tall forcefields forming on the roof of a building.
She smirked. Good…
Guren formed another blade on her left hand, and before Anko could react, it was stuck in her remaining shoulder, leaving both of her arms unusable.
Kurenai ran towards the two as fast as she could, ready to save her friend before she could be killed. She will not let someone die because of her incompetence in this fight. Not today!
Seeing the Genjutsu Mistress charging towards her, Guren removed the blades from Anko and kicked her in the stomach, throwing her onto the ground.
"I think this is enough! It's already too late to save the Hokage now!"
Kurenai and Anko widened their eyes, the former skidding to a halt when she heard that and the other immediately dismissing the burning pain and blood escaping her shoulders.
"What did you say?" The messy-haired ninja questioned with a demanding and angry tone.
"I said it's too late to save your Hokage. As we speak, our leader Orochimaru is currently having a bout with your precious old man."
"Orochimaru!" Anko spat with venom in her voice. She just knew he was behind this. His activity in the second round of the Chunin Exams made it all too obvious. She couldn't believe she didn't realize it sooner.
"Don't even try to help him out! See that thing over there!" Guren motioned over to a structure with a four-walled barrier composed of purple flames.
Kurenai's eyes flashed with fear as she saw what Guren was talking about.
"Ninpou: Shishienjin (Ninja Art: Four Flames Formation)!" Kurenai identified the Jutsu.
"Pass through those walls and you'll be incinerated instantly…you spineless bastards!" Anko growled. "Using such dirty tricks!"
"This is the world of Shinobi. In this world, there is no such thing as 'dirty tricks'. Guren said, curling her fingers before forming a fist. "Here, everything is fair game. You of all people should know that, being experienced Shinobi and all."
Guren looked up at her opponents.
"You know, if the two of you were constantly distracted on protecting those three Genin, you would actually be able to beat me with not that much difficulty."
"Tch!" Anko grunted, her teeth seething out of frustration. She hated it when someone would say something like that. It makes her feel like she wasn't strong enough and that if she had been stronger she wouldn't have to hear those words of pity.
"Well then, I've done my job here." Guren said with a smile, proud of herself for succeeding. "And it seems like my Bunshins (Clones) in the other areas have done their part as well. I hope to see one of you again—alive—at some point. We could fight to the death then, without any…" Guren looked at all three Genin, stopping at Ino in particular. "Burdens..."
After saying that, Guren leaped away, going so fast Ino and Kiba couldn't even track her movements.
Kurenai took a strong step forward, preparing to pursue the woman, but she stopped in her tracks when she remembered something. Turning around, she quickly walked over to the bleeding Choji, who was beginning to lose consciousness.
She was no medical ninja, but if she could at least stop the bleeding so the boy wouldn't die from blood loss, then that was enough.
Examining the wound, she reached into her weapons pouch, pulling out a roll of bandages. She ripped off a piece that was slightly longer than Choji's wound. She stuck the piece to the cut on his back, pressing on it delicately.
"As soon as this is over, we need to get Choji to a medical ninja immediately. As a non-medical ninja there is nothing else I can do to help him." Kurenai turned around, looking at Anko, who was looking up at the sky from the ground, blood still sleeping out of her shoulders.
Kurenai inhaled.
And exhaled.
As she walked over to Anko, who slightly turned her head to look at her.
Kurenai wore a face of guilt. She blamed herself. If it weren't for her waking up the Genin and sending them out to fight, Choji and Anko wouldn't be like this. They'd live, of course, but still…
She was hoping to use this experience as a way to teach Ino, Choji, and Kiba to a lesser extent just what the duty of Shinobi really meant. But…
She probably just made them more scared than they ever have been before.
With Neji and Tenten
Neji Hyuga took a deep, heavy breath as he and Tenten analyzed Dosu, who was standing as still as a statue.
The problem with coming out of a fight and going to another one with very little rest in between is that if you consume a bunch of your chakra in the first, you'll probably be royally screwed in the next one.
He had gotten carried away in his fight against Naruto, he wasn't monitoring his chakra at all and he had kept overusing his chakra. He was too overconfident against him in their fight.
And now he was paying for it.
Fortunately, he was fighting alongside Tenten, who not only had full stamina but she also was good at far-range fighting.
"Tenten…" He murmured quietly, loud enough so only Tenten could hear. At the sound of her voicing a response, he continued. "I'll be taking point in close combat. You must support me from afar and distract him so I can get an opening."
Tenten nodded. "I understand. You can count on me! We'll take this guy down, together!"
Neji let a small smile escape his lips after that statement.
His expression turned serious once again as he rolled his fingers, stretching them out wide. He focused his Byakugan, his veiny eyes tracking the slightest bit of movements Dosu was making to the most minute and smallest detail.
Dosu moved.
Tenten threw the kunai in her hand towards him with Neji darting forward toward his target.
Dosu swatted the kunai away with his gauntlet as if it was a fly, jumping to the side immediately after to dodge a slide kick from Neji. He attempted to stomp on Neji's stomach in order to daze the boy.
This attempt would go fruitless because Neji rolled to the left, avoiding the strike. Using his hand to support himself off the ground, the prodigy performed a sweep kick towards Dosu's legs.
The Sound ninja jumped, avoiding the kick.
Neji cursed under his breath and slammed his hands to the ground, pushing himself up as fast as he could. Dosu delivered a roundhouse kick to his side, which Neji just barely managed to block with his arms.
The boy seethed from the sharp pain that ensued, throwing away Dosu's leg and lashing out with a quick and precise palm strike to the stomach.
Dosu retched, streams of blood rolling down his mouth and staining the bandages covering his chin with red.
Neji bent all of this fingers except his middle and pointer, taking multiple jabs at Dosu's tenketsu in succession. After having six of tenketsu shut off, Dosu threw his arms in front of himself, his gauntlet connecting with Neji's quick, piercing two-fingered strike.
Throwing Neji's arm to the side, Dosu gave the brunette a hook to the side of his head, something that he couldn't avoid. The Sound Shinobi stopped one inch from hitting Neji's ear, activating his metal device as sound waves traveled into Neji's ear.
Neji let out a cry of agony due to the sudden throbbing in his ear, his semicircular canals being severely damaged, causing blood to start coming out. He glared at Dosu, only to find his vision distorting.
So this is what happened to Hinata-sama...Neji thought to himself as he thought back to his cousin's fight against the Sound Trio along with the brutal beating that she endured.
Dosu stepped back, merely waiting for amusement to see the effects of his sound waves really kick in.
However...
The rattling of metal could be heard as Dosu found a weapon continuously circling his body. Before he had time to react, the chains zeroed in on Dosu's body, fully wrapping him up in the weapon.
"What the-" Dosu glanced to where he last saw Tenten to see the girl suddenly a little bit closer with a kusari-fundo in her left hand and a scroll in her right.
"Neji, move now!" Using his right ear to listen, Neji nodded, stumbling away from Dosu who was trapped and powerless, unable to do anything in his current situation. "Alright! Now all I need to do is kill him!"
Tenten narrowed her eyes, ready to do the deed if it meant defending . All she had to do was bend forward and lift her foot up like a ballerina to make her aim more accurate, twirl her scroll around and squirt out the weapons.
And then he would be dead...
But then she saw the struggling look on Dosu's face. The look of a human just trying to fight for his survival.
She glanced at the scroll in her hand and back at Dosu. Her hand quivered, slightly loosening the chains restraining Dosu.
Can I do it? Tenten asked herself internally. Can I...take the life of another person? I mean...yeah, he's trying to kill me, but…
Tenten's hand began to shake even more. Victory was right in her hands. She could end it all right now.
So why couldn't she just do it?!
"I…" Tenten began breathing rapidly, her chest expanding with each frantic and nervous breath that she took. Her heart began to pound out of her chest, she could practically hear her heart throbbing in her ears now.
"I...I can't kill him...I just can't!" She whimpered with tears beginning to form in her eyes. "I...I don't want to become a heartless monster!"
"Tenten!" Neji yelled, his vision getting partially restored, seeing the grip on Dosu loosen even more. "What are you doing?! You need to finish him off! In the Forest of Death we had to sign a waiver that said our lives would be in danger and that we might have to kill! You were completely fine with it then, so why are you hesitating in a more extreme situation?!"
"Yes, but Neji, I've never had to take the life of another person before! We never went in B or A-ranked missions!"
The truth was, they never had to kill on C-ranked missions. Usually, one would not encounter enemy ninja on a C-ranked mission. It was mostly escort missions and stopping bandits, who weren't killed, merely captured and restrained considering how weak they usually are.
"Tenten! If you don't kill him now, then he will end up killing us!" Neji shouted as an attempt to convince his teammate.
Tenten widened her eyes out of realization. If she died, she wouldn't be able to fulfill her dream of becoming a great kunoichi. And if Neji died, he wouldn't be able to change the way of his clan. If she failed, those wishes could never be fulfilled.
"Alright, I'll do it!" Tenten shouted with a determined face, preparing to twirl her scroll around, but she stopped herself when she heard the sound of Dosu chuckling.
"Fools." The restrained man muttered under his breath with a smile under his mask. "I was never in danger in the first place, whether you hesitated or not!"
Dosu closed his eyes, much to the surprise of Neji and Tenten.
"Sound...it is present in anything that makes a vibration...anything that has a voice. I have a...special ability to control sound waves and frequencies. Now witness this!"
All of a sudden, Dosu's arms began to vibrate, followed by the tremor of his entire body.
"By using my chakra, I can push the sound waves created from these gauntlets into my body. With this, I can force it to vibrate! And then…"
Dosu grit his teeth under his mask, letting out a shout as he focused his chakra throughout his entire body to control the sound waves.
"Release!"
The next thing Neji and Tenten knew, they were covering their ears and nearly stumbling onto the ground as multiple shockwaves with high frequency shriek-like sounds played throughout the area.
However, since Tenten had to move to cover her ears, she ended up dropping her scroll and the kusari-fundo.
It didn't really matter anyway, as the frequency of the sound was so high that when topped with the powerful shockwaves that could knock a person down, it could shatter metal.
"No way…" Tenten gaped, completely taken aback from the action and its result.
Dosu smirked, taking a couple of moments to catch his breath. "As I was saying, when the sound waves are all gathered up in my body, by using my chakra, I can have them all burst out in one move. The combined sound doesn't directly damage the ears if used from afar, but up close one could go deaf for a few days!"
Sweat began to trickle down Dosu's face. He wiped it away as soon as it appeared, not wanting to show his opponent's any signs of fatigue. However, his somewhat rapid breath pattern seemed to betray the act.
That move consumes most of my chakra. Normally, like this, if I were to use that move a second time...I could die. But with this…
"It's over…" As he spoke, flame-like markings began to spread around the left side of his body. His clothes blocked most of it, but his revealed eye let Neji and Tenten see the marks. Dosu widened his eyes at the sudden influx of new chakra flowing throughout his body.
"What the hell?" Neji muttered with a surprised look, scanning Dosu's chakra network with his Byakugan.
"What happened? What are those markings near his eye?!" Tenten asked her Hyuga teammate, her body shaking out of fear.
Neji furrowed his eyebrows, his feet settling to get a good base. "I don't know...but it seems like the markings are spreading from a single point on his body, located on the left side of the back of his neck. And somehow, his chakra network seems to be getting flooded by a foreign chakra."
"Foreign chakra?" Tenten repeated with a shiver. She heard a gasp escaped Neji's lips. She turned to see him looking deep in thought. "What's wrong?"
"The markings." The Side Branch member answered. "I saw the same markings on Sasuke Uchiha's body in the Forest of Death after he woke up."
Tenten's face lit up with realization. "Yeah, you're right. I remember it now…"
"Ahh, so you know about this then. If so, then you should know just how much my strength has increased thanks to this!" Dosu's figure then distorted, disappearing completely in the manner of a second.
So fast! Neji thought to himself, barely able to keep track of the man's movements with his Byakugan.
"ACK!"
"Tenten!" Neji turned to his left to see a fist implanted deep into Tenten's stomach. The girl widened her eyes as all the air was thrown out of her lungs, spitting out a handful of blood as a result from the punch.
Tenten groaned out of pain as she was given a harsh sidekick to her midsection, knocking her down to the ground.
It all happened so fast that by the time Neji got out of his daze and started moving, Dosu was already right behind him.
Neji gasped, zipping around with a spear hand, trying to connect a blow with Dosu's body to at least get the chance to get some distance.
This failed.
Dosu parried the blow, grabbing onto Neji's wrist and pulling Neji towards him.
He gave the male Hyuga a knee to the gut, causing him to let out a cry of pain.
Dosu let Neji's wrist go. As he was dazed from the pain, Neji couldn't stop himself from hitting the ground.
Underneath his mask, the Sound Shinobi grinned. He placed a foot on Neji's back, bent forward and grabbed Neji's wrists, pulling his arms tightly towards him.
"You know, the Uchiha did something like this on my teammate."
After that statement, Dosu pulled as hard as he could, stretching out Neji's arms to their limit. But he wasn't satisfied with that.
He continued to pull, and not many seconds later, a loud snap could be heard throughout the area.
Neji let out a scream of agony in a similar manner to Zaku when he was injured in exactly the same way.
"With this, you cannot use your hands. As far as I'm concerned, you Hyuga are very proud of your precise hand striking skills." Dosu said with a cocky smirk.
"Leave him alone!"
Dosu's ears perked up, he turned his head to the source of the voice to see Tenten running towards him with a bo in her right hand and a Fuuma shuriken in her left.
With as much strength as she could muster, Tenten threw the four-pronged shuriken.
Without batting so much as an eye, Dosu jumped high into the air towards the girl, leaving Neji alone and dodging the large shuriken with relative ease.
Tenten smiled.
She had it him. You could increase your running and reaction speed. The same was not the same for one's falling speed.
Reaching into her pocket, Tenten pulled out her second and last scroll. She opened it up and began gracefully twirling around her body before adjusting and twirling it around her arm, hoisted in Dosu's direction, yet pointed below him in attempt to predict his position.
"Take this!" She yelled as a variety of weapons like swords, shuriken, spears, etc. spewed out of the scroll towards Dosu in multiple poofs of white smoke.
The male made no facial reaction. He merely held his hand out towards the weapons. Closing his eyes, Dosu focused his chakra. Sound waves erupted out of Dosu's gauntlets. And, to Tenten's shock, the waves were so strong that it actually knocked away all of the weapons thrown at him.
"Damn it!" Tenten cursed as she gripped the bo staff with both hands, prepared to strike when Dosu landed.
However, when she saw Dosu throw his second hand out towards her, she backed away immediately. The Sound ninja was already much faster than her, if her senses were damaged, she would be royally screwed.
Perfect...Dosu thought to himself when his feet hit the ground.
He dashed forward towards Tenten with great agility, closing the distance between them in the manner of only two to three seconds.
Reacting as fast as she could, Tenten swung her staff around from left to right , hoping to make contact but to no avail.
Dosu arched his back, essentially playing limbo with Tenten's staff for a quick moment. He reached up with his hands, grabbing the wooden staff with a tight grip. Then, in a tug of war type struggle for dominance, Dosu and Tenten kept trying to pull the bo towards them.
Dosu straightened his body to his full height, quickly giving Tenten's right leg a hard roundhouse kick in her thigh. The kunoichi blenched, the sudden pain in her leg causing her drop on one knee. Her grip on the bo loosened, and Dosu took the initiative and snatched it away from her with no difficulty.
Holding the bo tightly in his hand, Dosu kicked Tenten in the chest, knocking her to the ground lying on her back. Seeing the girl immediately try to get back up despite the pain, Dosu slammed the edge of the stolen bo staff right onto her gut.
Tenten squirmed as blood and spittle was ejected out of her mouth.
"This power...I almost forgot how incredible it is!" Dosu murmured to himself as he applied the pressure of his bo onto Tenten's abdominal area, earning whimpers of pain from the female.
Damn it! Tenten inwardly cursed herself, looking straight up at Dosu with a defeated look in her eyes. I...I can't do anything! Had he wanted to, he could have killed me already! I'm…I'm sorry Neji...She glanced to her downed teammate, who had his face turned towards her with an angry and worried expression. Her heart sunk as she closed her eyes, ready to accept her fate. I'm sorry for being so weak and useless! I'm sorry I wasn't stronger!
What Tenten didn't know, was that the anger on Neji's face wasn't reserved for her. And the worry in his eyes was obviously not for Dosu.
It was the other way around.
"It ends here…" Dosu mumbled as he crouched down next to Tenten, still having his bo thrusted into her stomach. With his free hand, he reached over and grabbed her throat, squeezing the area as hard as he could.
Tenten's eyes shot open as she began to cough and choke like a madman. Her legs began to shake and flail around wildly as she immediately brought her hands to Dosu's hand instantly.
Is this...is this how I die? Tenten asked herself as darkness formed at the corners of her eyes, slowly beginning to spread as she could feel her life drifting away.
"Tenten!" She could hear Neji yelling out of concern, his eyes wide with fear.
"Don't worry. You're next, Hyuga." Dosu said as he dug his fingers into Tenten's throat even more, his nails digging into her skin and closing off her passage of breathing.
Tenten's shaky hands slowly began to go stiff until finally, they stopped completely, falling to Tenten's side with a thud that would echo throughout Neji's heart forever.
She was only unconscious for now, Dosu was aware of this. That's why he continued to choke the life out of her, so he could finally finish the job.
A kill well done it would have been…
If only a well-placed palm strike to Dosu's gut didn't interfere.
The ninja was thrown backwards and off of Tenten's body, opening her airway passage and therefore saving her life.
The bo in Dosu's hand fell and dropped to the ground.
After a short trip and stumble, Dosu recoiled and composed himself. He looked to where Tenten's body was to see a tall man with long blackish-brown hair with the same pupiless eyes that Neji had. His arm was stretched out in a palm formation with the Byakugan not activated.
"Hiashi-sama!" Neji immediately identified the man as Hinata's father.
"Another one of you Hyugas, eh? No matter. I'll have you join your fellow comrade over there."
Hiashi remained stone-faced, not making any sort of emotion at all. Though if one looked deep into his eyes, they could see a hint of anger.
The Head of the Hyuga clan leaped forward with a burst of great speed, disappearing in a flash.
Neji and Dosu widened their eyes as Hiashi suddenly appeared right in front of the latter, giving his chest a hard push with a well-placed Juuken strike.
The strike sent Dosu flying far back. His back crashed against the hard ground as his body skid across the ground. After coming to an abrupt halt, Dosu slowly but surely rose to his feet, his Curse Mark still supplying him with a substantial amount of chakra.
Dosu coughed out blood due to a sharp pain in his chest. His bandages were stained with red even more.
Regardless, he dashed forward as fast as he could, hoping to catch Hiashi off guard.
His attempt proved to be futile.
Dosu appeared right behind the long-haired man, throwing a chop towards the back of his neck. The Hyuga merely ducked under the blow, turning his head and throwing his hand out, grabbing Dosu by his arm.
He threw the man over himself as with as much force as possible, sending Dosu flying while upside down.
Gathering chakra in the palm of his hand, Hiashi activated his Byakugan and shot his arm towards the aerial Dosu.
"Hakke Kuusho (Eight Trigrams Air Palm)!" Using the Gentle Fist, Hiashi sent out compressed air from his palm. The attack was so fast that it went from Hiashi to Dosu in less than a second.
The high-speed compressed air made contact with Dosu's chest, once again causing him to spew out blood from his mouth as he hit the bark of a nearby tree with a sickening thud. Falling off the trunk and onto the ground where he suffered even more pain from the impact.
Slowly and more limpily this time, as he was on the verge of passing out, Dosu rose to his feet. To his utmost dismay, the markings on his body from the Curse Mark began to recede, gleaming with an orange hue as they retracted back to the left of Dosu's neck.
"Damn it!" Dosu dropped to the ground with only one leg keeping him up. "I can't keep this up...this man is too strong…" Dosu widened his eyes as he began to cough out more blood. "...must...retreat!"
With only the adrenaline pumping through his veins keeping him from collapsing on the ground, Dosu rose to his feet and leapt away through the trees.
Hiashi merely stared in his direction with Byakugan, seeing that he was making no attempt for a surprise sneak attack. He might have looked defeated, but in the world of Shinobi, one cannot be too sure. One must always be aware and cautious of the enemy.
He turned to look down at the downed Tenten. Her chakra network was still functioning, which meant that she was fine. He then laid his eyes on his nephew. Analyzing his body, he could see that the boy was injured.
Slowly, he walked over to him with no sort of emotion on his face whatsoever.
Both Hyuga deactivated their Byakugans when Hiashi stopped, towering right over him.
An awkward silence filled between the two. Neither one of them was saying a word. Like it or not, there was still animosity in the Hyuga clan because of the whole Main Branch and Side Branch situation.
Regardless of his past hatred, Neji made an effort to at least stand and give the Head the proper respect he deserves.
Still, neither said a word. The only thing that could be heard was the leaves on the trees being blown by the cool breeze, and the sound of Neji's grunts and shoes dragging across the dirt as he attempted to get up, only to slip up and return to his original position.
Seeing that his nephew was struggling, Hiashi held a hand. A stretched out palm with small gaps between each finger. A signal for Neji to stop, to which the boy obliged.
After a few more moments of silence, Neji spoke.
"Hiashi-sama...not that I'm grateful for you saving my life, why did you come here?"
Hiashi looked up at the sky, the emotionless look on his face being replaced by one of sadness and reminiscence.
"Because...I made a promise...to your father—my brother. I promised him that I'd protect you. Hizashi was my precious brother, like how Hinata and Hanabi are my precious daughters. Like them, you are my precious nephew, and a precious momento of my late brother at that."
Neji looked like he wanted to say something, but he didn't move his mouth to speak.
He was at a loss for words.
Hiashi looked down at him with a frown, regret creeping in at the edges of his eyes.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry for the harsh treatment I gave you. To you, Hinata, and Hanabi. I was angered by the loss of both my wife and brother, and I vented out at you three. Then, the pressure of finding a clan heir to take my place knowing full well that the other one of my children would be branded with the Hyuga's Curse Mark…I guess it was too much for me to handle. However, I realize that all of this does not justify all of the harsh treatment over the past couple of years."
Hiashi closed his eyes as he crouched, helping Neji get into a sitting position.
"You don't have to forgive me...but I just want you to know that I'm sorry."
A mix of emotions flashed across Neji's face in that instant, from a bit of anger, to a little bit of happiness, and a lot of sadness.
The old Neji—the one that fought and lost to Naruto Uzumaki, the same one that brutally beat up his first cousin Hinata numerous times in their training sessions and even went as far as trying to kill her in the exams—would have gone into a fit of rage and lashed out at Hiashi.
The new Neji...he was different. He reacted calmly, much more calmly than the old Neji ever would.
He still hated the state of the Hyuga clan, and he wanted nothing but to change it...to change everything about it.
With a croak in his voice, his throat suddenly starting to hurt from discomfort, he spoke.
"Hiashi-sama. Do you think...do you think that someday...all members of the Hyuga clan will be able to fly together, without their wings clipped and their feet shackled?"
To an outsider, this question would make no sense at all. But to Hiashi Hyuga, the question hit him like a truck. He didn't have a definitive answer to the question, as much as he hated to admit it.
"I don't know...but rest assured, I'll do my best to make sure we can all fly someday..."
He stepped behind Neji, crouching down once again and forming a palm with his hand, much to the younger Hyuga's confusion.
"What are you doing?" He asked.
"It is a supplementary use for the Juuken. It is not that hard to learn, but very few Hyuga have knowledge of this technique, even those of the Main Branch."
Neji raised his eyebrows out of surprise. "Even members of the Main Branch don't know this?"
Hiashi nodded as he jammed both of his palm onto Neji's shoulders with a small push, ushering 'Juuken' under his breath.
To Neji's surprise, he could hear a crack in his body and a sort of locking sound in both of his shoulders. He tried to move them, only to feel no sharp pains or anything of the sort. His shoulders had been moved back into their socket…
Using the Juuken?
"Thank you, Hiashi-sama. Though, may I ask, why is it that something as useful as using the Gentle Fist for fixing dislocated shoulders not known by all members of the Hyuga?"
"By tradition, any sort of healing of the body or medical ninjutsu was frowned upon by the Hyuga. If there ever was a Hyuga who knew medical ninjutsu, they would likely be deemed as weak for taking up such a role and as a result others would think they'd be useless. As, once again, by tradition, the Hyuga were born taijutsu specialists. And they've stayed that way even today."
"So aren't you going against tradition by having knowledge of this and using it?"
"If It were between tradition and my friends, family, and comrades, screw tradition."
Neji continued to flex and rotate his arm, still surprised beyond belief by this new revelation.
"I wonder…" He started, rising to his feet with a small stagger. "Just what other purposes can a Hyuga be useful for other than hand to hand combat?"
"Truthfully, I do not know. The full background of the Hyuga clan is still unknown. There are rumors that the Hyuga are somehow related to the Rikudou Sennin (Sage of Six Paths). But again, they are just rumors."
"Tenten!" Neji suddenly blurted out. He was so caught up in the conversation that he almost forgot about his teammate.
"Tenten?" Hiashi repeated with slight confusion. "Ahh, your teammate over there. Do not fret, she is only unconscious."
The boy let out a sigh of relief. Finally, the rush of adrenaline disappeared from Neji's veins, and a massive wave of fatigue crashed down on the prodigy. It was like crashing after going through a sugar rush.
Neji took deep heavy breaths, struggling to stay on his feet.
"Your stamina is low. Not only is it naturally low, but it is also drained from your match against the Uzumaki." Hiashi stated as-a-matter of factly.
"Yes…I know." Neji closed his eyes. "Today, I was not strong enough to beat two enemies. I must become even stronger! Even if it is just a little bit, so I cannot ever be dead weight in a battle."
Hiashi actually smiled at the boy's resolve.
"Neji. After this invasion is over, I would like to look over your and Hinata's training. I think it is time I made up for my past mistakes. This is only an offer, I am not forcing you. So, if you wish, you may decline this offer if you so desire."
Neji stared into his uncle's eyes for a good few moments. His tight gaze softened, and a smile creeped onto his face.
He gave the man a deep bow.
"I am honored, Hiashi-sama. I will not say no to this offer."
With Hinata
"Eat this! Ninpou: Kaimaitachi no Jutsu (Ninja Art: Wind Sycthe Jutsu)!" Temari exclaimed with the wave of her fan, causing a pocket of wind to lash out towards Hinata, who had jumped into the air towards the girl from Suna.
The attack sniped her out of the air easily. She was blown out of orbit and throw right into the bark of a tree behind her.
Hinata's stomach hurled, causing the girl to gag, already feeling the metallic taste of blood rise to the tip of her tongue. She turned her head to the side, her body still trying to fight the strong winds blowing at her. She willingly spit out the red substance in her mouth.
Then, without a moment's waste, Hinata stood up, cradling the tree so she didn't get blown off, and jumped to a branch on the other side, giving her protection from Temari's wind, to the point where she couldn't even feel it.
As the wind stopped, Hinata began analyzing Temari's movements...only to see none. The girl seemed to be standing still, waiting for Hinata to approach her in an attempt to land a blow, only to get blown away by the fan's wind. And in a forest area like this, there was a high chance she could injure herself somehow.
Hinata closed her eyes, thinking back to Temari's match against Tenten.
She remembered how the match ended. Temari effortlessly lifted Tenten up in the air with a vortex of wind. If she remembered correctly, the wind cut into her skin! And when she finally came down to hit the ground…
Temari was waiting with her fan.
The blow to Tenten's back wasn't severe...at least to the point where it would break it or snap her spine or something like that. However, it was very clear that the fan packed quite a punch, and if she were to get hit by that, she was as good as done.
The fan…
Hinata's eyes flashed with realization. She narrowed her eyes…
So that's how she had to beat her, huh? She didn't like the idea, considering that it was a risky one, but it just might work.
Hinata nodded her head, telling herself to go forward with the idea. She had no weapons on her. No genjutsu. Just taijutsu…and some basic ninjutsu from the Academy now that she thought about it.
Her brain couldn't think of any alternative. Sure, she wasn't as smart as the likes of Shino, Sakura, Shikamaru, and a few others, but Hinata was fairly intelligent. In the Academy, she was at least one of the smartest book smart wise.
But like Sakura...in battle, coming up with strategies to use was completely foreign to her.
She was actually quite proud of herself for coming with any sort of a plan in this situation, despite how stupid it might seem.
Taking a deep breath, she rose to her feet.
She could do this! She made a vow to get stronger...stronger so she could be acknowledged as a true member of Team 7 by Naruto, Sasuke, and their sensei...stronger so she could stop acting like a coward and actually attempt to change the Hyuga for the better...stronger to…
"I'm proud of you, Hinata...my daughter."
Stronger to never disappoint her father with her fighting ability ever again!
With her morale boosted, she walked onto the trunk of tree, subconsciously pushing chakra to her knees in order to stick to the wood. She ran across, jumping off to land on a branch on the other side.
When she landed, Hinata could immediately see Temari standing there, waiting there with an irritated expression on her face.
"There you are! I was beginning to think you chickened out!"
"I'm not going to run away anymore!" Hinata declared with a fire burning in her eyes. "I will defeat you, and then go on to help Sasuke-kun!"
Temari narrowed her eyes. That look on her face...it seems similar to the one when she faced that one kid in the Chunin Exams…
Hinata dashed forward, crouching down and leaping high into the air when she reached the end of the branch.
Temari smirked. "Fool...Ninpou: Fuusajin no Jutsu (Ninja Art: Sandstorm Jutsu)!"
Once again Hinata was blown back into a tree. However, this time, she grabbed the trunk with her feet and the tips of her fingers, concentrating her chakra to those areas to stick to the tree as the wind lashed out at her face.
Thanks to her Byakugan, Hinata could see bundles of sand beginning to form on some branches in the forest.
After the wind ceased, Hinata removed her fingers from the tree, continuing on to run up the tree, similarly to what she had to do in Nami no Kuni (Land of Waves) with Naruto and Sasuke.
Temari kept her eyes on Hinata's figure, trailing her as she went higher up the tree. She let out a gasp of frustration when she realized what she was doing.
"Damn it! She's so high up now that I won't be able to accurately hit her with my wind!" The kunoichi let out a dry smile. "Very clever. However, two can play it that game!" Closing up her fan and sliding it into the back of her sash for easier mobility, Temari mimicked Hinata's actions, going on to run up the tree with fan in tow.
Hinata smiled. She could see Temari mimicking her movements using her Byakugan.
Now, Hinata! You have to do this right in order to win! The lavender-eyed kunoichi jumped off the tree, performing a flip in midair using her flexible body, stopping in an arch position in freefall as if she was skydiving.
Temari grunted out of annoyance as she turned around to see the girl falling towards the ground. She followed suit, jumping off her own tree and immediately going into a freefalling arch position as she could feel the air blowing at her face.
Reaching into the pouch strapped to her right thigh, Temari pulled out three kunai, holding them by putting a single finger through the holes. She swiped the weapons down towards Hinata's body.
She threw them with so much force that they traveled faster than Hinata's falling speed. The girl could do nothing to defend herself from being stabbed in the back by all three kunai.
Hinata let out a loud cry of pain as her body went limp, hitting the forest ground with a bone-chilling thud.
Temari landed on the ground, looking down on the body of the female Hyuga. After seeing no signs of movement, Temari turned away, ready to go reunite with Gaara and help him out.
However, a poofing sound made Temari's body freeze.
No, it couldn't be...could it?
Slowly, she turned around to look at the fallen body of Hinata...only to see a log of wood with three kunai etched into it.
Temari widened her eyes out of shock. Kamawiri no Jutsu (Substitution Jutsu)!
She snapped out of her daze fast enough to dodge a rushing palm strike from behind by a certain indigo-haired Hyuga.
Hinata quickly rotated her body on her heel until she faced Temari's body retreating body, springing off the ground for a boost in speed. She chambered her right hand, prepared to unleash a deadly attack on the Sand kunoichi.
As a response, Temari leaped high into the air, grabbing the branch of a tree with her hand and pulling herself up on top of it.
Hinata followed suit, her hand still cranked back, ready for an attack.
Temari pulled out her fan. She narrowed her eyes, when Hinata landed on the branch, she charged Temari. The girl merely sidestepped her Juuken strike and jumped off the branch of the tree, opening her fan and flapping it with one strong stroke.
Like last time, Hinata was blown away, this time up and off the tree. She was about to hit her head on a branch higher up, but she managed to see with her Byakugan. Concentrating chakra to her left hand, Hinata reached out her hand and dug her fingertips into that section of the tree, sticking their successfully.
She let out a sigh of relief, she was about to fling herself onto the branch when she realized something odd about the branch at the last second.
Sand...Hinata mentally noted, flinging herself over to the trunk of the tree, focusing chakra to her feet. Before she hit the ground, she managed to land on the tree using both her feet.
She overlooked the area, seeing a grounded Temari looking up at her with a glare.
This is it...Was Hinata's thought as her feet left the hard bark. She flew through the air so gracefully in that single moment that she almost felt like she was flying.
No matter the outcome, whether she screwed up or succeeded, she knew the fight was going to end soon.
Right when her feet hit the ground, she rushed forward towards Temari. The girl waved her folding fan once again. Right before the wind lashing out, Hinata transitioned to a slide kick. However, instead of hitting Temari, she passed right between her legs.
Hinata dug her hand right hand into the dirt, using it to support herself when she turned her body and jumped back onto her feet with her left hand pulled back.
She thrusted forward towards Temari's back.
The attack connected with Temari's body. The blonde kunoichi let out a cry of pain, blood dripping out of her mouth and rolling down her chin as she was blown off her feet flying forwards. She kept a tight grip on her fan, making sure that she didn't drop it.
In midair, she turned her body so her face was looking up at the sky. Her eyes blacked out for a moment as she could feel a sharp pain forming all over her back.
Then there was the weird sensation of her body sliding across the ground that caused even more pain.
After her body stopped scraping across the ground, she endured the burning pain in her back and rose to her feet. Once on her feet, her body convulsed as she spat out a glob which shot out and splattered across the ground right in front of Temari, with some of the red liquid even splashing onto her legs.
Looking up to where the Hyuga was, she saw her standing there not more than five feet in front of her in a traditional Juuken stance, taking a deep breath to compose and relax her muscles.
"I offer you this one chance to surrender. I do not want to end up fatally wounding you." Hinata said with a serious look on her face, the veins from her Byakugan making her actually seem frightening.
"Thanks but no thanks. I need to get back to Gaara!" Temari declined the offer, holding her fan out in front of her and swinging it back and forth in one cycle. "Ninpou: Kamaitachi!"
This time, a cyclone of wind enveloped Hinata's body. The girl let out a scream as her feet left the ground, being lifted up high into the air in a very similar manner as Tenten when she fought the tessen user.
Just like in that match, Hinata could feel wind scratching at her body like blades, cutting through her clothes and cutting into her skin, causing blood to ooze out.
While this happened, Temari closed her fan and planted it on the ground in front of her, holding it up like a stand.
When the wind disappeared, Hinata's still body began to fall with her face facing the ground.
Hinata looked down at the ground to see Temari's fan standing upright, just like in the Chunin Exams. Except unlike Tenten, she could actually see the metal weapon coming.
She braced herself for the pain that would follow right before she made contact with the object.
THUD!
Hinata's eyes widened as her belly made contact with the fan.
"GAH! Ugh…" Hinata cried out loud as a brace of blood escaped her lips. The girl groaned out of pain as her body went limp, fully crumpling around Temari's fan. Her Byakugan deactivated, the veins near her eyes receding.
Temari tilted her fan towards the ground almost immediately after Hinata landed. Her body slipped off the tessen and onto the ground with a hard thud.
Temari looked around immediately right when the body hit the ground.
"Come on out! I already know this is a fake!" Temari yelled out loud, her eyes darting around the forest.
After a few moments of waiting, Temari froze. The next thing she knew, a palm strike was being thrusted right into her abdomen. Taken off guard by the attack, Temari was blown back with a cry of pain, dropping the fan in her hand as she flew.
Temari rebounded, sliding across the ground with her feet and nearly falling as she did so. She glared at her opponent only to panic when she saw her take a familiar stance with an activated Byakugan.
The stance she set herself in was the same as the one Neji took before shutting off Naruto and Hinata's tenketsu in their matches.
Before Temari could even react, Hinata had already taken a strong step towards her, spinning on her heel as she dealt out two piercing two-fingered strikes to Temari's side and shoulder.
"Nisho (Two Palms)!"
Temari stumbled backwards, trying to escape Hinata. However, her attempt failed, as she ended up backing up into a tree. Stuck and with no way out, Temari could do nothing but watch and feel pain as her enemy continued forward towards her with great speed, unleashing a barrage of finger strikes that shut down her tenketsu and jerked her body up with each connection.
With each strike, a burst of chakra would rupture from Temari's body, lashing out at the tree behind her and slowly causing it to crack and break apart.
"Yonsho! Hachisho! Juurokusho! Sanjuunisho!"
Hinata stopped, holding her hands in front of herself in a defensive manner.
Thirty-two of Temari's tenketsu had been shut off, and the girl's body slumped down the tree as a sign of fatigue and weakness. With a closed eye, she struggled to fully stand up as she muttered something along the lines of having to save Gaara.
Unfortunately for her, before she could continue her quiet rambling, Hinata unleashed the strongest palm strike she could muster to the blonde's chin. Temari's head shot up, hitting the bark of the tree behind her with a sickening thud.
Temari's head bounced off the tree, leaving her dazed and nearly unconscious. Her body went limp and it began to fall forward.
She didn't like doing it, but Hinata gave her an extra strong palm strike to the stomach to make sure she would stay out of the count.
She flinched as she heard Temari retch out even more blood.
Hinata removed her hand from Temari's midsection, causing the bent girl to collapse to the ground unconscious.
The former heiress looked down at Temari's unconscious form with a distraught look.
Not long ago...we were Shinobi from allied villages. And now...we are enemies. So this...is what a war between villages is like. Hinata thought with a frown. She turned to the direction where she could see Sasuke and Gaara.
Scanning the deep edges of the forest, she saw Naruto, Sakura, and Pakkun taking that alternate route. They were just about to reach Gaara and Sasuke.
Wait…
Where is Shikamaru-kun?
Hinata looked in another section of the forest to see multiple chakra signatures. One chakra signature was fighting all of the others but one. She immediately identified the one fighting as Asuma Sarutobi and the signature that was not in a fight as Shikamaru.
Hinata let out an exasperated sigh of relief seeing that he was alive and in good hands.
She returned sight to the area Sasuke and Gaara were in and took off.
OOF! It looks like I'll have to do one more chapter for the Konoha Crush arc.
If I do, it's either going to be the real thing or some character between Naruto, Sakura, and Hinata reflecting on what happened in the fight, just to run things along.
So, I have decided—and it's still not a 100% given if I do this—to create one or two new arcs that either take place after Konoha Crush or after Sasuke wakes up from Itachi's mindrape. The final decision is mine, but I'd like to know some of your thoughts before going forward with it.
To Troutman30: Just to address this for you and everyone else in this case they were confused, if you remember, the info card that Kabuto had on Rock Lee said that he completed only eleven C-ranks, while the others were D-ranked. Since Tenten and Lee are on the same team, I'm going to assume that she has the same amount of C-ranks under her belt as Lee, the same goes for Neji. Also, Guy spent more time training than putting them on missions.
Lastly, unless I'm wrong, I may or may not have written it in this chapter (and I probably should have clarified it last chapter, my bad on that), but last time I checked, C-ranked missions don't really involve conflict with other ninja. They could be escort missions, capturing bandits, things like that.
One more thing, both Kiba and Naruto begged to go on a C-ranked mission for their team respectively. The Wave mission really wasn't a C-ranked mission, it was more like an A-ranked mission (in fact I think it was classified as such in canon at one point). As for Team 8, it was a joint mission with experienced Shinobi from Suna. The only reason deaths were on the mission because there were secret Shinobi among the bandits (more on that later), and Gaara killed because he's Gaara.
Honestly, I don't think you'll read through all of that but I hope I clarified it at least a little bit better on why Tenten was hesitant to kill. Hopefully I didn't come off as a petty asshole during that rant.
I think that's it for this chapter. Hopefully you enjoyed the chapter and I'll see you guys next time!
Take care, goodbye!