Sum of our Parts
Battles of Fate Pt. 1
***Nothing claimed, nothing received. ***
"Le gasp!" normal talking
'das fuken?' normal thinking
"set-you-on-fire-no-jutsu" Jutsu and other techniques
"I will murder you!" Tailed beast talking
***SooP***
"Alright everyone the third part of the Chunin exams will now begin in earnest. First up is Sasuke Uchiha against Akane Uzumaki." Hayate called out as the much larger crowd roared in support for the boy.
Meanwhile Itachi just looked on in annoyance, had it truly gotten this bad where people would cheer for them even when there was no reason to, or was it just because his opponent was so hated?
The redhead had easily made her way down to the ring, ignoring the jeers directed towards her but giving a nod of thanks to the few who did praise her.
A minute passed, with just the Jonin and his pupil standing in the ring. Another minute passed and the crowd finally grew tired of shouting and simply waited in anticipation of the Uchiha's arrival.
"Is Sasuke Uchiha in the arena?" The proctor called out, earning a few murmurs from the various Ninja stationed in the crowd.
"I bet you he doesn't show up for at least another two hours, and that the Hokage lets him take his match as soon as he arrives." The Kunoichi muttered to the man standing next to her.
"Aww come on Akane, Hokage-Sama isn't that bad…. Fine I bet you that if he doesn't show up in the next five minutes he will be disqualified."
Suddenly the elder Sarutobi's head perked up, his eyes flashing dangerously towards the two whispering Ninja.
"The stakes?"
"If I win you make Yugao and I dinner once a month for a year, candlelit and everything."
"And If I win you up my Kenjutsu training."
"Deal."
The redhead gave a slight smirk as they shook hands, while the Third Hokage merely groaned, already feeling a headache coming on from another person taking a bet with the young Uzumaki.
Five minutes passed and the proctor cleared his throat, gaining the attention of those in attendance.
"Hokage-Sama, since the Uchiha is not present for his fight I recommend disqualification as per the rules of the exam."
'Nothing wrong with helping my side a bit….'
The aged man stood up and glanced around at the various clan heads and Ninja assembled before he prepared to speak, before being interrupted by the Kazekage.
"Perhaps we should postpone the Uchiha's match Hokage-Sama? Surely a large number of people came to witness him and since he is the 'Rookie of the year' he has most certainly earned a reprieve don't you think?"
The various nods from the council members and various others in the stadium seemed to support the other man's claim.
Hiruzen Sarutobi let out a deep sigh before nodding in reluctance.
"The match between Sasuke Uchiha and Akane Uzumaki will be postponed until the former arrives at the stadium, at which point it will begin at the opportune time."
Hayate swore
Akane merely shrugged before walking back to her teammates, ignoring the Hokage's subtle attempts at gaining her permission to apologize.
Itachi's eyes narrowed, this was not supposed to be how any clan was treated in the village, and if the roles had been reversed the ANBU had the feeling that Akane would have been immediately disqualified.
***SooP***
"Will Hinata Hyuga and Neji Hyuga please make their way to the center of the ring." The Jonin growled out, still upset at the treatment that had been 'earned' by Sasuke.
The two pale eyed warriors entered from opposite sides of the ring, and stood, glaring at each other, several feet apart.
"Same rules as the preliminaries use anything you want. The match ends when one of you is unconscious, forfeits, or is killed. If I say the match ends, it stops immediately."
The two Genin nodded in acceptance before the man leapt backwards, signaling the start of the battle. Both activated their Dojutsu's and then began a stare down, neither making a sound as the chatter about the previous situation quickly lead to silence throughout the arena.
Hinata knew she couldn't lose, not with the head of the Hyuga household watching, expecting her to fail. Not with her sister standing alongside her team, silently cheering her on. Not with her teammates by her side, offering her the encouragement and strength she never knew she was capable of.
Hinata struck first, flowing through a series of hand signs and series of water bullets towards her opponent
Water Style: Water Bullet
The Hyuga prodigy effortlessly dodged out of the path, and closed the distance between them in a moment, his hand outstretched to deliver a blow to his opponent's chest.
Hinata responded in a way no one save her own teammates had seen.
Her body flowed around the boy's arm.
Moving like water around a rock the Kunoichi was able to avoid the attack, and strike back at the offending arm with her fingertips, delivering a series of weakened Juken blows to Neji's Tenketsu.
Her style was far from being perfected, but it was still a dangerous combination that had never been seen before.
Neji pushed away from the girl, putting a few feet of distance between them before analyzing what had just occurred.
He had been struck, but he should not have been. He was trained better than this. His father had called him a prodigy, a genius the likes of which had not been seen in the Hyuga clan for generations, whereas Hinata was a failure.
Fate would not allow him to lose.
Again he shot forward, this time he would know what to look for but instead of the same tactic Hinata dodged again, while going through hand signs, allowing her to fire off a point blank blat of water, throwing the Shinobi backwards, and causing bruising along his torso.
"Water Style: Hand of Waves"
Neji's invincible confidence was beginning to crack. The girl was focusing entirely on dodging rather than staying with the standard Hyuga dueling method of exchanging high paced blows.
He needed to force her into a situation where her agility would do no good, where she could not avoid him, a situation where she had to stand and fight.
An idea hit him and the prodigy again charged forward, but instead of attacking outright he held back, simply getting to within striking distance of his opponent.
Just as he planned she suddenly appeared unsure of herself, and failed to prepare any kind of counterattack. Allowing the boy to push her into what she had been trained to do from childhood, switch to the Gentle Fist style.
Here Neji reigned supreme and began closing Hinata's Tenketsu at a rapid pace as the girl tried to put distance between the two or defend herself.
But it was all for naught and after a blow to her leg Hinata's retreat had been halted.
"You are within the field of my Divination, Eight Trigrams, Sixty Four Palms"
Neji's hand's blurred into motion, beginning his assault. To his surprise Hinata stilled managed to flow around the first two strikes, then the next six. Afterwards his speed began making up for her defense and he connected, landing fifty of the sixty four total strikes.
***SooP***
"Impressive, Hinata managed to develop her own style of the Gentle Fist. She even managed to dodge a decent portion of Neji's ultimate attack." Hizashi muttered to himself.
Meanwhile Hanabi gasped in horror as her sister was thrown to the ground.
***SooP***
"Proctor call the match she will not be able to…"
"S-saying something Neji-Sama" The young girl spat out as she struggled to her feet.
"Why do you continue to get up? No matter what you do the results will be the same."
"Maybe, but maybe not!"
"Lightning Style: Shogeki no te"
Hinata pushed herself forward, her hands blazing with electric energy as she ignored the pain and protests that her Chakra system were throwing at her.
Neji's eyes widened in shock, before he realized what situation he was in, she had drenched him in water just like her preliminary match.
Even a glancing blow could prove devastating in her favor, meaning there was only one option.
"Eight Trigrams: Kaiten"
Spinning rapidly Neji not only stopped the Kunoichi's advance, but threw her backwards with the force of his attack.
"An impressive trick Hinata had that attack reached me the tides of this battle might have turned in your favor."
Hinata just spat some blood out onto the ground, before pulling herself once more to her feet.
"Why do you continue to get back up? The results will be the same as before."
Hinata glared before struggling through a series of hand signs and firing a bolt of electricity from her hand.
"Lightning Style: Thunder Bolt"
Again Neji activated his 'perfect defense' sending the attack back towards its owner, who barely managed to avoid the backlash.
'What now? I cannot get through his defense and my body is already screaming at me to give up, just like always. What can I do? I thought that maybe after all this time I could surpass him but I am still a failure. I still let my team down. What if this had been a mission? What if he was going to attack my teammates next, what would I do then?' Hinata silently debated, as she glanced over at her team.
Natsuko was cheering for her as loudly as ever, Hanabi looked terrified for her, Kurenai's expression was half concern and half encouragement, and Akane's was….
'THAT'S IT!' Hinata's epiphany kicked in and her hands once again formed a familiar pattern, excitement once more coursed through her system as she realized what the answer to her dilemma was.
"Water Style: Hand of Waves"
The blast of water shot towards her opponent, who spun once more, easily parting the burst but was unable to deflect it as with the lightning.
"I told you that won't…."
But once more he was forced to activate his defense, as the attack came again.
Again and again the Hyuga Kunoichi launched her attack towards the boy, each time the attack was a bit weaker though as her Chakra reserves began to dip.
***SooP***
"What is she doing Kurenai-chan? At this rate she will use up her Chakra well before the spoiled brat does." Anko questioned, not understanding what the Genin was trying to accomplish.
"I don't know Anko she knows that her technique uses far more Chakra than his, along with his already higher reserves. It's almost as if she is…."
Kurenai's eyes shot open in understanding, before a slight smirk crossed her face.
'If this doesn't get her promoted I'm going to start wringing necks.' The Jonin Sensei pondered as she turned her attention back to her student.
***SooP***
Finally Hinata collapsed, unable to continue her barrage, while Neji walked toward her, tired but still functional.
"What was the point of that? Why do you continue struggling when you know that you have no chance of victory?"
"You might be right, I have always been weak after all, and I have been reminded of it my entire life. That is until I met my team. With them I was able to grow strong and confident, I lost the stutter that once plagued me and I was able to feel good about myself for the first time in years. Even still I lagged behind the two, despite the fact I was one of the best Kunoichi in my class their strength was, is, awe inspiring."
"So you use them as a crutch." Neji analyzed, in a scolding tone.
"We rely on each other yes, but that is not something you understand Neji-Sama, because you deem yourself above your own team, you ignore them and thus you are weakened by it. I on the other hand only grow stronger with them, because of them."
"And what strength have you gained? You are still a failure I am still standing where you are on the ground."
"Perhaps," The girl chuckled, before slowly pushing herself up with her hand, struggling with every breath to return to her feet.
"But I see what even you have missed with your Byakugan."
"Oh, and what is that?"
Hinata glanced over to her team, and Neji followed her gaze, back to the cheering blonde, the panicked sister, the smugly grinning teacher and… oh no.
Suddenly the Nara's voice rang through Neji's head from a month ago, almost as if it had been trying to warn him of his folly.
***Flashback***
The Nara posed for a minute, before giving his answer, "She was analyzing us."
The assembled Genin felt a shiver crawl down their spine's at his explanation.
"Wh-what do you mean?"
"She was figuring out how each of us fought and developed even back in the Academy. When we were all busy doing homework, studying, and trying to go out on dates she was already acting like a Ninja. Even back then she marked us as threats to her and Natsuko, and began to plan accordingly."
"That's a bit… scary. But what does it matter? We have all changed since then." Kiba declared, trying to find his courage again.
"Yes you all have, but the fact of the matter is that Akane, despite being a Genius at hard work, also has another skill unlike anyone else I have ever encountered, a skill which could very easily make her one of the most dangerous Ninja alive."
The Genin turned towards the new voice, and saw Maito Gai walking closer towards them, while he kept watch on the two Genin's walking towards the ring below.
"What do you mean Gai-Sensei?"
"Akane Uzumaki has the unique ability of being able to analyze and adapt to situations and combat styles, she has been doing it with Lee during every spar they have had thus far. My guess is that she will eventually find a way to counter attack the Strong Fist, if she hasn't already."
***End Flashback***
The Hyuga realized too late what his opponent had done. She had forced him to use his technique over and over to allow her teammate time to analyze it. If the redhead won she would have a definitive advantage over him, now that she knew his two trump cards.
***SooP***
Hizashi growled in anger at the Branch member's actions, before deciding on ending the battle before it could drag the Hyuga name any more through the mud. He quickly formed a hand sign and activated the Caged Bird seal.
***SooP***
Neji's eyes widened in shock as the seal on Hinata's forehead began to glow, her forehead protector having been thrown off after the first Kaiten attack.
'Who would…. Father!?' Neji had noticed the subtle movement his father had made with his Byakugan.
Instead of screaming in pain like the two expected, they were met with silence as Hinata continued to stand, and glare back at the Hyuga heir.
"B-but… how? You should be on the ground in pain!"
"I told you Neji-Sama I will not quit!"
"But the Caged Bird Seal!"
Hinata blinked in confusion before noticing the glowing on her own forehead, apparently not having felt it activate.
"How's that for fate Neji-Sama?" the girl smirked, before falling over unconscious from Chakra exhaustion.
"Winner is Neji Hyuga." Hayate called out as a series of medics ran out to take care of the young Kunoichi.
***SooP***
When Neji finally arrived in the observation area he immediately moved towards his father, intending on confronting the man for his interference.
He was beaten to it though by Kurenai.
"Hizashi you would have been trying to interfere with a Chunin's match would you? Doing so would immediately disqualify your son and probably bring quite a fair amount of shame upon the Main House, especially if your 'prodigies' cannot win a match by themselves."
The man just glared at the Kunoichi, realizing that he couldn't bring up why the seal hadn't worked without revealing his own participation.
It was something he would be getting to the bottom of though.
***SooP***
"Next up is Shino Aburame against Gekido of Kumo"
As the two Shinobi made their way to the center of the ring the bug user paid close attention to his opponent.
He was an older, and obviously more experienced, Ninja who had a pair of odd looking gauntlets strapped to his forearms.
"Both sides ready? Hajime!"
As soon as Hayate was clear a faint buzz of static electricity was heard, and Shino immediately leapt back from his opponent, narrowly missing an attack meant to end the match quickly.
'So he is a close combat specialist as I thought.' The boy analyzed.
From the gauntlets the boy wielded came two blades made of crackling electric energy they were thin but wide and extended about six inches past the Kumo Ninja's knuckles.
'Best to keep this fight at range, I have no idea whether he is able to extend them even more.'
His opponent snarled in annoyance though and charged forward once more, trying to cut the Aburame into pieces.
Each time though Shino would dodge out of his path, although the lightning wielder was fast and strong he was sloppy, his movements designed more to just batter away at his opponent rather than any kind of tactical precision or control.
"Stand still so I can skewer you yah brat!" The man cried out, his rage getting the better of him as he once more charged forward angrily continuing his rant, while Shino kept a few feet out of his range.
After a somewhat close dodge Shino planted one of his insects on the man, intending to see whether or not the Chakra blades could be used as a counter for him. He was proven correct when the bug died before it was able to start its absorption.
It had however reported an interesting bit of information. Apparently the gauntlets were not just for show and actually stabilized and harnessed the boy's technique.
When his opponent charged forward again Shino intentionally drew in closer, and dropped a smoke bomb which covered the area.
A second later Gekido gave a shout of triumph as he located his enemy, and slashed through him, to find himself falling through a Bunshin. A second later two explosive tags had been planted on the teenagers weapons, causing them to explode violently and tearing up his arms.
The Kumo Ninja fell forward crying out in pain as he gazed down at his now heavily damaged limbs.
***SooP***
"It looks like Shino has this won." Kurenai muttered as she observed with her team with the rest of Team ten standing nearby.
"Heck yeah! GO SHINO!" Ino shouted out, hoping to encourage one of the two teammates she still had in the competition.
"It's not over yet." A quiet voice called out from behind the Ninja, as Hinata slowly made her way to the railing, obviously still sore and tired from her battle.
"You should not be here Hinata, you should be resting still." The girl's Sensei reprimanded.
The Hyuga merely shook her head before looking down at the battle below.
"I am okay I just need to avoid using any Jutsu for a while."
"Here Hinata-chan you can lean on me if you are tired." The blonde Uzumaki offered, earning a blush from the pale eyed girl and a giggle from Anko.
***SooP***
"Y-you think you're so damn smart don't use freak? Well guess what, you aren't! Just because you destroyed my weapons doesn't mean you won, I'll show you why Kumo is the strongest there is!" The injured boy roared out before going through a series of hand signs and wide arching blast of electricity towards his opponent.
"Lightning Style: Arc Flash"
Shino managed to dodge the blow, but not completely as he felt his right arm and leg receive mild burns from the attack.
"HA not so good at dodging now are you? Now to finish you off!"
"I agree with you in one regard, it is time to end this." The stoic boy replied for the first time since the match began.
"What are you…."
The Kumo teen promptly fell down to his knees, gasping for breath as he felt his Chakra reserves dropping rapidly.
"What did you do?"
"You should have done more research on your opponent, the Aburame clan is well known for its use of the Kikaichu insects, they feed on Chakra after all. Do you really believe I would have given up such an opportunity to place them on you when you were blinded by the smoke?"
Gekido swore in rage, trying to stand up and attack the infuriating boy but found his energy almost completely gone.
"Forfeit or pass out, it matters little at this point." Shino declared in his patented monotone.
"SCREW YOU BUG FREAK!"
The boy passed out a moment later, the insects crawling out from their place on his back and returning to their owner.
***SooP***
"The next match is between Fomu of Kiri and Dosu of Oto" the proctor declared.
***SooP***
"Nice match Shino-San."
"Thank you Hinata-San, you did quite well yourself."
"Yes but I lost…"
"It doesn't matter Hinata-chan, all that matters is that you gave it your best shot. Neji-teme had an extra year of experience than you do and had more training so he already had an advantage." The Hyuga's blonde teammate chirped in, earning a nod from the redhead as well.
"Thank you"
***SooP***
When the two Ninja arrived the Shinobi smirked, though it was hidden behind his wrappings. This would be one of the easier fights for him after all. He had been looking forward to a rematch with the Uchiha but had been unable to locate the boy's first opponent in the month that they had been given.
Regardless he saw no threat in any of the Kunoichi thus far, and his current adversary would be no different.
"Hajime!" The Jonin declared, before leaping back a safe distance from the two Genin.
The sound Ninja merely raised his gauntlet and fired a burst of vibrations towards the girl, who saw the attack coming and went through a blur of hand motion.
"Water Style: Water Wall"
The boy looked on in shock as the wall of water seemed to ripple from the force, but otherwise remained stable.
"How the hell, sound travels better in water than it does through air! How did you stop my attack?"
***SooP***
"Man this just go wayyyyy to troublesome."
"What do you mean Shikamaru?"
"The Kiri Kunoichi analyzed her opponent's attacks from the preliminaries and came up with a way to counter it even though her specialty is a weakness." The Nara replied to his own blonde teammate.
"Although sound travels farther and easier through water it actually takes more energy for it to get going, which means she used far denser water at first to act as a dampener for the initial attack." Sakura analyzed, for once feeling her book smarts coming in handy.
"Wow that's really awesome Sakura-chan! How did you know all that?" Natsuko questioned, curiosity filling her blue eyes.
"Uh well I studied a lot in school and…. I guess I was Kunoichi of the year for at least one reason." The pinkette replied blushing.
***SooP***
Meanwhile the Oto Shinobi cursed in annoyance, after two more blasts he hadn't made a scratch in the fairly wide wall, which meant he would have to go around, giving the Kunoichi the advantage.
"Fine then, let's try this again." The man declared and sprinted to his left, clearing the water wall a second later but being forced to roll into a dodge to avoid a flurry of Kunai.
The man retaliated once more with his gauntlet, but again found himself attacking a wall of water apparently the girl had learned a way to curve her existing defensive structure to block his new angle as well.
"This is going to get old really fast."
***SooP***
"An interesting technique, she can constantly force him to move to where she wants and then counter attack just as he arrives, it is quite a lethal strategy." Shino muttered from where he stood.
"Man this is such a drag, no matter what I'm going to be stuck going up against a bunch of troublesome women, I wonder if I can just forfeit now?"
"Shikamaru stop being such a lazy ass for once in your life. You are here to show off how skilled you are, not to just quit at the first signs of trouble. I thought you were training for the last month just for this?"
"Yeah Asuma-Sensei and my dad put me through hell. Late nights, early mornings and no afternoon naps, what a pain."
Choji just snickered, it would be like someone taking away half of his daily seven meals, talk about torture. More and more the Akimichi was happy he had forfeited, and gotten a free buffet out of the deal.
***SooP***
Down in the arena Dosu was starting to get tired of fighting his opponent, all he had to show for the match so far was a handful of close calls and a few minor scratches from the irritating girl. Luckily it seemed that she had finally run out of Kunai, and was beginning to run low on Chakra as well.
The first sign was that her latest wall was considerably thinner than the rest and thin enough that as Dosu began his normal attempt at flanking he was able to surprise the girl and break through the barrier with a concentrated burst of sound, throwing the girl backwards and obviously messing with her equilibrium as she struggled to stand up.
He wasn't going to let that happen though, and charged forward, kicking her in the chest before lifting her up by her vest, his free gauntlet dangerously close to her face.
"You should consider giving up. Not sure what will happen if I full on blast you from this range" the boy whispered with a menacing tone.
The girl responded by using up the remains of her Chakra, and formed a water barrier completely covering her.
The boy merely laughed at the pathetic attempt at defense, he had broken through her barrier when it was easily twice as dense, what was she trying to accomplish.
He received his answer when she opened up a small utility bag and dropped a smoke bomb onto the ground directly below her, creating a cloud of dense smoke.
The Oto Ninja held on though and after a few moments the concealment dissipated.
"Was that it, you trying to make my eyes water?"
The girl just shook her head, a slight smirk forming on her lips.
"Poison" the girl mouthed, earning a wide eyed expression, then a slight chuckle which turned into a roaring laughter from the boy who threw the Kunoichi to the ground several feet from him.
"You stupid brat, do you think these wrappings are just for show? There is a filter built into them to prevent me from inhaling any of that crap you might throw around.
As the water shield dispersed the girl took a few deep breaths before laughing herself.
"Good thing that it's absorbed through the skin then huh?"
The boy's eyes widened, before his legs gave out, forcing him to the ground.
"The only safe preventing method is water, luckily I was completely shielded. Now then you have about twenty seconds before you are completely paralyzed, and another twenty after that before every orifice in your body starts bleeding, I would suggest that…."
"I forfeit!"
"Good call." The girl smirked before turning to the proctor who was coming forward for the antidote.
"Oh my, it seems that I misspoke, that was just a temporary paralysis agent you should be fine in a few seconds." The Kunoichi continued before walking back towards her team.
***SooP***
"Right then, I guess the next battle will be Shikamaru Nara against Temari of Suna."
The Kunoichi immediately nodded before gliding down towards the ground on her fan, her opponent on the other hand had yet to move.
"Yeah I think I'm going to…."
"GO GET HER SHIKAMARU-KUN!" The blonde Uzumaki happily shouted from behind him, while giving him a push of encouragement.
Unfortunately the Nara had not been expecting it, and promptly fell the entire way down, ending with his face in the dirt.
"Oops?"
"Glad to see you finally got the fighting spirit Nara-kun" the proctor chuckled, as the Shinobi dusted himself off and muttered about how troublesome everything could be.
"Hajime!"
***A/N***
A bit of a shorter chapter this time but I didn't want the next chapter to only be Akane and Natsuko's fights.
I hope that everyone is happy with the results of the various battles, I feel I did quite a deal better than during the preliminaries with including other characters rather than just focusing on the main two.
As always, I hope everyone enjoyed the read!
