Chapter 13
"Hyuuga Neji vs. Hyuuga Hinata"
Neji's eyes lit up, and a rather sadistic smirk played across his lips. Seemingly calm and serene, he walked to the middle of the arena. On the inside, he was boiling over with emotion. Hate, anger, rage, bloodlust, wrath, jealousy, and confidence were the only things he felt. No fear, regret, sadness, doubt, nervousness, nothing of the sort. 'Today is the day I get revenge on the main house…'
Hinata, in the arms of her beloved, didn't quite shake with fear, but it was obvious that she was nervous. Her hand made its way to her lips, her old sign of nervousness, and her eyes cast doubt like a shadow. 'Of all people, why did it have to be Neji-nii-san?'
"Hinata" Naruto's voice broke her though process. "We both know that you can do it. Just remember how we trained."
Hinata looked up into his pale blue eyes. A deep feeling of nostalgia overcame her as she remembered…
(Flashback… yeah, I have a lot of these, but it's better than just explaining it through conversation)
Hinata and Naruto were facing each other. Naruto was in the basic Jyuuken stance, while Hinata stood a ways away in the basic academy Taijutsu stance. Without warning, Hinata darted forward, punching and kicking several times, only to have them blocked. Jumping away, she flashed through several hand seals. As a team rule, they never shouted out their jutsu, giving them an element of surprise. As such, it's harder for the enemy to copy or avoid the attacks.
A ball of water condensed in her hand. She threw it at Naruto's still form. While he was dodging, she flashed through another set and cast her next jutsu. The earth at Naruto's feet was turned to swamp, trapping him in quicksand. Hinata's third jutsu, Housenka no jutsu, rained down a flurry of small fire balls. Thinking quickly, Naruto started spinning.
"Kaiten!"
The quicksand and fire balls were blown away by the spinning chakra ball, unable to pierce it. Hinata again took the opportunity to do another set of seals, and she disappeared under the ground. Naruto stopped his spinning to see an empty field. Settling into an advanced defensive stance, he waited. Suddenly, a hand grabbed each one of his ankles. Before he could be pulled under, he did another Kaiten, this time jumping as well. Using chakra to stabilize himself in mid air, he was able to land without injury.
Hinata jumped up and threw several kunai, only to see Naruto just stand there as they all passed him by without hitting him, or even coming close.
"You missed."
"Look again."
Naruto looked at the kunai right in front of him just in time to catch the exploding note finish burning up.
BOOM
The explosion launched him into the air. Several cuts suddenly made their appearance on his body, from yet another jutsu Hinata did. She jumped into the air above him, flashing through yet another set of hand seals. Naruto realized what she was going to do and frantically tried to adjust his trajectory. Hinata finished her seals and raised her hand to her lips.
"Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu!"
The huge ball of flames completely covered Naruto and drove him into the ground. Before he had a chance to recover, Hinata landed and called out her next jutsu.
"Suiton: Suiryuudan no jutsu!"
A moderately sized dragon of water rose from a fissure in the ground, being formed from the groundwater, and few at Naruto's prone form. Before he could react, the dragon hit him full force, driving him deeper into the crater already formed from his first landing.
Hinata stood panting, her hands dropped to her sides. Naruto was soaked, bruised, lacerated, and burned. Several craters littered the training grounds, some obviously from Kaiten, and others from something else.
Slowly, the bruised and battered boy stood up.
"Good job, Hinata."
"A…arigatou."
"Now, even though Jyuuken is strong, it's only Taijutsu. There's only so far one can go with only Jyuuken. That's why Ibiki-sensei insisted we learn other styles and a lot of Ninjutsu."
Naruto paused as his stomach rumbled
"Oh boy… Hey, Hinata, would you like to go get something to eat with me?"
"Sure, Naruto-kun."
(End Flashback)
Naruto's huge foxy grin caused a small smile to play across her lips.
"Hinata, you can beat him. I know you can. Go out there and kick his ass back into shape, ne?"
"Hai, Naru-kun"
"Be safe, Hina-chan."
Hinata jumped down into the arena and faced her opponent. They locked eyes. Hinata's look of sadness and pity seemed to completely oppose Neji's look of hate and anger.
"Give up, Hinata-sama. We both know you can't win. I was always better than you. This match was decided before you even stepped into the ring."
"Yes, Neji-nii-san, the outcome of the match is predetermined. However, it's not Fate that decided who wins or who looses. What affects the outcome of this match will be how much effort has been put into it. You wasted your time perfecting you Jyuuken. I… well… you'll see. Referee, start the match."
"Begin."
Neji settled into a Jyuuken stance while Hinata just flashed through some hand seals. She slammed her hands into the ground and… nothing happened. Neji smirked at her, but his expression soon turned to shock as he saw… glowing.
A ring seal started glowing. The seven pointed star filled the inside of the 3.5 meter diameter ring. Neji stood inside the seven sided polygon formed by the unbroken line that made up the star as they crossed each other on the inside of the shape. Between each 'arm' of the star, a different symbol appeared. They looked like a strange cross between Kanji and Runes, typical of most seals. Outside the ring, an intricate and almost tribal style geometric shape spread out from each point where the star's tips touched the circle. They spread out and touched yet another circle, this one 18 meters in diameter. A strange almost silver colored glow came from the seals.
"Wh…What did you do?"
"Neji-nii-san, did you know that Ninjutsu didn't start with hand seals? A long time ago, every jutsu had to be written down in a seal form, and blessed by a monk to give it chakra. These paper tags were used by priests, monks, and sometimes warriors to fight with. Then, one man found out that seals could help change how chakra flowed in a person's body. That's how seal tattoos were born. They were permanent tattoos that gave a person one jutsu per tattoo. That was the first step of Ninjutsu. Unfortunately, you could only have enough jutsu as you had skin that was easily accessed.
Then, yet another breakthrough was discovered. One man found out that by putting your hands in a specific pattern changed how your chakra flowed. He spent his entire life researching these seals, and yet he only discovered five. His pupils who carried on his works found the other seven that we know of, and they named them after animals of the zodiac. This is how hand seals were born. Now, even then, not a lot of jutsu were in existence. Soon, seal masters took interest in these hand seals. They found out that, in certain pattern, they could change the way your chakra flowed enough to give the effect of one of the permanent jutsu tattoos, but only for that jutsu. After the string was broken, you chakra flow returned to normal. After lifetimes of experimentation, a large part of the jutsu we know today were created. Now, because hand seals were created to imitate ink seals, it's also possible to use hand seals to create ink seals. That's what I did just now. It's merely a reversal of the process, reverse engineering, if you will.
Now, I bet you're wondering what this seal does? Unfortunately, it required almost all my chakra to just make the seal and empower the first stage."
"What does the first stage do?"
"It merely does what Naruto-kun does naturally."
"You mean…"
"Yes, it draws and converts Nature Chakra into Human Chakra."
The silver light dimmed down into nothingness. Just as Neji was about to smirk and berate her for failing, the entire seal complex started glowing blue.
"What?"
"Ah, the second stage is active. I merely had to stall you long enough for the first stage to gather enough chakra. Now that I have the second stage ready, I can do… this."
Suddenly, the sky turned a deep, dark violet. The entire world seemed to freeze. Colors faded and dulled. The only shades or hues left were black, white, grey, and violet. An eerie sound filled the air, a mix between a growl, a whistle, and the groan of pain.
"What! Where are we! What did you do?"
Hinata was the one smirking now.
"This… is my world. The entire seal was there to do one thing and one thing only. It created a pocket dimension. In other words, it folded the space-time plain to the point where it folded over on itself, creating a small 'bubble' that exists outside its own time. The laws are similar, but due to the nature of the seal I used to create this pocket dimension, I am, for all intents and purposes, Kami."
"What!"
Hinata merely waved her hand and a very ornate, though violet colored, katana appeared in her hands.
"In this world, I control space, time, matter, energy, life, and even death. Everything is under my control. For instance…"
She again waived her hand and a person appeared. Neji's eyes widened as he recognized who it was.
"Father!"
Hyuuga Hizashi merely stood there. His emotionless eyes stared unseeing into the purple horizon. Neji could only stare as Hinata again waived her hand and Hizashi disappeared.
"Neji-nii-san, the real reason I called you here is because I wanted to talk to you."
"I have nothing to say to you." He spat.
"Neji, why do you hate me?"
"BECAUSE YOU HAVE EVERYTHING YOU COULD EVER WANT! YOU ARE FREE TO MAKE YOUR OWN DESTINY! YOU HAVE EVERYTHING I WANT! YOU'RE THE HEIR, YOU HAVE A FAMILY, YOU'VE GOTTEN HONOR, AND YOU…. You… you have someone to love…"
Neji fell to his knees. His eyes moistened, and tear fell as he blinked to ease the burning he felt. Hinata slowly walked over to him and… she hugged him.
"Neji-nii-san… I'm sorry."
"No… you're not. Why should you, a Main family member, care for your servants?"
"Neji, I don't feel that way…"
"DON'T! just… don't…"
"Neji-nii-san, I care for you. Naruto cares for you. We… all we ever wanted were to be your friends, your family. Why did you become cold?"
"Because… you were always seen as weak, and Naruto was always seen as a waste of time… but… you managed to… completely stop an invasion. You got the highest honor a Shinobi could get, you found someone to love, and your love became your betrothed. As for me? The counsel would never consent to train me farther because the branch members must be weaker than the Main family members. Then… I finally found someone to love… someone I wanted to be with… but… when the counsel found out… they refused to allow me to see her. You have everything given to you, and I… I just get it all taken away. Its just… not… fair…"
"Neji-nii-san…'
"Just go away, Hinata-sama."
Hinata stood up. Her own tears were falling. She reached out a hand and touched his forehead. She walked stood back and said "Neji… in this world, anything that happens to you here happens to you back in reality. In here, I am god. And as god, I declare the Caged Bird seal to be cruel. I free you of your curse."
Neji fell back in pain. His forehead glowed a sickly pale greenish-yellow (the color of Neji's curse seal tattoo) It felt like his forehead was going to split open. He writhed in pain, rolling over and over, yet refusing to scream. Then, as suddenly as it started, it stopped.
"Neji-nii-san, the tattoo will remain on your forehead forever. But, for all intents and purposes, the seal is gone. It can no longer be activated." To punctuate this fact, she raised her hands in the activation seal and forced enough chakra through it to kill him, but nothing happened to Neji.
"Hinata-sama… why…"
"Because… I hate those looks… the looks of hate… I want you to be my friend again, cousin."
"H…Hai."
"Neji… when we go back, I'll pass out from chakra exhaustion. I'm sorry, you win this match."
With a flash, everything turned back to normal. The world slowly sped up to normal speed. Hinata smiled one last smile before she fell.
"Winner, Hyuuga Neji."
Naruto jumped over the railing and knelt down at Hinata's side, cradling her head.
"Hinata-chan, what happened?"
"I… released… his seal…"
"You… thank you, Hinata-chan."
"Naruto-kun… please… don't hold it against him."
"I won't."
Hinata smiled again before falling asleep. He smiled lovingly as her face radiated peacefulness. He picked her up bridal style and walked with her into the Medic Ward, followed closely by Neji.
"Neji-san… did she remove 'it'?
"Yes… Naruto-sama."
"Neji, what did I tell you about calling me Naruto-sama? Naruto-san is just fine, although it makes me feel old."
"Hai, Naruto-sam…-san."
Naruto smiled and set Hinata down on the wheeled hospital bed as if she were made of glass. He pulled the blanket and sheet up over her sleeping body, carefully tucking it underneath her. Hinata smiled and snuggled deeper into the pillow, grabbing onto Naruto's hand unconsciously.
Neji smiled sadly, thinking about his own love, and walked out of the door, closing it behind him.
He walked back up to the boxes just in time to hear the announcement of the next match.
"Uchiha Sasuke vs. Sabaku no Gaara."
Hey everyone, Halo here. Sorry about the whole Tsukiyomi copy, i know it's kind of cliche, but technically it's different. Tsukiyomi is a genjutsu, while Hinata's technique actually created a different pocket dimention. She can hold it indefinately as it draws off of Nature chakra, but too long and it'll rip the space time plain, or will copletely break off and she'll never be able to get back. it's dangerous, and will be banned by the Hogake after the exams as a kinjutsu. (forbidden technique.) I'm sorry for the short chapter, but i decided to put Sasuke's fall into the next chapter. He he he, i think Gaara will have quite a fun time, don't you think? i've already got some new skills Gaara gets to test out. Anyways, I gotta get back to school, lunch break is almost over. Laters!