Neji was instantly on his feet, sliding hands and feet into the Jyuuken stance, readying himself for battle. To his surprise (and increasing irritation) Touketsu barely showed any concern at all. He seemed perfectly at ease with the whole situation. He wasn't taking Neji seriously.
He thinks I'm not a threat, Neji realized. Arrogant bastard.
"Oh this is delightful, here I was worried I'd have to spend more effort to draw you into a trap or something... yet you've saved me all the trouble," Touketsu remarked. "They need to teach more Genin to be like you guys... just waltzing right into my hands like this."
Neji blinked in surprise, realizing what he meant. Their location, carefully chosen for it's defensive capabilities, had now become a trap. There was no way for them to escape except through Touketsu. Smirking, fully aware of his predicament, the former Snow ninja shrugged off his pack, reaching behind his back to draw off both his swords, holding them still sheathed at his side, where he could more easily draw them.
His silver-haired enemy smirked. "Nice reading, this scroll... very good stuff in here. Still, to my mind, I know clients would pay a heck of a lot more for a real -live- Hyuuga than some dumb old scroll, good or not. And I realized... -with- the scroll... I could bring you to them."
"Over my dead body," snarled Neji.
"That's the general idea," replied Touketsu, slipping one of the swords into his belt and reaching out to draw the other from it's sheath. However, the sword remained stuck in it. He gave another hard jerk, hoping to wrench it free, but it didn't so much as badge. "The hell...?"
Several long moments of hard, almost comedic prying, and Touketsu still couldn't drawn the sword from it's sheath.
Neji gave his trademark grin, glad for something to have finally gone right for once. "I recognize that sword, Touketsu," he stated. "It is called the Hyuuga's Edge, and it was said no one save a member of the Hyuuga bloodline could draw it from it's sheath. It will never serve you."
Touketsu's jade eyes narrowed dangerously.
"You can steal our secrets but you can never be one of us," added Neji, deciding to twist the barb in a bit deeper. "Loser."
The former Snow thief glared at Neji, and he felt a hint of his killing intent start to leak out from his calm demeanor. Without realizing it, Neji had hit upon Touketsu's weak spot... deep down, for all his show and talent, he was jealous. He wanted the Hyuuga power for himself, no doubt, and was frustrated to be forever denied it.
If there was a way he could use that, Neji wasn't certain. Yet. But if there was a way, he'd find it. Or die trying.
Angered, Touketsu's hands quickly formed seals.
"Raijingu Sandaa Arashi!"
Tensed for an attack, Neji watched in dread and fascination as the howling winds picked up to the level of a gale, accompanied by a flurry of stinging hard snow. A snow storm had risen up out of the environment seemingly out of no where. Oddly, there came a flash of lightning every so often, something that usually didn't go together with such an attack. Neji leaned into the wind, fighting to hold his position. That Touketsu could summon such a storm bespoke of his abilities, but Neji suspected it was preparation for something worse to come.
He was right.
"Renkuudan...!" howled Touketsu, his silver locks waving in the breeze as he thrust out his hands hard. A blast of wind followed them, though it streaked clear past Neji and hit the tent where his comrades were, tearing through it in a matter of seconds.
Neji smirked. All part of the plan.
Two puffs of smoke greeted the ice-warrior as the tent fell apart, Naruto's signature shadow replications at work. Neji's Byakugan had already located where his real teammates were, as they'd slipped out as soon as Touketsu had arrived and gone into hiding. Now, they launched a devastating attack as Naruto sprang up out of the snow beside Neji and Tenten leapt down gracefully from a nearby tree-top.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
"Tobidougu!"
Once again a small army of shadow clones came charging in across the frozen ground, while high up in the sky a rain of kunai came hurtling down towards Touketsu. He was amply prepared this time for both attacks, however, and with a minimum of concentration he sent a wave of icy-wind washing down over both of them, knocking kunai and shadow clone out of the air alike. Half a dozen shadow clones puff out of existence.
However, he wasn't the only one prepared.
Tenten twisted in midair, slinging out some near-invisible wire from her fingertips to catch a nearby tree branch. "Now!" she shouted.
The five remaining Naruto's quickly converged on one another, and four of them grabbed up their comrade by his arms and legs. With a mighty heavy, they hurled him forward, head-first, like a torpedo. "Bunshin Taiatari!"
The Naruto clone slammed head-first into Touketsu's midriff, doubling him over. Neji bit back a comment about how Naruto's hard head had finally come in use, deciding to save it for another time. His concentration broken, his storm jutsu was weakening. Neji charged forward, moving in around from the side. He kicked off from a nearby tree, hoping to gain an aerial attack from above Touketsu and add gravity to his assault.
Unfortunately, Touketsu had been expecting something of the sort, and held up his hands, two fingers upraised. Neji hit the ground hard before him, clutching at his head as blinding pain shot through his body once again. Even being ready to experience it hadn't help to brace him for the sheer shock of the curse seal.
"That all you got, Hyuuga?"
"Not... quite..." Neji replied through gritted teeth.
Agile as a Wind country dancing girl, Tenten used the wire to spin her body about in mid-air, kicking off from a nearby tree and rocketing towards Touketsu. He braced to block her attack, but he wasn't her target, and she deftly slammed her elbow down against his wrist in a light attack meant to break his grip, grabbing up the Hyuuga's Edge as she back flipped out of combat, moving in and out before Touketsu could return the attack.
"Nya-nya, gotcha sword!" Tenten taunted, unabashedly blowing a raspberry at Touketsu. Stunned and infuriated, the former Snow thief glared down at Neji, whom he blamed for his current predicament.
The curse seal began to glow bright emerald as power flowed into it. "You're becoming an annoyance, Hyuuga..."
Neji glared up at him defiantly. "You need me alive, remember?"
"True. But not necessarily intact. Best I just keep you out of the way for now." Dropping his hand, giving Neji a moment to recover, he quickly formed seals with his freed hands. Touketsu then slammed his palm down against the ground. "Hyourou no Jutsu!"
An icy barrier sprang up around Neji, and before he could react, he was encased up to his neck in solid, rock-hard ice. Between that and the weakening effects of the curse seal, he couldn't move in the slightest. He was powerless.
"There... finally," muttered Touketsu, his breathing ragged. The strain of fighting with such powerful jutsu was wearing on his limited chakra supply. Neji focused his Byakugan. He was right, his chakra pathways were growing dim. He was stretching himself too thin.
"Let him go you bastard!"
Touketsu turned back as another gust of wind picked up, but not from his overhead storm. The whirl of chakra from Naruto's Rasengan. Naruto charged forward, ball of energy in hand, ready to slam into Touketsu and rip him apart. Reacting purely by instinct, the former shinobi of Hidden Snow grabbed up the second blade he'd stolen, forgetting in his haste Neji's words about it being unable to unsheath. However, he slid easily from the sheath as if had been well-oiled, sliding easily into his hand. Reacting purely by instinct, he rammed the blade forward, and it knicked Naruto's shoulder, causing his Rasengan attack to go awry.
Naruto crashed into the snowy ground, bleeding profusely from his shoulder, as his teammates got a better look at the blade in Touketsu's hand.
The curved sword wasn't just stained in Naruto's blood. It was already the color crimson.
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
In the Hyuuga household, the Elders taught the young students, even outside of their Academy training. Taught them to use the Jyuuken fighting style. Taught them how to be proper and respectful men and women. But primarily, they taught of the long and glorious history of the Hyuuga clan, which was older than the Hidden Leaf village itself, and one of the founding Clans.
However, one part of their history no member of the Hyuuga's would ever speak of.
The Hyuuga's spoke pridefully of their own clan's accomplishments, but they spoke in dark, hushed tones of the Uchiha, their offspring clan. Bad blood had been spilled between them during an event known only as the "Uchiha Tragedy." It concerned the splintering of the one Clan into two. The Elders had been content to forget the incident, so a number of rumors had passed amongst the Hyuuga clan concerning the horror of the event and the bloodshed entailed, some true, most falsehoods.
Some tales concerned the slaughter of whole families to keep bloodlines safe, the tricking of siblings, the murder of parents, betrayal, the awakening of dark powers, and worse. When all was said and done, the Hyuuga's refused to speak of it ever again. And they had as little to do with the Uchiha's as possible. The Uchiha clan returned the favor, up until Itachi's slaughter six years ago. The Hyuuga clan, while outwardly sympathetic to the young orphan Sasuke, had been secretly delighted that the black stain in their history could finally be forgotten.
Of particular concern was Uchiha's Crescent. Said to have been wielded by the protagonist of the Hyuuga-Uchiha battle, its blade was, even fully cleaned, crimson red, perpetually stained with the blood of it's vanquished enemies. It had rested on the wall underneath Hyuuga's Edge (symbolically underneath it to reinforce the Hyuuga's own pride) until both blades had been stolen.
And now Uchiha's Crescent was in the hands of Touketsu.
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
Neji watched in horror as Touketsu lifted up the dripping wet blade, admiring it's simplistic yet deadly design. Wet with Naruto's blood, the blade was giving off a strange aura, visible to his Byakugan. It almost looked like chakra. Neji had heard of some weapons that shinobi used that were imbued with strange qualities not unlike jutsu. If any weapons fit such a category, it was the Hyuuga's heirlooms.
Naruto got to his feet, launching himself forward, kunai in hand. His wound wasn't so serious that it would keep him down long. However, Touketsu countered and blocked his every strike as effortlessly as if he was swatting flies out of the air. His arm and the Uchiha's crescent instinctively shifted position to block Naruto's attacks.
"What the...?" Touketsu seemed just as surprised by his good luck as Naruto was.
The blonde-haired genin gave a war-cry and hurled himself forward with renewed intensity, this time from all angles with a number of shadow clones. But to his vast astonishment, Touketsu continued to block every attack effortlessly. He even managed to go on the offensive, and puff after puff filled the air as replications vanished from decisive slashes of the sword.
One vicious gash caught the real Naruto full across the chest, and with a cry he went crashing to the ground, blood oozing from the wound to stain his orange jacket crimson. Touketsu laughed... mocking and hurtful. It cut worse than the blade did.
"Finally... thought I'd never be rid of that hyperactive moron," muttered Touketsu.
Something out of the corner of his eye caught his attention, and without hesitation Touketsu let loose a volley of shuriken at Tenten, who was reaching down for one of her summoning scrolls. She dodge the attack, but one of the shuriken knocked her scroll down onto the ground, far out of her reach. Her other scroll was already expended, and she had no backup weapons in her packs or leg-holster. Now she had only one weapon left, clutched in her left hand.
Hyuuga's Edge.
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
Author's Notes:
Raijngu Sandaa Arashi means Raging Thunder Storm. Quijote3000 deserves full credit for inspiring the "Uchiha Tragedy" element of the story.