I don't own Naruto.

Hinata was crouched in a defensive stance before her mind had even come close to processing what was happening. By the time her mind had caught up to her body, she was blocking several attacks from the "Hyuuga" guard.

He had started by throwing several kunai and shurikan at her. While she was deflecting these, he quickly followed suit by launching himself at her. She dodged him and spun to face him. They stood about 10 feet apart, each waiting for the other to make the first move.

Finally he assumed the opening position in the gentle fist style. Hinata's eyes widened because it was such a familiar move. Not just that this stranger knew her fighting style, but because she recognized whose fighting style it was.

"Neji niisan," she accused, because that was her cousin's stance. It's true that every Hyyuga uses the same fighting style, but each individual Hyuuga added their own twist to it.

Neji's eyes widened at her accusation, but soon they were narrowed again. He didn't deny the accusation though. Instead he lunged forward, using the gentle fist against her.

Hinata knew she was in trouble. Over the three years sense her battle, her gentle fist style had improved, but so had Neji's. What she had to do was integrate some of the other forms of taijutsu into her family's style, and hope that it would work.

Another thing for Hinata to worry about was that at the age of 13 Neji had mastered the use of tenketsu, which is a painful process to be the recipient of. Although Hinata had memorized where they are on the body, she had yet to hit all of them on a moving target.

But Hinata had one thing that Neji didn't. She had some practice with Shikamaru and was therefore familiar with how his Kagemane no jutsu worked. She saw Neji's eyes widen when he realized that he could no longer move.

Hinata moved quickly, making sure to avoid Shikamaru's shadow, and hit a pressure point on his neck, rendering him unconscious. He slumped forward, or as forward as he could under the control of Shikamaru's shadow.

Neji was released suddenly, falling forward at a rapid pace. Good thing Hinata was there to keep him from eating concrete. She took some rope out of her pack, and tied him up, then left him leaning against a wall. His henge had dissipated once she had hit the pressure point.

During their short battle, Hinata had noticed that he was the only one to attack. 'That's odd,' she thought as she examined her feeling of impending doom. 'It's supposed to be something bigger then just Neji niisan attacking me.'

She glanced over at Gaara, who was still sitting in his chair. He looked calm, like there wasn't a problem in the world. In fact everyone with the exception of Shikamaru and herself looked as though nothing had even happened. They were all staring at an empty field, presumably waiting for the last fight to begin.

There was no movement at all, with the exception of Shikamaru, and then one by one, everyone started to slump. She first noticed it with Gaara, who was one moment sitting up strait and the next, sliding to the side, his head hanging grotesquely from his neck.

"Shikamaru kun," she said quietly, hoping that the genius had some idea of what was going on. There was no answer. Hinata swung her head around to look at him, and was relieved to note that he was crouched on the ground, assuming his thinking position.

While he was thinking, Hinata decided to do some experimenting. She gathered chackra into her fingers, and tapped Gaara's shoulder. If he were under a genjutsu he would have woken up. Nothing happened. She tried this with several other people, and the same result happened.

"Shikamaru kun," she called out, "I'm going down on the field. Keep an eye on Neji niisan," then before he could acknowledge her order, she hopped off the platform and landed daintily in the arena.

She kept her byakugan activated, even though the only active chackra circulatory systems belonged herself and Shikamaru's. Nothing happened. Nothing happened when she investigated the waiting platform that the potential chuunin's used. Nothing happened as she moved her way through the unconscious audience members. Nothing happened when she met back with Shikamaru to report her findings.

"We're the only two people awake," she reported, "there is no movement and no active chackra systems, which would suggest that people were awake."

"Have you tried waking anyone up?" Shikamaru asked.

"No, I thought I should see if there was any danger before I tried that." Shikamaru nodded in understanding.

Hinata walked over to Gaara. If this was a normal genjutsu, all she would have to do was send some chackra into his system and he would wake up. If this were an unusual genjutsu… she would have to deal with that as she went her way.

She closed her eyes and gathered chackra to her fingers. 'Now' she thought as she felt them begin to tingle. Quickly she tapped Gaara on the forehead, almost fearful of a wall of sand rising to protect the Kazekage.

"Nothing happened," Shikamaru said. He was kneeling next to Temari, and had obviously tried to rouse the vivacious blonde. Hinata nodded. A thought was nagging at the back of Hinata's brain.

"Ne, Shikamaru?" she started slowly, letting the thought fill her head. "What if they aren't the ones under a genjutsu?"

Shikamaru nodded, his genius brain filling in the rest of the conversation. "So, how was Neji the trigger?" he asked, skipping several steps in the conversation and making Hinata's brow furrow as her mind scrambled to keep up.

"…Well, we might be able to ask him," she said after a few minutes.