Tenten looked back at Neji standing calmly in the middle of the training ground. He looked as expressionless as ever. That particular Hyuga trait had been growing on him lately. The emotional boy who faced off against his cousin in the Chuunin exams had changed. He was more at peace with himself. Perhaps, he never openly showed his frustrations or anger anymore. Lee said, she was probably the only one who understood his silences. But then Lee was anything but subtle. As teammates she and Neji had always worked well together. Their temperaments were similar. Both were like-minded and serious when it came to their work as Ninjas. She respected him greatly. They often trained together, yet, she wondered if it was ever possible to know him completely. She couldn't tell what he was really thinking. What he thought about you or if he thought about you at all. Wistfully, she wondered if she the only one affected by the thought that Neji would be leaving the team soon, after he passed the Jounin exams. Would he miss his old team? All her anger at him dissipated at the thought, to be replaced by a twinge of hurt.
"When do you give the Jounin exams", she asked, trying to keep the moroseness from her tone.
"In a week."
"Oh. That's sooner than I imagined."
"It is the right time."
She didn't have anything to say to that. Of course it was the right time. He had simply outgrown their team. She bit her lips coming to a decision. Well then, she'd make this a fight worth remembering, if this was the last time they would train together like this as teammates.
She moved into a fighting stance.
"Ready", she yelled. He nodded.
"Go", she said, letting loose a set of kunai in his direction. He avoided them with ease. But she was just getting started. She whipped open the first scroll.
"Dance of the kunai", she yelled.
Hundreds of kunai burst forth from the scroll, in a continuous stream, the flow changing direction seamlessly while following their targets motion.
'Not bad.' thought Neji. Her Chakra control had improved greatly he noted as he narrowly avoided the latest slew of kunai, their motion directed by hundreds of slender strings that allowed her to control each of them. He dashed into the trees amid thunks from metal hitting wood as the kunai tore through the leaves of the tree to embed themselves in the branches. He had a second to notice that some of the kunai now had exploding tags on them, before the entire tree went up in flames. 'The little vixen is out for blood today', Neji thought grimly, brushing the charred leaves from his robe. Neji had teleported out of the tree and was currently heading straight at her in a direct frontal attack.
"Invisible death" she said, quickly forming the seals as he emerged from the foliage.
A light stirring of breeze above his head was all the warning he had, before he looked up to see thousand shining points of light engulf him with pain. Neji's shadow clone returned to him with a pop. Neji grimaced as the clones memories were transferred to him. It was a clever attack, she had let loose and held the scroll containing the senbon suspended in the air with a Chakra string, all the while that she had been attacking the tree to flush him out. The senbon were sleeker than usual and nearly invisible to the eye. Each one could be tipped with poison, if the occasion warranted it. Not for the first time, Neji appreciated what a fine partner she was to have in battle beside him. He felt a little nostalgic at the thought. All the same, while she was distracted by his shadow clone, Neji prepared to divest her of her scrolls. She whirled away from his attack, but it was too late, the kunai in Neji's hand had slashed away the bindings of the backpack containing her scrolls. Neji flipped the bag over with his foot. It was empty. Tenten faced him from a few feet away with a smug smile on her face. Neji activated the Byakugan. Slivers of chakra strings extended from her fingers to the scrolls placed on the ground surrounding them on all sides. Her mouth moved silently as she finished a series of seals and flipped back out of the circle. The scrolls immediately sprung to life, engulfing Neji in a deluge of .. Sakura blossoms? They swirled around, surrounding him from all sides forming a hollow column with him at the center.
"Kai" said Neji, releasing the Genjutsu illusion. The Sakura blossoms took on their real form, six pointed metal discs with a thin piece of metal jutting out perpendicular to the petals. The column had grown too tall to attempt jumping over.
"Flower cage", yelled Tenten. The discs started coalescing and binding together with the force of her chakra. They quickly interlocked forming a solid cage, the walls lined with sharp jutting points preventing anyone from trying to escape by climbing the walls up to the top. Now, they closed off his last chance of escape, covering the open top, to form a jagged dome. He was in darkness, except for the pin pricks of light let in through the joints held together by Chakra, the glowing edges forming the shapes of dozens upon dozens of delicate Sakura blossoms.
It was in a word beautiful. It took exquisite craftsmanship and excellent technique to pull this off. He knew the amount of Chakra she must've put into the attack. Her Chakra reserves were still holding up but not for long he knew. She had used up too much Chakra too fast by being on the offensive all the time. Yet, Neji was impressed, knowing she had barely any rest since her mission ended. He allowed himself a moment of genuine appreciation for the resilient Kunoichi.
"Neji, do you concede", came Tenten's voice from the top of the Dome.
"No", came the muffled reply. She could almost imagine the smirk on his face.
"Cage of Pain", she growled, leaping away.
Flower shaped discs with razor sharp edges dislodged from the walls flying across the small space within the dome. More and more discs were dislodging themselves now. Yet, there was no sound from within at all. Why hadn't he made a move yet? She heard a grunt of pain from Neji. Her eyes widened in surprise and worry. Hastily, she released the Chakra strings holding up the swirling mass, panting from the effort of holding them up. Only the discs didn't stop moving, in fact they continued attacking Neji. What was going on?
As the remaining structure finally crumbled away she caught sight of Neji, he was spinning around in the dizzying fast motion of the Kaiten jutsu, only rather than repel the attack, it seemed like he was weaving his own chakra into the discs. He had successfully caught each and every one of them. A dizzying amount of chakra strings crisscrossed around the discs. Amazing.
"Tenten. Take cover", he warned, his voice deadly serious. Tenten's eyes widened and she dashed back towards the woods.
Neji focused all his Chakra into the hardened discs. There was the sound of metal grating against metal as he turned the deadly discs against their own, shattering the lot of them. They exploded outward as he released his Chakra, the centrigual force from his rotating chakra propelling the tiny shards of metal outwards. A few traveled far enough to strike the tree Tenten had taken cover in.
She had been completely defeated. Tenten felt her knees give out as she keeled over from Chakra exhaustion.