The few trees left in the area swayed in the night wind. The two ninja stood there silently in identical stances waiting for the first move. Neji became impatient and acted first by running straight at the ninja.
"If I can gain a few steps over this guy I should be able to out run him, even if he can see he can't keep up." Neji thought desperately. He wanted to avoid confrontation at all costs; all his training had left him weak. Neji darted closer and closer to his enemy, finally making a sharp turn to the right to maneuver around his opponent and hopefully escape, but he was to slow. The ninja slid to the right along side Neji, following through with a quick two fingered jab at his ribs, and ending it with a palm raise under Neji's chin hurling him backwards off balance.
As Neji fell to the ground the ninja spoke. "How disappointing …. Neji Hyuuga I expected … better…" Neji's head slammed against the hard cold ground. He opened his eyes and slowly began to stand back up, but he stopped when a sharp pain struck him below the ribs. Neji remained on one knee as the ninja looked down on him.
Neji smirked. "Looks like your no imitation that was a standard juken attack." Neji stood up. "The juken is a precise style of taijutsu that aims for the tenketsu along a ninja's chakra network. You gravely miscalculated and missed my tenketsu entirely." Then he repositioned his stance. The ninja squinted his eyes with discontent. "This guy is fast I'll give him that, with that speed there is no point in running, I have no choice but to fight." Neji dashed forward at the enemy quickly thrusting an open palm at the ninja. The enemy parried the first strike using his wrist and struck back with an open palm. Neji also parried the strike and continued to throw a series of quick juken jabs. The two remained interlocked in a grapple of palm thrusts and finger jabs at vital spots along the others chakra system for a few minutes and then broke to opposite spots in the circle of trees. Neither ninja looked harmed but both were breathing hard. "Your technique is poor at best; your aim was horrible you miss my tenketsu nearly every time." Neji was hopping to hit a nerve in his enemy but he was unfazed.
"I could…say the same… for you…" The normally toneless voice of the ninja carried the slightest bit of sarcasm.
As Neji took a close look at the ninja he realized that he hadn't hit him properly either. He racked his brain looking for answer, "I was sure I hit him, what happened?" The enemy smiled form beneath the bandages covering his face. "I'll get him this time!" Neji thought as he moved in on the ninja. Once more both ninja engaged into a series of quick jabs, palm thrusts and a few low kicks every now and then. The battle was at a stand still. Each ninja attacked blow for blow. But Neji found an opening in the ninja's defense and attacked with a quick powerful dual palm thrust. "Got him!" The ninja stumbled back a few steps. Neji then stepped sideways and moved his front foot out and leaned down with one arm pointing down and the other pointing up. "You're in range of my trigrams!" Neji shouted. He then slid his back foot around in front of his other foot and began his assault. The enemy stopped stumbling only to meet Neji's attack. "Two palms, four palms, eight palms, sixteen palms, thirty two palms, sixty four palms!" His attack was complete. Neji sat there in his hunched over position after finishing the attack. Slowly he stood up. "That took a lot out of me but that did it; there is no dodging my tri…" Neji stopped mid thought, stunned. The ninja was standing a few feet in front of Neji like nothing had happened; he just stood there with a disappointed look on his face. Neji began to lose it "Every attack hit its mark all sixty four tenketsu were hit how is he still standing?" Neji stared at his opponent horrified. "Wha-what are you!? How can you be standing!?"
"You fail to…impress me…. Neji Hyuuga…." The ninja the rushed forward at the paralyzed Neji standing in front of him. With a few jabs and one final strong palm thrust Neji went flying across the desolate training field. In mid air Neji managed to slow himself and land on his knees skidding backwards. His face twisted in pain as he slowed to a stop.
Neji looked down and examined his body for injuries with his byakugan, he paused. "He still has not accurately hit any of my tenketsu?! I don't understand how a ninja could know the inner working of the eight trigrams sixty-four palms well enough to utterly dodge it without mastering the juken itself. Besides a few burses I'm completely fine, there is almost no damage done to my chakra system. What's going on?" The enemy was now running at Neji to finish the job. Although still deep in confused thought he was not caught off guard, and right as the enemy approached, Neji exerted a large amount of chakra "Rotation!" he yelled as he spun in a circle. Neji's rotation stopped the attack and sent the enemy backwards but he gained traction and stopped him self. "I have no idea what you are trying to pull but you are no master of the byakugan!" Neji shouted.
This time in a menacingly haunting tone the enemy ninja spoke. "This time….I'll have to…. agree with you…." As the ninja's voice drifted off he charged.
Neji gave a small smile"A frontal attack will not work aginst my rotation." Almost like an instance replay the enemy ninja came upon him and Neji began his rotation, but at the exact moment Neji released the massive amount of chakra needed to perform rotation the ninja jumped backwards and jump into the air. Neji had already released the chakra and continued the rotation even though the ninja was out of range. The enemy ninja now in mid air preformed a quick series of hand signs and cupped one of his hands in front of his mouth like that of a standard fire jutsu. But where a normal fire jutsu would produce a bright orange or red flame this jutsu created a dull gray and white flame that was shot out at Neji's rotation. The flame was caught in the rotation and engulfed Neji's spin. "Something is wrong I'm losing my grip on the chakra." He continued to spin in an attempt to disperse the fire, but then Neji lost all feeling for his chakra and stopped spinning. Once out of the rotation he discovered that the white flame was in a circle around him that was about the radius of his rotation. He became a little light headed but managed to jump out of the circle of flame. "My chakra is gone." Still a little shaken but not off guard Neji saw movement and readied himself as the masked ninja ran forward. A flurry of palm thrusts and finger jabs flew. Both ninja were becoming weary but Neji had become exhausted. The enemy was easily penatrating Neji's denfenses and attacked without remorse. Neji caught a break in the attack and began rotation, but no chakra would form "I can't mold chakra?" because he dropped his guard to perform rotation the ninja got a powerful blow at Neji's heart. The ninja's hand hit Neji's heart dead on but greatly missed the tenketsu connected to the heart, but the ninja's hand did not stop at Neji's body. His hand continued through Neji. The enemy had reached his hand inside him. Neji let out a horrible scream of agony. The pain rushed though out his body, every fiber of his being felt the throbbing suffrage of the attack. The enemy ninjas eyes smiled as he effortlessly pulled his hand out of Neji's body. Neji still in tortuous pain looked upon his chest but found no wound, no blood, not even a tear in his clothing. The ninja's haunting gaze fell upon Neji as the morning sun blared. Neji fell to the ground gasping for breath when his eyes slowly closed.
"The reaper has come….for the Hyuugas…..death cannot be…avoided..." The ninja's voice trailed off for the last time and Neji fell to darkness.
