AN.

I wanted to post yesterday but wouldn't let me upload this to doc manager :(

Anyway, the first chapter of 2018 everyone!

WARNING: There might be spoilers of some things about Naruto or Shippuden but I completely forgot where it was so keep an eye out.

I walked out of the infirmary with a good feeling in my chest. I did it! I won the pre-finals match! That makes me a shoe-in for chunin and a guaranteed sponsorship by the Hyūga for my baby brother! With a smile, I began making my way outside of the arena; returning the "Good job!" and "Well done!" the people gave me. It made me feel like a celebrity and that made me make my head dip in slight shame because wow, a lot of people are staring at me. Years of playing the piano in a bar made me immune to this once upon a time but it's been six years after that and it seems my stone cold exterior has been cracking ever since those days.

I began walking to the group in the middle of the road waiting for me. I smiled at them and made a beeline for Obito, who was waving his arms like a human billboard because he has no sense of shame whatsoever, Rin meekly waving in contrast to the flamboyant Uchiha, and my mom smiling at me with pride while Tokuma bumbled and toyed with her hair as the baby boy rest in her arms.

Yeah…Maybe I can win against Hatake Kakashi if I had these guys supporting me through and through.

"That was such a cool fight!" Obito gushed between us in a public restaurant as "victory dinner,". It sounded really pretentious to me but my mom and Rin wouldn't let me have it otherwise. Obito, the lecherous friend he is, didn't care as long as he had free food that isn't from his kind and sweet grandmother. Seriously, how can he get sick of her fried chicken?! It literally makes fast food joints in my world cry with shame. The Uchiha really knows their shit when it comes to frying, whether it be people or chicken. I pursed my lips and gave him a tight lipped smile while I rubbed my abused ear. Rin, on the other hand, tried to shush the black haired kid but he wasn't having it today. He ignored it and continued "You know, until it became a weird game of charades, but other than that, it really had me in the edge of my seat!"

I snorted and slurped my soup before answering Obito. "Well, what did you expect from genjutsu, fire and explosions?"

"I don't know!" He chomped down his fine meat like it was made from some random street vendor that's in every corner of Konoha. "I thought it would be flashier!"

"What can a girl do?" I continued sipping the mystery soup that my mom ordered. I didn't know what it was but it had meat in it, therefore it's safe. Besides, I doubt my mom would sabotage her own daughter's exams if it had my brother's tuition on the line.

Rin sighed deeply, finished with her fish. She looked at Obito longingly, who in turn, blushed a cute shade of pink. "To think, when we graduate, it'll be us in the arena." She said thoughtfully. "It's kind of scary when you think about it."

We all agreed to that statement silently, not knowing what to say in response. She was right, of course. It was kind of fucked up that you had to pit up against people that you ate a dango with and expect them to kill you like those memories didn't matter. I just had to count the little blessings, like how I wasn't born in Kiri, for example. The magazines that "leaks top-secret information" (honestly, I bet it's just a cheap sham to instill morale in the war time.) tell us that Kiri's education system is basically a "go into this pit and survive" type of thing. I still couldn't fathom why Kiri would decide that killing off the Yuki Clan just because some of them were smart enough to run away was a good move. What did they expect the small clan to do?

At least, that is what I thought. My thoughts were ripped away from me when the Naruto in this generation opened his mouth, standing up and declaring. "Don't worry, Rin! I'll make sure to beat up every single one of those guys so you wouldn't have to fight them!"

Tokuma cheered with Obito, which was cute. What wasn't cute was my mom's reply.

"But Obito-kun," She began, her eyes only on her food. "That would mean that you have to face Rin-chan in the finals. I didn't know you were the type of person to hurt your friends like that." She said seriously, me and Rin knowing it was a joke.

Obito, the friendship-is-magic maniac he was, spluttered at the accusation. "W-what! No! Akane-san, you know I didn't mean it like that!" He slammed his hands on the table, flustered at the situation. Rin and I giggled under our sleeves while my mom waved him off.

"My, my, you are causing quite a ruckus. Maybe you should tone it done a little bit, Obito-kun." She smiled at the six year old male. He pouted and sat back down, all the while grumbling. She tended to Tokuma before setting her eyes on me. "You better get ready for the match tomorrow." My mom reminded me of my death sentence as my brother tugged her long locks cutely, trying to get food from her. My mom ignored him and waited for my response. "Notice him, Akane-senpai! He only wants your love.

I nodded."Yeah, I will, mom."

"YOU CAN DO IT TOKINA!" A high-pitched girly voice that belonged to one Nohara Rin shot through the crowd impressively, drowning out all the other cheers and whoops in the crowd. It was a bright, cold and early morning that shouldn't have the smell of blood but whatever! Since when was the ninja life full of sunshine and rainbows? I tried to calm my nerves despite my poker-face smile because I did not prepare at all. When we got back home, all I did was pack my senbons and kunai (fuck those metal fidget spinners) and went to bed. I should've crammed a new genjutsu or maybe even plagiarize Tsunade's theory of super strength but no, I just slept on it.

Like all my other important exams in my past school. I usually passed because all you really needed to do was listen to the teacher/professor, but this exam had physical labor in it.

I can't do it, mommy!

"BEAT BAKASHI'S ASS!"

"OBITO!"

I chuckled at the vulgarity a six year old shouldn't even possess and focused on that instead of my upcoming death and nervously fidgeted the senbon in my hands as my last opponent (which I'm sure I'm going to lose to) walked in. Kakashi's black jumpsuit and jacket effectively warming him while me and kimono shirt and hakama doing nothing against the cold September week. I shivered and held myself as I waited for the proctor to signal for the match to start. Kakashi gave me an assessing look, a sneer and began looking out right terrifying for a six year old.

Me and my six year old ass also knew that he knew how to hold a gruge. I have full confidence that he's going to make this personal.

"The last match, Hatake Kakashi vs Hyūga Tokina-"

What the fuck where did he come from?!

"Begin!"

"Bald Mangos!" I cursed out loud, activating my Byakugan and throwing the senbon at the kid half a second that should've hit if it were any other guy. He blocked it with his special tantō and began running up to me. I bit my left cheek and barely dodged his blade when he lunged for me. We both spun around and I returned the strikes with more of my needles. He effortlessly parried them in a quick succession before trading my needles for his own knives and killer boomerangs (fuck shurikens). I easily deflected them with chakra coated palms and maneuvered away from the worst of the metal storm. He didn't waste any time and used that opening to engage with kenjutsu. Since I didn't want to lose any fingers, I side stepped and ducked away from his shining blade. I ducked from what was supposed to be an attempt to decapitate me and sent a hissing viper to his neck. I heard him gasp before back flipping away. I stood up and tried to catch my breath as the viper slithered back into my sleeves.

And that was just the first fifteen seconds!

Well, anything new I got from that assessment? Killer reflexes of a prodigy with speed of an elite chunin to die for. You know, the usual shit from the Hatake Kakashi. Maybe if I just pushed him down the pedestal I put him in, I could maybe win this with some bullshitting here and ther. He knew about what amounted to my trump card. He has a sharp weapon which I'm sure he won't let go even if I pierced his hand with a thousand senbons. Excels in ninjutsu so e could beat me in mid to long combat. He's not dumb enough to fall for tricks, traps and feints.

We had a stand-off, both of us in our respective stances, waiting for each other to do the next move.

…Okay, how the hell do I beat him? What do I have that he doesn't? Genjutsu. I had to repress the scoff when I thought of using the same trick twice. Yeah, I'm pretty sure after the genin exams, he would know how to break out of a genjutsu. I have near three-sixty vision, which I use to not get stabbed in the back. Maybe I should have splurged in that three-for-one special that fūinjutsu shop was offering next to the restaurant we ate yesterday. I'm pretty sure that low-grade explosive tags aren't that expensive anyway.

I didn't need to hold back on my snakes but Hidden Shadow Snake Hands made me stand still for the snakes to be as fast as they should and that was the only snake ninjutsu I knew. If I missed even once, I'm sure that he'll use that to slice the snakes off my arm, run to me and slice my actual arm off. I need to slow him down a bit, even if it cost me all my senbons.

I drew more of my weapons, specifically kunai and senbons, and aimed for his heart and shoulder. He deflected them with ease, his tantō making white light as he sliced through the air. He body flickered next to me with that prodigious speed of his(of course) and tried to hit me in my blind spot with the butt of his blade all the while mid air. I turned, auto-pilot because of all the times Seto abused that one little spot in sparring, and got his arm and threw him down to the gronud, preparing to Vacuum Palm his heart. He slashed his tatō against the wind, making it graze my cheek. I flinched away from the blade because I did not want him to slash my bulging veins. He rolled away and threw more of the metal he's been abusing. I unleashed my Vacuum Palm to block the said objects. He jumped away from the strong gust of wind, throwing more and more of his tools like he had an endless supply of them.

He dodged the volley of sharp metals to give him something to do so I could weave my genjutsu, all the while performing hand seals.

That can't be good.

"Earth Release: Mud Wave." I heard him mutter as he slammed his hands to the ground, making the ground shake abnormally almost like it was liquid. Disorienting to say the least, I jumped out of it and ran on the walls, that jutsu required him to keep his hands on the ground which in turn exposed his back! My chance! I threw senbons at him; he canceled the jutsu and dodged it. He threw kunai at my direction, which prompted me to draw my own senbon and deflect it.

He used that opportunity to get close and personal, not letting me prepare my senbons or kunai to deflect his blade.

I used the wall as leverage and jumped out of the way with the help of my butterfly seal, his small blade meeting concrete. I continued throwing senbons at him and where he might land but all it did was meet soil.

He began throwing his share of kunai and shuriken; I sidestepped and dodged them as well as wincing at the occasional graze and slash. This was obviously leading us to nowhere. If I could just disable him for one second then I could Vacuum Palm him to the wall and cancel out his chakra system. Or maybe do a genjutsu on his ass.

He threw shuriken and kunai at me, while I dodged it again, used to the dance we've been doing. What I failed to notice, even with my eyes, is that all the shuriken and kunai he's been throwing this time had ninja wire. I gasped, using my vision to scan the field. The wires covered the whole floor, restricting my choice of movements. It looked like some fucked up chess-board except that if you had the strength to, it could easily cut your foot from your leg. I looked up at Kakashi with a single kunai he was holding with a dead serious expression on his face.

Sorry, but I really need my feet.

I haphazardly prepared a Vacuum Palm while he swiftly wrapped his arm around the metal and tugged, making the ninja wire close in on my feet. I jumped and did a Vacuum Palm, using the recoil to mess with the wires as well as to make me go further up, higher than an average chakra empowered jump could ever do to me. Kakashi kept his eyes on me as he threw the kunai with all the ninja wire coated with lightning chakra. With enough strength, the kunai tugged all of the other metal in the field to it, infecting it with the bright blue lightning.

I didn't know how it looked like in the audience's point of view but to me it looked like a lightning comet was heading for me.

And that was bad in any context.

I substituted with butterflies as the amalgam of ninja tools was making its way to impale my head. Still mid-air and high enough for his reach and hard enough for him to land an accurate hit, I sent him a Hidden Shadow Snake Hands. The snakes hissed in anticipation from my sleeves, fangs lashing out as they pierced through their target. I landed on the ground, the snakes still oddly connected. It successfully pierced him. Literally pierced right through him since said target erupted in a puff of smoke, much to my disappointment. I saw through the smoke thanks to my good eyesight, the snakes biting and ravaging the log angrily. I sighed and kept my guard up as I called for my serpents.

I felt a quick gush of air and turned around with a senbon in hand, deflecting the back stab he was trying to do. His black eyes met my own while we had our own battle of strengths. He had two hands on his handle while I had one on mine, which was losing very quickly. I abused his lack of hands and summoned snakes from my sleeves to try and eviscerate him again. He twitched at the sensation of the serpents, kicked me away in the stomach, snake and all. I grunted and regained my footing.

Now that was just rude. He didn't even offer a cheeky remark or whatever. At least take me to dinner or something. Honestly, boys only want one thing and it's fucking disgusting.

We had another stand-off as we tried to assess the situation again. It was probably a full minute by now, which was actually really long in chunin exam standards. We've been dragging this too long and its only a matter of time till Kakashi exhausts himself of chakra or I just exhaust myself period. I flexed my fingers, thinking what else should I do since he's been playing smart the entire fight, making sure that I couldn't pluck out his tenketsu points or keeping me running so I couldn't focus on a simple genjutsu.

But what he didn't know is that I had an ace up my sleeve.

…Which was the whole point of having it but whatever.

With a clasp of hands and a rainbow erupting from my closed fingers, butterflies escaped, morphing into the world I wanted him to see. The ground and arena disappeared, morphing into black and white. Kakashi looked askance as the world reshaped, shadows crawling in his body, consuming everything and everyone in it with the soft hum of piano in the background. A red sun being held up with a torch erupted from behind Kakashi. I heard him scoff, having enough of this.

"Kai,"

Okay, now the hard part.

I kneeled next to the sun-torch with genjutsu shadows encasing me so had to put all my concentration into multi tasking like a bitch, I could make a perfect Elsa Maria except for the fact that if he somehow beheads me, there won't be any vicious trees erupting from my head. My head pounded while snakes seemingly erupted from the ground, in all blacks. Kakashi, who couldn't tell snake from snake and wall from empty space, stayed his ground and cut through the serpents with his blade. They streaked through the air with their abnormally long bodies as they tried to empower him, not just with strength but with numbers.

He could easily conclude that I'm pouring all my chakra on this dangerously but I really couldn't think of anything else to do aside from chakra exhaustion which really isn't good for my image.

With a silent Many Hidden Shadow Snake hands that erupted from my collar, masked by shadows and given heads from different animals to look like some fucked up shadow play, they streaked through the air, aiming for the only boy in this world. All the while this was happening, I had to continue to mask the roar of the crowd with music blaring from every direction and continue to encase the world I created with blacks and whites. My head banged while I clutched my hands tightly. What was painful is that I couldn't distract myself from the intense migraine I had to endure to continue this genjutsu.

Kakashi continued with his own last stand, the snakes and the world against him. With a shadowy glint from his tantō, he slashed the snakes, cutting the serpents in varying sizes without discrimination while dodging expertly from the fangs of the muscled reptiles. All he could hear was the blaring of Decretum which made me slightly envious since I had to drown the whoops of the crowd. They probably saw Kakashi just maneuvering over the snakes that I know covered the entire field while I kneeled down and continued summoning them from the depths of Ryūchi Cave. He and I was probably giving a pretty anime scene with him staying one spot while he used the left over bodies of the serpents he cut as leverage and used those to vault himself upward and pierced the snakes mid-air like a true swordsman of justice.

Aaaaaah, my head hurts like a bitch.

The snakes tried another approach, they began circling him quickly. He tensed, remaining in his place. He didn't even ready his tantō.

Why was he standing still?

I felt the slip of the world from my palms and cursed under my breath. Shit, I need to keep this up. I ignored whatever he did and continued to mask the outside world from this world while summoning my array of snakes.

He threw a single kunai to the sky, a burning piece of paper tied to it.

Shit,

It erupted; shaking the world and making me lose concentration thanks to the sudden explosion and how obnoxiously loud explosions were.

Double shit,

With my right hand clutching my head, I stood up. Kakashi walked through the mass array of snake carcasses in the middle of the field. I made the rest of the living snakes engage on him to give him something to do while I leaned on the wall of the field, trying my best not to puke my breakfast out. The world was literally fuzzy and spinning. I converted my leftover chakra and staggered away from the kunai he was throwing at me while he dealt with the snakes. I tried my best to heal the migraine which helped just a little bit. Shaking my head and regaining concentration, I faced Kakashi who wa s standing triumphant in the mountain of cold bodies that were my snakes. That can't be good. I forced out a quick Hidden Shadow Snake Hands despite the headache since I didn't have enough control to do a Vacuum Palm because even the simplest Jyūken jutsu required a lot of concentration to do. He dodged the vipers, coming straight for me which I anticipated. I made the single giant viper curve away from him so he wouldn't slice it up. There was a loud, sharp gasp that came from the crowd. With the image of Kakashi and his tantō to my neck while I was positioned below him, a hand raised with a viper stopping near inches from injecting lethal poison to his neck, who wouldn't be surprised? We had our third and final stand-off with both of us tired.

It was obvious who won by how my snake and I limped instantly while my knees buckled in. I caught myself while Kakashi was unrelenting with the hostage situation and amended his position, his tantō aiming for my forehead now. After some short breaths, I had to say it. With a small voice that everyone heard for some reason, I muttered "I concede,".

"Hatake Kakashi wins! This concludes the chunin exams this year! Examiners, please come to the Hokage tower on December 8."

I deactivated my Byakugan, the veins relaxing as cheers erupted from all sides of the crowd. Fan favorite? I felt the tantō leave my forehead. I knew he was walking away with the soft pitter-patter his shoes was making but I couldn't really see clearly since my vision was all fuzzy and messed up. I had a terrible headache that could make a college student cry and disregard how expensive student loans were. It was so bad that I felt like I could literally puke it all ou-

I coughed, blood staining the ground.

Ah, there it is. My stomach was hurting as well as my whole body with a disgusting metallic taste in my mouth. It was an absolutely charming experience. What a life for a ninja. The masked nosed brat gave me a smug look over his shoulder as I stayed in the ground while I regained my bearings because, damn this ground was feeling soft right now. I didn't even give him a response while he body-flickered away.

He was kinder in the manga.

He was hotter in the anime, too.

"You almost had him, Tokina-chan!" Rin quipped cheerfully in our post-exam dinner. We ate happily while I nursed a bandaged stomach and cheek because fuck his tantō with all circles of hell. I had more bandages in my body of all the cuts I didn't notice he inflicted on me but they were minor shit. My mom immediately gave me an asipirin and with a quick Jyūken jab, I was sleeping for the rest of the day after that match. I awoke with a dry throat and a killer headache that subsided thanks to Rin. I nodded and relished my mom's absolutely divine fish sticks. Tokuma flailed happily in his highchair in the Hyūga compound. I sighed because of my aching everything and forced myself on the really good food, even if I was under the influence of many painkillers.

"That one jutsu with the giant snakes were so cool!" Obito hyped with his mouth full. "You almost had him!" Dammit boy, say it don't spray it. I had to bite my lip with the urge to shout at him because of how I ached in some weird places that shouldn't even be aching.I wiped off his rice silently as Akinosuke rested on my head lazily, trying his best to relax and numb the pain with his own brand of genjutsu.

I couldn't tell if it worked or not,

"I worked hard on that genjutsu, though." I pouted a little bit childishly, "Really hard," I literally crammed Elsa Maria's labyrinth and this was the reward I got. Jutsu multitasking was a bitch, especially if one of them needed absolute chakra control and focus. I need to work on that. And don't get me started on getting distracted by an EXPLOSION of all things. How can I use that on the battlefield when those things were as common as pebbles on a gravel sidewalk?

"Hmph, I know you can beat him one day, Tokina-chan." She said dead-serious, Tokuma flailing under the small amount of killer intent she was giving, "Just because he has a blade does not mean you should not be using your palms to block it. Oh, if only your father was here! He would have taught you the technique to make your bare palms cut through steel like scissors on grass." She continued to rant while my mom gave Tokuma his carrot mush a little bit too forcefully.

Rin snickered at my mom, her reputable sensei pouting because her daughter lost her crush. I shared the sentiment with her, albeit for different reasons. It was funny to see how Tokuma can cope with angry mommy with all the insisting she was doing. What was even funnier was how the One-Eyed Beauty was exhanching rants with an overzealous Uchiha. The table is noisy and for the first time in forever, it was because of my mom.

"Makes me think when it'll be me and Obito's turn to go down there," Rin muttered absent-mindedly to herself. I nudged her, a smile in place. Her apprenticeship is going really well and I knew my mom was teaching Rin her Chakra Scalpel fighting style that all of the medic-corps should learn. "You're going to do fine, Rin." I reassured her. She smiled and took it for what it was worth and continued with her soup. She was still attending school since mom insisted but after she would always make a beeline for either the hospital or here in certain days because she knew exactly when or where my mom will be.

It was kind of embarrassing for her to know my mom's schedule better than her own daughter's.

Rin is going to be a fine Medical-Nin/Poison Mistress.

Who knows, maybe she might save Obito from himself as well.

But right now, I just need to pray that, despite my flop in my finals, I graduate to chunin.

AN.

TL;DR, Food and a fights.

How many of you predicted that Tokina was going to win? Just a thought,

Anyway, this chapter, when I copy-pasted the draft to Word it was about 2000 words only then after editing it suddenly was 4000 plus words. Amazing how much shit you miss and should add in editing. You know what else is amazing? Drawing out one goddamn fight for this long. I hope I kept the tension up or whatever. Constructive criticism will be VERY appreciated since I really do want to get better. Anyway, Enjoy Life :)