Bright light.

It was all that Hisa could see. As the orb exploded the light coming out of it expanded and got brighter. She soon lost sight of Nawaki, thrashing frantically in the middle of the air. Although the light got brighter and brighter, Hisa didn't close her eyes. There was something horrifying yet fascinating about watching light destroy. Light and dark were common metaphors for good and evil, so watching it destroy everything in sight made Hisa feel like she was seeing something spiritual.

Then the light began to die down and the moment was over when Hisa saw Nawaki's unmoving body sprawled on the ground. She ran over to him frantically, forgetting everything that had happened before. He's not dead, he doesn't know how to die. Remember that jump he did when we were eight? That was at least ten feet. This is nothing. She got closer and closer, and still Nawaki didn't move. She reached him and dropped onto her knees, slight tears forming in her eyes. When she had said she could kill him, she didn't actually mean it. She turned him over onto his back and felt for a heartbeat. To her surprise it was strong.

Nawaki's eyes snapped open and he punched her in the face.

Hisa growled as she was sent flying into yet another tree. Did he have to keep doing that? It was like the third time this fight he had punched her in the face. She had been trying to check if he was ok! Just like that the worry she had felt evaporated and Nawaki was back to being the enemy.

Nawaki was back on his feet now, and although he was panting heavily, he looked ready for round two. Hisa closed her eyes for a second and checked her chakra levels. They were dangerously low. She sighed and reached for her sword. This would have to be a non-ninjutsu battle.

Nawaki seemed to have the same idea as he reached for a kunai. The two of them ran at each other, picking up speed as they went. As they drew closer, Hisa slashed at Nawaki's throat, too exhausted to care about anything other than ending this fight. Nawaki's kunai came up and blocked easily, and Hisa was annoyed to see that his sharingan was still activated.

No words were spoken as they pushed down on their weapons, before releasing the pressure and drawing back. Something had passed between them; there was nothing left to say. All they needed to do was fight.

Again and again they charged, clashing their weapons together, neither able to overpower the other. After the fifth time, Hisa started to get annoyed, well… more annoyed than she already was. She had always been able to beat Nawaki in kenjutsu and hand-to-hand combat. But thanks to his stupid sharingan he was now able to keep up with her. I mean seriously, when she actually needed to beat him he suddenly revealed that he had a secret kekkei genkai. Not just any kekkei genkai, the Sharingan. What were the odds of that?

She was so irritated she barely noticed the kick he sent her way. At the last second, she managed to turn slightly so that the kick didn't break a rib. It still sent her flying into a tree. The tree shook slightly and a few branches snapped. Hisa silently vowed to plant some trees when she got back to Konoha as an apology to all the trees they were damaging. Then again, she might not make it back to Konoha at all.

Nawaki charged at her again and Hisa replaced herself with a log. Nawaki noticed almost at once and began scanning the area for her. She hid well, but his eyes spotted her within a few seconds. He threw a kunai at her with deadly accuracy, and she was too low on chakra to do another substitution. She quickly brought up her sword and deflected the kunai. Knowing that her cover was blown, Hisa jumped back down to the forest floor and charged at Nawaki.

The fight was starting to get repetitive. As Hisa was already running low, that wasn't good. She needed to change it up a bit.

So she sheathed her sword. The look of shock on Nawaki's face was priceless. Even better was the look on his face when she punched him into a tree.

Ah, sweet, sweet revenge.

Nawaki got back up and charged at her with a kunai. (Would he ever run out? Hisa wondered.) Instead of using her sword, Hisa ducked under his arm and jabbed at his wrist with two fingers. She saw the shock on his face as the kunai fell from his hand. It made her smirk slightly. Even though she didn't have the Byakugan, she'd picked up a few basic Hyuuga tricks.

Nawaki reached for another kunai but Hisa was faster. She hit him in the head with a roundhouse kick. He blocked it with one hand, but it still made him fall to the ground. Seeing as she had the advantage, she threw in another few punches. He blocked the first two, but the third caught him in the stomach and made his back slam into the dirt. Hisa grinned slightly until he grabbed her arm and twisted it around. Suddenly, she found herself with her head in the dirt and Nawaki kneeling above her twisting her arm behind her back.

She groaned slightly as Nawaki twisted harder, the pain threating to overwhelm her. If he kept twisting, he would soon break her arm. She pushed both her legs up until they were wrapped around Nawaki's hips. Then she used her free hand to push them up and flipped them over, slamming Nawaki into the ground. She grunted slightly as he let go of her arm. When she had decided to settle this with taijutsu, she hadn't meant a wrestling match.

Nawaki began to move and she quickly flipped away to a safe distance. Hisa checked her chakra levels again, and was satisfied to see that they had risen. She should have enough chakra for a few jutsu. She opened her eyes quickly and looked over at Nawaki.

Nawaki was standing again, but he was looking in the opposite direction. He must have missed which direction she went. Hisa grabbed a kunai and approached him silently. She held her breath as she got closer, but Nawaki made no indication that he noticed her. When she was right behind him, she stabbed the kunai downwards, aiming for his leg.

Nawaki turned around and caught the kunai by its handle. Hisa cursed mentally as she realised that his obliviousness had been a ruse. He had known all along that she was behind him.

She applied more pressure to the kunai, forcing it down towards Nawaki's leg. Nawaki's hand trembled slightly as he pushed back. Suddenly, he twisted his hand and the kunai slipped out of their grasp, falling to the forest floor. Hisa wasted no time in aiming a kick for his head, but he ducked it and began making hand-seals. His head bobbed upwards and he forced his eyes to meet Hisa's for a split second.

Hisa cursed as she found herself floating in the sky while a flock of birds flew around her. They looked vaguely like crows but Hisa guessed that they were ravens. Ravens were Nawaki's favourite birds, mainly because they were extremely rare in Konoha.

She struggled to break out of the genjutsu. Another advantage Nawaki had over her was his sudden knowledge of genjutsu. Hisa had no idea how good he was, which meant that she was always cautious to keep her eyes off his. Unfortunately, her eyes had drifted slightly over his, which had been all he needed.

"Kai!" she yelled and the genjutsu disappeared. She heard the sound of rushing water and had just enough time to look up before a wall of water surrounded her on three sides, blocking off any chance of escaping. She had no choice but to confront Nawaki head on.

She grabbed her sword and stabbed it at his shoulder. He tried to grab it like he had with the kunai but his grip wasn't strong enough. The sword dug into his shoulder and although the fake ANBU gear protected him, he still began to bleed. Hisa dug it in slightly deeper, waiting for his retaliation. How much chakra did he have left?

He put his hands together in a familiar hand-seal.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Hisa watched calmly as he began to form a swirling orb in his hand. Surely it wouldn't work? There was no way he had enough chakra…

"Rasengan!"

I stand corrected.

He aimed it at her head, and she was forced to pull her sword out of him so she could move to the side. He missed her by an inch, slamming the spiral orb into the wall of water. The wall shuddered, but didn't break. Nawaki jumped backwards and put a small amount of room between the two of them. He made the seal again, creating another clone.

"How much chakra do you have left?" she asked, hiding her panic.

He grinned slightly.

"Why would I give you information like that?"

Hisa glared at him as she realised something. He was enjoying this. True, he was doing this for Oki, but she could hear the smirk in his voice. Part of him was glad that he was finally competing on her level.

She didn't think anymore as another Rasengan made its way towards her head. Her first instinct was to teleport away, but she couldn't use her special kunai. So she went with her second instinct and stuck out her hand.

"Almighty Push!"

Nawaki went flying backwards, Rasengan and all. Hisa checked her chakra and was glad to see that she had more left. She sent out another push behind her, and the water wall splashed down into nothing.

Suddenly, the ground began to shake. Hisa cursed as she realised she had overdone it. The trees nearest her shattered into pieces, and the ground around her cracked. She struggled to rein in and control her chakra, she hadn't lost this much control in years.

Eventually, the devastation stopped. Hisa scanned what was left of the forest floor, looking for Nawaki. His head broke out from the ruins of a tree, and he charged towards her, his hands making more seals. This time, it was a wave of fire balls that attacked her. Luckily, the five second recovery time was up, so she stuck out her hand again and used another Almighty Push. Nawaki's fire jutsu slammed into it and was pushed away, setting a few trees on fire.

Three Almighty Pushes in a row had made her chakra levels drop again. So she pulled out some kunai with exploding tags on them and threw them at Nawaki. Not many shinobi used exploding tags for anything other than traps, mainly because they weren't good if you were trying to be subtle. However, Hisa was pretty sure the missing-nin knew they were fighting. They were probably watching them right now.

The exploding tags hit the ground all around Nawaki, blowing it up and destroying it even more. Hisa realised a problem with her attack. The smoke from the tags blanketed the area like a thick fog, making it impossible to see what had happened to Nawaki. But Nawaki had the Sharingan which meant…

Instinct made her duck, which was the right thing to do. Nawaki's Rasengan missed her by an inch. How much chakra did he have left? He had done at least two Rasengans this fight.

They both jumped away from each other. Nawaki skidded slightly, his Rasengan slowly dispersing. Hisa used the few seconds break to check her chakra levels. She didn't have quite enough for an Almighty Push, but perhaps…

She stuck out her hand and yelled "Heavenly Pull!"

Nawaki's eyes widened as he began to fly towards her open hand. Quickly, he reached into his pouch and pulled out a kunai with some wire tied to it. He threw it as he flew, and it stuck into the remains of a tree. He kept flying for a few more seconds before the wire snapped taught, and he was suspended in mid -air. Hisa increased the strength of her pull, but he held on firmly. In the end, she was forced to stop before she wasted all her chakra.

Nawaki dropped to the ground as the pull stopped. He was breathing heavily, but he looked just as determined as he had at the start of the fight. The energy between them changed again, and Hisa knew that they were coming close to the end of the fight.

Nawaki made a hand-seal.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Hisa sighed as he made two clones. One of them started making a Rasengan in Nawaki's hand, while the other stood behind the real Nawaki. Hisa's chakra was almost gone, but she had enough left for one last Almighty Push. It was her signature finishing move, just like how the Rasengan was both Nawaki's and Naruto's finishing move.

So she stuck out her hand and charged towards him. At the same time, Nawaki began running towards her, Rasengan at the ready. Hisa stuck out her hand, ready to push him back before he came to close.

The clones picked Nawaki up and threw him at her. Her eyes widened frantically as she realised that she didn't have enough time to push him back. His Rasengan met her hand just as the Almighty Push came out of it. For a second, Hisa understood what Oki meant when she talked about the weird déjà vu she always got.

"Almighty Push!"

"Rasengan!"

The two jutsu met, neither fully able to beat each other. Hisa's Almighty Push wasn't strong enough to push away the Rasengan, and Nawaki's Rasengan wasn't strong enough to break through the Almighty Push.

They struggled for a minute, pushing their jutsu at each other with all their might. Hisa began to notice a white light forming between the two jutsu. Her eyes widened and her concentration slipped for a single second…

Sudden pain started burning up her arm. She cried out once. The light had become so bright it had enveloped her and Nawaki. For a brief second she saw him, sadness and regret visible in his sharingan eyes.

Then she didn't see anything anymore.

!

Nawaki stood over Hisa's unconscious body. He stared down at her with black, empty eyes. He had finally beaten her, something he had longed to do for years.

So why wasn't he even the slightest bit happy about it?

The fight with Hisa was over, but the fight to rescue Oki had just begun. For some reason, Nawaki didn't feel anything about that. His mind was back to its mantra, but now it was because he didn't have any thoughts left in his head. Rescue Oki. Rescue Oki.

He turned around slowly and began to walk. Where was he going? He had lost his sense of direction. He swivelled slowly around in a circle, looking at all the destruction they had caused to the forest. The trail they had taken in their fight seemed to lead north. Shrugging his shoulders, Nawaki began to walk.

He didn't look back.