Kunoichi Log

Hinata: First Entry

Hyuga Hinata
Twelve years old
Rank: Genin
Likes: Sunflowers, Cinnamon, Self-confidence
Dislikes: Myself
Dream: To be someone strong enough to forgive herself

I don't really know what exactly it is I'm supposed to be writing.

Izumi-Sensei told me to just write anything I wanted. It could be things I felt, experienced, or just things I felt like I should talk about. But to be honest, leaving it so vague is troubling, because even I don't know what it is that I want to talk about.

When I told Izumi this, she showed me the first log she had taken. It was our first meeting. Reading something so personal was embarrassing, but it did give me something of an idea for what to do. I noticed she stopped writing the last log before our spar, and it's not hard to imagine why.

The result… isn't pretty. However, it also shows me for what I really am. And somehow, I think that's important. So I would like to start from there.

She guided me to a small training area nearby the academy. There were three logs in a small clearing, and a pond located nearby. We were otherwise surrounded by trees. Like everything in this village, there were trees everywhere. I guess phrasing it that way makes it sound like I hate trees, but that's not the case at all. It's actually the opposite and I like nature, and feel lucky that my home has so much of it.

Trees are also useful for hiding. Something I have a lot of practice with. I suppose it's worth talking about, but my uncle spent a lot of time training me- when he wasn't out on the battlefield. He and I were all we had. My father had been assassinated after a Ninja from Cloud failed to kidnap me. And his son, Neji, had been killed in the crossfire when the assassin tried to flee. My mother passed away a few years later from an unrelated disease, but I've always wondered…

Regardless, my uncle never blamed me (out loud) for the death of his twin brother and son, but I wish he would have. Instead, his training was punishment enough. He was strict and brutal, although I understand now it was out of love and necessity, not hatred.

That was also why he hired Uchiha Izumi to be my master and bodyguard. He was the Fifth Hokage now- promoted for bringing the war to an end- and didn't have time to train me himself anymore. I didn't really know anything about Izumi, save for the nickname the enemy Cloud Ninja gave her.

Izumi of the Underworld. Although I don't know the origin behind the moniker, the implication is frightening enough. Even more so that she's only five years older than me and already has such a reputation. Not that she seems to like the nickname.

Despite what she thinks, I had noticed her demeanor change when I called her by that name. Learning to read people, even without my clan's dojutsu, was one of the things my uncle had trained me in.

So as Izumi turned to face me, I was already doing my best to size her up. She was a full head taller than me, her long brown hair tied in a ponytail. Poking out over her shoulder was the handle of a short katana. Based on her stance, I would guess she favored her left hand in combat. I'm right-handed, myself.

"Like I said," Izumi started speaking, her own eyes having never stopped assessing me from the moment we met. "We're just going to have a quick spar. There's no win/lose conditions or anything like that. Just come at me with everything you have until I say otherwise. Simple as that." She was confident.

Every part of her oozed confidence, from the heels at the bottom of her feet to the top of her head, she was so completely unlike me it almost hurt to look at her. Did my uncle seriously think she and I were alike in some way? I didn't even know how I was supposed to fight her.

She was a special Jonin at only seventeen years old. Had fought on the battlefield of a war that started because of me. And… she was an Uchiha warrior. Something I was immediately reminded of when she activated her Sharingan eyes. Three tomoe spun lazily inside blood red irises. It was almost enough for me to turn and run the other way.

"You'll want to use your dojutsu too." Izumi said in a way that I think she meant to be encouraging. However, it just ended up sounding condescending to me. My uncle always told me our eyes were the strongest in the village. I knew better than that, however. The whispers of the villagers told another story.

The Sharingan frightened even its allies. My Byakugan couldn't possibly instill the same terror in anyone, especially not when attached to my homely proportions. All of this together caused a small bubbling in the depths of my gut. I don't know why, but something about this whole situation pissed me off.

It felt like I had finally figured out what my uncle had intended by making Izumi my master. He was trying to show me what it was I needed to become. He was telling me that I wasn't enough as I was now. Like I needed him to remind me of that. It was something I had been aware of everyday for as long as I can remember.

I would show him. I would show myself… I was a Genin now and I would do whatever it took to become strong.

Izumi, at this point, didn't realize how upset her words had made me. She would in a short time, as I activated my Byakugan. Veins along my temple began to bulge and my irises became slightly more prominent. Both our dojutsu were active now.

Byakugan met Sharingan.

"Come at me whenever-" The words didn't even finish leaving Izumi's mouth and I had moved to close the gap between us. Her eyes widened slightly, having clearly not expected me to be so quick to leap into action.

It's something I heard often from Naruto; My outward demeanor had the bad tendency of belying my true personality, causing most people to misunderstand me. They assumed I was meek and shy because of my quiet and reserved nature. No one would ever guess how resentful and full of anger I actually was. That the real reason I didn't talk was because I knew it would just make everyone else realize how bitter a person I am.

There hadn't been much space between Izumi and I to begin with, and I closed the gap almost too fast to let out a single breath. My open palm thrust forward, utilizing the gentle fist fighting style of my clan. Even just a glancing blow would be devastating- it didn't matter how strong a Shinobi you were, you couldn't train your organs to take damage.

I also knew that this was my best chance at hitting Izumi. If this attack missed, my chances of catching her off guard again were slim to none. It didn't matter that this was a dirty way to land a hit, I was determined to win. In the first place, pride was something I had abandoned when it got my father killed.

Of course, it was already a forgone conclusion that my attack would never land in the first place- And for the same reason that catching Izumi off guard was never a possibility: The Sharingan. She could read all the subtle twitches and signatures of my muscles. This meant she knew when and how I was going to move before I even did.

This is why my empty palm hit nothing more than air, Izumi having jumped to the side faster than I could blink, dodging my strike by a wide margin. She knew all about my clan's techniques already, and knew well enough to put distance between herself and my gentle fist. I may have been a Genin, but a simple slip would be all it would take.

That didn't mean I could just give up either. My confidence in myself was never much to begin with, so that was why I didn't put such things on the line when fighting. Instead I fought every battle as if it were life and death.

If Izumi was just out of reach of my palm, then I just needed to do something else. My body rotated, leg coming up high in spinning back-kick. The gentle fist was perhaps a bit of a misnomer, as it was possible to release chakra out of any part of your body. Yet this strike failed to land too, Izumi leaping backwards.

She landed in a crouch a couple meters away and I was quick to pursue. I swung at her again, my palm extending in a straight line. She didn't return my attack, instead continuing to retreat from every thrust. She and I both knew this was because the fight would be over in a second if she fought back. And this was about testing my ability- a fact I was taking full advantage of.

Swing- dodge. Kick- jump. Thrust- retreat. Nothing I did made any effect, Izumi's spinning Sharingan studied me carefully and her skill allowed her to react with practiced proficiency. At the same time, she didn't fill the silence with banter. She knew that even despite the gap between us, it only took a single mistake for me to turn the tables. A professional killer through and through.

Meanwhile, I was gasping for breath. Sweat dotted my brow, and my lungs were starting to feel like they were on fire. To top it all off, I was burning through a lot of chakra with every thrust I made. Each attack that failed to land was one step closer to my defeat. And I was starting to run out of time.

My latest attack- both fists thrust forward together- forced Izumi to jump into the forest, outside the protection of the clearing- and right where I wanted her. I lunged after her, dashing in between the trees and closing the distance between us- the same way I had every time until now. Except at the very end, when my stance changed.

For the second time in the fight, I managed to catch Izumi by surprise. My open palms clenched into fists. And I slammed on the ground with both feet, channeling chakra into my wrists and ankles. No- not my wrists and ankles, but the spools of metal wires I had wrapped around them.

I was dressed rather modestly by Kunoichi standards, wearing a beige jacket and loose pants that hid most of my skin. Which also made it ideal for concealing weapons, especially something compact like what I always carried. The wires around my wrists and feet lashed out like a snapped coil, ripping the trimming of my clothes clean off and shredding the material they cut through.

Controlling the wires with my chakra allowed me to manipulate them as I pleased, turning them into deadly whips. What they did to my sleeves and pant legs was just a small taste of what they could do to human flesh if they hit with enough velocity. These wires struck like angry cobras, and unlike the human body, Izumi's Sharingan couldn't read the muscle tension on metal wires to predict their path.

Of course, her Sharingan was only one asset in Izumi's skill set. And now that I had brought out a ninja tool, Izumi saw no need to not also brandish her own. The sword on her back was drawn with an audible swish. Her arm was a blur, the metal blade nothing more than a shimmer reflecting the sunlight peeking through the tree canopy.

Metallic clangs echoed inwards, bouncing off the bark of the trees and surrounding us in a cacophony of an irritable ringing. Her sword deflected every single wire, despite the fact she only had one blade for a wire on each of my limbs. Once again, the gap in skill between us was all too visible to see. It was frustrating enough that I bit my own lip hard enough to draw blood.

The metallic taste of iron and the sensation of the thick red liquid rolling down my chin was enough to jolt my senses back into action. Despite the setback, I continued to manipulate the wires, launching them into the trees around us. The ones around my right wrist snagged a branch above me, yanking my arm backwards and hoisted it towards the branch as the wire retracted.

Izumi didn't give chase, merely watching for what my next underhanded trick would be. I whipped around the branch, using the wire like a fulcrum to build momentum and launch myself back towards my opponent. My vision blurred, the enhanced momentum almost too much for my eyes. I was off like a bullet, yet despite this Izumi was simply able to side-step out of the way, leaving me to pass by her without any kind of collision.

That was fine. I had already accounted for that. Without Izumi in my path, the next obstacle was a thick tree trunk. Controlling the wires around my left foot, I coiled them into something akin to a spring, using them to catch myself on the tree. The spring contorted, the bark of the tree trunk snapping audibly. Both held, the tension of the wire reaching a tipping point. It pushed back, rocketing me back towards Izumi, who hadn't been provided the chance to turn around.

Even out of the corner of her eye, she was able to understand what was about to happen and dodged. Nevermind that I was faster than ever. This time there was no tree trunk to catch me. I flew out into the clearing and if I didn't do something quick, I was about to lose all the momentum I had been building up.

Rotating my body against the g-forces acting against it was no easy feat. The pressure alone was acting on my stomach and I thought I might throw up. Swallowing down the urge, I managed to spin myself so I was facing the trees, my entire body now upside down. Wires flew from both arms and I caught two trees, turning myself into a slingshot. For a brief, merciful moment, everything came to a standstill as the makeshift slingshot tightened, dragging my velocity to a halt.

Then it was over- and I was off again, this time too fast for my eyes to even properly understand all the information they were receiving. It didn't matter, I knew what it was I had to do. Izumi was no longer able to simply dodge at the last moment anymore. I was too fast for that, and she needed to begin predicting the angle I was going to come at her. Her instincts alone were enough for that, honed on the battlefield against Cloud Ninja with much more experience than myself.

So of course, I couldn't hit her. Not that it was my goal to ever land a direct blow to begin with. I may have gotten my tenacity from my uncle, but Naruto had taught me how to use unorthodox tactics to surprise even the most veteran opponent. And in a fight among Kunoichi, surprise could spell victory and defeat.

So despite missing again, I kept the attack going. Next time I turned myself into a spring again. Then I swung around another tree. Another slingshot. Again, and again, I threw myself at Izumi with enough speed that a single mistake would almost certainly break my neck.

Until finally, my trap was set.

Izumi lunged to the side- only for a slim wire, barely visible except under direct sunlight, blocked her path. There was nowhere for her to run now. For I had been slowly shedding fine threads of my wire as I jumped around, creating a web that completely boxed her in. And she didn't have time to think of an alternative route. The momentum I had gained saw sure to that. So now she had nowhere to go, no time to think up a back-up escape plan, and I was practically already on top of her.

"Jyuken!" I shouted, throwing my empty palm forward. Chakra from my hand flew forward, reaching Izumi before my palm. I had done it- this was my victory! Excitement coursed through every fiber of my being- before being brutally ripped away a second later.

When Izumi transformed into a broken branch. Immediately I knew what happened: The substitution jutsu. She had already known what I was planning and prepared a contingency in advance. And now I was the one caught flat footed. For I hadn't prepared anyway to slow myself down, throwing my everything into this final attack. There was no changing course midway either, meaning I hit the ground with enough force to bounce, knocking the wind from my lungs and causing my vision to flash white.

I writhed on the ground after my painful collision, unable to move for several moments, aside from the spasms of pain that wracked my body. Drool and flem rolled down my chin, having been coughed out with all the air that fled my lungs. My fingers dug at the soft earth, dirtying my nails, and tearing up blades of grass.

Meanwhile, Izumi simply watched me from just outside the web of wires I had intended to trap her. No- she wasn't just watching. I could see it with my Byakugan as chakra flooded her lungs. She was finally going to attack back, having apparently grown bored watching me make a mockery of myself. To her credit, she was generous enough to give me just enough time to stumble back to my knees. Not that I had anyway to handle what she ended up throwing at me.

"Katon: Great Fireball Jutsu!" She spit out a huge ball of fire, the heat of the flames causing my thin wires to immediately melt and snap. The leaves of the trees around us went up in flames and my skin immediately blistered just being in the vicinity of the molten death ball she miraculously generated with her lungs.

My decision making was already compromised too. I should have turned and fled, but instead I threw myself to the ground, digging into the dirt and throwing it on top of myself; all in a desperate attempt to put any kind of barrier, no matter how little, between myself and the fireball.

It passed over me, the terrible heat scorching my back and the knuckles on my hands. Meanwhile, it left behind a trail of smoke that flooded the clean forest air. My earlier exertion still left me in a state of exhaustion, and my lungs were trying to reclaim all the air that had been knocked out from them before. Instead they got toxic fumes, sending me into a fit of terrible coughs, and causing my head to swim. My consciousness waned and I thought that I might pass out at any moment.

Despite all this, I hung on. My tenacity to prove myself surprised even me. Izumi had said there were no win/lose conditions, yet somewhere during this fight I had convinced myself that just one blow would be enough. If I could hit her one time, then I would be worthy of being her apprentice. And yet I had failed that spectacularly, now floundering on the ground like a fish out of water.

"Hey, Hinata!?" Izumi seemed to realize she had overdone it and came running up to me. The fire and smoke had already mostly dissipated, allowing her to cross the distance between us unharmed. Meanwhile, her fireball had pittered out over the pond nearby. "You alright, talk to me!" She dropped to her knees, scooping me up in her arms, Sharingan deactivated as panic gripped her chestnut eyes.

"Izumi-sensei-" I coughed up puffs of smoke, black tendrils grabbing at my vision. My entire orientation was off kilter, Izumi appearing upside down, placing my head in her lap. Meanwhile, my hands floundered around, trying to grab anything in order to stabilize myself- To make it feel like I wasn't falling.

"Yeah, I'm here." Izumi smiled down at me, but it was obvious she was terrified of what she had done. Not that I blame her. She's like me, after all. Just trying to navigate this new situation we both found ourselves in. As if to tell her this, my hands finally found her resting on her forearms.

The gesture seemed to comfort her and she gripped my wrists. Not too strongly, just enough to provide comfort. It was enough for me to still move them freely and I lifted my arm as if to reach for her cheek. And she didn't resist me. However, I didn't have the strength and instead my open palm rested against her abdomen.

"Just rest for now-" A sudden cough of blood cut off Izumi's reassurances. For a moment she looked confused. Then the pain settled in- the pain from being hit directly in the gut by a point-blank gentle fist.

"…I got you." I said, wondering what kind of expression I was making. I hoped it was something like a smirk, but I doubted my ability to control my facial muscles that deftly at the moment. So I would just settle for knowing that I had done it.

After all, Izumi said she would tell us when to stop, and she never used any words to call the match over. So it was only a technicality- and it was simply a win-condition I had set for myself. But I had done it.

I was worthy of something, after all.

These were my final thoughts as darkness claimed me and I passed out from relief and exhaustion.

As I said, this doesn't exactly paint a flattering image of me, but I think it's important for you to understand just exactly the kind of person that I am. These are things I could never bring myself to say out loud.

So in that way, I'm glad we decided to start this logbook.

End Entry

AN: And a double post to start this story off.

This chapter from Hinata's perspective. As you can see, I'm going for something a little different with this story's Hinata. I've got one other ongoing Hinata fic, and with that one I tried to stick closer to her canon personality, whereas with this one I'm kinda trying to play with the gap; where on the outside she appears the same, but her internal thoughts are much different. No idea if that idea is gonna be popular, but I do want to try to vary up things to make my stories distinct too.

Bringing up my other on-going fic where Hinata is a main character, that one has already gotten pretty big with the power-scaling and the opponents are now god-level entities. With this fic, I want to try to bring things down to basics and keep them there. If I can, I don't want to bring things above part one of the original Nauto series in terms of power levels (with perhaps scarce exceptions). I want this story to focus on strategy and ninja tactics, rather than who has the bigger stick. So I'm hoping this first chapter provided a good demonstration of that.

Anyways, that finishes one perspective for each character. Next time, we're jumping back to Izumi. Although I'm sorry to say this just after starting a new story, but I'm gonna be busy for a couple weeks, so there will probably be a gap between updates. I hope you can look forward to when I return with more!