Hinata of the White Lotus

Hinata vs Gaara

Hinata's life flashed before her eyes.

At that moment, she remembered something she had forgotten.

She remembered it clearly now, as if it had happened yesterday. The day she killed that man from Kumo that had tried to kidnap her. How terrified she had been, unsure about what had even happened.

That was the first time she had seen the visage of Kali.

Back then it hadn't been inside the eight-trigrams realm, but instead she had appeared to her like a ghost. Not an evil spirit, but a kind, benevolent force, almost like an angel.

She was Hinata's own personal guardian angel.

That was what she had thought of her as. For that brief moment anyways, before she had forgotten about her.

Yet Kali had never truly gone anywhere. She was always there, and she was here with Hinata now. She knew this because she could clearly see the visage of the young girl hanging off her back. Kali was completely still, hands weaved in a sign, the natural energy around them being absorbed through her chakra before melding with Hinata's own.

This was the true power of Hinata's Nichiren Byakugan. The lotus-shape imprint in their eyes was the barely recognizable sign that her eyes were already activated. In fact, they had been activated since about the time she had entered the arena. Three-hundred-and-sixty degree vision, the natural energy all around them, and the tenketsu points of both people and the world alike were all visible to her.

Learning to read all these things was only the first step in Hinata's training with Kali. Once she could do that, the next step was learning how to harness it. Use this sight to her advantage. The fight to prove that Hinata had mastered this was now.

Gaara of the Sand stood in front of Hinata, not ten meters between them. This was the first time that Hinata had looked at him with her enhanced vision. And what she saw surprised her. She knew about Gaara's absolute defense, the sand of his that moved to defend him even without him so much as having to lift a finger. Most people had described it as if the sand had a mind of its own.

That was exactly right.

The sand was basically a separate entity from Gaara. It had its own will, one she could see interacting with the world around it. That didn't mean Gaara and the sand were completely separate… but they shared a deep, powerful bond. It almost looked to Hinata what she imagined the relationship between mother and child might feel like.

This was different from the connection Hinata had with Kali, but she didn't think the principle behind their powers were necessarily that unique from each other either.

In a way, this wasn't a one-on-one showdown, but a pair battle.

Hinata had no intention to lose.

There was too much riding on the line. She had promised Naruto that she would win and that they would meet in the second round. Neji was waiting for her to prove once and for all that people could change themselves. Her father was finally watching her, his gaze full of pride. Kurenai had believed in her from the beginning and Hinata couldn't betray that trust now. Her whole village was waiting to see what Hinata could contribute to it.

This was her fight.

All these thoughts flew through Hinata's mind in the blink of an eye.

That was all the time she had. The moment Genma's hand dropped and the battle had already begun. Gaara didn't move, but the sand in his gourd sprung to life. It came at her like a cobra, striking lightning fast.

Hinata was faster. That was because she could read the intent of the sand, and already knew what it was intending before it even began to move. A drawback only she could take advantage of.

She reached into the pouch strapped to her leg, pulling a simple kunai from it with a twirl. Chakra poured into the kunai. The sand struck at her and she struck back. The kunai hit a tenketsu point on the sand, causing a whole hunk of it to burst into hunks. If it had actually been a snake, then it would have been a gorey mess, pieces of flesh flying in all directions where it would land in wet clumps.

This was just sand, however. Those soft hunks hit the ground and quickly settled with the grass and dirt. Like nothing more than kids throwing sand at one another. Yet the sand of Gaara's gourd acted like it had truly been wounded, recoiling and flailing around like a beaten animal.

Gaara's eyes went wide and his whole expression darkened. He didn't say any words, but he didn't have to for Hinata to know she had just enraged him. It was incredibly likely this was the first time his sand had ever been "wounded" in any real sense of the word. Certainly, people could strike at the sand, but it was still just sand. You couldn't hurt it. Not ordinarily anyways.

What Hinata had just struck was a tenketsu point. A living part of the sand that interacted with nature itself. That point she destroyed could never be recovered and the hunks of sand that had been splattered across the ground would forever be disconnected from the gourd that once housed it.

Hinata allowed herself a small smile.

So far, so good. Gaara was strong, fearfully so. Yet she had just been the one to draw first blood, if you could call it that. That was a crucial part to her plan. For as strong as Gaara was, he was also unstable. It was a dangerous game, purposely attempting to draw out his murderous urges, but she knew that was also where her best chance at winning laid. That was where he was going to be most vulnerable and likely to make a mistake.

That was why for now, she would stay on the defensive. Even though there was an opening as the sand and Gaara tried to cope with this new development, she knew it was still too early to charge in. She needed to wait for the right moment.

"You think this battle is funny, do you?" Gaara growled, taking her smile the wrong way. She wasn't going to correct him, instead allowing the misunderstanding to further fuel his rage. "Suna Shuriken!" Gaara yelled, the sand in his gourd changing shape and forming a partial wall in front of him.

The wall began to shrink, the sand being chipped away as it turned into a storm of projectiles that fired at Hinata in rapid-fire bursts. These shuriken were too many and impossible for Hinata to strike them all individually. This was the perfect counter to the ability Hinata had just displayed, so he was no doubt thinking rationally despite his angry outburst.

Even so, this was still within predictions.

Hinata changed her stance, preparing one of the techniques she had read in the scrolls. Kali had reincarnated many times over the past thousand years, and many of them had left details of the abilities and techniques they had cultivated on their own. This technique was one of those.

"Shugohakke: Sixty-four Palms!" Hinata swung her open palms, trailing arcs of blue chakra behind. The faster her arms moved and the more those arcs began to build up, until it looked like they were forming a net in front of her.

The sixty-four palms was traditionally an offensive technique for striking down an opponent's tenketsu points in a single consecutive strike. This technique took the concept behind that and reworked it into a defensive formation. It wasn't as absolute as the main clan's Hakkensho: Rotation, but it consumed less chakra and Hinata found she had a natural disposition to the technique.

It was also more than enough for a barrage of sand shuriken. They battered at Hinata's barrier, but not even a single grain of sand managed to penetrate through. Before long, the wall of sand ran out of ammunition. What little was left crawled across the ground, retreating back to the gourd. Hinata slightly relaxed her stance, but was prepared to unleash the technique again at any moment if it looked like Gaara thought to try again.

That didn't happen. Instead the sand behind her rising up. It was completely silent, the intent clearly to catch Hinata off guard. That wouldn't work on her, as the complete view of her Byakugan allowed her to even see attacks coming from behind. She spun around, slashing at the rising sand with a kunai and striking its tenketsu point. Once again, the sand burst apart, scattering all around her.

This time, it would appear the sand with the gourd had mixed with the natural earth around them. This both increased the amount of ammo Gaara had at his disposal while also preventing her from directly harming his core sand again. In the same way she was testing him, trying to expose a moment of weakness, he was also probing her for an opening.

Like it or not, there was a strong possibility that Hinata was going to need to go on the offensive sooner than anticipated. Unlike Gaara, she couldn't attack and defend at the same time. She had to commit to one by throwing out the other.

A problem that was only further exacerbated as sand clones of Gaara began to rise up around her. One, two, three, four. Her eyes quickly picked up four sand clones of varying distance to her, positioned around her in such a way that to attack one of them would leave her rear exposed.

Until now, neither combatant had actually moved a single step forward or backwards. They simply stood in one place, attacking and defending from their starting positions. For a mid-ranged fighter like Gaara, this was the ideal fighting position. Hinata didn't have any such luxury and she needed to eventually close the distance.

There was a murmur of excitement among the crowd as Hinata began to move. They had been sitting completely still, some of them even forgetting to breathe as the stand-still between the two combatants had been a game of testing boundaries. Now the first round of the match was over, and the real battle was about to begin.

Hinata spun on her heel, dashing towards the nearest clone. She kept low to the ground, holding the kunai in front of her defensively. The first clone couldn't even react, Hinata jumping up and slashing at the tenketsu point that kept it held together. The clone shattered, the sand limply falling to the ground at her feet.

That was when the other three clones attacked. Hinata knew she couldn't defend against them by ordinary means. That was why she had to use another one of her new techniques. She reached up, grabbing the tenketsu point of the air between her and the nearest clone. Then she pulled, hoping the jutsu worked.

"Hakke: Bansho Ten'in!" Hinata called out the name of her technique. The tenketsu point of the air itself ruptured, creating a vacuum that pulled the nearest clone towards her violently. It was like a powerful gale, or gravity itself, had picked it up. It rag-dolled through the air, and Hinata ran to meet it part-way. She caught it just before the Shuriken of sand from the other clones could hit her, using the sand clone itself as a shield.

The technique just now had been an original of Kali's. Something she developed watching her uncle, who had his own powerful ocular abilities. According to Kali, her version of the technique was a simple bastardization of the powerful version her uncle was capable of. That didn't mean it was without its merits, allowing Kali and her reincarnates to close the distance to their opponent without having to risk charging in themselves.

Hinata sprinted in the direction of the remaining two clones, holding up the one she had pulled towards her. The sand Shuriken bounced off the clone, chipping away at it until there was nearly nothing left. It lasted long enough, however. Hinata closed the distance, tossing her impromptu shield at the clone further away while striking at the one now directly in front of her.

She hit her mark, the tenketsu of the clone ripping apart and causing the clone to fail. She didn't stop long enough to watch it crumble, already dashing to the next one. That clone had yet to recover from having the earlier one thrown at it. And it never would get the chance, Hinata's kunai ripping through it just as efficiently as the last two.

There was no chance to catch her breath. She was on the move now, and Gaara wasn't going to risk her trying to press the advantage. Hinata's balance wavered and she nearly fell. The ground at her very feet had become unstable and she started to sink. Almost like she was standing in quicksand. She was already up to her ankles in the very earth.

The softening earth was being generated by chakra. That meant it was susceptible to her Jyuken strikes. As a Hyuga, Hinata was capable of releasing chakra from any part of her body, not just her palms. So she channeled chakra to her feet, expelling it rapidly in a burst of energy that blasted the earth that had wrapped around her. She then leapt backwards, performing a back-flip that placed her outside the corrupted area.

This was also as Gaara had wanted. To get away from the softened earth, Hinata had placed an even greater distance between herself and her opponent. A distance that wouldn't be quite so easily closed and she wasn't confident she would be able to catch him off guard now that she had unveiled the technique she used to pull his clone. She could see that he had anchored himself to the ground, ensuring he wasn't going to get pulled through the air.

"Ryusa Bakuryu: Sand Tsunami!" Gaara bent down, placing his hands on the ground and infusing it with a massive amount of chakra. With every new technique he continued to up the intensity. Hinata knew she wasn't going to be able to defend against such powerful techniques one after the other for much longer, but she also knew she wouldn't have to.

Every technique that Gaara used was a massive drain on his chakra. Softening the ground, creating clones, and whatever it was he was about to do now. Not to mention the chakra he was expending to keep himself protected.

The more he tried to push her into a corner, the further he was also backed into one himself.

She just had to overcome this next technique. A task easier said than done, as a massive tidal wave of sand rose up in front of her. The scale of this jutsu was more than anything she could have imagined, the wave of sand so tall that the crest of the wave was nearly as high as the wall to the arena itself. And the wave of sand was fast, collapsing towards her like a raging storm at sea.

At the same time the ground beneath Hinata's feet once again shifted, only this time she was hoisted into the air. The wave came at her from above, and she was being pushed into it from below. A pincer attack that was guaranteed to turn her into nothing more than a pulp of flesh, bone, and blood.

No kind of defensive technique would be enough to survive this. Even if she could get up a barrier in time, the density of such an onslaught would only get her crushed by her own jutsu meant to protect her. The only way out was to cut straight through it.

Hinata gripped the kunai she had been holding this whole time with both hands. It was a simple tool, one every shinobi was expected to have. It was also now Hinata's one and only lifeline.

With the power of her Nichiren Byakugan, she scanned for the right tenketsu point that would save her life. She now only had seconds to find it and position herself in striking distance beneath it.

From the outside looking in, Hinata was doomed. There was no way anyone could survive such a destructive Jutsu, one that appeared more as a force of nature than something wielded by a single individual.

Half the crowd gasped in collective horror, many of them unable to even watch. They turned away, or they watched through the gaps in their fingers. The other half cheered. They craved the blood-sport, chanting for the young girl's inevitable death. The one thing they all shared in common- they believed this match was over.

Only a select few hadn't given up.

"Come on, Hinata." Naruto whispered as if praying. He gripped the rails separating the spectator box from the arena, powerless to do anything but watch with a grim, tight-lipped expression.

"…" Shino was silent, but even those that didn't know him could tell he was agitated. Despite that, he placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder. The two shared a quick glance, their belief in Hinata resonating with one another. When they looked back to the area below, it was with renewed resolution in their mutual friend. She would be okay, they believed.

Back in the crowds itself, only one voice cut through in support of the certainly doomed girl.

"Go, Hinata!" Kiba roared at the top of his lungs. Akamaru barked along with his master, their feelings one and the same. It was as if they didn't realize how perilous her current situation truly was.

Kurenai was ashamed to admit she had given into despair upon seeing the wave of sand. She knew if it was her in the same situation, she would die. Yet hearing Kiba cheer for his teammate so unabashedly lit a fire of faith in her gut. She knew more than anyone how much Hinata was trying to change herself.

That was why she would believe in her now.

On the other side of the stands, Hyuga Hiashi and Hanabi heard Kiba's yell as if he was right next to them.

"Nee-sama…" Hanabi squeezed her eyes tight, clasping her hands together.

"Do not avert your eyes." Hiashi instructed his youngest daughter. "Your sister is about to show us her true power." He believed in his daughter now. When he saw her after this was all over, he could hold his head high and praise her, then they could talk to Neji together. As a family.

Neji was several rows below Hiashi, unaware his uncle was so close and in a position easy to keep an eye on him. His knuckles were pale white, gripping his knees so hard they threatened to pop. He didn't know what he really wanted from this fight anymore.

Part of him really had wanted to see Hinata fail here… it would be the ultimate proof that he had always been right. That people couldn't change, no matter how hard they tried. However, he was the one that had pushed her into accepting this fight. If she died, that was on him. Could he live with that?

For the first time, Neji felt his resolve waver. He had never truly intended to hear Hinata out, but… if she survived this- then he would honor his word.

If such an opportunity still existed for them.

Finally, the two men above it all leaned forward in their seats.

"It would appear this is a win for my village." The Kazekage gloated. His expression was assured of the victory, knowing the power of Gaara was uncontested. That was also why today's plan hinged on him.

There was no way Gaara didn't proceed to the next round. It was there he would fight Sasuke, who would easily advance as well. That was where everything today would be decided.

Beneath the cowl hiding his face, the fake Kazekage licked his lips.

"I wouldn't be so sure." The Hokage didn't seem concerned. Ever since the preliminary matches, he had been keeping a discreet eye on Hinata. He knew just how much she had grown throughout these exams and he was looking forward to seeing the results of that growth now.

Back down at the arena floor, Gaara gasped for breath. He was still leaning forward from when he had placed his hands on the ground to cast the Jutsu. However, he doubted his ability to support himself with his legs alone anymore. His whole vision wavered and his head throbbed with pain. He had spent nearly all his chakra on that last attack, and what little he had left was to maintain his sand armor.

It was all worth it. As the sand settled, he had finally killed that annoying girl and verified his existence. He would admit it, she had been someone worth killing. The way she had calmly dispatched everything he threw at her had been frightening. Yet in the end even she was no match for the monster inside of him.

This was his win.

No sooner did he think that and there was a powerful blast that rattled the entire arena. He used sand often enough that he recognized it as a dust explosion. In other words there had been some kind of spark or ignition that set off the dense particles of compressed sand. Yet there was no way… She couldn't have possibly survived.

From the rising smoke a single figure emerged, walking atop the mountain of sand that had just threatened to crush her.

Hyuga Hinata was alive.

More than that, she was mostly unharmed. She had discarded her beige jacket, the material having caught fire in the explosion. Her only other injuries were minor burns and small scratches, but those appeared to be healing as she strode forward.

With nothing but a single kunai in her hand she had cut through a literal tidal wave of sand and escaped from Gaara's most powerful technique. He had never seen someone so unfazed by his techniques, least of all someone that had been so terrified of him right up until the battle began.

The girl he was fighting now was someone different from who he had met at the hospital.

She stood atop the sand looking down at him as if a deity from myth or some other divine being. The disappearing smoke rising behind her only further lent to this image, casting the young girl in the filtering sunlight.

"What the hell are you!?" Gaara cried, anger and confusion overtaking him. His vision flashed red and he felt the power of the demon inside begin to take over. He no longer had the chakra to hold the beast at bay. The sand around him sprung to life, wrapping around him like a cocoon, leaving only a single hole from which to view what was happening.

The entire arena was his territory now. The technique may have failed to kill her, but there was no way she could cross the distance between them while running atop his sand. This was an undeniable truth, but he forgot one thing.

Her death against him was an inevitability she had already overcome once before.

There was no reason to think she couldn't do it again.

Hinata heard his cry of anguish, but she had no answer for him.

She ran forward, her feet almost gliding across the sand that attempted to crush her with every step she took. Gaara felt the same fear from before grip at his heart and he gave a bestial roar. Numerous walls of sand rose up between the two of them. Shuriken made of sand flew at her from behind, where there was no way she should have been able to see them coming.

Yet as if she had eyes in the back of her head, she ducked, jumped, and flipped her way flawlessly past every obstacle that came at her. No wall that stood in her way was an impairment. This was the girl that had cut through an entire tsunami, something of this level couldn't possibly hope to slow her.

Her kunai slashed several times a second, cutting down the walls of sand as if they were paper. All without faltering a single step. She charged towards Gaara in a straight line. If this had been any other opponent, he would have thought it was a suicidal assault.

His head throbbed again and his consciousness wavered. The possession was beginning to take effect. Not much longer and his consciousness would swap places with the demon. He grinned manically. There was nothing to worry about. The monster would take care of everything. Hinata couldn't possibly reach him in time.

The cocoon of sand sealed him inside pure darkness. It was here that he would give himself over to the madness. It would all be okay. He just had to go to sleep and when he woke up this would all be over.

Sleep never came. Instead of slipping off into the blackness of a long slumber, there was a blinding flash of light. Gaara's densest, most powerful shield burst apart into nothing. And standing in front of him was Hyuga Hinata.

"Jyuken!" Hinata stepped in, her foot sliding between Gaara's. He recoiled, but there was nowhere for him to go. His own sand blocked him in, leaving him completely at her mercy. He had no idea how to throw a punch, let alone actually defend against one. Even then, it would be okay. He still had his sand armor.

It was too bad that it meant nothing against the gentle fist style of the Hyuga clan. Hinata's open palm slammed into his chest, knocking him backwards and sending him tumbling over the sand mound that had previously been propping him up. The world spun around as he rolled several meters, but he almost didn't even notice. His mind was full of only one thing.

It hurt.

It hurt, it hurt, it fucking hurt. What even was that just now, he had no idea. It felt like she had punched him directly in the heart. Gaara had never felt anything like this. It was indescribable. The pain was so excruciating, that he couldn't even scream. Opening his mouth only led to a terrible wretch. His whole body heaved, and he felt himself cough up something wet and sticky. The taste of iron clung to his throat and mouth.

The possession had stopped completely, Gaara's mind fully awake and alert now. Yet the only thing he could think about was the pain. His body writhed and wretched on the arena floor, choking coughs of blood the only noise he was capable of making.

The next cough caused blood to catch in his throat. Blackness crawled along the outlines of his vision and he knew at any moment he might lose consciousness. Ordinarily if he fell asleep, the demon would take over.

Yet Hinata's strike just now had not just interrupted the possession, but also disrupted their connection. He wasn't even sure Shukaku could properly emerge in this state. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her.

The one who had finally bested him.

That was the last thing he saw.

Hinata stood over him, trying to ignore her own throbs of pain. To Gaara, her entire performance had looked effortless, like she was making fun of him. That was anything but the case.

She had barely reached the natural tenketsu point of the sand tsunami in time and had messed up striking it, resulting in the dust explosion that she had been partially caught in. Her favorite jacket had been burnt right through, but the sage chakra had mostly protected her physical body. That didn't mean the burns weren't any less distracting, even as they naturally healed.

Charging through the barrage of walls and criss-crossing sand shuriken had taken every bit of her already strained concentration. Just like she had been taught, she read the lines of natural energy and used them as a guide to cut herself a path to victory. Her focus had been so singular she even forgot to breathe.

Now the limitations of her body caught up with her and she let out loud gasps of air, her lungs greedily taking in whatever oxygen they could get. Her posture slackened and she doubled over, leaning on her knees for support. Sweat dotted her forehead and dripped into her eyes, causing her to try and squint the salty liquid away.

All the same, she seemed to be doing better than Gaara. In truth, she hadn't expected him to drop after just a single strike. In hindsight, she supposed it did make sense. This was someone that had never been injured his whole life thanks to the sand that always protected him. He wasn't even accustomed to normal pain, nevermind what it must have felt like to have his innards directly attacked.

She could only feel pity towards him now; As she watched him flounder like a turtle on its back. The blood he coughed up fell back on his face and neck, and he began to choke, some of the blood failing to come up and getting caught in his esophagus.

Hinata couldn't bear to watch this any more. She bent over, resting a hand on his shoulder and gently rolling him onto his side. He didn't even seem to realize she was there. His body convulsed with a mighty cough as he managed to clear his lungs of the congested blood.

He wouldn't be fighting like this.

She stood back up, taking stock of the situation around her. Genma had also managed to dodge the tsunami of sand by sticking to the wall of the arena. If he hadn't been as quick-footed as he was there was a very real danger he would have gotten swallowed in the attack too. He had come back down and was making his way over to them cautiously, careful of the sand at his feet.

The crowd had mostly fallen silent. She could hear the low murmurs, the people trying to make sense of what had just happened. She should have been dead. Yet here they were. She was the one standing and her opponent on the ground. It felt just like after her fight against Neji. And just like after that fight, there was only one voice that reached her.

"Hinata!" Naruto yelled. She turned to him, a tired but satisfied smile on her lips. With this, her end of the bargain had been upheld. She would meet him in the next round. Only this time was different. He wasn't cheering for her. His eyes were wide with panic, his shout just now a warning. "Look out!" He called too late.

Hinata had messed up. She dropped her guard, turning her attention to the stands above when she should have continued to focus on her opponent below. There was a flash of pain and Hinata's body twirled through the air.

How far she flew she had no idea, but she had been sent high enough that her body arched, seeming to hang suspended for a moment, before crashing back down onto the soft sand below. The only good news was the sand had cushioned her landing, but the blow had been strong enough she feared a rib or two might be broken.

What had just happened? Gaara had been down- a convulsing mess. There was no way he had recovered enough to fight and she knew with the Nichiren Byakugan he hadn't been faking it either.

As her gaze focused back on him she understood. Gaara had transformed. No, transformed wasn't exactly the right word. It was more like he had fused with his gourd and the sand inside of it. The once two separate entities were merging together to become one. Half of Gaara's upper body had been completely taken over. From the bottom of the gourd was a giant tail. It had been that which had sent Hinata flying just now.

Half of Gaara's face looked like a tanuki. A monstrous, dull yellow eye glared at her. The monstrous half grinned dementedly, the blood he coughed up earlier dribbling down its chin. The other half looked as if he suffered a stroke and no longer had control over that side of his body. It simply hung loose, almost lacking consciousness.

More terrifying was the huge, tree trunk sized arm. Gaara's legs didn't support him anymore, but that arm was large enough to pick up his whole body by itself. There was a sniveling growl, the creature lacking a voice.

Whatever this thing was, it wasn't quite Gaara, yet it wasn't quite the monster inside either. It was some kind of in-between. A feral subconscious brought about by interrupting the possession process and damaging their connection with a Jyuken strike.

There was a roar, more like a bark and the creature bound at Hinata. Her eyes widened and she leapt in the air. Not even a second later and the giant tanuki arm was occupying the place she had just been standing.

It was fast.

Way too fast for its size and despite only having a single arm with which to throw itself around. She only knew to dodge because the tells this half-beast had were obvious. The natural energy around this thing was in chaos, as if nature itself was terrified of it.

Hinata flipped, landing in a crouch several meters away. She was barely to her feet when the half-beast was bounding towards her again. She skipped to the side, dodging by a hair's-breadth. Yet she couldn't dodge the torrent of wind that followed the attack, her entire body being buffeted by air pressure alone and sending her sprawling.

She was only lucky that the half-beast wasn't capable of consecutive attacks or she would already be dead. Instead, it had to spin itself back around awkwardly. That dull, lifeless yellow eye fell on her still prone form.

"Y-You…" The half-beast choked out something that might have been a word, but just as likely might have been a feral growl. Its voice was that of Gaara's and yet it also wasn't. "Die! Die!" It was hard to say whether it was telling her to die or if it was just barking. The tail and arm slammed the ground, beating the earth like a drum.

Hinata knew for a fact she couldn't take a blow like that or she would be done for.

There was no choice.

She was going to have to use that Jutsu if she wanted to survive. This fight was no longer about winning or losing. She wasn't even sure what her opponent truly was anymore. Hinata rose to her feet, taking in a deep breath and settling into her stance.

"Die!" The half-beast barked again, pushing off the ground with its arm. It spun at Hinata like a ball, the tail coming around in a powerful overhead blow. Hinata placed a hand to her left temple and found the tenketsu point she needed to press. Only with this would she be fast enough to dodge.

"First Gate of Opening: Release!" She called. Chakra twice as great as before radiated from her and she pushed off the ground, seemingly disappearing as she easily put distance between herself and her opponent. The half-beast hadn't even seen where she dodged to, her speed that much higher than it had been just seconds before. As it turned to look for her, she knew she only had a couple moments respite.

In that time, she remembered her conversation with Kali.

"Listen up, Hinata." Kali was in her usual position, floating cross-legged above the eight trigrams design. "It's time you learn about my strongest technique and the true legacy behind one of Konoha's secret Kinjutsu."

"Kinjutsu?" Hinata asked, already not liking the sound of that. Kinjutsu were usually forbidden for a reason. Often because they were dangerous not just to the enemy, but the user as well.

"Your Byakugan allows you to see Tenketsu, and the Nichiren Byakugan allows you to see Natural Tenketsu." Kali explained, not paying any attention to Hinata's obvious discontent. "However, have you never asked yourself what are the most critical tenketsu points a person has access to?"

"You mean the Hachimon?" Hinata knew about the eight inner gates. They were only all too fresh in her mind after watching the video footage of Lee's battle against Gaara in the preliminary matches. "But aren't they dangerous?" The damage to Lee's body hadn't just been his opponent. But also of his own making.

Opening the gates came at a cost. The more gates you opened, the more you pushed your chakra network to their absolute limits. The strain of chakra on your muscles alone was enough to rupture them and that was only from the first gate.

"That boy and whoever taught him to use the Gates are working with incomplete knowledge." Kali clicked her tongue as if dissatisfied. "The Gates were never meant to be used with your own chakra alone. It's no wonder he sustained the injuries he did, doing something so fool-hardy as that."

"Wait, you don't mean…" Hinata's imagination ran wild as she started to connect all the dots of this conversation.

"That's exactly what I'm saying." Kali verified. "The Hachimon are meant to be used in tandem with Natural Energy. The gates increase your chakra reserves exponentially, which means the amount of Natural Energy you have to absorb to maintain Sage Mode has to be equivocal."

"The more Natural Energy you absorb, the faster you heal…" Hinata continued, already following Kali's equation to its conclusion. "So theoretically any damage you sustain as a result of opening the gates should also be canceled out."

"Now you're catching on." Kali praised, nodding her head happily. "That's not the only thing, but those techniques that boy tried to use were simply cheap imitations. The real thing is my own original jutsu. You could say it's the culmination of my entire life's work compressed into a single technique. Well, a series of techniques would be more accurate."

"You're talking about the Primary Lotus and Reverse Lotus Jutsu?" Hinata asked. Both of those techniques had been fearful by themselves. She couldn't imagine that they too were the incomplete version of something else.

"Correct." Kali agreed with a hint of displeasure. "Those two lotus techniques lack the finesse and grace of what I cultivated. The technique I'm about to teach you doesn't end with a single strike; It's a dance. Every second gate unlocks the next stage of the dance, culminating in four phases. Although hopefully you never need to go as far as the fourth dance." Opening the eighth gate to use the final dance meant death, after all. Even the healing properties of Sage Mode couldn't save you from that.

"Do I even have time to learn to open the gates?" Hinata wondered aloud. Forget about opening all eight, she didn't even know how to open the first one. Lee had been training to open them for over a year, putting in unimaginable efforts of hard work to accomplish what he had.

"You can see Tenketsu, Hinata." Kali stated like the answer was obvious. "You only need to press your own points. Any Hyuga that knows where the points are would be capable of opening the Hachimon, although it would be ill-advised for anyone other than you to do so. Which is why your focus needs to be on memorizing the steps to the dance. For now, we'll just work on the first one."

"Okay then." Hinata reluctantly agreed. Kali seemed proud of the technique, so she wasn't doubting its value. There was also one last thing she was curious about though. "What's the name of the dance?" She asked.

"Oh yeah." Kali seemed to only just now realize she had left that detail out. "The name should come as no surprise. It's not only the predecessor of the Primary and Reverse Lotus, it's also only something a wielder of the Nichiren Byakugan is capable of. Its name is-

"Byakuren: The White Lotus."

Hinata's recollection ended.

Like before, the entire thing flashed before her in the blink of an eye.

She didn't have any more time than that. The half-beast had already found her again, lunging at her straight on. This time Hinata charged back, the power of both the gate and the influx of natural energy allowing her to match speeds with it.

There was a shout of exertion, Hinata not even realizing until a second later it was her own voice. Her Jyuken strike collided with the fist of the sand arm. She felt her muscles tear and just as quickly heal. Despite taking a direct blow from her gentle fist, she couldn't see any noticeable effect to the monstrous appendage. It would appear this thing didn't operate the same way as a human did. It had already been a long shot, but now she knew that for sure.

And even with the strength of the first gate, she could tell this thing was still physically stronger than her. Their clash was far from a stalemate and it began to push back, her feet skidding against the ground.

The half-beast let out another roar, the tail swinging at Hinata from the side. She disengaged, jumping over the tail and flipping backwards. It pursued her, but she dodged further out of the way, managing to once again outmaneuver it. While it was certainly fast, it only had two limbs to make use of to move around, making its movements clunky and imprecise.

It seemed to realize it wasn't going to catch her just by lunging around wildly either. The massive claw dug into the earth, breaking down the hard dirt and splitting it into clumps. With a mighty toss, it threw the dirt with enough speed to turn it into a scatter-shot of deadly pellets. Hinata dove to the side, barely managing to avoid the shot. Just as the did, the creature was on her again, tail coming down overhead to crush her.

This thing was learning as they fought, implying it wasn't just wild instincts.

As she was now too, she wasn't fast enough to dodge. She needed more speed, and power.

Hinata pressed a finger to her right temple now.

"Second Gate of Rest: Release!" She felt the flow of her chakra once again increase exponentially. And to match that, the visage of Kali on her back absorbed an equivocal amount of natural energy to maintain the balance. The increase in strength was just enough for Hinata to dodge out of the way in time. The tail slammed into the ground where she had just been, striking with enough force to leave behind a massive crater. If she had been hit by that it would have been bad.

The half-beast didn't even seem to realize it had missed, laughing wildly to itself and beating the ground again and again with its tail. Hinata slowly rose to her feet, still standing off to the side and assessing her new strength.

The very air around her now was swirling, her hair and clothes dancing in the wind.

She felt powerful.

Hinata had no idea power like this even existed. She wondered for a second if this was what Lee had felt when he learned to open the gates. Yet she also knew what she had done was already beyond that.

The half-beast must have sensed her power, because it suddenly stopped and turned in her direction. It leapt at her again without preamble, but its movements felt slow now. Hinata no longer needed to dodge, instead deflecting the strike and sending it tumbling past. It hit the ground and rolled, skidding to a halt before redoubling its efforts. Hinata took up her stance, preparing her technique.

"Shugohakke: One-Hundred-Twenty-Eight Palms!" Hinata called out. She once again created the barrier of chakra that spread out in front of her like a net. With her increased speed and power, this time she made it twice as dense as before and it covered her like a dome.

The half-beast ran headfirst into the barrier and bounced off it like an insect. It stumbled backwards, maintaining balance between the tail and the single giant arm like before. Only now it was dazed, as even the strange half-minded beast was unable to shake off a concussion.

Hinata readied herself for the final blow.

She changed her stance once again, looking more like she was giving a polite curtsey than preparing a powerful technique. She closed her eyes for a brief moment and when she opened them back up, she could see the eight trigrams beneath her. Gaara was inside her field of vision.

Hinata felt Kali's presence more clearly than ever before. It was like she wasn't performing this technique alone, but together. Even when she spoke, she felt their voices overlap.

"Byakuren: Some no Mai!" The first dance of the white lotus began.

Hinata spun, each rotation of her body bringing her closer to her opponent. Until she was upon him, landing a powerful blow. Her fist traveled so fast that it appeared as nothing more than a white blur. The very chakra around her took shape and she dashed past her opponent in a straight line.

The attack didn't end there. Hinata pivot on her heel and spun, circling back around on her opponent to strike him again. Then she struck him once again from a new angle.

Eight times she performed this.

Yet it was all over in the span of only a couple seconds. When Hinata finished her dance, she was right back where she had started. Her whole body still aglow in the white light generated by the opening of two chakra gates merged with natural energy.

To those watching from above, that energy had left a trail behind. Her dance had created the visage of a lotus made out of pure white chakra with Gaara in the center of it. Only after several more seconds did that energy begin to fade.

Gaara collapsed. The half-beast that had formed around him began to crumble, his gourd cracking and falling to pieces along with it. Until the only thing left behind was the unconscious red-head.

The White Lotus wasn't just a series of physical blows, but natural energy Jyuken strikes on top of that. Whatever that strange chakra Gaara had living inside of him was, Hinata did not know. But she had temporarily severed the connection between them. It wouldn't be coming back out, even while he was asleep.

The battle was over.

Hinata had won.

Chapter End

AN: The Shugohakke: Sixty-four Palms is the same technique Hinata created in the Bikochu filler arc from the anime. The extended one-hundred-twenty-eight version is then from the games. I just reworked its origin, as it was a technique I thought Hinata should have, and I also thought it suited her better than the main clan's Rotation.

Bansho Ten'in, to reiterate, is basically just a weaker version of Pain's Divine Pull move. Since Hinata doesn't have the Rinnegan she has to trigger it in a different way and it's not always reliable.

The last move, Byakuren（白蓮）is literally translated as just White Lotus and is where the current title for the story also comes from. The dances and their counting (eg. 初の舞 Some no Mai) was lifted straight from Rukia's Zanpakuto in Bleach. For this technique, I just did some slight rework on the Gates, the Lotus techniques, and the lore behind them.