Sorry for the dealy, this was so very difficult to write and manage. It's going to be longer than what I've been trying to make the chapters, but I regret nothing.
Naruto awoke at first light. His excitement to see his friends get to fight and earn praise from the entire village was too much for him to sleep properly. He knew how much they had all grown, now the village would too. Some of them would even be Chunin by this time next week. He smiled sadly. He wouldn't be one of them, but that wasn't the end of the world. He would catch up to his friends soon enough.
While he waited, he practiced some chakra control exercises. It might not do him all that much good now, but hopefully it would sharpen his skills when the Five Prong Seal was finally released. That wasn't the only reason he was excited for it though.
The fox might have been a miserable bastard full of hate, and constantly angry, but Naruto was really beginning to miss him. He wasn't as lonely as he once was when he was little, but the Kyuubi was always someone he could talk to. Always there to keep him company. Not that the fox had a choice, but he could continue to ignore him if he really wanted to.
As the hours droned on, he practiced his left handed writing some more. The one thing he could currently do at full proficiency was make good ole fashioned hand written seals. He'd been working on a design for a few weeks now, and he hoped it would work as intended.
A doctor and two different nurses checked on him while he was waiting, scolding him for using chakra. He just smiled at them and rubbed the back of his head, pausing until they left. He was restless though.
Hinata and Sasuke visited them several hours before noon, possibly even before they ate breakfast. He lit up when he saw them, excited to wish his friends luck and give them gifts. Naturally they were seals. They both thanked him, though he had a suspicion that neither would use them. Sasuke had always been one to rely on his own power, and Hinata had blossomed into a fairly independent fighter. She would want to prove to her family that she didn't need help.
Still though, it eased his mind knowing that they had them just in case. Their time visiting him was short, and he wished them luck, saying he knew they could do it. Before Sasuke could leave though, Naruto shot him a weary look. Careful.
Sasuke shot him a deadpanned look. I'll be fine. And then an ever so small smirk. I've got an ace up my sleeve.
Naruto knew what the ace was, but he couldn't help but worry at least a little bit.
Half an hour before the fights were to start, Tsunade finally showed up, Jiraiya and Shizune in tow, the latter holding TonTon.
"Geez, I know you guys are old, but did you really have to take so long to get here!" He teased. "I don't want to miss any of the fights!"
"You know, Naruto." Jiraiya said, knowingly. "You better watch your mouth around Tsunade…" He leaned forward to whisper to his charge. "She's real sensitive about her age."
Naruto giggled as Tsunade softly hammer punched Jiraiya into the ground. Only the fact that they were in the hospital saved him from her using her real power.
"Still young enough to crush both of you into a paste, thank you very much." She said, "C'mon, Brat. Let's get going, I got some bets to place."
"You'd be smart to place them on Sasuke, ya know." Naruto said. "He's definitely the strongest one left." Naruto said, subtly implying that he thought he was the strongest.
"Tch. He's the last Uchiha, everybody will be betting on him. The odds will be awful."
"Well then Hinata is your next best bet. She's going against the Kazekage's daughter, and she gets overlooked by Neji, the grumpy bastard, so she should have good odds!" Naruto said excitedly. He wasn't allowed to bet since he was teammates with contestants, but he knew exactly who he would be betting on if he could, despite his worries.
"She's that good huh? A Hyuga against a wind user isn't a favorable matchup." Tsunade mused as Naruto made his way out of bed and onto his crutches.
"Oh, she's incredible! She's beaten me before when I was only allowed to use elemental jutsu, so she should be able to handle Temari no problem!" He said.
"Well maybe I will place a bet on her then, since you seem so sure of your little girlfriend."
"Haha! That's my boy!" Jiraiya interjected with an eyebrow waggle and a slap on the back.
Naruto put on his best pouty face, hoping it would be enough to get the older shinobi to stop using that line.
"She's not my girlfriend. She's my teammate." He brightened with a big smile. "She's family. And she's gonna kick some ass today, ya know!" He wouldn't let their teasing get him down. Today was going to be a great day.
They made their way into the arena, causing an unfortunate amount of ruckus. Word had, naturally, spread about Tsunade's return to the village. Her henge to sneak into the village had worked, but when she'd seen the state of the hospital, she declared that "no medic in their right mind could leave this shit show without fixing it first." Though Naruto thought that maybe she just enjoyed bossing people around.
They found their seats in the front row, and Naruto waved to the others in his year that hadn't passed the preliminaries. Sakura and Ino looked excited to see him, and he idly noted the bruises and scratches that, combined with the dirt all over them, showed they'd been training. He'd seen Sakura during his time in the hospital, so he knew that she had already been undergoing at least light training as a med nin. It was something that seemed to suit her well, but still, he was glad to see they weren't afraid to get their hands dirty either.
Shikamaru lazily through a hand up at him to wave, which he energetically returned. Choji, being Choji, offered him a potato chip. Naruto, being Naruto, accepted the offer graciously and commented on how delicious it was. Choji beamed at him, happy to share his joy.
TenTen was the final member of the group. She was much more subdued in her greeting, perhaps feeling the odd one out, not being in their graduating class. That changed when she saw who was accompanying Naruto. When she saw Tsunade, she flushed bright pink, and nervously stumbled over herself. Naruto smirked. It wouldn't be long until she saw the other side of her hero.
They finally got settled in, the genin to Naruto's left. Jiraiya, then Tsunade and Shizune filled out to his right. He didn't quite feel whole, though how could he when his team was in the arena without him. He was content though. He didn't need to be the one in front of the roaring crowd, showing off his skills. His people were surrounding him. He was acknowledged. He was home.
A jonin named Genma was announcing the rules of the final exam, though he wasn't too sure how well they'd be enforced. When he wrapped up, the genin made their way up to a balcony located one floor down from the spectator seating, cut into the side of the wall. They left only Neji and Rock Lee in the center.
This was a fight Naruto had been looking forward too for a while now. He'd run across Team 9 before. It was hard not to when you were so close to Kakashi-sensei, considering Gai was always hot on his tail. He knew a little of the history between the two teammates. He was well aware of Neji's viewpoint on life and fate, given how he was always spewing it when Naruto visited the Hyuga. He also knew Lee's story. How he'd graduated without being able to use ninjutsu or genjutsu of any form. How he could only use taijutsu. Everybody thought it was a weakness, but he'd turned it into a strength.
Much like his sensei, Lee had become so hyper focused on taijutsu, that there were few in the village that could surpass him. Naturally there were chunin and jonin that would be physically more developed, and therefore faster and stronger. Lee's movements were crisp though, as if he'd put thousands upon thousands of reps in. His body almost seemed to move automatically through the movements in a fashion that almost looked surreal. He undoubtedly broke his body down time and time again to get to where he was. Naruto respected him immensely, perhaps more than any other genin.
Naruto also knew that Neji was a genius, one of prodigal renown, even amongst the Hyuga. As strong as Hinata had gotten, and as far as she'd come, he stil didn't think she'd be a match for him. For all Lee was as a strong fisted taijutsu specialist, he'd never beaten Neji. Not even once.
He heard the comments from Neji when Naruto trained with Hinata. The remarks that he was 'just like my hopeless teammate' when he would go until he dropped. Neji seemed to think that was an insult. Naruto wholeheartedly disagreed. He liked Neji, despite his worldview. Hinata had hinted at what had happened to him. Naruto figured there was just a stick lodged up in him that needed removing. Still, he knew who he was rooting for. Maybe Lee could dislodge that stick if he kicked him hard enough.
The contestants squared off to each other. Whether it was the design of the arena, or some sort of seal he'd never heard of, their words traveled extremely well. He couldn't hear them over the roar of the crowd though, until he channeled chakra to focus his hearing.
"Why don't you just give up, Lee?" Neji scoffed at him. "You know that you cannot beat me. Why try? Why humiliate yourself?"
"I cannot give up Neji!" Lee shouted, he was a bit easier to hear. "For you are my eternal rival! We shall have a hot blooded battle to show off our youth and see who it is that is more of a splendid shinobi!"
"Time and time again." Neji said, bitterness intoning his voice. "I have told you. I have shown you. I have given you scars to prove it." Naruto winced at that. He'd felt the force of the juken before. "When will you figure it out Lee. You were fated, from the day you were born, to be inferior to me. Nothing you do will change that. No matter how many pushups, or squats, or kicks or punches, you won't be able to beat me!"
Lee could only smile in the face of his teammate. He knew where the bitterness was coming from. He knew it wasn't directed at him. That deep down, in his own weird way, Neji was trying to help him. Lee's smile turned into a blinding grin. "My rival! Your youthful passion is misplaced but it is great to see it no less!" Lee said. "I cannot wait to trade blows with you and see who is victorious today!" Lee gave him a big thumbs up to emphasize his youthfulness.
Neji could only grit his teeth. They'd been round and round this loop many a time. He turned to Genma. "Proctor, I think it's time you start the match. Nothing I say will get through to him without showing him what I mean first."
Genma shrugged noncommittally, but raised his hand nonetheless. Both fighters were ready. Genma's hand dropped.
Unsurprisingly, Lee made the first move. He sprinted at Neji blindly quick, and lashed out with a vicious kick aimed at the Hyuga's head. Neji shifted his upper body out of the way, and moved his feet smoothly to keep his balance. He brought his arm up to strike at Lee's chakra point, but Lee was too well practiced at fighting his teammate. He rotated his body to bring his other leg up for a kick, and Neji was forced to retreat two steps to avoid the blow.
The opening moves happened so fast that the civilians in the audience probably couldn't keep up, but they roared nonetheless. Lee once again charged at Neji, starting with a punch this time. A similar set of moves ensued. Neji moved to counterattack, and Lee countered his counter with another blow, causing Neji to slide out of reach again.
This was the ebb and flow of the fight, the same dance that they'd done a hundred times now. The moves became more complex, sometimes stretching into combos of six or seven counters before they broke a part. The crowd ate it up. Neji and Sasuke were the two big draws to this round of the exams, and never did the crowd think that they would get such a good fight in the first round.
Lee for his part, was holding up extremely well. His lack of chakra use was an advantage here. He would tire slower than Neji would. He just had to wear the Hyuga out. Neji wasn't showing any sign of tiring, but Lee knew he himself could do this all day. And then he slipped up.
He attempted a roundhouse, knowing Neji would slip it, and continued his momentum until he'd spun and snapped perfectly into position to throw a huge right hand. He'd pushed his speed, trying to catch his teammate off guard. Neji's eyes widened in surprise minutely, and Lee thought he had him. Then, with the grace of a swan, Neji slid just under the punch, and jabbed him quick as lightning in the forearm.
Lee grimaced and jumped away. He'd overextended the tiniest of amounts. Perhaps imperceptibly to the naked eye. Neji had made him pay, as he always did. Lee couldn't help but smirk at his teammates' abilities.
"Ready to give up yet?" Neji asked, and there was a small smirk playing on his lips. One might even think that he enjoyed fighting his teammate.
"My eternal rival, I am just getting started!" Lee shouted. And then he charged.
There were seven more scuffles between the two. They resulted in five more closed chakra points. Lee's whole body was stinging at this point. He was used to the pain though, that wasn't the problem. The problem was, despite the fact that he'd limited Neji to no more than one strike at a time, he was slowing. At this rate it would be over in another couple of moves. That left him with three options. He could forfeit, though he was certain he'd rather die. He could play the moves out, and hope Neji slipped up, though he was certain Neji was more likely to drop dead before that happened. Or, he could unleash his forbidden technique. Risky. Dangerous.
He glanced up where he knew Gai-sensei was sitting. He could see the gleam in his teacher's eyes all the way up there. Gai gave him a subtle head nod, a serious look on his face. Lee nodded back, as much to himself as to his sensei.
He stepped out of his stance, and into a power position. Base wide and strong, fists at his side. He closed his eyes briefly, and inhaled fully. He dug deep within himself. He found his core, and with it, his dreams. He wanted to be a splendid shinobi. He wanted to prove all the people who told him he couldn't, wrong. He wanted to prove Gai-sensei right. Most importantly, he wanted to prove himself right. All the hours he bled and sweated couldn't be for nothing. His eyes snapped open, and he let out a scream.
"The first gate of Opening. Open!" a pressure released from him, and a heatwave like appearance came over him. He wasn't done there though, he'd technically opened the first gate to fight Neji before. Primary Lotus required it. It wasn't enough.
"The second gate of Healing. Open!" This time a more visible shockwave of chakra came from him. His fatigue faded, and his tenketsu released back open. He felt like a brand new man. He wouldn't stop there though. His sensei had given him a limit, and he wasn't there yet.
"The third gate of Life, Open!" His roar set the arena on edge. This time there was a palpable change to Lee. His skin faded red, veins bulging everywhere. His hair seemed to float in the air around him. The most concerning part though, as he huffed and heaved, was that his pupils had disappeared.
Neji looked on with a growing sense of dread. He'd never seen this technique from his teammate before, but based on what his Byakugan was picking up, it had to be forbidden, probably the same technique Gai-sensei used. He'd released his chakra gates. That was something that was beyond even the gentle fist. Neji was in shock. He didn't think this was possible, even in the most clinical of settings, and here is dead last teammate had done it in the midst of a fight.
He cautiously tightened up his stance. He didn't like the look of things. He was right to be cautious. Lee shot at him like a bullet, and he just barely moved out of the way. Not even his pride could call that a dodge. Luckily, it seemed this technique was costly, and probably not practiced often. In turn, Lee was just slightly off balance, not quite used to his speed. He expected he wouldn't get another freebie. He was right.
Lee charged at him again, with the same kick he'd used to open. There was no time to move out of the way. The cross block he got up was barely in time on its own, and that was despite the fact that Lee had clearly telegraphed it. He slid back a few feet.
Neji knew he was in trouble, but Lee was also breathing heavily. Anything with that much of a power boost wouldn't last long. He just had to hold out. Lee was not going to make it easy though.
His ever youthful teammate charged at him again, and this time Neji was more ready. He dodged the first punch, and was barely grazed by the follow up kick. The second kick caught him though, and despite his textbook block, he found his momentum taking him backwards. His skin was already turning dark where he'd taken Lee's hit.
He knew then that he'd have to play one of his trump cards. He'd expected the fight to be fun, but relatively simple for him, as it always was. Now he was going to have to give up one of his most powerful techniques in the first round.
Neji skated back, giving himself as much distance as possible. If there was one thing he could count on with Lee, it was that the bowl cut genin would attack him straight on at all out speed. He'd just have to time it.
Lee stayed true to form, and let out a holler about youth, before charging his teammate. Neji waited, though it wasn't long, and then he spun.
As Neji whirled in a circle, expelling chakra from all his tenketsu, several people in the stands were extremely shocked. Naruto Uzumaki was surprised, because it looked an awful lot like the rasengan. He briefly wondered whether his father had drawn inspiration from the technique.
Hinata Hyuga, too, was surprised. She'd known her cousin was working on it, and perhaps had even encouraged him, despite the fact that she knew he was forbidden from learning it. Neji may not believe in her as much as he did fate, but he was still family in her eyes. Her surprise was rooted more in pride. She was truly proud of him for being such an incredible shinobi.
Hiashi Hyuga was shocked. Never had a member of the branch family been able to master a jutsu reserved for the main line. Mastery alone was difficult. Discovering the technique on his own was unheralded. He inwardly lamented over the clan's rules about heirs, and the death of his brother. Perhaps it was time to tell the boy the truth, and give him the scroll. Perhaps it was already too late. The Hyuga clan head shook his head, wishing his wife were there to help advise him. She had always been much better at dealing with the children.
Rock Lee, however, didn't share the surprise of the stands. Instead, he smiled. He knew his teammate would not let him down when he unleashed his most powerful technique. Neji never let him down. He could always count on him to step up when it mattered most.
An extremely powerful and fast kick met a fast spinning rotating chakra ball bet in the center, and the whole world exploded.
It was more than a minute before the dust settled. When it did, there were two craters revealed, each with a genin dumped into it. Both contestants had been deflected straight backwards forcefully, the power of their techniques too much to be sustained.
Neji twitched where he was laying, before crawling his way into a standing position. His headband had fallen off, leaving just the standard shinobi bandages across his forehead. He stumbled once, then twice, before righting himself completely. He began to circulate his chakra and take count of how his body was doing.
Rock Lee was slower to get up. His skin had returned to its former color, as had his eyes. His hair, though it was no longer standing on its end, was a mess. His body was shaking as he finally erected himself into a semi standing position.
Neji shook his head. He had almost recovered from their clash, his chakra having shielded him from the worst of it. Lee wouldn't quit though, and he knew it. There was only one way to put him down for sure, and he'd have to be thorough about it if Lee could still open the gates.
"I'm sorry, Lee. You are within my field of divination." With that, Neji dropped gracefully into his stance. His mind's eye saw the field and its sectors. "Gentle Fist Art: 8 trigrams 64 palms." And then he moved, and move did he ever.
The technique was one of the Hyuga's most powerful. It was a more targeted version of their typical taijutsu forms, but sped up. Much like a shunshin, the user channeled chakra to their body to speed it up. For this reason it was much more likely to slip through their guard, but also much more difficult for the user to pull off. The fatigue that amounted from it was the main reason it was difficult to use, and the precision required while moving so fast was the reason it was their ultimate attack. Within the Hyuga, there was no greater technique when it came to hand to hand combat. It was only limited by the speed and strength of the user, but theoretically it could be used to defeat a Kage. It was that technically sound.
Within the Hyuga clan, there had never been such a talent as Neji. Therefore, it shouldn't have been a surprise that he pulled it off flawlessly, perfectly striking all 64 targets, effectively rendering Lee useless and unconscious. Still, Hiashi Hyuga was shocked yet again. It just shouldn't be possible. That was a jonin level technique reserved for the best of the best, and taught personally by the clan head. It was borderline insubordination just from the audacity Neji had to learn it, let alone perform it so well. Hiashi couldn't help but feel a swell of pride though. He just wished his brother were here to share the joy. He made up his mind then, and he removed himself from his seat. He would go see Neji now. It could wait no longer.
Neji's normally stoic, though sometimes harsh, facade had cracked. Gone was the stoicism, the calm, the placid face. He was bent over, leaning on both knees. His body rose and fell as he gulped breath after breath trying to recover. It was a heavy technique for him to be using so young, and he knew that. It had been necessary though. Not just to win the fight, but to show the clan that the main branch wasn't the only one capable of such techniques. More so than that though, it was to give Lee a small bit of validation and respect. He knew how hard his teammate worked, and though he was a dimwit who was fated to be the weaker of the two, he had surprised Neji.
He wanted to speak to his teammate and tell him how foolish that had been. But he would be lying. It hadn't been foolish, because Lee had almost beaten him. Neji had never let up on his training, and though he saw most opponents as inferior, he'd never taken it easy on them. Lee was not an exception. If anything, Lee's relentless insistence that they were rivals had pushed him to work even harder to prove him wrong. And still he'd been caught off guard, and almost… lucky?
Neji was confused as he helped the med nin escort his teammate. So much so that he walked with them straight into the medical suites, instead of back into the competitors' balcony. The crowd had been roaring for him, and later he realized that it was probably for Lee too. He hadn't even noticed.
In the stands, team 9's sensei was leaking tears in a way that was wholly unfit for an elite jonin. Somehow though, it seemed appropriate, and nobody, not even Kakashi, would tease him about it. Not until the next day at least.
After things settled down, Hinata and Temari were called to the arena and the crowd cheered again. Back to back Hyuga fights would be a treat for them. Ever since the Uchiha had been all but wiped out, the Hyuga had become the crowd favorites in both events and mission requests. Their productivity and gracefulness went a long way with civilians, both royal and otherwise.
Hinata, despite being relatively cut from a different cloth, was ever graceful in her movement to the arena center. Not a hair out of place despite her high speed body flicker to get there, and it earned her a few extra whistles and cheers.
The Kazekage's daughter got equal excitement when she rode her oversized fan down into the arena. The blood of the crowd was roaring hot, and they wanted to see some action.
Hinata smiled as her opponent landed with an extra flourish of wind. She'd worked with Naruto enough before to understand the challenges of facing a Futon user. In the shinobi world, knowing was half the battle. Unfortunately, the gentle fist fighting style was perhaps the most well known style left in the shinobi world. Given the fact that one of the largest clans in the largest village relied on it almost exclusively, she wouldn't' be surprised if Temari knew what was coming. Nonetheless, she was confident.
The proctor smirked at the fact that both Kunoichi seemed ready to fight without a single word exchanged. He raised his hand, and Hinata heard the crowd go silent. The Hyuga heiress vs. the Kazekage's daughter probably made the betting choice difficult for them, she supposed. They were probably too intrigued by what would happen to make much noise. There was a palpable tension in the air as Genma's hand cut through it.
It was Temari who made the first move, unsurprisingly. She was clearly a very tenacious ninja, and seemed eager to prove her worth. That was fine by Hinata, she would bide her time and strike when she could. That was her role after all, and she certainly knew how to play it.
She sidestepped the first big swipe of wind easily enough. She didn't need her famed dojutsu to analyze the attack. Straight forward and big, with blunt force and cutting action. Best to avoid if at all possible. The second gust of wind, and it was only a gust, was also easily sidestepped. Hinata almost scoffed at Temari. She knew what she was capable of, and this was not it. Clearly she was just testing her out. Fine. Two could play at that game.
As she sidestepped the second jutsu, she removed a few kunai from her pouch. Once she was clear of the wind, she smoothly flicked the kunai at the sand ninja, timing it well enough that she wouldn't be able to use a jutsu. Temari closed her fan, and blocked both kunai with the metal base of it. She smirked at Hinata as if that had been easy. Truth be told, it was, she'd barely thrown them, and certainly hadn't expected them to get through.
With Temari's fan closed, she decided it was time to try and close the gap. She sprinted forward activating her Byakugan as she ran. Changing angles and feinting a few times to try and throw off Temari she slowly closed the gap. It wasn't until she was about 10 meters away, when Temari got a lock on her. The sand genin whipped her fan as if it was made from something much lighter than metal.
From this close, dodging was difficult. The wind would get to her fast, and with more force than the first two. She had factored this into her strategy though. Moving to her right, she spun to add momentum and distance. She made it just outside of the justu's reach. The wind flaring her hair, and even the headband around her neck, wildly. There was a problem though. Temari was spinning full circle, fan still splayed widely. This had not been a part of her strategy.
Her intention was to avoid the wind altogether. It was a nasty style of jutsu, and while it was chakra intensive, there was a reason. The Kazekage's daughter could cover a wide section of both ground and air, both cutting and delivering blunt force. As Temari completed her spin, she knew there would be no dodging. The amount of chakra she was charging into the jutsu was much greater than the previous three. This was an all out attack, meant to end the match right then and there.
Hinata's face tightened minutely as her body tensed. She had one true counter to this, and she would have to time it perfectly. She wasn't Neji after all. As Temari's fan let the wind rip, she flexed her chakra. The wind slammed into her, and she let it. Flying back, she flipped back and let her momentum give her distance. She landed on both feet and one hand. She slid 10, 20, almost 30 meters before coming to a surprisingly graceful stop. She stood calmly, revealing herself to be slightly dustier, hair a little unkempt, but with no injuries. Not a single scratch.
Temari tilted her head in confusion, clearly not understanding how she hadn't been cut. Though she might not be as skilled as Nejii, as she herself would readily admit, Hinata worked hard. while she hadn't mastered the main family's rotation jutsu, she had a few of the steps down. Namely the forceful expulsion of chakra from all tenketsu. As the wind had nearly hit her, she forced her chakra out, effectively shielding her from the cutting power of the wind when it struck. She couldn't maintain it the way the proper jutsu required, nor could she stop the attack from moving her altogether. She could, however, direct the cutting power of the jutsu to either side of her. Truth be told it didn't even waste all that much chakra for her to do. It was more taxing than the typical juken strikes, sure, but it was nothing compared to the actual rotation.
Temari may not have known the explanation, but she grunted angrily, and whipped her fan around again, this time sending out an even larger gust of wind. Hinata was able to dodge this one at a full sprint, though the trees behind her didn't fare as well. After three or four more jutsu, Temari's breathing difficulty had increased noticeably, however much she tried to hide it. There were branches and logs and rocks beginning to litter the battle field as she cut up the arena floor.
The Byakugan drained chakra at a high rate, but Hinata had trained with it relentlessly to keep it active for her team. She judged that at this rate she could outlast Temari several fold, as the Kunoichi was clearly burning through chakra with her large scale attacks.
It didn't take long for Temari's plan to be revealed though. She shifted her chakra in a way that gathered rather than cut, and swept the arena floor with her wind. A vortex picked up everything on the arena floor. The dust, rocks, wood shrapnel, ninja tools, everything that had accumulated on the ground from this exam and all the previous events in the arena, was brought into the air.
Temari was already in the air as Hinata watched the debris rise, and soon she realized the plan. The sand ninja's fan splayed wide, and Hinata readied herself. She'd have to use her new jutsu. She had no idea if it would work, but the angle Temari was at provided her with no other options. Temari's fan flashed through the air, sending hundreds of debris turned weapon flying down at her.
Hinata stuck her feet to the ground with chakra, as she had learned what felt like a lifetime ago, but had been less than a year. She'd grown so much since then, and now it was time to prove it.
"Gentle Fist: Protection of the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms." She whispered to herself with a calm force she didn't know she possessed. As the projectiles rained down on her, she began swiping her arms through the air above and around her quickly. She sharpened her chakra to the maximum degree, thinning it out until it was barely visible even to her own eyes. She gained speed, swaying gracefully as she created a lattice of fine, sharp chakra around her. The first of the projectiles rained down on her. The lighter debris, that was more easily flung due to its weight. Bark and dust and leaves. Nothing survived as it came into contact with her chakra, it was all shredded and obliterated. Not even the dust made it passed. Then came the heavier items, rocks and kunai and the like. Each one was caught in her net of chakra and forcefully deflected away. It was as if a steel net had been laid over her.
Five, then ten seconds passed, and the chakra from the attack died down. Temari tried to use the opportunity to attack, and rode gravity and her fan down at Hinata. The Hyuga leapt well clear of the way, and they both squared off once more. Hinata was sweating. Entirely unfit for a Hyuga heiress, and yet she felt so alive she couldn't be bothered to care. She took deep breaths, trying to calm her breathing and heart. Unlike the first shield she had made, that technique used up quite a bit of chakra. The coverage wasn't as extensive as the rotation, but the chakra output was constant and fast.
Temari was much the same, breathing heavy from using so much chakra. Her gamble hadn't paid off in the way that she had hoped, but at least the Hyuga looked almost as tired as her now.
In typical form, Hinata stood in a ready stance, and waited. As strong as she'd become, she was still never the aggressor. She would defend with all she had until there was an opening or slip up. That was the way she was. On the other hand, Temari was more than happy to attack first, and had an idea. She couldn't afford another attack like her last one, but then, Hinata couldn't afford another defense. She reached back with her fan, getting ready to launch another strong gust, and slipped a hand into her pouch discreetly. The byakugan would be able to see, but it was still good to practice deception as a ninja. As she swung around, she flicked an entire brace of kunai up in front of her. Her fan swept across, the wind sending the kuani speeding at her opponent, and she smirked. Not enough chakra for her eight trigrams defense, and not enough power in her small chakra shield to stop kunai.
Hinata knew she was in trouble the moment she saw Temari grab the kunai. There was nowhere for her to go though. She'd spent most of her life hiding, whether it be behind actual objects, or her own shyness. Now, before almost the entire village, she wasn't able to do that. She would have to stand there and be Hinata Hyuga, the failure of Konoha's greatest clan. She couldn't use her protection of the eight trigrams again. She couldn't use the first step of Heavenly Rotation, it wasn't strong enough to stop kunai. She wouldn't be able to block that many with her strikes. None of her Hyuga techniques would work, and yet, she smirked ever so slightly. It would be fitting if the failure of the Hyuga would win using a non clan technique. Even before she thought it, her hands were racing through signs at a speed born from hours of training and instinct. As her chakra finished moulding, she knelt and slammed her hands into the ground. She pushed her chakra out, concentrating it into a precise area, and willed it to move and strengthen.
A wall of earth shot up. It wasn't massive, or even all that impressive. About 6 or 7 feet wide, and only about a head taller than her. The kunai struck and dug into the wall, but it was thick enough to withstand them easily enough. As the wind from the justu smashed into the wall, the edges crumbled, but she was okay with that. She'd concentrated most of the chakra into the part that would actually protect her. The rest was pointless, as far as she was concerned. The wind died down. The wall held.
The crowd was absolutely silent. Nobody had ever seen a Hyuga use a technique that wasn't developed by the clan. Certainly nobody had ever considered that the daughter of the clan head would do it in the Chunin Exams of all places. There was a heartbeat of silence, then two.
"HELL YEAH HINATA!" A voice shouted with pride, cutting through the silence. "I TOLD YOU SHE WAS BADASS, GRANNY!"
Hinata didn't have time to bask in her teammates pride though, she had more work to do. More hand signs were used, and then she rushed out from behind the wall.
Temari, for her part, wasn't too caught off guard by the wall. Surprised, sure, but she'd fought earth users before. When Hinata rushed out, she had enough time to use another jutsu. She whipped her fan viciously, having grown tired of the fight. The concentrated burst of wind was, once again, sidestepped graciously. Temari wasn't done though, and channeled chakra into her shoulder and arm, and whipped the fan back once more. There wouldn't be time to dodge this one though.
She was right. The wind collided with Hinata, and ripped her apart into… nothing. She'd just disappeared, almost like an illusion. Temari's eyes widened, but she was out of time. The blunt end of a kunai slammed into her temple in a way that could only be described as gentle, but precise, and she was unconscious. She'd fallen for a simple academy level clone.
Hinata stood there, over Temari's unconscious body. She didn't gloat or celebrate, she just looked at the proctor, though her timidness was gone. She was calm, sure. Quiet even. It was because she was confident though, not because she wasn't. When she'd used the mudwall, something inside of her had changed. There was no going back now. Her family would probably disown her, and she'd known that. She didn't care.
The proctor stared at her silently, until she coughed politely in her hand. That seemed to startle Genma out of his slight daze, and he declared her the winner. She immediately bent down with a glowing green hand, and checked over Temari. What an odd Hyuga, Genma thought. Then again, she was teammates with Naruto, and that set of hand seals for the mudwall had Kakashi written all over it. Weird was to be expected in that case.
Hinata abandoned the pretense that she was unnaturally graceful, and ran and leapt onto the wall, she stumbled ever so slightly as she ran up it until she made it to the competitors balcony. Sasuke rested a hand on her shoulder with a grin, and slowly, the sounds of the arena stands began to filter their way to her ears. It was loud. Very loud. Amongst all the cheering though, somehow, she could hear a certain blond knucklehead shouting his voice away. She smiled, and blushed.
Longish authors note ahead, so I just want to say thank you to everybody who left a comment, especially the kind ones. It's a huge motivation to keep writing, and definitely got me through this difficult chapter. I appreciate it!
Okay, this definitely is not my best writing, it's clunky for sure, and probably has some small errors throughout, so congratulations if you made it all the way through. If there is anything too glaring let me know. This is the plot I wanted but it just wasn't flowing while I was trying to write it. Hopefully struggling through it will help me become a better writer though!
Obviously knowing who his opponent was before he shows up, and not needing the wow factor since it's his teammate, Lee shows up to his fight without his weights on, hence why you don't see him drop them. He clearly respects Neji's abilities too much to keep them on, and Neji obviously already knows about them. It's also pretty clear in the anime at least, that Neji didn't know Lee was capable of opening so many gates. He probably knows what they are from Lee using the primary lotus and having Gai as a sensei for at least a year, as well as having the Byakugan, he just didn't expect his teammate to be able to open three of them.
Perhaps I was a tough dramatic saying nobody had ever seen any Hyuga use a non clan technique but to my knowledge we're never shown it, so it didn't feel all that wrong to say.
Also, this chapter didn't have much Naruto because I wanted to feature some of the character development that's been going on. Obviously Hinata has been shown growing but this was a big moment for her. I also felt like Lee got robbed not being the one to get to show Neji the error of his ways, though it won't be quite so easy as one fight for that to happen, Neji is stubborn.
Hopefully I didn't butcher Temari too much, but to be honest I wasn't really focused on her. Obviously nothing has changed with her yet in this world, so she would be essentially the exact same in the original show, I just gave her the technique to lift all that debris up, which I'm pretty sure she'd be able to do anyway.
Next chapter will probably summarize the remaining fights until it's Sasuke's turn, so I'm sorry if any of you were looking forward to any of the other characters getting to fight, the arc is just going to take forever if I write out every fight.