I found the omake fantastic.
Seeing Red [Naruto]
- Thread starter Tekomandor
- Start date
- Location
- The Surface Of A Hostile Planet
Almost certainly not, in all honesty. Weird time shit is fun to work with in a fic/omake, but doesn't translate that well to a quest setting.
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No, that was a limitation of the old seal.
The one that had ~50 chakra or so.
Furthermore, high-rank Sharingan can see chakra through human skin(Sasuke v Deidara), which allows her to map human chakra systems.
Combine that with the fact that she has chuunin-level schooling and jounin-level intelligence, and I don't see why you think she'd be bottlenecked.
Especially since she is capable and willing to perform human trials on Shadow Clones.
All 3(or 4, for this AU)operators that we know are S-class and Konoha trained.
And there is zero evidence of such seals existing outside Konoha.
Jinchuuriki seals are not personal chakra storage seals.
They are not designed to collect and release the chakra of the person making them, like Final Hurricane and Tsunade's Yin Seal are.
They are containment seals, designed to constrain and limit sapient chakra entities while drawing on their power; their design requirements are very different.Furthermore, the entities they are confining may be composed of chakra, but they are material entities, with volume and mass; this was illustrated by the Gold and Silver Brothers eating the Kyuubi's flesh.
You argue that jinchuuriki seals are chakra storage seals and simultaneously assert that you can't judge if they're an advanced concept? Your positions are mutually exclusive of each other.
C'mon man; make up your mind.
My assertion, in the event that you need it spelled out, is that chakra storage seals are an advanced application of a simple concept.
Just like nuclear reactors are an advanced application of the heat engine.
-Tsunade's Transformation technique is the same way; it's hooked into her seal and runs automatically as long as there is power.
-No, the Cursed Seal of Heaven is in no way comparable.
Sasuke lost a wing of his CS2 form and it was never replaced until Itachi destroyed the whole thing; we see him fighting Deidara with only one wing, and improvising with snakes. Kimimaro literally died while in Level 2 Cursed Seal form.
Tsunade remaining alive and conscious despite being bisected and her lower half being separated from her.
1) He was employing psychological warfare.
Trying to freak Kakashi out and get him to make a mistake. Established tactic in the Narutoverse during prolonged combat.
Against a peer opponent, you use the skills you believe will be effective, not necessarily the ones that brought you notoriety.
Sarutobi beat Orochimaru with a suicide technique that Minato worked up, for example.
2)Dude, this is what you said:
To which I replied:
You indeed seem to be suggesting that we are being capped by skill prereqs in other fields.
Which is not necessarily supported in Naruto; while Sasori may have needed medical knowledge to go full Raiden, there is no evidence Deidara did despite installing mouths in his hands and chest. And Orochimaru, Mr Body Modifications R Us, is not a medic-nin, just a scientist.
3)The GM has canonized multiple omakes that establish this.
Start with the Teams omake by @Redshirt Army. Continue with the one where Ino asks Hisana a question.
Furthermore, as far back as the Academy graduation exams in 2.5, Chuunin Umino Iruka did not recognize the receptor seals on the shuriken she used to perform her throwing trick shot.
Hisana(or at least the SI portion) literally did not know chakra existed till roughly 4 years ago.Her previous life classes in middle school have zero application to chakra mechanics or subspace vacoule storage.
And neither her previous life as a transmigrant nor her Narutoverse identity as a civilian had any experience with chakra manipulation.
She has gone from complete ignorance to specialist knowledge in four years, largely self taught. While learning other things.
And given the nature of fuinjutsu in this AU, she had to invent her own language for actually writing said seals on top of everything.
You basically have a tween performing original research to come up with what she did.
Senju Tsunade didn't come up with her chakra storage seal until she was an adult jounin and left the village.
At the time Nawaki died, she didn't have it. She didn't invent it immediately after getting thrashed by Hanzo.
Calling Hisana's shit the result of just hard work is a severe misapprehension of just what hard work is capable of.
Which is actually wrong.
We have fewer benchmarks for kenjutsu in Naruto canon than we do for chakra storage seals.
And prior to cracking Shisui's Shunshin, there were literally no speedfeats to compare our speed with; we just knew people were fast, with no idea how they compared to others.
On the other hand?
We have explicit textev that every single person with a chakra storage seal, or a seal with chakra storage capabilities, was either an S-class nin(Sakura, Tsunade and their Yin seals) or had it installed by an S-class nin(Orochimaru and his Curse Seals). We have Shizune, Tsunade's elder apprentice, outright stating that the Yin seal was beyond her ability.
And there remains no evidence, in canon or this AU, of anyone else below that level of capability cracking that particular trick.
That assumes that 8-year old Academy cadets are allowed to wear sunglasses in the classroom without specific medical indication.
And that's ignoring the fact that it happened on literally her first day of school, when she had no benchmark for the capability of the chunnin in charge of their various classes, or what to expect in form of permissions and stuff.
Now I could probably have spent this time more productively writing an omake, or reading. But I felt obliged to make the effort.
I may not have the time to reply to any reply though, so forgive me if I don't.
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azoicennead
Overly-Affectionate Zombie Squad
- Pronouns
- He/They
As I said, it may have been me misinterpreting the information.
Isn't Konoha basically the only group shown using seals, aside from jinchuuriki? And even then, there are only a few who actually specialize in it. And even someone who doesn't specialize in it (Tsunade) has a chakra storage seal. Yes, she's
Also, you're right, jinchuuriki seals aren't personal chakra storage seals. They're chakra storage seals that have additional components to contain the bijuu. The first stage of containing something is to store it. It's an advanced application of the concept.
And my response is that you've only provided evidence that they're not used, not evidence that they're advanced from the start. In fact, we have evidence that they can be developed by an impressive Academy student.
And what do you think would happen if a highly skilled medic were to use one of the Cursed Seals? Because I am also saying that techniques like Creation Rebirth aren't part of Tsunade's seal, but are how she applies the chakra from the seal.
1) A psychological advantage is inferior to either surprise or exhaustion (from being on guard to avoid surprise).
3) I see, so "spends 10 hours a day training" and "why do you push yourself so hard?" are relevant... how? I mean, aside from establishing that Hisana pushes herself harder than anyone outside her team, and what that means. Same with the chakra receptor thing; I understand that fuinjutsu is obscure, but it's not really part of what we're discussing.
I addressed it above within the post:
Hard work with an excellent support base, including at least two tutors, on a base of superior academic knowledge (from our world, by which I mean shit like math, not chakra-related stuff) and probably-superior study skills to her peers in this universe, with the ability to acquire perfect, photographic memories of anything visual.
Yeah, it's a lot more than just hard work, but hard work is the core of it.
You're right, we have fewer comparison points for kenjutsu and speed. We do, however, have a nice little chart that tells us what rank of ninja is expected to have our level of skill. Unique/nearly unique techniques are really hard to use as a measure, on the other hand, because how are we supposed to tell if
"Forgotten again..."
We might want to cut this down to core points. It's getting rather unwieldy.
- Location
- Australia
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Hey guys, just a status update: I got kinda busy dealing with some personal stuff. Update will be out tonight/early morning my time.
Canon Omake: Clone
- Location
- The Surface Of A Hostile Planet
Clone
There was, she thought, a certain beauty to the Shadow Clone jutsu that she wasn't certain Naruto fully appreciated. Oh, to be sure, he had advanced it to levels she couldn't dream of, and his usage of it was so constant as to be almost reflexive. There were undoubtedly depths to the jutsu that she hadn't even scratched the surface of, which he knew better than anyone.
Yet, as she watched Hisana - the real, original, Hisana, pout and walk away... this heady feeling wasn't something he felt, she thought.
Nothing could hurt her - so long as Hisana Prime was intact, her memories and experiences would be preserved, no matter what happened. And, she considered (her smile growing wider), she didn't have to worry about bullshit chakra gods or evil organizations or whatever - she'd long have dissipated by then. No, she had some paperwork and administrative duties, and some sealing practice, and that was it. And if something did ambush the real Hisana... well, she was tough. She'd just trust herself to handle it.
She'd felt this rush of euphoria from her own shadow clones' memories in the past before, and found it mildly annoying at the time. Now, though, experiencing it from the other end, in the moment? This was, perhaps not freedom, but a tiny, tantalizing glimpse of the existence she could have had, if the future was not so mind-numbingly vast and terrifyingly imminent. As it was... Hisana would not, could not, let that future sweep her up in its tide without preparing for it, and her clone could only look at her with pity for having to face it.
And then, with an air of deep satisfaction at the privilege, she let her mind drift away from the future to more pleasant things, like the tenancy reports from her district, as she made her way down the moderately busy streets. A few of the civilians turned to wave at her as she went by, which she returned - even stopping to chat for a bit with old lady Nanako when she greeted her. She felt loose, and giddy, despite the cloudy sky above. Some interaction with the new residents would be good for maintaining relations with the new Uchiha clan once it got established, she rationalized, and a few extra memories of casual conversation from her would do Hisana some good.
Still, even her good mood had its limits, and after a few minutes, she politely excused herself, and continued towards the office of the accountant she'd hired to keep track of the details she couldn't, along with his own assistants. It was a stately building, one of the new constructions that maintained some of the old Uchiha stylings while letting the residents of the district feel like they were living somewhere other than a mass grave.
Shiro wasn't the first, her original selection (more a volunteer, for the aid the Uchiha had given him in times past) having retired a few years ago, but he'd come highly recommended from both his predecessor and the Hokage. Hisana still half-suspected him of reporting to Danzo, and personally checked a random portion of his reports for accuracy from time to time, but at this point, it was more on principle than anything else.
The man looked up as she quietly knocked beside his door, and dipped his head into a respectful bow. "A pleasure to see you once again, Uchiha-sama." She'd requested a less stiff form of address a few times, but he'd hear nothing of it - she was the Lady Uchiha, and to hear him say it, to treat her any less formally than any other clan head would be an insult to her station.
Neither of her original sets of memories had prepared her for this sort of responsibility, but she was the one in the best position to make the new Uchiha clan actually mean something, someday. Sasuke had been... well, flatly incapable, and while she could have simply handed control over the whole thing to the Hokage... being a recognized, active clan head, even of a clan as drastically diminished as the Uchiha, would open doors to her and Sasuke that would otherwise remain closed. So Hisana had once again buckled down, and forced herself to learn the skills that were needed.
She'd originally been amused when she realized that the old Police Force had ruthlessly exploited the Sharingan for paperwork organization, which had lasted right up until she had to do serious bookkeeping of her own. Now, she was just consistently amazed that people without perfect photographic memories were able to keep this sort of thing going at all - the copy eyes just made it so much easier. Shiro was, of course, still better at it then her - memorizing documents only did so much to make up for decades of honed mental skill - but then, that was why she'd hired him in the first place.
She kept smiling, as he expertly flipped through his files to the Uchiha accounts - with her mood as positive as it was, it was impossible to be anything other than content with letting him demonstrate his area of expertise. "Mmm. Most payments are in order, three are left outstanding, I'll note those down for you." Three? A bit above average, but nothing too concerning. Hisana (or another shadow clone, knowing herself) would speak with those tenants later. She nodded for him to continue. "No new news from the administration, but it's been two months since-"
"Since the last groundskeeping sweep, right. It didn't look bad at all on the way in, we've had decent weather. Pencil that in for, hmm, starting the 20th, then? I'll release the funds for the D-Ranks." He flipped through a few more pages, then presented her with the forms to sign, and she let out a deep breath as she slowly began to unwind. Just a few hours paperwork, and maybe sketching out a few fuinjutsu ideas if she had the time? Pure bliss.
AN: Yes, this is a hideously unhealthy coping mechanism, why do you ask?
There was, she thought, a certain beauty to the Shadow Clone jutsu that she wasn't certain Naruto fully appreciated. Oh, to be sure, he had advanced it to levels she couldn't dream of, and his usage of it was so constant as to be almost reflexive. There were undoubtedly depths to the jutsu that she hadn't even scratched the surface of, which he knew better than anyone.
Yet, as she watched Hisana - the real, original, Hisana, pout and walk away... this heady feeling wasn't something he felt, she thought.
Nothing could hurt her - so long as Hisana Prime was intact, her memories and experiences would be preserved, no matter what happened. And, she considered (her smile growing wider), she didn't have to worry about bullshit chakra gods or evil organizations or whatever - she'd long have dissipated by then. No, she had some paperwork and administrative duties, and some sealing practice, and that was it. And if something did ambush the real Hisana... well, she was tough. She'd just trust herself to handle it.
She'd felt this rush of euphoria from her own shadow clones' memories in the past before, and found it mildly annoying at the time. Now, though, experiencing it from the other end, in the moment? This was, perhaps not freedom, but a tiny, tantalizing glimpse of the existence she could have had, if the future was not so mind-numbingly vast and terrifyingly imminent. As it was... Hisana would not, could not, let that future sweep her up in its tide without preparing for it, and her clone could only look at her with pity for having to face it.
And then, with an air of deep satisfaction at the privilege, she let her mind drift away from the future to more pleasant things, like the tenancy reports from her district, as she made her way down the moderately busy streets. A few of the civilians turned to wave at her as she went by, which she returned - even stopping to chat for a bit with old lady Nanako when she greeted her. She felt loose, and giddy, despite the cloudy sky above. Some interaction with the new residents would be good for maintaining relations with the new Uchiha clan once it got established, she rationalized, and a few extra memories of casual conversation from her would do Hisana some good.
Still, even her good mood had its limits, and after a few minutes, she politely excused herself, and continued towards the office of the accountant she'd hired to keep track of the details she couldn't, along with his own assistants. It was a stately building, one of the new constructions that maintained some of the old Uchiha stylings while letting the residents of the district feel like they were living somewhere other than a mass grave.
Shiro wasn't the first, her original selection (more a volunteer, for the aid the Uchiha had given him in times past) having retired a few years ago, but he'd come highly recommended from both his predecessor and the Hokage. Hisana still half-suspected him of reporting to Danzo, and personally checked a random portion of his reports for accuracy from time to time, but at this point, it was more on principle than anything else.
The man looked up as she quietly knocked beside his door, and dipped his head into a respectful bow. "A pleasure to see you once again, Uchiha-sama." She'd requested a less stiff form of address a few times, but he'd hear nothing of it - she was the Lady Uchiha, and to hear him say it, to treat her any less formally than any other clan head would be an insult to her station.
Neither of her original sets of memories had prepared her for this sort of responsibility, but she was the one in the best position to make the new Uchiha clan actually mean something, someday. Sasuke had been... well, flatly incapable, and while she could have simply handed control over the whole thing to the Hokage... being a recognized, active clan head, even of a clan as drastically diminished as the Uchiha, would open doors to her and Sasuke that would otherwise remain closed. So Hisana had once again buckled down, and forced herself to learn the skills that were needed.
She'd originally been amused when she realized that the old Police Force had ruthlessly exploited the Sharingan for paperwork organization, which had lasted right up until she had to do serious bookkeeping of her own. Now, she was just consistently amazed that people without perfect photographic memories were able to keep this sort of thing going at all - the copy eyes just made it so much easier. Shiro was, of course, still better at it then her - memorizing documents only did so much to make up for decades of honed mental skill - but then, that was why she'd hired him in the first place.
She kept smiling, as he expertly flipped through his files to the Uchiha accounts - with her mood as positive as it was, it was impossible to be anything other than content with letting him demonstrate his area of expertise. "Mmm. Most payments are in order, three are left outstanding, I'll note those down for you." Three? A bit above average, but nothing too concerning. Hisana (or another shadow clone, knowing herself) would speak with those tenants later. She nodded for him to continue. "No new news from the administration, but it's been two months since-"
"Since the last groundskeeping sweep, right. It didn't look bad at all on the way in, we've had decent weather. Pencil that in for, hmm, starting the 20th, then? I'll release the funds for the D-Ranks." He flipped through a few more pages, then presented her with the forms to sign, and she let out a deep breath as she slowly began to unwind. Just a few hours paperwork, and maybe sketching out a few fuinjutsu ideas if she had the time? Pure bliss.
AN: Yes, this is a hideously unhealthy coping mechanism, why do you ask?
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This is gorgeous work, and explores an angle to being a survivor/clan head of a major clan that didn't even occur to me.
Of course the property and assets are going to need management.
Well done!
Should be office.
With it's own staff.
Someone basically acting as her 2inC/seneschal for the Uchha estate can afford one, and would need one to store financial documents and a place for enquiries to visit; with both Hisana and Sasuke as active shinobi who might be out of the village at any given time, he'd be the person that any complaints or issues would immediately come to.
Hell, given the size of what the Uchiha estate must be, from real estate to investments, she(and Sasuke) might well be his only client.
Can probably afford to be, too.
- Location
- Malaysia
First time someone wrote a character's coping mechanism by doing paperwork.
- Location
- The Surface Of A Hostile Planet
Probably more accurate, yes. I was considering "free lodging in a gorgeous mansion" as one of the job perks Hisana was glossing over, though.
Hmm...
I'll revise the phrasing a bit.
- Location
- Everywhere and Nowhere
Cool quest
Noncanon Omake: Match Point
- Location
- The Surface Of A Hostile Planet
Match Point
As the mumbling intensified, Hisana gave the Waterfall team a closer look. They hadn't made it this far in canon, if she remembered right, but the prompt decision on the part of their apparent leader to immediately forfeit against Gaara spoke well of their intelligence, in her opinion. She'd have to keep an eye on the other two.
The proctor (Hayate Gekko, she recalled) shuffled a few notes around, before the screen above lit up with the next pair. "Hyuuga Neji versus Uchiha Hisana." That... hmm. That was interesting. She'd have to unpack the implications of that change later, carefully. The choices were almost certainly not actually random, after all. Right now, she needed to focus.
She kept her Sharingan active as she looked over to Gai's team, frantically considering her options, both for the fight ahead, and for the broader future. If Neji kept his fatalistic outlook... well, it'd be a negative change, one that could snowball if she didn't control the consequences. But she, with her reputation and clan, wasn't the one who could give him that lesson, was she?
More immediately, bladework in general would be... iffy. The juuken could disrupt chakra flow techniques if performed correctly, and getting into touch range with Neji would be an ordeal all its own. If she put him down fast at the start, her outlook would be much better... but she wasn't about to use her most dangerous techniques on a fellow Leaf ninja. So, a probing strike, followed by a ranged ninjutsu outline, then.
She wouldn't use her newest seal. Besides the desire to keep it quiet until she could more fully integrate it into her style... Using chakra network alteration hooked into the brain, without much experience, while fighting a Hyuuga? That sounded like a fantastic recipe for brain damage if anything went wrong.
Neji himself kept his eyes on her as they both made their way down the stairs. It wasn't the Byakugan, yet, but he was undoubtedly considering his approach to the fight as well. "Ya can do it, sis! Kick his freaky white-eyed ass!" She carefully controlled the smile that wanted to emerge in response to Naruto's comments, especially when she noticed the tiny twitch it had elicited from her opponent.
As they approached each other, Neji addressed her directly. "I've been curious to see your fighting style, Uchiha. You're spoken of as a rising star... but when two people clash, only one of them is destined to succeed." His tone was such that his voice carried across the room. "Tell me, what can those eyes of yours see?"
She frowned. A bit overblown, in her opinion. Maybe he was playing it up for the proctors? Or did he just really like hearing himself talk that much? She folded up her sunglasses, sealing them away into her wrist, then met his gaze, her Sharingan now visible. "I don't know if I have a destiny, Hyuuga Neji, but I certainly don't intend to lose."
Seeing her bloodline already active, he took up his activation position himself, a practiced burst of chakra awakening a wave of activity within his own eyes. "You do have a destiny. There is no changing of ones fundamental nature, and those with a given nature must act as that nature demands, no matter how hard they try. There is only one path to history. What happens, must have happened."
Except, clearly not. History had been changed. More then that, she had to believe that she could do something - that people other than Naruto and Sasuke could influence the world. If they couldn't... what meaning was there, in this life. Her voice was low as she spoke. "I was an outcast from the Uchiha clan, once. The lowest of the low. Has my fate not changed since then, Hyuuga?"
Neji smirked. "Perhaps you were trash, and still are trash, then, Hisana." And that was a very deliberate lack of use of her clan name. "But I believe that it was your destiny that led you to where you are now, Uchiha-sama. You were always blessed with a fundamental nature that would bring you to greatness. And with the downfall of the Uchiha, your destiny was fulfilled."
She shook, a bit, not certain if it was from suppressed laughter or suppressed rage. She was the one that Neji thought had a destiny? He couldn't have been more wrong if he tried. She supposed she shouldn't be surprised that in his position, something ugly inside him found appeal in the idea of a clan being wiped out, leaving someone from a lesser branch in charge. But... ah, yes, it was definitely suppressed rage. "...My mother's death at the hands of a madman was not destiny."
Black Zetsu, Madara, Danzo, Itachi... what had happened during the massacre was not inevitable, especially since it seemed that history had already been altered before she "arrived". She would not let the murderers hide behind the lens of destiny, when she knew that things could be changed - that she had changed things herself, with her own hands. It was the result of deliberate enemy action, hundreds or thousands of years in the making, and she would treat it, and them, as such.
Neji took up a juuken stance, a smirk on his lips. "The strength of your conviction gives you power... but it does not make you right." Hisana clenched and unclenched her fist, taking up anopening Iaido stance as she gritted her teeth, fingers loosely trailing over her sword's grip.
Hayate lowered his arm.
In the moment between heartbeats, she shot forward, wooden blade snapping out to full extension as she poured on all her speed, moving in a slight arc from Neji's left. His eyes didn't track her, but then, they didn't need to. If he regularly sparred against Lee, she had little doubt he had experience with this level of speed. A moment of concentration, as the blade entered a slight upward arc, towards his neck. Just as she began considering pulling back on the strike, so she didn't actually kill him if it connected, he made his move.
Her Sharingan outlined it before it happened, a slight, delicate movement of his hands, and his left palm flared as a slippery coating of chakra came into being, deflecting the blade's angle. Physical protection through pure emitted chakra? Perhaps a precursor to the Kaiten, then? Readjusting the strike at this late stage would leave her open to other attacks, so she worked with the movement, letting her sword pass over Neji's head, while twisting her body to avoid his questing right hand. She continued the spin, turning the rotation into a brutal two-handed downward slash as the sword came at Neji a second time, but this time, she carefully shaped unnatured chakra into the strike.
On a non-conductive blade, like her training sword, the shape manipulation technique was very difficult and chakra intensive - but she didn't need it to last for long. More importantly, unlike her Wind based techniques, unnatured chakra shaping didn't have to be sharp if she didn't want it to be. Neji's eyes grew much wider, and she caught the moment he debated dodging instead of blocking. He could try, of course, but in his current position, it would be very difficult to execute a dodge that wasn't vulnerable to the correct shape extension of her blade. He reached the same conclusion, instead bringing his right arm upwards, shaping a careful surge of chakra, and this was the speed he used to execute sixty-four strikes in an instant-!
The bang resounded throughout the stadium, the blood-red roiling chakra surrounding her blade slamming into the thin field of blue surrounding Neji's hand, and sending both their outfits wildly flapping in the resulting breeze. Beneath Neji's feet, cracks formed in the ground, much of the force of the blow transmitting through his body. For an instant, the tableau held, both of them trying to match the chakra output of the other-
And her chakra shaping broke, bits of red wisping away as she flinched from the backlash of the technique, while the base wood beneath slammed into Neji's hand with a muted crack, burnt out veins of black scorched into the blade making it look like it had survived a lighting strike.
But for however much her eye failed to match his in the precision she perceived chakra with, it made up for it in the forewarning it gave her. Suddenly she was the one on the defensive, barely managing to re-establish the technique and interpose her blade even with the Sharingan active, as Neji began a lightning-fast series of jabs with his left hand. And only his left hand. Snatching glimpses of his other hand between blows, Hisana felt certain she'd broken at least a few fingers there with her opening strike. Even one handed, though, the juuken wasn't called the world's deadliest taijutsu style for nothing - and Neji was scary good at it.
Parry, twist, interpose, parry, parry, parry, duck, flip away... She only needed a split second's opening to get range, but Neji was determined not to give it to her. She was bleeding chakra to maintain the technique, sparks flying with every hit, but he just kept coming. A veritable avalanche of blows, each flowing into the next with a fluidity that spoke of intensely refined skill. And then, finally, an opening-!
She jumped back, and as he reached out for her, she interposed her blade one last time... but this wasn't like the earlier probing strikes. His chakra swirled around his arm, concentrated enough that even those without a visual bloodline could see it, and he practically drilled it into her blade. He hadn't just been pushing her back one handed - he'd been able to precisely analyse and counter the chakra flow of her technique at the same time!? That was seriously impressive, and she'd have been a lot more inclined to admire the crushing skill it implied if it wasn't her on the receiving end. As it was...
The chakra flare of clashing techniques burst into existence once more, red and blue light leaving strange, rippling patterns of purple dancing across the arena's walls. Once again, her technique faltered, sending a spike of pain into her mind. Unlike last time, Neji's chakra aura remained intact, and when his hand reached the already weakened wood of her practice blade, it practically exploded, sending a cloud of splinters careening in all directions.
Forewarned by her Sharingan, she abandoned the broken blade immediately... but she'd been lulled off guard. Neji exploited the opening, the maimed right hand she'd disregarded reaching up and around, and ever so gently brushing against her main hand. She winced as the worst pins and needles she'd had in any of her lives made their way up her arm, but forced herself to complete the launch jutsu through the pain with her off hand. Stupid, stupid, stupid! The twisted, swollen mess that was his hand would be useless for more conventional combat, but as long as the chakra coils were intact, physical injuries didn't matter at all for the Juuken.
As she completed her midair flip, coming to rest on the arena's wall and clinging to it with her feet, she wrung her hand out, taking stock. He hadn't managed to seal chakra flow through it completely, so partial functionality was still possible. She could still move it, at least. Handseals with it would be all but impossible, though, shutting down her more involved jutsu, and her grip with it would be weakened for swordplay. The pain was... intense, but she could still think over it. Hardly insurmountable.
Neji was coming perilously close to her wall, so she needed to buy herself some additional distance. With a thought, a brace of kunai sprouted in her left hand, each of the five weapons having a primed explosive tag wrapped around the handle. Chakra strings were pointless right now, when Neji could see them plain as day, so in lieu of anything fancy, she simply hurled them downwards, bracketing his position and forcing the Hyuuga to back off, as she used the opening to cast the Raven's Wings technique yet again.
As she passed over him she twisted in midair, keeping him in her sight as her primary blade, a plainly lethal length of chakra conductive metal, appeared in her hands. His eyes narrowed - this was an escalation of force, and with her defaulting to this weapon, the onus to keep the spar non-lethal despite the weapon was now lay squarely with Hisana. On the other hand, if she'd been using this blade from the start, his prior strategy would never have worked...
Without the luxury of time to clip it to her side, she simply swung the blade, adjusting for her reversed grip. The sheathe was launched back towards where she'd come from, soaring well over Neji's head. She landed on her feet, skidding backwards to a stop, grimacing slightly as she used her injured hand to maintain stability. They both paused, taking stock of the changed situation.
Neji spoke first. "Impressive. You managed to escape my range, and you started reacting to my final attack before it even occured. But I was able to surprise you nontheless. It doesn't matter how well you can see, after all, if you aren't looking in the right place. And unlike you, I see everything at once. Now that I've confirmed your vulnerability... you won't escape again."
Hisana momentarily flared the Razor Wind across her blade, making a careless swipe that sheared straight through the concrete floor with a whine, leaving a crescent imprint that was all but mathematically perfect. "Exploiting my weapon's weakness was clever... but using a dull blade was a handicap I was using specifically for the purposes of a spar, for my opponent's benefit. I wouldn't recommend you try blocking my blows this time, Hyuuga."
His eyes narrowed, taking in her mirrored stance, before he dashed forward. She'd unsheathed her sword for reasons other than making a statement, though. There weren't many ranged jutsu she was practiced in that didn't require hand seals. There was one, however, that she was quite proficient in. "Wind Release: Decapitating Blade Malestrom!"
The Decapitating Blade had limitations that made it generally unsuitable as a primary attack jutsu, being far better used to constrict an opponent's options before approaching in melee. However, with sufficient speed...
There was no opponent. There was no crowd. She poured every ounce of training she'd managed to gather into her every motion, and went through the first kata of Iaido at a blistering pace. That every motion needed to be reversed was irrelevant - with the Sharingan, training for ambidextrous took significantly less effort.
A dozen slashes in an instant.
A moment too short to call a heartbeat, and she was far to Neji's left. The second kata. Two dozen cuts.
The heartbeat completes.
Behind him, slightly to his right. Three dozen perfect strikes.
She opened her eyes, just as he closed his.
She harboured no illusions - if he simply accepted a glancing hit, and came at her directly, with her being winded after her last display, he'd reach her in moments. The only thing keeping him at the center of the whirlwind she'd created - for now - was his own pride. He still felt he could take the worst of her assault without a scratch, if he commited himself fully to dodging, and wanted to rub her face in it. And the scary part was... he wasn't wrong.
The first blades from her first kata were just reaching him. With her Sharingan, she could see the chakra flowing through his eyes, and through his brain. The crescendo of clashing winds fell directly within his area of divination. Within his mind, he would be able to calculate the precise path each chakra construct would take, and if even a single path existed that would lead him to safety, he would be able to see it.
Neji opened his eyes, and with perfect fluidity of motion, entered a stance low to the ground, his mangled right hand being forced into position despite the pain it must cause him. He'd commited.
Hisana fought very, very hard to ensure her chakra spike from mirth didn't give the game away.
Neji's motions were perfect, and only with her Sharingan could Hisana peer beneath his bored exterior to see the absolute concentration and stress he was under, his internal chakra fluctuating from moment to moment. The first blades of wind, he weaved between entirely, with the air of not deigning to give them his attention, and they passed by without so much as ruffling his hair.
Then the first set of crossfire reached him, and while he still avoided each of her strikes, the complex series of ducks, rolls, and aerial twists it took to do so shattered his facade of effortlessness. And then the final grouping of slashes fell upon him, and he was forced to deflect the blows directly. The juuken could shatter pure chakra forces - like shaped blades of wind - at a touch, but to call it mentally draining and chakra exhaustive would be an understatement. In that split second of frantic dodging and parrying, Neji spent nearly as much chakra as Hisana had put into shaping the blades in the first place.
But he did it. As the final attack was shunted up into the ceiling, and the dust settled from the multitude of lines her attack had scored into the arena's surroundings, Neji stood in a picture perfect stance, eyes shut. In the end, neither of them had fully succeeded. Neji's skin remained unbroken, not a single of her blades having cut him. Yet, the trailing edge of his outfit had a cleft in it, a gash that showed where one of her strikes had come far too close for comfort.
And then his eyes opened as wide as Hisana had ever seen them, as he finally noticed her expression.
Neji claimed that his eyes could see everything, and that was true to a certain extent. Following the style of the Eight Trigrams, nothing within his vicinity could escape his divination. But... to calculate and execute such a display as he just had, was an absurd feat of concentration and unwavering attention. His vision was unlimited, but his attention was not.
And so he now tilted his head upward, as three braids of chakra stretched from Hisana's left hand in a long arc high above the stadium, her sword transferred to her weaker hand. The first shuriken slammed into the ground next to him at massive speed, yet instead of imbedding itself into the concrete, it impossibly 'skipped' upwards, rebounding back up towards his face. Neji leaned backwards so far his head nearly hit the ground, his right hand - now black and purple from the abuse it had been subjected to - skimming across Hisana's chakra string and severing it.
"Tricks like that..." He did a one-handed spring backwards, as the second shuriken homed in on him, and with a scissoring motion, swiped his feet through the air behind it, cutting its guidance just in time for it to barely miss his torso. "Are useless!" It was pure bravado. Both of them had spent a great quantity of chakra in the fight, and neither of them were untouched by that expense.
Hisana didn't deign to respond. With her primary hand's tenketsu sealed, she couldn't rely on ranged attacks for very much longer. Visual genjutsu would be useless against the Byakugan. At point blank range, Neji held a nominal advantage. And yet... she was going to win. Her tone was flat. "Final Hurricane: Release."
The world slowed to a crawl, as she yanked as hard as she could on her final chakra string - watching, slightly detached, as Neji darting his hand to the side to sever it in response. The motion looked clumsy. Where before his motions were comparable to hers, now they felt painfully slow and deliberate.
He had fought well - exceptionally so, to the degree that she half suspected that she'd somehow influenced him into improving faster.
That he'd forced her to use her seal was... unexpected. His skill level was far beyond chuunin - he wasn't far off from attaining Special Jounin level skill himself, even this early on. And yet. He'd put in all that effort, she'd out the first of her trump cards, and now her victory was all but assured. It was sad, in a way. She was inflicting onto someone else the feeling she sought to avoid herself at all costs. It felt wrong.
With a twirl, her sword was suddenly in her left hand; with a moment's attention, it was enveloped in pure chakra shaping. Neji slowly, slowly brought his hand into position to block, and between the slowed pace of time and his own desperation, for the first time, she could see beneath his mask. His face was twisted into a mixture of surprise and desperation, and as he barely reached the position in time, slowly dawning hope, giving way to pride and satisfaction.
And then, in an instant, Hisana hooked her chakra onto the object now almost directly behind Neji. Her scabbard, tumbling through the air after she pulled it towards her with her earlier chakra string. As she'd done countless times before under Ebisu's absurd training regimen, she began a sealless replacement jutsu. His expression collapsed into pure focus, as with all his speed, he attempted to readjust. With a final, desperate attempt, he struck out with a kick, rotating his body-
-and froze, as she reappeared, her chakra enveloped blade already touching his neck, only the bluntness she'd forced on it preventing it from cutting.
For a long moment, he stood in the same position, his right hand out in front of him despite the pain moving it must cause him. And then, he reapplied his mask, returning to neutral stance with his head low. She could barely, barely make out the tremors in his movements as he shut down his Byakugan, even as chakra kept flowing through her eyes. "Ah. With abilities such as you've shown, Uchiha-sama... It was destined that I lose this match. To even attempt to struggle was... foolish."
And it was wrong, wrong, wrong. To struggle against those stronger than you, and raise yourself up, was the only thing worthwhile in this world! To simply accept your weakness as immutable, the conclusion as foregone... She rejected that idea, completely and in totality!
There was silence, and then the slightest blush lit her cheeks, as she realized she'd spoken out loud. Neji's eyes were focused on her with laser intent. There was, she realized, only one path from this moment that she could call a victory. She deactivated her seal.
"You fought against someone who, on this day, was more skilled, and more powerful, than you. And in that final moment, when my victory was assured, and you knew it... you still struggled. And from that desire to surpass what is inevitable, is where success truly stems." She shook her head. "I believe you can be more, and a better person to those around you, but it falls to you to prove it to the world. Proctor, I forfeit the match." She locked eyes with him. "Congratulations. You've defied your destiny, for the first time of many to come."
As she picked up her sheathe and stowed away her sword, ignoring the noises of the croud, she wondered if she'd done enough. She was no Naruto, and there were countless ways that her impromptu "Talk-No-Jutsu" could have been received poorly.
But ultimately... both her boys had still officially been genin when they'd had the final fight. She'd aced the first exam, fought a Sannin and still made record time in the second, and showed her full skill in this preliminary. Making an attempt at helping Neji be who he could be... trying to ensure she hadn't made things worse just by being present... It was far, far more valuable then progressing to the third exam.
Even if she kinda hoped they'd make her a Chunin anyway.
AN: This was the nicer of the two endings I'd considered for the omake. The darker one had her win the fight with Neji, but walk off feeling like she'd only made things worse, and musing on the nature of "victory".
There was no real way that Hisana would lose this fight if she pushed hard enough, even after considering Neji pushing himself more due to the rumors about Sasuke/Hisana's performance a year below him.
As the mumbling intensified, Hisana gave the Waterfall team a closer look. They hadn't made it this far in canon, if she remembered right, but the prompt decision on the part of their apparent leader to immediately forfeit against Gaara spoke well of their intelligence, in her opinion. She'd have to keep an eye on the other two.
The proctor (Hayate Gekko, she recalled) shuffled a few notes around, before the screen above lit up with the next pair. "Hyuuga Neji versus Uchiha Hisana." That... hmm. That was interesting. She'd have to unpack the implications of that change later, carefully. The choices were almost certainly not actually random, after all. Right now, she needed to focus.
She kept her Sharingan active as she looked over to Gai's team, frantically considering her options, both for the fight ahead, and for the broader future. If Neji kept his fatalistic outlook... well, it'd be a negative change, one that could snowball if she didn't control the consequences. But she, with her reputation and clan, wasn't the one who could give him that lesson, was she?
More immediately, bladework in general would be... iffy. The juuken could disrupt chakra flow techniques if performed correctly, and getting into touch range with Neji would be an ordeal all its own. If she put him down fast at the start, her outlook would be much better... but she wasn't about to use her most dangerous techniques on a fellow Leaf ninja. So, a probing strike, followed by a ranged ninjutsu outline, then.
She wouldn't use her newest seal. Besides the desire to keep it quiet until she could more fully integrate it into her style... Using chakra network alteration hooked into the brain, without much experience, while fighting a Hyuuga? That sounded like a fantastic recipe for brain damage if anything went wrong.
Neji himself kept his eyes on her as they both made their way down the stairs. It wasn't the Byakugan, yet, but he was undoubtedly considering his approach to the fight as well. "Ya can do it, sis! Kick his freaky white-eyed ass!" She carefully controlled the smile that wanted to emerge in response to Naruto's comments, especially when she noticed the tiny twitch it had elicited from her opponent.
As they approached each other, Neji addressed her directly. "I've been curious to see your fighting style, Uchiha. You're spoken of as a rising star... but when two people clash, only one of them is destined to succeed." His tone was such that his voice carried across the room. "Tell me, what can those eyes of yours see?"
She frowned. A bit overblown, in her opinion. Maybe he was playing it up for the proctors? Or did he just really like hearing himself talk that much? She folded up her sunglasses, sealing them away into her wrist, then met his gaze, her Sharingan now visible. "I don't know if I have a destiny, Hyuuga Neji, but I certainly don't intend to lose."
Seeing her bloodline already active, he took up his activation position himself, a practiced burst of chakra awakening a wave of activity within his own eyes. "You do have a destiny. There is no changing of ones fundamental nature, and those with a given nature must act as that nature demands, no matter how hard they try. There is only one path to history. What happens, must have happened."
Except, clearly not. History had been changed. More then that, she had to believe that she could do something - that people other than Naruto and Sasuke could influence the world. If they couldn't... what meaning was there, in this life. Her voice was low as she spoke. "I was an outcast from the Uchiha clan, once. The lowest of the low. Has my fate not changed since then, Hyuuga?"
Neji smirked. "Perhaps you were trash, and still are trash, then, Hisana." And that was a very deliberate lack of use of her clan name. "But I believe that it was your destiny that led you to where you are now, Uchiha-sama. You were always blessed with a fundamental nature that would bring you to greatness. And with the downfall of the Uchiha, your destiny was fulfilled."
She shook, a bit, not certain if it was from suppressed laughter or suppressed rage. She was the one that Neji thought had a destiny? He couldn't have been more wrong if he tried. She supposed she shouldn't be surprised that in his position, something ugly inside him found appeal in the idea of a clan being wiped out, leaving someone from a lesser branch in charge. But... ah, yes, it was definitely suppressed rage. "...My mother's death at the hands of a madman was not destiny."
Black Zetsu, Madara, Danzo, Itachi... what had happened during the massacre was not inevitable, especially since it seemed that history had already been altered before she "arrived". She would not let the murderers hide behind the lens of destiny, when she knew that things could be changed - that she had changed things herself, with her own hands. It was the result of deliberate enemy action, hundreds or thousands of years in the making, and she would treat it, and them, as such.
Neji took up a juuken stance, a smirk on his lips. "The strength of your conviction gives you power... but it does not make you right." Hisana clenched and unclenched her fist, taking up anopening Iaido stance as she gritted her teeth, fingers loosely trailing over her sword's grip.
Hayate lowered his arm.
In the moment between heartbeats, she shot forward, wooden blade snapping out to full extension as she poured on all her speed, moving in a slight arc from Neji's left. His eyes didn't track her, but then, they didn't need to. If he regularly sparred against Lee, she had little doubt he had experience with this level of speed. A moment of concentration, as the blade entered a slight upward arc, towards his neck. Just as she began considering pulling back on the strike, so she didn't actually kill him if it connected, he made his move.
Her Sharingan outlined it before it happened, a slight, delicate movement of his hands, and his left palm flared as a slippery coating of chakra came into being, deflecting the blade's angle. Physical protection through pure emitted chakra? Perhaps a precursor to the Kaiten, then? Readjusting the strike at this late stage would leave her open to other attacks, so she worked with the movement, letting her sword pass over Neji's head, while twisting her body to avoid his questing right hand. She continued the spin, turning the rotation into a brutal two-handed downward slash as the sword came at Neji a second time, but this time, she carefully shaped unnatured chakra into the strike.
On a non-conductive blade, like her training sword, the shape manipulation technique was very difficult and chakra intensive - but she didn't need it to last for long. More importantly, unlike her Wind based techniques, unnatured chakra shaping didn't have to be sharp if she didn't want it to be. Neji's eyes grew much wider, and she caught the moment he debated dodging instead of blocking. He could try, of course, but in his current position, it would be very difficult to execute a dodge that wasn't vulnerable to the correct shape extension of her blade. He reached the same conclusion, instead bringing his right arm upwards, shaping a careful surge of chakra, and this was the speed he used to execute sixty-four strikes in an instant-!
The bang resounded throughout the stadium, the blood-red roiling chakra surrounding her blade slamming into the thin field of blue surrounding Neji's hand, and sending both their outfits wildly flapping in the resulting breeze. Beneath Neji's feet, cracks formed in the ground, much of the force of the blow transmitting through his body. For an instant, the tableau held, both of them trying to match the chakra output of the other-
And her chakra shaping broke, bits of red wisping away as she flinched from the backlash of the technique, while the base wood beneath slammed into Neji's hand with a muted crack, burnt out veins of black scorched into the blade making it look like it had survived a lighting strike.
But for however much her eye failed to match his in the precision she perceived chakra with, it made up for it in the forewarning it gave her. Suddenly she was the one on the defensive, barely managing to re-establish the technique and interpose her blade even with the Sharingan active, as Neji began a lightning-fast series of jabs with his left hand. And only his left hand. Snatching glimpses of his other hand between blows, Hisana felt certain she'd broken at least a few fingers there with her opening strike. Even one handed, though, the juuken wasn't called the world's deadliest taijutsu style for nothing - and Neji was scary good at it.
Parry, twist, interpose, parry, parry, parry, duck, flip away... She only needed a split second's opening to get range, but Neji was determined not to give it to her. She was bleeding chakra to maintain the technique, sparks flying with every hit, but he just kept coming. A veritable avalanche of blows, each flowing into the next with a fluidity that spoke of intensely refined skill. And then, finally, an opening-!
She jumped back, and as he reached out for her, she interposed her blade one last time... but this wasn't like the earlier probing strikes. His chakra swirled around his arm, concentrated enough that even those without a visual bloodline could see it, and he practically drilled it into her blade. He hadn't just been pushing her back one handed - he'd been able to precisely analyse and counter the chakra flow of her technique at the same time!? That was seriously impressive, and she'd have been a lot more inclined to admire the crushing skill it implied if it wasn't her on the receiving end. As it was...
The chakra flare of clashing techniques burst into existence once more, red and blue light leaving strange, rippling patterns of purple dancing across the arena's walls. Once again, her technique faltered, sending a spike of pain into her mind. Unlike last time, Neji's chakra aura remained intact, and when his hand reached the already weakened wood of her practice blade, it practically exploded, sending a cloud of splinters careening in all directions.
Forewarned by her Sharingan, she abandoned the broken blade immediately... but she'd been lulled off guard. Neji exploited the opening, the maimed right hand she'd disregarded reaching up and around, and ever so gently brushing against her main hand. She winced as the worst pins and needles she'd had in any of her lives made their way up her arm, but forced herself to complete the launch jutsu through the pain with her off hand. Stupid, stupid, stupid! The twisted, swollen mess that was his hand would be useless for more conventional combat, but as long as the chakra coils were intact, physical injuries didn't matter at all for the Juuken.
As she completed her midair flip, coming to rest on the arena's wall and clinging to it with her feet, she wrung her hand out, taking stock. He hadn't managed to seal chakra flow through it completely, so partial functionality was still possible. She could still move it, at least. Handseals with it would be all but impossible, though, shutting down her more involved jutsu, and her grip with it would be weakened for swordplay. The pain was... intense, but she could still think over it. Hardly insurmountable.
Neji was coming perilously close to her wall, so she needed to buy herself some additional distance. With a thought, a brace of kunai sprouted in her left hand, each of the five weapons having a primed explosive tag wrapped around the handle. Chakra strings were pointless right now, when Neji could see them plain as day, so in lieu of anything fancy, she simply hurled them downwards, bracketing his position and forcing the Hyuuga to back off, as she used the opening to cast the Raven's Wings technique yet again.
As she passed over him she twisted in midair, keeping him in her sight as her primary blade, a plainly lethal length of chakra conductive metal, appeared in her hands. His eyes narrowed - this was an escalation of force, and with her defaulting to this weapon, the onus to keep the spar non-lethal despite the weapon was now lay squarely with Hisana. On the other hand, if she'd been using this blade from the start, his prior strategy would never have worked...
Without the luxury of time to clip it to her side, she simply swung the blade, adjusting for her reversed grip. The sheathe was launched back towards where she'd come from, soaring well over Neji's head. She landed on her feet, skidding backwards to a stop, grimacing slightly as she used her injured hand to maintain stability. They both paused, taking stock of the changed situation.
Neji spoke first. "Impressive. You managed to escape my range, and you started reacting to my final attack before it even occured. But I was able to surprise you nontheless. It doesn't matter how well you can see, after all, if you aren't looking in the right place. And unlike you, I see everything at once. Now that I've confirmed your vulnerability... you won't escape again."
Hisana momentarily flared the Razor Wind across her blade, making a careless swipe that sheared straight through the concrete floor with a whine, leaving a crescent imprint that was all but mathematically perfect. "Exploiting my weapon's weakness was clever... but using a dull blade was a handicap I was using specifically for the purposes of a spar, for my opponent's benefit. I wouldn't recommend you try blocking my blows this time, Hyuuga."
His eyes narrowed, taking in her mirrored stance, before he dashed forward. She'd unsheathed her sword for reasons other than making a statement, though. There weren't many ranged jutsu she was practiced in that didn't require hand seals. There was one, however, that she was quite proficient in. "Wind Release: Decapitating Blade Malestrom!"
The Decapitating Blade had limitations that made it generally unsuitable as a primary attack jutsu, being far better used to constrict an opponent's options before approaching in melee. However, with sufficient speed...
There was no opponent. There was no crowd. She poured every ounce of training she'd managed to gather into her every motion, and went through the first kata of Iaido at a blistering pace. That every motion needed to be reversed was irrelevant - with the Sharingan, training for ambidextrous took significantly less effort.
A dozen slashes in an instant.
A moment too short to call a heartbeat, and she was far to Neji's left. The second kata. Two dozen cuts.
The heartbeat completes.
Behind him, slightly to his right. Three dozen perfect strikes.
She opened her eyes, just as he closed his.
She harboured no illusions - if he simply accepted a glancing hit, and came at her directly, with her being winded after her last display, he'd reach her in moments. The only thing keeping him at the center of the whirlwind she'd created - for now - was his own pride. He still felt he could take the worst of her assault without a scratch, if he commited himself fully to dodging, and wanted to rub her face in it. And the scary part was... he wasn't wrong.
The first blades from her first kata were just reaching him. With her Sharingan, she could see the chakra flowing through his eyes, and through his brain. The crescendo of clashing winds fell directly within his area of divination. Within his mind, he would be able to calculate the precise path each chakra construct would take, and if even a single path existed that would lead him to safety, he would be able to see it.
Neji opened his eyes, and with perfect fluidity of motion, entered a stance low to the ground, his mangled right hand being forced into position despite the pain it must cause him. He'd commited.
Hisana fought very, very hard to ensure her chakra spike from mirth didn't give the game away.
Neji's motions were perfect, and only with her Sharingan could Hisana peer beneath his bored exterior to see the absolute concentration and stress he was under, his internal chakra fluctuating from moment to moment. The first blades of wind, he weaved between entirely, with the air of not deigning to give them his attention, and they passed by without so much as ruffling his hair.
Then the first set of crossfire reached him, and while he still avoided each of her strikes, the complex series of ducks, rolls, and aerial twists it took to do so shattered his facade of effortlessness. And then the final grouping of slashes fell upon him, and he was forced to deflect the blows directly. The juuken could shatter pure chakra forces - like shaped blades of wind - at a touch, but to call it mentally draining and chakra exhaustive would be an understatement. In that split second of frantic dodging and parrying, Neji spent nearly as much chakra as Hisana had put into shaping the blades in the first place.
But he did it. As the final attack was shunted up into the ceiling, and the dust settled from the multitude of lines her attack had scored into the arena's surroundings, Neji stood in a picture perfect stance, eyes shut. In the end, neither of them had fully succeeded. Neji's skin remained unbroken, not a single of her blades having cut him. Yet, the trailing edge of his outfit had a cleft in it, a gash that showed where one of her strikes had come far too close for comfort.
And then his eyes opened as wide as Hisana had ever seen them, as he finally noticed her expression.
Neji claimed that his eyes could see everything, and that was true to a certain extent. Following the style of the Eight Trigrams, nothing within his vicinity could escape his divination. But... to calculate and execute such a display as he just had, was an absurd feat of concentration and unwavering attention. His vision was unlimited, but his attention was not.
And so he now tilted his head upward, as three braids of chakra stretched from Hisana's left hand in a long arc high above the stadium, her sword transferred to her weaker hand. The first shuriken slammed into the ground next to him at massive speed, yet instead of imbedding itself into the concrete, it impossibly 'skipped' upwards, rebounding back up towards his face. Neji leaned backwards so far his head nearly hit the ground, his right hand - now black and purple from the abuse it had been subjected to - skimming across Hisana's chakra string and severing it.
"Tricks like that..." He did a one-handed spring backwards, as the second shuriken homed in on him, and with a scissoring motion, swiped his feet through the air behind it, cutting its guidance just in time for it to barely miss his torso. "Are useless!" It was pure bravado. Both of them had spent a great quantity of chakra in the fight, and neither of them were untouched by that expense.
Hisana didn't deign to respond. With her primary hand's tenketsu sealed, she couldn't rely on ranged attacks for very much longer. Visual genjutsu would be useless against the Byakugan. At point blank range, Neji held a nominal advantage. And yet... she was going to win. Her tone was flat. "Final Hurricane: Release."
The world slowed to a crawl, as she yanked as hard as she could on her final chakra string - watching, slightly detached, as Neji darting his hand to the side to sever it in response. The motion looked clumsy. Where before his motions were comparable to hers, now they felt painfully slow and deliberate.
He had fought well - exceptionally so, to the degree that she half suspected that she'd somehow influenced him into improving faster.
That he'd forced her to use her seal was... unexpected. His skill level was far beyond chuunin - he wasn't far off from attaining Special Jounin level skill himself, even this early on. And yet. He'd put in all that effort, she'd out the first of her trump cards, and now her victory was all but assured. It was sad, in a way. She was inflicting onto someone else the feeling she sought to avoid herself at all costs. It felt wrong.
With a twirl, her sword was suddenly in her left hand; with a moment's attention, it was enveloped in pure chakra shaping. Neji slowly, slowly brought his hand into position to block, and between the slowed pace of time and his own desperation, for the first time, she could see beneath his mask. His face was twisted into a mixture of surprise and desperation, and as he barely reached the position in time, slowly dawning hope, giving way to pride and satisfaction.
And then, in an instant, Hisana hooked her chakra onto the object now almost directly behind Neji. Her scabbard, tumbling through the air after she pulled it towards her with her earlier chakra string. As she'd done countless times before under Ebisu's absurd training regimen, she began a sealless replacement jutsu. His expression collapsed into pure focus, as with all his speed, he attempted to readjust. With a final, desperate attempt, he struck out with a kick, rotating his body-
-and froze, as she reappeared, her chakra enveloped blade already touching his neck, only the bluntness she'd forced on it preventing it from cutting.
For a long moment, he stood in the same position, his right hand out in front of him despite the pain moving it must cause him. And then, he reapplied his mask, returning to neutral stance with his head low. She could barely, barely make out the tremors in his movements as he shut down his Byakugan, even as chakra kept flowing through her eyes. "Ah. With abilities such as you've shown, Uchiha-sama... It was destined that I lose this match. To even attempt to struggle was... foolish."
And it was wrong, wrong, wrong. To struggle against those stronger than you, and raise yourself up, was the only thing worthwhile in this world! To simply accept your weakness as immutable, the conclusion as foregone... She rejected that idea, completely and in totality!
There was silence, and then the slightest blush lit her cheeks, as she realized she'd spoken out loud. Neji's eyes were focused on her with laser intent. There was, she realized, only one path from this moment that she could call a victory. She deactivated her seal.
"You fought against someone who, on this day, was more skilled, and more powerful, than you. And in that final moment, when my victory was assured, and you knew it... you still struggled. And from that desire to surpass what is inevitable, is where success truly stems." She shook her head. "I believe you can be more, and a better person to those around you, but it falls to you to prove it to the world. Proctor, I forfeit the match." She locked eyes with him. "Congratulations. You've defied your destiny, for the first time of many to come."
As she picked up her sheathe and stowed away her sword, ignoring the noises of the croud, she wondered if she'd done enough. She was no Naruto, and there were countless ways that her impromptu "Talk-No-Jutsu" could have been received poorly.
But ultimately... both her boys had still officially been genin when they'd had the final fight. She'd aced the first exam, fought a Sannin and still made record time in the second, and showed her full skill in this preliminary. Making an attempt at helping Neji be who he could be... trying to ensure she hadn't made things worse just by being present... It was far, far more valuable then progressing to the third exam.
Even if she kinda hoped they'd make her a Chunin anyway.
AN: This was the nicer of the two endings I'd considered for the omake. The darker one had her win the fight with Neji, but walk off feeling like she'd only made things worse, and musing on the nature of "victory".
There was no real way that Hisana would lose this fight if she pushed hard enough, even after considering Neji pushing himself more due to the rumors about Sasuke/Hisana's performance a year below him.
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- Location
- universe
- Location
- The Surface Of A Hostile Planet
As Hisana herself commented at the end, maintaining a high nominal rank within Konoha's military is almost incidental to being able to keep up with Sasuke and Naruto, absurdly bullshit as they are.
Her exceptional performance throughout the exam may well secure her a nomination for promotion anyway, too - especially if something like the Kohoha Crush happens, and she plays an important role.
In comparison, letting Neji simmer further in his worldview, with no Naruto fight coming up to knock it out of him? I think this is a choice that Hisana could live with.
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Yeah, the forfeit was the only part that seemed out of character to me. It also has pretty bad optics from the outside. The rest was awesome though.
This is gorgeous, gorgeous work. Both the combat, and the thinking underlying it.
And I especially enjoyed the part where she spoke out loud without realizing it; our girl is usually so controlled that those fleeting moments of candor are to be treasured.
Well done!
Promotion to chuunin =/=keeping up with the rest of her team. She doesn't need formal rank to do that; it's nice, but not essential.
Do recall that both Naruto and Sasuke never advanced past genin as of the end of Shippuden.
Furthermore, I suspect Sarutobi and the other jounin evaluating performances can follow her thinking better than most.
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- Location
- The Surface Of A Hostile Planet
If Hisana was the type to believe that the weak must remain weak, and that those without a fated destiny cannot change the world? She wouldn't even be a ninja in the first place, and would have left the plot to the reincarnation bros.
"Become strong enough to matter" is, as I see it, her absolute driving goal and motivation. Much, much more in common with Lee than with Neji, despite her status making it seem like it should be the reverse to outside observers.
- Location
- universe
By the way, match-point!Hisana might have gained the affections of one green-clad ninja after that display - After all, Hisana is probably the only female ninja in his age bracket to show so much youthful dedication to getting stronger, and has fancy Uchiha genes besides.
I'm now imagining shenanigans involving team guy and team kakashi, where Lee tries to hide an obvious crush whilst Hisana kinda awkwardly ignores it. Everyone else looks on in amusement/exasperation.
Edit:
Although that's probably OOC for Lee, now that i think of it - He's not one to hide his youthfull feelings from people, as evidenced with his canon Sakura infatuation.
I'm now imagining shenanigans involving team guy and team kakashi, where Lee tries to hide an obvious crush whilst Hisana kinda awkwardly ignores it. Everyone else looks on in amusement/exasperation.
Edit:
Although that's probably OOC for Lee, now that i think of it - He's not one to hide his youthfull feelings from people, as evidenced with his canon Sakura infatuation.
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azoicennead
Overly-Affectionate Zombie Squad
- Pronouns
- He/They
Officially. They were treated like they were much higher ranked. If they weren't, Naruto wouldn't have his absurdly long list of diplomatically important missions, and wouldn't be involved with stuff like rescuing Gaara.
(So, yes, getting a higher rank isn't vital. Let's be Team Eternal Genin.)
... What? Hide it? We're talking about the same guy, right?
(Warning: shaky cam footage of a TV.)
Aranfan
Team Plasma Grunt
Ah yes, the worst part of Naruto's ending: kid neji being 100% correct.
Konoha has always been about who you know; I think all the villages are that way.
Isn't that how Danzo got away with wielding significant influence even after retiring as active-duty shinobi and getting tossed off the Advisers?
The staff chuunin looked up to see who has just walked into his office and blanched.
He scrambled to his feet, straightening his vest as he attempted not to meet the eyes of the five foot tall figure in front of his desk.
"Good afternoon, Clan head Uchiha-sama. How may I help?"
Because when it comes down to it, as co-chair of a founding clan, we already have all the rank we really need.
All we need now is the respect that goes with being one of the killiest people in the village to back it up.
Tsunade pulled it off while being sole survivor of the Senju after all.
- Location
- The Surface Of A Hostile Planet
Just watch as it turns out Hisana is Jiraya's daughter and secretly Kaguya's reincarnation and all that jazz, completely undermining her statements here!
At least we aren't being called Uchiha-hime. Yet.
azoicennead
Overly-Affectionate Zombie Squad
- Pronouns
- He/They
Danzo was Hiruzen's friend from youth, served with him under the direct command of the Second Hokage. He was also ruthless and ambitious, aiming to replace Hiruzen as Hokage. The end result of that is going to be someone with a ton of power outside of their official position; political influence and general unofficial power, basically.
Especially since even after he was officially stripped of his position as commander of Root, he still continued to hold that position off the books.
- Location
- Underground
Naruto's background and the prophecies about him wouldn't have mattered for much if he didn't choose to do things the way he did. The prophecy seeing some vague things ahead of time doesn't make his choices/actions up to that point matter less.
He wouldn't have been the child of destiny if he had chosen to give up. If he gave into his anger he would have been a destroyer rather than a savior. Kid Neji being right is malarkey, at least in regards to the notion of people's choices and actions not mattering.
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