Exams 4.11
Neji walked down the stairs slowly, his eyes looking at his opponent keenly. Gaara was strong, no doubt about it. Even without his bloodline limit active, Neji could feel the malevolence of Gaara's chakra. It surrounded the boy like armour; and the sheer strength of it was frightening. It might be his fate to lose here, without any proof of his power.
He simply frowned, and bowed to his opponent. Neither boy said a word as the battle began. Neji's bloodline burst to life, and as he blurred backwards he saw the complex chakra construct that surrounded Gaara. He had heard rumors of a 'perfect defence', but seeing it was something else. If only he'd mastered the kaiten by now, if only he could match perfect defence with perfect defence.
He had not, so he could no go on the offensive right away. For it was the fate of all perfect things to revealed as mundane and flawed. No defense was unbreakable, no attack unblockable. There was only the nearly perfect and their weaknesses.
Sand tried to coil around Neji's leg, but his glowing blue palm slammed into it. The sand blew apart, the chakra holding together gone. In a second, it had reformed but that was more than enough time for Neji to reposition. This dance repeated half a dozen more times, with each palm strike Neji's understanding of his opponent grew.
No words passed between them, only steel as Neji threw a brace of kunai at his opponent. They sailed through the air, oddly slow for a prodigy like Neji. Then, in the blink of an eye, Neji was behind Gaara. Sand was already moving to block the kunais headed towards Gaara, and Neji lunged forward. Sand rushed up to meet him, and it was only a judicious use of his incomplete kaiten that allowed him to escape with his arm.
Chakra exploded from the tenketsu along his arm, unshaped and wasteful. Gaara's sand was blown back, and Neji blurred away from him.
"Oh yes, Hyuuga, you shall do
nicely. I wonder, will you prove my existence?!" Gaara shouted, his once stoic face now mad with bloodlust. Tendrils of sand rushed at Neji, who stepped between them with an almost unearthly grace. His hands were sheathed in a lavender blue light as they cut sand from the air.
Neji knew now how he must win, if his fate was to be victorious in this battle. He stepped calmly through Gaara's onslaught, and struck at the air. It answered his call, one of the few ranged attacks of the gentle fist blow apart a lance of sand. He struck the air again, smashing apart another lance; closer to Gaara.
The boy screamed, and Neji struck the air again. This time the lance had only begun to form. Again, and he struck the shield of sand itself this time. Neji was burning away his chakra reserves at a tremendous rate, but he knew that this was his only chance - Gaara's endurance vastly outstripped his own. The boy seemed to have a limitless store of it, and Neji had to expend more to defend himself than Gaara had to to attack. The only conclusion he could reach was that he would have to strike a decisive blow.
Naji's palm slammed against the air once more, and Gaara's shield was blown away entirely. Now, with Gaara in range of his divina-
Sand slammed into Neji, far faster than Gaara had moved it before. Neji's left leg broke with an awful snap, and he screamed as he slammed into the opposite wall. He saw sand slowly gather around Gaara, and through the haze of pain he was afraid. Had the boy been toying with him this whole time?
"Weak. I suppose I'll have to dispose of you, now..." Gaara said, more to himself than anyone else. Neji's vision started to darken, and all he could see was a flash of green.
++++++
Hisana's hands left her sword as Gai plucked Neji from the arena and the match was called. Gaara looked like he was going to push the issue for a moment, but merely turned and walked away. She felt her heart rate go back down, felt everything settle back into place. She'd been ready to make use of her seal to save Neji, if it came to that, but Gai would never have let Gaara kill him. Still, he'd been seriously injured - but, as a part of her was forced to admit, he'd done better than Lee.
Still, the show must go on. Sasuke was called down to fight Kiba. It wasn't a very long bout, as Sasuke essentially took Kiba apart in under ten seconds, but the fighting was ferocious. Ino put up a decent fight against Tenten, but the older girl managed to avoid leaving Ino an opening for her clan jutsu long enough to win the fight. Next up was Sakura vs Temari. Hisana watched in amazement as the pink haired girl almost won through some clever genjutsu and home made sealwork. Temari, however, was a beast of a kunoichi - Hisana didn't realise that she was this strong, reading the manga.
Naruto then beat Choji in a jovial contest, and after that Hinata defeated Kankuro. After Karin defeated a genin from Waterfall she'd never heard of before, Hisana started paying less attention to the matches. Oh, she had a great number of new jutsu to refine from watching the fights, but she was eager to get to training. She had so many ideas to work on, and only a month to do so. Soon enough, the battle was over and it was time for her to go down and draw her number for the third exam.
Hisana was due to fight Temari in the opening match, Hinata was due to face Tenten after, then Karin against Lee, then a fifteen year old from Suna named Gennai against Shikamaru, then Shino against Sasuke. Lastly, Naruto was to face Gaara. Even though she was concerned by that, Hisana was also glad that the famous Talk-No-Jutsu might have a chance. Gaara could be reformed, and if he was he became Konoha - and Naruto's - most steadfast ally.
Temari was an absolute master of wind ninjutsu, Hisana knew, and no slouch up close either. Hisana then remembered her forest destroying attack from the Sasuke Retrieval arc; and started to wonder why she'd doubted the girl's strength. It was to be a difficult battle, and Hisana knew she couldn't afford to go all out during it - she had a far more difficult battle to prepare for afterwards.
Choose Four Projects to do during the one month break between the second and third exams. Kakashi will be teaching you things, but alternating with Sasuke. This is what you work on when he's not teaching you.
[x] - Fuinjutsu:
[x] - Paperless exploding tags seem like a very useful skill, and one that you might be able to develop.
[x] - Try and create a system of parallel storage arrays instead of one central one for your Final Hurricane Seal
[x] - Ninjutsu
[x] - Learn more Fire Release techniques
[x] - Learn more Wind Release techniques
[x] - Learn Wind Release techniques from the Ravens
[x] - Learn some of the jutsu you've copied with your Sharingan (See character sheet)
[x] - Genjutsu
[x] - Learn more wide area Genjutsu
[x] - Learn more Sharingan genjutsu
[x] - Kenjutsu
[x] - Improve the ranged aspect of your chakra flow
[x] - Try and utilize your fuinjutsu knowledge to improve your sword.
[x] - Iryojutsu
[x] - Attempt to learn the Chakra Scalpel to a level allowing medical use.
[x] - Attempt to improve your Mystical Palm jutsu.
