Hinata fell.
It was not a good fall. Her hands were numb: she couldn't catch herself and her face banged against the ground with jarring swiftness.
She lay there, dazed, then coughed, once, twice, and forced herself to rise, trembling, fingers leaving a tracery of blood against a block of limestone green floor. Above, in the sparsely inhabited stands, the only spectators were her fellow genin, the judges and the instructors and they were deathly quiet.
"Why do you stand?" cousin Neji asked.
Hinata sucked in a greedy breath and rose slowly, creakingly up past her knees. Her limbs were aflame as she took up the classic stance: muscles deprived of chakra acted very nearly like muscles deprived of oxygen; her eyes, meanwhile, were painfully hot, coils pulsing with pent-up chakra. Breathing hurt. She knew what a healthy heart looked like. Hers was not. It beat sluggish, irregular, too many associated tenketsu plugged, pressure uneven and dangerously unsteady.
When she coughed, the spittle which dribbled down her chin was bloody.
"If you keep pushing yourself, you'll die," cousin Neji said.
Maybe, thought Hinata, trying not to gasp for breath. But the difference was today was, someone important was watching her. The difference today was-
"YOU CAN DO IT, HINATA!!!!"a blond boy screamed from the stands.
-the difference today was, she wasn't going to give up.
She smiled as her opponent ground his teeth, annoyed.
They rushed at each other once more, two users of the gentle fist. It was almost a dance. Strike, block, strike, block, back and forth, no strength wasted, no savage blows, just violence and energy exchanged with painful precision. With her own chakra mostly inaccessible, she could not attack, but she
could deflect. Three exchanges passed, then four, then, upon the fifth, when hope had stirred, when she began to think of what she could do with the tools at hand, she felt a blow spike through her guard, hit her chest and something went ba-dump and
ruptured.
Once more, she felt a moment lacking weight, followed by a bruising impact against the ground. Her heart stuttered agonizingly in her chest.
"You don't understand anything," her opponent said, coldly contemptuous. "From the beginning, your attacks have done nothing."
'I know,' she wanted to say. 'That's not the point,' she wanted to say. 'I need to change,' she wanted to say. 'I have changed,' she wanted to say. Instead, she struggled back to her feet, taking long, long seconds to pick herself up. Her vision wavered.
"It's not over, yet…"
His eyes were cold. "It is. You can barely stand. You can only push yourself so far. It is time to admit it: you are
weak, Hinata Hyuuga. You are weak and this will not change.
People do not change. That is your Destiny. Let go of your suffering."
Her knees buckled. She wanted to. Truly, she did. What would Naruto say? Probably 'That's crap!' or 'If that's Destiny, I'll beat it to a pulp!'
But she couldn't refute cousin Neji. Not like that.
"Aren't you…" her voice cracked and broke into a long series of bloody coughs, echoed by the proctor. "Aren't you the one suffering the most… cousin Neji?"
Neji snapped, hands blurring with a blue haze of chakra as he sprinted towards her.
Four jounins leaped to stop him.
Inconceivably, they failed. The blow stopped her heart, and sent her spinning to the ground, in so much pain all she could do was try to breathe. Four jounin were wrapped around him and spoke in that very calm, very even way that suggested they were fine when they most definitely were not and even cousin Neji seemed to be in shock.
As she struggled, Hinata wondered, distantly: '
I hope… I…'
Then she took her Second Breath.
It was like breathing in the world.
Energy suffused her limbs while wild, impossible memories attacked her mind's eye. She coughed, spraying blood across the ground. A cold, silvery heat kindled itself near her heart. She didn't know how, but the world
changed.
Fingers slammed into stone.
"It's… not… over…"she panted.
"Hinata," Kurenai said, as alarmed and relieved as she had ever heard her jounin-sensei, turning away from Neji whom she held,"you need to-"
The words died away, stillborn.
Hinata rose. Leaking through the pores of her skin, silver light eddied from her like smoke out of a pipe. Her chakra coils, usually a soft lavender, had been choked off by Cousin Neji's barrage of attacks, began to be overlaid by a network of silver that started near her heart and quickly spiraled throughout her body.
It was chakra, but not. Something else. Something
more.
With a sound like a cork popping, she felt one of her tenketsu flare open, the plug formed by Cousin Neji's chakra unable to stay closed in the presence of so much raw power. Then, like it had released the floodgates, one by one they all started to go. Cousin Neji's eyes widened.
"Maa, this is embarrassing," said Naruto's jounin-sensei, a book in one hamd, the other clamped around Neji's wrist.
She took an unsteady step forward. The jounin-senseis relaxed, let go.
"It's
not over," she growled.
"FUCK HIM UP!" Kiba shouted excitedly while Shino whispered encouragement, below his breath.
"GET HIM! HINATA!!!!" screamed Naruto.
She wiped the blood beading at her lip, smiled and set herself back into her familiar stance.
Silver and lavender fire poured out of her soul,
----
[ ] warping her flesh…
Charms: Totemic Self Announcement + Flicker Flash Flesh Phase. Appearance increased to 4. Caste: Changing Moon. Default Totem is a (physical) Lion Dog the size of a tyrant lizard. Because why not.
[ ] seeping into her fists…
Charms: Strength Excellency + Blow for Blow. Strength increased to 4. No Moon.
[ ] reaching her eyes…
Charms: Perception Excellency + Hidden Devil Parade + Crushing Gorgon Glare. Full Moon.
----
Hinata's Base Stats: Str2/Dex3/Sta2; Cha3/Man2/App2; Per4/Int3/Wits2
----
QM Notes: This is a terrible idea, but I have sat on it since
@Crilltic started the whole wave of Naruto Nostalgia, and no one else seems to have done it. >_>
Those familiar with Lunars will have noticed that I'm using the Terrifying Argent Witches homebrew (link located
here) which does a complete overhaul of the Lunar splatbook. Highlights include the Heart's Blood ritual being a simple 'What I Kill is What I Am' philosophy to grabbing new forms, new forms requiring a time-consuming point-by-point purchase of mutations, and no automatic totem animal. Also, the charms are different and each looks nifty.
The only thing I will be consciously changing is Changing Moon's Anima Flare (if you guys go with Changing Moons): People will not be overcome with lust, instead they'll be overcome with awe.
For the purpose of this quest, stats are more... guidelines than anything else as I work out how to put them all together. Also, I suck at Exalted mechanics. Putting them together with homebrew Naruto mechanics is probably a feat beyond my abilities.
Update speed will be erratic, sorry. I do have the very modest goal of getting past the end of the chunin exams, so we'll probably make it to at least there.
