Chapter 10 - Hisako's Exam - Part 2

Neji, Neji,Hisako thought to herself. What rotten luck for you... I'm the worst possible opponent for you. This ends here. The outcome of this match rested on Neji's arrogance, really. If he didn't activate his Byakugan... He was dead meat. She stood not five feet from the boy, well within reach of his 64 palms attack. Adapting a haphazard defensive stance, Hisako slid her foot forward with enough force to kick some dirt in Neji's direction, which didn't go unnoticed. His eyebrow twitched, to which the girl responded with a sneer.

"What, Neji-rin?" She jibed, enjoying the look of outrage that crossed his face at the diminutive suffix. "Afraid of getting dirty?"

Hisako watched Neji's fists clench, saw his knuckles turn white. She even thought she may have seen a telltale vein emerge on his forehead. One more push...

"Look, Neji-pi," she said disdainfully, examining her fingernails in a bored manner. "Are we going to fight, or what? I have other things I need to be doing."

That was it. His calm demeanor was in shambles. Neji was livid; his entire body was shaking with barely controlled rage. The entire stadium was silent. This girl was just asking to die.

"What..." Neji's voice was barely above a whisper, but she could feel the waves of hostility rolling off him. "What did you just call me?"

"What, are you hard of hearing now, too... Neji-tan?"

With a growl, Neji leapt from his spot and aimed a punch straight for her gut. Hisako easily sidestepped and caught his ankle with her foot, causing him to lose his footing. Neji stumbled for a moment before regaining his balance, jumping back a few feet only to come at her again. He was so angry he was seeing red. She danced away from each of his attacks, never attacking, only backing up again and again, leading them both toward the middle of the arena, away from the walls. When Neji finally tired of his opponent leading him in circles, he came to a stop about six feet from her, deciding it was finally time to use his 'gentle fist.' To further enrage him, Hisako decided on a whim that she'd drop her guard. She didn't need it, anyway. The flash of pure undiluted rage in his eyes at her casual stance quite easily made her day.

He decided quickly that this girl needed to be put in her place. She'd done nothing but speak down to him since they came into the arena. To defeat her without even using his Byakugan... That would be the ultimate slap in the face. He'd had the chakra network and its sensitive points drilled into him night and day since he was a small child, so he had each critical point's position memorized. The girl would collapse, immobile, and he'd have won without even breaking a sweat. How dare she act so calm and confident, facing him as an opponent? He'd teach her how to treat a Hyuuga.

Hisako tensed minutely when she saw him gathering chakra for his attack. So you took the bait? Arrogant little... I wish I could wring your neck, but I'll do for publicly humiliating you. Her feet shifted apart slightly, supplying her with steadier footing in preparation for the onslaught she was about to take. She heard him cry out the name of his attack, and her adrenaline spiked.

"Eight Trigrams!"

Here it comes.

"Two palms!"

Hisako took two hits straight to the gut, knocking the wind out of her and causing her to bend almost double. But Neji was just getting started.

"Four palms!"

Four more hits, and Hisako was losing ground with every strike.

"Eight palms!"

She relaxed her breathing and went limp- locking muscles under this onslaught would only cause for more pain later.

"Sixteen palms!"

Strike after strike of that 'gentle fist,' causing her world to narrow to just her skin and his hands. Everything else was black. Her ears roared deafeningly, and her instincts screamed to not take this beating, to tense up and defend herself. But she couldn't do that, or everything would be ruined.

"Thirty-two palms!"

Blow after blow landed on her body, and she wondered if it would ever stop. She almost succumbed to the desire to increase the density of the water encasing her body so those strikes would stop hurting... but she didn't. She grit her teeth and let herself be tossed around like a rag doll. Hisako vaguely wondered how Neji hadn't figured it out yet. Only halfway through the beating, and she was already close to passing out.

"Sixty-four palms!"

Finally, the brunt of the attack. She took it all, unguarded. Refraining from tampering with her shield, she sufficed with placing a chakra seal at the end of the nerves of her torso- she couldn't feel the damage she was taking. The relief of the alleviated pain was enough to make her sigh, and her eyes wandered across the stadium. She saw Tenzo there, standing next to Kakashi and Sakura and her heart leapt. Then she realized he was making one of the most anguished expressions she'd ever seen. This brought her back to her senses. That's right, she was here to humiliate this arrogant child. She'd punish him for causing Tenzo to make such an expression.

Finally, the last strike of Neji's attack sent Hisako spiraling across the stadium, crashing into the far wall to slowly sink to the ground. She sat there for a moment, releasing the seals on her nerves and quickly administering first aid, to assuage the pain. When it was bearable, she very slowly got to her feet, using the wall as a brace to pull herself up. When her legs were steady beneath her, she let go of the wall and looked up, meeting a dumbfounded Neji's gaze. The entire stadium was deathly silent. This girl had taken the mighty Hyuuga's 'Gentle Fist' attack... and stood up? Seeing the disbelief in her opponent's eye, she flashed him a cheeky smile.

"Oh, Neji, I didn't realize you were that arrogant," she sighed, her voice easily carrying across the arena.

"How....?" Neji voiced the sentiment of every single spectator.

"Well, if you hadn't been a total @$$, and had come at me like a proper opponent, activating your Byakugan, you would have known the answer to that," Hisako snapped, her temper finally getting the best of her.

"Byakugan!" The boy finally activated his eyesight... and gasped. "You..."

"That's right, Neji," Hisako spat, then took a deep breath to calm herself before continuing in a more polite tone. "My entire body is encased in a film of water soaked with my chakra, practically undetectable to the naked eye. But as you can see..." She removed the film from one of her hands, controlling the chakra-water, floating it into the air and allowing it to form abstract, whimsical shapes. "Your attack had no effect on me whatsoever. I won't even get a bruise later. In fact, the water not only absorbed the chakra you put into each attack, but also gave me the ability to do this."

Grinning almost evilly at Neji, Hisako slowly made the handsigns for the rat and the ram, as well as the ox.
"Ninja Art: Water Entrapment!"

Neji froze in place, his body not responding to the signals he was giving it. He looked down and realized that his entire body was encased in the same watery film that Hisako's was. Through his surprise, he managed to sputter out the question- "How?"

"Well, while you were busy beating the crap out of me - thanks for that, by the way- I was busy transferring some of my shield to your body. It was hard work, really. I had to decrease the density of the part on my body, and focus on letting it cover your body without you noticing. But face it, Neji. This battle is over. You know as well as I that I have well over twice the chakra you do. I could do this until you pass out, but that would take so long. Just concede defeat. Or are you too proud to back out of a hopeless battle?" She couldn't resist letting a little bit of the anger inside turn her last question into a sneer.

Neji looked torn for a moment, and it was clear he was trying to break free from her hold on him. But he finally realized how utterly pointless it was; the defeat was etched in his face.

"I concede," he spat quietly, his voice almost indistinguishable in the suddenly noisy arena.

"What was that, Neji?" Hisako called loudly, cupping her hand to her ear. A second later, Neji found his body mimicking hers, cupping his ear in the same gesture.

"I said," he repeated in an irritated fashion, mirroring her tone, "that I concede defeat."

Hisako let a triumphant grin claim her face, and she looked over at the proctor, unwilling to free Neji until the match was officially declared.

"Due to concession of the opposition, the winner of this round is Mutakami Hisako!"

--

After the match...

--

The brown-haired kunoichi walked tall and proud out of the arena, her chin held high. She drank in the applause, letting the approval from the crowd wash over her. As soon as she was out of sight, though, she sank to her knees, leaning heavily on the wall, and clutched at her stomach- the 'injury site', as it were. She lifted up her battered shirt and winced at the sight - black and blue everywhere. She may have even recieved a couple of cracked ribs.

"Good Lord, Hisako," exclaimed a familiar silky tenor voice, and Hisako quickly yanked her shirt down in surprise and lurched to her feet- a bad idea. The blood rushed to her head and the world began to tilt on its axis. She tilted sideways and began to fall, to which Tenzo responded by stepping forward and gingerly putting his arms around her. She sighed and gratefully rested her head on his shoulder.

"I didn't mean for you to see that," she murmured quietly, just basking in that woody smell that was so familiar, so Tenzo.

"You shouldn't try to hide things from me," he replied in the same hushed tone.

"I don't want you to worry about me," was her only response before her knees gave out and she leaned heavily on him, slumping forward. Tenzo gently, but swiftly, wrapped one arm around her torso and one arm around her thighs and picked her up. As he recognized the sound of footsteps rapidly approaching, Hisako's head slumped into his chest, and he realized she passed out. He turned around to face a concerned Sakura, Kakashi, and Naruto.

"She fainted?" Naruto's overly-loud, obnoxious voice.

"It would appear that way," Kakashi responded dryly.

"She needs medical attention. I think she's got some cracked ribs," Tenzo explained to Sakura (the medic).

"But she said he wouldn't even have given her a bruise," Kakashi pointed out, bemused.

"She was bluffing," Sakura realized, her gaze softening as she looked at her battered friend. "She didn't want to give Neji-kun the satisfaction of knowing he'd affected her at all."

"Hisako..." Tenzo looked down at the unconsious girl in his arms, yet again amazed. "You really gave it your all, didn't you?"

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