Chapter 23: Eyes
"Then, let us fight!" Izuna said before charging straight at the Hyuga.
"First, let's see how you deal with this!" he said, stopping three meters from Hajime, taking shuriken out and throwing them rapidly at him.
In reaction, his enemy simply got a kunai and tried to deflect a couple of the projectiles while dodging the rest.
'He's got good reflexes and is pretty agile...'
Suddenly, Izuna started throwing more shuriken and even faster.
Seeing this, the Hyuga threw a couple of smoke bombs, covering both himself and Izuna.
"Trying to hide?" Izuna said, mockingly.
"You fool! These eyes of mine, they cannot be blinded by simple smoke!" he said.
Out of nowhere, a kunai flew straight at Izuna, who swiftly dodged in the last second.
"I see... the Sharingan is no joke either... Well then, let's see if your reaction time is faster than my kunai throwing!"
As Izuna looked around unable to see, Hajime started throwing kunai from all directions.
No progress was made, however, since the kunai were no match for the instantaneous dodging of Izuna.
"Are you done?"
The smoke dissipated from all the kunai flying around, revealing the Hyuga.
"Done? This isn't done until I defeat you!" he said, starting to form hand seals.
With his Sharingan, Izuna was easily able to identify the jutsu.
Suddenly, his eyes started spinning and he quickly formed the same seals.
"Suiton: Suidan no jutsu!" ("Water Style: Water Bullet!")
"Suiton: Suidan no jutsu!" ("Water Style: Water Bullet!")
They both yelled out at the same time, using the same jutsu against each other, cancelling out at the middle.
"What?! You copied my jutsu?!"
"This is the true power of the Sharingan! These eyes may not see through walls or through smoke, but they can see through any ninjutsu, genjutsu and taijutsu. There is nothing you can do to fool them!" Izuna replied, before disappearing.
Hajime panicked. He lost Izuna's trace, so he decided to try to guard himself from any attacks. Luckily, with his Byakugan, he could see in any direction.
He waited, but Izuna did not attack. He waited some more, but still... nothing...
Then, out of nowhere, six clones of Hajime surrounded him. Seeing this, the Hyuga was confused.
'What is this? Six of me? Maybe this is the Bunshin no Jutsu (Clone Jutsu) combined with Henge (Transformation)...'
"Byakugan!" he said, trying to look at the clones.
'So... they don't have any chakra networks, meaning this is the academy jutsu.' he concluded before all six clones dashed at him.
"Your trickery won't work against me! I know these clones have no mass!"
Then, when he expected them all to disappear, all six punched him upwards.
"What?! How?!"
Then, falling from a tree was Izuna, who held a katana in his hands, aiming straight for Hajime.
'This is bad! He is going to impale me while falling... I need to move out of his path somehow!'
Then, Izuna appeared closer to him, stabbing the Hyuga right throw the abdomen, continuing his momentum downards, pinning the genin to the ground.
"Now, then..." Izuna said, moving his hands towards Hajime's eyes, threatening to poke them out.
"Noo! Don't!"
All of a sudden, Izuna turned to smoke and dissipated. The katana impaled in Hajime's body was gone and he was now standing still in the place where he first saw the six clones.
This time around, he noticed them in the exact same place but instwad of his own image, they resembled Izuna.
"Wh... What?! What is going on?!"
He yelled out before the clones punched him upwards again.
"How is this happening?!"
He then saw himself falling down from the tree with a katana.
Before long, he was stabbed and pinned to the ground, with his clone threatening to poke out his eyes.
Then, the clone transformed into one of his teammates and stood up, looking at Hajime.
"I can't believe you let us get hurt!"
Then, his other teammate came next to them.
"I hate you! Useless Hyuga!"
Then the two walked away before disappearing.
Hajime was no longer impaled into the ground, but standing in the middle of where he first saw the six clones.
'What is going on?!' he thought.
'I need to calm down... think... This is probably genjutsu, so dispelling it is the only solution.'
Hajime put his hands together and said "Kai!" ("Release!")
He looked around and saw his two teammates knocked out against the tree and Izuna next to them.
"So, you finally figured out that it was a genjutsu?"
"When?! When did you catch me?!"
"Back when I copied your jutsu, when we made eye contact, I casted the genjutsu using my Sharingan. It doesn't matter though... I already took your team's scroll from you while you were distracted. Since you are fellow Konoha shinobi, I'm just going to take it and leave."
"Wait! Who said I would let you go?"
"Oh? So you still want to fight?"
"We have battled in Ninjutsu, Shuriken and Kunai throwing, and you also caught me in genjutsu, but I am yet to see your Taijutsu skills!"
"Hmph. Do not misunderstand. You are not an opponent I would go all out against. If you were, who knows if you would've survived this long. Very well then, I'm going to stay a little longer." Izuna said.
Then, the two of them got in their fighting stances, before Izuna decided to attack first.
He threw two punches which were swiftly dodged and then a low kick aimed at his opponent's feet.
Seeing this, Hajime jumped, thrusting his palm towards Izuna's chest.
The Uchiha turned his body in order to avoid the attack and caught the arm with both hands.
"This style..." he said, looking into Hajime's eyes.
"You are right... This is the Hyuga clan's Gentle Fist Taijutsu!"
"You may have learned a few moves, but this palm punching method won't be able to deal damage!"
Then, Izuna started throwing punches at Hajime, who simply pushed each attack to the side, moving backwards every time.
After a few seconds of continued attacks, Izuna stopped, feeling something was off.
"So you finally realised!"
"You! How did you manage to restrict chakra from flowing to my arms!"
"The Gentle Fist is not just a palm punching style. With it, the user is able to block and release tenketsu inside and opponent's body, allowing him to freely control an enemy's chakra flow."
"I see... I guess I underestimated your clan!"
"Indeed you have, and you will now pay for it, with this next move! Eight Trigrams, Sixteen Palms!"
Hajime went into a starting pose and initiated his technique.
"One palm!" he said, striking Izuna in the abdomen. "Two palms!" he continued, hitting him in two different spots on his chest. "Four palms! Eight palms! Sixteen palms!" he finally yelled out as he dealt sixteen attacks straight at Izuna, sending him flying back.
"With this, you should not be able to fight anymore!" he said, but right then Izuna started getting up.
"What?! How are you still moving?!"
"You got me pretty good... My chakra is hard to control and I can't feel my left arm at all, but I'm not going to lose to you here. I held back until now but you seem to be tougher than I thought." Izuna said, almost out of breath.
"You... you are easily the strongest I've fought. No one else resisted the Sixteen Palms technique until now."
"I'm sorry to say this, but I will end it here."
Izuna started forming hand seals.
"Katon: Gouka Mekkyaku!" ("Fire Style: Great Fire Annihilation!")
Then, a large wave of flames came out of Izuna's mouth and hit Hajime directly.
Izuna went to check what damage he caused and noticed the Hyuga got burned pretty badly and got knocked out.
'The jutsu was not that powerful. I am not able to control my chakra very well right now... I should just get away from here with the scroll and hide somewhere... I need to rest after this fight. Hyuga Hajime, I hope to see you in the next stage of the exam!' he thought before leaving his opponent next to the two guys he previously knocked out.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone