章節 11: Chapter 26
I arrived at the training grounds. It was pretty open, with no real obstacles and few trees. Sunset was beginning, but there was still plenty of light coming over the distant treeline. In the distance, a lone figure approached from the trees.
Whereas I was wearing my ordinary black coat with my hood pulled over my head, the person walking closer was clad in layers of white robes that wrapped around his body and obscured his entire person. There was no ninja headband. A white hooded haori over the robes gave it an eerie resemblance to Jedi robes, despite the pure white color scheme. Between the white hood and a layer of cloth wraps over most of his face, the only thing I could see was his mouth. If this guy pulled out the Sword of the Thunder God, I was running for my life.
I declared with as much bravado as possible, "As the challenged party, I will now announce the terms of the duel. The winner shall maintain exclusive rights to making Naruto's lunch! Furthermore, the loser shall buy the winner a complete meal at Ramen Ichiraku!"
"I accept," whispered the cloaked figure in front of me.
"What?" I had been joking about Naruto's lunch but my opponent took a combat stance, ready to fight. "Well, I guess we're starting." I reached into each of my sleeves and snapped open the latches that attached my training weights to my arms. When I straightened my wrists downward, they fell to the ground with a ground-shaking thud. I glanced at my opponent, who showed no signs of surprise. As I removed the weights on my legs with similar thuds, I wondered who I could be fighting for my intimidation attempts to fail so badly.
I took my own stance and immediately launched a genjutsu. Illusionary shadow tentacles were supposed to rise from the ground and immobilize my enemy for me to get close. Instead, the white ninja nimbly dodged my chakra, muttering "Genjutsu!" That was frighteningly unexpected. Honestly, I was the one being intimidated at this point as the white blur quickly closed the distance between us.
I raised my arm to block his initial strike but suddenly it exploded in pain. "Holy motherfucker!" I swore internally as I jumped back, putting as much distance as I could between the two of us. It literally felt like my left forearm had exploded as I felt a searing pain in my bones and flesh. "Is my arm broken?" I had no time to check as I cradled my arm gingerly to my chest, conceding ground to my opponent who followed my short backward leaps like an inescapable shadow.
"You used genjutsu on Naruto. That's how you fooled him. But that won't work on me. Please, give up. I don't want to have to hurt you anymore," said a terrifyingly gentle voice.
"Shut up. I'm not done yet!" I shouted as I pulled my hood back to increase my peripheral vision and allow access to my weapon. If this wasn't a fight between ninja, I would have felt guilty as I pulled a wooden bokuto out of my coat with my good arm. Although I had no idea how to use it properly, I could at least pretend. Any weapon was good against someone who could incapacitate me with a single blow. If I was extremely lucky, I might have some hidden sword skill from a past life or something.
"I'm sorry that it has come to this," resigned the angel of death as he closed in with a flying kick.
"Treat the sword as an extension of my own body. Become one with the sword." Even though my left arm still burned with throbbing pain, I concentrated on the one thing I could remember from anime about using weapons. Somehow I managed to block the kick with my wooden sword. My foe flipped backwards off the sword and reevaluated me for a moment.
I immediately could tell I didn't have the wrist strength or the skills to pull that off again. By an adrenaline-fueled dint of luck, I had summoned enough chakra to my arm to block the kick. It hadn't been a particularly strong kick but, even with chakra enhancing flowing through my arm, I had barely managed to withstand it. It was small comfort to know that my weight training had been paying off. Thinking about chakra flows reminded me of something I hadn't considered until then.
In the momentary reprieve, I pulled down my left sleeve to check my arm. Although it felt like it had been blown to bits, visually it was fine except for a small red bruise. "Gentle fist," I surmised. "Hyuga...Hinata?"
"I can't let you corrupt Naruto any longer! You're both guys! It's wrong!" she shouted. "If I can't do at least this much for him then..." she trailed off, sprinting towards me to continue the fight.
"Goddamnit, Kiba." I was going to kill him later for starting that rumor if I managed to survive this fight. It was all I could do to block Hinata's strikes with the bokuto. Without any real skills, I used the sword as a dull, makeshift kunai to block most of her hands just above the hilt. I had strength enough for that. But she was as fast as I was without my weights and she had two arms. She would wear me down quickly.
I wondered, "Do I really want to win this fight?" My own preconception of Hinata was that she was an utterly pure soul who simply needed the confidence to do what she felt was right. Ordinarily, she would get that from watching Naruto over the years. In my momentary distraction, Hinata mashed her fingers into my hand, causing me to drop my sword. She followed up with a roundhouse kick to the face that sent me flying backwards into the ground.
Full of pain and disorientation, I slowly got up. Hinata was a good person even if she did kick me in the face. I wasn't about to let her win, but if she won, it would contribute to her growth as a person. "If I have to play the bad guy, I might as well put some effort into it."
"Do you really think you can defeat the Black Thunder of Konoha Academy?! I do not admit defeat! You have yet to prove to me that you are worthy of your precious knight! Prepare yourself for the end!" I shouted as I valiantly took up a fighting stance one more time.
It was unfortunate that I had never actually tested my counter for the gentle fist. Weight training to increase my stamina, and thus my chakra reserves, directly contradicted the technique I had theorized. But there was no time like the present to try.
Despite every nerve in my arms demanding I send more chakra, I actively worked to dismiss all the chakra in my body into its two constituent parts. I closed my eyes and closed my chakra gates. If I had truly spent a lifetime without chakra, I could survive a couple minutes more.
I heard Hinata gasp. "What are you doing?" That was a sign it was working.
Although the pain from her earlier strikes had begun to fade, weariness invaded in its place. My limbs felt like jello. It was a struggle just to stay standing. "Can I really fight like this?" I looked at the hesitating girl in front of me. "I strike!" I pushed the doubts out of my mind and charged.
For the first time in the fight, I took the offensive. Hinata quickly regained focus and started to tear into my arms again with the Gentle Fist. Her fingers left painful burning in my arms, but it wasn't the same debilitating pain as before. Although my speed and power were pitiful, Hinata seemed to be struggling. I had yet to land a blow but the grimace on her face was not a confident one.
Hinata fell back and fearfully asked, "What are you?"
"Your worst nightmare," was my immediate response. Although truthfully, I felt like I had run two marathons in a row. I felt nauseous and my vision was getting blurry from overexertion. It made sense why ninja equated chakra exhaustion with death. But I knew I could live off of my ki and my soul.
I charged forward again, putting all of my momentum into one final punch. But it wasn't enough. Hinata grasped my arm in the middle of my punch and used my own momentum to swing me around, flip me over her head, and slam me into the ground. The last thing I remembered was thinking, "Hinata's pretty cool."
When I came to, Hinata was sitting above me, her face uncovered and worried. "Ah, ah, Haru-san, are you okay?"
I tried to answer her but ended up coughing violently instead. Eventually, I managed to assure Hinata, "I'll be fine." I couldn't move my arms or get up, but I assumed that eventually I would be okay. Chakra was a hell of a drug.
"I'm sorry, Haru-san. It wasn't my idea to fight you." Hinata's voice slowly shrank as she spoke, ending in a whisper, "I'm sorry."
"I'm going to lie here for a minute. In the meantime, do you mind explaining how it came to this?"
"Um, when I heard that you were Naruto's girlfriend, I told my sister and she told me I should challenge you to a duel. She helped me write the note too." I didn't ask how she knew where I lived. "It wasn't until the day after that I learned it was a false rumor. But by then, I had already sent the challenge," she said with a blush. Man, Hinata was going to be really cute when she's older. "My sister then told my father and it became a matter of honor so I couldn't run away." Hinata clutched her face in a double facepalm of embarrassment.
"By the way, what's with your clothes?" I asked Hinata.
"These are the traditional Hyuga robes for formal combat. I, um, thought they were kind of silly but my family insisted. And when I put them on, I felt a lot more confident. It was like, you couldn't see who I was, so I didn't have to be so afraid."
I understood that feeling intimately. I said to Hinata, "So it was your sister's idea."
"Yes!" Hinata exclaimed, happy to clear up the misunderstanding.
"Hyuga-san, I have one more question. Why didn't you just tell your sister that her idea was stupid?" I asked, finally able to sit up.
"Ah, ah, I'm sorry. I'll try that next time, okay?" Hinata bowed repeatedly in apology. "I wanted to ask you something too. During our fight, what did you do? Your chakra suddenly became dark and blurry."
I was elated to hear that. "You're talking about the Byakugan, right?" Hinata gave a guilty nod. "I was using a technique that I read about a long time ago. I can't believe it almost worked," I admitted. I looked at the young girl sitting next to me on her knees. "Maybe I'll teach it to you once I finish it. Would you like that?" Teaching the Hyuga heir the counter to the Byakugan would be my symbolic middle finger to Hiashi and Neji.
"Yes!" Hinata said enthusiastically.
"Great. I'll work on it for our rematch next week."
"Um, rematch?" the shy girl asked.
"You're stronger than you look. But next time you're going to be buying the ramen!" I grinned. Finally, I had found a sparring partner. "And you should wear those clothes again. You gotta look badass when you're having an epic showdown with your rival!"
"Rival?" Hinata's eye twitched a little.
I stood up, feeling significantly better. I dusted the dirt off my coat and said, "I had a lot of fun today. Now, I owe you a bowl of ramen." I led the stunned girl by the hand toward Ichiraku's. "So, how did you meet Naruto in the first place anyways?"
I was sitting in the Academy classroom. It was the start of the second week of school. I was wondering how I might find a kenjutsu teacher when I suddenly noticed Hinata sitting down in the seat next to me.
"Hyuga-san, I didn't know you were in the same class as me."
Quietly, she said, "I used to sit over there." The pale eyed girl pointed to the very corner seat. I had never noticed Hinata's presence before today. The stalker-fu was strong in this one.
I shrugged. Maybe it would be worthwhile to properly introduce her to Naruto. She had told me over ramen that he had saved her from bullies just before the start of Academy. It was then that I had explained the situation between me and Naruto. I was about to call the blond boy over to sit with us when Ino arrived and took other seat next to me.
"Ino, this is Hyuga Hinata," I introduced the one friend to the other. "Hyuga-san, this is my friend Yamanaka Ino." I looked over to where Naruto had sat next to Shikamaru. It was too late to invite him to sit with Hinata. Maybe next time.
Ino gave a curt "Hello," and then seemed disinterested in further conversation. Hinata also said "Hello," and then proceeded to curl into a tiny human ball.
"Weird. I thought they'd get along better than that." Neither girl said anything and I continued to wonder why more ninja didn't use swords.
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