I think this is going to be a first for me. I'm posting an incomplete
chapter. I know is hard to believe but I am. I've been stuck on this chapter
for a long time and I just can't figure out what to do next. I'm posting it now
because I know there are some people out there who really want more. I will
continue to work on this problem and will repost the chapter when it's complete
but for now i'm giving you what i got.
A collective gasp was heard among the Leaf ninja above
the fighting arena. The final moments of the fight between Shikamaru and Sakura
had been...intense...to say the least. Breaths that had been unknowingly held
were suddenly released as everyone realized that it was over. Shikamaru’s team
was cringing at the sight of their teammate’s awful burn. Naruto noted that the
fat boy actually looked physically sick while Ino seemed like she couldn’t
manage to pull her eyes away from either of the fighters. Her pale blue eyes
were wider then normal and her breath seemed to be ragged and quick.
Medical nins jumped out onto the field and hoisted each of the fallen
combatants onto a stretcher and took them off the field through the huge door
at the far end of the room. Once they were gone the amazed tension in the room
finally slackened to a point that was tolerable.
As the two young nins were taken off the field Naruto smiled inwardly. There
were only a few people left to fight and only half of those looked like they
would be somewhat of a match. Naruto was sure he could beat Dosu since he’d seen
it done before. He’d beaten Lee before but their fight had been cut short last
time so Naruto hadn’t gotten to see the bowl cut boy’s best. Hinata just didn’t
seem like the fighting type and he didn’t think Choji really had a chance
against anyone. That left the sand boy and the silent collar guy from dog boy’s
team. He didn’t know much about either but that had never really mattered to
him. He liked punching first and asking questions later.
The judge stepped forward once again as the screen above him blinked to
life. “I will announce the sixth match,” he stated flatly with a cough thrown
in for good measure.
The names flashed and eyes became yet again glued to the screen. Naruto
tensed. A tickle down the back of his spine told him he was being stared at. A
quick glance across the room confirmed the feeling. The red haired sand boy was
staring at him unblinkingly. In the second or two Naruto locked eyes with him
he got the distinct impression that something about the smaller boy was
decidedly evil and unnatural; as if there were actually two sets of eyes
peering through one.
A loud beep from the direction of the board pulled Naruto’s attention
away from the disturbing green eyes and the names he saw instantly put all
thought of the boy out of his mind. His name was there, bold and bright. But
the name accompanying his was one he hadn’t expected to see. His shoulders
slumped a bit in disappointment as he read the name again and felt his
excitement start to ebb away as he realized that his dreams of an incredible
match had just been blown away.
The name below his was Hyuuga Hinata.
Hinata felt her heart plummet into her belly as she saw the name of the
person she was going to face. Of all the people besides her cousin and Shino he
was the one she wanted to face least. She’d met him bare weeks ago and she had
already developed a strange liking for him. He’d had the courage to stand up to
her teammate Kiba and had been confident and bold in every situation she’d seen
him in. Maybe it was because he was so different. Because he embodied the
things that she wished fervently for; strength, ability, and confidence. She’d
snuck out to see Team Seven practice the day after she’d first seen him walking
with Sakura. She’d been impressed with his skill but most of all by the way he
moved. His body movements were confident and powerful in a way she knew hers
would never be.
Despite her liking for him she knew the reason for her plummeting heart
wasn’t his good looks. His power and endurance had left her breathless after
her observations that day. He could take punishment and use massive amounts of
chakra and still have energy and reserves to burn. She knew beyond a doubt that
she had no chance against him at range. And even if he came in close she
doubted she could match his speed and hitting power. Even with her families
signature taijutsu style she doubted she’d last two minutes against him.
The familiar feeling of worthlessness crept into her thoughts and drove
the little bit of confidence she’d had in a good match firmly out of her.
So it was that both of them made their way silently down to the floor. Naruto’s
jaw was firmly set. He knew he was going to win, he just didn’t like winning
against such a weak opponent and a girl at that. The only girl he’d fought so
far had been Sakura. He’d gained respect for her as a fighter but still thought
of girls in general as weak and not worth fighting. His interest in Hinata’s
strange behavior and the fact that he’d been impressed with the little bit of
Neji’s style he’d seen were the only reasons he wasn’t yelling and grumping
about having to fight the little purple haired girl.
Hinata in turn was wallowing in her misfortune and self pity. Her
fingers were intertwined with each other high on her chest. Her eyes were glued
to the floor and refused to look up as the two of them took their spots facing
each other with Hayate between and off to the side a bit.
Above them Kurenai and the Hokage were thinking similar thoughts. They
both knew that the two fighters below were on totally opposite ends of the
spectrum where personality and outwardness were concerned. Needless to say they
both worried.
But Kurenai had a bit more information on the shy girl then the Hokage
did. She knew Hinata had developed a bit of a crush on the hyperactive blond over
the past few weeks. She was normally skittish around guys; adding a crush to
her already shy nature then throwing her and that crush into a confrontation
was almost too painful to think about.
Kakashi and Jiriaya were grimacing as well but were thinking more about
Naruto then Hinata. Kakashi had seen how much trouble Naruto had with girls in
the week or so he’d known the boy and didn’t like what his knowledge combined
with this match was adding up to.
Jiriaya, on the other hand, was far past just a grimace. He was
developing a full blown headache. He had hoped beyond hope that Naruto wouldn’t
be paired off against a girl. The old man just could not understand his pupil’s
dislike for the other sex. Sure his sensei was a bit of a perv but weren’t kids
supposed to follow in their rolemodel’s or sensei’s footsteps? Girls were one
matter though. Female shinobi were on a whole other level and that was
why Jiriaya was developing a pain behind his eyes.
Naruto stared at the girl in front of him. Her total lack of eye contact
and submissive body language was starting to get on his nerves, and the match
hadn’t even started yet. He had no idea how he was supposed to handle someone
like this. Hinata just looked so damn innocent to him! The only sign that she
was a ninja was the leaf head plate hung around her neck and the weapon pouch
strapped to her leg and that just wasn’t enough for Naruto. A fighter was
supposed to be a lion not a kitten.
Hayate looked between the two of them and spoke. “Uzumaki Naruto and
Hyuuga Hinata. Let the sixth match begin.”
Silence dropped down around them again after the ref stopped speaking. The
quiet was only broken by the occasional shuffle of Hinata’s nervous feet. After
thirty seconds of this Hayate became impatient. “What’s wrong? Please begin.”
Hinata jumped slightly at his voice and gave him a short pleading look
before lowering her eyes to stare at Naruto’s feet.
Naruto grumbled a bit then spoke up. “Are we going to fight Hinata-san?”
It was a stupid question to ask in a tournament Naruto knew, but with Hinata he
felt he had to ask.
Hinata’s hands twisted together faster and her eyes rose a bit along
with the blood in her cheeks. “H-Hai.”
The blond nodded and tensed. “Then quit screwing around and fight.”
Hinata jumped again and hesitated a bit before taking up a basic gentle
fist stance, signifying that she was ready, but her body language screamed
nervousness and unease. Several people up in the crowd groaned inwardly as they
saw her pitiful attempt at a stance.
But if Naruto saw her unwillingness to fight he didn’t show it because
he came in at her seconds after she’d formed her stance. He came in fast and
hard with a fist cocked back, ready to let fly. Hinata’s eyes took on a
terrified look as he attacked. She barely managed to block his first attack and
fell back before the rest of his attack sequence, only turning aside the shots
she couldn’t duck or slip away from.
Naruto abruptly stopped and backed off looking throughly disgusted about
something. As soon as Hinata saw that Naruto wasn’t about to attack her again
she dropped her combat stance and stepped back into her nervousness full time. The
sight of his opponent retreating back into herself only made Naruto look more disgusted.
The balconies were strangely silent now yet just about all of the gennin
and younger chuunin and jounin were itching to yell something, anything, to get
the purple haired girl to drop her act and get on with the fight. But for some
unknown reason each of them reigned their comments in and kept their mouths
shut.
Unfortunately Hinata didn’t need to hear their yells. The silence from
above was just as bad because she knew they were all staring at her. The
feeling of their eyes on her back were, to her, louder then words. She blushed
and cringed slightly under their invisible weight. Naruto saw the almost
invisible flinch and turned a quick glare upwards at the watchers above before
speaking again.
“Hinata-san. I won’t fight you unless you stop what you’re doing and
face me like you mean it.”
Naruto’s voice was flat and as free of the emotions raging inside him as
he could make it. It cut like a knife through Hinata’s nervousness and drained
her face of blood leaving it starkly pale even by her normal standards. Naruto
had just laid down the law and was looking at her like he expected an answer.
Hinata stared.
Naruto spoke again. “And I’m not going to just walk out. I expect a
fight so I’m gonna wait if I have to till you’re willing to fight me like you
really mean it. GOT IT!” The last words were a drastic departure from the
flatness. He closed his eyes and emptied his lungs in one huge yell.
Hinata stared some more. She looked almost like she’d turned to stone
there on the floor of the arena. Her large pale eyes hadn’t left him since he
had spoken and had barely blinked at all. In fact they seemed like the only
parts of her body that were moving. No one could even tell if she was
breathing.
Finally her lips parted and a whisper of a word came out. “I don’t think
I can.”
Now it was Naruto’s turn to blink and stare. “Whadya mean you don’t
think you can? If you can’t give it you’re all then why did you enter this exam
in the first place?” Naruto had gone from in control to totally confused in a
matter of seconds. This girl in front of him, from what he was gathering right
now, had no motivation to speak of and no sense of worth. This clashed so
strongly with Naruto’s idea of a ninja that he could not mix the two. It left
him, for lack of a better term, profoundly mixed up.
The blond scratched at his head and asked her again. “Why are you here?
Don’t you have a goal or something?” Naruto had an idea and clapped his hands
together. “Or did you just come along for the ride with your teammates?”
The Hyuuga girl took a sharp breath as Naruto spoke. What he was saying
was so shocking she couldn’t help it. It was true she hadn’t exactly wanted to
do this but for the sake of her teammates had agreed since they couldn’t take
the exams without her.
But there had been another reason as well. Hinata was passive by nature,
and hated that fact dearly. She didn’t like being walked on and cast aside by
her father and other clan members. She didn’t like the fact that she fidgeted
and started at the slightest mention of her name in another’s presence. She
didn’t like the fact that she wasn’t good at her family’s taijutsu style and
that she didn’t have the heart to be the heir to Konoha’s top clan. Yet the
thought of trying to change that scared her enough that it effectively negated
the desire to change. She was living at an impasse.
But this exam had finally offered her what she thought might be a chance
to change all of that. She clung to the desperate hope that, if she could get
through the exam, that the action would open up inside her some invisible
barrier or provide some impetus for her to change herself.
Yes it's a Hinata/Naruto battle. Seems to be almost a first for FFnet. At least I haven't seen any that I can remember. As I said above I will continue to work on this chapter when time allows but most of my attention will be focused on school work and the majority of my ff attention is currently directed at my most recent story. But the story will go on!