Dream Team (NaruHina)

#22 Live is cruel

The next fight was over quickly. Shikamaru outsmarted his opponent, Kin Tsuchi from Otogakure, from the first moment. The girl didn't stand a chance as he threw kunai after kunai, forcing her to dodge while extending the reach of his shadow possession. At the slightest mistake he pounced and the girl was caught, forced to mirror the Nara's movements and forfeiting consequentially.

"Naruto Uzumaki and Kiba Inuzuka, make your way to the arena." Gayatri announced after Shikamaru had made his way back to the spectators. Smiling at her boyfriend Hinata gave him a quick peck. "Have fun." "I'll finish this quickly." The blonde stated, angering Kiba who had heard their exchange. As the konoha genin stormed onto the battleground of the arena he was stunned to see the blonde already standing there waiting for him, since he had ran down the stairs before the pair from Iwa had let go of each other. 

He saw the stunned looks from the proctors and got even more confused and angry. Ignoring his confusion, the Inuzuka let his dog jump down from his head and gave him a small pill. Hayate started the fight after he got out of his stupor upon seeing the young shinobi from Iwa perform the famous hiraishin without using a kunai. 

Looking curiously at the dog, Naruto watched as the fur changed from white to red and it grew to stand almost as tall as the two genin themselves. After the transformation had finished Naruto shrugged, took out a kunai and vanished in an orange flash. The dog searched around until his eyes landed on his owner, who had a terrified look on his face as he felt the cold steel of Naruto's kunai on his throat. "Yield." Naruto demanded, increasing the pressure before Kiba's hand went up and he forfeited. Putting his kunai away Naruto nodded at the proctor before another flash enveloped him and he reappeared next to Hinata, a hand around her waist. 

"Missed me?" Naruto asked with a smile. 

"Not really." Hinata answered with a smirk, laughing a little at the playfully hurt expression on the blonde's face. Giving him a kiss, Hinata heard her name being called out and walked down the stairs to the arena.

Standing in the arena she waited for her cousin to come down the stairs. As she took off her coat, sealing it in a small seal inside her pocket. Looking at the two short swords strapped to Hinata’s waist Neji sneered as he took position opposite of her. Hayate started the match and jumped away as Hinata rested her hands on the handles of her weapons. 

“How are you even alive?” Neji asked, slipping into his defensive stance. 

“I had to fake my death.” Hinata replied as she waited for her cousin to make a move. 

“We buried you. We had a whole week of mourning for you. And now you come back and you don't even have the decency to learn your own clan’s style.” Neji continued, his voice rising as he spoke. Shaking her head Hinata took her short swords from her belt and sealed them away in a small storage scroll, before placing the storage scroll back in her pocket and slipping into her own defensive gentle fist stance. One hand in front of her, the other slightly behind her, her left leg in front of the right one, her eyes stared at her cousin with a small frown on her lips. 

“You really think, I would not learn our style?” Hinata asked as Neji raised an eyebrow at her actions. “You can’t have spent enough time to learn it, since you had to take time to learn all the other useless stuff you learned, like your swords. I’ll show you that my mastery of our style is far better than yours.” He said, charging at the pale eyed girl, hands raised.

Hinata waited for him to get close enough before she began to move. It was slow at first, it almost looked like she was dancing. As her cousin came closer, she grew faster until her arms were so fast that it was becoming hard to follow them. 

When Neji reached her, he threw his hands at her and was promptly sent back, skidding across the ground. Hinata had stopped, remaining in the position she had struck the boy in. Looking up Neji saw the hard eyes of his cousin as he slowly made his way back to his feet. A bright red mark was forming on his cheek, with blood coming out of his mouth. 

“I don't want to do this.” Hinata said as Neji readied himself for another charge.

The boy didn’t even respond as he started to run at her for the second time. Hinata watched as he came closer. When he went to strike her, Hinata caught his hands, earning gasps from almost everyone in the arena. 

“You leave me no chance.” She said frowning, before she moved with almost unseen speeds. Naruto smiled as he watched Hinata turn away, before Neji simply dropped to the ground. Most spectators hadn’t even seen her hands move, so they were shocked to see the so called prodigy go down. 

When the purple haired girl came back to the stands everyone looked at her with wide eyes, as she took her place next to Naruto. “How did you do that?” Temari asked, voicing the question that was on most minds at the moment. 

“I closed a tenketsu point on his spine. He won't be able to move from the neck down for two days.” Hinata said. Everyone was astonished at that, since they realized that they hadn’t even seen her move when she finished the fight. 

Everyone went back to their places as the next pair was called down. 

Sand swirled through the air as Gaara used it to shushin down to the arena floor, while his opponent, Dosu Kinuta, took the stairs. 

Disappointingly the fight was over as quickly as it started with Gaara clogging up the holes in Dosu’s gauntlet. Without his gadget the genin was no match for the jinchuuriki. But he refused to give up so Gaara kept attacking, until he had enough and enveloped him in his sand. Being lifted up in the air surrounded by sand was apparently enough and the sound shinobi screamed his surrender, before being dropped to the ground as his opponent turned around and shushined back up to the spectator stands. The people not familiar with Gaara looked at him with horror in their eyes as the last two fighters made their way down to the arena. 

Zaku Abumi and Choji Akimichi faced off as the last match. Everyone was surprised when Zaku tried to shoot air out of the tubes embedded in his arms only to have them explode in his face. Hayate immediately jumped down, ending the fight, before the Akimichi had a chance to do anything. Apparently Zaku had sustained too much damage to his arms in the forest of death. No matter the reason, Choji didn't complain as he watched the teen get carried away.