The next match was something Sukuna was very interested in. He personally had worked with Kiyomi to improve her level, so it was clear how annoyed he felt when he had to escort Kimimaro—who he healed with RCT but was still in a worse state due to his inherited bloodline disease, or at least that was what he thought it was from some fanfics and Reddit posts—out of sheer medical ethics as a doctor.
'If only I had something like a shadow clone at times like this.' He grumbled but still carried Kimimaro to the Konoha hospital alongside a few more medical staff members.
As for the match, he had to leave it to secondhand interpretation to know what happened.
Only when the injured candidate from earlier was taken away did the proctor call the two last participants to the ring.
"Last match, Kiyomi Uchiha vs Neji Hyuga."
Both candidates walked in with eyes only on each other. Dōjutsu flaring, declaring fighting intent.
Only once both were standing inside the ring, facing each other, did the proctor call the start of the match.
"Begin!"
Many expected them to instantly rush at each other, but instead they just stood there, staring at one another, both looking for an opening.
"It's futile to think you can win. Why even bother? If I were you, I wouldn't waste either of our time and would call off this match," Neji said in a monotone voice, no expression on his face.
"In your dreams." Kiyomi instantly retorted, Sharingan flaring even more as her cursed energy started to flare out in a rhythmic motion.
Neji's Byakugan, of course, caught the strangely colored chakra of the Uchiha girl. Her chakra was darker than most; however, it felt brighter. It was a complete contradiction that even he couldn't figure out.
He rarely had seen chakra like that.
Seeing Neji not attack, Kiyomi decided to attack first. With practiced ease, she took out a few kunai and flicked them at him.
Neji's Byakugan easily caught their trajectory, and with ease he avoided them, only to find paper dangling at the ends of the two kunai.
His eyes only slightly widened before he composed himself and dodged the upcoming explosion from the explosion tags attached to the kunai.
Being the Hyuga he was, Neji didn't waste that little window he had gotten. With speed that made people question whether he was really a genin, he closed the distance between them.
"Gentle Fist—Eight Palms…"
Taking the most standard stance of the Gentle Fist, he sent furiously fast palm strikes at Kiyomi.
Kiyomi's Sharingan predicted the upcoming strikes perfectly the moment the first strike was about to land. Her hands masterfully drew the two short Kiba blades attached to her back like large daggers, similar to how her brother would in the future.
Kiyomi wasn't that fast, though. She couldn't counter the attack. However, Neji's instincts kicked in, and he evaded the incoming blades at the cost of stopping his attack.
Neji's eyes narrowed at those blades. There was something wrong about them. His Byakugan saw the strange chakra attached to them.
"Those are no ordinary blades," Neji said in a grim tone.
"I'm even surprised you noticed that. Tch… so close to getting that hand of yours." Kiyomi smirked, pouring her cursed energy into the blades as lightning came alive around them.
"That…" The one who reacted to this wasn't Neji or the people from Konoha. Most who didn't know Kiyomi's condition would only think that she knew Lightning Release, but only Zabuza had an inkling of the feeling.
He felt that this wasn't normal Lightning Release chakra. Of course, being one of the Hidden Swordsmen of the Mist himself, he knew the Kiba blades well, and this clearly looked like those blades—minus the jagged fangs running along the edge.
'Am I thinking too much?' Zabuza grumbled to himself. It could be that the girl simply knew Lightning Release. However, his gut feeling told him that lightning wasn't ordinary.
Back in the fighting ring, Neji's features hardened. He was now taking the fight completely seriously. Normal eyes couldn't tell, but his Byakugan told him those blades were dangerous.
But for a Hyuga, close combat was essential.
Once again, Neji rushed at Kiyomi with all his speed, ready to disarm the girl before she even got the chance to use her blades.
'Fast…!' Kiyomi too stiffened at that speed. Her eyes, of course, could trace Neji's movement, but she wasn't that fast.
Instead of trying to dodge away, with the predictive ability of her Sharingan, she blocked with the Kiba blades in front of her, lightning still crackling around them.
Neji expected this and midway changed the trajectory of his palm strike, suddenly going for her shoulder rather than her abdomen.
"Arg—" Pain rang through Kiyomi's body when she felt the strike land, but unlike what Neji expected, that strike didn't disable her arm. Only pain.
'Wait, that wasn't the chakra point?' Neji's eyes narrowed in confusion.
His Byakugan tried to see through the haze of the strangely colored chakra of the Uchiha girl, but his confusion only deepened.
'Where are the Tenketsu points?'
Kiyomi, taking advantage of Neji's momentary lapse in concentration, quickly backed off while nursing her already swollen shoulder.
"That fucker hits hard," she cursed under her breath with irritation. She, of course, knew about the Hyuga Gentle Fist after being part of this village and world for so long, but this was the first time she had personally experienced it, and her only thought was that she didn't wish to experience it again.
She recalled what Sukuna told her before:
"Listen, the Hyuga can see chakra and Tenketsu points inside a shinobi's body with their white eyes. Both chakra and cursed energy are close enough that most Hyuga can't tell them apart, even if they knew what the latter was in the first place.
However, Tenketsu is the problem. After years of testing and research, I have learned that I have Tenketsu as a natural trait shared by everyone born in this world, so I believe you should have them as well.
But our bodies can't make chakra since the cursed energy we inherited is mostly affiliated with Yin chakra, while Yang chakra is very similar to reverse cursed energy.
Both cannot and will not exist together, as you know. To make chakra in this world, one must combine both Yin and Yang energy.
And before you ask, yes, I tried to do that—and no, I couldn't find any way.
So those Tenketsu are pretty much useless in your body. They are barely visible, and upon getting struck, besides pain, there wouldn't be any adverse reaction like blocking out our cursed energy flow.
As you should know, the Hyuga can do that. I'm telling you this just to avoid any Hyuga actually testing this on you. It will just make you stand out as different faster.
You don't want that. Use the slight difference between cursed energy and chakra to your advantage. Cloak yourself with cursed energy to hide the Tenketsu as much as possible to throw off their concentration."
Those words rang inside her head like a giant bell.
'How so easily he discarded this pain, like it was nothing. As if—' Kiyomi cursed again but did what the pink-haired boy advised and once again coated herself with a thick layer of cursed energy reinforcement.
This caused Neji to crunch his face even further.
'What kind of technique is that? Using chakra to hide the Tenketsu points. How is that even possible?'
For Neji, he truly thought this was some sort of technique to counter the Hyuga Clan's dōjutsu. Seeing Kiyomi was from the Uchiha Clan, from another dōjutsu family, the possibility only increased in his mind. As for why he didn't know something like this existed—
He was a lonely branch family member. Why would the main branch bother telling him?
Only thinking about this made Neji's hatred flare up.
Once again, both were at a standstill.
Half of Kiyomi's arsenal—genjutsu—was useless against Neji's Byakugan. Neji, too, couldn't use his Gentle Fist effectively without access to her Tenketsu.
'Physical harm it is then.'
As if struck by lightning, both thought of this simultaneously and launched at each other.
The Kiba blades in Kiyomi's hands lit up with lightning as she swung at Neji.
Neji coated his hands with chakra to deflect them, but as soon as his palm came into contact with the blade, he once again backed off.
This time, he backed off willingly, his face slightly panicked at his numbed hand.
But Kiyomi was relentless. She didn't let him retreat. She followed.
Cornered, Neji had no other option but to reveal the technique he was saving for the finals.
"Revolving Heaven."
Neji released chakra from all the Tenketsu in his body and rotated, forming a dome of chakra around himself like a half Rasengan, but used as a shield.
Kiyomi's blades clashed with the Revolving Heaven with furious vigor, lightning crackling and actually cutting slightly into the dome until the force of the rotation redirected all the impact toward Kiyomi and flung her back with enough force to lift her off the ground.
When both came to a stop, they looked equally shocked.
'The sword didn't cut through?'
'She almost cut open my Revolving Heaven!'
The audience saw both staring at each other, the fight coming to a strange halt that confused them.
Though their observant thoughts didn't matter to the two fighters.
The only thing in their minds was this—
"Who the hell is this Uchiha girl?!"
"Who the hell is this Hyuga boy?!"
xXx
A/N : What you think, a little too slow, or fine. Tell me so I'll fix the flow accordingly. Sometimes I can't tell when I'm the one writting the story.
As for the flow, my flow automatically get better seeing stones coming my way, really !
Try giving me some and see for yourself.
Also when I say I'm travelling. Consider me around 20 day from earlier if you're reading this in Webnovel. So yeah, commenting in Webnovel right now is pointless. But still don't worry I'll read all comments so go ahead.
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