Chapter 73: First Match
"The princess of the Hyuga versus the Uzumaki. This is bound to be an interesting match." The Kazekage commented. Hiruzen nodded.
"It will. Both Shinobi have surprised me time and time again, and I suspect they will probably give me a heart attack before the day is done." Hiruzen replied with a chuckle. A raised an eyebrow as he looked at Naruto.
"Uzumaki? I thought all Uzumaki's are red haired." A reminded Hiruzen.
"His father's genetics won in that department. But make no mistake, his skill in Fūinjutsu is just as great or maybe greater than most members in the clan." The old Hokage replied. A hummed, If the young blonde Uzumaki was anything like his predecessors this would make for an interesting battle.
He looked at Naruto's eyes for a moment before speaking. " He looks a lot like Minato. The eyes, there is only one that shines as bright as his. Tell me Lord Hokage, is there anything else to the Uzumaki's lineage? " A asked Hiruzen who narrowed his eyes. A smirked as he looked at Hiruzen's reaction.
" I'll take it as a yes." A replied before resuming examining the contestants. Hiruzen sighed and palmed his face, hoping this would not cause any trouble more than it should.
He looked at Naruto who was busy conversing with Sakura and Satsuki. He then had a proud smirk on his face.
'Show them what you can do Naruto, ehow the villagers how strong you've become and how wrong they are about you.' Hiruzen thought as Genma who was down at the arena looked up at him.
"Alright you guys, take a look. This is the lineup for the main matches." Genma gathered the genins' attention held up a sheet of paper with the matches shown on it.
" As you can see there will be five matches in the first round. Now while the arena is different, the same rules from the preliminaries apply here. This basically means there are none."
" Matches will be fought one on one until someone dies, is knocked unconscious, or admits defeat. However, if at any time I deem that a fight is over I'll step in and end the match, is that understood? " Genma asked them, sighing in relief as all of them nodded back.
"Just one question. What happened to Hayate?" Naruto asked. Genma frowned at his question.
"He's in the hospital right now, his sickness startjng to get the better of him." Genma explained. Satsuki frowned upon hearing that.
Nodding to himself, he cleared his throat and raised his hand, silencing the energetic crowd immediately with his gestures.
"We will now start the first match between Uzumaki Naruto and Hyuga Hinata!! The other contestants, please go up to the booth to wait for their turn to fight!! " Genma ordered. Satsuki and Sakura fist bumped Naruto while Shikamaru nodded at him. Naruto gave the Nara a thumbs up.
He and Hinata were the only ones standing in the arena aside from Genma. He looked at Hinata who smiled at him.
"Let's give it our all, Naruto-kun." Hinata said, making Naruto grin broadly at her.
"Yeah! Let's show these people what we're all about! Believe it!" Naruto shouted back, making Hinata smile wider at how cheerful he is.
She quickly looked at her father Hiashi, who was sitting in the stands with Neji and her little sister, Hanabi.
Hiashi is the current head of the Hyuga clan.
Being an identical twin, Hiashi is a mirror image of his brother Hizashi with the exception of an unmarked forehead. He has long, black hair and featureless white eyes like all members of his clan. He normally wears very traditional, loose fitting robes with a long-sleeved, brown haori.
Sitting on Hiashi's left is Hanabi, Hiashi's youngest daughter and Hinata's little sister.
Hanabi is a young woman with long, dark brown hair that reaches down to the middle of her back, with long parted bangs with a single lock of hair falling into her face.
She also has large, white eyes with a hint of lilac in them. Overall, she resembles her father. She is seen wearing a sleeveless, blue v-neck shirt with mesh armour underneath. She is also wearing blue shorts and sandals.
"Watch closely, Neji, Hanabi. Hinata is what the Hyuga Clan is supposed to be. I want you to learn from her." Hiashi muttered seriously.
" Yes, father. "
" Yes, Lord Hiashi."
"Are you two ready?" Genma asked Naruto and Hinata who both nodded back at him.
"Then start the fight!!!" Genma declared. Immediately after his declaration, Hinata activated her Byakugan and slid into the Gentle Fist stance.
Naruto narrowed his eyes observing the stance, it was extremely different from the one when she fought Neji. 'She must've modified it.' He thought before slipping into his own personal taijutsu stance.
Naruto was right. Hinata's modified version was extremely flexible due to her also being extremely flexible and defensive. It was extremely different from the more offensive and traditional Gentle Fist being predictable and rigid.
"Never seen that before. That style is interesting." Naruto commented. Hinata nodded.
"Thank you. What I use now is not the Gentle Fist but the Gentle Step. My problem with the Gentle Fist was that I was too flexible and the style far to rigid for me. After some experimenting I discovered that technically, the Gentle Fist is a nin/taijutsu hybrid meant to be used with Earth Release users. "
"A majority of our clan follows this alignment so there is rarely ever anyone that struggles. When someone does struggle they are just viewed as failures like I once was."
" However, we are not the failures. The failures are the elders and those that refuse to see how our traditions are weakening and destroying the clan! I WILL unite the Hyuga Clan as it should've been from the start!!!" Hinata declared seriously, Neji smiled a little, hearing his cousin's words. Hiashi wanted to smile too, but he had a reputation to uphold.
"Woah, I've never seen big sis so loud snd confident before." Hanabi whispered while she was in awe. She was surprised when her sister suddenly started to get more and more confident each and every day, now the once stuttering and extremely shy big sister she knew was gone, and she liked it to be gone forever.
This version of Hinata was much better. She is much stronger, much more confident in herself and actually had a good dream to work on.
Hinata's words made quite a few Hyuga from the main branch of the family frown. From the corner of his eyes, Hiashi looked at his father who is one of the Clan elders of the Hyuga Clan. He saw him and the rest of the Clan elders seething, a good sign to Hiashi.
Hanabi looked at Naruto who had a confident glow around him. 'So this is the Naruto guy big sis has a massive crush on. She has good taste that's for sure. I like the whiskers a lot, it makes him look very cute.' Hanabi thought with a blush on her face.
The entire arena was oddly silent as the two contestants stared down each other. It was almost as if they could feel the tension that was beginning to rise as the two contestants stared into each other's unique eyes, waiting to see who would make the first move.
"Haaa!!" Hinata made the first play and threw a punch. Suddenly, a large wave of flames shot out of her knuckles and advanced towards Naruto.
*FOOOOOOMMMM!!!!!*
The large wave of flames completely engulfed Naruto, creating a large cloud of smoke in the middle of the arena.
Hiashi stood up and looked down at his daughter in the arena with a shocked expression on his face.
"What was that?" Hanabi asked with a shocked expression of her own. Neji smirked to himself as he noticed every single member of the Hyuga Clan spectating the finals had shocked and expressions of disbelief on their faces.
The Clan elders were seething as they glared at Hiashi. "Hinata is truly a failure! Disregarding tradition and breaking it!" Hiashi's father shouted at Hiashi who ignored him as he stared at Hinata.
"Neji, you don't seem surprised. Do you know of this technique?" Hiashi asked Neji who nodded.
"Yes, Lord Hiashi. Since we Hyuga have the innate ability to release chakra via our tenketsu, Lady Hinata took it to the next level using her Fire Release. She calls it Firebending, Lord Hiashi. And she claims that we could do it too with our respective elemental affinities." Neji explained.
" Really.... " He whispered before a smile appeared on his face, it was something so rare that it surprised Neji.
"That girl surprises me everyday."
.
.
Back down at the arena, Hinata was waiting for Naruto to counterattack, not letting her guard down for even a millisecond.
Five Shadow Clones ran through the smoke and charged towards Hinata. Hinata narrowed her eyes as she saw the clones held up their tri-pronged kunai.
"That kunai...." A whispered to himself as he stared at the tri-pronged kunai intensely.
Two large waves of flames shot out of the back of Hinata's hands as she directed it so that it surrounded the Clones' left and right side.
*BOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!!*
The flames crashed into each other, destroying the clones snd creating a large explosion. Hinata stares at it before entering her Gentle Step stance.
Suddenly, Naruto appeared behind her via Body Flicker while holding the tri-pronged kunai. He attempted to stab Hinata in the back but Hinata quickly reacted and grabbed the hand that was holding the kunai.
Lightning crackled around her fingertips dangerously as she looked at Naruto who had a surprised expression on his face.
"Lightning Style: Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms!"
To be continued...
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