Hellfire

Part 6

"You wanted to see me?"

Hinata turns around and sees Kurenai-sensei approaching her with a wide smile that reaches her eyes. The Hyuga nods and bows politely.

"Yes, I...wanted to ask something," Hinata requests, a little uneasy. "You're not busy today, are you?"

"No," Kurenai insists. She arches her eyebrow and observes Hinata quietly. "What is it?"

Hinata opens her mouth, and then closes it for a second. She doesn't know what to say exactly, or how to put into words just what she's feeling.

For a while now, she's felt off. Like something has changed within her but she can't pinpoint just what that might be at all. Has she always been like this? Besides her amnesia, is she really herself?

Because she dreams, and what she dreams of doesn't feel of this world or normal at all. Hinata doesn't feel normal anymore. There's a constant anxiety digging at her throat but she can't blame it entirely on the fact that she suffers from a temporary amnesia.

Things feel different somehow. She's not crazy, is she?

"Please, spar with me," Hinata requests, and Kurenai's eyebrows shoot up in surprise. She has been expecting anything but that.

"Oh?"

"This body of mine..."she mutters, mostly to herself in thought, "It feels...like I'm straining. Like it's not...really mine and I want to check—"

"You don't need to explain yourself to me, Hinata-chan," her sensei interrupts quickly, gently placing a hand on the girl's shoulders. "What with how long you were in hospital, it's natural to feel out of time with your body. We can work on it if you want."

"Mm!" agrees the Hyuga, "Thank you!"

They move further into the training grounds, winding around the thicket and trees until they meet a clearing.

"Byakugan?" asks Kurenai.

"If I may."

"Of course."

Hinata falls into the Gentle Fist stance, carefully analysing how stiff her body feels and how it can't have always been this way.

Her momentary distraction gives Kurenai a chance to charge forward, fists flying. It isn't smart to get close to a close-range fighter as deadly as the Hyuga however the Yuuhi does it anyway.

Hinata gasps slightly taken aback and dodges a punch, a kick and flips out of the way of a row of kunai before sweeping her sensei's feet from beneath her. In an instant, Hinata slides into the formation of the Air Palm Strike and sends Kurenai flying across the grounds.

Kurenai lands, and her lips stretch wide. "Very good, Hinata-chan!" she praises.

But since when has she known that technique? Kurenai has never seen it before.

She ducks her head to wipe the droplets of blood that slide from her nostril, and then shunshins behind Hinata.

"I won't go easy on you!"

The Yuuhi forms handseals and the earth begins to rumble. Hinata's feet launch her into the air just as a pillar shoots out of the ground where she once stood. She lands in a tree, then uses the momentum to propel herself towards Kurenai like a bullet.