Naru: Misty Eyes (A Naruto Fanfic) [Complete]

Chapter Twenty-Four: Hyuuga vs. Senshi, Dango for the Win

All too soon, it was time for the finals. Naru had spent the month training with everyone she could: her parents, Karasu, Tsuki, her teammates, the Sand Siblings, the other Rookies, and even some new people she'd met, Team Gai. All in all, she was fairly happy just from that. It had been one learning experience after another, and she felt more confident in her abilities than she had before.

Naru was waiting for the pair-up announcements, leaning on a bar that faced into the arena with Sasuke on one side and Gaara on the other.

"Looks like you're up, Naru," Gaara said. "You're going against... Neji Hyuuga."

"Neji?" Naru frowned a little. Of course. Despite training with his team a few times, the boy just hadn't seemed to warm up to her. Oh, well. At least she had an idea of his fighting style, even if she hadn't sparred with him one-on-one. Most of her knowledge was based on listening to his spars with Lee and Tenten. "This should be interesting... Someone with a revered type of eyesight facing off against someone lacking any eyesight. No handicaps here."

"You'll do great, Naru," Temari said as she came up beside the smaller girl. "Just try your best and know we're all cheering for you."

"Kick his butt!" Kankuro added from across the waiting area.

Naru laughed a little, smiling at everyone despite her nerves. "Thanks, you guys. It means a lot."

"Yeah, yeah, dobe. Just hurry up and win so we can get to my fight," Sasuke said, although the nickname had been lacking any spite for some time now.

"You got it, teme," Naru said with a salute before heading down the stairs. She made it to the bottom safely, glad she hadn't embarrassed herself by tripping or something. Kami knew none of her friends would ever let her live it down.

"You took long enough," Neji's voice sounded from several feet away. "No matter how you draw it out, though, your loss is inevitable. The Fates are simply not on your side."

"They never were," Naru replied. "That's why I decided to make my own."

Hayate spoke up then, sounding very much like he was trying not to cough. "If you're both ready--" Even so, he was interrupted by a coughing fit. "Begin!"

Naru jumped away from Neji immediately. If he wanted to use his Gentle Fist, he would have to catch her first. Besides, she'd been training hard this past month. No way was she letting Neji get to her that easily, not so soon. She drew out her tessen, forming the handsigns she used in the preliminaries. "Wind Jutsu: Twin Tornadoes." There was far more dust here than there had been in the previous arena, and her tornadoes soon became filled with it. Occasional bits of it would sting her hands as she sent them spinning towards Neji.

Unlike when she fought Kiba, Naru knew right away when Neji avoided her jutsu. Kiba relied more on taijutsu and brute strength than ninjutsu, using less chakra than the Hyuuga branch member. Chakra that she could feel. While she had learned in a general sense to be aware of others' chakra, it was only really when they were using it. Over the last month, especially with how many people she'd been able to interact with, Naru had started to teach herself to sense chakra all the time. It made it harder for Gaara to sneak up on her, much to his frustration, but he had also admitted its usefulness.

It was even more useful seeing as she was mildly familiar with Neji's chakra... and he just so happened to be using it since the start of the fight. Byakugan, after all, required chakra to be constantly directed to the eyes. Unfortunately, this really only gave her his location at any given moment. It leveled the playing field a little, since he could see where she was.

"I admit, that was a rather impressive jutsu," Neji said from her right. Naru turned to face where he was, as if she hadn't known before. "But I've seen it before. Do you think I'm as weak as that dog-training fool you fought in the preliminaries?"

"That's not very nice. Puppy put up a good fight. He almost won too," Naru frowned. Kiba might have gotten on her nerves during their fight, but he was a decent ninja and could become a great one. Neji shouldn't make fun of him.

"Yes, and that is why you will lose." Neji was closer now. Naru took a step backwards. "If you can barely defeat someone like him, you have no hope of defeating me."

"Perhaps not." Naru's frown turned to a smirk. "But I never really intended to win in the traditional sense."

"What?"

"Earth Style: Bottomless Pit." Naru had already formed another set of handsigns, and although Neji saw them, he couldn't counter them quickly enough. Naru's hands slammed into the ground, and then both of them were falling.

"What is the meaning of this?" Neji demanded even as they fell, shouting to be heard over the rushing sound that, in addition to the general sense of weightlessness, signaled their descent. Naru wished she could roll her eyes in that moment. Typical.

"Chill out, Mr. Fate," she said. "Admit we're tied, and I'll get us out."

"Never."

"I guess we'll be falling for a long time then." Naru was practically lounging in the air as they fell, acting like this was normal and the conversation was being held over tea... or ramen

"This has to end at some point, and I'll get out when it does. Without admitting anything to someone like you," Neji snarled.

"Oh?" Naru laughed. "What part of bottomless pit did you not get? Also, if you were really all that smart, you would've used a kunai and some wire or something to get out when we started falling. We're too far down now."

"Says you."

"Yes, says me. I just said it." Naru yawned, covering her mouth with one hand, feeling the strap of her tessen around her wrist. It was a good thing she remembered to do that. Tsuki would've killed her if she lost her still-relatively-new fans. "Well, this is getting boring... C'mon, Neji, just admit it already. I don't want to miss dinner. Mom and Dad promised me ramen. You could come with."

"I don't care for ramen," Neji said, although he was starting to sound less self-assured.

"Now that's a lie," Naru shot back. "Don't lie to me about ramen, Neji. Everyone likes ramen. Even my mom, and she's practically a dango fanatic."

"I'll agree if we get dango after ramen," Neji suddenly bartered. Of course he'd be a dango fan. Oh well. She could live with that.

Naru grinned. "Deal." She formed a set of handsigns that were nearly the reverse of the last ones. "Earth Style: Surfacing."

The walls around them, the sides of the pit, shuddered before going beneath the two and catching them, quickly rising back towards the arena. It was as if the pit never existed. The entire arena was silent when they got there.

"I wonder what their deal is," Naru mused aloud. Then she turned towards Hayate. "Hey, Mr. Proctor, sir, Neji and I are calling a draw. Is that cool with you?"

"Uhhh, ehem. I mean... The fight between Neji Hyuuga and Naru Senshi is a draw!" Hayate's voice echoed around the still-silent arena. It slowly filled with a few claps here and there, until even those died off. "Neither will move on to the next round."

"Yes! RAMEN!" Naru laughed.

"And dango," Neji reminded her.

"AND DANGO!"

That seemed to shock everyone out of their stupor, as murmuring began all throughout the stands while Naru and Neji made their way back to the waiting area. True to its name, everyone there was waiting for an explanation of just what had happened while the two of them were in the pit. Naru's response was a shrug, a grin, and "Dango won."

A/N: I absolutely loved writing this chapter. I know it wasn't much of a fight, and Neji didn't get to use any of his Gentle Fist techniques, but, hey, ramen and dango. On another note, like last time, I made up the jutsus. So yeah... That's all I got. See y'all in the next chapter!