Chapter 10
"I think I'm still feeling the pain from getting punched in my cheek," Ino complained as she shook Sakura awake.
I had been listening to those girls bicker with each other in hushed whispers, but most of my attention was fixed on the battle happening downstairs.
This time, my Sharingan was activated for everyone to see. Even so, I was still holding the transformation jutsu to make it look like I only had two tomoe and not three.
After all, that bastard was still keeping an eye on me. It felt incredibly annoying. He was disguised as the Sound team jonin and standing on the other side of the arena, watching everything with that same interested stare.
But most of my focus stayed on the fight between the two Hyuga. I felt a growing irritation as Hinata started becoming more and more determined, clearly drawing strength from Naruto's loud support from the stands.
I could clearly see the difference in strength between Hinata and Neji. It only made me more certain that this match would not end well for Hinata, just like in the canon timeline.
"Are they really related by blood? It feels more like he's out there trying to take some kind of revenge," I asked Kakashi, who was in a contemplative state, eyes locked on the battle below.
"Yes, they are very much related. In fact, both Hinata and Neji's fathers were twins," Kakashi said without looking away from the fight. "But there is more to it than that. And even if it's just a small family matter on the surface, it still falls under the clan matter rule. Outsiders cannot meddle in it."
I didn't care who the last words were meant for. But from what he said, I could tell he at least had a solid idea of the real reason behind the bad blood between the two cousins.
"If they are truly cousins, then isn't this just unfair… and what's with that guy? Why is he so angry towards Hinata? I mean, Hinata was the quietest girl in our class. She never picked a fight with anyone and was always kind to those around her," Sakura said, pretty much voicing what every one of us who had been students with Hinata thought.
"Then there's more to it," I said, drawing most of my classmates' attention. "And we have pretty much no idea what that is. After all, Hinata was never that talkative about her family or her cousin. The only reason I even knew about her cousin was…"
I decided not to finish the sentence as the fight entered an even more intense phase. Both of them were now locked in a very high-speed Gentle Fist exchange, strikes and counters flashing back and forth so quickly it was hard to follow for most genins present.
"Kakashi-sensei, do you really think we should let this battle continue? I feel like he has killing intent towards her," I said. I didn't get the chance to hear his answer.
"No way! She can definitely win!" Naruto exclaimed, cutting Kakashi off before he could reply.
I didn't bother responding to his outburst. My eyes stayed glued to the battle, where Hinata had already had several of her chakra points sealed by Neji. At the same time, she hadn't managed to close even a single one on him. It was painfully clear who was dominating and who was barely hanging on.
I understood why the Hokage, or those behind the scenes, didn't want two Hyuga ninjas reaching the finals of the Chunin Exams. But it still felt irritating to watch it play out like this.
"Naruto, not everything can be done just by being stubborn," Sakura said in an unusually soft tone, trying to calm him down. She probably understood Naruto's feelings about never giving up better than most.
But I understood it even more clearly. He didn't have any romantic feelings towards Hinata or anything like that. Instead, he was projecting himself onto her, seeing her struggle against a so-called genius and desperately wanting her to win. In his head, it was like he was the one fighting Neji.
'…If you look at it another way, he's projecting himself as Hinata and projecting me as Neji. In this imagined battle, he wants to win…' Yes, even I felt speechless just thinking about it.
"…I won't say you should stop the match again because there probably won't be any need for that," I said as Hinata was knocked back by Neji once more. She looked far too injured to keep going.
The only good news was that Neji hadn't yet gone for her heart or lungs. We still had a little time before she would end up properly hospitalised.
Kakashi probably understood the situation even better than I did. Neji's killing intent was rising with every passing moment, and it spiked again when Naruto started shouting encouragement for Hinata to stand up and fight on.
A part of me actually admired his foolishness. Yes, I saw it as foolishness, not something to be proud of. That kind of blind determination was something only Naruto Uzumaki could afford to have, because he had the Nine-Tails sealed inside him, ready to bail him out of his own stupidity and save his life when things went too far.
Hinata Hyuga did not have that safety net.
"Guy, Kurenai, do you want the match to continue? ...Even if the result is clear to all of us. Because things seem to be escalating a little too much," Kakashi asked. Both jonin teachers looked deadly serious.
Kurenai bit her lip and frowned, clearly battling with herself, whether to let Hinata keep fighting now that she was finally showing some real determination and proactivity, or to step in and surrender for her before it went too far and damaged that newly growing confidence.
"Even if I am Neji's teacher, I cannot simply tell my student to hold back in an important battle like this," Guy said. "That doesn't mean I will tolerate him being so reckless against a fellow Leaf ninja and his own cousin."
The unusually serious tone in Guy's voice even made me pause. It was very rare to see him like that, and in this life, it was the first time I'd witnessed it.
"Neji, control yourself." Guy's voice carried down clearly. Neji paused for a moment below. The mocking smile and sneer vanished from his face.
The next instant, he increased his speed drastically and closed the distance to Hinata.
"Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms."
It was far faster than before. Clearly, Neji had been holding back until now.
From my perspective with the Sharingan, I could see that he had been giving Hinata just enough hope to keep fighting, and in a twisted way, he wanted to shatter that hope completely. Now, with Guy making his stance clear, Neji had stopped playing around.
The match didn't last five more seconds. Most of Hinata's chakra points were sealed.
"I haven't given up," Hinata's voice came out weakly. It even made me frown.
I understood where she was coming from. But if she started talking about her family or the past right now, it would only fuel Neji's rage even more. Things were going slightly better than the canon timeline, but it seemed some core elements were hard to change.
I almost glared at Naruto, who was gritting his teeth and staring down at Neji as if the fact that he had been merciful was some kind of insult. Or maybe it was simply the reality that Hinata was about to lose.
Even if I understood Naruto's perspective, it didn't mean I had to agree with it. Right now, I feel pretty irritated that he couldn't keep his mouth shut. I almost felt like poking the back of his neck with the Gentle Fist technique I'd just copied, just to knock him out and shut him up.
And I almost did it.
Before I could move, though, Neji acted. He shifted from his stance. Hinata could barely react, and he poked the back of her neck, knocking her out cleanly.
I felt a wave of relief. Neji had been far more restrained than his canon counterpart. Maybe because he'd overheard parts of our conversation up here, or maybe because of Guy's clear stance on the matter.
I completely tuned out the next part, Naruto rushing down, confronting Neji, that stupid challenge being issued. Even if things hadn't gone quite as far as the original timeline, it looked like some events were never meant to change.
+Kurenai Yuhi+
Kurenai felt heavy with guilt as she looked through the glass window into the hospital room. Her unconscious student, and in many ways, her surrogate younger sister, lay on the bed while the medical ninjas worked on her.
The injuries weren't actually that severe. Most of Hinata's chakra points had already been unblocked during treatment, and within a few hours, they would be fully open again.
But that didn't erase the fact that the battle had left real marks. Bruises, strained muscles, minor internal bruising from the precise Gentle Fist strikes, nothing life-threatening, but enough to make anyone wince.
Still, a day or two of proper rest and medical ninjutsu would have Hinata back to her normal self physically. Kurenai wasn't so sure about mentally, though.
She had watched Hinata push herself up again and again during the fight, refusing to stay down. That determination hadn't just been against Neji; it had been against the fear and self-doubt that had always kept Hinata small and hidden in the background. Kurenai had seen the quiet girl who could barely meet anyone's eyes suddenly stand tall with fire in her gaze. Naruto's encouragement had clearly lit something inside her, given her the push to finally fight back against her own cowardice.
And Kurenai hated that the price for that growth had been this: Hinata lying here battered and unconscious.
"Kurenai-sensei, don't blame yourself," Shino said in his usual calm, even tone. He stood beside her, also watching the medics at work through the glass. "If you had stopped the fight earlier, it might have done more harm than good. The injuries are temporary. Stopping her progress would not have been."
Kurenai glanced at him. His voice was steady as always, but she could sense the faint, restless buzzing of the kikaichū beneath his skin, an unusual agitation that betrayed how deeply this affected him. Even Shino, who kept everything so tightly controlled, was angry. Angry at Neji, angry at the situation, and probably angry at himself for not being able to do anything.
She gave a small, self-deprecating smile. "What a pathetic picture, getting consoled by my own student."
She took a slow breath and straightened a little. "Don't worry. She'll be back to herself in no time."
The words were meant to comfort both of them, though Kurenai wasn't entirely sure she believed them yet.
She couldn't help wondering, not for the first time, why she had been assigned these three students, Kiba, Shino, and Hinata. She was a genjutsu specialist jonin. Her skill set didn't really align with any of them.
Kiba was already a better tracker than she could ever hope to be, thanks to his nose and Akamaru. If he had been placed under a dedicated tracking specialist, he would have progressed much faster. Instead, he was stuck with her, learning mostly the basics she could offer.
The same went for Shino and Hinata, only more so. Their clans had secret techniques passed down only within the family. No outsider could truly teach them the depths of the Aburame insect control or the Hyuga Gentle Fist. Kurenai didn't even know most of the advanced forms, let alone how to correct their stances or refine those styles.
All she really had to offer was her illusion work, and none of her students had ever shown the slightest interest in genjutsu. Most days, she felt inadequate, like she was failing them simply by being their teacher.
And now two of them had been defeated so cleanly in the exams, while she stood on the sidelines, helpless to do anything useful.
'There really is nothing I can do about it…' That thought settled heavily in her chest.
Another part of her mind, the sharper, more cynical part that had survived years as a shinobi, whispered darker questions. Why had a genjutsu jonin, a newly promoted Jonin like her, been given three clan heirs as students? It wasn't normal. There were better-suited instructors available. She had always suspected there was more to the assignment, some political reason, some hidden agenda from higher up. The main suspicion that always came to mind was…
She buried the thought before it could fully form. Not here. Not now.
"So what happened in the next match?" she asked, mostly to break the heavy silence between them.
Shino answered without hesitation, his voice still flat and monotonous. "It was a match between the kunoichi Tenten from Guy-sensei's team and the Sound kunoichi… The fight ended in under a minute. Tenten won."
Kurenai gave a small hum of acknowledgement. She could guess what that meant: another one-sided victory, probably. A part of her was mildly curious about how the last of the preliminary match would play out. But right now, that curiosity felt distant and unimportant.
What mattered most was staying here, beside Hinata, until she woke up.