Sharingan versus Byakugan... No wonder that when I finally walked into the arena, I could feel the excitement within the stands. As for my opponent, Hiashi stood across from me, his pale eyes already activated, gazing at me without blinking. He didn't look nervous... Well, I will make sure that after today, he will be when he sees red eyes. I wanted to mess up his hair just to see if he would finally frown or something!
"You look very much amused." He spoke suddenly, making me grin.
"A little," I admitted, cracking my neck. "I had been sitting on my bum for way too long, then got a good warm-up match... I'm ready to explode!"
"Explode...?"
"Well…" I tilted my head. "You'll see."
His expression didn't change, but I saw the smallest twitch near his eye, where the veins were already bulging. Almost made him frown... tsk! Oh well. Just then, Sakumo stepped between us, looking from Hiashi to me, then back again... then at me again.
"Renjiro Uchiha."
"Yes?"
"Control yourself. This is a tournament, not a market in a rural village."
"I was too excited, my apologies," I said with a bow, but I couldn't wipe the grin off my face. By the time I raised my head, my own Sharingan was on, my three tomoe spinning into place as I gazed directly into my dear opponent's eyes.
From what I could see, Hiashi's breathing was very stable, and his stance was reactive, as indicated by the angle of his knees. There was a slight distribution of weight toward his back foot, probably ready to dodge... His hands were kept open and ready, his index fingers poised to counter-strike instantly... Hm. He was good... Really good in fact... And that was exactly why I was not going to give him time. I know how shounen stories go... Let the scary bloodline specialist show off, let the hero get pushed back, let everyone gasp as he barely survives, then finally reveal some mystical power at the end and win. Well, I'm not Naruto.
Nah.
Fuck... that!
My grin grew wider, maybe even a bit more savage, as Sakumo raised his hand, and the arena went silent around me.
"Begin!" He shouted, and by the time his hand moved down, I was already in motion, exploding forward.
The dirt cracked and flew into the air from beneath my sandals as I was on him at once, leaving behind the sound of thunder. Hiashi's eyes widened by a fraction in surprise. Maybe he expected to be the one making the first move while I was looking for a counter. Maybe to bait him and use my fire from mid- or long-range.
Bzzzt, wrong!
I crossed the distance before most of the crowd could react, my right fist heading towards his face. He shifted his legs smoothly, and his palm began rising toward my wrist, aiming to tag the tenketsu there and ruin my arm before I even started. Like I would have done this if I thought you could touch me! I saw the line of the strike before he completed it, and my body easily twisted aside, not even touching my clothes. Of course, I wasn't just dodging, as my knee was coming up next. He blocked with his forearm, but I had already rotated, following the motion and using the impact as a pivot point, dragging my foot along with me as I delivered a high kick aimed at his shoulder.
Of course, it was not my usual style, nor an Uchiha standard form. It just... came to me, the moment I began the sequence. It originated from my memory as a green jumpsuit flashed through my head, remembering how much Lee wanted to fight Neji... I don't think that I managed to copy Rock Lee perfectly, as I had never seen the real thing in person. But my brain remembered movement, and apparently, my Sharingan could do enough with that. Especially after Fugaku had beaten into me the ability to let my body obey the thoughts coming from my eyes.
Maybe that was why my kick came down faster than even I expected.
Hiashi ducked under it, and the wind of it tore multiple strands of his hair, causing the crowd to shout out. I didn't stop to gawk, as the moment my heel hit the ground, I spun low, sweeping for his legs. He stepped over it, easily, but I used the missed sweep to roll my momentum forward, sending my palm to slam into the dirt to speed up my turn, while also inhaling. What he kind of missed was that, while rotating, I masked the high-speed signs, releasing a fire jutsu that formed a ring of flame around me. Sadly, he wasn't that distracted from my sweep to miss it entirely, as Hiashi had already jumped back before he could be signed. Damned X-ray vision! He still caught onto it, huh? No matter, I chased him.
"Already going ham?!" I heard Kushina scream from above. "He's going crazy, dattebane!"
I also heard that Sayuri yelled something, too, but I couldn't make it out as she wasn't as loud as Kushina. By then, Hiashi landed, and the moment his foot touched ground, his stance changed.
Gentle Fist, I could see it coming, as by now he realized that I wasn't going to let him settle into his own rhythm. He was trying to gain some control back from me. To do that, he had to step up to my pressure rather than constantly retreat. Let's dance then! I was already watching as his two fingers aimed toward my shoulder. It wasn't just that; I could faintly trace a backup attack, probably a palm-strike toward my ribs and... Yes... There was a third one, hidden in his movements, toward... Hm... Yes... my wrist.
"I can see you..." I whispered, unable to hold myself back from it while I smiled and my Sharingan began revolving inside my eye socket.
His first strike grazed my sleeve this time, and as expected, when he missed, the second one was already coming and forced me to bend backward like I was playing limbo. The third, which I guessed rightly, was then slapped aside with the back of my hand, but the touch of his skin made my fingers tingle unpleasantly. Oh? So even near-misses had bite, huh? You are something else!
I stepped in closer as I came out of my quick dodges, and he was shocked that even now, I wasn't backing off at all. Most people would step away from Gentle Fist, but I'm not most people. I was already where I wanted to be, and I drove my shoulder into his chest. Seeing what I was doing, without much of a choice, his palm snapped down toward my neck, which achieved only that I abandoned my shoulder-checking and had to duck and grin at him.
"Too slow," I said, still looking into his eyes.
My fist came up from below just then, wrapped in a thin layer of flame. He wrenched his body away with a pained groan before it landed, but the orange fire had licked across his clothes, scorching the fabric, turning it black and releasing thick smoke. Steel reeling, Hiashi retreated three steps, then stopped himself forcefully, raising one hand, palm open, with chakra being gathered there.
"Air Palm?" I muttered to myself as a compressed burst of chakra shot across the gap between us. "Hmph!" I crossed my arms, already finishing the signs.
Flames burst into existence around my forearms, and this time, they were dense and layered, just in time for the invisible palm-strike to slam into me. The impact shoved me back, my sandals carving lines in the dirt, but the fire scattered the force enough that it didn't break through cleanly. Still grinning at him, I lowered my arms as the flames reformed.
"Nice," I said, nodding at him, but of course, Hiashi did not answer. Thinking I had too much energy to be able to talk so freely, he struck again.
This time, I moved to the side instead of blocking, as it was still a powerful skill. The Air Palm tore past me and hit the arena wall, making the reinforcement seals flicker as the thing rumbled; before the sound of it faded away, I was already throwing shuriken at him.
Five of them were visible, while two were hidden behind the first wave. Hiashi's palms moved with commandable precision and swiftness, knocking each one aside, and he didn't even look rushed while doing so. His Byakugan saw the hidden ones, too, of course, and he moved to deflect them with a twist of his wrist, but by then the wires that were attached to the last two got pulled by me.
"Too late, buddy!" I mouthed as I yanked on it, changing their angle mid-flight, and the shuriken curved back toward his blind spot.
He bent aside, dodging one, but the second shuriken cut across his cheek, drawing the first line of blood. The arena erupted at once while Hiashi touched the cut with two fingers.
"First blood," I said with a wink, and by the time my eyelids lifted, he had already moved.
He was going at his fastest as he abandoned the formal stance and came at me like a sword. I recognized the change instantly because he was trying to get into a 64-Palm Strike combo, but I wouldn't let him do so when we clashed in the center of the arena. His fingers stabbed toward my right shoulder, doing his best to initiate the strict pattern, but I dodged and countered with a punch toward his ribs. He redirected it with his palm, and I felt the chakra in my forearm sputter for a heartbeat. Scattering my armor, a flame burst from beneath my foot as I slammed it down, using its extra burst to shove my body sideways at an impossible angle, making Hiashi's next strike pass through empty air. His arm still stretched out, I appeared at his left flank and drove an elbow toward his temple.
He ducked.
Damn it! Of course he did, and he even had his palm come up toward my stomach. I inhaled, pulling my dear tummy as far in as possible while also breathing fire straight down when exhaling, in a concentrated cone between us. With that, Hiashi was forced to break off, while I chased after him through my own flames, using the burning curtain as cover. My Sharingan tracked his silhouette through my chakra flow, while his Byakugan tracked me just as easily, and our eyes met through the fire.
You got too comfortable looking into mine, my dear... The fact I didn't use genjutsu until now doesn't mean I won't or can't. The next moment, he saw a black lake appear beneath his feet, along with a sinking sensation. Hiashi's chakra flared through his tenketsu, snapping the genjutsu's thread almost instantly, doing his best to resist the feeling of sinking, but my boy... you done fucked up.
By then, I came out of the flames with a spinning kick aimed at his chest. The impact pushed him back, but he still stood without falling. I landed and followed with a second kick, then a palm, then a low sweep, then a shoulder feint into a rising knee, using Lee's rhythm again. Doing all he could, Hiashi blocked the first three, then the fourth got his side, while the fifth forced him to use Air Palm at point-blank range to block it.
The blast hit my shoulder and spun me away, tearing through my sleeve and numbing half my arm, but he was in bigger pain than I.
"Good one!" I smacked my lips, skidding to a halt, while Hiashi was breathing much harder now.
Since the start, I paused a little this time around, flexing my numb fingers and watching with one eye as the chakra flow in my arm fought against being disrupted. Let's loosen it up and get the feeling back to it! I moved forward again, just to see him start to rotate his body in anticipation of my attack.
"Kaiten?" I whispered.
The crowd shouted at the sudden chakra sphere appearing in the arena, and even Sakumo's eyes sharpened from the side, but I did not retreat. Instead, I clapped my hands together and let out thin lines of fire, creating lanes of it around Hiashi's rotation. The flames didn't attack him directly; instead, I formed a cage to trap him in after getting out of his little defensive showcase. Naturally, his Kaiten scattered the closest strands, but the moment he stopped spinning, the remaining strands of fire tightened on my order, as if I was trying to tie him up.
Trying to move away, Hiashi landed in the only safe gap that was left around him, exactly where I wanted him... and I was already there.
My fist drove toward his chest, wrapped in glowing golden flame, while his palm met it in panic. Bad choice... Tsk-tsk-tsk! The fire expanded between our hands, spreading over to him. Hiashi's sleeve ignited, and he immediately cut it off, tearing the burning section away before it could reach his skin. Why bother? You just gave me the chance to lean in and... Well... I headbutted him.
No one expected that. Not Hiashi, and not the crowd, because I could hear the exclamations. Our foreheads cracked together, and pain shot through my skull, making me yell out.
"OW—FUCK! I FORGOT THE HEADBAND!"
Still, Hiashi staggered back, his eyes briefly unfocused. Heh! Worth it! Because the next moment, I kicked him in the chest and he flew backward, hit the dirt, rolled a few times, but somehow recovered on one knee, stopping himself, his fingers leaving grooves in the ground itself, making his nails bleed. Naturally, the crowd went insane.
"THAT WAS DIRTY, DATTEBANE!"
"It worked!" I shouted back without looking, and this time, I heard Sayuri's voice call back to me.
"DON'T TALK TO US DURING THE MATCH!"
"Yes, dear!"
The arena laughed, and I could catch how Sakumo's mouth twitched, while Hiashi stood up, taking advantage of my desire to banter with the girls up at the stands.
"You are reckless," he said, gulping down blood.
"No," I answered, wiggling my finger at him. "I'm aggressive. I know you are a taijutsu expert or whatnot... but I'm kind of an expert myself."
His body disappeared, shooting out at me while I was still speaking, his first two fingers coming toward my shoulder. Again? This is getting ridiculous! I dodged. Again. Second strike toward the ribs. You want to display all sixty-four strikes that bad...? Really? That badly?! Then I will show you I can dodge it all! No! I WILL BREAK IT! BRING IT ON!
His third went toward my stomach, the fourth toward my right thigh, and the fifth toward the wrist. None of them hit. The crowd had gone silent because most people could no longer follow the exchange. To them, Hiashi's arms were blurs, and I was being driven backward. My Sharingan spun harder than ever before, constantly counting in my head as I reached a kind of thoughtless form. I was... not even there. I just kept counting. Eleven, twelve, thirteen... Hiashi's fourteenth strike came toward my chest.
I knew immediately that was my chance to smash it apart. I slapped it aside with my left arm, and stepped inside his guard. His eyes widened at what I had done, while my right hand rose, my fingers curled, but I wasn't using Minor Supernova. I had a compressed sphere, glowing and sizzling, no bigger than a peach, looking white hot.
"Meet my... White Dwarf!" I blurted it out without thinking, and I drove it into his body.
BOOM!
It was followed by a violent flash of heat and pressure exploding as the dirt erupted around us. The impact spun him back, vomiting a mouthful of blood from both my attack and the breaking of his flow. While still flying through the air, I was on top of him, and to make sure he wouldn't try to get up this time around, I hit him again in the ribs, then kicked him in the thigh. When I landed, I watched as his body finally crashed down a few steps from me, unconscious.
Err... Did I overdo it?
Then I saw him flinch and reopen his eyes, trying to move, but my attacks made it impossible, and he just collapsed a second time. Phew! Okay, I did not overdo it. Naturally, Sakumo was already there, assessing the situation, but I held back enough. I wasn't going to break his bones, so he should be fine after the medics had taken a look at him. I didn't even hear Sakumo's announcement of my victory, because I had turned toward the stands, raising one hand, grinning and waving, jumping around like an idiot, but I didn't care. I caught Mom crying while Dad was finally shouting, no longer able to hold back. Kushina was yelling something, too, while Sayuri had both hands clasped near her mouth, doing the same with tears in her eyes. Hehehe... Cute.
However, a moment later, I stopped my little parade, and I looked toward Minato, who was standing still, his blue eyes flashing, finally smiling. I could tell he was excited and... so was I.
I'm not going to go down... at all. No... I intend to win this.