Disguised Curses

This chapter was held for nearly a week until I could finish editing previous chapters from block 'o' text back to their pretty forms. this also meant most are now in the formatting I use in my .Doc, so be aware of style changes being maintained that may change at a given moment without notice. Especially anyone that goes back and reads old chapters. My gift to you all and myself for a job finished: Hinata vs. Kimi



My thanks to DJargo and Sneakyfox for reviewing and telling me your input about Hinata. She's not my easiest muse of a character some days. Honest input is always appreciated.

 

Chapter 39

 

“Hokage- sama.”

Tsunade looked up from the stack of paperwork, frowned and glanced up at a clock on the wall. It was ticking sluggishly past eight. “Hinata Hyuga. What can I do for you? Is it an emergency?” The young woman was slightly flushed, but did not look or sound hurried. Tsunade tapped her pen against her desk and watched with interest as Hinata glanced over her shoulder a last time before entering.

“No emergency, Hokage- sama. But I have some medical questions that I felt I ought to ask you.” Tsunade lifted one blonde eyebrow and waved the Hyuga girl in. She glanced at the page in her hands, signed off at a couple of lines and shoved it in an outgoing pile. “Close the door and tell me what it is that you can't go to the clinic for. Sakura and Shizune spent all day there, and are more than capable to handle almost anything that walks through those doors.” Hinata closed the door and Tsunade gave her just enough time to settle into a chair. “Or is this about my offer for you to learn more advanced medical jutsu?”

“That is a one of the things I need to talk about. But for now I have other questions.” Hinata folded her hands in her lap and began the long process of detailing most of her list- Naruto's impending proposal, pregnancy and possible preventatives, and the challenge Kimi had invoked from her. Tsunade listened carefully, making notes on everything and supplying suggestions. She forced Hinata to answer some personal questions once they reached the birth control topic, made notes and demanded her and Naruto report in, together, when they could manage it. Tsunade frowned when Hinata mentioned Kimi, though.

“That girl has balls,” she murmured. “You sure you want to fight her? Neji just fought her a couple days ago.”

“Then I should do it now. If getting a pounding from Neji- kun doesn't make her see us as the ninja we are, then something will have to. The sooner the better.”

Tsunade sighed at the simply stated facts. Hinata did have a gentle core, although she'd gained a number of tough layers. It was necessary in their line of work. “It's a bad message. Your clan has housed her and offered protection since she came here, outside of the arrangement your cousin has with her about training. If she can't respect you, then she can at least keep from picking a damn fight.” She pinned the young woman with a firm look. “I will watch this fight, and make a final decision when it's done. I suggest some of the clan elders show up. You won't be fighting Kimi simply because she can't keep her mouth shut. This goes a lot farther than that. You will let me know as soon as she is ready.”

Hinata felt her heart skip a little and pound faster. A sanctioned fight, not just a spar. This could prove her worth or break her reputation. “Hai, Tsunade- sama. I will notify you immediately as soon as I know when.”

“Don't forget to come in next week after Naruto gets back. I have some things to check into before I can help you with those particular personal issues.”

“Yes ma'am.” Hinata bowed and left, leaving a brooding Hokage staring at a half-open door.

 

 

~~~

 

Two days after Hinata's meeting with Tsunade, Kimi had decided she was more than healed enough and shown up Hinata's door, knocking politely before informing the other young woman she was ready to fight whenever Hinata wanted to take her on. Hinata didn't fail to notice the eager tension in the hawk's body, the gleam in her eyes. She gave Kimi a small smile and told her to meet her at a specific training field the next morning, at nine. “We may have an audience,” she warned, then closed the door before Kimi could respond.

 

'Audience', as it turned out, meant several Hyuga family members, to include each one of Hinata's immediate family. Tsunade was there, in casual clothes, duties shrugged off for the morning in favor of this fight. Ninja of various rank had heard, like a badly kept secret, and filtered in. Hinata's own team-mates had shown up in support. More than twenty people sat along the unmarked 'edge' of the training field, a mostly grassy field with a few dotted trees.

Kimi turned her glittering eyes on Hinata. “What did you do?”

The hissed words only brought a very tiny smile to Hinata's lips. “I am done being challenged, especially by the likes of you. Tsunade is here to patch up us up at the end, but knowing her, she most likely has alternative motives.” It was no secret that Tsunade made bets like she used to drink. The village owed the combined efforts of Sakura and Shizune for their Hokage's diminished liquor intake. At least on the job. Hinata turned to face her Hokage, bowing in respect for her appearance for this fight. Tsunade waved them over.

“I want to make this very clear. I expect a clean ninja fight for this, not some little girl's cat-fight. Both of you will live with the results of the battle, whatever they may be. And then this whole thing will be buried and forgotten. I will not have this pouring into some blood feud. There is no time to be wasting on frivolous disagreements over power and skill.” She paused long enough to gain acknowledgments from both young women. “Kimi, this will be the second time you've picked a fight with a Hyuga. Not an invite for a sparring match or training, but a full- on fight. You need to mind your actions as a guest of Konoha, and a guest of the Hyuga clan.”

Kimi's response was stiffer, more halted this time, with her teeth bared in a parody of a smile as she turned and stalked out to the middle of the field. She had reasons, every time she had 'picked a fight' with anyone, she always had reasons. Hinata was weak, a waste of an effort for the fox-boy. She didn't understand how Neji, even in his condition, maybe especially in the mental state he was in when they'd met, had ever looked at his cousin with respect. The boy didn't even respect himself. He had pride, the false pride of a name, but not the pride of knowing one's body, one's limits and strengths, of knowing how to use each of them to the utmost with confidence. She assumed a stance that kept her center of gravity low, balancing on the balls of her feet and eager to charge. If Neji had no sense to stand up for himself until challenged into a corner and put to the test, what could she expect from the girl standing before her?

Hinata stopped a few feet away, just outside the range they'd each have with only a single step. It was close, boldly close, and Kimi wondered if Hinata's first reaction to her charge would be a rotation. Neji had favored it sometimes, in their fights, but then that move was part of their arrangement. He taught her that, she taught him the triggers to the control he craved so damn much. But Hinata didn't take any stance she was familiar with. One foot slightly before the other, body loose, upright, like she was simply going to wait. Her hands came up in a classic defensive block.

Kimi snorted. Defensive was good, but offensive... she snapped her hands out and let the wind channel off her arms and out, rustling down the grass and billowing back Hinata's shirt and pants. It was a showy move, but Kimi wanted to see the girl flinch. Let her feel the wind.

She got a very tight smile and a brief 'come hither' gesture.

It was mere feet. Kimi moved forward before she finished wiping the twitch of frustration, still purely focused on Hinata's body. Her clawed hands came in, right hand cocked behind her head and her left sweeping forward, ready for the slice to soft stomach. Stomach, right hand to the shoulder, to render Hinata two potentially devastating wounds. Her charge was countered halfway, Hinata's' hands blurring outward in strikes awfully similar to the jabs Neji used. But these were aimed perfectly for Kimi's open, unprotected chest.

Her back hit the dirt before her mind realized she'd been knocked clear back off her feet. Hinata was above her a second later, forcing Kimi to drag her body off the ground and jump away. The girl was faster than she'd anticipated. The hawk grinned, channeled a bit of chakra to her feet. She moved, circling wide and watching, waiting as she calculated Hinata's last moves. The Hyuga girl was fast, her defensively offensive strikes had been powerful. But if that's all the girl had... well, Kimi had a ton of endurance. She would wear Hinata down, strikes and blows that would chip away at that defense.

She didn't see the little smile hidden on Hinata's lips, but she was close to the audience and she did see the look that crossed Neji's face. Ahh. There was that Hyuga pride. Pity. She'd have to hand Hinata's limp body to her cousin, first.

She came back, frowning at the way Hinata had waited for her to stop circling. Kimi's head dipped, hooding her eyes as she took in the girl standing there, hands still raised defensively. It was pathetic. Kimi rushed in, months of chakra channeling lending her the speed on top of her natural blur, not leaving her body open as she aimed straight for the throat. Let the girl evade that. Her fingers got to a hairs-breath from that milky skin.

Her fingers bit painfully into a log, claws embedding in unforgiving wood. A sharp cry tore from her throat, a hawk's scream for a stolen prey. It covered the rush of air, but not the words.

“Eight trigrams!”

Pain, pain in bursts of violent light, throbbing pulses that pounded through her back, and Kimi couldn't stop the way her body rocked and shuddered under each jab. Her body remembered this. It was what the swan had used to defeat her at the end. She forced her feet to move, bring the log still in her fingers around to block the last sets of numbing blows. The log splintered under the assault, and Hinata's pale eyes, furrowed with her activated eyesight, appeared on the other side.

The Hyuga girl didn't look weak anymore. She was enflamed, spirit burning with her determination, and Kimi crossed her arms just as the last strikes came for her chest. A simple one-two strike, but they sent that burning half-numb sensation from her fingers to almost her shoulders. Kimi hissed, took a few steps back. She didn't take her eyes off the girl staring at her, hands still outstretched, panting softly.

Kimi flexed her fingers and found herself pleased she still could. She could end this. She reached forward, her hands snaking forward to grab at a sleeve. She caught it, clenched her claws into the material and yanked.

Hinata's other hand struck a second later, two fingers slamming into her chest. At that point, everything went numb, inside and out. Hinata peeled Kimi's hand off her sleeve, leaving nothing behind but the ragged tears. She watched as Kimi coughed, blood flecking her lips as her body collapsed to the ground.

Hinata knelt beside her, close enough to hit if Kimi could just get her arms to respond. “I'm not weak, Kimi- san. I may not charge into a fight, and I cling to the friends I have who I trust. If that means they're stronger than me, that's okay. But they don't have to protect me, and they all know it.”

Kimi could only watch, numbness and pain warring for attention, as Hinata got up and returned to the audience. Watch as the girl bowed before her Hokage, knelt before her father and traded words she couldn't hear from this distance. Watch as Neji spared her one scorning glare, and the slight shake of his head was loud. Louder than the words he'd spoken the day before.

'You're a fool, Kimi. Hinata has had a lifetime of this.'

Kimi huffed at him and turned her attention to the woman now walking her way. Tsunade was never a difficult book to read, and the hawk knew the woman would have a few choice words for her.

Maybe, this time, they were deserved.

 

___ End Chapter ___



Expect  a delay in the posting of the next chapter. Muses are being stubborn...