Neshan bumped his glasses up a little higher on his nose and waited patiently for Hayate-san to finish his introductory spiel. Eventually, once Neji had reached the point of being almost ready to initiate a clash himself, he spoke, quietly but with a careful bit of projection that carried his voice to every person in the arena. "'Because people cannot change, differences are born - expressions like 'elite' and 'loser' are created...' Isn't that what you said, Hyuuga?"
Neji's eyes narrowed. "That is the way the universe is. Our fates are set when we are born, and remain unaltered until our deaths. Everything proceeds as it was determined in the beginning."
That won a bitter grin and a derisive snort. "Really? So, then, your fate is to spend your entire life poisoning and attacking others with the bitterness you feel because your ancestors made a foolish bargain, as though a mere bloodline could be worth eternal servitude? To soil the clean and cast down the righteous out of jealousy and frustration?" He slid back a couple of steps, well away from his opponent's abortive lunge. "And me - what's my destiny? To spend my life alone, wishing someone else would have the courage to reach out to my heart, as I can't do for theirs? To find myself forever barred from success as a shinobi by my body's inability to convert chakra properly? IS THAT MY DESTINY, HYUUGA?!"
The elder of the two Genin glared. "Yes."
"Then prove it."
It was Neji's turn to sniff. "You're no match for the strength of the Hyuuga clan," he said, then charged with a yell that cut off abruptly as his momentum came up short against the butt of the bladed polearm his opponent had seemed, impossibly, to pull easily out of one of his sleeves. He gagged, trying to breath, and then his feet came up off the ground and he found himself rising and still moving forward as the weapon pivoted in Neshan's hands and brought him up and over and down and then he was lying flat on his back, staring at the sky and trying to clear the stars out of his vision.
"I'm waiting," came a voice from somewhere above his head. "Hyuuga."
Neji kipped up and forward into a somersault as he spun, and landed in crouch facing his foe for a moment before he lunged back into motion and slid to one side of the blade that speared at him and skidded to a halt and turned and struck as his opponent twisted away out of his reach and brought his naginata spinning around and down like a staff and Neji ducked beneath it and caught it in one hand as it went by and struck at Neshan's grip on the weapon with his other and missed as the younger boy let go but that let him snatch the thing and send it tumbling away, far out of either's reach a moment before a hammer hit him in the chest and sent him staggering back, gasping for air.
They met each other's eyes across a dozen or so feet, and Neshan's were as cold as the highest mountain top. "You're a bully and a coward, Hyuuga, mouthing off about fate and the will of the gods - as though they excused you from living up to your responsibility to act like a human being. Destiny is a lie people tell to control those they couldn't touch any other way, and those that use it as a tool and those that use it as a reason are the same in at least one way - they deserve no sympathy, no mercy... and no forgiveness." He brought a narrow slip of paper out of his off-hand sleeve, and sneered. "Requiescat in pace, motherfucker."
Neji's eyes widened as the note seemed to catch fire, and by the time the sparks had begun to spread and trace the lines of a large, complex seal in the air between the two Genin he had straighted and begun to spin, mostly out of some instinct he couldn't name.
"HAKKESHOU: KAITEN!"
"Fuuinpo: Ryuuka no Jutsu."
Half of the audience came out of their seats, leaning forward to try and get a better look, and the other half sat back with their jaws hanging open as the incandescent cateract of flame ripped across the sands and splashed off of the arena's far wall, covering everything in such a glare that the sun seemed to go away as the world turned into a stark contrast of red-orange-yellow-white brilliance and crisp, perfect shadows.
Neji landed standing, if only barely and a hundred feet behind where he had started - his clothes were singed and his exposed skin suspiciously red, and he had to conciously work to ignore the way his sandals were smoking against the blackened sand underfoot and the molten slag slumping off of the shallow crater in the stone wall where most of the technique's energy had struck.
He swallowed as he saw a flicker of motion back where they had been facing each other - something a bit like hair caught in the breeze. He couldn't afford to risk another strike like that, and shifted stances in the knowledge that a quick ending was the only option he had, if he wanted to live - and that the Sixty-four Hands of Hakke were his best chance.
Then there was a flicker of motion and a vise closed around each of his wrists and dragged them up and back and together to stop just barely short of levering his shoulders into tearing themselves apart. The pain made him lose control of the Byakugan, and so he only heard the voice that spoke into his ear, quietly but still so perfectly clear. "If you're wise... you'll get down on your knees, and thank your gods that she felt you were worth saving, that she begged for you. Thank them for making her so much better than you deserve."
Then his hands were free for an instant before something slammed into the back of his skull and tossed his body up and away as the world went dark around him.
Heh. That's probably a bit... much, but I'll rely on you to decide rather than restraining myself like I usually do.
Hmm. Am I right in taking Katsu as a Jinchuuriki carrying a demon more minor than one of the legendary Bijuu? Either way, forfeiting was definitely his smartest move, despite being one that most people wouldn't think of seeing in a story - or doing in 'real life', for that matter.
Ja, -n
===========
===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."
Neji's eyes narrowed. "That is the way the universe is. Our fates are set when we are born, and remain unaltered until our deaths. Everything proceeds as it was determined in the beginning."
That won a bitter grin and a derisive snort. "Really? So, then, your fate is to spend your entire life poisoning and attacking others with the bitterness you feel because your ancestors made a foolish bargain, as though a mere bloodline could be worth eternal servitude? To soil the clean and cast down the righteous out of jealousy and frustration?" He slid back a couple of steps, well away from his opponent's abortive lunge. "And me - what's my destiny? To spend my life alone, wishing someone else would have the courage to reach out to my heart, as I can't do for theirs? To find myself forever barred from success as a shinobi by my body's inability to convert chakra properly? IS THAT MY DESTINY, HYUUGA?!"
The elder of the two Genin glared. "Yes."
"Then prove it."
It was Neji's turn to sniff. "You're no match for the strength of the Hyuuga clan," he said, then charged with a yell that cut off abruptly as his momentum came up short against the butt of the bladed polearm his opponent had seemed, impossibly, to pull easily out of one of his sleeves. He gagged, trying to breath, and then his feet came up off the ground and he found himself rising and still moving forward as the weapon pivoted in Neshan's hands and brought him up and over and down and then he was lying flat on his back, staring at the sky and trying to clear the stars out of his vision.
"I'm waiting," came a voice from somewhere above his head. "Hyuuga."
Neji kipped up and forward into a somersault as he spun, and landed in crouch facing his foe for a moment before he lunged back into motion and slid to one side of the blade that speared at him and skidded to a halt and turned and struck as his opponent twisted away out of his reach and brought his naginata spinning around and down like a staff and Neji ducked beneath it and caught it in one hand as it went by and struck at Neshan's grip on the weapon with his other and missed as the younger boy let go but that let him snatch the thing and send it tumbling away, far out of either's reach a moment before a hammer hit him in the chest and sent him staggering back, gasping for air.
They met each other's eyes across a dozen or so feet, and Neshan's were as cold as the highest mountain top. "You're a bully and a coward, Hyuuga, mouthing off about fate and the will of the gods - as though they excused you from living up to your responsibility to act like a human being. Destiny is a lie people tell to control those they couldn't touch any other way, and those that use it as a tool and those that use it as a reason are the same in at least one way - they deserve no sympathy, no mercy... and no forgiveness." He brought a narrow slip of paper out of his off-hand sleeve, and sneered. "Requiescat in pace, motherfucker."
Neji's eyes widened as the note seemed to catch fire, and by the time the sparks had begun to spread and trace the lines of a large, complex seal in the air between the two Genin he had straighted and begun to spin, mostly out of some instinct he couldn't name.
"HAKKESHOU: KAITEN!"
"Fuuinpo: Ryuuka no Jutsu."
Half of the audience came out of their seats, leaning forward to try and get a better look, and the other half sat back with their jaws hanging open as the incandescent cateract of flame ripped across the sands and splashed off of the arena's far wall, covering everything in such a glare that the sun seemed to go away as the world turned into a stark contrast of red-orange-yellow-white brilliance and crisp, perfect shadows.
Neji landed standing, if only barely and a hundred feet behind where he had started - his clothes were singed and his exposed skin suspiciously red, and he had to conciously work to ignore the way his sandals were smoking against the blackened sand underfoot and the molten slag slumping off of the shallow crater in the stone wall where most of the technique's energy had struck.
He swallowed as he saw a flicker of motion back where they had been facing each other - something a bit like hair caught in the breeze. He couldn't afford to risk another strike like that, and shifted stances in the knowledge that a quick ending was the only option he had, if he wanted to live - and that the Sixty-four Hands of Hakke were his best chance.
Then there was a flicker of motion and a vise closed around each of his wrists and dragged them up and back and together to stop just barely short of levering his shoulders into tearing themselves apart. The pain made him lose control of the Byakugan, and so he only heard the voice that spoke into his ear, quietly but still so perfectly clear. "If you're wise... you'll get down on your knees, and thank your gods that she felt you were worth saving, that she begged for you. Thank them for making her so much better than you deserve."
Then his hands were free for an instant before something slammed into the back of his skull and tossed his body up and away as the world went dark around him.
Heh. That's probably a bit... much, but I'll rely on you to decide rather than restraining myself like I usually do.
Hmm. Am I right in taking Katsu as a Jinchuuriki carrying a demon more minor than one of the legendary Bijuu? Either way, forfeiting was definitely his smartest move, despite being one that most people wouldn't think of seeing in a story - or doing in 'real life', for that matter.
Ja, -n
===========
===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."