As soon as the words left Sasuke's mouth, Sora sprang into action. His hands blurred as he sent a volley of shuriken flying towards Hanabi. The young Hyuga's eyes widened for a fraction of a second before narrowing in concentration.
"Byakugan!" she cried, the veins around her eyes bulging as her kekkei genkai activated.
With a grace that belied her young age, Hanabi began to weave between the incoming projectiles. Her movements were fluid and precise, each dodge calculated to expend the minimum amount of energy necessary.
Sora couldn't help but be impressed. 'Not bad,' he thought, already formulating his next move.
As the last shuriken whizzed past her ear, Hanabi's eyes caught a glint of something else. Chakra strings, nearly invisible to the naked eye, trailed from Sora's fingers to the shuriken embedded in the ground around her.
'He's trying to pull a Uchiha move,' she realized, her lips curving into a small smirk. 'Not today.'
With a burst of chakra, Hanabi's hands moved in a blur, severing the chakra strings before Sora could pull his trick. The look of surprise on his face was almost comical.
"What's wrong?" Hanabi taunted, her voice carrying a confidence that seemed at odds with her usual reserved demeanour. "Didn't expect me to see through your trick?"
Sora's surprise quickly morphed into a grin. "Not bad, Hanabi. But let's see how you handle this!"
His hands moved quickly, attaching explosion tags to a new set of shuriken. With a flick of his wrist, the deadly projectiles were airborne, hurtling towards Hanabi with increasing speed.
For a moment, panic flashed across Hanabi's face. But just as quickly, it was replaced by a look of fierce concentration. Chakra began to radiate from every part of her body, forming a protective cocoon around her.
The explosion tags detonated, filling the air with smoke and the sound of multiple small explosions. Sasuke raised an eyebrow, mildly impressed despite himself. When the smoke cleared, Hanabi stood unharmed, the remnants of her chakra shield dissipating around her.
"Impressive," Sora admitted, his mind racing to come up with a new strategy. "That was the Gentle Fist Art One Blow Body technique, wasn't it? Or at least a precursor to it."
Hanabi nodded, a hint of pride in her eyes. "Father has increased our training intensity over the past year. I'm prepared to fight at Genin level."
Sora whistled, genuinely impressed. "Your dad doesn't mess around, does he? Well, I guess I'll have to step up my game too!"
With that, Sora abandoned his hit-and-run tactics, instead charging straight towards Hanabi with a kunai in hand. It seemed like a suicidal move to engage a Hyuga in close combat, but Sora's eyes gleamed with confidence.
Hanabi's eyes widened in surprise at the bold move, but she quickly recovered, sliding into the traditional Gentle Fist stance. As Sora's kunai came slashing towards her, she parried it with a chakra-infused palm, simultaneously aiming for his chakra points with her other hand.
But just as her fingers were about to make contact, something unexpected happened. A burst of chakra erupted from the points she was targeting, neutralizing her attack.
Hanabi's eyes widened in shock. She tried again, aiming for different chakra points, but each time, the result was the same. Her attacks were being neutralized before they could take effect.
"What... what is this?" she gasped, frustration evident in her voice.
Sora grinned, dodging another of her strikes. "Like it? I call it the anti-Hyuga style. Came up with it after watching a Hyuga battle with some random ninja. Pretty neat, huh?"
Hanabi's face scrunched up in a mix of anger and determination. "It won't be enough to beat me!"
Changing tactics, Hanabi abandoned the finger strikes of the traditional Eight Trigrams technique. Instead, she began using her entire palm, performing the Palm Bottom technique. The increased surface area made it harder for Sora to block, and he soon found himself on the defensive.
A particularly well-placed strike caught Sora by surprise, connecting solidly with his arm. He felt a jolt of pain as Hanabi's chakra disrupted his own, partially sealing off the chakra points in his arm.
'Damn,' Sora thought, gritting his teeth as he jumped back to create some distance. 'She's better than I thought. I can't use jutsu with this arm now., and I don't really know any one-handed Jutsu
Hanabi, sensing her advantage, pressed forward. Her Byakugan blazing, she chased after Sora with renewed vigour.
Sora, realizing he needed to buy some time, reached into his pouch and pulled out a handful of explosive tags. He scattered them in Hanabi's path, hoping to slow her down.
But Hanabi, demonstrating her mastery of the Body Blow technique, simply released a burst of chakra from her entire body as she ran. The explosions went off around her, but she emerged unscathed, barely slowing her pursuit.
'She's not giving me any time to recover,' Sora realized, a bead of sweat rolling down his forehead. 'Time for plan B.'
As Hanabi closed in, her palm aimed for another devastating strike, and Sora's free hand formed a single seal. Suddenly, Hanabi felt a surge of foreign chakra at the base of her neck.
'What?' she thought, her eyes widening in surprise. 'When did he-'
Her thoughts were cut off as she felt her chakra network being disrupted. At the same time, a wave of paralysis swept through her body, freezing her in place.
Sora, seeing his opportunity, rushed forward with his kunai, ready to end the battle. But Hanabi wasn't done yet.
With a cry of effort, she forced her chakra to surge, burning through the paralyzing seal. She managed to move just enough to parry Sora's kunai with her own, the clash of metal ringing through the clearing.
Backing away, Hanabi quickly located the disruption seal stuck to her neck and tore it off. As her chakra came back under her control, she fixed Sora with a glare that could have melted stone.
"When did you place that seal on me?" she demanded.
Sora grinned, twirling his kunai. "Byakugan sees everything, but it doesn't mean you can process all the information you receive, you only receive the information you focus on, so I put it mid-battle"
Hanabi's eyes widened "How do you know that?"
"Eye dojutus are not that different from what sensors do" With that the battle resumed.
The battle was far from over. Sora, seizing the initiative, sent another wave of explosive tags her way
But the battle was far from over. Sora, seizing the initiative, sent another wave of explosive tags her way. This time, instead of detonating, they began to emit a constant chakra pulse, forcing Hanabi to maintain her protective chakra barrier.
As Hanabi was occupied with defending herself, Sora closed the distance between them. His hand dipped into his pouch, pulling out a tag that radiated an alarming amount of chakra.
Hanabi's Byakugan zeroed in on the tag. 'That must be his trump card,' she thought, eyeing it warily. 'The chakra in that thing is almost one-sixth of his current reserves!'
The following taijutsu exchange was tense, with Hanabi hyper-aware of the dangerous tag in Sora's hand. She focused on avoiding it while trying to land her own strikes, resulting in a dance of near-misses and glancing blows.
Suddenly, Sora flung the tag at her. Hanabi's eyes widened, and she side-stepped quickly, simultaneously leaping towards Sora to close the distance. If it was a big explosive tag, she didn't want to be caught in the blast radius.
But as she engaged Sora in close combat, her Byakugan caught movement behind her. The tag had transformed into another Sora, which was now rushing at her from behind.
Hanabi found herself in a compromised position, caught between the original Sora and his clone. For a moment, it seemed like Sora had claimed victory.
***
Thank you to knightwolf225, Mohammed_Alshamsi, Desire96, Osas_Destiny, Kay_smiles101, DaoistyfSLzA, Crimson_Star96, DaoistHE, Kevon_Lewis, Kennchan, ShadowMonarch185, Mohammed_Alshamsi, Drava, Kenji_Neyra, Kay_smiles101, Nguyen_Huy_2272, VEGETA_15505, Majd_ for Powerstones
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We completed this week at 122 Powerstones, and Rank 72 for fics released within 30 days.
Thank you for all your support, I don't think I would have this many Powerstones in just a week.
8 Days, 399 Collections, 90.71k views, 25 Chapters and 38.77k words
Now this data might not be as groundbreaking as the fics we see in the Top 10, but for me who's a newbie author, this is astonishing.
This fic has surpassed my Root Fic in just a week.
On that note, shameless Self-promotion, Try out my other Naruto fic, I have written that manually and the fights in that fic(Starting as Root Trainee in a White Room Program) are awesome to say the least, If you like fights in this fic, then you will definitely like the fights of that fic, I am sure about that.
You might feel confused reading chapter one as I had made that confusing, Take that with a grain of salt and try reading the first 6 chapters of that fic.
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Important
For Next week our Target is 300 Powerstones, Yup an ambitious Goal but still possible, Also let's try breaking into the top 200 of all Time for this week.
This is the second week, So, The goals are
Every 25 Powerstones = +1 additional Chapter
Every 100 Powerstones = +1 additional Chapter
Every 10 Proper Reviews{Don't write things like good or superb or funny, describe all the criteria(Writing quality, World Building, Characters, Update schedule, Plot Progression) that are present in the rating, also don't write more than one review as that won't count} = +1 additional Chapter
300 Powerstones = + 5 Chapters
Also, you guys were only 3 stones away from 125, so I will give you +2 additional chapters for that, just remind me before next reset.