Naruto : Reborn As Sukuna Haruno

The fight continued, and despite what it looked like to the audience, Kiyomi was slowly beginning to adapt.

Arguably, that was a word which had to be used very cautiously for a Zenin, given their particular history with a certain curse technique full of potential, but it was true.

With the Sharingan and a lot of tricks up to her sleeves, she was holding her own against Neji with his newfound powers.

At first glance, it seemed as though Neji was completely dominating the battle. Every exchange ended with him landing another hit while Kiyomi was forced to retreat. Every attempt she made to strike him was met with nothing but empty air as his body blurred away before her attack could connect, and every few moments another taunt would leave his mouth as if he was genuinely incapable of remaining silent for more than a few seconds.

Yet beneath the surface, things were gradually changing. Kiyomi had long abandoned any hope of matching his speed directly. Even with her Sharingan active, trying to keep up with his movements was nearly impossible, and she had quickly realized that continuing down that path would only exhaust her faster.

Instead, she had begun doing what shinobi did best. Deception.

Every wire she created, every spike she placed beneath the ground, every hidden paper bomb she tucked away around the battlefield served a purpose. Individually, they meant little. Together, they slowly transformed the arena into a battlefield designed specifically to inconvenience someone like him.

And many even made him struggle since this Neji wasn't used to the shinobi way of fighting. Speed was one thing, but thinking ahead two moves of the enemy, using everything in one's arsenal, going beyond one's limit, Kiyomi had clearly pushed herself to the limit.

The more obstacles present, the more routes Neji had to consider, and the more routes he had to consider, the easier it became for her Sharingan to predict where he would appear next.

Unfortunately, Neji was becoming increasingly irritated by her refusal to simply lose. "You're annoying," he finally stated after narrowly avoiding yet another hidden explosive tag that detonated the moment he stepped into range.

Smoke and debris exploded upward, drawing cheers from the audience, who thought for a moment she might have actually caught him. A second later, Neji emerged from the smoke cloud entirely unharmed save for a tear in his sleeve, looking more annoyed than injured.

"Do all female shinobi in this world fight like this? Hiding traps everywhere because they're too weak to fight directly?" he half-complained and half-taunted.

Kiyomi immediately responded by creating a cluster of metal spikes directly beneath his feet, forcing him to leap away. "Do all Zenin men cry this much when someone fights back?" she shot back, causing his expression to freeze for the briefest moment.

This clearly meant that the girl closely knew the Zenin family and not just him. This just made him more interested in what exactly she knew.

It was only a fraction of a second, but Kiyomi saw it. The surprise. The recognition. And then what followed was him narrowing his eyes afterward as if showing that he was getting serious now.

No more playing around.

"I guess you seem to know more than I first thought you did. Good.

I'm going to have fun extracting those answers out of you later." Neji grinned, and Kiyomi just braced herself.

As for their talk itself, only the proctor was able to listen from that distance, and Genma wasn't understanding what was going on.

The next moment, he stopped playing around. Kiyomi immediately felt the difference. Up until now, he had relied primarily on Projection Sorcery and his overwhelming speed, but now he began incorporating the techniques of the Hyuga Clan as well, if his current stance was anything to go by.

"It's my first time using this, you know. I'm quite fascinated by how this works." Neji grinned and moved.

His body vanished once again before reappearing directly in front of her. Kiyomi raised her guard just in time for a Gentle Fist strike to crash against her arms. Pain exploded through her body. Another strike followed immediately afterward, then another, and another. Palms struck her shoulders, chest, stomach, and sides with frightening precision.

The attacks failed to achieve their intended purpose since she lacked the active tenketsu they were designed to target, but that hardly mattered. They still hurt.

And more dangerously, the attacks were like a barrage. Neji was using his technique alongside the Hyuga Clan's Gentle Fist, meaning she was getting hit by the entirety of the Hyuga Clan's Gentle Fist sequences at once.

If it were anyone else besides her, someone with active tenketsu to close, then by now all of those would have been closed in mere seconds.

However, Kiyomi endured it. Even with cursed energy reinforcement protecting her body, each blow felt like being struck by a sledgehammer. Kiyomi found herself being driven backward across the arena as Neji relentlessly pressed the attack, his Byakugan allowing him to see through every feint while Projection Sorcery ensured he remained faster than her at almost every moment.

Several times she managed to catch him with traps he hadn't anticipated. A hidden wire wrapped around his ankle once. A concealed paper bomb exploded beside him another time. A field of spikes forced him to abruptly alter his movement path on more than one occasion. Yet every success came at a cost. Every second the battle continued added another bruise to her body, another cut to her skin, another ache to her growing list of injuries.

Be it reinforcement or a special body, no matter what it was, only taking a one-sided beatdown would eventually break anyone. And that was what was happening with her; she was getting beaten down piece by piece.

High above the arena, the reactions were mixed. Naruto had long since stopped cheering and was now gripping the railing tightly enough for his knuckles to turn white.

Sakura looked equally worried despite trying not to show it, while Karin had begun muttering curses under her breath every time Neji landed another hit.

Obviously, Kiyomi wasn't on Team 7, but they had become friends to the point they would look after her no matter the case, even when the two girls kind of hated her guts.

The other teams too were watching very carefully, especially those who had already seen their earlier match. To think that Neji had improved his speed to such an extent in just one month was honestly hard to believe.

The jonin were no less interested. Kakashi's Sharingan eye remained locked on the battlefield as he silently analyzed every movement while Asuma and Kurenai exchanged increasingly concerned glances.

"What did you teach him, Guy? I didn't know you had some secret training plan to improve someone's speed like this." Kakashi asked, though he himself knew that there was no such thing.

Of course, Guy himself was equally flabbergasted at the changes Neji was showing.

Though, perhaps the ones who were the most surprised were Neji's own team, Team 9.

"What in the world happened to him? How come he is like... this?" Tenten asked with complete exasperation.

"Gosh, this is the spirit of youth, Tenten. Neji might have just awakened his youth."

"Tell me you don't really believe that yourself, Lee." Tenten just gave her youth-obsessed teammate an annoyed glance and looked back at the fight.

Even the visiting Kages were paying close attention now.

"My, my... I have to say, Hokage-dono, your Konoha truly is the cradle of geniuses. What amazing speed at such a young age." Terumi Mei said with her usual sultry voice. However, it was clear that the praise contained more than just appreciation.

Rasa too nodded, his eyes fixed on both bloodline clan members of Konoha currently fighting.

Hiruzen's expression remained thoughtful, though there was clear reluctance in his tone. Partly because he was unaware that the boy was this good. He knew that Neji was the top student of his academy year, but at that time he didn't realize he had this much potential.

At the same time, he was reluctant because he knew Neji was a branch family member of the Hyuga Clan. As long as it was the Hyuga Clan branch family, he knew that the Hokage could never get their complete loyalty because of the Caged Bird Seal they carried.

'Shame, he was a good seedling.' Hiruzen seemed to mutter to himself.

As for the Uchiha girl, the situation wasn't looking that good for her.

Back in the arena, however, Kiyomi had stopped caring about what anyone else thought. Her world had narrowed to the man standing in front of her.

Every insult. Every arrogant remark. Every dismissive look. It all reminded her of the Zenin Clan and her childhood spent being told she wasn't good enough.

Neji's voice cut through her thoughts as another strike slammed into her guard.

"You know, you almost remind me of someone. Almost remind me of how I used to put those two brats in their places," Neji said, an amused look on his face.

Kiyomi spat blood onto the ground. "Funny. I was thinking the same thing. Tell me, how did she kill you? Knowing her, she should have gone for that ugly mutt of yours."

The vein that appeared on his forehead was deeply satisfying. Kiyomi honestly had no idea what happened after her death, but she believed that Maki would have taken revenge for her.

'Destroy the Zenin Clan.'

That was the last wish she had. And now, seeing Neji's—or rather Naoya's—face, she was certain Maki did just that.

Unfortunately, satisfaction did not stop his next attack from sending her skidding backward once more.

By now, her breathing had become heavy. Blood trickled from several wounds. Her arms felt numb from blocking so many strikes. Her cursed energy reserves were steadily draining. Every logical part of her mind told her she was losing.

Part of her wished to give up, but that idea was immediately shot down the moment she recalled who exactly this was.

She could forgive anyone, even those rotten Zenin Clan members, given enough initiative. However, the one person she couldn't forgive was Naoya Zenin.

This bastard.

And when that thought settled in, she found out that she had no other way to win here outside of using her Mangekyo.

Sukuna's warning came to mind, and she hesitated for a second. If she lost her eyes this early, then what little power she had would be gone.

She was stuck on this decision, and on the other side, Neji was starting to seethe in anger.

Her earlier comment and his inability to take her down once and for all were getting to him. Neji, or rather Naoya, was quite new to this body. Especially with his technique, he needed a proper understanding of his body's capabilities to use the technique, to align the frames of his technique correctly. To match them, he had to know what this body could naturally do.

In this situation, where he was part venting his anger and part figuring out his body, he found the girl's comment about how he must have died hitting the mark so accurately almost maddening.

"Hahahaaa... I see."

"I see now. I know who you are." He suddenly said, those white eyes hinting at a shade of red within them.

"Mai, isn't it? You two sisters..." He heaved in anger.

"I should have known. So that's what's going on. I came here after dying. What are the possibilities that the same isn't the case for you?"

Kiyomi stiffened for a second now that he had finally realized who she was.

"But Maki is not here to save you this time, you bitch." Naoya snapped at her, hands flowing into a hand sign out of anger, which wasn't entirely toward Mai herself but toward Maki, the one who killed him.

Twice.

'That's...' Sukuna's eyes snapped open upon seeing the hand sign.

"This is bad." Izumi reacted at once, moving to stop the match.

Kiyomi took a second or two to realize what was happening until her eyes widened in horror.

"I'm killing you, bitch, right here and right now. Die for what Maki did to me." Neji roared.

"Domain Expansion."

xXx

A/N : Oh okay, things are getting heated now. For Anime watchers, they certainly wouldn't know Naoya knew Domain, so there is that.

I mean hey, if you're watching a fanfic, you should be ready to get some spoilers sooner or later right.

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