Eternal Rivals

I think Hisako might've been signaling that she liked me.

Maybe I'm only projecting and it really was only due to the extra charisma, but she had started giving off some signs that she might have been crushing. Chief of which was brushing one of her loose locks behind her ear. Usually she doesn't bother. At all.

But you know what? I'm probably wrong. She can't like me, that'd be crazy. I'm weird, socially inept and terrible at flirting. That last one was true of both my lives. That was part of the deal with making charisma my dump stat. I got insanely lucky and avoided my awkward teen years where girls my physical age would start flirting with me and I'd feel all kinds of wrong because I'm technically in my mid-thirties.

In case she was trying to flirt with me, however, I'm going to put off finding a charisma increasing item that I can wear with my armor so things will go back to normal and I can avoid that part of my life like the plague. Both for my sake and theirs.

Especially Hisako's.

I was waiting in front of the academy gates, sitting at a bench with my black book open as I casually looked at the sheer list of feats that I could obtain. Kakashi had informed me that it was time for each of us to start taking missions again. That meant that I was currently sitting with a knot in my stomach in case this next mission turned out like my last and I'd have to put my new skills to the test.

Nichiren arrived first this time, which was surprising.

I waved to him, trying to be casual and not scare him off.

He caught sight of me and began staring. I stared back.

"What did we do at the dinner party last night?" Nichiren asked, his eyes still boring into mine.

"Uh, I showed up in nice clothes, Hisako, you and Sensei had trouble recognizing me…" I shrugged in confusion. Why is he asking? "You got in serious trouble for lying…talked to Hisako about throwing technique for senbon…seriously why are you asking?"

"I'm just having a little trouble believing that was actually you," Nichiren replied.

"Well, it was," I crossed my arms. "I don't know how I can prove it."

Nichiren let out a breath he was holding. "That Henge was crazy, Daisuke. What did you do, mind control yourself to be more social?"

I smirked. That was very interesting way of looking at it, I suppose. It's not even close to the real answer; that I increased an arbitrary number that governs how socially aware I am. As it was, I gave him a waffling motion with my hand.

"You really didn't need to do that for my parents," Nichiren said with an ever increasing frown. "Seriously, I had told them you were…social challenged."

"I think it's more accurate to say that I'm a walking social disaster area that regularly makes things worse wherever I go," I argued with a nod.

"No," Nichiren sounded like he was mostly trying to convince himself. "It just…"

"Nichiren," I interrupted. "I know how bad I am. Stop sugar coating it. Why does the Super-Henge bother you?"

"Because," He started testily. "Whoever that was at the dinner party wasn't you. Your tone of voice was perfect, you seemed conscious of what people were saying and even made things not awkward. Your face even looked slightly different. I almost got in trouble with my parents again, because they thought I misrepresented your character!"

"Oh," I blinked. I hadn't really thought my actions through, huh? "Huh. I didn't realize…huh."

I feel like an idiot again. With 10 Intelligence, that shouldn't be happening as often as it does.

"Then I learn that my teammate basically put a Genjutsu on himself to do what he did," Nichiren shook his head. "That's freaky. Your whole bloodline is freaky. I don't think you understand just how freaky your bloodline even is."

"It's pretty freaky," I nodded. "I know that no one can reverse engineer jutsu quite like I do."

"And you know you're bad," Nichiren looked me in the eye again. "That doesn't make sense to me. You've been like this your whole life. You shouldn't really know you're bad at society unless you've either had prior experience or had it beaten into your head how to act normally. Neither of which is true."

…wow.

I'm impressed. Pretty scared right now, but also impressed.

"But you not only know how you're bad, but how you're bad and how to fix it because you came up with a jutsu that fixed all of your problems," Nichiren finished, his whole frame looking as if a massive weight was lifted from his chest, though his face was getting more and more worried. "I don't understand why, if you know how to act, don't you simply act the right way? I don't…you don't make sense, Daisuke. That's what freaks me out."

I blinked. Seconds passed as I tried to think of something to say. Nichiren, by all accounts, was actually brilliant. Really, really brilliant. I opened my mouth to say something, only to close it again.

Nichiren was holding his hands out, as if inviting me to say something.

"Can we talk about this later?" I finally asked quickly.

Nichiren groaned heavily, hiding his head in his hands. "Yes."

Whew. Okay, I can come up with a plan of attack.

He came over and leaned against the academy's outer wall, on the opposite side of the gate from me. That was fine, he had just gotten a lot off of his chance and now he might think I'm mad at him or that he offended me or maybe he's riding a high from getting that off of his chest.

You know, I think that was actually a very belated way of telling me he thinks I'm crazy.

Well, if this were the first few years of my new life, I'd say he had a point there. And maybe I still am; I certainly lack the social awareness of a sane person. I…oh, no…I wonder if I've kept any of my quirks from my previous life. Oh, I hope I haven't been talking to myself incessantly…

Hisako walked up to the door and looked at me. Then she sighed in annoyance. "We're back to normal now?"

"Yup!" I replied, suddenly really self-conscious and monitoring my behavior to make sure I didn't do anything strange. "Totally normal now. No weird quirky stuff here. Except for sensei being late again, but that's normal too."

Hisako tilted her head and looked at me oddly. "Are…you okay?"

"Never better," I smiled.

She blinked. "…right."

She walked over to the side Nichiren was standing and whispered. "What did you do?"

Nichiren was quiet for a second. "I told him that he freaks me out and why."

"Seriously?" Hisako whisper-snapped. "Why?"

"He asked," Nichiren replied.

"I really did," I supplied, a little loudly to make sure they heard me.

Nichiren let out a startled moan. Hisako didn't say anything.

None of us did, after that. Because my ability to screw up anything social-wise was something I needed to ponder. Well, actually, I shouldn't because there's nothing I can do about it now. I mean, when Almost Perfect hits, that'll be awesome. Unless my teammates attack me because they think I'm someone impersonating Daisuke, rather than actually being me.

This isn't really a game.

It never was.

Eventually, Kakashi-sensei came up the road. He looked at me, then at my teammates on the other side. "Alright, what happened?"

"I screwed up another conversation," I nodded with a frown.

"No, Nichiren screwed up another conversation," Hisako grumbled.

Nichiren grumbled something to himself that I didn't pick up.

Kakashi sighed, and rubbed his forehead protector. "So, Daisuke? How does that Super-Henge of yours work?"

"How does it work?" I blinked, a lump forming in my chest.

"Yes," Kakashi replied.

"Uh…" I blinked. Speech skill, confuse him with large words! "So what it does is that in addition to the effects of a normal Henge, it also overrides my brains natural inability to modulate the tone my voice and increases my brains social awareness to allow for more fluid social interaction. It also increases my decision making capability in regards to what I say to prevent me from simply blurting out the first thing that comes to my mind."

"Daisuke," Kakashi sounded like his was fighting off a massive headache. "Are you seriously telling me you invented a Henge that messes with your mind to help you act normally?"

"Yes," I nodded, relieved that he bought it.

Kakashi sighed. "Daisuke, First off. Do you think you should share the jutsu with Konoha's R&D?"

"Sure," I shrugged, fighting a smile. I'm sure Konoha could always use another infiltration jutsu.

"Second, I don't want you using that jutsu anymore," Kakashi replied.

"Okay Kakashi-sensei," I replied, nodding. I wasn't going to use it anyway. "May I ask why?"

"Sure. The purpose of going to the Nakamura's last night was so you can improve your social skills," Kakashi explained. "Coming up with a jutsu to fix that very problem was very clever but undermined the point of going. That, and you're messing with your mind. That's beyond dangerous; Genjutsu is for the enemy, not ourselves. Understood? So no more Super-Henge. Got it?"

"Understood," I nodded. He probably had in mind the idea that I might not always be able to rely on my jutsu or that it wouldn't work on those with the power to see through such a jutsu. My excuse is to avoid getting hit on by underage girls. We both win.

"Good to hear," Kakashi sounded a little relieved, actually. Odd. Did he not think I'd listen? "So, let's go to the mission desk and pick up a new D-rank."

We each followed him inside with grunts of affirmative. Iruka wasn't working the mission desk. Instead, Okawa was. I hadn't seen the old instructor since I graduated. He still wore that eyepatch with his short white hair.

"Sensei-Okawa," Hisako bowed. "It's good to see you again."

"Ah, Hisako. Daisuke," The old instructor nodded to us. I bowed out of politeness. "It's good to see the two of you doing well…and…Nichiren? Is that right?"

"That's right, Okawa-sama," Nichiren bowed as well.

"Very good," The Old man smiled.

"I'm guessing they were in your class before my squad?" Kakashi asked with a risen eyebrow.

"Not Nichiren," Okawa clarified. "But Hisako and Daisuke were. My best students, actually."

"Thank you Okawa-sensei," Hisako replied.

"Yes, thank you," I followed her lead.

"They are pretty remarkable," Kakashi eye-smiled.

Okawa barked a laugh. "That's an understatement. It doesn't surprise me that Daisuke found a way to pass your test. Wasn't a problem I could put in front of him that he couldn't solve."

Hisako was annoyed.

"I've noticed how smart he is," Kakashi kept up being pleasant. "Now, do you have a mission for us?"

"D or C?" Okawa asked.

"D-rank please," Kakashi answered.

"Here," Okawa handed Kakashi a scroll.

Kakashi unrolled it, and came over to us. "A decrepit old woman needs us to buy groceries and bring them to her home."

I shrugged. "We can do that. Are we accompanying her or just picking up foodstuffs?"

"Just picking up foodstuffs," Kakashi answered, rolling it back up.

He didn't say anything, just looked at me. To my sides, I saw that Hisako and Nichiren were also looking at me.

"What?" I asked with a frown.

"You're not getting anything?" Kakashi asked.

"Like what?"

"No visions of the future?" Hisako asked with a frown. "Nothing telling of our imminent demise or death?"

Oh…crap. That's right, they would probably have remembered my freak-out from before Upon a Midnight Darkly and now…they think…that I can sense the future. Wow. That…just screams incoming headache. Still, I haven't gotten a message indicating we even accepted the quest. "Not really."

"Are you sure?" Kakashi asked. "If this old lady turns out to be a giant cement-monster, I think we want to know about it first."

"Nope, getting nothing," I replied, starting to get uncomfortable. "Can we just accept the q-mission already? You're making me antsy."

"Are you sure it's us that's making you antsy?" Nichiren asked, pushing his glasses up.

I groaned and hid my face in my hands. "I'm sure. Let's just go get that old woman her groceries, please?"

All was quiet for a moment.

"Okay," Kakashi said, rolling up the scroll. "We'll take the mission."

Quest Accepted: D-Rank Mission: Errand Boy.

Purchase groceries for the client.

I let out a small breath that I didn't realize I was holding. This turned out to be a mistake, as my entire team rounded to face me.

"Seriously?" I asked testily. "There's nothing wrong here. We're just getting groceries for an old lady. That's it."

"Okay," Kakashi nodded. "We're just wanting to be sure."

"Nothing could go wrong," I replied. "It's just an errand run."

Nichiren went pale, took off his glassed and whipped his eyes with his forearm. Hisako brought up both her hands in an aborted 'strangle-you' gesture. Kakashi's eye was twitching.

"Can we go now?" I frowned.

"Yes," Kakashi sounded half-paranoid. "We can go."

On our way out, I noticed that Okawa was looking at me really oddly. Eh, I guess if I didn't know that I had some form of precognition, that entire exchange would have sounded crazy.

Well, I was right, oddly enough. Investing 10 points into Luck was the best decision I ever made, if I had to be honest with myself. Nothing went wrong. From the trip to the grocery store, which had one of those old-timey cash registers that you had to input the entire bar code in rather than the scan-gun I was used too, to the client's home in one of the more residential areas of Konoha.

Nothing happened.

Except my teammates were unbearable. Kakashi insisted that I walk directly to the right of Nichiren, who was holding the groceries. Hisako was to his left, her hands tightly grasping kunai and shoved into her pockets. Kakashi took the lead, and we basically moved in this formation throughout the entire village as we finished our mission.

The three of them were paranoid, looking down alleyways, looking for any threat that could conceivably come from any shadow that so much as looked too dark.

When we got to the client's house, Kakashi knocked, and moved his hands behind him, holding a kunai. The door slowly opened and there was a white haired, sweet old lady, holding a cat in her arms. She was every person's stereotypical perfect grandmother; sweet, kind to a fault, welcoming of any who came to her door and even offered to bake us persimmon cookies.

Note to self: come back later. I love persimmons and I love cookies.

Kakashi, however politely, turned her down and she looked crushed. We left quickly, moving in formation back to the mission desk, collected our vouchers and turned to leave.

Quest Complete: D-Rank: Errand Boy.

+150 EXP.

3580 more until I level.

"Well, I think that was a good mission," Kakashi eye-smiled in relief. "In spite of a jinx that followed us the whole way, I'd say that was a qualified success."

Hisako wiped her brow with her forearm. Nichiren cleaned off his glasses.

I declined to say anything. I guess they learned from Nichiren's jinx. But it's not like this is a fanfic or anything.

"So let's head over to training ground three," Kakashi continued. "There we'll work on Taijutsu and defense against Genjutsu."

"Any chance of you showing us some cool Ninjutsu?" I asked with a risen hand.

"Perhaps later," Kakashi answered. "But not today."

"Alright," I shrugged. It's not like I didn't know a lot of jutsu to begin with.

So, we left the mission office. As we walked through the gate, I heard a deep, bellowing voice shout at the top of his lungs, "KAKASHI!"

…oh boy.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Maito Gai. The Green Beast of Konoha. Perhaps the most optimistic person in all of Konoha. The man personally responsible for Rock Lee's astounding transformation from wuss to certified Taijutsu master and the creation of one of my favorite characters. However, because the universe believes in being fair, he also has to mentor Neji.

I had seen him before, when he first picked up team 9, but was never actually introduced.

Now, I might actually get the pleasure. I just hope I survive the experience.

"Gai," Kakashi nodded to him.

"My eternal rival!" Gai beamed at him. "How have you been? Last I checked, we were 29 to 29. Dead even. So…I challenge you!"

"Gai," Kakashi started. "Normally I'd love too, but my team and I were about to go training. So, maybe we can have one of our challenges later?"

"Training?" Gai beamed and wiped a tear from his eye. "Seeing you pass on your hip and cool-"

…don't laugh don't laugh don't laugh…

"-knowledge to your youngsters to stoke the fires of their youth is a beautiful thing. I could never get in the way of that."

Behind Gai, who currently had his arm wrapped around Kakashi's shoulder, team 9 finally caught up. There was Lee, who had finished his transmogrification into Gai-clone, and was wearing the green spandex. Nice. Neji came up next, his eyes still giving me the creeps and Tenten came up last. You know, I hadn't seen her since I got my gear. I needed to stop by her shop again, get something to cover my chest beyond the mesh undershirt.

"Hey," Tenten looked at me with recognition in her eyes. "I remember you."

"Same," I nodded. "The gear has actually come in really handy. I'll have to stop by again sometime."

"Uh?" Hisako looked at me and pointed at her.

"Her family owns the store I bought all of this at," I said, gesturing at my armor. "Very high quality stuff, this. I totally recommend it."

"Yosh!" Lee exclaimed with a fist-pump. "Tenten's family makes the best equipment."

"I'll keep that in mind," Hisako said, crossing her arms.

Oh, she seems oddly hostile. Wonder why.

"Good to hear," She smiled. "Though I'm wondering why I didn't recognize you if we graduated the same year."

Neji kept quiet, though I could sense him judging my team…though, that probably has more to do with what I remember from the anime than my actual ability to read body language.

"I mostly kept to myself," I shrugged. "Didn't know anyone in the academy, really."

"So, Kakashi, how about my team and yours have a joint training exercise!" Gai had waited graciously for us to finish our conversation. "I challenge you to have your team duel my team!"

"…you were being serious about that?" Kakashi deadpanned.

"Of course!" Gai beamed.

What were they talking about?

"Just three matches, one for each genin," Gai continued. "We can go to the training ground, complete our challenge, and then we can see where our teams could do better! Best two out of three wins the challenge. If I fail, I will run five-hundred laps around Konoha on one hand!"

That seems a little extreme. But hey, it's Gai. Will he alternate hands? Probably switch between them every lap or so.

Kakashi sighed. "Okay. What training ground?"

"Excellent! Training ground two," Gai smiled and turned to his teammates. "Before we head on over…would the three of you introduce yourselves?"

Quest Accepted: Eternal Rivals!

Go to training ground 2.

"Yosh!" Lee enthusiastically bowed. "I am Rock Lee, and my dream is to prove that a shinobi can be great with only Taijutsu."

Go you!

Neji smirked condescendingly at his teammate, but said nothing.

"Hishuragi Tenten," Tenten smiled and followed Lee's lead. "I want to become a great Kunoichi like Tsunade-hime of the Sannin."

You know, I never understood the near religious devotion some people hold toward those three. Sure, they're super talented or whatever, but they weren't the end all be all of Shinobi. And Orochimaru went crazy, so maybe that's influencing my opinion of them.

"My name is Hyuuga Neji of the Hyuuga clan," Neji said blankly but with just the tiniest hint of anger.

We waited for him to say something else, but when he didn't continue, Nichiren took the ball.

"I'm Nakamura Nichiren," He waved. "I want to become a Medic-nin like Tsunade-hime myself."

"Neat!" Tenten beamed.

"I'm Yamada Hisako," She shrugged. "I want to join the Anbu Black-Ops."

"I'm Shimoda Daisuke," I said finally. "I want to have the most missions on record for any Shinobi."

"Yosh!" Lee smiled. "That is an awesome goal!"

Quest Updated: Eternal Rivals!

Completed: Go to training ground 2.

Training ground two, alongside training ground one, were the most basic grounds Konoha had. They had targets for kunai, training dummies for Taijutsu. The training ground itself was a shallow sand-pit. In the center was a circle of stone that cordoned off the center of the pit for sparring matches like this one.

"Sensei, can I go first?" Lee asked his mentor with a large smile.

"Yes!" Gai answered enthusiastically and Lee stepped into the ring.

Kakashi hummed to himself. "Hisako. You can fight Lee."

"Hai Sensei," She bowed and stepped into the circle.

The rest of us all sat around the circle.

"No killing and no serious or crippling injuries," Gai called out. "Everything else is permitted. Bow to your partner!"

Lee and Hisako bowed to themselves.

"Begin!" Gai called out with this massive smile on his face.

Hisako fell into a basic academy stance, Lee into an aggressive one I knew belonged to the Strong Style. Well, Hisako's got two things on her side. She actually has jutsu and her main sparring partner for the past few years was me. Granted, I've been holding back, but still.

Lee opened with a high kick. Hisako ducked before the foot connected to her face and she retaliated with a punch to his gonads. Lee intercepted the punch with a forearm, coming back down to the earth. He punched twice and Hisako deflected both away with the palms of her hands, coming in with a kick to the stomach. Lee grabbed it and pulled backward, sending Hisako into a painful looking split.

Well, it looked painful, but Hisako pushed against the ground with both hands to bring her other foot to bear against Lee's face, and he blocked with a cross. Hisako came to the ground and swept out Lee's legs. But Lee caught himself on one hand, braced himself against the ground with one foot and kicked Hisako square in the stomach, sending her to the ground. She held her stomach and tried to get up.

…wow.

She gets kicked in the stomach a lot.

"I think she's lost this one," Kakashi nodded.

"We are in agreement then, Kakashi-san," Gai smiled. "Lee is the winner!"

"Yosh!" Lee cheered. Then he offered Hisako a hand up, which she took. "You are very skilled, Hisako-chan! I would be honored if we could train together sometime."

Hisako thought about that for a moment. "I'd like that."

Excellent. That will help her immensely. I thought about clapping, but decided against it.

"Next match is Neji," Gai announced with a grin, this one slightly smaller than before.

"Daisuke," Kakashi nodded to me. "You're up."

Quest Updated: Eternal Rivals!

Defeat Neji.

I returned the nod and rose into the arena.

Neji was on the other side. His eyes…are weird. They had no pupil, as the lightly colored sclera completely covered it. I guess you didn't need to have an exposed pupil if you could see through walls, did you?

"Bow to your partner!" Gai called. I followed his instruction. Neji favored me with a shallow bow.

I went into a basic stance; he went into a gentle-fist stance. Surprisingly, he didn't start talking about fate and how I was destined to lose. I guess it's not too surprising, I haven't deliberately antagonized him and it's likely he hasn't heard of me since stuff about me is mostly classified. I would assume so, anyway.

"Begin!" Gai called out.

Neji put his hands in a seal and uttered "Byakugan."

I waited for him to make the first move, holding my stance and watching him.

"I can see your chakra," Neji continued.

There we go.

"So what?" I asked.

"You don't know what that means," Neji said, his nose scrunching up slightly as if he just smelled something lightly offensive. "I'll show you."

Alright then.

He moved first and, like Hisako, his moves were horribly telegraphed. Slow, too. That just made pushing his first strike away all the easier. Since his chakra, from what I remembered, was focused in his fingertips, I pushed at his wrist, pushing the strike to my right while I slid around him in an orbit to the left, and rewarded him with a punch to the side.

I slid back, getting away from the inevitable counter attack.

Yeah, I could curb stomp this kid into next week and 'humble' him. I had no doubt. This wasn't the beast of a Genin that stood up to Naruto during the Chunin exams in the anime or yore. What stood before me was a twelve-year-old who was only five weeks into training. But I don't think 'humbling' him will work. I don't think he'll be humbled by a curb stomp, especially if he hears of the garbage I'm capable of unleashing.

Which is part of why I'm only going at him with Taijutsu. I do want to help him, but I feel like the best way to go about that is to show him that, against me? His Byakugan and Jyuken are useless. Avoid and evade are the order of the day. Even then, it won't do much.

I parried another strike, then another, making sure to push at his wrists. After parrying another attack, my fist landed in his face and I pulled back once more.

Neji massaged his nose and turned again to face me with a grunt. He glowered at me with annoyance, and settled into a stance but didn't move towards me.

Ah, he wants me to attack, thinking he might have better luck on the defense. This would be sound judgement any other situation, but I can guarantee that I was more patient than he was. I spent six months entirely immobile, and a year without being able to speak. I was basically insane during this time, but still.

I dropped out of my stance, folded my arms. As the minutes passed, as I was having a harder and harder time fighting a smirk crawling its way across my face-there we go!

He lost patience and lunged. I bent to the side, watching him and his outstretched fingers pass by my eyes with a smile on my face. He span around to try and hit something but crap, man. This just wasn't fair. I planted a fist right in his stomach and backed away again.

Neji doubled over, holding his stomach with a groan.

"I think we're done," I said, holding a hand up.

"No we are not," Neji argued, gingerly releasing his stomach and coming back to his stance. "Not yet."

I shrugged. "You sure?"

"What's wrong?" Neji asked rhetorically. "Are you afraid I'm going to start hitting you?"

I laughed. "No."

He glared in impotent rage. Then lunged once more. This time I just slid right out of the way at the last second, stuck my foot out, stuck it onto his ankle, and pushed him down to the ground with a loud thud.

Coughing, Neji stood up again.

"That's it Neji!" Gai cheered. "Show him the power of your youth!"

"You can do it Neji!" Lee joined it.

Neji glared at his cheerleaders and rushed me again. I parried both strikes and punched him in the chest, followed up with a jab to the stomach, parried another Jyuken strike, stuck my foot behind his and pushed him over once again.

I backed up, giving him space.

You know, part of me wondered why he didn't start funneling chakra into his wrists to make my parries a non-factor. But it would probably be very difficult to do that since he's trained to channel his chakra into his fingers and the thought process behind the change my take some getting used to.

Neji tried to get back up. Twice, before he finally stopped and resorted to just breathing heavily on the sand.

"Daisuke is the winner!" Gai shouted, sounding exuberant but also somewhat unsure. Like he didn't know quite what just happened.

I guess that's fair. I did just soundly beat the rookie of the year without getting touched.

That said, I did walk up and offer Neji a hand. An olive branch. He ignored it, and managed to stand on his own after some serious difficulty. Then he walked back to the audience and sat down, refusing to look at me.

Alright then. Well, that's what happens when I fight a Genin with Kage-level Taijutsu, I suppose. Though I do wonder why he didn't start trying his psychological attacks that he's famous for…maybe because he didn't know me well enough to hit any of my buttons? That would probably be it. He lives with Hinata, so knows her quite well and Naruto's…Naruto. Pretty easy to read, if you know what you're doing. Maybe he doesn't know what he's doing yet?

Quest Updated: Eternal Rivals!

Completed: Defeat Neji.

I sat back down on the sidelines. Hisako looked depressed for some reason. Nichiren looked nervous.

"Tenten, it's your turn!" Gai remarked.

"Hai," The double-bun mistress of the kunai stood up.

"Nichiren," Kakashi replied.

"Yup," Nichiren stood up.

Alright, what can Nichiren do to avoid being swiss-cheesed? I mean, Tenten's not allowed to swiss-cheese him, so this…might be more even than I thought.

"Bow to your opponents," Gai called, seeming a little giddy.

Nichiren and Tenten both bowed in respect.

"Begin!"

Shuriken immediately found themselves in Tenten's hand and suddenly the arena was filled with smoke. Everyone started coughing and I waved the smoke away from my face. When it cleared, Nichiren was gone.

"Wha-?" Tenten started looking around, confused. "Where'd you go?"

"He said anything went," Nichiren's voice came from below, though it wasn't obvious at first. "So I don't have to stay in the arena, now do I?"

Oh, he's fighting dirty.

Nice.

Suddenly, a bunch of Ninja wire erupted from the earth and wrapped themselves around the Kunoichi's legs and started to pull her under the ground. Tenten, however, was right on top of things, and managed to cut the wire with a shoto pulled from a storage scroll. Before she stepped out of the new pits forcibly dug by her legs, Nichiren rose from the ground with freaking iron knuckles on his fists.

Tenten quickly bent backward at the knees, and summersaulted out of the way and back onto her feet, letting loose a barrage of shuriken that Nichiren jumped, ducked and stumbled to dodge. Then the field filled with smoke-

"Again?" Tenten growled in frustration.

-and Nichiren was gone once more. Nichiren's apparently our stealth specialist, which makes sense considering he wants to be a medical ninja and shooting the medic is probably a thing in this world to prevent they guy you just downed from getting back up seconds later.

Because chakra is bull and medical jutsu would probably be equally bull.

Tenten immediately looked below and prepared for an attack. She was surprised when Nichiren surfaced five feet to her right. A ring of ninja wires also surfaced, wrapping around her leg, allowing Nichiren to start pulling. Tenten fell, but not before throwing a kunai at Nichiren, which he dodged, giving Tenten enough time to cut herself free again. She jumped to her feet, nimbly dodging the other wires the surfaced to ensnare here.

Nichiren didn't bother with the smokescreen this time, disappearing into the ground.

Didn't Naruto do that a couple of times? And get really good at it? I remember he nearly knocked out Neji's teeth by doing so during the Chunin exams.

Tenten grabbed a kunai in her other hand, looking around.

"Think he's run out of wire?" I whisper to Hisako.

"I think he did," was her reply. "He didn't carry that much with him."

I grunted, keeping an eye for him.

Nichiren burst from the ground behind Tenten, lunging at her with his fist cocked back. Tenten, to her credit, rapidly turned to meet him, parried his attack, and grabbed him from behind, placing her shoto to his neck.

…if you hurt my teammate, I swear to…

"The fights over," Kakashi nodded.

"Indeed!" Gai shouted. "Tenten is the winner!"

Tenten released him with a cheer. Nichiren fell to the ground and she offered him a hand. "That was really sneaky of you at the start."

"Thanks," Nichiren smiled. "You're really handy with that sword."

"Thank you."

Quest Compete: Eternal Rivals!

+500 EXP.

3080 until I level.

I only had to beat up a practically defenseless twelve-year-old to get that EXP.

I hate you, game.

"Alright well," I stood up. "If that's everything, two-to-one means that Gai-sensei won the challenge. Can I go home now?"

"Yes you may," Kakashi said, giving a small wave. "See you later."

"See you guys later," I waved goodbye to everyone, before I shunshined my way back to the city.

I got the distinct impression that I was being stared at as I left.