Struggle - 2

The Oto ninja was sent flying and knocked down a number of feet. While he tried to regain his composure, Hinata had fetched Kiba, Chouji and Shikamaru from their respective restraints. They huddled together on the branch Neji was perched on, observing the lone Sound shinobi.

"While we're all fighting him at once we're wasting time," Shikamaru sighed, deciding on their next course of action, "We can't let the others get too far ahead of us. One of us should stay behind to finish him while the rest of us continue on."

It was quiet for a moment and Naruto frowned in thought. He had heard of this strategy before. The last time they had employed it Haku had been left behind while he and Sasuke went ahead to find Gaara, 'That makes it kind of ironic, I guess. I wish things were different right now…if we leave someone behind this time it could be bad!'

"I will stay and hold him off." Neji announced, his eyes fierce, "The rest of you should go on."

Naruto's eyes widened on the Hyuga prodigy, "Neji, wait! Come on! Can't someone else stay? I mean if you got-"

"Alright." Shikamaru agreed, "We'll go then. Catch up with us when you finish him, got it?"

Neji nodded and then turned to his younger cousin, "Hinata-sama…will you be alright?"

"I will." Her voice was soft, so only he could hear, "The pain is not enough to stop me now, Neji-niisan."

He hoped that was true. Before they had left the village he could tell that she had been in a lot of pain. He hadn't said anything because if she had been left behind she would've never forgiven him.

'Naruto will look after her. Hinata-sama will not come to any harm on this mission so long as he is by her side,' Neji looked to the blonde shinobi, 'He is her match in every respect. He won't continue on without her!'

"Naruto."

The blonde boy looked to Neji expectantly after he'd been addressed.

"You have better eyes than mine." The Hyuga prodigy told him.

Naruto stared at him. An odd feeling filled his chest as he listened.

"Sasuke and Haku are now within the darkness," The older boy said, closing his eyes, "You are the only one who can find them and bring them back."

He nodded in understanding.

"Now go. I will follow later."

The team moved out and Naruto called back to the Hyuga heir, "Hey! Hurry and catch up to us when you're done, Neji!"

They moved into the forest ahead and Kidomaru spat a mouthful of webbing hurriedly, "You're not getting away from me!"

Neji's eyes were illuminated with the power of the Byakugan, and as the web net soared through the air he sliced it with precise chakra strikes as if it were the most flimsy of cobwebs.

His teammates went on ahead unhindered and the Oto nin smirked at Neji's counter, 'This guy is pretty good…' He began to regroup, still determined to prevent the Leaf shinobi from catching Sakon and Tayuya.

"I am not going to let you get past me." Neji's voice was a low warning as Kidomaru spat another web at him and he easily shredded it, "It's no use."

"I see! Well then, you are clearly the strongest of the group!" The spider-nin smirked again, "My playfulness is coming out again! We have to play the game slowly or it's a waste…"

Neji fell into an offensive stance, remaining silent.

Kidomaru furrowed his brow, "First I will play for three minutes. Then I will kill you."

The Hyuga prodigy scanned his foe's body for weaknesses, reading the flow of chakra as it quickly began to race. He could sense another attack.

Dozens of webs came flying all at once and Neji sliced them apart warily as Kidomaru tried to create an opening in his defenses. Hashed apart three webs efficiently, but a forth, shadowing its predecessors, landed a direct hit and pinned him to a tree trunk. More webs followed, pinning his arms and Neji shook angrily, unable to believe he had miscalculated.

"I caught you!" The sound ninja was grinning, "Your skill with using chakra is quite high…and you have sharp eyes. You form the chakra into a needle at the end if your hand and cut through the thread at the weakest point." He laughed to himself, "I heard about this from Orochimaru-sama. This is Gentle Fist, eh?"

Neji did his best to remain calm. Letting his enemy provoke him could lead to disaster.

"But if you can't use your hands, you can't cut the thread," Kidomaru reasoned keenly, leaping to a higher branch, "Once you understand how to win the game it suddenly becomes boring! It's only still the first minute and I've become bored of you…"

Kidomaru began chewing on a new web in his mouth, preparing to finish the Leaf ninja. Neji closed his eyes, desperately trying to relax.

"Die!" The spider-nin spat a golden thread from his mouth, "Kumo Nenkin!"

Neji released chakra through all of his tenketsu in that moment, breaking the webbing that had been retraining him. He leapt, avoiding the golden web and then landed on it, running across to his foe.

Shock was visible on the Oto nin's face, 'How did he…?'

Neji landed in front of him, taking another Jyukken stance, "I will tell you a secret. It's not only my hands. I can control all of my tenketsu. And by the way…game over."

A wheel of eight trigrams was measured out beneath his feet as Neji focused on his next attack, "Hakke Rokujuyon Sho!"

Kidomaru reeled back, snapping the golden thread, knowing he wouldn't be able to dodge the assault. The points of damage doubled as Neji drove him further along the tree branch, meeting no resistance, and blew the spider-nin through a tree trunk and out the other side, tumbling down to the forest floor.

Neji leapt down as well to make certain his opponent was finished.

Kidomaru stood slowly while dust obscured him from view but Neji could still see him, 'What is the meaning of this?' The spider-nin was covered with a sort of toughened webbing, 'A golden shield?'

As the web armor began to crack and peel off of the Oto ninja. Neji understood, 'It is made from the same substance that is coming from his mouth…'

Kidomaru stood erect, smirking, "Too dangerous, too dangerous! I was told that if I got seriously hurt it would damage my nervous system and I wouldn't be able to mold chakra. That was very close!"

"Are you a monster?" Neji asked, bluntly, "It seems that you do it from more than just your mouth."

"Once my Kumo Nenkin makes contact with the air it is transformed into a metal alloy. Also, it doesn't allow chakra to pass through," He was very proud of his ability, "And not only am I able to release it through my mouth but also from the pores throughout my body."

'Jyukken will not work against him with armor like that,' Neji noted in frustration, 'That is what it means.'

Kidomaru, across the way, was also absorbed in his thoughts, 'Web binding will not work. And also against a close range guy it's hard to get near him. That means that I have to assassinate him from a distance.'

The Sound ninja quickly withdrew back into the far reaches of the treetops. Neji stood watchful on the ground with his Byakugan, awaiting the next move. Abruptly, a kunai fell from the treetops with a tag attached.

Kidomaru smirked from his place hidden among the leaves.

'This kunai is a fake!' Neji could already detect a hail of gold-web projectiles raining down from above with his Kekkei Genkai. Moving fast, he rotated, knocking the storm of gold kunai away. As the attack ended, Kidomaru was baffled that he had managed to deflect it, 'Does this guy have eyes on the back of his head? And that defense earlier on…is he able to use chakra to block a direct attack?'

Neji hurled a kunai at Kidomaru who had hidden in the tree behind him and the Sound ninja ducked under it with surprise, 'He is able to see me! Who is this guy?'

"I know you're there," Neji called aloud, "Come out!"

'Those eyes…' Kidomaru observed Neji's unique talent, 'Look like they can not only see the flow of chakra. Here exists an unexpectedly skilled guy!'

Neji made note of how long distance fighting would put him at a disadvantage. It was the first time he had ever entertained the notion, 'When I am with Lee and Tenten there is no range too close or far. They should be here with me…'

Kidomaru let himself be seen, and hung suspended beneath a branch with a web thread. "I will admit that this is a high-level game," He spoke while activating his cursed seal, "I will be serious."

With his Byakugan Neji observed a change in his opponent, 'He is completely different from before. His chakra activity is suddenly much greater!' His eyes narrowed, 'And also, that curse seal…'

Kidomaru recognized that Neji's normal eyesight was combined with his wide range eyesight, and that a different sort of attack method was needed to defeat him. He bit his thumb, formed hand seals and summoned a massive spider into the tree he had been waiting in.

"I will study your ability thoroughly and find your weak points!" Kidomaru proclaimed from the back of his queen spider, and then moved to the egg sack she had laid in the web, slicing it open, "Come out!"

Smaller arachnids poured out from the web and rained down on threads, all aiming for the Hyuga prodigy below.

"Kaiten!" Neji blew them away with a rotation in response, but the webbing the young spiders had attached to them began to slow his movement down.

"Right there!" Kidomaru threw a gold kunai once Neji had stopped; his aim lethally accurate.

Neji could see the incoming projectile and forced more chakra into his rotation, speeding it up again and knocked the kunai away. The spider-nin noticed his reaction, 'When the kunai was very close he expelled more chakra and deflected it,' He leapt into another tree, 'I will not make that mistake again!'

The Hyuga prodigy was upset that his rotation could be stopped by something as fragile as thread, but knew that his opponent would exploit the weakness whenever he could if he did it again.

Neji avoided another hail of golden kunai that forced him back towards the smaller spiders raining down from their web. Knowing Kaiten wouldn't help, he took a different approach and attacked offensively, "Hakke Rokujuyon Sho!"

Try as he might to knock them back, they kept coming, 'There are too many of them!'

Desperate, he resorted to his final move, and added another ring of trigrams to his field of divinity. Neji calmed himself down, then attacked again, "Hakke: Hyaku Niju Hasho!"

His speed doubled instantly and one hundred and twenty-eight strikes was more than enough to blow away the incoming arachnids. The summoned spider in Kidomaru's web sent out another legion of her offspring and in moments Neji was again overwhelmed, 'There are still too many! I won't make it in time!' His attack ended and he panicked, trying to rotate, but was caught up in the webbing.

He cut himself free but not in time to evade one of the gold kunai Kidomaru had thrown.

The knife sliced his shoulder open and he hissed in pain, dropping to his knees to catch his breath.

The other knives had missed him, but the one that had hit was agonizing. For a long moment he didn't understand, until he recalled a similar event that had occurred weeks earlier, 'Tenten. It is right where she cut me and it reopened the scar. It's the same wound...'