𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐓𝐎 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊 | 𝐍𝐚𝐫𝐮𝐭𝐨 [HEAVY EDITING]

𝟑𝟓 | 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡: 𝐍𝐚𝐫𝐮𝐭𝐨 𝐯𝐬. 𝐍𝐞𝐣𝐢

I actually cried writing a part of this chapter. I'm glad I decided to change Sen's introduction into this story versus how his character was before. I'm a sucker for siblings, I think, since mine was just as absent from my life as Sen had been from Kari's until recently.

For the entirety of this match, I've yet to release my armrests. If they weren't made of a stiff, cold slab of stone, I might've broken them. Sen has offered his upturned hand to me several times since the start of Naruto's battle, but it remains upturned and empty, a fact I've caught him pouting over in the corner of my eye.

From the very start, Naruto has shown a wonderful display of both his own Taijutsu skills, as well as the motions I was able to teach him while still on bedrest those few times he'd been able to visit. But when Neji had nearly managed to tap out one of his "chakra points", I nearly lose it. It'd been instinctive – my hand just reached for anything other than the chair to hold, my nails finally meeting the stone and filing them down (which ended being a good thing since they were rather long after spending a month in the hospital) – and Sen almost gratefully accepts them.

I'll just call it a moment of weakness – I'm still mad at the Yamada. But it seems like Sen is almost as tense as I am; I can feel his pulse going like crazy. Is he worried for Naruto, too?

Naruto produces over fifty Shadow Clones— realizing I know this not through seeing it with my own eyes but through sensing it confuses me. I shift uncomfortably in my seat as they are all mowed down by Neji on his way to the end of the group, attacking the furthest Naruto from him, assuming it to be the real one, who'd looped around to try and attack Neji from behind.

Neji uses something called "Eight Trigrams: Sixty-Four Palms" and sends Naruto flying. Something about a cursed mark is mentioned, prompting Neji to pull off his headband. I squint, having risen slightly to get a better angle. Sen doesn't have to move, his height giving him an advantage. There's a green manji symbol branded on his forehead. He tells Naruto of his father's murder, and how a three-year-old Hinata had been kidnapped by a Hidden Cloud Shinobi. "A life for a life," Neji says. "If there is to be peace, Lord Hiashi must die."