Naruto One Man Team by Ackdam

Chapter 31: A Different Sort of Fight

Neji shot off the branch after Hinata, but was too far away to make any attempt to catch up. In fact, it surprised him how fast she had gotten; he could swear she was actually pulling away.

"Like I'm going to let you get away!" Kidōmaru shot out a few strands of webbing that sped over the heads of the two Hyūga, confusing them slightly until they saw the targets the attack was heading for. Each strand had a hardened point on the end which was homing in on the retreating backs of the Konoha team.

With little time to act both of the Hyūga shot their hands out and tore the strands apart, ending the chakra to the projectiles and turning the webbing into harmless threads.

Seeing his plan thwarted, Kidōmaru growled slightly and began chewing again. He was forced to jump away as Hinata went on the offensive again, not willing to wait for him to finish his preparations. Neji was starting to get a little irritated. Hinata, the cousin that he had berated for so long for being weak and shy, was being even more aggressive than he was. Not only had she figured out the weakness of their opponent's jutsu almost as quickly as he had, but she seemed to have no issues whatsoever with rushing in headfirst against an opponent they hadn't fully analyzed yet.

This also made him start to believe she'd lost a few brain cells from being around Naruto so long. Going head to head against an unknown opponent could be considered extremely foolish and have deadly consequences. They should have been staying back and getting a feel for how the guy attacks, not just mindlessly attacking him themselves. Despite his own opinions he was now forced to take action or be left behind. Foregoing the pursuit of Hinata, he took a different path that he hoped would be their destination. It was difficult to tell of course due to their seemingly random path, but he could shift once he got there.

Hinata's adrenalin was pumping. 'The best defense is to attack first. This guy can use long range attacks so, while we can't assume he isn't good in close range, we can say it is the better course of action until proven otherwise. Though the fact that he keeps running seems to suggest such.' She sent another palm thrust towards Kidōmaru's chest which was turned aside as he leapt off their current branch again. She wasn't the best tactician but as a Hyūga, or rather former Hyūga, she didn't have a whole lot of ranged attacks in her arsenal. The jutsu she had been learning were mainly sūiton so being in the treetops of a forest really didn't help much there either.

Their taijutsu battle raged on as they hopped from branch to branch with Kidōmaru trying to gain a little distance and Hinata not giving him an inch. Their dance stopped however when they reached a particularly thick branch. As Kidōmaru landed a blur shot out from behind the trunk and hit one of his arms causing him to shout a bit in surprise and jump off to the side. Fortunately for him, the blur landed right where his previous attacker was about to land and she was forced to maneuver around it or force one of them off the branch. Now he had valuable distance, something he capitalized on.

"Neji! Why did you get in the way?" Hinata was furious, though she never took her eyes off her opponent.

Neji on the other hand was stunned. 'Did...did she just yell at me?' He chanced a glance at her and saw a grimace on her face that confirmed what he'd heard. It made him scowl a bit himself. "I was trying to gain the advantage over our enemy. In case you hadn't noticed, I was able to partially disable one of his arms."

"And at the same time you forced me out of combat and now he has the distance to use his ranged attack, which he seems to favor so much. Not only that, but you only managed to partially disable one arm out of six!" Hinata scolded.

"Are you saying you could have done better?"

"No, I'm saying you should have disabled a leg so he couldn't run so easily. He's got spare arms, but with a leg out of commission he wouldn't be able to get his distance at all." Neji was about to berate her for suggesting such a low handed tactic,but she beat him to the punch. "Don't even give me any of that Hyūga honor crap. At the end of today the one that wins will be going home. If we have to pull out every underhanded trick in the books to get us back safely then that's what we're going to do."