Chapter 322 - Ch322. Hinata Vs Tayuya
Hinata dashed straight at the monstrous humanoid who was the source of the grey worm, intending to knock it out with one hit. Unfortunately for her, she was spotted far too soon by Tayuya, its summoner.
Tayuya didn't let it show though. Her back was turned to Hinata and it stayed that way. The only thing she did was bring her flute to her mouth, not something an inexperienced ninja would suspect being in any way a threat.
Hinata was almost upon the hulking figure, her palm razing its way through the air towards it while chakra gathered around it. Her goal was almost in her grasp... but suddenly Hinata's eyes widened when the second hulking figure, one holding a massive club, moved to intercept her. It was fast. Too fast for its apparent frame.
Hinata found herself facing a decision. She could strike the figure in front of her and get struck by the club or evade backward.
'Maybe I could deliver the palm strike and go instantly into Kaiten?' Hinata mused as her brain worked overtime to create a valid strategy.
It was then that her ears registered a vibrant sound of music as her opponent started playing her flute. Hinata's very first thought was that it was an instrument that would help the woman with controlling the massive figures but when she saw her chakra's erratic flow...
'Genjutsu!?' Hinata inwardly freaked out and instantly flared her chakra out of several tenketsu, just to be sure.
While it didn't take even a split of a second for Hinata to realize she was caught in a genjutsu and then breaking out of it... in fact, she broke out of it so fast, she didn't even get to see what effect the genjutsu had... her body still stopped advancing and that made Hinata's decision for her.
Realizing she no longer had time to strike and then use Kaiten to avoid the club, Hinata's only option was to forgo the attack and step back, evading the club by a small margin thanks to the precise vision granted to her by the Byakugan and her natural nimbleness.
As the club crashed into the ceiling on which they all stood, Hinata used the situation to her advantage and swapped her Hyuuga fighting style into the Snake Taijutsu Style taught to her by Anko. Her hand instantly grabbed the club and the girl hurled her body above it, snapping her feet towards the humanoid monster holding the club. Her foot smashed into the monster's head with her whole momentum behind the kick, snapping said head back and sending the figure flying. A moment later, the monstrous humanoid poofed into a copious amount of smoke.
'Summon, huh?' Hinata fell to the ground into a crouch briefly pondering if she should use her momentum against the ground as a springboard and try to take out the grey-worm producer nearby when a soft melody entered her ears again.
Tayuya was incredibly shocked when the little girl managed to break out of her genjutsu in under a second. It made her turn around and pay more attention to her own fight. She completely stopped trying her distraction tactics above the bridge and recalled the grey worm back. Her opponent clearly needed her full attention.
Nobody, not even other members of the Sound Four, could manage such a feat! There was a reason why she was one of the four most elite ninjas of the Sound village. Her techniques were special, unexpectable, and the synergy between her genjutsu and summons enabled her to take down most jonins. To think a genin would not only break one of her genjutsu quicker than it would take a jonin to even notice something was wrong... What the fuck was Konoha feeding its kids nowadays!
Tayuya didn't even manage to get out of her first shock when the small girl suddenly completely changed her body movements and the next thing Tayuya knew was that one of her summons was forcefully sent back into its home realm. That shook Tayuya out of her reverie pretty quickly.
She noticed Hinata's eyes calculatingly flicker towards her Doki who was the source of her best weapon, the ethereal grey worms.
'Oh, no, you bitch. No way am I letting you go for it!' Tayuya thought and started playing her flute again, this time choosing a more vicious and immediate genjutsu.
It clearly worked as Hinata flinched and obviously abandoned her plan to press her attack as she retreated back, creating some distance between them.
Hinata inwardly groaned. The last genjutsu took her even less time to dispel than the first one since she expected it but even for that split of a second, she felt a massive surge of pain. It was all mental and her body was completely fine but this only proved her opponent had a way to affect her. That wasn't a very reassuring thought.
'At least it is not four versus one now.' Hinata mused, her mood souring despite the fake cheer she tried to summon, 'Right... it's three versus one. Not a big improvement.' She forcefully calmed herself and focused on her Byakugan.
Sidestepping to the right, Hinata evaded just in time to make the gray worm that emerged from the ceiling under her feet. Her opponent clearly liked to use the phasing ability of these worms to attack but Hinata had an advantage of see-through vision. She was also incredibly disinterested in what would happen should the worm actually land a hit on her. She saw it was composed mostly of spiritual energy and whatever its purpose was, it would not be good for her continuous health.
Tayuya narrowed her eyes when the girl evaded her sneak attack. 'So that is the ability of the fabled Byakugan? It will be almost impossible to hit the girl with those freaky eyes stalking my every move. Dammit. Just my luck...' She disgruntledly cursed in her mind, already forming a plan to resolve this lavender-eyed problem of hers.
"Doki! Go and smash her brain out of her skull!" She shouted.
Hinata noticed one of the humanoid monsters rushing forward with the intention of engaging her. This surprised her while making her quite happy as she ran at it, hoping to even the numbers. She was vastly outnumbered and dealing with the summons was her best bet. She was a Hyuuga and her chakra strikes were powerful enough to send the summons on their way with just one well-aimed hit.
The problem was getting the opportunity to land such a hit with all the dangerous distractions along the way. Whether it was the grey worms or the sound-based genjutsu, if they affected her during an unfortunate moment, it could spell disaster for her.
Hinata wanted to summon Shadow Clones so much but it would be for naught. The sound-based genjutsu would disrupt their chakra flow, dispelling them. It would have been just a waste of chakra.
She and the Doki were almost upon each other when Hinata registered the sound of a flute, flaring her chakra even before a genjutsu could affect her. It still brought her a brief surge of pain and gave the Doki a chance to attack.
This Doki had its upper body naked and on his forearms were strapped claw-shaped devices. It almost managed to hit Hinata with one of them. Only thanks to her inhumanly-trained flexibility was she able to bend backward, go into a bridge position before flipping herself back through the air.
Apparently, Tayuya counted on it and used that particular moment to throw a kunai at Hinata.
Hinata noticed too late. She was mid-air and couldn't dodge the kunai. It was also too close and too fast for her to whip out her own kunai and parry it. There was only one thing she could do.
"Kaiten!"
She spun mid-air, releasing a surge of chakra to the surroundings as a blue spinning ball appeared around her, deflecting the kunai. To be honest, Hinata wasn't happy with being forced to use such a chakra-heavy technique to deflect a normal kunai.
As she was spinning, she suddenly noticed the half-naked Doki figure that almost landed an attack on her opening its mouth, and another grey worm emerged out of it, snapping into her direction. It was honestly disgusting.
Hinata didn't panic. It might be too close for her to evade and she couldn't simply stop Kaiten mid-way. That said, she was mid-Kaiten so the energy-based worm should be easily repelle-
"Got you, bitch!" Tayuya suddenly screamed excitedly.
Before Hinata could comprehend the reason for her opponent's excitement, the grey worm, much to her horror, went right through her Kaiten, passing through her body as if it was intangible.
Hinata got out of her shock and ended her Kaiten, seeing as it was useless against the worm, and jumped back, getting the worm out of her body.
She was... fine? There was no wound or even any injury...
And then vertigo hit her, making her sway on her feet as incredible tiredness spread through her body. Hinata quickly understood that a massive chunk of her stamina was just consumed.
'Well... at least now I know what the worms do.' She thought while wincing at how much weaker her body felt while she started breathing hard. She was a taijutsu-based fighter. Someone who could bypass her best defensive jutsu and sap her stamina was a nightmare to deal with.
Tayuya clicked her tongue. The small girl still managed to stand up after her attack landed? Really? How was that supposed to be genin-level!? Most genins would be unconscious from the grey worm going straight through their heart, the major chakra point in the body. Tayuya depended on genjutsu, which apparently barely worked against the girl. She also mostly used the grey worms' ability to phase through obstacles to land a hit with them. Someone who could see through things was a nightmare to deal with for her fighting style.
'Isn't this bitch my natural enemy?' Both women wryly thought, warily staring at each other as they realized this fight would be a lot more troublesome than they first suspected.
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