[X] K-I-B-I, you ain't got no alibi
"Good luck, Kibi-chan! Do your best!"
"I always do!" the little girl calls back, waving, and ducks into a leg-sweep as Neji's jyuuken assault begins.
The sweep doesn't look very strong, but then you see she wasn't trying for that at all; she was just hooking his ankle to swing around behind him and build momentum for a punch to the back of his knee.
He catches her tiny fist with an almost ladylike lift of his leg and dips backward, pushing Kibi to the floor and clearly intending to flip over and up onto his feet, but Kibi proves too quick and manages to wrap her skinny legs around his neck and begin squeezing.
Not that it does her much good. Neji flips and stands regardless, and pokes at a point on Kibi's right leg that makes her disengage and hop back on first her hands and then her left foot, wincing.
"You're really fast!" she says, but has no time to say anything more as Neji begins his assault anew, targeting specifically the shoulders and arms.
And even more specifically...
Your eyes widen.
Temari frowns. "Wait... Hyuuga go for the organs normally, don't they?"
Kibi puts up an admirable defence, even with her limp and the fresh bruises welling up on her arms; whatever suggestions she has Neji operating under, he's playing right into her blocks and missing his targets entirely on the rare occasions his strikes connect.
But the fact that he's going after them at all means...
The Eye of Insight, eh? Well, now I know who I wanna fight. Let's see which of us gets our wish.
At the moment, it looks like it'll be you. Neji's getting tired, his moves more sluggish; in this state he reminds you of the way he was when you were children, when his jyuuken was coarser and anger ruled his fights.
There must be a soporific effect to the illusion.
"Now you've got 'im!" you call.
... wait, what the hell was that?
It showed up for a second, like a false note, before his chakra righted itself again.
Did Kibi tie certain responses to audience commentary, or did you just hurt Neji's feelings?
Ho~? What a cold heart you have to go with those icy good looks. Suits ya. :3
What?!
C'mon, how did you not notice?
He's a teenage boy! They'll go for anyone who isn't covered in lesions and boils, it doesn't prove anything!
Tut tut tut! That settles it, we're making a Fujiko construct next. You can't be wandering around this pretty and this naive at the same time, it's not safe.
"Are you okay, Hyuuga-nii-chan?" Kibi asks.
"Cease your idle chatter," he says darkly.
And the chorus swells to a crescendo.
-Jyuukenpo: Ichigekishin - Gentle Fist Art: One Blow Body
Kibi stumbles backward. "W-what?"
"Perhaps it was a mistake to show restraint because of your age," Neji says. "But I've seen through your tricks now. You won't ensnare me a second time." And he dives in for the next attack.
"I most certainly will!" Kibi declares, ducking and dodging and landing a few good hits of her own. You can hear her excitement and anticipation building - so seeing through the genjutsu is part of her plan too, somehow.
"There's nothing even your eyes can do," she goes on, hammering at his abdomen with her little fists whenever she gets a chance before dancing out of reach again. "This is my art - the art of a single encounter. That's because-"
-Rolling Thunder!-
A handstand-supported double scissorkick knocks Neji backward, though he regains his footing almost instantly.
"-I never cast the same genjutsu on a person twice!"
Neji goes still, and waits.
You lean over the railing almost involuntarily, transfixed, waiting for what's next.
"I don't use normal handseals or normal jutsu! All I need is my voice and line-of-sight, and I can make anything I want."
You kai automatically.
"I understand," Neji says, one side of his mouth turning up in amusement. "So then, even while you've been bragging... you've been putting me back under."
Kibi grins. "Try your Jyuuken and see!'
The moment he snaps into a stance, his eyes go wide. His legs begin to shake, and he sways from side-to-side on them, stepping this way and that, as if seeking traction. He falls to his knees at last, staring at his hands. "What?"
Kibi lets out an unselfconsciously malicious giggle; a sound only a truly innocent little brat can make. "Can you see? I've won! A person can't force their body to ignore the training they've put it through for thousands of hours, and now every time you do what you, as a Hyuuga, have always trained to do, gravity will betray you, just like that!"
Your mouth drops open. Not just genjutsu then... gentaijutsu?
Of the three main shinobi disciplines, ninjutsu and taijutsu are combined most often. Ningenjutsu is the rarest combination, being confined to use by masters of particular bloodlines, but gentaijutsu is a very close second because of the wide array of skills someone seeking to study it must master. A gentaijutsu specialist must be a flexible and peerless athlete, a scholar well-versed in hundreds of fighting styles, and a genjutsu master on top of everything else.
And none of the very few you can name off the top of your head have done what this girl has done. To have managed this much she must have spent months if not years learning the theory of Gentle Fist, running through the few common elements known to those outside Konoha, all in order to internalize the style and turn it back on itself.
All for a match she could have ended up with.
I think I might hate this girl's parents.
I think you might be right to.
"Don't worry," Kibi says, "I won't hurt you. I just need to win the match, so I'll go for a harmless KO."
She rushes at him, fist raised.
"Say goodnight, nii-chan!"
-Shoryuken!-
Kibi's body makes a small arc, and lands with an 'oof'. You wince, knowing the wind has been completely knocked out of her.
"Goodnight, nii-chan," Neji says dryly. He wipes the blood from his chin and gets to his feet. "Hyuuga though I may be, do not forget that my sensei is the Green Beast of Konoha."
"NEJI~!"
"Yes, Gai-sensei, that is my name."
"Winner, Hyuuga Neji."
Ira and Deidara have shunshin'd down before the words are even out of the proctor's mouth. Ira has a hand on Deidara's arm, but gets shrugged off immediately as they arrive.
"How'd ya like to try eating your victory dinner with no teeth, mn?" the blond snarls at Neji.
"Do not attempt to paint your own shortcomings as a teacher as my fault," Neji says sternly. "You let a child gentaijutsu specialist go into battle against a vastly more experienced Hyuuga opponent. What outcome did you expect?"
"... are you lecturing me, you little bastard?!"
"Deidara," Ira says warningly.
"I lost, didn't I?"
Deidara whirls around to see a very disappointed and shame-filled Kibi propping herself up on one elbow.
"No!" he says placatingly, going over to stoop next to her as she begins to cough up a storm. "No, Kibi-chan, you didn't lose, you just... encountered a philistine, that's all." He glares at Neji, and straightens out her fight-mussed hair.
"So I did lose," she says. She pats Deidara's hand, and looks back at Neji. Pulling herself into a sitting position with her legs tucked under her, she bows.
"Thank you for reminding me that intel is not the whole story, that I'm not as fast as I think I am, and that if I don't clench my jaw in time I can end up biting my tongue," she says, lower lip trembling.
... wow. Now I think Neji hates her parents, too.
And you thought you had nothing in common.