Naruto 1. Chapter 1 Phantom Assault

Chapter One: Phantom Assault

In a room dimly lit by candle light Lord Hyuuga sat and meditated on the going of the day, there was a knock at the door.

"You may enter," Lord Hyuuga spoke in a calm quiet tone. A messenger of the Hyuuga clan walked in then kneeled in, front of Lord Hyuuga to pay respects.

"Speak."

"My lord a member of the cadet branch wishes to speak with you. He clams to have been attacked while training." Lord Hyuuga held up a hand to signal him to stop.

"I have no business policing this village. Send him…" He was it interrupted the sound of the large chamber doors opening. It was Neji.

"I must speak with you ." Neji said with little breath. The messenger rose to contain Neji, but Lord Hyuuga stopped him.

"Return to your post." The messenger did as he was told and left. Neji then managed to shuffle a few steps forward before falling to one knee before Lord Hyuuga.

Lord Hyuuga's eyes scanned the dimly lit room, finally falling upon Neji. The young ninja seemed fine. There was not a single scratch on him. No burses, cuts or even dirt on his clothes. The only thing of any concern was the small trickle of blood running out of the corner of his mouth. Neji sat there with his head down. Lord Hyuuga spoke. "Neji you come before me and tell me that you have been attacked by an enemy shinobi!" Lord Hyuuga's voice was sharp "Tell me what has happened." Neji mumbled something under his breath with his head down. Lord Hyuuga would not tolerate this act of disrespect; no member of the cadet branch would ever speak to him without looking at him face to face. "Neji!" he bellowed "I will not be disrespected! Look at me when you speak to me!" Neji slowly raised his head. Neji's eyes meet his lords. But something was wrong.

The single defining feature of any Hyuuga main or cadet were their eyes. The Hyuuga's have no pupils, nor an iris. The Hyuuga's have a single phase to there eye. Their eyes are all a pale white. This was not the case. Neji's eyes were pich black. The dark circles were his once proud eyes were told of the pain of defeat.

Lord Hyuuga was astounded. What could disrupt the sheer power of the byakugan? Then realizing the severity of the attack spoke again, this time in a calm tone "What happened?"

After a few short breaths Neji managed to speak "The shinobi who attacked me not only knew and exploited every weakness of the juken and my byakugan! He also fought with my exact style and he even had the power of the byakugan."

This shook Lord Hyuuga but he gave a grim smile and said "Neji you of all people should know that that is impossible." Lord Hyuuga was of courses referring to the curse mark placed on Neji's head and all other cadets. This mark insured the protection of the highly prized bloodline trait, the hyuuga family's byakugan.

Neji shook his head. "I know what I saw." Lord Hyuuga was once more caught off guard by Neji's tongue. Lord Hyuuga face flooded with rage. Lord Hyuuga clinched his eyes shut. When he reopened them the area around his eyes became swollen with veins. Neji knew all to well what this meant and feared it. Lord Hyuuga activated his byakugan. Lord Hyuuga looked down upon Neji with hate in his powerful eyes.

"Neji! If this nonsense is all you have to tell me then leave my sight!"

Neji's voice now became frantic and began to raise his voice. "This ninja fought with knowledge and mastery of the byakugan that surpassed my own and rivaled that of any other member. He some how knew ever flaw every weakness to every tactic I employed. He fought using the juken in ways that I never will!" Lord Hyuuga was stunned that a cadet would completely defy his wishes. Lord Hyuuga stared into Neji's eerie black eyes remembering his brother who did anything he could to defy the main branch. How he endured punishment after punishment, and in the end died to let him live. This was his brother's son, rather his nephew. He paused for a moment. Finally Lord Hyuuga made up his mind he was not lying "Report to the hospital. I will meet you there, and then we can discuss the details of the attack." Neji nodded and slowly gained his footing, then limped out of Lord Hyuuga's chamber.

In the hospital Neji lay motionless on his bed, surrounded by four medical ninja all perplexed by Neji's seemingly unharmed condition. The door to plain white room opened as Lord Hyuuga walked in only to be intercepted by a medical ninja in the room. The ninja guided Lord Hyuuga to outside the room.

"There seems to be nothing seriously wrong with the boy. The only thing abnormal is an uneven chakra flux within his body, but this could be for any number of reasons stress, lack of sleep, or even allergies. We will keep him under observation."

"Thank you, but I think we can take it from here."

"We, my lord?" From the shadows a second man appeared next to Lord Hyuuga. The ninja was obviously a Hyuuga. He whore a white coat that stopped just short of his feet. He also had long black hair and of course the defining pale white eyes.

"This is Hoyta… let's just say he's a family doctor. Now please call off all treatment for the moment Hoyta and I will take it form here."

"As you wish." The ninja walked back into the room and in a few moments walked back out with the other four medical ninja.

"We will be back for a follow up in a few hours. Please allow Neji some rest between now and then." As soon as the other ninja rounded the corner Lord Hyuuga and Hoyta quickly walked into Neji's room and shut the door. Neji opened his eye and gazed around the room. His eyes landed on Hoyta.

Neji scowled. "Who is that?"

"Neji!" Lord Hyuuga shouted, obviously showing no sympathy to the injured. "You will show your respects! This is Hoyta, a special trained medical ninja from the main branch of our family."

"Trained in what?" Neji said barely above a whisper, making no attempt to hide his dislike of the new guest. Lord Hyuuga scowled, but despite Neji's disrespect he explained situation.

"Most medical ninja focus on wounds of a person's physical body, such as broken limbs or a concussion. Hoyta does not deal with such trivial afflictions. Hoyta deals with mending and healing damage done to a ninja's chakra system. Our ancestors soon realized that after they perfected the juken, normal medical techniques would not work." Hoyta stepped up and interrupted Lord Hyuuga. Lord Hyuuga glared, but Hoyta ignored him.

"Therefore using the only first aid techniques available one could not heal a ninja's injured chakra system. So any damage done to a ninja's system was permanent. In the case that damage must be undone to a ninja's chakra network, an elite group of the Hyuuga's main branch was tasked to develop techniques to heal such damage. After many years the Hyuuga medical squad was formed."

Lord Hyuuga now spoke. "So Neji if a user of our technique did attack you Hoyta will be able to treat your wounds." Neji glared at the ninja beside Lord Hyuuga, and then took a deep breath.

"Do what you must." Neji muttered. At that Lord Hyuuga nodded and Hoyta went to work. Hoyta stepped up close to Neji's bed and preformed a few quick hand signs, slowly closed his eyes, and then reopened them. Hoyta activated his byakugan and began looking at Neji's body. As Hoyta slowly skimmed over Neji Lord Hyuuga spoke clearly and calmly.

"Neji, what happened?"


	2. Chapter 2 Eyes Open

The small hospital room was silent as Lord Hyuuga waited for the young ninja to answer his question. Neji stared up at the blank ceiling with restless eyes. Revisiting defeat did not bold well with Neji's pride. Accepting defeat at Naruto's hand at the chunin exams still baffled him.

With pride jammed in his throat Neji spoke. "I had got an early start on my on training with Tenten. Guy Sensei was at the hospital with Lee do to his injury form the chunin exams so training was much less strenuous, at lest by my standards. Still Tenten and I kept at it for hour after hour until the sun began to fall….."

"Neji, we have been out here for hours without any kind of break." Tenten whined. "You know sometimes I think your worse then Guy Sensei." Neji winced at being compared to his eccentric teacher.

"Then go." Neji said coldly. "If you won't stay to finish our session then I'll continue alone." Neji turned his back to Tenten and took his stance.

"Ok, then I guess I'll see you tomorrow." Tenten said quietly. Neji ignored her like he always did. Tenten gave a sigh and slowly walked out of sight. Neji continued for a while longer until he realized how tired he was.

"I must have over done it a bit." Neji said in a huffy voice. Neji looked around at his training field. Discarded kunai, shuriken, Pitchforks, and other assorted weapons lie on the ground from Tenten's summing scrolls. Trees that surrounded the area had huge chunks blown out by his own juken. The landscape had drastically changed from when they had arrived. Once a pristine forest clearing surrounded by large trees was now a cluster of destroyed trees and uneven footing caused by explosive tags. Neji then looked up at the sky that was slowly changing form dusk to black night. "That's enough for today." Neji turned towards the village and slowly began to walk. Suddenly over his left shoulder a kunai whizzed past narrowly missing him. Neji wheeled to face the direction of the knife. On a tree branch about forty meters form Neji stood a ninja.

The ninja bore no headband to identify with and he was Neji's age, maybe younger. His long hair was a sliver color in contrast with his black shirt and long black pants. His left arm was bandaged up into the sleeve and form his neck up to his nose was also concealed by white bandages. The only part of his pale face that was visible was his eyes. They were a sliver gray and there gaze was haunting. The ninja smirked. From behind, Neji heard faint a sizzling sound. Neji turned to see an explosive tag about to go off. BANG! The tag went off with Neji caught in the blast. Thick black smoke filled the air. The assailant leaped down form the tree. Then peered into the black smoke. The smaoke then cleared to reveal a tattered log. The enemy's eyes squinted and began to dart around the area to quickly survey the grounds but found nothing.

In a raspy whisper the ninja said "Predictable…."

In a near by tree that still retained a few branches full of leaves Neji sat silently covered by the wide leaves. As he sat Neji's mind became jumbled with ideas and thoughts on the attack. "Who is this guy? Why did he attack? Why didn't I see him coming? How could I have let my guard down?" Neji's breaths became shallow; the training left him sluggish and weak. "Stay calm." Neji said to himself. "The important thing is to escape; fighting in this state could get me killed." Neji started to plan his escape. The sun was now completely set. Neji smiled, the odds were in his favor. Under the veil of night Neji would escape much easier then in daylight. A human's range of vision is greatly limited at night making for an easy escape at a risk. In a normal situation the fact of night would affect both ninja. In Neji's case he may be able to escape with ease, but the fact that he cannot see his enemy's location would create disaster. Running into the enemy at a weaken state could lead to devastation. But Neji is a Hyuuga. While a normal human eye uses light to see the Hyuuga's byakugan does not. The byakugan sees a living thing's chakra and greatly enhances vision. So using his byakugan he could pen point the enemy's location by his chakra and avoid him. Neji silently congratulated himself on his plan and began to close his eyes to activate his byakugan, but the enemy's voice broke the tension and his concentration.

The same raspy voice spoke quietly. "You think you can hide form me? You of all people should know…nothing hides from the byakugan…" His voice trailed off. In the silences the faint sound of hand colliding to form hand signs was heard. In a split second a kunai with an explosive tag hit the trunk of the tree Neji hid in and went off. Neji jumped form the tree landing on one knee. Neji quickly came to and activated his byakugan then stood up and assumed his juken stance. Now Neji could defend himself and look for an opening to run. With his byakugan on he could clearly see his opponent. Neji was shocked to see that his opponents stance and his own were identical but that soon passed when Neji looked at his eyes. There was no mistaking it. The ninja's eyes became pale and the space around the eyes were bulged over with veins. The enemy ninja possessed the byakugan. This shinobi possessed the all seeing evil eye.


	3. Chapter 3 The Reaper's Warning

The few trees left in the area swayed in the night wind. The two ninja stood there silently in identical stances waiting for the first move. Neji became impatient and acted first by running straight at the ninja.

"If I can gain a few steps over this guy I should be able to out run him, even if he can see he can't keep up." Neji thought desperately. He wanted to avoid confrontation at all costs; all his training had left him weak. Neji darted closer and closer to his enemy, finally making a sharp turn to the right to maneuver around his opponent and hopefully escape, but he was to slow. The ninja slid to the right along side Neji, following through with a quick two fingered jab at his ribs, and ending it with a palm raise under Neji's chin hurling him backwards off balance.

As Neji fell to the ground the ninja spoke. "How disappointing …. Neji Hyuuga I expected … better…" Neji's head slammed against the hard cold ground. He opened his eyes and slowly began to stand back up, but he stopped when a sharp pain struck him below the ribs. Neji remained on one knee as the ninja looked down on him.

Neji smirked. "Looks like your no imitation that was a standard juken attack." Neji stood up. "The juken is a precise style of taijutsu that aims for the tenketsu along a ninja's chakra network. You gravely miscalculated and missed my tenketsu entirely." Then he repositioned his stance. The ninja squinted his eyes with discontent. "This guy is fast I'll give him that, with that speed there is no point in running, I have no choice but to fight." Neji dashed forward at the enemy quickly thrusting an open palm at the ninja. The enemy parried the first strike using his wrist and struck back with an open palm. Neji also parried the strike and continued to throw a series of quick juken jabs. The two remained interlocked in a grapple of palm thrusts and finger jabs at vital spots along the others chakra system for a few minutes and then broke to opposite spots in the circle of trees. Neither ninja looked harmed but both were breathing hard. "Your technique is poor at best; your aim was horrible you miss my tenketsu nearly every time." Neji was hopping to hit a nerve in his enemy but he was unfazed.

"I could…say the same… for you…" The normally toneless voice of the ninja carried the slightest bit of sarcasm.

As Neji took a close look at the ninja he realized that he hadn't hit him properly either. He racked his brain looking for answer, "I was sure I hit him, what happened?" The enemy smiled form beneath the bandages covering his face. "I'll get him this time!" Neji thought as he moved in on the ninja. Once more both ninja engaged into a series of quick jabs, palm thrusts and a few low kicks every now and then. The battle was at a stand still. Each ninja attacked blow for blow. But Neji found an opening in the ninja's defense and attacked with a quick powerful dual palm thrust. "Got him!" The ninja stumbled back a few steps. Neji then stepped sideways and moved his front foot out and leaned down with one arm pointing down and the other pointing up. "You're in range of my trigrams!" Neji shouted. He then slid his back foot around in front of his other foot and began his assault. The enemy stopped stumbling only to meet Neji's attack. "Two palms, four palms, eight palms, sixteen palms, thirty two palms, sixty four palms!" His attack was complete. Neji sat there in his hunched over position after finishing the attack. Slowly he stood up. "That took a lot out of me but that did it; there is no dodging my tri…" Neji stopped mid thought, stunned. The ninja was standing a few feet in front of Neji like nothing had happened; he just stood there with a disappointed look on his face. Neji began to lose it "Every attack hit its mark all sixty four tenketsu were hit how is he still standing?" Neji stared at his opponent horrified. "Wha-what are you!? How can you be standing!?"

"You fail to…impress me…. Neji Hyuuga…." The ninja the rushed forward at the paralyzed Neji standing in front of him. With a few jabs and one final strong palm thrust Neji went flying across the desolate training field. In mid air Neji managed to slow himself and land on his knees skidding backwards. His face twisted in pain as he slowed to a stop.

Neji looked down and examined his body for injuries with his byakugan, he paused. "He still has not accurately hit any of my tenketsu?! I don't understand how a ninja could know the inner working of the eight trigrams sixty-four palms well enough to utterly dodge it without mastering the juken itself. Besides a few burses I'm completely fine, there is almost no damage done to my chakra system. What's going on?" The enemy was now running at Neji to finish the job. Although still deep in confused thought he was not caught off guard, and right as the enemy approached, Neji exerted a large amount of chakra "Rotation!" he yelled as he spun in a circle. Neji's rotation stopped the attack and sent the enemy backwards but he gained traction and stopped him self. "I have no idea what you are trying to pull but you are no master of the byakugan!" Neji shouted.

This time in a menacingly haunting tone the enemy ninja spoke. "This time….I'll have to…. agree with you…." As the ninja's voice drifted off he charged.

Neji gave a small smile"A frontal attack will not work aginst my rotation." Almost like an instance replay the enemy ninja came upon him and Neji began his rotation, but at the exact moment Neji released the massive amount of chakra needed to perform rotation the ninja jumped backwards and jump into the air. Neji had already released the chakra and continued the rotation even though the ninja was out of range. The enemy ninja now in mid air preformed a quick series of hand signs and cupped one of his hands in front of his mouth like that of a standard fire jutsu. But where a normal fire jutsu would produce a bright orange or red flame this jutsu created a dull gray and white flame that was shot out at Neji's rotation. The flame was caught in the rotation and engulfed Neji's spin. "Something is wrong I'm losing my grip on the chakra." He continued to spin in an attempt to disperse the fire, but then Neji lost all feeling for his chakra and stopped spinning. Once out of the rotation he discovered that the white flame was in a circle around him that was about the radius of his rotation. He became a little light headed but managed to jump out of the circle of flame. "My chakra is gone." Still a little shaken but not off guard Neji saw movement and readied himself as the masked ninja ran forward. A flurry of palm thrusts and finger jabs flew. Both ninja were becoming weary but Neji had become exhausted. The enemy was easily penatrating Neji's denfenses and attacked without remorse. Neji caught a break in the attack and began rotation, but no chakra would form "I can't mold chakra?" because he dropped his guard to perform rotation the ninja got a powerful blow at Neji's heart. The ninja's hand hit Neji's heart dead on but greatly missed the tenketsu connected to the heart, but the ninja's hand did not stop at Neji's body. His hand continued through Neji. The enemy had reached his hand inside him. Neji let out a horrible scream of agony. The pain rushed though out his body, every fiber of his being felt the throbbing suffrage of the attack. The enemy ninjas eyes smiled as he effortlessly pulled his hand out of Neji's body. Neji still in tortuous pain looked upon his chest but found no wound, no blood, not even a tear in his clothing. The ninja's haunting gaze fell upon Neji as the morning sun blared. Neji fell to the ground gasping for breath when his eyes slowly closed.

"The reaper has come….for the Hyuugas…..death cannot be…avoided..." The ninja's voice trailed off for the last time and Neji fell to darkness.


	4. Chapter 4 Rest

"And that is when I came to you."

Neji slowly closed his eyes, took a deep breath and turned to face Lord Hyuuga. Lord Hyuuga's faced reveled nothing, he simply stood there staring not a Neji but through Neji. The silence was nerve racking Neji didn't no what to think. Even Hoyta shifted nervously, but Lord Hyuuga's face remained unchanged within the silence of the small hospital room. Finally Hoyta broke the silence.

"My lord, my diagnosis is complete." Lord Hyuuga remained frozen, not acknowledging Hoyta's comment what so ever. Hoyta stared at Lord Hyuuga for a moment then continued. "Neji's chakra system did take great damage, however the only sight of major damage happens to be around his heart." Neji placed his hand on his chest remembering his enemy's final strike. He had never felt such pain in his life, and yet form the outside nothing looked wrong. Such was the signature of the juken.

"He must have been toying with me the entire time. His attacks were pointless; he blindly threw attack after attack hitting virtually nothing. There wasn't even reason to dodge after a while……until the final attack. That attack was a level of juken that I have never imagined." Hoyta shook his head.

"That's not the issue at all. Quite the contrary really." Hoyta turned away form Neji and looked out the window. "While you do have a few juken related injuries, they are all minor at best." Hoyta paused for a moment trying to find the words to explain the complex matter. "The injuries around your heart were….similar but it was to crude. Even the most basic juken attack is more precise then the damage you have received. However the damage inflicted is almost three times as effective as any juken attack. Only the most advanced juken would even come close to matching this type of damage." Lord Hyuuga finally broke his statue state and turned to Hoyta.

"Enough!" Both Hoyta and Neji merely glanced up at Lord Hyuuga in disbelief. Hoyta nodded and vanished. "Neji, rest and get well." Neji slowly nodded. Lord Hyuuga turned his back to Neji and faced the closed doorway. "Do not speak of what you just told me to anyone." Lord Hyuuga opened the door and slowly walked down the hallway.

A thousand thoughts entered Neji's head. Nothing seemed to make since. Suddenly Neji's wounds became apparent. He cringed in the pain of the unseen scares he now bore. Sleep welcomed him and Neji embraced it.

In the Hyuuga's estate Lord Hyuuga sat quietly in his candle lit meditation room. Hoyta appeared before Lord Hyuuga. Lord Hyuuga's eyes met Hoyta's. Both ninja's pale eyes had no show of emotion. The silence intensified the raw emotion within each ninja's mind. Hoyta's patients grew thin.

"My lord I don't understand." Hoyta's once emotionless eyes now held concern, but Lord Hyuuga remained unmoved. "I haven't seen anything like what the boy has contracted, no one in the Hyuuga medical corp has. I can treat it but because of its unknown nature we can't be sure of anything. Normal juken attacks damage ones chakra system by causing tears in the tenketsu, but even with my byakugan the tears were barely visible. If I couldn't see the rips in the tenketsu who knows what else I missed. This could be slowly killing him! He need to know what might be ahead of him." Lord Hyuuga raised his hand to silence Hoyta. The ninja halted his words and stood at attention.

"Hoyta you do not understand the gravity of the situation." Hoyta's eyes narrowed. "Neji will be fine. You may not have seen anything like Neji's injuries, but I have." "Hoyta's feelings finally broke his front.

"Then why didn't you say anything? Why are we keeping this a secret? My lord this is a human life not" Lord Hyuuga cut him off. 

"Don't you think I know that! I...I'm sorry Hoyta. This isn't your fault." Lord Hyuuga placed his hand in his hands and sobbed.

"Lord Hyuuga what is really going on? If this a second ninja attack we need to alert the village." (Remember this story takes place shortly after Orochimaru's attack on the Leaf village.)

"Believe me when I say the village has nothing to do with this. They don't need to know, the village has enough on its plate, and with out a hokage……" Both ninja stood a few moments in silence in honor of the late hokage. "Hoyta you have no idea what this attack means. It would be better if I just showed you." Lord Hyuuga stood up turned around to the back wall of the estate. Lord Hyuuga closed his eyes and reopened them with the activation of his byakugan. Then Lord Hyuuga set in motion a long series of hand signs. With the last sign he clasped his hand together. Then Lord Hyuuga raised his hand and pointed up with two fingers, then slid his fingers down the wall leaving a black line. He then pulled back his arms into a stance and trusted a two finger jab at the center middle of the black line.

Suddenly all along the back wall symbols and seals in black ink appeared, followed by a thick black line that formed around the perimeter of the seals. A flash of light briefly lit the dark room and where once the strange symbols were now there was a doorway. Inside a lone torch fastened to the wall illuminated a small area within the door reveling a few stairs.

Lord Hyuuga said nothing but began to ascend to stairs and then motioned for Hoyta to follow. Hoyta approached the doorway hesitated then slowly walked through. As soon as Hoyta entered the doorway the wall began to rebuild itself closing the doorway. Hoyta glanced behind him only to see the old stone wall of the estate. Lord Hyuuga was already out of sight and form down the corridor said "Quickly Hoyta!" Hoyta snapped back to reality and quickly walked down the stairs.

The silver haired ninja slowly walked down the hallway lit by orbs of white flame floating along the sides of the hall. At the end of the hall was a large door made of a black metal. The silver haired ninja now at the door stood at the closed door in an inhuman silence. At last the silent ninja request was answered. A presents fill the hall. The white flame withered and died. The hall became pitch black without the gray light of the unnatural flame. Then a rumbling shook the doors and a booming voice spoke.

"You have done better then I ever imagined……enter!" The huge doors slowly opened and the ninja entered the inner sanctum beyond the black doors.


End file.
