Hinata body flickered into the arena. Across from her was the man who had once been her brother, her closest friend.
"Neji-kun..."
The man stared her down impassively, with his Byakugan active. Neji carried himself with strength, confidence. Even now, even after how much she had grown, Hinata could not see how in the world she was supposed to win. The memories of her constantly getting beaten down, crushed, right in front of her father all came to mind. But today there was so much more on the line than merely her clan's honor.
Her home. Her freedom. Her love. Absolutely everything she cared about would be either gained or lost forever based on what happened this day. Hinata's expression hardened.
Neji smiled, "Hinata. How have you been?"
This question caught her off guard. Didn't Neji hate her? The man continued, practically reading her thoughts through her expressions like a book,
"There's no need to be surprised. Today, I am here officially to uphold the Honor of the Hyuuga. To show to both the world and the Hokage that the clan was not wrong about you. But personally, I stand here against you today to bring you back into the family."
"I am an exile, Neji. I no longer bear the Hyuuga clan surname." Hinata spoke, her voice flat.
"But you won't be, soon. When I heard them talking about marking you with the Caged Bird, Hinata, I realized something. You and I are not that different after all. It's not that you weren't trying, not that you were wasting the gifts that were given to you. Fate had withheld its favor from you all along. Through me it shall correct its mistake.
It was only by chance that you escaped the branding of the caged bird. And now, your true fate comes reckoning. There is no need to fight it. I miss you, Hinata. Hanabi misses you. Father misses you. Surrender to me, and we will all welcome you with open arms back into the clan. There will be no need to worry about damaging the honor of the clan, no more impossibly high standards to reach. I promise you that we will all let bygones be bygones, no one will ever curse or criticize you again within the Hyuuga."
Hinata smiled sadly. Oh how she longed to accept their offering of peace, to believe that everything would be okay. She took a deep breath.
"Neji, thank you. Thank you for your kind words, your assurance. I... I miss everyone, too. When you go back to the clan, I want you to tell them. That I love them."
Hinata sniffled. She wiped her eyes shortly, trying not to cry.
"I cannot return..."
Neji glared at her with his Byakugan.
"Why?"
Hinata looked to the side, downcast. Then she looked back up at him, eyes brimming with both unshed tears and unbreakable resolve.
"If I were to surrender to you here, Neji, I would be branded with the Caged Bird Seal. Everything I've worked for up into now, everything I've been striving for my entire life, would all become pointless. And Neji, do you know? Right now I have someone who I love even more than myself. He means the entire world to me.
Let them know. After you lose to me and go back to the Hyuuga, let them all know!!! I fought you today not because of some stupid bet, honor, or even to prove myself right! Today, I fought you for the sake of the one I love! Even if you win, Neji, there's absolutely no way I'll ever go back to the clan and take the cursed seal! I'd rather die.
If you truly love me, Neji, you would surrender here today for my sake. Do not make me hurt you for the Hyuuga."
Hinata however, made a hand seal and disappeared from Neji's immediate view. He found her again on the other side of the arena, making clones freely. Two, four, eight, ten. It was only until there were twelve Hinata's total that she stopped. Four of them activated their Byakugan and vanished. Three of them reappeared on three separate corners of the arena, while the final one with her Byakugan active began walking back to the center.
"Trying to stop me from using my clones or my bow, Neji-kun? How cute."
All the Hinata's drew their bows, whether it be the Hinata standing in front of him, the ones without their Byakugan active, even the one standing and confidently talking with him. Hinata was not going to hold back at all like she did with Sakura. Too much was on the line. She hoped that Neji could quickly surrender, before her arrows turned him into a mangled mess of blood and guts.
"Don't die."
*BANG!!!*
They all fired at once, the clones without their Byakugan active and the ones with it. Neji moved to the side, but the arrows the Byakugan Hinata's shot were not so easily dodged. They curved in prediction of his movements, correcting their trajectories mid flight for a direct hit. How was she doing that!?
"ROTATION!"
A spinning blue dome of chakra and power was released around Neji as he literally exploded all the arrows that headed his way. And just as quickly afterward, he went back into his traditional stance.
"I wonder if you have enough Chakra to keep so many Byakugan active, Hinata. If you continue to expend it at this rate, even if you force me to use rotation once in a while, you will not win."
Hinata bit her lip. That was Neji-kun. Just as indomitable as she remembered him. She had never fought an opponent who could withstand her arrows before, only those who had to dodge at all costs. This is why she always started by surrounding them, and then firing her arrows. This was fine though. She could adjust. For some reason, Neji still seemed to be holding back.
Only a third of the Hinata's fired their bows again. Neji dodged the first supersonic volley, but then the second, the third, the fourth volley came. He was continuously bombarded by a stream of arrows he had no choice but to dodge. The Hinata's with their Byakugan active were particularly difficult to deal with. Every single arrow of theirs was precisely timed, perfectly aimed, and pushed him slowly into a worse and worse position.
Soon he would have to use rotation, but... Once he started, Neji was afraid he could never stop. The moment he began her clones would continuously fire arrows at him again and again. If he ever stopped rotating for even an instant at that point - he'd surely be hit by an arrow. The power of those arrows were unbelievable. Even without explosive tags attached to them, they were absolutely destroying everything they touched!
From the arrows being stuck directly into the arena walls around him, Neji knew he would not survive taking even one arrow from her. Each one formed a gigantic crater from the impact and pierced deeply into the reinforced steel concrete that lined the walls. Neji did not believe his body of flesh and blood would fare any better than the concrete.
"Fight me like a HYUUGA, Hinata!" He shouted angrily, furious she hadn't even used the gentle first, "Where is your honor!?"
Hinata was completely unbothered by his taunt.
"Surrender Neji-kun. You cannot last much longer. Don't make me kill you."
Fine! He didn't want to use this, but the clan had prepared a countermeasure specifically for her arrows. Using it however, would prove to everyone that the Hyuuga clan actually had to take the lone Hinata seriously. It would damage the Honor of the clan. And yet... It was much better than losing.
Neji focused intently, the range of his perception condensing merely to the space directly around him. The arrows, which moved at supersonic speeds, suddenly seemed to be traveling at a manageable speed. He could see them!
His waving arms seemed to form after images as he moved, his hand flying perpendicular to the arrows targeted directly at his body. In the same movement he dodged another arrow coming at him from behind, aligning it as well with his other hand. A line of chakra seemed to connect his fingers to the arrow, and its path adjusted mid flight.
*KUHK!*
A clone of Hinata's, who did not have her Byakugan active, grasped at an arrow that made a gigantic, gaping cavity directly in her chest. In the next moment, she dissipated into smoke. The same fate occurred to three other clones before Hinata just went ahead and dispelled them all except for the ones she could afford to keep active with the Byakugan.
"That was Chakra adhesion, right?"
Neji smirked, "Your eyes are becoming better and better. That's right. By applying chakra to the surface of my hands, I was able to redirect your arrows mid-flight directly into your clones. At such speeds, even you cannot dodge arrows you've fired with all your strength without your Byakugan active."
"That must have taken a lot of practice, Neji. Did you prepare it just for me?"
The man frowned. "Hinata, just give up. With just three clones firing at once, you will not be able to force me to use rotation. There's no need to make this ugly."
Hinata started giggling. "As if this match wasn't already ugly enough, Neji-kun. Don't you realize? You're fighting so hard to enslave me. Forget about talking about honor, or being pretentious! This is reality! I'm not holding back any longer!!!"
Neji reeled from her words. Hinata dashed directly at him, her face becoming speckled in glowing red patterns that slowly turned black. Half of her body was already covered in them.
He mounted a defense just in time to deflect an attack of hers hurtling directly toward his face!
*BANG*
An explosion of chakra collided as Hinata's chakra clashed against his, but even from the glancing blow her chakra entered his arm and dealt significant damage. His right forearm felt numb!
Neji tried to use rotation to desperately force her away, but Hinata's follow-up was as quick as lightning! Her palm, surrounded in evil, purple chakra was headed directly toward his chest!
He elbowed her arm aside, causing another explosion of chakra. The arm he used was his left arm this time, but... Hinata had put even more chakra into it this time. As the markings spread along her body and increased in number, so too did her strength. His left arm was disabled in one blow, now lying limp at his side.
Hinata now spun, launching a roundhouse kick. Neji tried to take advantage of the opening, but as she turned her back to gather strength an arrow had already arrived! He had to use his only good arm left to deflect the arrow!
Her supersonic movements were also in perfect synchronization with the arrow she fired. Before Neji could further react, his guard was completely crushed by a powerful strike! The sounds of her movements arrived like the rumble of thunder, only after the lightning fast kick flashed!
*CRACCKKKK!*
Neji was sent flying, smashing back first into the colosseum walls. Then he slowly slid down from them, unmoving. His body crumpled down onto the sand underneath. With her Byakugan, Hinata could see that his chest had completely caved in. Blood started to pool around his body.
"NEJI!!!"
Author's Note: Hinata does not know her own strength. After all, she has not trained before with the cursed seal. The stigma of it being a power granted by Orochimaru and the experience she had undergone to attain it led to her mostly ignoring the supposed benefits it granted.
Her fight with Neji, however, made her realize she had to pull out all the stops to assure a win. Even though she probably would have won without using the cursed seal with her final tactic, her large overestimation of Neji's strength and underestimation of her own leads to this. She feels she has no choice but to activate it because everything is at stake.
The strength gain from the cursed seal is pretty crazy. Even from the first stage alone, the increase is a three to five times boost. The second stage of the cursed seal leads to a crazy 10x power boost in both chakra strength and bodily power!
Hinata was already stronger than her canon counterpart due to the fact she was no longer not eating enough and was training seriously, smartly, and with confidence. Even in Canon, she seriously is able to compete with Neji in the Chunin exams. Now however, the only area he edges her out in is Technique. Whether it be bodily strength, chakra amount, or even the vision of her eyes, Hinata far surpasses him.
Once you add on the cursed seal the massive difference in power can easily lead to fatal injuries. Like a toddler fighting against an adult, even if there is a small difference in skill there's nothing a child can do. In a fight the poor child would simply be crushed, simple as that. The same strength comparison applies to a cursed seal Hinata vs Neji.