Akane and Tenten spent the whole afternoon together after that. Akane had learned a lot about Tenten. She had originally tried to be a medical nin because she had a dream to be a great Kunoichi like the legendary sannin but eventually gave up on the idea of becoming a medical nin, but she still had the dream to become a great kunoichi in her own right. Akane had said that she respected that and shared the same dream. The two had become pretty good friends in that afternoon. The next morning Akane woke up much earlier than she normally did. It was still pretty dark outside, but the sun was just starting to appear above the horizon. She had woken in a cold hard sweat, she couldn't remember exactly what she had been dreaming about to get her in such a panic but one thing was for sure and that was that she wasn't going to be able to get back to sleep. She took a shower, had breakfast, got dressed and headed outside for the training ground. No one was about and she was completely alone, training at the break of day, waiting for her teammates to arrive. Several hours later Akane was covered in dirt and panting her heart out. The ground around her was all turned up, the trees were destroyed and some that were still standing were burnt on one side. She seemed to be starting to get the hang of her fire style, but it was going to take a lot more work.

"I didn't expect you to be here so early." Said the voice of Neji as he leant against a tree, arms folded, looking the beat up Akane up and down. Akane wiped some of the dirt from her face and turned to look at him.

"I couldn't sleep so I thought I'd make good use of the time."

"I know you don't want to let the team down but if you keep pushing yourself past your limit like this you'll make yourself sick and you're no use to us like that." He said coming further into the training area. Akane frowned at him, she remembered everything that Tenten had told her yesterday, about his past but still she didn't really like the way he always seemed to look down on her.

"You don't know my limit." She told him firmly.

"Actually I do."

"Whatever." She replied turning away from him. "So tell me why you're here so early, we still have an hour before we were told to met here."

"I'm not obliged to tell you that but I suppose I wanted to get some training in before we met too." Akane turned to face him again.

"So if we're both here to train, do you want to spar?"

"In your current state it wouldn't be much of a spar. It would be an easy win for me."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that, plus I want to see this famous Byakugan of yours. Tenten told me you're particularly gifted with your clan's Kekkei Genkei."

"Was that all Tenten told you?" He asked coldly.

"No." She answered simply.

"I see. Did what she tell you interest you?"

"It did, I was the one to ask her in the first place. I...wanted to understand you better." Neji looked away from her and closed his eyes as if he was fed up with her.

"And are you now going to claim you do understand me?"

"No, I don't believe I can fully understand because I'm not you but I do understand how it feels to lose a father...and how it feels to be trapped and have your fate already decided for you...to have no control over what is to happen in your future. To that degree I can understand. However I am not marked like you are, I am not forced to serve people that I do not like...so that part no...I can't understand."

"I see." Neji said as he opened his eyes to look at her again. "If you and I are going to train together you should know that I have no intentions of holding back, even if you are at a disadvantage because of your fatigue." Akane nodded and smiled at him.

"I understand, I wouldn't want you to go easy on me in the first place."

"Then prepare yourself." He told her as he got into a fighting stance. He closed his eyes and Akane saw him take a deep breath. She smiled and did the same. They at the same time they opened their eyes, their Kekkei Genkai's suddenly turned on.

"Byakugan."

"Taimukipa." They both called at the same time. Everything around Akane moved at snail's pace and Neji could see everything around him. His eyes looked Akane up and down, looking at her chakra network. His eyes widened at the sight.

"You still have so much chakra despite having trained so hard for several hours already." He observed. It was clear at that moment that Akane had the same, if not much more chakra then Neji himself had. Which meant that the only thing that was holding her back was her physical fitness. If she got that up to speed Neji wasn't all that confident that he would be able to beat her, even on her worst day. Akane frowned at him, Neji was an expert at taijutsu, much better than Lee. With his Byakugan he could see all the chakra points and hit them with his own chakra, blocking the chakra flow completely. If she was going to fight him and win she would need to keep her distance. Her wind style was perfect for short to mid range combat but Neji was a hundred times faster however with her Tamukipa his movements should be slow enough for her to dodge them with relative ease. For the looks of things she had the upper hand but she had never seen Neji fight before. She didn't know exactly what kind of tricks he had hidden up his sleeves. The trick was not to let him hit her, if he did she'd be in trouble. Neji then came charging towards Akane. He aimed straight for her chest but to Akane his movements were far too slow for them to hit there mark. She dodged his attack and threw herself into the air, high above Neji. She clenched her fist as she came down on top of him but thanks to his Byakugan Neji had seen her coming. He moved to the side slightly so that Akane missed him and made another attempt at hitting one of her chakra points but he was too slow for Akane again. She jumped back, putting distance between them both and sized him up again. Both Neji and Akane looked at each other, both frowning, trying to think up some kind of strategy but both coming up with nothing.

"That Byakugan of yours is impressive but it's got to have a blind spot. Even with a jutsu like that there's no way I'm going to believe that you really can see 360 degrees around."

"That's very perceptive of you but thinking like that will not help you defeat me. I will admit there is a weak spot but it is something I, more than anyone am very aware of. I have taken countless measures to protect it so even if you are able to locate it, it will be no use to you."

"Okay well I guess the first step is finding it, after that I'll just have to countermeasure the measures you've taken to protect it."

"That sounds like a good plan and that Tamukipa of yours must have a weak spot too. I'm willing to bet it's the seeing element. The ability to slow down time at a 20 meter dome around yourself in all directions is very impressive instead but I don't believe that would work if you can't see." Akane smiled.

"Yes indeed that it the case. I have to be able to see my surroundings in order for me to slow down the time. I don't even have to be blind in both eyes, just my right eye. So I suppose the question now is, how do you make me blind?" She asked him. Neji frowned at her, how was he doing to do that? Her Kekkei Genkai could be beaten simply by putting a piece of cloth over it but it's getting close enough to put it on her that was the problem. You're movements would be too slow and she would just dodge them plus a piece of cloth was only a temporary solution. If he somehow did manage it then she could just as easily take it off. It would buy him a few seconds at most, although a few seconds was really all he needed to finish it. Then Neji remembered her other Kekkei Genkai, the voice one.

"You raise a valid point. In general it's a rather simply jutsu to beat. Can be blocked by a thin piece of material, as long as you can't see, you can't use it. Of course actually getting the cloth on you would be the problem, you can dodge my every attack. Not only that but to me your movements seem impossibly fast, I nearly wasn't able to dodge those attacks you just threw at me. If I hadn't seen them coming with my Byakugan I would be finished by now but still I can't help but wonder about your other Kekkei Genkai."

"You shouldn't be. I told you yesterday that I would never use that jutsu, especially not on a conrade even if we are sparring against each other. Plus like my Tamukipa it has a very simple solution to beating it. Simply block your ears before I manage to open my mouth and you're home free. You can't obey orders you can't hear. If you're really that concerned about it I'll let you plug your ears right now, the dirt on the ground should be enough to do it however I can assure you that you won't need it. No matter the circumstances I have promised myself never to use that disgusting jutsu..."