Shiranui Genma raised his right hand and then swung it down. "Match begin!"
The veins around Neji's temples bulged, and the skin near the corners of his eyes quivered slightly.
With the Byakugan activated, Neji could see the flow of Chakra inside his enemy's body. This ability allowed him to precisely attack his enemy's Chakra acupuncture points. Once the points were sealed, any taijutsu would be unable to utilize Chakra.
On the stands far behind him, Hiashi watched Neji activate the Byakugan right from the start. There was not much expression on his face, but his hand resting on his knee tightened slightly.
Neji said, "Naruto, this time I will let you experience for yourself what is called an unchangeable destiny."
Naruto reached into his ninja tool pouch, then threw the Kunai from his palm. Three streaks of light flew toward Neji in a triangular formation.
"Kunai probing, is it?" Neji curled his lips slightly.
This level of Kunai throwing was practically no different from slow motion in front of the Byakugan.
"Is that it?"
Neji shifted his body to the side, preparing to dodge these three Kunai with the smallest possible sidestep.
His Byakugan had already clearly captured the rotation angle and flight trajectory of every Kunai. He only needed to shift his center of gravity by half a palm's distance to avoid them all, and then he would utilize the gap while Naruto was retracting his hand to close in and cut off his approach, using a set of Eight Trigrams Palm to seal the acupuncture points on Naruto's arms.
Then he saw Naruto forming hand seals.
Neji: "?"
Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique!
In an instant, the three Kunai in mid-air split into two, then into four, then into eight, the moment they flew past the midpoint of the distance between the two.
Dozens of Kunai appeared out of thin air, filling Neji's field of vision.
"What?"
In the front row of the stands, Guy stood up abruptly from his seat, his fingers gripping the railing.
Kurenai's pupils constricted slightly. She remembered that Naruto hadn't used this move when fighting Kiba in the preliminaries.
'Could it be that he learned this in the past month? Or...'
—
On the field, Neji's pupils shrank sharply. His Byakugan immediately saw that the number of Kunai was too great, the coverage was too wide, and the angles had sealed off all his evasion space in front, behind, left, and right.
'Damn it, it's too late.'
Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven!
Neji didn't dare to hold back. The Chakra in his body surged out from all his acupuncture points at maximum power, while his body simultaneously spun at high speed. A hemispherical whirlwind of Chakra suddenly opened up around him, shrouding his entire body within it.
In the stands, Hiashi was startled. "That is?"
Clang, clang, clang...
The high-speed spinning Chakra collided with the densely incoming Kunai in mid-air. The Kunai deflected scattered, pinning into the surrounding ground and walls.
After blocking the last Kunai, Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven dissipated. Neji adjusted his center of gravity, preparing to locate Naruto.
Just then, Naruto suddenly appeared in front of Neji the next moment and threw a punch.
Neji's Byakugan clearly captured the trajectory of Naruto's right fist. He raised his left arm to block, but the speed of Naruto's punch far exceeded his anticipation.
The power generated by the twist of his waist was amplified through his shoulder blades and transmitted to his knuckles, with the entire chain of force precise to the timing of every muscle contraction.
The fist landed solidly on Neji's blocking left arm, the immense force sending Neji flying.
Bang!
Neji rolled twice on the ground before barely steadying himself. The entire muscle area where his left arm had been struck went numb.
But Neji was Neji after all. In the process of being sent flying, he had already adjusted his mindset, and the moment he landed, he immediately resumed the starting stance of the Eight Trigrams Palm.
The essence of the Gentle Fist is to overcome hardness with softness and control motion with stillness. Once he attached himself to an opponent, no matter how fast they were, they would be locked down by the continuous suppression of the Eight Trigrams Palm, cutting off all avenues of retreat.
He was not afraid of his opponent being fast. As long as the opponent dared to get close, he could use the combos of the Gentle Fist to make that speed useless.
Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms!
Neji's footwork shifted, and his whole body closed in on Naruto with extreme speed. His palms struck out continuously at a frequency almost impossible for the naked eye to capture, each strike aiming at one of the thirty-two main Chakra points on the front of Naruto's body.
But Neji didn't land a single strike. Naruto moved with minimal side-stepping, tilting his head and retracting his shoulder, sauntering calmly through the palm strikes.
Every one of Neji's palms grazed past the hem of Naruto's clothes. The closest strike was barely a centimeter away from touching Naruto's shoulder, but that one centimeter was a distance that could never be bridged.
Although Neji's Byakugan could clearly capture every one of Naruto's movements, his body could not keep up. He saw it, but couldn't hit it.
'Damn it, why is he so fast!'
At this moment, his Byakugan captured the instant Naruto disappeared—to the right, the blind spot!
He twisted his body and struck a palm behind him, his hand cutting through a lingering image.
But Naruto had already appeared at a different angle behind Neji, so close that Neji could even hear his calm breathing.
Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven!
This move was effective, the high-speed rotating Chakra whirlwind forced Naruto to retreat.
Naruto's lips curled upward.
While retreating, he flipped his right hand, and three more Kunai flew out, the angle precise enough to catch the exact moment Neji's move began to decelerate.
If the Revolving Heaven slowed down, he would be pierced by the Kunai. If he maintained it, he would have to continue consuming Chakra.
Neji gritted his teeth and had no choice but to bite the bullet and maintain it.
He could clearly feel his Chakra being consumed rapidly. Revolving Heaven was originally a high-level defensive technique secretly passed down within the Hyuga main family. With his current Chakra reserves, using it continuously was somewhat taxing, every second he maintained it now was agony.