"What is that? From this distance..."
Shino frowned, genuinely surprised.
Kiba froze for a moment, then reverted from his transformation. "Neji? Since when does he know Ninjutsu?"
They didn't realize this was simply the result of Neji's grueling Taijutsu training.
It was the Byakugan's only long-range physical technique.
"Hinata, come here."
Neji looked at his cousin.
Even though he had no interest in fighting them, he didn't want Hinata to get hurt.
Hinata sprinted over. Taking advantage of Kiba and Shino's distraction, the Grass ninjas quickly retreated to reorganize.
The four Leaf Genin regrouped. After that display, Kiba and Shino's hostility toward Neji seemed to have evaporated.
They had seen it with their own eyes: Neji wasn't the helpless loser the rumors made him out to be.
"I didn't expect you to be this strong, Neji. To be able to fight Kiba in close combat like that," Shino praised.
Kiba scoffed, though there was a smirk on his face. "Hmph. He's got a few moves, sure. But I wasn't even serious back there, so don't get cocky!"
"Since you're all from the Hidden Leaf, why don't you just die together!"
The voices of the Grass ninjas echoed from all directions.
"Earth Style: Mud Swamp!"
Rumble!
The ground beneath them began to churn. A circle about twenty feet in diameter turned into a sticky, sinking bog. They were being trapped!
"This is bad," Shino said, the first to react. He extended a hand to catch a bug returning from the air.
"It's not just a physical barrier. It's a Chakra barrier created by Earth Style. My bugs can't fly out."
Kiba spat. "These Grass ninjas are shady as hell!"
The Grass ninjas' voices taunted them again. "The Proctor said it clearly: this exam is real combat. Since it's real combat, killing you guys shouldn't be a problem, right?"
At that, Kiba and Shino panicked.
They wanted scrolls, sure, but they never intended to kill Neji.
These Grass ninjas were playing for keeps.
"The Earth barrier will hold for at least two minutes. In the next sixty seconds, thirty thousand senbon needles made from special razor-grass will rain down on you. There is no escape... Hahaha!"
Thwack!
Before the laughter even faded, a single senbon shot down, skewering one of Shino's bugs against a tree trunk.
"Byakugan!"
Hinata activated her eyes. She saw the Chakra barrier surrounding them, and worse—the needles were coated in Chakra too.
"Poison..." Hinata broke out in a cold sweat.
"Hahaha! You guessed it! The senbon are coated in a potent toxin. Even if you avoid a fatal hit, a single scratch means death!"
Shino and Kiba didn't know what to do. They had come to bully Neji, not to die in a trap meant for him!
"I'll use Fang Over Fang to deflect them all! You guys protect yourselves!"
Kiba was about to call Akamaru to transform, but Hinata stopped him.
"No, Kiba! You'll get hurt even worse doing that!"
"But we don't have a choice!"
As they argued, Neji stepped forward.
"Stand here. Don't move."
He took a deep breath and planted his feet.
"Right! Rotation! Brother Neji, can you use Rotation?" Hinata looked hopeful.
Kiba immediately shot it down. "Even the Hyuga's Rotation can't cover this much area! And sustain it for a full minute? Impossible!"
Shino remained silent, grimly accepting the situation.
"Time's up. Die!"
At the Grass ninja's command, the sound of thousands of needles firing filled the air. It smelled like death.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Hundreds of senbon launched simultaneously toward the clearing. The Grass ninjas had rigged traps everywhere—on the ground, in the trees, from every angle.
Neji sank into his stance. He knew a normal Rotation couldn't last a minute. But the current Neji... he could do it.
"Wind Nature..."
Neji closed his eyes, refining the Chakra inside him. With the Byakugan's assistance, precise control was child's play.
"Nature Transformation!"
Neji snapped his eyes open. The needles were inches away. Kiba and Shino instinctively covered their heads; Hinata squeezed her eyes shut.
"Wind Style: Heavenly Rotation!"
He had practiced this move alone in the training grounds ten thousand times!
Executing it now was muscle memory.
Neji began to spin violently. The whirlwind generated by his rotation kicked up the dust on the ground before the needles even reached him. The incoming senbon, being lightweight, were blown off course instantly.
Finally, the wind-infused Chakra formed a perfect, massive hemisphere.
The diameter was a staggering fifteen feet!
It was like a controlled tornado. Hinata and the others stood safely in the eye of the storm, while outside, the senbon were deflected effortlessly.
More and more needles rained down—thousands of them—but the moment they touched the spinning dome of light and wind, they were pulverized into dust!
"Impenetrable defense... Is this the Hyuga Rotation? No, it's something more!"
The Grass ninjas watched in horror, eyes wide, cold sweat pouring down their faces.
"It's like a giant, controlled tornado! It's tearing up the trees..."
The trees the Grass ninjas were hiding in were being stripped of their leaves, the branches shaking so violently they looked like they were about to be uprooted.
The rain of needles fell relentlessly, but against the powerful shape-transformed Chakra of the Rotation, they were useless.
Sustaining the Rotation for over a minute, Neji had completely destroyed the surrounding terrain!
When the needles ran out, the spinning stopped.
"Parasitic Insects: Insect Cloud!"
Shino had already spread his bugs across the ground during the chaos. The Grass ninjas had nowhere to run.
"Fang Over Fang!"
A drilling cyclone of fur and fury slammed into them!
---
"Is... is this really okay?"
Hinata turned away, blushing furiously. The Grass ninjas had been stripped down to their underwear and tied up.
Kiba dusted off his hands. "Heh! You gotta treat shady people like this. Let's see if they dare to ambush anyone again!"
"Sorry, Neji. You guys have a Heaven Scroll, right? These guys had a Heaven Scroll too. We have an Earth Scroll, so... I'm taking this one!" Kiba grabbed the loot, acting like he did all the work.
Shino kept his hands in his pockets and looked at Neji.
"What was that jutsu just now? Has the Hyuga Rotation really evolved to that level?"
Neji scratched his head and gave a goofy grin. "Haha, it's just average, average. The Hyuga clan is pretty strong, you know!"
Hinata stared at Neji, then lowered her head with a small smile.
Seeing her cousin hold his head high in front of others... it made her happy.
"Let's find a place to rest." Shino saw everyone was exhausted. To avoid more enemies, they needed to move.
They left the clearing, but after only a few steps, Neji sensed something wrong. He signaled for everyone to stop.
Rustle.
The wind picked up, shaking the leaves. A ninja wearing a beige, full-body jumpsuit stepped out from the shadows.
It was Oboro, a Genin from the Hidden Rain Village.
With his messy hair and dark circles under his eyes, he looked like bad news.
Neji paused. It was dark, so he couldn't see the face clearly, but he recognized the forehead protector. Hidden Rain.
"I thought I was late, but looks like I'm right on time!"
Oboro chuckled. He had split from his team to hunt down the "weakest link," Neji Hyuga. Finding him here was a stroke of luck.