As the setting sun hanging on the horizon gradually sank, its last brilliant afterglow vanished with it, replaced by a night as dense and black as ink.
Slumped on the floor of the training room, Neji stared blankly ahead.
He had thought he could get some solution from his father, something to turn around the Hyuga Clan's current predicament. Instead, his father was even more pessimistic than he was, actually entertaining the absurd notion that the Hyuga Clan had been eliminated by the times.
"How could our Hyuga Clan possibly be eliminated by the times?"
As he murmured, Neji was startled to discover that his tone was nowhere near as resolute as he had imagined. It seemed filled with doubt and uncertainty.
"So I had already begun to waver..."
After spacing out for a while, Neji sighed.
He was not some stubborn fanatic incapable of recognizing reality. He understood very well that the Hyuga Clan's Byakugan bloodline limit had already lost its powerful standing as one of Konoha's two great ocular techniques in the current Ninja World.
At the same time, he understood that Sasuke and Naruto's strength was comprehensive.
There was hardly an obvious weakness to be found in either of them. Sasuke in particular was flawless in every aspect, whether ninjutsu, taijutsu, or tactical application. He was the sort of genius who learned something the moment he saw it and mastered it the moment he learned it.
Now that Sasuke possessed the Mangekyō Sharingan, capable of unleashing terrifying ocular techniques such as Amaterasu and Susanoo, his raw strength had already left Neji far behind. Neji could not even see his back to give chase.
"The Mangekyō Sharingan!"
Neji's expression darkened.
That had been the beginning of everything. From the moment Sasuke awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan, Neji no longer