Sniping Konoha Ninja on the Outskirts

After riding Thunder Roc some distance away from Konoha, Neji descended.

Although he had failed to rescue anyone this time, Neji had no intention of giving up just like that. Konoha had so much going on; it was impossible for so many ninja to guard him around the clock.

He possessed high mobility, and the initiative was entirely in his hands. He could strike whenever he wanted and against whoever he wanted. If he captured a few more Konoha ninja and created some public pressure on Konoha's higher-ups, he believed he could definitely get Haku back.

Having made up his mind, Neji began roaming within a hundred-kilometer radius around Konoha, searching for isolated Konoha squads to capture as bargaining chips.

At the same time, Neji also wanted to properly test his skills and familiarize himself with his current strength.

Thus, Neji continued riding Thunder Roc, flying at an altitude of roughly two thousand meters as he looked down upon the land below and searched for targets.

With the Byakugan's powerful reconnaissance abilities, Neji found a fairly suitable target in only fifteen minutes: a standard four-man squad, with one Chunin leading three Genin. They appeared to be carrying out some sort of mission.

Neji did not rush to make a move. Instead, he carefully surveyed the surrounding area and, after confirming that it was not a trap, had Thunder Roc dive down and land before the squad!

Thunder Roc's wingspan exceeded twenty meters, and its imposing presence was terrifying. Even ordinary Elite Jonin might not necessarily be able to stand against it, much less a normal squad led by a Chunin.

Just as Neji had expected.

When the Chunin captain saw Thunder Roc suddenly land before him, his heart was filled with despair. He could not summon even the slightest desire to resist. The fact that he had not collapsed was already proof that he had fairly strong nerves.

As for the three newly graduated Genin, they were so frightened that they collapsed straight onto the ground, unable even to crawl away.

What was rather interesting was that these three Genin were actually his classmates!

Neji rubbed his forehead, jumped down from Thunder Roc, and asked the four of them, "Aren't newly graduated students supposed to be carrying out D-rank missions in the village? What are you doing out here?"

Only then did the four notice Neji. When they clearly saw his face, their mouths dropped open in shock.

As the top student of that graduating class, Neji had been watched by countless people. These three Genin had likewise grown up beneath the shadow of Demon King Neji. Neji might not recognize them, but they definitely recognized Neji.

What was more, just a few days ago, the Hokage Building had been blown up, and the village had simultaneously announced that Hyuga Neji was an S-rank rogue ninja. Nearly everyone had been stunned into disbelief.

They had only just taken their graduation exams, yet the top student of their class had already become an S-rank rogue ninja!

It was simply too crushing!

The three of them had not been graduates for long. They had begged their squad instructor for ages before they were allowed to skip the village's D-rank missions and take on a C-rank letter-delivery mission instead.

But now, before their mission was even complete, they had run into this great demon blocking their path.

The slightly better news was that Neji did not seem to intend to kill them. Perhaps their lives could still be spared.

Neji spoke at the appropriate moment. "That girl will leave the squad and return to Konoha to deliver a message. Tell them Hyuga Neji has captured the squad members. If the higher-ups want to save them, they can trade Haku for them!"

Hearing Neji's words, all four of them breathed a sigh of relief. They were merely being taken hostage. That was fine, as long as they did not have to die!

Neji did not care what they thought. After speaking, he pointed through the air and sealed all three of their Chakra, then brought them onto Thunder Roc and transported them to a temporary base he had found.

Leaving behind a Shadow Clone to guard the prisoners, Neji rode Thunder Roc in search of his next target.

About half an hour later, Neji locked onto his second target. It was also a four-man squad, but judging by their attire, they seemed to be Anbu or Root!

If he remembered correctly, these four had been among the troops that had surrounded him earlier.

Neji lowered his altitude and observed them carefully. He discovered that the group contained one Elite Jonin,

one ordinary Jonin, and two Elite Chunin. It was a very capable squad. After thinking it over, Neji decided he could not keep bullying children. He needed stronger opponents to temper himself.

Just as Neji was checking the surroundings for an ambush, the squad leader among the four had already sensed something unusual and locked onto him in the sky. Without any hesitation, the other party immediately launched a distress flare.

That move left Neji somewhat dumbfounded. He was an Elite Jonin, and his entire squad was present. Was there really any need to be so cautious?

After flying for several minutes and finding no other personnel nearby, Neji was not concerned that they had called for reinforcements. Given the distance, even the nearest Konoha ninja would need at least half an hour to arrive after seeing the distress signal.

With half an hour, Neji was confident that he and his opponents would have already determined the victor!

No longer hesitating, Neji directly controlled Thunder Roc to dive down. At the same time, he coordinated with Thunder Roc to unleash a large-scale combined ninjutsu, "Lightning Style—Thunderstorm," bombarding the four below.

The four were no novices, so naturally, they were not frightened stiff.

Seeing Lightning Balls raining from the sky, the four immediately scattered in different directions to disperse the firepower and avoid being wiped out in one go.

But that also gave Neji the perfect opportunity to defeat them one by one.

Neji ordered Thunder Roc to hold back the ordinary Jonin while he himself leaped down toward one of the Elite Chunin.

The Elite Chunin was also highly experienced in battle. Knowing he was no match for Neji alone, he abandoned any thought of fleeing and directly erupted with all the Chakra in his body, instantly unleashing his strongest ninjutsu: "Water Style—Great Waterfall Technique."

At the cost of enormous Chakra consumption, a single Great Waterfall Technique transformed the low-lying terrain into a small lake. He then used Water Dragon Technique on himself, rapidly blasting himself into the water and evading several Empty Palms Neji fired from afar.

That Elite Chunin's series of moves even surprised Neji!

Was he really this decisive? Neji had not even touched him, yet that Water Dragon Technique had probably nearly battered him to death already.

But the strategy was indeed effective. It was now difficult for Neji to injure an Elite Chunin who had sunk beneath the water.

Furthermore, the terrain had been transformed into water battlegrounds, with which Neji was not particularly familiar.

Just as Neji landed on the water's surface, the waters around him churned. Several Water Dragon Bullets formed in an instant, opened their jaws, and struck at Neji.

Neji frowned slightly and raised his palm, firing several Gentle Fist—Great Empty Palms that shattered the water dragons.

At that moment, another disturbance came from the water beneath his feet.

Neji did not dare lower his guard. Chakra erupted from his entire body as he spun, unleashing his defensive ninjutsu: "Gentle Fist Art—Eight Trigrams—Lightning Great Rotation."

The giant sphere of lightning, over twenty meters wide, blasted the water away. Neji landed on the ground and pushed his Byakugan to its limit, searching for the enemy's location.

In only a moment, Neji locked onto the Elite Jonin a hundred meters behind him and used the Eight Trigrams Formation to lock him down twice over.

At the same time, he rapidly formed hand seals. Electric arcs flickered in his hand as he prepared to finish the Elite Jonin with Lightning Cutter.

But what left Neji stunned was that the Elite Jonin also rapidly formed hand seals with both hands, electric arcs flickering in his palm. That familiar feeling, that familiar technique—it was clearly Lightning Cutter as well!

This was like a fake meeting the real deal, except embarrassingly, it seemed that Neji was the fake!

Having reached this point in the battle, Neji no longer cared who was real and who was fake.

He directly infused Sage Chakra into Lightning Cutter. The one-foot Lightning Blade instantly swelled to four feet, its color changing from light blue to deep blue.

Now it was the other side's turn to be dumbfounded. Kakashi's already-opened Sharingan contracted sharply, and he felt like cursing to the heavens. It was one thing for someone to copy the ninjutsu he had developed—he had done plenty of copying himself.

But the person copying his ninjutsu was using it countless times more powerfully than the original creator. There was simply no justice in that!

He was already locked on, so he could not run. He obviously could not win in a clash either. Seeing Neji charge at him with a deep-blue "medical wand" over a meter long, Kakashi's heart twisted with conflict.

Fortunately, he had helpers. The two Elite Chunin, who had recovered their wits, each unleashed two defensive ninjutsu, placing them in Neji's path.

But how could Neji, already charging at full speed, be so easily stopped?

Neji swung his enlarged, extended Lightning Cutter, effortlessly breaking through Water Wall Formation and Earth Wall Formation, then slammed into Kakashi's weaker version of Lightning Cutter without losing momentum.

After a loud explosion, Kakashi spat blood and flew backward. Neji was slightly delayed by the clash, allowing another Water Dragon Bullet and an Earth Dragon Bullet to halt his advance before he could finish Kakashi off!

He activated Kaiten once more, blocking the two ninjutsu.

Neji prepared to deal with the two Elite Chunin first.

Chakra gathered beneath his feet as he instantly activated Body Flicker Technique, rapidly closing in on the heavily injured Water Style Elite Chunin.

Seeing Neji rush toward him, the Chunin knew that his life was over!

After launching one final enlarged Water Style—Water Wall Formation, he gave up resisting and sat down to await death.

Seeing the Elite Chunin's actions, Neji found them amusing. He was quite straightforward!

But Neji's movements did not slow. A Gentle Fist—Air Burst shattered the Water Wall Formation, after which Neji jabbed wildly through the air, striking every visible chakra point on the Elite Chunin's body. There was no other reason—he simply wanted to vent!

He raised his hand and fired several more Empty Palms, knocking away the kunai and an Earth Dragon Bullet attacking him.

Neji activated Body Flicker Technique again. This time, his target was the Chunin playing with earth dragons, who had been firing Earth Dragon Bullets nonstop from beginning to end. Someone who did not know better might have thought that Earth Dragon Bullet was the only technique he knew!

But before Neji could reach that Earth Style Chunin, Kakashi, who had already climbed back up, once again charged toward him at incredible speed with Lightning Cutter.

There was no time to use Lightning Cutter, which required hand seals, so Neji instantly condensed a Great Ball Rasengan in his right hand and smashed it toward the mere one-foot Lightning Cutter!

Kakashi's mentality was beginning to collapse. He could tolerate Neji having a Lightning Cutter more than a meter long, but now his Rasengan was more than a meter wide too. How could Kakashi possibly tolerate this any longer? But what could he do if he could not?

Without any suspense, Kakashi was sent flying by the Great Ball Rasengan and could not get back up for a long while!

Without Kakashi's restraint, the Elite Chunin also failed to escape Neji's clutches and was struck down to the ground.

Neji returned to Kakashi's side. Seeing signs that Kakashi was regaining consciousness, Neji likewise did not hesitate, jabbing wildly through the air and sealing all the Chakra points across Kakashi's body.

Neji looked toward Thunder Roc's battlefield and found that the battle there was nearly over as well. Relying on its abundant Chakra and ability to fly, Thunder Roc had not engaged the Jonin in close combat. Instead, it had continually bombarded him from the sky with Lightning Balls.

The results were obvious. By the time Neji arrived, the Jonin's entire body was charred black, and he had nearly been blown to death.

Thus, the battle ended. All four had been captured, and one of them was even Hatake Five-Five. That was truly an unexpected gain!

As for Obito's eye, Neji needed to think carefully about how to deal with it!

Without one eye, Neji wondered whether Obito could still rise to prominence in the late stages.

Kamui was a bug-level ninjutsu, yet it had now fallen into his hands!

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