Astonishing! A Technique Never Seen Before

"This is the formation of the Hyuga Clan's Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms!"

The Anbu watching the battle were too shocked to speak.

Anko frowned deeply. She hadn't expected their guess to be right! The masked boy was actually a prodigy of the Hyuga Clan, but why had she never heard of him?

"So he really is a brat from the Hyuga Clan..."

Orochimaru frowned, a bitter smile spreading across his lips.

He didn't want to accept it, but he had no choice but to admit that he'd been toyed with by a young Anbu!

"Two Palms!"

Orochimaru had no chance to fight back now. At the very least, he had to withstand these first two palms.

The masked Anbu boy moved with incredible speed. Even after fighting for so long, he showed no sign of tiring.

"Heh. Taking two hits from you won't hurt me!"

Orochimaru had already planned his escape. In the brief opening created by his mistake, the boy could land at most six palms. He would endure those six hits, then seize the chance to use the Substitution Technique.

After that, they would clash with ninjutsu. When it came to ninjutsu, Orochimaru was confident he wouldn't lose to anyone, not even the Third Hokage.

He'd clearly underestimated his opponent. He'd actually thought he could match the kid in Taijutsu. He really had looked down on him.

"Zzz!"

Neji struck Orochimaru on both shoulders. Orochimaru had assumed the blows were simply powerful, with some special effect from the chakra, and was about to move—but then he realized he couldn't move at all!

"What?"

Neji's lips curled up. The two strikes had already infused Orochimaru's shoulders with lightning.

"Zzzzzzz!"

"Four Palms!"

"Eight Palms!"

Neji counted silently to himself, stepped back, and swiftly unleashed the next series of strikes.

"What in the world is going on?"

Orochimaru's eyes widened. He felt the force of the Gentle Fist's chakra churning his insides, while his body was paralyzed by Lightning Style chakra. A technique that changed the nature of chakra?

"Unheard of!"

The boy's blows came one after another, his movements incredibly swift.

Nearby, Anko and the two Anbu were speechless!

Anko in particular was so astonished that she couldn't begin to put it into words.

"This... is unbelievable!"

The lightning hadn't fully taken shape; he'd only incorporated a change in chakra nature into his strikes. But no one had ever managed to do that before!

Each blow came as fiercely as a thunderclap, landing with blinding speed. Orochimaru couldn't move at all as the masked boy attacked his pressure points from every direction.

There was no doubt about it: at this point, Orochimaru had completely lost the Taijutsu contest!

And he'd lost without a trace of suspense—utterly and completely!

"He's incorporated a change in chakra nature into the Gentle Fist? And it's Lightning Style, too. Is this kid a prodigy?"

One of the Anbu murmured in astonishment.

Anko shook her head. "No. It's more than that."

"We still can't be sure whether this guy belongs to the Hyuga Clan."

Anko was cautious, not daring to jump to conclusions.

"Anko, what do you mean?" the reserved Anbu asked, looking at her uncertainly.

Anko took a deep breath, then let out a long sigh.

"Hyuga Tetsu was on my team—a Hyuga Clan jonin. He was once considered a highly talented ninja, especially skilled at changing the nature of Lightning Style chakra. But even he said that the Hyuga Clan's secret techniques relied on the Byakugan's spiritual energy to refine chakra, which completely conflicted with the method of refining chakra with a changed nature..."

The Anbu asked, "So doing both at once is difficult?"

"No. It's practically impossible."

Anko's tone grew even more certain.

"It's not just that chakra has to be refined through the same method. The Byakugan isn't merely a Kekkei Genkai for attacking pressure points and chakra pathways. Even chakra refinement has to follow the principles of yin and yang, the Eight Trigrams, and the natural cycle of opposing forces. There can't be any conflict at all, or the Eight Trigrams can't be formed."

Anko seemed to know quite a bit about this, though that was as far as her knowledge went.

"In other words, the Byakugan can only be used by preserving chakra in its original, most natural state—especially for secret techniques like the Sixty-Four Palms. Chakra with an elemental nature is impure, so there's no way to incorporate it. This guy probably isn't from the Hyuga Clan."

After hearing her analysis, the others nodded, thoroughly convinced.

They were especially astonished by the boy's movements.

Just what kind of expert was he?

Right in front of them, he was beating Orochimaru to a pulp!

And he was using a technique they'd never seen before!

If Neji had heard them, he probably would have laughed. Anko and the outsiders only had a one-sided understanding of the Byakugan.

At first, Neji had struggled to break through certain restrictions, too. But he kept training, over and over...

At first, he'd only done it to meet the system's requirements. But later, he'd fallen in love with this endless training. He'd become addicted to it!

It was only after reaching a certain level of training that Neji understood the importance of practice making perfect! He could now do things he'd never believed possible before—even maintaining two different kinds of chakra in his body at the same time was easy for him!

That was how Neji had poured every ounce of effort from all these years into this fight. He could even stand toe-to-toe with Kage Level ninja!

"Ugh!"

Orochimaru opened his mouth wide and stared with bulging eyes as Neji's final blow sent him flying.

With a crackling sound that could almost be heard, Orochimaru's whole body seemed to build up static electricity as it cut through the air.

He flew more than ten meters before landing, motionless.

Neji panted, drenched in sweat beneath his mask.

That final blow had used up all his chakra.

But chakra still lingered in his palm. Neji used his Byakugan to observe the flow of chakra through his body...

The chakra in his palm had taken the shape of lightning, coursing through him at incredible speed.

"Did I do it? A new technique!"

Though exhausted, Neji let out a breath of relief.

A technique this powerful needed a powerful opponent to show what it could really do!

"Orochimaru, surrender!"

Suddenly, two Anbu landed, one on either side of Orochimaru.

But even though Orochimaru looked as if he were on the verge of death, they remained wary and didn't dare approach him.

Anko walked over to Neji.

Neji froze and took a step back.

Anko stopped, too.

"May I ask who you are, esteemed master?"

Neji panted. He was already close to collapse and couldn't afford to drag this out.

"Cough!"

Neji was about to put on an act, but then a loud "Bang!" rang out from the other side!

A huge hiss followed, and several more trees crashed to the ground.

Two enormous serpents, each twenty meters tall, appeared before them!

Orochimaru recovered extremely quickly. He rose to his feet like a zombie, glanced at his own palm, and thought, As expected, he sealed my chakra. He's from the Hyuga Clan!