"Damn it!"
Anko immediately rushed to their aid, saving the two Anbu who had been attacked by the giant snake.
"Good girl, you finally made it. What a shame I can't play with you any longer. Why don't you let this child play with you instead?"
Orochimaru leaped onto the giant snake's head, then sprang backward and vanished without a trace.
Roar!
The giant snake's low growl made Anko and the two Anbu give up on pursuing him.
With a whoosh, the group stared in astonishment.
A figure darted away like lightning.
Then, there was no trace of him at all.
"Grrraah!"
With a tremendous roar, the giant snake crashed to the ground!
A cloud of dust billowed up, and dozens of century-old trees were crushed beneath it!
The giant snake showed no sign of struggling. It had been almost instantly killed by a single palm strike, delivered like lightning to a vital spot.
Neji landed, completely exhausted.
But he had confirmed one thing just now.
He had unleashed all the remaining power of the final strike of the Sixty-Four Palms.
"I didn't know it could be this powerful."
Neji let out a breath. Even he hadn't expected the technique's potential to be so immense!
"Hey!"
Neji was still thinking when the three people behind him approached.
"Wait!"
Neji raised a hand, signaling them not to come closer.
Anko and the others obediently stopped.
Who would dare not stop? Anyone who could attack Orochimaru like that was no ordinary person!
Anko and the others were afraid this expert might not be on Konoha's side. If he killed them too, they'd be in trouble!
"Expert, you..."
Anko was about to speak, but the boy waved his hand.
"He won't be staying here any longer. You can leave without worry."
Neji sighed. Since Orochimaru had already placed the Cursed Seal, he probably wouldn't cause any more trouble. What worried Neji more was Anko and the others lingering in the Forest of Death. Sooner or later, his identity would be exposed.
That would not only bring trouble down on him, but also deepen the Hyuga Clan's suspicions of him.
In short, he couldn't rush this kind of thing.
"Uh..."
Seeing that Anko still seemed to have questions, Neji worried they wouldn't leave, so he said sternly, "Listen to me. Leave the Forest of Death at once. Staying here any longer could result in casualties among the examinees!"
"...Yes!"
This time, they seemed quite willing to listen.
Neji continued, "Notify the Hokage and have the village's security measures strengthened in the near future!"
Then Neji swiftly disappeared from their sight.
After leaving them behind, Neji found a secluded spot in the woods and sat down to rest.
He took off his mask and removed his Anbu uniform. His clothes were already soaked with sweat.
"Even after taking three Military Ration Pills, this is all I could manage?"
Neji let out a breath. He had already mastered the nature transformation, but it seemed to take a heavy toll on him.
"Ding! Training session complete!" "Eight Trigrams-Four Palms proficiency +5999! Gentle Fist proficiency +3434! Byakugan proficiency +1979!"
Seeing the results, Neji was too exhausted to feel surprised.
After using the Byakugan to make sure there was nothing dangerous within five hundred meters, he lay back and fell asleep.
Although Military Ration Pills could temporarily slow the loss of stamina, taking too many still had side effects.
On top of that, he had barely slept at all that night, so Neji quickly drifted off.
By the time he woke, it was shortly after dawn.
Judging by the sun's position, it was still early morning. Birds called from time to time among the trees.
He'd rested well enough. Neji immediately set off. His objective was complete, and now he needed to catch up with Rock Lee and Tenten.
As he walked, Neji asked the system, "If both techniques were infused with chakra nature transformation, why was the Sixty-Four Palms so much stronger than Rotation?"
He had been puzzled about this since the previous night. Judging by how much he had trained, he had clearly worked harder on Rotation.
Using a taijutsu technique that targeted tenketsu on a wooden post brought the benefits of training down to almost nothing.
After all, in these eight years, Neji had had no chance to engage in real combat for more than ninety-five percent of the time.
"The infusion of nature transformation is related to the number of times it is used."
"The number of times?"
"In other words, the number of times the technique is used. The host does not carry elemental chakra; the system provides it. Therefore, this chakra is unlimited and supplied according to the host's maximum number of uses. The more times the host uses it, the greater the amount supplied. However, it will consume more of the host's stamina."
"It only consumes stamina!?"
The system's explanation startled Neji.
No wonder such a huge expenditure of chakra hadn't left him dead from exhaustion...
"So the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms is infused with Lightning Style chakra sixty-four times!?"
"Yes."
After learning this, Neji suddenly had a strange idea.
Neji: "It doesn't say I have to use exactly sixty-four palms. Wouldn't seventy-four make it even stronger?"
System: "..."
As Neji hurried along, he suddenly sensed someone approaching up ahead.
He stopped at once and used his Byakugan to check. It was his teammate, Tenten.
Neji hurried over to meet her.
"Neji?! Where have you been?"
When Tenten saw Neji, she was already sweating anxiously.
"What's wrong, Tenten?"
"It seems someone's targeting Sasuke's team. Rock Lee stayed behind to save Sakura. He gave me the scrolls..."
As she spoke, Tenten took out the scrolls.
Neji narrowed his eyes, guessing that the Sound Ninja had most likely been sent by Orochimaru to test Sasuke.
Neji was about to come up with an excuse to ask Tenten to help Rock Lee, but she unexpectedly tossed him the "Heaven" and "Earth" scrolls.
Neji caught them reflexively.
"Hold on to the scrolls, and don't come any closer! Those people look tough. As long as we can keep ourselves from getting dragged into danger, we can't just leave them to die!"
Then Tenten turned and hurried bravely toward a nearby direction.
Neji stood there dumbfounded, holding the scrolls.
After a while, he let out a slow sigh and reluctantly tucked the scrolls into his clothes.
It seemed he'd have to step in again.
Neji put on his Anbu mask, took out his Anbu uniform, and began walking slowly in the direction Tenten had just gone.
In a clearing in the nearby woods, Sasuke and Naruto lay unconscious beneath a rock.
Sakura, who had looked after them all night, was exhausted. Someone had knocked her to the ground, and her hair had been cut off and scattered everywhere.
Rock Lee had been knocked down at some point, too.
Only the Ino-Shika-Cho trio remained, warily facing off against the three Sound Ninja.
"Don't overestimate yourselves. You're no match for us. We only want Uchiha Sasuke dead." Zaku held out his hand. Everyone present had already seen the power of the shock waves from his palm.
The difference in their strength put immense pressure on everyone there.
Even with Tenten's arrival, dealing with Kin alone was already more than enough trouble.
"Zaku, do it. Finish off Uchiha Sasuke!"
Kin threatened Tenten. If Tenten left, Rock Lee, who had fallen to the ground, would die.
Meanwhile, on the Ino-Shika-Cho side, Choji, Shikamaru, and Ino couldn't even defeat Dosu alone. There was nothing they could do.
The difference in their strength was overwhelming!
Sakura clung desperately to Zaku's leg to keep him from advancing, but he simply planted a foot on top of her head.
"Are you tired of living, girl?"
Ino stared wide-eyed, watching it all unfold.
"Stop!"
At her shout, a Kunai blade came slicing down. Zaku reacted in time, drawing his own Kunai to deflect it. Then a figure appeared silently and struck him from behind with a palm!
Before you continue