With just one palm strike, Zaku was driven forward by the enormous force, stumbling several steps.
Neji, dressed in an Anbu uniform, landed beside Sakura.
"Step back."
Neji spoke in a low voice. Sakura frowned, recognizing him as the Anbu from yesterday.
But she was sure she had seen the person before somewhere. She just couldn't remember where, so she obediently stepped back.
Neji was simply afraid she would recognize him.
"Hey, who are you supposed to be?"
Zaku turned around and shouted.
"An Anbu from Konoha? Or a fake?"
Dosu wasn't intimidated in the slightest. He had already forgotten about those three weaklings from Ino-Shika-Cho and headed toward Neji.
"Are you... the Anbu from yesterday?"
Tenten stared at him in surprise. She hadn't expected the same person to save her both days!
Tenten and Sakura wisely backed away a few steps. They both knew that the masked Anbu in front of them was powerful!
With him here, they were surely safe. If they joined in, they'd only get in the way!
"One after another—you're really getting on my nerves!"
Zaku frowned and strode forward angrily.
Neji had held back when he struck him just now, but it was still a heavy blow. After being ambushed like that, Zaku was naturally furious.
"Hmph, all you Konoha Anbu can do is sneak attack? Zaku can take you on by himself!"
Kin stood with her arms crossed, brimming with confidence.
Dosu, however, was a little worried. "Hey, he is an Anbu from Konoha, after all. Even if he looks like a little guy... Hmph! It's all just a bluff!"
Their inexplicable confidence made Neji frown slightly.
Still, that worked out well. It proved they weren't particularly knowledgeable or brave, and it was always good to settle things quickly.
"Hah!"
"Cutting Air Wave!"
Taking advantage of Neji's distraction, Zaku immediately thrust out his hand and unleashed Cutting Air Wave.
A powerful blast of chakra pressure shot from the air holes in his palm toward Neji.
Neji couldn't dodge in time, so he could only raise his hand and block it with his palm.
"Heh! Aren't you the one who likes sneak attacks?"
But the grin on Zaku's face lasted only two seconds before freezing in place.
"This..."
Neji was completely unharmed.
Everyone was stunned!
"As expected of the Anbu!" Sakura said blankly.
Tenten smiled too. "Looks like there's no danger here anymore..."
Neji was also a little surprised. He had only intended to use Gentle Fist to deflect as much of the damage as possible, but he found that Zaku's Cutting Air Wave was nothing in the face of his palm.
Beneath his mask, his Byakugan's bulging veins saw everything clearly.
Lightning Style chakra still surrounded Neji's palm.
"This is..."
Could he have awakened a new palm technique?
According to the system, injecting chakra with an elemental nature meant supplying chakra a set number of times.
The Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms involved sixty-four chakra releases. The point was that the Sixty-Four Palms wasn't a single, standalone move.
Rather, each strike was the pinnacle of Gentle Fist, precisely targeting one of the enemy's sixty-four chakra points. The result was a rapid series of sixty-four precise Gentle Fist attacks!
So... could Neji now infuse even simple Gentle Fist strikes with the nature transformation of Lightning Style chakra?
With that possibility in mind, Neji was immediately eager to test it.
Whoosh!
A shuriken flew at him. Neji swatted it aside almost instantly.
With a hiss, the two wires stretched across the ground were pulled taut.
"A trap?"
But nothing followed. He could only see Kin, the Sound Ninja in the distance, fiddling with the bells in her hands.
Then all the dozens of bells strung along the wires rang together!
"I see. A sound-wave attack?"
Everyone present was affected, and they clamped their hands over their ears.
Neji simply struck the ground with one palm!
Bang!
The ground trembled, disrupting every sound. The wires snapped, the bells fell, and Kin lost her most basic means of attack.
"What a fragile attack. An Anbu's way of thinking is terrifying. The opponent used sound waves, and sound travels through vibration. A single palm strike can make the ground vibrate more intensely than the bells!"
Tenten watched the fight with a serious expression. She felt she could learn a lot of practical knowledge just by watching this person fight!
No wonder he was so strong!
How could she know that this Anbu boy, whom she admired wholeheartedly, was actually her own teammate, Hyuga Neji—the one she was always criticizing?
"That guy..."
Kin took a step back, hesitating slightly. She had never seen anyone break her technique like that!
"Now it's my turn!"
A figure rushed straight toward him. Neji gathered chakra and thought, Perfect. I'll try it on you!
Zaku's face was flushed with childish anger. He was a typical thoughtless ninja, and seeing a masked boy steal the spotlight was more than he could stand!
"Die!"
A point-blank blast!
His palms came right up to Neji, and he unleashed Cutting Air Wave with both hands at once!
Neji gave a faint snort and simply reached out to twist them aside.
"Argh! Aah!"
A bone-deep pain shot through Zaku's wrists in an instant.
His eyes widened. He couldn't believe he was facing the strength of an ordinary person.
That force was like the strength of a warrior who had trained for a hundred years.
With a single twist, Neji's powerful grip wrenched Zaku's wrists upward.
Bang! Both Cutting Air Waves blasted into the sky.
"Ah! Let go of me!"
Zaku gritted his teeth, unable to endure the pain in his wrists any longer.
All his pride meant nothing now. To everyone watching, he had brought this on himself!
Neji narrowed his eyes, gathered chakra, and struck with his palm!
"Ugh!!"
That one blow nearly killed Zaku.
With just one strike, he stopped struggling. True pain was silent.
Thud!
The only sound in the air was the impact of the palm against his body. Zaku no longer cried out.
A large amount of Lightning Style chakra surged into Zaku's body, leaving him unable to use Cutting Air Wave at all.
"My body... My body's numb too! It feels like lightning has bound me! My scalp is tingling!"
Zaku thought to himself. The bone-deep pain nearly robbed him of his senses.
Neji landed more than ten strikes before finally easing up and stopping.
Zaku had collapsed to the ground. His eyes were open and he was still conscious, but drool kept spilling from his mouth, and his eyes were wide as saucers.
"Do you still want to fight?"
Neji had already achieved his goal. He glanced at Dosu.
Dosu clenched his fist, then looked at the Uchiha Sasuke lying on the ground.
"Here."
Dosu took the scroll from his clothes and set it on the ground.
The three Sound Ninja fled in a hurry, and the Anbu boy left as well.
The Ino-Shika-Cho trio couldn't believe what they'd just witnessed, especially Shikamaru.
"That guy moved as fast as Asuma! Judging by his height, he's probably about our age? That's terrifying!"
He rubbed his brow. The Sound Ninja were strong, but he could have come up with a few strategies to deal with them. But that masked boy just now...
"Terrifying. If someone like him became my enemy, I think I'd give up on becoming a Chunin."
Ino and Choji sighed too. They completely agreed with Shikamaru.
After all, there was a mountain of a difference between a Genin and an elite ninja!
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