Power! Eight Trigrams: Body Strike

"Oh?"

Gaara tilted his head, seemingly finding things interesting once again.

In the arena, everyone gasped in shock.

"That kid from the Hyuga Clan, he can actually use a high-level ninjutsu like Heavenly Spin?"

"Is that really just a genin?"

"The battle between these two genin is even more spectacular than a fight between chunin!"

Tenten and Kiba, standing on the sidelines, furrowed their brows slightly.

A glimmer of hope ignited within them; could this kid actually defeat Gaara?

After all, Kiba had seen Neji use Heavenly Spin in the Forest of Death, but the version back then was on a completely different level than what he was showing now. Could Neji still have a trump card up his sleeve?

On the field, Neji steadied his breathing and lowered his head.

"Brat, I've already figured out how to deal with you." Neji finally spoke, taking the initiative to address Gaara.

Gaara narrowed his eyes. Though his expression remained unchanged, a flicker of panic stirred within him!

"What is it?"

Neji did not answer, his gaze locked intently upon him.

"Annoying guy!" Gaara muttered to himself, extending his hand, seemingly provoked into a fit of rage.

Swathes of sand surged toward Neji in massive quantities.

"Eight Trigrams Palms: Heavenly Spin!"

Puchi! Puchi!

The sand was deflected away entirely.

"Quicksand Drift!"

Gaara quickly formed hand seals, his killing intent beginning to surface.

But...

"Eight Trigrams Palms: Heavenly Spin!"

"Sand and Stone Rain!"

"Heavenly Spin!"

"Sand Shuriken Jutsu!"

"Heavenly Spin!"

That cyan chakra was like an impenetrable wall of bronze and iron; it simply could not be broken!

"Absolute defense, is it?"

Gaara panted, not from exhaustion, but from the frustration of burning through so much chakra with his ninjutsu only to fail to scratch Neji in the slightest!

Neji lowered his head, his voice heavy: "Well? Why don't you try to break my absolute defense?"

With that, he lunged forward, charging straight at Gaara.

Gaara was stunned. He had never faced such a troublesome opponent, and a trace of panic actually crept into his heart!

He couldn't rely on those minor ninjutsu; this opponent was no ordinary fighter!

Gaara knew this deep down, so he began to retreat, rapidly forming hand seals.

"Sand Waterfall Funeral!"

Gaara began to expend a massive amount of chakra, refining all the matter in the air into sand and manifesting it to attack Neji.

It wrapped around him tightly, but Neji stopped using Heavenly Spin. Instead, he released his entire reserve of chakra, shattering the surrounding sand completely and breaking free.

"Just as I thought. As long as he uses enough sand, the quality of the sand decreases. Even if it's an incomplete technique, I can break it easily!"

Everything up until now had been a ruse to provoke Gaara into using wider-range ninjutsu.

Over eighty percent of the arena was now filled with Gaara's sand, and with his current chakra levels, he couldn't possibly maintain precise control over all of it!

And what's more...

Neji was covered by sand once again, but instead of using Heavenly Spin, he adopted a chakra release pattern similar to it.

He opened the chakra pathways at every tenketsu point on his body, releasing his energy outward!

Again, and again.

Eight Trigrams: Body Strike proficiency +33!

Eight Trigrams: Body Strike proficiency +147!

Eight Trigrams: Body Strike proficiency +55!

Eight Trigrams: Body Strike proficiency +89!

"Guy, this student of yours is truly formidable."

Kakashi walked over, and Guy was taken aback: "How can that be? Neji is just a very hardworking genin."

Kakashi smiled: "Even for a genin, that strength is too terrifying. Such swift movement and combat intelligence, and furthermore..."

He looked down and said: "It has been so long that even Gaara, who is casting the jutsu, is showing signs of fatigue, yet he still looks calm and composed."

These words left Tenten and Rock Lee feeling incredibly shocked.

Everyone looked on together, and Neji was indeed skillfully and methodically repeating the same evasive maneuvers.

The entire arena was covered in the traces of Gaara's ninjutsu, and while Neji had been forced to dart around, he appeared only slightly out of breath.

"Eight Trigrams: Body Strike proficiency +108!"

"Ding! Congratulations to the host: Taijutsu: Eight Trigrams: Body Strike proficiency has reached 10,000, breaking through to the 'Initial Mastery' realm! Reward for the host: Total chakra capacity upgraded to twice the original amount!"

Upon receiving this news, Neji finally let out a sigh of relief.

"Well, this should be enough, right? Armor of Sand..."

Neji said: "Let's end this!"

Before Gaara could grasp the situation, he saw Neji suddenly closing in like a flash of lightning.

"You guy!"

Gaara sensed something ominous and felt a surge of anger, but it was already too late.

Neji struck Gaara's abdomen with a palm; the Armor of Sand cracked slightly, but it failed to cause Gaara any real injury.

"He can't hurt Gaara, so no matter what, how can he win against Gaara?" Kankuro remained confident, but Kakashi said nothing.

"Enough, the game is over!"

Gaara gritted his teeth, burning with rage, and gathered a massive amount of sand into a cone shape to pierce Neji's back.

Neji merely curled the corner of his lips.

"How about we decide the winner with this move? If I lose, I will concede voluntarily!"

Gaara was stunned and did not reply after hearing this.

But he was incredibly confident in this move.

The Armor of Sand had already restrained Neji, and Gaara's attack was coming from behind. While a technique like Rotation could clearly only deal with sand that had a low concentration of chakra, Gaara's Armor of Sand and this cone-shaped attack were both made of sand from the Sand Gourd!

This strike was a guaranteed victory!

"Hmph!"

Neji sneered and began to release a massive amount of chakra from his acupoints!

Neji had done all of this just for this technique!

After so many attempts, Neji finally realized the similarity between Body Strike and Rotation during actual combat.

Both released chakra from the body's acupoints, but the difference was that Rotation was for defense; the more violent the enemy's attack, the more damage they would take.

However, Body Strike was not like that; it was an offensive taijutsu.

Furthermore, it could silently destroy Gaara's Armor of Sand and Shield of Sand, inflicting real damage.

And Gaara, who relied entirely on absolute defense, must have very low physical defensive capabilities. As long as there was an opening, he could secure victory!

"Eight Trigrams: Body Strike!"

"What is this?"

A close-range attack of extreme power, combined with a massive surge of chakra, destroyed everything Gaara had in an instant.

"Thud!"

With a muffled sound, everything in the surroundings was blasted outward and erupted!

"Arghhh!"

Gaara's pained cry stunned everyone in the arena!

Many people couldn't even see clearly what had happened on the field.

They only saw Neji use a move that was different from yet similar to Rotation to destroy all the sand behind him, and because he was so close to Gaara, the reactive force sent Gaara flying back heavily.

The Armor of Sand on Gaara's body had completely shattered and scattered.

He lay on the ground, rolling over in agony.

"Has this strike decided the winner?" Tenten asked in disbelief.

But Kankuro let out a breath: "This guy actually managed to break the Armor of Sand? But this is only the beginning!"

Neji landed and let out a long breath.

The surrounding sand slowly descended and vanished.

It seemed his technique had taken effect; Gaara had suffered significant trauma, and the Sand Gourd had sensed it.

"Gaara, pull yourself together!" Kankuro shouted hurriedly.

But Gaara, who was on the field, struggled to climb to his feet, looking at Neji in disbelief.

He recalled Neji's words from just a moment ago.

"I... concede!" Gaara said, utterly exhausted.