Just as Neji's fingers were about to touch Hinata.
The sand and dirt beneath the floor suddenly burst apart without warning.
Bang!
A curved, pitch-black wooden shield with a faint metallic sheen.
Shot up through a crack in the ground.
It rose directly in front of Hinata, who had already closed her eyes and resigned herself to death.
Thud!
A dull impact rang out.
Neji's Eight Trigrams Palm, charged with all his chakra, slammed squarely into the wooden shield.
Not even a single splinter fell from it.
Instead.
A recoil as savage as a wild bull surged through his fingertips and into his arm.
"Urgh!"
Neji grunted, feeling the bones throughout his right arm go numb.
His body staggered back five or six steps before he barely managed to steady himself.
"Who?!"
Neji gritted his teeth, large beads of cold sweat forming on his forehead from the pain.
He jerked his head up, his pure white eyes bloodshot with shock and fury.
Up on the balcony.
Guy and Kakashi, who had been watching the show, instinctively released their grips on the railing.
"Wood Release?"
Kakashi adjusted his forehead protector.
Meanwhile.
Sen, who should have been sleeping on a lounge chair on the second floor.
Had somehow silently appeared beside the battered Hinata, crouching at her side.
A few wood shavings and bits of dry grass still clung to his faded old T-shirt.
In his hand was a bright red berry he had dug out of who knew where, with a few grains of sand still stuck to its skin.
"Ptooey."
Sen turned his head, spat on the ground, and wiped the berry with the hem of his shirt.
Then.
He grabbed Hinata's bloodstained chin and roughly shoved the berry into her mouth.
"Don't spit it out. Hurry up and swallow."