You Hate the Main Family, Don't You?

Neji paused, but he didn't look back.

"Rotation releases chakra from all 361 tenketsu across your body at once. Combined with your body's spin, it creates an absolute defense."

"It really is flawless against physical attacks and ordinary Ninjutsu." Zuo Hao spoke at an unhurried pace, like a teacher grading a student's work. "But your chakra release isn't even."

Neji's back went rigid.

Zuo Hao continued, "The tenketsu on your back release chakra a tenth of a second slower than those on your chest. No one would notice in an ordinary fight. Rotation spins fast enough to hide the delay."

"But if your opponent is fast enough, they can catch that tenth-of-a-second opening before your Rotation is complete."

Zuo Hao extended a finger, pointing at a tenketsu in the center of Neji's back.

"That spot is your blind spot."

Neji whirled around.

His expression was still composed, but shock churned unmistakably in his pale eyes.

He knew his Rotation released chakra unevenly.

He simply hadn't trained in it long enough. His fine control over chakra still needed work.

Unless someone had the Byakugan like a fellow Hyuga Clan member, there was no way they could see it with the naked eye.

But Zuo Hao didn't have the Byakugan.

He only had the Sharingan.

The Three Tomoe Sharingan granted extraordinary dynamic vision and chakra perception, but it couldn't see through the human body, much less measure exactly how fast chakra flowed from the tenketsu.

"How could you possibly see..." Neji's voice was low. He stopped mid-sentence.

A possibility had occurred to him.

The Main Family.

The Hyuga Main Family would never casually teach an outsider the Gentle Fist, but if Zuo Hao was close to someone in the family...

"The Main Family didn't tell me." As if he'd read Neji's mind, Zuo Hao waved a hand. "I don't know anyone in your Hyuga Main Family."

Neji pressed his lips into a thin line.

Zuo Hao hopped down from the rock, brushed the dust from his pants, and walked up to Neji.

Less than three paces separated them. Sharingan and Byakugan met beneath the moonlight.

"You hate the Main Family, don't you?"

Zuo Hao's tone remained casual, but his words struck like a knife, piercing the deepest wound in Neji's heart.

"The Caged Bird Seal. The fate of the branch family. Your father's death. You think it's all because of the Main Family's injustice, because of the seal you were forced to bear from birth."

Neji's pupils contracted sharply.

The next instant, he moved.

He slipped into the Gentle Fist's opening stance in a flash and drove his right palm, wreathed in fierce chakra, toward Zuo Hao's chest.

Zuo Hao didn't dodge. He used Intangibility and let the strike pass through him.

"Calm down." Zuo Hao slipped his hands back into his pockets, still looking lazy. "I'm not part of the Main Family. If you want to hit someone, go find Hyuga Hiashi."

Neji's hand remained suspended in midair. His chest heaved as his pale eyes locked on Zuo Hao.

His body turned intangible?

This man was anything but ordinary.

"Who are you?" Neji's voice had lost its composure, replaced by something between wariness and curiosity.

"Just a kind passerby," he said. "And one more thing. You say fate is fixed and can't be changed."

"But I think..." He turned and walked back the way he'd come, raising his right hand in a wave without looking back. "A bird in a cage might still find a way out."

Neji stood there, watching Zuo Hao recede beneath the moonlight.

Conflicting emotions churned in his pale eyes: anger, resentment, confusion, and a flicker of doubt he refused to acknowledge even to himself.

A bird in a cage might still find a way out.

The words pierced the most vulnerable part of his heart like a needle.

"Stop."

Neji's voice cut through the night wind. His earlier composure was gone, replaced by a tightly suppressed tremor.

Zuo Hao stopped, but didn't turn around.

"What?"

"You said my Rotation has a weakness." Neji took a step forward and assumed the Gentle Fist's opening stance again. "Then prove it."

Zuo Hao turned slowly. Moonlight cast mottled shadows across his face, and surprise flickered in his crimson Sharingan.

"You want to fight me?"

"It's not about wanting to," Neji said firmly. "I have to."

Chakra began pouring from the tenketsu all over his body, its pale glow clear beneath the moonlight. A vortex lifted loose stones off the ground and sent them circling three feet in the air.

"You say fate can change. That a caged bird can fly free." Something close to obsession burned in Neji's eyes. "Then show me you aren't just spouting empty words."

Zuo Hao looked at him in silence for a few seconds.

Then he smiled.

It was nothing like his usual lazy grin. This smile came from the heart, tinged with admiration.

"Interesting." Zuo Hao pulled his hands from his pockets and flexed his wrists. "Neji Hyuga, you're the first Hyuga Clan member I've found even a little interesting."

Neji frowned, but said nothing.

Zuo Hao stood there without taking a defensive stance, his hands hanging loosely at his sides as the tomoe in his Sharingan slowly revolved.

"Come on. Show me what the Hyuga Clan's genius can do."

Neji didn't hold back.

He launched himself forward, a ring of force bursting across the ground beneath his feet. His Gentle Fist stance shifted into an attack as he charged, his right palm driving toward Zuo Hao's chest with fierce chakra behind it.

Eight Trigrams: Two Palms!

Zuo Hao turned sideways. The palm strike skimmed past his clothes, its gust lifting the hair from his forehead.

Neji's first strike missed, but he spun instantly, following with his left palm to cut off Zuo Hao's retreat.

Eight Trigrams: Four Palms!

Zuo Hao stepped lightly back, leaving an afterimage in the moonlight. He slipped past every strike in Neji's flurry, each one missing by a hair without so much as grazing his clothes.

Eight Trigrams: Eight Palms!

Neji attacked faster and faster. His palms wove an impenetrable net beneath the moonlight, sealing every route Zuo Hao could take.

But Zuo Hao kept dodging.

He flowed between the strikes, the Three-Tomoe Sharingan tracking the path of every palm Neji threw.

Eight Trigrams: Sixteen Palms!

Neji accelerated again. His strikes whistled through the air, and leaves shook loose from the surrounding trees.

Yet Zuo Hao still looked utterly relaxed.

He even slipped his hands back into his pockets.

"Your Gentle Fist really is precise," Zuo Hao said as he dodged, sounding like a teacher grading a student's work. "You've got the rhythm of the Eight Trigrams Palm combination down, too. An average Chunin would already have their tenketsu sealed."

Neji's pupils narrowed.

He still had the breath to talk while fighting me?

"But."

Zuo Hao stopped.

Instead of dodging, he met Neji's palm strike head-on.

"Your Gentle Fist has one fatal weakness."