Half a year

Half a year flew by, and Neji's life as a ninja remained remarkably peaceful.

Not every Genin team's missions were as eventful as those of Team 7, where the protagonist, Naruto Uzumaki, belonged.

Life in Neji's Team 3 was uneventful. They only carried out simple missions around Konoha.

Team 3 had never really traveled far from home. All their activities stayed within the area surrounding Konoha.

The hardest mission Team 3 had undertaken was only C-Rank: a patrol of Konoha Forest. It was practically tailor-made for their skills.

With Neji's Byakugan, almost nothing could escape his notice.

After half a year, not only was his eye power worlds apart from what it had once been, but his chakra was too.

Although his strength had risen along with his chakra and eye power, Neji felt little joy. His eye power had reached its peak and showed no sign of increasing further.

After half a year, Neji could feel that his eye power had stopped growing. Although his eyes continued absorbing chakra, their power no longer increased.

Moreover, those eyes demanded more chakra with each passing day, and Neji had no good solution.

Neji had already begun worrying that, as time went on, he might no longer be able to supply his eyes with chakra. They were like a bottomless pit, demanding more and more.

For now, Neji's chakra could still keep up. By his calculations, however, in three months at most—at the beginning of Konoha Year 63—he would no longer be able to supply enough chakra unless he successfully awakened the Tenseigan.

That was not good news for Neji. If the chakra demand grew too high, he would have no choice but to stop there.

Of course, the increase in eye power had brought benefits too. Neji discovered that he had actually gained the ability to absorb chakra.

Unlike the Rinnegan, which could absorb Ninjutsu directly, Neji could only absorb chakra.

Overall, it was still far inferior to the Rinnegan. After all, enemies would not simply stand still and let him absorb their chakra.

Neji guessed that these were traits of the Tenseigan appearing early, now that his Byakugan had evolved to a certain stage.

Beyond that, thanks to the tremendous leap in his eye power and both the quality and quantity of his chakra, Neji had managed to put some of his ideas into practice.

He had further developed the Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm into a move he called the Divine Vacuum Strike.

The Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm had evolved into something resembling Kaguya Otsutsuki's Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack. Of course, Neji could not possibly compare to her. Even Sasuke's Perfect Susanoo, empowered by Six Paths power, could not withstand more than a few punches from Kaguya Otsutsuki's attack. Neji's was nowhere near that powerful.

This move combined immense eye power with vast amounts of chakra. Unlike traditional Gentle Fist, the Divine Vacuum Strike resembled an overwhelmingly fierce Strong Fist attack, a single punch capable of shattering mountains and splitting the earth.

Neji extended his hand and pressed forward through the air. "Divine Vacuum Strike!"

A flash of white light streaked past, followed by a deafening crash from the forest ahead.

Boom! One enormous tree after another, along with several meters of soil beneath them, was pulverized.

In an instant, dust billowed everywhere, and a fan-shaped opening hundreds of meters long appeared in the forest.

This was the penetrating damage of Gentle Fist. The enormous volume of chakra pierced straight through everything in its path.

Looking at the opening he had blasted out with a single palm strike, Neji smiled in satisfaction. This was the legend of the eyes!

As long as his eyes evolved, his strength would naturally rise with them.

As the saying went, those who understood would understand, and those who did not never would.

This was something that happened naturally once his eye power reached a certain level. After reaching that threshold, Neji had developed this move without much effort. It had practically fallen into place, as smooth as could be.

Chakra burst beneath his feet, and Neji vanished. Team 3's mission that day was to patrol the forest around Konoha. Familiar with the routine, Neji had taken the opportunity to use the Body Flicker Technique to slip outside the mission area and run a quick test.

His Body Flicker Technique had reached a frightening level, far beyond what an ordinary Jonin could match.

The Body Flicker Technique came down to chakra and chakra control.

Neji excelled in both, however. With the Byakugan's assistance in particular, his control over chakra was exceptionally precise.

After making a show of patrolling the area, Neji returned to Team 3's meeting point.

I can't let this go on. I need to find a solution. On the way back to Konoha, Neji distractedly considered ways to solve his problem.

There were only a few ways to address his chakra shortage. The first was the legendary Yin Seal, but Neji had no way of obtaining it at present. Most likely, it was only recorded in the Scroll of Seals.

The second option was tailed beast chakra. Obtaining it was essentially just as difficult as obtaining the Yin Seal.

As for using his eyes' ability to absorb chakra, that was no long-term solution. Living in Konoha left Neji little room to absorb chakra from other ninja.

Besides, simply absorbing other ninja's chakra won't be enough. I need a way to store it for it to be useful. Only now did Neji truly feel how troublesome this was.

Evolving the Byakugan into the Tenseigan really isn't as simple as I thought... For the first time in a long while, frustration stirred in Neji's heart.

Until now, the hope he had felt had kept him calm throughout this period.

"I need to talk to you." At a street corner, Sasuke stood with his hands in his pockets, looking as though he had been waiting for quite some time.

"Teacher Guy, I'll leave reporting the mission's completion to you," Neji said.

Might Guy took a long look at Sasuke Uchiha standing at the corner, then said, "Go ahead, Neji. Don't keep your friend waiting."

Neji nodded and walked toward Sasuke.

"Let's talk over there." With that, Sasuke headed off on his own.

"Is that Sasuke Uchiha, the current Sixth Grade's Top Student? I heard he's a genius like Neji. He looks strong." Rock Lee watched Sasuke, eager for a fight.

"Lee, that Sasuke Uchiha is stronger than you. Your youth still isn't burning fiercely enough!" Might Guy suddenly clenched his fist and spoke with burning passion.

"As expected of Neji's friend! Teacher Guy, I'll—I've decided! Once Sasuke Uchiha graduates, I'll challenge him. I'll prove that hard work can surpass genius!" Rock Lee looked as though his entire body had erupted in the green flames of youth.

"Teacher Guy, seriously? That cool-looking kid is really that strong?" Tenten asked skeptically.

Might Guy said, "Tenten, you might not know this, but that boy is no ordinary child. He awakened the Uchiha Clan's Sharingan long ago. The Sharingan can copy Ninjutsu and Taijutsu. I often see Sasuke Uchiha at Konoha's Training Grounds."

"He's using the Sharingan to copy senior ninja's Ninjutsu?!" Tenten exclaimed.

"So that's a genius's talent..." Rock Lee grew even more excited. This was exactly the kind of opponent he wanted to surpass.

"He's probably copied some of my Taijutsu too..." Might Guy said casually.

"Doesn't anyone step in to stop him?" Tenten asked in confusion.

"If he can copy other people's techniques, that's his own ability," Might Guy said, unconcerned.

"Besides, he isn't the only one doing it." Might Guy smiled. His eternal rival, Kakashi, had surely copied plenty of Ninjutsu with his Sharingan in private as well.