The smoke cleared, and all of Naruto's clones vanished without a trace. Naruto himself, however, stood tall in the arena, while Neji lay facedown on the ground.
Was this really a fight between genin?
Gekko Hayate looked at the enormous crater in the arena. Even he could not have caused destruction on that scale. Naruto had given him far too much credit by asking him to keep an eye on the fight.
"Neji!"
"Well, that brat Neji finally got a taste of defeat! Hahahaha! Naruto really did a fine job."
Tenten watched from the stands, deeply worried about Neji, but Hayato had seen everything clearly with his Byakugan.
Just now, Naruto's Rasengan had indeed broken through Rotation's absolute defense. But Neji had reacted with astonishing speed. The moment he realized his defense could not stop Naruto's attack, he redirected his chakra flow, driving the repulsive force into the ground.
By the time Naruto broke through his defense, Neji had already used the explosive force to escape. Despite the spectacular clash, neither Naruto nor Neji had suffered any real harm.
"Naruto, your growth has truly exceeded my expectations. It looks like I really will have to get serious against you."
Neji got up from the ground and brushed the dust off his clothes. He looked at Naruto with newfound seriousness, and his stance changed.
He abandoned his unmistakable Gentle Fist stance and simply stood before Naruto, seemingly full of openings. Yet Naruto's instincts told him that Neji was far more dangerous now than before.
"You were saving that Rasengan for Sasuke, weren't you? What a coincidence. I prepared this combination of attacks for him too. If you won't come at me, I'll come to you."
Neji stretched his arms, then jets of chakra erupted from his acupoints. Accelerating with the chakra,