Neji was a genius, but he had no cheats.
As a result, his strength now actually fell short of several students a year below him.
At first, he had refused to believe it. Although the young lady had beaten him, the others definitely couldn't be as strong as she was!
Definitely!
But after watching Naruto and Sasuke fight next door, Neji had fallen into deep self-doubt.
Were these really still Ninja Academy students?
This was Neji's second-to-last year at the Ninja Academy. His teacher had said he was strong enough to graduate early, but he hadn't.
Because he wanted to stay at school and look after his younger cousin, Hinata Hyuga.
Don't get the wrong idea. He wasn't looking after her in terms of strength, but paying compensation when Hinata accidentally used too much force and broke something, and things like that.
He also paid compensation for Naruto and the others while he was at it. Of course, not for Sasuke.
After all, they were rivals, with both sides competing for the title of Konoha's number one ninja clan. Besides, if he really did pay for Sasuke, Sasuke wouldn't be happy.
He might even say something about Neji looking down on the Uchiha Clan's honor, so it was better not to pay.
So many years had passed in the blink of an eye, and Neji's strength had kept growing. Now, in his fifth-grade class, a staggering gap in strength had already emerged.
After all, Neji had now mastered the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms and was starting to get somewhere with Rotation. His classmates, who were still throwing kunai and swinging their fists, were no match for him.
Oh, except Tenten. After all, if she threw all her ninja tools at him at once, he really might not be able to