Thud! Thud! Thud!
The continuous sound of fists and feet colliding, in Hyuga Neji's ears, seemed to transform into a kind of melody. His responses were no longer as rigid as they had been at the beginning; he no longer thought of seizing a single opening for a decisive, one-hit kill. The chakra concentrated in his palms began to fluctuate with the flow of the battle. In one defensive exchange after another, he gradually began to feel the "rhythm" Naruto had spoken of.
This move, he'll feint towards my heart, and the moment I defend, he'll switch to an elbow strike, attacking my chest...
As if his mind had grasped his opponent's attack pattern, his body instinctively formulated a response. He drew back his left hand, concentrating chakra at the fingertips of his right.
"Gentle Fist Art: Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms!"
In the blink of an eye, he had sealed Naruto's critical pressure points with chakra, obstructing the flow of his opponent's chakra.
"Excellent!" The elders watching from the side couldn't help but exclaim in approval.
"Very good." Naruto was once again amazed. To be able to grasp that subtle feeling in such a short time, Neji's talent was undoubtedly top-tier. His past obscurity was merely due to a lack of suitable opportunities. The awakening of the Tenseigan had already allowed him to leap over that dragon gate, giving him the potential to stand shoulder to shoulder with himself and Sasuke.
"I've already sealed your main pressure points. With your chakra flow disrupted, you will lose this next exchange," Hyuga Neji declared, adopting his stance once more. The earlier nervousness in his eyes was gone, replaced by a relaxed, confident ease, as if he was in complete control.
"Is that so?" Naruto chuckled, a hint of surprise in his voice. He too adopted a stance. Natural energy circulated faintly within him, and the chakra blocking his critical pressure points was instantly dispersed. Since Neji had already adapted to fighting him, there was no longer any need to continue holding back.
"What is this?" Hyuga Neji's expression changed slightly. Through the vision of his Tenseigan, for a fleeting moment, he felt as if he were contending against nature itself.
"Sage Mode. A rather niche power," Naruto explained, his figure blurring into an afterimage as he dashed forward.
"Niche?" The spectators, hearing this, couldn't stop their mouths from twitching. What an understatement...
"Father, what is that?" Hinata asked, her curiosity piqued by the constipated expressions on the elders' faces.
"Sage Mode. A terrifying mode that borrows natural energy to enhance oneself severalfold," Hyuga Hiashi explained. "Before this, the only known master of Sage Mode in the shinobi world was Jiraiya of the Sannin."
"Being one of only two people to master Sage Mode, in a sense, it is indeed 'niche'," the Second Elder chuckled.
An attack to the left, not a feint... Hyuga Neji watched Naruto's incoming straight punch, concentrated a large amount of chakra in his right hand, and swung it upwards at a forty-five-degree angle. Just as he was about to anticipate Naruto's next counter, he suddenly saw an unknown energy abruptly coalesce in front of Naruto's straight punch.
THUD!
His figure was sent flying backward uncontrollably.
"In a battle between ninja, you must learn to adapt to changing circumstances." The hard ground of the training field cracked. Naruto caught up to Neji, who was flying backward at high speed, tightly gripped his calf, and slammed him into the ground.
BOOM!
A large amount of stone fragments flew into the air. This scene made the eyelids of the observing elders twitch violently.
Just as Naruto was about to continue his attack, a large number of stone fragments shot out at high speed from the rising dust cloud. He chose not to meet them head-on, instead leaping backward to dodge the projectiles.
The dust settled, revealing Hyuga Neji's disheveled figure. He lightly wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. If it hadn't been for the protection of his Tenseigan's dojutsu just now, he would likely have been severely injured and collapsed.
With a wave of his hand, another barrage of stone fragments shot out.
"Manipulation? Or is it rock manipulation?" Naruto mused. His experience with the Mangekyo Sharingan told him that no dojutsu ability was ever simple. According to Hyuga Hiashi, the Tenseigan was the final evolved form of the Byakugan. Based on his experience, Hyuga Neji's awakened dojutsu was likely the former—general manipulation.
"Naruto-kun!" Seeing Naruto standing there blankly, making no move to defend, Hinata's heart tightened. Those stone fragments might look unassuming, but empowered by the Tenseigan's dojutsu, they possessed the power to pierce through steel plates.
Hyuga Neji continued to maintain his dojutsu output. From their earlier exchange, he clearly understood that Naruto was not the type to be paralyzed by fear.
Just as the stones were about to collide with flesh—
Without any visible movement from Naruto, the stones bizarrely halted in mid-air before him.
"What ability is this?!" Everyone was astonished.
"It's not that strange chakra from before," Hyuga Neji frowned.
Naruto brushed the hair covering his left cheek behind his ear. His closed eyelid slowly lifted, revealing a golden, tomoe-patterned Rinnegan to the Byakugan-wielding onlookers.
"Rinnegan?!" The Third Elder, well-versed in ancient texts, quickly found records pertaining to eyes with this pattern in his mind. "But why is there only one?"
None of the surrounding clansmen could answer him.
Naruto tied his hair back. Just as Neji needed to master his Tenseigan in battle, Naruto also needed to adapt to Urashiki's tomoe Rinnegan through high-level combat.
" Bansho Ten'in!"
Hyuga Neji's expression changed; his body flew uncontrollably towards Naruto.
Hmm? Suddenly, he instinctively raised his right hand. A repulsive force manifested out of thin air, counteracting the attractive force pulling him.
Just as I thought... Seeing this, Naruto wasn't surprised. The Byakugan, an eye inherited from the Otsutsuki clan, and its evolved product—the Tenseigan—couldn't possibly lack related abilities.
"You don't seem to understand your own eyes very well?" Naruto observed. Neji's use of a technique similar to Shinra Tensei seemed more like a sudden awakening of the Tenseigan's power, spurred by Naruto's own actions, rather than a deliberate application.
"..." Hyuga Neji looked at his own hands, recalling the sensation from moments ago. He had thought he had perfectly mastered these eyes, only to discover he didn't even clearly know what abilities they possessed.
"What was that just now? A Tenseigan ability?" Hyuga Hiashi asked, turning to Hinata.
"It should be." Hinata hesitated for a moment, then nodded slightly. She had awakened her Tenseigan even later than Neji; if her elder cousin didn't know something, she was even less likely to.
"Continue!" Naruto materialized a black receiver out of thin air and gestured with it. "Can you create this?" He wanted to further explore the extent of overlap between the Tenseigan's and Rinnegan's dojutsu. The techniques of the Outer Path, creations formed through Yin-Yang Release, were not limited to just black receivers.
Hyuga Neji tried, then shook his head slightly.
"You can't?" Naruto fell into thought. Was it due to insufficient mastery of Yin-Yang Release, or some other reason? For example, he could create black receivers, but his tomoe Rinnegan was merely a catalyst, not the determining factor. Even without the Rinnegan, he could still create them through continuous study of Yin Release; it would just take significantly longer. Urashiki's tomoe Rinnegan had granted him not only an understanding of Yin Release but also mastery over the five basic nature transformations.
He could clearly feel that his accumulated knowledge, stimulated by the Rinnegan's innate talent, was nurturing something terrifying within him. He had an inexplicable intuition.
When that "something" was fully nurtured, his dream would finally be within reach.