He was one of those fighters the system marked as "power unknown."
"Seeing a battle like this… I can die happy," someone breathed.
"How strong is Mangetsu, really?"
"Is this Mist-style ninjutsu? How does he have that much chakra?"
Voices rippled through the stands.
Above the arena, black clouds refused to break. A fine rain soaked the stone and pooled in every crack. It drenched every corner—and, incidentally, saved Suigetsu's life.
Using the fresh water, Suigetsu slipped free from the devouring swarm and dove into a puddle. A moment later half a head surfaced, then a whole, then a torso; he floated there, glaring at Shino.
"You Aburame raise disgusting things and use them to attack—so gross!" he snapped, grumbling on and on.
Mangetsu stood before Neji again.
Neji had realized that what he saw on the time axis wasn't a fixed fate—only a future that would happen if nothing intruded. Accidents could erase it. Suigetsu nearly being eaten alive by Shino's insects was just such an intrusion. Because of it, the strike Neji had foreseen—Mangetsu pressing the attack—never came. Mangetsu broke off to save his brother instead.
That was a blank spot on Neji's timeline.
Look elsewhere, and another branch snapped into focus: Mangetsu using the Twin Flounder Blades' stored chakra to call down thunderheads and make it rain… and Suigetsu's escape as a result.
Having suddenly awakened the power to read ahead, Neji still didn't fully know how to wield it. Battle wouldn't wait for him to learn.
Mangetsu crossed the Twin Flounder Blades. Sparks jumped—then Lightning Release howled out and tore toward Neji.
Neji had already seen it. At the instant the bolt touched his afterimage, space flipped; he was behind Mangetsu, palms blooming as he drove Eight Trigrams Palms at his target.
Mangetsu didn't move.
Water immunity swallowed the blows. His body burst into spray under the strikes and flowed back together an instant later—whole, untouched.
Around the ring, water pits bulged. One after another, Mangetsu rose from them—water clones, a dozen strong—hands cutting signs in unison.
"Water Style: Water Surge!"
Columns of water roared in from every direction.
What happened next no one expected.
Neji stayed still, eyes closed. As the torrents hit his space, they kinked, snapped, and reappeared beside the water clones—slamming into their own casters.
The clones exploded into puddles. Mangetsu liquefied again, leaving no clean "true body" to strike.
"Mangetsu's real terror," Shikamaru said quietly, watching the duel, "is only just beginning."
In the flooded corner, Suigetsu—renewed by the rain—started toward Shino again. Shino swayed, near spent from his last technique, chakra scraped thin. Shikamaru, Choji, and Ino stepped between them and took their stances.
On the far side, rain hammered the stone. In the center, blue light gathered behind Neji's eyes while white mist curled around Mangetsu's blades. The arena held its breath—between a future Neji could bend and a storm Mangetsu could command.
Only one would hold.
(End of Chapter)
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