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A hush fell over the training grounds.
And then—
He stepped forward.
He made his entrance.
The red-eyed Uchiha kid walked into the ring with a smirk, practically dripping with arrogance. He mocked his opponent, confidently boasting that he would crush Neji into the dirt.
The crowd was buzzing no, roaring for Neji.
And then it began.
The Uchiha launched the first move a roaring Fire Style jutsu, a signature of the clan. Flames burst forth, searing the air with intense heat, drawing gasps from the onlookers.
But then—
What?!
Neji didn't flinch. He didn't retreat. He punched straight through the fire, dispersing it with raw chakra control.
The crowd was stunned. Then, they exploded.
"This… this is the Hyuga Clan's Gentle Fist?!"
"Is that what Gentle Fist really is?!"
While the crowd buzzed in awe and confusion, the Uchiha kid wasn't done yet. Not by a long shot.
Grimacing, he pulled out a kunai.
Using a weapon? Cheap move.
Underhanded even.
The kid launched forward—
"Really? A kunai?!"
"Typical. When the fists don't work, go for the knives!"
Neji dodged with ease, weaving through the attacks like water flowing through cracks. The Uchiha's smirk widened. He thought he had him.
He was wrong.
CLANG!
With a sharp twist of his wrist, Neji struck the kunai from his opponent's hand disarming him instantly.
The counterattack came like lightning.
One strike.
Two strikes.
No wasted movement. No wasted effort.
With a single uppercut, Neji sent the Uchiha crashing to the ground. It was a silent KO.
The crowd erupted. Neji stood tall, breathing steadily, not a scratch on him.
The fallen Uchiha? Eyes spinning, staring at the sky, questioning every choice he'd made.
As Neji turned to leave, his face remained calm. The contrast was striking.
'The kid didn't even have a name worth remembering. Why bother?' In Neji's mind, he wouldn't survive the year anyway.
Neji returned to class, unfazed, enjoying a quiet day as if nothing had happened.
---
After school, he waited outside the gates. Hinata arrived, and the two of them walked home together.
"How's school been lately?" Neji asked.
"It's okay," Hinata replied softly. "It's just… a bit rowdy. Naruto and Kiba can be a bit much sometimes."
Neji nodded. "I see. Invite them to the training field sometime. I've got something I want to test."
Hinata tilted her head, curious. What was Neji planning?
But when she saw the smile tugging at his lips, she thought, It must be something good. After all, Neji only smiled like that when things were going his way.
What she didn't know was that Neji had a plan.
Hyperactive classmates meant high energy. High energy meant great training fodder. And great training fodder meant more experience points.
And if it helped Hinata focus during class? Well, win-win.
When they reached a quiet street corner, Neji stopped.
"You go ahead," he said. "I've got something to take care of. I'll be home later."
"Okay!" she chirped and ran off.
---
Neji stepped into his lab.
No ANBU were watching him, no members of the Root down his neck. Not even the Third Hokage's notorious Surveillance Jutsu was effective here.
After all… public bathhouses had more visibility.
Shelves lined with labeled jars and prototype eyeballs filled the walls with decoys, nothing more. The real work lay beneath.
Descending into the hidden sub-lab, Neji activated the chakra seal, revealing the fruit of his ambition: a half-finished clone incubation chamber.
Not store-bought. Not smuggled. Every piece had been hand-forged in secret, using TenTen's workshop under the guise of tool crafting.
Flipping through his journal, he got to work.
"Mass-cloning Byakugan is hard," he muttered. "But not impossible."
With his knowledge of Bloodline Gene Coding, it wasn't a genetic problem it was a tech issue.
"Fusion is the real mystery… but I'll figure it out. If I can generate a few test eyes, I'll have something to work with."
He chuckled to himself. In a world riddled with logic-defying chakra hacks and forbidden jutsu, who says it couldn't just click into place one day?
After all, the Tenseigan, if his memory was right, came from Hamura Otsutsuki's lineage on the moon.
So why not just storm the moon one day and take it?
If Plan A failed, Plan B was simple:
Max level. Full power. Then break the damn rules.
With a wicked grin, Neji returned to assembling parts, determined to get the device operational within a year.
---
One year later.
Twelve students. Twelve test subjects.
Neji crushed them all.
Now at Level 16, his progress was undeniable.
His lab was completely funded by the profits of a Hyuga-owned hotpot chain that had exploded in popularity.
He no longer crafted every piece by hand. Now, he imported materials, upgraded tech, and streamlined everything.
At eight years old, his path as a chakra martial artist was taking shape mirroring a game-like system:
[Current Class: [Sensory Combat Specialist] (Lv. 16)
Transition Requirement: Met.
[Skills Mastered:
Awakening (Passive): Unlocks latent sensory potential, enhancing reflexes, perception, and raw stats.
Throwing Mastery (Passive): Increases the power, speed, and accuracy of all thrown weapons.
Backstep: A rapid backward leap to evade attacks with heightened sensory awareness.
Basic Skills (Lv. 1):
Back Kick: A swift rear kick to repel close-range opponents.
Uppercut: A rising punch aimed at disrupting enemy balance.
Forward Kick: A straightforward, powerful strike.
Level 5 Skills:
Low Sweep: A leg sweep to trip or destabilize enemies.
Clone Trick: Creates a basic illusionary clone to confuse foes.
Knee Bash: A close-quarters knee strike for sudden burst damage.
Suplex: A grappling move to slam opponents hard onto the ground.
Level 10 Skills:
Iron Smash: A heavy palm strike reinforced by chakra.
Hawk Stomp: A powerful aerial stomp from above, focused through sensory targeting.
Iron Body (Passive): Increases natural durability and reduces minor damage intake.
Flash Step: Instantly reposition within short distances using enhanced perception.
Wind Pursuit: Amplifies pursuit speed after an evasion or an opponent's dodge.
Level 15 Skills:
Aura Perception (Passive): Heightened chakra sensory range, allowing early detection of hidden enemies.
Light Affinity (Passive): Reduces reaction time when exposed to blinding light techniques.
Aura Pulse: Releases a controlled wave of chakra to detect or destabilize enemies within its range.
Thunder Stomp: Channels lightning chakra into the legs for a stunning ground impact.
Sand Toss: A precision-based distraction technique using sand or debris to blind or misdirect.
Energy Orb: A compressed sphere of sensory-guided chakra, growing in size after being launched similar to a condensed Rasengan but designed for ranged attacks.]
The Energy Orb, a small, expanding projectile, felt almost like a Chakra-powered Rasengan.
It wasn't Gentle Fist. It wasn't traditional ninja arts.
It was something else.
Something new. Something his.
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[Support with 100 PowerStones = 1 Bonus Chapter]