Neji!
23: Chapter 23: Aoba vs.
Neji!
What a good kid.
It was a shame he suffered from an incurable disease.
Over the past several years, Orochimaru had tried all sorts of methods, yet he remained helpless against the bloodline illness afflicting the Shikotsumyaku.
In the end, his sights had fallen on Sasuke’s body.
As for Kimimaro, he had already lost his value.
Of course, Kimimaro himself knew nothing about that.
He had yet to meet Sasuke and had no idea Orochimaru had already given up on him.
Deep down, he was still dreaming of one day becoming Orochimaru-sama’s vessel.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ After leaving Otogakure, Aoba reunited with Karin, breathing heavily.
Today’s battle had exposed a serious problem, his chakra reserves were far too small.
Under the strain of continuously using ninjutsu at high intensity, chunin-level chakra reserves simply weren’t enough.
His advantages in abilities might give him the capital to fight powerful opponents, but his lack of chakra drastically shortened the amount of time he could maintain peak combat performance.
He had only fought Kimimaro for a few minutes.
Kimimaro’s condition had barely changed, while Aoba had nearly been beaten senseless because he was running out of chakra.
Fortunately, he had the Flying Thunder God Jutsu, allowing him to retreat without injury.
Looking at it that way, the Flying Thunder God Jutsu was actually at its strongest when used as an emergency escape card rather than an offensive technique.
Aoba wasn’t Minato, after all.
He could still draw countless powerful ninjutsu in the future, so there was no need to focus exclusively on the Flying Thunder God Jutsu.
He now had a plan for how to spend his future Skill Points.
Any ninjutsu that wasn’t particularly useful?
Dismantle it!
Then save up 1,000 Skill Points and use them specifically to raise his chakra rank.
Once he possessed jonin-level chakra reserves, his overall strength would rise dramatically once again.
“Aoba-sama, are you all right?” Seeing how exhausted Aoba looked, Karin couldn’t help asking worriedly.
“I’m fine.” Aoba shook his head dismissively.
“Your next task is to keep a close watch on Otogakure today and tomorrow.
The moment you notice any sign that they’re planning to relocate, inform me immediately!” Orochimaru had no intention of relocating in the next two days, but Aoba had no way of knowing that.
To be safe, he could only have Karin keep a careful watch with the Mind’s Eye of the Kagura.
If the Oto shinobi started moving their base, he could rush over as quickly as possible and create enough chaos to interfere.
After giving Karin a few more detailed instructions, Aoba used the Flying Thunder God Jutsu once again and returned to his room in Konoha.
He slept soundly through the night.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ A new day arrived.
Today was also the day the third round of the Chunin Exams began.
When Aoba entered the arena, the spectator stands above were already packed.
There were nobles and the daimyo of the Land of Fire, along with Konoha shinobi and ordinary villagers.
Konoha placed tremendous importance on today’s matches.
As early as a month ago, traces of Orochimaru’s activities had already been discovered.
The death of Gekko Hayate had only made the dangerous undercurrents beneath the surface even more obvious.
Yet despite all that, Third Hokage had still chosen to proceed with the third round.
After all, during peacetime, the Chunin Exams were a stage where the hidden villages demonstrated their strength.
By displaying the capabilities of Konoha’s shinobi during the exams, the village could inspire confidence among the Land of Fire’s daimyo and nobility, bringing in more missions.
Shinobi, by their very nature, weren’t a profession that produced anything.
With missions, shinobi could live comfortably, while their villages could obtain more resources to train the next generation.
After Hiruzen gave a short opening address, the new proctor, Shiranui Genma, stood before the eight remaining candidates and revealed the matchups.
“All right.
The first match is Hyuga Neji versus Natsume Aoba.” Genma announced the names with a senbon held between his teeth.
Hearing that his opponent was actually Neji, Aoba couldn’t shake the feeling that someone had deliberately arranged this.
Hiruzen must have heard about his challenge with Neji.
Otherwise, how could the two of them just happen to meet in the very first match?
“You seem pretty confident.
We’re about to fight, yet you’re still standing there looking distracted.” Seeing Aoba’s absentminded expression, Neji felt as though he were being looked down upon.
“Of course I’m confident,” Aoba replied casually.
For the current him, defeating Neji actually wasn’t difficult.
The difficult part was that he couldn’t use some of his more powerful ninjutsu.
Even if the Third Hokage would be gone after today, what if the Fifth Hokage, Tsunade, decided to investigate him afterward?
At present, Aoba’s strength still didn’t rank especially high in the shinobi world.
He wasn’t even Kage-level.
It was better to keep a low profile.
His true identity absolutely had to remain hidden!
If he wanted to run wild, he’d do it under another identity.
With his mask on, he was a mysterious new powerhouse who had suddenly appeared in the shinobi world.
With his mask off, he was merely an utterly ordinary genin of Konohagakure.
Aoba’s answer irritated Neji.
He couldn’t be bothered wasting any more words.
He took up his stance and charged toward his opponent.
Seeing Neji attack, Aoba immediately created two Shadow Clones.
If he couldn’t use any powerful ninjutsu, then Shadow Clone tactics were his best option.
One of his clones immediately opened up the distance to prepare for long-range harassment.
The other concealed itself, waiting for an opportunity to launch a surprise attack.
Meanwhile, Aoba’s real body used Body Flicker and rushed straight toward Neji.
“Hmph.
Trying to ambush me?
Such tricks are useless before the eyes of the Hyuga clan.” “Byakugan!” Veins instantly bulged around Neji’s temples as he activated his Byakugan.
In his vision, everything above, below, left, right, front, and behind him could be seen with perfect clarity.
Of course, Aoba had already expected that.
He had known about the Byakugan’s abilities for a long time.
There was no chance he would make such an obvious mistake.
The eyes might be powerful, but a person’s attention was still limited.
In the original story, Naruto had relied on his Shadow Clones while digging underground before eventually catching Neji with a surprise attack.
So as long as Aoba could divide the Byakugan user’s attention, successfully landing an ambush wasn’t particularly difficult.
The two soon clashed.
At close range, Aoba had a difficult time defending against the Gentle Fist’s strikes toward his chakra points.
In a shinobi world where offensive power generally far outstripped defensive ability, fighting the Hyuga clan’s Gentle Fist at close range was extremely disadvantageous for anyone below Kage-level.
Naturally, long-range specialists would have a much easier time against it.
“Your strength doesn’t seem nearly as impressive as your mouth.” After exchanging more than a dozen moves, Neji’s expression turned disdainful.
He had originally thought Aoba was strong, which was why he had spent the past month diligently training his Gentle Fist.
But now he discovered that Aoba’s taijutsu was only around chunin level.
Naturally, he felt as though he’d been fooled.
“You don’t need to worry about how strong I am.
You’re losing today.
That’s a promise!” Aoba didn’t bother being polite.
He still remembered what Neji had done to Hinata!
It was only during their next series of exchanges that Neji finally understood the devious purpose behind Aoba’s Shadow Clones.
Every time Neji was about to strike one of Aoba’s chakra points with the Gentle Fist, a shuriken would fly in from a distance at exactly the right moment, forcing him to interrupt his attack.
Just like that, Neji’s Gentle Fist was restrained.
The two exchanged nearly a hundred moves in succession, yet Neji still hadn’t managed to strike a single one of Aoba’s chakra points.
“Is using Shadow Clones all you can do?” ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [📣 Announcement 📣]
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