Faced with Neji’s deliberate taunt, Aoba didn’t bother answering.
Because his Shadow Clone had already given him the answer!
A shuriken suddenly flew toward Neji.
Its aim seemed a little off, however.
Instead of hitting him, it sailed over his head.
The instant the shuriken reached the space directly above Neji, a puff of white smoke erupted, and Aoba’s Shadow Clone appeared in its place!
“Useless.
I’ve already seen through these little tricks of yours.” Thanks to the Byakugan’s near-360-degree field of vision, Neji didn’t even bother looking up.
He merely raised his right hand and thrust his palm toward the air above him.
“Gentle Fist: Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm!” Among the Hyuga clan’s taijutsu, the Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm was one of their few long-range attack techniques.
Its power was respectable, but against a truly powerful opponent, it was difficult to inflict any decisive damage.
Against a mere Shadow Clone, however, Neji didn’t think there would be any problem.
Then he watched as the clone struck by his attack instantly transformed into a block of wood, which crashed heavily onto the ground with a loud clunk.
“The Shadow Clone had already prepared a Substitution Jutsu…?” Neji froze for an instant.
And that single instant was all Aoba needed.
His real body and his other Shadow Clone seized the opportunity, each holding a kunai as they used Body Flicker to rush Neji from two different directions at maximum speed!
Seeing this, Neji had no choice but to use the Gentle Fist’s strongest defensive technique.
“Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven!” A blue barrier of rapidly rotating chakra immediately formed around him with Neji at its center.
The moment both Aoba and his Shadow Clone collided with the Revolving Heaven, they were violently blasted away.
Bang!
A Shadow Clone’s durability was extremely low, so the clone dispersed instantly.
Aoba’s real body, meanwhile, was hurled across the arena and slammed hard into the ground.
Neji lowered his hands and assumed the posture of a victor, his expression filled with pride.
“You’ve lost.
I told you before, destiny cannot be changed.” Neji knew better than anyone how powerful his Revolving Heaven was.
There was no chance a chunin-level shinobi could take that attack head on and still jump back to his feet as if nothing had happened.
“No.
You’re wrong.” Aoba, who had been lying on the ground after being sent flying, casually stood back up and brushed the dust from his clothes.
“Destiny can be changed.
And I’m going to prove it to you right now!” Fortunately, at the crucial moment, Aoba had secretly activated Earth Style: Earth Spear, hardening the parts of his body that took the impact.
That was why the attack had barely injured him.
Otherwise, an ordinary shinobi caught off guard by Revolving Heaven would most likely have been seriously injured and rendered incapable of fighting.
Seeing Aoba stand up again, Neji was visibly shocked.
“You took my Revolving Heaven head on and you can still fight?” “It’s nothing special.
Guess I’m just built tougher than most people.” Naturally, Aoba had no intention of telling Neji the truth, so he casually brushed the question aside.
Neji sneered.
“It’s useless.
Even if we do this several more times, I’ll still knock you down.
Even if your body is somehow unusual, after taking enough attacks, you’ll still lose to me.” As he spoke, he once again assumed the opening stance of the Gentle Fist, waiting for an opportunity to attack.
Aoba, however, shook his head.
“You don’t have another chance.” “From this moment onward, your defeat is already decided.
The destiny you kept talking about…
I’ve already changed it.” “Arrogant nonsense!” Neji didn’t believe a word.
He was just about to attack again when a sharp pain suddenly struck the back of his neck.
Something immediately occurred to him.
“This…
can’t be!” His eyes closed.
Neji collapsed unconscious onto the ground.
The battle had been decided in an instant, leaving countless spectators completely baffled.
To them, Neji’s defeat had come out of nowhere.
Several shinobi in the stands immediately began discussing it.
“Wasn’t the Byakugan supposed to have no blind spots?
How did he get ambushed by something that simple?” A shinobi familiar with the Hyuga clan explained, “I’ve heard that because of the Caged Bird seal, the Byakugan of the Hyuga branch family has a blind spot in its vision.” “After Natsume Aoba’s Shadow Clone used the Substitution Jutsu just now, it followed up with the Transformation Jutsu and transformed into the kunai held by his other Shadow Clone.
Before Hyuga Neji activated Revolving Heaven, the clone threw that ‘kunai’ into his visual blind spot.
That created the opening for the final decisive strike.” Only after hearing the explanation did everyone realize just how meticulously planned the exchange had been.
One shinobi commented, “Judging by Natsume Aoba’s strength and combat experience, he’s more than qualified to be a chunin.” After returning to the spectator stands, Aoba took out a Military Rations Pill and swallowed it to recover his strength.
In truth, he had relied heavily on his informational advantage during that battle.
Earlier, his Shadow Clone had repeatedly thrown shuriken to ambush Neji.
The purpose hadn’t merely been to interfere with Neji’s Gentle Fist.
Aoba had also been using those attacks to locate the blind spot in the branch family’s Byakugan.
On top of that, Shadow Clones possessed physical bodies and couldn’t be distinguished from the original through ordinary means, making them exceptionally well suited for ambush tactics.
That was why Neji had fallen for the trap so badly.
And when Aoba had been struck by Revolving Heaven, Earth Style: Earth Spear had provided him with tremendous defensive power.
Without a strong defensive ninjutsu, defeating Neji would still have been extremely troublesome.
Unless Aoba used the Flying Thunder God Jutsu or his Three-Tomoe Sharingan, victory couldn’t have been guaranteed.
Aoba then began watching the remaining matches.
Shikamaru’s opponent was still Temari.
In the end, the match concluded with his usual “impress-the-girl-by-surrendering” routine.
Naruto’s opponent, however, had changed to Shino.
Facing the attacks of Shino’s Kikaichu, Naruto looked completely overwhelmed.
At this point, Naruto only knew the Shadow Clone Jutsu and had no other particularly powerful techniques.
Most people assumed he had no chance of winning.
Yet somehow, Naruto still managed to defeat Shino in the end.
The reason was simple.
There was just too much chakra inside Naruto.
The Kikaichu couldn’t drain it all.
The fourth match was naturally Sasuke versus Gaara.
Aoba knew very well that the Konoha Crush was about to officially begin!
Sure enough, while Sasuke and Gaara were locked in an intense battle and Gaara began losing control, Kabuto, who had been hiding in the shadows, activated a large-scale genjutsu.
“Temple of Nirvana Technique.” White feathers slowly drifted down from above, lending an eerie atmosphere to the entire Chunin Exam arena.
Ordinary civilians who saw the feathers immediately fell under the genjutsu.
Even many weaker shinobi succumbed, collapsing to the ground one after another.
With his Three-Tomoe Sharingan, Aoba possessed extremely strong resistance to genjutsu, so naturally a technique like this couldn’t control him.
While everyone’s attention was distracted, he quietly slipped out of the arena.
Before leaving, he caught sight of Orochimaru, disguised as the Fourth Kazekage, taking Hiruzen hostage and leaping onto the rooftop.
Aoba knew, his opportunity had arrived.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Returning to his residence, Aoba pulled out the black hooded cloak he had prepared in advance and put it on.
Then he covered his face with his cat mask, leaving only his scarlet Three-Tomoe Sharingan visible.
Through the window, he saw the Four Violet Flames Formation rise around the Chunin Exam arena.
Kidomaru was dead, so Aoba guessed Sakon and Ukon must have separated themselves and barely managed to perform the formation in his place.
But none of that mattered to him anymore.
Right now, there was only one thing he wanted to do.
While Orochimaru was too occupied to interfere, he was going to Otogakure to restock.
Aoba immediately activated the Flying Thunder God Jutsu.
His figure vanished in an instant.
“Otogakure, here I come!”