"So you wanna fight? Then stop running your mouth from up in a tree and come down here!" Zaku growled, impulsively taunting Neji Hyuga from below.
"Oh?" Neji raised an eyebrow, the corners of his mouth tugging into a calm, unreadable smirk. Without a word more, he leapt from the branch.
"Watch Lee," he said to Tenten, never once looking back as he dropped straight down—aiming directly for Zaku.
"Zaku, wait—something's wrong!" Dosu shouted a warning.
Whoosh!
The moment Neji landed, his knees bent slightly to absorb the impact—then straightened like a drawn bowstring. He shot forward like an arrow loosed from the string, a blur of motion charging straight toward Zaku.
Unlike Hinata's more defensive posture, Neji's form while running was deceptively relaxed—his arms trailing behind him, almost as if blown back by speed. But in truth, they were poised—ready to strike or to pull weapons at any moment from his pouch, obscured from view by his body's momentum.
Zaku, seeing Neji rushing straight toward him, raised his arms with a cold grin. Forming a hand seal with his fingers, he pointed both palms forward—ready to release a blast of compressed air.
Through the lens of his Byakugan, Neji could clearly see the unusual chakra flow gathering at Zaku's forearms—and the hollow tube-like structures embedded in his arms. He didn't need to guess what kind of attack this was.
"Decapitating Airwaves!"
Zaku's palms erupted with a blast of powerful compressed air. The force gouged a long trench in the soft ground as it roared forward.
But for Neji Hyuga, this was nothing.
With Byakugan, Neji saw everything—every movement, every pathway of chakra, every opening. Zaku's attack was direct and obvious, and Neji had no intention of being anywhere near its linear path.
"Above you!" Dosu shouted—too late.
Crack!
Neji was already in the air. He planted a foot on Zaku's head mid-leap, using him as a springboard. His form flipped cleanly through the air—an elegant, almost acrobatic display—before landing silently behind his opponent, his back to him.
"Backhand Palm Strike!"
Neji moved instantly. His feet split for balance, arms snapped forward, and with a fluid twist of his torso, both open palms shot back toward Zaku's spine.
There was no muscle-bracing. No winding up. No wasted movement. Just two perfectly placed strikes, infused with pinpoint chakra—gentle fist style at its most lethal.
"Fool! That close and you're using your bare hands instead of a kunai?" Dosu sneered from the side, unable to understand why Neji hadn't used a bladed weapon to strike at Zaku's back.
But then—
Thud!
Zaku's body seized.
His eyes bulged wide.
Blood erupted from his mouth as the chakra-infused strikes wreaked havoc on his internal organs, bypassing skin and muscle entirely.
"Wha…!?" Dosu's mocking smirk turned to shock. He stared, speechless, as Zaku collapsed to the ground, unconscious—or worse.
Neji didn't pause. His Byakugan locked onto Dosu. He saw it—the odd chakra build-up in Dosu's own mechanical arm, just like Zaku's. This one was more intricate.
Neji pressed his palm forward once more and shoved Zaku's limp body directly into Dosu.
"Damn it!" Dosu cursed. Neji was using Zaku's body to obscure his vision, forcing him to hesitate.
Neji followed close behind, leveraging the blind spot his own "human shield" created.
Whoosh!
He burst from behind Zaku and hurled four kunai straight at Dosu.
"!!"
Caught off guard, Dosu barely raised his right arm in time. The kunai slammed into the metallic amplifier built into his forearm—deflecting off with sharp metallic clangs.
But Neji was already there.
His fingers glowed faintly with chakra, his steps silent and swift.
"Dosu!" Kin finally snapped out of her shock, realizing their team leader was in danger. But it was already too late.
Neji struck.
His index and middle finger extended like a blade, driving into Dosu's shoulder with pinpoint precision.
Thwack!
The blow struck one of Dosu's chakra points—an essential node for controlling energy flow through the arm.
Dosu's arm jerked, spasming. Pain shot through his shoulder.
Before he could even register it fully, Neji had already moved to the next strike.
Fingers blurred.
Another point hit.
Then another.
Dosu's mechanical arm twitched uncontrollably, chakra flow sealed.
"Such precision…!" Dosu realized with growing dread that Neji was shutting down his ability to fight, one nerve strike at a time.
Meanwhile—
Up above, Kin snarled and threw a volley of senbon at Neji's exposed back.
But Neji didn't move.
Clink-clink-clink!
Three shuriken came flying from above—knocking the senbon off course before they could reach him.
Kin's eyes widened.
"Tenten…" she whispered.
Perched on a nearby tree branch, Tenten knelt with both hands full of throwing weapons, her eyes locked onto Kin.
"You're not exactly the type I like," Tenten said coldly, "but I'll take you on. You seem to enjoy hurting people who can't fight back."
"Don't underestimate me, you little—!"
Kin gritted her teeth. But even she knew—being able to precisely knock senbon out of the air with shuriken wasn't normal. This girl was dangerous.
Back on the ground—
Dosu made a desperate swing with his crippled arm.
But Neji ducked under it effortlessly, narrowed his eyes, and launched a final strike—two fingers jabbing directly into Dosu's upper arm.
"Gentle Fist: Chakra Point Strike."
With that hit, the last of Dosu's chakra control was sealed.
He stumbled backward, his entire right arm limp at his side.
Neji didn't need to finish him.
Dosu was done.
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