Chapter 229 - Neji Hyuga
The next chunin exams were right around the corner, and Team Nine was currently walking towards the Uzumaki compound for some sparring matches. If the exams were to be held in Konoha, the teams wouldn't want to reveal their techniques to each other. Since this time's exams were held in the Land of Wind, however, Konoha's teams were supposed to present a united front, so they at least had to know each other's combat styles before the exams started.
While Lee and Guy had excitement written all over their faces, Tenten had a neutral smile on her face. Neji was naturally part of this group as well, but his face showed that he had no idea how to deal with the current situation. Or, to be more precise, he had no idea how to face Hinata.
Neji was not stupid. Arrogant and misguided? Yes. Stupid? No.
After his beatdown by Hinata, he spent a lot of time thinking about the current situation of the Hyuga clan. Additionally, he kept observing the Hyuga clan and saw a lot of things he didn't previously notice. He saw the ridiculous arrogance of the main family. The poor treatment of the branch families, who were occasionally even treated as glorified servants. He saw how barely anyone put any effort into training. And, most importantly, he noticed that the Hyuga clan had very few people who could be considered elite shinobi.
Didn't they have the strongest taijutsu style, the Gentle Fist Style? What about the strongest ocular power, the Byakugan? Shouldn't they have more Jonins in their ranks if that were the case?
Another thing that irked Neji was that nearly every elder of the clan dismissed Hinata's victory over him as a fluke or pure luck. Neji felt that no matter how jaded someone was, claiming that Hinata won due to luck should be impossible, but apparently, he was wrong about that.
Additionally, he spent quite a bit of time thinking about Hinata's so-called guide, and he could certainly see her point. Did anything in the Hyuga clan's training regime change after Hinata pointed out so many flaws? No, nothing changed.
Neji couldn't understand why nobody bothered to change anything in their combat style after its flaws were publicly displayed. He couldn't be the only one who understood that that was a dangerous situation, right?
No, in fact, there was another person who realized that. Hisoka Hyuga. After she became Yuna's genin, Neji started paying more attention to her, and by now, he was certain that there was something different about her. He couldn't really put his finger on it, but he felt like the way she held herself started changing over time.
He was also pretty sure that none of the clan elders noticed, probably because most of them were dismissive and indifferent to her, but since he had been paying closer attention to her, he noticed some changes.
Out of curiosity, he challenged her to a spar. After a surprisingly hard fight, in which she only used the standard Gentle Fist Style, he could win against her. Despite feeling that there was something off about how Hisoka fought, Neji had no clue what it was.
Afterwards, she gave him a respectful bow and said, "As expected of the main family." and, although her facial expression was unmoving and she sounded respectful, Neji felt like her words were dripping with sarcasm and disdain.
Shortly after, the people watching the fight surrounded him to praise him for his victory, which was when he realized what actually happened.
In this sparring match, it wasn't that Hisoka couldn't beat him, but that she shouldn't beat him. Without thinking about it too deeply, Neji challenged her in a public place, which resulted in a lot of spectators. Some random branch member obviously shouldn't defeat the heir of the main family publicly.
This was when Neji realized that she was very likely holding back her strength while he also realized that the words "As expected of the main family" were very likely followed by something along the lines of "they are unwilling to have a fair match", in Hisoka's head.
Neji felt like he wronged her with that fight, but since Hisoka would be participating in the chunin exams as well, he would have a chance to have a proper battle with her today, where she wouldn't have to hold back.
Unlike his inevitably awkward meeting with Hinata, he was looking forward to fighting Hisoka.
A few minutes of walking later, Team Nine reached the Uzumaki compound. Unlike the Hyuga compound, which felt dignified and oppressive, the colorful Uzumaki compound felt inviting and radiated friendliness. There was a constant trickle of civilians and shinobi alike who went in and out of the Uzumaki clan.
Like most Hyuga, Neji had few chances to explore the village, so this was actually the first time he saw the Uzumaki compound. He couldn't help but be dumbfounded when he saw the heavy traffic at the entrance of the Uzumaki clan.
Usually, clans want as few outsiders as possible inside their compound, but that didn't seem to apply to the Uzumaki clan.
'How in the world do they ensure that no spies sneak in? From what I can see, the gate guards are barely stopping any people. There is no way they can identify all the people that are going in unchecked by their faces alone.'
Seeing the confusion on Neji's face, Guy chuckled a little and started speaking.
"Hehe, I assume you're wondering how the Uzumaki clan managed to keep their security in check, huh?"
Although Neji felt a little annoyed that he allowed his thoughts to appear on his face, which a Hyuga shouldn't do, he still nodded his head in confirmation.
Guy pulled out a small red token and showed it to Neji.
"That is because the Uzumaki clan has a compound-spanning, seal-based security system. They hand out these tokens, and the token's color shows which areas inside the compound you have access to. If you go somewhere inside the compound where you aren't supposed to go, the token will warn you first, and if you don't comply, the compound's security system will activate and capture you. As for getting in without a token, hehe, I heard two S-Rank shinobi tried and failed to do so."
Neji was shocked when he heard Guy's explanation about how the Uzumaki's security system worked. Not only was that security system incredibly useful to keep spies out, it significantly reduced the necessary amount of guards as well.
When he heard that it was strong enough to repel two S-Rank shinobi, however, he felt like he was hit by lightning. After all, the Hyuga clan currently didn't even have a single S-Rank shinobi. That meant that even if the whole Hyuga clan mobilized and came here to attack the Uzumaki compound, they probably wouldn't even manage to crack open the security system. The Hyuga clan would have to desperately fight against the defense system while the Uzumaki clan members could lazily stay inside their compound and watch the show. That was beyond ridiculous.
Only now did Neji realize how outrageous the story about the destruction of the Uzumaki clan in the previous war truly was. It took the power of three great villages and catastrophic losses to take out a single clan. Could today's Hyuga clan endure the assault of even a single great village? He very much doubted that.
Moments later, one of the guards in front of the gate approached the group with a friendly smile on his face.
"Welcome to the Uzumaki compound. Are you here to rechallenge Yuna-sama, Lee?"
A fire ignited in Lee's eyes before quickly being extinguished.
"Actually, we are here to prepare for the chunin exams, so I don't think I will get a chance to fight Yuna today."
"Haha, too bad then, but knowing Yuna-sama's personality, won't she squeeze in a match against you anyway?"
The fire in Lee's eyes reignited when he heard that while he eagerly nodded his head.
"YOSH, MY FLAMES OF YOUTH WILL BURN ESPECIALLY BRIGHT TODAY!!!"
"Hahaha, as energetic as ever, aren't we? Anyway, please enter, and I hope you enjoy your time in the Uzumaki compound."
As the guard finished speaking, he tossed a small token towards Neji, which he quickly caught. Although he had seen Guy's token, he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do with it. Before he could ask, Guy answered his question.
"Just put some chakra into it, and it will change color while being bound to you."
Neji nodded his head and did as he was told, and moments later, the token turned blue, which surprised the other three people in Neji's team.
"Oh? I wasn't expecting it to turn blue. Considering what happened previously, I wasn't expecting the third-highest level to pop out. It's the same I got when I first came here."
As Tenten said, she pulled out a red token, the second-highest level, which she was given a few weeks ago.
When Neji understood the situation, he was a little surprised as well. He was confident that Hinata held a grudge against him, and due to her relationship with Yuna, it wouldn't be surprising if the whole Uzumaki clan was hostile to him, but that didn't seem to be the case.
The group entered the compound, and Neji could only shake his head in pity at what he saw. Friendly smiles, a good mood, and a feeling of prosperity could be felt wherever he looked. The pity he felt was towards the Hyuga clan, whose atmosphere was the exact opposite of the Uzumaki clan's. It was a cold, dreary, and oppressive atmosphere.
A few minutes of walking later, they reached a massive training ground that caused Neji to gape in surprise. For some reason, this training ground felt more extensive than the whole Hyuga compound, which, considering the total size of the previous Senju compound, should be impossible. This kind of training ground should not fit inside the walls of the Uzumaki compound.
Yet again, Gai chuckled at Neji's expression, and yet again, Neji scowled at showing an expression on his face. Today, his trademark "Hyuga stoic face", was seriously put to the test.
"Don't ask me how exactly this works, but the Uzumaki clan used seals to expand the space of this training ground to make it bigger. Guess it is a little like storage scrolls but on a much grander scale."
Yet again, Neji's chin hit the ground.
'W-Wouldn't that mean that the Uzumaki compound is significantly bigger than it looks? How many of these space-expanding seals do they have in their compound? No, even more important, what is the original size of this training ground?!'
While Neji was trying to wrap his head around all the ridiculous things he has seen so far, Team Nine reached their destination: the middle of the training ground where Yuna, her team, and a few other people were already waiting for them.
The moment Neji saw Yuna, he couldn't help but shiver a little. She was one year younger than him, and despite that, she was already renowned throughout the shinobi world as the S-Rank shinobi "Bijuu Killer".
Previously, he was happy whenever someone praised him as a genius. But, after hearing about what Yuna had achieved so far, it felt like someone was slapping him in the face everytime they called him a genius nowadays. What kind of genius was he when someone younger than him already reached the rank of Elite Jonin while he was still a Genin?
*Author Note*
So, as some of you might have noticed, these chunin exams appeared in the Naruto anime as well, so I decided to give them a rewatch. After finding the correct episodes I realized that the creators of Naruto Shippudden are the actual devil.
Creator 1: So, we are currently having the final battle, and Naruto and Sasuke are on the verge of dying. Do you know what would fit really well right now?
Creator 2: No?
Creator 1: A 20(!!!) episode flashback/filler of some random chunin exam.
Creator 2: Genius!
*End of Author Note*
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