Fight the sand with bare hands?
For a split second, everyone froze. Then, cries erupted from the crowd.
"Hey! Neji, run! What are you doing?!"
"Don't be reckless, Neji!"
"Big Brother Neji!" Hinata and Hanabi both shouted, their voices laced with panic.
But Neji didn't respond. The next moment, he collided directly with the two massive sand palms, and a thunderous boom echoed across the arena.
Everyone instinctively shut their eyes, bracing for a gruesome scene. Yet when they dared to open them again, what they saw left them utterly speechless.
The swirling sand burst apart completely shattered by Neji's punch. The sheer force of the blow even stripped Gaara's Sand Armor clean off his body.
It was as if their brains had crashed. No one could comprehend how Neji had pulled that off.
That destructive power... it was even more terrifying than Lee's after opening the Fifth Gate.
"AAAAHHHHHHHH!"
Suddenly, Gaara let out a crazed scream. Blood dripped from the corners of his mouth, and his expression turned twisted, ominous.
"I'm going to kill you."
"Shield of Sand: Shukaku's Shell!"
As Gaara's face contorted, an enormous wave of chakra burst from his body. A great mass of sand surged up and encased him in a large dome, covered in vicious spikes.
"Sand Shuriken Rain!"
A barrage of sand projectiles erupted from the dome in a relentless storm.
"Hmph. Still haven't learned your lesson?" Neji sneered.
"Eight Trigrams Palm Rotation!"
Just as the sand bullets were about to strike him, chakra surged from Neji's tenketsu and spun into a powerful vortex, repelling the attack entirely and slamming the sand shuriken harmlessly to the ground.
"Is this all you've got? Hiding inside again?" Neji scoffed.
"Let's see how long you can stay in there. Fire Style: Dragon Flame Jutsu!"
Neji quickly formed hand seals, then spat out a focused stream of fire that roared toward Gaara's sand dome.
Boom!
The spikes on the dome shattered under the intense heat, but the shell itself remained unscathed.
"Hmph. Think I can't get to you just because you're hiding in there?"
Neji's smirk deepened. In a flash, he charged toward Gaara, chakra condensing rapidly in his palm to a razor-sharp point.
"Cherry Blossom Impact!"
"The Shukaku Shell's defense is even stronger than the Sand Armor. There's no way he can-" Temari's words were cut short as reality delivered a brutal slap to her face.
BAM!
CRACK!
Neji's palm pierced straight through the dome, landing a crushing blow on Gaara's body.
The next moment, Gaara was launched out the other side like a broken doll.
"Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms!"
Neji seized Gaara's collar, a faint smile tugging at his lips. Then his hands blurred into motion, striking Gaara's body with lightning speed.
In an instant, all of Gaara's chakra points were sealed.
"Yes! He shut down that guy's chakra!"
"The sand user from your team is toast. That bruised guy on your squad's about to lose," Naruto crowed, grinning from ear to ear.
But Kankurō and Temari didn't even look at him. Their eyes were locked on Gaara, horror etched across their faces.
"This is bad…" Kankurō murmured.
"We can't hold it back anymore. He's coming out…"
"Huh? What are you guys talking about?" Naruto asked, confused.
"It's over!" Neji declared.
Just as he prepared to strike again, Gaara's chakra flared wildly despite him convulsing and barely conscious. His energy fluctuated erratically as he knelt on the ground, mumbling incoherently.
Neji's expression turned sharp. He glanced at Orochimaru subtle, but wary then immediately retreated.
It's happening. I need to draw Gaara away from the village.
That single glance from Neji made Orochimaru uneasy. But he had no choice. The plan was already in motion.
Shukaku's power was awakening. Now was the perfect time to launch the surprise attack.
At that moment, a figure hidden in the crowd a disguised ninja from the Leaf's ANBU silently formed a string of hand seals.
"Temple of Nirvana Technique."
Without warning, feathers began to drift gently from the sky. Drowsiness spread through the crowd like a plague. Panic erupted as several people turned traitor mid-sleep.
"Lord Kazekage, what-?!" Hiruzen Sarutobi stared in disbelief at the man holding him hostage.
Whoosh!
The next instant, Orochimaru leapt with Hiruzen to the rooftop.
Seizing the opportunity, Temari and Kankurō immediately carried Gaara away, while Baki began clashing with Genma Shiranui.
"Gaara!" Sasuke shouted, dashing after them, Naruto close behind.
Neji didn't spare a glance for the Third Hokage. Instead, he rushed to the stands and released Hinata and the others from the genjutsu.
"Big Brother Neji? What happened? My head feels fuzzy…" Hinata and Hanabi rubbed their eyes in confusion.
"Konoha is under attack by the Sound and Sand. You were caught in a genjutsu. The Third is trapped," Neji explained concisely.
Moments later, Might Guy, Kakashi, and several others snapped out of the illusion and joined Neji.
True to their reputation as elite jonin, they quickly assessed the situation.
Hiruzen, powerful as he was, wouldn't go down easily. The real priority was eliminating the enemy forces.
"Kakashi, about Sasuke and Naruto…" Guy hesitated. He wasn't confident they could stand against Gaara.
But Kakashi's voice was steady. "They'll be fine."
He knew exactly how far they had come. Sasuke had already mastered his Chidori. And Naruto, under Jiraiya's tutelage, was in a league of his own now.
"The situation is urgent. Everyone, move out and take down the invaders!" Kakashi commanded.
He strode over to Shikamaru and nudged him with his foot. "Hey. Shikamaru. Quit playing dead. Time to work."
"Ugh… Can't I just stay down? Fighting is such a drag," Shikamaru groaned.
Asuma had no choice but to haul him off. Having a slacker like this as a student was enough to give any teacher a headache.
"Alright let's begin the sweep!" Kakashi's words set everyone into motion, each squad fanning out to secure the area.
He was already showing the makings of the Sixth Hokage.
As for helping Naruto and Sasuke with Gaara? Neji had no interest in that. He'd leave that kind of thing to Naruto's specialty talking people down with that silver tongue of his.
In the arena, Sound and Sand ninja lurked in the shadows. But for Neji, who possessed the Byakugan and heightened perception akin to the Kagura Mind's Eye, they were all but exposed.
In fact, he had sensed them even before the exam began.
In the blink of an eye, Neji appeared before one of the hidden attackers. A kunai flashed.
Slice.
"W-why…?"
The Sound ninja collapsed before he could finish his sentence, his life snuffed out before he ever understood how he'd been discovered.
Neji moved like a phantom. With swift, precise strikes, he eliminated even a jonin-level enemy before they could react.
In mere minutes, a trail of corpses marked the path he carved through the enemy ranks.