Naruto was eleven, and his world had expanded. His afternoons were no longer solitary affairs. They were filled with the thud of fists against training posts, the encouraging shouts of Might Gai, and the steadfast, competitive presence of his best friend, Rock Lee.
On one sweltering afternoon, as he and Lee were seeing who could do more one-handed push-ups, Gai appeared with his signature whirlwind entrance. With him were his two other students, a girl with her hair in two neat buns and a boy with long, dark hair and pale, unnerving eyes.
"Lee! Naruto-kun!" Gai announced, giving them his "nice guy" pose. "Your flames of youth burn so brightly they guided my other students here!"
Lee sprang to his feet, bowing to his teammates. "Neji! Tenten! You have arrived just in time to witness the results of our most youthful training!"
Gai placed his hands on the newcomers' shoulders. "Naruto-kun, I wanted to properly introduce you to my other prized pupils! The master of shinobi tools, the cool and capable Tenten! And the prodigy of the Hyuga clan, Neji Hyuga!"
Tenten offered a friendly wave. "Hey, nice to meet you. Honestly, with how much Lee talks about you, it feels like we know you already."
Neji, however, remained silent, observing Naruto with an air of cold analysis before his gaze settled on his own teammate, Lee, with faint disdain.
"It is our goal," Lee declared passionately, turning to his teammates, "to prove to everyone that our hard work can surpass any genius!"
Neji finally spoke, his voice soft but laced with an icy dismissiveness. "A misguided philosophy, Lee. You know this. Hard work is meaningless if you are not born with talent. A failure will always be a failure, no matter how much they struggle." His gaze flickered to Naruto, clearly lumping him into the same category.
The insult to Lee, his best friend, lit a fire in Naruto's belly.
"Hey! Apologize to Lee!" Naruto snapped, stepping between his friend and the arrogant Hyuga. "You don't know anything about him or how hard he works!"
"Careful, brat," Garp's voice rumbled in his mind. "This one's different. Arrogant, but there's real power behind it."
"And what do you know?" Neji's gaze settled on Naruto, sizing up the dead-last of the Academy. "You are proof of my point."
Tenten sighed. "Come on, Neji, play nice. He's Lee's friend."
But Naruto had heard enough. "If you're so great, then prove it!" he challenged, pointing a finger at the Hyuga. "Fight me!"
Neji's lip curled into a smirk. "You wish to be humiliated? Very well. I shall teach you a lesson about the unbridgeable gap between a true genius and a talentless individual."
Gai stepped forward. "A youthful challenge! I will permit it!" he declared. "This will be a spar only. The first to be clearly incapacitated or admit defeat loses."
Neji, with the fluid grace of a prodigy, raised his right hand in the formal Seal of Confrontation. Naruto, recognizing the shinobi tradition, mirrored the gesture, his own hand sign defiant. They held the pose for a moment, a silent acknowledgment of the duel to come.
"Begin!" Gai commanded.
Instead of moving, Neji settled deeper into his stance. "Byakugan!" he said, his voice sharp.
Instantly, thick veins bulged around his temples and the corners of his pale eyes, which seemed to gain a new, chilling depth. It was a startling transformation.
"Whoa! What's happening to his eyes?!" Naruto yelped, taking an involuntary step back.
"Some kind of eye trick," Garp noted inside his head. "Don't be intimidated by cheap theatrics, brat! Rush him before he can use it!"
"That is the Byakugan, Naruto-kun!" Lee shouted from the sidelines, his voice a sharp warning. "The kekkei genkai of the Hyuga clan! It grants him near 360-degree vision and the ability to see his opponent's chakra circulatory system!"
See my... what?! The warning only served to fuel Naruto's adrenaline. Intimidated but refusing to show it, he decided Garp was right. The best defense was a good offense. "A punch is still a punch!" he yelled, and charged.
He threw a powerful right hook, but Neji, his vision now enhanced, saw it coming a mile away. He swayed a single inch to the side, Naruto's fist whistling past his ear. In the same motion, Neji's open palm struck out with chilling precision, tapping Naruto on the shoulder.
A sharp, jarring pain erupted from the point of contact, making Naruto's entire arm go numb. He stumbled back, shaking his head in shock.
"It is useless," Neji stated calmly, his Byakugan fixed on Naruto. "My eyes can see all 361 of your tenketsu—your chakra points. I do not need to crush you with force. With my Gentle Fist, I can stop the flow of your chakra and disable you with a single touch."
"He's not just hitting you, brat, he's aiming for the pipes inside!" Garp analyzed. "Gai was right. He can see your energy. Don't let him touch you! Be unpredictable!"
Gritting his teeth, Naruto charged again, using feints and wild swings. Neji, with his near-perfect defense, evaded and countered, but to his growing frustration, Naruto kept getting up. The Gentle Fist was designed to disable an opponent, but Naruto's strange physique, his sheer physical toughness, meant the effects were lessened. He shook off blows that should have left him gasping on the ground.
"Why won't you stay down?!" Neji snarled, his composure finally cracking. He lunged, aiming a decisive palm strike at Naruto's chest.
Naruto roared, channeling the discipline Garp had drilled into him. "Tekkai!" he thought, tensing every muscle in his torso just before impact.
Neji's palm hit Naruto's chest with a dull, meaty thud. Naruto was still sent flying backward, but the internal damage was massively reduced. He landed hard but scrambled back to his feet, gasping.
Neji stared at his hand, then at Naruto, his mind reeling. He hardened his muscles at the moment of impact? Impossible! And his chakra pathways... they are thicker, more solid than any I have ever seen. What is this boy?
"That's it!" Naruto yelled, putting all his strength into his legs and charging for a full-body tackle.
As Naruto tumbled through the air, Neji lunged forward, his face a mask of cold fury, ready to end the match.
"THAT IS ENOUGH!"
Gai appeared in a blur between them, catching Neji's wrists and stopping Naruto's body with an outstretched leg. The cheerful Jonin was gone. In his place was a warrior demanding absolute obedience.
"The spar is over," Gai declared. "This match is a draw."
Neji wrenched his hands free, glaring at Naruto with a mixture of anger and newfound confusion before storming away. Tenten gave Naruto an apologetic look and hurried after her teammate.
Lee ran to Naruto's side, his eyes shining. "Naruto-kun, that was incredible! You stood up to a genius and did not break!"
Naruto grinned, wincing as he rubbed his sore shoulder. He hadn't won. But he hadn't lost, either. He had faced a true genius and his "all-seeing eyes" and met him head-on. The gap wasn't as wide as he'd thought. And he had a spectral Marine Vice-Admiral in his head who was just getting started.