Sasuke got up.
Sasuke charged out, brimming with confidence.
Sasuke got wrecked.
The best counter to the Sharingan was to never let it activate in the first place.
Open with an ultimate, chain into Gentle Fist, then finish him off instantly.
"Damn it—Gentle Fist!"
Sasuke lay on the ground, his chakra already sealed.
Hanabi was his teammate, and he'd somehow forgotten about the Hyuga clan's Gentle Fist entirely.
Unforgivable!
He'd thought he'd gotten stronger, and then he let his guard down at a time like this.
That was Sasuke for you—the moment he got cocky, someone would slap him right back down and teach him what the weight of life really meant.
[Sparring match runs into Sunflower Acupoint Technique, opening move instakills even the mightiest, no amount of effort can win]
[The strongest of all time versus the strongest of the current era]
[Witness the fury of the big bro-in-law]
[Ninja's Path: The Wrath of the Bro-in-Law]
After taking down Sasuke, Neji turned his gaze to Naruto.
Gentle Fist was extremely effective under normal circumstances. Once your chakra was sealed, even taijutsu would be severely weakened.
But the Nine-Tails' chakra... Neji wasn't confident about that.
Against the power of the Nine-Tailed Fox, the Hyuga clan's Gentle Fist was essentially half-useless.
Compared to Sasuke, who could be taken out in a flash, Naruto was the real headache.
"Careful, Naruto. The Hyuga clan's Gentle Fist can seal chakra." Kushina stepped into the role of portable old-man mentor.
Actually, no—portable old-lady mentor?
Hmm... portable mom?
Hanabi watched the video feed, which also displayed Naruto and Kushina's conversation.
"Heh heh, I'm nothing like Sasuke!"
Without another word, Naruto charged in too.
"Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms!"
Neji decided to open with a full set of Sixty-Four Palms.
"That's Hanabi's—!"
Though he'd never experienced it himself, Naruto remembered that after Hanabi had landed this exact combo on that Zabuza guy, Zabuza had immediately lost the ability to fight.
"Demon fox! Help me out here!"
"Tch..." Kushina was at a loss too, but her son seemed to have completely identified her as the cunning fox demon.
She'd actually wanted to let her son take a bit of a beating—but the moment Naruto cried out, she instinctively deployed the Adamantine Sealing Chains.
It wasn't that she couldn't use other techniques, but this one was both harmless and highly effective. And although Naruto couldn't use them himself yet, his body had adapted over this period, making the technique essentially instantaneous.
Several chains burst forth and shoved Neji back in an instant.
"Nani?!"
Neji was genuinely surprised this time.
"What just happened?!"
In that split second, a completely different type of chakra had appeared in Naruto's body, and his internal chakra pathway network had undergone a total transformation.
The change lasted only an instant, but that one instant was enough to repel him.
"Gentle Fist is useless."
Neji realized it immediately.
He could seal the opponent's body with chakra.
But the moment their chakra pathways shifted, the chakra he'd used for the seal would be overwritten. Once Naruto reverted, the sealing chakra would simply be gone.
"The absolute hard counter to Gentle Fist..."
[Holy crap, what just happened]
[His mom doing the fighting for him, what is going on]
[Go watch the Land of Waves section, there's an explanation. The Seance Jutsu completely transforms the body into the summoned person's physical state. So in that instant, Naruto's chakra pathways and body actually became his mom's chakra pathways]
[Damn, exploiting a bug]
[Protagonist's gotta protagonist, even this works]
Kushina had actually already used this trick when fighting the Sand ninja trio, but at the time, there was no Byakugan providing the audience with a visual.
Now, the video feed displayed Neji's perspective, so the audience finally understood what had happened.
Ironically, it was Neji—the person directly involved—who remained in the dark, assuming Naruto had simply drawn on the Nine-Tailed Fox's power.
"I knew it. Gentle Fist won't work on you. In that case—"
Neji shifted his stance.
If Gentle Fist wouldn't cut it, then a hard hit would do.
But Naruto had clearly gotten full of himself.
"Ha ha ha! Hey, Neji—your Gentle Fist is totally useless!"
Naruto charged forward.
But at that moment, Neji had already let out a long breath.
"Eight Trigrams Mountain Crusher!"
Gentle Fist it was—but this was a heavy blow.
—!!!
BOOM!
Naruto was sent flying like a cannonball.
A net appeared behind Naruto and caught him, but the sheer force shattered every window behind him.
"What—just—happened—"
Naruto's face was blank. He was sprawled on the ground, still clueless about what had hit him.
[Old man, your Stand is totally useless!]
[Neji: Punk, just because I've been using jabs doesn't mean I don't know how to throw a haymaker]
[This isn't your ordinary Naruto anymore—you gotta bring out the big guns!]
[Brute force solves everything, and the ancients never lie]
[Naruto really is all talk and no game]
[Even his mom's speechless]
[Too bad his mom can't come out and discipline Naruto]
[Who says she can't? Hit yourself, and the instant the slap's about to land, release the Seance Jutsu—the one taking the hit is Naruto]
[Holy crap, that actually works]
The shitposting audience had actually brainstormed this method of corporal punishment, and even Hanabi was stunned.
Hmm...
Should she find some roundabout way to pass that idea along to Kushina?
Hanabi figured the scene of Kushina disciplining Naruto would be absolutely hilarious to watch.
"Ugh... nng..."
A dazed Naruto was now being gently set down on the ground by the net.
Meanwhile, Hanabi—who'd been watching the show this whole time—stepped forward.
"Er..."
Neji felt a bit awkward.
True, Hanabi had told him to teach Naruto a lesson. But when he'd seen Naruto mouthing off like that, he'd instinctively gone for a heavy-hitting move.
He'd gone a little overboard.
If Hanabi hadn't caught Naruto, Naruto would've slammed straight into a wall—probably cracking a whole chunk out of the Academy building.
Paying for repairs was the least of his worries. Making Hanabi angry was the truly terrifying part.
"Mountain Crusher, huh?"
The ones who'd witnessed the fight weren't limited to Hanabi. Rock Lee and Tenten from Team Guy were there too.
After seeing that Neji had been hiding a technique this powerful, Lee fell deep into thought.
Neji had always been the goal Lee was chasing. And now he'd discovered that Neji still had hidden moves.
—And it wasn't just this one technique, either.
Neji followed Hanabi's teaching: hide every technique you can. Keep a trump card in reserve for when the enemy lets their guard down, then unload.
Team 7's two members lay defeated on the ground. Guy, who should have appeared at this point, was absent—because there was no need to discipline Lee for using forbidden techniques.
"Damn it."
Naruto bounced back fast—he wobbled to his feet on his own, looking nothing like someone who'd just taken a huge hit. Sasuke, on the other hand, even after having his chakra seal lifted, still seemed stiff.
"You—next time, I'm definitely gonna beat you!" Naruto was fuming.
"I'll be waiting." Neji snorted. "With skills like yours, you're completely unfit to be Hanabi's teammates. You—Ninja Disqualified!"