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"What do you want from me?" he said, unfazed.
#$#%$#%... still blurry, still untethered by world around... didn't answer at first. Then:
"I will awaken a portion of your power which you have already awakened once before."
Neji staggered. "What... is this?"
The figure stared at him. And for just a moment, it wasn't a person he was looking at. It was a vortex. A singularity. Like staring into the eye of a hurricane that spun with memories he didn't own and truths he wasn't ready for.
"Not a gift," the being said. "Your pain, your burden, your questions... they come with a price. But if you're willing..."
He extended a hand and pressed two fingers to Neji's temple.
A flash. A sound like screaming wind.
Then everything shattered.
Neji gasped. The canyon reappeared in a violent lurch. His lungs flared like they were swallowing fire. He coughed, doubling over, spitting blood into the dirt.
Kakuzu had stepped back, eyes narrow. His threads twitched in the air, pushed away from the strange pulse that had just knocked them aside.
Neji's body still ached, ribs felt cracked, his arms charred but something had changed.
His Byakugan flickered.
He whispered hoarsely, tasting blood, "The threads are all flowing with chakra... but I can't see through him. Not anymore. Now, I have no choice but to use... what that thing awakened."
His eyes lit up with a strange, regal hue. A radiant royal blue, edged faintly with silver filaments.
From the center of his forehead, a structure began to grow... fibrous, bone-like, forming like coral. A mask.
It wasn't made of porcelain. It wasn't armor. It was organic, born from his own cells, like his body was secreting chakra-infused calcium and sinew. It formed slowly, curling outward from his cheekbones and across his brow like a chrysalis, until it encased the upper half of his face.
As it sealed in place, he felt it: foreign chakra... dense, ancient, raw... flooding through his system. His chakra network flared back to life, though sluggish. This wasn't recovery. This was temporary aid.
His fingers stopped shaking. The pain in his arms dulled. Still damaged, but usable.
His Shingan consumes too much chakra and he could't use it in battle. until now.
Through his new vision, the world was different. The Shingan didn't just show chakra. They showed patterns. Movement. Flow. In the air around him, tiny motes... colored specks... floated and danced. He didn't know it yet, but this was Nature Energy.
He couldn't name it.
Within Kakuzu's black threads, he saw 5 colors...each a different hue. Each brighter than the other. Faintest being blue.
All these just made him the realize the true extent of danger he was in. His body screamed at him to flee. So, This is the power of this mask. I shall call it The Haze mask.
But Neji would never run from fight and he want to see the extent of his newly awakened power. He felt like he could win.
Kakuzu clicked his tongue. "That mask… I don't know what kind of jutsu that is, but I don't like it."
He extended all his threads at once. From his back burst the four masks... Fire, Wind, Water, Lightning... hovering like wraiths. His original earth heart is still inside Kakuzu.
"You should've died quietly."
The Fire mask unleashed a blast... a wide flame wave that turned the canyon into a furnace.
Neji jumped high, flipping backwards to the cliff wall, sticking to it with chakra. His movements weren't smooth... but instinctive, efficient.
He braced. Pulled his fingers in.
Eight Trigrams: Thousand Needle Rain - "八卦千針雨"
Every tenketsu along his arms flared open. Chakra threads, fine as hair but sharp as wire, erupted. Dozens. Each spun with high-tensile chakra control.
He flung his arms forward. The air filled with a hissing screech as the threads danced toward Kakuzu like a cloud of metallic rain.
The Water mask jumped forward, absorbing the brunt... but several threads pierced through it, embedding deep.
Kakuzu growled and shifted. His threads weaved a shield.
His water heart was too weak because of that mist-nin.
Neji had already moved.
He used the canyon wall's natural curves, rebounding off a rock outcropping, slipping behind a boulder. The moment Kakuzu turned to track him, Neji exploded from the right flank, palm ready.
Chakra Sogeki: Compression Point.
This time, he focused all his chakra not just on the tip of his finger... but also wrapped it around the entire finger. A mistake he learned to correct. The compressed chakra didn't leak now.
He wanted to strike the earth heart and create a moment of opening for kakuzu to fill heart. But Kakuzu was fast enough to avoid the strike to his heart but his shoulder was struck.
The burst wasn't flashy. No light. No explosion.
But the impact was violent. The flesh beneath his finger collapsed inward like an implosion. Threads shot out like broken wires. Kakuzu stumbled, roaring.
His Lightning mask screamed... blasting bolts erratically.
Neji spun. A partial rotation. Not a full Eight Trigrams Palm, just enough to angle a deflection. He slapped a bolt with chakra-coated forearm, redirecting it into the stone. It exploded, shrapnel flying.
A few pieces logged into Neji's thigh. He flinched as blood started oozing out.
He ducked low, racing into the shadows of the canyon. The environment was his friend now. Steep walls. Jagged cover. Loose rocks. Dry brush.
Kakuzu didn't care. He was moving now like a beast... unleashed all four masks in unison.
The whole canyon shook. Neji slid beneath a ridge, hands splayed to ground. He could feel it... the tremors. He narrowed his eyes.
A blue spark danced between his Shingan. He leapt from the tunnel and punched downward.
Chakra Sogeki: Rupture Pulse. It is a targeted chakra blast that strikes at the weak points.
He targeted a fracture line in the canyon floor. His chakra tunneled through rock, hitting a buried air pocket. The stone cracked. The canyon floor caved... Kakuzu fell half a meter into the pit, stunned.
Neji didn't wait.
He vaulted forward, chakra threads already spinning from his elbows, forearm and finger tips.
He wrapped Kakuzu's Water mask and yanked... the cords slicing into the base. With a brutal twist, he ripped the mask off its anchor. But Lightning mask was fast and delivered a might punch which shrieked... and exploded.
Neji was flung back, ribs screaming again. I need to get out of here. Even with the power-up, I'm no match for him... and I still don't know what the side effects are.