33: Chapter 33 Overwhelming Power, Neji's SurrenderAn orange figure blocked out the sky above him, casting a shadow.
Naruto gave Neji no chance to catch his breath.He returned to the almost immobile body, shrouding him in a cold, condescending gaze.
"Do you still believe in what you call 'fate' now?"
The voice was calm, yet it carried a weight that could crush everything.
Hyuga Neji tried to struggle to sit up, but the excruciating pain in his abdomen and the weakness in his limbs made it impossible for him to even lift a finger.
He could only lie there, forced to endure the abyss-like pressure coming from above.
That was an absolute suppressive force that he had never seen before, surpassing all ninjutsu and all bloodline limits.
He sensed that within this bottom-of-the-barrel person lay a higher-dimensional power that he could not comprehend at all.
Just as Neji was trying to use his last bit of willpower to fight against this humiliation, an extreme chill suddenly enveloped his entire body without warning.
That's not the cold from nature.
It was a terrifying aura that went straight to the soul, capable of completely freezing both thought and emotion.
Naruto only released a small amount of the chakra from [Demon Possession: Ice Demon].
He could clearly see that Hyuga Neji's pure white eyes suddenly narrowed, his body trembled violently uncontrollably, and his teeth chattered, making a soft gurgling sound.
Her already pale face was now completely devoid of color.
His Byakugan might be able to see through the flow of chakra, but it couldn't see through the essence of that power.
In Neji's mind, he was being dragged into an eternal ice prison, where everything around him was frozen, leaving only endless cold and despair.
Just as Neji's spirit was about to be completely destroyed by this chill.
An invisible voice, transcending physical distance, resounded directly deep within his mind.
Naruto used [Mind Path: Spiritual Transmission].
"Did your father, Hyuga Hizashi, truly sacrifice himself voluntarily to protect the main family and Hyuga Hiashi?"
That sentence was the only, and ultimately the point of vulnerability, that Naruto found after analyzing all of Neji's emotional data through the system.
It is the cornerstone of his "theory of destiny".
It was also the root of all his resentment.
boom!
Neji, who was experiencing the terror of being frozen, felt his entire brain explode.
Those words touched the deepest part of his heart, a forbidden zone that even he dared not touch, yet which tormented him repeatedly in countless nights.
"Kumogakure demanded that the murderer of their leader be handed over, namely Hyuga Hiashi.However, in order to protect themselves and quell the incident, the main family forced your father, who was from the branch family and looked just like Hiashi, to be the scapegoat."
"He didn't die protecting anyone."
"He was treated as a tool by the main family he swore to protect, an object that could be discarded at will, and pushed out to die."
"This is your father's 'fate.' A tragic script with a pre-written ending."
Naruto processed this information into the coldest, cruelest words, carving each one into Neji's soul.
Neji Hyuga's body began to convulse violently.
In his empty eyes, first a raging anger surged, then an uncontrollable sadness, and finally, all emotions transformed into a dark despair that could devour everything.
His long-held belief that "his father made a great sacrifice for the clan"—the very foundation upon which all his pride and resentment rested—was ruthlessly and utterly shattered at this moment.
The truth is so unbearable and ugly.
His father did not die of fate, but of the selfishness and cruelty of the main family.
His hatred was directed at the wrong person.
His insistence became a huge joke.
"ah..."
A hoarse, mournful cry, not like a human voice, was squeezed out from deep within his throat.
On the platform, Hyuga Hiashi, who had maintained the dignity of the main family, suddenly shuddered, his hands under his wide sleeves gripping the armrests of his chair tightly.
He didn't know what Naruto said, but he saw Neji's completely broken expression.
A secret that the Hyuga family had kept hidden for over a decade seemed to have been revealed by this boy in a way that he couldn't comprehend.
[Ding!You have received 15,000 units of ultimate [Despair] from Hyuga Neji!]
[Ding!You have received 12,000 units of ultimate [Sadness] from Hyuga Neji!]
[Ding!You have received 11,000 units of ultimate [Rage] from Hyuga Neji!]
[Ding!You have received 8000 Ultimate [Awakening] from Hyuga Neji!]
[Shadow Points +38000!Glory Points +8000!]
Naruto stared at the numbers flashing wildly on the system panel, his heart completely unmoved.
Harvesting complete.
He looked at the boy curled up on the ground, whimpering like a wild beast, and knew the time had come.
Naruto suppressed all his killing intent and chilling aura, and the oppressive pressure that had made it hard to breathe disappeared without a trace.
He spoke slowly in a calm voice, yet one that contained a strange power.
"Your hatred, your resentment, your fate are all your own choice."
"You can choose to continue wallowing in this preordained resentment until you are consumed by it."
"You can also choose.to change."
The voice offered no sympathy or consolation; it simply stated a fact and offered an option.
Hyuga Neji, who was struggling in extreme pain, suddenly stiffened.
He slowly, with difficulty, raised his head.
He looked at the orange figure standing above him.
Sunlight shone from behind Naruto, giving him a golden outline that obscured his face.
But in Neji's Byakugan,What he saw was a completely different scene.
From this person, he saw for the first time a radiance that transcended bloodline, rules, and "fate," a radiance called "choice" and "freedom."
The light was so dazzling and so powerful that it allowed a ray of light to shine into his heart, which was filled with resentment and despair, for the first time.
Naruto extended a hand to him.
That hand had just shattered all his pride and beliefs.
Neji stared at the hand hovering above him, remaining silent for a very long time.
Finally, with the last bit of strength in his body, he raised his trembling hand and grasped it.
Cold and warm, two hands clasped together.
He was defeated, utterly defeated.
But in the tug-of-war between that cold truth and this warmth, his heart seemed to find some kind of twisted yet real redemption.
Naruto exerted his strength and pulled him up from the cold ground.
"Match over!Winner: Naruto Uzumaki!"
The examiner, Genma Shiranui, finally broke the deathly silence with his voice.
However, the entire arena remained completely silent.
Tens of thousands of spectators fell into an eerie silence.
What they witnessed was more than just a battle between genin.
What they witnessed was a brutal public debate about "fate" versus "will".
Naruto Uzumaki, with an overwhelming power they could not comprehend and even more cruel words, completely crushed the once-in-a-century genius of the Hyuga clan, and then personally pulled him back from hell.
On the highest platform, Hiruzen Sarutobi put down his pipe and looked at the calmly standing boy in the center of the arena.
For the first time, genuine and undisguised fear appeared on that aged face.
And a trace of fear, which even he himself was unaware of.
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