Neji Hyūga (日向ネジ, Hyūga Neji) is a branch member of the Hyūga clan. Throughout Part I, Neji is widely considered to be the most talented Genin in Konohagakure. He is a natural genius, surpassing those of the main branch, which he bitterly resented. When Neji is first introduced, he has an air of superiority about him, strongly believing that everyone is resigned to their fate and that strength is pre-determined. However, after battling with Naruto Uzumaki, Neji finally changes his outlook on the world.
Neji has a large knowledge of his Byakugan, a bloodline limit Kekkei Genkai that allows its user to have an unobstructed view of the world around him (an almost 360 degree vision with in Part I a 50m radius and in Part II a 1000m radius). It can see through any solid object and can see the chakra points of a person, and using his Gentle Fist, a style that pushes chakra out of ones hand, can effectively control the flow of chakra within a foe. After the Preliminaries of the Chunin Exams, he learned in the period of one month Eight Trigrams Palms Heavenly Spin, a technique where one ejects chakra out of several of their chakra points and spins like a top, creating a barrier of impenetrable chakra around ones body.
Background[]
Not much is known about Neji's birth. After his cousin Hinata from the main branch had her 3rd birthday, Neji was taken by Hiashi Hyūga and had the Hyūga Main Family's Juinjutsu applied to his forehead. After seeing his father being punished for merely thinking about treachery, Neji began to see himself as a helpless "caged bird," forced to obey the main branch of the family. Around this time, his father had begun to see Neji's natural talent. After his father's sacrificed himself for the main family, Neji mistakenly believed that the main branch had forced him to do so, and the event became the primary basis of his grudge against the main branch.
A year before the start of the series, Neji graduated at the top of his class, and was placed in Team Guy with Might Guy as the Jonin leader, and Rock Lee and Tenten as his teammates. After officially being promoted to Genin, Neji declined to reveal his dream, and laughed at Rock Lee for claiming that he could become a great ninja with just taijutsu. During their first year in Team Guy, Lee challenged Neji many times, but lost every time. Guy decided to have his team wait a year before taking the Chūnin Exams in order to ensure that they were prepared. At some point before his first Chūnin Exam, his animosity toward the main branch became apparent to Guy, who made him promise not to let the issue influence his feelings during the exam.
Personality[]
Outside of his initial feelings towards his clan, Neji has shown to be extremely mature for his age and has great self-control. In battle, he is able to stay relatively calm in most situations and carefully look at the situation at hand. As stated by Tsunade, Neji has excellent instincts, both on the battlefield and as a leader. When forced to make difficult decisions on missions, he shows himself able to make a decision through keen observation and analysis.
While under the belief that his father died because he was a member of the branch house, Neji concludes that fate is something decided at birth and that no matter what one does, people cannot escape their destiny. Neji often applies this to people he views as weaker than he is, particularly his teammate Lee and his cousin Hinata Hyūga. He dismisses Lee's dream of becoming a great ninja despite his inability to mould chakra as hopeless, and suggests that Lee can never defeat him. As they grow as a team, he takes account to Lee's abilities and has faith in him. Still his ideals remained unchanged.
During his match in the Chunin Exams, he tells Hinata that she is unfit to be a ninja due to being too kind and not confident enough. When she is eventually able to turn his philosophy against him, telling him that she believes that he is suffering from trying to become worthy of the main house despite his being born into the branch family, Neji becomes enraged and attempts to attack Hinata. However, he is stopped by multiple Jonin before he can land a blow that would have almost certainly killed her. While Hinata is left near death after the battle, Neji's only concern is that he could not complete his attack, and he accuses the Jonin of giving special treatment to the head family members. He disregards Hinata's personal growth in the match, concluding that because she was defeated, "a failure will always be a failure."
Neji displays similar efforts to condescend others during his match with Naruto Uzumaki who, despite being repeatedly struck down, continues to try and fight him. While Neji tries to show Naruto that fate cannot be fought and that someone who is weak will always remain weak, Naruto is unwilling to accept this mindset, arguing that Neji, for all his belief in fate, has not accepted his own destiny. Naruto taps into the power of the demon fox sealed within him and fights Neji, regaining his access to his chakra. Using a shadow clone to feign defeat, Naruto surprises and defeats Neji, suggesting that if a "failure" like himself can change his destiny, a "genius" like Neji can, too.
Neji and Lee also become good friends over the timeskip. Apart from his seemingly serious exterior, Neji is not above teasing Lee lightly. Tenten and Neji are usually shown together due to the fact that Lee and Gai act like best friends and do not worry about them much.
With this example of overcoming "destiny" as well as finding out the truth about his father's death soon afterwards, Neji abandons the concept of inescapable fate. No longer bound by the idea that he is stuck at his current status, Neji resolves to become strong enough to never again lose a battle. To do so he begins putting more emphasis on working well with his team, and starts to value a mission's successful completion and his teammates' safety over his own betterment, even encouraging Rock Lee to continue pursuing his own dream. In addition, Neji begins trying to remedy the estranged relations between himself and the main house members, most particularly by being kinder to Hinata. His efforts seem to be effective, as he begins training with Hiashi and in Part II even starts to wear traditional Hyūga robes. As another result of his loss against Naruto, Neji no longer thinks of people as failures who can never change, as he suggests that he would not have persevered in Lee's situation, and believes that if Lee works hard enough, he can surpass the gifted. Neji is glad Naruto was able to influence him to change his outlook on the world and make him stronger in a way.
Part I[]
Chunin Exams[]
Neji first met Team 7 in the exam hallway, demanding to know who Sasuke is and acting somewhat condescendingly toward him. He obtained the answers to the first phase of the test by using his Byakugan to read other examinees' tests by seeing through the person's body.
When the team went into the Forest of Death, Neji and his team had to gather either a heaven or an earth scroll and make it to the center tower in a week. They spent around a day or so gathering food. At about the second or third day into the second part, Neij proved himself as a leader by ordering the team to find suitable targets, but to come back at their meeting place even if they do. Lee went off and he found Team 7, and defended the disabled team from the Sound genin. When Neji and Tenten met back to report, Lee had not returned. They quickly went after Lee and found the taijutsu expert wounded. Though Neji was angered, threatening the Sound genin and turning on his Byakugan, they refrained from entering the fight, since Sasuke was about to enter the first stage of the cursed seal. Once they recovered the wounded Lee, Neji's team left the scene, and they managed to pass the second part some time afterward.
To decrease the number of genin participating the the exam finals, one-on-one matches were organized to eliminate the weaker Genin. Neji was paired up against Hinata. His attitude toward Hinata angered Naruto, who cheered for the kunoichi. Although Hinata seemed to defeat Neji, Neji revealed to Hinata that he has plugged off Hinata's chakra points, rendering her Gentle Fist useless. He also hit a chakra point close to one of Hinata's vitals moments before, putting Hinata in critical condition. However, Hinata refused to back down, insisting that Neji, not she, was fighting against what could not be changed. Neji was about to administer a killing blow when the jonin Kakashi Hatake, Hayate, Kurenai, and Might Guy stepped in to save the wounded shinobi. After the fight, Naruto swiped up some of Hinata's blood, which she had coughed up due to the damage near her vitals, and sweared to defeat Neji. Neji also told Naruto to give up, since there was no way for him to defeat the Hyuga, using "fate" as his reasoning. During Lee's match with Gaara, Neji was amazed by the power Lee released by opening his chakra gates, but after witnessing Lee's injuries end his career at a ninja, thought that Lee was foolish to try to win by using such a self-sacrificial method.
Neji was pitted against Naruto in the first rounds of the finals. Although Neji soon gained the advantage and cut off Naruto's chakra flow, Naruto was determined to fight against Neji, inspired by Hinata and Lee's bravery and angered by the way Neji belittled and almost killed Hinata. Naruto tapped into the power of the nine-tailed fox, and was able to keep up with Neji for a time. Neji's Heavenly Spin protected him from Naruto's attacks, but when he approached a supposedly defeated Naruto, Naruto popped out of a tunnel he dug in the ground, and uppercut Neji in the jaw, defeating him.
Neji was angry with himself for falling for Naruto's signature technique, but Naruto revealed that the technique used to be his worst one, and that he only became good at it through practice. Neji then heard of his father's fate from his uncle, and broke down in tears. When Hiashi bowed before Neji in forgiveness, Neji asks him to rise, and forgave him. Neji then silently told his father that wished to change his destiny just like he did, and that he hoped to never lose again.
Sasuke Retrieval arc[]
Neji was recruited as part of the five-man team to retrieve Sasuke from the Sound Four on Lee's recommendation. In the anime he was recruited at Konoha's park while having a morning talk with Lee, who had just gotten his operation and Neji helped Lee down the steps and then they learned about the mission. Neji, sensing Lee's disappointment that he couldn't go, told his teammate to do what he has to do. Shikamaru assigned Neji the hardest task of the single line in taking the rear guard, watching the back with his Byakugan. After Choji's fight with Jirobo, Neji's opponent was Kidomaru, who was able to analyze his defenses and find the blind spot in his Byakugan. Neji realized that Kidomaru was far more powerful than he was, and that he was in the same situation that Lee, Hinata and Naruto had been in. Neji was determined never to give up, though, as he wanted to show those who considered him a genius that their faith in him was correct, and to prove that he no longer surrendered to fate. Neji was severely wounded when Kidomaru converted his cursed seal mark to level 2, allowing him to fire arrows at impossibly fast speeds. The arrow was connected to a string, which was directly controlled by Kidomaru. Neji initially tried to avoid the arrows, but after being impaled once and sliced on the cheek he allowed himself to be hit, and channeled chakra through the web attached to the last one, severely injuring Kidomaru. He then caught and struck Kidomaru repeatedly with Gentle Fist, mortally wounding him. Despite Kidomaru's dying words that Sasuke had fallen to darkness, Neji was confident that Naruto could make him see reason the same way he had done for him. Although he was near death after the battle, he was saved with the help of Shizune and other medical ninja.
Filler arcs[]
In the filler arcs, it was shown that Neji's relationship with the main house was improving. He was commonly shown being trained by his uncle Hiashi, and was kinder and more polite to Hinata, sparring with her shortly before Naruto leaves.
Neji was commonly the team leader for Team Guy when Guy was absent, and was more cautious and pragmatic than Naruto was. This was especially seen in the Hidden Star Village arc, in which Neji suggested that he and the others should concern themselves with finding the star, rather than with the potential dangers the star training has to the children. When the villagers confronted Akahoshi, Neji initially refuses to get involved, and when Naruto attacked Akahoshi after Akahoshi disabled Naruto's teammates with an attack, he told Naruto that he would deny knowing anything about what Naruto did, unwilling to betray the client and erode people's trust in Leaf ninja. Despite saying this, when Tsunade reprimanded the group for Naruto's destroying the star to defeat Akahoshi, Neji accepted responsibility as team leader, before Tsunade reveals that as Akahoshi was the client, no one will complain about their failling the mission. In the Menma arc, he suspected that Menma is a Sound ninja, and while testing the theory, learned of Menma's incredible speed. His suspicions were confirmed in part when it is revealed that Menma is part of a bandit clan, but Menma remained on Naruto's side and sacrifices himself to save a town from bandits. In the Raiga arc, he had been shown in a more comical light; while he was unconscious, Tenten attempted to wake him up by feeding him the Curry of Life twice but, due to his low tolerance towards spicy food, he only freaked out after eating it and fell unconscious again. Later in the arc he joined Naruto and Tenten in a comedic pose when they were offered more Spicy Curry, quickly grabbing Lee with Naruto when he said that the curry looked tasty and ran back to Konoha.
Part II[]
Over the timeskip, Neji retook the Chunin Exam and passed, and later was promoted to Jonin rank, being the only genin from Konoha to achieve this during the timeskip. He made his first appearance when Tsunade requests that Team Guy travel to Land of Wind to aid Team Kakashi
Rescue Gaara arc[]
During their traveling the team was met by Pakkun who redirected them to the Akatsuki hideout in the land of river, however when Zetsu saw them, they were quickly encountered by Kisame Hoshigaki, who was later revealed to be a clone, due to Pain's impersonation technique.
During Team Guy's battle with Kisame's clone, Neji was successful in freeing himself, Tenten, and Lee from Kisame's water prisons. Neji looked into the Akatsuki base, seeing a statue, then says that he couldn't explain what was happening inside. He then found four out of the five seals with his Byakugan. While Naruto and Kakashi pursued Deidara, Chiyo and Sakura fought Sasori, Neji fought a clone of himself, created by his removing the seals to the Akatsuki hideout.
In the anime, Lee realized that the clones do not tire and the only way to defeat them is to become stronger. Neji recalled that Team Guy's goal was to constantly become stronger, and noted that he would not simply be content with being a Jonin. He defeated his clone with a point blank range version of Eight Trigrams Empty Palm and chased after Deidara with his team. When Deidara's clay clone (unknown to Neji) was about to perform Suicide Bombing Clone he warned to everyone else to run away. When Chiyo did One's Own Life Reincarnation, Neji noticed its abilities with his Byakugan. Later, when the mission was over, Guy carried a weakened Kakashi on their way back to Konoha by piggyback. Observing this Lee tried to convince Neji to ride on Lee's back, believing it to be a training exercise, and Neji angrily refused.
Invasion of Pain[]
During the invasion Team Guy had been completing a mission. On their way back Tenten stops the group, telling them that they should have a break, when Guy stated that he noticed that birds were flying away from Konoha, as if they were escaping something. Neji admitted that he "has a bad feeling" and that they should go back to Konoha right away, much to Tenten's dismay. Later, Neji found Gamabunta with his Byakugan and reported it to the rest of the team.
Abilities[]
Despite his young age, Neji has been held to be a natural genius, even becoming the top-ranked rookie in his class. His uncle has even stated that his talent and potential surpasses all other members of their clan.
Byakugan[]
As a member of the Hyūga clan, Neji possesses the Byakugan, which gives him an almost 360-degree field of vision, except for a small blindspot at the back of the neck. Neji is acutely aware of his blind spot and takes extra caution in keeping it away from opponents as well as paying close attention to it. While the Byakugan naturally has only a 50 meter field of vision, Neji is able to increase the range of its sight several times over by the start of Part II, to around 1000 meters. He is noted to have a particularly strong Byakugan in comparison to other members of the Hyuga clan, perhaps even surpassing them all. The vision of his Byakugan is such that he can instantly detect multiple targets without any difficulty and then detect the source of the target with the colour of his vision changing in correspondence, from black and white, like the rest of his clan to red and white, being able to see things on an infrared scale with the slightest of ease, something thought to be impossible without having mastery of the Byakugan.
Gentle Fist Taijutsu[]
Neji's Byakugan also allows him to specialize in the Gentle Fist fighting style, which he has mastered to the point he can damage an opponent's chakra pathway system and inner organs directly with even a slight tap. Also through his mastery of the Gentle Fist, his chakra control is great enough to render a person unconscious with a simple poke to the head and unleash chakra from any and all chakra points in his body whereas most ninja can only unleash chakra through their hands or feet. His skill in taijutsu is so great, he can easily fend off attacks from several opponents at once as demonstrated during his battle against Naruto and his clones. Showing very fast reflexes as he is hardly ever hit in battle and able to dodge attacks coming from almost every direction (like in his fight with Kidomaru). Neji has also show amazing striking speed allowing him to rapidly strike his opponent while also shutting down their chakra system. Neji also uses this technique to attack his opponents heart directly and send them into cardiac arrest resulting in the death of the opponent with but a single strike. As a user of the Gentle Fist, Neji can eject chakra from any chakra point in his body to either slow down objects or release himself from chakra based substances that will get him out of trapped situations. His strength and brutality in this area are such that three Jonin — Might Guy, Kakashi Hatake, and Kurenai Yuhi— in addition to exam proctor Hayate, felt the need to intervene when he was on the verge of killing Hinata during the Chunin exams.
Advanced Gentle Fist Techniques[]
As a member of the Hyūga clan's branch house, Neji is forbidden to learn the clan's secret techniques, but has managed to deduce their workings simply through observation. And because of that he gain great chakra control able expel chakra from any part of his body. Since mastering these jutsu, Neji has begun to refine and strengthen them for more specialized needs. He has learned many of these techniques, such as Eight Trigrams Palms Heavenly Spin. In the anime, the fruits of his efforts are first seen during the Sasuke Retrieval arc where he uses Eight Trigrams One Hundred Twenty-Eight Palms (八卦百二十八掌, Hakke Hyaku Nijūhachi Shō; ; ; ), essentially a doubled version of the Sixty-Four Palms technique, to strike numerous targets at once. In Part II he also learned the Eight Trigrams Empty Palm (八卦空掌, Hakke Kūshō; ; ; ), a more focused version of the Heavenly Spin, with which he can expel chakra from his palm to attack opponents out of his physical reach. In the Rescue Gaara arc, Neji also displays his ability when he uses Eight Trigrams Mountain Crusher which is essentially a version of the Eight Trigrams Empty Palm that is used at point blank range, to defeat his enemy. While most of the former Konoha Genin become Chunin over the timeskip, Neji is the only one to become a Jonin.
Tenseigan[]
"The sun went down as dusk fell upon the world, with the Hyūga clan's soulless eyes shining somewhat, as though they resembled the waning moon. Neji returned after a B-rank mission; sensing that everyone within the household was asleep, as he also felt that Hinata was also asleep after a hard day's worth of training, sleeping in her and Hanabi's room. As Neji went into their room wherein Hinata slept usually, he activated his eyes, causing veins to pulse grotesquely, seeing only Hinata sleeping as peacefully as a small bird, observing her chakra network remaining silent, as he shut the door as quickly as possible. 'Since Lady Hinata is asleep and after Lord Hiashi's words relating to my eyes... this has to be done. Forgive me, Lady Hinata!' Neji thought to himself as he slowly walked over to Hinata's limp body, whilst hearing strikes that were placed onto a wooden stump from Hanabi, his younger cousin. He then released his veins and formed his fingers into a claw-like motion, remembering when Hinata wore bandages after having strained her eyes due to intense training and gently placed his hands over her eyes and because she was sleeping, she could not feel it, only for her to get up. "Brother-!" She screamed only to have her voice muffled by his free hand as her left eye was first ripped out of her painfully; as Neji had stretched her eyelids' skin as her eyes had expanded in size where she could do nothing but watching her death occur at the hands of someone she thought she could trust. Her eyelids had seemingly stretched to their limit, as her optic nerves detached themselves, veins shot out of her eyes in pain and horror; the black veins of the Byakugan contrasted the red blood vessels of the Sharingan with the eyes now expanding in size seemingly to their utmost limit, her pupils being visible as the veins had stretched to their limits, with her vision slowly going hazy as tears seemingly shot down her face - as blood splattered over the bedroom floor; the optic nerves and veins spilling onto Neji's face, soon placing the left eye into his sleeve, glowing in the dark with the pupil looking more visible than ever, as he then calmly stared at her right eye, with it being active as Hinata looked horrified, seeing her cousin brutally and casually remove her eye, the most important thing to her as he smiled at her coldly. "Neji! Why would you do this?" She tried to say as she couldn't even hold her eye where it was removed as he then dangled her eye above her. 'I'll let your retinae see everything of the darkness.' He said to her softly as he watched her intently. 'As much as I'd like to watch you writhe in agony... I'd rather do this.' He said to her, dropping her pale, white eye onto her face, releasing ocular fluid on her eyelids as she looked saddened but horrified upon the realisation that Neji truly had not changed since the Exams as her right eye was still active, as he then ripped her left eye off of her face and placed it within his own eye socket, removing his left eye in a mocking manner as her right eye witnessed all of this, seeing Neji's left eye in her left socket. 'Now then... what shall we do with your other eye?' He asked her as tears streamed down her eyes, with blood and water coalescing on her face as he cleaned it up as both of her eyes activated themselves, seeing Neji with her eye in one of his sockets, as well as one of his own, as her veins had still shot out of her face; as her pupils expanded; forcing her eyes to bulge immensely, resembling a balloon. He then placed his finger into her left eye socket; as a loud crunching sound was something only she could hear, as her right eye turned to her left socket, seeing her hollow orb first-hand; as she also continually heard a squelching sound within her eye socket, as she continued to scream out in pain, but no-one else could hear her except Neji himself as he never damaged his own eyes to the point of her losing her sight; only for ocular fluid to spill down her face as she felt her optic nerves being either torn apart or destroyed. 'Neji... please... st-!" Hinata tried to say as she almost felt her other eye pop out of its socket due to her left eye's optic nerves being damaged as Neji still had his fingers shoved into her socket. 'Don't worry, Hinata. You'll still be able to see.' Neji said to her, as she failed to notice him bearing her sister's eyes within him, as she then saw her left eye seemingly being removed from her socket; as he then removed his fingers from her left socket, as her eyesockets began returning to their original form as her eyes continued to bleed as he cleaned it up, as she found that she could still see. 'As you can see... I am still in possession of your eye. But... even with one eye of mine... your vision will inevitably degrade due to the nature of the Caged Bird Seal within the eye's cellular makeup.' Neji calmly explained as her right eye was still active with all of its veins showing within her eyes and around them as he then removed his other eye from his right socket and then using Hinata's eye for vision, he ran his finger through Hinata's activated right eye as she screamed violently, her optic nerves shooting out of her eyeball as ocular fluid slowly showed itself through her vision, as the vitreus humour's jelly-like substance showed itself within her eye as the veins preemptively activated themselves as Neji's left eye within her skull looked at this scene in horror and great shock as she also continually heard a squelching sound within her eye socket, as she continued to scream out in pain, but no-one else could hear her except Neji himself, as her black orb was completely devoured by his finger, only for her eye to be violently ripped out of her socket as she screamed loudly. 'And then... Air Palm.' Neji calmly said as he ran through her right eye's now-vacant orb and used it on her, as she sensed immense internal damage. He then held her remaining eye, placed it in his hand and then removed his own right eye from its socket and then placed it within his sleeve, as he put Hinata's remaining eyeball into his skull, as her brain slowly fell apart due to the immense damage done by the Air Palm, ultimately forcing him to remove his own eye from her sockets as he did so, removing both of Hinata's eyes from his skull and then placing them into his other sleeve as he reimplanted his own eye back into its right socket, and then took his left eye and placed it back into its rightful place, as he then took Hinata's two eyes, put them into his other sleeve and then removed the ocular fluid from his hand and sleeve. 'Forgive me... Hinata.' He said to her, looking saddened as he walked out of the room, having destroyed her brain as Hanabi was still training, oblivious to anything going on. She had caused a great amount of damage to the wooden stump as Neji walked over to her, smiling at his younger cousin softly. 'It appears that you have been training hard! Let's see how much your eyes can see.' He said to her, as she looked cheerful yet surprised, readying herself in the Gentle Fist stance. 'Remember to be as quiet as possible because everyone, including your sister is asleep.' Neji said as Hanabi looked shocked, but still began to attack Neji with speed and power befitting of the Hyūga heiress, as upon stopping herself briefly, Neji began to attack with an assault of palm strikes to her arms and chest, as she could barely keep up. 'Eight Trigrams Air Palm!' Hanabi said to try and stop Neji's torrent of attacks as he found himself moving back with visible astonishment. 'My Byakugan are almost as great as yours!' She said to him, as she readied herself for an even greater assault. 'My arms are hurt... but I can still do this!' She thought to herself as she rushed towards him with full speed, attempting to stifle any of Neji's movements, as his veins popped out of his face; only for her to use the Hyūga's clan ultimate technique... with Neji inside. 'Eight Trigrams Revolving Heaven!!' She said, spinning around like a whirlwind as the area around her slowly became cratered with the wooden stump being the only witness, as inanimate as ever; feeling herself tire out. Neji looked at her in shock and smiled. 'That's amazing.' Neji said to her, as she looked visibly drained, where she could not even activate her veins. 'Hanabi, can I tell you a secret? Promise you won't tell anyone?' He asked as she nodded with a smile, as he removed his sleeve and showed two glowing orbs. 'These are your sister's eyes. She gave them to me... as a parting gift after a shinobi from the Land of Lightning came and stole them in an attempt to decipher the Byakugan's secrets. But I came in her room and killed him as quickly as possible using the Air Palm technique as she told me to remove her eyes from her eye sockets and place them to the point where no-one can see them.' He explained as his 11 year-old cousin looked tearful but remained strong, for her sister as they both walked over to her room as she saw her eyes; erected in blood and hollow. 'Elder Sis-!" She said as she hugged her now-deceased body with tears in her eyes. 'Its alright, calm down.' Neji said to her as he waited for her to stop crying, gently goading her on. 30 minutes thereafter, she calmed down as she turned around at Neji with complete conviction. 'Forgive me, Lady Hanabi.' He said to her as she looked quite surprised. 'Forgive you? For wh-?!" She asked with visible horror. In that split second, he grabbed her and used Air Palm with his free hand, sending her flying into the wall next to Hinata, forming his other hand's index and middle fingers into a claw, opening her eyes fully as veins shot out of Hanabi's face. Blood vessels shot violently out of her eyes, as she tried to do something, kicking her legs, only for her to have her eyes speared out as blood spilled onto the floor and on him with ocular fluid spurting onto his nails. 'Farewell... my cousin.' He thought to himself, sending her onto Hinata's corpse with their eyes removed. He then walked out of Hinata and Hanabi's room, and then walked out, placing her eyes into his other sleeve. 'Just know that your eyes will be used by someone far superior to you in every way.' Neji said coldly, as he pulled out his own eyes and placed both of Hinata's eyes into his vacant orbs and used green chakra to apply her eyes into his former black holes, as he saw everything Hinata could see. 'So you can see more than 10 kilometres. Now to place Hanabi's eyes...' Neji thought to himself as he then removed Hinata's eyes, leaving blood to spill out of his once-more hollow eyes in the form of tears. He then put Hanabi's eyes into his eye sockets, as he felt them coalescing with his own chakra. 'Now to place my own eye sockets back!' He then said as he did so, taking out Hanabi's eye sockets, feeling all three ocular chakras combine as he finally placed his own eyes back in his skull, and as a result of the implantation, he felt intense pain in his head, since now he bore their eyes within his head, resting in his own room. A day passed by as his formerly silver eyes became a greenish-blue, with the pupil now being visible in the form of a black orb that resembled a solar eclipse, with golden petal-like designs surrounding the irides of each of his eyes, with veins still active from the lower side of his face, staring in the mirror as he no longer felt any blindspots, for he had now awakened the Tenseigan in his original eyes' place. 'I have evolved my eyes? I must tell- No... actually, I'll let my eyes do the talking.' He thought to himself coyly, as he could seemingly switch between both at will. Shortly thereafter, he went over to his uncle and grandfather. 'What on earth happened to Hinata and Hanabi?' He asked, as his grandfather looked displeased, seeing the once light room dimly lit with a glazing of blood, veins and nerves strewn on the floor. 'Nothing, nothing. I want to show you something!' Neji said confidently, as they both looked surprised, seeing blood on his clothing. 'So it was you who had ki-?!" Hiashi said in horror as Neji rushed over and clawed at his uncle, snapping down twice spearing his eyes and removing his uncle's eyes from his eyesockets, to his grandfather's surprise and shock. 'So it was you. This must be done, on order of death!' He said, using the handseal that activated the Hyūga's Main Family Juinjutsu which never appeared to his disbelief. 'How?!' He asked as Neji smiled and gently removed his own eyes, revealing six eyes and outstretched his hand to his grandfather. 'You want to know how? I have evolved my eyes.' Neji explained calmly as his grandfather looked visibly amazed, knowing that this wasn't possible. 'Are you human?!' He asked as Neji smiled. 'Oh, I am human. A human now beyond the mere familial system that caged me and my father in this clan!' Neji exclaimed as the Elder moved backwards, as though he was ready for combat. 'If you want them, take them. But still... this is your fate!' Neji said as he placed his own eyes back into his skull with his hand turning green as that was all that the Elder saw afterwards; as he lay dead, with his eyes glazed with a colour of death over them, doing the same to every other Hyūga member, as blood spilled throughout the entire clan, permanently tainted. He then crushed their eyes, as he walked out of the Hyūga compound, never to be seen again."
The Byakugan[]
'Since Lady Hinata is asleep and after Lord Hiashi's words relating to my eyes... this has to be done. Forgive me, Lady Hinata!' Neji thought to himself as he slowly walked over to Hinata's limp body, whilst hearing strikes that were placed onto a wooden stump from Hanabi, his younger cousin. He then released his veins and formed his fingers into a claw-like motion, remembering when Hinata wore bandages after having strained her eyes due to intense training and gently placed his hands over her eyes and because she was sleeping, she could not feel it, only for her to get up. "Brother-!" She screamed only to have her voice muffled by his free hand as her left eye was first ripped out of her painfully; as Neji had stretched her eyelids' skin as her eyes had expanded in size where she could do nothing but watching her death occur at the hands of someone she thought she could trust. Her eyelids had seemingly stretched to their limit, as her optic nerves detached themselves, veins shot out of her eyes in pain and horror; the black veins of the Byakugan contrasted the red blood vessels of the Sharingan with the eyes now expanding in size seemingly to their utmost limit, her pupils being visible as the veins had stretched to their limits as it was torn out... only for Hinata to disappear from view. 'How did you do that?!' Neji asked with visible fear in his eyes as Hinata walked in front of him. 'Your ciliary body will slowly reveal itself with the cornea and iris as the muscle itself strains significantly. Because the vitreous humour has revealed itself to the point of inhumanity, the Byakugan's eye-shape is deformed since the vitreous allows the eye to maintain its shape. You can still release veins for blood flow, but your sight will be significantly limited. The light that you can detect passes through the dome shaped transparent front layer of the eye called the cornea, which helps to focus the light. Behind the cornea is a space called the anterior chamber, which is filled with a fluid called the aqueous humour, constantly produced by the ciliary body and drained from the eye to maintain a constant eye pressure with the Byakugan being inherently superior to a normal eye, as the amount of light perceived by the eye is virtually endless. Some of the light that passes through the cornea then enters the eye through an opening called the pupil. The size of the pupil, and the amount of light let in, are controlled by the coloured ring of tissue surrounding the pupil, called the iris. The light then passes through a transparent tissue called the lens, which fine-tunes the focusing of the light already done by the cornea onto the retina at the back of the eye. The ciliary muscles change the shape of the lens to help the eye focus on objects that are different distances away, which is through the Byakugan's pupils activating and allowing us to focus with immense clarity, which is seen through the irides. The retina is a layer of tissue that is sensitive to light, which lines the back of your eye. To get to the retina, the light passes through a jelly-like substance called vitreous humour. The ocular fluid I got from both of your eyes was some of the vitreous humour. Once the light reaches the retina, light sensing nerve cells, called photoreceptors, turn the light into electrical signals. There are two types of photoreceptors: rods, which perceive black and white and allow us to see when light levels are low, and cones, which provide central detailed vision. Cones are found primarily in a tiny, specialized part of the retina called the macula, which allows us to see in detail in the centre of our vision. Rods are found primarily in the peripheral retina, around the macula, which allows us to see with our peripheral (side) vision, but in less detail with the Byakugan's sight being significantly expanded. The electric signals created by the photoreceptor cells pass down the optic nerve, which is composed of millions of nerve fibres, to the visual cortex of our brain, where they are converted into the images we see. There is also the choroid which is contained by blood vessels.' She explained as Neji looked horrified.
'Please don't!' Neji pleaded with her as she began to open his eyes up, stretching his eyelids to their limits as veins shot out of his eyes in pain and horror; the black veins of the Byakugan contrasted the red blood vessels of the Sharingan with the eyes now expanding in size seemingly to their utmost limit, his pupils being visible as the veins had stretched to their limits; the fate that he placed onto Hinata was reflected onto him... as his eyes were finally ripped out. Death came to the one who deserved it most. Hinata then walked away calmly... as she could finally rest easy... knowing her nightmare was now over.
The Blind View of the White Eyes[]
(This is a twist on when Neji nearly killed Hinata in episode 390)
"As Neji was about to end me, my father, Hiashi activated the Caged Bird Seal on Neji, grabbing him and then placing his fingers outwards, sending him flying away from me as I looked terrified. Shortly thereafter, Neji screamed violently as he took him to where the clan in their vainglory was sitting with me looking in horror as I heard a terrifying pop and then a scream as liquid doused my father's hand. Neji's vision was completely red and black, for he was blind for good. "Father... Hinata! Do you want the same punishment?" I was asked as the Byakugan that Neji bore from birth were given to me as I was forced to crush them. I felt the whiteness turn to nothing but a gloopy liquid in my hands as the Byakugan looked like crushed cheese if anything. I begged for death as all I saw were two fingers pressed on my left and right side of my eyes as I screamed. Hanabi looked terrified as she saw Hinata's vision being completely destroyed as blood spilled onto her in horror. She saw the Byakugan being removed out of her sister's eye sockets and face for reasons she couldn't understand... as she was summoned inside only for multiple hands to grab her, ripping at her face as all she saw was black. Everyone began attacking each other as the Hyuga Elder was the only one left, witnessing the horrifying scene that lay in front of him: Byakugan strewn all over the floor as Hiruzen stared at him with great sadness as he walked away. Shortly afterwards, the corpse of the former clan leader lay to rest as Hiruzen shed a tear for his former comrade."
Sometime after Pain's assault, Neji realised that his ocular potential was stunted, believing that he had trained his Byakugan to its peak, but after some sparring with Hiashi, he explained that his eyes still needed more evolution. Despite his improved relationship with Hinata and Hanabi, whilst Hinata was sleeping, she had her eyes ripped out of her skull; but Hanabi had her eyes ripped out in her room, as Neji placed both of their eyes into his sockets, as the chakra coalesced into his eyes; and after a day, the Tenseigan awakened. When the Tenseigan is finally achieved, the ordinarily featureless white Byakugan gain blue pupils filled with what resemble overlapping golden flower petals. He can also activate veins that are commonly associated with the Byakugan, which allows him to see 360 degrees without difficulty.
He also can enter Tenseigan Chakra Mode, giving him so much chakra that not even 'Madara' could handle it, as well as the ability to fly. Although the Tenseigan Chakra Mode's power enables Neji to do extensive damage to the Earth's surface, the form itself is only limited by the amount of chakra within Neji's body; when this happens, he can switch his eyes back to his regular Byakugan or Hinata and Hanabi's Byakugan. He can also activate and use all of his Byakugan abilities to a significantly higher degree.
He can form his chakra into a golden sword that can cut planets or form into a large gust of wind that can casually wipe away villages after a few seconds of contact, with its full power being able to break through a village's foundations; and as demonstrated against his grandfather, he can turn his hand green using a technique called Localised Reincarnation Manipulation where he instantly absorbed his chakra to the point of death. When Neji activates this mode, he gains a cyan-coloured chakra shroud with six magatama markings on his collar, dark markings over his eyebrows and lower eyelids, and a single horn shaped like the Sage of the Six Paths' extending from his forehead, however, due to Neji's mastery of the Tenseigan, he lacks these features and can activate them at will. The shroud constantly radiates flickering flames of chakra, and his clothing and hair continuously billow upwards as if caught in a strong breeze.
Other Media[]
- Neji Hyūga is a common playable character in the Naruto video games series. He appears in 6 out of the seven games. Neji was also playable in the Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Series, appearing in all of the games and story mode.
- Neji appears in the Naruto Shippūden movie as the replacement of Hatake Kakashi. He leads a group composed of himself, Naruto, Lee and Sakura, on a mission to protect Shion. During the mission, he thanks to Lee's help, realizes that their opponents get their chakra from a certain source and defeats Kusuna to make the group helpless.
Trivia[]
- He likes fish soba, but he has low tolerance for spicy food and dislikes pumpkins.
- According to the latest Databook, Neji most wishes to fight Hiashi and Naruto.
- Neji is aware of Hinata's feelings for Naruto, and shortly before Naruto's departure, suggests that she see him off, showing that he approves of her feelings as well.
- Neji was ranked as the 8th most popular character in the sixth and most recent Naruto character popularity poll. He was 7th in the fifth poll and 6th in the fourth. 10th in the third poll and 13th in the second. He was 12th in the first poll. Ironically, Neji is gradually becoming more popular, while Rock Lee's ratings dropped drastically, even though Lee had more exposure than Neji in Parts l and ll.
- "Neji" means "screw", which might be referring to his Heavenly Spin. His name is one of the few known Hyuga names that does not feature a sun- or light-based theme, or begins with an "H".
- Neji+Tenten is a rather popular pairing. (Otherwise known as 'NejiTen')
Quotes[]
- "You're a failure."
- "It's your destiny to lose to me."
- "Do you understand now? You have no way of beating me!"
- "Because Naruto...you saved me from the darkness."
- "I have no blind spots."
- "Sasuke is in the darkness now. Naruto, you are the only one who can save him."
- "There is a reason I can not lose."
- "Naruto, your eyes are better than mine."
- "All this time I've been called a genius, so I can not lose."
- "Everyone, the rest I leave to you."
- "There were eight birds."
- (About Lee and Guy) "As usual, I can't keep up with their craziness."
- "The reason I protected you... is because you called me a genius."