Upto 30 Advanced Chapters @patreon.com/aizenDuchiha0
~~
The Uchiha was coming.
He could see the chakra signature approaching... swift, purposeful, and laced with lethal intent. Every footfall was calculated, as if the shinobi were dancing with death. But Neji was ready. The Eight Trigrams: Thousand Needle Rain technique, The Lost Forbidden technique, had only recently been mastered, and even now, it was incomplete... restricted. He could only stretch the chakra threads up to fifty centimeters from any tenketsu.
But that should be enough. Just barely.
He flicked his gaze toward the thread that extended from the tenketsu on the back of his left calf. The silken line shimmered faintly, almost invisible even to a trained eye. Attached to the end of it, tucked behind a mossy outcrop, was a paper bomb.
A single twitch, and he could move it. A twitch like the one he just made.
He winced. Moving the thread burned. His tenketsu screamed in protest... as if each fiber of chakra sliced into his nerves. He swallowed the pain.
The Uchiha... a dark-haired blur in the branches... moved with terrifying speed. Neji counted three kunai in hand, one already drawn back to throw. But he didn't see the wire. Not yet. He didn't know about the paper bomb.
Neji remained still. A bead of sweat trickled down his temple.
Then it happened... the Uchiha's eyes flickered downward. The Sharingan rotated.
He'd noticed.
Just barely, the muscle in Neji's leg had twitched. And the Uchiha saw it. He didn't know what it meant, not exactly... but instinct screamed that something was wrong.
He shifted his trajectory mid-leap... but too late.
His foot landed inches from the paper bomb.
And Neji twitched the thread.
BOOM!
The paper bomb ignited with a deafening roar. Fire and smoke blasted outward in a cone of searing heat. Bark and leaf matter were shredded instantly. The shockwave cracked the nearby tree limbs and sent a murder of crows shrieking into the dusk.
Neji didn't escape unscathed.
The explosion had erupted faster than he'd anticipated. Even with the minimal thread length, the force reached him.
He was hurled backwards, like a ragdoll caught in a hurricane. His left arm twisted midair, scorched by the heat. He struck the ground hard, rolling down a steep incline littered with roots and jagged stones.
Pain exploded in his shoulder. Something popped. He tasted blood.
He bit down to silence the scream, the agony flaring white-hot through his nerves. His hand... his left... was ruined. Burnt black and raw. Skin blistered and muscle exposed in patches like warped meat.
The smoke clung to the trees, thick and choking. Vision blurred. Sound rang as a constant high-pitched whine in his ears.
But Neji forced himself to move.
He couldn't be found now.
He vanished into the underbrush, blending with the charred shadows. His breathing ragged, his vision wobbling, he began pulling chakra into his feet to suppress his trail. Each step was agony, but he kept low, using what was left of his strength to hide.
The Uchiha, meanwhile, had barely avoided death.
The instant his foot touched the wire, he'd Body Flickered... a blur of motion just fast enough to remove himself from the epicenter.
But not entirely.
The shockwave caught him mid-air. The blast slapped him like a hammer, knocking the wind from his lungs. His flak vest scorched at the edges. A kunai melted in its holster. He flew backward and smashed against the branch of a tree, grunting in pain.
Now, as the smoke cleared, he stood on that branch... coughing, blood dribbling from his lower lip.
"Damn... Hyuga bastard..." he muttered, scanning below. But the trail was gone. Not even the Sharingan could see through the lingering smoke. Neji had vanished.
The Uchiha's gaze darted. His muscles trembled. Breathing labored.
He was impressed.
And furious.
Neji collapsed behind a crumbled boulder, his right hand trembling as he sealed off the chakra bleeding from his injuries. He tore a strip of cloth from his tunic with his teeth and wrapped his burnt hand. Each wrap was a scream he couldn't voice. Each knot tied with a shaking right hand that barely obeyed him.
But he couldn't stop. He was still too close.
He pressed his back against the stone, focusing on lowering his chakra signature. He poured effort into suppressing it, forcing the swirling mass of pain and fury in his tenketsu to still.
He needed time. Just five minutes. Enough to recover, to reassess.
Blood dripped from his lip. He bit down harder.
His Byakugan blinked to life again... and he scanned.
The Uchiha hadn't moved. He was still on the branch, scanning.
Not good.
If he stayed much longer, he'd be found. His only chance was to wait until the Uchiha assumed he was dead or gone.
Another pang of agony in his arm. It felt like his bones had melted.
He cursed softly. He blinked again, tracking the Uchiha's every movement.
The Uchiha finally descended. Carefully. He was cautious now, eyes sharp. Sharingan spinning in anticipation.
He landed where the paper bomb had exploded. Kneeling, fingers brushing the soot-stained ground.
There was blood. But it was everywhere... the blast had scattered evidence in all directions.
He hissed. "Where are you, Hyuga Kid...?"
He stood, turning slowly.
Neji, even as pain tried to drag him unconscious, made his move. He released another thread... this one from a tenketsu in his right thigh. It barely extended thirty centimeters. But it was enough.
It looped toward a nearby dead branch, weak and ready to snap.
A gentle pull. The branch creaked.
The Uchiha's head whipped toward the sound.
Neji slid in the opposite direction... slinking deeper into the ravine.
Minutes passed. Then more.
Then it happened.