Neji Hyuga

Neji Hyuga is a male anime and manga character who features in Naruto.

Biography

Origin

Neji Hyuga (日向 ネジ, Hyūga Neji) was a male human of the Hyūga clan (日向一族, Hyūga Ichizoku) born in the village of Konohagukare in the Ninja World. He was born the son of Hizashi Hyūga who was the younger twin brother of Hiashi Hyūga who was Neji's uncle. Despite being a twin, his father being born after his uncle meant that he was relegated to living with the branch family due to his birth. The members of the branch house were expected to protect the main family with their lives to prevent the Byakugan from being stolen from them and were branded with a curse mark to ensure their loyalty. On Hinata Hyuga's third birthday, it was expected that the young of the branch family to be branded with the Cursed Seal on their forehead to ensure their complete loyalty and obedience to the main branch of the Hyuga clan. Initially, Neji was keen to serve though he came to notice the treatment the main family had to the branch family when in one incident the cursed seal was used against his father. During this time, there was a noted peace treaty that was signed with Kumogakure that ended a period of hostilities among the two villages. However, the cloud ninja representative under the cover of night looked to acquire the Byakugan for his village by kidnapping Hinata Hyuga. The kidnapper was confronted by Hiashi Hyuga and killed with this creating a diplomatic incident between the two villages. The cloud ninja were enraged at the death of their own with the leadership of Konohagukare in a desperate bid to maintain the peace that the loss of life could only be answered with the death of one of their shinobi. Thus, they decided that the ninja responsible for the killing had to commit ritual suicide in order to placate Kumogakure. Hiasha Hyuga was expected to had killed himself but he was substituted for Neji's father Hizashi leading to his death in order to maintain the leadership of the main house of the Hyuga clan. The death of his father led to Neji hating the main family as he blamed them for Hizashi Hyuga's death and led to him adopting a fatalistic view on life.

When he graduated from the Academy at the top of his class he was added to Team Guy, where his philosophy placed him at odds with one of his teammates, Rock Lee: Lee wanted to become a great ninja despite his limitations, which Neji believed was impossible. Tenten was easily impressed by Neji, but Lee became determined to defeat Neji in a fight to prove him wrong. Their instructor, Might Guy, encouraged this, believing competition and the drive to succeed would push them to new heights.

Naruto

After being held back from entering the Chūnin Exams the year before in order to hone their skills, Team Guy takes part in the Chūnin Exams occurring in Konoha. Neji, Tenten, and Rock Lee decide to try and avoid drawing attention to themselves so that the other competitors will not team up against them, something they accomplish by allowing themselves to be bullied and acting defenceless when they are. During the first exam, Neji uses his Byakugan to copy off of other examinees' tests. After they pass to the second stage, taking place in the Forest of Death, Team Guy splits up to search for weak, rival teams that they can take one of the scrolls they need from. Neji comes across Team 10 during his search who, although he's isn't willing to pretend he doesn't know where they're hiding, he decides are too weak for him to bother with. When he returns to Team Guy's rendezvous point, he and Tenten find that Lee is uncharacteristically late. They go looking for him and find he's been defeated by Team Dosu. Neji prepares to fight them, confident he can beat them, but decides to let Sasuke Uchiha fight them instead after he senses Sasuke's chakra. Sasuke drives Team Dosu off and, while Tenten collects Lee, Neji observes Sasuke, intrigued by his skills. Team Guy completes the second test, but in order to qualify for the finals they must take part in one-on-one preliminary matches. Neji observes the early matches to learn about people he may face in the finals before he is finally matched against Hinata Hyūga. Neji, who previously promised to Might Guy that he would not take any actions against Hinata during the exams, encourages Hinata to give up not only the match but also the life of a ninja, citing her meek personality and her lack of talent. His piercing analysis of her brings Hinata to tears, but she is motivated to continue by the encouragement of Naruto Uzumaki. In their first exchange of Gentle Fist-blows, Neji seals her tenketsu, causing her attacks to have no effect on him.

Afterwards, he was with Rock Lee in helping him during his injury and time for recovery. Around this time, newly appointed Chunnin Shikamaru Nara had chosen Neji to join his team that had been assigned by the Hokage to go out and retrieve Sasuke Uchiha after he had decided to align himself with Orochimaru. Rock Lee bade Neji to depart on the mission that were quickly assembled where they went out of the village to track down the sound ninja that were taking Sasuke back to their home. Neji's Byakugan proved to be a valuable skill used by the team as they went out to follow the elite Sound Four (音隠れの忍四人衆, Otogakure no Shinobi Yonin Shū, English TV: Sound Ninja Four, Literally meaning: Hidden Sound Shinobi Four People).

Overview

Personality and attributes

Originally, Neji was shown as being a kind child who held no animosity to the main family and in fact was keen to serve. This changed though when his uncle took him to the main family home and he witnessed the treatment done to his father using the curse mark. The event sparked anger in Neji who resented the treatment of his family but he remained loyal to them.

After his father's death, Neji came to be a cold individual who had a strong belief in elitism. He felt that people could not change their fate and were destined for roles. Thus, he felt that natural skill and talent outweighed training with people unable to rise above their station.

Due to his talent, he grew to be somewhat arrogant and vain with this causing friction with his teammate Rock Lee. In time, he came to respect Lee for his abilities and power though this was not something he shared with others. To others, he often disrespected them and even called them failures.

After Naruto defeats him and he finds out the truth behind his fathers death he begins to be kinder to others, however he still remains aloof and distant. He also tries to remedy the estranged relations between himself and the members of the main house, resulting in his training with the leader of the main house.

Powers and abilities

As a member of the Hyuga clan, Neji was born with the Byakugan (白眼, Literally meaning: White Eye, Meaning (Viz): All Seeing White Eye) kekkei genkai dōjutsu visual trait that was common among them. This visual trait allowed him to achieve 360 degree vision and allowed him to see all around him making it difficult for him to be ambushed. The eyes also allowed him to see with greater clarity and detail where he was able to see through things, see things that were far away and to see the chakra network within the body. This included seeing the 361 tenketsu that ran along the chakra pathway system allowing him to target it using his taijutsu. Whilst a powerful visual dojutsu, there were certain things that the Byakugan was not able to discern. For example, he was unable to determine the real Naruto Uzumaki from his shadow clones as the ninja had distributed his chakra among his duplicates equally.

He was trained in the unique taijutsu style that was taught to the members of the Hyuga clan. Neji was noted for being gifted as he came to learn combat techniques by simply observing the way members of the main family moved in order to learn their techniques. Neji came to learn the Gentle First fighting style and was proficient in its use in combat. Such was his talent that he could generate chakra from several points from his body that was a skill that even jonin were not capable of accomplishing. Thus, it was noted that this was an ultimate defence that was even greater than Gaara.

Neji knew several fighting techniques that included:

• Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms (八卦六十四掌­, Hakke Rokujūyon Shō) : the secret technique of the Hyuga clan that was traditionally taught to the head of the main family though Neji came to learn it by observing them. It involved delivering a series of strikes that targeted the 64 tenketsu. Upon being struck, those areas were subsequently blocked which stopped the flow of chakra to the body of his foe making it difficult for them to move. This effectively allowed him to remove his opponents ability to use chakra for their Ninjutsu and Genjutsu.
• Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven (八卦掌回天­, Hakkeshō Kaiten) : before an attack struck, Neji emitted chakra from all across his body's tenketsu in order to block it whereupon he spun rapidly and repelled the attack along with anything in the vicinity. This resulted in a protective shield being formed from the spin and remained as long as he continued the technique. It was said that the greater force of the attack than the greater the force that was repelled by it. It was made to compensate for the Byakugan's blind spot.
• Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm (八卦空掌­, Hakke Kūshō) : Neji came to learn this technique after the time skip that allowed him to attack a foe from a distance. Using his Byakugan, he precisely pinpointed his foe's vital points and released a high-speed palm thrust that created a compressed vacuum shell from the Gentle Fist that struck hose locations from a distance. This could lead to the target being blown off their feet with tremendous force before they could notice being hit.

The members of the branch family were branded with a curse mark designed to ensure their loyalty. This allowed the main family to force their cooperation by inducing terrible pain that was felt in the brain.

Notes

• Neji Hyuga was created by Masashi Kishimoto where he featured in the setting of Naruto.

Appearances

• Naruto:

External Links

• Naruto Wiki Entry
• Comicvine Entry

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