Shikamaru extended his hand, giving Neji a firm fist bump. As their skin made contact, Shikamaru's shadow connected directly to Neji, binding them with a flexible shadow. As Neji began to sprint in a wide, rapid circle around Shikamaru, building immense centrifugal force. Shikamaru pivoted on his heel, absorbing the momentum, before spinning violently and launching Neji forward like a human missile directly toward Kakuzu like he used to throw Choji.
"Improvised Human Bullet Yo-Yo!" Shikamaru shouted, adapting the classic Ino-Shika-Cho formation on the fly to suit the current scenario
Neji tore through the air, closing the gap in a fraction of a second. Seeing the projectile approaching, Kakuzu molded his chakra, his skin instantly turning a metallic black.
"Earth Release: Earth Spear!"
Kakuzu drove his hardened, invulnerable fist straight toward the incoming Neji. Watching the fist grow larger in his vision, Neji panicked. "Damn it, how do I stop my momentum?"
Right before impact, the shadow bind around Neji's waist tightened violently. Shikamaru yanked Neji back with perfect timing, altering Neji's trajectory by inches. Kakuzu's fist struck empty air, his momentum thrown off balance.
Seizing the opening, Neji dropped his stance, his hands becoming a blur as he unleashed his ultimate close-quarters assault.
"Eight Trigrams One Hundred Twenty-Eight Palms!"
Strikes rained down upon Kakuzu's torso and limbs with terrifying speed, Neji aiming to shut down every single chakra pathway but as the final strike landed, Neji's heart sank. The feedback through his fingertips felt like striking solid bedrock.
Kakuzu hadn't budged. The dense hardened Earth chakra enveloped his skin, which completely mitigated the damage of the Gentle Fist, rendering the chakra strikes useless against his armor.
"I need to pierce through this," Neji thought, his mind racing as he leaped back to avoid a counterattack. "If only I could envelop my strikes with Lightning Release... But he had never practiced nature transformation."
~~
While Neji was locked in a life-or-death struggle against Kakuzu, Shikamaru found himself pushed to his absolute limits, playing a game of hide-and-seek with three of the threaded masks.
Shikamaru lunged behind a shattered boulder, his mind racing at a frantic pace despite his exhaustion. "How are these things targeting me?" he analyzed, pressing his back against the stone as a jet of wind obliterated a nearby tree.
"Is Kakuzu micro-managing them from a distance, or do they possess autonomous battle instincts? It didn't matter. At his current chakra levels, direct confrontation was suicide. I can't defeat them with my own power," he realized, wiping sweat and dirt from his brow. "If I'm going to survive, I have to trick these things into destroying each other."
Shikamaru noticed that while the masks were relentless, they never cross-fired; they were smart enough to recognize and avoid hitting their own... but he was running on fumes. He needed a catalyst, and he needed it now.
Leaping from his cover, Shikamaru hurled an explosive tag directly at the face of the Water Mask. The paper bomb detonated in a blinding flash of fire and debris right as the creature was molding chakra.
Blinded and disoriented mid-jutsu, the creature staggered. Seizing the window, Shikamaru forced his hands into a seal, casting his Shadow Imitation Technique. The shadow snaked across the dirt, locking onto the Water Mask and violently throwing it off balance.
The water mask's hijacked trajectory forced its maw upward, unleashing its prepared attack onto the wrong side:
"Water Release: Pouring Fury!"
A torrent of pressurized water erupted, roaring directly toward the Fire Mask. Programmed for self-defense, the Fire Mask instinctively countered with its own signature devastation:
"Fire Release: Searing Migraine!"
When the opposing masks's jutsu collided, the battlefield boiled. Superheated water and roaring flames canceled each other out in a violent smoke, instantly blanketing the entire area in a massive, impenetrable wall of scalding white steam.
~~
The thick smoke billowed outward like a wave, rolling heavily into where Neji and Kakuzu were clashing.
Neji stumbled back, spitting a mouthful of blood as Kakuzu gave kick in Neji's abdomen. His body was aching, but the sudden blinding mist was the miracle he needed.
With a guttural growl, Neji took on the form of Second Stage of the Curse Mark.
His pale skin darkened to an earthy grey, and the fabric of his forehead protector loosened and fell away as a grotesque, vertical eye slit was still closed on his brow. His fingernails elongated into animalistic claws, injecting a feral sharpness into his elegant Gentle Fist style. Then came the tearing pain in his shoulders as two additional arms burst from his back.
The extra limbs made him look exactly like Kidomaru, the Sound ninja he had nearly died fighting two years ago. "Maybe using a bow and arrow isn't such a bad idea after all," Neji thought.
But there was no time for musing. With the Curse Mark active, Neji's sensory perception increased exponentially. Even through the dense screen of steam, he could feel Kakuzu's chakra. He locked onto the target.
Sinking low into a four-handed stance, Neji gathered every remaining drop of his Senjutsu chakra into his palms.
"Eight Trigrams Mountain Crusher!"
Neji blurred forward, closing the distance instantly. He unleashed a devastating, simultaneous four-handed strike right into Kakuzu's chest. Sensing the threat, Kakuzu had rapidly hardened his flesh to stone using his Earth spear technique.
But Neji's technique didn't care about external armor. Neji's chakra spiked straight through the hardened skin, rupturing the internal network beneath. Web-like cracks spider-webbed across Kakuzu's chest, while his own earth heart shattered inside.
But the minor victory was instantly met with a horrific toll.
The violent surge of the Curse Mark vanished as quickly as it came. Neji's extra arms withered, his extra eye traced back into his skin, and his claws retracted. The sheer magnitude of the Mountain Crusher had drained him completely. He collapsed into the dirt, coughing violently, unable to even lift his chin.
"I'm almost empty... I have chakra left for one small attack." Neji thought, staring at the looming, shadowed silhouette of Kakuzu standing back up within the smoke. "I'm dead. He still has three hearts left."
"If he fell here, Kakuzu would bypass him and together with his partner will attack Kimimaro and Shino next. He needed to buy time. He needed a miracle."
As death loomed over him, Neji's mind drifted back to the Chunin Exams, staring up at a loud-mouthed, unpredictable blonde boy who refused to ever give up.
"What would you do right now, Naruto?"
~~
A/N: The battle continues with shikamaru dealing with hearts and Kakuzu dealing with Neji. And Neji in his CS2 form lasted only one attack, he was not used to it.
While Shikamaru has no fire power but is tactically used the against each other.
Coming up next is Kimimaro vs Konan
I have started writing extra chapters @ patreon.com/aizenDuchiha0