After knocking Lee away, Neji leapt up too, landing atop the statue.
"I didn't want to reveal this so soon. But since it's Hanabi's request, let's wrap this up quickly."
"BOOM—"
Another heavy thud of weights hitting the ground. Not quite Lee's level, but close—the difference between 100 points and 80.
Kankuro was beyond numb at this point.
—Are all you Konoha Genin this intense?
Forget those two—even these two next to him, the ones who'd come to watch the show, seemed to have weights on.
It was absurd.
With the weights off, Neji's speed climbed sharply as well.
"Ara, ara—we're going into a flashback, are we."
Hanabi was thoroughly entertained over here, but the audience over there had been pulled into Lee's memories.
From a young age, Lee couldn't use ninjutsu or genjutsu, and his taijutsu was even worse than everyone else's—the hot-blooded dead-last of his class.
But it was then that Guy took notice of this hard-working child.
If a hundred push-ups wouldn't do it, then a thousand. If once wasn't enough, then twice, three times—more.
"Ara?"
But just then, the Stage cut once again—this time over to Neji's side of the flashback.
And Hanabi, of all people, made an appearance in this memory too.
"…Neji's gifts are excellent. His Byakugan would surely be able to keep pace with Hanabi's talent."
"…But Neji is a bit older than Hanabi, and a transplant of the eyeball…"
"He's nothing but a tool of the branch house. To offer up his eyes for the true genius of the Hyuga—that is his destiny. Otherwise, why would we have held off on branding him with the Caged Bird Seal until now?!"
Hinata was nominally the heir of the Hyuga Clan, but in practice that was hard to say.
And while Neji was branch house, he hadn't been branded with the Caged Bird Seal's curse mark either.
Because in the eyes of the main house, these two were, respectively, a spare part and a future replacement component.
In the arena, Lee was holding forth on genius and hard work, while Neji fought in silence.
And on screen, as Neji and Lee fought, the picture would now and then use montage to cut over to portions of their earlier battles, and to the times when the two of them had trained.
"The Stage is pretty good at editing, huh."
Earlier on, the Stage had aired two episodes' worth of content on the other teams. After Team 7 blitzed through the second exam, the Stage had used that approach to stretch out the second exam's runtime, giving the "Konoha 11" a thorough showcase.
And now, all that earlier setup had become foreshadowing for the story, deployed to perfect effect.
"Looks like our 'showrunner' really is something."
If she ever got the chance to write and direct her own production down the line, this would be worth borrowing from.
It was precisely because of all the earlier groundwork that the build-up and clash between the two boys' ideals landed here as entirely earned.
Except, compared to the original work's whole "innate talent" theme, the content over here had already shifted.
[See, I said it—Kakashi isn't an Uchiha and he's got a Sharingan, so with Hanabi's clan having so many members, why couldn't they transplant one]
[So it turns out big-brother-in-law is straight-up a blood bag]
[Maybe Hinata is too]
[Didn't they already say it—Hinata's talent isn't enough, her Byakugan definitely won't cut it either, so she can only be the backup]
[Capital-T Tragic]
[This clan is disgusting]
[Don't tell me the Uchiha clan is the same kind of twisted family, and then Second Pillar's big brother wiped out his own clan to protect his little brother]
[Speaking of which, the other bloodline-supremacy stuff all seems tied to clans too]
[Case cracked—turns out The Ninja's Path is an anti-bloodline-supremacy anime (lol)]
The original work's audience had always held one misconception about the Naruto world: the belief that the village system was an absolute mess, and that the five villages brawling with each other was downright laughable.
But you have to understand—before the village system, the ninja world ran entirely on the clan system.
Compared to the clan system, the village system was simply better, because it broke the shackles of the clans and represented a more advanced direction for productive forces.
It was only as things developed that people like Danzo began treating the "village" as the next "clan," and the contradictions between the village itself and its relationship to the nation began to surface—making it look like the village system had problems.
And what was needed at that point were relations of production that could represent more advanced productive forces.
Sigh—but why is Danzo getting blamed for this too?
Hanabi tilted her head.
It felt like, even though this Danzo had never once shown up, his shadow was everywhere—truly insufferable.
"You two—there's no need to hold anything back! Show your youth!"
Guy called out once again.
He'd known Neji had weights on, but he hadn't expected Neji's weights to be that heavy too.
Yet in Guy's eyes, this was the very embodiment of youth.
Right here, right now—this was the very moment for youth to burn, yeaah!
"Then—here I come!" With Guy's permission granted, Lee undid the bandages on his hands as well.
After that, Lee's speed picked up once more, and in one motion he kicked Neji up into the air—then appeared beneath him.
Neji was like a fluttering leaf, unable to move in midair, while Lee was below him, like a shadow.
And so this technique is also called the "Shadow of the Dancing Leaf."
A person can't draw on any leverage in midair, so Neji was now in a wholly defenseless state.
And Lee's bandages began winding around Neji.
[Here it comes, here it comes—Front Lotus]
[Let's see how he breaks out of it]
[Why's it gotta be "break out"]
[The same move working twice? No way, right]
When the Konoha 11 episodes had aired earlier, Lee had already shown off the Front Lotus, so by this point everyone already knew what Lee was about to do.
"The Front Lotus, is it? But Lee, I learned this technique too!"
—Though he'd never actually mastered it.
Guy didn't play favorites with Lee, so he'd tried to pass these techniques on to Tenten and Neji as well—but the only one who learned them was Lee.
"This move won't work on me! Gentle Fist Art: One Blow Body!"
First gather chakra inside the body, then release it all at once from both hands.
It was a technique similar to the Mountain Crusher, but also highly effective against an ambusher appearing from behind.
And as it happened, Lee was right behind Neji!
"BAM!"
Neji, who by rights should have been helpless in midair, used Gentle Fist to blast Lee away—and at the same time borrowed the force to launch himself onto the wall, only then dropping to the ground.
"As expected of Neji—he actually broke through that move."
Lee was full of admiration.
And now Neji spoke up as well.
"Lee. You've always called me a genius. But that's not really how it is."
"'Genius' can be used to praise someone's strength. But if you use 'genius' to express your longing and envy toward a certain person… that won't do."
"Because in that moment, the word 'genius'… is the greatest insult to hard work."
Neji, too, had finally gotten serious.