Neji Hyuga is a major supporting protagonist of the Naruto manga and anime series. He was a Jonin-level shinobi from the Hidden Leaf Village's Hyuga Clan, being the older cousin of Hinata Hyuga and nephew of the Clan Leader, Hiashi Hyuga.
Background[]
Birth and Upbringing lol ranch of the Hyuga Clan in the Hidden Leaf Village, as the only son of Hizashi Hyuga, the brother of the Clan leader,d.]]day he was branded with his clan's Curse Mark Jutsu to force him to obey the Head Family of the Hyuga Clan forever. When a peace treaty was made between the Hidden Cloud Village and his to end the war between them, their Head Cloud Ninja tried to kidnap Hinata to get the Byakugan, the visual kekkei genkai of the Hyuga. Hiashi, however, easily killed him and the Hidden Cloud demanded his life in exchange for their Head Ninja's death. However, Neji's father, his twin brother, was killed instead, with Neji believing Hizashi had been forced to die in Hiashi's place, when in fact he chose to die. Because of this, Neji developed a deep hate of the Head Family and great spite for Hinata in turn. He eventually joined the Ninja Academy and graduated, being assigned to Might Guy as a teacher, with Rock Lee and Tenten as his teammates. Instead of enlisting them in the Chunin Exams at the first opportunity, Guy held them back to let Neji and his teammates develope their abilities and experience to increase their chances of passing the phases.
Naruto[]
Failing the Chunin Exams
Neji in the Forest of Death during the second test.
Neji and his teammates enlisted in the Chunin Exams and during the first phase he used his kekkei genkai, the Byakugan, to successfully gather the correct answers, with his teammates managing to do the same together. During the second phase, Neji and his teammates spit up to accomplish the test, but he and Tenten later went to find Lee and found him beaten up by Team Dosu from the Hidden Sound Village. Before he could take action, Sasuke Uchiha, who he'd met before the exams began, awoke and easily drove them away. Neji and his teammates passed the second phase and a preliminary fight round began, being that more people had passed than expected. He was matched against his own cousin, Hinata, who he tried to get to drop out since she was no match for him, but this failed as her friend, [[Naruto
Neji overwhelming Hinata during their match.
Uzumaki]], inspired her to fight him. Though she proved better than he thought, Neji still easily proved too powerful and skilled in their clan's Gentle Fist style of combat, and he nearly killed her after overwhelming her a few times. However, the Jonin, including his teacher, Might Guy, stopped him in time, and he was declared the winner after Hinata went into cardiac arrest. However, his victory and treatment of Hinata prompted Naruto to vow to defeat him. Afterwards, Neji watched Lee's fight with Gaara, being stunned at his power of the Eight Inner Gates, but after he'd lost thought him clueless since he'd sought victory by using such a method as that. After the prelim matches were done, he was matched against Naruto in the final rounds, which were set for one month away. After spending the month perfecting his Gentle Fist even more and mastery the Eight Trigrams Palm Rotation, Neji went to the arena and his and Naruto's match was the first to occur. Though he at first proved too much for Naruto and for most of the fight overwhelmed him easily, disabling his chakra with his Gentle Fist, Neji took the time to explain the story of his past and how he came to hold such hate for his clan's Main Family. Naruto, though sympathetic towards Neji, still disagreed that that should allow him to decide the
Neji defeated.
destiny of others and that he'd prove him wrong. To Neji's shock and fear, Naruto then managed to draw on the chakra of his Tailed Beast, Kurama, and was then able to match Neji's power and cancel him out. After pulling himself out of the soil, Neji walked over to the seemingly defeated Naruto and belittled him, only to be defeated when he popped out of the ground and uppercutted him, having switched with a shadow clone. After Naruto was declared the winner, Neji as met by his uncle, who gave him a scroll written by his father, which detailed the truth of the matter surrounding his death. After Orocihimaru's attempt to destroy the Hidden Leaf was thwarted, Neji was among those who attended the funeral of the Third Hokage.
Sasuke Rescue Mission
Neji and his friends escape Jirobo's trap.
After Tsunade Senju, one of the Three Legendary Sannin, was appointed the Fifth Hokage and Sasuke Uchiha had left the village to join sides with Orochimaru, Neji was one of those chosen by Shikamaru Nara, the newest Chunin, to be on his team to find and bring back Sasuke to the village. When they found the Sound Ninja Four, who were acting as his escorts, Neji and the others were trapped by Jirobo's Earth Style Barrier: Earth Dome Prison through which he began absorbing their chakra. However, working together, he, Shikamaru, and Choji Akimichi managed to locate and break through the barrier's weak point, with Choji deciding to stay and fight Jirobo while letting Neji and the others go after his teammates, with them building up their again with food pills he gave to Shikamaru. When they caught up again, Kidomaru of the group easily trapped them all after letting the remaining two enemies go ahead with Sasuke. However, Neji broke free with his Gentle Fist, freed the others, and let them chase after their other opponents while choosing to stay and fight Kidomaru since only he could handle his jutsu. Though Kidomaru easily proved less than a match at close-range combat, he fell back and began to fight at a distance and gradually proved too powerful for Neji after choosing to take him seriously and activating his Curse Mark. Neji's Gentle Fist mastery proved unable to continously counter his attacks and Kidomaru even located the blind spot of the Byakugan, which he struck multiple times. After
Neji battling Kidomaru.
taking more damage, Neji still survived and Kidomaru advanced his Curse Mark to its second state and shot Neji through the shoulder with a bow and arrow. This left Neji completely on the defensive and he was barely able to avoid the arrows being fired at him. He tired and willingly took one through his vitals, allowing him to funnel chakra through the thread attached backto his opponent and damage several of his internal organs. Locating him, Neji defeated Kidomaru his Eight Trigrams 64 Palms move and after Kidomaru died, Neji passed out from his injuries. He was later found and brought back to the village, where his injuries were treated after an extensive surgery. In the anime, during the last pre-Shippuden filler arc(which was relevant to the main story) Neji was chosen to be part of a recon team on a mission to aide the Hidden Sand against enemies from the Village of Artisans, who were looking to use Gaara's Tailed Beast's power to revive their dead founder, Seimei, who Neji witnessed Gaara defeat at the conclusion of the mission.
Kazekage Rescue Mission
Neji, Lee, and Tenten trapped by Kisame.
After the two and a hlaf year timeskip, during which Neji became a Jonin, he made his debut alongside his fellow members of Team Guy(which he was still a part of) being ordered by the Fifth Hokage Tsunade to go and back Team Kakashi up on their mission to save the Fifth Kazekage, Gaara, when he'd been taken prisoner by the criminal organization Akatsuki. Along the way, they were met by kakashi's ninja hound Pakkun, who led them in the direction of the Akatsuki hideout since they were the closest. Before they reached it, Kisame Hoshigaki(actually a specially-made clone of him), one of its members, confronted them intending to hold them off. Though they stood their ground at first, Neji, Lee, and Tenten were easily defeated and captured by Kisame using his Water Clone and Water Prison Jutsu combo. After Guy was eventually overwhelmed enough that he opened six of the Eight Inner Gates to defeat their opponent, Neji used his Byakugan to detect the weak point in the water prison he was caught in and broke out of it, freed Lee, who then saved Tenten, and they watched as Guy finished off Kisame, only for it to be revealed as a clone. After Guy later rested up enough, they continued to the
Neji defeats his clone.
Akatsuki's hideout, arriving just ahead of Team Kakashi. After locating the tags that were keeping the barrier shielding the entrance in tact, Neji and the rest of Team Guy went and ripped them off, only to end up confronted by specially made clones with their exact abilities. Defeating them was very hard, but when Lee said they had to make themselves stronger than they were before they pulled the tags free to win, they found new determination and finally managed to defeat their clones, albeit being much weaker than before they started.
Team Guy confronts Deidara.
Regrouping with his teammates, they went and confronted Deidara, the Akatsuki who captured Gaara, and attempted to arrest him, only to be nearly killed when he seemed to blow himself up in an effort to kill them, with Kakashi Hatake using his Mangekyo Sharingan to send the blast into his Kamui space. Afterwards, the Hidden Sand elder Chiyo revived Gaara at the cost ofh er own life and they returned the Kazekage to his village and later returned home to the Hidden Leaf.
Further actions
Team Guy sees Gamabunta.
When Asume Sarutobi was later killed by the Akatsuki member Hidan in battle, Neji was among those who attended his funeral. During the acting Akatsuki leader Pain's invasion of the Hidden Leaf, Neji spotted the defeated giant ninja toad Gamabunta laying outside the village, and arrived to find it destroyed completely by pain and Hinata badly injured. After Naruto's victory over the Six Paths of Pain was reported by Tsunade's partner slug Katsuyu, Neji demanded that she lead them to Naruto when she told them he'd gone off by himself to where the real Pain was, but ended up not going anyway after she said he wanted no help. When he later got back, Neji and several of
Neji and the others listening to Naruto.
his friends were among the crowd of villagers who welcomed him as a hero. When word reached the Hidden Leaf of Sasuke Uchiha's actions in the Land of Lightning in the name of the Akatsuki, Neji and many of his friends gathered and decided they would sever ties with and kill Sasuke to prevent a war with the Hidden Cloud, with Naruto later telling them they wouldn't be able to and that he'd take care of Sasuke himself.
Fight the War and Death
Neji and Hinata fighting side by side.
After the Akatsuki leader, Obito Uchiha, had declared the Fourth Great Ninja War against the Five Great Nations, Neji ended up assigned to the Second Company and throughout the first day of the war battled against the Akatsuki's White Zetsu Army with Hinata, losing some of his chakra to a White Zetsu clone, before later collapsing of exhaustion while using his Byakugan to scout into the night. Sakura later took out the White Zetsu clone that had taken his chakra, but only after it had killed five medical ninja after taking Neji's form. On the second day, in the anime, neji found himself confront by the reanimated Sound Ninja Kidomaru, who he defeated without much trouble, only to have his soul teleported inside a barrier, alongside the souls of Kiba and Akamaru, Shikamaru, and Choji. They were overwhelmed after the Sound Ninja Four
Neji and Kidomaru meet again.
used their malice to strengthen their seals, but Naruto later sensed them out and saved them, returning their souls to their bodies. Neji once again spent the day battling the White Zetsu Army, with Naruto arriving later to help them sense the ones that had taken alliance ninja's shapes. Later informed by the Allied Shinobi Forces HQ that Naruto, Killer B, the Eight-Tails jinchuriki, and Kakashi and Might Guy were battling the Akatsuki leader, Neji and the rest of the alliance headed to reinforce them.
Naruto falls.
When they arrived, Neji ended up working together with his uncle to guard an attack from the Ten-Tails and they teamed up with Hinata determined to protect Naruto while he prepared to enter Sage Mode. When hinata flung herself in front of Naruto to shield him from an attack, Neji did the same and saved them both, being impaled through the chest by Obito Uchiha and fatally injured. As he died on Naruto's shoulder, Neji told him his life and Hinata's were now his and that he did this for him because Naruto called him a genius.
Personality[]
Neji was a a very serious and mature person, even at a young age, and didn't waiste time or goof off. As a child he loved his father very much and thought his cousin Hinata was cute, but after his death grew to hate the Head Family of his clan deeply, believing his uncle had forced him to die in place. He later let this go after learning the truth and his relationship with his uncle and Hinata improved greatly. He also during this period held greatly to the notion of fatalism and believed one's destiny was determined at birth, which caused him to grow arrogant towards those he saw as weaker than him. After he was defeated by Naruto, he abandoned this notion, and struck up a good friendship with Naruto, to the point that he gave his life to save him and Hinata.
Powers, Abilities, and Skills[]
Neji overwhelms Naruto in their fight.
As a Jonin, Neji was a powerful and highly skilled shinobi, regarded as a true genius among his clan. During the Chunin Exams, Neji showed impressive fighting abilities for a Genin (which his teammate Rock Lee regarded as being the best of an Genin in the history of the Hidden Leaf Village), easily defeating his cousin Hinata Hyuga and nearly killing her, with Kakashi Hatake noting he never imagined anyone as powerful as Neji would be in the Exams, claiming even Sasuke Uchiha would not be a match for Neji's skills. In their fight, Neji easily overwhelmed and nearly defeated Naruto Uzumaki, who needed the aide of his Tailed Beast to finally defeat Neji. Neji even single-handedly defeated Kidomaru of the Sound Ninja Four, a Jonin-level opponent and one of Orochimaru's elite bodyguards, despite acknowledging the
Neji defeats Kidomaru.
latter as being far stronger than him, albeit nearly dying himself in the process. In part 2, Neji, acting with his teammates, held his own against the immensely powerful, specially made clone of Kisame Hpshigaki that confronted Team Guy, with Kisame himself openly praise his might multple times, and also defeated a specially made clone of himself that had power equal to his at the time it was created, through sheer force of will on becoming stronger.
Eye power and Gentle Fist Mastery
Neji's Byakugan.
As a member of the Hyuga Clan, Neji was a possessor of the fabled Byakugan kekkei genkai of his clan, which allowed him to see almost 360 degrees with X-ray, telescopic vision that could see almost anything, including the inner chakra network and chakra flow of a shinobi, though their was a blind spot at the first thoracic vertebrae. He was also a master of the unique taijutsu known as the Gentle Fist, which makes use of chakra to drill into an opponents body with a strike, directly attacking his chakra network and the chakra points located along it. Neji's mastery of this style
Neji's Gentle Fist.
was so great that he could release chakra from all his chakra points at once for any reason(when even Jonin can usually only do so from one body part at a time) and, a testament to his intelligence as a genius, figured multiple secret techniques known only to the Head Family and mastered them very well, much to the shock of his uncle, who wondered if Neji had surpassed them.