Neji Hyūga

**Neji Hyūga** (日向ネジ, *Hyūga Neji*) is a shinobi of Konohagakure's Hyūga clan. Though a prodigy even by the Hyūga's standards, Neji was a member of the clan's branch house; no matter how skilled he became, he would always be in service to the Hyūga's main house, a fact that convinced him fate was predetermined. After experiencing Naruto Uzumaki's refusal to be limited by such an ideology, Neji realised his fate was what he chose it to be, and as a member of Team Guy he sought the strength necessary to make the future he wanted for his family and friends, and ultimately sacrificed his life to protect the very same person who taught him about the freedom of one's choice of fate, Naruto.

## Neji Hyūga

* Human
* Part II
* Young

### Relatives

Hizashi Hyūga (Father), Hiashi Hyūga (Uncle), Hyūga Elder (Grandfather), Hinata Hyūga (Cousin) Anata Hyūga (Cousin), Kana Hyūga (Wife), Kimio Hyūga (Son)

## Appearances

### Portrayed by

Steve Staley, Koichi Tochika, Wendee Lee (Child), Keiko Nemoto (Child)

## Background

Neji was born the son of Hizashi Hyūga, placing him in one of the Hyūga clan's branch houses. When the heiress of the main house, Hinata, turned three years old, Neji's forehead was branded with the customary cursed seal by his uncle, Hiashi. Despite how young he was at the time, Neji's natural talent with the Hyūga's trademark techniques were apparent to his father. For this reason, Hizashi resented that Neji was marked with a cursed seal, as he felt it bound him to a life of service to the main house when he should be destined for greater things. His anger would often manifest subconsciously, prompting Hiashi to activate Hizashi's cursed seal and punish him with pain, an act that traumatised Neji.

Shortly after Neji received his cursed seal, a Kumogakure Head Ninja visiting Konoha took advantage of a peace treaty and attempted to kidnap Hinata in order to gain the secrets of the Byakugan. Hiashi stopped and killed the Head Ninja. In what became known as the Hyūga Affair, Kumo denied the allegations made against its Head Ninja and insisted Hiashi's actions were a declaration of war by Konoha; the only way to avoid hostilities between the two villages would be if Hiashi's body were turned over to Kumo as compensation. Hiashi was willing to do so if it meant protecting Konoha, but that in turn would give Kumo the Byakugan. Hizashi, Hiashi's twin brother, volunteered to be his body double since his cursed seal would destroy his Byakugan at the time of his death, a fate he insisted upon over Hiashi's protests. Neji was too young to understand what was happening at the time, and over the years came to believe his father had been forced to die for the main house.

Neji became spiteful towards the members of the main house for what he believed they'd done to his father; in the anime, he missed no opportunity to try and harm Hinata. He also came to believe that the course of a person's life was determined from the moment of their birth and could be altered under no circumstances. 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 wowed 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.

## Personality

As a child, Neji was kind and prone to smiling; on Hinata's third birthday, he confided to his father that he thought she was cute. He lost these qualities after his father's death, growing serious and cold, more mature than most his age. For years he was driven by a fatalistic belief that his and everyone else's fates were determined from birth and were inescapable. He perceived his own destiny as being that of a rare talent, causing him to arrogantly place himself above those he believes are "weaker" than himself. He also perceived that his talents would always be handicapped by mandatory servitude to the Hyūga's main house, which he resented and it fuelled his animosity towards the main house and its members.

Neji shared his philosophy about fate with those he met, gladly telling them when they are straying from the paths that have been set out for them by, for example, trying to exceed their natural limitations or trying to defeat him in combat when they lack any obvious ability to do so. When he shared his philosophy with Hinata, she concluded that his insistence upon destiny was actually a sore spot for him that caused him inner suffering: he so badly wanted to prove himself to the main house yet feels incapable of doing so. Neji attempted to kill her in anger for her words. Naruto Uzumaki also disagreed with Neji, claiming that Neji was not realising his destiny because he was in fact holding himself back. Neji initially scoffed at Naruto's suggestion, but he was forced to reevaluate when Naruto, a "failure", defeats him, a "genius", in a fight.

From his experience with Naruto, Neji felt that fate is not inescapable but that, rather, one's destiny is what one makes of it; he felt indebted to Naruto for releasing him from his prior "darkness". The destiny Neji ended up selecting for himself was to become strong enough to never lose again, although his inevitable destiny would soon come to hold true. In pursuit of this goal he trained with his teammates, whose own dreams he became supportive of, and later with members of the main house, whom he gradually started mending relations with. Over time his desire to get stronger became as much a motivation to never lose as it is to protect his friends and family. In particular, he embraced his responsibility as a member of a branch house to keep Hinata safe, showing greater concern for her than anyone else in combat situations and, ultimately, giving his life to save hers.

Birds were often used to characterise Neji's philosophy and growth: while he felt bound by destiny and the cursed seal on his forehead, he described his personal experiences as being like a caged bird; after being defeated by Naruto, he observed to his father's memory how many birds there were freely flying in the world; when trying to overcome the limitations of his Byakugan, he observed birds at a distance but could never spot the one at his blind-spot; after his death, the Allied Shinobi Forces took on a bird formation in his memory.

## Abilities

From a very young age, Neji's aptitude as a natural genius was evident, even by the Hyūga clan's high standards. As a member of the branch house, Neji was technically forbidden to learn any of the clan's advanced techniques. However, even without formal instruction, he learned how to perform many of these techniques from observation alone. Hiashi, so deeply impressed by Neji's raw talent and rapid growth despite being self-taught, came to believe that Neji should have been the successor of the Main Branch and would eventually surpass all other Hyūga to ever exist, the latter of which he succeeded in by Part II despite his still young age. Besides his advance clan traits, Neji graduated from the Academy at the top of his class, which in turn convinced Rock Lee that Neji was the top competitor during his first Chūnin Exams. Although he was not promoted during those exams, he was the only Konoha 11 member to become a jōnin during the timeskip. By the end of Part I, Hiashi started training Neji in all of the Hyūga's secret techniques. He could also use Fire, Water, and Earth Release.

### Byakugan

As a Hyūga, Neji possessed the Byakugan. While a common dōjutsu in his clan, Neji's was noted to be especially powerful. With these eyes, he had a near-360° penetrative field of vision. A small blind-spot exists behind his third upper-thoracic vertebrae — a weakness he was well aware of and trained extensively to overcome, to no avail. Instead, he took extra precautions to compensate for it by emitting chakra around the area, giving him a way to sense any approaching attacks and slowing them enough to give him time to respond.

It allowed him to see chakra pathway systems and the 361 tenketsu that run along it. He was able to increase his Byakugan's range over time: whereas he could only see things 50 metres away in Part I, by Part II he could see things from at least 800 metres.

### Taijutsu

As with most members of the Hyūga clan, Neji specialised in taijutsu. He excelled at systematically taking down his opponents with precise strikes to key points in the body. Even more, he demonstrated blazing speed and combined with superb reflexes, coordination, and agility, he could seamlessly dodge nearly any attack while simultaneously able to counterattack his opponent. These traits made him especially formidable at close range, forcing enemies to keep their distance, where Neji's skill made him difficult to hit.

Neji was trained from an early age in his clan's secret signature Gentle Fist fighting style, which takes advantage of the Byakugan's piercing vision to strike at the opponent's chakra system directly, constricting or cutting off their chakra flow from only minimal contact. Because the chakra pathway system is closely intertwined with many of the body's major organs, debilitating and even fatal damage can be done just as easily. While Gentle Fist strikes are by default difficult to defend against, Neji's ingenuity and methods made his usage of the style especially effective.

Implementing several of the style's most powerful techniques, Neji was very versatile in battle. With the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms, he could attack multiple targets at once, either several opponents' tenketsu to restrain them at once or deflect incoming volley of projectiles; in the anime, he improved the technique to double the number of strikes. Defensively, he could use Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven to expel chakra from his body and deflect all incoming attacks from all directions at once. If restrained and thus unable to use Revolving Heaven, he could instead release chakra from his tenketsu to free himself. In Part II, Neji began using the Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm to attack targets outside his physical range or push away incoming attacks; when performed in combination with others, its strength is accordingly increased.