Neji Hyūga

Quote "Fate cannot be changed"

Neji Hyuga is a branch member of the famed Hyuga clan. He has a grudge towards everyone in the main branch. He is a natural genius, surpassing those of the main branch, but has a cocky attitude and a saying that "A person cannot change themself".

Neji has a large knowledge of his Byakugan, a bloodline limit that allows you to have an unobstructed view of the world around you. It can see through any solid object and can see the chakra points of a person, and using his Gentle Fist a style that pushes chakra out of ones hand, can effectively control the flow of chakra within an foe. After the Preliminaries of the Chunin Exams, he learned in the period of one month Heavenly Spin, a technique where one ejects chakra out of their fingertips and spins like a top, creating a barrier of unpentrable chakra around ones body.

Background
Not much is known about Neji's birth. After his cousin, Hinata of the main branch's, 3rd birthday, Neji was taken by Hiashi Hyuga and had the Hyuga Curse Seal applied to his forehead. This disability of the branch family is the cause for Neji's hatred towards the Main branch and towards Hinata.

Neji is a member of Team Guy and is a close combat style team, with Might Guy, the Jonin leader, himself and his teammate Rock Lee being taijutsu specialist, while the last member Tenten is a weapon specialist..By then, Neji is considered the top Genin in Konohagakure. Neji believes that Lee cannot defeat him, but gets along somewhat better with Tenten, noting that she did her best against Temari.

Part 1
Neji first meets Team 7 in the exam hallway, demanding to know who Sasuke is and acting somewhat condescendingly toward him. He obtains the answers to the first phase of the test by using his Byakugan to read other examinees' tests.

Part 2
When the team went into the Forest of Death, Neji and his team had to gather either a heaven or an earth scroll and make it to the center tower in a week. At about the second or third day into the second part, the cell decides to split up to search for suitable targets. Lee went off and he found Team 7, and defended the disabled team from the Sound genin. When Neji and Tenten met back to report, Lee had not returned. They quickly went after Lee and found the taijutsu expert wounded. They refrained from entering the fight, since Sasuke was about to enter the first stage of the cursed seal. Once they recovered the wounded Lee, Neji's team left the scene, and they managed to pass the second part some time afterwards.

Preliminary Rounds
To decrease the number of genin participating the the exam finals, one-on-one matches were organized to eliminate the weaker genin. Neji was paired up against Hinata. His attitude towards Hinata pisses off Naruto, who cheers for the kunoichi. Although Hinata seemed to defeat Neji, Neji reveals to Hinata that he has plugged off Hinata's chakra points, rendering her Gentle Fist useless. He also hit a chakra point close to one of Hinata's vitals moments before, putting Hinata in critical condition. However, Hinata refuses to back down, insisting that Neji, not she, was fighting against what could not be changed. Neji was about to administer a killing blow when the jounin Kakashi Hatake, Hayate, Kurenai, and Might Guy steps in to save the wounded shinobi. After the fight, Naruto swipes up some of Hinata's blood, which was splurting out of her mouth from the damage near her vitals, and swears to defeat Neji. Neji also tells Naruto to give up, since there was no way for him to defeat the Hyuga, using "fate" as his reasoning.

Final Rounds
Neji is pitted against Naruto in the first rounds of the finals. Although Neji soon gains the advantage and cuts off Naruto's chakra flow, Naruto is determined to fight against Neji, inspired by Hinata and Lee's bravery and angered by the way Neji belittled and almost killed Hinata. Naruto taps into the power of the nine-tailed fox, and is able to keep up with Neji for a time. Neji's Heavenly Spin protects him from Naruto's attacks, but when he approaches a supposedly defeated Naruto, Naruto pops out of a tunnel he dug in the ground, and uppercuts Neji in the jaw, defeating him.

Neji is angry with himself for falling for Naruto's signature technique, but Naruto reveals that the technique used to be his worst one, and that he only became good at it through practice. Neji then hears of his father's fate from his uncle, and breaks down in tears. When Hiashi bows before Neji in forgiveness, Neji asks him to rise, and forgives him. Neji then silently tells his father that wishes to change his destiny just like he did, and that he hopes to never lose again.

Sasuke Retrieval Arc
Neji was recruited as part of the five-man team to retrieve Sasuke from the Sound Four. Neji's opponent was Kidomaru, who was able to analyze his defenses and find his weaknesses. Neji realized that Kidomaru was far more powerful than he was, and that he was in the same situation that Lee, Hinata and Naruto had been in. Neji was determined never to give up, though, as he wanted to show those who considered him a genius that their faith in him was correct, and to prove that he no longer surrendered to fate. Neji was severely wounded when Kidomaru converts his cursed seal mark to level 2, allowing him to fire arrows at impossibly fast speeds. The arrow was connected to a string, which was directly controlled by Kidomaru. Neji took that to his advantage and channeled chakra through the string, combining the chakra with his Gentle Fist's chakra abilities, and killed Kidomaru with that method. Although he was near death after the battle, he was saved with the help of Shizune and other medical ninja.

Filler Arcs
In the filler arcs, it is shown that Neji's relationship with the main house is improving. He commonly trains with his uncle Hiashi, and is kinder and more polite to Hinata.

Neji is commonly the team leader for Team Guy when Guy is absent, and is more cautious and pragmatic than Naruto is. This is especially seen in the Hidden Star Village arc, in which Neji suggests that he and the others should concern themselves with finding the star, rather than with the potential dangers the star training has to the children. When the villagers confront Akahoshi, Neji initially refuses to get involved, and when Akahoshi attacks, he tells Naruto that he will deny knowing anything about what Naruto did.

Timeskip and Part II
Over the timeskip, Neji retook the Chunin Exam and passed, and later was promoted to Jonin rank, being the only rookie from Konoha to achieve this. During Team Guy's battle with Kisame's clone, Neji was successful in freeing himself, Tenten and Lee from Kisame's water prisons. While Naruto and Kakashi pursued Deidara and Chiyo and Sakura fought Sasori, Neji fought a clone of himself, created by his removing the seals to the Akatsuki hideout.

Other Media

 * Neji Hyuga is a common playable character in the Naruto video games series. He appears in 6 out of the seven games


 * He only appears in Naruto: Shippūden the Movie, besides his anime appearances.