The air glimmered. Blue light surrounded the field of the forest, forming a sphere around Neji's body. The trees glimmered.
The chakra points became visible on Kidōmaru's body.
Kidōmaru giggled. "Now this boss I like." Drawing in his breath, he prepared to fire webbing again. His cheeks billowed like balloons.
Neji's eyes widened. Hands moving like windmills, Neji blocked the striking webbing. So many! Neji gasped.
A web wrapped around Neji's body, driving him backward into a tree.
Neji's hands lay planted against the tree trunk.
"Heh. Got ya." Kidōmaru's voice was calm, analytic.
Neji growled.
"You're pretty good in use of chakra talents, and you have sharp eyes." Kidōmaru shrugged. "You have needle point precision, in fact, in the other, in which you emanate chakra from your hands. You can cut through the web with that." He hesitated. "Orochimaru taught me of this. He's researched your ability pretty well in depth. But without your hands, you're caught."
Neji's expression changed, slowly, to a grin.
"Anyway, there's no point in continuing to play a game when you've figured it out. It's been fun, but here is where I must say goodbye, Neji-kun. This game is over."
Neji closed his eyes.
Kidōmaru spat a long coil of webbing.
Neji's body fell downward. The webbing separated from the arm.
Stunned, Kidōmaru released the coil. "How did he do that?!" he demanded.
Neji leapt up, energy glistening around his palms as he landed in front of Kidōmaru. "My family can release chakra from every point on their body. It's not merely the hands or the feet. At least you were correct in this much: this game has ended."
Kidōmaru gulped.
Neji held his hands loosely at his sides. He saw the openings in Kidōmaru's defenses.
The webbing fell into the forest beneath, cut away by the hands.
Neji's eyes narrowed as Neji examined his opponent.
Shit. Kidōmaru retreated a step. He got no further than that.
Neji's palms lit with chakra. "Eightfold Palm: Sixty-Four Strikes!" Neji shouted, striking Kidōmaru twice in the stomach.
Kidōmaru groaned.
"Two, four, eight, sixteen, thirty-two!" Neji recited, pushing Kidōmaru back many paces.
Kidōmaru staggered, his eyes wide.
"Sixty-Four!" Neji finished, delivering the last few hits to the spider-form.
Kidōmaru swallowed.
Marks in the bark showed where Neji had hit.
Kidōmaru flew through the tree, his body glistening with sweat.
Neji focused the Byakugan, staring at the form of his enemy. How is he unharmed?
Golden sweat cracked off Kidōmaru's skin. Grinning, he looked charmingly back at Neji. "Heh. That technique of yours isn't bad, Neji-san. If I hadn't dealt with your chakra release before you finished the technique, I'd be dead right now."
Neji swallowed. He looked at the gold on the forest floor. "Now I understand entirely. That thread of yours, it's not just from your mouth, either. How monstrous." His voice shook slightly.
"Yep—that's right." Kidōmaru appeared pleased with himself. He extended his arm, letting the gold glint off it. "I can emit this little number from my entire body. I hear that technique you just used locks up the chakra network of an opponent entirely. I guess I'm not the only one who made a mistake in terms of what his opponent can actually do." He rubbed his arms. "And it does sting a bit, but after all, I'm pretty good at chakra deflection."
The two combatants faced each other. Their stances tightened, eliminating openings.
Kidōmaru's eyes narrowed. My spider bind won't have an effect on him. Close combat doesn't work well against the Gentle Fist style either. It seems I must strike his blind spot from a distance. Kidōmaru leapt away into the trees, his body blurring away from Neji in a skittering motion.
Neji leapt to the ground, his eyes widening. Where is he? Neji shook his head. He looked around swiftly.
Kidōmaru smirked, hiding safe away in the trees. He wrapped a string around his kunai. No sound at all. It didn't even take so long to get over here. On top of that, he didn't see me move in that second. Long ranged must be the best strategy for this boss.
The kunai landed on the ground next to Neji, an exploding tag tied around its breadth.
The tag exploded.
Neji rolled backward.
Kidōmaru hurled the lances of gold at Neji.
Neji whipped around. Neji's hands whirled, circling the body in a perfect sphere. The lances rebounded from the sudden chakra sphere.
A crater surrounded Neji.
How'd he deflect all of them? Does he have eyes in the back of his head? Kidōmaru blinked.
Neji drew out his kunai. Eyes blazing white, he hurled it directly over his shoulder at Kidōmaru.
Sweat dripped down Kidōmaru's brow. Kidōmaru ducked, dodging the kunai only barely. How does he see me? I've never seen a technique user like this.
"Come on out and fight fairly," Neji requested without a suggestion of expectation in his voice.
Kidōmaru flipped over the bark, hanging off the branch easily. "Yeah, okay, this game is pretty tough to handle anyway." Twining tattoos crossed his body. "It's time to take this game more seriously." he remarked calmly.
Neji's eyes widened. Neji stared at the newly developed chakra marks. He's increased his powers significantly. On the plus side, I won't have any trouble tracking his movements as I thought I would.
Kidōmaru's face became blank and expressionless. He determined my position easily, using his mind, and deflected all my arrows. So he's got good range of vision and penetrating insight. With these features, then, the best method to approach this guy has to be a secondary method. He bit his thumb, then stretched out a set of webbing across the forest ceiling, shouting, "Summoning Technique!"
An enormous black spider, hairy-legged and two-fanged, watched Neji with two large, beady eyes.
Neji's face became still and impassive.
I'll find the right strategy to stop you! If you deflect physical attacks by releasing chakra in rotation, then there's a certain way to do it.
The spider released an egg slowly, the egg spreading into a cocoon over time.
Stop the spinning. That's all it'll take for me to win. Kidōmaru spat out a long golden lance, cracked the edge with his teeth, and looked firmly at the other two. "Spread out!" he shouted, his voice strong.
Thousands of far smaller spiders crossed the field. The spiders descended on Neji, slowly creeping closer.
Spider webbing surrounded Neji.
Even as Neji spun, he slowed, the energy of the webbing detracting from his movement.
Kidōmaru's eyes narrowed.
A log fell from the tree.
Kidōmaru's eyes narrowed. Kidōmaru watched the battle continuing.
Of Neji, then, his field of vision is three-hundred-sixty degrees and can see through things. In total, he can detect about fifty meters of things around him. However, there are some even he can't dodge.
Neji gripped his arm, the blood running down the arm swiftly.
Kidōmaru glanced at the log. His eyes widened. Wait. Wait a fucking second. Wait one fucking second right now. Wait up. Hold up. He leapt backward through the air, staring at the log. Where the hell did the log come from? Something's wrong. Something is hugely wrong.
Neji's eyes narrowed. That Level Two makes it more difficult to read him. He lifted his arms. He's trying the lance again, then?
The log. Substitution Technique. He used Substitution Technique in the midst of all those flurrying blows. But then, why? If he has perfect three hundred sixty degree vision. If he has that vision, then that must be wrong. Kidōmaru's hands fell downward. What's the operative technique of this technique? If he had to substitute himself for a log, then he didn't knock it away. Or that which happened earlier, too. I aimed straight at them, but it hit him instead. Maybe, just maybe, he's using genjutsu on me! His hands clapped together. "KAI!" The air glimmered. Energy spread around the body. Nothing changed, just now. Kidōmaru's eyes narrowed as he studied the scenery. Then, is it merely a mistake? Did that log fall naturally? Maybe I cut it using my webbing.
Neji looked upward. His eyes widened. He ran forward. He's worked at least part of it out. This person is too dangerous to be kept alive.
Wait! No, that's wrong! SHIT! Kidōmaru leapt backward.
Neji leapt upward, following the body.
Golden web surrounded the body rapidly.
Kidōmaru held up his hands. He flashed backward.
Neji's eyes narrowed.
"Holy motherfucking shit." Kidōmaru covered his mouth. "You're not a taijutsu user. You're a genjutsu user. I can't believe I didn't notice it before." He stared at Neji with wide eyes.
Golden thread covered the bushes.
"You altered my perceptions. You're not some whirling palm user. You're simply manipulating my perceptions and reading my mind. That's all your power is." Kidōmaru's eyes narrowed. "That being said, you're a really terrifying guy."
Neji's eyes narrowed. "It's not 'mind reading'. At the least, the portion regarding its ability to project energy is accurate. Else I couldn't have dealt with that webbing of yours that impacted Naruto-kun. Do you remember?"
"Could've fooled me. You can do something like it, anyway—to the point that when I'm inside your genjutsu you can predict and deal with my actions instantly. As a consequence, there's no way I can hit you while you're in that status effect. What a boss. I'm seriously on a fucking adrenaline high right now." Kidōmaru sighed. "Hey, you mind my asking? Where did you learn that ability?"
Neji's eyes narrowed. He lowered his hand. "I see. You already understand that much, so I suppose I can say it directly. It runs in my family."
"Understood. In that case," Kidōmaru continued, smirking, "we have something in common. See, I come from around Hidden Leaf myself, so I can kind of sympathize." He lifted his hand. "That being said, you're really boring once you figure out your ability."
"How do you know you're not still inside my radius?"
"If you had the option, you wouldn't give me even that much information. You'd just delude me into thinking I wasn't being tricked again." Kidōmaru's eyes narrowed. "Still, at this point, it's over."
Neji's eyes narrowed. He lifted his hand. His eyes narrowed.
"You can't do anything while I'm outside your range!"
"That's not strictly true. Hell Moon, Elm Reading, Emperor's Son Doorway, and Lord… it's true that only one of them is long ranged."
Kidōmaru gasped.
Neji smirked. "Sorry, but you won't be rejoining your comrades. That is your destiny."
Kidōmaru's eyes narrowed. "Too naïve. Level Two—"
Neji's hand shot outward. A pulse of energy shot through the air.
Kidōmaru gasped. "Eh?!" The air glowed.
The pulse slammed into the chest.
Kidōmaru grasped his chest. His eyes widened. What the hell? The chest opened. Blood rained down in rivulets from the chest. "It fucking burns!" Kidōmaru screeched, his eyes widening.
Neji lowered his hand. "I'm not so kind as my Leaf comrades. I aimed to kill. I won't give you a chance to use the secret abilities you are doubtless still hiding."
Kidōmaru's eyes narrowed. "Why the hell would you assume I'd accept that?" he demanded angrily.
"Accept it or no, it is your fate. There is no way you can avoid it."
Kidōmaru collapsed in the grass. Blood rushed down from his chest. Damn it. He closed his eyes, his hand falling to one side. Damn it! The curse seal faded. If I'd been stronger. If I'd been a little stronger.
The illusion faded. Neji fell to one knee, shaking. Blood spilled from his shoulder. He got me by this much.
A/N: As promised.
Sanshigan:I wanted the family Hyūga to have something that set them apart from simply seeing through illusions. In the early parts of Naruto, the Hyūga were strongly indicated to be a rival family to the Uchiha. You can't rival unless you have power that is at least somewhat even, so I enhanced and altered the nature of the eyes in order to make the prospect at least more feasible. Of course, the method is probably questionable, which is why I'll now address my reasons for that. (Note: Uchiha Madara is a freak of nature; the Hyūga don't have anyone like him, so you don't need to worry about that. As a whole, however, the Uchiha and Hyūga clans are comparable in this universe, subtracting outliers like Madara.)
In both Naruto and Bleach, the moon is a potential source of deception. The two best examples of this, from each series, are the Eye of the Moon Plan and Kyōka Suigetsu. Thus, illusions are inherently associated with the moon. The moon is associated with the Hyūga due to their silvery eyes, which are similar to the silvery moon. Thus, the path I chose their eyes to follow was moonlight, or illusion. Thus, that's what I went with. I'll add that the name of the first evolved form of the Sanshigan is the Shinya Sanshigan, translated as Deep Evening Reflection. (Yes, the Sanshigan has evolutions.)
Kidōmaru's Origins: Now aren't you glad I put in that arc about the North Star Village? More specifically as to why it's important, Kidōmaru reflects the idea that spiders will eventually be able to change into humans and back. This comes from a specific series of Japanese legends about shapechanging spiders I enjoy and wanted to see in this story.