"Ow! Stop throwing them so hard!" Neji screamed, placing his hand where the rock had hit.

"You're the one that told me to throw them just as hard as I would a kunai!" the brown-haired girl yelled back, "This jutsu is pretty weird, it has no hand signs and it seems like it takes a lot of chakra to do, what does it even do?" Tenten asked, noticing how Neji was struggling to catch his breath.

He spent a few more seconds breathing heavily before answering, "It's called Kaiten or Eight Trigrams: Revolving Heaven if you want to be historically accurate. It works by releasing chakra from every tenketsu in the body to create a cloak of chakra around the user, then by spinning really fast you repel the attack -and anything else near you, away by creating a dome of chakra that works as a shield. Once mastered I should, in theory, be able to block almost any attack," he explained.

Tenten looked at the white-eyed boy with shock, "Releasing chakra from every tenketsu? That sounds almost impossible at our age. I've read that most Chunin struggle to release chakra from their bodies aside from their feet and hands."

"You should know that I'm way more talented than the average Chunin," Neji said with a shrug.

Neji was forced to sidestep at the last second to dodge a rock aimed at his chest, "Hey! What the hell?!"

Tenten just smiled, "That's what you get for getting all smug with me. C'mon, it's only been an hour, I wanna throw more rocks at the Hyuga genius."

Neji sighed, maybe this hadn't been such a good idea after all.

"Alright... That's enough... for today..." Neji said in between breaths.

Tenten stared at the long-haired boy with his hands on his knees as he struggled to breathe, covered from head to toe in bruises. She could see why teachers at the academy called him a genius and a prodigy.

It wasn't just natural talent, it seemed like Neji pushed himself to his limit often. His stamina and chakra reserves were very large for a kid his age, not to mention the insane amount of chakra control it surely took for someone to even attempt such a technique as the Kaiten.

If it wasn't for the new laws, Tenten was sure Neji would already be a Genin.

She wondered about what pushed him to be stronger? Just a simple desire to obtain power?

"Fine by me, my arms feel a bit sore from throwing so much," Tenten said with a quiet laugh as she stretched her arms.

Neji walked up to Tenten after he stopped feeling like he was almost about to pass out, "So, next time tomor... on second thought, I think I overdid it today, how about in two days?"

Tenten closed her left eye, making an apologetic expression, "Sorry Neji, but my dad wants me to look after the shop that day," Tenten explained.

"Oh, that's alright. I need to practice other stuff, maybe I'll also visit the shop and take a look around," Neji said as he pulled out his cassette player from his zipped pocket.

"That would be nice. Hey, I always see you putting those on when we leave class. What kinda music do you listen to?"

Neji stared at his pair of earphones for a second. No one had ever asked him about his music taste since arriving in this new world, "I listen to mostly upbeat stuff, but enjoy relaxing music too from time to time."

One of Neji's biggest, yet expected disappointments all the way back when he got his cassette player had been discovering how, while music in the Naruto world possessed all the music genres of his old, artists and songs were all different, meaning that he would never be able to listen to his old favorite tunes.

Then, Neji made the most bizarre discovery of them all since waking up in the body of Neji Hyuga and having his personality and memories mixed into one.

All of the openings or endings that were once featured in the two Naruto shows existed here.

It had been such a surreal experience back then. To listen to all the old songs he used to listen to but in a different body, in a world so completely different. It made this world seem strangely meta. Like it was self-aware of the fact that it had once been fiction.

Could it mean that in another universe, the Naruto manga was being published with the current Neji as a side character?

Neji pushed those thoughts away. There was no point in dwindling about what ifs that he could never know.

"Alright then, see you tomorrow at the academy," Tenten said as she waved and walked away.

"This is where we're gonna celebrate finishing our third year? A ramen stand?" Tenten asked, eying the ramen stand.

"Yes," Neji replied, "it has become a bit of a tradition to come here after finishing a semester."

"Well, well, well, if it ain't our favorite Hyuga back again," Teuchi said as he saw the two academy students enter his restaurant, "and will you look at that, brought your girlfriend along?" he finished with a cheeky smile.

Neji waved in front of his face as he sat down, "Nah, I'm into older ladies."

Teuchi, Ayaname, and Tenten looked at the young Hyuga with confused expressions on their faces, "Well… I guess even you can't escape the weirdness of the Hyuga, even if your weirdness is of a different variety," Teuchi said as he scratched the back of his head.

The white-eyed boy stared at the owner of the establishment with a blank expression on his face. Was he seriously at the point in his relationship with Teuchi and Ayaname that they felt comfortable calling him weird to his face?

"Yeah well… Just give us two bowls of the usual," Neji said after a sigh.

"Hey hey, you're ordering for me too?" Tenten said, clearly annoyed. Neji looked at the girl sitting beside him, "Yes, if you come to Ichiraku Ramen, it is legally required to have a bowl of miso with extra pork," he explained.

Tenten looked at her friend with a confused expression but didn't argue, "Two miso bowls with extra pork coming up!" Ayaname said in her usual jovial voice.

Tenten and Neji made small talk as they waited for their food, "So? Got perfect grades again?" Ayaname said as she placed the two bowls of ramen in front of them.

"Of course. Who do you take me for?" Neji said with a shrug, "And your little friend here? How did you do? My name's Ayaname by the way, and the old man is my father, Teuchi."

Tenten nodded, "My name is Tenten. Mine aren't perfect, but I'm still number two in our class," she said.

"Then congratulations to you two," Ayaname said.

"Thank you!" "Thanks."

"You wanna train today? Do you ever take a day off?" Tenten asked, looking around at their usual training ground.

"I spent yesterday training my Byakugan and doing calligraphy, so I'm pretty rested right now. But yes, we're going to train today. Although, it would be more accurate to call it an experiment," Neji said before pulling a small black sphere from his pocket.

Tenten examined the small ball in confusion, "It's a food pill," the expression on Tenten's face changed from confusion to shock in a flash, "Wow! Really?! My dad has some for sale but they're so expensive I don't think we've ever sold one."

Neji nodded, "Yeah, they're stupidly expensive, which is why most ninjas don't use them despite how useful they are. I only managed to convince my mother to gift me this for my tenth birthday last week because I didn't ask for anything on my ninth," he explained.

"I see. So what are you gonna do with it," Neji smiled, "Not me," he said as he handed the food pill to Tenten, "you."

Tenten now looked confused again, "Me?"

"Yup. Here's what I need you to do. I'm gonna try to do a new jutsu. If after doing it, I fall unconscious, you feed me that and take me to a hospital."

The brown-haired girl now seemed positively spooked, "Wha- What? If you drop unconscious?! Maybe if the jutsu is that dangerous you shouldn't try to do it!"

Neji shook his head from side to side, "No, I have waited long enough," the Hyuga prodigy said before making a cross sign, "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

A puff of smoke appeared right next to Neji as he excitedly waited to look at the result of the technique. The smile on the ten-year-old Hyuga grew as the smoke cleared, revealing an exact copy of Neji looking at him with a smug expression on his face.

"Oh yeah! Mission successful."

"Heh, did you really think you couldn't do it?"

"I'm so right. I knew I could. I'm so awesome."

"Man, this is kinda weird."

"Hey, you said it, not me."

"But you're me, so you did say it."

"Wow, it's not an illusion, it's a real clone!" Tenten said, the two identical Hyuga turned from looking at themselves to look at her, "How did you come across such an awesome technique?"

"Saw a Jonin do it while training.""Saw a Jonin do it while training."

"Hey, I do the talking.""You do the talking."

The original Neji looked at his clone and laughed to himself, "Yes. It's a real clone, a jutsu originally invented by the Second Hokage for intel gathering, but turns out it has another very interesting feature. Any memories the clone gains return to the original after disappearing, this also applies to learning jutsu and chakra exercises like the ones for Nature Transformation."

Tenten nodded in understanding, "That is nuts! You think you could teach it to me?" Neji shook his head with an apologetic expression, "Sorry, but one of the few downsides of the jutsu is that the user's chakra is evenly divided between themselves and their clones, so if someone like you who doesn't have a lot of chakra did it, you would probably die," the girl looked down with a depressing aura around herself.

"Anyway, now I can start doing some research," Neji said as he pulled out his trusty notebook and a timer from his backpack. "Rodger, I'll keep training our Change in Chakra Nature by trying to make that boulder 30 meters northwest from our current location crumble like we did with the leaf and pebble,'' The original Neji looked at his clone, his Byakugan already on.

"Wow, It's like you read my mind. Remember to keep your Byakugan on." "Yeah yeah, don't treat you like you're dumb," both Neji smiled at each other before the clone started walking towards the designated boulder.

"Man, talking to yourself like that is fun. Alright, while he does that, I think you're ready to receive your birthday gift," Neji stated with a jolly tone, pleased with his success using the shadow clone jutsu.

Tenten stared at her friend with a poker face, "Neji, my birthday was 3 months ago," she said with a flat tone.

"I have waited till now because your reserves needed to grow a bit more to start training in this. Now follow me."

Tenten did as told without a grump, "So, what are you gonna teach me?" Neji looked back at his friend with a small grin on his face, "Tree climbing."

"Tree climbing? That sounds du-" "with only your feet!"

Neji looked down at his friend as she laid with her back against the ground, attempting to catch her breath. "Not bad, you managed to keep at it for 5 hours. You are now at the same level I was when I was 6."

Tenten looked at the Hyuga boy with irritation in her eyes, "Oh shut up..." she said in a low voice, too exhausted to think of a witty reply.

Neji suddenly took a sharp breath as he was forced to a knee, "What? Seeing me work my ass off made you tired by proxy?" Tenten asked.

"No… The clone just vanished…" Neji said as he took a deep breath and stood up.

"So this is the mind backlash…" he thought to himself as he grasped his head with one hand. Activating the Byakugan, he could see how his reserves were slightly larger than when he'd created the clone, so chakra was not the issue here.

The issue was the memories and fatigue from the clone being transferred to the original.

Neji felt like the most accurate way of describing it was as if a train carrying a bunch of memories and weariness had crashed directly onto him, which explained the small headache, as usually, 5 hours of training didn't show up in your brain all of a sudden.

"And Naruto did this with a hundred clones? Fuck, even with only 20 I'm almost certain that without the Kyuubi you would die from a brain hemorrhage on the spot…"

"So these are the drawbacks of training like this huh… Alright, I have this free month to test how to best take advantage of this in my current state before the new academic year starts," Neji thought to himself, fully enthralled with becoming stronger as well as very interested in finding all the little details and attributes of the shadow clone jutsu.

Neji looked at Tenten with a small smile, "Only took you a month to master it, not too bad I guess!" he screamed so Tenten could hear him since she was so high up.

Tenten looked down with a pout at Neji, keeping her feet glued with chakra to the top of the largest tree on the training ground, "I've been able to do it since last week! Why did you force me to keep doing it for another?!"

Neji, annoyed with having to scream to communicate, ran up to the tree without effort, a smile plastered across his face as he enjoyed the wind on his face and hair, "Because in my book," he said as he reached Tenten, "you don't truly master something until you can do it effortlessly."

"Hm! Well, that's your opinion. Anyway, our new year at the academy starts next Monday, you got all the info you wanted about the shadow clone jutsu?"

Neji smiled, "Sure did!" he said, pulling out his notebook.

"Well first off, clones disappear if you go to sleep or get knocked out. I've also deemed that trying to make more than 1 clone would be way too dangerous right now. It's a shame the jutsu can't take advantage of my great chakra control, but if you try to do it while not splitting your chakra equivalently between your clones it just doesn't work."

"Not to mention how, if I fall unconscious due to low chakra, who knows what could happen to all the stored chakra for the Byakugo Seal, the last thing I want is to lose all my progress…"

"Now, for the interesting part. It seems the time a clone can 'stay alive' is basically infinite if it doesn't use any chakra, so this new year I don't think I'll be going much to the Academy anymore."

Tenten pouted as she looked at him, "That is so unfair!" Neji looked at Tenten with an expression she couldn't read, "That's fate for you... because she wasn't born in a clan and her parents weren't ninjas, her reserves are way smaller than mine..." Neji thought to himself.

In truth, he was selling himself a bit short. He'd been training to expand his reserves since he was 5, but even if Tenten had done the same, her reserves would still be way smaller than his.

"The clones I've been sending to train in the second level of chakra Nature Transformation always lasted 3 hours, so they're not very useful for that unless you possess massive chakra reverse. The greatest ability of training with this technique lies in how much it allows you to multitask and diversify. I can send a clone to study or train anything chakra-related while the real me trains taijutsu or my Byakugan.

These tests also helped me confirm that thanks to my awesome chakra control and using the Byakugan for very long periods of time since I was very young, my body has acclimatized to it and I don't lose any chakra when it's on, the same thing goes for walking on water and walls."

A small frown appeared on Tenten's face, "show off..." she whispered.

"Here's a cool little detail. If a clone that hasn't used any chakra is dispelled, all of the chakra returns to the original, but if it disappears because of physical trauma like a stab or a punch, you get nothing" Neji said, very satisfied with all the information he'd gathered this past month.

"Wow, that's a lot of good info," Tenten said in awe. She often forgot Neji was supposed to be a prodigy when it came to the ninja arts.

Neji nodded before suddenly tensing as he felt a wave of tiredness and a train of memories slammed into his mind and body. Losing consciousness for a few seconds, Neji's chakra being directed at his feet vanished and he started falling all the way up from the top of the tree he and Tenten had been sticking to.

Tenten let out a shriek as she saw her friend apparently lose conciseness and fall a distance that would surely kill him.

After falling for two seconds, Neji managed to regain consciousness. He quickly directed chakra to his hand and twisted his body to the right, slamming his hand on the tree to stop his fall.

Neji stayed hanging like that as he took deep breaths, the adrenaline slowly leaving his body. A few more seconds and he would have been a pancake on the ground.

"Neji you okay!?" Tenten asked, worried as she ran as fast as she could down the tree. Taking another deep breath, Neji looked up to see Tenten staring at him, eyes filled with worry.

"Sorry, Tenten. Note to self, don't do anything dangerous while a clone is training..." Neji said as he looked down at the grown a few meters below him.

"You scared the crap out of me! I thought you were a goner!" Tenten screamed, relieved that her friend wasn't going to die.

"Yeah... On the good side, my clone completed the exercise. I should now be able to learn any Earth-style techniques without major issues. Just have to find someone willing to teach me any or wait until I'm a genin and can access that section of the Shinobi Library, but even then I doubt there are many elemental Ninjutsu in that section,"

Tenten just gave him an angry look, "You think I care about that you idiot! You could have died!" Neji gave her an apologetic look, "You're right, let's go down. That's enough training for today."

Tenten could not agree more.

Neji walked out of his room and into a familiar scene in the kitchen. Table with his breakfast ready and his mother drinking a cup of tea while reading the newspaper.

"Good morning Mother," Neji said as he sat down and started eating his breakfast, "thank you for the food."

"Good morning Neji, and you're welcome," Himeko said in her usual sweet voice.

They passed a few minutes in comfortable silence as Neji chewed his breakfast slowly. Today was the first day of his fourth grade at the Academy and he was quite excited.

"I think you'll find today's news quite pleasant, sweetie," the Hyuga woman said as she placed the newspaper on the table.

Neji murmured in question, eying the paper with curiosity. After a few seconds, he spotted what his mother was referring to.

The law concerning at what age one could graduate from the Academy had been modified!

Neji patiently waited for everyone to leave, waving goodbye at Tenten as she left their classroom.

"Seguchi-Sensei," Neji said, stopping before the desk where his head teacher was sitting behind. "Ah, Neji-Kun, I knew you would want to talk to me after I was told about the change in the law," Seguchi said as he put away a stack of papers he'd been writing on.

"That's indeed what I want to talk about. The newspaper only said that the law had been changed, but didn't give any specifics. I wish to know more."

Neji's teacher nodded in approval, "The changes are as follows-" Seguchi raised a finger, "-a student may graduate earlier from the academy, but not before the age of 10," the brown-haired Chunin raised a second finger, "and the exam to graduate earlier has now been made a bit harder than before. You must have near-perfect or perfect scores in all subjects to be allowed to take it. The examinee must also showcase a jutsu or multiple that the instructor performing the exam must deem above average to graduate. Those are the changes, 13 remains the age at which most will graduate."

Neji nodded in understanding, "So when can I take the exam? I turned 10 last month, my grades are all perfect and I think I possess a few techniques that could be enough," Neji said with the usual unemotional voice.

"Hahaha! Well, aren't we eager?" Seguchi said in between laughs, "I'm afraid, however, that you can only take the exam at the end of the academic year with the other students who are graduating. That's how it's always been done."

Neji's lips pursed to the side, but ultimately had to accept this is how things were, "I see, must I submit any paperwork?" Seguchi shook his head from side to side, "No, a few months before the exam I will talk to the Hokage and his advisors personally and recommend you to take the exam, if they agree, I'll give you a paper that your legal guardian must sign and you'll be able to take the exam."

The recently turned ten-year-old Hyuga bowed, said thanks, and started making his way home.

After his talk with his sensei, Neji established a new regimen that he followed rigorously.

In the mornings, he would get ready, send a shadow clone to the Academy while he practiced the Gentle Fist or calligraphy, then after class was finished, the clone would disperse himself, and with the other half of his chakra back, he would train on the more chakra intensive techniques of the Juken like the Kaiten and 64 palms and trying to expand the range of his Byakugan.

Then before he realized, three months had flown by, and after saving money for almost two years, Neji finally had enough for the next phase of his self-described master plan.

A lone figure slowly walked towards Training Ground 3, even with half of his face and right eye covered, one could easily tell he did not wish to be here.

After looking around for the person he was supposed to meet, the man wearing the standard Konoha uniform complete with Chunin vest spotted a kid with his legs crossed under a tree. Even with his eyes closed, one could tell the young boy possessed the Byakugan thanks to the protruded veins around his temples.

"Kakashi Hatake. The rumors about you being always incredibly late were not unfounded. We were supposed to meet here two hours ago," The Hyuga boy said without opening his eyes.

"I was walking here when a black cat crossed my path so I had to take a different route. Besides, I doubt a kid like you has anything better to do," the silver-haired man known across the Elemental Nations as Kakashi the Copy Ninja said in his usual uninterested tone.

Kakashi cursed internally at his self-declared eternal rival for putting him in this situation. Many years ago, after the Kyuubi had killed the last remaining member of his Genin team, Kakashi had fallen into quite a depression, and Guy, in an attempt to uplift him, had forced him to register in Konoha's list of Ninja Tutors For Hire, claiming that it would help keep his mind occupied and let him get some money by another way that wasn't going on missions.

Of course, back then, Kakashi had agreed just to get Might Guy off his back, setting a price so high that he never expected anyone to be willing to pay him that much money.

It seemed that his plan had failed. He'd never imagined anyone would circumvent the ridiculously high price to hire him by just paying for 30 minutes of training instead of weeks like other shinobi usually did.

"Alright then, do you have the money?" Kakashi said as he placed a clock down on the ground and activated the timer, "This will go off in 30 minutes. Whatever it is you want me to teach you, better say it fast."

The Hyuga boy sighed as he got up and pulled an envelope from the center pocket of his gray hoodie, "Here."

"Thank you very much," Kakashi said as he softly grabbed the envelope with an obviously fake tone of gratitude.

"I want to learn four Earth-style ninjutsu. The earth wall, the underground swimming jutsu, the rising earth core jutsu, and the headhunter jutsu."

Kakashi gave a soft chuckle, "C'mon kid get real, no Genin has enough chakra to do elemental ninjutsu, much less an academy stu-" Kakashi stopped as he saw the boy grab a leaf from the ground and made it crumble by turning it into dirt without breaking a sweat.

"Is it really that hard to believe? I read that you once won a Ninjutsu tournament using an Earth-style jutsu when you were only 8, and Earth is the opposite of your primary element, that being Lightning, which means it would be way harder for you to learn," Neji said with a smug smile.

Kakashi placed a hand under his chin, "My my, aren't we history enthusiasts," he said with a somewhat annoyed tone.

"A bit, it was also thanks to your father. His book was very helpful," an emotion appeared in Kakashi's eye for a few seconds at the mention of his late father, but Neji could not tell if it was sadness, nostalgia, shock, or something else entirely.

"You must be Neji Hyuga. Guy talks about you and another student in your class from time to time..." Kakashi said, his usual uninterested expression back.

"Well anyway, you paid so I guess I can't really deny your request, can I? Better take notes of this because no matter how much of a genius you think you are, there is no chance you're learning 4 jutsu in 30 minutes," Kakashi looked as Neji took a scroll from his pocket, a brush and dipped it in an ink flask, "What? You're too good for a pencil?" The silver-haired man asked with a sarcastic tone.

"I've been doing calligraphy since I was 8. I'm just more comfortable writing with a brush than a pencil nowadays," Neji explained.

"Fine then, listen up. Earth Style: Moving Earth Core is a B-ranked Earth Style Ninjutsu that grants the user the ability to lower or raise the ground in the surrounding area, allowing them to create giant holes or elevations in it. The size of the affected area as well as the depths that it is lowered or raised to is also up to the user. The hand seals for this technique are Rat Tiger Dog Snake Ox and lastly Snake. Once all the hand seals are performed, the user must place his hands on the ground and send his recently converted Earth chakra into it, then expand his chakra in a sort of blanket over the area he wants to shift, then move the chakra either up to make the ground rise or down to make it go down.

A little trivia for you, the Snake seal is the most commonly affiliated with Earth style. It is very rare for an Earth technique to not have it."

Kakashi looked at the person who'd hired him as a trainer, writing at quite an impressive speed everything he just said, "You got all of that?" the silver-haired shinobi asked.

"Yes, I have a few questions however," Neji said as he moved his eyes from the scroll resting on the ground to his temporary sensei.

"Fire away," Kakashi said as pulled a yellow book from his ninja pouch.

"I completely forgot I wanted to read that and the other books Jiraiya has written. Still, isn't it basically smut? Reading that in public… Talk about being shameless," Neji thought as he eyed the orange book with Icha Icha Paradise written in bold, red letters on it.

"I want to know where you learned all these jutsu and how fast the technique can be performed, also, I've read in some books that you can shorten the amount of hand signs in most jutsu, is this true?"

Kakashi sighed, "Feels like I'm being interrogated with so many questions... I copied this jutsu from an Iwagakure Shinobi long ago, that's all I'm telling you. The size and speed of the jutsu, like most, can be improved with practice and by improving your chakra control. And yes, the better and more familiarized you get with a jutsu, combined with great chakra control, will let you shorten the number of hand seals needed to perform a jutsu, but this is something usually only Jonin can do."

"So you when you were twelve?" Neji said with a shit-eating grin.

"...Smartass," Neji's smile grew slightly after hearing Kakashi's slightly annoyed voice, "So I've been called."

"Let's get this over with," Kakashi said with another sigh, he really did not enjoy teaching pretentious brats, "There are a lot of different variations of this technique, but the one you asked for, Earth Style: Underground Swimming Jutsu also known as Hiding in Surface Jutsu is probably the most efficient one. It is a C-ranked jutsu that allows the user to phase through solid materials except for a very selected few, allowing the user to quickly avoid incoming attacks and travel underground undetected as well. Of course, you can not breathe underground, so I recommend you train to hold your breath for long periods of time before getting yourself killed with this jutsu. The hand seal for this is just one, Snake. Do the hand seal and spread Earth chakra all over your body, then while doing so, expand it underground while also keeping it inside you so you short of 'fuse' with it via chakra. It's a very strange feeling, so it will take some time to get used to. This one I learned from an old ANBU partner I used to have a few years ago. The better you get at this technique, the faster you'll be able to move underground and 'fuse' with it, allowing you to dodge incoming attacks quite efficiently if they're not too fast," Kakashi said as Neji wrote everything he was saying.

"Since we're talking about going underground, the Earth Style: Headhunter Jutsu is very similar to the previous one, needing only the same Snake seal. The main difference is that, unlike the previous jutsu, this one will help you detect where your opponent is once you're underground, since, as you might be aware, you can not see underground. But thanks to that little Byakugan you have, you might be able to skip this step and simply activate the technique for the necessary burst of speed to drag someone underground. A speed that with the Underground Swimming Jutsu would be very hard to perform. I learned this from a scroll at the Konoha Shinobi Library after I became a Chunin."

Neji kept writing everything down with a smile. This man was a goldmine.

"Lastly, there is Earth Style: Mud Wall, a B-rank defensive jutsu. There are two ways to perform this technique. The most common and efficient way is done by manipulating the pre-existing earth directly by placing your hands on the ground and raising it as a wall either behind, in front, or to your left or right. The second can be used if you're fighting in a place without earth like a roof or something. You can convert Earth chakra in the body into an earthen material that you then spit from your mouth that will raise and solidify very quickly. My father taught me this jutsu," Neji looked up at Kakashi, surprised the man was even willing to talk about that.

"The hand seals for this jutsu are Tiger Hare Boar Ram Dog Ox and Snake," Kakashi said while slowly performing the hand signs, then he slammed his hands on the ground, making a wall double his size grow from the earth behind him.

Neji put his brush and ink away, closing the scroll and getting up, "Thank you."

Kakashi and Neji turned to the left and right respectively to look at the clock Kakashi had placed on the ground.

"Five minutes left, anything you wanna ask me?" Kakashi said as he hid his face behind his book.

"Hmmm... Actually, I've been thinking of this recently. Is there any jutsu that lets you change your hair color?" Kakashi lowered his book just enough that Neji could see his eye.

"Huh? Hair color? Uhhhh..." Kakashi seemed to be in deep thought for a few seconds as he tried to remember if such a jutsu existed, "Yeah, I know one," he finally said.

Now Neji was excited, "Really? How do you do it?!"

Kakashi looked down as he put his book away. "Seriously? I just explained to this kid 4 advanced Earth ninjutsu for him to remain unfazed, but he gets all excited about something so trivial?" Kakashi thought to himself.

"Ninja Art: Hair Color Manipulation Jutsu," Kakashi said as he performed the Bird seal, then Horse, and lastly Ram.

Neji stared at Kakashi with awe as his hair slowly turned from a silver/gray to a blonde similar to what a certain someone had.

"You can find this technique at the library in the Genin section. I never bothered to learn it, just seemed useless. I only know how to do it because I once saw a street performer do it while I had my Sharingan uncovered.

For this jutsu, simply do the hand signs, direct your chakra to every single hair follicle in your head, then all the way to the end of the hair, at the same time, concentrate on the color you want. This jutsu requires very good chakra control to maintain, as it is necessary to constantly feed chakra to your hair for it to remain the new color. This will also gradually drain your reserves, so if you plan on maintaining it all day, it can suck away 1/5 of your reserves by the end of the day," Kakashi said as his hair reverted back to gray.

"It's kinda similar to the Byakugo Seal then, needing to constantly feed chakra to it and all..." Neji thought, "So what you're saying is that it's the perfect chakra control exercise as well as a great way to increase your reserves because you can do it 24/7?"

Kakashi looked at the Hyuga kid with a confused expression, "Uhm, well, I guess you could look at it that way I suppose..." Kakashi said with a soft voice.

"Not to mention it's not restricted to the head either, there are hair follicles all over the body. That should make it more draining, which should result in even better chakra control results and help expand my reserves even more," Kakashi just kept staring at the kid with a blank expression, "What's this obsession with chakra control? Kinda reminds me of Guy with taijutsu… Does he want to be a medic-nin or something?" Kakashi thought.

Both Hyuga and Hatake looked at the clock as it started ringing, "Well, I can't say that last conversation wasn't enlightening, but our time is up. I must be going now, I need to remove my name from that 'Instructor For Hire' list so this won't happen again," Neji smiled as he saw the Jonin leave the training ground without saying another word, reading his book while doing it.

This was fine by him, there was a lot of work to be done.

Neji's shadow clone walked to his classroom the next morning as usual. Today he was uncharacteristically late, so he assumed everyone was probably already sitting down and waiting for their sensei to arrive.

The classroom full of ten-year-olds chatting with each other suddenly turned silent as everyone looked at the newcomer, one Hyuga Neji, open the sliding door to their classroom and sit down in his usual seat next to his friend Tenten.

"Good morning, Tenten," Neji said to the girl sitting beside him with his usual stoic voice.

The girl looked around the classroom as she noticed everyone seemed to be staring at the person sitting beside him, "Uhm... Neji, did you dye your hair white?"

Neji smiled at the young girl, "I believe it compliments my eyes quite well, don't you think?"