10 Enter: Enza

The smoke cleared and there was a lean and sickly looking humanoid white monkey that was the at the same height as Neji. Apparently the evening's diffused light exaggerated the appearance of the monkey in the smoke.

Neji had expected an intimidating and terrifying monkey. He was slightly disappointed but his previous life had taught him " don't check the teeth of a gifted horse". So Neji accepted the outcome.

"Oh if it isn't Enza" said Enma.

Enza bowed to Enma and replied "Lord".

Enma shifted his gaze towards Neji and said " You have gained the service of the most talented individual among the youngsters of the monkey tribe cherish his friendship and grow strong with him."

Neji couldn't make out whether he was screwing with him or telling the truth as he couldn't see through Enma's poker face. Neji hid his doubts deep in his heart and nodded and looked at Sandaime.

Hiruzen had an approving look on his face.

" You did good Neji, don't compare the monkey tribe with other summons, since Enza responded to your summon he will be the only summon in your life and you will be his only summoner. You can be even betrayed by your blood brother but Enza here will never betray you. Treat him as your closest friend." said Hiruzen.

Neji understood everything quickly as he knew the relationship between the 3rd and Enma were different than that of other summons in the anime.

Having a faithful sickly monkey is better than summoning Manda thought Neji.

He extended his hand towards Enza and introduced himself properly and politely " Brother Enza, my name is Hyuga Neji, i will be in your care from today."

Enza felt for a human Neji was not bad so it to introduced itself " Brother Neji, i , Enza of the hidden monkey village will watch your back even if we have to fight a million people."

Both Hiruzen and Enma nodded their heads in approval.

Neji wanted to practice with Enza so that they can achieve synergism during battle, but Enza said that the summoning ritual didn't have enough chakra to maintain the summon during their first try so he vanished into smoke.

Sandaime having completed his work cancelled his own summon and turned to leave after advising Neji to increase his chakra.

Neji was also exhausted so he decided to call it a day and went home.

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The next day,Hyuga residence

Since he hadn't sparred with Hinata for a while Neji began his day by sparring with Hinata. His fight with Kakashi had yielded several insights so he made sure to share them with Hinata.

Hinata was just happy that Neji remembered her training as no one else would train her. She wanted to change and prove to her father that she was worthy and wanted to be recognized by someone(wink wink).

After finishing his spar Neji got ready to attend the academy.

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Academy

Ebisu saw Neji and got to know his recent developments. Neji asked for a few tips for chakra enhancement which Ebisu provided. Ebisu also informed him that Kakashi was willing to train him so he told him to go meet him at the dumpling store after class.

Tenten and Lee where happy to see Neji.

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Neji met Kakashi at the dumpling shop and they sat down for a chat. Neji told Kakashi of his recent progress of learning summoning jutsu to which Kakashi gave a approving look as it was hard to actually summon an entity at an young age.

" Say Neji- kun, where did you learn the last attack of your?" asked Kakashi

Neji had already prepared an answer " Sensei i know that it is a technique of Yondaime sama but i accidentally discovered it by modifying a hyuga defensive technique called kaiten. I wanted to make it offensive, but one thing led to another and i arrived at Rasengan."

Kakashi didn't inquire further as he was merely curious.

" Neji-kun you need to improve your chakra reserve so that you can make a prolonged battle, there are food pills but they will not help you during battle and it is also detrimental to your health after a point." said Kakashi.

Kakashi continued "I will guide you with a certain method and teach you some ninjutsu to fill your short comings, so be sure to arrive at the 3rd practice ground without fail daily at 5 A.M sharp. You will practice for 1 hour and then immediately engage in combat with my shadow clone as i may or may not be available everyday."

Neji accepted without hesitation as it was more than enough for him.

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Next morning, 3rd practice ground

Kakashi was lecturing Neji on the basics of chakra and on how to increase them.

" Neji- kun the chakra in our body is the combination of mental and physical energy and continuously practicing ninjutsu will automatically raise your physical energy and meditation will improve your mental energy. Doing these separately will be time consuming so i want you to create maximum number of shadow clones you could maintain and make each of them do different tasks. Do you understand my point" said Kakashi.

Neji obviously knew this technique as Kakashi did the same method to make Naruto add nature manipulation to the Rasengan.

" Yes sensei, the experience gained from the clone will be obtained by the main body" said Neji.

Kakashi was impressed, no one would not want a clever student.

After explaining Kakashi's clone climbed up tree branch and started to read his favorite book.

Neji first kneeded the maximum chakra in his body and performed the kage bunshin technique. 10 clones appeared, it was the current limit of Neji. Kakashi who saw this sneakingly was surprised as it was a difficult feat to achieve for a 9 year old kid.

Neji made 5 of them perform Kaiten while he instructed the rest to perform all the ninjutsu they knew. The real Neji chose a tree and carved on it a human body and marked the rough location of 361 tenketsu points and began to hone his gentle fist style as he started the combo attack of gentle fist style 64 strikes on these points.

The clones didn't last 10 minutes as they disappeared and their experience rushed into him. He stopped and made another batch and made the repeat the same process while he resumed his practice.

After the end of 1 hour Neji was dead beat tired but the duration of his shadow clones increased by 1 whole minute and the total experience he gained was worth the trouble. Neji despite knowing of this method didn't employ them previously as his chakra reserve was smaller,but the progress he has achieved till now had enabled him to support this method now.

Kakashi's clone that had been reading till now closed his book, he allowed Neji a break for 5 minutes and started fighting using taijutsu alone. Since Neji was exhausted his movements were slow and it took a great deal of effort to dodge. Neji lasted for 20 minutes before his byakugan deactivated and he fell down. Kakashi seeing that Neji had reached his limit called it a day and said that

"We will carry over the remaining 40 minutes tomorrow, work more on your taijutsu by sparring with your own clones. See you tomorrow" said Kakashi before dispelling the clone.