Chapter 297: The Moon Princess (3)
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Neji kinda deserved the punch if he was being honest.
His little prank of not telling them about the Dimensional Teleportation before in time had clearly pissed off all five of his girls back then. That, when coupled with Rumi's temper, he should have expected the punch in their first meeting. But he didn't expect so, because he was very much looking forward to meeting her.
Not counting the surge of memories he had as 'Neji Hyuga', it had just been a bit over a month since he last saw her– yet, he still missed her a lot, nonetheless.
When he was punched by Rumi, with a power that destroyed his Transformation Jutsu, Neji was shot right outside Earth's atmosphere. Yet, as he floated, he was sure Rumi must have missed him a lot too.
Neji took a moment to regain his composure, admitting that the punch held great power behind it.
Soon, he was about to just teleport himself back to Earth, but before that could happen, he sensed someone approaching him at a breakneck speed.
Just as he turned his head to the right, he found Rumi rushing to him, and in surprise he was caught off guard and attacked once again.
‹Eighty Gods Vacuum Fists›
Eighty large fists of purple chakra crashed onto Neji's face, breaking a dozen of his bones, as he was thrown backwards into space.
Neji barely evaded another version of the same attack, dodging by leaping to the side. He grunted for a moment when his injuries healed in the blink of an eye.
'Did Rumi not recognise me?' Neji couldn't help but ask himself. 'Maybe because of the cloaks of chakra around me?'
This clearly was Rumi, even her status screen said the same, so the problem must be with his appearance.
[Rumi Usagiyama – Ōtsutsuki – Peak Tier 20]
Even though it said Ōtsutsuki, her previous race being too weak in comparison to be mentioned, her name was still Rumi. So the odds that her mind was that of Kaguya were low.
Her Tier wasn't surprising either. Rumi herself was Tier 14 when Neji teleported her away, and a full-powered Kaguya should be somewhere between Tier 15 to 16 (since Ten-Tails Madara was Low-15 himself). The current Rumi had both her old and Kaguya's abilities, so Tier 20 was rather a low number.
Neji was happy that she had grown this much—even if it was a coincidence that she ended up becoming Kaguya. However, now for the same reason, his life was in danger.
If Rumi kept attacking and he was left to just flee and defend, he could actually die.
"Rumi, it's me!"
Neji raised his arms in the air in a defensive manner as he cancelled most of his power buffs. Eight Gates, Tenseigan Chakra Mode, Lightning Cloak. He only kept his Hybrid form, believing it might rather help her recognise his identity.
When he once again used Transformation Jutsu to turn his looks into that of his previous world's version, Rumi again paused for a moment.
A second later, her expression only distorted further.
"I know who you are, fool."
Rumi grumbled and rushed at him once more.
This time Neji didn't have his buffs to help him. That's why he couldn't dodge when another full-powered punch landed on his stomach.
Neji's transformation broke. Because of the lack of air in this vicinity, there was no friction resistance and he was shot like a bullet across space, only stopping when he crashed on the surface of the moon.
Neji gasped for air and spat out blood when his back crashed against the moon, and he felt his bones break once again.
[You have been dealt 8,037 DMG!]
'Ah, fuck, that hurt.'
Neji cursed. If it was him from before, he could have died with that single attack. Thankfully, he recently levelled up 945 times after his battle with the Reanimated Shinobis and Obito's team. He was at Level 1981, with a total HP of 48,950.
Neji felt his injuries start healing again, but it was slower this time because of the lack of previous buffs. He quickly distributed 105 stat points to his END from his 9660 accountable stat points, making him return to full HP (and more) right away.
Rumi Usagiyama rushed at him again– with her long, wavy hair straight like needles as she was pointing them at his position.
Neji pushed himself upwards and dashed away while activating his buffs one after another– but he was too slow. He still believed Rumi wouldn't hurt him seriously. That misconception when coupled with Rumi's Tier-20 speed, Neji appeared like a running chicken that her Super Byakugan had locked onto.
With dense chakra concentrated on the tips of her hair, Rumi shot a thousand of her needles-like hair that penetrated everywhere where Neji's scales weren't covering– and only 1/10 of Neji's body was actually covered with his draconic scales.
Neji's Eight Gates and Tenseigan Mana Mode that was just starting—shot down abruptly as Rumi's hair penetrated his mana pathways, making him choke on air for a moment before he fell to his face.
"...Weak."
Rumi scoffed and slowly floated to his form that was twitching on the ground.
Neji was strong, but this attack followed the same principle as Gentle Fist and was admittedly more deadly– and therefore, being shot through more than dozens of his mana pathways made him practically paralysed.
Rumi landed on the surface of the moon, on top of the face-lying Neji, as she grabbed him by his long hair to make him turn around to meet her eyes.
"What have you been doing all these years? You are barely better than the last time we saw each other. Pathetic. Weakling."
Rumi glared at him with angry eyes. When he tried to talk, only blood came out of the corner of his lips.
"...Disgusting, too."
Reluctantly, Rumi stomped on his face.
Neji groaned a little, but Rumi didn't allow him any rest. She crouched down beside him and pulled him by his collar.
"You should have focused on training instead of running after girls." she then yelled. "You can't even beat your own woman, yet you talk about protecting them?!"
That was the first time Neji's face showed a different reaction than just confusion.
"Why are you frowning all of a sudden?" Rumi asked back, her grip tightening on his collar. "You are an ungrateful, oblivious, and heartless bastard. Why the hell are you frowning?!"
After a short silence, Rumi's angry expression changed.
She laughed a little while wearing a mocking smirk.
"Wait, does being called an irresponsible man hurt your pride?" she asked. "If so, I wonder what you'd think if you learn—I made a family with another man here."
Neji's frown deepened.
"I had children, too. How do you feel about that? Don't you regret not coming earlier? Instead of playing around with girls?"
After a short silence, Neji gave her a bloody smile.
"You are lying," He said. "Hagoromo and Hamura, right? They aren't your children. You can't fool me, Rumi."
Rumi opened her mouth again, but she couldn't find an appropriate response to his claim—because he was right. Those two children weren't hers, but Kaguya's. Rumi never touched or loved another man in the last millennium.
Unable to endure his bloody smile, Rumi punched his face with full force again.
But this time the punch didn't land.
A small paw appeared between Neji's face and her fist—that stopped immediately when Rumi recognised the paw.
Kurai stared at Rumi with gleaming golden eyes.
"Stop,"
Kurai said, openly glaring at Rumi.
"Or I will destroy you."
The air grew intensely cold in the area as black energy started to concentrate on Kurai's fingertips.
"...Kurai," Rumi mumbled in shock. "You are still with him?"
Kurai scoffed. "I don't want to speak to you. Get away from papa. You hurt him."
"He deserved it. Also, he is healing-"
"You hurt him." Kurai glared. "Get away."
"Kurai," Neji coughed out the next words. "It's between adults, don't interfere."
"I am not letting you get beaten without any reason." Kurai clenched her teeth. "You can just beat her, why are you taking a beating? You can just collect all those hair piercing you—into your inventory. Then strike her while in all your buffs. How dare she talk big when you are going easy on her? How dare you let her call you weak and pathetic?"
Even as silence answered her, Kurai's golden eyes refused to look away from his blue ones.
"No father of mine is weak."
Neji exalted a breath while Rumi paused on her spot.
"Kurai," Neji mumbled. "Observe says she's 1026 years old."
Kurai paused in her spot. A second later, her eyes drifted on Rumi and then widened.
Neji continued. "See? She's right, I deserve this."
"But—" Kurai still tried. "We couldn't have come a thousand years ago to save her! We only came here a month ago, her situation was beyond us. You don't deserve to–"
"No, it's my fault." Neji insisted. "If I had rather explained the situation to her and the other four girls, about what sort of situations they might find themselves in– rather then just sending him away abruptly– this could probably have been avoided."
"Probably–" Kurai started again, but Neji put a hand on her head. "...Fuck you, old man."
With an annoyed grunt, Kurai turned to glare at Rumi again and then teleported away.
"Sorry about that." Neji said, still lying on his back. "Feel free to continue."
"...."
After staring at him with dry eyes, Rumi's fist unclenched and she raised her head to look at the distant star.
Rumi sighed.
"You are a fucking fool, you know that?"
Rumi's anger broke once again as tears started to trail down her cheeks.
She looked down to find him smiling again, but this was a gentler smile.
"You have changed," Rumi said.
"I can say the same for you."
"...How long has it been since your fight with the Gods?"
"Close to two months."
"Hah?" Rumi chuckled sarcastically. "Such a long time? You must have missed me a lot, eh?"
"...I am sorry."
"You don't have to, Kurai is right."
An awkward silence fell on the two of them, and neither of them broke eye contact.
"It's pretty clear to me already, but I am the first you found?"
"Yes."
"I see."
"...."
The awkward silence fell once again.
"I am sorry."
"Shut up."
"Seriously."
"I said shut up."
"...."
A while later, Neji spoke again.
"Lady Luck apologises too."
"Who?"
"The god-like being who is helping me find my lost girls. She told me to take it slow when I first came to this world around two months ago."
Rumi's expression changed subtly and she sighed.
"...Tell her it's fine, two months isn't that big of a difference to me."
Neji was about to apologise once again, but Rumi didn't allow him to speak. With a swift movement, she called back all her hair-needles that were still penetrating his mana pathways and then pulled him up to her eye level by using her hair.
"You better shut up," Rumi said, smiling just a little. "I don't want to anger Kurai again."
Neji forced back a smile, but his heart was unable to feel joy.
'Seriously, perhaps I could have done better–'
When Rumi saw his expression, Rumi yanked his body closer to her. Her body was taller than him now, so his face easily got buried in her chest as Rumi wrapped her arms around him.
"Stop with that expression,"
Rumi said quickly, her voice threatening to break.
"...Or I will seriously start to cry."
As the cosmos shone over their heads, the two lovers who haven't met in a long time hugged each other, both of their eyes betraying their trust and breaking out like a fountain.
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Master4thWall Note: Last chapter of the week 😔 going to attend a marriage ceremony.
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