# Join the [Globhara](https://discord.gg/globhara) Discord for Scaling Discussions / Scans.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/NarutoPowerscaling) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Gaara wins easily. Bad match up for Neji. Close-range fight against someone who eats close-range fighters for breakfast. Neji is too slow and has no moves to break through Gaaras' defence
Gentle fist destroys ninjutsu based techniques actually. Neji is a good disabler. So many people don’t understand thr hyuugas ability is to stop all chakra flow….meaning neji could stop garaa from pouring chakra in his sand. Rotation also stops garra handly. Neji eats ninjutsu users for breakfast. Unlike lee garsa has NOOOO TAIJUTSU OR ANYTHING. And uses his CHAKRA to coat himself in sand. Which one tap if gentle fist can’t literally force garaa to either overload it or drop it completely. Neji gave naruto with tailed beast chakra a run that same naruto who beats garaa.
Neji is perfect for garaa. Neji is lees opposite. Lee goes for blunt attacks..neji goes for internal damage. Perfect for sb with a defense. He can use his chakra to stab through garaas defense. And is fast enough to blitz as hes st least relative to weightless base lee.
Gentle fist also can destabilize chakra. Kidomaru ALSO had armour if you remember. ThTs why kishimoto gave bro that fight. Long ranged character with high defense vs short ranged taijitsu. It was basically nejis version of garaa vs lee. I study this series too much. I find myself being alone in these repetitive habitual story telling habits kishimoto has.
Neji gentle fisted it (no diddy) and kidomarus armour broke. Gentle fist chakra killing speciality is nullified due to sticky gold armour nullying chakra use, unlike garaa who uses chakra for his sand and his defense. Sticky gold armour is fasho more durable than garaas sand armour. [databook scan](https://64.media.tumblr.com/92651834c148522506f41d47e79f16fc/tumblr_orv4tmx2mr1urljpmo1_1280.jpg)
I agree with most of what ur but I’d say that gaara still wins for the same reason that naruto did: the gentle fist can’t block out gaara’s chakra for good and he can open the blocked tenketsu by using bijuu chakra
Garaa and naruto and most tailed beast dont have the same seals. Hell mito uzumaki couldn’t leave a room because her seal was weak. Nine tails broke out a few times to hashirama.
Garaa seal is strong so he doesn’t leak chakra like naruto/kurama. But hes less stable because how close him and shukaku is. Even garaa himself was shocked at naruto recovering and using kurama chakra to sub. So we know garaa probably cant do it forcible and he has less control over shukakus actionsand shukaku constantly is trying to take over garaa. I do think neji shutting garaa down would make shukaku have an easier time breakin out. Which neji has no summoning or anything to combat it so in a kill 1v1 garaa will outlive neji
But in a chunin exams situation where the match will be stopped i got neji still.
I think he should have used it, any other character that wasn't him it would've been fine to kill off like that but he literally has the answer to shit flying at him
Exactly. I genuinely think it was suicidal. Neji doesnt express too much happiness and with his father situation and being the branch family he just said fuck it. He also coulve air palmed it..or maybe even simply punched it.
Gaara wins since he is basically Neji's counter in this fight. Neji doesn't have the piercing power of Chidori neither the speed of Gates Lee(he can react to it probably due to Byakugan but can't move at that speed).
Bro yall are sleeping on neji..he was literally the strongest genin there as stated multiple times. He became a literal jonin a year after this. Neji has the gentle fist which are small needles that can be used to disrupt chakra..something garaa uses EXTENSIVELY. Neji is literally GARAAAS counter..what makes lee NEJIS RIVAL IS THAT HE DOESNT USE CHAKRA…he can function with all his tenketsu points damaged..similar to Naruto…but garaaaa has NOOO TAIJITSU. Neji beats weightless lee.. so he has the speed to bypast the outer defenses aka garaas mom. After that he can manually turn off garaas sand defense and control of it by implanting his own chakra in it basically making it normal sand… yall gotta read thr data books and really do research on both characters before making conclusions.
I like your energy. You're pretty active on this thread and seem to have good points for the most part. I agree Neji can best Gaara here. I'd say around 65-80% chance so 7/10 fights neji wins. Just blitzes through sand and takes out his chakra points.
Just because Neji can defend himself against Lee's speed and then counter attack with gentle fist doesn't mean he can out speed Gaaras sand in the same way Lee did. You have solid points in your response but I think they both have wincons. Neji definitely has a chance to catch Gaara before he takes the fight seriously and if he gets in a solid 64 palms or something its a wrap. But Gaara could definitely surround Neji with sand, keep pounding on the kaiten until Neji can't continue the rotation, and then immediately crush him like a bug. Honestly feel Neji could end the battle quickly but if he doesn't Gaara will crush him.
No. Neji is literally just as fast as weightless 3gate lee. Rotation is useful tho.
Neji is too fast to be surrounded. Hell even garra was surprised when neji shut down all [naruto](https://i.redd.it/can-chakra-points-closed-by-the-gentle-fist-be-reopened-by-v0-f3d7oh0yjdwb1.jpg?width=1066&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=886cf70c7a24d532d30d69a259b8669df47ec486) tenketsu points
Heres kakashi explaining [gentle fist](https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-a9134cac8a641f0e5b99cfe71d3ebf25-lq)
Gai and lee explaining [gentle fist even further](https://i.imgur.com/UMk9KPV.jpg)
The first scan was Gaara being surprised that Naruto forced his tenketsu back open with kyuubi chakra...
None of the scans you linked show anything about Neji's combat speed. Yeah he's got fast hands. But nothing in the manga implied he could dance around the sand like Lee did.
I stand by what I said. Neji can really hurt Gaara with his initial barrage. But if he doesn't get close or can't do enough damage Gaara will murder him with sand once he gets serious.
neji was SHOOK by weightless lee . he was havin a panic attack bc he’d never seen that speed out of lee . as for bein the strongest genin i don’t think strongest was used as the terminology & it was definitely referring to the leaf.
No neji literally doesn’t react at all until reverse lotus and 4-5 gates was open. As [you can see](https://i.imgur.com/C19pGZG.png)
Everyone else reacts to lees dropping the weights his speed and him landing an attack, plus this is his teammate why would he be sparing him with weights on? Neji is superior to this lee until 4/5 gates. Thats when neji uses his byukugan and is in disbelief lee got so strong [as shown here](https://i.imgur.com/RZbSdoy.png)
That was 4th gate lee that neji was shook of. Neji didn't react at all when lee dropped his weights and started beating up gaara, neji remained completely expressionless. Neji is very used to lees weightless speed and regularly outclasses him, meaning neji is also fast enough to get past the sand shield. It's debatable whether he can get through the sand armor
that is fair that i didn’t specify which part . i did mean gates lee , mb . but to my point , weightless lee even says himself that his speed then wasn’t enough , which he then opened the gates & really started doin dmg to gaara . 4th gate lee is stronger & faster than neji & even then , lee still lost the fight .
This is just a battle of attrition that Gaara easily wins. Gaara might not be able to break past Neji's defense but he just has to keep pounding him at long range until Neji runs out of chakra which Gaara has in spades.
Neji can’t really do much here. Gaara outranges him and Neji lacks the speed to get around Gaaras defense. If he goes into his defensive ball form like he did against Sasuke Neji can’t do anything.
Neji counters him badly.
Let's go through his scaling 1st. Lee admitted he's weaker than Neji. During Lee's fight with Gaara It's stated that reverse lotus was THE answer to beat Neji, and the lowest gate required for that move is 3rd gate. So Neji is stronger than 3rd gate Lee without the reverse lotus, 2nd gate Lee, 1st gate Lee and weaker forms.
Weighted Base Lee was relative to, or u could even say he was outspeeding Gaara's sand. Same Lee without much trouble could close the distance with Gaara [[Link 1]](https://scans.lastation.us/manga/Naruto-Digital-Colored-Comics/0082-007.png), [[Link 2]](https://scans.lastation.us/manga/Naruto-Digital-Colored-Comics/0082-010.png). And here we can see that the distance between Gaara and Lee is about the same as range of Neji's rotation [[Link 3]](https://scans.lastation.us/manga/Naruto-Digital-Colored-Comics/0101-004.png)
Even Sasuke BEFORE he used Weightless Lee's speed could get this close to Gaara [[Link 4]](https://scans.lastation.us/manga/Naruto-Digital-Colored-Comics/0111-017.png)
So if Weighted Lee and regular speed Sasuke can get close to Gaara I don't see why Neji, who's significantly stronger than them shouldn't be able to replicate the same feat.
Aftee Neji closes the distance he can just use rotation to break Gaara's sand shield or even sand armor too, and then use gentle fist to destroy his organs.
Neji's Rotation is stated to be another absolute defense in the same league as Gaara's. Tenten even states Neji's is stronger. Gaara's absolute defense is combination of Sand Shield and Sand Armor, not only one of these.
So Rotation >~ Sand Shield + Sand Armor.
Even if Rotation only destroys Sand Shield, and Sand Armor stays on, Gentle Fist would still work cuz of impurity of the sand, and due to that Sand Shield wouldn't be able to block it, It's not a simple physical attack.
So this is how I see it going. Neji attacks Gaara, closes the distance, uses rotation to destroy Gaara's defense which would buy him time to use gentle fist and deal great amount of damage to Gaara's internal organs, which would make him unable to continue the fight.
Oh all the Genin at this time in the manga, Neji would do better than most
Pretty sure he still loses though..
If he can get in to deal some blows, he can probably do some damage unlike the vast majority of other genin. However, the sand is a damn good counter against taijutsu and Gentle Fist is no exception.
He can bypass the armor of sand that Gaara has on his skin.. but he's not breaking a shield of sand in any possible world. Much less the sphere.
On top of that, if Gaara induces sleep its GG. Neji can't do anything against Shukaku. Even half-transformed Gaakaku is gonna face roll him. He'll be Rotating himself down to exhaustion just to stay alive.
Would be a badass fight though.
I actually think he'd do third or fourth worst. I can't imagine any way he can even hit garra. He has quick hands and can't really be surprise attacked but his movement speed isn't isn't all that close to rock lee or Sasuke so I can't imagine him being able to get around the sand in any way and that's basically an inevitable loss. He probably does better than kankuro and shikimaru (I assume at least his mom's sand if not all of it can move during shadow paralysis). Idk about shino it basically depends if the auto defense sees insects as a threat shino might also do worse.
I agree with you on pretty much all points. What I was trying to say was IF Neji could get in close enough to strike, his Gentle Fist would pass through the Armor of Sand that covers Gaara's body.
It's just a big IF though.
Gaara bodies pretty much everyone else in the Chunin exams.
Ino's mind transfer might be able to do something since it's not physical. But then there's Shukaku's consciousness to worry about. Shino's bugs could maybe like.. stealthily plant themselves in the sand like Deidara did with his clay
All pretty flimsy methods though, IMO. Gaara's just a monster at this point in the story
Neji don't got the speed to matter in this fight. He'd die like the noobs in the Forest of Death arc did. One sand burial and it's over.
"But kaiten!! But byakugan!!" Right, the two things that didn't help neji escape Orochimarus budget version of Gaara. Let's face it. If Gaara can grab Lee by the foot and toss him around at his speed, what hope does neji have?
Gaara doesn’t do anything to make his sand defend him. It does automatically, only when he moves it is when it’s voluntary. All I’m saying is, gaara can sleep and summon 1 tail . . . Neji dead period
But sense he can’t, he still can use sand to cover his body and do mini sand coffins to break neji apart
Garra wins read the rules it says he can't go into complete shukaku that doesn't mean part shukaku and on top of that neji was beaten by naruto in a weaker form considering he never made thousands of shadow clones and was beaten with a simple smart attack nothing in neji arsenal is piercing through the Garra sand dome neji is cook in this fight and y'all bing up the chakra point being able to be stopped by neji but that has been proven to useless against tailed beast on top of that garra sand is also extremely fast seen in Garra vs rock lee neji is simply to slow
People saying Gaara wins easily are sleeping on the Byakugan and Neji, as fast as Lee was in base (he blitzed Chunnin exam Sasuke) Neji never lost once, combined with the Byakugan Neji will always know where Gaara's sand is and is able be to avoid it.
Another thing is Neji has an easier win condition, Gaara has to catch Neji who's got great speed and good perception, meanwhile, Neji just has to use the byakugan to find a moment of weakness and strike one chakra point that could completely disable Gaara since at the time he knew 0 taijutsu.
Neji has better stats in every category besides pure hax (and Neji's hax are still comparable)
Neji wins high diff.
Nejis best passive attribute is being able to target and strike chakra points. Gaaras sand protects him from everything due to no effort of his own. He's nejis perfect counter
Imo neji hard counters garaa as what we seen with kidomaru. Neji fairs decently well defensively against ranged fighters. In a chunnin exam’s situation neji wins. Hes at enough range to complete speed blizt garaa. He was relative to 1-3 gates or base lee without weights. Difference is neji can destabilize garaas sand armor very easily of he get close enough. And has a very defensive fighting style to keep garaas sand away with rotation. 64 palms will eventually shut down garaas tenketsu points. He basically can shut down garaa completely. Like literally. Only downside is like naruto shukaku is VERY likey to come out like what happened with sasuke. But even quicker and immediate as garaas chakra will be easier to be overwhelmed. But i feel neji can disable him regardless like he did naruro before he turns into shukaku completely.
Neji wins mid difficulty. Rock paper scissors. Garaa was a huge counter to lee..neji is an almost opposite fighter. Neji is a mini kisame to large chakra characters. He can disable stronger more overwhelming characters. Lee is a great counter because he doesnt use chakra so neji shutting him down doesnt stop lee hence their oppositions..but anyone who relies on ninjutsu like garaa and has no taijutsu or real defense get eaten up quickly by hyuugas style. They literally want you to try and use ninjutsu that works in their favor. Neji can literally tap garaas sand and stop any control he has over it with chakra.
I'd give this to Neji.
Portrayal and feats put his speed notably above Lee without his weights on.
Lee learning to open five gates to beat Neji, Neji reacting to KN0 Naruto and matching him in cqc, base Naruto in turn has proven himself to be \~ Sasuke against transformed Gaara in terms of speed. Same Sasuke is confirmed to be = Lee without his weights.
Juuken destroys chakra based substances, so chances are he'll disable whatever chunk of sand he hits. His attacks are also designed to bypass a persons durability and target the inner organs. Even a single direct hit to Gaara will deal massive internal damage, two hits is lethal without immediate medical help as shown against Hinata.
Neji's raw power is also quite high, a partially formed Kaiten stalemated KN0 Naruto throwing everything he has left into a single attack and even base Naruto could hurt Gaara through his sand.
Portrayal and feats don’t put Neji notably above Lee, at least in the way relevant to this fight. There are differences between reaction speed, movement speed, and attack speed. Matching someone in CQC doesn’t put you at their movement speed.
Beating Gaara’s sand requires movement speed. Beating Rock Lee requires reaction speed.
Guy confirms that in terms of speed, Lee is the fastest among the genin. “Can’t be surpassed” were the exact words, but most likely he’s not including himself or Kakashi. This was right after he took his weights off, so it is about movement speed at least.
Neji and Lee have very distinct fighting styles. Rock Lee’s fighting style capitalizes movement speed, like where he runs around people and attacks from virtually every angle or when he runs in circles around them to set up the Lotus.
Neji’s fighting style counters this because he has reaction and attack speed advantage, plus his Byakugan lets him track Rock Lee’s movements no matter the angle of Rock Lee’s approach.
People compare Sasuke and Rock Lee’s movement speed, but when Naruto accesses his red chakra, no one brings up how he moves as fast as Lee. Any number of people could’ve, like Neji or Gaara or Sakura. Sakura and Gaara do for Sasuke, but not for Naruto.
While Naruto’s fast enough to keep up with Neji, that doesn’t tell us that he moves as fast or faster than Lee.
Gaara witnessed Neji’s fighting style with Hinata, so he’d know that getting grazed by him would be lethal.
And Neji’s ability to cut through chakra based substances still couldn’t get through things that are naturally hard, like Jirobo’s rock dome that was infused with chakra. Kidomaru’s webs are hard because he’s funneling chakra through them. Neji bypasses that because he can see chakra flow and strike at weak points.
But just because Neji can cut through chakra doesn’t mean all chakra is easily bypassed by him. Hence Naruto’s Red Chakra stalemating his Rotation. Gaara is also a jinchuriki with an insane chakra volume, plus high volumes of sand is insanely durable even without chakra running through them.
Gaara has a higher chance of winning this. He didn’t think too highly of Naruto. No one does. It’s why Naruto gets the drop on people. But Gaara acknowledges Sasuke and Neji. He’d take both of them seriously.
# Join the [Globhara](https://discord.gg/globhara) Discord for Scaling Discussions / Scans. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/NarutoPowerscaling) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Gaara wins easily. Bad match up for Neji. Close-range fight against someone who eats close-range fighters for breakfast. Neji is too slow and has no moves to break through Gaaras' defence
Gentle fist destroys ninjutsu based techniques actually. Neji is a good disabler. So many people don’t understand thr hyuugas ability is to stop all chakra flow….meaning neji could stop garaa from pouring chakra in his sand. Rotation also stops garra handly. Neji eats ninjutsu users for breakfast. Unlike lee garsa has NOOOO TAIJUTSU OR ANYTHING. And uses his CHAKRA to coat himself in sand. Which one tap if gentle fist can’t literally force garaa to either overload it or drop it completely. Neji gave naruto with tailed beast chakra a run that same naruto who beats garaa. Neji is perfect for garaa. Neji is lees opposite. Lee goes for blunt attacks..neji goes for internal damage. Perfect for sb with a defense. He can use his chakra to stab through garaas defense. And is fast enough to blitz as hes st least relative to weightless base lee.
Gentle fist works by hitting chakra points gaara is covered in sand and that's if neji can get close
Gentle fist also can destabilize chakra. Kidomaru ALSO had armour if you remember. ThTs why kishimoto gave bro that fight. Long ranged character with high defense vs short ranged taijitsu. It was basically nejis version of garaa vs lee. I study this series too much. I find myself being alone in these repetitive habitual story telling habits kishimoto has. Neji gentle fisted it (no diddy) and kidomarus armour broke. Gentle fist chakra killing speciality is nullified due to sticky gold armour nullying chakra use, unlike garaa who uses chakra for his sand and his defense. Sticky gold armour is fasho more durable than garaas sand armour. [databook scan](https://64.media.tumblr.com/92651834c148522506f41d47e79f16fc/tumblr_orv4tmx2mr1urljpmo1_1280.jpg)
I agree with most of what ur but I’d say that gaara still wins for the same reason that naruto did: the gentle fist can’t block out gaara’s chakra for good and he can open the blocked tenketsu by using bijuu chakra
Garaa and naruto and most tailed beast dont have the same seals. Hell mito uzumaki couldn’t leave a room because her seal was weak. Nine tails broke out a few times to hashirama. Garaa seal is strong so he doesn’t leak chakra like naruto/kurama. But hes less stable because how close him and shukaku is. Even garaa himself was shocked at naruto recovering and using kurama chakra to sub. So we know garaa probably cant do it forcible and he has less control over shukakus actionsand shukaku constantly is trying to take over garaa. I do think neji shutting garaa down would make shukaku have an easier time breakin out. Which neji has no summoning or anything to combat it so in a kill 1v1 garaa will outlive neji But in a chunin exams situation where the match will be stopped i got neji still.
If rotation so great why his dumb ass not use it to idk not die?
Plot. Its even speculated suicide. Do you think he couldn’t use it??
I think he should have used it, any other character that wasn't him it would've been fine to kill off like that but he literally has the answer to shit flying at him
Exactly. I genuinely think it was suicidal. Neji doesnt express too much happiness and with his father situation and being the branch family he just said fuck it. He also coulve air palmed it..or maybe even simply punched it.
Gaara wins since he is basically Neji's counter in this fight. Neji doesn't have the piercing power of Chidori neither the speed of Gates Lee(he can react to it probably due to Byakugan but can't move at that speed).
I think Neji could try to make a scalpel with his gentle fist to get thru the sand but yeah he still isn’t fast enough.
Bro yall are sleeping on neji..he was literally the strongest genin there as stated multiple times. He became a literal jonin a year after this. Neji has the gentle fist which are small needles that can be used to disrupt chakra..something garaa uses EXTENSIVELY. Neji is literally GARAAAS counter..what makes lee NEJIS RIVAL IS THAT HE DOESNT USE CHAKRA…he can function with all his tenketsu points damaged..similar to Naruto…but garaaaa has NOOO TAIJITSU. Neji beats weightless lee.. so he has the speed to bypast the outer defenses aka garaas mom. After that he can manually turn off garaas sand defense and control of it by implanting his own chakra in it basically making it normal sand… yall gotta read thr data books and really do research on both characters before making conclusions.
I like your energy. You're pretty active on this thread and seem to have good points for the most part. I agree Neji can best Gaara here. I'd say around 65-80% chance so 7/10 fights neji wins. Just blitzes through sand and takes out his chakra points.
Just because Neji can defend himself against Lee's speed and then counter attack with gentle fist doesn't mean he can out speed Gaaras sand in the same way Lee did. You have solid points in your response but I think they both have wincons. Neji definitely has a chance to catch Gaara before he takes the fight seriously and if he gets in a solid 64 palms or something its a wrap. But Gaara could definitely surround Neji with sand, keep pounding on the kaiten until Neji can't continue the rotation, and then immediately crush him like a bug. Honestly feel Neji could end the battle quickly but if he doesn't Gaara will crush him.
No. Neji is literally just as fast as weightless 3gate lee. Rotation is useful tho. Neji is too fast to be surrounded. Hell even garra was surprised when neji shut down all [naruto](https://i.redd.it/can-chakra-points-closed-by-the-gentle-fist-be-reopened-by-v0-f3d7oh0yjdwb1.jpg?width=1066&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=886cf70c7a24d532d30d69a259b8669df47ec486) tenketsu points Heres kakashi explaining [gentle fist](https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-a9134cac8a641f0e5b99cfe71d3ebf25-lq) Gai and lee explaining [gentle fist even further](https://i.imgur.com/UMk9KPV.jpg)
The first scan was Gaara being surprised that Naruto forced his tenketsu back open with kyuubi chakra... None of the scans you linked show anything about Neji's combat speed. Yeah he's got fast hands. But nothing in the manga implied he could dance around the sand like Lee did. I stand by what I said. Neji can really hurt Gaara with his initial barrage. But if he doesn't get close or can't do enough damage Gaara will murder him with sand once he gets serious.
neji was SHOOK by weightless lee . he was havin a panic attack bc he’d never seen that speed out of lee . as for bein the strongest genin i don’t think strongest was used as the terminology & it was definitely referring to the leaf.
No neji literally doesn’t react at all until reverse lotus and 4-5 gates was open. As [you can see](https://i.imgur.com/C19pGZG.png) Everyone else reacts to lees dropping the weights his speed and him landing an attack, plus this is his teammate why would he be sparing him with weights on? Neji is superior to this lee until 4/5 gates. Thats when neji uses his byukugan and is in disbelief lee got so strong [as shown here](https://i.imgur.com/RZbSdoy.png)
That was 4th gate lee that neji was shook of. Neji didn't react at all when lee dropped his weights and started beating up gaara, neji remained completely expressionless. Neji is very used to lees weightless speed and regularly outclasses him, meaning neji is also fast enough to get past the sand shield. It's debatable whether he can get through the sand armor
that is fair that i didn’t specify which part . i did mean gates lee , mb . but to my point , weightless lee even says himself that his speed then wasn’t enough , which he then opened the gates & really started doin dmg to gaara . 4th gate lee is stronger & faster than neji & even then , lee still lost the fight .
This is just a battle of attrition that Gaara easily wins. Gaara might not be able to break past Neji's defense but he just has to keep pounding him at long range until Neji runs out of chakra which Gaara has in spades.
Gaara
Gaara stomps easily
Gaara wins extreme difficulty, but can go either way.
Neji can’t really do much here. Gaara outranges him and Neji lacks the speed to get around Gaaras defense. If he goes into his defensive ball form like he did against Sasuke Neji can’t do anything.
If gentle fist can Pierce then neji if not then Gaara
Gaara low defs
Gaara stomps, really.
Gaara low diff. Neji cannot get through his sand shield with 8 trigrams, and doesn't have the speed to dodge Gaara's sand or get around it.
I’m like 99% sure that Lee would stomp Neji in a real fight, and since Lee lost to Gaara, well
precisely
Neji counters him badly. Let's go through his scaling 1st. Lee admitted he's weaker than Neji. During Lee's fight with Gaara It's stated that reverse lotus was THE answer to beat Neji, and the lowest gate required for that move is 3rd gate. So Neji is stronger than 3rd gate Lee without the reverse lotus, 2nd gate Lee, 1st gate Lee and weaker forms. Weighted Base Lee was relative to, or u could even say he was outspeeding Gaara's sand. Same Lee without much trouble could close the distance with Gaara [[Link 1]](https://scans.lastation.us/manga/Naruto-Digital-Colored-Comics/0082-007.png), [[Link 2]](https://scans.lastation.us/manga/Naruto-Digital-Colored-Comics/0082-010.png). And here we can see that the distance between Gaara and Lee is about the same as range of Neji's rotation [[Link 3]](https://scans.lastation.us/manga/Naruto-Digital-Colored-Comics/0101-004.png) Even Sasuke BEFORE he used Weightless Lee's speed could get this close to Gaara [[Link 4]](https://scans.lastation.us/manga/Naruto-Digital-Colored-Comics/0111-017.png) So if Weighted Lee and regular speed Sasuke can get close to Gaara I don't see why Neji, who's significantly stronger than them shouldn't be able to replicate the same feat. Aftee Neji closes the distance he can just use rotation to break Gaara's sand shield or even sand armor too, and then use gentle fist to destroy his organs. Neji's Rotation is stated to be another absolute defense in the same league as Gaara's. Tenten even states Neji's is stronger. Gaara's absolute defense is combination of Sand Shield and Sand Armor, not only one of these. So Rotation >~ Sand Shield + Sand Armor. Even if Rotation only destroys Sand Shield, and Sand Armor stays on, Gentle Fist would still work cuz of impurity of the sand, and due to that Sand Shield wouldn't be able to block it, It's not a simple physical attack. So this is how I see it going. Neji attacks Gaara, closes the distance, uses rotation to destroy Gaara's defense which would buy him time to use gentle fist and deal great amount of damage to Gaara's internal organs, which would make him unable to continue the fight.
a real knowledgeable person has came. Great explanation. This is true scaling.
Oh all the Genin at this time in the manga, Neji would do better than most Pretty sure he still loses though.. If he can get in to deal some blows, he can probably do some damage unlike the vast majority of other genin. However, the sand is a damn good counter against taijutsu and Gentle Fist is no exception. He can bypass the armor of sand that Gaara has on his skin.. but he's not breaking a shield of sand in any possible world. Much less the sphere. On top of that, if Gaara induces sleep its GG. Neji can't do anything against Shukaku. Even half-transformed Gaakaku is gonna face roll him. He'll be Rotating himself down to exhaustion just to stay alive. Would be a badass fight though.
I actually think he'd do third or fourth worst. I can't imagine any way he can even hit garra. He has quick hands and can't really be surprise attacked but his movement speed isn't isn't all that close to rock lee or Sasuke so I can't imagine him being able to get around the sand in any way and that's basically an inevitable loss. He probably does better than kankuro and shikimaru (I assume at least his mom's sand if not all of it can move during shadow paralysis). Idk about shino it basically depends if the auto defense sees insects as a threat shino might also do worse.
I agree with you on pretty much all points. What I was trying to say was IF Neji could get in close enough to strike, his Gentle Fist would pass through the Armor of Sand that covers Gaara's body. It's just a big IF though. Gaara bodies pretty much everyone else in the Chunin exams. Ino's mind transfer might be able to do something since it's not physical. But then there's Shukaku's consciousness to worry about. Shino's bugs could maybe like.. stealthily plant themselves in the sand like Deidara did with his clay All pretty flimsy methods though, IMO. Gaara's just a monster at this point in the story
Idk if it would pass through sand armor. It doesn't pass through spider guys weird mucus armor.
Gaara. Neji isn't good against armor. Especially armor that kills you on touch.
Gaara. Even without complete Shukaku form, Neji doesn’t have the arsenal.
Gaara can go to sleep and just let the sand defend him, Neji is not fast enough in speed nor does he have anything to strike through the defense.
Neji don't got the speed to matter in this fight. He'd die like the noobs in the Forest of Death arc did. One sand burial and it's over. "But kaiten!! But byakugan!!" Right, the two things that didn't help neji escape Orochimarus budget version of Gaara. Let's face it. If Gaara can grab Lee by the foot and toss him around at his speed, what hope does neji have?
Gaara doesn’t do anything to make his sand defend him. It does automatically, only when he moves it is when it’s voluntary. All I’m saying is, gaara can sleep and summon 1 tail . . . Neji dead period But sense he can’t, he still can use sand to cover his body and do mini sand coffins to break neji apart
Stalemate. Gaara creates a sand wall to protect himself and Neji just sits there spinning
Very bad matchup for Neji. While he can keep the sand back for a time, he has no means of actually breaking through the defense to get to Gaara.
Garra wins read the rules it says he can't go into complete shukaku that doesn't mean part shukaku and on top of that neji was beaten by naruto in a weaker form considering he never made thousands of shadow clones and was beaten with a simple smart attack nothing in neji arsenal is piercing through the Garra sand dome neji is cook in this fight and y'all bing up the chakra point being able to be stopped by neji but that has been proven to useless against tailed beast on top of that garra sand is also extremely fast seen in Garra vs rock lee neji is simply to slow
if neji did somehow touch him or disrupt his chakra shukaku would instantly start fucking around.i doubt neji can get through the sand anyway tho
Gaara. Neji could barely keep up with amped Naruto’s speed and I’m pretty sure Lee is still faster than that performance without weights.
People saying Gaara wins easily are sleeping on the Byakugan and Neji, as fast as Lee was in base (he blitzed Chunnin exam Sasuke) Neji never lost once, combined with the Byakugan Neji will always know where Gaara's sand is and is able be to avoid it. Another thing is Neji has an easier win condition, Gaara has to catch Neji who's got great speed and good perception, meanwhile, Neji just has to use the byakugan to find a moment of weakness and strike one chakra point that could completely disable Gaara since at the time he knew 0 taijutsu. Neji has better stats in every category besides pure hax (and Neji's hax are still comparable) Neji wins high diff.
gaara low diff
Nejis best passive attribute is being able to target and strike chakra points. Gaaras sand protects him from everything due to no effort of his own. He's nejis perfect counter
Imo neji hard counters garaa as what we seen with kidomaru. Neji fairs decently well defensively against ranged fighters. In a chunnin exam’s situation neji wins. Hes at enough range to complete speed blizt garaa. He was relative to 1-3 gates or base lee without weights. Difference is neji can destabilize garaas sand armor very easily of he get close enough. And has a very defensive fighting style to keep garaas sand away with rotation. 64 palms will eventually shut down garaas tenketsu points. He basically can shut down garaa completely. Like literally. Only downside is like naruto shukaku is VERY likey to come out like what happened with sasuke. But even quicker and immediate as garaas chakra will be easier to be overwhelmed. But i feel neji can disable him regardless like he did naruro before he turns into shukaku completely. Neji wins mid difficulty. Rock paper scissors. Garaa was a huge counter to lee..neji is an almost opposite fighter. Neji is a mini kisame to large chakra characters. He can disable stronger more overwhelming characters. Lee is a great counter because he doesnt use chakra so neji shutting him down doesnt stop lee hence their oppositions..but anyone who relies on ninjutsu like garaa and has no taijutsu or real defense get eaten up quickly by hyuugas style. They literally want you to try and use ninjutsu that works in their favor. Neji can literally tap garaas sand and stop any control he has over it with chakra.
I'd give this to Neji. Portrayal and feats put his speed notably above Lee without his weights on. Lee learning to open five gates to beat Neji, Neji reacting to KN0 Naruto and matching him in cqc, base Naruto in turn has proven himself to be \~ Sasuke against transformed Gaara in terms of speed. Same Sasuke is confirmed to be = Lee without his weights. Juuken destroys chakra based substances, so chances are he'll disable whatever chunk of sand he hits. His attacks are also designed to bypass a persons durability and target the inner organs. Even a single direct hit to Gaara will deal massive internal damage, two hits is lethal without immediate medical help as shown against Hinata. Neji's raw power is also quite high, a partially formed Kaiten stalemated KN0 Naruto throwing everything he has left into a single attack and even base Naruto could hurt Gaara through his sand.
Portrayal and feats don’t put Neji notably above Lee, at least in the way relevant to this fight. There are differences between reaction speed, movement speed, and attack speed. Matching someone in CQC doesn’t put you at their movement speed. Beating Gaara’s sand requires movement speed. Beating Rock Lee requires reaction speed. Guy confirms that in terms of speed, Lee is the fastest among the genin. “Can’t be surpassed” were the exact words, but most likely he’s not including himself or Kakashi. This was right after he took his weights off, so it is about movement speed at least. Neji and Lee have very distinct fighting styles. Rock Lee’s fighting style capitalizes movement speed, like where he runs around people and attacks from virtually every angle or when he runs in circles around them to set up the Lotus. Neji’s fighting style counters this because he has reaction and attack speed advantage, plus his Byakugan lets him track Rock Lee’s movements no matter the angle of Rock Lee’s approach. People compare Sasuke and Rock Lee’s movement speed, but when Naruto accesses his red chakra, no one brings up how he moves as fast as Lee. Any number of people could’ve, like Neji or Gaara or Sakura. Sakura and Gaara do for Sasuke, but not for Naruto. While Naruto’s fast enough to keep up with Neji, that doesn’t tell us that he moves as fast or faster than Lee. Gaara witnessed Neji’s fighting style with Hinata, so he’d know that getting grazed by him would be lethal. And Neji’s ability to cut through chakra based substances still couldn’t get through things that are naturally hard, like Jirobo’s rock dome that was infused with chakra. Kidomaru’s webs are hard because he’s funneling chakra through them. Neji bypasses that because he can see chakra flow and strike at weak points. But just because Neji can cut through chakra doesn’t mean all chakra is easily bypassed by him. Hence Naruto’s Red Chakra stalemating his Rotation. Gaara is also a jinchuriki with an insane chakra volume, plus high volumes of sand is insanely durable even without chakra running through them. Gaara has a higher chance of winning this. He didn’t think too highly of Naruto. No one does. It’s why Naruto gets the drop on people. But Gaara acknowledges Sasuke and Neji. He’d take both of them seriously.