Neji Hyuuga

Outside of his initial feelings towards his clan, Neji has been shown to be extremely mature for his age, and to have great self-control. In battle, he is able to stay relatively calm in most situations and carefully look at the situation at hand. As stated by Tsunade, Neji has excellent instincts, both on the battlefield and as a leader. When forced to make difficult decisions on missions, he shows himself able to make a decision through keen observation and analysis.

While under the belief that his father had died because he was a member of the branch house, Neji concluded that fate is something decided at birth and that no matter what one does, people cannot escape their destiny. Neji often applied this to people he viewed as weaker than himself, such as his cousin, Hinata. During his match in the Chunin Exams, he told Hinata that she was unfit to be a ninja, due to being too kind and not confident enough. When she was eventually able to turn his philosophy against him, telling him that she believed that he was suffering from trying to become worthy of the main house, despite his being born into the branch family, Neji became enraged, and attempted to kill Hinata. He was stopped by multiple Jonin, but Hinata nevertheless was left in critical conditions from his earlier attacks. In this instance, Neji's only concern was that he could not complete his attack, and he accused the Jonin of giving special treatment to the head family members. He disregarded Hinata's personal growth in the match, concluding that, because she was defeated, "a failure will always be a failure".

Neji displayed similar efforts to condescend others during his match with Naruto Uzumaki who, despite being repeatedly struck down, continued to try and fight him. While Neji tried to show Naruto that fate cannot be fought, and that someone who is weak will always remain weak, Naruto was unwilling to accept this mindset, arguing that Neji, for all his belief in fate, had not accepted his own destiny. Naruto went on to defeat Neji, suggesting that, if a "failure" like himself could change his destiny, a "genius" like Neji could, too.

With this example of overcoming "destiny", as well as finding out the truth about his father's death soon afterwards, Neji abandoned the concept of inescapable fate. No longer bound by the idea that he was stuck at his current status, Neji resolved to become strong enough to never again lose a battle. To do so, he began putting more emphasis on working well with his team, and started to value a mission's successful completion and his teammates' safety over his own betterment, even encouraging Rock Lee to continue pursuing his own dream. In addition, Neji began trying to remedy the estranged relations between himself and the main house members, most particularly by being kinder to Hinata. His efforts seem to be effective, as he begins training with Hiashi, and, in Part II, even starts to wear traditional Hyuga robes. He similarly has great confidence in Naruto's capacity to change others, as he stated that the latter could redeem Sasuke and bring him back to Konoha.

When Team Guy was first formed, Neji dismissed Lee's dream of becoming a great ninja, despite his inability to mould chakra, as hopeless, and suggested that Lee could never defeat him. After abandoning his fatalistic philosophy, he suggested that he would not have persevered in Lee's situation, and believed that, if Lee worked hard enough, he could surpass the gifted. They became good friends because of this, though Neji tends to spend most of his time with Tenten, as neither of them can compete with Lee or Guy's antics.

* Eight Trigrams Sky Palm
* Eight Trigrams Shatter Whitecap
* Eight Trigrams One Hundred Twenty-Eight Palms (Anime only)
* Eight Trigrams Palm Rotation
* Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms
* Gentle Fist

Since a young age, Neji has been held to be a natural genius, even becoming the top-ranked rookie in his class. His father has even stated that his talent and potential surpasses all other members of their clan, while his uncle told his youngest daughter that no-one else had thicker Hyuga blood than he did. While most of the former Konoha Genin become Chunin over the timeskip, Neji is the only one to become a Jonin.

Byakugan

As a member of the Hyuga clan, Neji possesses the Byakugan, which gives him an almost 360-degree field of vision, except for a small blind spot at the back of the neck. Neji is acutely aware of his blind spot, and takes extra caution in keeping it away from opponents, as well as paying close attention to it. While the Byakugan naturally has only a 50 meter field of vision, Neji is able to increase the range of its sight several times over by the start of Part II, to at least 800 meters. He is noted to have a particularly strong Byakugan in comparison to other members of the Hyuga clan.

Gentle Fist

Neji's Byakugan allows him to specialized in the Gentle Fist fighting style, which he has mastered to the point he can damage an opponent's Chakra Pathway System and inner organs directly with even a slight tap. Neji also uses this technique to attack his opponent's heart directly and send them into cardiac arrest, resulting in the death of the opponent with but a single strike. He can eject chakra from any chakra point in his body to either slow down objects or release himself from chakra-based substances that will get him out of trapped situations. This also allows him to sense anything that enters his immediate area, which he can attack or defend against with his extremely fast reflexes.

Gentle Fist Techniques

As a member of the Hyuga clan's branch house, Neji is forbidden to learn the clan's secret techniques, but has managed to deduce their workings simply through observation. He has learned many of these techniques, such as Eight Trigrams Palms Heavenly Spin. Since mastering these jutsu, Neji has begun to refine and strengthen them for more specialized needs. In Part II, he learned the Eight Trigrams Empty Palm, a more focused version of the Heavenly Spin, with which he can expel chakra from his palm to attack opponents out of his physical reach. In the anime, he also learned to increase the number of strikes of the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms, by doubling it. He also used a jutsu in the anime called Eight Trigrams Mountain Crusher.

Neji was born with an unmarked forehead, but when his cousin Hinata turned three years old, he was branded with the Hyuga Main Family's Juinjutsu by his uncle Hiashi. All branch members carry this curse mark, as it is a symbol that one lives only to serve the main branch. Neji's father Hizashi was well aware of Neji's natural talent, and he was frustrated that despite Neji's skill, Neji still carried the fate of a servant. Hizashi openly showed his anger; consequently, he was punished through Hiashi's activation of his curse seal. Around this time, the Leaf and Cloud Villages had signed an alliance treaty. However, that treaty only served as a ticket into Konoha and a lowering of Konoha's guard so the Head Cloud ninja could abduct Hinata and steal the secrets of the Byakugan. The attempt failed, though, as Hiashi had intervened and killed the man in his tracks. When word of the murder reached the Hidden Cloud Village, they demanded Hiashi's body as compensation (as his body would hold the Byakugan as well). The Hidden Leaf Village was prepared to comply to this request until Hizashi stepped in and offered to give himself up instead (when he dies, the Byakugan will be sealed away). Hizashi made this sacrifice willingly in order to protect his brother, family, and village. However, Neji came to believe that the main branch had forced him to do so. This misconception became the primary basis of his grudge against the main branch and of his concrete view on one's unalterable fate.

A year before the start of the series, Neji graduated at the top of his class, and was placed in Team Guy, with Might Guy as the Jonin leader, and Rock Lee and Tenten as his teammates. After officially being promoted to Genin, Neji declined to reveal his dream, and laughed at Rock Lee for claiming that he could become a great ninja with just taijutsu. During their first year in Team Guy, Lee challenged Neji many times, but always lost. Guy decided to have his team wait a year before taking the Chunin Exams, in order to ensure that they were prepared. At some point before his first Chunin Exam, his animosity towards the main branch became apparent to Guy, who made him promise not to let the issue influence his feelings during the exam.