How in the Nine Hells is he

moving

like that?

Neji takes another deep breath, trying to calm his temper before Shikamaru manages to trip it

again

.

More than thirty minutes into the match, and Neji still hasn 't managed to land a

single blow

.

Shikamaru is the definition of a slippery bastard; he 's fast and he knows it, but he doesn 't settle for simply ducking Neji 's attacks. Sometimes he 'll counter them or simply bat them aside, each time with such a minimal exertion of energy and efficiency of movement that Neji doesn 't

actually

know how he 's doing it.

The arena is a mess of broken stone tile thrown up by Neji 's

Palm Rotation

and

Heavy Palm

strikes, not a single one of which has made any kind of contact. Shikamaru obviously isn 't stupid enough to get within the range of his

Sixty-Four Palms