"Gentle Fist… Eight Trigrams: Sixty-Four Palms!"
Within the traditional building's dojo came a girl's spirited shout, followed immediately by the sounds of bam-bam-bam.
Cut to inside the dojo: a ponytailed little sister-in-law, usually clingy and coquettish, was now sporting bulging veins at her temples, her hands enveloped in blue chakra aura as she struck at Izayoi, who stood motionless in place.
"Two palms! Four palms! Eight palms! Sixteen palms! Thirty-two palms… Sixty-four palms!"
Her slender, jade-like fingers hit each key pressure point through the clothing with precision, intending for the chakra at her fingertips to penetrate cloth and flesh, invade the body's interior, and damage the meridians along with the five internal organs.
The forceful bursts of chakra conjured a gust of wind that sent both Hanabi's and Izayoi's clothes fluttering.
After finishing the Sixty-Four Palms, Hanabi did not stop. Instead, she spun around in a 360-degree turn on the spot, gathering power into her palm and striking Izayoi's back with a crisp shout:
"Eight Trigrams: Vacuum Palm!"
Chakra turned into a shockwave bursting forth from her palm. Yet the sight of the chakra wave piercing through Izayoi from behind did not occur. The shockwave collided with Izayoi, as if encountering a Wind Release, exploding with a boom. First, the wave repelled Hanabi's petite hand, then blasted her backward.
Before the young girl heavily hit the ground and rolled a few times, Izayoi instantly appeared behind her, catching her midair.
"Owwww…my hands hurt, it hurts so much…"
Hanabi cried out in pain, blowing on her reddened, swollen hands with all her might. Once the sting had dulled a bit, she tearfully gazed up at Izayoi, accusing,
"Onii-chan, is your body made of steel or something? How can it be that tough!"
"Wrong guess," Izayoi said cheerily. "My body's harder than steel, you know." With that, he rolled up his sleeves and held out a forearm for her to see.
Watching her little mouth latch onto his forearm and siphon chakra, Izayoi kindly explained,
"Wood Release is a Bloodline Limit that fuses Water Release and Earth Release. Yang chakra can boost the power of Wood Release, but it can also enhance the traits of Water Release and Earth Release."
"A moment ago, Onii-chan employed Wood Release chakra to cast a defensive Wood Release: Earth Guard so my body's defense is tougher than diamond. If you want to push me back, you'd need to learn the 'monster-strength punch' or unlock the Eight Gates."
"Wow…that's incredible!"
Releasing Izayoi's arm, Hanabi's face was full of awe; then she pouted with a hint of grievance. "But Onii-chan, how could you use that technique on me? You knew I'd only just learned the Eight Trigrams: Sixty-Four Palms—I couldn't possibly break your defense!"
Izayoi stroked Hanabi's head, smiling, "Because Onii-chan wanted to teach you a new trick. Want to learn it?"
"Mhm, mhm…"
Hanabi nodded repeatedly, her eyes brimming with anticipation. "What kind of trick, Onii-chan?"
"Watch closely…"
Izayoi stood upright and looked toward a wooden training dummy in the distance. He raised his hand and thrust forward two fingers as if forming one hand seal.
Whoosh—something invisible flew out like an arrow.
BOOM!
In a flash, the wooden dummy in the distance exploded to pieces.
"..."
Hanabi stared slack-jawed at where the dummy had been, so astonished she couldn't form words for a moment. Once she snapped back to her senses, she looked up, eyes shining.
"Onii-chan, h-how did you do that?!"
"That's a more refined version of Vacuum Palm, or you might call it an external Chakra Burst—like merging monster-strength punch with Gentle Fist." Izayoi laughed. "In simpler terms, it's just even more advanced chakra control."
"As long as your chakra control's at my level, then whether it's Gentle Fist or monster-strength punch, both are basically about controlling chakra outwardly. The only difference is, your Hyūga clan typically has moderate chakra, so you practice Gentle Fist in synergy with your Kekkei Genkai. Meanwhile, the Senju clan has huge chakra reserves, so they harness explosive chakra to create a 'steel fist.'
"But you and Hinata are special, you can follow a path that unites softness and hardness."
Again making a 'jab' motion, Izayoi smiled and continued imagining, "Think about it—if that single finger of yours had power like mine, plus injecting chakra into the enemy's body before it bursts, can you picture the outcome?"
"Onii-chan, you're amazing! You really are Hanabi's idol!"
Hanabi flung herself at Izayoi, hooking her legs around his waist and arms around his neck, gazing worshipfully upward, "Once you make jōnin, I'm going to request early graduation so you can be my personal sensei, okay?"
Izayoi assumed she was joking, so he supported her by the backside and teased, "Well then, say 'Izayoi-sensei' for me a time or two."
"Izayoi-sensei! Izayoi-sensei! Izayoi-sensei!"
Hanabi decisively repeated it three times, then, before giving him any chance to object, she planted a fierce kiss on his cheek, hopped down, and darted out, her triumphant giggles echoing behind.
"Then it's settled—Hanabi's going to go talk to Father right now!"
"Ah??"
Izayoi found himself slack-jawed, practically able to fit a fist in his open mouth. By the time he recovered, the little sister had dashed off without a trace.
He gave a wry smile as he stepped out from the dojo, deciding to go find Hinata and lodge a "complaint," or at least see if one sister's debt could be settled by the other.
Just then, a black blur flashed onto the veranda.
Catching sight of an Anbu uniform, with a cat mask but noticeable purple hair, Izayoi narrowed his eyes. "Something up, Yugao?"
"Izayoi-dono, the Hokage requests you in the Hokage's office at once—an urgent summons for Team Eight," Uzuki Yugao knelt on one knee, speaking respectfully.
Even the Anbu typically wouldn't kneel to a mere chūnin. But Uzuki Yugao was no ordinary Anbu—she served as a personal guard in the Hokage's office. Having observed that Tsunade and the upper echelons all recognized Izayoi as Konoha's sole heir to the Hokage seat, she was thus exceedingly deferential to him.
Hearing the words "urgent summons," Izayoi's brows lifted slightly. He nodded: "Got it, I'll go right now."
"Yes, sir."
With that, Yugao nodded and vanished into afterimages.
Izayoi likewise used Shunshin, racing toward the Hokage's building. Along the way, he quickly contacted one of his Wood Clones outside to see if something major had happened in the ninja world recently.
Soon enough, the Wood Clone transmitted two images in real-time:
—One showed a partially-ruined city occupying half the frame, presumably a previously bustling settlement in the Land of Wind.
—In the other, a large number of Suna-nin—enough that the group seemed to be in the thousands—were combing the Land of Wind.
Whether searching for enemies or for something else was unclear. But combined with that prior image, searching for an intruder seemed likely.
Izayoi frowned. "That city doesn't look destroyed by a jutsu. Rather, it looks like explosion tags. Could it have been Konan's doing? But my Wood Clone's always keeping tabs on the Akatsuki, so I'd know if Konan had made a move."
"And such a large force—over a thousand Suna-nin—mobilizing means a huge event. Is it from the original storyline, filler, or something triggered by my butterfly effect?"
"Whatever. If it's not something I recall, it's probably minor and not worth worrying about."
He quickly put it out of mind, reaching the Hokage's office.
"Yo, Izayoi."
Upon opening the door, he spotted four familiar silhouettes: Team Seven. Seeing Naruto greet him with a wave, Izayoi raised a hand in response but also gave them a peculiar look, mouth curling slightly.
Looks like the major incident has nothing to do with me. Possibly some storyline from my previous life that I either never watched or forgot. Maybe a flashback arc? Probably filler?
Izayoi silently grumbled. Before he could think further, his expression turned serious: the Wood Clone had just transmitted another scene.
In that scene, Nagato used the Shape Shifting Technique on some White Zetsu clones to create duplicates for the members of Akatsuki (him included), and Obito stashed them in his Kamui dimension.
Apparently Nagato, guarding against Izayoi's Tenseigan, was choosing to hold meetings inside Obito's Kamui dimension. Probably why he didn't tear into Obito: they needed him and that dimension for secrecy.
"That's new… Did regaining his youth also improve his wits?" Izayoi muttered inwardly.
~~~
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