Chapter 140: Fist of the North Star
"It's your ice clone!" Hinata didn't let her stay confused for long and directly gave her the answer.
"Hmph," Neji interjected with a timely sneer. "I didn't expect you to be spending all your brainpower on dressing up your face lately! Weren't you quite smart before?"
Sakura immediately glared at him irritably.
"Look closely. This thing on my forehead is the Yin Seal formula, not a decoration!"
"Pfft~" Neji let out a standard sneer. "You dare to call a decoration with no chakra stored in it a Yin Seal!"
"Are you here to find someone or to find trouble! Believe it or not, this lord can beat you to a pulp with one hand tied behind his back!"
These two people's stars were naturally crossed. The moment they met, it was a rhythm of mutual mockery.
It looked as if they were about to roll up their sleeves and start fighting.
And then they were both suppressed by a irritated-faced Hinata who was standing on the side.
Alright, this scene seemed a bit familiar, didn't it?
As Sakura was being held by the ear by the white-eyed girl and was sitting side by side with Neji to be lectured, she suddenly felt that she had seen this scene somewhere before.
—Yes, in Chapter 54.
"...In short, you two had better get along! We're here on important business today!" Hinata said irritably.
Hn, important business first.
Speaking of which, when Hinata had mentioned the ice clone, Sakura had already reacted.
The breakthrough was indeed the ice clone.
To be more specific, it should be called the Medical Research-type Ice Clone pitfall detection method.
As we have mentioned in the previous text, researching the tenketsu points in the meridian system is a very dangerous matter.
Many tenketsu points play an important role in the body. Rashly opening them in the wrong way often leads to serious consequences, and can even cause the caster's death.
This is why the Eight Gates is the only forbidden jutsu that involves the tenketsu points; this forbidden jutsu was a narrow path trodden on the corpses of its predecessors.
Of course, if one was willing to sacrifice a large number of ninja who were proficient in chakra control, then it would not be impossible to research another set of Eight Gates, or Seven Gates, or Nine Gates.
After all, the Eight Gates was just one of many possibilities.
Hinata had gotten the inspiration when she had seen Sakura use the ice clone to do a very dangerous experiment before.
The Medical Research-type ice clone, unlike other clones, almost completely replicated everything of the original body, including, of course, the tenketsu points.
So Hinata had naturally thought of using the ice clone to replace the original body to do the experiment of opening the tenketsu points and continue the unfinished experiment she and Sakura had started back then.
Sakura also immediately realized that this kind of suicidal task was indeed very suitable for the ice clone to do.
She pondered for a moment and said, "Hinata-chan, I know what you mean. Using an ice clone to experiment with the tenketsu points is indeed not a bad idea."
She also recalled the "that plan" that had been so inspiring back then.
"Then, the 'Fist of the North Star' project is officially restarted!"
The Fist of the North Star project actually had little to do with that "Fist of the North Star."
The reason for this name was because in their plan, this taijutsu would only open seven tenketsu points, one less than the Eight Gates.
The chakra amplified after opening the Eight Gates was too rapid and violent, and was not suitable for them, the Gentle Fist ninja who required fine control of their chakra, to use. Therefore, they needed to start from scratch and develop a new set.
The principle of a ninjutsu like the Eight Gates was not complicated.
The tenketsu points were equivalent to the body's limiters, restricting and controlling the conversion of chakra to avoid excessive conversion of physical power into chakra, thereby causing damage to the body. This was the same principle as the body limiting the maximum strength of the muscles to avoid injury.
After opening the tenketsu points, the amount of chakra converted from the body would suddenly increase, thereby greatly increasing the caster's combat power, but this was at the cost of increasing the burden on the body and damaging it.
Taking the Eight Gates as an example, when all eight gates were opened, even a Genin could obtain Kage-level power. This was indeed a very objective boost. But a person who opened the eighth gate, even if they did nothing, would soon die.
Of course, for a taijutsu-type ninja like Gai, because his physical fitness was extremely high, opening the first few gates caused him very little damage.
Besides that, a forbidden jutsu like the Eight Gates also had a big drawback—
By opening the meridian points and releasing the body's restrictions, the massive amount of chakra obtained was purely chakra composed of physical power. This violent and unbalanced chakra, lacking the mixture of spiritual power, could not be used to release ninjutsu and could only be used in taijutsu to enhance speed and strength.
Back then, it was precisely because Sakura had discovered that the amplified chakra after a tenketsu strike could not be used to cast ninjutsu that she had lost interest in this project. After the project was interrupted, she had never tried to restart it. It was also because of this that although the Eight Gates was powerful and the first few gates were not very harmful to the body, most ninja still were not interested in it.
After all, apart from pure taijutsu-type ninja, most ninja still had to use ninjutsu in battle.
If nothing else, for a ninjutsu as practical, efficient, and low-consumption as the Substitution Jutsu and the Clone Jutsu, you couldn't just abandon them like Gai and Lee, right?
And for these two from the Hyuga clan, what was more important was that after the Eight Gates was opened, the nature of the chakra obtained was too violent. Although it could greatly increase speed and strength, it was very difficult to control finely for use in the Gentle Fist.
This made the applicable scope of the Eight Gates limited to a small number of ninja who specialized in the Strong Fist.
That was why Hyuga Neji, although he was on Gai's team and was also a taijutsu-type ninja himself, had never practiced the Eight Gates.
As fellow taijutsu-type ninja, Neji and Hinata were actually very envious of Lee's ability to use the Eight Gates.
Neither of them were ninja with particularly abundant chakra.
After Neji's relationship with Hinata had improved, he had learned the defective product left over from the "Fist of the North Star" project that Sakura and Hinata had developed back then. That set of tenketsu techniques could safely open two tenketsu points, thereby amplifying one's own chakra by double, and the nature of the chakra was milder than that produced by the Eight Gates, suitable for them to use the Gentle Fist.
Even a mosquito's leg is still meat. Having something is better than having nothing. Neji had accepted this ninjutsu with this mentality.
However, one day, when Hinata and Neji were talking about Sakura's embarrassing moments, she had mentioned the ice clone that could almost completely replicate the original. Hinata, who still had lingering regrets about the Fist of the North Star project, had suddenly had an inspiration.
And hearing that there was a possibility of completing the Fist of the North Star project, Neji, who had always yearned for this kind of tenketsu amplification jutsu, couldn't hold back his enthusiasm and had also come along.
Of course, he hadn't come empty-handed. Neji had also gotten the materials for the Eight Gates from Gai-sensei.
For Neji's thick-skinned behavior, Sakura just rolled her eyes.
Logically speaking, developing ninjutsu is a very private act. Neji's doing this was very impolite. However, since he had brought the Eight Gates scroll with him, then it could be considered that he had brought capital—the capital of information—to join this ninjutsu development group as a shareholder.
Although the Eight Gates was a forbidden jutsu, its security classification was not high: even a Genin could learn it. The most precious part of the materials Neji had brought was Gai-sensei's learning experiences, which could be considered invaluable and would be very helpful for their development of the Fist of the North Star.
In any case, even if Neji was not allowed in, Hinata would have taught this ninjutsu to Neji after she learned it anyway. The relationship between the two of them was now completely as close as that of ordinary cousins.
And speaking of which, the "Fist of the North Star" ninjutsu was more of Hinata's jutsu. If Hinata didn't mind Neji learning it together, then she didn't mind either.
As the other developer of the ninjutsu, Sakura herself probably wouldn't have much chance to use it. After all, the chakra produced after opening the tenketsu points could only be used for taijutsu, and her main combat power was still in ninjutsu. It was impossible for her to give up her biggest advantage for that little bit of amplified chakra.
Since that was the case, Sakura didn't say any more.
She immediately and readily created a few ice clones.
The experiment began.
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