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He was determined to become stronger. The stronger he became, the more support he would receive from the clan. Perhaps one day, he could remove the curse seal from himself and finally be free from the clan's oppression. But with his current skills and strength, submission was all he could do.
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It's been a full week since he reincarnated into this world. The academy classes have been quite simple, mainly involving basic revisions for the upcoming graduation exam, along with a few physical practice sessions. However, Naruto has barely shown up this week; instead, he has been vandalizing property around the village and engaging in petty harassment with the pranks he pulls.
Hiruka has spent all his free time training to improve his Byakugan and chakra reserves. He has been training his chakra reserves by using his chakra in a repetitive motion while standing on water. This technique has shown great results, and his reserves have improved slightly. He even caught a glimpse of Hinata using the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms technique. While he couldn't fully copy it, he observed how she controlled her chakra pathways and the way she moved while performing the technique. All he needs to do now is put his current theory into practice to see if he is correct.
Today at the academy is one of the last practical tests they will do before the graduation exams. The practical test is divided into two parts. The first part will assess their shurikenjutsu skills; each student will be given a set of ten shuriken and a target set 20 meters away, and another part of curving their shuriken in the correct way to hit a target behind an obstacle. This part of the test was quite straightforward.
The second part of the test consisted of sparring sessions. The academy allowed students to choose their opponents, and Sasuke kept selecting Hiruka, which led to a small rivalry between the two. Both Hiruka and Sasuke had received perfect scores on their shurikenjutsu test, just as Hiruka had suspected; Sasuke had picked him for the sparring match.
Before the spar began, Hiruka removed his weights, which he wore everywhere. They both stepped into the sparring circle marked with simple chalk. During these sparring matches, Dojutsu, ninjutsu, and genjutsu were not permitted; the matches relied purely on taijutsu. Hiruka and Sasuke faced each other and made the "Seal of Confrontation" before returning to their respective sides of the sparring zone.
Hiruka took the initiative and was the first to move. His speed had improved over the past week, primarily due to the added weight he had been carrying. Now that he was unencumbered, he felt much lighter. He aimed a punch directly at Sasuke's face, hoping to knock him out of the sparring zone for a quick win. Sasuke managed to block the attack at the last second by raising his arms in front of his face.
Hiruka kept up the offensive with a leg sweep that almost worked. Sasuke, however, managed to jump over him. Hiruka quickly followed up with a back kick that connected with Sasuke's right leg, causing him to stumble. Seizing the opportunity, Hiruka struck three tenketsu points on Sasuke's right leg. Although his Byakugan was disabled and he couldn't see where the tenketsu points were located, he had memorized the positions of the thirty-four main points. Closing a tenketsu point halted the flow of chakra, but it also caused numbness since tenketsu points are essential pressure points on the body.
Hiruka had infused his strike with a minimal amount of chakra, just enough that neither Iruka nor Sasuke would notice. This added effect caused even more pain and damaged the surrounding muscles. Sasuke was determined not to lose to Hiruka again, as it had become a recurring issue. He attempted to throw a strike toward Hiruka's chest with his right arm. Hiruka caught his arm with one hand and quickly struck four tenketsu points in Sasuke's right arm, making it numb and throbbing with pain.
With one of Sasuke's arms now completely numb, Hiruka closed the distance even further and delivered a palm strike to Sasuke's stomach, sending him crashing to the ground. Hiruka was about to perform the seal of reconciliation with his left arm, but noticing that Sasuke's right arm couldn't move properly, he switched to using his right arm, allowing Sasuke to complete the seal with his left arm.
Sasuke begrudgingly finished the seal, but he had noticed the slight that Hiruka had done. He did the seal with his left arm on purpose to add salt to the wound before he switched to his right arm.
( Sidenote: The seal of Confrontation is used in the academy to signify that a spar/duel is about to begin. This is done to show the meaning of "I've come to face you in battle," and the seal of Reconciliation is done at the end of a spar/duel to show that they are still comrades. )
Both Sasuke and Hiruka were allowed to leave the academy grounds after their sparring match finished. Hiruka headed straight to one of the public training grounds in the village, as the clan didn't allow the destruction of training equipment. He wanted to practice and improve his skill with the "Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm" technique. This was his only ranged technique, and his proficiency in it was lacking. This put him at a significant disadvantage against ranged opponents like Sasuke Uchiha; if they hadn't been limited by academy regulations, he might have lost that match. The match could have lasted much longer if he hadn't secretly infused his strikes with chakra.
Even if he were to improve his skills with "Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm," its maximum range was only ten meters, classifying it as barely a mid-range jutsu. Arriving at one of the few empty training grounds, training ground number nineteen. He went to the section filled with various training logs. Most shinobi preferred to just use simple logs to train rather than specialized training equipment. This was mainly because logs were incredibly cheap and abundant. Logs destroyed on public training grounds were replaced free of charge, allowing shinobi to practise their techniques without worry.
Although the technique involved using the Byakugan to precisely pinpoint an enemy's vital points before launching an attack, Hiruka struggled to apply it effectively without finding actual living targets or practicing on human-shaped dummies. While his clan provided the necessary resources, they were overly concerned about the destruction of specialized equipment, which diverted his focus. He would rather not deal with the clan heads making a huge fuss about it.
Determined, he concentrated a substantial amount of chakra into the palm of his right hand until it began to heat up. Then, he thrust his palm forward. At the maximum reach of his palm, he released the charged chakra. The energy exploded outward upon contact, shattering the log into hundreds of pieces. Although the power was satisfactory, he realized that he had invested considerable time gathering the required chakra.
In a real fight, he wouldn't have the luxury of time, so he needed to practice gathering chakra more quickly. The best way to achieve this was through sheer effort. He repeated the technique continuously, even though it took a significant toll on his chakra reserves. He managed to perform the technique nearly twenty times before his reserves were nearly depleted. However, he began to notice progress; the time required to gather chakra had decreased by two seconds. While this may not seem like a significant improvement, two seconds in a life-or-death situation could mean the difference between survival and death. Additionally, the strain on his chakra reserves was beneficial, as it gradually helped expand his overall capacity. Hiruka spent the next few hours on physical training as he couldn't use his chakra anymore without risking chakra exhaustion.
Hiruka started making his way back to the clan compound as the sun began to set over the horizon. On his journey, he unexpectedly encountered Neji, who was heading in the same direction. Hiruka ran to catch up with him. Neji was seldom at the clan, as he was frequently on various missions.
"Hey Neji, you're back already?" Hiruka asked, walking alongside him.
"Oh, Hiruka, what are you doing outside of the clan compound so late?" Neji replied. While Neji was rarely nice to Hinata or Hinabi, his relationship with his fellow clan members was different. He and Hiruka were on good terms, even though they barely interacted.
"I had to train on one of the public training grounds today because the main family refused to let me use the specialized equipment," Hiruka answered. Although his statement wasn't entirely true, it caught Neji's attention immediately when he heard that Hiruka had been denied something by the main house.
"Typical," Neji said.
"So, you're finally coming back to the clan today?" Hiruka inquired.
"Only for a while. I just finished another mission, and one of my teammates overdid it, so we have to wait until he recovers. Why do you ask?" Hiruka attempted to channel his resentment toward the main house, which wasn't difficult for him, as he felt as strongly about it as Neji did.
"I feel disrespected. The main house refuses any of my requests, even though I have the potential and talent to be a great shinobi. They won't even let me learn a single technique reserved for the main house. They hoard all the useful combat knowledge for themselves while continuing to suppress us. I'm sick of it." This sentiment resonated deeply with Neji. He had always resented the main house and had often felt ostracized by other members of the secondary house. Hearing Hiruka express similar views made him smile slightly.
( Sidenote: I'm not sure if Neji was ostracized from other members of the secondary house in canon, but I made it happen in this AU. The reason for this is that in this AU, Neji is far more open about his resentment towards the main house. This has caused him to feel the effects of the curse seal "Caged Bird" multiple times, which has just made his resentment deeper. He isn't as vocal about it anymore, but he is still extremely resentful. )
"You know, asking the clan elders anything goes on deaf ears, trust me, I tried before," Neji said as his face now bore resentment. "If you really want to improve and learn new techniques, you can find me at training grounds 3 tomorrow."
Hiruka didn't respond; instead, he offered Neji a smile and a nod of confirmation. They walked side by side in silence toward the clan, occasionally engaging in small talk. Neither of them was particularly talkative.
As they arrived at the clan gates, they parted ways, heading to their separate living quarters located on opposite wings of the compound. This separation was intentional; the clan elders wanted to prevent the youths of the secondary house from forming strong bonds. Consequently, the children were trained in small groups and kept apart from one another while growing up. Hiruka wasn't sure what Neji intended to show him tomorrow, but he had an idea he would share the main house techniques he learned with him; at least that was what he hoped he would do.