Hyūga Hizashi stared at Hyūga Ming expressionlessly.
One hand lowered in front, the other raised behind—
his stance precise and orthodox.
Veins bulged at the corners of his eyes.
"Byakugan!"
Ming mirrored him almost perfectly.
Eyes wide.
"Byakugan!"
Both stepped forward at the same time.
In the blink of an eye, they collided.
Four hands blurred, multiplying into afterimages as they clashed repeatedly in midair.
Crack crack crack crack—boom!
The air itself seemed to ripple from the impact.
Off to the side, Nawaki muttered,
"He still hasn't paid…"
As he spoke, he grabbed Uchiha Sōsuke and dragged him backward at top speed.
The shockwaves from the hand exchanges were already whipping up fierce gusts of wind.
"Wait… that sound's really close…"
Nawaki looked down.
A pair of dazed eyes stared back at him.
Sōsuke had woken up.
Seeing the swollen bump on the back of Sōsuke's head, Nawaki felt a twinge of guilt and quickly looked away.
"I… lost again," Sōsuke muttered, staring toward the center of the battlefield.
Two Hyūga were fighting.
"…Hyūga Hizashi?"
"You know him?" Nawaki asked in surprise. He wasn't very familiar with the Hyūga clan.
Sōsuke nodded solemnly.
"Member of Team Ten two years ago. He and Hyūga Hiashi were called the Twin Stars of the Hyūga."
"But Team Ten was suddenly disbanded some time ago. No one knows why."
"That smug face is what you call a genius?" Nawaki said with open disdain.
Sōsuke shook his head, serious.
"Don't underestimate him. Team Ten completed B-rank missions."
B-rank missions meant encounters with chūnin—
and possibly even jōnin.
"Hyūga Ming fighting someone like that…" Sōsuke clenched his teeth.
"He's definitely going to lose."
"No matter what dirty tricks he uses—absolute strength will crush them all."
Despite how decisively he'd lost, Sōsuke refused to admit it fully.
Hyūga Ming was always called a genius, always ranked first in exams—
But no one from their year truly acknowledged him.
Because this guy fought dirty.
They admitted the written exams.
But the practical ones?
…How had he lost just now?
Sōsuke fell into confusion.
Watching the evenly matched fight only deepened that confusion.
This wasn't how it used to be.
Nawaki chuckled softly.
"You don't understand big bro's strength at all."
"Hizashi winning?"
"That's impossible."
His eyes burned as he watched the battle.
As the grandson of Senju Hashirama, Nawaki was no weakling himself.
He already had true ninja-level strength—
And yet even he wasn't a match for Ming.
"That's impossible," Sōsuke insisted stubbornly.
Nawaki replied quietly,
"When big bro fought you guys before, he wasn't even serious."
The battle shifted.
Both palms collided head-on, the force sending each of them skidding back two steps.
Hizashi inhaled sharply.
A faint Eight Trigrams diagram appeared beneath his feet.
"Gentle Fist Art: Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms!"
A secret art of the Hyūga main family.
Only branch members with exceptional merit were ever taught it.
Yet Hizashi—Hiashi's younger brother—had learned it all the same.
He lunged forward in a flash, closing the distance instantly.
Both hands extended, fingers rigid, striking toward Ming.
Sixty-four precise strikes, sealing chakra points and blocking the enemy's chakra flow.
His hands fell like rain.
Ming exhaled.
And suddenly—
His body felt light.
"Gentle Fist Art: Willow Drift."
Under Hizashi's torrential assault, Ming's body swayed like a willow branch in the wind.
Every strike missed.
Not one connected.
"How is that possible?!" Sōsuke's eyes went wide.
That was a main-family secret technique!
How could it be dodged so completely?
And since when did Gentle Fist have something called Willow Drift?
It didn't.
This was Ming's own creation.
A technique born from Gentle Fist principles—
Using chakra to heighten perception, circulating it through the entire body.
When an opponent's chakra approached, the body reacted before conscious thought.
In short—
A perfect counter to Hyūga Gentle Fist.
Hizashi gritted his teeth.
Chakra suddenly surged from his palms.
"Eight Trigrams Palm: Rotation!"
Blue chakra burst outward, forming a hemispherical barrier.
Ming leapt back just in time, avoiding it cleanly.
"Your Rotation's pretty bad," Ming teased casually.
He'd never practiced Rotation himself, but he understood its difficulty.
It demanded extremely fine chakra control.
Hizashi's Rotation faded almost instantly.
It wasn't sustainable.
It wasn't even close to his son's level.
That thirteen-year-old prodigy who had mastered Rotation on his own—
A rarity even in Hyūga history.
Hizashi fell far short.
Still—
"You're stronger than your brother."
Hizashi was stronger than Hiashi.
"What kind of judgment did your father have, letting your brother become clan heir?"
At Ming's deliberate provocation, Hizashi's resolve wavered—just for an instant.
Hiashi became heir not because of talent or strength.
Only because he was born first.
"My brother simply lacks experience," Hizashi said, trying to defend him.
And that much was true.
Since becoming a ninja, Hiashi had seen almost no real combat.
Hizashi, on the other hand, had lived two full years as an active ninja.
That was the real reason for the gap between them.
"Still a good little dog," Ming mocked.
He didn't care about their brotherly bond.
Ming stepped forward sharply, closing the distance.
This time, his hands weren't open palms or rigid fingers—
They clenched into fists.
One step.
He was already inside Hizashi's guard.
Hizashi had no room to use Rotation and could only counterattack.
Ming's fist came first.
Fast.
Heavy.
Packed with chakra.
Hizashi's instincts screamed danger.
His attack shifted mid-motion, arms crossing defensively.
"Crushing Fist!"
BOOM!
Hizashi was launched backward.
Ming pushed off the ground repeatedly, chasing him down.
He leapt—
Leg rising high.
Hizashi's face changed.
His arms were still numb.
"This isn't Gentle Fist—this is Strong Fist!"
THUD!
The kick slammed into him.
Hizashi crashed into the ground, eyes rolling back as he lost consciousness.
[EXP +512]
Ming nodded in satisfaction and checked his panel.
[Chakra: 30/120]
His chakra was nearly depleted.
At the same time, his experience pool was finally full.
[EXP Pool: 1965]
[Level EXP: 160/2000]
Even after leveling up, some experience would remain.
With this little chakra left, he couldn't continue fighting.
Without hesitation, Ming dumped all the stored experience into leveling.
"Level up."
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