"Though our methods and paths differed, the three of us have now completed Phase Three of the Sacred Fists. Next comes Phase Four—ultimate techniques."
Hinata sat atop a wooden post in the training field, looking down at Sasuke and Naruto below. She'd very much wanted to rush headlong into acquiring power, but she wasn't foolish enough to follow Danzō's lead blindly. Power that came too easily was seldom reliable.
So, at minimum, she intended to advance the South Dipper Seven Sacred Fists to the point where she could defend herself before anything else—especially with the graduation exam and the Chūnin Exams looming right after.
"Yeah... I never want to eat another apple as long as I live..."
Naruto—still in women's clothing—plucked an apple from a fruit basket with a defeated air. He placed his left hand over his right and applied gentle pressure. With the sound of spinning chakra, an invisible wind blade peeled the apple's skin into ribbons. The surface was still a little rough, but the level of control on display was remarkable.
"Hmph. Whatever. Just give me the next training secret already."
Sasuke pulled out a string of Christmas lights and, with a show-offy flourish, channeled his chakra into it. The bulbs lit up in a rainbow of colors—an obvious flex of his own chakra control. Compared to Naruto, Sasuke's precision was a natural cut above.
"Don't rush. The ultimate techniques are nothing like the taijutsu that came before. They're extremely dangerous—not just for your enemies, but for you."
Hinata tossed a prepared scroll down to each of them. "Take a look. These are the techniques we'll be tackling."
Chakra control was crucial, of course—it was the prerequisite for fine-tuning chakra into precise applications. But control alone didn't translate to destructive power. To make chakra deal real damage, you needed something more.
The simplest and most representative method was hand-sign ninjutsu: weaving hand signs to convert chakra into elemental energy for offensive use.
But since Hinata's fabricated South Dipper Sacred Fists had already thrown out the rulebook on hand signs, the only way forward was to keep pushing the boundaries of techniques without hand signs. With adequate chakra control now achieved, the next step was learning to release chakra in controlled, devastating bursts. In other words: training explosive output.
A simple analogy: the human body was a water gun, and chakra was the water inside it. To make the water lethal, you had to propel it with explosive force. Chakra control determined the nozzle's diameter—the finer the nozzle, the more concentrated the blast. They had the nozzle dialed in. Their overall destructive power was up to standard. Now they needed the explosive force behind it—maximum damage from minimum chakra expenditure.
That was no small feat. But since Hinata had already validated the chakra-based martial arts framework through the Sacred Fists, suitable techniques weren't hard to identify.
"Ame no Habakiri? Convert lightning-nature chakra into physical force, concentrate it into blades of thunder, and launch them skyward as a finishing strike?"
Sasuke's scroll was straightforward enough. Similar in concept to his Chidori Sharp Spear, Ame no Habakiri concentrated lightning-nature chakra into a blade formation and drove it through the enemy. But the scale and lethality far exceeded Chidori Sharp Spear. Leveraging Sasuke's superior control, the technique was performed by gathering chakra into both palms, slamming them into the ground, and using the rebound to project a three-hundred-sixty-degree storm of lightning blades skyward—an omnidirectional attack-and-defense combination. The sensation was similar to Chidori Current but with exponentially greater scope and destructive force.
"Initial mastery benchmark: the ability to sever a bolt of natural lightning?"
Sasuke's brow twitched. A fierce, almost feral gleam lit his dark eyes—he was clearly thrilled by the standard.
Lightning was undeniably devastating, but by the time a bolt reached ground level, atmospheric resistance had already sapped much of its speed and force. In practical terms, it wasn't quite lethal enough to instantly kill a ninja. And there was precedent for cutting lightning in this world: a certain silver-haired broomstick-head's Lightning Blade.
Besides, after enduring the Thunder Burial Fist's electrocution regimen, Sasuke's resistance to electrical damage had risen considerably. An ordinary lightning strike wouldn't kill him outright, which made the training benchmark demanding but achievable.
"Ugh, mine is... Divine Sandstorm? What kind of lame name is that?"
Naruto pouted at his own scroll, clearly envying Sasuke's "Ame no Habakiri." Hinata's brow twitched. She flicked a corn kernel from her pouch and bounced it off Naruto's forehead. "Shut it. The names may be different, but they're theoretically equal in power. Instead of whining about the name, you'd better worry about whether you can actually learn it."
Naruto's Divine Sandstorm was every bit as formidable. The principle was simple: rotate both arms in opposite directions to generate a pair of counter-spinning hurricanes capable of shredding the enemy. Essentially, it was a pair of miniature tornadoes launched from both arms.
"When you can reverse the flow of the Konoha waterfall, your Divine Sandstorm is complete. That's a hundred times harder than the Sonic Boom's requirement of merely cutting through the waterfall. Brace yourself."
Hinata had no patience for bickering. Since Naruto had stumbled his way into mastering the Sonic Boom, the Divine Sandstorm's effective difficulty was somewhat reduced—but only somewhat.
As for her own fire-based ultimate, she'd selected the Kusanagi Style's standard advanced form: Orochinagi.
This technique was the epitome of explosive power—channeling flame into the palm and detonating it in a single, concentrated burst for devastating close-range damage. She'd chosen these three ultimates only after carefully weighing each fighter's strengths.
Sasuke's Sharingan could read an opponent's micro-movements but couldn't see through objects or over long distances. His chakra reserves were limited. Against ordinary threats, Chidori was more than sufficient—but if an enemy exceeded Chidori's reach, it usually meant Sasuke's body couldn't keep up with his eyes. Against a speed-type close-range fighter like Rock Lee, for instance. In that scenario, Ame no Habakiri—an omnidirectional attack-and-defense technique—filled the gap perfectly. As long as the enemy entered its radius, Sasuke could unleash it and send them flying regardless of where they stood.
Naruto, meanwhile, lacked both the visual acuity of Sasuke and Hinata, and the agility of either. What he had in spades was stamina and raw chakra volume—making Divine Sandstorm, a long-range area-effect technique, his ideal weapon. Flood the field with Shadow Clones to pin the enemy down, then have the real body confirm the target's position and blast them with a Divine Sandstorm from a distance. Even someone as tough as Kimimaro would take serious damage.
Hinata herself had the Byakugan's penetrating and telescopic vision, but it couldn't track fine movements the way the Sharingan could, and she didn't have Naruto's bottomless reserves. She had to capitalize on every successful approach—one clean opening needed to be enough to end the fight.
For that, Orochinagi—a compact, high-lethality finishing blow—was the natural choice.
"Any questions?"
Hinata glanced between the two, her tone offhanded. She could tell both still had something to say.
"Um... tomorrow's the last day. Can I finally take off the cross-dressing stuff?"
Naruto stood with thighs pressed together, face burning, stammering out the question. To minimize the risk of being seen, he'd spent the entire week holed up at home during the day, venturing out only at night to stock up on instant ramen and milk.
"Sure. There'll be plenty more opportunities in the future."
Hinata's ominous smirk wasn't idle talk. As long as Naruto remained the female lead, the cross-dressing had only just begun.
Watching Naruto and Hinata interact, Sasuke's brow furrowed. He wasn't an idiot. After Naruto's tailed-beast transformation, he'd noticed something deeply abnormal about the dead-last. The blonde buffoon wasn't from a prestigious bloodline like the Hyuga or the Uchiha, but that terrifying crimson chakra had shaken even Sasuke.
Add in the Sonic Boom that Naruto had trained in secret, and one conclusion was inescapable: Hinata must have been giving Naruto extra help behind the scenes.
After all, she'd never given Sasuke any bonus techniques—let alone private tutoring.
And whether it was the cross-dressing, the punishments, or anything else... there was no denying that Naruto and Hinata had been spending more and more time together lately.
It wasn't fair.
The thought, unbidden and formless, made Sasuke's fingers clench.