Though sent flying and clearly rattled, Hizashi Hyuga was otherwise unscathed, save for some dust on his white robes.
His command of the Gentle Fist was truly impressive. Just before hitting the ground, he immediately pushed off with both hands and twisted mid-air, landing gracefully after a neat backflip.
Yet just like his father, older brother, and all the Branch House ninjas currently observing this duel, Hizashi was now deeply shocked by the mysterious chakra barrier radiating from Soushu Hyuga.
"T-this… you…"
Hizashi trembled slightly, pointing toward Soushu, who still maintained his stance with left elbow raised. He stuttered incoherently for quite some time, unable to form a complete sentence.
"It's not Rotation."
Soushu dropped his fighting posture altogether, returning to an ordinary standing position with a warm smile. "It's merely a little trick I've developed as a humble Branch House ninja. It's nothing refined—please don't laugh at my poor skill."
A faint twitch crossed Hizashi's lips, but he kept his thoughts to himself.
He naturally understood that his father and older brother were closely watching this match.
He also knew full well that other Branch House ninjas secretly observed their fight, hoping to grasp even a trace of the Gentle Fist's true essence.
Even more importantly, he clearly realized that each of these restless, curious Branch members had already been marked for the clan's next combat roster!
Therefore, his current shock wasn't only caused by Soushu's surprising ability—it was also the result of long-suppressed emotions finally erupting from within.
So it turned out even members of the Branch House could achieve breakthroughs in the Gentle Fist through self-training!
So it turned out the secret techniques hoarded by the Main House weren't entirely beyond reach!
So it truly was the battlefield that forged real ninja!
Hizashi distinctly remembered how, when he'd previously visited the clan academy asking about Soushu's childhood, the instructor ninjas described him as: quiet, reserved, and somewhat clumsy.
Yet after two and a half years on the battlefield, this new Soushu stood in stark contrast to the boy those trainers once described. Clearly, only on the battlefield did a true ninja awaken!
Of course, this peculiar idea—that surviving a beating somehow made one wiser—seemed absurd to those fortunate few who'd returned from the front lines unscathed, alive and whole; however, to Hizashi, who had grown up sheltered and protected, such thoughts felt more like divine guidance leading him forward.
"A true Hyuga elite who had returned from battle," said Hizashi calmly, exhaling deeply as he resumed his Gentle Fist stance. "Continue!"
"You keep getting knocked down but keep coming back—I suppose that does take some grit," replied Soushu somewhat resignedly, raising his Gentle Fist stance once more in identical fashion.
"Not using your strange boxing technique this time?"
Frowning slightly, Hizashi ignored Soushu's verbal jab.
"That's my self-developed Eight Boxing—not some strange martial art!" Soushu protested mildly. "Still, Eight Boxing is strictly battlefield combat. It wouldn't be appropriate to use it here."
"Why?"
Hizashi Hyuga looked mildly perplexed.
Based on their previous fight, if Soushu hadn't used that original secret technique resembling the Rotation effect, his Eight Boxing would most likely have no chance of standing against Hizashi's [Gentle Fist] [Sixty-Four Palms].
And what about battlefield techniques? What did they have to do with their duel?
"Indeed, Eight Boxing isn't particularly sophisticated taijutsu."
Soushu shrugged and said, "But when facing Iwagakure ninja who commonly employ Earth Release techniques for defense, it can more quickly break through their Earth Release armor and create effective damage."
Hizashi frowned slightly, leaving him somewhat puzzled.
The Gentle Fist clearly had greater power behind it—so why…?
"Your Gentle Fist is indeed lacking too."
Changing his line of thought, Hizashi immediately understood.
Perhaps it wasn't that Soushu willingly wanted to innovate, but rather because the Gentle Fist technique he learned was originally incomplete and failed to form a coherent system. Even after practical combat training, there hadn't been much progress, thereby forcing him to develop these so-called new martial arts techniques as methods for fighting opponents.
"In that case, there's no need to continue sparring."
Hizashi decided to call off the spar and instead demonstrated the [Gentle Fist] [Sixty-Four Palms] to Soushu directly.
To make it clearer for the Branch House ninja who were watching with wide eyes at the training ground, Hizashi deliberately slowed his speech and movements, breaking down each change and variation in the Sixty-Four Palm sequence for demonstration.
This was practically spoon-feeding them the Gentle Fist.
Even when he was young and receiving instruction from the Main House, he'd mostly accumulated understanding gradually through what was essentially repeated beatings called 'practice.' This was an extremely rare, once-in-a-lifetime chance—for Soushu and the watching Branch House ninja alike—to learn the Gentle Fist firsthand.
Compared to the [Thirty-Two Palms], the [Sixty-Four Palms] weren't just double in number; they squared the complexity of movement and combat techniques.
After Hizashi's explanation, Soushu suddenly realized that his self-developed [Eight Boxing], inspired by fragmented memories of *Baji Quan* (a martial arts style from his past life), wasn't actually that bad!
At the very least, being able to withstand nearly a minute of such elaborate and continually changing devious attacks meant that Eight Boxing was already quite a decent taijutsu technique!
Realizing this, Soushu's confidence surged once more.
"Generally speaking, during actual combat, you first do this, then this, followed by this..."
Though Soushu picked things up slowly, Hizashi went through every movement in detail.
Partly because Hizashi truly didn't want to hoard knowledge selfishly, and partly because he had his own hidden agenda.
"Got it?"
After nearly two hours of instruction, Soushu barely memorized the general routine of the Sixty-Four Palms, though he still remained far from applying them effectively in battle.
"I guess I've kind of got the gist of it."
Soushu admitted without much conviction.
Then, he copied the [Sixty-Four Palms] by going through the motions like a student blindly imitating a master.
Hizashi Hyuga found it barely acceptable, but seeing that Soushu had only trained for two hours, he did not say much, merely offering some basic corrections.
This was also one of the reasons most Hyuga ninja struggled their entire lives with the Gentle Fist.
After all, for the majority of Hyuga clan members whose talent was merely average and whose highest achievement in life never exceeded the rank of Chunin, regardless of their affinity for the five chakra natures, the first choice to maximize both their Kekkei Genkai power and personal strength was undoubtedly the comparatively easier-to-master Gentle Fist.
If they abandoned this path to pursue other techniques, aside from the immense effort involved, any resulting achievements would remain highly uncertain.
For these people, let alone the advanced variations beyond the Sixty-Four Palms, even mastering the techniques and practical battlefield applications of the initial Thirty-Two Palms would require them to figure everything out in isolation, consuming their entire lifetimes.
The same applied to the Caged Bird (Tenketsu) Curse Seal.
For those lower-ranked or civilian-level members of the Hyuga clan who lived mediocre lives, the effects of the Caged Bird (Tenketsu) Curse Seal protected them from countless evil intentions both inside and outside the village; the loss of a freedom ultimately insignificant compared to their lives was considered a small price to pay.
However, for Branch House ninja who possessed considerable strength and felt they could stand on their own, the Caged Bird (Tenketsu) Curse Seal and the dominance of the Main House became a suffocating burden pressing heavily upon them.
Both the Main House and Branch House fully understood this reality—yet one side refused to change, while the other dared not even bring it up. As a result, these hidden tensions and grudges festered like countless ticking time bombs buried deep within the shadowy corners of the clan, ready to explode at any moment.
"There's something I'd like to understand,"
Hizashi asked after yet another session of correcting forms, feeling he had invested considerable effort himself. "What really matters on the battlefield?"
"In other words, what exactly do you mean by battlefield techniques?"
"I'll demonstrate."
Soushu replied, thinking briefly before deciding to satisfy Hizashi's curiosity.
He then drew out a torch pole from his scroll pouch by unsealing it.
"I suppose, Clan Elder Hizashi, what interests you most is how I defeated that Root jackal last night?"
Soushu asked, holding the torch pole.
"Yes."
Admitted Hizashi plainly.
A typical squad leader from Root usually held the rank of Tokubetsu Jonin or higher. While there was naturally a gap between them and Hizashi—who had received full inheritance—it was still difficult for anyone to defeat a Tokubetsu Jonin completely unscathed. Moreover, Root ninjas often mastered bizarre secret techniques, making them especially dangerous compared to regular ninja.
"Just as Clan Elder Hizashi says, in the Ninja World, there's no substitute for speed when it comes to Taijutsu."
Soushu mumbled continuously as he casually swung the torch pole.
Then—
[Jumping Slash!]
"Boom!"
Before Hizashi could even confirm whether he was hallucinating, a massive tree about five meters away, thick enough that two arms could barely encircle it, exploded into countless flying splinters beneath Soushu's single strike!
"What the hell..."
Hizashi Hyuga was stunned speechless.
He hadn't even seen how Hyuga Soushu had moved!
And remember — he was still staring at Soushu with a Byakugan that was even purer than Soushu's own!