It wasn't until the Branch Family members activated their Byakugan one after another that they finally observed that both of Hyūga Shinichi's fists, which were currently engaged in combat with Hyūga Hiashi, were enveloped in a lion-shaped chakra cloak.
Because the chakra released by Hyūga Shinichi was not dense enough to condense into a physical form, it was invisible to the naked eye. However, under the Byakugan bloodline, Shinichi's true state was revealed to them.
"Gentle Step: Twin Lion Fists!"
"The boy has mastered far more than just the Air Palm secret technique!"
Hyūga Hizashi noticed the shocked expressions written on the faces around him and couldn't help but smile. His nephew's excellence brought some honor to him as an uncle.
Outsiders often misunderstood the Hyūga's nin-taijutsu, and even some members of the Hyūga Clan themselves did not fully grasp their own family's secret arts.
People often separated the Hyūga's Gentle Fist (Jūken) from the so-called Hard Fist (Gōken).
Hard Fist, as the name suggests, relies on powerful physical strength to attack the enemy. The stronger the force used, the greater the damage to the enemy's skin, tendons, bones, and internal organs. Its principle is simple and pure, similar to the Senju Clan's Strength of a Hundred Seal or the Taijutsu studied by most ninjas—all categorized as "Hard Fist."
However, the Hyūga's Gentle Fist is different. Due to its unique nature, Hyūga clan members who have activated the Byakugan and mastered the Gentle Fist can injure opponents by blocking their chakra pathways, even without relying on powerful physical strength.
This convenience offered by the bloodline limit inevitably led some Hyūga clan members to neglect physical training, because they could still inflict damage on an enemy even with just a "light touch."
The common ninja distinction between "Hard Fist" and "Gentle Fist" led to some misunderstanding of the Hyūga's fighting style. In reality, the Taijutsu passed down by the Main Family never separated its Gentle Fist from the so-called Hard Fist.
After all, the ultimate goal of a technique is to defeat the enemy. Why quibble over whether you gently kill the enemy or heavily smash their head in?
The Gentle Step: Twin Lion Fists was actually a nin-taijutsu developed by the Main Family ancestors to enhance the range and destructive power of their strikes. By releasing chakra outwards and incorporating shape transformation, Twin Lion Fists is a standard hand-sign-less technique. After studying this secret art, Shinichi even felt that this technique's growth potential was higher than the Rasengan, the hand-sign-less Ninjutsu developed by the Fourth Hokage.
Did the chakra only have to be attached to the fists? Could it also be attached to the body? Wasn't the Heavenly Rotation (Kaiten) a derivative of this technique?
If the chakra could be smoothly attached to the body, did it only need to incorporate chakra shape transformation? What would happen if chakra nature transformation were added to the chakra surrounding oneself? Was the Lightning Release Chakra Mode, a secret technique of the Cloud Village's Moonlit Clan, a variant of this kind of nin-taijutsu?!
In the dojo, Hyūga Shinichi, while fighting Hiashi using the Twin Lion Fists, had already formed a rough idea and plan for the direction of his future efforts during his study of the Main Family's secret arts.
As a transmigrator, Shinichi would be too foolish to think he could safely survive in this world merely by relying on his status as a Hyūga Main Family member.
The current Ninja World was not peaceful. Although the Third Great Shinobi War was drawing to a close, true peace had not yet arrived. While there were no large-scale battles between the Land of Fire, the Land of Lightning, and the Land of Water, small-scale skirmishes and conflicts persisted. Countless ninjas were still dying daily on these unseen battlefields. In the few years Shinichi had lived with the Hyūga, he had already attended too many funerals of clan members.
Although the Main Family was well-protected, the Byakugan bloodline still managed to fall into foreign hands during the Third Great Ninja War. Shinichi did not want his eyes to become a trophy for others to show off.
Moreover, even if Shinichi could hide in the village and safely navigate the Third Great Ninja War, would trouble really stop coming for him?
The Nine-Tails' attack; Orochimaru's plan to destroy Konoha; Pain's desire to "make the world feel pain"; and the Fourth Great Ninja War incited by Obito to create a "world with Rin"; even after Naruto and Sasuke saved the world, one "alien" after another continued to appear, seeking to destroy it.
Given Shinichi's age, his life was destined to be filled with tribulation. To live out his life peacefully, he had to successfully overcome those disasters, and the only thing that could help him was his own strength!
Fortunately, however...
While many other transmigrators had to worry about the assassination plots of Danzō Shimura, the "Kettle-Flipping King of Konoha," Shinichi, being a member of the Hyūga Main Family, did not have to worry about Danzō and his Root organization. Danzō's reach, no matter how long, could not touch him, the "Hyūga Main Family Genius."
Therefore, Shinichi had never suppressed his potential, unleashing all his talent with the sole purpose of becoming stronger. In recent years, Hyūga Shinichi's training had been rigorous. While Hiashi's approach to his cultivation was strict, Shinichi himself enjoyed the rigor because he genuinely desired to become strong.
I'm not afraid of being laughed at, but I, Shinichi... am truly terrified of dying!
In the dojo, as the sparring session continued, Hyūga Shinichi's once tempestuous attack gradually began to slow down.
Hyūga Shinichi's chakra reserves were terrifying. Perhaps due to his extraordinary talent, or perhaps because his Hyūga bloodline had undergone a degree of atavism (返祖), the five-year-old Shinichi possessed enormous chakra reserves. If one had to draw a comparison, Shinichi's chakra volume could likely rival that of a normal pre-teen Naruto.
The Hyūga clan members didn't find Shinichi's terrifying chakra reserves particularly unusual; after all, he was a genius, so shouldn't a genius perform this way?
Although Hyūga Shinichi's chakra was vast, a child of his age still had finite physical stamina. In the intense sparring, the severe consumption of physical energy inevitably caused Shinichi's movements to slow down.
As Hiashi seized the opening when Shinichi's strength waned and countered with a palm strike, driving Shinichi back, both figures simultaneously stopped their engagement.
The panting Hyūga Shinichi regulated his breathing, then respectfully bowed to Hyūga Hiashi:
"Thank you, Father, for your guidance."
Large clans have strict rules, especially in public. Shinichi found that addressing Hiashi, his cheap father who was around the same age as his transmigrated self, was not very difficult. The debt of raising him in this life was enough for him to sincerely use the address "Father." Over the years, Shinichi had already reconciled and accepted his new identity.
As his words fell, the Branch Family members observing the trial burst into applause. Hyūga Shinichi's displayed strength and talent earned everyone's recognition.
However, a deep look of disappointment appeared on Shinichi's face after the spar ended; he showed no joy from the applause of the surrounding clan members.
He was too weak... He couldn't even defeat his cheap father. Shinichi felt he was simply too weak.
Thinking of the super geniuses in the village—Namikaze Minato, Hatake Kakashi, Uchiha Shisui, Uchiha Itachi, and others—the look on Hyūga Shinichi's face grew even gloomier.
Namikaze Minato, at the age of twelve, while still in the Academy, could single-handedly defeat over a dozen Hidden Cloud ninja who had kidnapped Uzumaki Kushina without injury. Hatake Kakashi was a Chūnin at age six and became a Jōnin at twelve.
There was no need to say more about the two from the Uchiha Clan: Shisui had already made a name for himself at a young age, and Uchiha Itachi, who was currently around Shinichi's age, was taken to the Third Great War battlefield by his father to witness bloodshed at age four, and he was only thirteen when he annihilated his clan.
Compared to these figures, Shinichi, who was also called a genius, felt that his own growth rate was far too slow.
Shinichi often felt a sense of inferiority because people called him a genius. He felt he was unworthy of the title. But crucially, people kept calling him that, and that sense of shame from being deemed undeserving was something few could understand.
"...."
"Stop clapping, stop clapping, please stop clapping..."
Listening to the warm applause from the surrounding clan members, Hyūga Shinichi, standing in the center of the dojo, couldn't help but twitch his eye, silently screaming internally, wanting only to quickly escape this place that made him feel so awkward.
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