Correct Fist

"Holy shit!" Hyuga Ningyuan felt like his head was splitting apart, as if he had drunk counterfeit alcohol.

His stomach was also painfully empty, like he had not eaten for three days and nights.

The moment he opened his eyes, he reached downward, then touched the little girl's leg.

"Huh?" Hyuga Ningyuan quickly pulled his hand back, only then realizing something was wrong.

Why was he leaning against Yūhi Kurenai?

"You're awake?" Yūhi Kurenai asked softly.

"I fell asleep?" Hyuga Ningyuan hurriedly sat up. "How long was I out?"

"About twenty minutes," Yūhi Kurenai said. "Not even one class period has passed."

"Oh." Hyuga Ningyuan rubbed his forehead. There were four classes in the morning, so did that mean he still had to endure three more?

He would starve to death!

He continued rummaging through his desk and finally found the food he had brought that morning.

It was still warm.

"Keep an eye on the teacher for me!" Hyuga Ningyuan whispered, though he knew it was actually pointless.

Would a Chunin really fail to notice someone eating during class?

Still, just let him deceive himself.

"Huh?" Yūhi Kurenai blushed. She had clearly promised her father that she would study seriously and be a good student.

Wouldn't doing this be bad?

But he really did look hungry.

"Okay!" After thinking it over, she still decided to help him.

After all, how could she let a classmate suffer hunger?

The moment she nodded, Yūhi Kurenai inexplicably felt a surge of excitement.

After being a good girl for so long, doing something out of line felt especially thrilling.

Maybe that was also the main reason so many delinquents could win over good girls?

"It smells a little." Though the food was fairly plain, it still had some scent.

Hyuga Ningyuan did not want to go too far and disturb the others' studies.

So he only opened the lid a crack, took out a meatball, and stuffed it into his mouth. It would do just to tide him over; class would be over soon anyway.

From the podium, Teruhi Sōun witnessed everything, but simply ignored it.

He had been to war, so he naturally knew what hunger looked like, though he did not understand why opening one's eyes would make someone this hungry.

The Hyuga had never had this problem before, had they?

"Phew." He felt a little better.

Children did not eat much to begin with. One meatball was enough to stop his stomach from hurting.

"This consumption is really outrageous. And it doesn't just consume physical energy—it consumes mental energy too." Hyuga Ningyuan could feel that his body was completely hollow, utterly drained of energy.

The key was that he had consumed so much energy, yet Brain Overclocking had not been active for long!

Maybe only five seconds?

It seemed like he had thought through many things only because his brain's processing speed had accelerated!

"Let's see whether the result was worth the cost!" Hyuga Ningyuan recalled what he had just created. A moment later, a set of dance movements appeared in his mind.

Phoenix Dance of the Nine Heavens, four minutes and thirty seconds long, divided into six dance sections. They had no individual names because every section completely and harmoniously coordinated the hands, eyes, body, footwork, and techniques, merely with different points of emphasis.

It was four minutes and thirty seconds because, while choreographing it, Hyuga Ningyuan had instinctively set it to the music of Phoenix Dance of the Nine Heavens, and the six sections corresponded to six musical passages.

But this dance was not fixed in stone. It could be regarded as a masterwork of dance, from which countless dances could be extracted and adapted. Paired with different music, it could produce different effects!

Moreover, it was not merely a dance set; it was also a Taijutsu training method. It exercised most parts of the body, including the eyes, hands, legs, abdomen, chest, and back!

Overall, the effect was very good!

Or rather, exceptionally good!

If Hyuga Ningyuan had tried to create this dance himself, it would have taken at least three or four years.

Because he had never encountered dance before, he would have needed to start from the very basics, then gradually practice, summarize, and refine.

That was the miraculous effect of Brain Overclocking: organizing and extracting knowledge!

"Though the consumption is a bit high, the results are astonishing!" Hyuga Ningyuan marveled. Five seconds of work equaled years of effort for an ordinary person. Forget missing one meal—even ten or a hundred meals would be worth it!

Ring-ring-ring!

At last, class was over. Hyuga Ningyuan stopped overthinking and immediately pulled out his Bento and began eating!

"You're eating your lunch already?" Yūhi Kurenai asked. "Then what will you do for lunch?"

"No choice, I'm hungry now!!" Hyuga Ningyuan shoved a mouthful of rice into his mouth. Half-warm rice tasted indescribably awful.

It had become like this after only one class. He did not dare imagine what the Bento would be like after an entire morning.

This kind of culture was simply inhuman. Why could schools not provide meals?

After wolfing down a Bento bowl in just a few bites, Hyuga Ningyuan heard someone seemingly calling his name.

What was going on? It seemed he was the only Hyuga in the school!

He looked up and saw a child who was only four or five years old, yet somehow carried the aura of a man in his forties or fifties, standing stiffly at the classroom door, trying to come in.

But Uchiha Obito was blocking him.

"Who are you? You're not in our class, are you?" Obito asked.

"I'm from class 2!" the child said. "I'm here to see Hyuga Ningyuan!"

"Hyuga Ningyuan, someone's here for you!" Obito turned and shouted.

"You're Sarutobi Asuma?" Hyuga Ningyuan looked the newcomer over. His appearance was utterly ordinary, without the distinctive features of the Aburame or Inuzuka clans, but Hyuga Ningyuan recognized the swastika-like clan crest on his clothes. It was the emblem of the Sarutobi Clan.

As a local, one naturally had to be familiar with the crests of the major clans.

"It's good that you know my name!" Asuma said irritably. "What nonsense were you spouting during your introduction?"

"Uh..." Hyuga Ningyuan blinked. "Which part do you mean?"

"That thing about marrying Yūhi Kurenai if you want a wife!" Asuma slapped the desk, then suddenly noticed Yūhi Kurenai sitting beside Hyuga Ningyuan. His expression twisted even further. "You two are even sitting together?"

That was right, Asuma knew Yūhi Kurenai. Before Konoha was founded, the Yūhi Clan had been retainers of the Sarutobi Clan. Although everyone had joined Konoha now and the retainer relationship had been dissolved, their close ties remained.

Yūhi Shinku's household consisted of only father and daughter, so whenever Yūhi Shinku went on a mission, Yūhi Kurenai would stay with the Sarutobi Clan.

Asuma and Yūhi Kurenai could be considered childhood friends.

As for whether Asuma had ever wanted to take that childhood friendship further, an Earth child probably would not have. Five-year-old Earth children were too busy playing to think about romance.

But children in the ninja world generally matured early, so that was not necessarily true.

For example, Hinata had started secretly loving Naruto when she was only three or four.

"What's wrong with what I said?" Hyuga Ningyuan spread his hands. "I want to marry Yūhi Kurenai. That's my dream. Or are you trying to deny my dream?"

"Uh..." Asuma was instantly left speechless.

In Konoha, there was something even more politically correct than the Will of Fire: dreams!

This was embedded in the cultural genes of the Land of Fire, and even the ninja world as a whole. It was also widely present in all sorts of heroic manga.

As for the deeper reason this cultural gene had emerged, one would have to ask Emperor MacArthur of Japan.

This was not joking. It really was because of MacArthur's postwar reforms of Japan, which led to the lifetime employment system and, in turn, Japan's decades-long postwar economic miracle.

The Japanese then summarized those economic miracles as having two causes: unity and dreams!

The former made the Japanese follow rules, dislike people who stepped out of line or stood apart, and bully others through isolation.

The latter made them believe in miracles and dreams.

These two elements naturally appeared in postwar Japanese cultural works as well, with protagonist after protagonist placing extraordinary emphasis on them.

Those protagonist groups shouting about bonds and dreams while taking down villainous bosses all traced their roots back to this.

Just as creators from our country could never resist having their protagonists start a revolution, rebel, or wipe out an entire family, these were things rooted deep in a creator's genes.

If Hyuga Ningyuan had talked to Asuma about the Will of Fire, Asuma might not have cared at all. Asuma was Hiruzen Sarutobi's rebellious son and did not believe in that stuff.

But when Hyuga Ningyuan spoke of dreams, Asuma could not refute him.

Because this was the will of the Creator! It was the foundation upon which ninja-world culture existed.

Even if Hyuga Ningyuan's dream could never come true, no one dared say so.

Because saying a child's dream could not be realized was equivalent to saying Konoha could not realize everyone's dreams. It denied the very meaning of the village's existence!

Seeing Asuma's vacant expression, Hyuga Ningyuan curled his lips into a smile.

You little punk, trying to fight me!

This punch was politically correct. Could he handle it?

"Looks like you support my dream too!" Hyuga Ningyuan stood and gave a deep bow. "Thank you!"

"You, I..." Asuma felt that something was wrong, but could not put it into words. He could neither advance nor retreat, and could only stand at the doorway with a conflicted expression.

Only when the bell rang did he find a way out. Then he shouted indignantly, "Hyuga Ningyuan, I won't give up!"