"Gentle Step: Twin Lion Fists!"
The Chakra in Nao's hands compressed into the image of a fierce lion's head.
The pressure it gave off, almost as if it were tangible, was enough to make one shudder.
"Is this the Hyuga main family's secret taijutsu?"
Shin stared at the imposing lion's head and suddenly quipped, "Why is it called Twin Lion Fists when there's only one lion's head?"
"???" Nao was completely stumped by the question.
"Ahem, I know you just shouted it instinctively, right?"
Shin, whose emotional intelligence was firmly online, would not go looking for trouble.
He had only made a small joke because the atmosphere was pretty good.
If it had been Nawaki, he might have said something like, "Did you fail math?"
Then he would have gotten beaten up badly. The young master of the Senju Clan's reputation suffered daily.
"Yes." Nao nodded, indicating that it was entirely because she had spoken too quickly.
It definitely was not because she was bad at math.
Shin went along with her.
See? That was the value of high emotional intelligence. Someone like Madara probably could only be tolerated by Hashirama.
(Madara gave a wicked smile: Do you want to dance too?)
"You want to add a nature transformation as well?"
"Yes. You gave me the inspiration."
"A shape transformation combined with a nature transformation? That's already about as difficult as my partial Elemental Chakra Mode~" Shin finally understood what Nao was planning.
She wanted to catch up with him.
The Twin Lion Fists had already been an immensely powerful taijutsu. With an enhanced version added on top, their sparring match would become much more unpredictable.
"I'm ready."
Nao signaled for him to stay on guard. After all, no one knew what the consequences of failure would be.
"Begin." Shin activated his Sharingan and watched the flow of her Chakra.
Under the Sharingan's gaze, Nao's Chakra slowly began transforming the pale blue lion's head in her hands into lightning-nature Chakra.
It was different from how he directly transformed Chakra before injecting it with an element.
Others did not have the ability to maintain the stability of the Chakra in their hands while simultaneously performing a nature transformation on their own Chakra.
That was also one of the reasons Shin's Elemental Chakra Mode was considered a forbidden technique to others.
After all, no one could continuously monitor the subtle changes in all 130 trillion cells throughout their body.
"I did it." Nao's usually icy face now showed a joyous expression.
Looking at the girl, Shin offered his rare smile in congratulations. "Nao, you really are a little genius. You managed to pull off taijutsu this difficult too~"
The lion's head on Nao's right hand retained its shape, but its color changed from pale blue to purple, with strands of bright violet lightning dancing around it.
Shin felt the lion's head, now several times fiercer than before, and could not help marveling inwardly. The sense of pressure has become even stronger...
"Shin, what should I call it?" Nao asked.
Shin answered with a grin, "A purple lion's head? How about Violet Lightning Single Lion Step?"
"Uchiha Shin!"
"I was just joking, Nao. Don't be mad."
Shin had made another little joke.
Seeing her strong reaction, he decided that he would work harder in the future to change that iceberg-like personality of hers.
"Hmph... If you do that again, I'll stop being friends with you!" The little iceberg was acting tsundere.JPG
It seemed changing Nao's personality would be a long and arduous task.
But Shin was not discouraged in the slightest. How did that saying go again? "With enough effort, an iron pestle can be ground..." Bah, it was probably something like that.
"Nao, look at this." Shin changed the subject at just the right moment.
Women, from little girls to old ladies, were all... Never mind. Those who understood, understood.
(You don't understand? No wonder you're single!)
"You learned it just by seeing it once?" Nao was startled by the dragon heads burning with crimson flames around his hands.
"Your move is pretty good, but in the next second, it'll be mine!" Shin arrogantly flaunted the Sharingan's copying ability.
"Uchiha Shin, let's settle this once and for all!" Angered by him, Nao formed a violet lightning single lion head with her left hand as well.
"I'm outta here..." Seeing that things were going badly, Shin hurriedly ran away.
Nao became even angrier.
In the end, the match ended in a draw.
Why? His emotional intelligence had failed him, brother.
If his opponent had been Nawaki, he would have beaten him half to death.
Facing a cute little girl with fair skin and a pretty face, Shin shook his head, saying he had no such intentions, then tossed out a Great Dragon Fire Technique.
That night, at the Uchiha Clan Head's dinner table.
Chiken was criticizing all sorts of faults of the Hyuga Clan.
"Tell me, wasn't that Old Fossil asking to be beaten? If the Third Hokage hadn't come, I'd have beaten the shit out of him!"
"Dear/Father, that's disgusting!" The three of them all felt like throwing up upon hearing that.
Could they not just have a proper meal?
Chiken continued without blushing or missing a beat. "What's disgusting about it? I don't see anything wrong with it."
The three of them covered their eyes and turned away.
His glorious image had completely shattered from this moment onward.
Though Shin had already shattered most of it long ago.
"What kind of expressions are those? And you, brat, wasn't it you who said that shameless people are invincible?"
"Father, what I said was, 'Water too clear has no fish; people too cheap are invincible.'" Shin corrected him.
The moment Chiken heard it, he felt as though Shin was calling him cheap in a roundabout way.
He immediately exploded. "Brat, take this!"
"Old man, you have no martial virtue!" Shin quickly ran outside, but did not forget to bite back, "What kind of skill is bullying a child!"
"How is disciplining my own kid considered bullying..." Chiken quickly followed, flatly denying it. "This is education through love!"
"Old man, are you cheap or not?"
"Brat, stop running!"
Seeing this, Aoko and Fugaku immediately got up and shut the front door.
This father and son probably would not be coming home before dawn.
The two of them had long since grown accustomed to it.
That night, all kinds of yelling and cursing rose and fell throughout the Uchiha Clan Grounds.
The clansmen all shut their doors and windows, put on earmuffs, and went to sleep.
At the Hyuga Clan Head's residence.
Meitoku was similarly criticizing the Uchiha.
"I was generous enough to invite that Old Geezer, yet he had the nerve to reject my goodwill. If I hadn't been giving the Third Hokage face, he would have been lying in the hospital already!"
"..." X4
The three siblings and their young mother, Hyuga Sakura, were all speechless.
"The Uchiha Clan Head is already so shameless. How good could the rest of his clansmen possibly be?"
"Father, Shin isn't like that..." Nao swallowed her words hard after Meitoku shot her a glance.
"Dear..." Sakura, sitting beside Meitoku, wore a gentle smile as she suppressed his anger. "You're scaring the children."
"Fine, Sakura. I'm just angry that that Old Geezer has no shame." Meitoku took a deep breath.
The three Hyuga siblings all breathed sighs of relief.
In terms of presence, their mother still had the upper hand.
"I think that Uchiha Shin is quite good..."
Sakura smiled. "Even a strong-willed child like Nao is willing to become friends with him..."
"Dear, don't look at the Uchiha Clan through tinted glasses."
Sakura's words made Nao cheer inwardly for her mother.
If Sakura had been there last time, would Meitoku have made her cut ties with Shin?
At that moment, Nao was certain that the food chain Shin had once mentioned really existed.
Meitoku no longer looked angry at all. "Sakura, do you think I can't see that the Uchiha are trying to use this to ease their relationship with the village?"
"I simply don't want them to achieve it so easily."
Only after considering it carefully did Sakura understand that layer. "The Uchiha have clever people too. They're using matters between two children to let people see a different side of them."
"Hmph. In any case, that Old Geezer isn't clever enough for that."
"Then who could it be?"
As Nao listened to her parents' conversation, she recalled her discussion with Shin earlier that day.
Could it be him?
And so, Shin was regarded by his good friend as one of the Uchiha Clan's so-called clever people.
Before you continue