Harvest and Setting Off Again

Hyuga Ao was testing her newly acquired power.

A layer of wind swirled around Hyuga Ao. She called this layer of wind the Wind Cloak.

Using the Hyuga clan's ability to emit chakra from their entire body, Hyuga Ao released Wind-natured chakra around herself. The chakra transformed into wind, forming a Wind Cloak draped over her body.

Simply put, Hyuga Ao could use her own wind to guide—or rather, control—the natural wind around her.

This Wind Cloak was Hyuga Ao's controller for the natural wind.

Wrapped in the Wind Cloak, Hyuga Ao became completely one with the natural wind. At that moment, she was the wind.

Merging with the wind had many benefits. The most notable was that Hyuga Ao now felt almost no air resistance, which drastically boosted her agility. It was like playing LoL with zero lag—her reactions were ultra-sharp.

This greatly enhanced Hyuga Ao's strength.

With the Wind Cloak wrapped around her, she could use it to propel herself forward. For example, when moving ahead, she increased chakra output from her back to create more wind to push herself forward. The same applied for turning left or right.

Wind had no will of its own, but Hyuga Ao's wind did. She could use her own wind to drive the surrounding wind, which greatly reduced her energy consumption. The main drain was simply maintaining the Wind Cloak itself.

Hyuga Ao estimated that at maximum output, she could sustain the Wind Cloak for about ten minutes. But if she only kept its basic functions active, she could maintain it all day.

Testing her speed under the Wind Cloak's enhancement, Hyuga Ao found that movement felt effortless. Normally, the faster you went, the greater the wind resistance—that was the origin of the sound barrier. But now, Hyuga Ao's sound barrier was gone. She could break the sound barrier with ease.

With that, her most critical issue—speed—was solved. Just by relying on her speed alone, Hyuga Ao had already stepped into the ranks of the Kage.

But she still lacked a combat technique suited to her high-speed fighting style. Shikotsumyaku would have been perfect, but she couldn't reveal it before she made her move. She had to create a technique on her own.

She could take inspiration from the Raikage's lineage. Every time she saw the Raikage's One-Finger Nukite, Hyuga Ao was reminded of a childhood memory—the Holy Sword of the Gold Saint of Capricorn.

That kind of Holy Sword would suit her well. She began trying to turn her hands into Holy Swords.

Hyuga Ao raised one hand horizontally, wrapping it in a massive amount of Wind-natured chakra, attempting to shape her arm into a Wind Blade.

In the howling wind, Hyuga Ao could vaguely see the Wind Blade forming. But the moment it took shape, the Wind Blade went out of control. The violent wind shredded her sleeve into tatters, revealing a slender, pale arm.

She failed. Hyuga Ao analyzed the reason.

Wind was always flowing. It couldn't be bound to one place. To achieve a Holy Sword, she would need to do something like the Wind Style: Rasenshuriken—first create a shell with chakra, then add Wind Nature Transformation.

Since the Holy Sword path was a dead end, Hyuga Ao thought of the Holy Spear that was always being drawn from its anchor.

She raised the arm with the ruined sleeve and controlled the wind to spin around it, while also merging a spiral force into the wind. A spinning Holy Spear took shape. Later, if she needed more power, she could use Shikotsumyaku to create an actual lance.

Hyuga Ao punched the ground with her fist carrying the Holy Spear. The spinning spear made contact with the dirt first, drilling into it like a bit, sending mud flying. Her fist sank into the earth without any resistance.

"What Holy Spear: Gungnir? It's just a drill," Hyuga Ao grumbled.

It seemed the Holy Spear could only improve her ability to break through defenses. To truly use it as a trump card, she'd need to add Shikotsumyaku—a lance made from Shikotsumyaku, plus the spiral force, plus the wind gathered in her hand—that would make a real Holy Spear.

"Feels like if I dyed my eyes and stuck up an antenna, I could cosplay the King of Storms," Hyuga Ao mused, then laughed helplessly. "But to pull it off, I'd probably need a little padding."

Hyuga Ao continued developing the Wind Cloak's applications. She gathered chakra in her palm, condensing it into a Wind Blade. The pale green blade floated in her hand, moving around her body at her will.

"Does this count as sword control?" Hyuga Ao rubbed her chin, thinking. "Not really. At most, it's Qi Blade Control."

Next came testing its power. Hyuga Ao poured chakra into the small Wind Blade, expanding it into a slender crescent blade. She formed a Rasengan in her left hand and held the Wind Blade in her right, then brought them together.

A sharp, grating sound rang out, like nails scraping across a blackboard—extremely unpleasant.

Under intense friction, both techniques exhausted their chakra and dissipated simultaneously.

Hyuga Ao closed her Byakugan and thought about what she'd observed. Between the Wind Blade and the Rasengan, the Wind Blade had the upper hand at first. Its sharpness let it cut into the Rasengan, but the Rasengan's dense structure prevented it from being split, and the spinning inertia eventually twisted the Wind Blade apart.

Still, that proved they were on the same level as Ninjutsu without Hand Seals.

Moreover, the Wind Blade had an advantage the Rasengan couldn't match: it could be thrown.

A Wind Blade condensed in the hand reached the attack power of an A-rank jutsu. Thrown, it became just an ordinary C-rank Wind Blade. But the thrown version consumed little chakra, traveled fast, and could be fired in large numbers—a good supplement for ranged combat.

Hyuga Ao waved her small hand back and forth, fanning the air. The Wind Cloak wrapped around her hand, producing a gentle breeze. That breeze, combined with the Wind Cloak's own wind, drew in the surrounding air, gradually building into a strong gale.

"Still too weak," Hyuga Ao judged, feeling the wind force. "The base wind is too weak. If the foundation isn't strong, no amount of amplification helps."

Since she was already considering the Wind Cloak's coverage, Hyuga Ao returned to the Hyuga compound and requested some chakra-conductive metal. She had it drawn into fine threads and woven into her clothes. That way, the Wind Cloak could cover her entire body through the chakra threads, without her needing to expand the cloak's range to include her clothing.

She changed into a standard Hyuga kimono. The wide sleeves, when swung, produced far more wind than her small hand flapping. With all the amplifications stacked, the final wind force could reach the level of a C-rank Wind Release: Great Breakthrough.

Hyuga Ao nodded in satisfaction. Now she was no longer just a close-combat ninja.

A note on the standard Hyuga kimono: Hyuga Ao wore it every day. It was the clan's uniform—loose and comfortable, while also suiting the Hyuga fighting style.

Above all, it was simple. Her past life as a boy made Hyuga Ao value that most.

Specifically, it looked like the outfit Hanabi usually wore, but in white.

So Hyuga Ao's clothes were the same every day, unchanging. Her wardrobe was full of identical outfits. That was another trace her past life had left on her.

A week later.

Hyuga Ao received orders.

The battlefield in the Land of Rain had stabilized. What they urgently needed now were reconnaissance ninjas to scout enemy movements. Finding the enemy in the Land of Rain, with its endless drizzle, was incredibly difficult.

Hyuga Ao would lead a squad of Hyuga to reinforce the Land of Rain's combat forces.

Before leaving, Hyuga Ao looked back deeply at the village. Now that her leg and foot bone membranes had been remodeled, her speed had skyrocketed, officially placing her among the Kage ranks. Heading to the Land of Rain, just how far would she go?