Hearing the call from outside,
Hyuga Yu instinctively activated his Byakugan, the veins around his eyes bulging as his field of vision expanded,
Only after seeing that the person outside was merely an ordinary Hyuga Clan ninja did he disperse the chakra in his hand,
What was strange, however, was that
The chakra he had scattered did not dissipate like ordinary chakra. Instead, propelled by another peculiar chakra, it quietly reverted from Wind Release Chakra into ordinary chakra and withdrew back into his body,
Then, through the Byakugan's penetrating view of the human body, that ordinary chakra was broken down once more, reverting into an even more fundamental unit—"stamina."
Hyuga Yu's complexion visibly grew rosier.
Then he rose and walked to the entrance, opening the door.
Outside stood a Hyuga ninja wearing a Chunin flak jacket, someone Hyuga Yu knew as well.
Hyuga Iroha,
Fourteen years old, a Hyuga Clan ninja one year ahead of Hyuga Yu at the Ninja Academy. He was currently still a Chunin and would likely advance to Jonin sometime in his twenties, around the beginning of Shippuden. Even with the Byakugan, he was the sort of ninja who would not stand out in a crowd.
Not everyone in the Hyuga Clan was like Hyuga Tetsu, someone who treated Hyuga Yu terribly,
At that moment, Hyuga Iroha casually greeted Hyuga Yu,
"Yo, Yu. You're up pretty early. And... you look pretty healthy too."
He looked Hyuga Yu up and down, his gaze lingering briefly on his unusually rosy complexion before he smiled and handed over a scroll,
"The clan has decided to send you to the Kirigakure battlefield's front lines."
"Still, you're pretty lucky. You've been assigned to the Medical Team at Grass Wave Coast. Well, that place... how should I put it? It's pretty suitable for retirement."
Grass Wave Coast lay within the Land of Fire. It served as a transfer station for wounded personnel from the front lines. Those sent there had basically already received emergency treatment and were waiting either to be sent back to Konoha for recuperation or further treatment. The Medical Ninja stationed there had far less to do than those at Konoha Hospital in the rear.
At this point, Hyuga Iroha could not help teasing him. "If I get transferred there later too, we can get together and play cards when we have nothing to do."
"Thanks." Hyuga Yu returned the smile, taking the scroll as he shook his head and replied,
"But I'd rather not run into you there. After all, I don't really want to stitch your intestines back together."
Hyuga Iroha froze for a moment, then caught on and shook his head with a laugh.
"Haha, fair point."
Because of the transfer station's unique nature, the ninjas sent there had basically already been pronounced beyond saving. Under such circumstances, seeking out the Medical Ninja in the camp usually meant needing work done like stitching up intestines or wiping down faces to prepare the body.
In theory, that was the work of the Corpse Disposal Squad, but wartime circumstances were special. Moreover, the Corpse Disposal Squad was only a small department under the Konoha Medical Department. Faced with a sea of fallen ninjas, they were inevitably short-handed.
"I still have several transfer orders to deliver, so I'll be going."
After seeing Hyuga Iroha off, Hyuga Yu unrolled the scroll and read it.
Just as he had guessed,
The clan's transfer order had him departing the day after tomorrow, with his assignment being the Medical Team at Grass Wave Coast, just as Hyuga Iroha had said.
This was the same destination Root had assigned him to, only the person he would be reporting to was different,
The person the Hyuga Main Family had ordered Hyuga Yu to report to was an elderly female ninja named Furobuki. This grandmother-aged ninja had previously been the vice director of Konoha Hospital. She was now semi-retired and was also, in theory, the highest-ranking authority in the camp.
The Main House's arrangement was in no way unfair to Hyuga Yu. If anything, it was overly generous,
However,
Hyuga Yu merely glanced at the scroll before casually stuffing it into the scroll pouch strapped to his left thigh,
Then he glanced at the clock hanging on the wall,
5:40.
The Main House would be leaving the village today. By custom, they would set off promptly at eight, with three squads alternating as guards and scouting the road conditions in advance,
Hyuga Yu had already determined the general route, so he had no intention of following the Main House's convoy.
The reason was simple,
If a Jonin could not handle an enemy, then a Genin like him would most likely be useless. Besides, the Byakugan of the Main House's Guard Squad could see much farther than his own. If he was discovered, Hyuga Yu would have no way to explain what he was doing there.
If Hyuga Genko became suspicious and, in desperation, used the Caged Bird, Hyuga Yu would not even have a place to plead his innocence.
He was only worried about Hyuga Natsu, who had been drawn into this incident. The only person he wanted to protect was Hyuga Natsu... with Hyuga Tetsu added at most.
At the same time, sharpening the blade would not delay the chopping of wood,
Seeing that he still had plenty of time, Hyuga Yu returned indoors, sat down cross-legged again, picked up a kunai from the table, and infused it with chakra.
Ninjutsu training could not be accomplished overnight,
But that was only under normal circumstances,
Thanks to having planned his own path of training from a very early age, Hyuga Yu had used chakra paper to test his chakra affinity as soon as he could crawl,
Unfortunately, he was not a genius like Hatake Kakashi. His chakra affinity consisted of only one nature: Wind.
At the same time, his training in the nature transformation and shape transformation of Wind Release Chakra had begun when Hyuga Yu first learned to refine chakra.
There were many kinds of chakra nature transformation. Water, for example, could be transformed into glue or muddy water, while fire could be transformed into gunpowder, steam, high-temperature objects, and so on.
As for the Wind nature, the most common and easiest quality to replicate was [sharpness], or, more vividly, [a blade].
According to the process Sarutobi Asuma used to teach Naruto Wind-nature chakra transformation,
Chakra nature transformation training had three stages:
First stage: Strengthen [nature transformation].
Put simply, it meant finding the direction in which chakra's nature could transform,
The process was also simple: infuse chakra into a leaf until it began to crack and split.
Second stage: Increase the amount of change that occurred in an instant.
In Shippuden, Naruto trained this by summoning a heap of clones to cut through a waterfall, relying entirely on overwhelming force and shared experience.
Hyuga Yu did not have that much chakra, so he took the slow-and-steady approach. As long as he had sufficient stamina, he would try to form Wind Release Chakra and use it to cut the ground, or a huge rock placed not far from his doorstep.
After a full seven years of such grinding effort, that rock, riddled with holes, was eventually split in two with a single press of Hyuga Yu's bare hand;
And when Hyuga Yu instantly emptied all of his chakra except what was needed to sustain life, he could use chakra alone to cut a straight groove into ordinary ground, roughly one millimeter wide and three meters deep.
It was not that Hyuga Yu could no longer cut after three meters. His chakra reserves simply only supported that much.
Once one could release all of one's chakra in an instant, this stage of training could be considered perfectly complete.
The third stage, and also the most difficult one:
[Integration with a technique].
Naruto had nearly ruined himself while training this stage. The process of integrating Wind Release with the Rasengan constantly damaged the chakra pathways in his hands. Only because the Uzumaki Clan physique combined with the Nine-Tails' buff was so resilient did Naruto manage to endure the entire training process through sheer terrifying recovery alone.
Yet for Hyuga Yu, who possessed the Byakugan and could use Gentle Fist, this was instead the simplest step.
Just like at this moment—
Hyuga Yu lightly gripped the kunai and infused it with chakra.
The sharp, prickling Wind Release Chakra, which continuously let out piercing explosive shrieks, was in his hand as docile as a cat rubbing around its owner's knees and legs, begging for affection,
Whenever it showed signs of losing control, it was, in the next instant, broken down and reassembled under the interference of another peculiar chakra,
Not a single trace of chakra was wasted throughout the entire process.
Even...
The process by which even Shimura Danzō had to open his mouth to exhale and form the "Ren" hand seal in order to attach Wind Release Chakra to a kunai and create a Vacuum Blade,
Was directly skipped in Hyuga Yu's hands!
The next instant,
A pale yellow wind blade roughly one meter long, continuously radiating sharp sword aura, suddenly burst forth from the kunai in Hyuga Yu's grasp!
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