"What?"
Hyuga Masamune's pure white eyes filled with disbelief.
A storm raged in his mind as he struggled to guess how Hyuga Ritsu had learned the Gentle Step Twin Lion Fist. Was Hyuga Ritsu truly so gifted that he could master the technique after seeing it just once?
Or had Hyuga Shunsuke not been bluffing earlier, and had the brat Hyuga Ritsu really been secretly learning the Main House's many secret techniques all along?
Of course,
Masamune was no stranger to keeping his composure.
Though his mind was shaken, he kept his movements precise. His palms, wrapped in azure lion heads, pressed resolutely toward Hyuga Ritsu's chest, only to be stopped by Ritsu's own palms, likewise wrapped in dense Chakra shaped like azure lion heads.
Their four palms collided,
And a tremendous bang erupted, like an Explosive Tag going off. The force of the collision sent a fierce gust sweeping in every direction.
Hyuga Masamune staggered back seven or eight steps before barely regaining his balance. The azure lion heads wrapped around his palms had dimmed and crumbled, and his hands trembled uncontrollably, as though he were suffering from epilepsy.
Right after that,
Hyuga Shunsuke and Hyuga Taiga, who had joined forces with him to attack Hyuga Ritsu, were also knocked back. They fared even worse than Masamune. One had limited talent, and the other was still young; neither had mastered a secret technique like the Gentle Step Twin Lion Fist.
As a result, after taking the astonishingly powerful Gentle Step Twin Lion Fist head-on, Hyuga Shunsuke had three bones in his right hand broken, his fingers twisted into a bizarre shape, while Hyuga Taiga's right arm was fractured.
Both were drenched in cold sweat from the pain,
Yet they didn't dare cry out. Too many Branch House clansmen were watching. If they cried out in pain now, it wouldn't just cost them face—it would damage the Main House's authority as well.
"This move's pretty handy!"
Hyuga Ritsu wore a relaxed smile and didn't pursue the three Main House members he had driven back.
He shook his hands. The lifelike lion heads even seemed to open their mouths and roar as he explained, "Compared to the basic Gentle Fist we've practiced since childhood, the difference with this Gentle Step Twin Lion Fist is that it increases the amount of Chakra released through both hands and adds shape transformation to expand the range of the attack."
"There are two difficult parts to this move. First, figuring out how to increase the Chakra output from both hands, which involves knowing which Chakra points to use. Without someone else's experience to draw on, trying it on your own could easily injure you. Second, you need to maintain the shape transformation while steadily releasing a large amount of Chakra. That requires excellent Chakra control."
Right there, in front of the many Branch House clansmen, Hyuga Ritsu laid bare the secrets of the Gentle Step Twin Lion Fist.
Then he sighed. "If the Branch House Jonin could all learn this move, it would surely greatly improve everyone's chances of surviving on the battlefield. But the Main House fools are so shortsighted that they'd rather watch our clansmen die on the battlefield than share their secret techniques and improve our chances of survival."
His words reached the Branch House clansmen all around them.
The lower-ranked shinobi felt little. The Main House's advanced secret techniques were still far beyond their reach.
But
The Jonin were deeply affected.
They had all been to the battlefield, fought desperately for their lives, and survived. They couldn't help wondering whether they might have done better if they had learned a Main House secret technique like the Gentle Step Twin Lion Fist.
It wasn't as if anyone could master the Main House's secret techniques just by practicing them, but at least having the chance to try was better than not even being able to touch them, right?
Their thoughts
began to shift, little by little.
But
The Branch House clansmen loyal to the Main House could hold back no longer.
They couldn't understand why the Main House elders hadn't ordered them to attack Hyuga Ritsu, so they had done their best to restrain themselves and wait for orders. But now the Main House had been humiliated, and its members had been injured by Hyuga Ritsu, that upstart beast who dared defy his superiors. They couldn't take it anymore!
"Hyuga Ritsu! You scoundrel, you deserve to die!"
A Branch House Jonin's face darkened as his voice boomed like thunder.
In the next instant,
He leaped forward like a great bird and lunged at Hyuga Ritsu.
And he wasn't alone. With one man leading the charge, the Branch House clansmen loyal to the Main House surged forward, ready to join forces and kill Hyuga Ritsu, the traitorous scoundrel who had dared defy his superiors.
Behind them,
Hyuga Arima and Hyuga Akiba's expressions changed, and they were about to go help.
But Hyuga Takuma grabbed them. "Don't. Don't forget, Ritsu can control the Caged Bird Seal now, too."
The other Branch House clansmen who had witnessed what happened at Hyuga Shunsuke's home earlier were also hurriedly sharing what they had seen with their friends and relatives.
Then,
"Everyone, down!"
Hyuga Ritsu formed a hand seal with one hand.
The Branch House clansmen charging at him turned pale. A stabbing pain shot through their heads, and they all fell, clutching their heads as they writhed on the ground, their cries of agony utterly pitiful.
Seizing the chance, Hyuga Ritsu pointed at the more than twenty Branch House clansmen sprawled miserably on the ground and called out, "Everyone, you've seen it, haven't you? Forget about yourselves for a moment. Do you want your children to have this damn slave brand burned onto their foreheads, too?"
Those words alone
changed many faces.
"Hyuga Ritsu!"
Hyuga Masamune had just caught his breath, and his hands had stopped trembling. He roared in fury. "How dare you spread such slander—"
"Shut up! Make another peep, and I'll kill you right now!"
Hyuga Ritsu spun around and shouted, his gaze fierce.
"You dare?"
Hyuga Masamune was a tough man. And with so many Branch House clansmen watching, he refused to show even the slightest fear or retreat.
But—
[Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm]
Hyuga Ritsu struck without hesitation, sending a pressure blast infused with Chakra and air whistling forward.
Hyuga Masamune hadn't simply mouthed off without preparing himself. He had already taken a defensive stance. As a formidable member of the Main House, he had mastered not only an offensive secret technique like the Gentle Step Twin Lion Fist, but also Rotation, the secret technique said to provide absolute defense!
[Eight Trigrams Palm: Rotation]
Just as Hyuga Ritsu had done earlier,
Hyuga Masamune pivoted rapidly on his right leg, releasing Chakra from the Chakra points throughout his body to form a hemispherical Chakra barrier. But in the next moment, the barrier shattered into pieces.
Hyuga Masamune spat blood and was sent flying.
"You think mastering Rotation means you can block my Vacuum Palm? Have you never used your Byakugan to look carefully at the difference between our Chakra? The same Vacuum Palm can be completely different in different hands!"
Hyuga Ritsu sneered.
That was also why Hyuga Masamune had lost in their earlier clash of Gentle Step Twin Lion Fist. Their Chakra levels were different. After using the Chimera Technique to obtain the Shikotsumyaku Kekkei Genkai, the power of his Byakugan had been restored and strengthened. Not only had his Chakra increased tenfold, but its quality had improved tremendously as well.
As a result, even the same technique became far more powerful in Hyuga Ritsu's hands.
"Also, I said I'd kill you, so I really will!"
Hyuga Ritsu raised his hand,
And struck with another Vacuum Palm at lightning speed. The pressure blast howled through the air and hit Hyuga Masamune in the chest as he lay on the ground. His chest caved in with a crack of breaking bones, and he died instantly.
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