The World of Geniuses

Hyuga Kiyonari stood in the middle of the clearing, drenched in sweat, holding the starting stance of the Gentle Fist. From the outside, his posture looked almost exactly like the one Neji Hyuga had demonstrated.

Then he suddenly stepped forward, his right palm shooting out like an arrow toward Neji's chest.

"Smack!"

Neji kept his left hand behind his back and reached out with his right to catch Kiyonari's palm.

Kiyonari tried to attack again, but no matter what he did, Neji saw his movements clearly and easily blocked every strike with just one hand.

The fight was over. Panting, Kiyonari shook his head. "No good. You're always one step faster than me. I know I should change my move, but I'm still a beat too slow."

"Because you're using the wrong kind of force." Neji raised his right hand and mimicked Kiyonari's attack. "Watch closely."

Neji slowly pushed his palm forward, moving so slowly that Kiyonari could make out every detail. Yet even that slow movement made Kiyonari feel an invisible pressure, as if the air itself were being pushed aside.

"Pay attention to my arm," Neji said, continuing to push his palm forward. "The muscles in my arm are relaxed. The force actually comes from here..."

He stopped and tapped the spot near his elbow with his left hand.

"The elbow?"

Kiyonari froze, unable to believe the answer was so simple.

"Exactly." Neji drew back his hand and explained, "The Gentle Fist doesn't focus too much on the power of each strike, but you always need to leave yourself room to change your moves. So when you throw a straight punch, you don't swing your fist with your arm. You push it forward with your elbow."

"The essence of the Gentle Fist is flexibility. Tense muscles make you sluggish. Even if you can see your opponent's movements and anticipate what they'll do next, you won't be able to adjust in time."

As he spoke, Neji suddenly stepped forward and gently placed his right palm against Kiyonari's chest.

"Like this, you can get the same result with less force and still leave yourself room to change your move."

Before Kiyonari could react, he felt a gentle but irresistible force press against his chest. He stumbled backward several steps before managing to steady himself.

"Try again."

Neji stepped back to open up some distance and gestured for Kiyonari to attack.

Kiyonari took a deep breath, adjusted his stance, and resumed the starting posture of the Gentle Fist. He fixed his gaze on Neji and thrust out both palms.

Neji also raised both hands, answering with Eight Trigrams Two Palms.

Their hands clashed in midair, then drew back... Next came Eight Trigrams Four Palms... Wait!

Kiyonari's eyes flew wide open.

After using Eight Trigrams Two Palms, Neji shifted slightly and skipped straight past Eight Trigrams Four Palms. His hands blurred, seeming to reach toward Kiyonari as if he had four arms.

That was... Eight Trigrams Eight Palms!

The unexpected change was far beyond anything Kiyonari had anticipated. Faced with the fierce barrage of palms, he had no time to think of a Gentle Fist move to counter it. In his desperation, instinct took over. He lowered his hips into a horse stance, and his right arm whipped forward like a lash.

His clenched fist wasn't swung using brute arm strength alone. Once it passed the initial phase, he used his elbow as the point of force, driving his entire fist forward at greater speed.

"Thud!"

The hurried but precise straight punch abruptly broke Neji's Eight Trigrams Eight Palms, forcing him to withdraw his hands and retreat to avoid its edge.

Neji gave him a rare approving look. "Good. You've got decent fighting instincts."

"That worked?"

Kiyonari was a little confused. He'd only done it on instinct, after his brain had already given up thinking.

Was the key to fighting to stop using your brain?

"That's enough," Neji said with a nod.

"We just talked about this. Whether it's the Gentle Fist or the Byakugan, the essence of the Hyuga Clan's fighting style is to keep your opponent from seeing through your moves while you see through theirs."

"As long as you meet that condition, what does it matter if you mix Steel Fist into the Gentle Fist? The only downside is that some people in the Main Family might see it and call you 'disrespectful' or 'against the rules.'"

"Take Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms, for example. Most members of the Hyuga Clan think you have to execute a combo like that in one smooth sequence. They're always thinking about how to go from Eight Trigrams Two Palms to Four Palms, then from Four Palms to Eight Palms. Hinata is like that. She focuses too much on the techniques themselves."

"Ultimately, Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms is just the fastest way its creator found to strike all sixty-four vital points. Against an opponent who understands the Gentle Fist, changing up the order of the strikes can have all sorts of unexpected effects. You could even do them backward."

Hyuga Kiyonari: Six hundred and sixty-six. He wasn't even pretending anymore.

So this was the world of geniuses?

At an age when others couldn't even perform Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms smoothly, Neji was already thinking about how to improve the technique.

While others were still working on the basics, Neji had already mastered the Hyuga Clan's highest secret technique, Rotation, on his own.

While others still followed tradition, Neji had created Eight Trigrams One Hundred Twenty-Eight Palms.

A gap like that really couldn't be bridged through hard work alone.

Kiyonari suddenly thought of someone else: Sasuke Uchiha.

Sasuke had worked incredibly hard to master the Great Fireball Technique. For several days, he'd practiced from morning until night, forming Hand Seals, gathering chakra, and breathing out flames until the heat burned the skin on his face.

But what about Itachi Uchiha?

He'd only watched his father, Fugaku Uchiha, demonstrate the technique once before reproducing it perfectly.

In the eyes of ordinary people, Sasuke was already a genius.

But in Sasuke's own eyes, only someone like Itachi deserved to be called a "genius."

Sometimes the gap between people really was wider than the gap between a person and a dog. Members of the Inuzuka Clan could even merge with dogs. Could you merge with a genius and get a glimpse into their world?

Wait!

Hyuga Kiyonari narrowed his eyes. I think... I really can!

After saying goodbye to Neji, he shut himself in his room and began examining the skills he lacked most.

Was it fighting instinct, tactical thinking, or... the ability to understand?

A few minutes later, he added a small trait to the character "Hyuga Kiyonari" in the script. It cost just thirty Correction Points.

The moment the Correction Points were paid, a strange clarity welled up inside Kiyonari, as if a fog had lifted before his eyes.

He took an arrow from under the bed and tried to manipulate his chakra. Pale blue chakra flowed out from the tenketsu in his hand and quickly spread over the entire arrowhead. But as soon as he loosened his fingers, the chakra on the arrow vanished like water without a source.

Kiyonari stared at the arrow, the principles of the Gentle Fist circling through his mind. "The essence of the Gentle Fist is to channel your chakra into an opponent's body through their tenketsu. Once you can inject chakra, you can damage their internal organs. Striking the tenketsu is mainly used to block the flow of chakra through the body's network, restrict an opponent's movements, and create an opening for a follow-up attack. But what if the first battle is also the last..."

At that thought, his mind suddenly cleared.

"If I replaced this arrow with Chakra Metal, could it keep the chakra inside even after it left the bowstring?"

The idea led to even more possibilities.

"If that works, could I replace the arrow with something else? A small, hard-to-notice needle? Or a faster projectile that's harder to dodge—a bullet?"

But new problems immediately followed.

"But then the cost of production would be an issue. And if you can't lay down enough fire, what's the point of building firearms? Ordinary modern weapons also struggle to inflict serious damage on shinobi before you have enough of them."

"Wait, am I getting sidetracked?"

"Ugh, what a pain..."

He muttered, scratched his head, then went over to his desk and wrote down all his ideas.

Ah, having too many ideas was a problem in itself.