Seal of Confrontation

After lunch, the four of them went to the waterfall where Hyuga Shinichi had trained before.

Hyuga Shinichi planned to start by fighting Nawaki.

Namikaze Minato also ran over to serve as their referee.

"All right, get ready!"

Hyuga Shinichi and Nawaki exchanged a glance and formed the Seal of Confrontation at the same time.

The battle began. The two immediately launched into a fierce exchange of offense and defense. As fists and feet flew, Nawaki was driven back again and again, left with no choice but to keep defending.

Watching from the sidelines, Jiraiya could see that Nawaki was being thoroughly outclassed by Hyuga Shinichi in Taijutsu. That meant the next comparison would be their ninjutsu.

Nawaki thought the same thing. He stopped defending, clenched his right hand into a fist, and threw a right hook at Hyuga Shinichi's face, hoping to interrupt his attack and force him to defend. That would give Nawaki a chance to jump back and use ninjutsu.

But Hyuga Shinichi saw through Nawaki's plan. He caught Nawaki's incoming right wrist with his own right hand and squeezed hard, locking it in place. Nawaki winced in pain, and his clenched fist loosened.

Seeing his chance, Hyuga Shinichi reached out with his left hand and began forming Hand Seals together with Nawaki's captured right hand.

"What?!"

"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!"

Hyuga Shinichi took a deep breath, then puffed out his chest. His eyes fixed on Nawaki, whose right hand was still caught.

A bead of cold sweat trickled down Nawaki's cheek.

Then Hyuga Shinichi summoned all his strength and blew a powerful gust at Nawaki. The current swept toward him like a violent storm, carrying overwhelming force.

Nawaki felt the power of the attack, but he didn't back down. He gritted his teeth and tried to withstand the raging pressure of the wind.

However, Hyuga Shinichi was far stronger than he'd expected. Hyuga Shinichi released Nawaki's captured right hand, and the violent gust struck like a ferocious beast, ruthlessly sending Nawaki flying.

Nawaki's body tumbled through the air. Hyuga Shinichi didn't let up; he quickly formed Hand Seals.

"Wind Style: Vacuum Sphere!"

Several small spheres of wind-natured chakra shot from Hyuga Shinichi's mouth, like bullets, toward Nawaki, who was still airborne and hadn't yet hit the ground.

"Damn it! Take this! Water Release: Water Formation Wall!"

Chakra gathered in Nawaki's throat, and he spat a torrent of water from his mouth. It formed a rotating circular wall of water that blocked the Vacuum Spheres flying toward him.

Nawaki seized the chance to land and steady himself. When he saw Hyuga Shinichi charging at him, he quickly formed Hand Seals and slammed his hands into the ground.

"Earth Release: Rock Pillar Spear!"

Sharp earthen spikes surged up from the ground beneath Hyuga Shinichi, stabbing straight at him. He could only keep leaping to evade them.

The attack stopped only after he had jumped fifty or sixty meters away. Hyuga Shinichi looked at the Rock Pillar Spears he'd dodged ahead of him. They hadn't come one at a time; they'd surged in clusters, like a forest of stone.

Hyuga Shinichi couldn't help thinking, Nawaki sure has a lot of chakra. Nawaki was standing there with his hands on his hips and a smile on his face. This attack seemed like child's play to him, without the slightest strain.

Nawaki had tested his chakra affinities before and found that they were Water and Earth. But Hyuga Shinichi knew that Nawaki didn't have the vitality or physique of his grandfather, Senju Hashirama, so he couldn't meet the conditions for developing Wood Style after birth.

Still, Nawaki had recently been researching something with Orochimaru, which had made him more confident than ever.

"Haha, Shinichi, are you about to surrender? I haven't even used my full strength yet!"

Because Hyuga Shinichi couldn't get close, Nawaki thought he had already taken control of the fight and was on the verge of winning. His eyes glimmered with confidence as he taunted Hyuga Shinichi.

Hyuga Shinichi's mouth twitched. When did this guy get so full of himself? He doesn't realize that I used to taunt him like this whenever we sparred, just to bring his confidence down a notch.

"Like I've been using my full strength! The warm-up is over. The real fight starts now!"

Seeing Hyuga Shinichi close his eyes as soon as he finished speaking, Nawaki reached for the sword on his back with his right hand. Hyuga Shinichi formed a one-handed seal in front of his chest with his left hand. Nawaki realized he was about to show his true strength. Hyuga Shinichi's greatest skill wasn't Taijutsu or ninjutsu—it was swordsmanship.

But Nawaki knew his ninjutsu was no pushover either, so he dropped his grin and began quickly forming Hand Seals.

From the sidelines, Jiraiya and Namikaze Minato watched the two combatants intently. Until the very end, it was impossible to know who would win.

After all, Nawaki had told them while they were chatting that morning that he'd developed a ninjutsu to use against Hyuga Shinichi, one that was sure to counter his swordsmanship.

Hyuga Shinichi finished forming a one-handed seal with his left hand and gripped the Listen-to-Wind Sword on his back with his right. His tightly shut eyes slowly opened, and an invisible pressure radiated from him.

As he drew the Listen-to-Wind Sword, a large amount of wind-natured chakra burst out around his body.

"Byakugan! Wind-Riding Sword Technique: Sword-Counter Wind Barrier!"

This technique wrapped the user's entire body in a large amount of wind-natured chakra, creating a field that functioned like an absolute defense. Whenever an attack touched the field of wind-natured chakra, it automatically formed a blade of chakra to counterattack.

The key to this technique was the Byakugan. Its Insight Eye allowed the user to observe changes in the surrounding environment in great detail.

This let the user detect every attack aimed at them and automatically trigger a chakra blade counterattack. Even if the blade failed to stop an incoming attack, more blades would keep striking back until no attacks remained within the field.

Of course, Hyuga Shinichi couldn't maintain this technique for long at his current level. It consumed too much chakra, constantly releasing wind-natured chakra from his body.

If he stayed still, he could maintain it for about a minute. If he moved and charged at his opponent, he couldn't keep it up for even ten seconds.

But against Nawaki, Hyuga Shinichi thought ten seconds would be plenty!

"Wind Style: Wind Step!"

Wind-natured chakra gathered beneath Hyuga Shinichi's feet, propelling him toward Nawaki as if he had thrusters attached to his soles.

Across from him, Nawaki finished forming Hand Seals and slapped both hands against the ground.

Through the Byakugan, Hyuga Shinichi could see the earth changing within a radius of about thirty meters, centered on Nawaki. He was inside that area.

Yellowish-brown bubbles rose from the ground, swelling to their limit before bursting.

"Shinichi! I made this technique to deal with you! Don't let it scare you! Take this! Water and Earth Release Combination Ninjutsu: Mud Swamp Thousand Hands!"

As soon as Nawaki finished shouting, the earth that had changed began to grow even wetter and churn. Countless arms made of sticky mud rose from the ground and reached for Shinichi.

Huh?!

Hyuga Shinichi was stunned by the sight and didn't react at first. It wasn't until one of the muddy arms entered his field and the automatically triggered chakra blade cut it off that he snapped back to his senses.

"Nawaki, that technique of yours is incredible!"

With the Byakugan, Hyuga Shinichi could naturally see exactly what was happening. Nawaki had used Earth Release to loosen the soil, then Water Release to make it wet, and finally controlled the damp earth with chakra to form muddy hands. That was his new technique!

The chakra blades produced by the Sword-Counter Wind Barrier kept slicing through the muddy arms reaching for him, but their numbers continued to grow. Hyuga Shinichi decided to finish the fight quickly.

He leaped with all his strength, escaping the muddy hands' reach, then tried to fly through the air toward Nawaki. Seeing this, Nawaki controlled the muddy hands to block Hyuga Shinichi, but none could break through the Sword-Counter Wind Barrier.

He was just a short distance from reaching Nawaki when Hyuga Shinichi suddenly felt weak. The Sword-Counter Wind Barrier couldn't hold any longer and vanished!

Hyuga Shinichi could only land and swiftly swing the Listen-to-Wind Sword in his hand, cutting off several muddy hands reaching for him. But even more grabbed his legs, leaving him unable to move. Seeing this, Nawaki smiled smugly.

At that moment, more and more muddy hands surged toward Hyuga Shinichi from every direction, swallowing him up...