Hinata Takes the Initiative

Like Neji, Hinata spent the whole way there thinking about Takasaki.

Even after she arrived at the Training Room with Neji and changed into her training clothes in the changing room, she was still mulling over Takasaki's earlier behavior.

"If Takasaki has already learned the Three Body Technique, why did he ask to borrow my class notes?"

"Why did he go out of his way to come to my house and ask me to teach him the Three Body Technique?"

Even just before her spar with Neji, Hinata still hadn't figured out the answers.

Oh, right. Takasaki had written in his diary... that he liked her.

Hinata suddenly seemed to realize something. Her cheeks flushed, and she was so embarrassed that she entered the Training Room with her head lowered, as if afraid anyone might see her blushing.

Takasaki probably did like her. Otherwise, he wouldn't have written in his Diary that he hoped to marry her someday.

Just thinking about that made Hinata inexplicably happy.

But when she remembered that Takasaki also wanted to marry other girls, she felt strange.

She was even a little annoyed.

Takasaki's affection for girls was obviously fickle.

It was pretty infuriating.

If she weren't afraid Takasaki might write something unkind about her in his Diary, the thought of how much of a womanizer he was would make her want to give him a good punch.

Meanwhile,

Neji was standing ten paces away from Hinata, ready to spar. He saw her looking bashful, then noticed her face take on a hint of anger. Unable to help wondering, he said, "Hinata, it's sparring time. Don't get distracted by all sorts of nonsense! Focus, please. Treat me as your enemy and don't hold back. I can handle all your attacks."

"Okay!"

Hinata raised her head and fixed her gaze on Neji, bringing her hands into position.

Thinking about the womanizing ways recorded in Takasaki's Diary still made her angry.

So,

she imagined Neji as Takasaki instead.

It was the perfect chance to see how much stronger she had become after her Diary increased the amount of chakra in her body by 10%.

Hinata closed her eyes and formed several Hand Seals. Then her tightly shut eyes snapped open.

"Byakugan!"

The blood flow inside Hinata's body suddenly sped up. The change was especially pronounced around her eyes, where the veins around her eye sockets bulged visibly.

With her Byakugan activated, Hinata bent her knees and raised her arms into a stance.

Once she imagined Neji as Takasaki, that womanizing rascal, Hinata was full of fighting spirit.

She extended one arm toward Neji, palm facing forward in an attacking stance, while holding her other hand before her chest in a defensive position. "Brother Neji, let's settle this!"

Hyuga Hiashi's figure appeared at the entrance to the reception room. He watched Hinata and Neji sparring.

More precisely, he watched Hinata.

His expression was somewhat dark.

Under normal circumstances, Hyuga Hiashi would be working at this time, handling matters large and small within the clan. He wouldn't go out of his way to watch his daughter spar.

The problem was, he had earlier received a report from a clan member saying that Hinata had brought a classmate named Takasaki to the reception room. She had treated Takasaki to barbecue and even personally taught him.

As a result, she'd wasted time that was supposed to be spent sparring with Neji. Neji had flown into a rage and kicked Takasaki out of the Hyuga Estate.

When he heard about it, Hiashi thought Neji had done the right thing.

It wasn't that he wouldn't let Hinata bring classmates home. It was just that this particular classmate of hers was hopeless.

He had no parents, let alone a good family background. He was destined to be mediocre.

It wasn't that Hyuga Hiashi looked down on children from poor families.

If they came from poor families, they should work even harder to make something of themselves, because they could only rely on themselves.

But what about Takasaki?

He was lazy about his studies, and it seemed he still hadn't recovered from the pain of losing his parents. As a result, he was at the bottom of his class.

If that was the case, why should Hinata befriend him?

Especially when Hiashi learned that Hinata had been teaching Takasaki the Three Body Technique. He thought it was an utter waste of time.

The Ninja Academy's final exams were next Monday. Takasaki hadn't studied properly, and now he was trying to cram at the last minute by asking his daughter to teach him the Three Body Technique?

If he had found out about this before Neji, he would have done exactly what Neji did and sent Takasaki away!

To prevent something like this from happening again, he thought he needed to have a serious talk with Hinata.

He had come to speak with her properly and make her realize that her status was different from that of most of her classmates.

They weren't even in the same social class.

After graduating from the Ninja Academy, she had no need to stay in touch with classmates whose family backgrounds didn't match hers, unless they had truly exceptional talent. That went especially for the classmate named Takasaki.

The main thing was to correct Hinata's way of thinking.

If her thinking was misguided, then no amount of sparring to improve her skills would help.

Hyuga Hiashi was just about to call out and interrupt Hinata and Neji's spar when Hinata had already made her move.

She dug her foot into the ground, took a step forward, and charged toward Neji.

"Hinata's taking the initiative today?" Neji hadn't noticed the clan head's arrival. His attention was fixed on Hinata, and he couldn't help feeling surprised.

Given Hinata's usual timid nature, she never dared to attack first during their sparring.

But it didn't matter.

With his skill, defeating Hinata would be a piece of cake.

Just as he did now, when Hinata's palm came straight toward him, Neji made no attempt to dodge. He simply raised his hand on instinct, gathering hidden force to meet her strike.

He would first deflect the force of Hinata's palm, then counterattack and end the fight within a minute, just as he always did when sparring with her.

But the next second—

Thud!

A numbing sensation spread from his palm through his entire arm.

Neji felt a fierce force ride Hinata's strike and slam into his body.

He was completely caught off guard.

Before Neji could make another move, the flow of chakra within his body was disrupted. He staggered backward seven or eight steps before steadying himself, barely managing not to fall.

"How is this possible?"

Neji raised a hand and glanced at his palm. It was bright red.

He quickly directed chakra through his arm, stopping the numbness from spreading.

His eyes were full of shock. "I couldn't even block Hinata's palm strike? Have I gotten weaker?"

The next moment, he realized something.

Neji abruptly looked up at Hinata, his expression more serious than ever. "It's not that I've gotten weaker. It's that Hinata has gotten stronger!"

At the entrance to the Training Room,

Hyuga Hiashi had been about to interrupt Hinata's spar. After seeing what happened, he froze, then swallowed his words.

Hinata had actually sent Neji stumbling back seven or eight steps with a single palm strike?

The sight was unbelievable—not just to Neji, but even to him, the Hyuga clan head.

He knew how astonishing Neji's talent was, and how great the gap between Neji and Hinata had been.

Something like this could never have happened before.

In other words, his daughter had become stronger?

Hyuga Hiashi kept his patience and continued watching Hinata.

At first, he had only wanted to teach Hinata not to associate with a dead last like Takasaki. Now, he felt he also needed to ask her how she had become so much stronger in such a short time.

By this time, Takasaki had returned home.

Once his chakra had fully recovered, he continued grinding his ninjutsu proficiency until he had used up all his chakra.

He opened the Control Panel and checked his current ninjutsu proficiency.

[Level 3 Clone Technique Proficiency: 0/500]

[Level 1 Substitution Technique Proficiency: 2/100]

[Level 1 Transformation Technique Proficiency: 2/100]

"I've finally trained my Clone Technique proficiency to Level 3."

Takasaki formed Hand Seals with one hand, and four clouds of white smoke appeared around him.

When the smoke cleared, four identical clones of him stood there.

This was far beyond the requirements of the Ninja Academy's ninjutsu test for the Clone Technique.

At the moment, Takasaki was mainly training his Clone Technique proficiency.

He really wanted to raise his proficiency in the other two techniques as well, but the problem was that he didn't have enough chakra.

He could only focus on improving one technique first.

Besides, the next Diary entry could only be unlocked once his Clone Technique reached Level 3.

All in all, Takasaki felt that he was still grinding his ninjutsu proficiency a little too slowly.

The main problem was his small chakra reserves and the high chakra cost of ninjutsu.

Even though Hinata's instruction had reduced the chakra cost of using these three techniques by a third, the problem remained: if his chakra reserves didn't increase, his ninjutsu levels would still rise slowly.

How could he increase his chakra reserves?

The usual method among ninjas was to train hard, day after day, year after year.

He currently had 20 points of chakra. After ten years of hard training, those small gains might add up, and his chakra reserves could perhaps double.

But Takasaki obviously wasn't planning to use the methods ordinary ninjas used.

He had a cheat. Why not use it?

He had gone out of his way to find Hinata today not only to have her teach him how to use the chakra in the Three Body Technique more efficiently, but also to gather material for his Diary.

Takasaki focused his thoughts and opened his Diary, trying to make a few random strokes on the page.

After confirming that he had unlocked permission to write in the Diary, he finally relaxed and began writing his second entry.