Sixty-Four Palms

With night rapidly approaching, Yuun quickened his pace and finally reached the Uchiha clan compound before the sun had fully set. After the Senju Clan withdrew from public life, the Uchiha clan had become Konoha's undisputed greatest clan, both in influence and grandeur. The Uchiha residential grounds alone were more than four times the size of the Hyuga Clan's, and with their towering walls and distance from Konoha's center, it would not have been an exaggeration to call it a village within the village.

Fortunately, this was not Yuun's first visit. The gatekeeping Uchiha recognized him, and perhaps due to his age, merely registered him before allowing him inside. Carrying a large bag of sweets, Yuun made his way familiarly to Itachi's home and knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" Sasuke, only three years old this year, opened the door. Having seen Yuun before, he was not shy around him. "Brother Yuun, are you here to see my brother? He isn't home today."

"Really..." Yuun let out an exaggerated sigh. "What a shame. I bought so many bonito rice balls too. Since Itachi isn't here, I suppose I'll take them back and eat them slowly myself."

"Wait!" Sasuke's eyes lit up at the mention of bonito rice balls, his previously cheerful face brightening further. "Brother Yuun, wait here. I'll go find my brother right away." With that, he slipped on his sandals and started to run out.

"All right, don't go. I was just teasing you." Yuun grabbed Sasuke by the back of his collar and pulled him back. "Here, wait for Itachi to come back, then eat them together." He handed the large bag of desserts and snacks to Sasuke. Just as Yuun was about to leave, he noticed someone approaching.

"Sasuke." It was Itachi and Sasuke's mother, Mikoto Uchiha, returning home.

"Mom." Sasuke had already been delighted to receive such a large bag of snacks, and seeing Mikoto return made him even happier. He rushed over in a few quick strides and threw himself into Mikoto Uchiha's arms, acting spoiled.

"Hello, Auntie." Yuun greeted her politely.

"It's Yuun. Are you here to see Itachi? Come in and sit down first." Mikoto Uchiha warmly invited him inside. "It's almost dark. Stay for dinner before you go."

"No, thank you, Auntie." Yuun broke out in a cold sweat and hurriedly refused. Mikoto Uchiha was beautiful, but her cooking could only be described with a helpless laugh. Yuun had no desire to make his stomach suffer for no reason. "It's getting late. I should hurry home. I have a mission tomorrow."

"All right, then. But make sure you come by when you have time. Just tell Itachi, and I'll prepare the ingredients in advance and make a feast for you two." Mikoto Uchiha said with a smile.

"I understand. I'll be going now." Yuun forced a smile and quickly left.

"Was Sasuke good today..."

Yuun fled the Uchiha compound as though escaping for his life. After experiencing it once, he had no wish to try it again. To be fair, Mikoto's cooking was not truly that awful, but being able to turn perfectly fine ingredients into something with the effects of laxatives was rather terrifying. He had felt nothing while eating, but after returning home, Yuun had spent the entire night with diarrhea until he nearly collapsed. Ever since then, he had avoided Mikoto's cooking at all costs. He had no idea how Itachi and Sasuke had adapted to it.

By the time he got home, the moon was already hanging high above the treetops. Having skipped dinner, Yuun simply ate some of the snacks he had bought earlier to fill his stomach. He went upstairs, opened the window for ventilation, did some basic cleaning, then familiarly opened the copy of Medical Ninja Basics he had bought not long ago and began studying diligently.

After referring to Hizashi's insights on the Gentle Fist, Yuun had begun consciously studying the structure of the human body. Unlike Hizashi, who had been born in an age of war and possessed abundant combat experience, Yuun could only improve his Gentle Fist indirectly by deepening his understanding of human anatomy.

Mastering the structures of the body's meridians, blood and qi, channels, nerves, and even blood vessels could give Yuun more options and inflict greater damage in battle. Understanding bones and muscles would likewise help him improve his own performance. The Gentle Fist did not merely require painstaking study; it also required mastering more theory, combining theory with practice, and comprehensively improving oneself.

However, this was the only method available to Yuun. The Gentle Fist was not a taijutsu that could be developed behind closed doors, yet Yuun often could not find suitable opponents. The Shinobi World was no longer an era where one could encounter groups of Chunin and Jonin just by leaving the village for a mission. Over more than a year and a hundred missions, Yuun had seen fewer than ten Chunin outside his own village, and most of them had nothing to do with his team's missions.

As for sparring with teammates, doing it too often had little meaning. They knew each other and each other's techniques too well, so there was basically no suspense in their fights. Comparing diagrams of the human skeleton, meridians, and blood vessels, Yuun worked hard to place himself in the situations and insights recorded in Hizashi's notes, hoping to break through his current bottleneck. In his recent training sessions, Yuun had nearly managed to unleash all Sixty-Four Palms in one go, but every attempt had fallen short at the final moment. With no other choice, he could only approach the problem from a theoretical angle.

After reading for several hours, he reviewed much of the material he had already memorized. It was not entirely without gains, but neither had he achieved an immediate breakthrough. Fortunately, Yuun had long been used to being stuck at a bottleneck for one or two years. Keeping his mood as calm as possible, he quietly put everything away and prepared to turn off the light and sleep. Yet just before bed, he suddenly felt an inexplicable impulse. After hesitating for a moment, Yuun got dressed and climbed onto the rooftop terrace.

The night was deep, and the rooftop was pitch-black. Summer cicadas chirped one after another, and a cool evening breeze swept past, making Yuun suddenly sneeze. He vigorously shook his head, casting aside his stray thoughts, then took up his stance and casually thrust out a palm.

"Eight Trigrams: Sixty-Four Palms." The moment Yuun threw out the first palm, he felt that he had never been in better condition. Knowing he had to strike while the iron was hot, he did not hesitate to follow through with the remaining sixty-three palms. "Two Palms, Four Palms... Sixty-Four Palms!"

After unleashing all Sixty-Four Palms in one breath, Yuun let out a long exhale, his face full of joy. He had never expected a sudden impulse to let him break through his bottleneck just like that. Still, there was a reason it had happened so naturally. Yuun had trained diligently every day and had already been only a tiny step away from a breakthrough. Otherwise, let alone one sudden impulse, even a daily tidal wave of impulses would have been useless.

Having mastered the Sixty-Four Palms, Yuun did not rush to learn the Vacuum Palm. Instead, he returned to bed to rest, replaying the sensation of his breakthrough along the way. He had been too busy celebrating just now, but upon thinking back, he felt as though he had missed something. Before Yuun could figure out what it was, a wave of drowsiness struck him. With no intention of resisting it, he fell asleep immediately.