Assassination

Hyuga Kaze walked along in a daze, and before he knew it, his feet had carried him to the training ground behind the village.

The training ground was especially quiet at night, with only the rustle of wind through leaves and his footsteps.

He vigorously rubbed his cheeks, trying to shake off the haze that had clouded him for days and pull himself together.

Time was tight, so he needed to make the most of it and quickly regain his combat rhythm.

He would warm up first, then tomorrow he would find some beasts in the Forest of Death to spar with.

He first went through several basic Gentle Fist forms, then began practicing the Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms.

After finishing, he took out several shuriken and simulated different combat angles.

He threw them at the target on the tree, practicing his accuracy.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Several shuriken landed around the bullseye without striking it.

Hyuga Kaze frowned. "I'm a lot rustier than I thought."

They had still landed close to the bullseye.

But in real combat, against moving targets, his accuracy would drop even further.

That was why daily shuriken practice demanded hitting the bullseye as often as possible.

He then drew several kunai and threw them one after another at the bullseye using kunai-throwing techniques.

Time slowly passed.

Hyuga Kaze gradually recovered his feel, and his accuracy steadily improved.

Suddenly!

An inexplicable palpitation made every hair on his body stand on end!

Instinct told him that a powerful threat was rapidly approaching from the woods behind him.

The veins around his eyes bulged instantly. Without hesitation—

"Byakugan!"

His vision shifted at once. Within his 359-degree panoramic field of view—

A dense, ferocious mass of chakra energy was surging toward him from the forest behind him!

He twisted his body with all his strength, trying to evade it, but his body was ultimately a beat too slow.

Too fast!

An energy arrow glowing blue-white had already appeared before his eyes. There was no avoiding it!

I can't dodge it! Alarm flashed through his mind as his pupils constricted sharply.

The next moment—

The arrow whistled past his ear and shot onward behind him.

The gale it created lifted several strands of his hair before they slowly drifted down.

Hyuga Kaze broke out in a cold sweat and stood frozen in place, momentarily forgetting to move.

He glanced to the side and saw that the arrow had not slowed at all. It precisely shattered the target he had just been practicing on.

Then it pierced through the trunks of several large trees behind it before finally exhausting its energy and dissipating into the air.

"Did it miss? Or was it..." A thought flashed through his mind.

He sharply exhaled, only then realizing that he had stopped breathing. He began gulping in air.

How careless!

His mind had been scattered these past few days, and because he was inside the village, he had let down his necessary guard!

He had never imagined that someone would attack a member of a major clan like him within Konoha.

He stared fixedly into the dark forest ahead, his Byakugan firmly locked onto the chakra source emitting those offensive energy fluctuations.

"Who's there?! Come out!"

That chakra source suddenly moved! It was unbelievably fast!

In the next instant, a blurry figure appeared behind Hyuga Kaze out of thin air like a ghost!

So fast!

Hyuga Kaze's heart jolted. He hurriedly spun around, instinctively pulling out a kunai and viciously stabbing backward!

Clang!

A crisp metallic collision rang out as the other party blocked the kunai.

Before he could steady himself, the opponent had already closed in, launching an attack as relentless as a raging storm!

The attacks came without pause, swift and from treacherous angles.

The two exchanged over a dozen blows under the moonlight, the sounds of metal clashing ringing endlessly.

Yet Hyuga Kaze grew more alarmed with every exchange.

"This is... the force-generating technique of Gentle Fist?"

The opponent's Taijutsu felt incredibly familiar. It definitely had the foundation of Hyuga Style Gentle Fist.

But it also incorporated many fierce, direct Steel Fist techniques, making its rhythm unpredictable.

Who could it be?

As far as he knew, there was no bastard in the clan who had learned Gentle Fist and then gone off to study Strong Fist.

And this Kunai Combat Technique did not seem to be entirely Konoha Style either.

What shocked him even more was that his opponent's combat instincts were extraordinarily sharp.

Several times, he tried to use Gentle Fist's Acupoint Sealing techniques, only for his opponent to evade or block them in advance by the narrowest margin.

Still...

"This person's raw strength isn't that great!"

After fending off several rounds, the experienced Hyuga Kaze quickly found his opponent's weakness.

He gradually stabilized himself and began using his superior strength and abundant combat experience to defuse the opponent's fierce assault.

At last, he seized a tiny opening during the transition between his opponent's attacks.

He threw a heavy, powerful straight punch, forcing his opponent to stagger back three or four steps.

Just as he intended to press his advantage—

His opponent happened to retreat into a patch of cold moonlight, fully exposing himself.

Revealing a face Hyuga Kaze knew better than anyone, yet which now felt utterly unfamiliar.

"Qingchuan?"

Hyuga Kaze abruptly stopped his attack and froze completely. "Why are you here?"

He could not quite process it. His mind had gone blank, tangled into knots.

A moment later, he stared wide-eyed at the person before him, hardly daring to believe it.

Was this his son, the one who could not even learn the Three Body Technique?

"Qingchuan, what... what is going on?!"

Questions nearly burst from him, but he did not know where to begin.

A ninjutsu that could fire arrows, the high-speed Body Flicker Technique, and highly skilled Taijutsu mixed with Strong Fist techniques.

When had his son become so formidable?

No wonder the opponent's chakra had felt familiar throughout their fight.

But the difference between him and his son had been too great, so he had never connected the person to Qingchuan.

Who would have thought...

His gaze involuntarily drifted to the completely destroyed target behind him and the trees that had been effortlessly pierced through.

His voice carried a faint, imperceptible tremor. "Qingchuan, that attack just now... was it a new technique you learned?"

Seeing Hyuga Kaze's shocked expression, Hyuga Qingchuan smiled and nodded.

He raised his right hand as chakra began gathering on the back of it.

A pale blue, intricately structured cross-shaped spirit mark slowly emerged.

Under the moonlight—

Then, beneath Hyuga Kaze's disbelieving gaze—

A Spirit Bow made entirely of condensed blue-white chakra energy appeared out of thin air in Hyuga Qingchuan's hand.

Hyuga Qingchuan raised the Spirit Bow in his hand. "You could call this a technique I developed myself!"

"I use my chakra as the bow and bowstring. The more chakra I pour into it, and the stronger my chakra control is, the tougher the bow becomes and the stronger the bowstring's draw. Naturally, the arrows fly faster and hit harder."

As he spoke, he extended the fingers of his left hand, elegantly hooked the bowstring formed from pure energy, and slowly drew it back.

"And what pairs with it is an arrow likewise formed from chakra."

As the bowstring was drawn, chakra seemed to be pulled by some unseen force, condensing into a new arrow.

Hyuga Kaze was utterly shaken by the sight before him, which surpassed all his understanding.

He stared dumbfoundedly at the dreamlike energy bow and arrow in his son's hand.

He could not help bending down and leaning closer to inspect them carefully.

"This isn't a dream!"

The chakra flowing through the Spirit Bow emitted a faint yet exceptionally pleasant hum.

It all felt incomparably real.

"A chakra Spirit Bow? Chakra arrows?"

He muttered to himself.

A moment later, he slapped his thigh, understanding dawning across his face.

Of course! Why hadn't he thought of that?!

If chakra condensation replaced the materials used to make bows and arrows, then the wielder's strength could be perfectly applied to the arrow.

There would no longer be the awkward problem of a weapon being unable to keep up with its user's strength.

And a bow condensed from chakra solved the issue of carrying it as well, without compromising stealth during missions.

He had never expected his son to be a genius.

"I knew it. How could I possibly have a son with such poor talent?"

An indescribable surge of excitement and pride instantly swept away the gloom that had plagued him for days.

He abruptly turned, his eyes blazing as he looked at Hyuga Qingchuan and asked eagerly, "What rank would you say this technique is?"

Hyuga Qingchuan shook his head, dispersing the Spirit Bow and arrow in his hands as he explained.

"It has no rank. The technique manifests from within, so it can be considered a Bloodline Limit."

"A Bloodline Limit? Only you can use it?"

Hyuga Qingchuan thought carefully, then nodded after a moment.

"From a certain perspective, I really am the only one who can use it."

"The Bloodline Limit I awakened grants me a particular kind of chakra control."

"It is precisely because I possess that specific chakra control that I can easily wield this Spirit Bow and its arrows."

He paused, then explained further. "Without a Bloodline Limit, merely condensing a Spirit Bow and arrows like these—"

"Would require terrifying chakra control, and even then, the final result might not be nearly as effective."

Hyuga Kaze slowly nodded in understanding.

Many Bloodline Limits in the Shinobi World came about this way.

It was not difficult to understand, though it was somewhat regrettable.

After learning the truth about the arrows, Hyuga Kaze became curious about Hyuga Qingchuan's Body Flicker Technique as well.

"What about that Body Flicker Technique just now? When did you learn it?"

"No matter how I taught you before, you could never learn it."