The Old Man Could Only Think of Himself

After nearly twenty hours of brutal fighting, her body, dry for so long, had received unprecedented nourishment. In this refreshed state, Kicho arrived at the Inner Court's training ground.

She had taken off her kimono and changed into a light-purple kunoichi outfit reserved for combat.

The training ground contained all manner of obstacles and equipment, capable of simulating various real combat scenarios.

Kicho walked up to the specially made wooden post she had once used to practice Gentle Fist. In her mind, she swiftly imagined the post as an enemy that needed to be defeated and performed the Hyuga-Style Gentle Fist.

Since it was only a warm-up, Kicho stopped after practicing Gentle Fist for half an hour.

Although she had not formally trained for nearly a year, her movements had not grown rusty when she used Gentle Fist just now. If anything, they had become even more natural.

Kicho was not surprised by this. During her pregnancy, she had not truly spent every day idly doing nothing. Since she could not practice Gentle Fist, she had focused her energy on training the visual power of her Byakugan.

In the end, it was not Gentle Fist that had made the Byakugan what it was. Rather, it was the existence of the Byakugan that had allowed Gentle Fist to become the Hyuga Clan's mainstream Taijutsu. That order could not be reversed.

Besides...

Kicho walked to the side, sat down, and took out a black Ninjutsu scroll.

The scroll was made from a special Chakra Tree. Unlike ordinary scrolls, this kind could be inscribed with ninja techniques and traps.

If the correct sequence of hand seals was not used, the trap on the scroll would activate. Not only would the scroll self-destruct, it would also suddenly attack the target through an explosion or flames.

"Release!"

Kicho opened the scroll and formed hand seals in a specific sequence, undoing its seal.

The dense black writing on the scroll began shifting out of place. After several seconds of adjustment, the altered arrangement finally stabilized and revealed its proper contents.

Living Chakra Technique.

That was the name of the technique written on it.

It was a special chakra refinement technique Yayoi had passed on to her. Learning it would bring comprehensive improvements in Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, and Genjutsu.

It would also strengthen the body's resistance to damage and recovery abilities.

During her pregnancy, aside from training her visual power, she had spent most of her time following the Living Chakra Technique described in the scroll, merging the chakra she had refined and converting it into new chakra.

This chakra was also called Active Chakra. However, it was entirely different in nature from Yayoi's Active Chakra; only the name was the same.

Now, the Active Chakra she had refined could already be used with Gentle Fist and the Byakugan.

"Though it's a refinement technique, in a sense, it's also a powerful forbidden technique focused on fundamentals."

Kicho looked at the contents of the scroll and could not help sighing.

The reason it was called a forbidden technique focused on fundamentals was that mastering it required extremely harsh conditions.

First, one needed powerful chakra.

Second, one needed exceptionally precise chakra control.

Third, one needed a powerful body capable of containing the refined and converted Active Chakra. Converted Active Chakra was heavier than ordinary chakra.

If any of those three requirements were not met, practicing this forbidden technique would not be life-threatening, but the meridian system would be unable to withstand the pressure and would collapse on its own. In the end, one would become an ordinary person no longer capable of being a ninja.

In other words, even the minimum requirement for practicing the Living Chakra Technique was the level of a Jonin.

Kicho had spent more than three months studying it before she managed to understand most of its contents, albeit with difficulty. There was still a portion that required her strength to advance further before she could fully comprehend it.

If she completely mastered this technique, she had a feeling that her Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, and Genjutsu abilities would receive another boost.

And the changes would extend far beyond combat power.

Kicho touched her smooth, pale cheek. It seemed as though she could squeeze water from it with a gentle pinch.

Compared to two years ago, this face seemed barely changed. It even looked a little younger.

Slowing aging and prolonging youth... that was also one of the benefits of practicing this refinement technique.

As a woman, Kicho had not yet reached an age where she cared about getting older, but that did not mean she had no interest in prolonging her youth.

Kicho thought of Yayoi's face again. Compared to when she had first seen him two years ago, he seemed not to have changed much either.

If this refinement technique had a single flaw, it was that its training requirements were too demanding for it to be widely spread.

Still, that was only natural.

Compared to all the enhancements this refinement technique brought, the risks were hardly worth mentioning.

After studying the refinement technique for about an hour, Kicho's head began to throb. She rolled up the scroll and returned it to the ninja tool pouch strapped to her thigh.

"Next, I need to use this Active Chakra to develop more advanced Gentle Fist techniques..."

She had mastered the fundamentals of Gentle Fist before turning ten. After that, creating one's own Variant Gentle Fist was a path every Hyuga Clan ninja would take after reaching a certain level.

As early as last year, Kicho had wanted to develop a new Gentle Fist move. She had already run through the idea in her mind dozens of times, and there were no longer any flaws in her plan.

The only thing missing now was turning theory into reality.

Keeping her Byakugan activated, Kicho stood up and returned to the special wooden post used for Gentle Fist training.

It was a composite wooden post, harder than steel.

It also possessed a special resilience that could buffer force. As a result, destroying it was even more difficult than simply destroying steel.

"Haa..."

Kicho gently drew in a breath, stepped back, raised her right arm, curled the fingers of her right hand into a tiger claw, and assumed a combat stance.

This was the method of exerting force used for Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm.

Through the chakra points in the palm, compressed high-density chakra was shaped into a cannon blast like a block of iron, then that solid chakra, hardened to the strength of steel, was launched through the air in an instant.

This attack method was similar to an air cannon. Though it was a long-range attack, the target's meridian system would still be struck, sealing off their chakra.

The stance Kicho had taken resembled Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm, but a closer look revealed subtle differences.

Boom!

The instant Kicho's tiger claw struck forward, the sound it produced was no longer the crack of air being shaken. Instead, it was an explosive shriek like the detonation of an Explosive Tag.

And what she launched was not a vacuum projectile either, but a white storm as ferocious as a beast's roar. It formed a sharp, piercing solid shockwave that swept through every object in Kicho's field of vision with crushing force.

Orange-red light bloomed across the horizon.

Against the setting sun, the wooden posts on the training ground had been blown away, towering trees uprooted, and the hard ground scraped several meters deep. The simulated mountain had split apart, while the artificial river had been buried beneath rock and soil.

When Aoi arrived at the training ground looking for Kicho, this was the sight she saw. Her eyes widened in shock, and her open mouth could not close.

What had Lady Kicho... actually done here?

This scene was even more devastating than a battlefield bombarded by countless Explosive Tags in succession.

Amid the dust and Smoke that had yet to fully disperse, a slender figure flickered in and out of sight. One could vaguely make out a young woman wearing a light-purple kunoichi outfit.

"...Lady Kicho?"

Aoi hurried into the training ground and reached a patch of relatively intact earth. Approaching the figure within the Smoke, she called out uncertainly.

"It's Aoi. What is it?"

Kicho lightly waved her hand, dispersing the surrounding dust and Smoke.

Her light-purple kunoichi outfit was badly damaged, and even her ninja sandals were covered in scars.

Her once flawless long black hair was coated with dust, its luster dimmed.

Only her still-open Byakugan shone with pure white light so concentrated that it made Aoi's heart tremble. Deep within those white eyes, a faint hint of violet could be seen.

When Kicho's Byakugan swept over her, Aoi could not help shuddering, as if all the blood in her body had frozen.

"Um, Lady Kicho, I came to call you for dinner."

"Mm... Is it that time already?"

Kicho glanced at the sky. Only a sliver of the setting sun's afterglow remained on the distant horizon.

"I got a little too absorbed in training. Sorry for making you worry."

Kicho took a deep breath. The veins around her eyes returned to normal as she deactivated her Byakugan.

"Were you practicing Gentle Fist?"

Aoi spoke instinctively, glancing at the devastation across the training ground from the corner of her eye as she asked uncertainly.

"Only Gentle Fist can work with these eyes, right?"

Kicho answered as if it were obvious.

"That's true."

Aoi scratched her head and laughed awkwardly, feeling that she had asked a very stupid question.

Still, she could not imagine what kind of Gentle Fist could turn a training ground into this.

This looked more like the destruction caused by a powerful, hard-hitting Taijutsu.

"Let's soak in the bath first, then eat and restore some energy. Otherwise, I won't have enough strength to deal with my husband tonight."

Kicho rubbed her flat stomach. She truly was beginning to feel hungry.

Aoi's face darkened.

Did Kicho think she could not understand that implication?

Training was already this exhausting, and she still intended to do something so indecent at night? Was her stamina limitless?

Besides, had she not already indulged herself like that yesterday?

"Forget it, that's a little troublesome. Aoi, bring the food directly to the hot springs. When my husband comes back, tell him to go there."

"..."

So she had already planned to spend the entire night at the hot springs?

Was she not going to check on the child? Or was that child merely an accessory?

Even as her personal maid, Aoi found it difficult to keep up with Kicho's thought process.

"Oh, right, Lady Kicho. There's one more thing I forgot to mention."

Kicho, who was about to head to the hot springs, stopped at Aoi's words and looked back at her in confusion.

"Lord Hideto sent a letter this afternoon."

Aoi reported to Kicho with a serious expression.

"Who is Lord Hideto?"

"???"

That was your biological father! Had she forgotten him already? Aoi screamed inwardly.

"Oh, I was only joking. Look how badly I scared you."

Seeing Aoi's horrified expression, as if she had truly been frightened silly, Kicho covered her mouth and laughed softly, looking thoroughly pleased with her prank.

Kicho is a little too unrestrained here. She ought to return to the Hyuga Clan for two years and rein herself in.

Aoi could not help thinking.

"So that man sent another letter, did he?"

"Ah, yes."

Aoi snapped back to her senses and hurriedly pulled a letter from inside her clothes, offering it to Kicho.

The relationship between Kicho and her father, Hyuga Hideto, was poor. Both Aoi and Rinko could see that clearly.

After all, Kicho had no need to conceal her likes and dislikes here. Every time she saw a letter from her father, Hideto, she wore an icy expression of utter disgust and disdain.

There was none of the affection that ought to exist between father and daughter.

Kicho opened the envelope and took out the paper inside.

—My daughter Kicho, seeing these words is like seeing you in person...

After reading it, Kicho was not surprised. It was another letter asking for help.

Only, its meaning was expressed somewhat indirectly. He wanted to maintain a father's dignity and could not allow his daughter to look down on him, yet he was also forced by the harsh circumstances to seek help from his daughter.

He wanted her to use the Land of Night's power to help him regain a firm foothold in the Hyuga Clan.

The Conservative Faction within the Hyuga Clan had now grown stronger than ever. As a member of the Radical Faction centered around militant ideals, he was clearly having a difficult time.

"Lady Kicho, could Lord Hideto be asking for help again...?"

Aoi recalled that Hyuga Hideto had sent several letters before. Though their wording had been extremely indirect, the meaning they conveyed seemed to be that he wanted Kicho to help him.

However, his meaning had been so vague that she and Rinko had needed to read them repeatedly before figuring out his purpose.

And the language was so excessively formal that it was exhausting to read.

"Yes, just like before. That old-fashioned, twisted man can only think of himself."

That was Kicho's evaluation of her father, Hyuga Hideto.

"...No matter what, he is still your father. Perhaps you could be a little more respectful in your wording?"

"You said it yourself. He's only my father."

At Kicho's response, Aoi immediately fell silent.

Only her father... Could a father related by blood really be described that way?

Lady Kicho truly was a butterfly that flew wherever she pleased.

Kicho quickly gathered chakra at the tip of her right index finger and began writing a reply on the back of the letter.

After finishing, Kicho put the paper away and handed it back to Aoi.

"Have someone send it back."

"Yes."

Aoi accepted the letter and respectfully withdrew.