Asami Ri vs. Hyuga Hiko

The Third Round of the Chunin Ninja Exams, the individual matches.

When the text on the big screen finally settled on "Asami Ri vs. Hyuga Hiko," the atmosphere in the stands grew somewhat charged.

One came from a prestigious clan, the other was a commoner. The audience always loved a match with such a stark disparity.

Asami Ri withdrew his gaze from the big screen and calmly turned to meet Hyuga Hiko's eyes, which all but blazed with fury.

"Commoner, don't think taking down some small fry in the team battle puts you on my level." Hyuga Hiko sneered as he entered the arena, rolling his neck with a crisp crack of joints. "I'll show you that the gulf created by bloodline is one you'll never cross in your lifetime."

Asami Ri walked steadily into the center of the arena.

"You talk far too much." Asami Ri raised his eyes. "If there's a next time, remember to keep your mouth shut. You're really loud. You're embarrassing the Hyuga Clan."

"You're asking to die!"

Hyuga Hiko's facial muscles twisted slightly. Proud of his noble birth, he had never been treated with such contempt by a commoner.

"Third Round, first match—begin!"

At the referee's command, Hyuga Hiko abruptly formed hand seals, the veins around his eyes bulging grotesquely.

"Byakugan, activate!"

These were the eyes the Hyuga Clan took such pride in. Not only could they detect the slightest movement for miles around, they could also see the flow of chakra inside the human body.

"Curse your fate for denying you the Byakugan!"

Hyuga Hiko roared and charged forward with light footwork, closing in like an arrow loosed from a bow.

He held his hands flat, fine threads of chakra flickering at his fingertips.

Asami Ri's mind was as cold as ice as everything he knew about the Hyuga Clan raced through it.

He absolutely could not let their fingertips strike him. The terrifying thing about Gentle Fist was that it bypassed external defenses, injecting chakra directly into the enemy's chakra pathways. Once his chakra points were sealed, he would become a lamb awaiting slaughter.

Avoid contact with his palms. Cut off his power at the source.

Celestial Pivot, activate.

In an instant, Asami Ri's field of vision underwent a radical change.

Everything around him seemed to slow down. Before Hyuga Hiko even began each movement, countless red dashed lines had already traced out the path of his attack.

Hyuga Hiko unleashed a swift palm strike from an angle, aiming straight for Asami Ri's chest.

Yet under the Byakugan's gaze, Asami Ri reacted.

Rather than retreat, he took a precise half-step forward, his right hand forming a fist that struck first despite moving second.

Before the Gentle Fist palm strike could fully unleash its force, Asami Ri drove his fist into the inside of Hyuga Hiko's elbow with the precision of a fencing thrust.

Thud!

A dull impact rang out.

Hyuga Hiko felt as though an iron rod had jabbed his entire arm. The intercepting blow forcibly disrupted his smooth chakra flow, robbing his palm strike of power just centimeters from Asami Ri's chest.

"What?!" Hyuga Hiko's Byakugan trembled slightly.

Before he could react, Asami Ri stayed on him like a shadow, his arms blurring. Every punch precisely avoided Hyuga Hiko's palms, instead hammering the joints of his arms and shoulders like an elite boxer.

Hyuga Hiko felt utterly stifled.

He possessed the all-seeing Byakugan, yet whenever he tried to strike a chakra point, Asami Ri would smash his arm aside first with brutal precision. He had all the power of Gentle Fist at his disposal, but nowhere to release it.

"Damn it! How can you possibly keep up with my speed?!"

Hyuga Hiko roared in fury. Against Asami Ri's intercepting strikes, his once-elegant Gentle Fist began to fall into complete disarray.

Though narrow-minded and arrogant, he was a member of the Main Family who had long enjoyed the Hyuga Clan's resources. He was no mediocre fighter who could only run his mouth.

"Get away from me!"

Under Asami Ri's suffocating close-range pressure, Hyuga Hiko roared and thrust both arms outward.

A powerful surge of chakra burst from the chakra points all over his body, forcibly repelling Asami Ri's punches.

Using that force, he retreated several yards and quickly steadied his ragged breathing after landing.

By now, the contempt in his eyes had vanished, replaced by grim wariness.

He assumed his stance again, bending his knees slightly and lowering his center of gravity.

This was the Hyuga Clan's Main Family Secret Technique, Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms.

Asami Ri stood where he was, red dashed lines flashing rapidly through his vision as he calmly analyzed the contraction of every muscle group in his opponent's body.

No intention of rushing forward. All his power is concentrated in his right arm and the chakra points in his palm... Asami Ri's thoughts stirred. Trying to fool me?

When Asami Ri still did not enter his close-combat range, Hyuga Hiko's expression turned savage. He poured nearly thirty percent of his total chakra into his right hand, and even the air around his palm seemed to distort.

"Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm!"

As he violently thrust his palm forward, a wave of chakra compressed to its limit tore through the air. It moved so fast that it produced a piercing shriek.

The shock wave crossed the arena, heading straight for Asami Ri's face.

Facing this powerful blow, Asami Ri remained calm. His blurred hands abruptly stopped on the Snake seal.

"Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!"

Rumble!

A thick, densely packed earthen wall several meters high rose from the ground.

Unlike an ordinary Earth-Style Wall, its surface bore faint, intricate hexagonal honeycomb patterns.

Boom!!!

The violent mass of chakra slammed into the center of the earthen wall with a thunderous crash.

Fierce winds swept dust in every direction, while a teeth-grating sound of friction filled the air.

The grinding continued for several seconds. Hyuga Hiko stared fixedly at the wall, waiting for it to shatter.

Yet the swirling air dispersed, and the dust settled.

Although the center of the earthen wall had caved in and a mass of stone fragments had been blasted away, its overall structure remained intact.

The hexagonal topology acted like a finely woven net, perfectly dispersing the Vacuum Palm's destructive force throughout the wall and into the earth.

The attack had penetrated less than half the wall's thickness.

"What?! That's impossible!"

Hyuga Hiko cried out in disbelief. The failure of the finishing move he had trusted so completely left his mind momentarily blank.

He had never heard of an Earth-Style Wall cast by a Genin taking his Vacuum Palm head-on without budging.

On the battlefield, everything could change in an instant.

A single second of distraction was enough to seal the outcome.

Asami Ri did not hesitate. Chakra surged into his soles, and with a muffled blast, he became a blur barely visible to the naked eye, crossing the distance between them.

Hyuga Hiko's grotesquely strained Byakugan clearly captured every movement Asami Ri made.

The motion of his limbs, the flow of his chakra, even the coldness in his eyes—all were perfectly clear.

But being able to see did not mean being able to dodge.

The sluggishness left by unleashing the Vacuum Palm made his chakra pathways ache faintly. His body felt as though it had been filled with lead, and he could only watch as the dark figure before him rapidly grew larger.

"Konoha Whirlwind!"

Asami Ri's body traced a graceful arc through the air. Riding the momentum of his dash, his right leg swung out savagely like an iron whip.

With a dull thud, the heavy kick struck Hyuga Hiko squarely in the chest.

"Urgh—"

Hyuga Hiko flew through the air like a sack that had been struck, tracing a long, ungainly arc before crashing down outside the arena's boundary.

As the dust cleared, Hyuga Hiko coughed violently. He struggled to push himself up, his normally flawless Byakugan now bloodshot and filled with humiliation.

"I actually... lost to a... commoner..."

Rage and searing physical pain churned through his mind. The sense of superiority he had built over so many years collapsed in that moment.

Before he could finish speaking, blood welled in his throat. Overwhelmed by his own fury, he passed out.

The entire arena fell silent for a moment, then scattered murmurs broke out.

At that moment, two Hyuga Branch Family ninja wearing forehead protectors strode into the arena, their eyes guarded.

With expressionless faces, they lifted the unconscious Hyuga Hiko between them.

Though they did their utmost to maintain their cold expressions, the corners of their mouths involuntarily twitched as their gazes passed over Hyuga Hiko.

Clearly, this Main Family member's habitual bullying had long bred resentment among the Branch Family members who guarded him day and night.

"The winner, Asami Ri."

The referee's voice rang out.

Asami Ri calmly brushed the dust from his sleeves, then turned and walked backstage under the Branch Family ninja's conflicted gazes.