Eight Trigrams Palm: Rotation!

"Begin!"

As Arakawa Kiba announced the start of the match, Sato Ei, standing opposite Hayato Hyuga, swiftly pulled two scrolls from his Ninja Tool Pouch. White smoke billowed out, and two puppets of different shapes appeared in the arena.

One puppet had a pair of wings and looked like an enormous wooden bird. The other resembled a doll with four arms, each holding a massive scythe. The blades had an eerie purple tinge, clearly coated in poison. Several Chakra Threads extended from Sato Ei's hands to the puppets. Judging by his preparations, he was one of Sunagakure's distinctive puppet masters. These ninja usually fought their opponents through puppets, whose hidden mechanisms made them extremely troublesome to deal with.

"The Hyuga Clan specializes in close combat with the Gentle Fist, right? I'm curious—can your Gentle Fist strike a puppet's acupoints?"

As Sato Ei spoke, he made his Bird Puppet spread its wings. Guided by his Chakra Threads, it first flew onto the arena's high wall. He then used its towline to pull himself up onto the wall as well. Meanwhile, his Humanoid Puppet rushed toward Hayato Hyuga to keep Hayato from approaching him, and the Bird Puppet spat poisoned needles from its mouth at Hayato.

With attacks from both above and below, Sato Ei brought out his full strength right from the start to defeat Hayato Hyuga. In the preliminaries, he had won using only his Humanoid Puppet.

In the stands, Kazuhiko's brows furrowed the moment he saw Sato Ei bring out two puppets. When he realized that Sato Ei's ranged attacks were dense, varied, and poisoned, with the Humanoid Puppet keeping Hayato occupied on the ground, he felt a headache coming on just watching.

In Kazuhiko's view, someone like Sato Ei was precisely the kind of opponent Hayato Hyuga feared most. Worried, Kazuhiko glanced at Madara Uchiha's expression. Unfortunately, the ever-composed Madara Uchiha would never let Kazuhiko glean even a hint of his thoughts from his face.

In the arena, the poisoned needles and puppet were already right before Hayato Hyuga. At that moment, Hayato moved.

His Byakugan activated in an instant. Then Hayato swung his arms and began spinning in place. Chakra surged from acupoints all over his body, forming a rotating hemispherical shield of chakra in the arena. Both the incoming poisoned needles and the approaching puppet were sent flying by Hayato's absolute defense. The force was so powerful that the Humanoid Puppet was knocked apart outright.

"That's the Hyuga Clan's Rotation!"

"Is that kid from the Hyuga Main Family? He actually knows Rotation!"

"That doesn't add up. The Hyuga Main Family should only have one girl in its younger generation, and she's still little. Or has the Hyuga Clan started teaching Rotation to the branch family? Either way, learning a technique like that at his age—this kid has a limitless future!"

Quite a few spectators knew what they were looking at. Seeing Hayato use Rotation, they burst into cries of astonishment, while Kazuhiko Sarutobi turned to Madara Uchiha in shock.

The Hyuga Main Family would never teach Hayato Hyuga Rotation. Otherwise, Hayato wouldn't have begged so desperately to enter the Chunin Ninja Exams and prove himself. Just what has Uchiha Itachi taught him over this past month?

While Kazuhiko was reeling from Hayato's Rotation, Hayato Hyuga himself stood in the arena unaware that he had just performed the very technique he had always dreamed of learning. He had only used his chakra that way because Madara's instruction had led him to believe it was an effective defense.

"Puppets have no chakra pathways, so naturally, I can't strike their acupoints. But the points where your Chakra Threads connect to their joints are as clear to my eyes as lamps in the darkness!"

Sato Ei wanted a swift victory over Hayato Hyuga to restore Sunagakure's pride, but Hayato Hyuga had entered the match with his own pent-up anger. He didn't know why Lord Hokage wanted to restrict Itachi's performance, but Itachi had received the order after the Sunagakure ninja surrendered. Whatever the case, Sunagakure's people surely had something to do with it, so there was nothing wrong with taking his frustration out on one of them.

Planting his feet, Hayato Hyuga thrust a palm into the air. The Chakra Threads Sato Ei used to control the Humanoid Puppet snapped instantly under the strike. Hayato followed with a succession of palm strikes. Even though Sato Ei stood high above him, Hayato's precise Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm still struck his body. At such a distance, Hayato could only release a tiny amount of chakra with each strike to maintain its accuracy and speed. But when that chakra hit Sato Ei's acupoints, that tiny amount was enough.

Making every bit of chakra count when his reserves were limited was another lesson Madara Uchiha had taught Hayato Hyuga.

In Madara's philosophy of combat, even Rotation was a technique best avoided unless necessary. Rather than spend that chakra on defense, it was better to finish off the enemy as quickly as possible.

Fierce as fire in his assault, Hayato had come to favor offense over defense under Madara Uchiha's instruction.

Struck in his acupoints by the Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm, Sato Ei instantly lost the ability to move. At the same time, Hayato Hyuga's follow-up attacks came one after another, crushing both his chances and his spirit.

As he fell from the wall, Sato Ei could only watch his prized puppets being blasted to pieces before his eyes by the Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm. The joints of both puppets were completely destroyed, and repairing them would be no simple matter. With his puppets shattered, the puppet master naturally posed no further threat.

Just as Sato Ei was about to hit the ground, Hayato Hyuga stepped forward and caught him, securing his complete victory while also keeping his opponent safe. Fortunately, Sato Ei was a puppet master. That had allowed Hayato to vent all his resentment by smashing the puppets.

"If you want to become a Chunin, you need to show restraint when facing people from Sunagakure. You can win, but you can't seriously injure them."

Madara Uchiha's advice before the match still echoed in Hayato's ears. A month ago, Hayato certainly wouldn't have listened to him. Now, however, Madara's words carried even more weight with Hayato than those of his teacher in the clan, Hizashi Hyuga. So after securing his complete victory, Hayato Hyuga took the opportunity to display his "maturity and composure" before everyone.

"Hayato Hyuga of Konoha wins!"

With Arakawa Kiba's announcement, Hayato officially advanced to the second round of the main tournament. Up in the stands, the Third Hokage nodded in satisfaction at Hayato's final act of protecting Sato Ei.