Another Eight Trigrams Palm assault surged toward him like a tidal wave! The instant Huo Men’s left shoulder dipped ever so slightly, Inoichi stepped back and turned sideways, anticipating the strike almost entirely through instinct and the observations he had gathered. The fierce gust from the palm strike screamed through the air and skimmed dangerously close to his chest, sending the front of his training uniform fluttering backward. But this time, his evasive movement looked just a little more... composed and precise than any before it!
For the first time, a trace of unmistakable surprise flashed through Huo Men’s pure white eyes. His Byakugan could see through the flow of chakra, discern how muscles exerted force, and even peer into the structure of bones, but it could not directly read the thoughts racing through an opponent’s brain or the tactical judgments drawn from observation. This Inoichi Yamanaka seemed to be predicting his movements with increasing accuracy in a way Huo Men could not fully understand!
"As expected of the Yamanaka Clan’s heir," Huo Men said with genuine admiration, though his attacks grew even more focused. "But the essence of the Hyuga-Style Gentle Fist goes far beyond fixed patterns and speed."
His palm techniques changed at once! The relentless Eight Trigrams Palm assault, which had flowed like a mighty river, abruptly shifted into a more precise, more ruthless series of chakra-point strikes, every blow aimed straight at a vital spot!
The flurry of palms thinned, but each strike darted out like a venomous snake leaving its lair. They might have been slightly slower, but their threat and precision suddenly rose several levels! His objective was clear-seal every critical chakra point in Inoichi's body and strip him of the ability to mobilize chakra altogether!
Inoichi immediately felt the pressure multiply! These precise attacks focused on chakra points followed trajectories that were harder to predict, and their rhythm offered no obvious pattern. What was more, Huo Men had clearly noticed something. He no longer gave Inoichi the chance to calmly observe and analyze his attack rhythm, intending to crush him through sheer strength and tactical variation!
During a desperate sideways dodge, Inoichi finally failed to pull the outside of his left arm completely clear, and the edge of a deceptively soft gust from a palm strike swept over it! Though Huomen's fingers had not directly struck a chakra point, the penetrating chakra pierced him like fine needles. The chakra flow throughout his left arm instantly seemed to freeze, becoming sluggish and heavy! He could not suppress a muffled grunt. His face paled, and he quickened his steps, rapidly retreating to put distance between them.
This is bad... Fine beads of cold sweat formed at Inoichi's temples. The obstruction in his left arm's chakra flow not only hampered his movement but also drastically reduced the speed and stability of his hand seals! Against the Hyuga Clan's Gentle Fist, a technique that reigned supreme in close combat, losing the ability to swiftly unleash his clan's secret techniques left him trying to smash a rock with an egg if he relied on taijutsu alone.
Huo Men gave him no chance to regroup. His Byakugan tracked the chakra flowing through Inoichi’s body like the most precise targeting radar, locking onto the currents that had become chaotic and sluggish from the blockage. He could clearly "see" Inoichi desperately drawing on the chakra in his chest and abdomen, trying to force his way through the obstruction in his left arm’s pathways like floodwater bursting through a dam. But that process needed time, and even more importantly, concentration—and Huo Men had no intention of granting his opponent that precious opening!
"It’s over." Huo Men’s voice was low as he shot forward like lightning again! This time, his target was unmistakable—the Shanzhong point at the very center of Inoichi’s chest! If the strike landed precisely, it would be like closing the most important floodgate, completely sealing the chakra flow throughout Inoichi’s body and deciding the match at once!
Some spectators in the stands had already closed their eyes, as though they could not bear to watch the moment Inoichi lost.
Yet at that critical instant, just as victory and defeat were about to be decided!
A flash of desperate, all-or-nothing resolve suddenly appeared in Inoichi Yamanaka's dark brown eyes, which had been gleaming with observation and analysis all this time!
He did not attempt the complex hand seals he no longer had time to perform, nor did he try an extreme dodge when there was theoretically no room left for one. Instead, he did something that baffled everyone—he abruptly stepped forward into Huo Men’s seemingly unavoidable palm strike! He practically offered his chest to his opponent’s hand!
"What?!" Huo Men’s pupils abruptly contracted, his pure white eyes filled with confusion and shock. He could not fathom the purpose behind Inoichi’s almost suicidal move!
The answer came a second later!
Inoichi opened his mouth, not to roar or cry out in pain, but to muster the chakra remaining in his chest and the full capacity of his lungs, releasing an extremely sharp, piercing shriek that seemed capable of stabbing into the depths of the soul!
This was no ordinary shout. It was a secret sonic attack imbued with highly concentrated mental energy, something the Yamanaka Clan rarely used in front of outsiders-an extremely simplified combat application of the Mind Body Disturbance Technique, focused on impact and disruption!
Screee-!
The invisible sound waves slammed directly and brutally into Huo Men’s undefended mental world like an impact drill boring into his mind!
Despite Huo Men’s strong will, the sudden, direct assault on his mind still left his brain buzzing and momentarily blank. His impeccably precise advance and the fingers about to strike suffered an unavoidable pause—extremely brief, but real! Perhaps it lasted only three-tenths of a second!
But for Inoichi, who had already accounted for everything, that was enough!
Enduring the numbness in his left arm and bracing for a potentially devastating injury to his right shoulder, he twisted his waist and turned sideways with all his strength as he released the sound waves! Huo Men’s fingers, charged with fierce chakra, missed the intended Shanzhong point and instead struck heavily near the Jianjing point on his right shoulder with a dull thud!
"Ugh!"
Agonizing pain struck at once! The chakra flowing through the right half of his body almost immediately stopped, like a river abruptly cut off!
Half his body instantly grew heavy and numb! But Inoichi clenched his teeth and used the force of the strike to tumble backward in an ungainly roll. At the same time, his left hand-the only one he could still move with any degree of flexibility-moved at an almost spasmodic speed, forming a one-handed seal simplified so drastically that it was barely recognizable!
"Mind Body Clone Switch Technique!"
This was not the complete Mind Body Switch Technique, which required precise control, but a modified, simplified version Inoichi forced himself to execute under extreme pressure, based on his own condition and his understanding of the battle!
A mass of previously concentrated mental energy grew weaker but more deceptive after being forcibly divided. One part stabbed like a sharp needle into Huo Men’s mind, which had yet to fully settle, while the other barely managed to create a mental clone illusion. It lasted only an instant and simulated chakra extremely crudely, serving to disrupt the Byakugan’s judgment for a moment!
Huo Men had only just regained his senses after the sudden sonic assault on his mind when, within his pure white field of vision, he immediately sensed two faint streams of mental energy, similar in nature but directed differently, striking at the same time!
The Byakugan could see through the form and flow of chakra, but it struggled to instantly distinguish an interfering illusion composed entirely of mental energy, with almost no tangible chakra characteristics!
For one exceedingly brief moment, two overlapping, blurred chakra images of "Inoichi Yamanaka" really did appear in his vision! Although one dissolved like a bubble almost the second it appeared, that momentary confusion and hesitation had already created Inoichi's fleeting, final opportunity!
Within that precious moment of confusion, bought with pain and sheer will, Inoichi moved. Enduring the tearing agony caused by the sealed chakra points in both shoulders and the dizziness from his nearly exhausted chakra, he mustered every last scrap of strength left in his body. He used no ninjutsu this time. Instead, like a man in a street fight, he lowered his head and hurled his entire body at Huo Men a few steps away! This was no school of taijutsu, but something closer to the most primitive, clumsy, all-out body slam!
Huo Men had just used his Byakugan to distinguish the real Inoichi when a force that was not particularly powerful, but was utterly resolute, slammed into him just below the center of his chest! Caught off guard, even he, with his firmly planted stance, lost his balance under the completely unexpected impact!