Neji

After being trained by Tahm, Hinata's first match began.

Her opponent was a fairly strong child from the Hyuga Branch Family. Hinata had encountered him in an earlier clan tournament and had been easily defeated by him, but now they met again on a narrow path. This time, however, Hinata's state of mind was calm. She no longer became nervous and uneasy the moment she stepped onto the arena.

"Ha!" Unlike her previous style of blindly defending, Hinata suddenly shouted and took the initiative to close in. Chakra surged into her palm as she struck straight toward her opponent's chest.

Sensing that Hinata was different from before, her opponent was slightly surprised, but he reacted instantly. He spread his feet into a standard horse stance and used the strength of his waist to throw out a full-force palm strike to meet Hinata's attack. Based on his previous understanding of Hinata's strength, he was confident that one palm would neutralize her attack. There was no need for him to dodge.

But Hinata was no longer the Hinata of before. When their palms collided, a dull boom exploded through the air. The poor extra felt an enormous force surge from Hinata's slender palm, instantly breaking his defense.

"Ah!" He cried out in pain. A direct clash of full-force palms dealt tremendous damage, and his arm hung limply at his side, likely close to being fractured. Moreover, Hinata's strike had contained the unique chakra of the Hyuga Gentle Fist, which rampaged through the loser's chakra pathways, throwing his chakra flow into immediate chaos.

In that brief instant, the victor had been decided!

Everyone stared at Hinata in the arena with disbelief. In just one month, the eldest daughter of the Hyuga Main Family, who had ranked at the bottom and become a laughingstock in the previous tournament, had now defeated one of the top children in the clan with a single move?

"His response just now was wrong. If he had dodged first, then activated the Byakugan and fought with the Gentle Fist, he could not have lost so quickly," a Hyuga jonin on the raised platform commented.

"That may be true, but no one expected Miss Hinata's palm strike to have grown so powerful. His poor decision was understandable. Gathering intelligence is also one of a ninja's essential lessons," another jonin watching the match added.

Hyuga Hiashi, seated in the place of honor, said nothing, but waves had already risen in his heart. His daughter's strength had grown so much in less than a month? Was that toad Tahm truly so skilled at teaching Hinata? Had everything I did before been wrong?

At that moment, Hinata gave no thought at all to what her actual father was thinking. As soon as the match ended, she ran over to Tahm, lifted her little head, and smiled. "Tahm, I did it!" She looked exactly like an ordinary little girl running to her family for praise after earning an honor, rather than the poised yet trembling young noblewoman who had walked on eggshells before meeting Tahm.

Tahm naturally stroked Hinata's hair and said, "I knew you wouldn't let me down!"

Hinata did not mind at all that her smooth hair had been tousled into slight disarray. She had long since come to love this intimate gesture from Tahm, as though they were truly family. A happiness she had not felt in a long time welled up within her, like the joy of being carried through a park by her parents when she was two or three years old. She could not help but lose herself in it.

Over the next several matches, Hinata defeated her opponents one by one, sometimes easily and sometimes with difficulty, completely changing the adults' and children's impressions of her. Whether it was her temperament and attitude in battle, her combat awareness, the force of her fists and palms, or her use of chakra, Hinata had improved significantly. Transformed, she ultimately reached the final arena and stood at a height she had never reached before.

"Miss Hinata, I never expected you to stand before me as well." Her opponent in the final was a child slightly older than Hinata. He bore some resemblance to Hyuga Hiashi, with smooth straight hair draping over his shoulders and intense fighting spirit filling his eyes.

"Brother Neji..." Hinata's emotions visibly changed.

Her opponent in the final was Hyuga Neji! The true genius ninja from the original story! Tahm, watching from below, had a bad feeling. He recalled the brutal scene of Neji and Hinata's battle in the original story.

"Hehe... the eldest daughter of the Main Family!" Neji sneered. "You may have grown stronger, but you can never defeat me. The weak are weak. That is what fate has decided!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Neji activated his Byakugan. His presence became even sharper and colder. Though he was only seven years old, he gave off a vicious impression.

Hinata had no time to think further. She activated her Byakugan as well and assumed the opening stance of the Gentle Fist, preparing to fight.

A genius truly was a genius. Neji's application of the Byakugan and his familiarity with the Hyuga Gentle Fist far surpassed Hinata's. Within Neji's three-hundred-and-sixty-degree Byakugan vision, every minute movement Hinata made was magnified, and he instantly calculated the changes that would follow.

Heh! Too many openings. She's still that sheltered young lady after all! Neji thought, and his limbs immediately moved with the thought. He rapidly closed in and struck with his palm, faint sounds of wind and thunder accompanying it.

Neji's tricky, piercing strike landed precisely on the weakest point of Hinata's defense, leaving her flustered for a moment. She could only instinctively draw in her arms and take the palm strike head-on.

With a dull bang, Hinata was struck squarely by the palm. A huge force threw her off balance, and she staggered back several steps. Her slender arm immediately swelled red from the blow, and for a moment, gathering strength through it became exceedingly difficult.

Just like that! Neji pressed his advantage, thrusting out both palms as he attacked without mercy.

Stay calm. I can't give up like this! Hinata silently told herself, forcing herself to react. With her injured hand, she used a force-dispersing move from the Gentle Fist, deflecting Neji's attack off course.

Though the angle had shifted, the blow still grazed Hinata's shoulder. She cried out in pain, her delicate features twisting from the agony. Tahm, watching below, clenched his fists tightly.

With both her arms and shoulder injured, Hinata had no choice but to stand where she was and gasp for breath, her whole body trembling uncontrollably.

"This ends here, Miss Hinata!" Neji said coldly. "No matter how much you struggle, you cannot escape fate! Admit defeat now, and you can suffer a little less."

"No... I can't! I promised Tahm. I can definitely do it!" Instead, Hinata was filled with a firm conviction. Somehow finding strength from nowhere, she assumed a fighting stance again.

"That toad?" Seeing that Hinata still refused to submit, an inexplicable fury rose within Neji. "A summoning beast from Mount Myoboku, the status of the Main Family—everything belongs to you! But that cannot change your fate as a weakling! Fall down!"

Byakugan: Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms!

An arcane domain instantly spread around Neji, enveloping Hinata. Hinata immediately felt as though she had fallen into a swamp, with every opening seized by her enemy. This was the power of one of the Hyuga Byakugan's ultimate techniques! At this age, only the genius Neji, a child of the Branch Family, had taught himself to master it.

Hinata's defense instantly became laughable. The moment Neji attacked, it collapsed completely.

"One, two..." In the blink of an eye, several palms struck Hinata mercilessly. The immense force even sent her small body flying into the air, while violent chakra invaded every part of her body, completely sealing off any possibility of struggle.

"Seven, eight, nine..." Within only a few breaths, Hinata was already covered in injuries, yet Neji showed no sign of stopping. The scene was so brutal that even Hyuga Hiashi, her biological father, felt a pang of pain in his heart. But the duties and dignity of the clan head restrained him from doing anything to stop this match, which could already be called bloody.

Beneath the rain-like assault, Hinata, consumed by pain, only had time to see that lofty, unmoved face on the raised platform. Father really is disappointed in me, isn't he? I'm so useless. Now I've disappointed Tahm too...