Only Chunin-Level Strength

At first, the pitch-black tattoos had given Zou Hyuga an inexplicable sense of familiarity.

They reminded him of how Jiraiya and Hashirama Senju looked when they entered Sage Mode, but he was certain he had never visited the Three Great Sage Lands or learned any form of Sage Mode.

Then where had these things come from?

After the first few months of panic, Zou Hyuga discovered that his senjutsu was not the senjutsu he remembered. It could only enhance his physical abilities.

It could also amplify the ninjutsu his companions cast, greatly increasing its power.

That meant that when he acted alone, he could only fight with Gentle Fist strengthened by his enhanced physique. Otherwise, he served more as a support.

That was also why he had teamed up with Oto Uchiha. The ninjutsu they performed together rivaled large-scale combination ninjutsu, but various restrictions kept them from unleashing its full potential.

So until he truly had the ability to protect himself, he would stay in Konoha and research how to break the Caged Bird Seal.

As for making him take missions above C-rank, forget it.

Reining in his wandering thoughts, Zou Hyuga began studying his tattoos.

Since he could already make rudimentary use of senjutsu and use it to strengthen other people's ninjutsu, he had a starting point.

Could he experiment in other areas, such as strengthening summoned animals, or even enhancing a ninja's strength directly?

And how exactly did his tattoos convert natural energy into senjutsu chakra?

Questions surfaced in Zou Hyuga's mind one after another. He recorded them in the little notebook he carried with him, naturally writing in Chinese characters. That way, even if someone found it, they would not be able to fully decipher it.

Putting on white gloves, Zou Hyuga activated his Byakugan and focused on a lab mouse.

Pop...

The mouse burst into pieces. The juvenile mouse could not withstand the power of senjutsu chakra and turned into chunks of stone.

Ignoring the mouse's gruesome fate, Zou Hyuga recorded the results in his experiment log and began the next experiment.

Before long, all the mice had turned into chunks of stone, and the basement fell silent, without a single squeak.

"Another failed experiment, just as I thought. What a shame. You weren't cut out to be the cream of the mouse crop!"

Zou Hyuga sighed ruefully, making a joke to help himself relax. His monotonous life of experimentation needed some diversion to ease the mental strain.

Of course, he was not entirely joking. If a mouse really could withstand senjutsu chakra, it could become his summoned animal, and its "lifespan" would no longer be a mere month.

Perhaps it might even establish a new Sage Land someday. After all, weren't the Three Great Sage Lands run by animals too?

Thinking of the Three Great Sage Lands reminded Zou Hyuga of their three great sages. They were all ancient monsters capable of living for a thousand years, and perhaps senjutsu and natural energy were the reason they had survived so long.

If he had the chance, he wanted to visit the Three Great Sage Lands and ask about the problems with his body and how to train in senjutsu. Unfortunately, he had no connections that could get him there.

A nobody like him would not be able to enter the Sage Lands even if he met the Sannin.

Besides, the Sage Lands were those sages' territory. What if they forcibly detained him and dissected him?

He certainly had no confidence in taking on great sages who had survived since the era of the Sage of Six Paths.

After the experiments, Zou Hyuga cleared away the evidence, smashing the petrified mice one by one.

All that remained was the senjutsu chakra lingering in the laboratory. Over time, it would turn back into natural energy.

Leaving the laboratory, Zou Hyuga went out of his house and headed next door to his uncle's home.

His elderly uncle had just returned from the Main Family estate. He had prepared the meal and was sitting at the head of the table, watching him.

After observing the Hyuga Clan's formalities, Zou Hyuga slowly took his seat.

The food tasted as familiar as ever. The old man and the young man remained silent throughout the meal.

"Elder!"

After dinner, Zou Hyuga was the first to break the silence. He still treated his uncle with considerable respect.

After all, his uncle had taught him both Gentle Fist and chakra refinement, and the resources allocated to him rivaled those given to members of the Main Family. Apart from the Main Family's secret technique, Rotation, his uncle had held nothing back.

Yet his performance at the Ninja Academy could only be called average, far below that of the other ninja clans' prodigies.

"Call me Uncle!" Hyuga Yu glanced at Zou Hyuga, his only nephew.

"Yes, Uncle!" Zou Hyuga immediately sat up straight. As a member of the Hyuga Clan, he had picked up its elaborate etiquette through constant exposure.

As a ninja clan with a thousand-year legacy, the Hyuga Clan had formalities rivaling those of the Land of Fire's daimyo.

The Caged Bird Seal and the clan rules had become deeply ingrained in every Hyuga clan member's heart, almost impossible to change.

"Zou, are you still a genin... It's been three years. Have you still not overcome the shadow of your first mission?"

"Yes, Uncle, I'm still a genin. But I haven't advanced to chunin simply because I'm not strong enough."

"Is that so?" Hyuga Yu looked helplessly at Zou Hyuga. From their daily training, he could tell that his nephew's true strength was certainly not limited to that of a genin.

Moreover, Zou Hyuga completed every mission perfectly, without a single failure on his record.

Although those missions were all D-rank or C-rank, they still offered some indication of his ability.

Why did he hide his strength like this and keep putting off his promotion to chunin? Hyuga Yu had once asked him sternly, only to receive answers about prudence and caution.

In the end, he could only shake his head and reluctantly accept it.

Perhaps it was because of the trauma Zou Hyuga had suffered on his first mission outside the village. On that very first mission, he had encountered an elite jonin from Sunagakure. Even the teacher leading his team had been killed, and he had barely escaped with his life.

Since he did not want to become a chunin, Hyuga Yu could hardly use his position as a Main Family elder to force him.

But if Hyuga Yu died and Zou Hyuga's disposition attracted the attention of other Main Family members, exposing that secret, then...

After a moment's thought, Hyuga Yu quietly began clearing away the dishes and said to Zou Hyuga, "Zou, rest for a while, then come to the training ground in the backyard. I'll practice Gentle Fist with you..."

"All right!" Zou Hyuga nodded. He had grown up with this kind of sparring.

His uncle Hyuga Yu's strength might have declined along with his taijutsu, but his mastery of Gentle Fist still ranked among the best in the Hyuga Clan.

Soon, the two moved to the backyard.

As the oldest member of the Main Family, Hyuga Yu had a fairly large backyard, complete with training equipment.

Standing in the center of the training ground, Hyuga Yu assumed Gentle Fist's opening stance. His expression turned serious, his kindly smile gone.

Going easy on someone during training would get them killed on a mission. That was a principle he firmly believed in.

"Zou, I'll still only use chunin-level strength in this training session. If you can force me to use Rotation, you win. Otherwise, I'll have a chunin from the clan disband that little team of yours."

"Understood."

Zou Hyuga nodded lightly. As a genin, he was not actually qualified to form a team. Both he and Oto Uchiha had relied on Hyuga Yu's connections to be placed under a chunin.