Substitution Technique

At eight o'clock that evening, after having dinner with Neji and Meicun Hyuga, Tianyun Hyuga returned to his room with a stack of banknotes in hand, feeling rather glum. Neji Hyuga, Neji Hyuga, Tianyun Hyuga.

Meicun Hyuga had given him the money, saying it was a gift sent over by Hyuga Hiashi. She had taken a tenth of it and rewarded Tianyun Hyuga with it.

The reason Tianyun Hyuga felt glum was that he had only received a tenth of the money in Meicun Hyuga's hands, rather than all of it.

That tenth amounted to a hundred thousand. If he had gotten the whole sum, he would have had a million, just enough to enhance his body once. Unfortunately, Meicun Hyuga had hidden the remaining nine hundred thousand, and no amount of pleading could get her to hand it over.

Meicun Hyuga's reason for refusing was that she was saving it for Tianyun Hyuga's future marriage, which left the five-year-old utterly speechless.

Back in his bedroom, Tianyun Hyuga glanced at the hundred thousand in his hand and deposited it straight into the system, increasing his wealth by a hundred thousand.

Just as Tianyun Hyuga finished the deposit and was about to lie down to rest, he suddenly heard a system notification that left him stunned for quite a while.

System notification: Ninjutsu available for enhancement: Clone Technique, Substitution Technique, Transformation Technique.

Tianyun Hyuga was a little dumbfounded. He did know the Three Body Technique, but he lacked the chakra to use it.

Now that the system said he could enhance them, he found it rather strange. Even after pondering it for a while, he still could not decide whether to try an enhancement.

From ages one to ten, Ninja training focused primarily on physical conditioning, with a little chakra training on the side. Being able to use the Three Body Technique was enough. Only after turning eleven would they begin proper chakra training.

The reason was that chakra training consumed a great deal of physical and mental energy, something most children between one and ten simply could not withstand.

Of course, children from clans and noble families, as well as those born with exceptionally strong constitutions, were exceptions. Clans and noble families provided their children with the nutrition they needed, while naturally sturdy children could handle the expenditure of physical and mental energy.

Someone like Tianyun Hyuga, who had average talent and no support from clan resources, would generally begin chakra training around age seven. That was why, even though he knew how to use the Three Body Technique, he still lacked the chakra to use it.

The final exception was wartime. To build up their fighting forces, most Ninja villages would force children to begin chakra training at five so they could be sent to the battlefield as soon as possible.

However, children who began chakra training early without resources to support them would, at best, reach the level of elite Chunin in the future. Becoming a Jonin was essentially impossible. They were little more than cannon fodder.

After sitting and thinking for a full hour, Tianyun Hyuga finally decided to try enhancing a Ninjutsu. After some consideration, he chose the Substitution Technique. If used well, it would greatly improve his chances of escaping, which would help keep him safe.

It cost a hundred thousand to enhance the D-rank Substitution Technique. Tianyun Hyuga immediately tested it in his room, and the results pleased him greatly.

The system-enhanced Substitution Technique was flawless. His chakra also seemed to have increased a little, reaching an amount that allowed him to use it.

Moreover, the system-enhanced Substitution Technique was perfectly executed and would never fail. As long as he chose the right timing and position, it would be a flawless Substitution Technique.

The only thing that frustrated Tianyun Hyuga was that his chakra had not increased by much. He only had enough to use the Substitution Technique ten times in a row before exhausting it. He would then have to replenish his chakra through training before he could use it again.

Tianyun Hyuga had also considered enhancing his chakra, but the cost left him speechless. It required ten million berries per enhancement, and he had no idea why it was so expensive.

In the end, Tianyun Hyuga could only give up and start testing the Clone Technique and Transformation Technique in his room. To his frustration, his talent for learning Ninjutsu was not very good either. His attempts at both techniques were half-baked, and neither worked properly.

The Clone Technique produced only one clone, and it could not even stand steadily.

What the Transformation Technique turned him into looked nothing like what he had intended.

At last, Tianyun Hyuga sighed helplessly. He knew that the small amount of chakra gained from enhancing the Substitution Technique was not enough for him to properly perform the Clone Technique and Transformation Technique. He could only stop practicing and wait until he earned enough money to enhance them directly. Then his three basic techniques would be even more polished.

After two hours of fussing around, it was already ten at night. Tianyun Hyuga lay in bed, thinking about how to get another two hundred thousand out of Meicun Hyuga so he could at least finish enhancing the Three Body Technique.

After thinking for a full hour, Tianyun Hyuga came up with three plans and finally fell asleep, satisfied. All that remained was to try them on Meicun Hyuga tomorrow.

At five the next morning, Tianyun Hyuga got up and went to the mansion's backyard to find Meicun Hyuga. As a Chunin, she had a small training ground there, where she trained for an hour every morning.

As a Chunin, Meicun Hyuga would normally have been assigned missions. However, Konoha had a rule that, outside wartime, female Ninja with children under seven at home could be excused from missions while still receiving some financial assistance from the village.

Moreover, Meicun Hyuga belonged to the Hyuga Clan. In addition to Konoha's assistance, she also received support from the clan. That was why she had been able to live without worrying about food or clothing despite not working for the past three years.

Of course, the assistance from Konoha and the Hyuga Clan only covered basic food and clothing. Eating well and living in luxury were entirely out of the question.

Fortunately, Meicun Hyuga was a violent woman who had little interest in enjoying life's comforts. The assistance from Konoha and the Hyuga Clan was enough for her to support herself and Tianyun Hyuga, so their household had lived a fairly peaceful life.

When Tianyun Hyuga reached the small clearing behind the house, Meicun Hyuga was practicing the Hyuga Clan's Gentle Fist. He stood to one side and watched quietly for a while.

The Hyuga Clan's Gentle Fist was not actually all that powerful on its own. Combined with the penetrating vision of the clan's Byakugan, however, its power instantly increased roughly tenfold.

Tianyun Hyuga had not activated his Byakugan and could not see Meicun Hyuga's chakra pathway system. Finding her soft, limp-looking palm strikes rather boring, he called out to her, "Mother..."

Meicun Hyuga had her Byakugan activated and had noticed Tianyun Hyuga's arrival long before. She simply had not finished training yet, so she had ignored him.

Now that Tianyun Hyuga had called out to her, she had no choice but to stop and ask, "What is it? Can't you see I'm training? Don't bother me if it's nothing. Hurry back and get ready. I'll take you to school in a little while..."