Hyuga Tennin's hair was disheveled, and blade wounds covered his body.
"Tennin, we've fought for so many years. Today is the day you die."
Uchiha Tajima pursued him relentlessly, using his words to break Hyuga Tennin's fighting spirit.
Hyuga Tennin gritted his teeth and said nothing, but his mind was perfectly clear.
Uchiha Tajima, today I'll show you. How could the Hyuga, a mighty ninja clan with a thousand-year history, have no trump cards?
Though both men moved at tremendous speed, neither had a fixed destination in this chase.
They eventually reached Riverbend Valley.
Riverbend Valley lay on the border between the Hyuga and Senju territories.
Though Butsuma Senju had ceded this land to the Uchiha Clan as compensation, Uchiha Tajima had never intended to push the front line this far.
As a result, no Uchiha ninja were stationed here.
Nor were there any Hyuga or Senju ninja.
"Tennin, say your last words while you still can!"
With his Ninja Blade in hand and an icy look in his eyes, Uchiha Tajima regarded Hyuga Tennin as though he were already dead.
Hyuga Tennin merely smiled, revealing the secret medicine he held in his mouth. "Tajima, do you really think I can't beat you?"
"Today, I'll show you the Hyuga Clan's true power!"
Uchiha Tajima sneered. "The Hyuga's true power?"
"What do you Hyuga have worth showing besides Gentle Fist?"
Hyuga Tennin offered no further explanation. He moved his body into a strange stance, large beads of cold sweat rolling steadily down his forehead.
The opening movement alone seemed to have exhausted all of Hyuga Tennin's stamina and chakra.
As the secret medicine in Hyuga Tennin's mouth rapidly dissolved, his stamina and chakra recovered at a terrifying rate.
Uchiha Tajima's expression changed. He sensed that Hyuga Tennin's chakra had not only returned to its peak but had risen far beyond it.
Damn it, I got overconfident. I shouldn't have given Tennin a chance to gather his strength!
At his command, a vast amount of chakra poured into the Ninja Blade in his hand. "Uchiha Style: Half-Moon Slash!"
An enormous blade of energy formed a crescent and shot straight toward Hyuga Tennin's forehead.
If Hyuga Tennin neither dodged nor moved aside, that slash would cleave him vertically in two.
Yet the sight of Hyuga Tennin standing motionless brought Uchiha Tajima no joy. Instead, he grew deeply apprehensive.
As Hyuga Tennin completed his second movement, Uchiha Tajima abandoned all hesitation, turned, and ran, showing none of the pride befitting the "Uchiha's strongest fighter."
Hyuga Tennin smiled. "Tajima, isn't it a little late to run now?"
"Secret art: Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack!"
An incomparably powerful surge of chakra gathered in Hyuga Tennin's palm.
The next instant, a beam of white light shot from Hyuga Tennin's palm, seemingly crossing space itself to strike Uchiha Tajima squarely in the back.
A closer look revealed that what Hyuga Tennin had unleashed was no beam of white light, but a mass of countless powerful fists.
It was like Guy using "Morning Peacock" after opening the sixth of the Eight Gates.
The so-called "peacock" was actually the result of Guy's punches moving so fast that their intense friction with the air created a sky full of "flaming fists," resembling a peacock spreading its tail.
"Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack" worked on a similar principle, except that it contained not only high-speed punches but also senjutsu chakra formed by incorporating natural chakra.
Hyuga Tennin could never have unleashed such an attack through his own power alone, but the secret medicine in his mouth had helped him deliver this earthshaking blow.
Hyuga Tennin's body aged at a speed visible to the naked eye.
His once firm, full muscles shriveled and weakened, while even his face, previously that of a man in his prime, became covered in the marks of age.
A quarter of Riverbend Valley was widened by Hyuga Tennin's punch.
An enormous crater appeared where Uchiha Tajima had stood.
Hyuga Tennin raised his face to the sky and sighed deeply. "Tajima, why did you have to go this far? With you dead, even my Hyuga Clan may not survive much longer!"
"Cough... cough... cough!"
The right hand covering his mouth and nose was smeared with dark red blood.
Every force had an equal and opposite reaction.
Though Hyuga Tennin's attack had been extraordinarily powerful, he had forced it out with the help of the secret medicine.
The recoil from his punch had therefore left countless hidden injuries inside his body, and several of his internal organs had ruptured and begun bleeding.
Were it not for the miraculous medicine, and the fact that Hyuga Tennin had held back rather than using his full strength, leaving some of its potency in his mouth...
Hyuga Tennin might have died from the backlash of his own immensely powerful technique at the same moment he blasted Uchiha Tajima to death.
After catching his breath, Hyuga Tennin walked to the edge of the crater, intending to see what had become of the enemy he had fought for most of his life.
If Tajima's body is still intact, I might even obtain the strongest pair of Sharingan in the Uchiha Clan.
Unfortunately, things did not go as he had hoped.
Though gravely wounded, Uchiha Tajima struggled to hold himself up and climbed out of the enormous crater, facing Hyuga Tennin across it.
Hyuga Tennin was astonished, but the moment he saw the Uchiha Gunbai in Uchiha Tajima's hand, everything became clear.
The Uchiha Gunbai had been crafted from a branch of the God Tree by Indra, the eldest son of the Sage of Six Paths. It could reflect any chakra, even sending small Tailed Beast Bombs back at their users.
Countless powerful fighters had already died to this Gunbai without knowing what it could do.
Hyuga Tennin smiled bitterly. "The Uchiha truly are another mighty ninja clan with a thousand-year history. I underestimated your legacy."
"If you want to fight, I, Hyuga Tennin, will see it through to the end."
Uchiha Tajima also coughed up several mouthfuls of dark blood. "Let's stop here! Just as you said, Tennin, if Butsuma Senju were here right now, neither of us might escape with our lives."
"My Uchiha Clan would certainly be wiped out, but your Hyuga Clan wouldn't fare any better."
"Why don't we each return to our clans, stabilize our defenses, and go after the Senju together?"
"We've both suffered losses this time. If the Senju Clan's strength remains intact, then over time, their raw power will far surpass that of our two clans."
Hyuga Tennin looked at Uchiha Tajima in surprise. In his eyes, Uchiha Tajima had always been a brute who knew nothing but slaughter.
Only now did he truly understand how difficult Uchiha Tajima was to deal with.
No wonder he's been able to lead the Uchiha against the combined forces of the Senju and my Hyuga all this time. If he really were just a brute, the Uchiha might have been wiped out long ago.
After settling some details of their cooperation, the two men dragged their injured bodies back to their respective clan grounds.
Not long after they left, two elite ninja squads arrived at the enormous crater in Riverbend Valley to investigate.
The armor of both elite squads bore the emblem of the "Senju of the Forest."
Their leader was none other than Senju Hazama, the Senju Clan's strongest fighter after Butsuma Senju.
"It looks like we're too late. Otherwise, we could have eliminated at least one of them."
Senju Hazama felt frustrated. If only he had not indulged in so much wine the night before, leaving him unable to move at his fastest during the day.
He might have caught either the gravely wounded Uchiha Tajima or Hyuga Tennin.
Meanwhile, atop Greenleaf Cliff, Madara Uchiha faced Hyuga Kiyomei of the Hyuga Clan in his capacity as the Uchiha's young clan leader.
Clearly, after the encirclement battle in the Land of Rain, Hyuga Kiyomei's intelligence had earned the trust of those who held power in his clan.
With the clan now facing a crisis of survival, none of the Hyuga elders could persuade the others. In the end, all sides compromised and put forward Hyuga Kiyomei as their pawn.
With his arms folded across his chest, Madara looked at Hyuga Seimei with disdain. "Is the Hyuga Clan ready to be wiped out?"