"How did my Gentle Fist become so powerful?" Hinata stared at her hands with wide, bewildered eyes, hardly believing what had just happened.
Kurenai, standing beside Kai, quickly recovered from her initial shock and fixed her gaze on him with absolute certainty. "This was your doing, wasn't it?"
"Pretty much," Kai replied with a grin.
What Hinata had just unleashed could no longer be called the traditional Hyūga Gentle Fist. Instead, it was an Ōtsutsuki Gentle Fist technique enhanced by the Tenseigan's repulsive force!
Ōtsutsuki Gentle Fist: Repulsion - Thirty-Two Palms!
Each strike carried the repulsive power granted by the Tenseigan, hitting Crow like miniature bombs exploding inside the puppet's wooden frame. A mere wooden construct couldn't withstand such devastating force and was instantly reduced to sawdust.
"Damn it!"
Kankurō's anger burned hotter than his fear. He reached into his ninja pouch and pulled out a scroll, ready to unfurl it. As a puppeteer, he naturally carried more than one puppet—the Crow on his back was just a decoy. His truly powerful puppets were sealed within scrolls.
"Stop it, Kankurō."
A cold voice cut through the tension from behind him. Kankurō's body instinctively froze at the sound. Though reluctant, he muttered, "But Gaara... she destroyed my Crow."
"I said stop. Didn't you hear me? Besides... you're no match for her," Gaara said icily, the gourd on his back shifting as he stepped forward with that chilling stare.
Faced with Gaara's frigid gaze, Kankurō immediately halted his actions. Despite being Gaara's older brother, Kankurō feared him just as much as everyone else in Sunagakure.
Gaara raised both hands toward Hinata as golden sand began flowing from his gourd. His voice dropped to a menacing whisper:
"Sand Burial!"
Countless grains of sand surged toward Hinata, seeking to engulf her completely.
But halfway through its trajectory, the sand froze mid-air. No matter how hard Gaara tried to control it, the sand wouldn't budge an inch.
Gaara had never encountered anything like this. He poured more power into his technique, his expression growing increasingly manic. A savage aura began radiating from his body—the presence of the tailed beast within him: Shukaku, the One-Tail.
"Can't have you causing a ruckus in the village, little tanuki," came a playful voice as Kai strolled over casually.
Already teetering on the edge of madness, Gaara didn't even look. He simply manipulated his sand into countless projectiles shaped like shuriken, launching them at Kai. Yet none could penetrate within a meter of Kai's position.
"Shukaku! Settle down!" Kai said mildly.
Simultaneously, a surge of Yin-Yang Release energy erupted from Kai's body.
The moment Shukaku sensed this aura, terror gripped the tailed beast. It knew Yin-Yang Release all too well—the Sage of Six Paths had used this very power to create Shukaku and the other eight tailed beasts.
Immediately, Shukaku retreated to the deepest recesses of Gaara's consciousness, not daring to make another move. The beast understood perfectly just how terrifying someone who wielded Yin-Yang Release could be.
Clarity returned to Gaara's eyes, now filled with fear as he glanced at Kai. Without a word, he turned and walked away. Though he'd been consumed by rage moments before, he hadn't completely lost his reason. This man had suppressed the monster inside him with nothing but his presence—Gaara didn't dare imagine the extent of Kai's power.
Seeing Gaara retreat, Kankurō could only glare resentfully at Hinata before following his brother, along with Temari who had been watching silently from the sidelines.
Only then did Hinata notice Kurenai and Kai nearby. She quickly bowed politely. "Hello, Kurenai-sensei. And... hello, senior." As she spoke, she looked at Kai with puzzled recognition, finding him strangely familiar.
Kai understood why, of course. The Tenseigan mark he'd placed on Hinata's Byakugan naturally made her feel an inexplicable affinity toward him.
Though that wasn't the mark's primary purpose—it was designed to accelerate the Byakugan's evolution and grant it the potential to awaken the Tenseigan.
"You're Hinata, right? Just call me Big Brother," Kai said with a warm smile.
Kurenai shot him an exasperated look. Having her student call him "Big Brother"? Only Kai would have such nerve. Still, she didn't object.
Hinata hesitated briefly before nodding shyly. "Um... hello, Big Brother."
Kai chuckled and ruffled her hair gently. "Come on, Big Brother's treating you to barbecue." Then, glancing at Kurenai, he added, "Let's invite Anko too. I came straight to find you after getting back—she might get jealous if she finds out later."
Kurenai's cheeks flushed crimson at his teasing words.
Several days passed in a flash, and the Chūnin Exams officially commenced.
As chief examiner, Kai was responsible for designing every stage of the examination. However, he couldn't be bothered with the hassle and simply copied the original exam format from his memories. This earned him enthusiastic praise from the Third Hokage.
"Brother, we've got a problem!" Anko burst into the examiner's office, her face tight with anxiety as she looked at Kai lounging casually in his chair. Breathing hard, she reported, "We found a corpse at the edge of the Forest of Death—an out-of-village ninja with his face completely erased. Based on my analysis, it's definitely the work of Orochimaru's Face-Copying Technique."
Anko knew Orochimaru all too well—her former teacher and Konoha's S-rank rogue ninja. If he'd infiltrated the Chūnin Exams, he was undoubtedly plotting something major.
Kai raised an eyebrow, his expression shifting to one of intrigue.
Orochimaru, huh?
So he had survived the Planetary Devastation from their battle in Kirigakure after all.
This sparked a flicker of interest in Kai. "Knowing I'm the chief examiner for these exams, you still dared to show up. I wonder what gave you such courage, Orochimaru..."
~~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~~
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