BANG!! The door was slammed shut with a loud bang, making Koharu Utatane flinch.
Seeing this, Homura Mitokado sighed, thinking to himself that Danzo was still held firmly in Hiruzen's grasp.
Hopefully, after this lesson, Danzo would quiet down a bit...
"Oh, right, Hiruzen."
As if remembering something, Homura suddenly frowned at Hiruzen and asked in a low voice, "The village's strength is already depleted. Is it really okay to let Jiraiya wander outside?"
Hearing this, and thinking of Jiraiya who had left the village under the pretext of "pursuing Orochimaru," Hiruzen sighed inwardly. He said calmly, "He will return when it's time for him to return."
Homura and Koharu exchanged a look. Seeing that Hiruzen was unwilling to say more, they could only shake their heads helplessly, get up, and take their leave.
Click.
Staring at the closed door, Hiruzen remained silent for a long time. The only sound in the room was his breathing.
After a long while, he stood up somewhat stiffly and walked to the office window, his murky eyes indistinct in the rising smoke from his pipe.
Konoha always looked clean after the rain. Dewdrops hung from the eaves, and mottled patches of water were like scattered mirrors inlaid everywhere—on the leaves of trees, on the streetlights, on the tiles of the walls, all reflecting Konoha's prosperity.
Looking at the scenery outside, Hiruzen thought of many things.
He thought of Konoha's hard-won peace, of the internal and external troubles beneath that peace, of Orochimaru and Jiraiya who had left the village, of Tsunade who numbed herself daily in gambling dens, of the orphan left behind by Minato and Kushina, and of the look of admiration in the eyes of that Hyuga child...
"Hsss..."
Hiruzen's chest rose high as he inhaled the bittersweet stream of air into his lungs. He finally exhaled slowly, the ember in his pipe glowing as he pushed all his emotions down to the bottom of his heart.
"It's alright," he murmured after a moment of silence, his voice slightly hoarse, as if speaking to himself. "No matter what must be sacrificed, I will protect everything that Konoha has achieved so painstakingly."
————————
Meanwhile, in Training Ground 44 on the outskirts of Konoha, the Forest of Death, sunlight filtered through the leaves, dappling the shoulders of two figures with flecks of gold.
"Senpai, power rises from the ground, is issued from the spine, a balance of hard and soft..."
"A-da!"
The training posts in front of Hyuga Kumo and Might Guy were both shattered, but the former's was clearly blown apart from the inside, while the latter's looked as if it had been ravaged by heavy fists.
Looking at Might Guy, whose technique was almost entirely without form, relying on brute force, the smile on Hyuga Kumo's face, after teaching him all morning, was beginning to feel strained.
"Huuu." Might Guy, who normally wouldn't get tired even after running around Konoha all day, was now covered in sweat and panting heavily. He couldn't help but scratch his head and laugh helplessly. "Kumo, this improved version of the Gentle Fist is really hard to learn."
"After all, Senpai, you've been practicing the Strong Fist for over a decade. It will certainly take some effort to adjust your body's instincts," Hyuga Kumo shook his head. "Let's stop here for today."
In the Chunin Exams during the Neji vs. Hinata match, Might Guy and Rock Lee had proposed a classification of taijutsu.
Taijutsu that focuses on surface damage, causing fractures or other external injuries through direct attacks, is called "Strong Fist." The Hyuga clan's taijutsu, which damages the enemy's chakra pathway system and internal organs, is called "Gentle Fist." As for the combination of ninjutsu and taijutsu used by Tsunade and the Fourth Raikage, it is called "Ninjutsu Taijutsu Combination."
What Hyuga Kumo was now trying to do was combine the strengths of the Strong Fist and Gentle Fist to develop a taijutsu system that was best suited for him, built on the foundation of the Eight Gates.
"Alright, then..."
Might Guy's words were cut short. Hyuga Kumo suddenly felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as a deep chill rose within him.
It was incredibly sudden, incredibly terrifying.
Every muscle in his body tensed in an instant, and the veins around his Byakugan bulged and spread.
No anomaly.
There was no anomaly at all.
"No, that's not right!" Hyuga Kumo's expression changed drastically. "It's the blind spot!" The Byakugan gave the Hyuga clan members a 360° field of vision, but due to the Caged Bird Seal, branch family members had a 1° blind spot extending backward from the spine!
If the enemy was at close range, a 1° blind spot was insignificant, but if they were at a very long distance...
That 1° would become a sector with an angle of 1°, and as the radius of the sector expanded, it would become an extremely large blind spot!
Tss!!
Sure enough, almost at the instant Hyuga Kumo reacted, the nearly inaudible sound of something tearing through the air reached his ears.
This was an assassination. An assassination targeting him, filled with lethal intent.
That sound, that distance—it was already too late to locate it and then dodge.
Realizing this, Hyuga Kumo's previously grim expression suddenly became calm. Driven by his body's instinct, he slowly closed his eyes.
"Since I can't see it," he thought, "then I won't look."
The next moment, an invisible wave spread out from his body. Hyuga Kumo seemed to have stepped into another world.
All his physical senses were shut off, leaving only the "perception" of his spirit.
There was no whistling wind, no chirping insects, no breathing, no heartbeat...
The world was as silent as death.
It was as if time had stopped for him.
And so, he "saw."
Hyuga Kumo "saw" the kunai behind him, wreathed in a sharp stream of air.
Wind Release: Vacuum Blade, a wind-style ninjutsu that combines shape and nature transformation, infusing a foreign object with wind-style chakra to turn it into an incredibly sharp and swift blade.
The assassin had mastered this jutsu to its peak, its speed so great that even Might Guy hadn't been able to react.
However, under Hyuga Kumo's intuition, the kunai, which should have been impossible to see clearly due to its extreme speed, seemed to be dragging an endless thread, sliding towards him at an incredibly slow pace.
Hyuga Kumo did not turn around. He raised his hand and spread his five fingers, like the unfurling wing of a crane, his knuckles showing the faint yellow calluses from years of fist training under the sunlight.
He caught the kunai's handle in his hand. The swirling wind blade pierced his palm but seemed to hit an invisible iron wall, abruptly stopping in mid-air.
Hyuga Kumo opened his eyes. His pupils, as calm as snow, reflected Might Guy's tense face beside him, and the deep woods fragmented by falling leaves.
Whoever it was, it was impolite not to return a favor.
"Then, I'll return it to you."
He turned and threw the kunai, his movements as swift as a leaf scattered by the wind. The hem of his clothes flew up, revealing a lean waist. The rise and fall of his spine was like a taut bowstring, unleashing all of his strength.
The next moment, the kunai left his hand.
VMMMM!
The ear-piercing shriek of tearing air exploded next to Might Guy's ears. The falling leaves were instantly shredded by the gale, and the yellowed leaves on the ground were swept up into a swirling vortex by the airflow.
Almost simultaneously, the sound of a blade entering flesh came from the distance.
Splurt!