Hyuga Aokawa blinked upon hearing this.
"Guy and I have been training together lately. Once my physical fitness improved, it all just clicked."
Physical training indeed helps with the Body Flicker Technique, so this wasn't exactly a lie.
Hyuga Hizashi, however, didn't doubt him at all.
"Your body is still developing; it's possible you couldn't pull it off before because your physical condition wasn't up to par."
He sighed, sounding a bit self-reproachful. "It was my negligence as a father. I failed to teach you according to your individual needs."
He then thought of the fierce fist technique from their brief exchange. "Did Guy teach you the Hard Fist as well?"
"After training with him for so long, I picked it up just by watching. My body naturally remembered how to exert the force," Hyuga Aokawa responded vaguely.
Hyuga Hizashi nodded slowly.
He remained silent for a good while, processing all this information.
However, the shock and excitement in his heart could not be calmed for a long time.
He looked at Hyuga Aokawa, a gratified smile suddenly appearing on his face.
It was only at this moment that he began to feel like life had a future; his son had grown up and become sensible.
He had lived such a hard life these past few years.
From the moment he was injured, his entire world had changed.
His strength hit a plateau; he couldn't take B-Rank Missions, and he couldn't even get C-Rank Missions.
A descendant of a great clan, a veteran Chunin for many years...
...yet he had to compete with newly graduated Genin for D-Rank Missions, enduring countless cold shoulders.
But with elders to support and a child to raise, he could only swallow his pride.
To make matters worse, the little one wasn't living up to expectations, failing to graduate and being held back.
Even during the Family assessments at the clan meetings, he frequently brought shame upon him.
A thousand thoughts flooded his mind. He pulled Hyuga Aokawa into a tight embrace, his voice filled with joy yet slightly choked with emotion.
"Yokatta, Aokawa. You've finally grown up."
Hyuga Aokawa allowed Hyuga Hizashi to hold him, patting his back. "Dad, I'll be the breadwinner from now on."
"Train hard in the future. Don't go back to the way you were before."
"Don't worry, Dad!"
After the father and son hugged for a while, Hyuga Hizashi finally realized something was amiss.
It's a good thing for you to awaken your Bloodline Limit, but why did you shoot an arrow at your father?
He placed his hands on Hyuga Aokawa's shoulders and pushed him back, preparing to interrogate him.
The quick-witted Hyuga Aokawa beat him to the punch with a grin.
"Dad, it's been a long day. I'm going back to rest now."
With that, he bolted away like a streak of smoke.
"Wait! You little brat, you're pretty fast on your feet!"
Hyuga Hizashi's face was full of mock fury, a vein popping on his forehead.
"Who taught you to shoot a Chakra Arrow directly at your father? That arrow just now was inches from my ear!"
"I won't do it again!"
Hyuga Aokawa didn't dare stop, running even faster.
"There's a next time? You brat, stand still..."
...The next day.
Hyuga Hizashi took Hyuga Aokawa to the foot of a forested mountain in the Land of Fire.
Hyuga Hizashi was panting. "It's been a long time since I've run this far."
He rubbed the aching muscles in his leg.
Ever since his right leg was injured, he had relied entirely on his left leg for support.
Not only had his movement speed slowed down, but his endurance for long distances had also decreased.
"How are you feeling?" Hyuga Aokawa asked with concern.
"I'm fine, just not used to it," Hyuga Hizashi waved his hand, indicating he was okay.
His expression turned solemn as he entered mission mode. "Let's scout the situation first. It's been a while since the mission was posted; the intelligence is likely outdated."
As he spoke, he formed hand seals, and the veins around his eyes began to bulge.
"Byakugan!"
The veins around his eyes instantly protruded, and his vision shifted to black and white. Distant scenery was pulled in rapidly, and the flow of Chakra became clearly visible.
He carefully adjusted his focal distance, meticulously scouting the surroundings, especially the movement in the Village ahead.
A moment later.
He deactivated his Byakugan.
"There's a Village ahead, likely Shantan Village from the map. Let's go check it out."
"Okay," Hyuga Aokawa replied.
Soon, the two arrived outside Shantan Village.
However, they didn't enter the Village directly. Instead, they found a concealed spot on higher ground on the outskirts to hide.
To save Chakra, it was Hyuga Aokawa's turn to activate his Byakugan.
He scanned the situation inside the Village.
On both sides of the road, every household had their doors and windows tightly shut.
Pedestrians on the road were few and far between, all walking in a hurry with numb expressions.
Charred walls, broken doors and windows.
The Village was covered in traces of being plundered by bandits.
Some Shuriken and Kunai were even embedded in the wooden walls.
"As expected, there are always surprises when performing a mission," Hyuga Aokawa grumbled.
"What's wrong?" Hyuga Hizashi asked.
Hyuga Aokawa gave Hyuga Hizashi a rough overview of the situation.
Hyuga Hizashi let out a soft chuckle after hearing it.
"This mission is a C-Rank Mission on the surface, but when you see the reward is as high as fifty thousand Ryo, you should expect a high probability of complications."
Hyuga Aokawa was somewhat surprised. "You mean these kinds of surprises happen often during missions, Dad?"
Hyuga Hizashi nodded with a smile. "To be precise, they occur frequently in missions that are at the higher end of their rank's difficulty."
"Take our C-Rank Mission, for instance. With a fifty thousand Ryo reward, it wouldn't be unreasonable to bump it up to a B-Rank Mission."
"Then why not just designate it as B-Rank from the start?" Hyuga Aokawa was puzzled.
Hyuga Hizashi shook his head. "It's not that simple."
"According to the rules, any mission where no Ninja are expected among the targets is classified as C-Rank or below."
"If the intelligence provided by the client and the targets to be eliminated are just ordinary people, the Village can't forcibly classify it as B-Rank."
"However, when the Village evaluates it, they foresee that the mission might not be simple, so they set the reward at the highest possible limit for the C-Rank range."
At this point, Hyuga Hizashi looked solemn as he continued to instruct Hyuga Aokawa earnestly.
"Therefore, when you accept missions in the future, you need to have a sense of this."
"Any mission where the reward is maxed out for its rank is never as simple as it appears on the surface."
Hyuga Aokawa nodded.
He hadn't expected there to be so much nuance even in just picking a mission.
This was knowledge that wasn't taught in the Ninja Academy.
Or rather, it was knowledge that couldn't be taught.
Because these were unspoken rules, one could only grasp them through doing missions or by having a mentor guide them.
This was the biggest difference between great clans and commoners.
No matter how fair the system was, the advantages brought by Legacy would allow descendants to avoid many detours.
Hyuga Aokawa suddenly remembered that in the original story, Kakashi mentioned that the mission rank could be changed.
So he asked, "If we encounter a surprise that exceeds the mission rank, can't we return to the Village to change the mission?"
"We can, but very few people do so."
Hyuga Hizashi cleared his throat. "Look at our mission, for example."
"Even if a Ninja appears, if their strength isn't high, and we return to the Village to change it to B-Rank, the reward would only increase by maybe ten or twenty thousand Ryo at most, because the original fifty thousand was already a high estimate."
"But we already spent several days traveling, and more time scouting intelligence."
"To get that little extra reward, we'd have to go back to the Village and come back again. Ten days would be gone, and by then, the intelligence would be outdated, so we'd have to scout all over again."
"In that time, it's better to just complete the mission and go back to the Village to take the next one."
"So generally, as long as the enemy's strength is only slightly higher than expected, everyone just finishes it. Very few return to the Village for a change."
Hyuga Aokawa nodded to show he understood.
Hyuga Hizashi also looked at his son with gratification.
Being able to ask these questions showed that his son was truly thinking.
"Then let's go into the Village and take a look."
The father and son descended from the high ground, both with their Byakugan activated, and began to infiltrate the Village one after the other.