Two flowers bloom, each with a different branch.
While Tsunade was racing against time in the bath, the battle outside the arcade had reached a fever pitch.
"The lightning dancing at your fingertips is my unwavering faith!"
"Take this! — Earth Style: Vacuum Great Sphere!"
A massive water ball roared past, narrowly evaded by Kakuzu, setting a large tree behind him ablaze.
"Is this the Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu this time?" Kakuzu murmured to himself, glancing back with some numbness.
At this point, he had already dodged several of Natsuhiko's randomly executed elemental jutsus, getting closer and closer to him. With each dodge, his movements became more composed, as he gradually discerned the weaknesses in Natsuhiko's tactics.
Natsuhiko's strategy, which used a rock-paper-scissors-like approach with elemental jutsus to exploit weaknesses, involved fast-moving jutsus to prevent the enemy from discerning their nature in time. As a result, the jutsu's range was naturally limited, and the flight paths were rather predictable. Moreover, despite being specialized for speed, they did not reach a level threatening enough to endanger a Kage-level expert like Kakuzu.
Thus, as long as Kakuzu abandoned his pride as a master of jutsu and refrained from playing along with Natsuhiko's game, opting instead to dodge directly, Natsuhiko's attacks would not stand a chance of hitting him.
Soon, Kakuzu was within striking distance of Natsuhiko.
Earth Style: Earth Spear!
As soon as he entered attack range, Kakuzu immediately dashed above Natsuhiko and swung a pitch-black fist down toward his head.
Boom!
In the next moment, the ground beneath the two collapsed, leaving a large crater covered in spider-web cracks!
Amid the swirling dust and debris, Natsuhiko's figure flew out, seemingly unharmed. Although he had dodged Kakuzu's attack at the last moment, the power of that blow had still made his expression change slightly.
The Earth Style: Earth Spear, being Kakuzu's signature technique, might not have looked as flashy as his other jutsus, but it was an outstanding attack and defense technique. It not only hardened his skin to a near-black hue, greatly enhancing his defense, but could also transform his hands into indestructible weapons akin to the Rock Fist Technique unique to Iwagakure, delivering devastating strikes to his opponent. Moreover, unlike the Rock Fist Technique, it did not suffer a significant loss in speed due to the heavy rocks, making it easier to land hits.
Just like now, Kakuzu, after missing his first strike, had little delay and quickly propelled himself off the ground, launching toward Natsuhiko again with his blackened fists, giving him no chance to breathe.
Fortunately, this time Natsuhiko was prepared.
Although Kakuzu's mastery in taijutsu was formidable, Natsuhiko's daily taijutsu training and sparring sessions with Might Duy were not for nothing! Though his new technique wasn't perfected yet, he intended to use Kakuzu, a seasoned veteran, to test the results of his self-created Rain-Born Fluid Technique!
This time, instead of retreating, Natsuhiko advanced toward Kakuzu.
As Kakuzu's fist once again rushed toward him, Natsuhiko calmly adjusted his breathing, relaxing himself as much as possible. He then raised his left hand slowly, drawing a circle in the air.
His seemingly leisurely lift positioned his hand right in the path of Kakuzu's punch, as if it would soon be crushed to pieces.
At least, that was what Kakuzu believed.
To his surprise, however, his heavy strike veered off course the moment it touched Natsuhiko's arm, missing entirely!
What just happened? How was this possible?
Unconvinced, Kakuzu immediately swung his other fist. Yet, once again, with a simple block from Natsuhiko, his punch flew outward uncontrollably, causing him to stumble forward from the excess momentum.
Natsuhiko seized this opportunity, flipping his wrist to draw a kunai and swiftly aiming for Kakuzu's heart.
Unfortunately, as expected, Kakuzu quickly reinforced his body with the Earth Spear technique at the first sign of a flaw, leaving no opening.
Natsuhiko could only smile wryly and take advantage of the moment to widen the distance between them slightly.
Thus, their close-quarters exchange had lasted only two rounds.
As with Natsuhiko's earlier unpredictable maneuvers, the Rain-Born Fluid Technique immediately proved effective, leaving Kakuzu bewildered.
However, this confusion was unlikely to last long.
As Kakuzu advanced once more, he scoured his memories for a similar technique, and soon found one.
It was the Gentle Fist!
Natsuhiko was using Gentle Fist!?
But wasn't that the secret technique of the Hyuga Clan?
Despite his skepticism, after several more exchanges with Natsuhiko, Kakuzu was fairly certain of his assumption.
Though the technique differed in its details, it felt remarkably similar to what he had experienced before.
His memories weren't of an ordinary Hyuga Clan member, but of the man once known as the Hyuga Tenjin, a legendary figure during the Warring States Period. Back then, even without his current abilities, Kakuzu had been one of the most promising young warriors due to his mastery of Earth Style.
Yet, when facing that man, he had been completely overwhelmed.
Even in an era when Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha shone as twin stars, that man had still managed to stand out as a brilliant figure.
And his fighting style was indeed like the Gentle Fist Natsuhiko was using!
There was a reason why Kakuzu emphasized the Gentle Fist of the Hyuga Tenjin specifically.
The Gentle Fist used by today's Hyuga Clan was nowhere near as formidable as the one the Hyuga Tenjin had used!
This was something Kakuzu had experienced firsthand in confrontations with the modern Hyuga.
While they seemed to be using the same Gentle Fist, the difference in actual combat effectiveness was immense.
The reason for this was complex, but Kakuzu, having witnessed both versions, knew one crucial point:
It was about deflecting force.
The Hyuga Tenjin's Gentle Fist had an extraordinary technique, releasing chakra from various acupoints at the moment of impact to either deflect or nullify incoming attacks.
The Hyuga Clan's renowned Eight Trigrams Palm: Rotation was a specialized application of this technique.
Compared to the fixed patterns of Rotation, the ability to use this deflecting technique flexibly could produce even greater results depending on the user's skill.
In a sense, both the Gentle Fist and Kakuzu's Earth Spear technique shared limitless potential, with their effectiveness depending solely on the practitioner's mastery.
Interestingly, one technique was soft while the other was hard, mirroring the duality of hard and soft martial arts, causing Kakuzu to marvel at nature's wonders.
Unfortunately, the modern Gentle Fist leaned more toward chakra point-sealing techniques, and few practitioners could even perform the Rotation nowadays.
According to rumors, it's said that after the Hyuga clan established their roots in Konoha and external pressures diminished, they implemented a rule that only the main family could learn advanced Gentle Fist techniques. This was done to avoid any potential rebellion from the branch family.
Naturally, this also included the use of the Rotation (Hakkeshō Kaiten).
As a result, the branch family couldn't learn these advanced Gentle Fist techniques, and the main family, in an effort to prevent the bloodline's secrets from leaking out, lacked sufficient real-world combat experience.
Over time, while the forms of the Hyuga clan's Gentle Fist techniques remained intact, the intricate variations within them had all but disappeared, leaving only the superficial form.
Because of this, Kakuzu had long assumed that he would probably never witness such techniques again in his lifetime, and had even mentally shelved these memories, thinking they would never be relevant again.
He never expected that now, through a young man who wasn't even a member of the Hyuga clan, his memories of these techniques would be revived...
As Kakuzu was lost in his memories, his hands didn't stop moving, and he continued attacking Natsuhiko while constantly comparing the moves to his recollections.
Though the techniques still had many immature and rough aspects, the underlying thought process indeed bore a striking resemblance!
Kakuzu reached this conclusion once more. Moreover, this immaturity suggested that Natsuhiko hadn't directly learned the techniques from somewhere, but rather, had developed them on his own!
The moment he realized this, Kakuzu began to look at Natsuhiko in a different light.
After all, in his long life, prodigies with strong learning abilities came and went like crops of wheat; one generation would die, only for another to quickly emerge.
However, individuals with powerful creative abilities were extremely rare!
Could it be that he had truly revived the legendary techniques of the Hyuga's Heavenly Ninja in modern times all on his own?
While this seemed to be an undeniable fact, Kakuzu still had some doubts.
To achieve this, the key factor was being able to freely release chakra from various acupoints throughout the body.
It sounded simple, but it was actually quite risky, requiring complete control over one's chakra network to even practice. Otherwise, it was courting death.
This was something only the Hyuga clan, who possessed the Byakugan, could do.
By all logic, Amou Natsuhiko shouldn't be able to master this technique at all.
How did he manage to do it?
As the intense attacks continued, Kakuzu started to notice subtle differences.
Although Natsuhiko's techniques were very similar to those used by the Hyuga Heavenly Ninja in his memory, upon closer inspection, there were minute differences.
From Kakuzu's perspective, the Hyuga's techniques would let him feel a force, which used the principle of yielding to overcome, dispersing his attacks and even counterattacking.
But Natsuhiko's technique gave him a feeling of slipping, making it impossible to maintain his original attack trajectory.
At this thought, Kakuzu suddenly had an idea and launched another attack.
This time, he pretended to throw a punch but actually attempted to grab Natsuhiko's arm!
As a result, when his hand, like an iron clamp, grasped Natsuhiko's wrist, Natsuhiko merely pulled back, and his hand slipped effortlessly from Kakuzu's grip.
Indeed, it was different!
This time, the contact area between Kakuzu's hand and Natsuhiko was larger, allowing him to distinctly feel the difference.
He stepped back a few paces, raised his hand to dismiss the Earth Spear technique, and noticed a slippery sensation on his hand.
This is...
Kakuzu suddenly realized something and understood it all in an instant.
On the other side, Natsuhiko saw this and gave a resigned smile.
"As expected of the legendary bounty hunter, Mr. Kakuzu. You figured out the secret behind my technique so quickly."
As he spoke, it was as if a veil was lifted from his arms. What had been camouflaged as ordinary arms using a projection technique now revealed their true form.
Natsuhiko's hands were actually covered in a fine, white substance.
Upon closer inspection, one would find that it was made up of countless tiny soap bubbles!
"Foam, I covered my hands in foam," Natsuhiko explained with a smile. "This is the secret behind my Rain Fluid Technique."
"Of course, if you prefer, you could also call it... the Foam Gentle Fist."
(End of the chapter)