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[— Manga Scene —]
All the clones charged at the exact same moment.
"RAAAAAAAH!!"
From the front, the sides, and behind, dozens of orange-clad figures rushed toward the boy standing at the center, kunai drawn.
"!!"
In the stands, Hinata gasped and clasped her hands against her chest. Kiba bared his fangs while Akamaru barked atop his head, while Tenten merely narrowed her eyes.
Down in the arena, the first clone reached him.
"Got you!!"
Naruto shouted as his fist came crashing straight toward his opponent's face.
"…"
"!"
"Huh?!!"
In a fraction of a second, the blow veered off course, as though something invisible had pushed his arm away.
Then Neji began to spin.
Chakra erupted from his entire body at once, wrapping around him in a blue whirlwind as the clones were blasted away in every direction!
"RAAAH!!"
Smoke. Bodies vanishing. Kunai scattering across the ground.
When the dust cleared, Neji stood at the center of a circular crater carved into the arena floor, without a speck of dust on his clothes.
Several meters away, the real Naruto stood panting.
"What was that!?"
"Do you think…"
Neji slowly raised his head.
"…you've won?"
"How did he…"
Hiashi muttered from the stands, his eyes wide.
"Why?! Naruto hit him!"
Ino shouted in disbelief.
"Cough… cough…"
Beside her, Hinata began coughing, one hand covering her mouth.
"That's…"
"Hehe…"
Tenten smiled.
"That's Neji's defense…"
"Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven…"
Hiashi said quietly, while little Hanabi's eyes remained glued to the arena.
"Neji's Byakugan gives him an almost complete 360-degree field of vision… He can see everything around him and sense every attack his opponent makes."
"And because Neji's defense is automatic, the Revolving Heaven begins the instant he is attacked. He releases a large amount of chakra from every chakra point throughout his body to stop the opponent's attack… then rapidly spins his body to deflect it."
"In truth, controlling chakra released directly from the chakra points is extremely difficult. Even a jōnin can normally release only a small amount from the hands and feet to perform specialized techniques."
"But Neji can control all of his chakra points. He can release chakra from his entire body and use its centrifugal force to nullify any ordinary attack."
"In other words…"
"It's even stronger than Gaara's Absolute Defense."
"It's another kind…"
"…of Absolute Defense!!"
Up on the contestants' balcony, Gaara's eyelid twitched.
"What is that, Father?"
Hanabi asked.
"A secret technique passed down only within the Hyūga Clan… through the Main Family."
"And yet, he recreated the technique on his own…"
'What is with this boy? I never expected him to be this powerful…'
"It's too early to be surprised."
Tenten spoke without taking her eyes off the arena.
"Neji hasn't shown his true strength yet."
"Damn it!"
Naruto dropped to one knee, panting, while Neji assumed a new stance—low, both arms extended.
"This will be the end."
"Because you are within my Eight Trigrams field."
Beneath the two of them, an enormous circular diagram appeared: overlapping circles, ancient symbols, the Yin-Yang symbol at its center, with Neji standing at its heart…
And Naruto at its edge.
[— End Scene —]
…
Konohagakure:
The Art Store erupted into noise.
"He spun around and completely nullified the attack…"
"Look at the crater beneath him. The force of the rotation carved into the ground itself."
"And Hinata is coughing… Looks like she still hasn't fully recovered."
"Stronger than Gaara's defense? That's a bold claim."
In one corner of the Art Store, a group of shinobi had gathered around a single table, their conversation shifting from commentary into serious discussion.
"All right, suppose you're on a mission and encounter someone using this defense. What do you do?"
asked a shinobi wearing a chūnin vest.
"Retreat."
The bearded jōnin beside him answered without lifting his eyes from the volume.
"I'm serious."
"So am I. Read the explanation carefully. He releases chakra from every chakra point in his body and turns it into a rotation. No blind spot, no moment of vulnerability. Any physical attack gets thrown right back."
"Then long-range techniques."
"Against an eye with 360-degree vision? He'll spot the technique before you finish the hand seals."
"Traps. Ground traps don't require hand seals."
"His eyes can see underground too, genius."
Two of the seated shinobi laughed, while the first scratched his head.
"Then what's left?"
"Attrition."
A third jōnin, who had remained silent until then, finally spoke.
"A rotation that large must consume a considerable amount of chakra every time. Force him to use it twenty times, thirty times… and eventually his reserves will run dry."
"You're right… but that requires an attacker whose attacks never run out."
"Exactly."
Then everyone slowly, almost simultaneously, turned toward the open page before them…
Toward the blond boy standing at the edge of the circle.
"…"
"Well. This match just became more interesting than I thought."
Meanwhile, in the eastern section of the Art Store, the Hyūga Clan was experiencing two contradictory emotions at once.
"Revolving Heaven! One of the clan's greatest arts is being displayed before the Five Great Villages!"
"Releasing chakra from every chakra point simultaneously… Do you understand how difficult that is?! Even jōnin can only release it from their hands and feet!"
"And that boy is only thirteen!"
But Hizashi wasn't celebrating.
He kept reading the same line over and over.
A secret technique passed down only through the Main Family… and yet, he recreated the technique on his own.
"Recreated it on his own…"
Hiashi murmured beside his brother, his eyes still fixed on the sentence.
"The clan of that future locked this art away within one half of itself… and the boy imprisoned in the other half reinvented it entirely on his own. Without a teacher, without a scroll, and without permission."
"…"
"So tell me, Hizashi…"
"What exactly was the lock protecting?"
Hizashi did not answer.
But Masanori, seated two places away, heard the question perfectly…
And chose not to intervene.
…
Sunagakure:
Inside Sunagakure's Art Store, a single sentence had set the entire place ablaze.
It's even stronger than Gaara's Absolute Defense.
"A man from Konoha ranks their boy's defense above the Sand's ultimate weapon… just like that?"
"Calm down. He's talking about defense, not overall combat strength."
"And that makes it better?! Absolute Defense was our title!"
"It isn't exactly absolute anymore if someone else has an equivalent… is it?"
Amid the heated argument, the young genin Baki noticed something entirely different.
"Wait… did anyone notice that small panel?"
"What panel?"
"Gaara. On the contestants' balcony. His eyelid twitched when they said it."
A brief silence fell around the boy.
"It twitched? That thing who said family was nothing but lumps of flesh… his eyelid twitches because someone was said to have a stronger defense than him?"
"Looks like even the monster has some pride."
An elderly jōnin shook his head.
Rasa, meanwhile, closed the volume around one finger and looked at the small panel one last time.
'Pride… or something else.'
'Either way, it seems Gaara isn't as empty as he claims.'
…
Kumogakure:
"Yooooo! Did you see that spin?! Human tornado, man! Human tornado~!"
"Shut up, B."
A stood in front of his seat, arms crossed, eyes fixed on the page depicting the blue whirlwind.
"Absolute Defense… nullifying every ordinary attack through the centrifugal force of chakra."
"Brother, you've been staring at that page for five minutes."
"Because there's something wrong with that sentence, B."
"Wrong?"
"There is no such thing as an absolute defense."
A's fist slowly clenched.
"There are only attacks that aren't fast enough."
"…That means extra training tonight, doesn't it?"
"That means double training tonight."
"Yooooo… why did I open my mouth…"
Deep within him, the Eight-Tails burst into booming laughter.
"A defense stronger than Shukaku's defense! Hahahaha! Wait until that crazy pile of sand hears about this! He won't sleep for another thousand years!"
'He doesn't sleep in the first place.'
"That's why I said another!"
…
Iwagakure:
In Iwa, Ōnoki tapped his pipe three times before speaking.
"Kitsuchi. How old is that boy in these pages?"
"Thirteen, Tsuchikage-sama."
"Thirteen… and he can release chakra from all three hundred and sixty-one chakra points simultaneously."
"Is that concerning?"
"The boy isn't what concerns me, Kitsuchi."
The old man exhaled a cloud of smoke.
"What concerns me is that this is the second monster we've seen from the same generation. The Sand boy with his defense, the Hyūga boy with his defense, and the blond with his fox… One generation, three things that can't be defeated through ordinary methods."
"And all three are in the same arena right now."
"That is precisely what concerns me. When you gather every heavy weapon in one place…"
Ōnoki paused, his eyes narrowing.
"…either someone is showing off…"
"…or someone is planning something."
…
Kirigakure:
In Kiri, the young Zabuza sat before the open page, his fingers slowly moving through the air, imitating movements no one but him could see.
"Father."
"Yes?"
"Silent Killing relies on your opponent not seeing you."
"Correct."
"And this one can see 360 degrees."
"…Correct."
The child fell silent for a moment, his fingers still moving.
"Then the mist is useless against him?"
Genma stared at his son for a long moment.
He was seven years old, already analyzing a fighting style he had yet to learn against an eye he might never encounter.
"The mist blocks normal sight, Zabuza. That eye doesn't see through light… it sees chakra itself."
"Then what does a Silent Killer do against it?"
"That's a very good question."
Genma placed a hand atop his son's head.
"Whoever finds the answer…"
"…can kill a Hyūga."
In the northern section of the Art Store, where the Mizukage sat, Hōzuki Mizuru quietly read the same pages.
'Konoha has eyes that see everything, bodies that repel everything, and a fox that burns everything.'
'And a man who draws everything.'
'…All right.'
'Let's keep reading.'
…
Konohagakure:
Inside the Art Store, Rob stood behind his counter, watching the entire store remain transfixed by the final page.
The circle.
The symbols.
The lowered stance.
Every reader in the store had seen that stance before, during the preliminary rounds…
Right before a small girl fell and did not get back up.
"Drinks! Who wants drinks before the next pages?!"
Rob suddenly raised his voice, causing dozens of pale faces to turn toward him.
"Trust me. You're going to need them."
[+38 AC from Hatake Sakumo]
[+61 AC from Hyūga Hizashi]
[+29 AC from Uzumaki Kushina]
[+…]
'What beautiful numbers for a single day.'
Rob thought as he prepared drinks for the line that formed before him within seconds.
'Tension sells better than happiness. An old rule from Earth, and it works remarkably well here.'
Then he looked toward the final page lying open across hundreds of tables throughout his store.
'As for all of you…'
'…you'd better prepare yourselves.'
'Because the Sixty-Four Palms show mercy to no one.'
____________
Upcoming chapter titles (spoilers):
____________
Chapter 225: Hard Work… Is Just an Illusion!
Chapter 226: The Bird in the Cage!
Chapter 227: The Shocking Revelation!
Chapter 228: Jinchūriki of the Nine-Tails!
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