CHAPTER 240: CHAPTER 240: NO NEED TO FOLLOW THE ANCESTORS—I’LL SURPASS THEM!

["Persuasion" Training Complete]

[Evaluation: Excellent]

[Reward: Eight Trigrams — Air Palm]

When did I ever teach Hiashi how to scam people?!

Kyoichi felt utterly wronged.

Every word he said to Hiashi had come from the heart—not a single lie in the whole conversation. He hadn’t taught Hiashi how to con anyone. And that "128 Palms" thing...

Didn’t Neji use that already?

Don’t tell me Hiashi isn’t even on Neji’s level?

No way, right?

That guy didn’t really go back and bluff his clan into believing he’d mastered the 128 Palms... did he?

Seeing the reward, Kyoichi was momentarily stunned.

Air Palm was great.

But this situation...

Was definitely a bit off.

Kyoichi sat for a while. His Sage Chakra had now completely filled the Yin Seal. From here on out, further training would mainly be about helping his body adapt to natural energy.

Slow and steady work.

Back in the village, he was curious to learn what exactly had gone down in the Hyūga clan, but unfortunately, that was internal clan business—no way an outsider like him could find out.

Helpless, he first claimed his reward.

Air Palm...

In the hands of the Hyūga, it was the Eight Trigrams Air Palm. But in Kyoichi’s case, it was simply a way to project chakra through the air.

After all, he didn’t have the Byakugan, and thus no access to the Eight Trigrams field.

However...

As for striking chakra points...

That wasn’t necessarily impossible.

While there might be slight individual differences in chakra network paths, the general locations of the tenketsu (acupoints) were the same. As long as he had a solid grasp of human meridians, he could achieve a similar effect.

With proper training and enough understanding of the chakra circulatory system, such feats weren’t difficult—

at least not for someone with Kyoichi’s level of knowledge. Pinpointing tenketsu was well within his reach.

Looking at it that way, Air Palm could still prove useful.

Besides...

The Hyūga used it with ordinary chakra, but Kyoichi could combine it with high-pressure wind blades—or even explore whether it could be infused with Sage Chakra.

It might not match the scale of something like the Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack, but it’d still blow the Hyūga’s version out of the water.

Total profit!

Kyoichi was feeling good.

As for what Hiashi had done, he could already guess a bit—probably something like bluffing the clan with the claim that he had created a new technique, and using that to justify lifting some technique restrictions.

Kyoichi didn’t plan to pry.

But news, as always, had wings.

Not long after, Mukai snuck into his office like a guilty thief.

"Kyoichi-sama, Hiashi-sama has lifted the restriction on the Sixty-Four Palms. Now, any branch family member who reaches jōnin rank can learn it."

"How do you know that?"

Kyoichi raised an eyebrow.

Sure, he had guessed it, but Mukai knowing was unexpected.

Mukai hesitated, a bit embarrassed. "Hiashi-sama came to me earlier and asked if I wanted to learn it. Then he told me about it, but I didn’t accept."

He quickly added, "I think he wasn’t really trying to teach me—he just wanted me to pass the word to you."

"You should’ve said yes. Hiashi is the type to keep things strictly separate—he doesn’t mix personal feelings with official decisions."

That was the impression Kyoichi had developed after several interactions with Hiashi, both directly and from what he knew of him in the anime.

When it came to matters like Hizashi, Hiashi had drawn clear lines.

Even with Kyoichi himself, Hiashi had first offered access to the clan’s archives before even broaching the topic of the academy—he never tried to bundle the two.

It was likely the same with Mukai.

Still...

Mukai shook his head and said, "Even if I wasn’t lucky enough to become your disciple, I want to follow your example. Just because a technique was passed down doesn’t mean it’s the strongest. I want to carve out my own Gentle Fist."

"Good. If you’ve got that kind of ambition, then I’m not worried about you."

Kyoichi smiled.

That kind of thinking meant Mukai had completely let go of any bitterness toward the Hyūga. He was now looking at things with a calm heart, including his own complicated relationship with the clan.

"Gentle Fist is all about striking chakra points and damaging internal organs. The Sixty-Four Palms follows the same principle. If you want to develop your own style, read more medical books."

"Thank you so much for the guidance!"

Mukai was overjoyed. That one line from Kyoichi meant more to him than if Hiashi had simply handed him the Sixty-Four Palms scroll.

Kyoichi thought for a second and added, "With your particular situation, you might not even need to stick to the Gentle Fist path. Just follow your instincts."

"Yes!"

Mukai nodded deeply.

Kyoichi had said a lot of inspiring things over the years, but the one line Mukai liked best was:

"Everyone’s path is different."

So what if he was a Hyūga?

He’d walk his own road.

These past few years, he’d already stopped using the traditional Gentle Fist. Instead, he’d focused entirely on developing his taijutsu and ninjutsu, not planning to get involved with the Hyūga any further.

That was also one of the reasons he turned down Hiashi.

After Mukai left, Kyoichi fell into deep thought.

Lifting the restriction on the Sixty-Four Palms...

That had to be Hiashi’s first move.

Testing the waters, lowering boundaries step by step—until eventually, he could achieve the unification of the main and branch families. If he pulled it off, even the Four Symbols Reverse Seal would be nothing more than a transitional measure.

As for the Byakugan...

If it could be evolved into the Tenseigan, then sure, it would become a formidable kekkei genkai.

But unfortunately, Kyoichi didn’t meet any of the criteria for that.

So he dropped that line of thought altogether.

Hiashi’s decisions wouldn’t affect the village as a whole. The only people impacted would be the Hyūga themselves. And given their current internal state, there wasn’t going to be any kind of civil war.

And if there was...

It’d just be the old hardliners from the main family getting swept out by Hiashi and the branch families.

Trying to fight the tide of the times...

Would only lead to being drowned by it.

The inner workings of the Hyūga might have been a mystery to outsiders—but the ripple effect hit the village soon enough.

All of the Hyūga children of academy age...

Had enrolled in the ninja academy.

It was major news.

The Hyūga had always relied on internal instruction. For them to send their children to the public academy?

It smelled a lot like compromise.

People started speculating about power shifts in the village.

But...

Several days passed with no changes in policy. It genuinely looked like the Hyūga had simply decided to send their kids to school.

Business as usual.

Except for one thing—

Every afternoon through evening, the academy grounds now had a new group of Hyūga kids relentlessly training their Gentle Fist techniques.

Driven by the dream of mastering the Sixty-Four Palms, these kids were putting in sweat and blood, practicing like there was no tomorrow.

No rest, no mercy.

Their presence alone was enough to make the academy grounds even more crowded.

"This damned school’s getting more competitive by the day... I wanna graduate—I need to graduate now!"

Anko wailed in despair.

She was deeply regretting her past decisions.

Why hadn’t she applied for early graduation back then?

A year or two ago, if you had decent talent, graduating at age seven or eight wasn’t hard.

Now, even thinking about graduating felt like a luxury.

And the worst part was—

"Even if you graduate, you’ll still be stuck here. Just look outside—at your current level, even if you make chūnin, you’ll end up like him."

Hayate said, half-dead from exhaustion.

Outside the window, Uchiha Obito was running laps around the track in a handstand—still training at the academy despite technically graduating. His bright green jumpsuit was blindingly vivid.

Anko fell silent.

Then leapt across the room and throttled Hayate.

"Why would you say that?! Aaaaaah! I’m gonna strangle you, you sickly twig!"

"Cough! Cough!"

Hayate started hacking violently, and Anko quickly let go—if he had a relapse, she’d get blamed again.

But ever since his recovery...

The guy had become way too sarcastic.

Still...

She had to admit her theoretical classes weren’t exactly stellar.

Damn it!

"I don’t want to end up like Obito! That settles it—starting today, I’m gonna study for real! I refuse to be a chūnin who gets sent back here just because of some dumb exam. And you! You’re not even good at theory either—what right do you have to mock me?"

"Oh, I’ve already made peace with staying. For all we know, the academy might become mandatory for all chūnin in the future."

Hayate looked perfectly calm.

His uncle Ichiki was an ANBU squad leader and often worked with Kyoichi. Thanks to that connection, Hayate got all kinds of inside info.

So...

In their whole class, when it came to Kyoichi intel, Hayate confidently claimed second place—and dared anyone to name a first.

Those cunning and terrifying schemes...

Definitely weren’t over.

Take Uchiha Obito out there. Until he passed his theory exams, he could forget ever leaving the ninja academy.

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