Swish! Swish! Swish!
The first volley of water needles shrieked through the air.
Kazama Yue's silhouette was instantly riddled with holes.
BOOM!
Soil and water sprayed in every direction as the exploding needles disintegrated into a fine, shimmering mist. The afterimage slowly faded into nothingness.
Through the haze, Hinami stared straight ahead.
Not far away, riding a gentle current of air, Yue's tall, lean figure flickered into existence. The light of condescension had vanished from his eyes, replaced by a cold, razor-sharp focus.
Whoosh!
The mist in the air seemed to be stirred by an invisible wind. It twisted like a serpentine dragon, coiling around Hinami—who hadn't moved a single inch from her original spot—and let out a silent roar toward the distant Jonin.
"That girl... was that signless Water Style? Am I seeing things, brother?"
"I... I'm not sure myself."
The teachers on the sidelines were buzzing. They had come out expecting to see a juicy scandal involving the Academy's most popular bachelor and a secret love child. Instead, they were witnessing a rare, signless mastery of Water Style—performed by a six-year-old blind girl.
Mitsuda-sensei cast a suspicious glance at the dazed Might Guy standing next to him.
Back in the day, Guy used to get his fingers into literal knots trying to perform the basic Academy Jutsu. Now his "daughter" was using signless Water Style? Something didn't add up. Mitsuda looked at Guy's green jumpsuit, then his honest, somewhat goofy face, and finally back at Hinami, who stood shrouded in mist like a young celestial being.
Hiss... He got the feeling there was a much deeper story here.
"Guy," Mitsuda called out.
Guy, who was currently busy mentally calculating how he would break through Hinami's water defense if he were the opponent, looked over in a daze.
"This daughter of yours... she's quite a sudden development. You never mentioned her before."
"Uh... yeah, it was pretty sudden. I didn't expect it to happen this fast either..."
Seeing Guy's genuine confusion, Mitsuda sighed and shook his head, turning back to the fight.
At the center of the field, Kazama Yue's brow was furrowed. The blind girl and her circling mist dragon were proving to be a nightmare.
Signless jutsu? Or a Bloodline Limit? He couldn't tell.
Her speed, power, and control were top-tier. Close-quarters Taijutsu seemed impossible to land. The Wind Style he specialized in was destructive, but this girl wasn't a battlefield enemy; he couldn't bring himself to use high-lethality jutsu on a child.
His only option was a high-speed blitz. He had to breach that strange water defense. Once he closed the gap, a girl that frail-looking wouldn't last a single move.
Finally, he kept a wary eye on the cane in her hand. It looked like a simple wooden stick with a metal tip, but he hadn't forgotten the shattered marble in his office.
Opposite him, Hinami tilted her head. The Byakugan didn't grant telepathy, so she didn't understand why Yue was staring so intently at her "walking stick."
While she waited for his move, she performed her own analysis. When Yue had dodged the needles, he had used an unknown Body Flicker technique. It was incredibly fast. Unless she concentrated her entire strength into a burst of speed, she wouldn't catch him.
But her muscular endurance was limited. To defeat a Jonin instructor, she would likely only get one shot.
Suddenly, Yue wove a single-handed sign.
Fwah!
His figure blurred. A violent gale kicked up. He reappeared instantly on Hinami's left, throwing a heavy punch.
Wind Style: Gale Flicker!
Hinami's Byakugan locked onto him with surgical precision. The mist dragon solidified instantly, forming a wall of water between them.
Thud!
Yue's fist slammed into the water wall, creating a deep crater. Hinami raised her hand and made a grasping motion toward him.
Splash!
The wall collapsed inward, transforming into a giant liquid hand that tried to crush the Jonin. Yue kicked off the ground, narrowly escaping the surge, his hands already weaving the next set of signs.
He finished just as the second wave lunged for him.
Whoosh!
The wind roared again. This time, he appeared on her right.
Whoosh!
The water curtain barely managed to pivot in time to block him.
"She's going to lose," one teacher whispered.
"Yeah. Yue-sensei is too experienced. He's already found the weakness of that Water Style."
"What a pity."
"What weakness?" the "eternal loser" Might Guy asked, confused.
Mitsuda-sensei looked at the idiot beside him, his suspicions now fully confirmed. "The weakness is direction."
"Direction?"
"Listen, I told you to study more," Mitsuda explained patiently. "The nature of Water Style is flow, and its power comes from pressure. It relies on momentum and mass. But Yue-sensei is using his Gale Flicker to constantly change directions. The girl has to keep pivoting her water to follow him. Unlike wind, water is heavy. Each time she forces it to change direction, the accumulated momentum is lost.
It's like a married couple. The husband goes out to do missions, the wife goes out to find her own fun—their energies aren't pulling in the same direction. The family might look fine on the outside, but eventually, the tension will cause a collapse."
As Mitsuda offered his strained metaphor, he watched Guy's face for a reaction. Guy felt like there was a hidden meaning there, but his brain couldn't quite connect the dots, so he just nodded like he understood.
At that moment, Yue shifted again, lunging from Hinami's rear right.
Splash—
The water moved to intercept, but the cracks were starting to show. The internal force of the surging waves had been depleted by the constant redirection. Although a curtain of water formed behind Hinami, Yue could feel its lack of substance. It was hollow. Weak.
Now!
The opening he had been waiting for finally arrived.
Chakra flowed through his limbs, reinforcing his muscles. Yue threw a full-power punch at the mist.
Pshhh!
His fist shattered the superficial water barrier. Hinami's defenseless back was finally exposed.
Yue's dark green eyes reflected the girl's small frame as he launched a textbook uppercut.
I've won! the watching teachers thought in unison. At that distance, there was no way to dodge.
But as the world prepared to watch the girl fall, the unexpected happened.
Faced with a punch that was practically guaranteed to land, Hinami didn't even turn her head. Her invisible gaze had remained locked on Yue the entire time; his chakra flow and muscle contractions were as clear to her as a map in the palm of her hand.
Whoosh!
Hinami moved.
Her left foot stepped back half a pace, causing the uppercut to whistle past her. Simultaneously, her right leg coiled like a heavy longbow drawn to its limit.
She twisted her hips, putting her entire weight into the strike!
Her tibia sliced through the air like a steel whip, her pant leg snapping with the sound of tearing silk. Her brown boot became a blur, a lightning-fast side-kick slamming directly into Yue's chest.
Under the impact, Yue's eyes turned bloodshot, nearly bulging from their sockets as the sole of the boot sank into his sternum.
BOOM!
The surrounding mist exploded outward.
A tall figure was sent flying in a "V" shape, skipping across the training ground for over ten meters before tumbling to a stop, carving a long trench into the dirt.
The watching teachers stared, their eyes nearly popping out of their heads.
They looked toward the center of the field, where the blind girl was calmly retracting her right leg. The sole of her boot, heated by the friction of the air, was scorched black.
As she stepped onto the wet ground...
Sizzle!
The moisture instantly boiled, and a plume of hot steam rose from beneath her feet.