[Hyūga Honnō]

It was… strange news, to say the least. That a banished heiress was making her return to the compounds after so long, in this specific turning point in the Hyūga’s history. A ferocious heiress named Raika, and by ferocious, there were no exaggerations…

The first time he saw her upon her return, his eyes hadn’t been wider ever before. To say the least, her physique was extraordinary. The last thing you’d expect a Hyūga to look like… but she was cool. There was an air of carelessness around her that Hon gladly welcomed back to their home… but it wasn’t even his decision to begin with.

Some old habits had to die hard, after all. However, since the last lord’s whereabouts, and the current lady’s orders, Hon was permitted to practice the Main House’s techniques once more. He just… he just kind of had to figure out what to learn first.

Outside at the Hyūga clan’s fighting grounds, wide and open for several types of combat training, Hon was practicing the forms that one took in order to manifest the Eight Trigrams. The Eight Trigrams were a nigh-religious symbol of the Hyūga clan, and a skilled member could visualize them on the surface that they were standing on or even in the air. The Eight Trigrams marked the range in which a Hyūga member could reach and strike an enemy with a handful of ‘Main House’-limited Gentle Fist techniques.

So for now, Hon was standing in these poses for a good amount of time, trying to get the right feel for it…

[Hyūga Raika]

518 words Hyūga Honnō Training Raika: D-rank EXP: 1/8 Training Hon: C-rank Hakke Sanjūni Shō [Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palm] - 1/8

Raika approaches the one she'd originally been introduced to as Hyūga Honnō from his right side, having been ordered to train with him, likely because the two ninja had, at one time, been considered outsiders within their own clan. The difference between the two was that one of them had once been a member of the main family, and one had been a member of the branch family, and still bore the symbol of just such a status on his forehead. At this point in time, the clan was still trying to find a good way to remove the caged bird seal, but at the moment, no methods had been discovered, and there might be even more trouble in finding a Fuuinjutsu specialist that could be used to unlock and remove the seal from every branch family member's forehead. As it is, Raika as the once-heiress was at least tasked with teaching her superior the techniques for the Eight Trigrams style, as it would have been odd for a Jounin member of the clan to not know the signature style of his own clan.

Raika was wearing her usual garb for training: a dark gray tank top that left her abs exposed as it was really only a half tank-top, with her legs covered in the leg half of her coveralls, with the rest wrapped around her waist, and her feet wearing combat boots instead of the typical nin shoes that most ninja would have worn. Her Konoha headband is loosely tied around her neck, and her black hair is worn in a ponytail behind her head, with one strand hanging over the right side. Her purple eyes were really quite striking, as was her height and her intense musculature. She was also wearing her Hung Gar rings on both her wrists and her ankles, although she expected she wouldn't need them so much for this training. Still, she could feel her muscles flexing to move her limbs, letting her know that she was gradually getting stronger with them just being worn.

"Your legs are a bit off-center. And you need to bend more at the waist and keep your back straight, bending your spine like that makes your stance way too weak."

There wasn't any judgement in her voice; this Jounin likely knew more about other Taijutsu styles than she did, and he was definitely more competent with other things. That said, she'd learned from the most strict teachers she'd ever had in her entire life: her parents. None of that harshness trickled through except in how exact the stance was to get right, but it could be argued that the entire clan was perfectly exact in all of its techniques. As it is the signature style of the clan itself, the Eight Trigrams techniques would have been similarly exact in the way they must be performed. While she takes a swig of water from her canteen, she activates her own Byakugan, now causing her lavender eye color to disappear almost entirely for the white of the Byakugan, with veins standing out most visibly at her temples.

”

by Pinn @ THQ

[Hyūga Honnō]

It had been a while since he was brought back to the clan, okay…?

And it was a good while since the directive towards changing the ways of the relations between the Main House and the Side Branch took place.

And things were still undergoing, y’know… Hon was alienated from the practices of the Main House, and it was painfully obvious. A few elders had even spied on him, scorning his futile attempts at mimicking their sacred stances – that was, until the bane of their entire ideology arrived at the scene, shining in so many ways like the intense rays of the sun. Her stature nigh physically repulsed the elders away from sending prying eyes from afar, causing them to retreat within their quarters.

Hon’s head rose a little at her advice, since his Byakugan wasn’t activated yet. Moving his eyes towards her, Hon immediately tried adjusting his stance per her points – in order to center his legs more, the feet would have to be perfectly diametrical, and his knees would also have to avoid making too big of an angle over the horizontal plane… done. This should do.

Next, he tried straightening his back. It was such a simple movement – just straighten the muscles in his waist to aid those in his back to lift it up. Just slightly… but something rang in Hon’s head, and slowly, the world darkened.

It was as if the stance he took psychologically activated a part of his brain… that had been sealed away for so long. And slowly, the green lines on the dark floor began to draw circles, signs, and symbols. But something in it… terrified Hon, to the point where he rose his back all the way up again and exited his stance. He looked visibly astonished for a while.

"… Raika-sama. Thank you,” he expressed quietly, "But I can’t help but feel like… like all of our ancestors are scoffing at me.” He rose a hand further up and clenched his fist slowly, trying to beat back the prohibitions embedded in the blood of the Side Branch – all those generations of limitations, prohibitions, and punishments, spanning over such a long time that it had a damn physical effect on the descendants. Yet, Hon was taking the first step in breaking that cycle.

"If it’s not t-too much to ask… would you mind showing me the stance, just once?”

[Hyūga Raika]

425 words Hyūga Honnō TRAINING RAIKA: D-RANK EXP: 2/8 TRAINING HON: C-RANK HAKKE SANJŪNI SHŌ [EIGHT TRIGRAMS THIRTY-TWO PALM] - 2/8

Raika watches as Hon shifts himself into the proper position, but she can physically see it when he does so, the change in his focus as the world seems to shift to focus on the hakke, the eight trigrams that make themselves visible to him as soon as he takes on the proper stance, but he breaks out of it too quickly to really make good use of such a form. She knew it was a significant first step to learning the most influential techniques in the Hyuga clan, those involving the use of the style to close out the opponent's tenketsu points until they're no longer capable of fighting back. It involved an understanding gained by the use of the Byakugan, so even if someone were to imitate their movements, only the Hyuga would actually be able to replicate and visualize the hakke.

It's a bit of a surprise when he calls her -sama, even though she knew she'd have to get used to it, since she was still trying to reclaim her previous status as the clan's heir. That would likely be quite a lot of work with her predecessor and in fact the previous, similarly subversive clan head having been chosen once before. It was also a surprise when he asked her to show him, at least once, but that's less surprising than his use of the honorific.

"Yeah, sure. But you don't gotta call me -sama or -hime. It ain't like that, we're way more similar to one another than to the clan as a whole, right? So just treat me like a sister or somethin'."

She hopes she got her point across, particularly with her far more informal mode of speech; that wasn't likely something Hon was used to, even with the most subversive members of the Hyuga clan. Raika moves readily into the stance for the Thirty-Two Palms form of the Eight Trigrams, keeping her knees bent to just below ninety degrees, ensuring that her knee never extends beyond her toes as she twists her upper body to the side, with one hand pointed low with the palm down and her opposite hand lifted high with the palm up, showing the slightly older shinobi the correct stance as the world fades to darkness around her, illuminated only by the eight-sided hakke in green, showing her the distance this particular stance can reach. She knows the sixty-four palms can do far more, but she needs the Jounin to have this stance down before he can continue to the other forms.

”

by Pinn @ THQ

[Hyūga Honnō]

A sister… Hon wondered if Tsumori would ever accept that title to be bestowed upon anyone else but her. Knowing how overprotective his real sister was, he simply went with the ‘somethin’ and assigned to Raika the status of equal… but in a way, they were all brothers and sisters in this clan. And it was so ironic, souring the back of his throat when thinking back…

But… they had all done so much to escape the shadows of their past. And while things were still working in progress, no Side Branch member had to fear complete oppression from the Main House today. He found solace in that.

…

…

He just noticed that her articulation was extraordinarily casual, especially for a Main House individual. It must’ve been due to her exile – perhaps she picked up the language from the village she was sent to.

But when she took the stance, his eyes were wide-open… and for extra measure, he weaved a single handseal and activated his Byakugan. A single stance like that had so much weight to it, almost physically pushing Hon back by its sheer… history. Its weight on the clan, and the cruel fate that awaited its victims. It was like an internal battle was manifesting in front of him – a Side Branch member directly attempting to challenge the pride of the Main House via the Eight Trigrams.

That was why he was having so much trouble, right… fear? I… of all people, I hesitated. How disgraceful, he thought to himself, lowering his veined face in disgust at his inability to tackle such a simple issue head-on, I can’t stay chained like this. That’d be smearing Lord Shigure’s efforts… and Lady Hitomi’s efforts…

"I see now. I'll keep that in mind, Raika,” he thanked her after taking a deep breath, fully bringing himself up to date. He wasn’t an oppressed Side Branch member right now… and above all, he wasn’t a failure. He wasn’t a liability. And he wasn’t a coward.

Taking the stance that Raika took, he made sure that his knees didn’t pass over his toes. That his left hand stretched forward with the palm pointing down, and the opposite raised up behind him with the palm pointing up. Waist turned, and his back straightened… and the pressure attempted to overwhelm him.

The Eight Trigrams below his feet, with ghastly faces of those who accursed the very idea of a Side Branch member entering their domain… and even Urashi’s face. Even someone as ghastly calm as Hon couldn’t help but burn up in spite at the very thought of that accursed villain’s face. But perhaps… it helped to push back the fear, by substituting it with a burning desire to get any amount of vengeance against the deceased Urashi by ‘smearing’ the clan’s centuries-old prohibition.

Just like Lord Shigure showed him once… and he’d finally cracked it.

The moment before Hon launched his palms forward, a powerful gust escaped his body, manifested by his own chakra and strong enough to blow back sand and small pebble. His access to Wind Release chakra had expressed itself through his palms as he unleashed two strikes… then four… then eight… then sixteen… and at last, a subtle mockery to the old ways of the Main House-

32 Palms!

The Wind Release chakra was exchanged with bristling, small bolts escaping his palms, travelling forward from his strikes as cloudy clusters of electric energy. He’d finally cracked it.

Taking a proper, straight-backed stance once more, he lowered his palms and breathed deeply in… and out… and felt a sense of relief. A lack of fear. "Raika… no matter what the Main House thinks-" he expressed his utter gratitude, turning towards the musclebrain, "-We're lucky to have you back. Thank you… but may I be a little selfish, if only this once… and request a spar?”

[Hyūga Raika]

457 words Hyūga Honnō TRAINING RAIKA: D-RANK EXP: 3/8 TRAINING HON: C-RANK HAKKE SANJŪNI SHŌ [EIGHT TRIGRAMS THIRTY-TWO PALM] - 3/8

It was certainly odd for Raika to be the one teaching, almost as odd for her as it was for Honno to think of her like a sister. But none of the other main branch family members had wanted to train him, and then they had all probably laughed to themselves when someone suggested Raika be the one to train him. Something about failure training a failure. Honno didn't need to be there to hear that discussion, and he probably knew that was their thinking. Still, Raika feels quite a bit of pride welling up when she watches Honno take on the stance correctly himself, and then follow up with the first two strikes. She can practically feel the power of the techniques, and she activates her Byakugan almost reflexively, watching how his chakra is being pulled up through his chakra core, into his pathways, to then erupt from his palms with each additional strike. It's certainly odd, though, because she can see that the chakra is changing a bit before it gets expelled from his hands, in some way that she's not really familiar with. Raika had only rarely had some experience with her own elemental release of Raiton, but it looked somewhat similar to what Honno was doing. She considered interjecting, and then immediately reconsidered it. If he wanted to add his own elemental release, what was she going to do about it?

The genin grins now as he completes the technique, deactivating her Byakugan again and approaching him, finally reaching close enough to him when he turns around to thank her so she can take hold of his hand and give it a shake that would rival the grip of some men Honno had probably met. Her other hand claps his upper arm with delight and praise.

"All right all right! Great job, hey! That same technique took me years to learn, but you did it right quick! Then again, you've had a lot more experience, huh? Good job!"

Raika is a bit surprised, though, when Honno suggests that they do a training spar, and she raises an eyebrow a bit, seemingly confused why a Jounin would want to do any kind of a spar with a Genin, even one that's been as well-learned as she was. Granted, there were other techniques within the main branch that he likely never would have even seen, much less experienced in combat, and of course he wanted to try out the thirty-two palms. She takes a deep breath, but lets it out slowly; if she can surprise him, maybe she can at least give him a little challenge in a spar.

"Well, okay, but if you break my spine or somethin', you're paying the medical bills, yeah?"

”

by Pinn @ THQ

[Hyūga Honnō]

She was very rough with her friendship… her handshake was akin to a giant. It almost shook Hon’s entire body, and she was… clearly taller than him, by at least half a foot. Terrifying, but knowing the friendly spirit behind such a ferocious build was sort of reassuring.

But maybe she wasn’t up for a spar. She did just recently return, and… Hon found it hard to see her as a Genin. Maybe it was her height, her build, and her authoritative figure. She was a Genin, still – her exile prevented her from participating in the Chūnin Exams, most likely. But another one was coming up, and he had a responsibility to help her out… just like he did last year with his team.

… Oh? After all, she was up for a spar – just cryptically asked him to hold back. Of course. "I’m not going to break your spine…” Hon felt the need to clarify, looking as monotone as a drawing, "…” There was nothing more to say, she’d accepted his challenge.

Hon moved to the side to make more space between the two, before he pointed both open palms her way. One arm was bent down, resulting in a defensive Gentle Stance. His head, however… was feeling numbing. It was a strange, new feeling that he quickly shook aside, wanting to focus on his sparring partner in front of him. His defensive stance was airtight, as if bluish chakra emitted in waves out of his skin – sharp, bright waves pushing back the air, awaiting to respond to her fighting spirit.

"Ready when you are.”

[Hyūga Raika]

403 words Hyūga Honnō TRAINING RAIKA: D-RANK EXP: 4/8 TRAINING HON: C-RANK HAKKE SANJŪNI SHŌ [EIGHT TRIGRAMS THIRTY-TWO PALM] - 4/8

Raika raises an eyebrow when Honno moves into position first, and after he does so, he gets into his own fighting stance, a form of the Hyuuga's Gentle Fist style. In response, she goes into a stance of her own, starting off with the typical Gentle Fist stance, just to show him that she knows it too before she transitions herself to a completely different one. Now she was standing in a position that shows her interest in other techniques and other styles outside of the Hyuuga clan: her left hand comes up to a bent position so that the back of her hand is towards the older Hyuuga, with her right held behind her back at waist level, and her legs straighten as well as her body, making her look even taller and stronger in such an upright position. Her Byakugan activates once again, made visible by the fact that her bright purple eyes are now far more white, and the veins at her temples become far more pronounced. Raika's own stance was somehow seemingly malleable, prepared to take any particular style into use, as if amaranthine waves of chakra are flowing off of her body, prepared to meet with Honno's own fighting spirit and attain harmony through victory.

"You might as well have started when I grabbed your hand: I'm always ready."

Raika's smile turns into a grin of excitement as she makes the first move, launching herself at Honno with an intense speed. Most other genin might have found it hard to keep up with her, but of course a Jounin would likely have no trouble with it at all. She's still utilizing the completely different stance, one that's likely rather alien for someone that hasn't practiced in anything but Jyuken techniques, but which is widely known for being a part of the Goken style of techniques, which typically utilized raw power to deal damage, in opposition to the Hyuuga clan's Jyuken. However, after approaching Honno, she changes the way she's striking, having planned to fake him out with a different style before attempting to switch it up at the last minute; now, instead of a brute-force attack, she's bringing her right arm from behind her back and thrusting in the direction of his torso, aiming to hit his stomach with the classic Palm Bottom technique that every Hyuuga learns, as long as they have some small aptitude for Taijutsu.

”

by Pinn @ THQ

[Hyūga Honnō]

He was surprised at first, since she was perfectly capable of achieving the same form as the rest of the clan. With such familiarity, who would even bother exiling her… and for what particular reason? A Main House member’s exile was such a rare occasion, after all… and something told his gut that it wasn’t just insubordination or indecency.

But she swiftly moved away from the Gentle Stance and adapted a more rigid, boulder-like defensive stance with both arms solid and almost boulder-like in the sky-scraping stance she achieved… it made her look extremely tall, as if it wasn’t already a fact. Hon merely blinked once, his lavender eyes turned fully white to sync with Raika’s activation of her Byakugan, visualizing their two auras pushing against each other.

I must be careful. Main House or not, she’s also my responsibility… just like Asuka and the others, he reminded himself, his face unchanging from the deadpan gaze once Raika made the first move. Ferocious, direct and with great strength, she appeared to intend to land a rough punch towards him, to which he was prepared to parry with a Palm Bottom – however, at the last moment, Raika instead aimed for his center with a Palm Bottom of her own, and at that point in time, Hon swore to never doubt her Jūken skills ever again.

Still, Hon had a title that quite a few people within the village liked to call him by – Ghost.

Hon’s physical form flickered for a brief moment, looking like he was about to ‘flicker’ away with the Body Flicker Technique – however, he weaved no handseals, and his form was still visible… just as a fog. A body of wind, manifested by releasing chakra all over his body as visible by Raika’s Byakugan – the Wind Step wasn’t part of the clan’s esteemed techniques, but even Hon picked up skills from outside the clan walls. He wanted to show her that.

Therefore, he ‘turned into wind’ to make Raika’s Palm Bottom phase right through, instead using the momentum gained by the skill to step aside to her left and partake the stance he practiced. However, this was all happening in a brief moment – Raika had ample time to follow up, given her possession of the Byakugan.

SPOILER: Click to show

NAME: Fuippo [Wind Step]
RANK: C
CHAKRA USAGE: Medium
CLASSIFICATION: Taijutsu
ELEMENT: None
DESCRIPTION:
The wind step is a maneuver used to dodge many simpler attacks as well as intimidate the opponent. The user will move their body at high speeds while applying a layer of chakra over their body. When performed correctly, it gives their body the appearance of visible wind while also allowing them to attack from multiple directions, allowing them to multiple blows within a few seconds. However, the user still retains some small amount of visibility to the opponent which can cause them to be countered by someone with enough skill in fighting taijutsu users (have to be taijutsu secondary at least).

[Hyūga Raika]

450 words Hyūga Honnō TRAINING RAIKA: D-RANK EXP: 5/8 TRAINING HON: C-RANK HAKKE SANJŪNI SHŌ [EIGHT TRIGRAMS THIRTY-TWO PALM] - 5/8

Raika's right eye twitches a little when Honno appears to be hit with her Palm Bottom strike, but she realizes he had simply moved far too quickly for her to fully track his movements, not to mention the fact that he was visibly using chakra to overlay his body. He had reacted quite quickly to the ruse she'd planned to surprise him with, by changing her fighting style in the middle of her initial attack from a stance taken most often by Goken practitioners to instead take on the Hyuuga's Jyuken style for an initial strike. For the Hyuuga purists, this might have been seen as some kind of blasphemy on the "perfect" Jyuken style, but for Raika, this was taking what works from those styles and incorporating it into her own method of fighting. At the very least, her Byakugan is capable of keeping track of Honno's movements when he moves aside her, which means she doesn't even have to turn her head to keep track of him. Instead, she drops down into the same Eight Trigrams form that Honno had just learned, seeing the forms of the Eight Trigrams and Honno easily within range.

"Gotcha!"

With a quick, nearly reflexive "push" of her chakra throughout each of her tenketsu points, her body seems to erupt with chakra in every direction. Such an attack would have likely caught a Genin or possibly even a Chuunin of similar ability with Taijutsu by surprise, but she had serious doubts that she would have been able to catch a Jounin, and especially a fellow member of the Hyuuga clan by surprise with such a technique. It would have been particularly easy for Honno to see the chakra building in her tenketsu points before the eruption of all of them in a bright blast that, if it made contact with Honno, would have likely stunned him for a short while, certainly long enough for another Hyuuga to strike at his own tenketsu points.

Of course, if the eruption of chakra did, in fact, stun Honno for a moment, Raika would not have done any kind of follow-up technique. Any other member of the Main House would have beaten any Branch House trainee that was caught by someone of a lesser rank when Raika had been raised by the clan, but Raika wasn't the type to do that, particularly to a Jounin. Of course, if the attack didn't work, she was still watchful of Honno's response; he would have been well within his rights after her failed Palm Bottom to hit her with a follow-up strike, but hadn't done so. That didn't mean he wouldn't follow up with a counterattack this time around, though...

SPOILER: Click to show

NAME: Hakkeshō Ranbu [Eight Trigrams Palm Storm Dance]
RANK: C
CHAKRA USAGE: Low
CLASSIFICATION: Taijutsu
REQUIREMENT: Hyuuga Clan, Byakugan and Chakra Control SA
DESCRIPTION:

Using the area of the Eight Trigrams, the user expands the chakra from their tenketsus to stun the opponents for a brief moment, enough for the Hyuuga to deliver several palm strikes aiming at their vulnerable organs. It can be used against multiple opponents, as long as they are within the area of the Trigrams. If hit by this technique the targets are stunned for 1 rotation.

”

by Pinn @ THQ

[Hyūga Honnō]

Hon knew that Raika was fast enough to catch up with his irregular movements, but the blinking of her Tenketsus was a surprise. She was about to release chakra from all of them, prompting Hon to believe that she was creating the conditions for the One-Blow Body technique.

One of Hon’s favorite Jutsus… and perhaps his only defensive Gentle Fist technique. The One-Blow Body could only be achieved by mastering Tenketsu release throughout one’s entire body, which took plenty of training to do. Mind you, most shinobi outside of the Hyūga clan would never be able to achieve such a feat in their entire lives, so the extensive training was more than worth it, which meant that even a Side Branch member like Hon had mastered it.

And he was going to use it, obviously.

Strengthening his stance, chakra released from all of his Tenketsus to clash against hers – reading the chakra output of Raika’s with his Byakugan allowed him to cancel her chakra ‘push’ out, leaving them both in the open. "The elders were wrong to exile you… you’re a splendid Hyūga,” Hon jubilated her with a yet monotone look on his face, implying a sense of pride over his clan despite everything he and his fellow Side Branch members had been through, "On their humiliating behalf, here’s an apology…!” And with that said, he sent two hands towards her front, committing a grave mistake-

Ni Shō!

He was trying to perform the Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms, but without returning to his stance after the One-Blow Body had gone off… which eliminated some speed from his two, first strikes. Even the Jōnin needed to improve from time to time.

SPOILER: Click to show

NAME: Jūkenpō Ichigekishin [Gentle Fist Art One Blow Body]
RANK: B
CHAKRA USAGE: Medium
CLASSIFICATION: Taijutsu
ELEMENT: -
HANDSEALS: 0
DESCRIPTION:
A technique born from their innate ability to expel chakra from every tenketsu on their body, a member of the Hyūga clan can hit their opponent with a blast of chakra that will send them flying away from the user. Also able to pin point weak points in a jutsu and destroy them – like blowing a hole out of a Water Prison Technique for example.

[Hyūga Raika]

280 words Hyūga Honnō TRAINING RAIKA: D-RANK EXP: 6/8 TRAINING HON: C-RANK HAKKE SANJŪNI SHŌ [EIGHT TRIGRAMS THIRTY-TWO PALM] - 6/8

With her own technique easily countered and even overpowered by Honno's own, she only manages to avoid being blown away completely by the One Blow Body technique by pressing her feet to the ground, and is even more so thanks to the Palm Storm expulsion of chakra slightly counteracting the normally overpowering expulsion of chakra from the more powerful technique. Even still, Raika ends up being pushed quite a long distance from the Jounin before he gives her a compliment that the Main House should never have exiled her, but she's smiling at him as he approaches and she can at least see that he's preparing to do the eight trigrams technique that he'd only just recently learned.

"Incorrect. They were right to try and exile me, because it made me better by half..."

Raika gasps at the first dual strike hitting her, and although she had always been quick, a Jounin with so many more years of experience and a similar focus on Taijutsu was obviously going to be faster, but with a slight change in her stance, wherein she turns her upper body into an even deeper twist than the one for the thirty-two palms. It seems she had been allowing Honno to close distance and even hit her with the initial double strike so she could hit him with her own technique: the Sixty-Four Palm form of the Eight Trigrams style. She immediately responds with her own attack against him, aiming a dual strike directly aimed at his shoulders in an attempt to stop him from being able to use the rest of his own use of the thirty-two palms.

"No need to apologize... You're... pretty good!"

SPOILER: Click to show

NAME: Hakke Rokujūyon Shō [Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms]
RANK: B
CHAKRA USAGE: Medium
CLASSIFICATION: Taijutsu
DESCRIPTION:

The Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms is a taijutsu that should only be passed down in the main house of the Hyūga. Using the Byakugan’s near 360º filed of vision the user will strike the enemies within their eye reach with violent palm or finger thrusts. By striking sixty-four of the tenketsu, they will cause a huge disruption in which the chakra flow of the enemy will be forcefully stopped, making it unable for them to even properly stand after the assault. Each set of strikes is done at an exponentially increasing pace and strength. The attack not only disables the enemy but also knocks them back with every set of strikes.

”

by Pinn @ THQ

[Hyūga Honnō]

Raika was pushed back, but her footwork was solid and kept her standing in the end. It was strange, the antics of that lass – despite her exiled background, she held no ill feelings towards her fate, instead embracing and gratifying the fact that she was sent away as it… made her the way she was today. Meanwhile, Hon pondered if he could say the same for himself… did his exile truly strengthen him? With his issues?

If anything, he saw himself as permanently stunted from that day. What would he have turned into, had he been allowed to remain in the clan? A… well… all he had to do was look at his wobbly hand – the Soft Physique Modification was a direct rebellion against his clan, an unreasonable decision of his when he was at his absolute lowest – a means to escape pain by becoming stronger, when the clan couldn’t keep surveillance on him.

So… was he stronger? What determined his strength now? Who determined… anything now?

All he could do was hold onto the promising words of the previous, young lord – that Hon was a free bird, albeit he had lost many of his feathers from trauma and isolation. He could flap his wings, even though he couldn’t fly – he could do so much more than before. His losses had granted him great favors that he never had the chance to obtain before… and that was likely how the world worked. Everything had a price.

As he charged at Raika with the Thirty-Two Palms, she responded all the same. It turned into a sort of power struggle, the Thirty-Two Palms versus the Sixty-Four Palms, and every time Hon landed another interval of blows, Raika was following suit. At one point, he noticed his left shoulder give in to the Tenketsu strikes from Raika, but she must’ve been feeling Tenketsu damage on her own arms too at this point.

8 Palms… 16 Palms…

Damn it… his left arm caved in to pressure and went limp, even if for a brief moment – stunting his advance through the Thirty-Two Palms… there was only one thing to do. Hon continued the last interval with one arm, one palm, pressing his physical speed and precision to the very limit.

32 palms!!!

What an extraordinarily strange strategy.

[Hyūga Raika]

402 words Hyūga Honnō TRAINING RAIKA: D-RANK EXP: 7/8 TRAINING HON: C-RANK HAKKE SANJŪNI SHŌ [EIGHT TRIGRAMS THIRTY-TWO PALM] - 7/8

Despite her earlier statement that he had been pretty good, Raika herself could feel that she wasn't nearly as good as a Jounin with a similar level of focus in just such a skill of Taijutsu, and she could feel her own tenketsu across her entire body rapidly being shut down, despite her attempts to focus her own responding strikes at his arms and shoulders to try and block him from being able to use them to continue the assault, or at least to block the chakra from reaching his hands. Instead, she can feel her own chakra pathway system being closed off, and so she frowns when she attempts to strike his own even faster.

Four palms! Eight palms! Sixteen palms! Thirty-two palms! Sixty-four palms!

Unfortunately for Raika, the last two steps of that particular technique were merely that: her fingers and her palms jab into Honno, but his own technique had locked away enough of her tenketsu as to make the technique simply painful for the Jounin, instead of debilitating him any further. She's winded now, when she rarely feels so tired from just a few techniques as this; she'd trained for years to be able to perform the Sixty-Four Palms without even breaking a sweat, but now she was quite winded. That said, she can see that her focus on his arms had at least ended with his left arm staying by his side from the blocking of his chakra points at his shoulder. The Genin steps back and gives the Branch house member a smile.

"Oof. You've pretty much got me... I don't think I could make much use of my chakra after all that... But!"

Not waiting for his response, Raika suddenly drops and spins, twisting her body to release a sudden kick directed at Honno's legs, then another kick aimed at his hips, and then another twisting kick aimed at his shoulders, building momentum and speed through each spin, practically being carried through by the weighted Hung Gar ring on her ankle before she suddenly drops her heel, aiming for a kick straight down onto Honno's shoulder. It wasn't at all likely that any of her attacks would make contact, but it would probably surprise the Jounin that she was even capable of still going. Even still, Raika could feel that this was going to be the last technique she would try against her sparring partner; she was exhausted by the Thirty-Two Palm she'd simply allowed Honno to strike her with.

SPOILER: Click to show

NAME: Konoha Daisenpu - [Tree Leaf Great Whirlwind]
RANK: C
CHAKRA USAGE: Low
CLASSIFICATION: Taijutsu
ELEMENT: N/a
DESCRIPTION:

This technique is a series of kicking attacks, starting from a low kick and linking into a middle kick and high kick then finishing off with a heel drop. As the rotation speed picks up the user gains buoyancy, which they use to shift into gradually higher attacks.

”

by Pinn @ THQ

[Hyūga Honnō]

Hon had quite pushed himself in that moment… experience like his didn’t leak into the Main House’s techniques, making him feel the same strain on his muscles as he felt when he was a wee Genin. However, he was unable to let fragile constructs such as pride prevent him from learning once more, even if his proctor for today was a Genin – that certainly would’ve embarrassed some other Hyūga members…

But at long last, Raika appeared to back out, and from the looks of it through his white eyes, her chakra system had taken heavy damage from all those closed Tenketsus… he’d really closed all of those down, huh? In such a short moment? With accelerating force like that of the Thirty-Two Palms, who knew what the Sixty-Four Palms would feel like?

Stretching his left arm, Hon paid more attention to the Tenketsus that she had closed down on him. It was a good thing that he knew how to re-open them… but should he relay that technique to her? Maybe the Main House members would catch wind of it- wait… he wasn’t in danger anymore. They couldn’t hurt him.

That fact made him smile.

And apparently, Raika wasn’t having any of that as Hon was genuinely caught off guard when he was trying to re-open his Tenketsus one by one, suddenly noticing the world tilt over. Blinking for a couple seconds, Raika’s heelkick to his shoulder made its joint loose, resulting in a perplexed Hon who looked like his arms had dislocated everywhere, one arm under his body, another flailed to the side, as he laid in a silly pose wondering.

"… What was that foooooooooooor…”