Chapter 11- A spar

Hiruzen Sarutobi POV

It was a calm, peaceful day and he was in his verandah, reclining in his hammock and savoring the bliss of retirement.

A well earned retirement, if someone were to ask him. Serving as Hokage for a relentless three decades had taken its toll on his body, mind, and soul. But now, with Minato as his capable successor, he could finally lay back and rest.

Of course, being the powerful shinobi that he was, he was well aware that he'll never truly be out of the loop of Konoha's internal politics.

Demonstrated by the abrupt appearance of the ANBU captain in the midst of his yard, disrupting his peaceful afternoon rest.

He remained in his hammock and side glanced at the Hawk masked anbu, the corner of his lips rose up slightly at the sight.

"Hawk, I thought you might have nearly forgotten about this old man," he teased. "Did you came here to keep me company?"

"Sorry for not coming more often. But mother bothers me too much whenever I'm here." The anbu captain replied, removing his mask to reveal a young face that looked remarkably like his own when he was younger.

"She wants grandchildren. As do I. Just give us a few. It'll make our retirement more enjoyable."

"I'm not pressuring Nanami into having kids just so you can enjoy your retirement a bit more." His elder son, Shinnosuke replied with an exasperated sigh. "You're well aware that she's in a crucial phase of her medical studies right now."

'She's been in that crucial phase for three years now.' He thought but decided against saying it, knowing that it'll only estrange his son to himself.

Plus, medical jutsu was hard to learn. And his daughter-in-law had come further than most.

As things stood, she was not anywhere close to the best medic in Konoha, Tsunade, but she was definitely in the Top 5. It was something he was proud of, as was Biwako, even if she would never admit it herself.

"Well, if you're not here to give me the good news about your wife's pregnancy, then what brings you here?" He asked.

"Can't I just come here to enjoy an afternoon with my father?" Shinnosuke asked as he took a chair and moved it over to sit beside his hammock.

"You can. But as you haven't done so ever since you became the anbu captain, I somehow doubt that." He said in a blatant attempt to use emotional manipulation to get his son to come over to meet him more often.

His son was silent for a few moments before he replied. "You're right. And I apologise for not coming here more often. Being an anbu captain is more work than I'd anticipated. And now that I'm in this position, I can finally understand why you spent so little time with me and Asuma."

He remained silent at those words, and let the chirping of the birds fill in the space between them.

A few moments later, Shinnosuke spoke up once again.

"There's someone—a remarkably skilled individual. This person has recently created, or I should say, recreated, a jutsu that I believe would capture your interest."

"Jutsu?" He asked, slightly intrigued.

He might have retired but that didn't mean that he completely stopped training his body and mind. A shinobi never really retires until he's dead.

And now that he was getting older and his body didn't react all that well to intensive physical training, he put more of his focus on ninjutsu.

So much so that he had created half a dozen new Ninjutsu over the past year alone. None of them came close to the Ninjutsu that his teacher Tobirama created, but he was proud of his minor accomplishments nonetheless.

"Yes. The Jutsu is actually a combination of two different affinities of Earth and Air. And one that's been used by one of your rivals to harass you for a long time."

He let out a hum as he contemplated what this Jutsu could be.

The fact that he only has a single living rival, so to speak, made this task rather easy.

He immediately jumped down from his hammock and landed in front of Shinnosuke, an excited gleam in his eyes that he didn't even bothered to hide.

"Someone figured out Onoki's ability to fly?" He asked.

His son smiled at his blatant enthusiasm but nodded nonetheless. "Yes. Here's the scroll for it. I had to use up a third of my merits and 5 million Ryo in order to buy it for your use."

"Not for yourself?" He asked his son who simply shook his head.

"No, my Earth Release affinity isn't strong enough for this jutsu. Perhaps in a decade or two, but not at the moment. Besides, given the complexity of the jutsu, I anticipate it would take even you several years to master." His son responded before adopting a teasing tone, "That's assuming you can at all. I've heard that old shinobi often lose their edge after retirement."

"Challenge accepted." He told his son as he opened the scroll and beheld the marvel within.

For it was a marvel indeed. A unique Jutsu scroll detailing numerous Earth Release Affinity exercises essential for elevating one's Earth Affinity to the level necessary to acquire the skill of manipulating the density of one's body, whether to increase or decrease it.

"I see… To think that the Flying Jutsu of Onoki wasn't even really a Jutsu. Just a side benefit of pushing your Earth Affinity to the point where you can even increase the density within any object." He commented and then glanced over at his son. "May I know who created this Jutsu?"

His own primary suspect was Orochimaru. That student of his was definitely interested in learning all Ninjutsu. But his gut told him that this wasn't done by Orochimaru.

Mostly because Orochimaru's Earth Affinity wasn't anywhere near as good as would be required to accomplish this. But also because Orochimaru has been busy with his research these days and would have little time to create a new, time consuming Jutsu like this.

His second suspect was Tsunade. She definitely had the Chakra control necessary to accomplish something like this. And her Earth Release Affinity was not that bad either.

Yet, even with Tsunade possessing six out of the seven known affinities—Earth, Water, Lightning, Fire, Yin, and Yang—she lacked the essential Wind Release affinity needed to complete the other half of this technique. He doubted she had recently discovered the final affinity, ruling her out as the potential practitioner.

He had no other suspects in his mind.

"I'm afraid I cannot tell." His son replied, slowly shaking his head.

"Even to me, the 3rd Hokage." He asked, his eyebrows rising up in surprise.

"This person's identity is an S-class secret." His son replied and that was that.

He might have been the 3rd Hokage but he was retired now. And he didn't want to meddle into his successor's affairs just to satiate his curiosity.

"Well… never mind then." He said with a careless wave of his hand. "And you're right, this Jutsu will definitely take me years to learn. Perhaps even a decade. And I might even fail. But the increase in Earth affinity it'll give me alone makes it worth trying. Thanks for bringing this up to me Shinnosuke."

"Think nothing of it father." His son said as he got up from his chair. "Now, I must get going. The duties of an Anbu Captain never ends."

He nodded to his son but just when his boy turned to leave, he spoke up. "Oh, and remind Nanami to hurry up a bit. At this pace, I'll die of old age before I could ever hold my grandchildren in my arms."

His son scoffed at his words before he vanished into a puff of smoke.

Feeling his son quickly leaving his home, he finally turned back his full attention to the scroll, a faint excitement stirring in his soul that he hadn't felt even since he retired.

Flying huh. Well, let's see if I can learn it.

—————

??? POV

She stared at the Underground lab hidden through the use of a Fuinjutsu applied Genjutsu.

A concealment like this might suffice to elude the notice of an ordinary shinobi. However, for her—a person who had dedicated her entire life to improving seals that were ten times more complex than this?

Disabling a portion of the seal and infiltrating the lab was mere child's play.

Killing the few unprepared guards and leaving transformed Shadow Clones in their place was child's play.

Killing the researchers and scientists who were experimenting on her clan members to this day was child's play.

Finally, she found what she was here for.

Her clan's Fuinjutsu scrolls. The researchers had been working hard these past few decades to break the Fuinjutsu locks on these scrolls so that they can get access to the information inside.

Regrettably for them, her clan's expertise in Fuinjutsu surpassed that of every other village to such an extent that breaking the locks posed a considerable challenge.

Oh, they'd managed to break the locks of some of the low level Fuinjutsu scrolls. But that was the point where their good luck ended.

A part of her was happy that the major villages had not decided to breed their Uzumaki captives with the intention of teaching them Fuinjutsu and using them to break these locks.

Had they done that, then it was possible that they would've broken these Fuinjutsu locks by now and the geopolitical situation of the 5 major villages would change drastically.

But thankfully, for some strange reason, they never took that step.

Of course, that didn't save her clansmen from being brutally tortured for information or callously experimented upon.

But she was nonetheless grateful that she never had to fight descendants of her own clansmen.

That would break her heart.

Her Shadow Clones scoured through the rest of the lab, stole anything of value, and destroyed everything else. And when all this was done…

She used the Hiraishin and returned back to her home.

Or what remained of her once prosperous village.

In this place, a fragment of her razed village was shrouded in a Genjutsu fashioned from Fuinjutsu. However, this concealing Fuinjutsu surpassed the one she had observed in that laboratory by several orders of magnitude.

With a seal, she conjured a gate within the barrier, granting her entry into the small enclave she had prepared for her surviving clansmen.

"Mito-sama, you're back!" Her second-in-command, Urashi Uzumaki rushed forward to greet her, while the children she had been teaching got up from their position and bowed to her.

It pained her heart to see what has been left of her once mighty clan. But she put on a smile nonetheless for the sake of the children.

"I'm back."

—————

Hiroto Hyuuga POV

A profound silence draped over the entire training ground as every student focused keenly on the sparring match unfolding before them.

Itachi Uchiha vs Himiko Hyuuga.

The two students who frequently sparred for the second place in their class.

It hurt his pride but he had to admit that his distant female cousin was much better at Gentle Fist than him. However, considering her lineage from the main clan and the superior training she had received from birth, it was understandable.

Nevertheless, he harbored a hope that a day would come when he could surpass her. Even if achieving that victory might incur the wrath of the main clan for challenging their authority.

But just because he wanted to defeat Himiko didn't mean that he wanted someone else to defeat her.

Especially if that someone else was an Uchiha.

He observed with a certain unease as the spar unfolded. Given that Itachi had not activated her Sharingan, Himiko deemed it beneath her to unlock her own Byakugan for the fight. Thus, her Gentle Fist was not as accurate as it should've been.

Still, as the spar progressed, Himiko eventually succeeded in closing one of Itachi's Tenketsu points. Whether it was a stroke of luck or a display of skill became irrelevant, for the dynamics had already shifted.

The deadlock shattered as Itachi lost control over her left arm.

Within a minute after that, the spar concluded.

"Winner is Himiko Hyuuga!" Their Chunin Instructor announced before asking them to perform the reconciliation seal and having Himiko unlock Itachi's closed Tenketsu points.

'The Hyuuga wins against the Uchiha once again.' He thought in his heart but the thought brought him no joy.

After all, Himiko was a 12 year old Kunoichi while Itachi was only 5-years-old.

And even if the two of them had only sparred 3 times till date, in all those fights, Itachi had shown great improvement.

This spar in particular, had been rather close. And he would not be surprised if Itachi managed to defeat Himiko the next time they sparred.

Worse was the fact that Itachi was not even the best Uchiha in their class.

Above her, in the #1 position of the class, stood Ren Uchiha. Who was as far above Itachi and Himiko as those two were from the dregs of their class.

"Congratulations on your victory, Himiko-sama." He greeted the girl as she returned to her position.

The girl gave a bare nod of acknowledgement before she put on her cold, polite mask and went about ignoring him.

'Uppity bitch.' He cursed in his heart before he looked toward the ring once again.

"Next match. Ren Uchiha vs Hiroto Hyuuga!"

His stomach fell as he stared at Ren who had somehow already appeared in the middle of the ring, a bored and indifferent look on his face.

By sheer luck, he had managed to avoid facing Ren Uchiha in a sparring match until now. Unfortunately, it seemed that his luck had finally run out today.

He gulped as he went toward the ring as well, hoping that he won't suffer too badly in this match.

"Make the confrontation seal." The Chunin instructor told them.

They did so.

"Start!"

He stared at the bored looking brat who simply stared back at him without any interest, hands nonchalantly tucked behind his back.

'Well… if you're not going the take the initiative.'

He unlocked his Byakugan and jumped at the little brat with a flurry of Gentle Fist strikes. A single touch is all it would take for him to disable an arm or a leg.

At that point, the match would turn. Just as it did for Himiko. He just needed on touch.

Then he froze as he found his own tenketsu point blocked.

He stared at the boy in horror as the boy stood in a stance that seemed to resemble his own.

No, if anything, it was even better than his own stance. Approaching the expertise of his cousin Himiko.

"You… you stole our clan's Taijutsu!" He accused even as he went through the painful process of unlocking his blocked Tenketsu point.

"What of it? Are you going to cry?" Ren asked, the same bored and indifferent look on his face. "Besides, the Gentle First is not really all that impressive. Or maybe it's just your cousin who's bad at it. But I don't see what's the big deal here."

"Gentle Fist is the most dangerous Taijutsu in the entire Elemental Nations. No one wins a Taijutsu fight against a Hyuuga." He boasted, even though he knew it was not completely true.

Ren Uchiha didn't see impressed by his words. "If you say so." The boy said before he dropped out of his Gentle Fist stance and left himself open for attack.

He gritted his teeth and charged at the boy once again, hoping to catch him off guard before the boy would regain his stance.

Despite that, he had seen the boy's speed and knew that it would be a futile attempt at best. That's why he was so surprised when he successfully blocked one of Ren's crucial Tenketsu points.

Surprised or not, he didn't fail to capitalise on this success and quickly started his clan's secret Taijutsu art.

Gentle Fist Art: Eight Trigrams Two Palms!

Four Palms!

Eight Palms!

Sixteen Palms!

Thirty Two Palms!

If he had known Sixty Four Palms then he would've completed that as well. But as things stood, this was his limit.

Moreover, towards the end, he noticed an increasing difficulty in blocking Ren's Tenketsu points for some unknown reason.

Still, the Thirty Two Tenketsu points he'd just closed were some of the most important ones in the body. With them closed, the fight was already over.

"You should not have underestimated me." He told the boy with a smirk before looking to the rest of the class. "This what happens to anyone who looks down on the Gentle Fist of the Hyuuga Clan."

"Really now?" He heard a voice behind him and turned to stare at Ren who was still standing on his feet, the same bored look on his face despite having all his important tenketsu points blocked. As if he hadn't suffered his first defeat ever since joining their class.

"Well… are you finally willing to accept your defeat?" He asked as he crossed his arms and gave a smug look to the boy.

Ren raised a single eyebrow at his provocation, as if asking whether he was an idiot.

Then Ren shook his head. "You Hyuuga continue to disappoint."

Then, something strange happened in Ren's Tenketsu points. Something that his Byakugan captured perfectly.

The continuous stream of chakra throughout Ren's remaining chakra pathways started to coalesce into small, dense, thin needles like structures.

Those needles then moved through his Chakra Pathways till they reached the blocked off Tenketsu points before they gave a gentle prod to those points.

The first Tenketsu point burst open.

Then the second, and the third, and the forth and so on…

Within a few seconds, all 32 Blocked Tenketsu points within Ren's body were opened once again.

"This… how is this even possible." He asked, his eyes wide open in shock before he turned to look at Himiko, hoping that she would have an idea of what Ren just did. But he found that Himiko also had a look of great shock in her face, her Byakugan open as she witnessed just what Ren had done.

"The things you can do with a great chakra control." Ren told him before, in a flash, Ren was in front him.

Ren didn't punch or kick him. He simply stared up at him, his blood red Sharingan swirling hypnotically in his eyes.

"So… would you surrender now or do you have anything else of value to show me?"

He licked his lips and hoped that Himiko won't tell the clan elders about this. And if she did then he hoped that they won't beat him up.

"I surrender."

—————

AN: Konohamuru is not born yet so I'm pretty sure that Hiruzen's older son should still be alive. So I decided to show him in the story and also show what Hiruzen had been doing in his retirement.

Plus, Mito Uzumaki is also alive because of Universal Calibration. As for how she survived the extraction of Kyuubi, I'll let you guys come up with your own theories in that regard.

Finally, we see a glimpse of Ren's life in the academy, where he dominates every other student without even trying.