Chapter 373 : Harsh Truths!

Fujin sighed on hearing Hoka's words. He flickered next to Hoka and tossed him a bottle stored in his bracer. Hoka caught it and began drinking the water. After a minute, he said, "Thank you." 

Fujin nodded without replying. He wasn't sure what would be the appropriate thing to say in that situation. Both stayed there silently. After a couple of minutes, Hoka said, "You have become very strong, Fujin. I managed to defeat my father for the first time in the last month. I even learnt several Ninjutsus to improve my medium and long-ranged fighting abilities. So I thought that I'd at least be able to fight equally with you. I never imagined that your Taijutsu would be as good as mine. And…" 

He looked at the cuts on his right arm and continued, "And that it would be so good that I forgot about your Wind jutsus during our fight." 

Fujin extended his palm towards his arm and began healing him while replying, "You have grown strong as well. Palm Rotation would have been an obstacle if I had used Ninjutsu. And I heard that only the Main family in your clan can use the 64 palms attack." 

Hoka nodded and said, "I haven't yet mastered it. I managed to push myself to the limit in the last week as our challenge was close and barely managed to learn it. I still can't do it successfully every time. That said, I didn't know you learnt medical ninjutsu."

Fujin stopped healing him as the cuts had already closed up. He replied, "Just the Mystical Palm jutsu. It is a handy skill to have. Especially if you get trapped in enemy territory. It can save your or your teammates' lives. You should learn it as well.  You can ask about it in the Hospital when you go to check your chest and abdomen. With your expertise in the Gentle Fist style, you should pick it up very quickly."

Hoka chuckled and said, "We Hyuga ninjas already serve as the best support on any squad due to our Byakugan and ability to protect ourselves. If we learnt Medical Ninjutsu as well, then our clan would be known as the support clan, hahaha."

Fujin chuckled as well and commented, "Yeah, that's true."

Hoka said, "Well, at least I didn't lose to you in just Taijutsu and forced you to use a Wind jutsu. I would have been extremely embarrassed if that happened! Hahaha."

Fujin didn't join in his laughter and had a peculiar expression. Hoka immediately noticed it. His eyes widened as he cursed, "Asshole! Don't tell me you held back!"

Fujin replied awkwardly, "Well, not exactly. It's just that I could have just stepped back to avoid your attack which broke through my defense. Even though we were clashing using Taijutsu, it wasn't a reason for me to defend against every attack. And seeing how much attention and energy you had to put into the Eight Trigrams: Sixty-Four Palm, you'd probably be defeated quickly with my counterattack."

Hoka's expression immediately fell. He muttered, "You don't want to leave me any dignity, do you? Why did you use Ninjutsu if that was the case?"

Fujin shrugged and replied, "You didn't have any guard up. So I couldn't resist the temptation of using it. Besides, I have defeated you several times by exhausting you to your limits. I didn't want to do the same this time."

Hoka's head fell due to being depressed. He muttered, "I didn't have any chance, did I?"

Fujin didn't reply. The two fell silent once again. After a couple of minutes, Hoka looked at Fujin and asked in a serious tone, "Fujin, since you are so strong right now, why are you still against hunting Uchiha Itachi? If you catch him off guard, you can kill him with a single Vacuum Bullet."

Fujin didn't answer Hoka's question and instead replied with another question. He asked, "You were recently dispatched to the Land of Waterfall, weren't you?"

Hoka nodded. Fujin asked, "Do you know why our armies were dispatched there?"

Hoka furrowed his eyebrows. He didn't understand where Fujin was going with this. He answered, "We were dispatched due to some weird movements made by Iwa. They first kidnapped a large number of civilians and later released most of them and tried to pin the blame on Konoha. However, I have no idea why they did that or how they were discovered."

Fujin nodded and replied, "They were discovered by my squad."

Hoka was surprised. He hadn't expected that the situation would have anything to do with Fujin. Fujin continued, "I fought with Kitsuchi in the Land of Waterfall."

Hoka's eyes widened. He exclaimed, "You mean the Tsuchikage's son-in-law? The rank S ninja?"

Fujin nodded and continued, "He can barely be considered a rank S ninja. Kinda like the previous Uchiha clan leader, Wicked Eye Fugaku. But due to his Sharingan, I believe that Fugaku would be a much more difficult opponent on the battlefield."

Hoka nodded. He had frequently struggled against Mieko due to her Sharingan. By comparison, he had a much easier time against others at her level. He asked, "What are you implying by this?"

Fujin replied, "If I had fought against Kitsuchi in a one-on-one battle to the death, I would have most likely been the one to die. Uchiha Itachi killed someone stronger than him along with the rest of the Uchiha clan ninjas at the mere age of 13! Just like how we became stronger in the last 3 years, it is very likely that he has gotten stronger at the same rate."

Hoka became silent on hearing Fujin's words. He sighed internally. Hoka's entire basis for revenge was Itachi getting overconfident and cocky and not becoming any stronger than he was 3 years ago. He thought, 'Though I want to deny it, what Fujin said is true. If Itachi became stronger, then we might die without even getting a chance to escape.'

Fujin continued, "We probably can't even beat the Itachi that killed his entire clan. Even if we assume he hasn't grown even a bit since that day, our chances of victory are very low. To make matters worse, we don't know what skills he might have been hiding back then or the new skills he might have picked up since then. 

We also don't know what he has been up to since going rogue. I did try to look at his information in the Anbu, but there was no news about him. If he is alone, we could try to test him out. But if he has made any allies or created a base, then the matter will become far more complicated."

Hoka stayed silent. What Fujin said wasn't a lie. The Anbu had no record of Itachi's movements after he went rogue. Though Hiruzen knew about Itachi's movements and Akatsuki, he hadn't passed the information to anyone other than the elders. Even Shikaku was kept in the dark though he had some estimates. As for the abilities of his Mangekyou and his spirit weapons, Fujin wasn't sure whether even Hiruzen and Danzo were aware of either of them. 

After some time, Hoka sighed and said, "You are right. Trying to attack him with our current ability and information will be suicidal. I will continue training. But, how strong do you think that we need to be to hunt him down?"

Fujin replied, "We will both need to be at least rank S ninjas. That will allow us to fight and retreat several times so that we can force him to expose all his cards one by one and create strategies to eliminate him. Killing him will take several rounds of battle. And that is assuming he has no help. But if we are both at rank S, then we could even test out his allies."

Hoka sighed and said, "Rank S is more difficult than I thought it to be."

Fujin nodded and said, "Even your clan leader isn't a rank S ninja. To become one, you'll have to defeat him at the very least."

Hoka winced at that thought. Though Hiashi didn't use the threat of the curse seal liberally, it always stayed in the back of the mind of every branch family member of the Hyuga clan. He sighed internally and thought, 'Becoming stronger than the clan leader himself… I hope nothing bad happens.'

Fujin looked at the expression on Hoka's face and immediately understood his dilemma. He sighed internally, 'What teammates I received… One whose death was a certainty and another whose life and death aren't in his own hands. Though there isn't a record of Hiashi abusing this power, who would like to leave their life and death in someone else's hand?'

Fujin understood Hoka's internal struggle. The main job of the members of Hyuga's branch family was the safety of the main family. The clan leader was always looked at as the leader. If a member of the branch family gained higher strength or higher influence than the clan leader, then that member could be looked upon as a threat. For this reason, the Hyuga were kept out of Anbu, Root and any high-level positions in the village. 

[A/N : Bonus chapter on next Sunday if the fic gets 1000 Power Stones. Bonus chapter on next week's Saturday if the fic gets 2000 Power Stones.]

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