Chapter 12 : 'Unfortunately'
The next day, Hiroshi made his way to Itami's house once again, navigating through the outskirts to avoid encountering her main family area. He approached the courtyard where she usually practiced, noticing the presence of the same guy he had seen before, who diligently tending to the garden, pretended to not notice him. Hiroshi also made a conscious effort to avoid eye contact with that guy.
As he observed the scene, Hiroshi's attention was drawn to Itami, who was engaged in her training. He watched intently as she moved gracefully, her movements fluid and precise. Suddenly, a surge of chakra enveloped her, forming a shimmering blue sphere around her body. Hiroshi's eyes widened in recognition as he realized that Itami was using the Revolving Heaven technique, a skill reserved for members of the main clan of the Hyūga.
The Revolving Heaven technique was a testament to Itami's skill and talent, showcasing her mastery of chakra control and combat techniques. As she spun rapidly, the shield created by the technique would repel any potential attacks, providing her with a formidable defense. Hiroshi couldn't help but feel impressed by Itami's abilities, acknowledging her as a true genius within the clan, while some thoughts also emerged in his head.
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As Hiroshi settled into the stone table nearby, the cool breeze of the early morning brushing against his skin, he spread out the documents before him. He watched Itami's graceful movements as she practiced the Revolving Heaven technique, marveling at her precision and dedication.
"Would you like a cup?" Mia's soft voice broke through his reverie as she emerged from the house, a tray of snacks and a cup of juice in her hands.
Hiroshi nodded appreciatively. "Yes, please," he replied, his attention shifting momentarily to Mia as she set the cup down on the table.
"Wait a sec," Mia said with a gentle smile before disappearing back into the house.
As Hiroshi waited, he couldn't help but admire the tranquility of the scene around him. The sound of birds chirping in the distance mingled with the rustling of leaves in the gentle breeze, creating a serene atmosphere.
A few minutes later, Mia returned with 2 cups of orange juice and a plate of cookies, setting them down before Hiroshi with a small smile.
"Thanks," Hiroshi said, taking a sip of the refreshing juice. "How long has she been training?" he asked, gesturing towards Itami.
Mia glanced over at Itami, a sense of concern flickering in her eyes. "About two hours," she replied. "She's been really focused lately, trying to completely master the technique."
Hiroshi nodded in understanding, impressed by Itami's dedication. "She's making great progress," he remarked, taking a bite of a cookie. "I'm sure she'll master it in no time."
Mia smiled gratefully, her cheeks flushing slightly. "Yeah, she's been putting in a lot of effort," she agreed.
Their conversation shifted as Mia hesitantly broached the topic that had been on her mind. "Uhm, about the things I said before..."
"Now?" he responded, surprised by her sudden change in topic. "But I'm going to be a bit busy in the next period of time, so even if you write anything, I can't help you with the publishing at all..."
Mia's expression softened, understanding Hiroshi's concern. "It's fine, I'm just quite excited about that"
"I do have some ideas here..."
"Please wait a minute."
Mia took the notebook from her sleeve, opened it, grabbed a pen, and assumed the poised position of a skilled reporter ready to capture hot news. "Now I'm ready, please go on..." she declared with unwavering enthusiasm.
Hiroshi observed her eagerness with a mixture of amusement and admiration. Clearing his throat, he gathered his thoughts before delving into the details. "Well, I've been thinking," he began, his voice adopting a thoughtful tone. "You've read my book, so you must know that I wrote about exchanging bodies in my first book, right?"
"Yes, I remember, Mitsuha and Taki's story, right?" Mia replied, recalling the captivating narrative.
"That's right," Hiroshi affirmed. "So, have you ever heard of body-swap genre...?" he asked, noticing the spark in her eyes as she instantly scribbled something on her small notebook with fast speed.
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After a while, Itami finished her daily training, her movements fluid and precise. As she approached the stone table where Hiroshi and Mia were seated, she wiped the sweat from her brow with a satisfied sigh. Hiroshi, noticing her approach, gestured for her to join them with a welcoming smile.
Reaching for her cup of orange juice, Itami drank it in one swift motion, her thirst quenched from the intense training session. Placing the empty cup back on the table, she glanced curiously at Hiroshi and Mia, who still scribbled with speed, her interest piqued by their conversation. "What are you talking about?"
Hiroshi chuckled, glancing at Mia before responding, "We were discussing the writing idea Mia mentioned last time, you know. I just gave her some ideas."
Itami raised an eyebrow, "and nothing else?"
"Nah, just normal stuff, just can't. About to be much busier later, so no." Hiroshi replied. "Don't you hate this kind of book, Itami? Like you feel disgusted with Icha Icha as I remembered," Hiroshi suddenly pondered.
"I don't hate this kind of book, but all those kinds of books like Jiraiya's, filled with old man's disgusting fantasies. It makes me nauseous," Itami answered. "So Mia's book would be awesome."
Hiroshi, genuinely surprised by Itami's perspective, remarked, "So that's why you hate Icha Icha so much. Now I know."
As Itami settled herself at the stone table, adjusting her posture for comfort, her gaze fell upon the scattered documents. "Have you already prepared everything?" she inquired, her eyes darting between Hiroshi and the paperwork.
"Yes, everything's ready. I just need to wait for you, and then we can go register our company," Hiroshi replied, a hint of anticipation in his voice.
But before Hiroshi could fully register her response, Itami sprang into action. As if looking for someone, she turned sharply and called out to someone in the courtyard. "Hey, you bastard! Come here." Her voice was firm, commanding attention.
A figure, previously occupied with tending to the garden, quickly straightened and turned towards Itami, a mixture of respect and fear evident in his demeanor. "What's your order, Ojou-sama?" he asked, his voice tinged with deference.
Itami wasted no time, her instructions were clear and direct. "Bring all these documents to the main house and ask my grandfather to assist with the registration process. Make sure it's done today, or else you'll beat your ass."
The annoying guy's eyes widened in fear, understanding the gravity of Itami's command. Without a moment's hesitation, he hastily gathered the documents and scurried off toward the main house, eager to fulfill his duty and avoid any potential repercussions.
However, as he was about to make his escape, Itami's voice rang out, halting him in his tracks. "Wait," she commanded, causing him to freeze in place. He turned back, anxiety etched across his face, awaiting her next instruction.
Itami turned to Hiroshi. "Do you still have things to do next?" she inquired, her tone now lacking firmness.
"Huh, yes," Hiroshi responded, taken aback by the sudden turn of events, "I plan to contact and buy that huge abandoned workshop next to Blacksmith Street, at the rear of the village. What's wrong?"
Itami nodded, processing the information. "Okay, did you hear it?" she addressed the now visibly trembling individual. "Go and buy it, and if anything goes wrong, contact my grandfather immediately. This matter is directly related to my family's interests, so if there are any difficulties, you can go to my gramp. But if you did something wrong, I'll have to beat your ass. Understood?"
The annoying guy's face turned a shade of purple with fright, his voice barely above a whisper as he stammered, "Y-yes." With that, he ran away, this time for real.
Looking at the guy's back, Hiroshi couldn't help but feel a somewhat satisfied expression wash over him. Originally, he had anticipated that the guy would confront him again today, but the outcome left him speechless. It was the first time he had seen someone change their demeanor so quickly after being beaten once.
"So, this is how you usually do things, letting other people work for you? That's cool, to be honest," Hiroshi remarked.
"Yeah, I get 50% anyway. I better drop some sweat," Itami replied casually.
"You didn't, though. It's the guy who did all the work..." Hiroshi pointed out.
"Hey, why do you have so many problems? It's annoying. I'm going back to train," she retorted, making a face as she turned to leave.
"Uh, speaking of which, have you 100% mastered the revolving heaven?" Hiroshi interjected.
Stopping in his tracks, she turned back. "I somewhat do. What's wrong?"
"Well, I just have some ideas... Mind telling me what's the principle? Oh, it's fine if you don't. I know this technique is only for main clan members..." Hiroshi trailed off.
"It's no problem telling you. You can't learn it anyway...".
"Hey, that's offensive," Hiroshi protested.
She looked at him with a smirk. "Can you channel chakra into the tenketsu points in your body?"
"Of course I can."
"How long does it take?"
"Um... 10 seconds, around that," Hiroshi replied, feeling a bit embarrassed.
"Yes, you can be killed over 10 times with that time. And to learn the revolving heaven, you need to channel chakra into all your tenketsu points in a second, and that's just the basis. So, you can't learn," Itami said resolutely.
"It's actually quite simple," Itami began, her voice confident as she explained the intricacies of the technique. "You just need to release all chakra equally into the 361 tenketsu points in the body. For each point, the chakra released must be balanced. Okay, it doesn't need to be exactly the same, but as long as you can control all the released chakra, any proportion is fine. You follow?"
Seeing a frown appear on Hiroshi's face, Itami paused to confirm, "Sure, just continue."
"Okay, so here's the hardest part," she continued. "First, you need a complex manipulation of energy flow and concentration to form the sphere around your body by using the released chakra. Simultaneously, you have to transform chakra into a 'materialized' state, which could generate a protective barrier around the body, akin to an energy field. Furthermore, you have to spin, like really fast. This serves to enhance the stability and effectiveness of the protective barrier. The Byakugan is essential because everyone has different tenketsu points. You need the Byakugan to effectively reduce the time you have to 'trial and error' 361 times, not counting the combinations. I don't know all the details, but that's the gist of it."
"Wow... that's... I really can't do that," Hiroshi stammered, feeling a bit overwhelmed by the complexity of the technique.
"Told you," Itami said smugly, a hint of satisfaction in her voice.
"But I understand, it's not that complicated," Hiroshi continued, regaining his composure. He pushed up his imaginary glasses and continued, "I have some ideas. Would you like to hear them?"
"Sure, let's see what you got," Itami replied, her curiosity piqued.
"I may not know how to fight, but that doesn't mean I can't see the problems our clan faces. The revolving heaven's biggest weakness is that, while it protects the whole body, it cannot withstand really powerful attacks, and it costs a lot of chakras You know this, right?" Hiroshi began.
"That's bold of you there, blatantly belittling our clan. But it's true," Itami remarked, acknowledging the truth in his statement.
"Nobody here anyway, let's continue. I have two proposals," he continued. "First, you would need to modulate the flow of chakra, directing it towards the desired region while minimizing its dispersal elsewhere. You would have to involve adjusting the intensity and direction of chakra flow at each tenketsu point, essentially shaping the energy field to conform to the contours of the body part being protected. If you train and master it, you could effectively create a protective barrier tailored to the needs of the situation, whether it's shielding a vital organ during combat fortifying a weakened body part during recovery, or just stopping wasting chakra. This may be wrong, but if you can, the shield will be made of lots of slices, as much as you can, made from transformed chakra released from nearby tenketsu points. It would be best if you stacked them with perfect triangle-shaped slices, and by compressing these slices tightly together, as tight as you can, you can indeed enhance the density and strength of the shield, making it much stronger than the normal revolving heaven, I think.
Remember, the more slices you make, the tighter you compress, the better the shield. From a scientific standpoint, the rectangular shape can contribute to the structural integrity of the shield, as geometric shapes often offer greater stability and resistance to external forces. But it also means that any perfect shape like a perfect pentagon or hexagon is also fine..."
Hiroshi was engrossed in explaining the theory and details without even noticing that both Itami and Mia, who had stopped writing in her notebook, were looking at him with eyes wide open and mouths agape, an astonishing expression on their faces.
"... I heard that Namikaze Minato, the Yellow Flash, had a ninjutsu that can compress chakra into a ball to make it more destructive. As far as I know, that shows that chakra has 'fluid' attributes, but maybe you already know this. So my second proposal is, why use a sphere as a one-time protective barrier? You can change the released chakra into a stream of fluid revolving around you, that has 'malleability and fluidity' properties, allowing it to flow outward in a controlled manner to intercept and redirect attacks. Yes, redirect. Why stop some brute force when you can just touch it slightly to change its vector? Do any of you have water attributes?" Hiroshi suddenly asked, still engrossed in his explanation.
"... Yes," Itami said, her face showing a dumbfounded expression.
"Cool, then by using nature transformation of chakra to change half of the chakra into the water, yes, only half, as the defensive property of chakra is better than water, you can use strong water currents to deflect or divert objects, while using the chakra flow to add a safety touch beneath it. Imagine, some brute using taijutsu on you, and when by using Byakugan, you can see the chakra flow inside your opponent's body, then guess where it's going to hit, and you create a flow of water and chakra in the shape of a curved slide to redirect the attack, making it miss. Theoretically speaking, if you're master it, nobody can use taijutsu to hit you at all."
After finishing his explanation, Hiroshi glanced at their dumbfounded expressions with a sense of pride.
"I'm sorry about what I said before, but you're a genius," Itami exclaimed before dashing off to the courtyard, fueled by newfound motivation.
"Did you just create a secret technique on the spot?" Mia asked dumbfoundedly. "No, I also have to train," she replied before following Itami's lead and running off.
Although Mia was merely a servant and hadn't attended ninja school, she had received training from Itami's family to protect her, making her as strong as a Chuunin at sixteen years old, albeit not particularly talented. She may have even been weaker than twelve-year-old Itami.
Watching the two of them run off, Hiroshi couldn't help but feel satisfied. "That feels good to show off," he thought to himself.
However, as he calmed down, he began to ponder. 'Why didn't anyone think of this before? It's so simple, yet nobody did. And for some reason, what ninja comes up with either something 'colorful' and 'distinctive' like fireball, fire dragon, water ball, water dragon, Wind blade,... or some unscientific things like clone, transformation, seals, Genjutsu,... No, not Genjutsu, that thing's cool.'
As for bloodline power? that's a bug, like an alien's bug, so don't mind them.
"I can do it; it works," he heard Itami's voice from the courtyard. Glancing over, he saw her holding a hexagonal, dense, blue glass-like object in her hand—a successful result. "What talent," he lamented.
"Hit me, Mia," Itami commanded.
"Hai, Ojou-sama. Gentle Fist, 16 Palms," Mia complied.
With a series of strikes, the glass-looking shield in front of Itami remained intact, without a single crack.
"Yes, yes, I succeeded! Hahahaha, ahahaha" Itami exclaimed, laughing maniacally. "Hit harder, Mia!"
Ignoring the commotion in the garden, Hiroshi reached for Mia's notebook on the table, tore out a piece of paper, and borrowed a pen. He prepared to write down blueprints for various constructions, like the refractory anchoring systems, and blast furnace,... Since his original plans for the day had been completed by the annoying guy, and he didn't have any immediate plans, he decided to make good use of his time by finishing the blueprints.
"But Mia's imagination is really wild, god damn," he silently thought, recalling what he had glimpsed from her notebook.
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Meanwhile, the relentless pace of the tasks assigned to the annoying guy showed no sign of relenting. He darted tirelessly from one administrative department to another, ensuring that all necessary registrations were completed promptly. He accompanied the Chuunin assigned by Itami's grandfather, assisting them in contacting the landowner and facilitating negotiations with a sense of urgency that bordered on desperation.
Unfortunately, the Goddess of Misfortune had her eyes upon him.
Unbeknownst to him, hidden observers lurked nearby, perched on a rooftop overlooking the scene. Two ninjas, clad in black from head to toe, their faces obscured by masks, watched the annoying guy with cold, emotionless eyes.
One of the shadowy figures broke the silence, his voice devoid of any emotion. "He has been dealing with all the legitimate matters related to Hyuga Hiroshi and Hyuga Itami," he remarked quietly. "It could be confirmed that he may hold an important position for them."
His subordinate nodded in understanding. With a silent gesture, he vanished into the shadows, leaving behind only a faint disturbance in the air.
The remaining ninja's lips curled into a sinister smile. "We need Hyuga Hiroshi to be our golden spoon," he murmured to himself, his eyes gleaming with anticipation.