Hyuga Kosei was already approaching Haneda at a rapid pace, leaving him no time to dilly-dally. As a result, although Haneda was still cursing Kosei, he never forgot to weave his hand seals.
When Kosei was just 30 meters away from him, Haneda finished weaving his series of hand seals and converted his channeled chakra into lightning.
Lightning Release: Lightning Rat Violent Quake
Crackle! Crackle!
The lightning element quickly transformed into several destructive disks of lightning and shot at Kosei at high speed.
Those lightning disks had refined homing abilities. Each disk shot at Kosei from different angles before converging toward him, targeting his vitals.
Interesting choice of Ninjutsu. These lightning disks not only cause knockback but also deal significant lightning damage on a direct hit.
Their homing capabilities are pretty good, too. It forces me to block them. Well, I can just back away a little because the homing ability of these disks falters as soon as they move forty meters away from their caster.
But you, little shit…if you think that the Hyuga clan ninjas only know how to use Gentle Fist and no elemental Ninjutsu, you are in for one hell of a surprise.
You didn't think that you could make me, an Elite Jonin from the Hyuga clan, back away so easily, did you?
Hyuga Kosei formed a series of hand seals at a blinding speed, clapped his hands together, and pushed his right palm forward toward the incoming lightning disks.
Wind Release: Gale Palm
Whoosh! Whoosh!
A gust of strong wind, carrying several small, sharp wind blades, blew from Kosei's open palm and made contact with the lightning disks.
The hidden wind blades collided with the lightning disks, causing the wind chakra to overpower the lightning chakra, making those disks fizzle out of existence.
Crack! Crackle! Fizz!
And the moment the lightning disks disappeared, Hyuga Kosei activated the Body Flicker Technique to flicker out of his spot.
Seeing Kosei disappear, Haneda's pupils contracted, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up due to sudden goosebumps.
Damn it, too fast. Where did he go? Haneda thought as he immediately shrank the range of the chakra sensing technique to only thirty meters to maximize his sensing capabilities to the extreme.
And the moment he did, he sensed Kosei approaching him from his left at a blistering speed. He also sensed chakra leaking out and converging at the bottom of Kosei's palm.
There was no time to weave multiple hand seals for casting a powerful offensive technique. Nor could he activate the Body Flicker Technique fast enough to escape him.
Even if he did manage to flicker away, he would still be at a disadvantage.
His opponent was a Hyuga Jonin. And his movements were fast, blindingly fast.
As a full-fledged Elite Jonin, Hyuga Kosei's physical stats, perception, chakra control, and offensive capabilities were several tiers higher than his own.
Looking at the amount of chakra leaking from his palm's tenketsu, he could instantly knock me out the moment his attack hit me.
I have to use that defensive Jutsu, and I have to use it with a single-handed seal to execute it fast enough to avoid an instant knockout.
Can I even do it?
Shit…no time. Let's just do it.
Haneda's thoughts churned as he formed a single-handed seal and mobilized his chakra.
Earth Release: Hardening Technique
In an instant, the earth chakra engulfed Haneda's entire body, hardening his skin and forming defensive rock armor on his body, strong enough to withstand attacks from sharp blades.
Success!
Haneda's eyes lit up. He had finally executed a Ninjutsu with a single-handed seal in the middle of the battle.
But he had no time to savor the moment.
As soon as Haneda's rock armor was formed, Hyuga Kosei arrived in front of him and launched a swift palm strike at his chest.
Gentle Fist: Palm Bottom
Seeing the incoming palm strike, Haneda didn't dare to take the hit, even with his rock armor.
He crossed his arms against his chest, trying to protect his chest and torso from a direct hit.
And the moment he did, the base of Kosei's palm hit his arm and released a burst of chakra at the contact point, multiplying the power of the strike several-fold.
Booom!
Crack!
"Gah!"
The force behind the strike directly cracked his rock armor.
Kosei's chakra tried to invade Haneda's tenketsu (chakra points) and disrupt his chakra network. But thanks to the armor's protection, the invading chakra lost its potency, ultimately ending up rattling his bones without causing much internal damage.
Still, the remnant power behind the Gentle Fist: Palm Bottom was enough to slam onto his chest heavily, knocking the air out of his lungs.
At the same time, Haneda was also sent flying backwards.
As Haneda flew backwards, his brain was working on overdrive.
Although it hurts, it's bearable. The armor blocked a lot of his chakra from invading my tenketsu, and I only suffered a bit of pain in my arms.
It's fine.
He will be coming after me for sure. If I wait until I land on the ground to cast Ninjutsu, it will be too late.
And Haneda was right. Hyuga Kosei was already rushing toward him. If he really did wait until his feet landed on the ground to start weaving seals, Kosei's strike would reach him before he could release his Ninjutsu.
So…
There's no time to waste. I must act. NOW!
With those thoughts in his mind, Haneda began weaving hand seals while adjusting his body mid-air.
He landed on the ground while still sliding backward, kicking up dust, and pressed his arms on the ground, channeling a large amount of earth chakra.
Earth Release: Earth-flow Spears
Several sharp spears made of hardened earth and rock emerged from the ground, targeting Kosei, who was dashing forward with breakneck speed.
The distance between the glinting spear tips and Kosei was less than two meters.
Haneda had activated the technique so late that most average full-fledged Jonin would find it impossible to change their running trajectory in time or to halt their steps fast enough, allowing the spear tips to plunge into their bodies and inflicting severe injuries.
Even if the ninja managed to change their direction or halt their steps in time, it would break their momentum, giving Haneda ample time to release more earth spears all around his opponent, trap them, and finish them off with different Ninjutsu, throwing ninja tools, or explosive tags.
It was a pretty good tactic.
Unfortunately, his opponent was an Elite Jonin from the Hyuga clan.
Futile tricks. In front of my eyes, all your tricks are useless.
My Byakugan had already detected your accumulation of earth chakra on the ground.
And if I can see it, I can counter it.
Hyuga Kosei smirked. His pale white Byakugan glinted with a strange light as he quickly altered his running trajectory without losing momentum.
Seeing Kosei change direction and dodge the first batch of earth spears, Haneda poured more chakra to make more earth spears erupt from different spots to block Kosei's path once more.
And Kosei dodged them once more by changing his direction, forcing Haneda to follow him with more earth spears.
Still, Haneda couldn't stop him from closing in, making him break out in a cold sweat.
At this rate, Kosei would arrive in front of him in a couple of seconds, forcing him to engage in a melee combat.
It wasn't that Haneda was weak in melee combat. Far from it, he was actually quite strong.
But he was ultimately more proficient in Ninjutsu.
Facing an Elite Jonin from the Hyuga clan, who specialized in Gentle Fist and several deadly close combat techniques, would put him at a huge disadvantage.
Haneda didn't want to be forced into such a situation.
But lady luck didn't seem to be on his side.
Hyuga Kosei suddenly accelerated and quickly covered several tens of meters in the blink of an eye.
When Kosei was less than six meters away from Haneda, he suddenly launched another ranged attack, catching Haneda off guard.
Eight Trigrams: Vacuum Palm
Another compressed vacuum shell flew from Kosei's palm, destroying the earth spears blocking his path before rushing toward Haneda.
Crack! Crack! Boom!
"Holy fucking shit!"
Seeing the approaching vacuum shell, Haneda really cursed out loud this time before jumping to his right.
BANG!
The vacuum shell, which missed Haneda, flew dozens of meters in a straight line and slammed into a thick, two-meter-diameter tree, destroying a large part of its trunk.
The remaining part of the trunk was too fragile to hold the tree's weight.
The trunk cracked, and the seventeen-meter-tall tree fell with a resounding boom, kicking up a lot of dust all around it.
Boooooooom!
However, neither Haneda nor Kosei paid any attention to it.
"Tsk, tsk…the students this year are really something. More than two minutes have passed, but this student hasn't been eliminated yet. Facing an Elite Jonin for this long without being subdued yet when he's just twelve…"
Iori Nanako, who had been watching the match between Haneda and Kosei, murmured in a voice so low that only she could hear her words.
She shifted her focus to Seimei, Reina, and Keiko for a couple of seconds before refocusing on Haneda's match once more.
"And Haneda isn't even the most outstanding young ninja of this graduating batch."
She shook her head slightly and watched the battle between Haneda and Kosei.
Meanwhile, after dodging the Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm Technique, Haneda steadied himself. He watched Kosei intently, only to find him in a special combat stance.
The moment he saw that, his danger sense blared hundreds of alarms in his mind.
Because he recognized that stance and knew what he was going to face.
He quickly pulled out his ninja sword, channeled wind chakra through the blade, and readied himself for the incoming onslaught.
On the other hand, Hyuga Kosei, who adopted a unique combat stance, steadied his breath and watched Haneda with lethal intent.
Gentle Fist Arts: Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms
And in the blink of an eye, Kosei shot forward, arriving in front of Haneda in a moment's notice.
Two palms!
Hyuga Kosei delivered two lightning-fast, consecutive strikes, targeting the chakra points on Haneda's shoulders.
Clang! Clang!
However, Haneda managed to block both of those strikes by intercepting them with his ninja sword. Since Kosei was wearing silk-thin, metallic, chakra-enhancing gloves, his fingers met with the edge of Haneda's blade without fear.
Still, even after blocking the strikes successfully, Haneda felt a significant amount of knockback effect from those attacks, almost making him stumble from the surprising momentum behind them.
Four palms!
Kosei launched another two consecutive strikes with even more power and speed.
Clang!
Haneda dodged one attack and blocked another one using his sword.
But his expression tightened.
He knew that the force behind the latter strikes and their attacking speed was about to ramp up to a whole new level.
Eight palms!
Sure enough, Kosei performed four consecutive strikes within the same length of time it took to perform the previous set of two strikes.
And Haneda, who had unleashed his chakra-sensing technique to its extreme, still managed to block all of them, protecting his chakra points.
Sixteen palms!
Thirty-two palms!
Kosei unleashed another two sets of palm strikes; each strike was faster than the previous one. By the end of the last set of strikes, Kosei's hands moved so fast that they almost blurred.
The momentum behind those strikes was enough to crack solid rocks open and crush them. But the most dangerous part about them wasn't the force behind those strikes or their speed.
It was the fact that each of those strikes accurately targeted Haneda's specific chakra points. If Haneda were to fail in stopping them, his targeted tenketsu would be sealed, making it difficult for him to control his chakra flow and move his body.
He wasn't hit. He managed to dodge and block each of those strikes, even if barely.
He was already at his limit dodging those strikes, and the last set of thirty-two strikes, which would have even more momentum behind them, was yet to come.
They would be faster, too—almost imperceivable to the naked eye, unless someone had a Dojutsu like Sharingan.
Fortunately, my chakra-sensing technique and chakra perception are strong enough, allowing me to detect things and moves that my eyes can't see.
Otherwise, even with my current physical prowess, which is already leagues ahead of many bloodline ninja clans, blocking the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palm Technique from a Hyuga Elite Jonin would have been almost impossible.
I would have already been lying on the ground, motionless and twitching, unable to move my body or mobilize my chakra because of the restricted chakra flow.
Haneda thought grimly as he kept his senses alert.
And before long, the last set of strikes came.
Sixty-four palms!
The last set of thirty-two palm strikes, which completed the sequence of a total of sixty-four palm strikes, rained down on Haneda.
Wind whistled as the palm strikes met Haneda's blade.
At first, he could still block the strikes.
Ding! Clang! Clang! Ding!
But the more strikes rained, the faster and more unpredictable each attack became.
Arrgh!
And finally, the strikes started reaching Haneda's body, precisely targeting his chakra points with each contact.
Waves of pain assaulted Haneda as each direct hit blocked his chakra points and chakra flow, all while delivering a crushing blow with unstoppable momentum.
With each strike landed on his body, Haneda found it more and more difficult to move and block the consecutive attacks.
If it weren't for his masterful chakra reinforcement, he would have suffered from severe muscle ruptures and broken bones.
Boom!Clang!
The last palm strike blitzed toward Haneda with a crushing momentum, which he surprisingly blocked with his ninja sword.
But the sheer force behind the strike released a mild shockwave, knocking Haneda off his feet, throwing him back by several meters.
Haneda's body hit the ground and rolled multiple times.
After Haneda's body rolled for one last time, he took control, pushed his hands against the ground, and stood up on his feet again.
"Arrgh! Hah! Hah! Hah!"
Haneda groaned painfully and took deep breaths to endure the pain.
However, before he could even look at his opponent again, Hyuga Kosei suddenly flickered before him and gripped his throat tightly.
Kosei's pure Byakugan stared at Haneda eerily.
And before long, he said, "Ishimori Haneda. You have done well. But you still have a long way to go. So…surrender."
Hearing this, Haneda lifted his head and stared defiantly at Kosei's eyes.
Haneda's lips moved as he declared in a hoarse voice, "It's not over yet."
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