They agreed to meet after class at one of the training grounds near the edge of the forest. The clearing was far enough from the Academy that few students bothered to use it at that hour.
It was quiet. Just the faint rustle of leaves and the distant murmur of the village carried on the wind.
Reiji had arrived first.
He stood near one of the old wooden training posts, idly scraping the dirt with the tip of his sandal while he waited. A few moments later, footsteps approached along the narrow path that led through the trees.
Hizashi emerged from the forest.
Reiji straightened slightly, glancing at the position of the sun before looking back at him.
"You're late," he said.
Hizashi stepped into the clearing, his expression as calm and composed as ever.
"Finding an excuse that wouldn't make Hiashi suspicious was difficult."
Reiji snorted softly.
"You two really are joined at the hip, huh?"
Hizashi looked mildly confused for a moment before answering with complete seriousness.
"He is my twin."
The tone suggested that this alone explained everything.
Reiji stared at him for a second, then shrugged.
"Fair enough."
He pushed himself away from the training post and stepped closer.
"So," he continued casually, "what did you tell him?"
Hizashi's expression barely changed.
"Nothing important."
The answer came with a dismissive calm that suggested the subject wasn't worth discussing.
"He is probably suspicious already."
Reiji raised an eyebrow.
"Really? And you're fine with that?"
Hizashi's pale eyes settled on him.
"Why do you suddenly care?" he asked. "You are the one who manipulated me into coming here."
Reiji tilted his head slightly.
"Manipulated is a strong word."
He spread his hands lightly.
"Even if that were true, you still chose to come."
His gaze sharpened slightly as he studied Hizashi.
"So why?"
For a brief moment the Hyūga boy said nothing.
Then he answered quietly.
"You were right."
Reiji blinked.
Hizashi's pale eyes remained steady.
"It is time someone puts you in your place."
Reiji observed him carefully.
Hizashi's face was usually almost expressionless, calm to the point of being unreadable. But now something subtle had changed. The stillness in his posture wasn't the passive calm Reiji had seen before.
There was tension beneath it.
Determination.
And something else.
Excitement.
Realization spread slowly across Reiji's face.
A grin tugged at the corner of his mouth.
"You just want to let loose."
Hizashi did not deny it.
After a brief pause he said quietly,
"It is better to ask forgiveness later."
Reiji's grin widened.
"Now we're talking."
Reiji stepped into the open space of the clearing and rolled his shoulders once, feeling the lingering stiffness from earlier training loosen along his back.
Several paces away, Hizashi waited.
The Hyūga stood with quiet balance, his posture relaxed in a way that immediately drew attention to how controlled it was. One palm rested forward at chest level while the other hovered near his ribs, fingers loose, ready to move in any direction. His feet were angled outward slightly, weight resting lightly on the balls of his sandals so that his center of gravity remained mobile.
The Byakugan was already active.
Fine veins spread outward from the corners of Hiashi's pale eyes, and his gaze rested on Reiji with unsettling precision.
Reiji noticed immediately.
The realization sharpened his focus. The Hyūga's attention wasn't tracking his face, or even his posture. Hizashi's eyes were following something beneath the surface—something inside his body.
Before either of them moved, the Hyūga boy spoke.
"Just to be sure," Hiashi said calmly, "only taijutsu. That's what you said, right?"
Reiji nodded once.
"Yeah. Only taijutsu."
His eyes studied Hizashi's stance for another moment.
"The Hyūga are supposed to be monsters in close combat. I want to see why."
Hizashi regarded him quietly.
"Very well."
A brief pause followed.
"But do not blame me for what happens next."
Reiji's mouth twitched faintly.
"Fair warning."
Reiji didn't bother raising a formal guard.
Instead he allowed his arms to hang loosely at his sides, shifting his weight slightly forward as he studied the Hyūga's stance. His feet adjusted subtly against the grass, testing the traction of the ground while he measured the distance between them.
Curiosity stirred quietly in the back of his mind.
'Let's see what those eyes actually do in a fight.'
Hizashi moved first.
The distance between them vanished in a single smooth step.
His lead foot slid forward over the grass with barely a sound, hips following immediately behind it as his body aligned through the strike. His palm shot forward toward Reiji's shoulder, the motion direct and precise.
Reiji pivoted sideways the moment the strike entered range.
His forearm rose instinctively to intercept while his hips twisted through the movement, redirecting the incoming force away from his body rather than stopping it outright. The contact was controlled—almost soft—nothing like the blunt shock of a normal punch.
He countered immediately.
His right shoulder rotated through the motion, driving a sharp cross toward Hiashi's ribs.
Hizashi shifted with precise economy.
His torso turned just enough for the punch to skim past his body, the movement so efficient that Reiji barely felt resistance before his fist passed through empty air.
Reiji pressed forward before the Hyūga could reset.
His left hand snapped out in a quick jab aimed at Hizashi's face, testing the reaction. The moment the jab retracted, his right shoulder rolled again into a tight hook toward the jaw while his rear leg whipped low toward Hizashi's knee in a sweeping kick meant to disrupt the stance supporting him.
Three attacks.
Three angles.
Hizashi's hands moved like flowing water.
One palm brushed the jab aside with a subtle deflection that barely altered its path.
The hook passed through the space where his head had been a fraction of a second earlier.
The sweeping kick never reached its target.
Hizashi stepped forward.
Not backward.
Inside the arc of the attack.
The timing was effortless.
Before Reiji could fully retract his arm, Hizashi's palm touched his upper arm.
The contact felt almost gentle.
Then the sensation arrived.
A violent pulse exploded through the limb.
Reiji felt it deep beneath the muscles, somewhere inside the pathways carrying chakra through the arm. It was as if something had struck directly against the channels themselves.
The strength vanished instantly.
His arm didn't drop entirely, but the power inside it collapsed all at once. His fingers twitched weakly as the limb refused to respond properly, the muscles suddenly disconnected from the signals that normally controlled them.
Pain followed a heartbeat later—sharp and invasive, spreading through the limb like needles sliding beneath the skin.
Reiji blinked once.
'Well…'
'That's new.'
Even as the sensation spread through the limb, his mind had already begun dissecting what had happened. The strike hadn't been random. Hizashi's palm had landed at a precise point just above the biceps, exactly where several chakra pathways converged before flowing toward the shoulder.
Hizashi didn't give him time to think about it.
His palms moved again in tight arcs as he pressed forward, every step measured and balanced. The movement was fluid, economical—no wasted motion anywhere in the exchange.
One strike slipped through the space between them and tapped lightly against Reiji's ribs.
The impact barely carried force, yet the effect was immediate.
A wave of pressure burst inward from the point of contact, deeper than any ordinary strike could reach. Reiji felt the chakra circulating through his core stutter violently as the Hyūga's strike disrupted another convergence point in the network feeding the diaphragm and lungs.
For a brief moment his breath caught.
'If that lands deeper…'
'That could be bad.'
Another palm brushed across his shoulder a moment later.
The same pulse followed, sharp and invasive, pain spreading down the arm as the disrupted pathways sent erratic signals through the limb.
It still moved.
Barely.
But the control was fading.
Reiji stepped back half a pace, his sandal scraping through the packed dirt as he shifted his balance. His injured arm hung awkwardly at his side, fingers twitching faintly as sensation flickered through the limb.
Hizashi advanced again, pale eyes fixed on him with that unnerving stillness.
Reiji adjusted immediately.
If the arm wasn't working properly, it still had weight.
It could still get in the way.
He lifted the weakened limb just as the next strike came.
Hizashi's palm struck the arm instead of Reiji's torso. Pain flared through the damaged pathways, another spike of chakra disruption rippling through the limb—but the blow didn't reach his ribs.
Good.
Keep it off the torso.
Reiji stepped through the opening the moment it appeared.
His remaining fist drove forward in a straight punch, shoulder rotating through the motion as his hips followed behind it.
The blow landed clean.
Knuckles slammed into Hizashi's jaw with a solid thud that forced the Hyūga boy back half a step, the impact echoing dull against bone and muscle.
For the briefest moment the opening widened.
Hizashi's pale eyes sharpened.
His hand shot forward.
Two fingers struck the inside of Reiji's elbow with surgical precision.
Pain lanced up the arm instantly.
The chakra in the limb collapsed completely.
This time there was no resistance left at all. The arm dropped uselessly to his side, fingers curling weakly as the disrupted pathways refused to respond.
Reiji exhaled slowly through his nose.
'Ah.'
'That's worse.'
Both arms now hung partially useless—one barely responsive, the other completely numb.
Hizashi stepped forward to finish the exchange.
Reiji moved first.
He dropped his weight suddenly and twisted through his hips. His body spun low across the grass, one leg sweeping outward in a wide arc toward Hiashi's ankles.
The Hyūga hopped backward, sandals brushing through the grass as he cleared the sweep.
Reiji continued the rotation, letting the momentum carry him back upright.
His arms hung uselessly.
But his legs still worked.
Hizashi approached again with the same measured calm, palms raised and ready.
Reiji shifted his stance.
Without his arms to balance himself, he relied entirely on his core and footwork. His feet slid across the grass in slow circular steps, hips turning fluidly with each movement as he adjusted to the strange imbalance in his body.
A spinning kick snapped upward toward Hizashi's ribs.
Hizashi intercepted the strike with his forearm, but the force still drove him a half step back as the impact traveled through his guard.
Reiji kept moving.
The rotation carried him through another turn, his heel whipping upward toward Hizashi's head in a sharp rising arc.
Hizashi ducked beneath it.
His palms flashed forward.
Two quick taps struck the muscles of Reiji's thigh.
The sensation was immediate.
Pain spiked through the leg as the chakra pathways there jolted violently out of alignment.
His balance faltered.
The leg still held him upright—but the strength inside it was bleeding away, the muscles responding sluggishly as the disrupted chakra circulation failed to support them.
Reiji felt it clearly.
That one's going to give out soon.
He exhaled slowly.
The fight had become a race now.
His body was failing piece by piece.
He needed one opening.
Hizashi stepped forward again.
Reiji staggered deliberately.
His balance shifted unevenly, the damaged leg dragging slightly through the grass as though the limb had finally betrayed him. His shoulders tilted just enough to sell the movement.
Hizashi closed the distance.
That was the moment.
Reiji's remaining leg snapped forward with sudden force.
His heel drove straight into Hizashi's chest.
The impact landed solidly.
Air burst from Hizashi's lungs as he stumbled backward.
Reiji didn't hesitate.
He launched forward with the last of his momentum, twisting through the air as his legs wrapped around Hizashi's neck. His thighs locked tightly behind the Hyūga's shoulders as he squeezed down with everything he had left.
The hold secured instantly.
His hips twisted, tightening the pressure around the arteries in Hizashi's neck as his body dragged the Hyūga's posture forward.
Hizashi reacted immediately.
His hands shot upward and struck Reiji's legs in quick, precise taps near the joints of the knees. Chakra surged through the strikes as he attempted to shut down the muscles the same way he had crippled Reiji's arms and thigh.
The numbness spread instantly.
Strength drained from Reiji's legs just as it had from the rest of his body.
But the hold remained.
Even as the paralysis crept deeper through the muscles of his thighs, the pressure around Hizashi's neck didn't loosen. His ankles were locked high behind the Hyūga's back, the angle forcing the choke tighter the more Hizashi struggled.
Hizashi realized it moments later.
His fingers shifted from precise strikes to brute force. Both hands gripped Reiji's legs as he tried to pry them apart, forearms straining as he forced against the hold.
It didn't work.
The angle was wrong.
The more he pulled, the tighter the choke compressed around his neck.
Hizashi's breathing grew rough.
The strength in his arms faltered.
Seconds stretched as the pressure restricted the flow of blood upward, the world dimming slowly at the edges of his vision.
His hands slipped.
Then they struck Reiji's legs again—sharp, urgent taps.
Once.
Twice.
A third time, harder.
Reiji understood immediately.
He released the hold at once.
His legs slipped free and both boys collapsed awkwardly onto the grass.
Reiji landed flat on his back, staring up at the sky through the shifting branches above. His arms and legs refused to move. Every limb lay completely numb against the ground.
A slow grin spread across his face.
'That was educational.'
Hizashi stood a few steps away, his breathing was heavier now, chest rising and falling as he forced air back into his lungs.
For a moment he simply stared at Reiji.
"…You really are crazy," Hizashi said at last.
His voice was rougher than usual.
Reiji turned his head slightly to look at him.
Hizashi dragged in another breath, one hand briefly touching the side of his neck where the pressure of the choke had been. The skin there was still flushed from where Reiji's legs had locked around his throat.
"Who fights like that?" he added.
Reiji blinked once.
"Should I take that as a compliment?"
Hizashi didn't answer immediately.
He was still trying to steady his breathing.
Reiji shrugged lightly and flexed his fingers, testing the strange numbness lingering through his arm. The movement felt slow and awkward, like the signals between muscle and nerve were still trying to reconnect.
"Well," Hizashi said after a moment, still catching his breath, "I basically paralyzed your entire body."
Reiji rotated his shoulder once, feeling the stiffness where several of his tenketsu had been struck. The joint protested slightly as sensation continued to return.
"Yeah," he admitted.
He lifted his arm a little, watching the sluggish movement with mild interest.
"But how exactly was I supposed to win a clinch against that?"
Hizashi blinked faintly at the question.
Reiji gestured vaguely toward him.
"You're attacking the chakra network directly," he said. "Half my body is a mess right now. If one of those strikes had hit a vital tenketsu, I'd probably be unconscious."
He tilted his head thoughtfully.
"And I didn't even know that was possible."
Hizashi watched him quietly.
"If I'd known beforehand," he continued, " maybe I could've tried something different."
He paused briefly.
Then added with complete honesty,
"But in close quarters?"
He shook his head.
"Against that?"
A small grin appeared.
"Yeah. I had no chance."
For several seconds Hizashi said nothing.
The tension from the fight still lingered in his body. His breathing gradually slowed, but the surprise had not faded from his expression. He had entered the spar confident in the superiority of his clan's style. Once Reiji's arms had been shut down, the outcome had seemed inevitable.
And yet—
He had still lost.
His gaze remained fixed on Reiji.
For the first time since they had met, the look in his pale eyes had changed.
Reiji noticed it immediately.
The tension was still there. The pride too. But something else had appeared behind it now.
Respect.
Reiji's grin widened slightly.
Then Reiji's expression shifted slightly, curiosity returning.
"…Can someone learn that?" he asked.
Hizashi frowned.
" The Gentle Fist? "
Reiji nodded.
" Yes."
Hizashi shook his head.
"No."
"The style relies on the Byakugan."
He hesitated before adding,
"Without it, you cannot see the chakra pathways clearly enough to strike them."
Reiji nodded slowly.
"…Makes sense."
He glanced at Hizashi again, studying him in a new way now.
"That's a terrifying fighting style."
Hizashi did not deny it.
"So…" Reiji began.
Hiashi glanced down at him.
"Mmm?"
Reiji lifted one hand weakly, wiggling his fingers again as if testing whether they truly belonged to him.
"Could you help me?" he asked. "It was funny earlier, but now it's getting a bit depressing lying here like this. It feels like I'm the loser."
Hizashi stared at him for a moment.
"…Ah. Yes. My mistake."
He stepped closer and crouched beside him. His hand moved with practiced precision as two fingers struck several points along Reiji's arm and shoulder, the taps light but deliberate. Chakra pulsed briefly through the contact as he reopened the blocked tenketsu.
Warm sensation flooded back through Reiji's limbs almost instantly.
"Aaah," Reiji exhaled, stretching his arm and flexing his hand as the stiffness vanished.
"Much better."
Hizashi straightened slightly.
"Well," he said calmly, "it was an interesting fight. But now—"
He stopped.
Reiji's head had turned slightly toward the training path.
For a brief moment he didn't move, his eyes narrowing as he listened. The wind carried faint sounds through the trees—footsteps brushing through dry grass somewhere beyond the clearing.
Someone was approaching.
Before Hizashi could ask what he had noticed, Reiji's hand shot forward.
He grabbed Hizashi by the head and pulled him down sharply as he dropped into a crouch.
"Down."
Hizashi barely had time to react before the sudden force dragged him with him.
The two boys crouched low beside the thick trunk of an old tree that grew along the edge of the training path. The bark pressed rough against Reiji's shoulder as he leaned into the cover, the wide base of the trunk easily hiding them from anyone walking along the road.
Reiji raised a hand sharply.
"Shh."
Hizashi frowned, clearly annoyed.
"What are you doing?"
Reiji didn't answer immediately. Instead he tilted his head slightly and pointed down the path that cut through the training grounds toward the village.
"Look."
Hizashi leaned just enough to follow the direction of the gesture.
A blond boy walked casually down the road.
His stride was relaxed, almost lazy, his hands tucked behind his head as if he had nowhere urgent to be. The sunlight caught the bright color of his hair even from a distance.
Hizashi narrowed his eyes slightly.
"…Namikaze?"
"Yeah," Reiji murmured. "Looks like it."
Hizashi glanced back at him, confusion plain on his face.
"And what exactly are you doing?"
Reiji turned his head slowly, staring at him as if the answer should be obvious.
"We're following him."
Hizashi blinked.
"We?"
"Yes, we," Reiji replied impatiently. "Are you not curious?"
Hizashi looked back toward the road where Minato continued walking without noticing them.
"Curious about what?"
"What he's doing here," Reiji said quietly. "Obviously."
Hiashi observed the blond boy again before answering.
"…No."
Reiji frowned.
"He's probably just training," Hizashi added calmly.
"Yes," Reiji said, "but why here? He never trains here normally."
Hizashi turned back toward him, studying his face more carefully now.
"…Do you watch him often?"
Reiji stiffened slightly.
"No. Why would you say that?"
Hizashi held his gaze for a moment.
"…Nothing."
Reiji waved the comment away dismissively.
"Good. Now shut up and follow me."
He shifted his weight carefully and began moving along the tree line, staying low as he stepped over exposed roots and patches of dry grass. The ground was uneven here, the dirt packed hard where the path met the training field, but the line of trees provided enough cover to move without being seen from the road.
"We'll keep our distance," Reiji said quietly as he moved. "You'll use your eyes to track him."
Hizashi stopped walking.
He stared at Reiji with a completely blank expression.
"You want me… to spy on him with my Byakugan?"
Reiji glanced back over his shoulder.
"What good are your eyes if you don't use them?"
Hizashi sighed.
Softly.
"…What am I doing with my life."
But after a moment, he followed anyway.
---
They shadowed Minato through the trees at a careful distance, keeping to the thicker undergrowth where the trunks and low branches broke their silhouettes.. Reiji moved slowly, placing each step with deliberate control while keeping his eyes fixed on the blond boy ahead of them. Hizashi followed a few paces behind, quieter than Reiji had expected for someone still recovering from being nearly strangled minutes earlier.
Eventually the trees thinned.
The forest opened into a small clearing where the grass had grown thin and sparse from repeated use as a training spot. Minato walked to the center without hesitation and stopped.
He rolled his shoulders once, loosening his posture as if preparing for practice.
Then he raised one hand and formed a single hand sign.
Reiji frowned slightly from where he crouched behind a broad oak trunk.
"What is he doing?" he murmured.
Hizashi did not answer immediately. His pale eyes narrowed as the Byakugan focused on the chakra flow inside Minato's body.
Minato inhaled slowly.
The air around him shifted.
Reiji noticed the change a moment later. The wind that had been drifting lazily through the clearing began to stir more sharply, tugging at the leaves overhead and brushing across the grass around Minato's feet.
Then Minato's hand moved.
A sharp slicing sound cut through the clearing.
Reiji's eyes widened slightly as a narrow blade of compressed air shot forward. The wind struck the trunk of a nearby tree with a violent hiss, carving a thin line straight through the bark. The outer layer split apart with a dry cracking sound before several fragments of wood fell to the ground.
The clearing went quiet again.
Reiji didn't move.
"…What?"
Minato lowered his hand and stepped closer to the tree, leaning forward slightly to examine the cut. His expression turned thoughtful, and after a moment he scratched the back of his head.
"Hm… still a little unstable."
He stepped back into position.
Another hand sign.
Another slow breath.
The air stirred again.
A second blade of wind shot forward, shaving splinters from the damaged trunk. The bark flaked away under the invisible edge of the technique.
Behind the trees, Reiji stared without blinking.
For once, he had absolutely nothing to say.
An elemental jutsu.
A real one.
Not the harmless chakra tricks they practiced in the Academy. Not theory or classroom demonstrations.
Wind Release.
Hizashi spoke quietly beside him.
"He can already perform nature transformation."
Reiji didn't answer.
His eyes remained locked on Minato as the blond boy reset his stance again, adjusting the position of his feet slightly before trying the technique once more. Each attempt looked deliberate, patient, almost methodical.
A thought surfaced in Reiji's mind without permission.
'He's an orphan.'
No clan.
No family instruction.
No private training in some hidden compound.
And yet—
Reiji felt his jaw tighten.
Something twisted inside his chest. The feeling came quickly, sharp and unpleasant.
Jealousy.
He recognized it immediately.
But that wasn't all.
Minato repeated the technique again, adjusting the angle of his wrist as if testing the shape of the wind blade. There was nothing flashy about the way he trained. Just quiet focus, small corrections, steady repetition.
Another thought followed.
A colder one.
'Father would have liked him.'
Reiji imagined it for a moment before he could stop himself.
Minato standing in their small training garden.
Calm.
Disciplined.
Talented.
Exactly the sort of student his father respected.
The sort of son—
Reiji looked away abruptly.
At that moment Minato stopped moving.
The wind around him faded.
Slowly, he turned his head toward the line of trees.
"…You can come out."
Reiji stiffened.
Hizashi glanced sideways at him.
"Did he see us?" he whispered.
Reiji clicked his tongue under his breath before straightening and stepping out from behind the tree.
Minato blinked when he saw them.
"Oh. Reiji and… Hizashi?"
Reiji crossed his arms.
"You noticed?"
Minato smiled faintly.
"I sensed your chakra."
'The fuck ?'
Hizashi stepped out of the trees as well, brushing a loose twig from his sleeve as he joined them in the clearing. For a moment the three boys simply stood there.
Reiji's eyes drifted to the tree trunk.
The cut left by the wind blade was clean.
His jaw tightened slightly.
"You can already use Wind Release."
Minato rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.
"Well… I'm still practicing."
Reiji stared at him.
'Still practicing'
He turned away.
"…You're showing off."
Minato blinked in confusion.
"I wasn't—"
But Reiji was already walking toward the edge of the clearing.
"Come on, Hizashi."
Hizashi followed without protest.
Behind them, Minato remained standing in the grass, watching the two of them leave in silence.
Reiji kept walking without looking back, his hands tucked into his sleeves as the forest swallowed the clearing behind them.
His jaw remained tight.
'Just you wait'.
The thought settled in his mind with cold certainty.
Hyōton.
'I'll catch up soon.'