A Sage's Pursuit of Power

In the original story, Hinata was one of the rare Hyūga clan members who wanted to innovate and create something new, and she had achieved some results. Unfortunately, her role faded in the later stages of the series.

Neji, on the other hand, started with the genius persona, but neither his ideology nor his combat abilities saw any breakthroughs by the end.

By comparison, Hinata's innate talent was actually superior to Neji's.

However, Hinata's personality was also a problem. In the story, unless something happened to Naruto, she almost never showed her true potential.

After hearing Aoba's words, Hinata hesitated slightly but ultimately stepped forward. She clasped her hands together, gathering chakra.

A glow of blue chakra formed around Hinata's fists.

Although Aoba couldn't directly see it, he could clearly sense the unique qualities of this jutsu from up close.

It wasn't just simple chakra gathering. The chakra flowed out from her body through specific acupoints in her hands, then intertwined and spiraled along a predetermined path, forming what appeared to be an unstable yet actually stable construct.

When this rapidly circulating chakra made contact with an enemy's body, it would inflict severe damage.

Interesting. The core of the technique was rooted in Gentle Fist, but the external method of chakra manipulation was inspired by the Rasengan.

This girl had truly put her heart into it. Even her self-created jutsu carried Naruto's influence.

That said, the technique was clearly still in its early stages. The chakra wasn't condensed or stable enough.

Aoba recalled that in the later stages of the series, Hinata was able to manifest her chakra in the form of lion heads on her hands.

"This is a fascinating technique. It has already gone beyond pure taijutsu and can be considered a unique form of hybrid taijutsu-ninjutsu."

Aoba praised her softly, and Hinata's face immediately turned crimson. Aoba was speechless.

You're a ninja, meant for fighting and killing on the battlefield. What's with the blushing? Am I going to have to get Naruto beaten up every time to motivate you to fight?

"Did you develop this technique because you felt that Gentle Fist lacked direct offensive power?"

The lack of raw killing power in Gentle Fist was a well-known but rarely discussed issue.

Ninja combat is fundamentally about killing opponents, so it wouldn't be accurate to say Gentle Fist is weak. A hit from Gentle Fist could still be quite lethal.

However, Gentle Fist had several fatal weaknesses: its lack of long-range attacks, for instance. Aside from Vacuum Palm, there were almost no ranged techniques in its arsenal.

Moreover, Vacuum Palm was effective against individuals but had little destructive power against terrain or environments, which was a significant disadvantage in complex combat scenarios.

It also lacked elemental transformations, making it almost useless in high-level battles unless it reached the level of Kaguya's Vacuum Attack. Otherwise, using Gentle Fist in Kage-level battles was laughable.

How could you block a powerhouse like the Raikage charging at you like a tank? Even Hiashi's Rotation might not withstand the Raikage's taijutsu techniques.

And even if it could block one or two attacks, the Raikage treated those kinds of moves as basic attacks. Using a trump card to counter someone's basic attack would inevitably lead to a disastrous outcome.

In Aoba's opinion, if Hinata perfected this technique, it could effectively become an infinitely sustainable Rasengan. Naruto's Rasengan dissipated after hitting an enemy and had to be reformed, but Hinata's version could continuously circulate around her hands.

As long as her chakra reserves were sufficient, her basic attacks would be on par with Rasengan-level strikes. This technique's potential was enough to qualify as S-rank. With the Byakugan, Gentle Fist's movements, and her footwork, this technique could even hold its own against the Raikage's Lightning Release Chakra Mode.

If she fully mastered it, this technique wouldn't singlehandedly revive the Hyūga Clan, but it would at least give them a powerful trump card.

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Currently on Chapter 277 - Hashirama Senju Appears