Night fell.
A bright moon hung high in the sky, casting a hazy glow over the night.
Hinata sat alone on the wooden corridor under the eaves, her hair draped loosely over her shoulders and her feet bare.
Around her lay a scattering of slightly disorganized scrolls.
This Flying Thunder God scroll contained not only Tobirama Senju’s insights but also Minato Namikaze’s interpretations, both of which provided a significant amount of help to Hinata.
However, the core of the Flying Thunder God Jutsu was sensing space-time fluctuations.
Hinata, for the time being, still had no clue about this part.
But thinking about it, the most common application of space-time ninjutsu in the ninja world was the Summoning Jutsu, which allowed one to summon a contracted ninja beast across thousands of miles from a distant place.
Hinata wasn’t sure if Tobirama Senju had been inspired by the Summoning Jutsu when he invented the Flying Thunder God Jutsu back then.
Massaging her temples, Hinata laid flat on the floorboards, staring blankly at the moon hanging in the sky.
As far as she knew, the Flying Thunder God Jutsu worked by sensing space-time coordinates to achieve an effect similar to the Reverse Summoning Jutsu, instantaneously teleporting oneself to the vicinity of the coordinate.
Did that mean the Flying Thunder God Jutsu was essentially just an extremely fast Summoning Jutsu?
Then wouldn’t the Flying Thunder God Array be a defensive summoning jutsu that could linger for a short time?
Thinking up to this point, Hinata couldn’t help but chuckle to herself.
If that were really the case, couldn’t she just engrave a massive steel plate with the Flying Thunder God Array formula, toss it straight into the ocean, and then, when facing an enemy, yell “Water Style!” and activate the Flying Thunder God Array?
Summon a tsunami to drown the opposition on the spot?
What would that even be called?
Oceanic Imperial Funeral?
Hinata smiled, finding her own wild, unbridled imagination a bit ridiculous.
“How could it possibly work like that…”
Hinata smiled, but as she kept smiling, the smile slowly faded from her face.
“Wait, who says it can’t work like that?”
Hinata slowly sat up from the floor.
She had just been laughing at her own overactive imagination, but now, a look of deep contemplation washed over her face.
Tossing a steel plate engraved with the Flying Thunder God Array into the sea and activating it when facing enemies would allow her to summon a massive deluge of seawater to submerge her opponents.
The only real difficulty would be figuring out how to prevent the summoned seawater from being used against her by the enemy.
Hinata felt a wave of excitement wash over her.
If this worked, it meant she would have a super Water Style jutsu that harnessed the power of nature itself!
All she needed to do was master the Flying Thunder God Jutsu and its derivative, the Flying Thunder God Array!
Uh…
just master the Flying Thunder God Jutsu…
The excitement that had just plastered Hinata’s face instantly vanished, replaced by a look of utter dejection.
She had come up with an absolutely brilliant idea, yet she couldn’t implement it because she lacked the prerequisite skills.
“A long and arduous road lies ahead…”
Patting her forehead in exasperation, Hinata picked up the Flying Thunder God scroll once again and resumed reading.
She refused to believe that a mere Flying Thunder God Jutsu could stump her for that long.
The next morning.
The Ninja Academy.
Sporting two prominent dark circles under her eyes, Hinata walked into the classroom completely drained of energy and greeted Ino.
“Morning!”
“Hinata?”
Hearing the familiar voice, Ino greeted Hinata energetically, but when she saw Hinata’s clearly sleep-deprived state, her face filled with confusion.
“I stayed up way too late last night,” Hinata walked over to her seat, yawning as she pointed to her dark circles to explain.
“Then what are you going to do during class, Hinata?” Ino couldn’t help but ask out of concern upon seeing Hinata like this.
“It’s fine.
Doesn’t the guy behind me sleep all day long anyway?” Hinata pointed behind her at the pineapple-haired Shikamaru Nara, who was currently propping his head up and dozing off.
“Hey, hey, hey.
I might sleep in class, but I’m still a good student who listens carefully.” Hearing Hinata bring him up, Shikamaru opened his eyes and defended himself with a lazy expression.
“Oh?
Answer my question in one second.”
“What’s fifty thousand times fifty thousand?”
Hinata turned her body, casting a lifeless glance at Shikamaru Nara.
“Two hundred and fifty thousand.” Shikamaru blurted out without a second thought.
“Nothing more to see here.
Go back to sleep.” Hinata waved her hand dismissively, a mocking smirk playing at the corner of her lips.
“Wait!
I wasn’t ready!” Shikamaru Nara finally snapped out of it.
He was a bit flustered—she had suddenly sprung such an absurd question on him that his brain hadn’t even processed it!
If she just gave him a moment to prepare, he would definitely get it right!
“Who cares?” Hinata wasn’t about to give him another chance.
Although the young Shikamaru was brilliant, he was still naive to the ways of the world.
Being able to take advantage of his cleverness for a quick laugh was already satisfying enough.
“Hahaha!
Shikamaru actually got shut down for once!” Choji Akimichi, who was sitting nearby munching on potato chips, couldn’t help but burst into laughter at the sight.
Shikamaru helplessly pinched the bridge of his nose, completely speechless at Hinata’s twisted sense of humor.
This Hinata Hyuga was seriously such a troll!
At this moment, he could finally empathize with a sliver of the sheer helplessness Naruto felt whenever he dealt with Hinata.
“Quiet down!” Iruka had already entered the classroom and announced the start of class.
Ring…
“Ahhh~~”
As the dismissal bell rang, Hinata rubbed her sleepy eyes, stood up, and let out a long stretch.
“Hinata Hyuga!”
A silhouette stepped in front of Hinata, blocking the light.
“I challenge you!” The boy with black hair and black eyes stared intently at Hinata, who was still rubbing her eyes, as he spoke in a cold voice.
This sudden confrontation caused the classroom, which had just begun to buzz with excitement for the end of the day, to instantly fall dead silent.
Everyone in the class stared fixedly at the scene.
One was an Uchiha, the other a Hyuga!
Both were prominent, illustrious clans within the village!
“?”
“Oh, it’s you…”
Sporting a pair of dead-fish eyes, Hinata looked at Sasuke Uchiha standing before her, completely devoid of energy.
“Hell yeah!”
“Show-off Sasuke, you’ve finally seen the light!”
“This girl is a violent gorilla through and through!”
“You should give her a good beating!”
In this moment of silence, a certain blonde blur dashed to Sasuke’s side like the wind.
Laughing uproariously, he slapped Sasuke Uchiha heavily on the shoulder, seemingly overjoyed that Sasuke had finally come to his senses.
“It looks like you didn’t get enough sleep…”
“If you’re willing to accept my challenge, I can wait until tomorrow.”
Sasuke ignored the blonde idiot jumping up and down beside him.
He let his gaze linger for a moment on Hinata’s still-weary face, deciding it would be better to postpone it until tomorrow.
After all, Hinata was clearly not at her best.
If he challenged her now and won, it would be an unfair victory.
That would bring shame upon the reputation of the Uchiha clan.
“What do you mean?!”
“You should beat her up right now while you have the chance!”
“Hey!”
“Violent girl, hurry up and accept the challenge already!”
A certain blonde was still rattling on incessantly.
“Oh.”
“Beat up Naruto first, and then I’ll fight you one-on-one.”
Hinata tilted her head, pointing her finger directly at Naruto, who was standing right next to Sasuke, constantly egging him on to attack her.
“Eh???”
Naruto was completely dumbfounded.
Wait, show-off Sasuke challenging the violent girl Hinata—what did that have to do with him?!
“Fine!
You said it!” Seeing Hinata agree to his challenge under that condition, Sasuke nodded firmly and spoke with absolute seriousness.
“Sasuke, you can’t do this!”
“We’re on the same side!”
With a look of pure terror, Naruto rapidly backpedaled, desperate to escape.
A few eager onlookers who loved a good spectacle enthusiastically slammed the classroom door shut, cutting off Naruto’s escape route.
“Help me!”