“How is that possible? Can an ordinary human body really become this strong?”
There was no chakra reinforcing Kazan’s movements.
In other words, his fists weren’t using the Chakra Enhanced Strength Asuka had suspected.
He was simply punching.
Before Kazan himself even arrived, the wind pressure from his fist struck first.
Hyūga Asuka hurriedly raised his arms to block Kazan’s iron fist, then immediately counterattacked.
“Gentle Fist!”
“Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms!”
With a fierce shout, his hands stabbed forward like blades, targeting the chakra points throughout Kazan’s body.
Gate of Origin, Chest Center, Inner Pass, Bubbling Spring, Hundred Convergences…
Hyūga Asuka held nothing back.
His hands struck again and again like falling rain, slamming into different points across Kazan’s body.
He truly deserved to be called one of the Hyūga Clan’s geniuses of this generation.
Gentle Fist Art: Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms was an incomplete form of the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms.
He was only one step away from mastering the complete technique.
And yet—
Not a single one of his strikes produced the result he wanted.
The flow of chakra inside Kazan’s body was never cut off.
Worse still, every palm strike felt as though Asuka were hitting solid steel.
By the time he finished all thirty-two strikes, both of his palms had turned bright red.
“Iron Body.”
Only after Asuka completed all thirty-two palms did Kazan calmly speak those two words.
It was the second of the Six Powers that he had mastered—
Iron Body.
In the One Piece world, Iron Body had always been regarded as one of the more useless techniques among the Six Powers.
Especially after Haki was introduced and further developed.
Compared to Armament Haki, a technique that seemingly required someone to stand still and take attacks appeared to offer almost no advantage.
But that wasn’t the whole truth.
Armament Haki was a form of energy that coated the surface of the body.
Iron Body, on the other hand, tempered the body itself from the inside out.
Kazan didn’t consider Iron Body useless at all.
On the contrary, he placed great importance on training it.
He intended to use Iron Body to temper every inch of his body, inside and out, until he reached the absolute limit.
As for Hyūga Asuka—or rather, the Hyūga Clan’s Gentle Fist as a whole—
Iron Body happened to counter it almost perfectly.
“What kind of technique is this?!”
The confidence on Hyūga Asuka’s face finally wavered.
Even the Hyūga Clan’s secret Gentle Fist couldn’t penetrate Kazan’s defenses.
That was simply unbelievable.
“Iron Body. If you temper your body until it’s as tough as steel, you can do it too.”
Temper the human body until it was as tough as steel?
What kind of joke was that?
How could flesh and blood possibly compare to steel?
Even the Raikage of Kumogakure, whose body was said to be virtually indestructible, relied on ninjutsu to achieve such durability.
How could an ordinary human body possibly accomplish the same thing?
But Asuka no longer had time to think.
Kazan’s fists were already descending like a violent storm.
Hyūga Asuka hastily defended himself, activating his Byakugan to its fullest in an attempt to see through every one of Kazan’s movements.
It was useless.
“Infinite!”
“Fist Bone!”
Kazan roared as both fists rained down.
Every punch was thrown seriously, with full force.
Hyūga Asuka lasted only a few moments before his defense collapsed.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Kazan’s fists struck Asuka one after another.
Even reinforcing his body with chakra did nothing.
He was still blasted away by Kazan’s punches, smashing completely through a house beside the road without stopping and continuing toward the next building…
“Ugh—!”
Hyūga Asuka spat out a mouthful of blood.
By the time his body finally stopped flying, he had already lost consciousness.
Fortunately, Kazan had pulled his punches in time.
The instant he realized Asuka could no longer defend himself, he decisively stopped attacking.
Otherwise, that single barrage could have beaten Hyūga Asuka to death.
The battle was over.
And, unsurprisingly, a crowd of villagers had already gathered nearby, pointing and whispering.
They had known it.
There was no way Kazan, Konoha’s little demon king, would suddenly start behaving himself.
After beating an Uchiha, how could he possibly leave the Hyūga alone?
Besides enjoying the spectacle, they were also astonished by Kazan’s combat strength.
“First genius Kakashi, then the Uchiha, and now the Hyūga… That little monster Kazan is defying the heavens!”
“Was he always this strong?”
“He defeated geniuses from both the Uchiha and Hyūga using nothing but taijutsu?”
“Since when was taijutsu this powerful?”
“…”
The villagers discussed the battle excitedly.
The Uchiha and Hyūga held far too much prestige within Konoha to be ignored.
Their two kekkei genkai, the Sharingan and Byakugan, gave members of those clans a natural advantage over ordinary shinobi.
The Uchiha in particular were terrifying.
Once they awakened the Sharingan, many of them could quickly reach jōnin-level strength.
Their Byakugan allowed them to discover traps and dangers ahead of time, so countless shinobi teams hoped to have a Hyūga among their members.
The Uchiha and Hyūga weren’t called Konoha’s two strongest shinobi clans for nothing.
Their reputation was backed by actual accomplishments.
And yet the geniuses of both clans in this generation had now been beaten unconscious by Kazan’s bare fists.
For a time, the villagers began placing Kazan alongside Kakashi as one of the two greatest geniuses of Konoha’s younger generation.
“Make way! Police Force business!”
Members of the Uchiha Police Force soon arrived.
The moment they saw that it was Kazan again, they nearly ground their teeth to pieces.
But when they spotted Hyūga Asuka unconscious against the wreckage, their expressions immediately softened.
“Let’s see anyone dare look down on the Uchiha now. Even the Hyūga’s genius got beaten by this brat!”
The Uchiha suddenly felt much better.
As proud as they were, nothing infuriated them more than hearing people claim their reputation was undeserved.
Well, now the Hyūga had gotten beaten too.
Let’s see who still dares run their mouth.
It wasn’t that the Uchiha were weak.
This brat was simply a freak whose fists could sweep through the entire younger generation.
Still, the damn kid caused far too much trouble.
Every few days, he picked another fight somewhere in the village.
If the Third Hokage weren’t protecting him, they absolutely would have dragged the brat back to the Police Force and made him pick up the soap.
Even after arriving at the scene, however, they didn’t immediately arrest Kazan.
Sure enough, ANBU shinobi arrived moments later.
Carrying out Hiruzen Sarutobi’s orders, they took Kazan straight to the Hokage Building.
And then…
“KAZAN!!!!”
Hiruzen Sarutobi’s roar practically echoed through every corner of Konoha.
Kurenai Yūhi, who had just left the Ninja Academy, heard the Hokage’s furious roar and immediately knew without even asking.
Kazan had caused trouble again.
She wasn’t the only one who reached that conclusion.
Nohara Rin and Anko Mitarashi guessed it too.
“I wonder who he beat up this time.”
“I bet it was Hyūga Asuka!”
Anko blurted out the answer without hesitation.
It was obvious.
He had already beaten an Uchiha.
There was no way Kazan would spare the remaining Hyūga.
“Will he really be okay after offending both the Uchiha and Hyūga Clans in one go?”
Rin sounded worried.
Whether it was the Uchiha or the Hyūga, both were influential clans and pillars of Konoha.
One of their own geniuses had been beaten up for no apparent reason.
Surely they would want to recover the face they had lost.
“You two go on ahead. I have something to do.”
Kurenai decided to head home and call in reinforcements.
She would ask her father to step in and put in a good word for Kazan.