Turning his head, Hyuga Kagami saw that the green-clad figure holding a large calico cat was no stranger.
It was Might Guy, a classmate who had graduated in the same year as him.
At the moment, Guy was fumbling around as he handed the large cat in his arms over to one of the Mission Center staff members, apparently completing a mission.
Seeing this, Hyuga Kagami smiled.
In the memories of his previous life, Guy had been a tremendously powerful elite jōnin, the foremost representative of Konoha’s Strong Fist style.
Later on, he had even become one of the pillars among Konoha’s jōnin.
But in this life, the impression Guy had left on him was that of a complete and utter dead last—a strong contender against Obito for the honor of being ranked at the very bottom of their class.
At first, Hyuga Kagami had thought that his transmigration had somehow caused history to deviate.
But as his strength and experience grew, he gradually came to understand that this wasn’t some deviation caused by his arrival in this world.
The seemingly ridiculous boy in green before him would, in the not-too-distant future, inevitably become the Might Guy he remembered from his previous life.
The reason was actually quite simple.
The Strong Fist style was closely tied to one’s physical capabilities.
Without speed and without strength, the Strong Fist was like a tree without roots.
Thus, during childhood, when the body had yet to fully develop, ninja who trained in the Strong Fist would naturally lag far behind those who focused on ninjutsu.
This was simply a natural consequence of physical development and had nothing to do with individual talent.
Once they reached adulthood, however, and their bodies fully developed, ninja who practiced the Strong Fist style would rapidly enter their prime, catching up to orthodox ninja who specialized in ninjutsu.
Moreover, Guy possessed his family’s secret technique—the Eight Gates.
As he grew older, this former dead last of the Academy was bound to shine with a brilliance unlike anything he had shown before!
At the thought of the Eight Gates technique Guy possessed, Hyuga Kagami couldn’t help but feel a surge of desire.
A secret technique like the Eight Gates was generally passed down only from father to son, from master to student, or between the closest of friends.
Perhaps Konoha also had records of the Eight Gates among its collection of secret techniques, but with Hyuga Kagami’s current status, obtaining it through the village’s official channels was clearly unrealistic.
That made Guy the best path for Hyuga Kagami to acquire the Eight Gates.
As for how to befriend Guy, that wasn’t difficult at all.
There was already a perfect example to follow—Kakashi.
As long as he did what Kakashi had done and made himself Guy’s “eternal rival,” Hyuga Kagami would barely need to do anything himself.
Guy would come knocking on his door all on his own.
Having made up his mind, Hyuga Kagami walked over to Guy and said with a faintly contemptuous expression, “If I remember correctly, you’re already a chūnin, aren’t you?
Why are you still doing genin missions like searching for lost cats and dogs?”
Guy recognized Hyuga Kagami as well and immediately scratched his head in embarrassment.
“Ahaha…
I was just training when I happened to…
happened to find it, so I brought it back.”
Glancing at the claw marks the calico cat had left across Guy’s face, Hyuga Kagami chuckled.
Having been mercilessly exposed by Hyuga Kagami, Guy’s head immediately drooped as he replied dejectedly, “Everyone thinks that because I can’t use ninjutsu, they don’t want to take me along on missions.”
“So that’s how it is…” Hyuga Kagami chuckled softly before saying indifferently, “Which just goes to show that the Strong Fist has no future!”
Guy abruptly raised his head and shouted, “I’ll prove it to everyone!
Even if I can’t use ninjutsu or genjutsu, a Strong Fist practitioner can still become a true ninja!”
“Naive!” Hyuga Kagami snorted coldly, then said slowly, “It seems I need to make you face reality.
Come with me.
I’ll show you that the Hyuga clan’s Gentle Fist is the true essence of taijutsu!”
Guy froze for a moment.
He hadn’t expected Hyuga Kagami to actually be willing to spar with him.
After graduating from the Academy, ninja rarely sparred against one another unless they were extremely close friends or members of the same clan.
After all, sparring inevitably exposed information about one’s ninjutsu, taijutsu, genjutsu, and other abilities.
And once information concerning a ninja’s strength fell into enemy hands, it became easy for the enemy to devise specific countermeasures against them.
The consequences could be disastrous.
Hyuga Kagami led Guy to the secluded grove where he had practiced the Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven that morning, then stopped.
“Here should be fine.”
At the thought of being able to spar with Hyuga Kagami, who came from a prestigious clan, Guy immediately overflowed with energy.
He thrust a thumbs-up toward Hyuga Kagami, flashing a mouthful of gleaming white teeth as he exclaimed cheerfully,
“Kagami, this is the youth I’ve always dreamed of!”
Hyuga Kagami remained expressionless.
He merely beckoned impatiently, signaling for Guy to begin.
Guy wasted no more words.
His figure blurred into an afterimage as he charged straight at Hyuga Kagami.
Bang!
Fist and palm collided, producing a deep, muffled impact!
“So fast!”
Hyuga Kagami’s heart tightened in surprise.
Guy’s straight punch was both incredibly fast and incredibly heavy.
If this had been before Hyuga Kagami awakened the Tenseigan, that single attack alone probably would have forced him onto the defensive.
No longer daring to underestimate Guy in the slightest, Hyuga Kagami immediately became serious.
Bang!
Bang!
In an instant, two figures flashed back and forth through the forest, exchanging blows in a fierce battle!
The essence of the Strong Fist could be summed up in three words: speed, precision, and ruthlessness.
Without sufficiently sharp perception, an ordinary ninja simply couldn’t keep up with the tempo of someone who had devoted themselves to mastering the Strong Fist.
The brief clash between Sasuke and Rock Lee before the Chūnin Exams was the most classic example.
However, the current Hyuga Kagami was no Sasuke, and the Tenseigan was hardly something a mere two-tomoe Sharingan could compare to.
So although Guy’s speed was astonishingly fast, Hyuga Kagami quickly adapted to it.
At that very moment, beneath his dark-tinted goggles, Hyuga Kagami’s sapphire-blue Tenseigan shimmered with brilliant light.
The flow of chakra within Guy’s body, the contraction and relaxation of every muscle, even the trajectories of the pebbles sent flying whenever his feet struck the ground—none of it could escape the Tenseigan’s perception.
Under the gaze of those eyes, Guy’s blistering speed gradually seemed to slow, as though time itself flowed at different rates for the two of them.
The battle continued.
On the surface, Hyuga Kagami appeared increasingly at ease.
But in reality, every parry and every block left him suffering in silence.
He truly hadn’t expected that in just a few short years, Guy’s physical strength would have grown to such an extent.
Even merely parrying and blocking his attacks was beginning to feel strenuous.
And once Guy entered a true combat state, his previously comical demeanor vanished completely.
His entire presence became sharp and imposing, with a natural air of power behind his every movement.
After a relentless series of attacks steadily reduced Hyuga Kagami’s room to evade, Guy immediately shouted,
“Konoha Whirlwind!”
Whoosh…
Guy truly became like a green whirlwind, sweeping ferociously toward Hyuga Kagami.
With nowhere left to evade, Hyuga Kagami chose not to retreat.
Instead, he surged chakra throughout his entire body and met the attack head-on with the Gentle Fist.
Bang!
Another deep, muffled impact rang out.
Guy was sent flying backward and crashed heavily onto the ground.
Although battles between taijutsu-type ninja lacked the spectacular displays seen in clashes between ninjutsu specialists, the struggle within such a tiny distance was far more intense.
In that last exchange, if Hyuga Kagami hadn’t used the Gentle Fist in that split second to seal several tenketsu in Guy’s leg, cutting off the chakra pathways supplying chakra to it, then Hyuga Kagami would probably have been the one sent flying.
Despite his heart pounding violently in his chest and both arms aching terribly, Hyuga Kagami maintained the same cold expression on his face.
Against his true feelings, he mocked Guy, “Looks like you haven’t made much progress these past two years.”
Guy seemed to have long since grown accustomed to the ridicule and sarcasm of the village’s ninja.
He paid little attention to Hyuga Kagami’s taunt and instead said with complete sincerity,
“Kagami, you’re really strong!”