Chapter 136: The Flying Technique
Uchiha Asuka raised a hand and waved at Hiashi Hyūga and the group approaching him.
"Good morning, Lord Hiashi."
Hiashi paused for a moment, gave Asuka a brief nod, and quickly disappeared at the end of the street.
Watching them vanish from sight, Asuka stroked his chin with one hand and muttered to himself.
"The Hyūga clan is the second-largest clan in Konoha and wields considerable influence throughout the Land of Fire."
But…
The book he was looking for this time had been printed by a bookseller from the Land of Lightning.
Snap!
A soft crack sounded.
Asuka suddenly felt his right leg go numb, and his body instinctively stumbled forward.
"Sensei!"
A white figure suddenly appeared in front of him, grabbing his arm before he could fall.
"Are you all right?"
Asuka looked at Hinata Hana, who had suddenly come to his aid, then draped an arm over her shoulder and grumbled,
"Hana, why did you just press one of my pressure points?"
"Hmph!"
She immediately opened the manga in her hand and waved it expressionlessly in front of Asuka.
"Sensei, you're slandering the Hyūga clan."
"Huh?"
Seeing the manga, Asuka froze.
He leaned closer, examined the page carefully, and said seriously,
"You can eat whatever you want, but you can't just say whatever you want."
"When have I ever slandered the Hyūga clan?"
Rustle, rustle.
Hana flipped to the tenth page and pointed blankly at one of the Hyūga clan members.
"This idiot-looking guy is my big brother, Moemoe."
Rustle, rustle.
She then flipped to the twelfth page and pointed at another Hyūga who looked lovesick and completely lost in his feelings.
"This one is my neighbor."
All the Hyūga clan members mentioned in this book are still alive.
"Hm."
Asuka nodded thoughtfully.
He would patch that loophole when he got back.
Careless.
"Sensei!"
Seeing that he still seemed to be admitting everything, Hana shoved the manga into his hands and whispered,
"I've seen your drawings. This is definitely your art style."
Asuka's expression darkened.
He immediately reached over and rubbed Hana's hair roughly while scolding her.
"Could you please stop using your Byakugan to peek inside my safe?"
"The Three Great Taboos of Shinobi! The Three Great Taboos! You're only twelve years old. Stop staring at the things I draw all the time!"
"So you admit it?"
"Next time, I'll use a different clan."
Hana looked up at Asuka's expressionless face and puffed out her cheeks.
"Iruka's a bigmouth. He went around talking about it yesterday, and now the entire village knows. The clan head is furious and is searching everywhere for the author who slandered the Hyūga clan."
"Who could have expected your clan head to react so strongly?"
Asuka spread his hands helplessly.
He had originally planned to use the Senju clan.
Unfortunately, Ryōichi refused to compromise, so he had switched to the Hyūga clan instead.
And judging from Hiashi's expression…
Asuka reached into his pocket, pulled out a coupon, and quietly slipped it into Hana's hand.
"One month of free food."
Hana held the coupon with both hands and examined it against the sunlight for a long moment.
Then she sighed.
"There are four people in my family."
Asuka reached into his pocket again, pulled out three more coupons, and slapped them into her hand.
"Get lost."
"Sensei, remember this. After Chapter Two, don't use the Hyūga name anymore."
"Get lost."
"Oh, right, Sensei. Are you coming to watch our second match today?"
"Yes."
Asuka watched Hana walk away before turning toward the direction Hiashi had gone.
He shrugged and headed toward the arena.
The Hyūga clan might have the lowest sense of clan pride among all the major clans.
When the second round of the Chūnin Exams began, a group of Chūnin, Special Jōnin, and Jōnin gathered together to observe the situation inside the examination grounds.
Bang!
Suddenly, they heard something heavy hit the ground behind them.
Everyone turned around.
They saw Uchiha Asuka throwing a bag more than half his height onto the ground.
Everyone's eyelids twitched.
Then they silently turned back toward the examination grounds.
Rustle, rustle.
A moment later, they heard the sound of paper shuffling behind them again.
Everyone turned around once more.
???
Asuka was sitting cross-legged on the ground.
He pulled out a thick stack of money from his bag, counted it carefully, and muttered,
"Kana's."
"Mine."
"The old man's."
"Mine."
He continued counting and distributing the money.
The Chūnin around him twitched at the corners of their eyes before turning away and whispering among themselves.
"Is Jōnin Asuka really that rich?"
"Extremely rich. Last time, he even wanted to take over the orphanage, but Elder Danzō stopped him."
"I vaguely remember seeing him when I was little. Asuka seemed to lose money every single day, but the more money he lost, the more he somehow made."
"If you could complete more than three thousand D-rank missions by yourself within a few years, you'd become rich too."
Listening to their sour comments, Asuka raised his head and glanced at them before lowering it again and continuing to count.
Money…
Just enough to spend.
After counting for a while longer, Asuka flexed his aching fingers and muttered thoughtfully,
"As long as I don't gamble every day like a certain idiot, this much money should be enough to last me until I die."
The moment he finished speaking, he heard people ahead discussing the examination grounds again.
"Those Hoshinin are pretty strong!"
"Indeed. Judging from how relaxed they look, becoming Chūnin is practically guaranteed."
"Their techniques are strange, though. They can actually float in the air. Doesn't it look a little like Ōnoki from Iwagakure?"
"Could it be a newly developed technique?"
"Who would have thought that a tiny village like Hoshigakure could produce geniuses like that?"
An aerial ninjutsu?
Asuka's interest immediately perked up.
He had coveted Ōnoki's ability to fly for a long time.
What an incredible ability.
If you can't win, run.
If you can't run, hide in the sky.
And never come back down.
Unfortunately, he had never found an opportunity to obtain it.
Take the high ground and beat the idiot senseless!
Asuka silently repeated the phrase in his mind.
He imagined Konan flying through the sky and Ōnoki floating overhead, and couldn't help sighing emotionally.
"What an absurdly powerful technique. An ordinary shinobi would be completely helpless against something like that."
Damn it.
After Pakura scolded me last time, I completely forgot to ask Konan about it.
Thinking of this, Asuka walked over to the group and casually asked,
"Where are my students? I'll go watch them from the examination grounds and secretly cheer them on."
The shinobi responsible for monitoring the grounds recognized Asuka.
After hesitating briefly, he pointed to a location on the map and warned him,
"Jōnin Asuka, don't interfere with the matches."
"Understood. I'm more sensible than that."
The moment he finished speaking, Asuka disappeared.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
When Asuka arrived at the edge of the Forest of Death, he bit his thumb, rapidly formed a series of hand seals, and slapped both palms against the ground.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
Boom! Boom!
As the white smoke slowly dispersed in the wind, more than twenty ninja cats appeared.
"Hey, Asuka. Why did you summon us?"
A black cat looked around in confusion before turning toward Asuka.
"This is Konoha, right?"
Asuka sat cross-legged on the ground and pulled more than forty cans of cat food from a scroll.
He began opening them one after another.
"I want you to help me find three people. They're Hoshinin, and they have stars on their forehead protectors."
"But don't rush. Eat your fill first."
"Hoshinin?"
A tabby cat licked its can and asked suspiciously,
"What do you want with them?"
Asuka pushed a can toward it.
"I want to exchange something I have for the ninjutsu that lets them float."
"An aerial ninjutsu?"
"Do the Hoshinin really have something like that?"
"Asuka, are you sure you haven't made a mistake?"
The ninja cats exchanged glances, looking suspiciously at him.
"I think so…"
Asuka became slightly uncertain himself.
If I remember correctly, that village practices the Peacock Method, doesn't it?
But peacocks can't exactly fly.
"Doesn't matter."
One of the ninja cats took another bite of its food and spoke casually.
"We'll help you get inside. We'll see what happens afterward."
"I happened to hear Grandma mention flying techniques before. A few people in the Land of Rain can do it, a few people in Iwagakure can do it, and a few people in Ryūchi Cave can do it."
"In any case, Grandma never said the Hoshinin could fly."
"I suspect you've been tricked."
"..."