Was the Hyūga clan's unique taijutsu—Gentle Fist—strong?
Fairly speaking… yes.
At least, against people, it was terrifyingly strong.
Most shinobi in the ninja world were fragile. Even those who specialized in taijutsu found it difficult to harden their internal organs the way they tempered their muscles.
Under those circumstances, the Hyūga's Gentle Fist—innately piercing, capable of "critical hits" to the organs, and able to shut down chakra flow—was naturally something ordinary shinobi feared.
Unfortunately for Hanabi—
Ren did not count as "ordinary."
And honestly, Ren had always felt that given how paper-thin most shinobi were, if you could get close enough to fully apply Gentle Fist…
Then just stabbing them with a kunai would do about as much damage as a full palm-strike sequence anyway.
"Slash."
Hanabi stumbled back in pure embarrassment, barely twisting aside to avoid Ren's axe-like cleave—
a half-meter bone blade that had erupted from his heel without warning.
If not for the Byakugan's ability to read chakra flow, that kick wouldn't have just split her torn collar.
It would have split her chest. Her ribs.
Maybe even her heart.
So strong…
Stronger than any opponent she'd faced after becoming a jōnin.
So this was what a war-era "genius jōnin" felt like?
Hanabi held her stance, panting—yet she understood with bleak clarity that she had no real way to deal with him.
To put it without exaggeration:
Even if Ren didn't resist and simply let her land the full Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms, sealing his chakra completely…
He could still force a stalemate—or even take the upper hand—purely through that inhuman body of his.
Huff… huff…
The Sixth really was incredible.
In the original history, hadn't he fought through dozens of Mist ANBU—including Kaguya Ren himself—alone?
And he still held out for so long under conditions that brutal…
I need to buy him more time.
Hanabi's gaze sharpened, for reasons Ren couldn't see.
Meanwhile, Ren—who had been quietly appreciating the pale skin and curves exposed through her torn outfit—finally set his casual mood aside.
He asked calmly, "So you've decided you won't take a single step back, Hyūga young lady? If you don't clear the way… you might actually die."
"I don't have anywhere left to go."
Hanabi's answer came without hesitation, her tone steady despite her ragged breathing.
"If I can nudge this painful present even a little toward something better… that's still better than hiding somewhere and being a pathetic bystander who does nothing."
The twin azure lions around her hands grew clearer, more solid.
And with those words, Ren's suspicion was effectively confirmed—Hanabi wasn't just strange.
She was a time-traveler.
From more than thirty years in the future.
Ren exhaled softly, lowering his center of gravity and adopting a stance meant for a quick finish.
"I don't understand why a Hyūga main family daughter like you would have nowhere to go."
His voice remained even, detached.
"And I don't understand what you mean by 'bystander.'"
He lifted his bone blade.
"But that's fine. I'm pretty sure I can make you explain it yourself."
Body Flicker.
Hanabi's eyes narrowed. She snapped her head, thrusting a palm strike backward—aiming to knock his attack away.
But this time, Ren's speed surged again.
He was at least fifty percent faster than before.
Her counter—built on the rhythm she'd gathered from their earlier exchanges—missed completely.
And Ren was suddenly inside the distance where Gentle Fist became lethal…
and where he could kill her just as easily.
Bad!
"Rotation—"
Hanabi's body instinctively began to spin, chakra blasting from every tenketsu as she tried to force Ren back.
But the moment she saw Ren's "body" ripped apart by the Rotation's chakra field into a spray of water droplets, her blood turned cold.
A trap.
"Water Release: Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave!!!"
"Water Release: Water Prison Jutsu."
Ren—who had swapped positions with a pre-made Water Clone via Body Flicker—completed his seals.
His chest rose, then he exhaled in one long release—
and unleashed a flood massive enough to turn the entire forest into a marshland.
Chakra-heavy currents crashed down and crushed Hanabi's Rotation, tossing her through the raging flow like a doll—flung up, slammed down, swallowed and spat out again.
And the Water Clone she'd "destroyed" was repurposed immediately—
condensing into a spinning sphere that formed a Water Prison around her, trapping her inside.
Ren stood atop his own torrent, looking down at Hanabi as she fumed helplessly in the prison.
"I'll say this—Water Prison Jutsu is always weirdly effective against you Konoha types…"
He stared at her, thinking how to pry the information he wanted out of her mouth.
Thanks to Boruto's legendary reputation as "non-combustible," Ren hadn't watched it in his previous life.
The only thing he vaguely remembered was some ridiculous out-of-character gag where Naruto—Seventh Hokage—got squeezed into a miserable 24/7 office-slave lifestyle, so busy he couldn't even go home.
That was all.
Which meant, despite having a thousand questions, Ren didn't even know where to begin.
Should he start with the obvious contradiction?
Hanabi claimed she was a Hyūga main family daughter, yet her age seemed close to the current Hyūga head—Hyūga Hiashi.
Probe from there, force her to admit her identity…
Then press her for the future?
But before Ren could decide—
Hanabi began to flicker.
Bright. Dim. Bright. Dim.
Like a projection about to vanish.
"What's going on!?"
Ren's expression shifted sharply.
And Hanabi herself jolted in panic, staring at her own body as it turned unstable.
Had she been thrown into this era for no reason… only to be inexplicably kicked into another one now?
But then she thought—
If she stayed here, she might end up as Ren's prisoner, forced to cough up everything she knew about the future.
In that sense…
Being sent away might not be the worst outcome.
She shot Ren one last look through the Water Prison, then blinked her lively Byakugan and mouthed the words at him underwater.
"This time, you didn't catch me, Kaguya big brother."
Ren's jaw tightened.
He hated it.
And yet he had no real rebuttal.
Hanabi's lips moved again.
"But since you were so close…"
"I'll give you a reward. Some advice."
"Before today ends—don't let Nohara Rin die."
"If you can do that… your fate, and Kirigakure's future, might both shift toward something better."
"And if you get the chance…"
"We'll meet again in thirty years, big brother."
The flickering stopped.
Hanabi disappeared without leaving a trace—vanishing from inside the Water Prison as if she'd never belonged to this era in the first place.
As if she had been nothing more than a phantom from the wrong time.
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