Yuji transformed into a curving arc of motion, dodging the chakra shockwave.
However, the blood armor covering the surface of his body shattered partially from the force of the impact. It was evident that this Hyuga branch family member, as a Jonin, possessed extraordinary strength.
Yuji's expression remained calm. He brought his hands together, fingertips aimed precisely at his target.
A second later, a crimson beam of light shot out from between his fingers and swept across the entire surrounding forest. Simultaneously, as his arm swung in a wide arc, it slashed directly toward the Hyuga.
Blood spurted from Yuji's hands, severing every tree trunk in the surrounding area at the same height. The Hyuga's figure leaped and bounded through the devastation, each movement seemingly narrowly avoiding the sweeping blood light by the smallest possible margin.
It was the kind of situation that made any observer involuntarily break into a cold sweat.
Then Yuji vanished from where he stood.
His lightning-fast movement made him appear to teleport. He reappeared behind the Hyuga as the man turned and jumped.
But the closer he got, the more it seemed to fall within the opponent's expectations.
The Hyuga raised both hands. His footwork shifted to a precise configuration. Invisibly, an inexplicable magnetic field centered around his body and spread outward in every direction.
He turned suddenly, his hands moving in blurred rapid succession, creating afterimages as his strikes activated around his body.
Bang, bang, bang.
What shocked the Hyuga in the next moment was that just as he was preparing to land a decisive injury with his Eight Trigrams Palm at close range, using the full gathered force of his technique, the two men's palm strikes intertwined in a short fierce exchange.
The sounds of impact echoed without pause. Within just a few seconds, the Hyuga's body gave way in the fierce exchange and he spat blood. His expression carried genuine disbelief.
He had lost.
Several pressure points on his body had been struck by the other man, cutting off his chakra flow. This was clearly a Hyuga clan ability.
So why did Blood Doctor Yuji also know how to execute it? Furthermore, he had clearly landed strikes on certain parts of the other man's body. Why had his chakra flow not been affected at all?
"Targeting pressure points through taijutsu. In terms of understanding the human body's internal structure, I do not appear to be inferior to your Hyuga clan."
As his body fell backward, the Hyuga heard the young man's mocking laughter.
Bang.
Yuji grabbed the Hyuga's neck directly and pushed him down against the ground. Then his other hand bent slightly, like a spring coiling under tension. He unleashed a punch directly into the Hyuga's stomach.
The punch landed and nearly caused the Hyuga's eyes to burst from the force. His entire back arched completely and more blood poured from his mouth.
Then Yuji formed his fingers into a blade shape, his hand movements precise like acupuncture needles, striking at various specific points across the Hyuga's body in rapid sequence.
This series of actions caused the man who had been fiercely fighting him moments before to go completely limp, neck held in Yuji's grip, body raised.
Why?
The Hyuga was bewildered. The activation of his Byakugan had been forcibly interrupted. His eyes returned to normal.
"His eyes," the Hyuga's consciousness registered faintly as he stared at the young man's eerie red and gold eyes. His heart trembled.
Although everything had moved at tremendous speed, he had still been aware enough to observe and process what had happened. His Gentle Fist had been ineffective. This could only mean that his observation of the enemy's chakra flow had been an illusion.
His strikes had not actually cut off the opponent's chakra pathways as he had believed in the moment of executing them. And the opponent had also been able to deploy similar pressure point targeting taijutsu against him.
This conclusion had been reached in a very short window of observation.
Within his own body, the opponent had used chakra to mimic the precise movements of the Gentle Fist's internal mechanics. In other words, the enemy's doujutsu had produced a deceptive effect on his Byakugan, carrying a certain counter-influence over it.
The fused eyes possessed a form of ocular power that could interfere with the Byakugan's perception directly.
Furthermore, for ordinary ninja, internal organs were extremely difficult to condition and virtually impossible to protect. Once injured by the Gentle Fist's chakra disruption at the organ level, the damage was often fatal.
This young man had absorbed his attacks without visible harm. Relying solely on the blood armor was supposed to be completely ineffective against the Gentle Fist's internal penetration.
The shock of this settled over him.
This meant the opponent's physical self-healing ability was also extraordinary. It had to be some form of healing ninjutsu operating in real time.
"You are a monster," he said weakly, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.
Only after actually engaging in combat with Blood Doctor Yuji did he finally understand how terrifying this opponent was. No wonder Minato had repeatedly warned everyone to be extremely cautious of this young man on the battlefield.
Hearing the man's lips move, Yuji smiled.
Then, reaching out, he removed the forehead protector from the back of the man's head.
What appeared beneath it was a green seal burned into the skin.
The Caged Bird Seal. The method used by the Hyuga clan's main branch to control the branch family members. This seal also carried a restrictive effect on the branch family's Byakugan.
Upon the death of a branch member, the seal would activate and destroy the brain tissue and eyes simultaneously, preventing any outside party from obtaining the Byakugan.
He studied it carefully.
Although it was unclear how the Hidden Sand Village might obtain the Byakugan given this seal's existence, judging from what he had already accomplished with several Uchiha clan members through his experiments, and through the application of the Reverse Cursed Technique, it seemed increasingly likely that he could find a path to obtaining the Sharingan as well.
The experiment was continuing to open new possibilities. The more he compared and examined, the more his counter-arguments took shape.
Of course, when a Hyuga clan member died, the Caged Bird Seal would activate and destroy the brain and eyes before anyone could obtain them.
So the approach was straightforward in its logic. He would allow the curse mark to destroy the brain and eyes of the Hyuga clan member in his hands through the natural death process.
Then, before the body's life functions fully ceased, he would apply the Reverse Cursed Technique to resurrect him, restoring the brain tissue and eyes in the process. In this way, after dying once, the curse mark would have already activated and dissipated. What remained would be a Hyuga clan member without a Caged Bird Seal.
Thinking this through, he reached out, his fingertips slowly approaching the eye sockets of the man lying before him.
The Hyuga, not yet fully unconscious, sensed the movement and immediately understood what was happening.
With a wet sound, blood poured from the man's orifices. His breathing stopped. His eyes were instantly burned away by the activating power of the curse mark.
But Yuji's movements did not stop. He reached toward the empty eye sockets, then placed his hand fully on the Hyuga's head.
He activated the Reverse Cursed Technique.
Very quickly, the man who had been dead began breathing again.
Although traces of dried blood and damaged flesh still lingered across his face, a new pair of eyes reappeared in the sockets almost immediately.
And unlike the Uchiha clan's eyes, which when regrown after removal could not open the Sharingan, this man's newly grown eyes were the Hyuga clan's innate white eyes, active from the moment of their appearance.
"Indeed!"
His excitement surged even stronger.
This was fundamentally different from the Uchiha situation.
Meanwhile, the Hyuga who had been held down felt a wave of dizziness.
What was happening?
"Welcome back," the young man said to him, his voice soft and gentle.
The Hyuga's pupils contracted sharply.
At the same time, he quickly noticed something abnormal. A certain feeling that had been present in the back of his mind for his entire life, the sensation of being monitored or subtly controlled, had simply disappeared.
"Congratulations," Yuji said. "From this moment on, you are no longer bound by the clan's Caged Bird Seal."
He looked at the man with a kind of clinical satisfaction. The Uchiha clan members he had worked on previously had already had their brains altered before he could study them properly.
But this one's brain was entirely fresh, untouched, straight from the factory as it were, with no prior interference. A pristine subject.
Just as Yuji was about to smile at the thought, a commotion erupted inside the headquarters.
He instantly grabbed the Hyuga and moved at high speed through the forest, constantly changing positions. The moment he moved, Namikaze Minato appeared suddenly, attempting to reach the Hyuga's body.
But Yuji had prepared for this. As long as he maintained a sufficiently high frequency of movement and speed changes, even if Minato had previously planted a Flying Thunder God mark on this Hyuga branch member, he would not be able to touch the mark, and therefore could not activate the technique to teleport to him.
After creating sufficient distance, Yuji stared at the grim-faced Minato across the gap between them.
"Are you injured?"
He had noticed it. The back of Minato's hand was bleeding.
"What a pleasant surprise. Injured by one of your own people."
As he held the Hyuga beside him, a slight curve formed on his lips, his tone dropping into something colder.
"I warned you. Do not make these small moves."
"Since you chose not to listen, you will have to accept the consequences."
Minato said nothing.
At this moment, his mind was somewhat unfocused. Even his thoughts were slightly disordered. The bizarre situation he had encountered with Kimu and the others inside the tent had been something he had not anticipated at all.
He had not immediately used the Flying Thunder God Technique to teleport back out because he had needed to confirm what he was seeing and understand what had been done to them.
"If you do not leave now, you will be surrounded. You will not be able to leave even if you want to," Yuji added.
He paused for a moment.
"Or are you preparing to die bravely?"
At this moment, a large number of Sand Village ninja had already emerged from the headquarters and were moving to encircle the area.