Hyuga Itsuki didn't hesitate anymore.
He was already in the Eight Trigrams stance, and his opponent, Uchiha Reina, hadn't moved it. Since she wouldn't come to him, he would go after her.
Crack!!
Itsuki pressed his left leg hard on the ground while releasing a large amount of chakra from his sole's chakra point (tenketsu) that caused the earth beneath his foot to crack.
BANG!
With a loud bang, he launched his body forward toward Reina at a breakneck speed, leaving behind destroyed earth fragments that rose from the ground where he pressed his left foot.
His speed was so fast that the crowd and many Chunin or lower-level ninjas could only see a white blur rocketing toward Reina, arriving in front of her in less than half a second.
Once he arrived right in front of Reina, he launched his chakra-infused palm and fingers that could make any wooden structure crumble, at her with high speed and precision.
Eight Trigrams: Sixty-Four Palms
His first two attacks targeted Reina's abdomen and the root of her neck.
Two Palms
His strikes were fast, precise, and deadly, aiming to hit the chakra points of the target locations and restrict the chakra flowing through them.
If he could hit them, he could send his chakra through those chakra points, dealing enough internal damage and chakra disruption to paralyze her.
However, Reina's reaction was swift. Her Sharingan gleamed, and the two pitch-black tomoe in her eyes rotated slowly as she clearly read and predicted Itsuki's attacks.
She deflected the palm that targeted her abdomen with a chakra-reinforced palm of her own and moved her body just enough to cause the strike that was aimed at the root of her throat to miss.
Although his strikes didn't land, Itsuki wasn't deterred. Instead, he struck back with even more ferocity.
Four Palms
He launched two more fierce, chakra-infused finger strikes. This time, he targeted the chakra points of Uchiha Reina's shoulder, aiming to paralyze her hands or at least make her hand movements and mobility slower.
These two attacks were even faster and more unpredictable than the last two strikes.
Unfortunately for him, Reina's Sharingan effortlessly tracked his movement once again, and she dodged those strikes with practiced ease.
Even so, Hyuga Itsuki kept launching palm strikes at her.
Eight Palms
Sixteen Palms
Thirty-Two Palms
Fierce yet precise. Powerful yet measured.
Hyuga Itsuki went all out and kept targeting Reina's chakra points with his masterful execution of the Gentle Fist technique.
Each subsequent strike was faster than before. By the time he executed his thirty-second palm strike, the speed and power behind his attack caused the wind to vibrate and hum.
However, he still failed to touch or block any of Reina's 361 chakra points. She easily evaded and blocked every single one of his attacks.
And even when his palm or finger touched one of her chakra points, he failed to inject chakra and block it.
Why?
Because Reina accurately released a surge of chakra from the targeted chakra point, rendering Itsuki's strikes ineffective.
Itsuki couldn't understand what the heck was going on.
His opponent, Uchiha Reina, had Sharingan, not Byakugan.
He couldn't understand how she was releasing surges of chakra from the exact chakra point he was targeting with pinpoint accuracy.
It was truly maddening.
Still, he didn't believe she could keep doing the same.
After all, the speed of the last set of thirty-two strikes was going to be blindingly fast.
Even if she blocked all of them with sheer skills, perception, and visual insights, he should at least be able to block a few chakra points in her arms.
As long as he could do it, Reina's arm movement would become noticeably slow. And that would be his opportunity to counterattack and defeat this damn Uchiha girl.
Thinking this far, Hyuga Itsuki's eyes sharpened, and he struck decisively.
Sixty-Four Palms
Whoosh! Whoosh!
The air crackled from the sheer amount of chakra and force behind each of his palm strikes.
He launched each consecutive palm attack so fast that his hands blurred.
He was determined to block her chakra points.
Itsuki pushed his body to the limit and pressed on.
But to his horror, Uchiha Reina still dodged and blocked each of his attacks with ease. The faster his attacks came, the faster she moved. It was as if she were perfectly in sync with everything around her.
Her Sharingan glowed as it registered every single detail in the field of her vision, not missing even the tiniest details.
Before Hyuga Itsuki could even execute one complete palm strike, Reina had already moved her body to dodge or raise her hand in the best possible places to defend using the minimal amount of strength.
It was as if she could see the future and took countermeasures just in time before the specific events could even occur.
To the onlookers, this situation was baffling.
To the experienced ninjas, this situation was astonishing.
To her opponents, this situation was outright demoralizing. After all, how would you even hit someone like Reina, who could predict and counter every single one of your moves?
In the end, even after finishing the set of sixty-four palm attacks, Itsuki couldn't even land one effective strike.
As astonished as he was, he knew he had to launch the next set of attacks quickly without giving Reina any room to breathe.
However, before he could do that, Reina struck him on his jaw with a powerful spinning right kick.
The sheer force behind the kick sent him flying backward. His jaw was almost dislocated.
His body landed 7 meters away, and as he crashed on the ground, he was forced to roll several times to mitigate the power behind the kick.
After the fourth roll, he pushed his hands on the ground and jumped off the ground before doing a backflip and landing on his feet.
However, before he could think of anything else, he saw a giant, 5-meter-wide, scorching hot fireball coming his way. The heat was so intense that his straight hair showed signs of wrinkles.
Left with no other choice, he jumped to his left to dodge the fireball.
Booooooom!!!!!
The fireball passed by him and hit the invisible Fuinjutsu barrier that protected the crowd from stray Jutsu.
Unfortunately for Itsuki, he didn't have the leisure to look behind him to witness the aftermath of the explosion caused by Reina's devastating Ninjutsu.
Because when he was jumping to his left to dodge the fireball, he saw Reina perform just one hand seal before exhaling an orb of fire in front of her.
Fire Release: Phoenix Flower Sage Nail Crimson
Uchiha Reina launched a volley of twelve fire chakra-charged shurikens at the huge orb of fire, which caused the orb to split into twelve parts.
Twelve searing hot, flaming shurikens quickly arrived in front of Hyuga Itsuki, targeting various parts of his body.
With no room to dodge, Itsuki decided to use the ultimate defensive technique of the Hyuga clan.
Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven
Hyuga Itsuki pivoted on his right leg to rotate his body in the clockwise direction while releasing a large amount of chakra from every single one of his chakra points in the counterclockwise direction.
Almost immediately, a rotating, semi-spherical, blue dome of pure chakra formed around him, protecting him from every direction.
Whoosh Whoosh
The moment the flaming shurikens hit the rotating dome of chakra, they were forcefully repelled.
This Hyuga clan's secret technique could even repel physical attacks from the giant, tailed beasts. There was no way it would have any problem repelling a dozen flaming shurikens.
After deflecting the shurikens, Itsuki stopped channeling chakra to this technique.
Seeing this, Reina quickly formed two hand seals right before the protective dome of chakra dissipated.
Then, she crouched down and slammed her palms on the ground, releasing a considerable amount of Earth Release chakra.
Earth Release: Earth Flow Spear
The ground where Itsuki was standing began to quake a little, causing him to feel an immense sense of crisis.
He immediately jumped backward.
And while he was in the air, he saw the earth in his previous location morphing, creating multiple spears of earth and rock that looked as if they had come out from the underground.
Clearly, if he still stayed there, he would have been impaled by these deadly earth spears.
He couldn't help but sigh in relief.
But his relief was short-lived. Before he could land on the ground, he was instantly hit by stormy gusts of wind that carried a lot of dust and debris along with them.
The wind made him fly backward, and it forcefully slammed his back against the protective Fuinjutsu barrier of the stadium, knocking all the air out of his lungs.
"Guuhhhh!"
The collision was rather intense. He felt as if his internal organs were shaken and his bones rattled. His head felt dizzy from the sheer shock and pain.
He shook his head and held his forehead with his right hand, trying to shake off the dizziness and stand up.
But before he could do that, he felt the cold, sharp edge of a bladed weapon pressing against his throat.
At that moment, he understood that he had lost the match.
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