Hinata stopped in the forest, then slipped off her Holy Fist glove from her right hand. She extended her fingers and exhaled slightly. As chakra pooled into her palm, a swirling sphere began to take shape. Clearly, this was the early form of the Rasengan.
The concept behind this jutsu wasn't complicated. It involved gathering multiple chakra streams flowing in different directions and stabilizing them within a sphere. The more chakra streams involved and the faster their rotation, the more destructive power the Rasengan could unleash.
So for anyone with solid chakra control, learning the Rasengan wasn't hard. That's why, in the original story, even Boruto nearly mastered it in a single day.
Gazing at the Rasengan spinning in her right palm, Hinata casually raised her hand and pressed it into the trunk of a nearby tree. Almost effortlessly, it bored a large hole into the tough wood.
"Just four separate chakra streams can create this much force? Now this is interesting."
After evaluating its destructive potential, Hinata was genuinely satisfied with the Rasengan. However, the standard version didn't include chakra nature transformation. The Fourth Hokage never had the chance to incorporate that before his death. Later on, Ahri's Rasenshuriken was a wind-enhanced evolution of the original.
"Well then... I think it's worth a try."
Sliding her Holy Fist glove back onto her right hand, Hinata inhaled calmly and once more channeled chakra into her palm, forming a Rasengan.
Because the Holy Fist gloves forcibly transformed chakra into its corresponding elemental nature, this time the swirling chakra in her palm took on the form of rotating fire. With the Rasengan's structure, multiple flame streams spiraled together into a whirling sphere in her hand. Unlike the standard Rasengan, this fire-infused version spun like a blazing fireball. And as the chakra rotated faster and faster, the light within grew more and more intense.
Not good!
Sensing the unstable surge in energy, Hinata instinctively hurled the fire Rasengan away with a flick of her wrist and shielded herself, rapidly retreating.
Mere meters away, the compressed orb of flame burst apart with a blinding flash. Unlike the standard explosive tags, this detonation expanded outward like a spiraling fireball, erupting into a seven-meter-wide blast zone before shooting skyward like a mini volcano.
Thanks to her swift reaction and defense, Hinata avoided being caught in her own explosion. But as she looked at the scorched crater nearly seven meters in diameter, her brow furrowed deeply.
As expected, adding nature transformation to the Rasengan was dangerously volatile. Even in the original story, when Naruto first used the Rasenshuriken to defeat Kakuzu, he ended up injuring his own arm due to the technique's backlash.
The Rasenshuriken incorporated wind transformation, while this fire Rasengan was a basic attempt at adding fire. But from the force of this explosion alone, it was clear: if she tried to hit an enemy with it directly, it might work—but the resulting blast would almost certainly harm the user too.
That meant, once chakra nature was added, the Rasengan had to be reclassified from a close-range to a mid-to-long-range technique. Otherwise, it was simply too dangerous for the wielder.
Still, nothing was absolute. If she could control the strength and scale of a nature Rasengan, it could be reworked as a finisher rather than a stand-alone jutsu...
"Heh... I see~ No resource is ever truly useless. It's just a matter of integrating it perfectly."
With her idea now taking shape, Hinata returned to her room in Tazuna's house. As a shinobi who had made training a daily routine, she always carried essential tools and scrolls—among them, a detailed diagram of the human body's acupoints.
While she had given up on the complex and outdated Gentle Fist style, knowledge of pressure points wasn't exclusive to it. This world lacked refined acupuncture techniques, but most experienced shinobi knew how to stimulate certain points to heal or boost stamina. The classic example was the Eight Gates Technique, which unleashed explosive power by forcibly opening eight critical points in the body.
It was well known that the Hyūga clan's Gentle Fist targeted acupoints to disrupt chakra flow—precisely because these points were difficult to defend and highly vulnerable. However, their obsessive focus on pinpoint control made the style needlessly complicated. For someone like Suigin Tou, whose aptitude didn't match that level of precision, it had always been a frustrating art to master.
Even so, the fundamental truth remained: if a pressure point was struck with sufficient force, it could cause severe internal damage. These points were concentrated clusters of nerves and blood vessels—hidden weak spots on the human body. That's why some were considered lethal, referred to as "death points," because they lay atop major arteries or nerve centers. A solid hit could easily be fatal.
Put simply, acupoints were like intersections of blood and nerve highways—block or destroy one, and the entire surrounding system could collapse.
Even without true acupoint striking, just hitting the right spot could cause substantial damage. For example, the median nerve on the arm—known as the "Bìzhōng" point—was extremely sensitive. Even a slight impact could cause temporary paralysis or loss of motor control. And it wasn't hard to locate—right at the inner elbow joint.
Letting her finger trace down the acupoint chart, Hinata's eyes narrowed. She stopped first at a spot directly between the nipples—a place easy to locate even without her Byakugan.
This point was called the "Shānzhōng," one of the body's death points. It intersected with the anterior thoracic vein. A hit here could impact the heart, causing anything from confusion and heart palpitations to irreversible damage to the ventricles.
A solid punch to the Shānzhōng—on any enemy still classified as human and not protected by defenses like Susanoo or Iron Sand Armor—would easily stun them for several seconds, leaving them unable to act.
In summary: a strike to Shānzhōng could inflict a stun effect, deal true damage several times the user's strength, and apply debuffs to movement and attack speed.
Looking at the torso from a tactical perspective, Shānzhōng lay along the vertical centerline of the body. Along the contours of the front torso, there were three pairs of symmetrical "Gate Points":
Yúnmén (shoulders)
Zhāngmén (below the 11th rib)
Chōngmén (outer groin)
These were paired points, each with distinct effects.
Yúnmén was beneath the scapula and controlled arm movement. Striking it—much like "piercing the collarbone"—could shut down arm function. It governed the lungs, and damage could even cause pneumothorax.
→ Effect: True damage × strength, plus suffocation and arm paralysis debuff.
Zhāngmén governed the liver. It was a critical junction for chakra flowing from the dantian (abdomen) to the upper body.
→ Effect: True damage × strength, plus chakra stagnation and silence debuff.
Chōngmén was located at the midpoint of the outer groin, where major arteries, veins, and nerves converged.
→ Effect: True damage × strength, plus crippling leg debuff.
If all of these were hit in a combo, the enemy would be left with crippled arms, crippled legs, chakra disruption, and a clouded mind—a sitting duck.
But just in case the opponent had some sort of regeneration, a powerful finisher was still needed. Looking at the distribution of Shānzhōng, Yúnmén, Zhāngmén, and Chōngmén, they all had a common energy source—the "Qìhǎi" point at the lower abdomen, known as the origin of chakra.
The Qìhǎi point was easily found—just below the navel. A hit here wouldn't just cause a single debuff—it could trigger all the effects of the previous strikes.
Her eyes gleamed. She had just visualized the framework of a devastating new technique.
First, strike the Shānzhōng to stun the target.
Then, hit Yúnmén to disable arm movement.
Next, target Zhāngmén to disrupt chakra and prevent counterattacks.
Follow up with a hit to Chōngmén to immobilize the legs.
Finally, deliver a full-force blow to the Qìhǎi, linking all previous damage into one catastrophic finisher.
There was no need to hit 64 points like in the Eight Trigrams technique. Targeting eight crucial acupoints—three mirrored pairs plus two centers—was more than enough. Even a mediocre shinobi could learn to identify eight points, especially when three of them were symmetrically placed on both sides.
"But... as for its true effect..."
Standing up, the white-eyed girl turned slightly, her gaze obscured under her bangs as sunlight cast a shadow across her face. Her pupils flickered with an eerie phosphorescent glow.
"I'll need... to test it."
---
Author Notes:
(PS1: Whew~~~ I really did my research on human acupoints just to design a semi-plausible version of "Yamata-no-Orochi"~~ Basically, you get the idea, right?)
(PS2: Here's the second update~~ From now on, I'll try to post during the day~~ Also, seems like it's time to drop a beautiful Suigin Tou pic, yeah?)
[IMAGE PLACEHOLDER: Images/223910-16623.jpg]
---
In the Land of Waves, the common folk were already being driven to the edge of survival due to resource shortages. But for the samurai and ronin hired by Gato, those limits didn't apply. The country wasn't huge, but it was still divided into poor and wealthy districts.
After all, it was still a proper country with a feudal lord. The capital—located near Tazuna's area—was where the daimyo and corrupt elites like Gato lived.
Naturally, the people here didn't have to worry about supplies. Gato restricted sea routes for the citizens but kept his own ships running regularly to bring in goods from the mainland.
Several ronin, swords at their waists, staggered out of a tavern, clearly full and satisfied. Serving under Gato, they lived comfortably.
"Hey, boss, I heard another ship sank today. This place is getting creepier by the day."
The ronin in the center let out a drunken belch as he spoke. Being Gato's henchmen, they weren't cut off from information.
"Who cares? We just do the job and take the money. Anyway, tell the boys to lay low for a few days. Orders from above say that once that old geezer Tazuna finishes the bridge, he's dead."
Wiping grease from his mouth, the leader spoke with smug satisfaction. "Heard one of those so-called 'Seven Ninja Swordsmen' hired by Gato got beaten to a pulp as soon as the fight started. Heh, I always said ninja are just a bunch of weak mutts. You'll see—soon the world will be ours again, the samurai."
"Exactly. Though those kunoichi aren't bad to look at. I wouldn't mind using them to blow off some steam~"
Laughing and bragging, the group wandered into a narrow alley between two buildings. It was a shortcut to their quarters.
But just then, the leading ronin froze. Some sixth sense had him stop in his tracks. At the far end of the alley stood a figure, back turned, seemingly inspecting something on the ground. As the ronin's eyes adjusted, he realized it was a corpse—black blood pooled ominously beneath it.
"Hey!! Who's there?!"