Chapter 316: Ancor Vantian

Chapter 316: Chapter 316: Ancor Vantian

Outside the Hyuga clan compound, Hizashi pulled Hyuga Kagami aside and asked, "Kagami, what you said to Neji back at the main residence... there was another meaning behind it, wasn’t there?"

Hyuga Kagami smiled without denying it.

Hizashi asked seriously, "Do you have a problem with the clan’s education system?"

"I wouldn’t say I have a problem with it," Hyuga Kagami replied. "I just have a few suggestions."

"What kind of suggestions?"

Hyuga Kagami slowly explained, "The Hyuga clan can’t keep focusing solely on the Gentle Fist. We need to branch out into other areas as well. Otherwise, sooner or later, it’ll become difficult for us to maintain our footing in the shinobi world."

Hizashi furrowed his brows. "And what exactly do you mean by ’other areas’?"

Compared to the Main Family, who naturally sought to preserve tradition, Hizashi, as a member of the Branch Family, had far more motivation to push for reform. But limited by his own perspective, even Hizashi didn’t know how the clan should reform—or where such reforms should even begin.

Hyuga Kagami shrugged.

"Obviously, the areas where we’re weak!"

"Weak areas?!"

Hizashi looked somewhat puzzled. The Hyuga clan’s Gentle Fist could be used against virtually any opponent and had almost no obvious shortcomings, so he didn’t quite understand what Kagami meant by "weak."

Hyuga Kagami shook his head and sighed softly. Even Hizashi didn’t have a thorough enough understanding of the Hyuga clan’s weaknesses.

"All right," Hizashi said. "Just tell me straight. What weaknesses does the Hyuga clan actually have?"

Hyuga Kagami raised one finger.

"We can’t deal with Tailed Beasts!"

The Hyuga clan’s Gentle Fist could easily destroy an enemy’s chakra pathway system, killing them without leaving any visible wounds. But once they encountered a gigantic monster like a Tailed Beast, the power of the Gentle Fist immediately became inadequate.

Hizashi was somewhat speechless. "Monsters on the level of Tailed Beasts aren’t something one or two shinobi are supposed to be able to handle in the first place. It’s perfectly normal that the Hyuga clan can’t deal with them!"

Hyuga Kagami shook his head and said solemnly, "Among the Uchiha, there are plenty who can subdue a Tailed Beast one-on-one. So why can’t we Hyuga do the same? Why should we regard ourselves as ordinary shinobi? Isn’t the Byakugan a dōjutsu Kekkei Genkai too? Is the Byakugan only good enough to serve as a scout on a shinobi team?"

Hizashi was left completely speechless by Kagami’s questions.

Hyuga Kagami raised another finger.

"We can’t deal with Susanoo. And a single Uchiha capable of using Susanoo could sweep through the entire Hyuga clan!"

Against the Susanoo of an Uchiha’s Mangekyō Sharingan, no matter which form of Gentle Fist was used, it would seem utterly laughable.

Sasuke’s taunting of Hinata in the snow earlier hadn’t been entirely childish nonsense. As more and more Uchiha awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan, the Hyuga clan—once spoken of in the same breath as the Uchiha—only appeared increasingly powerless.

Hizashi opened his mouth, wanting to argue, only to realize that if he himself were faced with an Uchiha’s Susanoo, he would be equally helpless against it.

Hyuga Kagami stopped rubbing salt into the wound and said, "We need techniques with greater destructive power. We need larger Summoning Beasts. And we also need sealing techniques that can be used in conjunction with the Byakugan! In short, more and more monsters are appearing in the shinobi world, and the Hyuga clan needs to possess the ability to deal with those monsters!"

Everything Hyuga Kagami had mentioned was something he believed the Hyuga clan sorely lacked.

In particular, when it came to Summoning Beasts, Hyuga Kagami believed the clan should spend heavily to establish ties with a summoning clan possessing gigantic members. Only then would the Hyuga have the means to put up a fight when facing enormous monsters.

The same applied to sealing techniques.

The Hyuga clan had managed to develop a sealing technique like the Caged Bird Seal to use against their own people, yet possessed hardly any sealing techniques that could actually be used against their enemies. That was simply ridiculous.

The Gentle Fist was overly focused on precision, and this also made it less versatile than the Strong Fist.

During the final battle in the original timeline, although Might Guy, a practitioner of the Strong Fist, had failed to kill Six Paths Madara with a single kick, he had at least been capable of intervening in the battle and becoming a major fighting force.

Meanwhile, the Hyuga who practiced the Gentle Fist had essentially become background characters from the moment Pain attacked Konoha onward. From Clan Head Hiashi down to Neji and Hinata, none of them possessed the strength to influence the course of a major battle. They were little more than cannon fodder. The only thing truly worth mentioning was the Byakugan’s reconnaissance ability.

It could be said that the Hyuga clan’s Byakugan Kekkei Genkai had been completely reduced to nothing more than a reconnaissance talent.

Hyuga Kagami continued, "The Gentle Fist made the Hyuga clan what it is today—but it has also become the very thing limiting us. While there’s still time, we need to change all of that!"

Hizashi said, "Let me think about it carefully."

Hyuga Kagami didn’t press the matter any further. Instead, he changed the subject. "By the way, is there anyone in the clan who has mastered the Spirit Transformation Technique?"

"The Spirit Transformation Technique?" Hizashi asked. "There shouldn’t be anyone in the clan who knows a secret technique like that!"

Hyuga Kagami had originally intended to tell Hizashi in detail about the spirit he had seen within the clan compound that night. But after considering it for a moment, he ultimately decided against alerting whoever was behind it.

"Oh, I was just asking."

With that, Hyuga Kagami led Shion and Ashiho back toward his home.

At present, Hyuga Kagami didn’t have much influence within the Hyuga clan. Or rather, even Clan Head Hiashi himself would find it difficult to change the clan’s current state.

The traditionalist and conservative forces within the Hyuga clan were simply too powerful—so powerful that no single individual could stand against them.

......

Land of Hot Water.

A shinobi wearing a Land of Sky forehead protector reported to Shinno, "My lord, all the supplies you ordered have been transported into Ancor Vantian!"

Shinno nodded. "Very good!"

The Land of Sky shinobi asked, "My lord, when will we finally be able to stop hiding and launch our true revenge against Konoha?"

"Soon. The Land of Sky will rise again very soon!"

Shinno smiled as he gazed into the distance.

"We will bury Konoha from the skies!"

The Land of Sky shinobi could barely contain his excitement. "My lord, are we going to activate Ancor Vantian now?"

The "Ancor Vantian" this Land of Sky shinobi spoke of was the last remaining culmination of the Land of Sky’s power, as well as its secret fortress—a city capable of flying through the skies.

Not only could this fortress fly, it was also equipped with a superweapon whose destructive power surpassed even that of a Tailed Beast Bomb!

In the original timeline, Shinno had managed to activate Ancor Vantian’s superweapon using nothing more than his inferior Zero-Tails. With a single blast, it not only obliterated an entire mountain peak, but continued onward without losing much of its power and destroyed several Land of Sky aircraft carriers dozens of miles away!

More than half the reason Shinno had been so obsessed with the artificial Tailed Beast project was because he needed the chakra of an artificial Tailed Beast to activate the flying fortress Ancor Vantian and the superweapon mounted upon it!

And now, Shinno possessed a chakra source even more powerful than the Zero-Tails of the original timeline.

Controlling Ancor Vantian would naturally be easier than ever...