1 Year Before Ayumu arrived at the Leaf Village

A loud cracking sound split the silence that had fallen been cast over the Senju-Hyuuga home. Until now, not even the birds outside had dared to interrupt the palpable tension in the family's courtyard. The elderly man sitting atop the steps leading into the house, and a young Ayumu staring back at him defiantly, refusing to submit to the overwhelming aura of authority pouring off of his grandfather. The silent contest of wills had worn on the elders patience, the seconds ticked by, stealing away pieces of the mighty fortress he had constructed in his mind for situations just like this. The walls were meant to contain his bountiful wrath, and now it was given the chance to leak out, his fist clenching around the wooden head of his cane and shattering it to pieces.

Ayumu flinched. He had seen his grandfather mad before, but this was different. This was… rage. Something violent and all consuming. He figured something like this would happen though. The two butted heads all the time, mostly over Ayumu's attitude and his proclivity for getting in over his head. Most of the time he would push himself too hard and get hurt, or pull stunts that others his age wouldn't dare try because they knew better. This time, he'd gone too far. A group of local hooligans had been throwing rocks at passersby. Most people just shrugged it off, boys will be boys after all, but a pebble knocking against Ayumu's head has set him off.

Word of the fight had spread through the town and to his grandfathers ears well before Ayumu reached home. Six boys involved in total, five-on-one. It should have been a wash, but Ayumu's formal training gave him a bit more combat experience than the other kids in his hometown, and he managed to knock out three of them before the other two pinned him down. They beat him mercilessly after that.

His grandfather stood from his spot on the steps and took a few quiet steps towards the boy. Inspecting the crude first aid Ayumu had performed on himself. Bandaging covered his right eye, left arm and leg, and wrapped tightly around his torso. He took a deep breath and asked, eerily calm considering the display a moment before, "Any damage to your head?

A shiver went up Ayumu's spine, causing him to visibly shrink in the presence of his elder. "No, sir." The words barely crossed his lips before a stern blow connected with his temple, forcing his gaze to shift from his grandfather to the ground beside them. His fist balled up instinctively from the strike. His first reaction was always to meet violence with violence, despite an ordinarily cool head. However, he could already feel the outcome of it in this instance. The moment he even tried to make a move, he would lose. Such is the nature of the beast now towering over him.

"Go on, boy. Do it. I dare you."

The venomous taunt drove a needle deep in Ayumu's heart. His grandfather was usually his best friend, his confidant, his guide through uncertain times. This man standing before him was none of those. It was as if he had come face to face with his antithesis. His grandfather turned around and moved a few paces away. ”You seem to have missed a crucial lesson, and now I must be the one to teach it. Take your stance. Now,” he commanded, without facing his grandson. Ayumu begrudgingly moved his body to take up a familiar pose. A slight angle, with his right arm and foot behind him. Left foot pointing forward, in perfect alignment with his outstretched left arm. Palms open away from the ground. It’s familiarity normally made it comfortable, but his opponent was causing him to remain tense, resulting in the stance feeling rigid and foreign to him. ”Eyes,” came a second command. ”Y-yes sir.” The veins around Ayumu’s eyes began to swell, the color in his eyes fading until they were nearly featureless.

His field of vision expanded and connected until he could see an almost perfect dome around him simultaneously. The extensive awareness it brought of his surroundings put him a bit more at ease, but still not enough to relax. This was a master of the Gentle Fist he was facing. He would know all too well how to circumvent the three-hundred-and sixty degree scope of perception if needed, and even worse: he would know how to beat it soundly. His grandfather slowly turned around, revealing his own activated Byakugan. Ayumu focused on the old man, trying to keep track of the flow of his chakra. Any shift in its concentration, any sudden rushes, anything that would help him prepare for what he would need to react against.

There was none.

Ayumu reeled from a sudden blow to his abdomen, the impact sending him flying backwards. He spent a moment trying to fight away the sick feeling he had after the attack, as well as piecing together what happened. He stood, teetering slightly before rocketing forward, a light layer of chakra dancing at his fingertips. He got close to the eerily still man and delivered a swift jab with his index and pointer fingers, using the connection to force a small burst of chakra into his grandfathers body to shut off one of his tenketsu. It should have worked, it looked and felt like it worked.

"Utsusemi," the elderly man chided, seemingly disappointed that his grandson needed a reminder of his technique, shoving him from behind. "I am going to make you feel what those other boys felt. An opponent that you can't defeat yourself, a level of skill far surpassing your own."

Utsusemi, a name Ayumu had heard before, but never had he been on the receiving end of his grandfather's unique style of fighting. According to its owner, he had developed the Utsusemi as a means of teaching young Byakugan users shortly after he matured into adulthood, but then found further use for it in battle. He simultaneously suppresses and releases his chakra in such a way that, for a moment, his entire chakra network appears to remain in place as he moves away from it. And if your strategy relies solely on reading the flow of his chakra, he becomes virtually undetectable.

Even knowing this, with all of the information he knew and the training he underwent that mimicked his grandfathers style, Ayumu was on the back foot of their entire altercation. Every attempt to turn things around was shut out in one form or another. If he tried to read his grandfathers chakra, Utsusemi was used. If he ignored the chakra to focus on his body, he would get hit by some form of chakra extension. Either way, he couldn't find a middle ground to form a solid defensive strategy. Hours went by like this before his grandfather returned to his spot, sitting on the steps.

Ayumu was laying on the ground, heaving with pain and exhaustion. It felt like his whole body was going to be bruised tomorrow. "Boy, this will be the most important lesson I teach you, so listen close. Strength is not to be used for yourself. It is not meant to be used to harm others. Being stronger than someone is not a pass to turn on them. Strength is used to defend those who need protection."

Silence. Long, seemingly unending silence roared in Ayumu's ears until he built up the strength to go inside.

[ Learned The Gentle Fist [ Juken ] | Rank X | Complex | Training ]

[ Learned Gentle Palm Stance | Rank X | Simple ]