"Yeah, I'm thinking the same. Training together with you really couldn't be any better."
Ayane was just as exhausted, her Byakugan open, beads of sweat sliding down her fair forehead.
Her body felt a bit sticky as well, probably because the training had been too intense, coupled with the muggy weather.
Even with the temperature-controlled underground training room, it felt as if the blazing sun in the sky could pierce through layers of earth and shine its fierce light all the way down here.
Judging from their tone, both seemed satisfied with the other's strength, and their relationship looked like that of inseparable close friends, with not a trace of hostility in their eyes.
Ever since awakening the Mangekyo Sharingan, Ruri had been constantly asking Ayane these past days to help evaluate the specific power of her eyes.
Ayane held the same intention. Although her Byakugan hadn't undergone any obvious change like Ruri's Sharingan, after fusing with the darkness of the wraith, her Byakugan could indeed see things she couldn't see before.
For example, the Byakugan's "Spiritual Intimidation" had become far more powerful than before, and its range even broader.
You could say that as long as an Ninja's strength didn't reach a certain level and their will wasn't firm enough, then once she used the Byakugan's Spiritual Intimidation in battle, that enemy wouldn't even qualify to step within five meters of her.
Even if they were lucky enough to step into that five-meter zone, every step forward would only increase the spiritual pressure bearing down on them.
This ability was practically a Pupil Technique born to draw a clear line between "the weak" and "the strong."
And that was only one aspect of the changes; the observable range of the Byakugan had also been enhanced.
With herself at the center, everything within a twenty-kilometer radius could be said to fall inside the domain her Byakugan could observe.
With such a range, even many talented Perception Ninja might not be able to achieve this level of perception. Moreover, Perception Ninjutsu couldn't detect certain special Ninja at all.
The Byakugan was different. What it observed was the human meridian system. As long as the enemy's Chakra was still flowing, whether they hid in the sky or deep underground, once they entered this twenty-kilometer domain, they could not escape the Byakugan's insight.
As for some of the other peculiar changes, Ayane was still in the process of developing them.
But just those two changes alone were enough to satisfy her.
The Byakugan's offensive methods usually came from its coordination with the Gentle Fist; most of the time, she used the Byakugan as an observing eye.
Working together with Hakushi's Soul Perception Ninjutsu, once something entered their shared perceptual range, it would be unable to hide from their dual observation.
Over these past days, the two of them had been continuously testing each other's strength as well as the changes in their eyes.
And the rules of their battles were very simple: victory by any means necessary.
Of course, both sides probably fought with the mindset that they might just accidentally kill the other.
"Hmph!"
In the underground built-in training ground, their auras clashed once again.
Their bodies collided in midair and immediately became entangled in a fierce close-quarters struggle.
Ruri's body was covered by a mini version of Susanoo, a dark red color, wielding a life-sized dark red blade that clashed with Ayane's palm strikes.
Boom!
The air burst apart in an instant.
The two of them were driven sharply downward; even the specially reinforced floor was damaged, terrifying cracks appearing and rapidly spreading outward.
As her body fell, Ruri's hand seals were already complete.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
She spat a massive Fireball from her mouth, shooting straight toward Ayane.
The flames were extremely hot; the instant they appeared, the surrounding air temperature began to rise sharply.
And the Fireball's size was far larger than an ordinary Great Fireball, making it very difficult for a typical Ninja to escape from such an expanded Great Fireball Jutsu unscathed.
At this point it was too late to try to dodge, but Ayane had no intention of avoiding the Fireball anyway. She simply raised her hand, treating it like a blade, and when the Fireball touched her body, she split it cleanly in two, causing it to vanish.
Ruri wasn't surprised; this was one of Ayane's habitual attack methods.
In terms of insight, the Byakugan far surpassed the Sharingan. It could clearly see the flow of Chakra, and it was by relying on this that the Hyuga Clan's Gentle Fist could bring its Chakra-severing ability to the extreme.
After all, the body's tenketsu were extremely minute points, requiring the Byakugan's exceptional perception to coordinate with them in order to ensure absolute accuracy.
Therefore, with the Hyuga Gentle Fist that could sever the Chakra flow within the human body when coordinated with the Byakugan, cutting off the Chakra flow within a Jutsu and nullifying the Ninja Techniques themselves was also perfectly reasonable.
Because a Jutsu itself was nothing more than Chakra condensed into form.
However, Ayane's ability to target Chakra within Jutsu was limited to these kinds of techniques that left traces to follow.
If the Jutsu was more complex and precise, formless and invisible, with an extremely concealed Chakra flow pattern, then it would be difficult to cancel the opponent's Ninja Techniques with Gentle Fist.
Even so, in actual combat, this technique was still quite terrifying.
So when Ayane made that move, Ruri already understood her intent. In the instant before the Fireball disappeared, Ruri's body had already moved, swiftly closing the distance to Ayane's position.
Every one of Ruri's movements was within Ayane's observation. Trying to launch a sneak attack on a Byakugan Ninja was an extremely unwise act.