- History of the Hyuuga Clan-
Hyuuga Tanaka born an orphan, his mother, he was told, having died giving birth to him. He never had any idea who his father had been. He was told his mother's name had been Hyuuga, but it was not of much importance since she was of peasant stock and had no family. To Tanaka, it was the only tenuous link he had with a mother he never met.
He was raised in an orphanage, but rarely had enough to eat so had to go begging on the street, as did every other child. At the age of fourteen he ran away from the orphanage and all its abuses, and ran to join the armed forces of the most powerful Lord in the land he inhabited. The name of the land has long been lost.
As service ensured warm food and a place to sleep, many clamored for the honor to serve the Lord. The boy was turned away, but when he refused to leave one of the Lord's men struck him. Angered, and quite foolish at that age, the young Tanaka fought back. He was given the worse beating of his life.
The General of the Lord's forces, however, had been watching from a distance. He was intrigued by the boy's spirit and courage against larger armed men, so he decided to let him join as an apprentice foot soldier. Thus Hyuuga Tanaka was allowed into the Lord's service.
As the years passed, the General's choice proved to have been a wise one. Tanaka was a natural leader, and his talent at the martial arts was nothing short of astounding. At eighteen he became the leader of fifty men, who quickly gained a reputation for being the Lord's most fearsome platoon. At twenty four, he was second only to the old General in command of the Lord's forces. With him leading the charge, winning many battles, the Lord's land and power in the region increased exponentially.
At twenty eight, Tanaka realized he had been killing for half his life. Battle after battle after battle, he had taken more lives than he could count. The great genius of martial arts and natural leader had grown tired of war and killing. He asked the only boon he ever asked, and that was to be dismissed from service. The Lord reluctantly granted it, and offered great riches to Tanaka in reward for his years of service. Hyuuga Tanaka declined, feeling it was not right to profit so from the mountains dead he had helped create.
Hyuuga Tanaka shaved his head and became a monk at a temple of Amida. He sought to cleanse his soul from all the crimes in his life, to find a way to be at peace and to pay back the dews of all the lives he had taken.
It is said that many times bandits attacked the temple. In the past many would have been killed and much taken, but with Tanaka there he single handedly defeated every single one of them. What is more surprising, it is said he did without killing a single one. For ten long years he sought enlightment, and for ten long years he fought off savage bands of bandits without taking a single life. That, if nothing else, speaks volumes of what his skills in the martial arts were.
Amida, in seeing this was moved by the compassion and the respect for life that this man Hyuuga Tanaka held. He come to Tanaka in a dream and told him to go into the forest, where he would complete his training to find enlightment and the cessation of suffering.
For ten more years, Hyuuga Tanaka lived alone in the woods, receiving teachings in dreams and visions from the great and compassionate Amida himself. In the end, when the training was complete, Amida saw that Tanaka had indeed become a Holy being, and was pleased. He saw in Tanaka a man who could instinctively see the truth of things. This was why he was so successful in the martial arts, strategy, meditation, and in anything else he put his mind to.
So the great Amida, in his infinite compassion, gifted Hyuuga Tanaka with pure white eyes that would further enhance Tanaka's abilities to see the truth of things. When one can see the truth of things, one's spirit can open and the ending of suffering can take place, a true being of light can emerge. This was Amida's gift to Hyuuga Tanaka, with the purpose that he would use it to further spiritual teachings and to help reduce the suffering in the world.
Tanaka left the forest, and established a family. All his decedents were born with the same gift from Amida himself, and Tanaka was pleased. He lived for another forty years, all that time teaching his children and his children's children how to use the gifts of Amida to see the truth of things, to help them reach spiritual truth and thus flourish peace and foster compassion in their hearts.
The Hyuuga clan came to be known as servants of Amida, revered and sought out far and wide, for they were all Holy men and women, and it was said just being in their presence could relive the weight in a man's heart.
Tanaka also developed a martial art that everyone was required to learn, for he had learned while at the temple, that not even Holy men were safe from the violence of some wicked men. He developed a martial art using the gift from Amida where victory would almost always be guaranteed in combat, but left the opponent completely unharmed after they had some time to rest. The great compassion of Amida and of the Hyuuga clan was such that they could not even bear to do serious damage to one who would take their lives. So Hyuuga Tanaka and all his children had to be good enough to defend themselves and leave their opponents unharmed… so soon the Hyuuga became famous as the best unarmed fighters in all the land.
Thus the Hyuuga were servants of Amida for almost six hundred years, teaching their children the ways of enlightment and compassion, serving others and seeing the truth of things with their holy Byakugan. And always, in the tumultuous world learning how to defend themselves, but always while leaving their opponents unharmed.
Then, wars began. The age of chaos that lasted for almost two centuries before the foundation of the elemental nations began.
The Hyuuga were attacked by surprise in overwhelming numbers, by a powerful Warlord who saw them as a threat to his power. Seeing as they were completely overwhelmed, the elders stayed behind to hold off the attackers while the younger of the Hyuuga escaped. Perhaps half of all Hyuuga survived that fearful night.
The survivors were young, traumatized by having to flee their ancestral homeland and profoundly bitter. The teachings of Amida were also incomplete in them. All the elders who knew the complete teachings were lost, killed during the attack.
They were also angry. Amida was not so deep seeded in their hearts that they could feel only compassion for their enemies. This was the beginning of the fall of Hyuuga as a clan of wise Holy men and a people of love and compassion, and the beginning of the Hyuuga as a family and clan entrenched in petty politics and struggles for power. But that would not happen just yet. At this time, the Hyuuga that were left were hunted down by the Warlord.
So one Hyuuga Shinni, while the Hyuuga were engaged in a skirmish, struck a man in the heart and killed him instantly.
Pain and sorrow and fear overcame the survivors, fighting for their lives. And as one, as if by some unspoken command only they could hear, they began to kill the ones who came after them.
It hurt them deeply, like they had betrayed their very souls. But they could not stop. They did not stop until the Warlord and every one of his men were dead. The Hyuuga wiped out perhaps fifty times their numbers in the space of a few months, without one additional death among them.
But the unrest was not over, and the Hyuuga, now led by the first killer among them since Tanaka, Hyuuga Shinni ensured the survival of their clan. In the power, the service to various lords, the backstabbing and the battles, the teachings of Amida that were left slowly faded… after a century, their past was nothing but a memory even as the clan continued to increase in power and influence.
Still, amongst many in the Hyuuga the memory of what had been still haunted them, and many clamored to find the old ways again, the Hyuuga as they had been for more than six hundred years before this time of death and struggle. The crisis of identity became so bad within the clan that many feared it would fragment. There were ones who wanted to find the teachings of Amida once again, and there were those who thought survival and power and pride were what should define the Hyuuga.
The end result for was the leaders of the fraction against the ways of Amida to consult a renown seal master… and develop a seal that could be used on rebellious members to control dissent. Those who preached peace and compassion, love and the ways of Amida were given what came to be known as the "caged bird seal" so they could be controlled. Any mention of Amida or the past of the clan became punishable by death, which would be carried out by use of the new seal almost half the clansmen now bore. Those peaceful ways were seductive to many, and the leaders felt it had to be stamped out ruthlessly lest the future of the clan be in peril.
Within a decade, there was no one left who would speak of the old ways.
The next generation began to be told that their clan was proud and ancient, but nothing else. Before long it became assumed no one knew the true history.
However, even the most callous leader was not without pride in the man who had been Hyuuga Tanaka, even though they now stood against everything Tanaka had stood for. So a secret history was written, as the history of the clan was deemed too precious to truly be lost forever. Only those who could be trusted not be foolish enough to try re-establish the clan of Hyuuga Tanaka, for truly it was foolish… would be trusted with reading the secret history, and with the pride and honor of their true heritage, which could not be revealed lest fools chose to seek and try to cripple the Hyuuga with idealistic nonsense. Only those who were worthy could be told.
Those who had been branded with the caged bird seal became the underclass of the Hyuuga. It was decreed that their children should also bear the mark… and that those who bore the mark live to serve the unmarked. They then became known as the 'Main' and 'Branch' families, both in order to hide the origin of the seal and to institutionalize who was truly in charge of the Hyuuga clan.
Nearly a century after this, after surviving and even thriving in a world of constant war and political upheaval, the Hyuuga allied themselves to a new coalition of powerful warrior clans. The Hyuuga became the first powerful ally to join the newly formed nation forged by the union of the two most powerful clans in all the land, the Senju and the Uchiha. Unlike the Senju and Uchiha the Hyuuga had been closer to samurai than shinobi, and now the Hyuuga were asked to be as shinobi. The leaders ultimately agreed was acceptable for the position their agreement with the Senju and Uchiha gave them. The Hyuuga, always powerful warriors, now became shinobi.
And the Juken became the complete opposite to what its creator, Hyuuga Tanaka, had intended. Instead of being a way to defeat your enemy without harming them, it became a way of capturing your enemy alive. Many times, this meant death for the captured enemy. And except under exceptional circumstances, it always meant torture and suffering for the captured. The Hyuuga and Juken became prized for their ability to capture enemy alive and interrogate them. Their eyes, given to them by holy Amida himself, were now used to find men and kill them mercilessly, or else capture them for torture. The Hyuuga became one of the deadliest weapons for Konohagakure.
How Hyuuga Tanaka must mourn silently from the grave.
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