Reborn

It took a while for me to understand that I had been reborn as Neji. I could feel that I had become a baby, and that I was being held by someone, but only when my new mother leaned close and whispered my name into my ear did the sound of her speaking become clear enough for me to understand. Of course, I didn't believe that I was the Neji Hyuuga immediately, but after I heard the word 'Hyuuga' a few days later I accepted my reality. Well, it was more like 'relished in my new reality'. Do I care about saving the world? Well, only so that I won't die. Do I care about solving the problems of the Ninja Villages? Definitely not. Do I care about becoming a strong ninja? Hell yeah. With that all in mind, I was ready for a breeze of a life. I was not ready for a world which was so different from what I had known that I actually feared for my life. Seriously, it was so surprising that I began to train not just for fun, but also because I realized that I actually might die.

Well, more on that later. For now, let's just get through the first few years of my life.

I didn't really try to hide my ability to speak. Although I didn't speak a lot because I didn't want to give my parents a heart attack, I made it quite clear that I was a 'genius' who could speak in full sentences before I had turned 1, and walking followed soon after. While my parents were ecstatic about my abnormal growth rate, I was concerned with trying to detect chakra and awaken my Byakugan. The Hyuuga clan did have nannies that looked after the children who would gently run chakra through the hands of the children to aid their detection of chakra, which was what helped me detect it at the extremely young age of 5 months. The only reason I didn't detect it before that was probably because my chakra coils were still not fully developed so it was physically impossible for me to do so. Awakening my Byakugan came shortly after only because I knew exactly what I was trying to achieve - I mean, these other children knew nothing about Byakugan. All they knew was to send their chakra to their eyes using the hand seals provided.

Oh yeah, speaking of hand seals - they are incredibly hard to get used to. Even after 2 years of practice I could barely form the hand seals for Byakugan in three seconds without messing up - and that's exactly three seconds too long in a battle. Thankfully, since I knew exactly what the Byakugan was and how to activate it I learned to open it without any seals.

Trust me, my parents loved that a lot. I could tell from their stunned-into-silence expressions.

Sorry if that was too quick of a summary of my years as a toddler - it's just that really nothing much happened during this time.

Anyway, now I can get to the good stuff: chakra. Activating my eyes enabled me to see a stream of chakra which flowed through every living thing. It looked like a gas, but it flowed like water as it moved through the chakra pathways. Every living being had a unique color of chakra, although usually relatives had similar colors. Trying to guide it wasn't as simple as pulling on the tip of a strand of chakra and expecting the whole strand to simply follow the tip - you had to constantly adjust the direction of all of the chakra that you wished to control, as well as ensuring that you were controlling the correct amount of chakra. If the chakra needed to pass one of the 8 chakra gates then you'd need more effort to get the chakra through, because the 8 gates automatically reduce the amount of chakra travelling through them by storing a portion of the chakra which goes through them.

Basically, without the Byakugan my chakra control would have been way worse. What a surprise.

As I got used to controlling the flow of chakra in my body, I understood more about how to use it in taijutsu. After letting some chakra through one of the tenketsu in your hands, if you keep the chakra just under the surface of your skin then timing its release becomes much easier than letting the chakra out of the body directly from the tenketsu - plus, it's way easier to control the amount of chakra that you release this way.

When this skill is combined with the Byakugan's ability to see tenketsu, it means that it's really easy for me to just tap an opponent's tenketsu and send chakra into their system. Then, I can either disrupt the flow of their chakra to place them in a genjutsu with a single tap, or I can overload that tenketsu with chakra to prevent it from functioning as it attempts to break down the foreign chakra.

Naturally, this was all well-known knowledge in the clan and even in Konoha, but the thing is that I was a 'child', so the fact that I was able to understand this at such a young age meant that I was a genius. Although I was too young to do any physical training and could only work on my chakra control, Hiashi had already planned to begin training me as soon as I turned 4 (whereas usually Hyuuga kids start training at the age of 6). I wasn't complaining.

...

My birthdays were pretty low-key since I was a branch member, but my fourth birthday was big for a different reason. That night, my father took me to talk to Hiashi in his living room. Being the mature child that they thought I was, I smiled gently when he patted my head before sitting down next to him. Hizashi stayed standing.

"Neji. As you know, our clan is split into the main house and the branch house. It is the duty of the branch house to serve and protect the main house, just as it is the duty of the main house to uphold justice and honor in the clan. You are a member of the branch clan." He waited a few seconds to let me digest that. As he did, I suddenly realized why Hizashi hadn't sat down, and why he was looking extra tetchy with his clenched fists.

... He's about to place the seal on me. How did I forget about that?

"Part of the branch house's duty is to protect the secrets of the clan. This is only possible by placing this seal on their bodies, to protect our secrets even after their deaths." He went on and on about how this was proper and right and blah blah blah...

I can't let this happen. I will literally be their slave. No way I'm gonna let that happen.

"Hiashi-sama," I interrupted. Both the adults in the room flinched when I dared to interrupt the clan leader, but Hiashi remained silent and raised an eyebrow. "I already know what that seal does. I also know that by placing it on me, you will make me a slave to the clan elders and yourself." This time, both of them really flinched.

"How do you know this?" Hiashi asked harshly.

"Well, you can find that out after torturing me, can't you?" I responded. I didn't really know what I was saying, because the sound of my heart pounding against my chest was filling my mind.

Hiashi's eyes flashed. "Watch your tone, boy!"

"He's hardly wrong," Hizashi muttered. "It's such a waste to let a talent like him be no more than a dog for those biased elders."

Hiashi frowned heavily. "Hizashi, we've already talked about this. Drop it."

"But we both know that-"

"I said drop it!" Hiashi's voice almost thundered. When I saw my father tense up, I knew that he was scared that Hiashi would activate the cursed seal and torture him where he stood, and that kind of flipped a switch in me. I turned towards Hiashi with a furious glare, completely losing my sense of reason.

"Are you human?" I almost whispered, not trusting my voice in my anger.

"What?" Hiashi was stunned, no doubt more so because of my expression than because of what I had said.

"What kind of human being would willingly torture their brother like this?" my voice wavered. He gave me a long, hard stare before sighing heavily and looking away.

"Did your father teach you to say that?" When Hizashi flared in anger at this statement Hiashi fixed him with a glare, forcing Hizashi quiet.

I snorted despite myself. "Did my father teach me basic morals? Well, if your father didn't teach you that, why do you think that my father did?"

Hiashi's face contorted as he struggled to suppress his anger. "How dare you slander your ancestors! Even if they were not perfect, they are the reason you exist in this world!"

"Then tell me, is it better if I exist as a slave or not exist at all? I would rather not exist at all! My ancestors brought me into this world just to torture me like this?" He didn't reply to this, and for a while my heavy panting was all that could be heard in the room. After a while, we heard footsteps approaching the room before Hiashi's wife opened the door.

"Oh, are you not done yet? It's been quite a while now!" she said cheerfully. It took her a moment to notice the atmosphere. "... Anything wrong?"

Hizashi flashed a panicked look towards Hiashi. "Brother..."

But Hiashi's remorseful look suddenly hardened. "We're not done yet. Leave us." Without a word his wife shut the door, and Hiashi immediately placed his hand on my forehead and began chanting a few lines silently. As he did so I could sense chakra entering my tenketsu and flowing along the edges of the chakra vessels. There wasn't a huge amount of this chakra, but it was spread so thin that it was able to cover the surface area of the vessels and connect to the nerve endings directly linked to the chakra vessels. A few moments later, the entire process was over and I had been made into a slave.

Hizashi made a choking sound as he saw this and clenched his fists, but since he was scared that Hiashi would torture him with his own cursed seal he could do nothing. He swiftly exited the room, and when I activated my Byakugan I could see tears forming in his eyes.

Ah, what an unfortunate man. To see his son being branded like this by his own brother... Well, luckily for me as long as I don't piss off the elders then nothing much will come out of this seal.

That being said though, I was fuming. Having my freedom restricted like this, even if it would likely have little effect on my life, was really humiliating. I couldn't hold back my anger when I faced Hiashi. "Aren't you afraid that I'll grow powerful enough to destroy this clan?"

Hiashi released a burst of killing intent and glared at me. "You're a clever boy. You know how the seal works. I won't bother warning you more than once though. Watch your tone, because I could take you down with a single thought."

Fucking bitch.

I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes and walked out of the room. It's not that I wasn't angry, it's just that I was aware that they wouldn't needlessly torture me. Besides, I literally couldn't do anything about it as I was then.

Well, I guess learning fuinjutsu is one of my priorities now. Once I crack this seal, I'll turn it back on the detestable elders that support this. We'll see if they like it then!

Just as I was caught up in my thoughts, I noticed that Hiashi had fallen back on his sofa quite heavily. He wasn't dead or anything, but he seemed to be...

... Is he crying?

Needless to say, I was left speechless.

...

As promised, I began training the very next day. Thankfully Hiashi was nowhere to be seen, otherwise it would have been pretty awkward. For the first few weeks they made me stick to running laps around the training ground and climbing trees (without chakra) and other silly activities like this. I couldn't really argue because my body was still too weak to do anything serious. Besides, my mind was already occupied on other stuff. Namely: fuinjutsu.

The clan library was the size of several houses and was packed to the brim with books, but there were so little books on fuinjutsu that they couldn't even fill a single book shelf.

No matter. I'll figure stuff out myself if I need to.

So my days passed by with this routine of training in the morning and reading in the evening. It was definitely boring, but trust me, when you see that smugface Hiashi almost daily it becomes wondrous motivation.

Also, seeing Hinata became motivation?

I mean, she's so cute! God damn!

Whenever we walked past each other I'd smile at her, and sometimes when she wasn't with her father I'd pat her on the head. She'd always look really shocked and embarrassed and would run to her mother's side, who'd laugh gently.

So my days sort of passed by in this bliss until one day, I suddenly remembered something huge.

... The Kyuubi attack didn't happen. It should have happened when I was 1, but I don't remember any day when we were forced to evacuate.

So I approached my father one evening and asked him about the fourth Hokage.

"Oh, Minato? He's a genius. He's only in his late twenties yet he's already the fastest human ever!" Hizasi praised him.

I nodded quickly. "Yes yes, I know that. But what about his wife?"

He tilted his head quizzically. "She's called Kushina. Why?"

Wait... so they're both alive?

"Is Kushina a Jinchuuriki?" I asked bluntly.

It was quite hard keeping a straight face when he blanched. "Uh... yeah, she is. How do you...?"

I shrugged. "I read about it. So she really has the Kyuubi sealed inside her?" I pretended to be incredulous.

Hizashi nodded. "Of course, that doesn't make her any less of a human being. You must keep that in mind. Just because..."

As he droned on and on about Jinchuuriki, I tried to make sense of what I had heard.

So... Naruto's parents are alive, and he's not the Jinchuuriki. Then does that mean Obito didn't attack the village? Or maybe Obito was never considered dead? Or maybe he did attack but without the Kyuubi? Or maybe... Argh! What the fuck!