Path of a Hyuga

Shortly after Naruto's birth and a meeting between the Third Hokage and the village council the funeral for the Fourth Hokage and fallen warriors is being held and Naruto is missing. After a failed experiment Naruto is given the Byakugan and an altered version of the caged bird seal. Being taken in with the Hyuga clan Naruto's life will change…How remains to be seen.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto; all rights belong to Masashi Kishimoto. If I did own Naruto… let's just leave it at that.

Chapter 1

The Beginning

It was a picture perfect day, birds were chirping in the trees, happy as can possibly be, the sun was shining down into the woods and the sky had a few sparse clouds dotting it as an eagle flew through the sky. Looking at the scene deep in the forest no one would've ever guessed the devastation that had occurred in Konoha just a short distance away. It was four days after the battle against the Kyuubi and a mass funeral was being held in the village that looked like a warzone. Many lives had been lost in fighting the great beast, and none were quite as felt as the loss of the Fourth Hokage. The sacrifice of the Fourth Hokage was felt by all when he sacrificed his life to destroy the Kyuubi.

Three days prior to the funeral, the Third Hokage had been placed back in office to maintain the village until he could find a suitable replacement. Being an honourable man and one who didn't want to have to deal with the repercussions later had decided to call a meeting between himself and the village council which included the elders and many of the clan heads and their councils. The Hokage shuddered thinking back on that meeting darkly… it hadn't gone well when he revealed that the Kyuubi hadn't been defeated, but was merely sealed inside of the child Naruto.

Of course in the beginning all that he saw was shock, until some idiot decided to ask, "What if the Kyuubi breaks the seal on the boy?" After that had occurred, the meeting had only gone downhill from there with many of the clan heads calling for the child's death. The only clans that even seemed to be reasonable were the Nara, Aburame, and Hyuga clans, if only because that was the visage that they were used to keeping. They were the ones that truly kept control of the meeting and allowed it to calm down enough for the Hokage to speak.

However, before he could speak, Danzo spoke, "If you're worried about the boy losing control, place him in my care. I will ensure that he's under control, and that at a later time he will benefit this village as our greatest weapon." Had the Third Hokage not had a strong will, he might have given in to Danzo for some odd reason… but he knew Danzo, and there was no way that he'd give that man anything even resembling power. Something about that man set him on edge. Unfortunately, though his little speech might not have affected the Hokage, it looked like it had affected someone, because now the boy was missing, and as of right now, he had a funeral to attend to.

The Hokage was right about Danzo's speech having an effect on somebody else, though he didn't have that strangely compelling voice with them. The moment Danzo spoke of controlling the boy, and implied using him as a weapon, they'd been planning. They were an unknown branch of the Hyuga clan, born in just the past few years and had been crippled down to the four elders that were present with Naruto now and the new member of their branch, Akira, who'd been more than willing to become a member of The Blade of Destiny.

So there they were, in a field far from Konoha to avoid the roaming ANBU patrols, Akira, off to the side observing the elders as they prepared the boy for a seal and a gift. With the preparations complete and the boy asleep the elders began. The two that were building the seal began carefully interlacing this modified caged bird seal with the Fourth Hokage's work, the seal was absolutely complex, not only monitoring things, but slowly infusing the Kyuubi's chakra into the boy. They were in fact, careful not to come into contact with the seal, knowing that if they did, anything could happen. Continuing on the seal they also set up a backup system, that if the Kyuubi's chakra were to be released, that it could be directed outwards if the boy so chose, but if the boy disobeyed them, they could deal with him like any branch member.

The third elder was at work keeping the boy stable, there was a reason the caged bird seal was placed on branch members when they were four… it was likely to kill them or do permanent damage. Naruto, however, was a special case it would seem, the Kyuubi's chakra was doing half of his work for him so all that he really had to do was ensure the boy stayed under, and watch what transpired within the boy's body.

The Final elder, was doing something forbidden, in fact within the Hyuga clan, if you were found to commit this crime, you would suffer a fate worse than death. He was giving the Byakugan to somebody outside of the clan. Finding out how to build the eyes from scratch was like trying to find an aphid in a stack of needles…nearly impossible, and painful. But it was worth it… within a day the village of Konoha would have a powerful weapon if trained correctly. Not only that but it would ensure that the Kyuubi was under control. He took pride in his work, truly the eyes that he was building were beautiful, certainly not as beautiful as their eyes, but, beautiful in their engineering, looking at the boy on the surface, on would never be able to tell he had either the seal, or the Byakugan.

Although, as brilliant as their plan was, it was rushed, what they hadn't factored into their calculations was that since the Kyuubi had been so recently sealed, that he would still have some control over his chakra in the boy's body. Smiling from his cage he saw his opening in the form of the seals backup that would allow the boy to somewhat control his chakra. He pushed his chakra into the four elder's bodies, forcefully; it would eat their bodies up from the inside out; as his last measure of control he created a shell of his chakra around the boy to prevent further meddling.

The four elders felt a burning sensation shoot into their bodies, it was a pain that was indescribable, every second, felt like it was years. It seemed that the pain lasted for centuries as it destroyed their bodies; had there been more of it, they would've died much quicker, but there was such a minute amount, that it killed them slowly. They screamed out in pain as they clawed at their skin, desperately trying to make it stop… they fell to the ground, dead as their flesh slowly dissolved and all that was left were their robes and bones.

About an hour later, Jiraiya arrived at the scene with an ANBU squad after feeling a tiny pulse in the air that was slowly weakening, a pulse of dark and malevolent chakra. Jiraiya took a close look at what he could see as the shroud of dark chakra faded from around Naruto and he began looking at the boy's seal, remarking that the work of his student was genius, true genius, until he stopped, and was looking at the boy intently.

The leader of the ANBU squad spoke up, "Jiraiya-sama… is something wrong?"

After a moment Jiraiya spoke, "I… can't tell… the seal itself looks fine, obviously whatever they were doing (Jiraiya points to their bodies), wasn't completely insane, as it looks like the seal itself is fine, but it looks like there's something off…"

Jiraiya began scanning over Naruto's sleeping form; at first glance nothing looked off, except for faint lines that ran across his body… if one wasn't alert the lines would've been invisible. Jiraiya began a jutsu that was designed to detect seals, he stopped short at what he'd detected…though it wasn't nearly as complex, or sophisticated, as the Kyuubi's seal, there was another… slightly more crude, and it wasn't as refined, leaving him only to believe that this second seal was the handiwork of the four dead men, who were now nothing more than bones. "We need to get him back to Konoha for a proper search of his body" he said, disturbed at the second seal, seeing as how intertwined it was with his student's seal, he doubted anybody would be able to remove it without either killing Naruto, or damaging the seal.

As Jiraiya picked up the sleeping boy he could've sworn that he saw something move in the shadows, under normal circumstances he would've checked… but he had to take care of Naruto. "Let's go." He said as he jumped away from the clearing heading back towards to Konoha. The funeral should be over now, or at least it should be close to ending. He ran faster through the trees, making it hard for the ANBU to keep up… he didn't have time. He couldn't see everything that was done to the boy, and though he hated to admit it he needed the eyes of a Hyuga to see what all was done.

He arrived in the village moments after the funeral was over; it was difficult to find the Third who was intermingled with the huge crowd as he walked back to the Hokage's tower. Jiraiya spotted him and decided to simply wait in the office. He figured it would be a nice surprise for his old sensei to find his student sitting in his office with Naruto, who the Hokage had ordered nearly the entire ANBU force to search for.

Needless to say the Hokage was pleasantly surprised (overjoyed), to find, instead of an empty office that was filled with paperwork, he found his student sitting on his desk with Naruto. "Jiraiya! You found him, where was he?"

Jiraiya got a grim look on his face at the Hokage's question, "I found him in a clearing a few kilometers away from the village, I was drawn there after feeling slight pulses of chakra that were radiating from the clearing and were slowly weakening. When I, and the ANBU squad who are currently resting after trying to keep up with me, found the boy, he was surrounded by the bodies of four Hyuga elders… the only distinguishing thing left on the bones were their robes… and even the bones were beginning to dissolve. It's like they were being eaten from the inside out."

"At first glance Naruto appeared fine, but upon close inspection I noticed faint lines running across his body. He has another seal on him… there's no possible way that I could remove it without damaging Minato's seal. I would however like to have a Hyuga take a look at the boy with their eyes to see the true depth of this new seal, and anything else that was done to the boy… also perhaps to answer on behalf of those four dead elders."

The Hokage sat mulling over what Jiraiya had said… It was shocking that some from the Hyuga clan would do something like this, and he doubted there were more involved, however, it looked like one was needed to see into Naruto better than Jiraiya. "Very well… Monkey!" An ANBU jumped into the room in front of the Hokage with a mask shaped like that of a monkey. "Fetch me Hiashi Hyuga!"

"Hai!" was all that the ANBU said as he jumped out of the window. Hiashi arrived in the room ten minutes later. As he walked into the room he noticed that Naruto was in the room for some odd reason and Jiraiya of the Sannin was present… Hiashi highly doubted that he'd been called to the Hokage's office by an out of breath ANBU for a casual talk.

"You called for me Hokage-sama?" Hiashi asked in a polite and respectful tone as he bowed to the Hokage, and then to Jiraiya. "It's unfortunate, but I somehow doubt that you've called me here under certain circumstances to merely exchange pleasantries."

The Hokage hid a smile, "It's unfortunate, but no, you're not here with us to exchange pleasantries… so we should get down to business… Jiraiya, you explain things."

Hiashi turned towards Jiraiya as he began speaking, "As you may well know, Naruto, whom you see sleeping in the Hokage's arms, and presently has the Kyuubi sealed within him, was kidnapped early this morning. Due to the fact that the boy has a bijou sealed within him, it was imperative that we find the boy… who knows what damage could be done if the seal was tampered with? I was running with one of the ANBU search teams when we felt a miniscule pulse of chakra flow through the air… it certainly wasn't human, and the ANBU recognized it for what it was and we ran in the direction of its origin."

"We landed in a clearing a few kilometers away from the village to see a small sphere of the Kyuubi's chakra around Naruto, slowly fading… around him were the bones of four… Hyuga elders… there's no possible way that we could identify the bodies… but it was evident that the bodies were fresh, given that the ground was soaked with blood after their bodies were somehow cleanly devoured from the inside-out. I checked on the boy to find what looked like the faint lines of a seal, placed around and THROUGH the Kyuubi's seal, I fear that removing this seal might damage the Kyuubi's seal, but to truly know that, I need your eyes to see the true depth of this seal."

Hiashi stood… shocked, that members of his clan would dare, to touch a child such as Naruto. He knew not for what purpose, all he knew was that if they'd still been alive, he would've personally removed their eyes and had them banished from the Hyuga clan… any trace of their existence, except for their crime, would be erased from the history of the Hyuga clan. In fact the final thing he fully intended to do, nothing worthy of mention would be left in the clan's official history.

He walked over to the Hokage with a fire in his eyes, "Hokage-sama, I sincerely apologize for the actions taken by these clansmen… as soon as I discover their names, they shall be erased from all the official history of the Hyuga clan! As for the boy, it's now my responsibility to ensure that the boy is alright, give him here so I can examine him properly."

The Hokage handed Naruto over to Hiashi as he activated his Byakugan to see what the four fools had done. He was shocked by the depth of the seal… it was complex… above the surface it would seem crude… but under the skin… it intertwined itself with every main portion of the boy's chakra system and something about the seal… was familiar. Looking over the rest of Naruto's body he spotted something odd when he passed over his eyes… his eyes quickly flicked towards the Hokage's and Jiraiya's eyes… similar on the surface, but under that veneer he could see… his own bloodline.

"Hokage-sama…" he croaked out, "That Jiraiya can't remove the second seal is obvious… it's far too intertwined with Naruto's chakra system and the Kyuubi's seal, to attempt to remove it… would be suicidal. I'm only saddened by the fact this is a modified version of our caged bird seal."

Jiraiya sat back in his chair with a serious look on his face… he wasn't happy about this new development. He was thinking that things couldn't get worse, when Hiashi spoke once again. "…Not only that, but the elders that you found, did something forbidden in virtually any clan with blood limits… they gave him something called a veiled bloodline. In short, unless it's activated, nobody would ever know that his bloodline was present. They gave him our clan's bloodline… they gave him the Byakugan."

The Hokage and Jiraiya leaned back in their respective chairs, shocked. In all their years they'd never heard of ANY clan giving away its bloodline… but here it was, right before them. The Hokage spoke, "If this is true… than it would be unwise to place him in an orphanage, given his remodelled eyes…Hiashi…"

"Yes Hokage-sama… I believe that you're right in this matter…Perhaps it would be wise if the Hyuga clan were to take the boy under its wings to protect him, and train him. Not only is it our responsibility to take care of the boy due to foolish tampering, but also to ensure that when he becomes a ninja… as I'm sure he will be, I can see it in him as he sleeps… that he will be well prepared for his destiny."

Jiraiya spoke up after Hiashi had finished, "Hiashi, if I find that this all some sort of ploy…"

"You needn't worry Jiraiya-sama" Hiashi said with a twinkle in his eye, "Other than the control a normal parent would have over their children, the Hyuga clan will have no control over the boy… with the elders who placed the seal on the boy, died the particular signature needed to activate the caged bird seal to restrain him. I can assure you that the boy will be completely free… freer even than a member of the main branch since as he is… he falls under neither the branch, nor the main family."

"Very well," the Hokage said, "From this day onward, Naruto is a member of the Hyuga clan, and is bestowed with all rights, protection, and whatever responsibility may come with his position. Take the boy… after I sign the necessary… paperwork… he will officially be a member of the Hyuga clan."

"Yes, goodbye Hokage-sama, Jiraiya-sama," with that Hiashi picked up Naruto, and walked out of the room with a lot on his mind… how would he explain this to the elders…

Author's note: Finally! I'm done my first chapter of this story! For the longest while this story was the gem of my eye! I finally finished it after losing it and than rewriting it over a period of two months. Strangely enough I finished it after reading a real shocking twist in "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini, which I'm currently reading for English 30-1 and after reading God knows how much of "Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoevsky, also for English 30-1.

With the personal rant done I would just like to say that I'm totally unsure about how this chapter turned out... I mean I did enjoy writing it, but I'm sure that somewhere I could've done better. If you find one of these spots while reading the story feel free to mention it in a review, since I'm constantly looking to improve my writing. When I was writing it, for some odd reason it felt a lot longer than about three and a half thousand words. To those of you who've read the first chapter of FRL (Finding Real Love), don't worry, I'll send out the next chapter sometime within the next three months... hopefully sooner as I don't want to keep anybody that actually reads my stories waiting too long. I can assure you that unless a story is completely hopeless, I won't give up on it.

You should be able to expect the next chapter of this story within the same time period as FRL, again, hopefully sooner.

R&R please!

Go out and truly live life! Feel the caress of the wind, the sunshine on your skin!

Until next time!

Obloquious (Ryan (The Little King))