Chapter 2

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About half a year into my "2nd chance", something started to interest me.

Chakra

Ultimately, chakra was what made this world so different from mine. It allowed people to perform feats that would be considered superhuman where I came from.

There's no single, absolute way to explain what chakra feels like. An extra limb? A foreign energy inhabiting the body? The best way would probably be to compare it to the cardiovascular system.

Why? Well, because they're so similar. Chakra flows through the whole body through a network called the chakra pathway system. Sort of like how blood is pumped around the body through the circulatory system. Also, like blood, chakra is essential for survival; without it, you die from something akin to exhaustion, hence 'chakra exhaustion'.

However, there are several things that made chakra different.

With blood, what you have is what you use. All the blood present in the body is used to carry oxygen around the body. But with chakra, you only use a fraction of it. The rest is stored away in some kind of chakra reservoir in the body, ready to be called upon at any given time.

Also, chakra can be expelled from special nodes located around the body, called tenketsu. I don't think anyone would like their blood spurting out of various points of their body.

Being born into a family where everyone were either ninja or had some ninja-related skill, I would eventually need to learn how to use chakra anyway. So I decided that since I had the time, being a baby and all, I would practice using this curious new element of the world.

I started by trying to stick pieces of cloth onto my hands, after remembering the leaf sticking exercise from the series. Boy was that a bad idea. The biggest flaw in my plan was that the cloth, though lightweight, were still significantly heavier than the tiny leaves they used. After many futile attempts, I decided to turn to something easier, like sticking paper to my hands. As such, whenever nobody was around, I would take out some shreds of paper I hid under my pillow and practice using chakra.

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At around the same time, I came to realisation of a problem. In this world, everyone spoke Japanese, while I could only speak English and some Mandarin. And with language, came the problem of written Japanese. While the spoken language can be learned with some effort, learning how to write is completely different.

Japanese, arguably one of the most difficult languages to master in my previous world, was even more complicated when it came to its written forms. There was the more basic Hiragana and Katakana, and then there was Kanji. With some knowledge of the Chinese language, I expected it to be easier to learn Kanji. Oh, I had never been so wrong in my life.

The only similarity between Chinese and Kanji were in their written forms. Their words, when spoken, sounded extremely different from each other. So I, more or less, had to learn this new language from scratch.

Learning something new is hard work. Learning something new knowing your life basically depended on it, is hell. Everything, down to basic vocabulary and grammar, was very different.

But I had no choice, if I wanted to survive in this world, I would have to suck it up and give it my all.

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Soon, our third birthday arrived. Three years had passed just like that. Several relatives were around. People were chatting happily, about their recent missions and about how the clan was doing. It was also there that I met him.

Despite being our cousin, we never had the chance to see Neji until that day. He seemed… happy, like any child of age four should. He didn't have the cold, heartless look he had plastered over his face during the Chunin Exams, no, he had a warm smile that would just make any heart melt.

But, it was our third birthday, the day he would receive the branch house's cursed mark.

After the celebrations, the clan elders proceeded to brand him with the Hyuuga clan's juinjutsu. It didn't seem too painful, but everyone knows the pain doesn't come from the branding itself, but when the seal is activated. The seal really lived up to its nickname: the caged bird seal. The branch house members were like birds; they longed to be free, but the seal only cages them in and prevents them from doing so.

Then, it occurred to me that Hizashi, or uncle Hizashi, twin brother of my father, had also received the cursed seal, being the second born. Was I going to get it, too? I started to get scared. If I received the cursed seal, I would be under the control of the main house. But father wouldn't use it on me, right?

But the elders started to discuss something. Well, they seemed more like they were arguing, so maybe it was something very important.

After a while, they came to a decision: as I was the younger twin, I should be given the cursed seal. But, as I am also the only male of the two, Hinata should be given the seal. In the end they were unable to decide whether to cage me or Hinata, so the decision would be made at a later date, when we were older.

Knowing the Hyuuga elders, it was probably going to be a contest between us, to decide who the stronger one was, as they seemed to value raw power and strength in clan leaders.

That same day, several visitors arrived in Konoha. They were ninja from Kumo, in the Land of Lightning, and they had come to sign a peace treaty between the Leaf and Cloud forces. The Hyuuga clan would be hosting the guests during their stay.

That night, while I was lying in bed, I heard a sound coming from Hinata's room, which was just next to mine. It sounded like someone was at her window. While I tended to stay up late, Hinata was the sort of person who would go to sleep early; she was the nice obedient girl. So I decided to investigate, besides, her room wasn't too far from mine.

I opened her door, and froze at the scene before me: a man, wearing what seemed to be stealth clothing, was hunched over my sister. He turned around when the door opened and saw me. The look he gave me stopped me in my tracks. He gave off some sort of… energy… which was almost indescribable. I felt fear like I never had before. I could have run away. I could have screamed for help. Heck, I could've even run forward to attack the man. But I just stood there, in silence, feeling as though all the courage had been drained out of me. This is the power of a ninja's killing intent.

A scream broke me from my trance, and I realised the man was no longer in the room.

But neither was Hinata.

I rushed through the open window, desperately searching for them. By the time I had found them, though, the kidnapper was lying on the ground, motionless, and Hinata was crying in the arms of my father.

The kidnapper, he was definitely dead. But there was a very disturbing lack of blood at the scene. It probably had something to do with the Hyuuga's gentle fist. Perhaps the power and strength that the elders value so much have a purpose after all and doesn't just mean "I'm stronger, so I'm better than you".

Later, I was reprimanded by my father and some of the elders. Apparently, I was supposed to call out for help when I saw the man. If Hinata hadn't screamed that night, they probably wouldn't have been able to save her. Most of the scolding was accompanied with an "At least Hinata knew to scream".

However, before further scolding could be carried out, one of the branch house members entered the room. He brought news about the Cloud response to the attempted kidnapping. Apparently, the Cloud officials were denying their part in the act, despite the dead kidnapper being revealed as their head ninja. They even went as far as to demand the head of my father for defying the agreed terms of the treaty. Before I could hear more, however, the elders chased me out of the room. By then, the sun had already begun to rise.

And that was the last day I ever saw uncle Hizashi.

From what I could remember from before, he handed himself over in place of my father. And this was the final factor which pushed Neji towards his cold and serious personality seen during the first Chunin Exams of the series. Maybe I could, and should, have done something to stop it. Maybe if I had warned my parents about the Cloud ninja. But why would they believe a three year old boy, even if he's their own child, about something like this?

And even if I had called for help, the head ninja probably would've still died anyway. There didn't seem to be any possible way that the situation could be avoided. I decided it would just be best to move on from the incident. Neji's hatred for the main house would have to be dealt with at a later date, though.

Maybe it was because of this incident, or maybe everyone started at this age too. A few days later, our father got us to perform different exercises, from stuff that seemed like stretches to jogging around the courtyard. It was very hard and tiring training. We would spend the morning doing various stretches accompanied by a light jog, all before breakfast. After our afternoon lessons on the Japanese language, physical training continued until dinner.

However, as I was never the most disciplined person, even before, physical training proved to be very tough. I usually got the stretching positions wrong, and I sometimes slowed down during our jogs. As such, Hinata, despite being considered weak for a Hyuuga, seemed to be making more progress than me.

After a few months, our father decided to focus his attention on Hinata, not caring if I actually completed his exercises correctly or not. I was actually a little disappointed at that, but it had been my fault that he chose to do this. So I made up my mind that from that day forth, I would take care of my own training, using my previous, if short, experience as a guide.

At about July that same year, we were informed by our parents that our mother was once again, pregnant. We were going to have a younger sibling! After this, I wouldn't be the youngest anymore.

And well, a new addition to the family would certainly be interesting.

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Author's Notes: There you have it, chapter 2. The only reason I could publish it so fast is because I had a week off from school, and studying all the time can get a little boring. I do hope you like how I handled the cursed mark business. As for what to expect from this story, I plan to follow canon somewhat closely while letting my OC influence events along the way. That will be after I write the remaining introductory chapters, though. Expect one or two more before that. I am still open to ideas on how Hikaru would "influence" these events as there's still a bit of time until I write about them. Oh, and I changed the title and a small part of the format as I thought these would be more fitting. Till next time.