Just an fyi, if you think physics in Naruto are like our own, this story isn't for you. ArRoWs CaN't Do ThAt- shut the hell up.
He was alone.
Like many, he had lost someone important to him that night. But unlike others, he lost the only person who cared. He lost his father.
And what's worse? No one had told him. He found out himself by finding the man's body when no one else in his clan brought him back. He cradled his father's steadily cooling body in his arms, all while people celebrated around him.
Yes, Yumi Hyuga was alone.
His father was the only Hyuga to die to the Kyubi that night, and rather than feel thankful for such a miracle, as almost every other Clan had casualties high into the double and even triple digits, they condemned his sacrifice as weakness. It didn't matter that he was the reason they hadn't lost more.
His father had blocked a direct hit from the Kyubi with an overpowered Kaiten that covered the entire squad of Hyuga that were sent out against the ramping biju. His shield did not falter, even after burning out all of his tenketsu, his shield stood strong against the claws of the monstrous chakra beast. The ones he sacrificed himself to protect? Fled and left him in a bloody heap amongst the rubble.
There was no funeral. The Hyuga brushed away his father's sacrifice to be the only clan without casualties despite being on the front lines.
But what of Yumi, the man's son? Hidden away. To an outsider, no one knew he existed. As he was barely three at the time of the attack, his presence outside of the compound was nonexistent. So they kept it that way.
He was given to an elder, and they washed their hands of him. When the time came, they would brand him as a branch member- despite being part of the main family, and no one would be the wiser. There was just one problem.
They had done their job too well.
They forgot about the boy with striking purple eyes. The elder who was to watch him? Died a year later after a steady decline in health related to dementia. His departure left the almost four year old boy completely alone. Mother? Died in childbirth. Father? A forsaken sacrifice.
When no one came to replace Elder Wasu, Yumi didn't know what to do. The man, while completely unstable in his old age, was the only person who even knew he existed- though he too forgot from time to time with his condition. He never cared for him and seemed content with sending him to the Clan Library most days, but without him, Yumi was forced to make his own decisions.
His first decision? What to do about his living situation. When he had returned to Elder Wasu's home, everything was locked and sealed shut. He thought about going to the Clan Head, a scroll he read said that they were supposed to be the ones who looked after all Clan Affairs and led the Clan… but he was scared. He had seen the man bring people to their knees writhing in pain with a single hand seal, and he didn't want to give him a reason to place the cursed seal on his forehead.
No, he would not be going to the Clan Head.
Instead, he returned to the Clan Library. He made his way to the least trafficked part of the building and moved a shelf to block the end of the small branched out hall, giving him a space to roll out a blanket and pillow he grabbed from one of the reading areas.
There, now he had a place to stay. Now he needed food.
There was the Branch Families dining hall, put on a cloth headband and he'd fit right in. With every Hyuga looking so similar, he'd easily be missed… he hoped. His eyes were a much darker shade of purple than the predominantly white or lavender the rest of his clan bore… no eye contact then.
He had shelter and he had food. And with all of the knowledge around him, he could spend his time reading and learning. Alone he may be, but he was used to it, and the silence of the library suited him just fine.
It had been a long few months, and somehow Yumi was still unnoticed. But that was fine, shinobi weren't supposed to be noticed- at least that's what the scrolls he read said.
With his time spent in the library, Yumi had read a quarter of the books held within. Specifically the parts dedicated to the creation of the clan and the Warring States Period.
The creation of the clan seemed a bit fantastical, but the Warring States Period had thoroughly planted itself in the young boy's mind. He read everything about the clan from that time, and what they had become made him disappointed. They used to be honorable archers and incredible shinobi, protectors of their settlement within Hi no Kuni called Ya no Sato. It was like a proto-Hidden Village, they protected the clan and even a decently sized population of civilians.
But now? Now they were arrogant, egotistical, dishonorable shades who enslaved their own family. He wanted nothing to do with the Current Hyuga Clan, so he learned the ways of the Warring States Period. Etiquette, language, writing- everything. He would bring back the honor of the Hyuga.
He trained himself in the old Hyuga taijutsu style called Tsukisasuken, and quickly learned that the Warring States Period was ruthless. The style was very close to Jūken, but where the modern style merely closed tenketsu points, and could do damage if you hit a vital point, Tsukisasuken was more lethal, and far more vicious. The chakra you gather at your pointed fingers is to be rotated, condensed, and shaped into a point that literally pierces and shreds your opponent at the point of contact.
The reason they developed the Jūken was due to a conflict with the Hozuki Clan, who would merely turn into water if hit with the old taijutsu style. Tsukisasuken was the more difficult of the two, but Yumi was determined. He wouldn't just learn it, he'd master it.
He had the forms down and he was working on the needed chakra control while also doing everything he could to increase his reserves. He didn't know how large they needed to be, but the scroll said Tsukisasuken needed a lot of chakra to perform it properly, so he'd grow his reserves as much as possible while maintaining expert control.
When he wasn't practicing taijutsu, he was honing his archery skills. The bows he found sealed in the scrolls were too big for his smaller frame, so he went out into the nearby forests and made his own by following the process explained in one of the scrolls. Arrows were a little difficult, but he managed in the end.
When he read about the skill his clan once had with a bow, he was in awe. They could kill a man from thousands of meters away with use of their byakugan, and no one would be able to close the distance fast enough to catch them- and if they somehow did, they discovered the ferocity of the Tsukisasuken taijutsu style.
He spent hours practicing his accuracy, and before he went to bed, he would feed chakra into his eyes as he did his best to expand the max radius of his byakugan.
The old scroll about the byakugan he had read, said that people instinctively saturated their blood with chakra and forced it into their eyes, but with enough control, one is able to create artificial chakra pathways that directly link their eyes with their chakra network. This bypasses the bulging veins around their eyes, something that was a very easy tell, and an exploitable weakness.
The instinctive way was far easier, but also weaker. The scroll stated that with the direct link, and enough practice, someone could extend their range from hundreds of meters, to hundreds of kilometers. And since their veins no longer bulged, those around them don't even know that their byakugan was activated.
So far, his artificial pathways were rather weak, and he'd need months of near constant practice for them to be anywhere near natural, but his sight was so clear. He could easily see the entirety of the compound! It was amazing- but not as amazing as what he had just discovered.
The biographical section of the library was not only full of literal biographies of past Hyuga, but also more personal journals and diaries. Held in his hands, was the journal of Homare Hyuga… his father.
AN: I know it's a slow start, but it picks up in the next chapter!