A/N: Shout out to Novrier, who pointed out a huge hole in one of my plot ideas that I have now fixed for future chapters. Thank you! See, this is why I like reviews, hahaha, it helps me make the story more believable and natural. It may be a fanfic, but I want it to at least flow well and make sense, not just be a collection of incoherent ideas.

Also, I am probably going to be doing two to three chapters a month for a while so that the story can gain a bit more progress. After all, I hate waiting for new chapters of an unfinished story that I have interest in, and I know others feel the same. So I'm going to write whenever I have both time and inspiration. This story isn't set in stone and could change dramatically as I write it, but rest assured that any changes made to the story will fit with what has already been written.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, that right is all Kishimoto-sensei... Oh sensei, when will you see I'm a deserving successor to your masterpiece?

Chapter 4: Blood Rites and Cool Eyes

Naruto woke up the following day with a smile on his face as he remembered the conversation he had with his father figure the previous day. He was excited, to say the least. Today he would become a true member of his family. Not that he hadn't been a part of the family already, but this would give him a deeper sense of belonging that he hadn't known before.

I climbed out of bed and went to his closet. In it was a rather plain looking wardrobe consisting of shirts, robes, shorts and pants of the typical Hyuuga style. The only difference was that most of the clothing had some kind of orange accent on it, such as a stripe down the sides of the pant legs, or the swirl of Konoha Shinobi on the back of the shirts that he now knew was the Uzumaki clan crest.

Deciding on his clothes he quickly got dressed and headed for breakfast just like any other day. This would not be like any other day, however, and he knew it. Hinata met him in the hall as she usually did, as they somehow always woke up around the same time. It was as if their internal clocks were completely in sync with one another.

When they arrived, Hiashi and Hanabi were already there as usual, and the little firecracker (A/N: couldn't resist the joke there, haha) was radiating joy. Hiashi had just told her about the Rite that Naruto was going to be undertaking in a few hours.

"Onii-san! Are you really going to become a Hyuuga today!?" Hanabi couldn't contain her joy at the thought that her older brother figure was going to truly take up the roll of an older brother.

"Hai, Hanabi-chan," Naruto said excitedly.

"Naruto-kun," Hinata said. "Are you sure you want to do this? Oto-san said that the jutsu and ritual would be painful."

"What?" Hanabi cried out. "Onē-san, is it really going to hurt Onii-san?" Hanabi looked from Naruto to Hinata then back to Naruto before finally looking back to her father. "Oto-san?"

Hiashi looked to his youngest, "Hai, it will cause I bit of pain in his eyes as he gains the Byakugan. But don't worry, Hinata and I will be there too."

Hanabi looked someone calmer at hearing this, but the look of worry on her face never left. She just sat there in silence the rest of the breakfast watching Naruto. To her surprise, she saw no fear in his eyes. You see, even at a young age, and before the Byakugan truly awakens, Hyuuga are exceptionally good at reading people's emotions.

After breakfast, Naruto and Hinata were instructed to meet Hiashi in his private training ground behind the main house where a small shrine was kept in memory of Hitomi. After a few hours they did so, not knowing what to expect.

What they didn't know is that two of the elder's who supported Naruto and Hinata were present to act as witnesses to the Rite. They stood of to the side in silence with the standard Hyuuga mask of indifference. On the inside, however, they were beaming with pride at finally being able to honor the young man who keeps half of a living natural disaster at bay.

Once Naruto and Hinata made it to Hiashi in the center of the small private training ground, Hinata was directed to stand by the elders.

"Hinata, please stand by my advisors off to the side, as I will need ample room to perform the jutsu and ritual the make up the Blood Rite."

Hinata did as instructed as Hiashi pulled out sealing ink and a large brush used for intricate calligraphy. He began to draw out a large, square seal of about ten feet on each side. Using his Byakugan to make sure each stroke was absolutely perfect, as well as making sure to put the exact amount of chakra into each stroke, he wrote out a rather complex sealing formula with Naruto in the center. Instructing Naruto to stay in the center and not disturb the ink, the seal took about an hour for Hiashi to complete. Once complete he drew eight more smaller, circular seals that looked to be about two feet in diameter. Four of them were positioned at each corner of the square, which pointed in the cardinal directions of the compass. The other four were positioned dead center between the cardinal directions.

He then pulled out a ceremonial knife and cut open both of his palms to draw blood before going through a string of thirty-two hand signs and shouted out, "Sealing Art: Bond of Blood Jutsu".

Upon activation, the sealing matrix flared to life with a bright white glow. The seal retreated onto Naruto, until it was no bigger than a single kanji on Naruto's forehead. Naruto cried out in pain and fell to his knees as his eyes glowed white. A burning pain blinded Naruto as he closed his eyes tightly. The elders held onto Hinata's shoulders to prevent her from running to Naruto and interrupting the Rite.

The pain felt like it lasted for hours, days, even weeks. Naruto lost track of all his senses but the sense of pain behind his eyes. All meaning left him as he was on the blackened border of unconsciousness. As he was about to pass out he heard Hinata cry his name, reminding him of what he was doing. He was joining Hinata's family. The reminder of the love he felt for his adopted family steeled him against the pain as he gritted his teeth and fought to remain conscious. It felt like an eternity.

Finally, the pain receded and Naruto opened his eyes in relief. When he lifted his head, he realized he was laying face first on the ground. He stood up, his muscles burning as if he had just run a marathon. When he faced those who were present, the seal that had receded to his forehead was gone, as it was supposed to be. So when they gasped in shock, he was confused to say the least.

"What? What is it? Did it work?" Naruto asked the questions quickly without giving anyone time to answer.

Hiashi spoke up, "I'm... not sure? Naruto, come over here." As Naruto approached, he noticed Hiashi pull out a mirror from the sleeve of his robe. Naruto, having no knowledge of storage seals at the time, was confused as to how Hiashi had done this, but with more important things on his mind did not question it.

When Naruto looked in the mirror, he noticed that his eyes weren't pale like the Hyuuga's Byakugan was supposed to be. Instead, it was The same vibrant blue it had been before. However, that's where the similarity to his old eyes ended. His eyes were now pupil less like the Byakugan was supposed to be, but that too is where the similarity ends compared to the Byakugan. In the center of his eyes where the pupil would be when the Byakugan was active was a faint ring a purple that you couldn't really see unless you looked closely. His eyes also had very faint traces of red along the edges.

"Whoa..." Naruto was amazed by the changes his eyes had undergone. It was hypnotic to look at.

Hinata and the elders walked over to see what was wrong, as they had heard what Hiashi had said a moment ago. When they saw his eyes up close, they were confused. Obviously his eyes had changed, but it was not the Byakugan, was it? 'Only one way to be sure' all the adults thought at the same time.

Hiashi came down to one knee and looked Naruto in the eyes. "Naruto, form these hand signs while concentrating chakra in your eyes and say 'Byakugan'." Hiashi ran through a few hand signs slowly so Naruto could see them clearly. Copying the hand signs, Naruto did just that. "Byakugan," he shouted as his vision changed to black and white and he could see in a full 360 degrees, which was very disorienting to the young boy.

When he activated the doujutsu his eyes had the telltale signs of activation in the form of bulging veins on either said of his head. The purple ring in his eyes where the pupil develops during activation was made more pronounced. To top off the surprise of everyone, his eyes glowed with a cerulean/violet aura. It was fain, but it was visible. This puzzled everyone present.

"Did it work, Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked.

"Yeah, I think so Hinata-chan. This is so weird, and cool too. I can see everything! But a lot of it is blurry... Is it supposed to be like that?"

Hiashi spoke up then, "You'll get used to it with time and practice. Now stay perfectly still and try to focus your eyes on me without moving them as we test the limits of your new Byakugan. It's something every Hyuuga undergoes when it is activated for the first time."

"Okay Hiashi-Tosan."

After stepping back to about ten meters, Hiashi began to walk in a slow circle around Naruto in a clockwise direction. At each position of a clock, meaning at one o'clock, two o'clock, etc..., he held up a number of fingers and asked Naruto how many he was holding up. After focusing for a moment, Naruto was able to answer each time. This was surprising to the adults, but not unheard of. And truthfully, it was not unexpected since it was Hiashi's blood that was used for the ritual. What DID surprise them was when Hiashi reached six o'clock and held his hand in the Byakugan's blind spot, and Naruto still answered correctly.

The elder's as well as Hiashi gasped in utter shock. "Naruto? You're not guessing are you?" Hiashi asked to be sure.

"No, why? Now you're changing from three fingers to five."

Another audible gasp. "It can't be," one of the elders muttered to himself. "His Byakugan has no blind spot? This has never happened in all of our clan's recorded history. Such a pure Byakugan from a child who is not of Hyuuga decent granted the bloodline through the Rite is unheard of. Even in the most pure of Hyuuga this has never happened before."

"You may deactivate your eyes now, Naruto." Hiashi told him. "Just stop the flow of chakra to your eyes and they will deactivate. With practice, you will eventually be able to activate them without hand signs or even a word."

After Naruto did as told, he was dismissed to go play with Hinata and Hanabi while Hiashi talked with the elders. After discussing what had happened, they decided it would be best to call a council meeting as soon as possible to let the other elders know of this unprecedented discovery.

Later that afternoon

After Naruto and Hinata went to Hanabi to tell her what happened, Naruto had shown her his 'cool eyes' as he had put it. He had kept them active the whole time he was telling her about what he felt and how he had passed some kind of test with flying colors. Hinata had started to worry that Naruto would use too much chakra by having his eyes active for so long after just acquiring them. She was reluctant to activate her own eyes for too long for this same fear.

After they left Hanabi with her nanny, the two had been escorted to the park with Ko as their bodyguard like normal. Naruto had yet to deactivate his eyes. This concerned Hinata even more, as even the most experienced Hyuuga would feel the strain on their chakra reserves at having their eyes active for so many hours.

Naruto was disoriented for a while, but he was growing used to it. He stumbled for the first hour or so, but after that, he was just as comfortable with the Byakugan active as he had been without it. Finally Hinata voiced her concern.

"Naruto-kun, maybe you shouldn't have you eyes like that for too much longer. It can put a lot of stress on your chakra reserves." As a Hyuuga, she had been taught about chakra since a young age. Naruto had been taught the same things, but he normally disregarded them since he never felt exhausted from the control exercised they had done over the years. Honestly, neither had Hinata, but she attributed that to her being a Hyuuga, and they had been doing Hyuuga exercises. She was unaware that she was just as much a stamina monster as he was.

"Really, Hinata-chan? I don't feel tired at all. Do you think maybe it's because of our... you know... guest?" He asked cautiously. He knew that it was something that made people uncomfortable to talk about, as Ko had warned them about it shortly after Hiashi had told them the truth yesterday.

"I... hadn't thought about that. But, it would explain a lot."

"Maybe you should activate yours and see how long we can use it before getting tired? I know! Whoever can use them longer wins, starting when you turn yours on. If I win, we go to Ichiraku's for lunch. If you win, we'll go get your favorite cinnamon rolls for lunch. How does that sound?"

She brightened up at this. "Okay! Byakugan!" She activated her eyes and could see Naruto's chakra. She noticed it had not depleted in the slightest since he had activated his eyes hours ago. 'Are his chakra reserves that big?' she thought.

When she activated her Byakugan, Naruto noticed a change in her chakra too. This caused him to take notice of the fact he could see chakra for the first time. "Whoa, so this is what chakra looks like? Hinata-chan, yours looks so pretty."

She blushed a bit at this, "Thank you, Naruto-kun. Yours does too."

Her chakra was blue, like all chakra, but it had flickers of both red and lavender in with it. Naruto's however, was blue with flickers of red and orange. As they looked around, they noticed everyone had one color flickering in with the blue of standard chakra. They wouldn't learn for many years that this one color was an identifiable trait unique to that individual. It would take them until graduation of the academy to realize why they had two colors besides the blue one.

A/N: Hey, sorry about the shorter chapter, but this is the best stopping point I can find right now since the next part is going to be a time skip to the start of the academy. I plan on spending a few chapters in the academy arc before moving on the the genin arc, then to the Land of Waves arc. If you have any suggestions or ideas be sure to leave a review. Or if you don't want others to read it, you could always send me a P.M.

Also, I just want you all to know that since they grew up differently, Naruto isn't going to be the 'dobe' or dead last of his class. He's a 'Hyuuga' after all. Ha ha ha. Also, Hinata isn't going to be a shy, nervous wreck with no self esteem. This is because she isn't treated like trash by her clan in this fic, as well as the fact that she is growing up with the person she will later develop her crush on. She hasn't developed it yet. That blush was just her natural reaction to being complimented.

Anyways, I'll stop the author's notes there, no one likes reading endless notes that don't advance the story. Hope you guys enjoyed. I'll probably be writing/posting the next chapter in a week, to a week and a half. Hopefully. See you then.