The ripples of the Uchiha massacre affected everyone in the Hidden Leaf Village.
Some lost friends, comrades, and other lovers. Even I, who expected to remain unaffected, have been in the end.
Just four days after the massacre, new laws concerning the age people could become Ninjas had been passed. One would now be unable to graduate from the academy earlier. Not only that, but the age of graduation had been bumped up to 13, and the ability to join ANBU had been prohibited for people under the age of 16.
With these new laws, it seemed like the village's officials were placing the blame on Itachi's apparent descent into insanity on how young he'd been when given all his responsibilities.
Which, in all honesty, was a pretty believable story. Who the hell thought making a 12-year-old ANBU captain was a good idea? No wonder he went insane and killed his entire family.
The new laws annoyed me quite a bit. I possessed no desire to ever join the ANBU Black Ops, but I'd been planning on graduating after finishing third grade at the age of 10, yet it seemed my plans had all been thrown to the curbside now.
It also made me think, was this why the original Neji and Sasuke hadn't been able to graduate earlier in the original timeline despite being called geniuses, or was my current timeline different from the original in certain ways? Guess it didn't matter, nothing I could do now to confirm that hypothesis.
The only saving grace was that the Academy wasn't as useless as it had been depicted in many fan stories and the original timeline. The stuff I was being taught was often either interesting or quite useful.
"Alright everyone, let's do 10 laps."
"Yes sir!" a choir of voices answered
I looked at the other kids as we ran in formation. This exercise was worthless to me, I would have needed to do 30 laps to get even slightly winded.
Thankfully, there were other things I could train while doing this.
I looked down at the ordinary leaf in my hand as I recalled what I'd read in the book I purchased the previous week.
It had been a rather inconspicuous-looking thing, a green handbook with no more than 50 pages, but when I saw the title and the author's name, I was left awestruck.
Nature Transformation Training by Sakumo Hatake.
Obviously, I bought it instantly. Any book written by such a legendary figure was a must-buy.
Which reminded me I needed to get my hands on all of Jiraya's books, even if they didn't have anything to do with the ninja arts.
Training a nature transformation is basic in concept but hard in execution.
The Chakra Induction Paper gives us a good and simple lead on where to start. For the first step, one should attempt to recreate the effects of the paper on a nonreactive object. For this, I recommend a simple leaf.
Simply attempt to turn your chakra into the element you are training and get the same result with the leaf as you would get with the paper.
That is, for Wind, split the leaf in two. For Fire, burn the leaf to ash. For Earth, make the leaf crumble into dirt. For Water, make the leaf damp. And for Lightning, make it wrinkle.
Everything at the start of the book was stuff I already knew/had deduced by myself, but like many things in the ninja world, it was easier said than done.
It was even stated in the book how, depending on the skill of the ninja and his level of chakra control, this first step could take from a month to six.
I concentrated on the leaf between my hands as we all ran in a group, trying to harden my chakra to make it stiff and immovable as the book had recommended.
"Idiot!" I looked up, my concentration broken, to see who had screamed the insult. It was the boy in the lead of the group. "There's no way you can be a ninja!" Oh, it was this again. How irritating.
"I can!" The other boy beside him retorted.
This was something that started a few weeks ago. A group of boys in my class had began making fun of another classmate, that being Rock Lee, for his apparent inability to utilize chakra.
"How can somebody who can't use ninjutsu be a ninja?" another boy behind Lee asked, clearly trying to provoke him.
"In fact, it makes no sense that a guy like you is in the Ninja Academy when you can't even use ninjutsu or genjutsu, not to mention your taijutsu sucks, too!" the boy who had first insulted Lee screamed.
"Hey! We came up with a new nickname for you! Wanna know what it is?" the boy next to him said while butting shoulders with Lee.
"Hot-blooded! Hot-blooded! Hot-blooded dropout!" The four kids chanted in unison. "Arghhh!" Lee screamed as he put his hands around his ears and ran away.
"Wait, Lee, get back. Lee!" Our teacher screamed.
I shook my head, kids could be so mean sometimes.
"Welcome!" A manly and friendly voice spoke as I entered the establishment.
"Hello," I said as I took a seat, eying the small restaurant up and down. "Oh, I think you might be the very first Hyuga we've ever had in our restaurant, what can I do for you, mister?" The man said with a smile.
"Well I enjoy breaking the Hyuga mold, and it just so happens I heard from a very loud blonde about how great this place is and decided to try it out to celebrate," I answered with a smile of my own.
Teuchi perked up at the mention of the hyperactive boy, "Ah yes, quite the loudmouth that one, so what can I get for you?" "I'll just have what he usually has." Teuchi's smile grew, "Alright! One extra-large miso bowl with pork coming up!"
I looked at the father-daughter duo as they cooked my upcoming meal. I rarely ate at restaurants since I'd arrived in the ninja world, preferring to eat homemade meals my mother cooked from the diet plan I'd given her what seemed like both ages ago and yesterday, but since today was a special occasion, I had decided to go to one of the most iconic places in this world; Ramen Ichiraku.
"Here you go," Ayaname said as she put the bowl of miso in front of me. "Thanks for the food," I blew the noodles a little before putting them in my mouth, chewing slowly to really take in all the flavor, "so? How is it?" Teuchi asked with his hands on his hips. "Pretty good, but I certainly wouldn't eat this every day." Teuchi waved his hand in front of his face, "not everyone has a palate as refined as young Naruto I guess," he said in a joking tone.
A few minutes passed in silence while I enjoyed the food. "So, what are we celebrating?" Ayaname asked. I thought for a second about what she meant before remembering. My brain had been so foggy today... "Oh, I'm celebrating getting perfect scores in every subject for my second year in a row," I said as I pulled out my report card from my backpack to show off.
"Oh wow, the way Naruto talks about it, you'd think you have to be a genius to even pass." I shrugged, "Well I'm not one to brag, but some people do call me a genius." Ayaname smiled at me "Oh I'm sure little Hyuga," she said in a mocking tone before getting back to washing dishes.
"In that case," Teuchi said as he dropped a few more noodles in my bowl, "that's on the house."
I smiled, "thank you very much."
Like every morning, I got up, got dressed, wrapped my forehead and arms in white bandages, and crossed with a red marker the previous day on my calendar. Today was special, I realized as I stopped, noticing the red circle around today with a rhombus symbol drawn under it.
I looked at the calendar with a half-asleep expression on my face before understanding what the symbol meant. Today marked 3 years and 1 day since I began collecting chakra for the Byakugou seal.
If I remember correctly, Tsunade had told Sakura it took 3 years to collect the necessary chakra for the seal to appear, so why did I not have it?
In the event that I remember correctly, maybe the 3 year time period only applied to Sakura at the moment she had been told and was not a universal statement that applied to everyone.
After all, Shizune had never been able to awaken the seal, right?
I analyzed my current situation. Both my chakra reserves and chakra control had grown exponentially in the past two years and specifically the last one. I was certain that my chakra control was now just as good if not slightly better than Sakura's before she started training with Tsunade and my reserves were also quite large.
That is, big for my age. I'd taken a look at Naruto's with my Byakugan and even as an eight-year-old, his reserves were bigger than any Chunin I'd ever seen. Some people were truly blessed by fate, even if they first had to endure some pain.
My thoughts went back to examining my current skill level, "Which means that when I started collecting chakra for the seal, I had nowhere near as good control as Sakura did when she graduated. Or would when she did."
I shrugged. It wasn't that big of a setback, even if it took another 3 years, I would be 12 by then and still in the academy, so I wouldn't have any use for the seal anyway.
"Hmmm, in fact, maybe I should move it again to a more secure spot… The center of my chest perhaps? Yeah, that would be good..."
As I sat down and started getting ready, I thought about why I'd chosen such a bad spot originally. It honestly had been pretty stupid and I only chose the palm of my hand because I thought it would look cool.
"Maybe it's the brain, no matter my memories and how many years I've technically lived, the brain of a six or nine-year-old is fundamentally different and less developed than that of a teenager or adult."
If I could put the seal on my forehead I would, but I could see that the Caged Bird Seal used chakra and would almost certainly interfere with the Strength of a Hundred Seal.
I sighed, just another reason to dislike that damn seal.
"It was you wasn't it!?" I took an earphone out of my ear as I heard a voice scream behind me.
Lazily turning around while holding the leaf I'd been trying to turn into dirt a few seconds before in my hand, I looked at the source of the voice with surprise.
Before me, with his finger pointed directly at my face, stood Konoha resident and Kyuubi Jinchuuriki, Uzumaki Naruto.
I took a few seconds to analyze his angry expression before replying, "You're gonna have to be more specific than that I'm afraid." I said with the standard Hyuga monotone voice.
Naruto's face seemed to become even more angry at my apparent indifference, "It was you who told old man Teuchi and Ayaname Nee-Chan that I recommended Ichiraku Ramen to you even though we've never talked before ever!" the blonde boy screamed.
"Oh, that... Yeah, I did that." I replied, my face and voice showing no emotion. Naruto looked a bit stunned at my admission of guilt before screaming again.
"Ahhh! So why you do that then?! I don't like your attitude at all, reminds me of that idiot Sasuke."
I stared at the young Uzumaki again for a few seconds before replying, "I thought it would make for good small talk. I was pretty sure you liked the place anyway." I stated.
"Of course I like it! That's not the point! I just don't like people talking about me like we're friends when we're not!" Naruto screamed as he moved his hand closer to my face.
I stared at it without moving and then closed my eyes before replying, "I didn't know it would upset you this much. I won't do it again, alright?"
Naruto took a step back as he put his hands in his pockets, "Good! You Hyugas are weird, Hinata is always stuttering and you seem like another humorless bastard like Sasuke!" the blonde said as he turned around and walked away.
"...Heh, there goes the savior of our world."
Noise filled the classroom as we waited for our sensei to arrive. Everyone seemed rejuvenated after the month break and excited to start our third academic year.
I looked down under the desk as I separated my hands to look between them. The typically green leaf had turned a filthy brown, then by simply blowing, it lost the form it previously possessed and became simple dry dirt. A smile spread across my face, I'd achieved the exercise last week but only now that I could do it without exerting myself did I consider it fully mastered.
"Only took 2 months, not too shabby..." I thought to myself as I compressed the dirt into a small ball and threw it out the window next to me.
Man, our teacher was very late today.
"Sorry I'm late everyone." I raised an eyebrow, that did not sound like our sensei.
"My name is Seguchi Kanzasaru and from now on I'll be taking over Yukuwa-kun as your Head Sensei," a smaller-than-average Chunin said as he entered the classroom.
"Seguchi-Sensei, what happened to Yukuwa-Sensei?" a girl with brown hair asked while raising her hand.
I stared at the girl for a few seconds. Oh yeah, that was Tenten, wasn't it? Man, I was so focused on training and getting perfect grades that I'd utterly forgotten to make friends or even socialize with any of my classmates.
"Yukuwa-kun simply decided to return to active duty and start taking missions again. He told me to wish all of you luck," Seguchi explained.
"Well then, since today is the first day of the academic year and I don't know any of you personally, we're going to do a small exercise so I can know all of you a little better. Each of you, take a piece of paper from your notebook and write your name, what you like, what you dislike, and your dreams for the future. You all have 15 minutes."
Oh, so just like when a Genin squad was formed? Maybe it was a tradition in Konohagakure.
Name: Neji Hyuga.
Likes: My mother, training, reading, music, my Byakugan, and practicing calligraphy.
"Yeah, that should be enough, now for dislikes... Well, I would say the branch system but that's probably not a good idea."
Dislikes: Kumogakure,
"Hmmm, I can't come up with anything else really… well. I guess I do dislike…"
Fate.
"Yeah, that would do, as for dreams... I wish to find a way to remove this seal on my forehead and fuse the main and branch house into one, but I can't write that."
That wasn't my only goal, I also wished to learn more about this world, its secrets like Kekkei Genkai, and to learn cool ass jutsus because why wouldn't you?
One of my current theories that I would probably never be able to confirm or refute was that possessing chakra in general made one more inclined to seek strength and power.
Another possibility was that maybe humans in general were naturally inclined to desire power and control, me included of course.
Back on Earth, if you were rich and had the right connections, you had more chances of getting away with your crimes. Here it was similar, but money and connections were replaced by raw strength. S-Ranked Nuke nins were the epitome of this. The law simply didn't apply to them, because no person in their right mind would go after them.
In a way, it made this world both more fair and less than my old. The weak were more easily prayed upon, but the ones at the top had truly earned their positions through sheer effort.
Unlike money, you couldn't inherent being strong, you had to work for it.
Some still had it easier than others, with all those Bloodline Limits running around, but to me, it seemed a bit more fair than my old world.
But who was I to talk? I had been born with a special eye and with a lot of inherent ability after all.
Reverse Engineering sucked.
The branch system sucked.
This stupid log sucked!
I took a deep breath trying to calm myself, staring at the cut tree with some sort of cloth wrapped around it so one wouldn't get hurt when training with it.
After mastering the first step of Change in Chakra Nature, I decided it was finally time to start working on reverse engineering the famed Hyuga techniques. Those being, the 8 Trigrams 64 Palms, the Kaiten, and the Air Palm. But like always, saying something and doing something were so far apart they might as well be considered antonyms.
I cursed at fate for choosing to make me reborn as Neji, unsure if I would have preferred it to have been Hinata.
It certainly would have felt very strange to be a woman at first, and having period pain every month would have sucked, but I was certain it beat having all these disadvantages and being basically a fucking slave.
Hell! Why not Naruto or Sasuke? Those two had it the easiest. Stupid overpowered eyeballs and never-ending stamina and chakra with a demon inside for good measure.
Like always, I tried to remember the words of my father. With bad, always comes a little bit of good. Sure my situation was kinda bad, but in the grand scheme of things, it was still pretty good.
I was born with one of the strongest Kekkei Genkai in the world, in a body with a lot of innate talent in one of the nicest villages to live in.
Even within the branch family, I was very likely the most favored one by Hiashi. He could attempt to hide it as much as he wanted, but every time I would spar with Hinata in his presence or we'd cross paths, I could see how he held himself responsible for the events that had transpired between Kumo and Konoha.
After all, the Byakugan was not called the All-Seeing White Eye without reason.
It was because of this guilt that, unlike other members of the cadet branch, my mother and I were never forced to do any duties like guarding Hinata or doing chores for members of the main family like the rest of the branch family often did.
Nevertheless, a slave who was treated nicely and given some freedom was still just a slave. The switch could be flipped at any moment and I would be unable to do anything about it.
"Well well well, if it isn't the Hyuga Prodigy Neji Hyuga himself," I turned around in a flash.
I recognized that voice.
"Long time no see Gay-San," I said with a small smile on my face.
"It's good to see your flames of youth burning just as bright if not even brighter! It seems your generation is quite a youthful one," Might Guy stated, giving me a thumbs up.
I assumed he was referring to Rock Lee, "So, he already met his future pupil huh?" I thought, "Thanks Guy-San, I'm working on a Gentle Fist technique at the moment. What are you doing here?" I asked.
Might Guy nodded with a hand on his chin as he replied, "That is good to hear. I just wanted to say hello, I came here to flame my flames of youth but since you're using this training field I'll go find another. I wish you good luck with your training!" Guy said before turning around and leaving, waving and laughing without a care in the world.
I smiled, what a fascinating man.
Hinata went flying as I struck her with my open palm on the chest, making her land on her ass quite hard.
"That is enough," Hiashi said with a voice that commanded respect.
Looking down at the panting Hinata on the ground of the dojo, I could not help but feel sadness and rage at the cards we'd been dealt in life, "you are too passive Lady Hinata. I understand you do not wish to hurt me, but I assure you I can take any hit from you. Please remember this."
She looked shocked at my words, "y-yes, thank you, Neji-Niisan," Hinata said in her usual meek voice.
I bowed to Hiashi, "I shall be going now Lord Hiashi."
Hiashi gave me a small nod as I took my leave.
"Hello," the girl I'd just greeted raised her head from the paper she'd been writing on to look at me, "Oh wow, I can't believe the Hyuga genius is talking to me!" Tenten said with an obviously ironic tone while putting her hand over her mouth.
"Uhhhh… What?" I asked, a bit dumbfounded. "Oh, nothing nothing. It's just that you've never once talked to any of your classmates in 3 years. Makes it seem like you think we're so much beneath you that we don't even deserve to have a conversation with you."
"Well, everyone in this class is beneath me, probably better not to say that however." "No, I don't think that at all. It's just that I've never had anything to say to anyone in our class is all." I lied, trying to give the brown-haired an excuse.
"Oh really? So what changed then? Why did you want to talk to me?" Tenten asked with a smug expression on her face.
I felt my left eye twitch slightly from annoyance, I'd just met this girl and she already knew how to get under my skin, "I'm trying to learn a new jutsu and it's been giving me trouble, so I was wondering if you wouldn't mind helping me with it since you have the second best grades in class."
A wide grin spread across Tenten's face, "Oh! So even the great Neji Hyuga can't do everything on the first try?"
I just stared at Tenten with a blank expression, my lips compressing into a line.
"Okay, okay, I don't mind helping you, so stop staring at me with those eyes. It looks like you're trying to see into my soul or something," she finished as she got up with a smile.
And that's how my friendship with the future Kunoichi known as Tenten began.