Chapter 2: The Academy of Pawns
Each morning, the sun rose over the Hidden Leaf Village, casting warm light over streets filled with laughter, chatter, and the naive dreams of shinobi children. To these people, Konoha was peace. The Will of Fire. The future.
To Fang Yuan?
> "A flock of sheep fattening themselves for slaughter. Their 'Will of Fire' is just fuel for my rise."
As Neji, he walked the Academy halls, a model student. His strikes were perfect, his chakra control flawless. Even the instructors whispered: "A genius, that Hyuga child. Such elegance… perhaps greater than any before him."
But Neji's polite bows hid cold calculation. He studied his peers:
Naruto — reckless, but a wellspring of power.
Sasuke — prideful, burdened by bloodline hatred.
Shikamaru — sharp mind, but lazy; easy to manipulate.
Hinata — soft, weak-willed; a tool within the Hyuga machine.
Fang Yuan saw the future — the coming storms. And he planned how to stand atop the wreckage.
---
At night, Fang Yuan meditated. Byakugan activated, he mapped the cursed seal's chakra threads in greater detail. Slowly, he built a mental model, testing how minor adjustments in his own chakra flow dampened the seal's response.
The main family tried to test him twice more that month. Each time, they believed they'd inflicted pain.
Each time, they failed.
> "A chain that cannot bind is worse than no chain at all."
---
One day, Fang Yuan approached Naruto behind the school. The boy, bruised from training, glared suspiciously.
> "What do you want, Neji?"
"You wish to be acknowledged. But you train without method. Let me show you one exercise."
Fang Yuan taught Naruto a breathing pattern — harmless, but it calmed the boy's wild chakra slightly. Enough to make the instructors note his progress. Naruto grinned like a fool.
> "The fox cub trusts the hand that feeds it. Good."
---
He let Shikamaru overhear him analyzing a teacher's flaw during taijutsu — making it seem accidental. Shikamaru's interest was piqued. From then on, the lazy boy sometimes watched Neji instead of clouds.
> "Even clever pawns will dance if you bait them with curiosity."
---
One evening, a main family elder called Neji to a private room. A test. The elder activated the cursed seal's full strength.
Pain? Fang Yuan knelt, face twisted — but not from agony. From the effort of holding back laughter.
> "This seal... I've already unraveled half its locks."
The elder left, satisfied. But that night, Fang Yuan completed his analysis.
The cursed seal was no longer his master.
---
In secret scrolls of the Hyuga library, Fang Yuan found records of ancient chakra techniques. He memorized them. He began to modify his Gentle Fist strikes, experimenting on small animals, observing how precise chakra pulses affected organs. He thought of Gu worms, of primeval refinement, of soul and body fusion.
> "Chakra is crude compared to primeval essence. But refinement is refinement. I will create a Gu from chakra itself, if I must."
And in his mind, he already envisioned the end:
An eternal body, immune to decay.
A soul beyond the grasp of any god.
The Hyuga, the Uchiha, the Tailed Beasts — all fodder for his rise.
Fang Yuan stood beneath the moon, Byakugan seeing all.
> "This village is a garden of tools. In time, I will uproot the greatest of them… and grind them into dust beneath my feet."