"Tomorrow afternoon?"
"Tomorrow afternoon!"
With perfect timing, the two confirmed their meeting time and then parted ways. Mahiru Uchiha leaped across rooftops along the streets back toward the Uchiha compound. After all, Konoha's Military Police Force was under the control of the Uchiha clan. Within Konoha's jurisdiction, as long as she wasn't committing public murder or arson, no one could do anything about her actions.
Meanwhile, Hyuga Soushu swung the lamppost in his hand lazily as he made his way toward the Hokage Tower.
This lamppost-shaped weapon was actually the medium through which Soushu used his abilities.
[Weapon Master!]
As he silently chanted those words in his mind, a semi-transparent interface only visible to him appeared over his left eye.
In this semi-transparent display, from left to right, were displayed Soushu's avatar, level, red bar (health), blue bar (chakra reserves), equipment panel, and shop menu.
The area originally meant for attributes—just to the left of his avatar—remained completely grayed out without showing any content. Whether it was undetectable or just another bug caused by an underdeveloped system remained unknown.
Resurrection wasn't even an option.
Before he lost the game, cursed the godawful designers, and got taken away by divine misfortune in the form of a truck accident, Soushu's former self had been reviewing the updated hero data sheets for League of Legends. So after he got totally wiped out in the game, whether due to fate or some short-sighted deity's favor, he reincarnated with the very system—the Weapon Master skill template—he had cherished most, along with the League of Legends item shop!
The so-called "Weapon Master skill template," as its name suggests, meant he inherited Jax's QWER abilities [League of Legends], plus two Summoner Spells—Flash and Smite—that could be used immediately without requiring any skill points to unlock.
And why would someone pick Smite when playing top lane? Actually, that's quite normal—Bronze-ranked games are full of role disputes from the moment heroes are picked, and sometimes people switch roles mid-game. No need to act surprised.
However, for some unknown reason, aside from those two skills he retained from his past life, Soushu found himself completely unable to modify them. All other summoner spells remained dimmed and unselectable.
Back when he was young, still at Hero Level 0, Soushu once tried farming experience by killing small animals like chickens, ducks, geese, and fish, only to find it completely useless. Killing them didn't grant any experience to level up or gold to buy items—not even a single coin. Even the so-called game system lacked a pay-to-win function! What a disgrace for Honor of Kings' developer, Tencent!
In other words, during his childhood, aside from the passive ability [Merciless Combo] built into his Hero Panel—which granted minor bonuses while using the branch family's castrated, modified version of the Gentle Fist—this so-called game system was practically useless!
At that time, Hyuga Soushu had thought that the so-called System, which lacked even a basic voice assistant or question-answering function, must have been broken. After repeatedly failing to master the Gentle Fist technique, he was even ready to give up entirely, retreating home to live out his days idly, hoping only to be assigned some poor soul from the Branch House to marry, and then produce another equally useless child.
However, after being forcibly conscripted into military service, Soushu suddenly noticed something strange—after using Smite to kill a dying Rain Village Chunin, the experience bar—which had remained completely stagnant for over a decade—leapt all the way to Level 1! Even the coin count displayed at the shop entrance increased with a pleasant chime to as much as [21]!
After enthusiastically spending points on the Q ability [Jumping Slash], Soushu instantly felt that this flourishing world of ninja held no secrets anymore. His glorious destiny of punching the Five Kage and kicking the otsutsuki clan seemed just around the corner!
Yet, the cruelty of war far exceeded what Soushu had imagined, and soon shattered all his dreams.
Ninja warfare consisted of long, tedious probing maneuvers before delivering a sudden decisive blow—and once executed, they never stayed around. At the time, Soushu was merely a lowly scout Genin worth about five Explosive Tags. He barely had any opportunities to gain experience or collect coins. Instead, he suffered numerous injuries during combat and was forced to use his precious coins to buy healing potions. Once caught in this vicious cycle, he had no chance to level up through farming experience, nor acquire the resources necessary for progression.
Two years into the war, Soushu finally scraped his way up to Level 5. He'd sunk points into Level 2 Q [Jumping Slash], Level 1 W [Power Strike], and Level 2 E [Counter Storm]. His build didn't exactly follow any guide, but when you're fighting for survival, staying alive makes all the sense in the world.
Otherwise, without anything but an unrefined knowledge of Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms and his bloodline limit—the Byakugan—and knowing nothing beyond the Basic Three Techniques (Body Flicker Technique, Transformation, Clone), Soushu probably wouldn't have survived the battlefield at all.
After all, this life of his truly possessed nothing but sheer persistence.
Now, having barely returned alive to the village, Soushu casually tallied his remaining assets: only [102] coins, one [Vampire's Scepter], a single Life Potion, and free accessories like the [Watchtower Totem]—essentially, cheap wards.
His build might not make logical sense, but surviving the battlefield with it made it reasonable enough!
"What a pitifully destitute existence,"
Soushu muttered, feeling utterly dispirited. Even swinging his lantern had become a lackluster effort.
For two and a half years at war, Soushu had spent most of his hard-earned coins on Life Potions, while his soldier's stipend mostly went toward forging this odd-looking weapon currently in his hands—an unusual ninja tool, considered strange even by ninja standards.
There was definitely a reason behind forging this lantern-shaped ninja tool: During actual combat, when using the hero skill [Jumping Slash], Hyūga Soushu discovered that without a proper weapon in hand, he struggled to fully unleash the skill's near-infallible damage potential. So he specifically crafted this ninja tool as an imitation and even learned some basic staff techniques from a Sarutobi clan chūnin.
The enlarged lantern design at its tip was specially crafted for crushing enemies' heads.
Of course, due to financial difficulties, Soushu's lantern ninja tool had almost no special functions beyond its sturdiness. The only additional feature was that after infusing it with chakra, the fixed small lantern on top would emit flames—but even this required borrowing a significant sum of money from Mahiru Uchiha, a young heiress from the Uchiha clan.
But speaking of which, ever since obtaining this weapon modeled after the Weapon Master archetype, Soushu—who possessed the Weapon Master hero template—began enjoying better luck. Not only did his level jump from Level 3 to Level 5 within half a year (it had taken him two full years just to reach Level 3 previously), but he also took down three Iwagakure ninjas who had snuck into the Land of Rain all by himself. Additionally, during corpse searches, he recovered an intelligence scroll, allowing the Konoha ninja forces to gain a crucial advantage in a large-scale ninja battle.
Therefore, considering these achievements and the fact that both Soushu and Mahiru were young yet already had two and a half years of battlefield experience, the Konoha field commander jonin generously awarded commendations and granted leave during the truce phase of the ninja war.
"What a boring world."
Hyūga Soushu strolled along with exaggerated swagger.
"What? Don't you want to return to the clan?"
As Soushu passed by the Hyūga compound without entering, a sudden chakra fluctuation appeared behind him right after he'd walked past, followed by a cold voice.
"I thought it was someone important."
The lantern he had been swinging carelessly slowly lowered to his side as Soushu turned around to face the unexpected visitor.
"Oh, it's one of the Main House dogs!"
"You!"
A fellow Hyūga branch member who had once personally listed Soushu's name on the clan's conscription list, Hyuga Ibo, immediately flew into a rage.
"Do you really find serving the Main House so humiliating?"
Soushu grinned widely and fired off a string of mockery before Ibo could even get a word in edgewise: "If that's the case, then are you a white-eyed wolf raised by the Main House?"
"By the way, Elder Ibo, didn't you know that using Byakugan inside the village is strictly forbidden?"
"I'm not! I didn't! Stop making stuff up!"
Hyuga Ibo immediately denied vehemently.
After all, the accusation wasn't exactly serious, but it wasn't trivial either. Given the Hyūga clan's well-known caution—or perhaps more accurately, their paranoia—they would never willingly accept such blame.
Everyone in the village knew about the unique functionality of the Hyūga Byakugan, and no ninja wanted these little secrets to fall into outsiders' hands—whether it be human experiments in the basement or today's underwear color choice.
As for the humiliation of being called a dog of the Main House, he could do nothing but swallow his pride.
After all, being a white-eyed wolf really could get you killed!
"Then how is it that you found me so precisely? Strange, isn't it?"
Hyuga Soushu asked with genuine surprise, scratching his ear with the sharp edge of the lantern on top of the pillar. "After all, our relationship isn't close enough for Ibo, one of the Main House's loyal dogs, to specifically wait here for me, right?"
"Just happened to meet by coincidence!"
Hyuga Ibo responded dryly.
"Do you even believe what you just said yourself?"
Hyuga Soushu chuckled. "Moreover, why would such a distinguished man as Ibo ignore the indulged masters of the Main House just to seek out someone like me, a discarded member of the clan? Don't tell me you think I'm easy to fool?"
"Or perhaps the Main House has invited me over just to execute me and keep me on a leash as their dog?"
"No way... no way... Could it be that my beloved cousin Ibo actually fears I'll steal your scraps?"
Faced with Hyuga Soushu's barrage of mockery, Hyuga Ibo's face darkened visibly.
Although few people were walking along the road outside the Hyuga compound, broad daylight still surrounded them in this clear world. No matter how angry he became, he couldn't rashly start a fight — otherwise those red-eyed individuals who had recently seemed to oppose the Hyuga might come looking for trouble!
As a devoted retainer of the Main House, Hyuga Ibo certainly couldn't bring unnecessary problems to the clan!
"Therefore, family will always be your safe haven."
Ibo immediately spoke without hesitation.
"You must've swallowed a rotten sock!"
Hyuga Soushu immediately covered his nose and mouth, appearing as if he was about to vomit: "Otherwise, how could your words smell so bad?"
Instantly, Hyuga Ibo's face darkened completely.
His fingers twitched slightly at his sides, clearly struggling to hold back the urge to hit him. Without another word, he turned around and left.
"Tsk tsk, we've barely even started yet,"
Hyuga Soushu expressed dissatisfaction toward his cousin's behavior.
During these past years of warfare, he had exchanged plenty of verbal jabs with fellow village ninja. Although each time he left those Konoha shinobi challengers seething with anger, desperately trying to match his sharp tongue, they'd just repeat harmless phrases like broken records—never running off like this obedient little cousin did.
"Tsk, clearly greenhouse flowers don't grow into mighty trees. The younger generation from our family is getting worse and worse,"
Hyuga Soushu shook his head sorrowfully, wearing the expression of someone whose heart ached for the unfulfilled potential before him.
He knew quite a few other Hyugas, all born from the same clan, were watching this current scene unfold.
Although those lofty masters of the Main House didn't care about him, a mere forsaken child, several attentive eyes within the dutiful Branch House still followed his affairs closely.
Among these observers were both the faithful dogs and white-eyed wolves—although they certainly wouldn't call themselves that, it didn't stop Hyuga Soushu from slapping labels on them.
However, to be honest, any native shinobi in the Ninja World who had never exchanged words with those Sound-fighting comrades was bound to have serious shortcomings when it came to fluency with words—and that shortcoming wasn't something that changed with how strong they were in battle.
"I am the gyrfalcon in the wind; no one can bind my wings."
"I fly free across the skies, leaving all my cares behind."
Hyuga Soushu continued shaking his head slightly as he walked toward the Hokage Tower, unrestrainedly reciting some nonsensical lyrics:
"No chains can hold me back, I crave a wild heart's freedom."
"Wandering free, I chase my dreams—no one can stand in my way!"
The Hyuga ninjas who had been gazing outside the compound at the streets with Byakugan quietly withdrew their gazes, but none of them exchanged any words with others.
All emotions were suppressed deep inside their hearts; even when crying, they couldn't ruin the lord's mood. They always behaved with politeness and poise, upholding the clan's noble dignity wherever they went—such rules had long been engraved into the very bones of the Branch House ninjas, those who lived their lives in constant caution, especially the loyal servants from the Branch House who rarely went on missions and dedicated themselves entirely to serving the Main House lords.
Therefore, despite how many people might have paid attention, the Hyuga Clan still presented a scene of peace and prosperity, appearing harmonious and tranquil like a golden age of harmony and celebration, where rivers ran clear and the seas lay calm.
Yet neither the Main House nor the Branch House could clearly articulate just how fierce undercurrents actually lay hidden beneath the Hyuga Clan's grand facade of abundance and comfort.
Even less was known about whether this storm would ever strike, when it might happen, or what consequences would follow once it did.
After all, the lofty lords of the Main House prided themselves on their supreme wisdom, and indeed had never failed in suppressing the Branch House—a matter that had become instinctive to them.