Almost every Branch Family member of the Hyūga clan had a Main Family member they were assigned to serve.
They were called "attendants," but in truth, they were nothing more than "servants."
And not every Main Family member was as gentle as Hyūga Hinata.
If one had bad luck and was assigned to serve a Main Family member with a foul personality, then besides being a "servant," they would also serve as a "training sandbag."
As it happened, the Main Family member Hyūga Kumokawa was forced to serve was exactly such a person—someone who treated the lives of Branch Family members as if they were nothing.
And the one standing before him now was nothing more than a good dog.
The smile on Kumokawa's face faded slightly. He ignored the deliberate provocation from this Hyūga clansman and simply walked forward.
The other clearly hadn't expected Kumokawa, who had always endured ridicule in silence, to ignore him.
His face darkened immediately, and he called out in a heavy voice, "Hyūga Kumokawa, I'm asking you a question!"
Kumokawa still ignored him and kept walking. Seeing this, Might Guy only shrugged and followed along.
"Trash! I told you to stop!"
The angry shout rang out from behind, followed by the sound of rushing air.
That clansman had actually reached out to grab Kumokawa's shoulder, with not a trace of fraternal restraint in his strength.
Guy stopped in his tracks, frowning, just about to intervene.
But the instant the hand landed on Kumokawa's shoulder, his body shook violently, like a "pine tree shaking off snow."
A penetrating force instantly coursed through his entire frame and discharged into his shoulder, making the Hyūga clansman's palm go numb.
Before the stunned clansman could even react,
Kumokawa didn't even turn his head. His arm bent, his left foot slid forward, and his body shifted in a circular motion.
The hem of his white robe swirled lightly, revealing the sharp muscle lines of his abdomen as he thrust his palm forward.
If someone from Kumokawa's previous life had seen this, they would have cried out two words instantly.
To the Hyūga clansman, it seemed as though his right hand had been shaken off, and Kumokawa vanished with near shunshin-like speed, lowering his stance and pressing a palm against his abdomen.
Then, an unimaginable force—far surpassing his own—poured into him like a tidal wave.
Bang!!
Within less than half a centimeter, a terrifying power exploded, enough to shatter stone. The Hyūga clansman's body was struck as though by a battering ram, bending him forward.
Just as a mouthful of blood was about to spew from his lips,
"Spilling blood wouldn't be good." A calm, indifferent voice reached his ears.
Kumokawa's right palm tilted upward, elbow down, and he expressionlessly tapped his chin with a soft strike.
A crisp crack sounded. The blood that had surged to his throat was forced back down.
"Cough! Cough! Cough!!"
The clansman's face twisted in pain. Clutching his throat and abdomen, he collapsed weakly to his knees before Kumokawa.
"You dare…"
His Byakugan bulged slightly, veins protruding around his eyes. He glared upward, but when his gaze met Kumokawa's calm eyes, his words froze in his throat. A sudden chill rose within his chest.
A chill without reason, like a poisonous snake crawling across his body, its icy touch pressing down inch by inch.
He was… afraid?
Afraid of this so-called trash? Impossible…
"This strike was just repayment." Kumokawa looked down on him, a smile returning to his face. "Lady Aoi's extra training is in the afternoon. Next time, don't bully others in front of me like a dog relying on its master."
Patting his shoulder lightly, Kumokawa ignored the man's trembling body and left the compound with Guy.
"I didn't think you'd go that far!"
On the way, Guy's tone was still casual. He only found Kumokawa's actions curious.
He too had heard the rumors about Kumokawa's "past," but Kumokawa was his acknowledged friend.
Guy never believed he was truly the "failure" people said.
That technique alone—some unknown taijutsu blending Strong Fist and Gentle Fist—already made him far stronger in Guy's eyes than those hidebound Hyūga clansmen.
What Guy couldn't understand was why Kumokawa always ignored the rumors.
"Forgive me for the shame, Senior. They are my clansmen, after all. I don't want to go too far." Kumokawa said apologetically.
Guy shook his head, grinned, and said, "You weren't wrong. Youth must never be defiled."
Kumokawa smiled faintly, helpless. "Even so, dealing with things like this… it does get tiring."
[Ding! Your lie has been judged as Fabricated on the Spot. Might Guy has experienced a slight emotional fluctuation, reaching the level of Firm Belief. You have gained 200 Truth Points…]
Of course, that was a lie.
Why hadn't he resisted before?
For one thing, his plan involving Orochimaru hadn't yet succeeded, so keeping the harmless "failure" image was useful.
For another…
"When one dog at the village gate barks, the others follow, even though none of them knows why they're barking."
"If you had to stop for every mad dog to throw stones, you'd never get anything else done."
Kumokawa sneered coldly in his heart.
He felt nothing for a nameless background character like that.
Striking him just now had two purposes: to test a new move he'd thought of, and to lay the groundwork for his next plan.
Only rats hide endlessly in the shadows. No one ever believes the words of a "rat."
Just like when Shimura Danzō speaks, villagers scoff, "Who's that old fossil?"
But when Sarutobi Hiruzen speaks—even if his words are bizarre—people instinctively think it's their own fault for not understanding.
Lies only become truth when spoken by those with authority and power.
The transformation wrought by Kumokawa's bloodline was inside and out—from intangible senses and talent to the very strength of his flesh.
Without external interference, this remolding and cleansing of his body would be a slow, lifelong process of gradual growth.
But Kumokawa could not wait that long. He needed more Truth Points. To get them, he had to approach higher-quality targets, which meant he had to reveal some ability to increase his value as a pawn.
That "defiance" just now was only the first step.
If nothing unexpected happened, soon more people would learn he was a survivor of Orochimaru's human experiments.
Sarutobi Hiruzen should have already recruited Yamato—currently codenamed "A"—under his wing.
As one of the only two living survivors of Orochimaru's experiments, Kumokawa was certain both Hiruzen and Danzō would start making moves on him.
Thinking of this, Kumokawa recalled his eyes again. His gaze flickered as he silently intoned:
"Materialize item—the Pure Byakugan capable of fusing and awakening the Tenseigan."
[Cost: 10,000 Realization Points. Materialize?]
"It just happens to be enough?"
After hearing this, Kumokawa hesitated for a moment. To be safe, he tried another command:
"Materialize item—The method to awaken the Tenseigan by fusing Pure Byakugan with Pure Ōtsutsuki bloodline."
[Insufficient Points]
"..." Kumokawa's face darkened instantly. "As expected, something's still missing."
Good thing he hadn't fallen for this damned system's trap.
If he had recklessly spent everything, only to receive a pair of useless Byakugan, he would've had nowhere to cry.
"In that case, the second method is safer." Kumokawa frowned.
The Byakugan of the Hyūga should be purer than those of the Ōtsutsuki who'd lived on the moon for thousands of years. The only issue was that the Hyūga's numbers couldn't compare. He wasn't sure if even digging out the eyes of the entire clan would be enough to evolve the Tenseigan…
"Cough, cough."
At the thought, Kumokawa couldn't help coughing dryly. He quickly muttered inwardly, sinful, sinful.
Digging out all their eyes was far too evil. He wasn't Uchiha Itachi.
Just digging out the eyes of those who had awakened them would do. Ordinary people without awakened Byakugan were useless anyway.
Of course, he himself wouldn't do such a thing.
He had a better candidate in mind.
Now, all he had to do was wait for those old fossils to reveal their ugly faces.