Hyūga Neji was not some fool who couldn't distinguish between right and wrong.
At this moment, he already understood—Hyūga Kumokawa was trying to wake him up.
"Brother Kumokawa, I beg you… tell me."
Hyūga Neji's voice was hoarse, his tone calm:
"What should I do?"
Hyūga Kumokawa did not answer his question. Instead, he raised his head, looking into the distance, and spoke slowly:
"When we were handing over the corpses with Kumogakure, we encountered a monster."
"He was truly strong—so strong, it was terrifying."
"He easily killed Toroi of the Magnet Release, and he slaughtered nearly a hundred Kumogakure shinobi."
"Even the Byakugan could not see his appearance. All I could see… were those dazzling, resplendent blue eyes."
The moment those words fell, Hyūga Neji froze.
In his mind suddenly surged the figure from his dreams. He blurted out:
"What did you say?"
Dazzling, resplendent blue eyes?
Impossible… wasn't that just an illusory dream?
"When you have time, go to the clan's ancestral shrine library."
Hyūga Kumokawa lowered his brows and gaze, staring deeply at him.
"I247.5, L632. Go read that book. You will understand many things."
Hyūga Neji lay on the ground, dazedly staring up at his figure.
But when Hyūga Kumokawa lowered his eyes and their gazes met, those pale white eyes of his seemed to be gilded with the brilliance of the heavens.
Hyūga Neji saw a blue light rising within those eyes, like snow melting over a crystal-clear lake beneath the sun.
But when he looked closer, he found those eyes were still the same pure white, as if everything had only been his illusion.
"Remember." Hyūga Kumokawa's voice was quiet, meaningful, "Those who cannot command themselves… must be commanded by others."
When his words ended, his figure vanished from Hyūga Neji's sight, leaving only his voice faintly echoing in his ears.
"…"
Hyūga Neji lay blankly in the snow, staring up. His pale, absent eyes gradually solidified.
Beneath those Byakugan—calm like a glacier—was hidden a deeper thirst and hatred.
"The ancestral shrine library, huh?" he muttered.
---
Inside the Hokage Building, within the underground hidden chamber.
Hyūga Kumokawa followed the guidance of the scroll. Soon, he reached a door at the end of a corridor.
There was no guard stationed outside, but he could clearly feel the presence of seals and barriers. Even if a mosquito were to fly inside, it would instantly trigger the alarms and defense mechanisms.
It was hard to imagine—faced with such airtight seals and barriers—how Uzumaki Naruto had managed, under Mizuki's instigation, to steal the Scroll of Seals.
But then again, remembering that Orochimaru had once broken in here, and that Mizuki was one of Orochimaru's planted pieces within Konoha, it wasn't impossible that he exploited backdoors left behind by Orochimaru.
Hyūga Kumokawa, however, had no need for such trouble.
As he pulled out the scroll given to him by Sarutobi Hiruzen, that suffocating feeling of lock and suppression immediately vanished.
With a light push of his hand, the doors to the Forbidden Jutsu Library opened.
Click.
Stepping into the silent forbidden chamber, dust rose from the floor in the draft, and the lamps within the room lit up on their own.
There were no windows on the surrounding walls. Before them stood towering rows of bookshelves.
On them, scrolls were neatly arranged, sealed according to rank, appearing solemn and archaic under the flickering candlelight.
"It seems that Lord Third, known as the 'Professor of Ninjutsu,' often came here to read."
Noticing that although the shelves and scrolls were old, they were not dirty, Hyūga Kumokawa understood at once. At the same time, he felt as though someone was peering at him.
Sarutobi Hiruzen's Telescope Technique?
This ninjutsu used a specially crafted crystal ball as the medium, analyzing chakra fluctuations through precise chakra control to transmit images—long-distance surveillance of targets.
Hiruzen often used it to "observe" Uzumaki Naruto under the guise of guardianship.
Even the Great Toad Sage of Mount Myōboku had used a similar technique, though its monitoring range clearly surpassed normal geographical limits.
"Though used for non-combat reconnaissance, this jutsu really is convenient."
Hyūga Kumokawa thought silently, but showed no change in expression. His gaze swept across the shelves, even revealing the kind of astonishment and joy of a rustic visiting a grand manor for the first time.
He casually pulled a scroll from the nearest shelf and unfurled it. The fabric felt smooth, the parchment filled densely with ink-written characters and a few illustrations.
It described a jutsu called Fire Style: Ash Accumulation Burning. Merely an ordinary B-rank Fire Style technique.
Of course, "merely" was from Hyūga Kumokawa's perspective.
After all, jutsu learning difficulty was divided into six levels.
E-rank: academy-level basics such as Substitution, Clone, Transformation… as well as Invisibility and Escape techniques, which were closer to tricks than true jutsu.
D-rank: genin-level. The Body Freeze Technique was the only D-rank commonly taught during academy years.
C-rank: chūnin-level. Already considerably harder, including techniques like Summoning and Puppet Jutsu.
B-rank: jōnin-level. At this level, even within the Five Great Shinobi Villages, they were considered valuable. Even the Raikage's Lightning Release Armor was of this level.
So, storing this jutsu here was not unreasonable.
Hyūga Kumokawa only skimmed through it once, showing no real interest, and soon returned the scroll to the shelf.
He continued browsing several more, most of them B-rank Wind Style techniques and taijutsu.
Examples: Primary Lotus, Wind Style: Shuriken Cyclone, Wind Style: Great Sickle Weasel, Wind Style: Pressure Damage, Wind Style: Vacuum Great Sphere…
"This intent is way too obvious."
Hyūga Kumokawa's eye twitched slightly. After a cursory glance, he put them back on the shelf.
Only a few jutsu made him pause—Summoning: Rashōmon, Adamantine Sealing Chains, and Shadow Neck Binding.
"So, they left me no forbidden techniques, but didn't remove the other clans' secret arts either. Looks like the old man was certain I wouldn't be able to learn them?"
Hyūga Kumokawa couldn't help but chuckle.
It was reasonable enough. After all, the distinction between Secret Arts and Kekkei Genkai was blurry.
For example, the Nara clan's Shadow Techniques or the Uzumaki clan's Adamantine Sealing Chains—while not Kekkei Genkai that one was born with, without special "innate gifts," they were nearly impossible to master.
The Nara clan, for instance, were naturally born with stronger spiritual energy than normal.
The Akimichi clan, with stronger physical energy than normal.
Thus they could master their clans' secret arts—Shadow Possession and Multi-Size Techniques.
The Uzumaki clan was the same.
As the original story mentioned, Uzumaki Mito chose Uzumaki Kushina to be the Nine-Tails jinchūriki precisely because she possessed unique gifts others lacked.
Clearly, certain members of the Uzumaki clan were born with those gifts.
Only those rare few could wield the Adamantine Sealing Chains, making them natural jinchūriki candidates since they could suppress tailed beasts.
Such Secret Arts–based clans gave off the impression of being a step above Kekkei Genkai clans.
By following clan inbreeding traditions, they refined the Ōtsutsuki bloodline within them, then through wars filtered out those with higher purity, leading to stable hereditary special constitutions. From those, they developed unique ninjutsu, forming their secret clans.
If this continued for hundreds more years, it was entirely possible they would evolve into true Kekkei Genkai—able to use the techniques without learning.
So, as fate would have it—
This body of Hyūga Kumokawa's… in terms of bloodline… was the ancestor of all shinobi clans.