Kei was not entirely certain if his fanatical performance had truly secured Hiruzen Sarutobi's absolute trust.
The Third Hokage was the God of Shinobi for a reason. He had navigated decades of bloodshed, treason, and geopolitical warfare; a man of his caliber did not survive by taking dramatic pledges at face value. Even with his heightened empathic perception, Kei had found it terrifyingly difficult to decipher the true emotions hidden behind the old man's grandfatherly facade.
Although Hiruzen had outwardly praised him and dangled the promise of future village assignments, Kei knew he could not afford to relax his guard for a single second.
It was the exact same agonizing dynamic as his relationship with the Hyuga Main House. When Kei had first awakened in this timeline, he had assumed the Hyuga elders—who played a relatively minor role in the grand narrative of the shinobi world—would not pose a significant cerebral threat. He had been spectacularly wrong.
Great Elder Taihiro was a paranoid, ruthless political operator. He had not only planted Haru as a permanent shadow, but he had actively deployed Akira as an agent provocateur to test Kei's treasonous inclinations. And there was absolutely no guarantee the psychological warfare would end there.
That near-miss had drilled a vital lesson into Kei's skull: foresight is not a shield against underestimating your enemies. The moment he relied entirely on his canonical knowledge of the future, he would end up dead.
Stepping out of the Hokage Tower, Kei navigated the winding streets back to his modest home. He had barely crossed the threshold, his mind churning with tactical contingencies for the afternoon, when Haru materialized from the shadows of the entryway.
"The Clan Head and the Great Elder require your presence," she announced, her voice brisk.
"Understood," Kei replied smoothly, not missing a beat. "I will accompany you immediately."
As they walked side-by-side toward the opulent gates of the Main House compound, Kei pondered the timing of the sudden summons. Given the speed of the village rumor mill, the elders were undoubtedly calling him to the carpet regarding his morning skirmish with Tekka Uchiha.
Lost in his tactical planning, Kei's pace was leisurely. Haru matched his unhurried rhythm, offering no pressure. But as the imposing architecture of the Main House loomed into view, she abruptly broke the silence.
"Have you reached the level of a Jonin?"
Kei paused for a fraction of a second. "I believe so," he answered truthfully. "Though, without my sight, the exact metric of my physical power is difficult to quantify."
Haru fell utterly silent. She stared straight ahead, her jaw tightening. Suddenly, she accelerated her pace, putting a deliberate, formal distance between herself and the doctor.
"Tell them everything," she warned, her voice dropping to a harsh, urgent whisper that only his ears could catch. "Do not attempt to hide your capabilities."
After delivering the intelligence, she sped up even further, creating a wide, sterile gap between them.
"Thank you, Haru," Kei murmured, offering a genuine, gentle smile toward her retreating back.
"Do not misunderstand me," Haru snapped, her tone turning glacial and dead serious. "If you dare to do anything that threatens the survival of this clan, I will absolutely not help you."
Kei hastened his steps, effortlessly closing the gap until he was walking shoulder-to-shoulder with her once more. "You know me better than anyone, Haru. I am merely a simple, blind psychologist. How could I possibly orchestrate the ruin of the Hyuga?"
There is an old adage that distance makes the heart grow fonder, but in the realm of clinical psychology, physical proximity is a vastly more potent tool. Deliberately closing the physical distance between two individuals forcibly breaks down subconscious barriers and artificially generates a sense of intimacy—provided the target does not actively despise the initiator. Otherwise, the invasion of space triggers a violently hostile rejection.
Haru instinctively tensed, preparing to pull away again. But as she caught the warm, disarming smile resting on Kei's face from the corner of her eye, she hesitated. Her shoulders relaxed a fraction. She allowed him to remain at her side.
They walked in tandem through the grand gates of the Main House. Following protocol, Haru remained stationed outside the meeting hall, while Kei stepped over the threshold alone.
His sensory web instantly mapped the room. Hiashi Hyuga and Great Elder Taihiro were seated in high-backed chairs at the head of the hall.
Kei bowed respectfully. "Clan Head-sama. Great Elder. You summoned me?"
Hiashi offered a warm, patriarchal nod. "How have you been resting lately, Kei? Are you experiencing any lingering pain in your eyes?"
"I am managing much better, Lord Hiashi. I owe my comfort entirely to the clan's continued patronage."
"If you are managing so well, why do reports indicate you have been causing chaos in the public square?" Taihiro's voice cracked like a whip, his singular eye narrowing with stern disapproval. "And brawling with a veteran officer of the Uchiha, no less!"
"Great Elder, please, do not reprimand the boy so harshly," Hiashi intervened, his tone soothing and protective. "Kei is young. A certain degree of hot-blooded impulsiveness is to be expected when provoked."
Hiashi turned back to the blind youth, his voice softening into a gentle coaxing. "Kei, if there has been a misunderstanding, please explain it clearly to the Great Elder. He is only severe because he cares so deeply for the safety of the younger generation."
Kei 'looked' blindly between the two powerful men, maintaining a mask of profound, humbled respect. Inwardly, however, he had to suppress a laugh.
It was almost insulting how textbook their manipulation was.
In management psychology and interrogation doctrine, the technique was famously classified as the Good Cop, Bad Cop routine. Taihiro played the 'Bad Cop,' utilizing aggressive criticism and the threat of punishment to induce anxiety and prohibit defiance. Hiashi played the 'Good Cop,' utilizing warm, patriarchal praise to lower the target's emotional defenses and incentivize compliance.
Through this manufactured push-and-pull dynamic, an interrogator could easily shatter a subject's guard, making them eager to confess simply to appease the 'Good Cop' and escape the wrath of the 'Bad Cop.'
"My deepest apologies. I have brought unnecessary scrutiny upon the clan," Kei said, executing a flawless, ninety-degree bow directed at Taihiro. "The incident escalated because Officer Tekka violently accused me of engineering the disappearance of Shisui Uchiha..."
Without attempting to conceal a single detail, Kei recounted the exact sequence of events in the park, readily admitting his fault in retaliating against the Jonin.
"So that is the truth of the matter," Taihiro mused, his stern expression softening incrementally. "It appears the blame cannot be placed entirely upon your shoulders. The Uchiha are notoriously rabid these days."
Taihiro leaned forward, his gaze turning razor-sharp. "However, there is a glaring tactical discrepancy in your report. How did you manage to physically dominate Tekka Uchiha? He is an elite Jonin of the Military Police. If the clan registry is accurate, you were retired as a Chunin."
This time, Hiashi did not offer a protective intervention. He waited in silence, his Byakugan undoubtedly flared beneath his eyelids to monitor Kei's chakra flow for deception.
"There are two factors, Great Elder," Kei answered smoothly. "First, he severely underestimated me, allowing me to close the distance before he could deploy his ninjutsu. Second... my physical conditioning has significantly improved during my convalescence."
Hiashi allowed a look of perfectly timed, parental confusion to cross his face. "Kei, why did you not inform the Main House of such a monumental development? Achieving Jonin-level combat capabilities is a triumph. The Great Elder was terrified you would be slaughtered in the streets."
"I apologize for causing the clan undue anxiety," Kei said, bowing his head in shame. "The truth is, I was entirely uncertain if my power truly met the Jonin threshold."
Kei slowly raised a hand, his fingers grazing the bandages wrapped over his dead eyes. He let out a long, shuddering, exquisitely tragic sigh.
"Furthermore... what does it matter? Given my current reality, I am fundamentally crippled. Even if my physical speed has increased, I am stripped of the Byakugan. I cannot see the tenketsu. I cannot execute the Eight Trigrams. A Hyuga without eyes is merely a bird in a cage. My strength is ultimately useless to the clan."
"It seems I misjudged your humility," Taihiro murmured, the last vestiges of hostility vanishing from his posture. Seeing the boy openly acknowledge his own irrelevance was exactly what the paranoid elder needed to hear. "Do not despair, child. There will always be a path forward for you within these walls."
"I understand. Thank you, Great Elder, Lord Hiashi, for your endless grace," Kei murmured, perfectly playing the part of the broken, grateful servant.
Hearing Taihiro's placating tone, Kei knew he had successfully defused the bomb.
Exploiting his own disability to play the victim was a slightly shameful tactic, but clinical empathy was a phenomenally powerful weapon. By explicitly reminding the elders that he was blind and incapable of utilizing the clan's signature lethal arts, he permanently downgraded his threat level in their minds. A blind Jonin was a novelty; a Byakugan-wielding Jonin was a political threat.
"Since it was merely a defensive misunderstanding, we shall consider the matter closed," Hiashi announced, standing up from his chair and approaching Kei with a benevolent smile. "However, the Uchiha are entirely unpredictable right now. To prevent them from seeking petty retaliation against you, I am ordering you to remain within your home for the foreseeable future. Do not venture out into the village."
Kei's head snapped up, an expression of genuine, panicked distress rippling across his face. "But Clan Head-sama, I have a clinic to run! I have patients relying on me! I must leave my home—"
"Do not refuse the Clan Head's generosity," Taihiro interrupted, his voice returning to unyielding, absolute iron. "Lord Hiashi is prioritizing your survival. Whatever trivial civilian matters you must attend to can wait until the Uchiha threat is neutralized."
Kei swallowed his protests, forcing his head to bow in defeated compliance.
Internally, however, he marveled at the sheer, breathtaking audacity of the Main House. They were explicitly placing him under indefinite house arrest to completely isolate and control him, yet they had the political sociopathy to frame it as a loving, protective embrace.
Faced with impending, absolute confinement, Kei did not feel a single shred of panic.
If this draconian decree had been issued yesterday, he would have been entirely trapped, forced to bleed his capital dry while locked in his house. But the timeline had shifted.
The elders were overplaying a hand they didn't realize they had already lost. They believed they held the ultimate authority over his existence. They didn't know that just an hour ago, the God of Shinobi had officially claimed him.