One day, three years ago.
The spring day was gentle, and the sunlight was bright.
Four-year-old Neji saw his younger sister, who was one year younger than him, for the first time.
A tiny, soft, weak-looking little thing that made one want to rub her head; she followed Hiashi-sama very obediently…
“Neji, this is Lady Hinata. She is the person you must protect for the rest of your life.”
Neji subconsciously nodded at his father’s words beside him.
She’s so cute~
I want to protect her forever.
This was the thought that arose in Neji’s heart when he first met Hinata.
She’s too ferocious!
When will she finally let me go?!
This was Hyuga Neji’s current opinion of Hinata.
Hyuga Clan, Training Ground.
Inside a traditional-style building constructed entirely of wood, two children stood wearing black and white training uniforms.
No way!
Didn’t we just practice this morning?!
Why do we have to go another round?!
The young boy, only seven years old with a tender face and dressed in a white training uniform, looked at the cute little girl smiling opposite him, barely managing to maintain his calm expression.
Hyuga Neji subconsciously looked around.
There were only a few servants standing in the Training Ground, and his father, Hyuga Hizashi, was not present due to clan business…
Which means!
He didn’t even have the chance to shout for his father to save him!
“Brother Neji, one must not be slack in cultivation; you must give it your all.”
“I believe with your talent, brother, you surely don’t need others to remind you.”
Hinata, dressed in a black training uniform opposite him, seemed to sense her cousin’s unease and couldn’t help but offer a kind reminder.
???
My talent?!
How come I didn’t know I had this kind of talent?
Hyuga Neji felt like crying but had no choice but to bite the bullet and agree since he was being forced into it.
Hinata’s father, Hyuga Hiashi, and Neji’s father, Hyuga Hizashi, were brothers from the same mother.
Because of the uniqueness of the Byakugan, the order of the two brothers’ births alone determined their fates.
This was the distinction between the Main House and the Branch House unique to the Hyuga Clan.
The Branch House was branded with the Caged Bird; if the Main House wished, they could use the Caged Bird curse to kill Branch House members at any time.
The Caged Bird could not be removed; only in death could one be liberated.
Under these seemingly heartless rules, however, lay another hidden meaning.
Tenseigan.
This was a top-secret Hyuga secret passed down only by word of mouth between the successive heads of the Main House and the Branch House.
Only by gathering a large number of Byakugan can one obtain the Tenseigan.
If it were merely out of concern that the Byakugan might be obtained by outsiders, there would be absolutely no need to use such extreme measures.
No matter how strong the Byakugan’s perception was, it couldn’t match the Uzumaki Clan’s Kagura Shingan.
Simply kidnapping an Uzumaki man to use as a breeding stud would eventually yield the Kagura Shingan.
Therefore, the Hyuga Clan’s Caged Bird was never meant to guard against outsiders, but against their own people.
This was also why, for a thousand years, no one from the Branch House within the Hyuga Clan had ever rebelled against the Main House.
Furthermore, it was because the Caged Bird was actively cast by the Main House, rather than being triggered passively.
If a member of the Main House was too harsh, stubborn, or tyrannical…
On the day the Branch House could no longer endure it, a rope would secretly find its way around the Main House member’s neck while they were fast asleep.
After all, no one is a fool.
Otherwise, at the founding of Konoha, given Senju Hashirama’s personality, he would have certainly intervened upon learning of such extreme methods from the Hyuga.
And right now, Hyuga Neji, standing opposite Hinata, was a member of the Branch House.
Hinata and Neji each took their Gentle Fist stances, both activating their Byakugan simultaneously.
The Gentle Fist is a unique style of combat developed by the Hyuga Clan based on the Byakugan’s ability to see the body’s Meridian System.
It allows them to use Chakra to attack the opponent’s pressure points, meridians, and internal organs.
The Gentle Fist is the most representative skill of Hyuga Taijutsu, without exception.
Often in battle, as long as physical contact is made, the enemy’s pressure points will be sealed, causing the Chakra flowing through their meridians to become blocked.
It can be called a lethal weapon for close combat.
Over time, the Gentle Fist became almost synonymous with the Hyuga, and Hyuga Clan Ninjas slowly began to specialize in it, rarely using Ninjutsu.
Now, Neji, standing opposite Hinata, had been hailed as a genius since childhood.
This title of genius represented Neji’s talent for the Gentle Fist.
As for why Hinata could beat the so-called genius Neji until he wanted to cry for his father during daily training, the reason was simple.
In the Training Ground, Hinata and Neji assumed the starting stance of the Gentle Fist Eight Trigrams Palm, as if a Taiji Eight Trigrams diagram covered the field.
Neji stood on the Yang side, Hinata on the Yin side.
In the next second, both of them moved almost simultaneously!
One palm.
Hinata and Neji moved swiftly, their single palms clashing at the same time as invisible Chakra fluctuations erupted between them!
With just one palm strike, Neji’s expression changed slightly.
Two palms.
After another round of clashing, the force of Neji’s strikes clearly intensified.
Four palms.
The two engaged in two rounds of offense and defense in a short time; Neji’s face was now completely tense.
Eight palms…
That lightning-fast hand passed through the gap in Neji’s arm defense and pressed against his chest.
Invisible energy erupted at Neji’s chest.
Under this force, Neji couldn’t help but retreat two steps.
Eight palms, eight moves.
In the Gentle Fist Eight Trigrams Palm, one can strike up to one hundred and twenty-eight palms.
The exchange between Hinata and Neji was just a fraction of that, yet Hinata’s Gentle Fist had already pierced through Hyuga Neji’s defense and landed on his chest.
Hyuga Neji was ‘dead’.
“Again!”
Hinata retracted her palm and stood tall, continuing to maintain her combat stance.
Neji looked down at his chest, gritted his teeth, and then continued to battle Hinata.
For a time, the Training Ground was filled with their figures, and the explosions of Chakra from the clashing Gentle Fists were constant.
This world belongs to bloodlines.
The protagonist Naruto has Ōtsutsuki blood, the second male lead Sasuke has Ōtsutsuki blood, and the Uchiha, Senju, Uzumaki, Hyuga, and Kaguya all have Ōtsutsuki blood.
This is true for the heroes, and it is true for the villains.
Rounding it off, it’s as if nobody has a special bloodline.
How could Hinata defeat the so-called genius Neji within ten moves under equal conditions?
As the biological mother of the future savior, Uzumaki Boruto.
Boruto perfectly inherited the bloodline advantages of Naruto and Hinata.
And what was Hinata’s advantage?
Or rather, did Hinata have the talent to be a powerhouse?
After all, even later on, Hinata’s future was just that of a housewife, at most a Chunin.
The Hinata in the original story was a love-struck girl.
All day long, it was “Naruto this” and “Naruto that,” and she often stalked him.
As the protagonist’s wife, she perfectly met everyone’s expectations of her.
And because of her personality, it’s estimated that the original Hinata never truly ate her fill more than a few times.
Also, during the Fourth Great Ninja War, while the rest of the Konoha 11 were going all out, the original Hinata, with the help of Nine-Tailed Chakra and a flashback power-up, barely managed to strike seventy-two palms to take down a single Ten-Tails clone.
This was truly hard to watch.