Ring! Ring! Ring!
The class bell echoed through the room.
Sasuke entered first, face dark and stormy. Sakura hurried in after him, desperate to explain but unable to find the words. Behind them, Shikamaru and the others dragged a dazed Naruto still rubbing the lump on his head back to his seat.
Ino walked in beside Konome, visibly uneasy.
At her desk, Hinata lifted her head just in time to see everyone filing in. Naruto, sitting nearby, was still grinning foolishly at Konome.
Ugh…
She ducked her head so fast her forehead nearly hit the desk.
So scary.
Really, really scary.
Hinata trembled all over.
Every time she recalled what she had seen that day with her Byakugan, her heart would seize with terror. She hadn't slept properly for two nights.
It all began on the day Konome fought Kazama-sensei.
The air was thick with mist.
Naruto had been perched on Kiba's shoulders, unable to see the battle clearly, so Hinata had thought to use her Byakugan to help him observe what was happening inside.
That was when everything went wrong.
Under the Byakugan's all-penetrating sight, no secret could remain hidden.
And what Hinata saw within Konome's small body… was a nightmare.
A sinister, dark blue chakra pulsed inside her like a living thing, exuding pure malice.
Over her body grew a layer of crimson-veined armor, gleaming and solid as steel.
Underneath that, her muscles expanded grotesquely, bulging to unnatural proportions.
But the most terrifying part the thing that froze Hinata's blood was what lay beneath the bone armor.
Those eyes.
The pupils were slightly different, but from the pattern of veins around the sockets, she could tell those were the Hyuga clan's inherited eyes.
The Byakugan.
Konome Taketori was a monster wearing human skin.
A creature that had stolen the Hyuga bloodline.
That horrifying truth had burned itself into Hinata's mind.
Thump. Thump. Thump…
Hearing Konome's soft footsteps pass by her desk, Hinata held her breath, arms clutched tight around her chest. Her entire body stiffened like a startled hedgehog.
Only after Konome moved farther away did she dare to breathe again.
Her timid nature quickly overwhelmed her.
The vision of that monstrous form had left a deep scar on her heart.
Ever since that day, even during sparring lessons where Sasuke beat her again and again, she refused to activate her Byakugan.
She was terrified that Konome might notice or worse, that she might see that thing again.
Her parents had noticed her strange behavior and questioned her, but she didn't dare tell them the truth.
She'd heard the clan had been busy investigating something lately, and her father hadn't had time to ask further.
Konome had stolen the Hyuga's kekkei genkai.
I should tell Father.
But…
Her whole body quivered.
She didn't even know exactly what she feared.
She just knew she was terrified.
Every time she pictured that hideous form, she shook so violently that she couldn't even imagine defying it.
In her nightmares, she always saw it.
A grotesque, blood-drenched monster bristling with bone spines, tearing open its pale human shell, stepping out with a ghastly grin.
Then it would slaughter everyone in sight her classmates, her family leaving only blood and silence behind.
If I tell anyone… that nightmare will come true.
Hinata's thoughts spiraled, her resolve collapsing.
She would keep quiet. She had to.
Behind her, two boys were whispering, voices full of infatuation.
"Taketori's so cute, isn't she?"
"Yeah, when she walked past me earlier, my heart almost stopped."
Hinata's pulse shot up again. Her breath caught in her throat.
Cute? She didn't see it.
All she could think of was the monster she'd seen under that skin.
Her scalp prickled. Her back felt like it was being stabbed by invisible needles.
She's looking this way, isn't she?
Oh no… what should I do…
Just the thought of Konome's eyes turning toward her made Hinata's whole body break into goosebumps.
Please, please stop talking.
Don't draw her attention.
If she notices us… people will die.
Seriously. People will die!
She pressed her forehead to the desk, trembling so hard she almost burst into tears.
Beside her, Ino had also overheard the boys' chatter.
She looked from Konome's calm, pretty face to Sasuke, confusion twisting in her chest.
"Alright, everyone," Iruka said from the front of the room, rapping the desk with his pointer. "Open your history books to page twenty-one. Today, we'll continue from the Warring States era the rise of the Senju…"
On the podium, Iruka's voice carried through the class, as dull and steady as ever.
Konome, unaware of Ino's hesitation or Hinata's panic, sat quietly at her desk. She didn't know her secret had already been discovered.
Sasuke and Ino were just side projects.
Useful if they yielded results; irrelevant if they didn't.
Her real focus now was mastering wind nature transformation.
She pulled a leaf from her pocket and set it on her palm.
It was oval-shaped, about the size of her hand, with one central vein branching outward.
She didn't know what kind of tree it came from. It didn't matter.
Her chakra core pulsed gently within her chest.
A tide of deep blue chakra surged into her palm.
Buzz…
Moisture in the air began to stir, drawn instinctively toward her power but she held it back with precise control.
The power of the Three-Tails really was extraordinary.
Even without formal training, manipulating Water Release felt as natural as breathing.
If she were in the Land of Water, her strength might even double.
But Wind Release… was not so cooperative.
Her chakra shifted sluggishly, wrapping around the leaf.
Now what?
She frowned.
The original text only said the leaf should be sliced in half but not how to do it.
Was she supposed to shape her chakra like a blade?
Her gray pupils shrank beneath the band of cloth covering her eyes, Byakugan energy pouring into her chakra.
The dense, mercury-like chakra instantly reshaped into a blade under her precise control.
With a faint slice, the leaf split cleanly in two.
But the cut wasn't smooth; the central vein still clung together.
That's not right.
She released the chakra blade with a shake of her head.
This wasn't nature transformation.
It was only shape manipulation.
There was no trace of the razor-sharp edge Wind Release was known for.
What now…
She'd already hit a wall on the first step.
Without guidance, it was impossible to know which direction to push and even harder to know if the direction was correct.
That was the true problem.
Moisture still lingering in the air condensed at her will. Deep blue chakra coiled into water and spiraled over the leaf.
If she couldn't grasp Wind, she would study Water.
Both Water and Wind flowed they shared a similar principle.
If she could understand how chakra transformed into Water Release, she might find the key to Wind as well.
Her Byakugan flared.
The veins beneath her eye cloth bulged with power.
The water-like chakra magnified under her sight, every detail sharpened as though viewed under a microscope.
The internal structure of the chakra became visible clear, intricate, alive.
Every time she saw this, Konome couldn't help but marvel at the Byakugan's brilliance.
It might not evolve like the Sharingan or boast the godlike potential of Sage Physiques, but in versatility and utility, it was unmatched.
Within the flowing water, she noticed two distinct layers.
The outer layer was ordinary water nothing unusual.
But the inner layer…
That was different.
The water formed by chakra still glowed faintly within her vision. It wasn't real water at all, merely chakra that had imitated water's behavior, condensed from energy into a physical state.
As she watched, the micro-particles of chakra moved like water molecules aligning, flowing, merging, and separating.
So this was chakra nature transformation.
It wasn't truly turning into water.
It was mimicry.
Konome furrowed her brow.
How could something be both scientific and unscientific at the same time?
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