Almost every member of the Hyūga Branch House was assigned to serve a particular Main House member. They were called "attendants," but in reality, they were servants.
Not every Main House member was as kind as Hyūga Hinata. If you were unlucky enough to be assigned to one with a cruel personality, you became more than just a servant—you also served as their personal punching bag.
Unfortunately, the Main House member that Hyūga Kumokawa served was precisely that kind of person who didn't view Branch members' lives as human lives at all.
The man standing before him right now was nothing more than a loyal dog.
The smile on Hyūga Kumokawa's face faded slightly. Ignoring the deliberate provocation from the Hyūga clansman, he continued walking forward.
Clearly, the other man hadn't expected the usually compliant Hyūga Kumokawa to ignore him. His face darkened at once.
"Hyūga Kumokawa!" he shouted, calling him directly by name. "I'm talking to you!"
Kumokawa kept walking without any response. Might Guy simply shrugged and followed along.
"You worthless failure! I said stop!"
The furious voice came from behind, accompanied by the sharp whistle of rushing wind.
The man actually reached out to grab Kumokawa's shoulder, showing zero mercy or sense of clan kinship in his grip.
Might Guy stopped, his brows furrowing as he prepared to step in.
But the instant that hand landed on his shoulder, Kumokawa's body shook with tremendous force. A penetrating surge of power rushed through him and into his shoulder, instantly numbing the attacker's palm.
Before the shocked clansman could react—
Kumokawa didn't even turn his head. He bent his arm, stepped forward with his left foot, and rotated his body in a smooth circle. His white robes fluttered lightly as he thrust his palm forward.
In the clansman's eyes, his own hand was first shaken away. Then Kumokawa vanished in front of him at near-instant speed, dropping low and slamming his palm directly against his abdomen.
An overwhelming power, far beyond anything he could resist, crashed into him like a tidal wave.
Boom!!
The terrifying force exploded within half a centimeter, striking the Hyūga clansman with enough power to shatter stone. His body folded violently, as if hammered by a battering ram.
Just as blood was about to burst from his mouth—
"Wouldn't do to draw blood," a calm voice remarked.
Kumokawa's right palm flipped upward while his elbow dropped. With an expressionless face, he delivered a light slap to the man's chin.
A crisp crack rang out. The rush of filthy blood was forced back down his throat.
"Cough! Cough!!"
The Hyūga clansman's face twisted in agony. Clutching his throat and stomach, he collapsed powerlessly to his knees in front of Kumokawa.
"You dare…"
His Byakugan bulged slightly, veins popping around his eyes as he glared up at Kumokawa.
But the moment their eyes met, the rest of his words caught in his throat. A sudden chill gripped his heart.
It was a baseless, creeping fear—like a venomous snake slithering across his skin, slowly crushing him with icy pressure.
He was actually afraid?
Afraid of this failure? How could that be…
Hyūga Kumokawa looked down at him, the gentle smile returning to his face.
He gave the man's shoulder a light pat, ignoring the slight tremble running through his body, and walked out of the clan grounds alongside Might Guy.
"I didn't expect you to go that far!"
Along the way, Might Guy's tone stayed light and casual. He was simply curious about Kumokawa's actions.
He had naturally heard about Kumokawa's past reputation, but he considered him a true friend and refused to believe he was the "failure" the rumors described.
If nothing else, that taijutsu technique he had just displayed—a perfect blend of Strong Fist and Gentle Fist—was far superior, in his opinion, to the rigid styles of the other Hyūga clansmen.
He just didn't understand why Kumokawa continued to ignore all the gossip.
"Sorry for the scene, senior. They are still my clansmen, after all. I didn't want to go too far," Kumokawa said apologetically.
Might Guy shook his head and grinned. "You did the right thing. Youth should never be sullied."
[Ding! Your lie has been judged as [Complete Fabrication]. Might Guy experiences a slight emotional fluctuation, reaching [Utter Belief]. You have gained 200 Truth Points…]
Of course it was a lie.
Why hadn't he reacted like this before?
For one, his plans involving Orochimaru weren't fully in place yet. Maintaining the image of a harmless "failure" was still more useful.
For another…
"When one dog starts barking, the rest of the pack joins in without even knowing why."
"If you stopped to throw stones at every yapping stray dog, you'd never have time for anything important."
Hyūga Kumokawa smiled inwardly.
He felt zero emotional response toward that nameless background character.
Striking back this time served two purposes: testing out a new technique he had devised, and laying groundwork for his future plans.
Only mice stayed hidden forever in the sewers. No one ever trusted the words of a "mouse."
When Danzō Shimura spoke, villagers would simply wonder who that old bastard was. But when Hiruzen Sarutobi said even the most outlandish thing, people instinctively assumed they just hadn't understood it properly.
Lies only became accepted truth when spoken by those who held power and authority.
The bloodline's transformation of his body was both internal and external—from intangible perception and talent all the way to physical strength and resilience.
Without external intervention, this remodeling and purification should have been a slow, gradual process that strengthened over a long period of time.
Hyūga Kumokawa couldn't afford to wait that long. He needed more Truth Points, and to approach higher-value targets, he had to demonstrate some of his abilities to raise his own value and usefulness.
The "resistance" earlier was merely the first step.
If things went as expected, more people would soon learn that he had been subjected to Orochimaru's human experiments and modifications.
Hiruzen Sarutobi had likely already taken the operative codenamed Kinoe—Yamato—under his wing. As one of the only two surviving test subjects from Orochimaru's experiments, both the Third Hokage and Danzō would definitely come looking to test him.
Thinking of this, Kumokawa's thoughts returned to his eyes. His gaze flickered as he silently commanded, "Materialize item—Pure Byakugan fused with pure Ōtsutsuki bloodline to awaken the Tenseigan."
[Requires 10,000 Truth Points. Proceed with materialization?]
"It's exactly enough?"
Kumokawa hesitated for a moment. To be safe, he tested 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. "Just as I thought—something's still missing."
Good thing he hadn't fallen for the system's trick.
If he had impulsively spent everything only to receive a useless pair of Byakugan, he wouldn't even know where to cry.
"In that case, the second method is the safer and more reliable choice." Kumokawa frowned.
The Hyūga clan's Byakugan should possess higher purity than those of the Ōtsutsuki branch on the moon. The only issue was quantity—they couldn't compare to the Ōtsutsuki clan that had peacefully occupied the moon for thousands of years. He wondered whether collecting eyes from the entire clan would even be enough to form a Tenseigan…
He couldn't help coughing at the dark thought and quickly pushed it aside.
Gouging out everyone's eyes was far too ruthless. He wasn't some heartless monster like Uchiha Itachi.
Taking only the eyes from those who had already awakened their Byakugan would be enough anyway. There was no point in harvesting from those who hadn't activated theirs.
Of course, he wouldn't be the one carrying it out himself.
He had much better candidates for that job.
For now, he simply needed to wait for those old fossils to show their true, ugly faces.
***
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