Chapter 2: The curious girl, Hinata

News traveled fast, soon, everyone in the Hyuga Clan and some of the people of Konoha knew of a genius who awakened his Byakugan at the age of three years old. Although not the fastest in the history of the clan, such a thing was unheard of in the Branch family.

Many people had come to congratulate Hizashi on his son. Claiming that he might one day become the strongest Hyuga in Konoha and other such pleasantries without any real meaning.

For Neji, such things didn't mean anything. His days after the incident against Uchiha Nobumi were basically the same as always.

Throughout the whole day, he would train his body even more fiercely than the original Neji did, aiming to make it just as strong as that of Lee and Guy, and would also practice his chakra control technique as well as the Gentle Fist.

For the sake of the future, he wasn't willing to follow the traditions of the Hyuga Clan. Rather than using the weak to defeat the strong, he wanted an iron body that could crush boulders with sheer strength and crush mountains with the assistance of chakra.

Besides Neji's eagerness to train, not much was known about him inside the clan. The adults in the clan only knew that he was very patient with the children and wouldn't mind assisting them casually in the training, helping them fix their posture and properly strike with the gentle fist.

Tomorrow would be Neji's first time truly meeting the Hyuga Clan princess, lady Hinata.

Being her birthday in just a few days, it was expected of him as the son of Hyuga Hizashi to become the main guard of Hinata.

Thinking of the so-called seal that bound the destiny of the branch family, Neji was also deep in thought and wondered if there was a way to get rid of it through learning fuinjutsu.

While deep in his thoughts, he didn't notice when a small girl with cute eyes approached from afar and hid behind a tree to watch him.

Her watery eyes only observed silently as he quickly punched a tree trunk, leaving deep impressions on it as if his hands were made of steel.

"So strong..." Hinata muttered shyly as she watched. Thinking of the things her father told her, she didn't know if she could live up to his expectations. As far as she cared, her cousin, Neji, was much more suited for the role with how strong he was.

At this moment Neji noticed something and stopped. Without looking back, he guessed it in his heart and spoke with a helpless smile on his face. "Lady Hinata, it's not right to keep looking sneakily at someone like that, someone might think you like to peep at others."

Blushing, Hinata stepped out of the tree and approached. Looking at Neji who was a little bit taller than her. Hinata lowered her head with flushed cheeks and didn't know what to say.

"Did you come because you were curious about the big brother that everyone talked about?" Neji asked knowingly and wasn't surprised when Hinata nodded her head shyly. With a chuckle, he patted her head. "Don't worry, in the future, you can just make uncle Hiashi do the hard work while you fool around, humph, it's what he deserves for forcing our clan princess to work so hard despite her age."

"Ah?!" Hinata exclaimed as she looked up at Neji's kind gaze. "H-how did you know that father was making me train?!"

Neji smiled helplessly, how wouldn't he know? It was his fault, to begin with. If he hadn't started his training earlier on his own, Hiashi wouldn't be forced to make her start even earlier, although her training started just a month earlier, she was still just a two years old girl, and barely able to keep up with his training regime.

Without a mature mind, it was impossible for a child to be so focused as he was.

"I heard some of the elders talking about it... Come, I'll take you to uncle Hiashi's manor."

Hinata nodded and after hesitating for a moment, accepted the hand Neji offered.

Seeing the two walking out of their house's courtyard, Hizashi took a deep breath. His heart pounding with conflicting thoughts. In his mind, he felt resentful, resentful that his child would never be able to reach his maximum potential due to his identity, but also conflicted because it would be less painful for him if he could create strong bonds with the clan princess, Hyuga Hinata, as she wouldn't treat him badly in the future.

Sighing, he deactivated his Byakugan and took a mouthful of sake, trying to bury his sorrows with the drink.

Hiashi on the other hand was pleasantly surprised as he watched his nephew and daughter walking together and talking merrily as they approached his mansion. Standing up he walked over and greeted them.

"Neji, it's been a while since I last saw you. You have grown stronger since then."

Seeing the kind-looking middle-aged man, Neji smiled. It helped that he already knew how conflicted the man felt thanks to the anime.

"Uncle Hiashi, I brought Hinata-sama back, she was curious and came to meet me earlier."

"I see." Hiashi nodded as he looked at his overly kind daughter who blushed and look down in shame for having disobeyed her father.

Although Neji wasn't aware, Hinata was supposed to be practicing calligraphy at this time, and still escaped to take a look at him.

"Sorry... father..."

Hiashi sighed and motioned for her to enter the manor. Looking back at Neji he smiled and thanked him again.

Seeing the two of them leaving. Neji sighed. "How good would it be if things could be this simple?"

Since he was born in this world and with this identity, he had only one goal in life. To become strong enough to act as he wished. In life, he only had three things that truly mattered for him, his family, himself, and his friends. As for Konoha? So long as it didn't try to make him their slave or suppress him, he was fine with it but wasn't truly a supporter.

Rather, he might one day create his own force, but those were things to think about in the future.