Chapter – 21 One of the Immediate Objective
Patriarch's Mansion, Hyuga Compound
Sitting in his study, Hyuga Hiashi was reading a scroll when a shinobi appeared outside his study and knocked on the door, "Hiashi-sama, it's Hoheto."
"Come in, Hoheto-kun…" nodded Hiashi as he put down the scroll and looked at the young man who walked inside his study. "Was there any progress in the search?"
Hoheto shook his head with a weary sigh, "We did try to track down the people who ambushed Himari-sama, however, there haven't been any results so far… and there is no news from the black market either. Which can only mean one thing…"
Before Hoheto could finish his words, an elderly voice came from the other side of the door, "Whoever ambushed Himari and gouged out her Byakugan, plans to implant it…" he then looked at Hyuga Hoheto and instructed him, "You may leave…"
"As you command," nodded Hoheto as he respectfully bowed to the Elder Hyuga, then to Hiashi, and left the Study.
Now left alone in the study with his son, Elder Hyuga spoke, "This matter is quite grave for us…"
Hiashi nodded in a gloomy tone, "That appears to be the case…"
Elder Hyuga sighed, "Although the success rate of implantation might not be very high, by any chance, if they succeed in implanting the Byakugan… they might be able to discover the secrets of our Kekkei Genkai."
Hiashi spoke, "That is unacceptable, as it defeats the very purpose of the Caged Bird, it makes Hizashi's sacrifice meaningless!" This matter is not only related to the secrets of the Hyuga Clan but also concerns the death of his beloved wife, therefore, Hiashi is unable to swallow this matter.
Elder Hyuga asked, "What is Hokage's response?"
Hiashi sighed, "Sandaime says that the village currently lacks the necessary manpower as they are trying to hunt down the traitor Orochimaru and Uchiha Itachi… though, he has given us the autonomy we might need to solve the matter ourselves, and will provide the aid in case of emergency… but the truth is…"
Elder Hyuga snorted, "Sarutobi Hiruzen is only trying to shirk the matter as he doesn't want to deal with it."
Hiashi was confused, "But the question is, why? Does he not understand what the outflow of Byakugan can mean?"
Elder Hyuga pondered for a while, and spoke his guess, "After the Senju, the Uzumaki, and the Uchiha… perhaps he has shifted his attention on the Hyugas…"
Hiashi's eyes widened in shock, "You don't mean?"
"It's not impossible," said Elder Hyuga, and added, "Either that, or this matter concerns one of the five great shinobi villages, and might lead to war if not handled with care, and he wants to avoid that just like five years ago… or… it could be both. We need to tread carefully, or we could be the next Clan."
"Damn it!" Hiashi gritted his teeth in anger. Does he have no other option but to swallow Himari's death for nothing?
Elder Hyuga sighed, "Who would have thought that one day Konohagakure would reach such a decadent state…"
The current Konohagakure is at its weakest point. If two nations were to declare war on the current Konoha simultaneously, it would be the end of this shinobi village.
While Hiashi and Elder Hyuga were talking, neither of the two noticed the shadow of the small figure on the other side of the door walking away with teary eyes, 'Hahaue-sama!'
It was pure coincidence for her to have stumbled upon such a conversation, and what is she supposed to do having heard them?
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Taijutsu Training Field, Konoha Ninja Academy
"Next up is… Uchiha Sasuke vs Uzumaki Naruto…" announced Iruka as he looked at the two children standing on the opposite side of the training field.
"Again, him? Why is it always this dimwit?" muttered Sasuke with a pout. Every time their class has taijutsu training, he is paired up with Naruto. It's fine if this pairing happens once or twice once in a while, but time and time again fighting against Naruto kind of gets annoying. Moreso because Naruto isn't really all that strong, and can't really make him get serious, then again, no one in their class is a match against him, but still!
'Forget it, I will quickly defeat him, then get over it…' With a sigh, Sasuke walked forward and arrived at the center of the arena.
"Sasuke…" muttered Naruto looking at the boy in front of him.
"What is it?" asked Sasuke as he raised his dominant hand to form the Seal of Confrontation.
"I really want to defeat you…" said Naruto as he too raised his dominant hand to form the Seal of Confrontation.
"Everybody wants to do something, but that doesn't mean they will ever get to accomplish it in their lifetime," snorted Sasuke. Defeat him? Forget about defeating him, Naruto is still too weak to even make Sasuke take him seriously. Unless Naruto masters the power of the Nine-tails or learns the Sennin Mode, he will never be able to catch up to him, and there is no way Naruto will be able to master either of those powers within the next few years.
"We will see about that…" snorted Naruto. Not accepting Sasuke's words. He believes that as long as he works hard enough, he can definitely defeat Sasuke. Nothing is impossible to accomplish in this world.
"Sure, we will…" shrugged Sasuke. He doesn't care if Naruto accepts his reasoning or not.
At this time, Iruka spoke, "Begin!"
The moment Iruka signaled the start of the Taijutsu battle, both Naruto and Sasuke ran toward each other. Closing in, Naruto threw a punch at Sasuke, however, the speed of Naruto's punch was too slow for the young Uchiha. He easily avoided the punch by leaning sideways and responded with a three-sixty-degree roundhouse kick to Naruto in the shoulder. The blondie was immediately sent flying outside the circle. After sending Naruto flying, Sasuke turned to Iruka.
Iruka smiled helplessly and declared the result, "The winner is Uchiha Sasuke."
Sasuke shrugged and turned to Naruto, "As I said earlier…"
"Humph!" Naruto snorted and got up to form the seal of Reconciliation.
As the young Uzumaki and the young Uchiha formed the seal of Reconciliation, Naruto spoke, "One day, the result will be the opposite, and I will defeat you."
"That day would only ever come true in your dreams," responded Sasuke, then he returned back to his position. The girls on the field immediately started to exclaim in joy as Sasuke won. They wanted to surround him and celebrate, however, the young Uchiha didn't give them much opportunity as he disappeared and appeared beside the only girl he talked to in the academy.
But today, Hinata was a little distracted. Sasuke flicked her on the forehead, causing her to suddenly break out of her train of thought. Hinata doesn't need to look up to see who flicked her in the forehead, there's only one person who does that, and she is already used to it by now. The girl raised her head and spoke lightly, "Sasuke-san, congratulations on winning the fight…"
"Hinata, you have been acting strangely lately… why are you always distracted?" asked Sasuke staring at the girl in the eyes.
Faced with Sasuke's question, Hinata broke the eye contact and looked down, "It's nothing… just some things in the Clan." She doesn't want to involve Sasuke in her internal matters as he already has too much burden on his shoulders. Although Sasuke has never spoken about his burdens and the things he shoulders, she can still make some guesses based on what she has heard and learned, thus she doesn't want to involve him in things he is unrelated to.
"I see…" mumbled Sasuke, unsure of how to continue. If it's something related to the Hyuga Clan, he really cannot interfere and has no say in the subject as those are internal clan matters.
An awkward atmosphere enveloped the two as they stood there silently not speaking anything while the rest of the matches continued.
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Training Field Twenty-Seven
After his time at the academy, Sasuke went back to the Training Field to complete the next step of mastering Kenjutsu. Yūgao had gotten a break from her Anbu duties after a long time, so she and Hayate were accompanying him for the training.
"If you can consider this accompanying…" mumbled Sasuke as he wiped the sweat from his forehead and looked at the distance where Yūgao and Hayate were sparring against one another.
Sasuke shook his head and sat down on the grass while using a tree trunk at the back for support. For the past two hours, he had been working on Kata.
Kata is simply a formalized sequence of movements, strikes, blocks, and stances designed to cultivate technical proficiency, mental focus, and spiritual refinement in Kenjutsu. Kata basically combines everything he has learned so far which includes, stances, footwork, forms, grips as well as posture, and develops it into his own version of swordplay. It's no longer about just swinging the sword while standing in one place, it's about adding flow to the sword, it's about adding movement to the body while swinging the sword, and it's about effortlessly transitioning from one form to another with proper footwork.
Opening the lid of his water bottle, Sasuke took a few gulps and looked at Yūgao and Hayate from the corner of his eyes that had turned scarlet a moment ago. Since his hair was covering the Sharingan to a certain extent he was certain that neither Yūgao nor Hayate would be able to notice his eyes while he observed their fight. As for Kyōka keeping a watch over him? She wouldn't be able to see the details he doesn't want her to see because she is under a subtle Genjutsu.
Now the question that immediately comes to mind is, why is Sasuke observing Yūgao and Hayate's spar with his Sharingan?
There are two reasons.
The first reason is to observe their movements using the Dynamic Vision of the Sharingan such that he can replicate those movements with training. One of the advantages of having Sharingan is that it allows the user to copy other's movements and techniques and replicate them as long as they are physically capable of performing said movement. The current him is naturally not capable of performing those movements, however, with enough physical training he would be able to do so, hence why, he is copying their movements.
The second reason is that Sasuke is interested in learning Hayate's Transparency Jutsu, and he is trying to discern the mechanics of that Jutsu by observing him use the said Jutsu.
Transparency Jutsu can be very useful both in combat and in gathering intelligence if used correctly, especially when dealing with ninjas who are incapable of sensing Chakra, or odor, and do not possess any kind of Dōjutsu that allows them to directly see Chakra. In fact, even if someone is capable of sensing Chakra or odor, as long as the right opportunity is used, the Transparency Jutsu can become very useful. Sasuke believes that mastering Hayate's Transparency Jutsu would give him an advantage that he can use to carry out sneak attacks on his enemies.
Moreover, Sasuke doesn't plan to limit his mastery of Transparency Jutsu to the extent Hayate has mastered, he plans to advance it to its utmost potential and reach the same level as the Nidaime Tsuchikage Mū.
Tsuchikage Mū was renowned as the 'non-Person' because of his incredible mastery over his version of Transparency Jutsu which left neither a physical form nor a detectable Chakra, allowing him to completely erase his presence while the technique was active.
'If I recall correctly, Tsuchikage Mū's Transparency Jutsu utilized water vapor to bend the light around him to turn invisible, and his Transparency was undetectable with Sensory Jutsu and heightened senses… If I can master Transparency Jutsu to that extent, no one will be able to stop me from killing Sarutobi Hiruzen,' thought Sasuke. At that point, he wouldn't even need to be as strong as Sarutobi Hiruzen, he would just need a perfect opportunity to sneak attack, and trash Hokage would be done for!
In fact, if he succeeds in mastering the Transparency Jutsu to the extent he wants to, he can even sneak inside the Root Base, or steal the Scroll of Seals without getting caught!
Sasuke has a lot of plans in his mind in regard to the Transparency Jutsu, and the extent of things he can do after learning it, so mastering it has become one of his immediate objectives.
With that in mind, Sasuke closely observed the spar between Yūgao and Hayate.
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