Chapter-3: Hyuga Clan and Warring states Era.

I woke up really early in the morning and headed out to train.

First I did a couple of stretches and till then Trainer Junpei entered. He is my main trainer for now.

I am also told that I will be assisted with special instructor later on for clan techniques that are to be passed on.

I was really envious to see everyone being able to use chakra more or less but just not me.

It sort of enraged me but I kept my cool and began studying the topic with the best of my abilities.

Wondering how could I improve my flow and how would my stance be more stable as I was practicing my Katas.

Hyuga combat was more about flow than force.

Gentle fist fills up the chakra nodes of your opponent with your own and thereby allowing you to 'close' them or make them not function.

It's essentially plugging your own chakra in the enemy's chakra nodes.

If your flow is great, then even if your attacks are a bit softer or lack force, the combat technique will still do it's job.

I got up and started doing the Katas very slowly.

Very slowly but making sure each position is perfect, I did every single Kata.

Each time, I improved by doing it more control.

Once I had enough control over the Kata, I would focus on speed.

"Good. Looks like you are flow is getting better." said a mysterious voice.

I recognized the voice quite well.

I saw my 'father' of this birth.

"It seems we have time before the official training resumes. Start doing the Katas once more and this time I shall assist you." He said as he looked me straight in the eye.

"Of course. I accept." I said as I started doing the training once again.

He did it first and I followed him.

It more or less same as it always goes but each time I made an error, he sharply corrected me.

"I wanted to ask a question to you, father." I said as I did the Katas.

"Ask away." He said as he was doing the Katas.

"What makes you the clan leader and not anyone else? Was there a reasoning behind why you became a clan leader?" I asked.

His movement stayed the same as he calmly asked, "Why do you want to know that?"

"I am confused how is a clan leader selected. I have heard many stories of you being really strong but I think that was not the only reason you became the clan leader." I asked.

"It's not surprising you asked me this question. Well in general, the answer is heredity. Only people with the purest bloodline are first borns are given the right to lead. I asked the same question to your grandfather as well. But generally, this rule doesn't last if the leader is not capable enough and another main family member replaces them." He said.

"Then, It's not the strongest one that becomes the clan leader. It's not the smartest one that becomes the clan leader. It's the person who is able to shoulder the responsibility." He said.

It got me thinking.

While I did have something similar in my mind, I still didn't get it.

"Not everyone can shoulder such responsibility." He said ended the Kata motion smoothly.

A lot was going inside my head.

I thought about it over and over again but I didn't reach any meaningful conclusion.

There was only one thing I could tell from this.

Other main family member will be a very big obstacle.

"It's not the time to get so concerned about it. I will tell you what you can do to become a good clan leader and that is to focus on your fighting prowess for now." He said as he excused himself out of the training ground.

I drank some water and forgot about all the tensions I had on my head for now.

I will deal with it when I get there.

After the Katas were done and advices were given, I went to the official training ground to start my training once more.

It's a long and tedious journey towards strength, ain't it?

...

...

...

My days have been really mundane for the past month.

It's filled with training and educating myself about different things on how to be a good clan leader.

I suppose my inquisitive nature pushed my father to start these earlier than he initially planned for.

It was interesting to learn how to lead, how to reward, how to punish etc.

The best part about the education was that the main teacher was my father's aid and an absolutely amazing person to talk to.

Talking with someone who holds high intellectual capacity always feels amazing.

The man had wisdom as well as experience to back up whatever he was saying.

I felt as if I was back in my middle school days where I learnt something new everyday.

These days, I also got a new hobby of just strolling around clan territory, exploring all the areas.

The structuring of the Hyuga Territory was very much like a fortress.

A giant circle of walls which was composed of several spots of small and big houses as well as living areas around the circumference with a few training grounds in the mix.

As we went to the centre, more luxurious living areas got with several major clan figures living there.

In the core, more administrative areas started to appear which were related to managing the territory. It was where 'father' stayed most of the time, dealing with everything.

There was a military camp near the outskirts of the village which was an assembly ground for all the ninjas.

There was also a weapons production unit but it only had a handful of blacksmiths working to make weapons for the wars.

The way to make living?

Hyuga engaged in small scale farming of herbs and manufacturing healing ointments and similar stuff, a very big necessity in the current era where medic ninjutsu was basically non-existent.

It is also one of the reasons the clan was able to sustain these many individuals and held a strong monopoly for a long time.

The supply of healing items were traded with mostly allies of Hyuga which were Ino-Shika-Cho Alliance and Sarutobi Clan which got together to form an alliance.

It's name was 'The Wayward Wind'.

Such alliances were a common thing that minor clans did to strengthen themselves.

Most of them end up either disbanding in like 2 generations or so, however.

No foundation to trust exists between them and 2 generations is enough to make the new leaders paranoid about betrayal.

These clans were the major buyers.

A very strict system of trading was adopted so it was naturally hard to expand.

...

The food culture is incredibly vast and diverse. More than my expectation, at least.

Because most clans were more or less migratory because of frequent wars till now, they have accumulated many food making techniques as well as differentiating what is edible and what isn't edible.

Being a ninja has promoted a lot of skepticism so eating food with someone is a form of trust process and isn't done until you either fully trust the person or you are absolutely sure the food doesn't have poison.

Hence the reason, nearly everyone knows how to cook and eat food.

Hyugas were people I expected to eat the most sh*tty food but it was surprisingly amazing.

The focus on spices, how much cooking is to be done, the environment, the arrangement of dishes...

Everything feels out of a fancy 7 star restaurant.

All of the dishes are nutritious as well and most housewives know how to make good stuff even from minimal ingredients, leading to way more Hyuga children being born.

This year alone, 89 Hyuga children were born, a record breaking amount, when looking at the usual birth rate of a standard large clan.

Well now I know that there is something else that is as stiff as Hyugas expressing emotions.

...

The discipline in a ninjas' life was hard.

I don't know about others but as a clan leader's son, stuff was not forgiving.

You wake up at a set time everyday and start off by stretching your whole body and some hot water to quick start your metabolism and eat and drink something energizing to start the training.

Hyugas have a medicine made especially for growing children and I take that.

It's a really bitter medicine that you are supposed to swallow. It tastes like sh*t but they claim that it contains essential nutrition that will help in fast and better growth.

Then you begin by practicing the Katas.

2 full hours of Katas. More focus on flow.

The breathing pattern, the positioning of hands, proper usage of muscles etc. are all necessary.

I am monitored during this session with Byakugan so any bad form gets caught without fail.

After the Katas are done, I get an hour long break for myself in which I am supposed to relax my whole body by taking a bath, getting my hairs combed, eating breakfast.

After the relaxation is done, I get to the studying part.

Most of it is taught by clan head's aid as well as his underlings for me.

They teach me how to act like a leader, mannerisms, calligraphy, math, war positioning etc.

The test for the following are done for everyday.

Everyday, I am given a problem regarding the subjects I am taught and by tomorrow's class, I have to find out a feasible solution. Sometimes the test timing is instant like what will you do in a situation or something of the sort.

The questions are also tailor made.

My strengths allow me to find out the rough answer to the situation but only if I am focusing properly on my weaknesses, I can perfect the answer.

After nearly 4 hours of studying and testing, I am going to relax for next 3 hours.

Take another bath, get my hair combed etc.

and once again, I am supposed to exercise.

The exercises are easy to do. Very light cardio mixed with some core training and endurance training. Nothing that is going stunt my growth but complement it, instead.

After that is done, I am allowed to have the rest of the day for myself.

But I do not take any long breaks.

I am spend some of the time with my father in clan meetings, paperwork etc.

So I don't get much time for myself as well. Just one hour in afternoon and I am monitored during that time as well.

But I seldom complain.

All of this is going towards my growth.

Each day, I get smarter.

Each day, I get wiser.

Each day, I get stronger.

I didn't really have any need to go somewhere else when I had so much interesting stuff around me.

These skills were something I always wished I had. Nearly all my time was investing in improving and I was also someone who went out of the way to achieve perfection.

My hobbies were just strolling and fighting.

Other things, while they were interesting, I didn't feel an exceptional connection to them.

In my previous world, my ambition wasn't realized because of my untimely death but now I had another chance in my hands.

My ambition was to be powerful.

To be able to exert tyrannical control over anything I wanted.

Physically, mentally and socially.

That is why I had an impressive academic record in my previous life as well. I was also going to start boxing and gym when I was 18 but my injuries didn't really allow me to. Time was just delaying the inevitable until I died.

Oh well...

"Say...You are on a secret mission as the leader." My father suddenly spoke.

We were just doing so paperwork after the clan meeting.

"And you are given assigned a few ninjas under you. But the mission, which was supposed to be easy, turned into something crucial. What will be your next move?" He asked.

This is one of his habits.

He randomly comes up with a situation in his head and I am supposed to find the satisfactory solution.

There are a lot of correct answers to it but only a few are satisfactory.

"Well...I still lack enough information to answer right now. Please expand on it." I said politely.

"The mission was to capture other clan's ninja for large scale invasion. Alive. but it appears that the said ninja had many subordinates." He said as finished writing a few things in the book.

"First move would be to send the information back to the home base and send a ninja to scout out for the position of the enemy ninjas." I said as I brainstormed.

"What if the ninja doesn't return?" He asked as he blinked twice towards his aid, who promptly headed outside.

"If the ninja doesn't return then I would assume he is either captured or dead. From the clan's hidden jutsu, if that member is from branch, I can detect if he is alive or not. If he is captured, I would activate the seal to start causing immense pain as I use the voice to detect the probable location and straight away ambush the area along with the ninjas under me." I said.

"That isn't a good solution. The branch member will alert the enemies creating more trouble and they will call for reinforcement if they are even a bit careful and competent." He said.

"Well. If someone suddenly start clutching their head and scream out loud, any trained ninja will have a few responses against it. He will either take some distance thinking it is a hiden jutsu, He will straight away kill the person so it doesn't alert the enemies or he will try to gag or knock out the person in an effort to capture him alive and save him so he can torture more information out of him." I said.

"The moment he does any of those, he is trapped. The distance from the area I sent the ninja to scout will be covered in some time and I will be there. If he takes distances, he may get an opportunity to run away but in most environments, Hyugas are the best hunters with amazing vision range and nearly 360 degrees vision.'' I continued.

"If he tried to gag or knock out, we will arrive there and surround the ninja and take action accordingly. If he tries to kill to avoid alerting us, he'd be leaving us essential clues behind him, leading us to him and getting hunted." I concluded.

"That is definitely a solution but what about the reinforcements?" He counter questioned.

"Reinforcement can be avoided with a few well placed clones and sacrifices. The priority would be to hunt the person in question for information." I said.

"Good response but what if the person in question is far too strong? What if your group cannot handle that sort of powerful person? Say it's a powerhouse from another clan." He said as his gaze sharpened a little.

I began to think a for a little while.

As I was thinking, a man came inside with some tea and served a cup to both of us.

I grabbed the tea and took a sip as I delayed him for a bit before I could come up with a feasible solution.

"Well I would prioritize escaping. Fighting a powerhouse for no reason will endanger my clan members' and my own life. However, it wouldn't be done without any chaos. I would try to map out the region and destroy several sources of food and water which may help the enemy. Also it's better to split the whole team into several parts to ensure minimal loss of information to enemy, and also erasing our tracks while we escape at it." I said as I sipped on the tea once more.

"The enemy should stop pursuing once we split up but in case they don't, they will face us with tons of reinforcements from our side, which may lead to capture." I said.

"Decent answer. Keep on improving." He said as sipped some tea.

"A satisfactory answer?" I asked.

"No. The judgement was somewhat accurate however, you still have traces of being new leader. Situations tend to mess up in real life. A similar mission was organized but it ended in a failure. The team leader was fairly new and had a mirroring judgement skills to you." He said.

I gave it a thought as I finished my cup of tea.

"I would like to study the details of that specific mission." I said.

"It will be included in your teaching next day." He said as he finished his cup of tea.

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(A/N: A big chapter.

I want to properly explore each and every step of the journey, a fulfilling read. The warring states era, the Konoha establishment days and first great shinobi war era days were the ones with least information.

Let's expand on that.

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