Overtime

Night fell, and the village grew silent. The villagers, having celebrated all day, returned home exhausted and soon fell asleep. However, this night, some were destined to sleep restlessly.

Under the cover of darkness, Kazuya appeared near the settlement of the Hyuga clan. If his suspicions were correct, the Cloud Shinobi would make their move tonight. The peace celebration had just ended, leaving everyone in a state of relaxed vigilance, making this the ideal time for an attack.

"Stop!" Suddenly, an Anbu appeared in front of Kazuya, surprised to see him. "Captain Kazuya?"

"It's me," Kazuya nodded. "I'm a little worried, so I came to check things out myself."

"It's Captain Kazuya, after all!" the Anbu said with admiration. Hokage himself had granted Kazuya a holiday, but he chose to work overtime. This was the kind of dedication that set Kazuya apart.

The Anbu, whose white eyes were visible behind his mask, was a Hyuga Jōnin under Kazuya's command and had participated in the fierce battle against the Fourth Raikage. Clearly, the Third Hokage had taken Kazuya's advice seriously and assigned a focus on the Nine Tails Jinchūriki, the Hyuga clan, and the Uchiha clan.

Kazuya's Anbu unit was on duty in the Hyuga clan tonight. Third Hokage had also granted Kazuya a vacation to focus on studying the Flying Thunder God Technique. But Kazuya couldn't miss the significant event of Cloud Shinobi's kidnapping attempt on Hinata.

Perhaps tonight he would see some action. Byakugan, one of the three major dojutsu in Konoha, was quite powerful. Essentially, it provided a 360-degree X-ray vision useful for reconnaissance, though it had other limitations. The Hyuga clan's weakness wasn't due to their dojutsu but their lack of the Ōtsutsuki family's chakra.

Kazuya wasn't concerned about that. If he lived long enough, he would eventually acquire the Ōtsutsuki chakra, evolving Baiyan into Tenseigan. He imagined wielding all four major dojutsu, blinding the world with their power.

Soon, Kazuya vanished into the night. The Anbu around him, seeing their captain working overtime, were touched and motivated. At 1:30 in the middle of night, when people were most tired, several figures slipped into the Hyuga clan courtyard.

"They're here!" Kazuya's eyes lit up.

In moments, a commotion erupted as the Hyuga clan ninjas clashed with the three attacking Cloud Shinobi. The battle was over in less than two minutes. The Cloud Shinobi, including their leader, were killed on the spot, the latter suffering a gruesome fate from a set of Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms.

Kazuya, hiding in the shadows, watched golden light clusters fly towards him.

[You picked up 50 combat experience points] [You picked up 50 points of Lightning Style talent] [You picked up Bloodline Ability: Byakugan] [You picked up 200 points of pupil power] [Your pupil power has increased to level: lv2 (100/500)] [You picked up the Gentle Fist method: Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms] [You picked up 1000 points of Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms skill experience] [Your Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms has increased to level: lv2 (0/1000)]

Harvest! Rolling white eyes! Instantly, Kazuya felt a cool energy spread through his eyes.

"Huh~" Kazuya exhaled deeply, suppressing the urge to use his newly acquired dojutsu. It was the Hyuga compound, after all, and he didn't want to draw unnecessary attention.

"I leave it to you," Kazuya ordered lightly.

"Yes, Captain!" the surrounding Anbu responded.

In the next moment, Kazuya disappeared. The Cloud Shinobi incident was resolved, and what happened to Hyuga Hizashi afterwards was not his concern.

After half a month, Kazuya returned to his routine in Anbu. Each day, he checked in at the base, trained, and lived a leisurely life. As a sub-leader, he could delegate minor tasks and only took on S-rank missions himself. With the ninja world in a period of peace, such missions were rare.

In this time, Kazuya accumulated another 20,000 chakra points and maxed out the Three Body Technique. His current stats were:

[Chakra: lv4 (62500/100,000)]

With over 60,000 chakra points, he was already at an upper-middle shadow level. However, mastering powerful skills like the Flying Thunder God Technique and senjutsu remained a challenge. Few knew the former, and even fewer could use the latter. In all of Konoha, only Jiraiya and Orochimaru came to mind as potential sources of senjutsu expertise.

"Orochimaru..." Kazuya pondered as he walked into the Anbu base. By now, Third Hokage should have discovered Orochimaru's dark experiments. It would be another dramatic confrontation involving friendship and betrayal.

Kazuya anticipated the event. With Sarutobi Hiruzen, Orochimaru, and Jiraiya involved, the quality of fallen golden light would surely surpass that of the Fourth Raikage!

Just as Kazuya reached his office, he was startled.

"Captain Kazuya, please train me hard!" A cute purple-haired girl knelt on one knee, her tone resolute.

Kazuya: "?????"

Speak slowly! What are you so eager about!?