Ready to Lie Flat

Hyuga Mie's emotional changes naturally couldn't escape Hyuga Ningyuan. After all, his eyesight was excellent now.

Besides, he had lived in an age of information explosion, where people taught everything online. So Ningyuan could understand the reason behind Hyuga Mie's mood swings.

It was nothing more than mother's love clashing with a rebellious son.

The deeper reason behind it was a cultural issue. For example, once women in the ninja villages got married, they had to give up their jobs and careers to devote themselves wholeheartedly to serving the family.

And his father was never home, so naturally all her attention was focused on Ningyuan.

Once Ningyuan showed any desire to become independent, she would feel as if she had lost her sense of worth.

Really, she was just too idle, so she kept overthinking things. Getting a job would fix it.

"Come to think of it, I never could've thought through so much in such a short time before. My brain in this life seems better than it was in my previous life too. If I'd had this brain back then, Tsinghua and Peking University would've been mine for the choosing. The protagonist's life in all those academic genius novels would've been my autobiography!"

Hyuga Ningyuan also remembered that both Hinata and Neji were quite intelligent.

Neji ranked first in his year, a super genius who could even deduce and complete the Eight Trigrams Palms on his own. Hinata, meanwhile, was the other top student among the Konoha 12 besides Sakura who independently solved all nine beyond-the-curriculum questions in the Chunin Ninja Exams.

That was clearly the Hyuga Clan's bloodline advantage.

"Great eyesight, powerful taijutsu, and sharp minds too. No wonder it's Bloodline Shippuden. So many advantages are concentrated in one clan—how are ordinary people supposed to survive?"

And such an awesome clan wasn't even the protagonist. In every war and major battle, they only ever played support.

So the question was, why?

This clan... systemic thinking, systemic issues.

Hyuga Ningyuan spent the duration of breakfast thinking about it. The main reason the Hyuga Clan possessed such enormous advantages yet could only play support really was a systemic issue.

The Caged Bird system forced the numerous Branch Family members to grovel beneath the Main Family. No matter how great their achievements, how talented they were, or how capable they became, they were ultimately just dogs the Main Family could crush with a single thought.

It wasn't even limited to earning merit. Even if you did business, conducted research, or practiced medicine, your accomplishments, contributions, and creations were still not yours to decide.

All it took was for a Main Family grandson to say, "Grandpa, I want it."

Tell me, under such circumstances, where would the Hyuga Branch Family find the motivation to improve? Where would they find the drive to innovate? Where would they find the desire to grow stronger?

Since striving was useless, all they could do was lie flat.

The Hyuga Main Family had very few members and passed down through a single line. How many geniuses could such a method of inheritance produce?

Not that it was certain, but around ninety-nine percent of geniuses would be born in the Branch Family.

But if all the Branch Family geniuses lay flat, then wouldn't the Hyuga Clan have no way to progress?

So while everyone else's techniques had evolved from the Rasengan to the Six Paths Rasengan, with countless version updates in between, the Hyuga Clan was still using the Eight Trigrams Palms and Rotation invented by their ancestors during the Sengoku era.

And yet, you couldn't say this system was flawed, because the Caged Bird really did protect the Branch Family's eyes and preserve the Hyuga Clan.

Didn't the Uchiha Clan, which produced geniuses one after another and constantly updated its own version, get banned because it was too overpowered?

So was the Caged Bird innocent? Had the Main Family done nothing wrong?

Of course that was nonsense.

Whether the Caged Bird itself was guilty or not was unclear, but the Main Family was definitely at fault. Their fault was that they didn't receive the Caged Bird themselves.

They only branded the Branch Family and not themselves. That was being strict with others and lenient with themselves.

They turned a seal meant to protect the clan into a seal meant to enslave the Branch Family. That was the conduct of petty men, twisting black into white!

"So I'm going to lie flat too!"

After thinking it over carefully, he really did need to lie flat until he solved the Caged Bird issue. Not only to avoid making the Main Family wary of him, but also to guard against that Scheming Old Man Danzo.

After all, this was Konoha. Standing out too much brought no benefits.

Besides, he might have died from overwork in his previous life. He definitely had to learn his lesson this time!

Right, did Danzo exist yet?

Hyuga Ningyuan recalled the street scene he had seen when leaving home. It seemed the Third Hokage's face was already carved onto Hokage Rock.

Then it was fine. Pot Kage was already online.

"Today is your first day of school. Once you get there, make sure you get along well with your classmates," Hyuga Mie instructed as she packed Ningyuan's bento.

Hyuga Ningyuan nodded, looking at the bento in Hyuga Mie's hands. Come to think of it, bento made in the morning would be cold by noon.

Eating this all year round couldn't be good for the stomach, could it?

His mind had wandered again.

He seemed to have seen a Douyin video before saying that stomach disease rates in Japan were eighty percent, ranking among the highest in the world.

Maybe it had something to do with this dietary habit.

Opening a fast-food restaurant next to the Ninja Academy should have plenty of potential.

He took a bite of tempura. It was basically fried egg and flour, similar to fried dough sticks. Sometimes meat or shrimp was added, but Hyuga Mie's tempura contained neither meat nor shrimp—only diced carrots.

Was the family that poor?

Hyuga Ningyuan searched through the previous owner's memories again. Meat really was rare at all three meals, and they rarely bought new clothes. Even the training uniform he wore now had been discarded by the neighbors.

If they merely wore old clothes, that might mean they were frugal.

But if a child couldn't even eat meat, then the family was truly poor.

"My body's father is a Chunin. Chunin can take B-rank missions, C-Rank Missions, and D-Rank Missions. A D-Rank Mission pays at most ten thousand, with five thousand as his share. A C-Rank Mission pays at most fifty thousand, with twenty-five thousand as his share. A B-rank mission pays at most one hundred fifty thousand, with seventy-five thousand as his share. Even calculating based on the highest rates..."

His father, Hyuga Yuuki, was in a Chunin squad. With no Jonin taking a cut, and because Hyuga Yuuki was a Hyuga who could take the larger share, after the village's commission was deducted, he could still receive roughly half the total reward.

One D-Rank Mission per day meant five thousand a day, or one hundred fifty thousand ryo a month.

One C-Rank Mission per week meant twenty-five thousand per week, or one hundred thousand ryo a month.

One b-rank mission per week meant seventy-five thousand ryo per week, or three hundred thousand ryo a month.

Three hundred thousand ryo—was that a lot?

A bowl of ramen cost sixty ryo, roughly equivalent to twelve yuan, meaning one yuan equaled five ryo.

Three hundred thousand ryo was sixty thousand yuan. In other words, Hyuga Ningyuan's father earned sixty thousand yuan a month.

That was absolutely a high-income bracket.

But the problem was that this was an idealized income.

In reality, B-Rank Missions generally didn't pay as much as one hundred fifty thousand ryo, nor could one be completed every week.

Take that Land of Waves C-Rank Mission. Its completion time was measured in months.

A b-rank mission, such as escorting a merchant caravan on a round trip, took roughly half a month. Yet the reward was only around one hundred thousand ryo. Doing two in a month made two hundred thousand ryo, and after splitting it with his teammates, he would take home one hundred thousand ryo.

One hundred thousand divided by five was twenty thousand yuan.

That was Hyuga Yuuki's likely income.

Even twenty thousand yuan wasn't low. It already surpassed ninety-nine percent of people in China.

So the question was, with such high income, why was the family still so poor?

"Could it be that the Hyuga Branch Family also has to pay Heavenly Tribute to the Main Family?" Hyuga Ningyuan thought about it. He truly didn't know. First, he was still just a child, so nobody had told him. Second, Kishimoto hadn't drawn it.

But the Hyuga Main Family didn't go out on missions, so where did their money for food, clothing, and daily living come from? They definitely relied on the Branch Family to support them.

How was the ratio set? Fifty-fifty? Sixty-forty? Or seventy-thirty?

It couldn't possibly be eighty-twenty, could it?

Although Hinata didn't seem particularly rich and even looked like she went hungry every day, the entire Hyuga Clan had grown accustomed to keeping a low profile. It would be perfectly normal for Hyuga Hiashi to have money but not flaunt it.

"What a shame I transmigrated too early. Hinata hasn't even been born yet!" Hyuga Ningyuan thought about it. Hiashi and Hizashi were both still young and unmarried.

Right, what was that sound I heard beside my ear when I first woke up?

After setting down his bowl and chopsticks, Hyuga Ningyuan heard that crisp notification sound beside his ear once more.

[Ding. You have completed a Diet Activity. Diet Experience +1, General Experience +1. Current level: level 1 (1/100)]

Ningyuan's eyes instantly lit up. "A system?"