Hinata Cang Yue

!

"Your Father and Mother were branch family members, yet they failed to protect the main family. Beat her!"

The clamor drifting from the woods reached Tang Ping's ears, making him slow his pace.

"Let me do it!"

"You didn't kneel when you saw Young Master Ryosuke? Beat her!"

"Hmph, cutting off only one leg was already merciful of the clan head. Her parents got Elder Cang Si injured. If it were up to me, both her legs should have been cut off!"

The stream of voices let Tang Ping understand what was happening in the woods.

A young master of the main family had brought a group of branch family members to bully a branch family girl.

The girl's Father and Mother had failed to protect a main family elder, and she had been implicated as well, losing one of her legs.

As for her parents?

Naturally, they had died in battle.

All he could say was that the Hyuga Clan was truly dark.

Caged Bird!

The anime had shown only a small portion of its cruelty.

But in the real Hyuga Clan,

only the main family were people. The branch family were all slaves and tools.

No wonder the once-renowned Hyuga Clan of the Warring States era never produced another Kage-level expert afterward.

No matter how strong branch family members became, they could only serve as dogs for the main family. What was the point of working hard? They might as well lie flat and rot.

If not for the future Crown Princess, their fate definitely would not have been any better than the Uchiha Clan's.

At any rate, within the village, the Hyuga Clan's Caged Bird was an absolute taboo.

Before long,

more than a dozen Hyuga Clan youths left.

"Hyuga Clan...?"

Tang Ping muttered to himself before stepping into the woods.

He was interested in this clan.

After all, they possessed the heaven-defying Otsutsuki bloodline. They were certainly rare research material.

He had had no way to collect any before, but now that he had encountered it, he naturally would not let the chance pass.

When he entered the small grove,

he immediately saw the slender figure with only one leg remaining, as well as the crutch broken into several pieces beside her and the blood scattered all over the ground.

Miserable!

Too miserable!

But Tang Ping was no saint. He simply stood silently behind a tree, intending to wait for her to leave before collecting the blood on the ground.

It was not that he was cold-blooded. He simply understood one thing clearly.

Know your limits!

This was the Hyuga Clan's business. Even the village would not intervene, so he had neither the right nor the strength to interfere.

Bang, bang!

Her injuries were too severe for her to even stand, much less leave.

"Ah..."

After watching for a while, Tang Ping finally stepped out from behind the tree when he noticed her movements growing slower and slower, until she had remained motionless for a long time.

His heart still was not hard enough.

The most correct thing to do would naturally have been to watch her die here.

But having transmigrated only two and a half years ago, his values still could not become as indifferent as those of the ninja world, treating people as anything but people.

If she had been an enemy or a bad person, he could have watched without issue.

But seeing a girl around his own age die before his eyes truly made it difficult to remain unmoved.

He walked to the unconscious girl lying on the ground.

So beautiful!

That was Tang Ping's first reaction upon seeing her face.

Even though it was covered in bruises and swollen, he could still vaguely make out her lovely features and delicate skin.

Moreover, compared to his Fiancée, her figure had an utterly crushing advantage.

Was this some hidden specialty of the Hyuga Clan?

Thinking of the future Crown Princess's figure, Tang Ping's expression turned strange.

He took out a bottle of diluted Healing Potion and quickly poured it into her mouth.

Her injuries were too severe. Without immediate treatment, she would definitely be GG, no explanation needed. This kind of external injury happened to be exactly what the Healing Potion was meant for.

Consider it payment for the materials she had provided—Tang Ping thought.

Then he quickly collected the blood from the ground.

"Mm...!"

The Hyuga girl lying prone on the ground slowly woke up.

Tang Ping immediately left.

"Wait!"

The girl forced her eyes open, but all she saw was Tang Ping's departing back.

Elsewhere!

Tang Ping naturally heard her call from behind, but he had no intention of turning back.

So what if she knew he had saved her?

He was a "married man." Getting too entangled with her would not be a good thing.

A Boy needed to protect himself properly when he went out.

Just like Root—they had always been coveting his body, hadn't they?

Over the next half month,

Team 3 spent every morning grinding D-rank missions, then trained under their teacher's guidance in the afternoons.

Water walking, tree climbing, Chakra control... their fundamentals improved by leaps and bounds under the instruction of a Jonin like Minato Namikaze.

But their leisurely days would not continue.

Team 3 could not remain in the village forever, grinding D-rank missions.

So, it was time for the main course.

Starting tomorrow, they would begin carrying out C-rank missions and above.

The main point was... bloodshed.

Ninjas were killers by profession. Naturally, they could not avoid seeing blood.

So after mastering the basics, they would begin seeing blood.

Minato Namikaze had accepted a B-rank mission for them to eliminate bandits.

If there were only bandits, it would be C-rank. But since they might encounter ninjas, the mission rank had naturally been raised by one level.

A team led by an ordinary Chunin definitely would not have been able to take on a B-rank mission this soon.

But with Minato Namikaze around, accepting this sort of mission was naturally not a problem.

His strength was enough to ensure their safety.

The only question was whether he had mastered Flying Thunder God yet.

If he had, then he was a Kage-level expert.

If he had not, then he was probably an Elite Jonin or a Quasi-Kage.

Sometimes, a single ninjutsu truly could bring about a qualitative change in one's strength.

And ninjutsu of that kind were mostly S-rank forbidden techniques.

With such thoughts in mind, Tang Ping continued training at the Training Ground until nightfall before leaving.

What he did not know was that a pair of pale eyes appeared after he left.

"Uchiha Tang Ping... is it!"

Hinata Cang Yue walked into the Training Ground, staring at Tang Ping's back as she muttered to herself.

In fact, she had found Tang Ping the very next day.

Since she knew his approximate age, and he was a ninja—she had seen his Ninja Tool Pack—she only needed to investigate who used the nearby Training Grounds to find him.

That was why she had spent the past half month observing him in secret.

With a special bloodline like the Byakugan, even Minato Namikaze had failed to notice her.

Tang Ping also had no idea that the girl he had saved was watching him from afar every day.

All he could say was that while the Byakugan's combat power was trash, it was absolutely unmatched in scouting. No wonder countless people coveted it.

The next day!

At Konoha's entrance,

two gigantic wooden gates painted with the ninja emblem opened outward, and all members of Team 3 had arrived.

Villagers and merchant caravans flowed in and out.

Konoha had a population of several hundred thousand, yet it had only this one entrance and exit. One could imagine how bustling it was.

There was a registration desk to one side, where two ninjas handled entry and exit registration.

Note that they only handled ninja-related matters.

There was also a barrier around the village, so there was no need to worry about ninjas sneaking in without a sound.

The future Orochimaru and Uchiha Itachi had been able to infiltrate not because the barrier was useless, but because they had once been Konoha's upper echelon and knew all its loopholes.

"Alright, let's go!"

After completing the registration, Minato Namikaze called for the three backpack-wearing students to follow him.

Sleeping bags, fire-starting supplies, and other necessities for the wilderness were things they had purchased after accepting the mission yesterday.

As Tang Ping stepped out of the village for the first time, he seemed to smell the scent of blood rushing toward him.

According to protagonist law, if nothing unexpected happened, something unexpected would definitely happen.

Minato Namikaze and Kakashi were both protagonists. It would be strange if nothing went wrong.