"Awaken?"
Hinata still hadn't picked up her chopsticks. Instead, she asked what she'd been wondering about. This was the third time she'd heard Uchiha Jie use that word.
"Did I awaken?" she murmured, her voice full of doubt.
If she really had awakened at this age, how could she have ended up like this? At school, she should have been able to beat Ino and Sakura, perhaps even Sasuke Uchiha. And at home, she wouldn't keep losing to Hanabi.
If she had awakened, how could her father be so disappointed in her? He should have been proud of her, just like Sasuke's father was.
"Look at my eyes."
Uchiha Jie pointed at his own eyes. After he circulated his chakra, his black pupils turned scarlet, and three little tomoe began to rotate slowly. When the chakra faded, the tomoe disappeared, and even the red returned to its original color.
"Members of the Uchiha Clan can only possess the red Sharingan after awakening. It then gradually evolves, starting with one tomoe. But as far as I know, the Hyuga Clan is different."
As he spoke, Uchiha Jie took out a small mirror. Hinata's cheeks were puffed out as she struggled to swallow her food. She picked up a tissue beside her and wiped the crumbs from the corners of her mouth.
She blinked, and her reflection blinked too. Her pure white eyes were like milk, like the bright moon.
Every member of the Hyuga Clan was born different from everyone else, with white eyes. Because of that, she'd been shunned by her peers since childhood. Only Naruto-kun, with his whiskers, was disliked more than she was.
Her father had once told her that she would need to train hard for a long time before she could awaken. No one in the clan was an exception, so under her father's supervision, she'd trained day and night, working especially hard.
Yet all that hard work had brought no sign of awakening at all. Her white eyes seemed little more than decorations.
Uchiha Jie held a cup of green tea, taking an occasional sip as he said with a smile:
"Hyuga Hiashi must have told you that awakening the Byakugan is difficult. You have to keep training constantly, and you have to stick with it for a long time before you can awaken."
"That's how he awakened. That's how his father and brothers awakened, and how ordinary members of the Hyuga Clan awaken. But you're different. You're Hyuga Hinata."
Hinata opened her eyes wide, full of confusion. "I-I'm different?" she replied quietly.
The words she'd heard most often growing up were "ordinary" and "mediocre." She'd even heard more vicious words from people outside the Hyuga Clan. The person others most often compared her to was her cousin, Hyuga Neji.
No matter the measure, she couldn't match him. From Gentle Fist to shinobi knowledge, even the clan's etiquette—her cousin was impeccable in every way.
Though Brother Neji was older than her, so of course he was bound to be a little stronger.
But she'd recently lost to Hanabi by accident, too. Her little sister was a genius, and the age gap between them was much greater than the one between her and Brother Neji.
Though Sister Yue had taught her a few tricks that let her catch Hinata off guard and win, a loss was still a loss. Hinata remembered the complicated look on her father's face, surprise mixed with disappointment.
She couldn't forget the way he'd looked at her afterward, either.
Even if she really was different, she was probably worse and more hopeless than the others in her clan. She'd need more time and more training just to barely awaken.
Maybe she wouldn't be able to awaken at all.
"Haha, your eyes are so pure and bright."
Uchiha Jie set down his bowl. The tomoe in his Sharingan continued to rotate as he stared at Hinata's white eyes.
He smiled and said:
"Other members of the Hyuga Clan have Byakugan like the moon. You should know that, although the moon is white, it isn't flawless. It's covered with crater after crater."
"That's white with impurities."
"But your Byakugan is different. It's perfectly round and flawless, like the moon was at the beginning—so white it almost has a hint of green, a hint of blue."
"It's only missing a chance, a catalyst, to shine even brighter."
"A catalyst?" Hinata murmured.
"Yes, a catalyst." Uchiha Jie gave a wry smile as he explained, "For the Sharingan, it's usually an intense emotional shock. You definitely wouldn't want to know what happened when I awakened."
"Of course, you might be able to awaken now without really having to go through anything," he continued. "But we'll have to try it together."
Uchiha Jie stood up and went to the kitchen sink to wash his teacup. Then he looked at Hinata, who was still struggling with the food on the table, and instructed her:
"After breakfast, you'll have time to train on your own. Once we've had lunch, we'll start our experiment."
Hinata still had to train her Gentle Fist all morning, and Uchiha Jie naturally needed to prepare for his Ninjutsu as well.
He'd only just created this technique and hadn't even used it once. It wasn't a damaging technique, and it required careful preparation beforehand.
"Oh, right. Remember to wash the dishes after you eat," Uchiha Jie said before returning to his room.
Young Miss Hinata naturally washed the dishes. She also cleaned up every leftover morsel from the table, sorting out what was food waste to be bagged and thrown away and what could go in the fridge to eat later.
She wiped the table clean with a cloth, then neatly arranged the teaware, tablecloth, and chopsticks Uchiha Jie had used.
She'd never had to do this at home, where the maids took care of everything, but at least she knew how it was done.
The morning's training after breakfast was very simple: she sat cross-legged and refined her chakra.
Although it was the most basic training, it was also the most important. The amount of chakra someone could hold was an innate trait, and later training could only improve it so much. Still, sometimes the outcome of an entire battle came down to that little bit of chakra.
And according to her father, training to refine chakra was also essential if she wanted to awaken the Byakugan.
Hinata was still skeptical about this so-called catalyst. When it came to the Byakugan and the Hyuga Clan, who could know more than her own father?
Uchiha Jie didn't reappear until lunchtime. There wasn't a sound from his room, either. Hinata's stomach had begun to hurt from hunger before she cautiously knocked on his door.
"Oh! It's lunchtime?" Uchiha Jie came out of his room and checked the clock, only then realizing that noon had already passed.