I Couldn't Bring Myself to Kill My Entire Clan

[Name: Hyuga Qinglan]

[Ninja ID: 9707]

[Ninja Career: Graduated from the Ninja Academy at seven, mastered the Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms at eight, became a Chunin at ten, and possessed strength comparable to a Jonin, but had yet to submit an application for the Jonin exam.]

[Ninja Academy Evaluation: One of the children capable of perfectly inheriting the Will of Fire.]

[Background: Orphaned at a young age and marked with the Caged Bird Seal. He worked diligently and without complaint within the Hyuga Clan, but the Hyuga Main Family would occasionally make things difficult for him in various ways. The most recent time they used the Caged Bird Seal was just over ten days ago...]

Shimura Danzō studied the dossier in his hands, his brow furrowing slightly.

It contained a detailed report on Hyuga Qinglan. Everything from his birth and training to his recent whereabouts had been recorded clearly.

"Constantly oppressed by the Main Family, yet still working without complaint?"

Danzō murmured under his breath.

As far as he knew, any member of the Hyuga Branch Family who had experienced or witnessed the Caged Bird Seal would quietly bury a seed of resentment toward fate deep in their heart.

As they grew, that seed would take root and wind around their heart.

Eventually, it would bloom into a flower called "hatred."

And such feelings usually erupted when people didn't yet understand restraint or how to weigh the pros and cons.

But someone as patient as Hyuga Qinglan was rare...

No, he was the only one.

As the shadowy side of the village, Danzō had seen every kind of disguise and every kind of true nature.

People like Hyuga Qinglan, who accepted everything meekly, as if anyone from the Main Family could order him around, fell into only two categories.

The first kind endured almost perfectly, keeping up their act so well that they even fooled themselves, all while waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Even if the path ahead ended in their own destruction, they would grit their teeth and keep going.

The second kind...

Had already grown numb, accepted oppression as normal, and lived like a walking corpse.

"Which kind are you?"

Danzō closed his eyes and pondered.

If Qinglan was the first kind, all it would take was the right clue to reveal signs of his struggle. If he was the second, he would be much harder to sway.

Still...

Danzō opened his eyes. A glint flashed in his murky gaze.

Even the numb always kept a tiny crack open in their hearts. All it took was someone to light a spark, and that crack could become a foothold to climb from.

Besides, Danzō was more inclined to believe Qinglan was the first kind. After thinking it over for a moment, he had already marked Qinglan down as someone he could use.

Though the Caged Bird Seal meant he couldn't join Root directly, there was no reason he couldn't work as an outside asset.

Besides, his abilities had already been tested on missions.

Of course, he would still need to be evaluated. Danzō had even thought of who would conduct the evaluation.

He spread out the mission scroll and filled it in with a few quick strokes, then stamped it with the Hokage's seal and gave an order.

"Assign this mission to 'Jie.' Make sure it's completed."

"Yes!"

A Root shinobi took the mission scroll and disappeared into the shadows at the end of the underground corridor.

Danzō sat back down and looked at his right arm, wrapped in bandages.

Next, he needed to refine his use of Hashirama Cells.

Hashirama Cells... They really were powerful...

He could feel the vitality they brought to every part of his body, but at the same time, his right arm was gradually turning to wood.

He couldn't wait any longer.

"Tell Orochimaru to hurry back to the village!"

Night.

In an unremarkable courtyard in the southeastern corner of Konoha.

Hyuga Qinglan sat alone on a small wooden stool. A coarse clay teapot sat on the low table in front of him, a trace of moisture still clinging to its spout.

Tea fragrance curled through the air, while his thoughts surged like a tide.

He held a teacup but didn't drink. He simply watched the tiny tea leaves drift in the water.

That time when he had gone hunting as a child, he had taken several Branch Family guards with him to find something for the Main Family young lady to snack on.

If he remembered correctly, Tokuma had failed to notice the prey hiding in the shadows and had nearly been knocked over.

And that was when Hyuga Qinglan had explained those principles to him.

Now, bringing up that old memory again...

Was someone reminding him that he was being watched?

Hyuga Qinglan picked up the teapot, poured out the tea that had gone lukewarm, and refilled the cup with steaming water.

Steam wrapped in the fragrance of tea rose to his face, blurring his features.

Through the swirling mist, a glimmer of blue in his flawless white eyes stood out.

"The Main Family is still fixated on that scroll."

Hyuga Qinglan chuckled to himself.

He really hadn't expected the Hyuga Clan to be so obsessed with the next stage of the Byakugan—so much so that they were gradually going mad over it.

He gently brushed his fingers over his eyes, which gave off a faint blue glow, and felt the immense power within them.

"My eyes should only be at the initial stage of the Tenseigan..."

"But I didn't expect that simply activating them would give me this much power... and they haven't even stirred yet..."

The conditions for the Tenseigan's complete evolution fell into two categories.

The first was the elevation of one's bloodline.

Otsutsuki chakra combined with the Hyuga Clan's pure Byakugan could produce the beginnings of a Tenseigan.

To reach the final stage—the level Otsutsuki Toneri had attained—one had to keep merging and refining the power within the eyes, a process commonly known as "awakening."

Hyuga Qinglan's Tenseigan had only just crossed the threshold. At most, it had granted him the ability to control puppets and influence the mind.

To purify his eyes further, he would have to undergo "awakening."

And that required a pair of even purer Byakugan.

Or... fusing a great many Byakugan.

That was the second way to obtain the Tenseigan.

By fusing a large number of Byakugan from the Otsutsuki Clan or the Hyuga Clan.

That was how the Giant Tenseigan on the moon had come to be.

The bloodlines of the Otsutsuki Branch Family on the moon were less pure than the Hyuga Clan's, but there had been far more of them than there were members of the Main Family at the time.

Quantity had overcome a lack of quality. Countless members of the Branch Family had gone forward one after another, sacrificing their Byakugan to build a power that could rival anything.

Hyuga Qinglan couldn't help thinking of the countless Otsutsuki Branch Family members on the moon, all with impure bloodlines.

If the quality wasn't good enough, make up for it with quantity.

The Giant Tenseigan formed through this compromise still held power that was unmatched.

So, what if he gathered enough Byakugan from the Hyuga Clan?

The Hyuga Clan's Byakugan were far purer than those of the Otsutsuki Branch Family on the moon.

If the moon-dwellers' Byakugan were murky streams, then the Hyuga Clan's were clear springs high in the mountains.

"Birds perched in trees never worry about the branches beneath them breaking."

"Because they've always believed in themselves, in their own wings..."

Hyuga Qinglan lowered his eyes, his long lashes casting a shadow beneath them.

There was always a way forward, so long as someone was willing to think hard enough. If he kept searching, there would always be a way out.

"Though the Hyuga Clan can't match the Otsutsuki Clan on the moon in numbers, our bloodlines are just as pure."

"If I just killed the entire clan... No, wait..."

Hyuga Qinglan shook his head, quickly driving the thought from his mind.

He could never bring himself to kill his entire clan.

But gathering Byakugan from those who had awakened them seemed feasible...

"I wonder what a Tenseigan formed by fusing a large number of awakened Hyuga Byakugan would look like?"

Hyuga Qinglan smiled faintly, slightly widening his Byakugan as he looked toward the Root member hiding behind a tree trunk outside the courtyard gate, watching him.

But before he could realize that grand ambition, he would have to deal with Root's little mouse...

Or, rather, the "gift" Danzō had sent him.