Reborn as a Hyuga, Named Qingwu

[Brain storage here. Don't worry, I'm damn good at Plants vs. Zombies. Yours won't get lost!]

[The roller coaster is starting. Please fasten your seat belts!]

When Qing Wu first opened his eyes, he saw a horrific scene. That moment was seared deep into his memory...

"Are... are these my... parents? They..."

A young woman with blood spilling from the corner of her mouth and a young man with ruined, bleeding eyes lay covered in wounds. Both had stopped breathing, but they still held Qing Wu tightly in their arms, protecting him.

"Uh... waah..."

Grief and sorrow welled up within him, a heartache born of their shared blood. Qing Wu wanted to cry, but he was too exhausted. In the end, he could only close his eyes. After all, he was merely a newborn, and a frail, premature one at that!

I'll avenge you... I swear...

In the final instant before he lost consciousness, Qing Wu made that vow. It was the first time he had seen his parents in this life, and the last. After that, he would only visit them at the Memorial Stone.

"Little one, you must grow up strong and healthy..."

From then on, his grandfather, the Great Elder Hyuga Hoze, took care of him! Having lost his beloved son and daughter-in-law in his old age, the Great Elder poured all his love into little Qing Wu.

"As long as Grandpa's here, anyone who dares touch you will have to fight me to the death. Even Sarutobi Hiruzen won't get away with it..."

He cherished Qingwu so much that he feared dropping him if he held him in his hands, or melting him if he held him in his mouth! After all, this child was the only flesh and blood his son and daughter-in-law had left him. Who else would love him if he didn't?

As a Kage Level veteran—and a Taijutsu specialist at that—he had every right to speak so forcefully.

An old relic who had fought his way through the Warring States Period and remained standing to this day might have lost stamina with age, but he still had a body tempered over a lifetime and decades of killing experience. Taking one or two people down with him before he died would be all too easy.

Especially since he was a Hyuga.

Anyone who disagreed could come argue.

His Gentle Fist would teach them some manners.

"Fuck... my son and daughter-in-law were attacked while taking a walk inside the village. This is fucking outrageous."

This was Konoha, supposedly the strongest village in the world! If there was nothing suspicious about this, if some bastards inside the village hadn't plotted it, he would cut off his own head for them.

"Sarutobi Hiruzen... Danzo, you owe me an explanation, or else..."

Hyuga Hoze stormed straight into the Hokage Building, shocking all of Konoha! No one had expected the Hyuga Great Elder to have such balls.

But then they remembered that his only son and daughter-in-law had just been killed in an attack, and his prematurely born grandson could die at any moment. He had fathered his son late in life, only to outlive him. This was a fucking attempt to wipe out his entire line! How could he not hate them?

"Ah... he's a pitiful man, too..."

"Losing his son at his age—of course he'd go mad... I'd fight to the death, too..."

"Holy shit, don't tell me those people were behind this again..."

"Watch your mouth!! Do you have a death wish...?"

The moment someone started badmouthing the infamous Konoha F4, the other onlookers hurried away from him, afraid of being implicated. Their faces were full of disdain. Fuck, you think you're the only smart one? If you want to die, don't drag us down with you!!! Those people are rotten all the way through!

"Elder Hoze, let's talk this through. Please calm down. We can discuss this..."

In the end, Sarutobi Hiruzen, who was in the wrong, backed down. Hyuga Hoze also knew when to stop. His purpose this time had been to warn the circling wolves and let them know he wasn't dead yet.

"My grandson is Hyuga Qing Wu. Whoever touches him dies."

Hyuga Hoze's uncompromising stance said it all.

The Konoha F4 had no choice but to give ground. Even Danzo stayed silent. Who would go head-to-head with an old man who no longer cared whether he lived or died?!

It wasn't that he was a coward.

He hadn't become Hokage yet.

He couldn't die.

"No way... those High Command really had something to do with this? Have they lost their minds...?"

"It's obvious. Why else wouldn't they explain themselves? With their personalities, wouldn't they have blown up already...?"

"This is going too far. We're all from the same village, and they went after his family behind his back... who could put up with that...?"

"Ah... and those were Hyuga... what about the rest of us...?"

"Watch your mouths... stop saying things like that... if those people hear about it... do you want them to retaliate...?"

"Ah..."

Konoha's clans, large and small, were speechless. They hadn't expected the deaths of Hyuga Great Elder's son and daughter-in-law to truly involve those higher-ups. Otherwise, they would never have compromised so easily... for a time, everyone felt a chill of apprehension.

Fuck. The Senju... the Hatake... and now the Hyuga... who would be next...? This also planted the seeds of trouble for the Nine-Tails Incident a few years later. No one was willing to risk their lives anymore.

The Fourth Hokage stood alone, without support, and died in battle.

After the Nine-Tails Incident.

Just like that, everything settled down. That lasted until the year Hyuga Qing Wu turned six: the winter of Konoha Year 49.

A year after the Nine-Tails Incident, the village's reconstruction was largely complete. (Note: Qingwu was born in September of Konoha Year 43, the same year as that ever-so-filial son Itachi Uchiha, who was born in June. Hana Inuzuka was also born around that time, in April.)

People were forgetful creatures. After a major tragedy, the dead were gone, but the living still had to go on with their lives, didn't they? Konoha gradually began to regain its former peace.

At least, that was how it looked on the surface. Who knew whether hidden currents were stirring beneath it? But Qingwu was certain that the one-eyed Danzo would never behave himself.

After all, claims like "the incarnation of the Demon Fox Nine-Tails," "a walking calamity," "the Konoha Military Police Force failed to protect us," "those bastard Uchiha, why didn't they come to the rescue," "the evil Uchiha," "they were the ones controlling the Nine-Tails," and "the Uchiha betrayed us" were too numerous to count.

Guided by certain groups with ulterior motives, the villagers vented the terror of losing their loved ones that night, along with the rage, hatred, and bitterness of having no control over whether they lived or died.

"Impotent rage. A bunch of idiots being used," Qingwu sighed. He had seen plenty of this sort of manipulation of public opinion in his previous life.

Yet in this bullshit world, these gullible pieces of trash could actually dictate the village's direction. All that bullshit about not defying public opinion—they were nothing but a bunch of brainless keyboard warriors.

And so Naruto, the Fourth Hokage's son, and the Uchiha became living targets. Still, this successfully gave the village's negative emotions an outlet and stabilized the unsettled situation, which was exactly what Konoha's High Command wanted to see.

As for what the victims of these rumors thought, or whether they were doing well, those people couldn't care less! They even secretly fanned the flames for their own schemes—certain people whose names contained "Danzo" and "Hiruzen," for instance.

The Third, Sarutobi Hiruzen, tacitly allowed it so that he could become the only light in the Jinchūriki's heart, while Danzo did it to plot against the Uchiha. Neither believed he was wrong. After all, in their minds, everything was for Konoha, and they were on the side of justice.

Things weren't peaceful outside the village, either. There were constant probes along the borders, and spies appeared everywhere. The other ninja villages saw that Minato Namikaze had died in battle, the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki was gone, and half of Konoha had been destroyed, with countless casualties. Its fighting strength had clearly plummeted.

Rasa: "Baki, gather the Elders and the village's Jonin for a meeting. Let's see what we can do."

Ōnoki: "Kitsuchi, assemble a thousand people and head for the border. Have the village start mobilizing and preparing supplies, too."

Fourth Raikage A: "Good, good! Minato Namikaze and the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki are both dead. Excellent! This time, I'm tearing a chunk of flesh off Konoha. Mine... mine... it's all mine..."

Yagura (under genjutsu control): "Kill... kill..."

Land of Rain: "Is another filthy war about to begin...?"

Kusagakure: "..."

Those who coveted the Land of Fire's wealth, especially the Four Great Ninja Villages, were sharpening their blades. They wouldn't let this opportunity pass while Konoha was weak. The moment they saw an opening, they would sink their teeth in hard.

For a time, undercurrents surged through the Ninja World. Over the past year, border friction had grown increasingly frequent, with small-scale clashes breaking out again and again.

The Uchiha inside the village weren't having an easy time, either. Suspected of involvement in the Nine-Tails Incident, they were shunned by the clans that had suffered heavy losses and by civilians who had been incited without knowing the truth.

Though deeply resentful, the Uchiha Clan had no choice under Fugaku's heavy-handed pressure but to voluntarily leave the village's central district and move to the outskirts, sealing off their own neighborhood. They thought this would keep them clear of trouble. How naive!

"Fucking idiots. Leaving the busy districts and cutting yourselves off from the villagers will only get you killed faster. They'll have even fewer reservations about making a move against you."

Fugaku Uchiha was undeniably foolish. Excessive concessions would only encourage others to demand more and covet more. At the very least, after this compromise, Danzo grew even more aggressive.

But none of that had anything to do with our protagonist. He wasn't an Uchiha. What the fuck do I care whether they live or die?

That day, the weather was clear, without a cloud in the sky.

"I'm so bored. I kind of want to get XX'd~"

With a foxtail grass stem between his lips, Qing Wu lay leisurely on a lawn inside his clan's grounds. The area around him was completely deserted, without a single person in sight. His eyes half closed, Qing Wu quietly enjoyed this rare moment of warmth after training.

"Is this... my mental world?" In a daze, he seemed to have arrived somewhere extraordinary.