Rebirth as Hyuga, Named Qingwu

[Brain storage area: Rest assured, I'm a pro at Plants vs. Zombies, I won't lose it!]

[Rollercoaster starting, please fasten your seatbelts!]

When Qing Wu first opened his eyes, he was met with a scene of carnage. He etched this moment 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 his eyes destroyed and bleeding lay there. Both were covered in wounds and had already ceased breathing, yet they were still tightly shielding Qing Wu in their arms.

"Ugh... waah..."

Sorrow and grief welled up spontaneously; it was the heartache of blood connection. Qing Wu wanted to cry, but he was too exhausted. In the end, he helplessly closed his eyes. After all, he was just a newborn, and a frail, premature infant at that!

"I will avenge you... I promise..."

In the final instant before his consciousness faded, Qing Wu made a vow. That was the first time Qing Wu saw his parents in this life, and also the last. The next time would be at the Memorial Stone.

"Little one, you must grow up quickly..."

From that day on, it was his grandfather, the Great Elder Hyuga Hoze, who took care of him! For little Qing Wu, the Great Elder, who had lost his beloved son and daughter-in-law in his old age, poured all his love into the boy.

"With Grandpa here, if anyone dares to touch you, Grandpa will fight them with his life, even if Sarutobi Hiruzen comes himself, it won't matter..."

He treated Qingwu as if he were something precious, afraid he might drop him if he held him too tightly, or that he might melt if he kept him in his mouth! After all, this was the only flesh and blood his son and daughter-in-law had left behind. If he didn't cherish him, who would?

As an older-generation Kage-level powerhouse—and a taijutsu-specialist Kage-level one at that—his words carried real weight.

He was an old antique who had survived the slaughter of the Warring States period and remained standing. Even if his physical strength had declined with age, the body he had tempered for a lifetime and his experience in killing were still there. It would be far too easy for him to drag one or two people down to the grave with him before he died.

Especially since he was a Hyuga.

Disagree? Come and debate it.

This old man will teach you how to behave with the Gentle Fist.

"Damn it... my son and daughter-in-law get ambushed while just taking a walk in the village? That is absolute insanity."

This was supposed to be Konoha, the strongest village in the world! If there wasn't something rotten going on here, some scheming by the village's own scum, I'll chop my head off and give it to you.

"Sarutobi Hiruzen... Danzo, you must give me an explanation, otherwise..."

Hyuga Hoze stormed the Hokage Building directly, shocking all of Konoha! No one expected the Hyuga Great Elder to have such guts.

But once they realized his only son and daughter-in-law had just been killed in an ambush, and his grandson was a premature infant who could die at any moment—an old man losing his child, and now a white-haired man sending off a black-haired one—this was a grudge of having his lineage cut off! How could he not be filled with hate?

"Sigh~ he's a pitiful man..."

"Losing a child in old age, he's bound to go mad... If it were me, I'd fight to the death too..."

"Oh crap, it wouldn't be those few again, would it..."

"Watch your tongue!! Do you want to die?..."

As soon as they heard someone badmouthing the famous Konoha F4, the onlookers quickly moved away, afraid of being implicated. They looked at the speaker with disgust: Damn, you think you're smart? If you want to die, don't drag us down with you!!! Those people are rotten to the core~

"Elder Hoze, let's talk this over calmly. Please calm your anger, let's discuss this reasonably..."

In the end, a guilty Sarutobi Hiruzen backed down, and Hyuga Hoze knew when to stop. This time, the goal was to intimidate the wolves and let them know he wasn't dead yet.

"My grandson, Hyuga Qingwu. Whoever touches him dies."

Hyuga Hoze's dominance.

The Konoha F4 had no choice but to concede. Even Danzo remained silent; who would want to clash with a desperate old man who didn't care about his own life?!

It wasn't that he was a coward.

He hadn't become Hokage yet.

He couldn't die.

"Damn~ so it really was related to those old geezers..." The major clans of Konoha were speechless. They hadn't expected the Great Elder's son and daughter-in-law's death to truly be linked to those high-ranking officials; otherwise, they wouldn't have compromised so easily... For a time, everyone felt a sense of dread~

Damn it, the Senju... the Hatake... and now the Hyuga... who will it be next...

This also planted the seeds for the Nine-Tails Incident a few years later.

No one was willing to risk their lives anymore.

After the Nine-Tails Incident.

Just like that, everything remained calm. Until the year Hyuga Qingwu turned six. That is, the 52nd year of Konoha, winter!

One year after the Nine-Tails Incident, the village's reconstruction work was basically complete. (Note: Qingwu was born in September of Konoha 46, the same year as the "filial son" Itachi Uchiha, who was born in June. Also born in the same period was Hana Inuzuka, born in April.)

People are forgetful creatures, so after a major event, the dead are gone and the living must go on, right? Konoha began to gradually return to its former tranquility.

At least on the surface. As for whether there were undercurrents in the shadows, who knows? But Qingwu was certain that the one-eyed Danzo would never be content.

After all, the rhetoric was endless: "The Nine-Tails Jinchuriki is an incarnation of evil," "A harbinger of disaster," "The Police Force failed to protect the village," "Those bastards, the Uchiha, why were they just watching and not rescuing," "The evil Uchiha," "It was them who controlled the Nine-Tails," "The Uchiha betrayed us"...

Under the guidance of certain motivated groups, the villagers wantonly vented their fear of the life-and-death separations from that night, as well as their anger, hatred, and unwillingness at having their fates taken out of their hands.

"Incompetent rage, a bunch of fools being used," Qingwu sighed. He had seen this kind of public opinion manipulation plenty of times in his previous life.

Yet in this shitty world, this garbage that only listens to one side could actually sway the direction of the village. "The will of the people cannot be defied"—what a load of crap. They were all just brainless keyboard warriors.

Naruto, the son of the Fourth Hokage, and the Uchiha clan thus became living targets, yet this successfully detonated the negative emotions within the village and stabilized the volatile situation—a result the higher-ups of Konoha were more than happy to see.

As for how the victims of this public opinion fared or what they thought, the higher-ups couldn't care less! They even secretly fanned the flames, harboring their own schemes, as seen with the likes of Danzo and Sarutobi.

The Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, tacitly approved of Xinhong becoming the jinchuriki, while Danzo plotted against the Uchiha; neither of them felt they were in the wrong, for in their hearts, everything was for the sake of Konoha, and they were the embodiment of justice.

Outside the village, things were far from peaceful; border probes were constant, and spies emerged from all directions. Seeing that Minato Namikaze had died in battle, the Nine-Tails jinchuriki was gone, and half of Konoha had been destroyed with countless casualties, the other ninja villages concluded that its combat power had undoubtedly plummeted.

Rasa: "Baki, summon the elders and the village jōnin for a meeting; let's see what we can do."

Ōnoki: "Yellow Earth, gather one thousand men to head to the border, and begin mobilization and supply preparations within the village."

Fourth Raikage A: "Good, good! Minato Namikaze and the Nine-Tails jinchuriki are both dead—excellent! This time, I'll tear a piece of flesh off Konoha myself. It's all mine... all mine..."

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

Land of Rain: "Is the filthy war about to begin again..."

Kusagakure: "..."

Those who coveted the wealth of the Land of Fire, especially the other four great ninja villages, were sharpening their blades, unwilling to let this prime opportunity of Konoha's weakness slip by. Once they spotted any opening, they would surely take a vicious bite.

For a time, the Ninja World was rife with undercurrents; over the past year, border frictions had become frequent, and small-scale skirmishes broke out constantly.

Life for the Uchiha within the village was equally difficult; they were suspected of having a connection to the Nine-Tails Incident and were ostracized by various clans who had suffered heavy losses, as well as by ignorant civilians who had been incited against them.

Though they felt deeply aggrieved, under the heavy-handed pressure of Fugaku, the Uchiha clan had no choice but to move out of the village's core area to the outskirts, sealing off their own district. To think that this would keep them away from trouble was truly naive!

"Idiots~ Leaving the bustling area and isolating yourselves from the villagers only makes you die faster, with no one left to hold back when the time comes to strike~"

It must be said that Fugaku Uchiha was incredibly foolish; excessive forbearance would only lead to more encroachment and covetousness. At the very least, after this compromise, Danzo became even more unscrupulous.

However, this had nothing to do with our protagonist; he wasn't an Uchiha, so whether they lived or died was none of his business.

The weather was clear that day, with not a cloud in the sky.

"So bored, I feel like being..."

Qing Wu chewed on a foxtail grass, lying leisurely on a lawn within his own clan grounds, surrounded by a vacuum where not a single soul could be seen. Qing Wu's eyes were half-closed, quietly enjoying the rare warmth after training.

"This is... my mental world?" In a trance, he seemed to have arrived at a magical place.