Hyuga Shingetsu

A bright, sunny new day. 💞💣  ♠🐟

Akashi was an early riser by habit, and he woke in a good mood.

Lately, he'd been going back and forth between his clan and the village. Sometimes he took on a few missions, and whenever he had free time, he threw himself into training. His days were busy and fulfilling.

As for yesterday's misunderstanding, he hadn't really taken it to heart.

What was wrong with wearing a green bodysuit?

At worst, people would poke fun at his taste and fashion sense. His skin was thick enough that he didn't particularly care. Besides, Hyuga Shingetsu wasn't the type to spout nonsense.

He'd just treat it as a little episode and move on.

After gathering his gear, Akashi left the clan compound. When he reached the first main intersection he had to pass through, he suddenly stopped.

An unexpected figure came into view.

Hyuga Shingetsu.

She had come all the way to the Uchiha Clan Compound, and was standing there with one hand on her hip, looking around as if waiting for someone.

Just as he wondered what was going on, Shingetsu's gaze landed on him.

"Hey, over here! It's me!"

"Good morning, Shingetsu." With no way to avoid her, Akashi put on his practiced fake smile. "Um... were you waiting for me?"

"That's right. I wanted to say I'm sorry."

Shingetsu's tone was flat, and she didn't look particularly apologetic. It was clear she rarely said those three words.

Akashi was at a loss. He eyed her suspiciously.

"What do you mean?"

"Dummy." Shingetsu pursed her lips helplessly. "I might've hit you a little too hard yesterday. You're not upset, are you?"

Her explanation brought a smile to Akashi's face.

She'd come all this way to apologize over something like that. For all her haughty airs, she was still just a kid.

Akashi shook his head. "It's fine. I can take it."

"Then let's continue today."

"Continue?" Akashi blinked. "You mean...?"

"Training in the woods behind the Ninja Academy."

Shingetsu was concise. "Your technique's pretty good, so I hope you'll keep teaching me."

Technique?

Did she mean his fighting skills? Wasn't she the one with better technique?

Wait, she'd come to drag him off to train, hadn't she? The apology had just been an opening?

Before Akashi could respond, a hint of menace crept into Shingetsu's cool gaze. "I know you probably weren't using your full strength yesterday, either. Want to see how the Sharingan matches up against the Byakugan? It'll be such an interesting training session. You'll agree, won't you?"

"Well..." Akashi hesitated.

"You didn't refuse, so that means you agree."

A glimmer of anticipation flashed in Shingetsu's clear eyes. Only then did Akashi notice the gray training clothes in her hands. She'd clearly planned this in advance.

She turned with a carefree toss of her long black hair.

"Two o'clock this afternoon. Same place. Don't be late."

"How was that an apology? Why do I feel like I've been kidnapped?" Akashi put a hand to his forehead.

Still, the Sharingan against the Byakugan sounded pretty interesting.

He hadn't yet had a proper match against someone with the Byakugan.

The thought sparked a little anticipation in him. Training alone was still training, and getting to know someone from the Hyuga Clan might not be a bad thing.

One-thirty in the afternoon.

Akashi headed for the woods behind the Ninja Academy as agreed. As he passed the school gates, a booming voice rang out through a loudspeaker, making him stop and look.

The content was all too familiar. Wasn't that the opening of the essay he'd written?

"The Hokage must be giving another speech," Akashi guessed at once.

It was an annual tradition. The school took graduating students seriously, so every month it arranged a special speech. This time, it was a big one: the Third Hokage was speaking right on the school grounds. The applause told him the crowd was fired up.

The message was always more or less the same.

Konoha needed everyone to protect it. If everyone gave a little love, the village would become a better place.

"We're one big, loving family."

Young people needed to strive harder.

Don't be afraid of hardship and exhaustion. This is your chance to grow!

Don't ask what the village has given you. Ask what you've done for the village.

At the end, the Third Hokage always raised his arm and summed things up. "Konoha belongs to us, but ultimately, it belongs to you. Strive for your Konoha! Perhaps the next Hokage is among you!"

Wow, the next Hokage!

That was so inspiring.

The Hokage represented status, strength, and ideals in Konoha. What could be greater than an ideal?

That was the perfect thing to use to fool children.

"It's so easy to fool people who haven't read much," Akashi murmured, shaking his head.

Even so, his gaze swept across the gates once more. The more he learned about this place where he'd once studied, the more absurd it seemed.

The Ninja Academy was essentially a training center for the village's future military forces.

It stood alongside the Police Force and the Medical Department as one of Konoha's major institutions.

It had been founded by Senju Tobirama.

Before that, shinobi had all been trained by their clans. They didn't need to go to school.

The creation of the Ninja Academy had undoubtedly been a revolution.

First, it broke the monopoly of the elite and let ordinary people learn ninjutsu. It won the support of countless civilians and united the people.

Second, Konoha's effective fighting strength increased rapidly.

The key to winning two Shinobi World Wars had been Konoha's vast reserve of talent.

Third, by encouraging the clans to set aside their differences and become part of Konoha as a whole, the academy built bridges between them. Relationships between teachers and students, and between classmates, helped maintain stability within the village.

It was a win-win in every way.

On the surface, the benefits were numerous, but the major clans understood the truth perfectly well.

The Ninja Academy had fatal drawbacks, too. For instance, because it had to accommodate students of different abilities, its teaching could only set a baseline. For true geniuses, it was nothing but a quagmire.

Furthermore, students' thinking would be shaped by their education. They would lean more toward the village system and become less attached to their clans.

That was something the clans didn't want to see.

At the same time, however, graduates were assigned talented jōnin instructors, and their paths to promotion were clear.

Graduates of the Ninja Academy were often promoted more quickly.

The pros and cons were laid out plainly.

After weighing them, many clans were willing to send some of their children to the academy to gain access to the village's official resources.

Akashi was one of them.

He'd been sent to school at the age of five, when he could barely run. It was hard to imagine that in just a few years, he'd be going to the battlefield with a blade in hand, killing people.

The teachers called such a thing "glorious."

And everyone seemed to agree. They even competed over who could graduate at the youngest age, as if the younger they were, the prouder they could be.

Was this education?

What a joke.

In an absurd world, anything ridiculous could happen. Weren't there plenty of examples all around him? Akashi gave a soft snort, then quickly let it go.

?

A short while later.

In a small grove, gasps of breath came in fits and starts.

Akashi had activated his Sharingan and fought Hyuga Shingetsu fiercely for three hundred rounds.

Compared with Strong Fist, Gentle Fist Style relied more on technique. Combined with the Byakugan's terrifying powers of observation, its attacks on the body's pressure points could inflict no less damage than Strong Fist.

But he wasn't easy to injure.

Thanks to the Seedling inside him, Gentle Fist Style's attacks on his meridians and pressure points did nothing to disrupt his chakra. The damage to his body was even less significant.

Instead, the Sharingan recorded every movement as it happened.

The Gentle Fist techniques the Hyuga Clan took such pride in were gradually being absorbed and mastered.

Akashi had no intention of beating her, so he simply pretended to lose.

Shingetsu was very satisfied with the result. She praised Akashi's performance lavishly, still seeming eager for more, and they agreed to fight again another day.

As the sky grew dark, they said goodbye and went their separate ways.

The streets were bustling.

Neon signs glittered in the distance, and crowds filled the streets. Unfortunately, most of the busy places were off-limits to someone his age.

Many of those businesses belonged to powerful clans and were managed by retired jōnin. They brought in a handsome income.

The gambling houses stayed open all night, too.

Tsk, so much for the Three Prohibitions of Shinobi.

No wonder so many transmigrators liked girls from the Hyuga Clan. They were beautiful, gentle, and rich. Marrying into the family could save you decades of hard work!

Should he marry into the family, too?

Lost in his thoughts, Akashi walked through the front door.

Under the corridor, his father sat cross-legged, meditating with his eyes closed. His ears twitched slightly at the sound of the door opening. "Where did you go today?"

"To the woods behind the Ninja Academy. I went to train."

"With whom?"

"With..."

Akashi faltered, struggling to get the words out. His confidence always took a hit in front of his father.

"It was someone from the Hyuga Clan, wasn't it?" Munakata Uchiha seemed to have already figured it all out. "Someone saw you walking with that girl from the Hyuga Clan."

"Let me explain..."

"Enough."

Munakata stood up and nodded slightly at Akashi. "That's my son!"

???

Akashi was left with a head full of questions. It seemed things were taking a strange turn.