"All right, we're here."
Hyuga Shinichi followed Nawaki to his home. It was a classic Japanese-style house with a courtyard, surrounded by a wall of gray stone bricks. From inside, he could hear the bamboo water feature in the courtyard fill up and tip over, striking a stone with a hollow thud.
"Grandma! Sis! I'm home!"
On the way over, Nawaki had told Hyuga Shinichi that he lived with his grandmother and older sister. His sister had no missions at the moment, and their grandmother wouldn't let her go gambling, so she was home too.
Hyuga Shinichi took off his shoes and set them neatly in the entryway, then followed Nawaki to the end of the hall. Nawaki opened a door, and they entered the living room.
A kindly old woman with red hair sat in the formal seat, holding a teacup as she watched the two enter. Beside her sat a blond girl whose chest was already beginning to develop; she was watching them too. (Tsunade was born in Konoha's thirteenth year. It was now the twenty-eighth, making her fifteen.)
"Grandma, Sis, this is the friend I made at school today. I brought him home to hang out."
"Greetings, Lady Uzumaki Mito, Senior Tsunade. I'm sorry to intrude on my first visit. My name is Hyuga Shinichi. This is a small gift."
On the way to Nawaki's house, as soon as Shinichi heard that there would be people at home, he thought he should bring a gift. But he didn't have much money, and when he spotted a dango shop by the road, he figured a box of three-colored dango would be a nice choice—not too extravagant, and tasty too. So he bought some.
Tsunade, who was sitting nearby, accepted the gift with both hands. When she saw the box of three-colored dango, Uzumaki Mito, seated in the place of honor, glanced at it and spoke.
"You're too kind, dear. I was just thinking that tea needed something sweet to go with it. Thank you. May I call you Shinichi?"
"Not at all. I'm the one intruding. It's an honor to have you call me by my name, Lady Uzumaki Mito."
"Hahahaha, what a polite boy. Just call me Grandma Mito."
When Hyuga Shinichi heard Uzumaki Mito tell him to call her Grandma, he froze for a moment. Once he recovered, he straightened up excitedly and replied,
"Yes, Grandma Mito!"
When Tsunade heard Hyuga Shinichi's name, she had been wearing a thoughtful expression. Suddenly, she remembered something and slapped her fist into her palm.
"Ah! I remember now! You're the genius from the Hyuga Clan who awakened his Byakugan before he was three—the one Teacher Sarutobi told us about!"
"Not at all. I only awakened my Byakugan; that doesn't make me a genius. Compared with you, Senior Tsunade, I still have a lot to learn in other areas."
"Hahahaha, I like the way you talk, kid. You're nothing like that blockhead Nawaki. Is it all right if I call you little brother Shinichi? You can call me big sister."
"Yes, Big Sister Tsunade."
Nawaki didn't think much of it when his sister called him a blockhead. He was used to it. What left him speechless was Hyuga Shinichi's behavior.
The cheeky way Shinichi had acted around them earlier was impossible to reconcile with the polite, well-behaved boy he was now.
"All right, Grandma, Sis, I'm taking Shinichi to play."
"Mm, go ahead." ×2
After Hyuga Shinichi followed Nawaki out, the two people in the living room began chatting. Tsunade started by eating a piece of three-colored dango and asking,
"Grandma, what do you think of little brother Shinichi?"
"I can tell he truly respects you and me. His respect for me comes from the heart, unlike the people in the village, who act respectful but are afraid of me inside. He doesn't seem very afraid of me, even though I'm a Jinchūriki."
"Could it be that little brother Shinichi is too young to know about Jinchūriki?"
"I couldn't say. But it's been a long time since I've had three-colored dango. The taste really brings back memories."
If Hyuga Shinichi had known what the two were discussing as he followed Nawaki, he would have thought, Of course I should respect the two of you.
Uzumaki Mito was Senju Hashirama's wife. To help Senju Hashirama seal the Nine-Tails inside her and make her a Jinchūriki, she had taken it into herself.
The Nine-Tails was an embodiment of hatred. No matter how powerful Uzumaki Mito's Sealing Jutsu was, the Nine-Tails must have affected her to some degree. She had endured it for decades. Even after Senju Hashirama passed away, she remained Konoha's Jinchūriki, protecting the village he had built.
Tsunade, meanwhile, was a top-tier medical ninja who would save countless lives on future battlefields.
Before reincarnating from the modern world into the Shinobi World, Hyuga Shinichi had always admired medical workers who saved lives. During the pandemic, they had said goodbye to their families and gone to the front lines despite the danger to themselves. That was why so many people had been saved.
After following Nawaki to a storeroom, Hyuga Shinichi spoke up.
"By the way, Nawaki, what did you bring me here to see?"
"Heh heh, Shinichi, do you know what I found in this storeroom?"
Seeing that Hyuga Shinichi looked like he had no intention of guessing, Nawaki stopped keeping him in suspense.
"Ta-da! This is the Sword Technique Training Manual! It's a collection of sword techniques my Grandpa Tobirama gathered while researching swordsmanship. What do you think?"
At Nawaki's age, the idea of wearing a sword at his waist and becoming a samurai or a wandering swordsman sounded incredibly cool. To be precise, it was probably a dream every boy had.
After hearing Nawaki's introduction, Hyuga Shinichi's eyes sparkled as he watched Nawaki hold the Sword Technique Training Manual aloft. In his previous life, he, too, had dreamed of carrying a sword and roaming the world when he was a child. Then one day, he had accidentally smashed the cauliflower growing at his family's old home with a stick, and his dream had been beaten to pieces right along with his backside.
"Awesome! Nawaki, are you going to practice swordsmanship?"
"Heh heh, you bet! I'm going to become Konoha's greatest swordsman!"
"But weren't you going to become Hokage?"
Nawaki was momentarily stumped, but soon regained his fiery enthusiasm.
"That doesn't conflict! I can just become a Hokage who uses a sword! What do you think, Shinichi?"
"Mm, that sounds really cool."
Seeing Hyuga Shinichi thoughtfully resting his chin in his hand before giving an approving answer, Nawaki happily scratched his head and said,
"Hahahaha, you think so too, Shinichi?"
Nawaki had no idea what Hyuga Shinichi was thinking just then. Shinichi was imagining how cool he would look as Hokage, with a sword at his waist.
To protect the village against countless enemy ninjutsu attacks, he would draw his sword and swing it once, and every attack would be swept away. Then he would declare, "No matter how many ninjutsu you hurl at me, I'll cut through them all with one strike!"
"Then are you going to learn swordsmanship too, Shinichi? Oh, right, you're from the Hyuga Clan, so you're supposed to practice Gentle Fist."
Hyuga Shinichi replied,
"You're going to be a Hokage who uses a sword. Why can't I be a swordsman from the Hyuga Clan?"
"That's true. We'll become Konoha's two greatest swordsmen and protect the village together. Just thinking about it is so cool."
Nawaki could clearly see how interested Hyuga Shinichi was in swordsmanship, and he was excited too, so he didn't say anything more. The two sat on the floor, leaning against each other as they began reading the Sword Technique Training Manual.
"Come on, Shinichi. Let's give it a try."
"Okay, here I come."
After reading part of the manual, the two picked up wooden swords from the storeroom and began sparring.
During the spar, Hyuga Shinichi realized he seemed to have quite a talent for swordsmanship.
One of the Byakugan's abilities was the Insight Eye, which gave him a 360-degree field of vision. It also granted him X-Ray Vision, allowing him to see an opponent's meridians, acupuncture points, bones, and chakra flow. He could study an opponent and judge how to respond. (In the Demon Slayer world, it would be like having a built-in, enhanced version of the Transparent World.)
However, after a few rounds, Nawaki accused him of cheating and banned him from using the Byakugan. With the Byakugan off-limits, Hyuga Shinichi could also feel the wind-nature chakra inside him becoming unusually active, giving him yet more ideas.
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