Shinichi Hyuga couldn't care less about Black Ghost Conan's request. He hadn't spent any time with his daughter all day, so everything else could wait.
After bathing his daughter, the two of them began packing for their camping trip the next day.
He wanted to give his daughter a happy childhood. The darkness of this world should never affect her.
One month after the Fourth Hokage's wedding ceremony.
Word spread like wildfire that the Hyuga Clan Great Elder had been subdued by Shinichi Hyuga at the wedding.
The humiliation made the Great Elder furious.
Yet deep down, he was filled with fear.
He was a member of the Hyuga Main Family and the owner of a pure Byakugan.
He had clearly activated the Caged Bird Seal at the time, yet it had had no effect on Shinichi Hyuga.
At first, he had only wanted to punish Shinichi Hyuga. He could tell that the Cursed Seal of the Caged Bird was still affecting him.
Shinichi Hyuga had endured all kinds of pain as he moved, but then a strange ripple had appeared for an instant, and somehow it had affected the Caged Bird.
When his own body went out of his control, he activated the Caged Bird's self-destruct mechanism.
The result should have been that the Caged Bird's Cursed Seal destroyed Shinichi Hyuga.
But at the time, the Caged Bird had been completely ineffective against him.
Afterward, he sought out Hyuga Hiashi specifically to ask about it.
Under what circumstances could the Caged Bird be affected?
The Caged Bird was the very foundation of the Hyuga Clan. And now someone had damaged it?
After hearing this, Hyuga Hiashi asked him to confirm it several times.
He was the last person who wanted a problem with the Caged Bird Seal.
Even after they searched through all sorts of records, they still found no answers. A Branch Family member rebelling against the Main Family had never happened before. It was a problem that could destroy the very foundation of the Hyuga Clan.
The mysterious Shinichi Hyuga, who had risen so suddenly, put both men on their guard.
In the end, they decided to move against Shinichi Hyuga at this meeting to select the Hidden Branch Main House.
Someone who threatened the clan's legacy should be made to sacrifice himself for the clan's stability.
Shinichi Hyuga must not be allowed to become the Hidden Branch Main House of the Hyuga Clan.
If Shinichi Hyuga didn't have so many connections, they would already have decided to execute him.
They had to uphold the rule of the Hyuga Main Family.
The news also began to spread among the other clans.
Shinichi Hyuga, the once-fallen genius, was being talked about again.
Those who looked into his record discovered that his talent was in no way inferior to Minato Namikaze's. It was simply that Konoha's High Command and the Hyuga Main Family had kept it hidden.
Some even began comparing Shinichi Hyuga with Minato Namikaze.
He had fought in the Second Shinobi World War, had more experience than Minato Namikaze, and had created a new school of Taijutsu.
In the Third Shinobi World War, people said he had helped Minato Namikaze fight the AB Duo of Kumogakure. In truth, the AB Duo had devoted more of their efforts to dealing with Shinichi Hyuga.
Unfortunately, after he was injured, he spent a long time carrying out missions in Amegakure.
He disappeared from everyone's sight.
Judging by that brief display, this genius hadn't fallen at all. If anything, he shone even brighter than before.
The only things he seemed to lack compared to Minato Namikaze were accomplishments and connections.
Minato Namikaze had been hailed as the man who ended the Third Shinobi World War and raised onto a pedestal.
Only those who truly knew what had happened understood that the war ended because every country had exhausted its capacity to keep fighting.
At first, the other countries had formed an alliance to oppose the Land of Fire.
During the long war, they had distrusted one another and stabbed each other in the back. That had been the biggest problem.
All of this was the Third's doing. He had wanted to put a halo around the young ninja Minato Namikaze and make it easier for him to inherit the Hokage Position.
That's right—inherit it!
The clans of Konoha all turned their attention to the Hyuga Clan's meeting!
Everyone familiar with Shinichi Hyuga knew how much he treasured his daughter. This clan meeting would be a contest of strength, with all sides trying to gain a foothold in the Hyuga Clan.
Some ninjas took the initiative to help people they were close to.
The Third began contacting his former subordinates as well. Claiming that retirement had left him bored, he found all kinds of excuses to give instructions behind the scenes!
Orochimaru, who had already withdrawn from the political game, also began making the rounds among his former subordinates.
A Jonin of the Hyuga Clan who received invitations from both men was given two different hints, and could only fret silently.
The Konoha that once stayed out of clan politics was long gone.
All kinds of connections had become entangled.
By contrast, Minato Namikaze, the newly appointed Hokage, made no move at all.
The clan meeting took place one month after the wedding.
Today, the Hyuga Clan compound turned away visitors and admitted only those who had been invited.
Only the clan head had the authority to invite guests.
The Hyuga Clan members throughout the compound were celebrating.
The Genin and Chunin, unaware of what was really going on, were celebrating the war's final end, their smiles never fading.
During the war, Branch Family members like them had been treated as expendable. Almost every squad had been assigned a sensory ninja, and they were among the most common.
Now that the wartime squads had been disbanded, their losses had fallen to a minimum.
Only those Hyuga Clan ninjas who knew the truth understood the true importance of this meeting.
The Hyuga Clan's Hidden Branch Main House would be chosen at this meeting.
In Shinichi Hyuga's original memories, perhaps because of the Third's interference and Hyuga Hiashi's methods, the Hidden Branch Main House would disappear into the mists of history.
They would claim it was to protect the Hyuga Clan's legacy.
They would say it was to prevent the Mist Village from stealing another pure-blooded Byakugan.
The Third had previously seemed to support the Hyuga Clan Great Elder, but that had only been to lull him into complacency.
His real plan was to join forces with Hyuga Hiashi and consolidate even more power in the Hyuga Clan under Hiashi's control.
Now that Shinichi Hyuga was involved, the outcome could change in unpredictable ways.
Evening.
The ordinary clan members, Genin, and Chunin had all been dismissed. Only the Jonin with decision-making power remained.
They gathered in the Hyuga Clan's Ancestral Hall for the final confrontation.
With a history spanning fifty years in Konoha and more than a thousand years in the Ninja World, the Hyuga Clan's Ancestral Hall was steeped in antiquity. Its interior was nearly half the size of a training ground.
The Hyuga Clan had more than a hundred and twenty Jonin. Over twenty were elderly and had lost their combat strength, but they had not been stripped of their right to vote in the selection.
With more than a hundred people gathered in the spacious Ancestral Hall, the place still looked somewhat empty.
After paying their respects to their ancestors, they each joined their chosen faction and waited.
Around the clan head, Hyuga Hiashi, stood about fifty people, most of them old and stubborn.
The Hyuga Clan Great Elder also had more than fifty people around him, most of them middle-aged and at the peak of their strength.
Only a little over twenty stood with Shinichi Hyuga, most of them rising young talents.
The factions had become clear at a glance.
The once solemn Ancestral Hall grew somewhat noisy as time passed.
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