The Vanished Weakness and a Request

Following the growth of his strength, Shinichi Hyuga desired to open a new world.

He could not settle for a mundane world just because the name was identical to that of a certain "roller-washing-machine" detective!

However, the difficulty of opening a world exceeded his imagination, requiring ten thousand Manifestation Points.

That was the equivalent of the souls of one hundred standard jonin.

Even for characters from such mundane worlds who possessed special talents, it still required one thousand Manifestation Points; he would need to participate in war.

Without a Great Ninja War, merely executing missions took a very long time. Fortunately, his strength had grown significantly by then, and he had already become a special jonin skilled in taijutsu.

This was still not enough!

He needed a powerful world and a powerful character to change the predicament he faced.

After the Second Great Ninja War ended.

With his rising strength, he was recalled by the Hyuga main house to become a guardian for Hyuga Hiashi.

There was no environment for him to fight and kill.

The goal of opening a second world seemed infinitely distant, so he could only redeem the template of Haibara Ai to study the Caged Bird.

Haibara Ai's talent lay in scientific research; she possessed an unimaginable gift for biology.

It was a pity, however, that all his military exploits were credited to Hyuga Hiashi.

These contributions only earned him the Eight Trigrams Palm, which the main house forbade the branch family from learning. Such low-level taijutsu was something he had already mastered after watching it a few times, though he had never used it.

At that time, Hyuga Hiashi only needed to stay at the rear of the battlefield. All the credit earned by the clan's ninjas allowed Hyuga Hiashi, who had never participated in a major battle, to become a renowned hero.

The ninjas of Kumogakure only knew they were facing a Hyuga clan ninja with Byakugan. Only those who truly faced Shinichi Hyuga knew the pressure he exerted.

Under the guise of "clan honor," they stripped him of his war merits; this was the tragedy of the Hyuga branch family.

During the Third Great Ninja War, he was once again sent by the clan to the Kumogakure battlefield, and it was during this war.

He finally manifested a second world—a decent one at that: the Ajin World.

Battle after battle made him famous on the battlefield, to the point where even the main house could not suppress his reputation.

During an operation assisting Minato Namikaze against Fourth Raikage A and Killer B, he failed due to the inherent flaws of the branch family's Byakugan.

Killer B activated his Tailed Beast Mode to lure him into an aggressive charge, only to sacrifice one of the Eight-Tails' tails to hide within the blind spot of his eyes, gouging out one of his eyes and tearing off his right arm.

Shinichi Hyuga recalled the words of Fourth Raikage A, which remained vivid to this day.

"Lord Shinichi, I admire your strength, but you have a fatal flaw: you are too noble. I fear you don't even deign to kill. There is no lethal intent in your techniques."

The words of Fourth Raikage A jolted him awake.

Kicking Nobleman? What a ridiculous title!

His soul was one that had lived in an era of peace, and the template he had loaded was Kyogoku Makoto.

Regardless of how many people died in the world of Conan, that world had a sound legal system, and his techniques were mostly intended for sparring.

He lacked true killing techniques. Although his strength was sufficient, his mindset had not adapted to this cruel ninja world—a world where people devoured one another!

At that moment, he realized his weakness.

He also understood that he could have avoided defeat that time. But the members of the Hyuga main house needed him to lose.

While he was fighting, they had actually activated the Caged Bird, sealing a portion of his vision, which caused his reaction to be momentarily sluggish.

After that, he was sent to Amegakure to carry out missions.

In the eyes of others, having lost one Byakugan and one arm, his strength should have been greatly diminished.

It was also during his time in Amegakure that Shinichi Hyuga met a woman, Uzumaki Tomoko.

Uzumaki Tomoko was a survivor of the Uzumaki clan. On the battlefield of Amegakure, the two relied on each other, eventually resulting in the fruit of their love, Reiko Hyuga.

Unfortunately, Uzumaki Tomoko's body had been damaged during her time as a wanderer.

She passed away while giving birth to Reiko Hyuga!

"Shinichi, take good care of Reiko! Let her grow up happily!" This was the final wish of Uzumaki Tomoko.

During that period, Shinichi Hyuga truly integrated into this world.

With a family came responsibility, and he was determined to fulfill Uzumaki Tomoko's final wish.

In this world, there existed forbidden techniques capable of bringing the dead back to life; if he succeeded, their family could live happily together.

The first priority was to take good care of Reiko Hyuga. He chose to bring Reiko Hyuga back to Konoha; in the ninja world, Konoha was a sanctuary of sorts.

The appearance of Reiko Hyuga brought him some scrutiny, but due to his past performance on the battlefield, Reiko had been well cared for over the past few years.

Now, he had to face the brand of the Caged Bird; he did not want his daughter to be subjected to such treatment.

Why should Hyuga Hiashi's daughter be born into the main house, showered with endless affection?

His daughter would not become a toy for others.

He needed to become strong—strong enough to dominate this world.

To compensate for his weaknesses, he had spent ten thousand Manifestation Points some time ago to materialize an Ajin template.

Ajin No. 002, Tanaka Koji.

He chose this Ajin, discovered within the borders of the Land of Fire, because the decade of torture he had endured provided the experience necessary to shore up Shinichi Hyuga's shortcomings.

The Kicking Nobleman, who once refused to strike at an opponent's weak points, was now filled with violence after integrating the tortured experiences of the Ajin, causing his techniques to undergo a metamorphosis.

The only thing Shinichi Hyuga found difficult to accept was that the Ajin bloodline could not be passed down through genetics.

Furthermore, these templates could not be applied to his own daughter, forcing him to seek solutions elsewhere.

Today, he had come to seek the help of Minato Namikaze; after all, the two were close comrades-in-arms with a certain degree of friendship between them.

But to what extent would Minato Namikaze, now that he had become Hokage, be willing to go for him, and what would the final outcome be?

Ultimately, it all came down to his own lack of sufficient strength.

Just as Shinichi Hyuga closed his eyes to focus, he felt a tugging sensation.

"Shinichi, the Clan Head and the Great Elder have arrived!" the Third Elder whispered, standing up to bow to Hyuga Hiashi and the Great Elder of the Hyuga clan.

He had already lowered his head, still tugging at Shinichi Hyuga.

There was a joke among the great clans of Konoha.

If two members of the Hyuga clan were together, how could one identify the branch family member?

It was easy: one lowered their head, and the other held theirs high. The one with the lowered head was the branch family, and the one with the head held high was the main family.

Shinichi Hyuga opened his eyes, killing intent rippling through his heart.

Back during his battle against Fourth Raikage A and Killer B, it was one of these people who had activated the Caged Bird, sealing his vision at a critical moment.

It was precisely because of this that Fourth Raikage A and Killer B knew their victory was dishonorable, and in the end, they did not kill him.

Because he was lost in thought, his unusual behavior was noticed by the two main family members.

"Shinichi, you should be mindful of your station! You are merely a member of a lowly branch family."

Hyuga Hiashi continued toward the center of the venue, while the Great Elder of the Hyuga clan approached Shinichi Hyuga.

He scolded him from a position of superiority, making no effort to hide the displeasure in his eyes.

"So it was you!" Shinichi Hyuga raised his head, the pain in the center of his brow bringing a sense of familiarity.

It appeared now that this old geezer was the one who had cast the Caged Bird curse seal on him during his battle.

That aura was something he could never forget.

Minato Namikaze probably knew about this too, didn't he?