Mixed-Blood Eyes

Torrential rain poured down as Aoike knelt before a grave, the delayed grief turning the world in his eyes into a shade of gray.

He lifted his head, his pure white eyes shifting to red. Three black tomoe spun rapidly within his pupils, gradually connecting into the shape of a six-pointed star petal.

"Mother..."

"This world is so absurd!" Two trails of blood-stained tears slid from the corners of his eyes as his body leaned powerlessly against the tombstone.

His young body could no longer bear the burden of two powerful ocular powers, and he fell into a deep sleep upon the graveyard, beside the only kin he had left in this world.

When Aoike opened his eyes again, the sky was brightening; an entire night had passed.

He wiped the dried bloodstains from his eyes. His clothes were soaked through, and he could feel the stinging ache radiating from his eyes.

He walked out of the graveyard and returned to his cold, empty home. The pension he received was bought with the life of his mother, who had sacrificed herself to protect Hinata.

His mother's death was like a pebble dropped into the ocean. Aside from stirring up monstrous waves in his own heart, to the entire Konoha—

No!

Even to the Hyuga clan alone, it didn't even count as a ripple.

In life, she was cautious and dutiful.

In death, she was nameless and insignificant.

"How cheap."

Standing before the mirror, the blood-red three-tomoe Sharingan covered his Byakugan. A sense of intense emptiness followed, forcing him to deactivate the Sharingan.

Although he knew the three-tomoe was not his limit, he dared not rashly unlock the deeper, more powerful strength.

Uchiha Itachi was a cautionary tale; opening and using the Mangekyo too early could lead to a severe bloodline disease.

Not to mention he was only five years old, with less than half a unit of chakra.

As a transmigrator born into this world, he had tried his best to influence Hyuga Shirahana to cherish her life, yet as Hinata's guard, Shirahana still could not escape her fated death.

"Land of Lightning!"

"Hyuga!"

(Timeline adjusted to Neji at six, main cast at five, triggering the Land of Lightning kidnapping incident.)

Aoike shifted his gaze to his reflection in the mirror.

Perhaps due to bloodline atavism, his hair was as white as snowflakes, and his young, baby-faced features were flushed with a healthy glow. Yet, on his forehead—which should have been pure—lay the light green mark unique to the Hyuga branch family.

Caged Bird Seal.

"It doesn't matter. One day, I will erase this mark along with the Hyuga clan itself." Gently stroking his forehead, Aoike did not cover the Caged Bird Seal. The shackles that Hyuga Neji was unwilling to face were, to him, only a matter of time.

With one technique from his Mangekyo and the Otsutsuki clan on the moon, if the Byakugan could not break this fate, he would let the Tenseigan do it.

Before then, the identity of a Hyuga branch member was his camouflage.

As a half-blood of the Uchiha and Hyuga, the Hyuga clan's attitude toward him was predictable. If not for the clan rule that the Byakugan could not be leaked, he would have been driven out of the Hyuga long ago.

As a child unwelcome by both the Uchiha and the Hyuga, he had not inherited a surname, possessing only the name Aoike left by his parents.

Time passed—

At six years old, Aoike had already made a name for himself in the clan academy, and some in the clan were already mentioning him in the same breath as Hyuga Neji.

Thus, unexpectedly, Hyuga Hiashi had him take over his mother's position, becoming Hinata's guard and sparring partner.

This reminded Aoike of the famous quote from Naruto: the Hokage's son remains the Hokage, and the scapegoat's son remains the scapegoat.

At the Ninja Academy entrance ceremony, Aoike stood quietly by Hinata's side, doing his best to play the part of a qualified guard.

Hyuga Hiashi watched Aoike's composed behavior from a distance, nodded with satisfaction, and returned to the clan grounds.

After Hanabi was born, his attention on Hinata was no longer as focused as it once was.

This made it easier for the bond between Aoike and Hinata to deepen.

In Aoike's view, Hinata was, to a large extent, an "inheritance" bought with the life of his kin.

After the Hokage's speech concluded, Aoike led the shy Hinata toward their classroom. As an elite class with backgrounds or potential, Aoike got his wish and saw the future members of the main cast.

Ino-Shika-Cho, Sasuke, Naruto...

He pulled the bashful Hinata to a window seat and sat down honestly.

As more people arrived, Iruka finally walked into the classroom to take charge.

The sound of a book slamming against the podium silenced the noisy room. Watching the classroom return to order, Iruka wrote his name on the blackboard with satisfaction.

"I am Umino Iruka, your teacher for the next six years. I hope we can all get along well in the time to come..."

After the formulaic pleasantries ended, the crowd-pleasing "state your dreams" segment arrived.

Naruto, who wanted to become Hokage.

Sasuke, who admired his older brother.

The lazy pineapple-head.

When it was Hinata's turn, she stood up cautiously and snuck a glance at Aoike, her voice so low that even Aoike could only catch the gist of it.

Under Aoike's gentle gaze, little Hinata's brain finally overloaded and crashed.

Aoike was quick to steady her, pulling out a prepared pillow to help her settle into a comfortable sleeping position.

"Sorry, Hinata is a bit shy..." Aoike stood up to offer a brief explanation, taking the opportunity to state his own aspirations.

"My name is Aoike. I like delicious food, I don't have anything I dislike for the time being, and my dream is to become a strong person capable of protecting those I cherish!"

By imitating his mother's gentle temperament, combined with the bonus of his cute appearance, he stirred up the young girls in the class who had already begun "reading the room" at the age of six.

Ignoring the fact that children in the ninja world hit "puberty" early, he had been focusing all his energy on Hinata lately, though not for the reasons some people might think.

Aoike remembered that official records stated Otsutsuki Toneri and his father had traveled between Earth and the moon several times via a "cave," and the timing coincided with Hinata's childhood.

To pinpoint the location of that cave, he had to be aware of when Toneri and his father came to observe Hinata.

To that end, he had been training in a Wind Release sensory technique found in a scroll left behind by the Uchiha father he had never met.

Wind Release--Heart Kamaitachi Technique.

Simply put, it was a technique that used gentle breezes to perceive different objects—a rather lackluster jutsu.

Because aside from being able to sense different winds, it could perceive almost no other information about the target, such as distance or the number of people.

It was the kind of technique a ninja used as a personal alert while preparing for battle, but for Aoike right now, it was just right.

After more than a year of training, he was already able to distinguish between different winds within a radius of about eight hundred meters.