"Yo, Aoba, long time no see! How come you're wearing goggles now? It's really taking some getting used to." The owner of the ninja tool shop handed Kawaki Aoba his custom-made tools, teasing him with a laugh.
"Uh, haha, is it? There's nothing I can do about it. I injured my eyes during a mission a couple of days ago, and they won't be able to handle bright light for quite some time, so I found a pair of goggles to wear."
Kawaki Aoba gave the shop owner a casual answer. He might have looked no different from the way he did on his usual strolls, but in truth, he was desperate to get home.
Even the shop owner, whom he rarely spoke to, could tell something was off about him. Anyone who knew him well would notice it all the more. If he ran into someone he knew on the street, he really wouldn't be able to handle it in his current state.
If his ninja tools hadn't been so badly damaged during his last mission, he wouldn't have stepped outside at all.
After exchanging a few more pleasantries with the owner, Kawaki Aoba hurried off toward his home with his new ninja tools.
Kawaki Aoba was a Konoha Ninja born in Konoha, with Hyuga blood in his veins.
At the same time, he was a transmigrator who had come to the world of Naruto because of an accident.
Although Kawaki Aoba had blood from the Hyuga Clan, he hadn't inherited the clan's Byakugan Kekkei Genkai at birth.
That's right, he was a mixed-blood. His father was an ordinary Jonin from the Hyuga Branch Family, while his mother was just an ordinary Chunin with no ties to a ninja clan.
Actually, cases like his weren't uncommon in Konoha.
The Hyuga and Uchiha Clans were both among Konoha's most prominent clans. They placed the greatest importance on marrying within the clan and keeping their bloodline pure, but that only applied to a small portion of the clan's core members.
Take the Hyuga Clan, for example. The only ones who strictly followed the rule of marrying within the clan were the Main Family. As for the Branch Family,
they had to abide by strict rules, but they were still allowed to marry outsiders. Otherwise, there'd be no distinction between the purity of their bloodlines and the purity of their Byakugan.
When outsiders married into the Hyuga Branch Family, their children fell into one of two categories. The first inherited the Hyuga Clan's Byakugan Kekkei Genkai, and their eyes were white from birth. Those children had to take the Hyuga name and were Hyuga Branch Family members from birth. Once they became ninja, they also had a very high chance of awakening the Byakugan.
The second kind was like Kawaki Aoba. Their eyes looked no different from an ordinary person's at birth, without any obvious signs of the Byakugan.
Those children weren't entitled to the Hyuga name and weren't acknowledged by the Hyuga Clan. Of course, when the Hyuga Clan wanted to marry an outsider, they were the first kind of mixed-blood the clan considered. After all, they did have the Hyuga Clan's blood in their veins, however diluted it might be.
Aside from that, mixed-bloods like Kawaki Aoba were practically no different from ordinary ninja under normal circumstances.
Well, under normal circumstances.
The goggle-wearing Kawaki Aoba was quite obviously not in a normal situation.
With his dark-tinted goggles on, Kawaki Aoba was trying to hide his pure-white eyes.
That's right, he had awakened the Byakugan during his last mission. As for what had caused it, perhaps his emotions had run too high, or maybe it was the shock of being in danger. But what had happened back then no longer mattered.
Now, the most important thing to Kawaki Aoba was to keep himself hidden and make sure no one else found out he'd awakened the Byakugan—especially not anyone from the Hyuga Clan.
Otherwise, given how stubborn the Hyuga Clan was about its bloodline, Kawaki Aoba would be in for a whole lot of trouble.
It wasn't that the Byakugan, a Kekkei Genkai, was bad. It was just that it had come at the worst possible time. If he'd awakened it while he was still in the Ninja Academy, he might have been able to pass off wearing goggles all the time as a matter of personal taste. Then it wouldn't have been so sudden or conspicuous as it was now.
And there was even less to say about awakening it after he'd grown strong. By then, he was confident he could make the Hyuga Clan too afraid to say a word.
But now... Sigh. Could someone tell Hyuga Aoba why his pupils wouldn't go back to normal after he awakened the Byakugan? Those huge, deathly pale eyes were way too conspicuous.
But since it had already happened, the only thing Kawaki Aoba could do now was buy himself as much time as possible to grow stronger—at the very least, strong enough to reach the Elite Jonin or Jonin level.
Only then would he be qualified to stand up to the Hyuga Clan.
For now, Kawaki Aoba had made up his mind: keep his head down whenever he could, and avoid showing his face outside as much as possible. In particular, he'd stay away from the Hyuga Clan's territory. From now on, he'd make sure to take the long way around.
Unfortunately, Kawaki Aoba wanted to keep his head down in peace for a while, but someone else wouldn't allow it.
As the saying went, whatever you feared would come to pass. Just as Kawaki Aoba was about to reach his front door, two ninja stopped him.
One was tall and the other short. Both were dressed like Chunin, and both had a pair of wide-open white eyes.
Hyuga Clan ninja. They'd acted fast.
Someone had leaked the news and told the Hyuga Clan that he'd awakened the Byakugan.
As for who had betrayed him, it might have been a temporary teammate from another squad during his last mission. After all, he'd awakened the Byakugan while fighting alongside them.
Or the information might have leaked from the Third Hokage's office. There was no way his team leader, Yuhi Shinku, wouldn't have told the Hokage that he'd awakened the Byakugan on a mission.
Kawaki Aoba couldn't tell which of those possibilities was right. After all, as long as Konoha's interests weren't harmed, who wouldn't want to do the Hyuga Clan, one of Konoha's great clans, a favor?
The worst-case scenario had come to pass, and there was no changing it. That left only one thing to do: find a way to fight back.
As for giving in or meekly accepting his fate? Sorry, those things didn't exist in Kawaki Aoba's dictionary. Having lived a second life, he hadn't come to this world just to be someone else's dog.
Facing the two Hyuga Chunin, Kawaki Aoba felt no fear. He walked over without the slightest hesitation. He was only going home. What was there to be afraid of?
"Kawaki Aoba, come with us. The elders want you back at the Hyuga Clan Compound to answer some questions." Just as expected, when Kawaki Aoba drew near, the two Hyuga ninja stepped right in front of him. Their tone was so forceful it sounded like an order.
Bah. No need for "sounded like." It was an order.
The Hyuga Clan was one of Konoha's great clans, so it was only natural for its members to be a little proud. In their dealings with outsiders, they might usually restrain themselves because of the village's rules—or perhaps because they were more level-headed.
But when dealing with mixed-blood members who were beneath them? That sense of superiority was already etched into their bones.
It was a common case of bullying your own.
Kawaki Aoba understood, but he still replied to the two of them, as politely as he could, "A good dog doesn't block the road. Move."
Before you continue