The Unknown Hidden Compartment Under the Bed

He had no idea how these people intended to deal with him.

Kawaki Aoba could be said to have become a thorn in the side of the Hyuga clan; as long as this hidden danger remained unresolved, certain individuals would likely find it difficult to even sleep soundly.

The same held true for Kawaki Aoba, though what infuriated him more was that he could not escape this trouble known as the Hyuga.

Returning home, Kawaki Aoba only wanted to lie on his bed and get some proper rest, but the moment he stepped into his room, he sensed something was wrong.

Someone had been in his room.

Before leaving the village, Kawaki Aoba had specifically used his Observation Haki to memorize the placement of every item in the room. Now, probing with it once more, he discovered several unusual discrepancies.

With a suspect already in mind, Kawaki Aoba used his Observation Haki to monitor every move of the person watching him from the shadows.

The veins around the observer's eyes were bulging—a clear sign that they had activated their Byakugan.

Kawaki Aoba calmly put away the ninja tools he was carrying and lay down on the bed to rest, making everything appear perfectly natural.

The watcher could see his movements with the Byakugan, but they could not detect the presence of his Observation Haki.

Silently and imperceptibly, Kawaki Aoba used his Observation Haki to scan every corner of the room.

Sure enough, in the minute details, he discovered the source of the anomaly.

When had a secret compartment appeared under his bed?

His Observation Haki continued to penetrate downward, beginning to probe what exactly had been stuffed into that hidden space.

It looked like... a book.

Kawaki Aoba was baffled, unable to understand why they would hide a book there. Even if they had left a stack of Explosive Tags to blow him to bits while he slept, that would have been better than this.

His Observation Haki detected absolutely no threat from that book.

Yet, this simultaneously stirred a sense of unease in Kawaki Aoba's heart. The unknown was always the most terrifying; if they had brazenly tried to kill him with Explosive Tags, that would have been easy enough to handle.

But now, hiding a book of unknown origin under his bed left him completely in the dark as to what kind of medicine they were selling in their gourd.

Moreover, the Hyuga clansmen outside showed no movement at all, as if they had nothing to do but watch him.

Since that was the case, Kawaki Aoba decided he would simply wear them down.

He refused to believe that the guy outside could keep his Byakugan activated and stare at him forever.

Kawaki Aoba had activated the Byakugan himself, so he naturally knew that such a drain was not something an ordinary person could sustain for long.

Sure enough, not long after, the other party's Byakugan deactivated.

Wait, was the duration for which they kept the Byakugan active a bit too short?

To be safe, Kawaki Aoba didn't make any other moves, choosing instead to lie on the bed for a while longer.

As expected, after a short interval, the other party's Byakugan activated once again.

Damn it!

Kawaki Aoba cursed inwardly, realizing he likely wouldn't be able to shake off the person outside anytime soon.

However, if they wanted to play a war of attrition, he would accompany them to the end; after all, he wasn't the one burning through chakra by repeatedly activating the Byakugan.

Even with this intermittent activation, the amount of time they could hold out was strictly limited.

The reality was much as Kawaki Aoba had guessed.

As time dragged on, the repeated activation of the Byakugan left the person watching him from the shadows with swollen and aching eyes.

Little guy, can't hold on anymore, can you? Then hurry up and take a break.

Kawaki Aoba had a good plan: he would wait until they couldn't hold on and took a break, then he would go down and inspect what that book hidden in the secret compartment was.

Only by knowing what they had prepared for him could he guess what method they intended to use to deal with him.

But what caught Kawaki Aoba off guard was that just as he thought the person peeping at him with the Byakugan was about to reach their limit...

They switched shifts.

The coordination between the two watchers was seamless; the moment the "old friend" deactivated their Byakugan, the new arrival immediately stepped in to take their place.

What frustrated Kawaki Aoba even more was, didn't these branch family ninjas know how to slack off or goof around?

It was the village, after all, not some dangerous place outside, and he certainly wasn't going to run away.

Or was it that these guys truly felt a sense of fulfillment in throwing their lives away for the Hyuga Main Family?

Kawaki Aoba was going crazy. He had essentially given up on the idea of wearing them down.

Spotting a gap when the watcher deactivated their Byakugan, Kawaki Aoba rolled off the bed and created a Shadow Clone to take his place, while his real body used the Transformation Technique to disguise itself as an unremarkable shuriken, hiding inside his ninja tool pouch.

The Transformation Technique was a basic skill learned at the ninja academy and could not escape the insight of the Byakugan, but the technique Kawaki Aoba used was entirely different.

Although it shared the name, it was actually a special superpower from the Dragon Ball world.

It was a bug-tier ability that allowed him to transform into a missile and soar through the sky with a trail of fire.

Now that he had transformed into a shuriken, as long as his chakra didn't run out, no one would be able to detect a single flaw in him. This was the guarantee that had given Kawaki Aoba the confidence to escape Konoha if he were ever forced to.

Sure enough, when the Hyuga clansman watching him from the shadows activated their Byakugan again, they didn't notice anything amiss.

After confirming that everything was in order, the Shadow Clone replacing the real body on the bed began to move.

Perhaps feeling that he had rested long enough, the Shadow Clone groped his way out of the courtyard, looking for all the world like someone who wanted to wander around and see the sights.

"A blind man who can't stay put at home and insists on running around—what a nuisance." With a frown and a muttered complaint, the Hyuga Clan ninja hidden in the shadows followed the Shadow Clone with an impatient look, not harboring a shred of suspicion.

This was born of his disdain for Kawaki Aoba, who had gouged out his own eyes, and an extreme confidence in his own Byakugan.

Back at the location of Kawaki Aoba's true body, seeing that the other party had moved sufficiently far away, he finally dispelled the Transformation Technique.

Without a single wasted movement, Kawaki Aoba headed straight for the hidden compartment beneath his bed.

Kawaki Aoba wanted to see exactly what that book was and what kind of tricks the Hyuga Clan was up to.

The hidden compartment under the bed was easily opened; there were no dangerous traps or lethal poisons, only a simple, thin book resting inside.

Kawaki Aoba picked it up and flipped through the pages, covering them with his max-level Observation Haki as he began to read line by line.

That was right; max-level Observation Haki could distinguish the handwriting on a page, so reading books was entirely possible. The only reason he hadn't revealed this before was that it was simply too outrageous, completely exceeding the upper limits of what sensory ninjutsu could achieve.