The Direction of the Future

"Did you know? There's a noodle shop that sells ice cream. It's cold and refreshing, and really delicious."

"Ice cream? What's that?" the boy asked, puzzled.

"I'll take you there next time. You'll understand once you try it. No amount of talking about it beats tasting it for yourself."

Ice cream had become popular recently, though Hyuga Gen had given it a helping hand. With his promotion, it was hard to imagine it not catching on.

They'd heard plenty of people talking about it lately. Honestly, he was quite pleased. It meant all his hard work had paid off.

"Natsu, have you seen Xiaojin these past few days?"

"No. Why?"

"I haven't run into it lately either. Do you think someone caught it and roasted it?"

Hyuga Gen sounded unsure. Xiaojin really hadn't come back for several days, and he was a little worried.

"What should we do? We haven't even eaten it yet! We can't let someone else get it. Big Brother Gen, we need to hurry and look for it!"

Hyuga Natsu seemed anxious, though her line of reasoning was rather unusual.

"The day after tomorrow is the weekend. If we still haven't seen it by then, we'll go look for it."

Hyuga Gen had already decided that once they found Xiaojin, he'd give it a beating first and ask questions later. Unfortunately, when they did find it, he didn't get the chance to. But that was a story for later.

It had been almost a month since school started. As usual, Hyuga Gen and Hyuga Natsu walked to school together.

When he got to the classroom, Hyuga Gen greeted Uchiha Itachi, then started chatting with Uchiha Izumi.

That was the benefit of sitting together: being close gave him the advantage. Since Hyuga Gen had made a point of paying attention to her, he was learning more and more about Uchiha Izumi.

He learned that she hadn't been born in Konoha and had moved back two years ago. It seemed that her father had passed away, so she and her mother had turned to her mother's family for support.

But their good fortune didn't last. During the Nine-Tails Incident, her grandmother had fallen and injured herself. Given her advanced age, she passed away not long afterward.

Hyuga Gen had also come to realize that Konoha's medical care wasn't very good. The difference between Konoha with Tsunade and Konoha without her was like night and day.

Now Izumi and her mother lived together in their old house, relying on each other. Money was tight, so whenever she had time, she helped her mother with the housework or took on odd jobs with her to help make ends meet.

Compared to her, he was practically a young master. It wasn't as if he expected to be dressed and fed without lifting a finger, but he wasn't far off.

Come to think of it, although the Uchiha Clan was strong, they really weren't as wealthy as the Hyuga Clan. They prized strength and ninjutsu, but hadn't made much effort to develop their businesses.

Of course, the Uchiha had been suppressed ever since the Second Hokage's time. Building up their businesses wasn't easy.

"Izumi, have you noticed anything different about Itachi today?"

Hyuga Gen glanced at Uchiha Itachi again before asking. He couldn't explain why, but Itachi seemed just a little different today.

"Not really. What's different?"

Uchiha Izumi glanced at Itachi too, then looked at Hyuga Gen in confusion.

"I can't quite put my finger on it. It's just a feeling."

Hyuga Gen pondered it, but before he could think any further, the bell rang. The teacher entered the classroom to take attendance.

Hyuga Gen already knew the material taught at the Ninja Academy by heart. The one difference was that they didn't teach the Substitution Technique.

That was right, they didn't teach it. This world didn't seem to have that technique at all. It was one of the basic techniques taught at the Ninja Academy in Shippuden, after all, yet it was absent here. Hyuga Gen found that a little strange, but didn't dwell on it.

Actually, the Ninja Academy covered a pretty broad range of subjects: Taijutsu, ninjutsu, genjutsu, and Fuinjutsu. But they only taught the basics.

Taijutsu lessons focused on basic techniques. Ninjutsu lessons covered chakra extraction, the Transformation Technique, and the Clone Technique. Genjutsu lessons focused on theory and ways to break illusions. Fuinjutsu lessons offered only a brief introduction and taught students how to draw sealing scrolls.

The curriculum mainly focused on Taijutsu, ninjutsu, and using various ninja tools. Students didn't learn even a little about genjutsu and Fuinjutsu until the upper grades.

Genjutsu and Fuinjutsu only became effective at advanced levels. Low-level genjutsu could only have a slight effect on someone, while low-level Fuinjutsu couldn't even trap a bird. It took several people working together to make it effective. Advanced Fuinjutsu was rare and precious; without sufficient skill and contributions, people couldn't even get near it.

Besides, both fields demanded exceptional talent. For anyone without it, studying them was almost pointless. They might as well throw a Shuriken instead.

Of course, everything had two sides. If you weren't proficient, these arts were practically useless. But master them—even to the point of perfection—and they were a different matter entirely.

The Uchiha Clan was renowned throughout the Ninja World for its Sharingan Genjutsu. Once someone awakened the Sharingan, they could use genjutsu, making them difficult to guard against.

And techniques like Uchiha Itachi's Tsukuyomi and Shisui's Kotoamatsukami were so powerful they seemed like cheats. Master them, and you were a genius; fail, and you were a joke.

Without a Kekkei Genkai, very few ordinary people could master genjutsu. Of the ones who had gained some renown, the only one he knew of was Yuhi Kurenai, but even she was no match for Tsukuyomi.

Then there was Fuinjutsu. When it came to Fuinjutsu, the Uzumaki Clan had to be mentioned. They had been wiped out because their mastery of Fuinjutsu was so powerful that even the Tailed Beasts could be sealed. That was enough to make anyone wary of them.

But since the Uzumaki Clan had been destroyed, very few people knew advanced Fuinjutsu. The advanced formulas were generally held by the higher-ups, and ordinary people had no access to them.

Hyuga Gen didn't plan to study genjutsu in depth. He would focus on learning how to break it. He had already realized that he had some resistance to genjutsu.

He suspected it was because his soul had merged with that of the original owner, making his own soul far stronger than an ordinary person's. He remembered that in Shippuden, Sakura had two souls—or, more accurately, a split personality—which made her mental strength exceptionally powerful. During the Chunin Ninja Exams, she broke the genjutsu almost instantly.

She was only a Genin at the time, while most Chunin and even some Jonin had fallen for it. That showed how important a powerful soul and strong mental energy were. They were the perfect defense against genjutsu.

As for Fuinjutsu, Hyuga Gen was very interested in it. More than anything, he was fascinated by the Flying Thunder God Technique. Who wouldn't want to become the fastest man in the Ninja World?

Although he didn't know the details of the Flying Thunder God Technique, he'd seen it used plenty of times. In his view, the key to mastering it was Fuinjutsu.

In all of Naruto Shippuden, only the Second Hokage and the Fourth Hokage had mastered the Flying Thunder God Technique. No one else ever learned it. Talent was certainly important, but it wasn't hard to see that Fuinjutsu mattered too.

Yes, he meant the technique's spatial marker formula. Unless the user deliberately erased it, it remained in place. Without it, the user couldn't mark a location and teleport there.

As Hyuga Gen saw it, this tiny, simple-looking Fuinjutsu formula was the key to the entire Flying Thunder God Technique. The Third Hokage had been able to master it partly because of his talent and partly because he had a wonderful wife, Uzumaki Kushina.

With a master of Fuinjutsu there to guide him, learning it would naturally be no problem. And Minato had talent too, so mastering the Flying Thunder God Technique had come easily to him.

Hyuga Gen had already decided what to focus on before graduation: chakra control, Gentle Fist Taijutsu, Genjutsu Release, and exploring Fuinjutsu. He'd worry about everything else later.

He was a transmigrator. Though he had no system, his soul was unusually powerful, he had an almost photographic memory, and he understood this world. What could possibly stop him from succeeding?

Keep a low profile and grow stronger, rise to the top of life, then settle down as a carefree slacker. It was only a matter of time.