Konoha's Strongest Clan

At that moment, Kurenai stepped between the two and broke the silence. "Dad, is dinner ready?"

Yuhi Shinku emerged from his memories of his old friend and replied, "I made it ahead of time. It's in the kitchen. Go bring it out."

Kurenai obediently went into the kitchen. Yuhi Shinku turned and invited Toru to sit down. "Have a seat, Toru. Make yourself at home. There's no one at your place anyway, so why not come eat dinner at our house every evening? You can try my cooking, and it'll make things livelier around here."

Toru politely tried to decline, but Yuhi Shinku seemed rather insistent, so Toru didn't feel right refusing again.

"Thank you, Uncle."

Yuhi Shinku smiled in satisfaction. "You and Kurenai are about the same age. She's less than a year older than you, so you can keep each other company and study and train together."

Toru looked at Yuhi Shinku's thin, stern face, now softened by warmth and affection. It was clear that Yuhi Shinku doted on his daughter.

Toru obediently nodded along.

Just then, Yuhi Kurenai came over carrying plates and platters of food. Toru immediately stood up to take them and set them down. Together, the two of them filled the table with food.

Yuhi Shinku wore a satisfied smile as he picked up the chopsticks and handed them to the two of them.

The three sat down and enjoyed a sumptuous meal.

As they ate, Yuhi Shinku repeated to Kurenai what he'd just told Toru, saying that the two of them should have dinner at home together from now on and help each other whenever they ran into trouble, and so on.

Compared with Toru's calm composure, Kurenai reacted much more strongly. Even the way she picked up food with her chopsticks became a little awkward.

Still, Yuhi Kurenai didn't refuse. She just kept repeating to herself that he was her little brother, her little brother, trying to pull her thoughts away from romance.

After all, her father's words sounded awfully like he was finding her a child husband.

After the meal, Toru stayed behind and helped wash the dishes before leaving.

By the time Toru left the Yuhi Household, night had fallen.

Fortunately, Toru had a good memory and had already memorized the route from the Yuhi Household to the Uchiha Clan compound.

Toru had planned to head straight home, but a group of familiar faces stopped him on the way.

They were none other than the brothers Uchiha Doka and Uchiha Tekka, along with the others they'd become acquainted with through fighting.

Toru had assumed Uchiha Doka had come to pick a fight again, but, to his surprise, Doka let out a whoop and threw himself at Toru.

"Big Brother Toru! You have to stand up for us! Someone's bullying the Uchiha!"

Doka clung to Toru's leg and bawled his eyes out, his attitude toward Toru a complete reversal from before.

Toru was a bit of a neat freak, so he shook his leg twice and dislodged Doka. "What happened?"

Doka then explained the whole story.

After school, Doka and the others had planned to find somewhere to train, but the clan's Training Ground was under repair, so they went to the public Training Ground No. 4 instead.

They'd been training just fine when a group of Hyuga Clan students took a liking to the spot they were using. When they refused to give it up, a fight broke out.

But there seemed to be an upperclassman among the Hyuga Clan students. Doka and the others had been completely unable to fight back and were driven away in disgrace.

"Big Brother, those Hyuga Clan guys are so arrogant! Not only did they beat us up, they insulted the Uchiha's reputation, too. They said our title as Konoha's strongest clan was undeserved!"

"Big Brother, you have to stand up for us!"

The others chimed in, copying Doka and calling Toru their big brother as they begged him to avenge them.

Doka then lifted the hems of his and his younger brother Tekka's clothes, revealing a dense scatter of alarming red marks. "Big Brother Toru, that upperclassman did this! They still hurt."

Toru examined them with his Six Eyes and couldn't help feeling startled. The chakra left behind by someone else was blocking the acupoints all over Doka and Tekka's bodies. For a while, they would probably be unable even to gather chakra.

So this must be the Hyuga Clan's technique. They channel chakra into their fingertips and strike it into their opponent's body, disrupting their chakra. A ninjutsu? No, a Taijutsu technique.

Toru quickly analyzed the Hyuga Clan's method with his Six Eyes. It looked like it could be troublesome.

Rather than blindly agreeing to their request, Toru went over to Doka and Tekka first. He told them not to move, then infused their bodies with his chakra and removed the chakra the Hyuga Clan members had left behind.

The pressure and blockage inside them disappeared at once. Doka couldn't help exclaiming, "You're a miracle worker, Big Brother! One dose and we're cured!"

Tekka managed to force out a belated, "Thank you, Big Brother."

Toru replied, "Those Hyuga Clan guys have some skill. I'll teach them a lesson, but not tonight. It's getting late, so you should all go home and rest. Take me to them after school tomorrow, and we'll settle the score."

Hearing that Toru had agreed to avenge them, Doka and the others were overjoyed. After arranging a time with Toru, they scampered off.

On the way, Tekka asked uncertainly, "Do you think Big Brother Toru can beat them?"

Doka dropped his earlier obsequious act. His eyes gleamed with a sharpness his younger brother lacked. "My gut tells me he's stronger than those Hyuga Clan guys. If he can't even beat a few Hyuga, then he doesn't deserve to be our big brother."

Clearly, Doka saw this so-called big brother as nothing more than a tool to avenge them and restore their pride.

Meanwhile, Toru had also seen through Doka's shrewdness. Doka thought that calling him big brother a few times would get him to fight those Hyuga. Whether or not Toru could avenge Doka, at the very least, the two sides might end up badly injured. That would be enough to accomplish Doka's goal.

But Toru had agreed anyway. He'd heard of the Hyuga Clan's reputation. They were apparently one of the village's great clans, and their group included an older student from the Ninja Academy.

If he could defeat these Hyuga Clan members, it would be the best proof of his strength.

Toru planned to show the clan more of his exceptional talent and, in return, earn more attention.

Still, Toru wasn't about to walk into a fight unprepared. He went to the clan head's home. Fugaku was sitting alone in the courtyard, so Toru found him and told him the whole story about Doka and the others.

When Fugaku didn't stop him from going after the Hyuga Clan, Toru asked him for information about them.

Fugaku mainly told him about the Hyuga Clan's two techniques: the Byakugan and Gentle Fist.

As Toru had guessed, Gentle Fist was the Taijutsu technique that had left Doka and Tekka covered in red marks.

The Byakugan was what interested Toru most. According to Fugaku, almost every Hyuga Clan member could master this dōjutsu, which was on a par with the Sharingan. It granted long-distance vision and the ability to see through things.

It gave them a field of vision of nearly three hundred and sixty degrees, could reach more than a kilometer, and let them see through any obstacle. Combined with Gentle Fist's acupoint strikes, it was a deadly technique.

Toru now had a good idea of what to expect from tomorrow's opponents. They'd be troublesome, but he could win.

After reaching that conclusion, Toru left the clan head's residence.

After Toru was gone, Fugaku gazed at the trees in the courtyard and murmured to himself, "Was this merely a conflict between youngsters, or was the Hyuga Clan behind it? Konoha's strongest clan? Hah. Do you Hyuga really think that title is so easy to claim?"