Hyuga Branch House

No one knows when the profession of shinobi first appeared, but it can be traced back as far as the Sage of Six Paths, who pacified a turbulent world. Relying on his own strength, the Sage of Six Paths founded the Ninja Sect in hopes of world peace. Regrettably, after shinobi emerged, wars only escalated.

Later, the Sage of Six Paths passed away, and the chaos of war began. The major nations hired shinobi organized into clans to fight their wars, while the shinobi themselves fought endlessly against one another, driven by interests and hatred. War was the primary theme of that era, which later generations came to call the Warring States Era.

Until one day, a boy named Hashirama Senju met a boy named Madara Uchiha. Years of continuous warfare were quieted by their hands. Under the leadership of Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha, the Senju Clan and the Uchiha clan forged an alliance. Together with the Land of Fire—which was willing to pacify the territory—and a host of small and medium-sized shinobi clans, they jointly founded Hidden Leaf Village, ushering in the era of one shinobi village per country.

Following the founding of Hidden Leaf Village, other nations quickly followed suit by establishing their own shinobi villages. Among them, the five most powerful nations became known as the Five Great Shinobi Countries, and the era of shinobi officially arrived. Shinobi military groups headed by Kage occupied every corner of this world. Aside from a small fraction of samurai who strove to align themselves with the shinobi, samurai were swept into the dust of history; save for the Land of Iron, the samurai class was nearly forgotten by the world.

After the founding of the shinobi villages, the world ushered in a brief period of peace. However, war broke out once again before long. A scarcity of resources forced the shinobi to resume fighting, and conflict became inevitable.

The First Shinobi World War broke out. In the high-intensity and high-casualty warfare, the Kage of various nations could not escape the arrival of death, and countless shinobi died in battle. With no strength left for successors, the war stopped. The Land of Fire still occupied the most fertile land, and Hidden Leaf Village became the strongest shinobi village, until the Second Shinobi World War broke out.

After more than a decade of rest and recuperation, a new generation of shinobi had replaced the older generation to become the primary battle force of each shinobi village. Dissatisfaction with their own circumstances, coupled with jealousy over the resources of the Land of Fire, ignited the flames of war, and the conflict erupted. Thanks to the Ninja Academy and a series of institutions established by Second Shinobi World War Hokage Tobirama Senju that continuously transfused fresh blood, Konoha still won the Second Shinobi World War, but the Second Hokage also sacrificed his life in this war, and Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi stepped onto the world stage.

The victories of two consecutive shinobi wars pushed Konoha's prestige to an extremely high level. Under the deterrence of Konoha's formidable military strength, peace was maintained for over a dozen years...

The residential area of the Hyuga Clan in Konoha Village

An infant named Hyuga Yuun lay very quietly in the arms of a softly sobbing woman. About half an hour ago, news of his father's death had arrived from the front lines. Because he was the first casualty of the war, people from both the village and the clan came to offer condolences. Of course, the infant Yuun could not yet comprehend such complex Japanese; he could only lie quietly in the woman's arms.

If someone had told Yuun three days ago that transmigration was truly real, he would have just scoffed. Until the matter happened to his own head, he really had no choice but to believe it. Lying in the woman's arms, Yuun slowly closed his eyes. Although he possessed the soul of an adult, his body was still that of an infant, lacking sufficient physical stamina for him to squander.

Three very ordinary years of life passed, and Yuun had learned Japanese while also figuring out his situation. Three days ago, his mother passed away due to illness, leaving behind no special last words, and he did not feel excessive sorrow. After all, he was not all that close to his mother in this lifetime, and even upon becoming an orphan, he felt only a slight sense of melancholy.

His father was a Chunin. Although he belonged to the Hyuga Clan, he was of the Branch House, and his mother was a commoner. They did not leave Yuun with a great deal: a two-story small house, a modest amount of cash, a small relief stipend he could collect every month, and a pair of Byakugan.

Compared to the Sharingan—which could evolve into the Mangekyo Sharingan, Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, and Rinnegan—the Byakugan could not be considered all that exceptional an eye, but Yuun was already very grateful. He was not Long Ao, lacking that grand spirit and destiny of "my fate is up to me, not the heavens." Being able to possess a pair of Byakugan was already a blessing from the heavens, especially in a world where most people were ordinary shinobi, as the Byakugan was a bloodline limit that made people deeply envious.

Since his past life had not made him an inheritor of ancient martial arts nor a powerhouse with a photographic memory, Yuun did not know Taiji, Eight Trigrams Palms, Collapse Fist, or one-inch punch. All he could do was keep his life as regular as possible and take good care of his body. Although he usually exercised, he kept it within limits, stopping appropriately whenever he felt tired so as not to affect his physical development.

In these three years, Yuun was probably the most relaxed person in Konoha. Being just a little child, he did not have to worry about front-line warfare like the adults, nor did he have to worry like other children about bearing the brunt of bad-tempered parents' anger. All he had to do every day was sleep early, rise early, eat a regular diet, and engage in a measured but moderate amount of exercise. Good food, good sleep, and appropriate exercise made Yuun visibly taller than his peers. Coupled with his refined face, walking down the street made him loved by everyone he met. The only thing that caused Yuun a bit of worry was the curse mark known as the Caged Bird. In his memories, Neji seemed to have been branded at around three or four years of age, and as a member of the Branch House, he wondered if he too would face the same fate in the future.

Although the world of Naruto lacked the concept of days of the week, it had a similar method of calculation akin to Friday or Thursday. The schedule Yuun set for himself was to exercise for five days, leaving two days to rest and adjust his condition. These two days were for Yuun to relax, taste various delicacies, and interact more with the villagers so as not to be perceived as reclusive.

"Aunt Kirishima, I'd like three skewers of sticky rice dumplings and three skewers of green tea dumplings." Yuun smiled brightly as he leaned over the counter, stretching out three fingers toward the middle-aged woman behind it and shaking them continuously.

"Oh, it's Yuun." The middle-aged woman first brewed a full cup of tea and placed it before Yuun, then served a plate of dumplings. "Taste Auntie's new tea."

"It smells so good." Yuun sniffed it, picked up the tea to take a light sip, and praised it with a smile.

"Boss, give me ten meat meatballs." A boy wearing tinted sunglasses lifted the curtain and walked into the shop.

"And salt-grilled Pacific saury, too." A silver-bell-like girl's voice came through. Carrying a small backpack and with a few streaks of face paint on her face, a young girl smiled as she followed inside.

"Tch, there's actually a Hyuga here. How annoying." Only then did the boy spot Yuun leaning over the counter.

"Wow, what an adorable child." The girl ran over to Yuun in two or three steps, looking at him with a smiling expression. "Little cutie, what's your name?"

"Ah, Rin, how could you do that?" The tinted-goggles boy shouted in dissatisfaction.

"What do you mean? Kakashi, you be the judge. This child really is very pretty." Rin said with a huff.

Only then did Yuun notice the boy who had entered behind the girl: a head of white hair and that iconic face mask, coupled with a pair of lifeless, low-energy dead fish eyes. This was none other than the immensely popular Kakashi Hatake from his past life.

"..." Kakashi glanced at Yuun and said nothing more.

Silently finishing the dumplings on his plate and leaving money to pay the bill, Yuun ignored the girl's lingering gaze, which seemed to view him as a cute pet, and ran off.

Although he had read the Naruto manga in his past life, he had mostly read it with a sense of intellectual superiority, holding no special attachment to the characters inside. If he had any, it was at most sympathy—though of course, for a certain village-betraying, master-killing, clan-annihilating clown, he felt not the slightest shred of sympathy.

Besides, he had no way to change anything right now. Was he supposed to go tell Kakashi that his future would be full of tragedy? Naturally, even if he had the opportunity to change things, he didn't want to. Knowing the plot inside and out was his greatest advantage; unless necessary, he would never go courting death.