Branch House Competition

Wishes were beautiful, but reality was cruel.

Neji realized that he had too few ways to save his own life, so the idea of visiting the Main House Shrine could only be temporarily buried.

Moreover, after a night of experimentation, Neji discovered that the Breath Concealment Art had its limits. It was constrained by his own Qi; once his Qi ran out, the technique would dissipate.

At the same time, he could not fight anyone. The moment he used chakra, the chakra surging through his entire body would instantly break through Qi's seal and flare up beneath the Byakugan.

"Then I'll wait a little longer. Hmph, Main House, since you took what was mine, you'll have to spit it back out with interest."

Neji declared viciously. Paired with his adorable little face, it was genuinely rather comical.

"Young Master Neji... Young Master Neji..." Xiao Xi suddenly rushed into the small courtyard, panting heavily. Bent over with her hands on her knees, she called out to Neji between gasps.

"What happened, Sister Xiao Xi? Don't panic. Take your time!" Neji slowly soothed her.

"Just now... huff, huff... I passed by the training grounds and saw the elders announce that there'll be a pre-enrollment competition for Branch House children tomorrow. All the children enrolling in the second half of the year must participate."

Xiao Xi paused, then blurted out all the news she had heard in one breath.

"I thought it was something serious. It's just a competition. What's the big deal?"

Neji looked at the flustered girl.

"But every year, the Main House challenges the first-place winner! They know more than the Branch House, and every year the Branch House's top-ranked child gets bullied terribly!"

Xiao Xi looked at Neji with concern.

"You said it yourself—they bully the first-place winner. It's not like I'm guaranteed to take first. What are you worrying about?" Neji said helplessly.

"No, Young Master Neji will definitely take first. I know it. You train so hard every day and barely rest at night. You would never allow yourself to be defeated by anyone else."

Xiao Xi looked at Neji with utter conviction.

"You really have faith in me. But we'll see. At worst, I can just surrender when the time comes!"

Neji said indifferently.

Yet inwardly, he thought, Hmph. Even a Branch House competition is used to build up the Main House's prestige. But this time, you've run into me. I'll show you what the Main House really is—nothing but bullshit. As long as I don't beat anyone to death or cripple them, the Main House will probably be careful not to damage such a useful tool as me!

"Don't worry, Sister Xiao Xi. There won't be any problem," Neji continued reassuring her.

"All right..." Xiao Xi still looked deeply worried.

Seeing this, Neji could only try to shift her attention.

"Sister Xiao Xi, did they say what the reward for first place would be?"

At that, Xiao Xi's eyes lit up, and she instantly perked up. "First place gets one hundred thousand ryo, and also an annotated guide to the essentials of the Gentle Fist!"

"That's it?" Neji had not been this speechless since the time before last.

What Xiao Xi saw as an enormous benefit seemed merely so-so to Neji.

"Well, something is better than nothing. It is only a children's competition, after all. The clan won't take it too seriously. Besides suppressing the Branch House, they probably want to establish exemplary figures for the Hyuga Clan after enrollment."

The competition seemed incredibly boring to Neji. If someone really failed to recognize their place and tried to step on him, he would let them know why flowers were so red.

Putting the boring matter out of his mind, Neji began his training for the day.

Ever since discovering that spending only a few hours every night meditating and cultivating Qi would completely restore both the exhaustion from training and the damage to his body, Neji's daily routine could only be described as insane.

He practiced the Eight Trigrams Palm over and over—forward, backward, in chaotic sequences. The plum-blossom training posts in the courtyard had long since been shattered by his palm winds and burned as firewood. The iron training dummy he sparred against was covered in dents and pits, while sandbags and similar equipment had long been unable to keep up with his movements during training.

Neji also wanted to test the results of his cultivation.

"Let me see the strength of the Main House!"

Through these past days of life-threatening training, Neji had already mastered the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms. According to the original story's timeline, Neji was already quite strong among Genin at this point.

Judging by Kakashi's pace of graduating from the Ninja Academy at five and becoming a Chunin at six, Neji could also be called a genius. But this was a time of peace, so there was no need to graduate so early. Although Neji was eager to increase his strength, he did not want to miss out on the peaceful life at school either.

In any case, it would be a long while before the mastermind behind the scenes made a move. Neji was also three years older than Naruto Uzumaki, meaning he had at least three full years before the beginning of Shippuden.

Neji had no particular thoughts about the future Fourth Shinobi World War. If he had the strength, he would join in; if not, he would just coast along. He only needed to make sure he did not get stabbed to death this time.

As for the Ninja World peace-through-nuclear-deterrence philosophy, Konoha's Will of Fire, or creating a world where Rin existed, Neji felt that the more chaotic things became, the better. Chaos was a ladder; only with a ladder was there a chance to climb to the top.

As for Madara Uchiha and Black Zetsu's schemes, Neji thought they were truly perfect. Since he was not yet a piece on the board, he should not jump around for now. He would first protect himself wisely, then see whether there might be a chance to profit from the chaos.

And then there was Kaguya Otsutsuki, the reclusive homebody, Momoshiki Otsutsuki, Kinshiki Otsutsuki, and Isshiki Otsutsuki. Neji could only say that the days ahead would not be lonely. Right now, he was not even a small fry. The road ahead was long and arduous.

The next day, Neji arrived at the training grounds early. More than a dozen children had gathered together, chattering noisily.

Xiao Xi was too worried to stay away and came along as well. She now sat behind the stands, waiting anxiously for Neji to take the field.

Several elders sat at the front of the stands. Neji noticed that Hiashi Hyuga was there too, with little Hinata Hyuga standing behind him. When she saw Neji, her eyes brightened, but after glancing at Hiashi's back, she shrank back again.

A moment later, she poked her little head out again and gave Neji a gesture of encouragement.

Neji nodded at her, then turned his gaze toward the Main House boys.

They were about the same age as him, each standing stiffly behind the elders. They appeared to be the descendants of the various Main House elders. Though they remained silent and stern-faced, their eyes were filled with arrogance, and they clearly looked down on the Branch House children.

"Brother Neji, look at Kosuke Hyuga acting so high and mighty. You have to beat him up good later!"

The speaker was a chubby boy who had been chattering nonstop beside Neji. He was a Branch House boy who interacted with Neji relatively often, named Soshi Hyuga. His voice was the loudest in the whole area, giving Neji a splitting headache.

In the original timeline, Neji had no friends by his side and only gradually opened his withdrawn heart after the Chunin Exams.

Given the original Neji's personality, he probably would have mocked this chubby boy and cut off contact with him. After all, most of the Branch House did not care much about the Caged Bird, and on the battlefield, they even regarded it as something that protected them.

The current Neji bore him no ill will. He was a simple, innocent chubby boy and rather adorable—just far too noisy.

"Shut up, all of you!"

A Branch House elder bellowed, seemingly driven to a headache by the noise as well.

"Everyone, leave the field. Yuji Hyuga and Shin Hyuga, first group. Soshi and Tsubaki, second group... Neji Hyuga, third group... Line up and wait your turn. Yuji, what are you standing there dazed for? Get on the field!"

The elder glared at the dazed boy at the head of the line and shouted.

"Oh, okay, I'm coming."

The boy came back to his senses and hurriedly ran forward, drawing waves of quiet laughter from behind him.

"All right, form the Seal of Opposition and begin the match!"

The elder was clearly becoming impatient and only wanted to get this over with.

"Please teach me." x2

Neji watched the weaklings peck at each other on the field and silently waited for his turn.