Hyuga Clan Training Ground.
BOOM!
A figure was sent flying backward.
Several Hyuga branch family shinobi exchanged glances, nodded slightly, and once again charged towards the ninja at the center of their encirclement.
Hyuga Neji's expression remained unchanged. He slowly adopted a stance, a large amount of chakra erupting from his palms.
"Rotation!"
A high-speed rotating barrier of chakra materialized around him. Just as the attacking Hyuga ninja were about to pull back their assault, the barrier suddenly expanded, drawing them into its vortex.
A few breaths later, the Rotation dispersed. One ninja seized the opportunity, leaping high and gathering a large amount of chakra in his right hand, slamming it down fiercely.
Hyuga Neji pressed his palm down lightly. His Byakugan, which should have been flawlessly white, suddenly took on an elegant, cold, pale purple hue.
"Secret Art: Ascension!"
Across the training ground, numerous stone blocks shot into the air. The youth stood proudly amidst them, like a divine being.
The targeted Hyuga ninja's expression changed. He crossed his arms to defend himself. But just as the stones were about to strike him, Hyuga Neji made a slight hooking gesture with his hand, and the stones halted in mid-air.
"I lose," the Hyuga ninja conceded, retreating to the edge of the field.
Neji's pale purple Tenseigan quickly locked onto the last remaining opponent on the field. His figure shot forward like an arrow, appearing before the other ninja in an instant. Just as the last man was about to activate Rotation, Neji's hand clamped around his neck. The chakra within the man's body went out of control, surging through the point of contact into Neji's body.
"Excellent! This is the true potential of the Byakugan!"
At the edge of the training ground, a Hyuga elder was visibly emotional. It was important to note that the weakest of the sparring partners on the field were Chunin, and there were even Jonin among them. Yet, even facing such a numerical disadvantage, Hyuga Neji had not disappointed them. He had faced many and still won with ease!
"Clan Head, Elders!" Hyuga Neji, the battle concluded, walked over and bowed slightly to the group.
"Would you like to rest for a bit?" a clan elder asked with concern.
"It's alright." Hyuga Neji's eyes reverted to their Byakugan state.
"It seems you've already adapted well to those eyes," Hyuga Hiashi nodded with satisfaction. "Hinata's training should also be over. Let's go see her together."
"Yes!" Neji nodded.
The group passed through long corridors, making several turns, before arriving at a quiet meditation room. Inside the elegantly decorated room, a young woman with hair cascading over her shoulders sensed their arrival and slowly opened her eyes. Within her pure white Byakugan, a trace of clear, azure blue flashed.
"Father," she said, rising to greet them.
"I'm becoming more and more curious about the color of our ancestor's Tenseigan," the Second Elder mused, comparing the difference between Hyuga Neji's eyes and those of the young clan heiress, Hinata.
"It should be blue as well, right?" the Third Elder chuckled. "After all, the young mistress's eyes evolved on their own."
"The ancestor's eyes couldn't have evolved by absorbing other Byakugan, could they?"
The others nodded slightly; that did seem logical.
Because their plan to persuade Uzumaki Naruto to accept a Byakugan transplant had failed, the Hyuga clan had spent the past year searching for other methods to achieve bloodline regression, hoping to restore the glory of their ancestors. After countless failures, they finally devised a strategy of achieving quality through quantity: if one Byakugan wasn't enough, what about ten? Or a hundred?
When members of the Hyuga Main Family passed away, their eyes, unlike those of the Branch Family, were not destroyed by the Caged Bird Seal. And as a dōjutsu clan, their entire foundation was built upon the Byakugan. During battles, enemies wouldn't refrain from attacking their eyes just because they were Hyuga; on the contrary, once an enemy identified them as a dōjutsu wielder, their eyes became the primary target. This often led to Hyuga shinobi suffering eye damage. Replacing damaged eyes with those of an ordinary person was clearly unrealistic. Thus, preserving the Byakugan of deceased Main Family members and, when needed, granting new sight to those whose Byakugan were damaged, had become a necessary ritual.
Therefore, over long years of accumulation, the Hyuga clan had a considerable number of preserved Byakugan. And Hyuga Neji's purple Tenseigan was precisely the product of the converged dōjutsu power from these stored Byakugan.
"It's just a pity that both of you are still too young, with too little experience," Hyuga Hiashi said, looking at Neji and Hinata with a slight sigh. "Otherwise, I would have wanted you both to compete for the position of Sixth Hokage candidate."
"Competing for Sixth Hokage is probably out of the question; the Seventh Hokage seems more realistic," the Great Elder shook his head. "After all, the competition this time around is unprecedentedly fierce."
Uchiha Sasuke, captain of the Shinobi Squad, a top-tier powerhouse renowned throughout the shinobi world, disciple of Jiraiya, one of the Sannin. Hatake Kakashi, a veteran Konoha Jonin, disciple of the Fourth Hokage. And soon, most likely, Namikaze Naruto would be added to that list. The leader of one of the two most dazzling organizations in the current era, son of the Fourth Hokage—his strength, qualifications, background, and even relevant experience were all exceptionally prominent. Any one of these three, if placed in the Fourth or Fifth Hokage elections, would have had a strong chance of emerging victorious. But now they were all clumped together. It would be a miracle if they didn't tear each other to shreds.
"I heard Namikaze Naruto accepted nearly a third of the entire village's missions all at once," the Second Elder remarked, clicking his tongue. "Truly insane."
"He's a formidable one."
"Who do you all think will become the Sixth?" the Fifth Elder's question instantly turned the quiet room into a bustling market.
"I think it'll be Uchiha Sasuke. The momentum the Shinobi Squad has built for him is just too great."
"No, no, no, I think it's Hatake Kakashi. He's got the seniority and knows almost every Jonin."
"Uzumaki Naruto, surely. After all, even Nara Shikaku is backing him."
"..."
"One hundred ryo, I'm betting on Uzumaki Naruto!" The Fifth Elder pulled out some silver coins and slammed them on the table.
"Hatake Kakashi!" The Second Elder also produced his money.
Watching the elders eagerly stating their bets, Hyuga Hiashi sighed helplessly but didn't stop them.
"I'll bet on Naruto-kun!"
Just then, a fair hand placed a bundle of notes on the table. Everyone turned to look, only to see their young clan heiress, Hinata, looking at them with a resolute expression.
"Er..." The elders exchanged glances, a collective feeling dawning on them that they might have just made a very bad bet.
Hokage Tower.
Shinobi arriving to submit their mission reports suddenly noticed a bizarre situation: there was one ninja who was completing a mission every few minutes.
"Two minutes! This time it was two minutes!" a ninja exclaimed in shock.
"Holy crap! That's a full fifteen seconds shorter than his last interval!"
The shinobi chattered amongst themselves, their gazes fixed on a blond youth who was currently submitting a mission report at the C-rank mission window.
Hearing the commotion behind him, the Naruto shadow clone sighed in exasperation. C-rank missions were the most numerous, and he had assigned the majority of his shadow clones to handle them. These clones were completing their tasks around the same time, so they were all converging to submit their reports, creating the illusion for other shinobi that he could complete a mission in mere minutes.
"Your next mission is to escort a merchant caravan to the capital of the Land of Fire." The mission assignment officer at the window handed him a scroll.
The Naruto shadow clone took the scroll, scanned it briefly to confirm the mission location, and then vanished on the spot.
As Naruto's shadow clones madly accepted and completed missions, the moniker "Mission Fiend, Namikaze Naruto" began to spread like wildfire.