Night blanketed the Hidden Leaf Village in silence.
The warmth of the festival lingered in the air—burned-out lanterns still swayed gently from wires above the streets, and ash from the last of the fireworks drifted quietly onto tiled rooftops.
The celebration marking the peace accord with the Cloud Village had ended hours ago, but Tatsuya Hoshino hadn't slept.
He stood atop a tiled spire on the edge of the Hyūga compound, his tall figure motionless, a dark silhouette against the waxing crescent moon. The blindfold over his eyes wasn't just a method of restraint—it was a habit. He didn't need it to suppress his vision anymore, but it sharpened his other senses. Focused his instincts.
Something was off.
He had warned the Hokage. The Cloud were never this courteous without a hidden clause. And the timing—offering peace just as Konoha's defenses relaxed—reeked of tactical exploitation.
A flicker of movement. Anbu.
Tatsuya didn't move as the masked shinobi landed lightly beside him, pale Byakugan eyes glinting behind his porcelain fox mask.
"Captain Hoshino?"
Tatsuya nodded once. "A precaution. I'm observing tonight."
The Anbu hesitated, then bowed slightly. "Understood. We've tightened patrols around the Hyūga perimeter. Rotation every twenty minutes. Two sensor-nin on overwatch. No one gets in or out without us knowing."
"No," Tatsuya said softly. "They'll still try. That's the point. Cloud doesn't care about casualties—they want to provoke, then deny."
The Anbu was silent for a beat. Then: "You think they're targeting Hinata?"
Tatsuya didn't answer. He didn't need to. The unspoken weight between them said enough.
He slipped into the shadows without a sound, the edge of his flak jacket catching faint moonlight as he vanished into the treetops. He didn't use chakra. Just pure, calculated movement. Ghost-like.
Beneath him, the Hyūga compound slumbered in silence. Elegant wooden structures nestled inside curved stone walls. Towering pine trees lined the outer barrier, swaying gently in the mountain breeze. Somewhere, wind chimes tinkled.
And yet, the air felt tense. Ready to snap.
He waited.
Time passed. The stillness stretched into that thin edge between midnight and dawn—the hour when guards start to falter, when even sensor-nin drift into momentary inattention.
Then it happened.
A sudden disturbance—soft, almost imperceptible. Like a breath caught in the wrong place.
Three figures materialized beyond the far wall, near the eastern blindspot. Cloud-nin. Masked, cloaked in suppression seals, slipping through the darkness with trained efficiency.
But not good enough.
Tatsuya's lips curved slightly behind his mask. Sloppy.
The intruders dropped into the central courtyard, their eyes fixed ahead. One broke off, heading toward a specific residence.
Hinata's.
Before they reached the door, a flicker of chakra warned them.
Too late.
Hyūga Jonin emerged from the shadows with surgical precision. No words. Just action.
"Eight Trigrams: Sixty-Four Palms!"
Chakra burst from gentle fist strikes as the lead Cloud-nin was struck mid-motion. Another lunged forward—deflected, redirected, spine crushed with one pivoting blow. The last barely had time to react before collapsing, his windpipe crushed by a precisely placed strike to the neck.
It took under two minutes.
Tatsuya didn't move. He remained perched beneath the overhanging rooftop tiles, watching as the aftermath settled.
Dozens of fragments shimmered in his vision—trails of golden light only he could see. They drifted through the air like embers and converged toward him, each absorbed without fanfare.
> [You acquired Chakra: +1000]
[You acquired Lightning Style Affinity: Moderate]
[Bloodline Acquired: Byakugan]
[Pupil Power increased: Level 2 → 3]
[Gentle Fist Method: Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms obtained]
[Combat Skill Experience: +1200]
Tatsuya's pulse barely changed, but he exhaled slowly. His vision sharpened behind the blindfold—the pressure behind his eyes no longer just chakra. A different energy stirred.
He clenched his fists once.
The temptation to activate the Byakugan flared—but he resisted. Not here. Not now.
Too many eyes.
"I leave it to you," he murmured, barely audible.
"Yes, Captain!" the Anbu nearby responded immediately.
Tatsuya vanished into the shadows.
Behind him, the Leaf would handle the cleanup. The bodies. The diplomatic fallout.
And Hyūga Hizashi's fate, too.
But that wasn't his concern.
---
Two weeks passed.
Tatsuya resumed his daily rhythm: quiet, deliberate, and far from idle. While others mistook it for a vacation, he was studying—refining. Each day brought new pickups from sparring dummies and stealth drills. Tiny accumulations of mastery.
At the Anbu training facility—a bunker buried beneath the mountain ledge—Tatsuya arrived before dawn. The halls were cold, dimly lit, reinforced with chakra-resistant stone. Each door sealed tight with intricate fuin seals.
"Captain Hoshino," a junior operative saluted as he passed.
Tatsuya nodded. He rarely spoke unless necessary. Words wasted energy.
In the training bay, chakra residue hung in the air like smoke. Every surface bore scars—shuriken gouges, scorch marks from Fire Style, faint claw patterns from beast-mode simulations.
He stood alone in the center and released his blindfold.
The world split open.
His new Byakugan activated for the first time.
Instantly, he saw through walls, into the floor, into chakra coils of insects deep in the earth. A panoramic X-ray across dimensions.
He rotated slowly, studying how chakra traveled through surfaces, objects, even air currents.
It wasn't perfect yet.
Without the Ōtsutsuki bloodline, the Byakugan's potential was restrained. But it was his now—and that was all that mattered.
He'd evolve it. Eventually.
---
Later that day.
Outside the Anbu command office, just as he was contemplating Orochimaru's next move—a loud voice startled him.
"Captain Hoshino! Please—train me!"
A girl knelt on one knee, eyes wide with determination, violet hair slightly messy from the run.
She looked barely Genin age.
Tatsuya blinked. "...What?"
She clenched her fists. "I want to become stronger! Like you!"
The silence stretched.
Tatsuya looked around, half-wondering if it was a prank.
"Start by standing," he said at last. "And stop yelling. You're in Anbu territory."
The girl sprang to her feet, blushing furiously. "R-right!"
He sighed and turned toward the building. This wasn't in the plan for the day.
Then again... nothing ever was.
---