He couldn't remember anything. He found himself floating in a white void, suspended in mid-air. Although he wanted to panic, something prevented him from doing so, forcing him to remain calm. Then he heard it: a voice calling out to him. He tried to look around to find the source, but he quickly realized he couldn't move.
He focused on the voice, attempting to understand what it was saying, but nothing made sense at first. As the voice drew closer and louder, he began to grasp its meaning. When it was right next to his ear, he heard, "Do you want to live?" He hesitated at first, but soon the voice repeated the question over and over again.
"Yes."
At that moment, the white void began to crack, and darkness started to seep in. His eyes shut involuntarily as he lost consciousness. When he awoke, he found himself in a strange room that felt completely unfamiliar. He couldn't remember anything about himself, not even his own name. The only thing he realized was that his body felt different. It seemed smaller and younger.
He got up from the bed he had been lying on and stood up. Walking felt strange as he stumbled; his body urged him to move, but he didn't know how.
He kept walking toward a mirror, unsure why it felt so natural to him. Grasping the table that supported the mirror, he leaned closer to examine his face. It was youthful, his eyes were entirely white, lacking pupils. His long black hair flowed just below his waist, and a strange mark adorned his forehead.
He tried to comprehend his identity, but nothing came to mind. The moment he touched the strange mark on his forehead, a sharp pain surged through his mind, causing him to collapse instantly. When he awoke, he found himself still lying where he had lost consciousness. He tried standing up, but an intense headache throbbed as unfamiliar concepts flooded his mind, causing him to lose his balance and fall down again. It then became clear to him: he had died and been reincarnated into another world.
Not just any world, but a world he was quite familiar with. The world of "Naruto." In his previous life, he had watched this show religiously over and over again. He knew how this world would play out and how 'some' things worked. He still couldn't remember his name or how he lived, but he had memories of the previous person who lived in this body.
He was born in the Hyuga clan as a member of the branch house. He was born a few weeks before Naruto. His parents named him Hiruka, but they had died in the 9-tailed attack soon after. He was raised by fellow members of the secondary house. He received the curse seal 'Caged Bird' at three, like all the other members of the secondary house. He was currently 12 years old. The academy graduation exam will take place in just four weeks.
A sharp pain surged through his mind as yet more information flooded in—knowledge about chakra control, basic shuriken jutsu, his Byakugan, and other concepts. This pain wasn't as intense as the last, allowing him to remain conscious this time. Being reborn into the world of Naruto had always been a dream for him in his previous life, something he thought was mere fantasy. Yet, it had actually happened.
He still wasn't entirely sure what he wanted to do or what he could do, given that he bore the 'Caged Bird' curse seal, which bound him as a servant to the main branch of his clan.
Deciding to focus on increasing his power and honing his skills before the upcoming exam, he recognized that his abilities weren't too shabby. He was considered talented. Though he still fell short of Neji's level, he had shown great potential. Ranked second in his class, just behind Sasuke Uchiha, he was familiar with the basics: The Clone Jutsu, The Substitution Jutsu, and, of course, The Transformation Jutsu. He had also become skilled in shurikenjutsu, often performing better than Sasuke in practical examinations.
He had begun to train his Byakugan at age 5, like the rest of the children within the clan. His skills in the gentle fist weren't mediocre; he knew the basics. Those being: Eight Trigrams, sixteen palms, Eight Trigrams thirty-two palms and Eight Trigrams Vacuum palm. His skills in 'gentle fist' were limited because no matter how skilled and talented he was, the main house of the clan refused to allow him to learn the techniques designated for the main house's use only. He didn't have access to crucial gentle fist techniques like Eight Trigrams 64 palms or Eight Trigrams Palm Rotation. They had granted him access to the main house's training grounds, which were better equipped and suited for training the the training grounds of the secondary house.
He also lacked the ability to learn jutsu simply by observing them, as Neji could. However, he might be able to change this. He had gained knowledge of how the clan's techniques functioned, even those that were otherwise inaccessible to him. This expertise came from browsing various websites and fan pages, reading everything he could about Naruto and the mechanics of its world in his previous life.
If he could train and enhance his Byakugan, he might be able to recognize the chakra networks and understand how they flowed through the body when a main family member used the techniques. Alternatively, he could ask Neji for assistance in this area. While reviewing the memories of the previous host, he realized that he and Neji had not been close and had barely interacted. However, he could likely leverage Neji's resentment toward the main house to persuade him to help.
He didn't think too long about it. He first had to improve his Byakugan. There were various ways to improve the Byakugan. A person can train and improve their Byakugan through chakra control training, like water walking or tree climbing. Members of the clan were trained at a young age to perform these tricks, so he already knew how to do both. Another way to improve the Byakugan was through visual training. Focusing on a distant target/s, reading and identifying chakra at different ranges and target tracking were effective ways to train the Byakugan.
The other training methods, like meditation and learning to filter through chakra signatures, were not as effective. The best way to train, just like any other dojutsu, was under Emotional and Combat Stress, but he was still an academy student and as a 'genin', unless he was placed on certain teams, he wouldn't be able to improve his Byakugan like this.
Hiruka activated his Byakugan, allowing him to see everything clearly within a range of about 40 meters. His room was located in one of the many centralized living spaces in the wings of the clan compound. He observed other clan members; some were sleeping, others were busy attending to the main house, and a few were training.
He began focusing on differentiating between each member's chakra signatures and their positions. While much of it was still hazy, he could make out the signatures of main house members, such as Hizashi Hyuga and his daughter, Hinata.
Members of the secondary house had weaker chakra signatures, likely due to their limited training and the continuous suppression from the main house. He couldn't locate Neji's chakra signature, so he guessed he was either on a mission with Team Guy or simply didn't want to be at the compound.
Hiruka spent the next 20 minutes concentrating on the signatures and positions of the clan members as they moved around the compound. He had to stop after this duration due to the strain on his Byakugan and his dwindling chakra reserves.
It was starting to get late as he went to sleep. He woke up early the next morning. It was a Sunday today, so there were no classes at the academy.
( Sidenote: I'm not sure if the ninja academy in Konoha has weekends, but I implemented it into this AU. Saturdays and Sundays are the days with no classes at the academy. Like a regular school system. )
The first thing he did was activate his Byakugan for about ten minutes. The chakra signatures were much clearer today, and he even managed to recognize a few from the secondary house. After focusing a bit more, he noticed that in the main house's training grounds, Hinata and her younger sister, Hinabi, were sparring with each other. Their father was nearby, observing them.
After deactivating his Byakugan, he left his room to head to one of the secondary house's training grounds. Although he was allowed to use the main house's facilities, it was only when they were unoccupied. The clan elders were reluctant to let members of the main and secondary houses train together regularly, especially not with the current heir of the clan.
Upon arriving at the training grounds, Hiruka noticed two things: it was mostly empty, and it lacked many training tools. One positive aspect was the specialized training dummies scattered around, which allowed members to practice their Eight Trigrams techniques, especially the sixteen and thirty-two palms.
Hiruka observed that the training dummies here were significantly different from those in the main house's training grounds. These dummies were made from inferior materials that did not effectively indicate where the chakra struck, and they only accounted for up to thirty-two main tenketsu points. This limitation ensured that members of the secondary house could not learn the sixty-four palms technique.
Hiruka currently didn't have a lot of options in terms of training. The three basic techniques he learned from the academy were well, basic and didn't require further training or honing after a person fully learned them. He decided to rather focus on improving his skills with the Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms technique until he had the capabilities to copy the Sixty-Two Palms variation. He went towards the nearest training dummy and activated his Byakugan. The thirty-two tenketsu points were now much easier to notice.
He would spend the next few hours training, focusing on speed and the pressure he could apply to each tenketsu point. Accuracy was not an issue for him; he had learned the Thirty-Two Palms variation years ago. He could increase the pressure on each individual tenketsu point by channelling more chakra into his strikes. However, this presented a new challenge: his chakra reserves struggled to handle the extra usage, requiring him to take frequent breaks during his training session.
Additionally, he needed to work on increasing his chakra reserves. Nevertheless, his training, along with the constant use of chakra, would help him enhance those reserves as well.
Another crucial aspect to focus on was his physical body. By increasing his physical strength, he could reduce the amount of chakra needed for each tenketsu strike or increase the impact of his strikes. Furthermore, physical training could also yield beneficial results for a person's chakra reserves.
The challenge he faced was that chakra passively strengthened the body, which made regular training yield minimal results. To make meaningful progress in building his physical strength, he would need to use weights.
The issue was that within the entire Hyuga Clan Compound, there were very few weights available, and most of them were only around 10 kilograms. For a clan that specialized in taijutsu, one would expect them to have proper weights, but that wasn't the case. The Hyuga Clan focused on using chakra to enhance the power of their strikes rather than relying on physical strength.
He had to make the best of the situation he was in. Once he became a genin, he would start earning his own money, which he could use to purchase better training tools, although he knew that most of his earnings would be claimed by the main house.
To gather enough funds, he planned to take on independent missions as soon as he became a genin. Working in assigned teams would result in the mission payout being split among all members, with the team leader receiving the largest share. Consequently, his reduced share would be further diminished as the main house took over 70% of all mission rewards.
He managed to strap 30 kilograms onto each of his arms and legs. They felt heavier, but not excessively so. This was at least a step in the right direction.
He then began a rigorous training routine that one would expect from someone like Guy. He did 1,000 push-ups, 1,000 squats, and sprinted laps with the weights. Hiruka was grateful that the chakra flowing through his body could easily heal and alleviate the pain from such intense physical training; otherwise, he would not have been able to endure it.
He was determined to become stronger. The stronger he became, the more support he would receive from the clan. Perhaps one day, he could remove the curse seal from himself and finally be free from the clan's oppression. But with his current skills and strength, submission was all he could do.