There is no such thing as an impenetrable wall, especially for a group of shinobi who make their living through intelligence.
Soon, many shinobi learned of the commotion within the Hyūga clan. It had been a rare joint operation between Root and the Anbu.
But that was the extent of the information they managed to uncover.
Anything further would be digging too deep.
However, to everyone's surprise, the Hyūga clan ended up blowing the matter wide open themselves.
At the regular Jōnin meeting the following day, Hyūga Hiashi sincerely apologized to the Third Hokage and took the initiative to explain had happened.
Only then did the Jōnin understand why Danzō had made such a fuss.
It was almost as if he had severed ties with the Shimura family.
Many people suddenly looked at Hiashi with sympathy. To be deceived and pushed to such lengths by the elders of his own clan... as clan head, it was truly frustrating.
Facing those gazes, Hiashi remained unfazed.
The reason he brought it up in front of so many people was to show the Hyūga clan's obedience, and at the same time, take the initiative to damage their own reputation.
Sure enough, the Third Hokage was very pleased with Hiashi's understanding of the situation.
Not only did he not hold him accountable, he even reprimanded Danzō on his behalf, saying he had acted too aggressively and should have resolved the matter in private instead of tarnishing the reputation of a prestigious clan.
Hiashi wanted to laugh at that.
If the reputation of a prestigious clan shouldn't be tarnished, then why did you send the Anbu to spectate?
But on the surface, Hiashi could only express gratitude, stating that the Hyūga clan held no resentment.
The matter concluded on a pleasant note.
The Third Hokage's reputation was once again elevated, and Hiashi understood that the Hyūga clan would no longer be targeted in the future. The crisis was completely resolved.
No one's interests were harmed, except perhaps Danzō's reputation, which took yet another hit.
"Do you want me to kill the descendants of Hyūga Hireta?"
After understanding the root cause of the conflict with the Shimura clan, Pakura asked softly, her tone filled with cold murderous intent.
"No need."
Yami was sipping milk through a straw, his cheeks puffed out. "The old man knows better than either of us how to cut the grass and remove the roots. There's no need to worry."
"That's true."
Pakura nodded slowly.
Danzō's notoriety was well known to the upper echelons of the five great nations. If he couldn't even handle something this small...
"You've been dragged into this mess for no reason."
Pakura gave the boy beside her a smug look. "I thought someone was using you to target Danzō. I didn't expect the real target was your team leader."
"Who says it wasn't?"
Yami sighed. "Hizashi-sensei really caused me a lot of trouble. I won't get over this unless I'm treated to at least ten rounds of barbecue."
After finishing the last sip of milk, he jumped off the chair.
"You've reminded me. I'll go ask him now for compensation for emotional distress."
Pakura looked at Yami's back as he ran off and called after him, "The Chūnin Exam is coming soon. Aren't you going to study at home? You haven't read any of the written material at all."
Without even turning around, Yami waved her off casually. "Don't worry, I graduated from the Academy in one year."
Pakura thought about it and realized that with Yami's talent, maybe it really didn't matter whether he studied or not.
After leaving the house, Yami first went to visit Yugao and Kurenai, who were both eating together at Yugao's place.
Given their current status, they weren't qualified to know the details of what happened in the Hyūga household. After hearing the full story from Yami, they were all stunned, their worldviews shaken.
"We're from the same village, but they're so ruthless?"
"You were clearly the one captured. How could they pin the blame on Hizashi-sensei? What a vile personality."
"He betrayed the interests of the village over personal grudges. He deserved to die."
Yugao narrowed her eyes, a cold glint flashing in them, her hand instinctively resting on her sword.
"Yes, he deserved to die, so I killed him."
Yami patted the dream tapir that had wandered out due to boredom. "But don't treat the Hyūga main and branch houses as one family. The branch house is nothing more than a slave to the main house."
Kurenai frowned and looked at Yami with a puzzled expression. "Is it really that bad? The Uchiha clan doesn't seem to have such rigid class divisions."
Yami explained, "Because of the existence of the Caged Bird Seal, the main family can take the lives of the branch house members at any time.
Maybe it was originally created to prevent the Byakugan from leaking, but over time, the main family stopped treating the branch house as human beings."
"Alright, let's not talk about this anymore."
Yami raised his hand, and the pig-like dream tapir collapsed with a thud. "I came to find you so we can go see Hizashi-sensei together. He owes me emotional compensation."
Kurenai's jaw dropped. "Didn't you just extort 100 million ryō from the Hyūga clan? Why are you going after Hizashi-sensei now?"
"That money's untouchable."
Yami looked completely serious. "It's my savings to get married."
Kurenai couldn't help but joke, "Yami, why don't you give that money to me? When you grow up, I'll marry you."
"When I grow up, you'll be an old lady. Not worth that much. But I can reserve five million for you."
"You're the old lady!"
Kurenai shouted angrily. "Remember what you said, those five million are mine!"
"What about me, Yami-kun?" Yugao also teased.
"You can cook, and you're younger than Kurenai. I'll count ten million for you."
"Then I'll thank you for your generosity."
"You're welcome."
"You brat, so biased!"
Kurenai angrily snatched the dream tapir away, while Yugao and Yami smiled at each other.
After leaving Yugao's house, the three of them headed to find Hizashi.
Considering Yami had just caused a huge uproar in the Hyūga clan yesterday, his sudden return today gave Hiashi quite a scare. He thought Yami was here to cause more trouble.
They even sent someone to the Hokage's office to call the Third Hokage, only to find out that Yami was just looking for Hizashi. It turned out to be a false alarm.
Meanwhile, Yami had already arrived at Hizashi's courtyard.
There, he met Hyūga Neji, who was four years old this year.
Children in this world were truly adorable. The Neji who would grow up to be brooding and vengeful hadn't changed yet. With his round cheeks, he still looked a bit naive and cute, the kind that made people want to pinch.
So Yami did just that.
Neji's lips pouted, and he looked like he was about to cry. Yami handed him a piece of candy from his pocket, and Neji immediately broke into a smile.
"It's so sweet!"
"Sweet, right? The bitter part comes later."
"???"
Neji didn't understand and looked at the older boy in confusion.
Candy is always sweet. How can there be a bitter one?
Yami smiled and didn't explain. "Your father is my sensei, so I'm your big brother."
"So from now on, you'll call me Big Brother, and I'll call you Brother-in-law. How's that?"
Hizashi, who was just walking out of the kitchen with a plate of fruit, heard this and nearly laughed out loud.
"I don't have a daughter for you to marry, only this son."
"Cousin works too. I don't mind," Yami muttered.
"Big Brother!"
Neji didn't understand any of that and called out cheerfully.
"Good boy. You've got a bright future."
Yami patted his head. "Let's go. Big Brother will take you to eat barbecue. Your dad's paying."
"Thanks, Big Brother!"
Hizashi was confused. Why was he paying again?
Kurenai chimed in, "Sensei, it's because of you that we ran into that Iwagakure ninja. Shouldn't you make it up to us?"
Hizashi's face froze. He sighed helplessly and agreed.
The group went to Yakiniku Q and had a feast. Along the way, they encountered many shinobi from other villages. As the exam date approached, a number of Genin from other villages had already arrived in Konoha.
When they parted at night, Hizashi, carrying a sleeping Neji, stopped Yami and apologized sincerely.
"Yami, I'm sorry I dragged you into a mess because of me."
"The Shimura clan is never afraid of trouble. Because we are the trouble for others."
Yami smiled and shook his head. "Besides, didn't the Hyūga clan already compensate me? Honestly, I'm pretty satisfied."
Hizashi disagreed. "That was the clan's compensation to you. If you ever need anything, you can come to me anytime."
"Alright, I'll remember that."
Yami waved as he left. "I'm heading home."
He hadn't been humble at all. He really was satisfied with yesterday's gains.
It was like the Hyūga clan had some sort of buff. Yesterday, he triggered over 50 first-level bonds, and over 90 percent of them gave minor boosts to his physical stats.
After a single round, his physical strength had increased by about 50 percent, and even his Chakra had gone up by nearly one full card.
It made Yami suspect he hadn't gone to the Byakugan clan yesterday but had stumbled into some hidden muscle gym.
Otherwise, why were all the rewards related to physical fitness?
But that wasn't even the biggest gain. His biggest prize had come right before he left the courtyard.
[Host has established a bond with Hyūga Hinata. Reward: Special Talent - Ōtsutsuki Bloodline (Weak)]
Yami had been stunned when he saw the system notification, thinking he was hallucinating.
But once he got home and opened the [Status Panel], he saw the upgrade cost for the talent: 5,000 bond points.
That proved his eyes hadn't been lying.
It was really the Ōtsutsuki bloodline!
He was ecstatic for half the night, until...
He realized the reward was basically useless.
At least, for now.
After obtaining the Ōtsutsuki bloodline, Yami found that absolutely nothing had changed. No horns sprouted from his head. No balls appeared behind his back. Not even his Chakra had increased enough to reach 0.1 card—the minimum display unit on the system.
Maybe when he reached a higher level, its effects would gradually appear. But for now, it was no different from having nothing at all.
Spending 5,000 bond points to upgrade an ability with unknown effects? Yami wasn't that rich yet.
So after realizing he had gotten excited for nothing, Yami went to bed a little depressed.
He had to drink three boxes of milk today just to recover.
Over the next few days, Yami was constantly surrounded by girls.
Izumi played the mascot, being cute every day to lift his mood. Yugao and Kurenai stopped taking missions, teaching him about exam topics and the small traps hidden within them.
Yugao also prepared three meals a day to ensure he had balanced nutrition.
If nothing else, Yami was sure he had gained several pounds over the past few days.
Even with daily training, he couldn't burn off all the calories from eating so well.
The day of the exam finally arrived.
Since the Academy was being used as the exam site, students got the day off.
Early in the morning, the group gathered at a dessert shop.
It was Kurenai's idea. She said eating desserts in the morning would bring good luck, and that it was best to eat dango.
They were the shop's only customers that early.
Pakura wore a mask and held a document in her hand.
"There are a total of seven countries participating in this Chūnin Exam," she said. "Konoha has 52 participants. Suna has 30, Iwa has 30, Ame has 15, Taki has 9, Kusa has 9, and Kawa has 9."
"That's... 154 people total."
"So few?"
Yami, chewing on a sweet anko dango, frowned, clearly dissatisfied with the turnout.
Excluding Konoha's numbers, the rest of the villages barely had over a hundred people. Even if he killed them all and formed deep bonds with each of them, the rewards wouldn't be that great.
"It's pretty low," Kurenai agreed. "When only Konoha participated in our internal exams, the numbers were about the same."
"According to intel gathered by Root..."
Pakura's voice turned odd. "Many Genin decided to delay participating because of Uchiha Itachi's and your reputation as geniuses.
Anyway, Konoha will host two exams a year from now on. It's just a six-month delay."
Yami was even more annoyed. "Just say it's because of me. Why drag Itachi into this? He's not even on my level."
"Alright, alright, you're the strongest," Pakura said with a laugh, coaxing him like a child.
Izumi nodded seriously. "Yes. Yami-kun is the best."
Kurenai held her forehead. "You guys pamper him too much. One day he'll be completely spoiled."
Yugao smiled too, though her eyes held a hint of doubt as she looked at Pakura.
This woman… didn't seem like a typical Root shinobi.
The Root members she'd seen didn't show this level of emotion. At most, they treated Yami with respect—not this kind of indulgent affection.
But she kept those doubts to herself. As long as she was sure that Pakura wouldn't harm Yami, it was fine.
After breakfast, Yami headed toward the exam site, surrounded by several girls.
Along the way, many people stared at the group. When they saw that only Yami was entering the exam hall, some of them began muttering to themselves.
Which clan's young master is this? Has the promotion spot already been decided?
Maybe he had arrived late, but Yami didn't run into the usual misdirection tactics meant to trick candidates into the wrong classroom. He arrived at Classroom 3-2 without issue.
Bang!
The door slammed shut behind him.
The room that had been full of noise instantly fell silent. From rowdy to pin-drop quiet.
This was a tiered lecture hall. Under the gaze of hundreds of eyes, Yami walked in.
Seeing that this arrogant kid was just a child, some people couldn't hold back.
"Are all Konoha kids this arrogant? He came alone? Where are his teammates?"
"Haha. The more arrogant now, the faster he'll die. I've already got my eyes on him."
"Tch. He's kind of good-looking. Probably a heartbreaker when he grows up. Shame he won't live to enjoy it."
Yami glanced at a sneering Iwa shinobi and vanished in a blur.
Everyone blinked. Yami had disappeared from his spot.
When he reappeared, he was already in front of the Iwa Genin.
One punch shattered his arm.
Then he grabbed him by the neck and threw him out the window.
Crash!
The classroom window shattered. The Iwa shinobi screamed as he crashed to the ground.
It wasn't high enough to kill a Genin, but he definitely wouldn't be taking the exam.
"You brat! You dare fight here?!"
His teammates were furious, and the other Iwa Genin all glared at Yami.
Just then, a Konoha shinobi in a green vest and sunglasses walked in.
"What's all the noise?! If you don't want to take the exam, get out now!"
"Anyone who causes trouble will be immediately disqualified!"
The Genin fell silent.
One of the Iwa Genin muttered, "Examiner, that kid attacked my teammate—"
The Konoha shinobi's mouth twitched, and he took a deep breath.
"That happened before I came in. Since your teammate was thrown out, your team is disqualified too. Now, get out!"
(To be continued.)
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