I let Hinata train with the glass marbles for now. I had to scour my mind to recall something I had almost forgotten.
In the end, it was a close race between two weapons, but ultimately, I believed Hinata should make the final decision herself. I drafted my ideas for her, but the choice was hers to make.
I laid the drawings in front of her, looking for her input.
"Um, is that just… a sphere?" she asked, looking at the first one, unsure how it would work beyond being similar to the marbles she was training with.
"I think it would be the easiest way to use it. Maybe not the most elegant, but definitely useful," I explained with a shrug.
I was honestly more worried about anyone who decided to fight her in taijutsu. If she figured out how to apply that spin to people she touched, she would become the final boss of taijutsu masters.
"I also have this. It's a bit different…" I said slowly, handing her the second drawing, uncertain how to explain it properly.
She looked confused at first, but seeing the notes I had written in the margins helped her understand, at least partially.
"It looks like those weapons people in the Land of Snow make…" she murmured to herself.
I nodded in agreement. "I based it on them, yes," I confirmed, glancing at my rather crude drawing of a simple pistol.
While quite rare and expensive, guns existed in this world. They were a far cry from my last life's ARs, though. They were mostly useless against ninjas, but very popular among huntersand bodyguards of sufficiently rich clients. Some more affluent nations even had a few small regiments in their standing army.
"It says it would shoot concentrated energy… like, spheres of my chakra?" she asked for clarification, and her guess was pretty much spot on.
"Yeah, if you can make a marble spin, spinning your chakra shouldn't be a problem. And why limit it to chakra? You could likely make your spiritual energy spin, too," I said, my smile widening slightly.
To demonstrate, I quickly created a small Rasengan, unsure if she could improve upon it once she learns it.
If I could make my chakra spin this way, there should be no reason for her to fail at creating something similar.
Her Byakugan shimmered as she activated her dojutsu, narrowing her eyes at the jutsu swirling above my palm.
"T-This-This would work…" she stuttered, her eyes glued to the small orb of chakra.
I dispelled the jutsu, not sure what she saw, but her distracted expression suggested it might help her, even just a little.
"Do you-" She hesitated, almost afraid to voice her thoughts. I raised my eyebrow, waiting for her to continue.
She sighed, her curiosity overcoming her hesitation.
"Do you think that others can see it too?" she asked quietly. "I mean, my clan members. I can only see it when my Byakugan is active, so I thought…"
"Honestly, I have no idea, Hinata. If you want to know, you'll have to ask your clan members," I replied slowly, wincing slightly.
I knew her relationship with the clan wasn't the best, but this time, I truly didn't have an answer for her.
"Is your dad still being… himself?" I asked carefully, already guessing the answer from her expression.
"He keeps talking about 'tradition.' But it's just…" she paused, searching for the right words. "It's just not right. I will never humiliate my sister like that…" she said quietly, still torn between believing me and believing her father.
"B-But I will talk to father. There is no other way, is there?" She sighed, her voice breaking slightly as she assured herself about it.
One of these days, I might make the Uchiha Massacre look like a children's fairytale. The traditions of the Hyuga clan were less about tradition and more about public humiliation rituals with a little bit of torture thrown in to spice things up.
Although Hizashi made efforts to keep Hiashi somewhat in check, it was still bad. Over the years, Neji's hatred of the main house still became one of his defining features, despite his father being alive and well, unlike the original timeline.
I never asked Hinata for details; if I did, I might have done something stupid.
Hinata refused to participate in those so-called traditions, which marked her as something of a pariah in her own clan. The main family, to be specific. Her position as heiress did little to shield her from the main family's criticism.
"Do you want me to go with you?" I asked her after a brief silence.
"No... I have to do this on my own, Ryuu-kun," she replied, her eyes narrowed, but her voice was steady this time.
I didn't push; I just gave her a reassuring smile.
"Alright then. Tomorrow, same time here," I said, confirming our next meeting before she went home to talk with Hiashi.
The next morning, we met up, and Hinata looked more subdued than usual. Whatever she had discovered clearly wasn't to her liking, but at least she brought a scroll.
"I see you found something," I said as she approached, her expression slightly scrunched.
"I had to ask Uncle Hizashi... Father didn't want to talk at all," she replied quietly, her gaze wandering down to the grass beneath her feet.
I narrowed my eyes; Hiashi clearly needed a reality check, but beating the shit out of a clan head wouldn't end well for me.
"So, what did you find out?" I asked, trying to change the subject to training.
"Just that you were right," she said, sounding distracted. "About my clan, I mean." She paused, unsure how to express her thoughts. "We really lack imagination…" She sighed, her eyes shifting from the ground to the sky.
"The spiral I see… more Hyugas can see it, but it's rare. That's what Uncle Hizashi said, at least." After a moment, she continued, still looking up. "And even then, there's only one jutsu that works with it in any way." She let out a hollow laugh and tossed the scroll my way for me to examine.
I opened it and found exactly what I expected.
"Eight Trigrams: Rotation, huh… can't say I didn't see this one coming, but I was hoping for more," I commented, letting the scroll lie open on the grass.
"S-So did I," she whispered softly, so quietly that I almost missed it.
"Isn't this one of the hidden jutsu only meant for the main family?" I asked for clarification as I sat down to study the diagrams and explanations on the scroll.
"I kind of… stole it," she admitted, her face flushing slightly.
Just the thought of her doing something so bold was quite overwhelming, and I couldn't help but laugh heartily.
"Really? Wouldn't you just get the scroll if you asked?" I questioned, fighting back more giggles.
"You'd think so…" she said slowly, sighing heavily as she sat down next to me. "Father said that my eyes are wasted on someone so soft..." The urge to commit vehicular manslaughter surged within me. "He decided to stop my training and hired a chunin to look after me instead."
I raised an eyebrow at that. I vaguely remembered something similar happening in the original timeline.
"Wait a minute, he doesn't know about our training?" I asked, surprised. I would have thought Hiashi would keep tabs on his eldest, even if it was just through observing her from his study with Byakugan.
"Or does he mistake your kindness for weakness?" I pondered quietly. It was a rhetorical question, but I still saw her shake her head weakly.
"So he has no idea that you're stronger than most chunin…" I stated with a chuckle.
The irony of it was a sour mix of hilarious and incredibly sad. The man didn't care about his own child, not even a little.
"The academy doesn't help either," she added as she scooted closer to me to read the scroll better.
"Even after Lord Third raised the bar again, it's still not enough." She continued her explanation. "We barely spar, and the only ninjutsu we're taught are the Transformation, Clone, and Substitution techniques." The disappointment oozed from her voice.
"Among the girls, I'm tied for first with Sakura-san, mostly because the practical part covers so little of our grade that it's almost funny." She finished her little rant, and I couldn't blame her.
As much as I loved my little sister, she wasn't anywhere near as prepared as Hinata was when it came to actual fighting.
"Just endure those two years, Hinata. After that, you'll become a chunin in no time," I tried to encourage her, but I knew words could only do so much.
"And at least you'll have enough time to manifest that spirit weapon and learn more jutsu," I added and unsealed a water balloon. "Now… pop it by spinning your chakra," I said, my face breaking into a wide smile.
It was time for her to learn the jutsu that would most likely become a foundation for many of her spin attacks. I let her try it out it in peace while my thoughts drifted to what I had learned.
The Byakugan could clearly do more than I remembered, and the fact that nobody had thought to utilize the spin was both astounding and concerning. Was it just so rare that only a few Hyugas in history could see it? Or was it simply that they couldn't figure it out? I suspected it was a mix of not wanting to break tradition and a bit of both reasons.
Whatever the reason didn't matter much, though. What mattered was that we had finally figured it out and that we had two years to train before she graduated.
I wondered if Hinata could eventually achieve the true Golden Spin, and if she would need a horse to do so.
I was also keeping an eye on Noriaki to ensure he was progressing well, and to my relief, he was. He faced some challenges due to the lack of proper guidance, but his instincts were sharp, and he made the most of the limited combat training offered at the academy.
Kurama didn't seem too impressed, but he conceded that the kid had potential. Once again, it was up to me to provide some guidance, not that I minded.
With a bit of luck, I might even witness some Uzumaki jutsu being revived in his hands, especially since I seemed unable to use any of them myself.
The jutsu I particularly wanted to see was the Adamantine Sealing Chains. They were completely impossible for me to use; my chakra simply wasn't dense and potent enough to manifest them at all.
And while I managed to create a Crystal version of that jutsu, I doubted my chains were anywhere near as durable as the original Uzumaki ones. Nevertheless, I could point him in the right direction, and I intended to do just that.
I found him once again in his adopted family's garden, engaged in some light training. He looked healthy, and his body was clearly recovering well from his time at Root headquarters.
His blood-red hair had grown out a bit, now reaching medium length with a large, twisting bang hanging across his face.
"Are you sure it's a good idea, Ryuuzaki?" Kurama asked, his deep voice echoing in my mindscape.
"He won't grow if I don't try; we both know he will be taught to access your chakra almost exclusively once he graduates," I responded through our mental link, narrowing my eyes slightly.
"And I distinctly remember a certain fox saying that Noriaki needs to grow before he'll even think about helping him," I added, a small smile appearing on my face. "Not to mention that giving someone power and observing how they wield it is a good test of character," I thought smugly, prompting Kurama to let out a suppressed laugh.
"Good point... let's hope your confidence in him isn't missplaced," he replied as I descended from the tree next to the fence, instantly capturing Noriaki's attention.
He narrowed his eyes and scrunched his face in concentration, focusing intensely on something.
"You're the Anbu... Ryuuzaki, right?" he finally asked, seeking confirmation.
"You have a good memory for chakra signatures. That's a very rare skill," I smiled, confirming my identity. "But I'm here for something else," I quickly added, unsealing a small scroll and extending my hand over the fence to hand it to him.
Noriaki reached out and took the scroll, quickly examining its contents. He opened it to find diagrams and explanations of beginner-level fuinjutsu along with my interpretation of the Adamantine Sealing Chains.
Unfortunately, I had no way to confirm how accurate my understanding was, so he would have to do the heavy lifting.
"Why give me this?" he asked, his eyes scanning the scroll's contents.
"Because you'll definitely need it... and it's not like I can use that jutsu anyway," I said, opting for honesty. "Not to mention that Fuinjutsu was the Uzumaki clan's specialty. It's more or less your birthright to have the chance to learn it."
"But I don't even go by the name of my clan anymore..." he replied quietly, almost as if he were confessing to a crime.
I raised my eyebrow. I knew he had been placed with a family, but I didn't realize he had actually been formerly adopted.
"That doesn't matter. Not to me, at least," I said after a brief pause. "What's important is your chakra, not your name." I clarified with a smile.
"Uzumaki have chakra that is potent and dense, enabling them to create physical constructs out of pure chakra on a scale that others cannot. The name you carry doesn't matter." I elaborated once more, makinh him look up from the scroll.
"What's the catch? I tried asking for help before, but nobody was willing to share jutsu freely," he asked bluntly, narrowing his eyes in suspicion.
I shrugged, slowly shaking my head. "The only catch is that it's hard to learn," I said casually, stifling a snort that threatened to escape me. "A bit of advice, though: Start by forming spheres and cubes first, and only then move on to smaller and more intricate shapes."
With that, I turned to leave. My goal had been achieved. Noriaki now had the scroll, and how he chose to use it was entirely up to him.
"Thank you..." he said quietly as he rolled up the scroll.
"Find me if you run out of materials... I'll gladly give you more to learn," I called back to him while waving and then jumped away, disappearing from his senses.
"And now we wait, Kurama. If I'm right, you'll have a new friend soon." I sent to the fox, tasing the giant calamity a little. I only got a max of a growl and a thoughtful hum in return.
As more days passed, I discovered that the chunin hired to assist Hinata with her training was Kurenai. I couldn't understand why a genjutsu specialist was chosen for her.
It's not that Kurenai was a bad teacher, Hinata actually described her as a very skilled one.
The issue lay in Kurenai's specialization; the Hyuga clan frowns upon using anything other than the Gentle Fist. So, why hire a genjutsu expert to train your child? So many perplexing events were happening at the same time that I was getting whiplash.
However, I believe this situation could work out well for Hinata in the long term. I wasn't particularly adept at genjutsu; my skills were limited to the 'False Surrounding Jutsu' and my own 'Sensory Input Confusion.' My arsenal was very much lacking in this area.
While I doubt Hinata will ever become a master of genjutsu, Kurenai can undoubtedly teach her far more about it than I ever could.
I wonder how long it will take Kurenai to see through Hinata's social anxiety and recognize the powerful young girl that lies beneath. Given how much Hinata dislikes being the center of attention, I would bet it won't be until after she graduates and faces an actual enemy.
Despite their superhuman deduction skills, the ninja world seems to struggles with noticing the obvious, no matter how close it is.