Chapter 10: A Glimmer of White
To fail here would be the end. He would have no place in this world, forced into a life less than human, an insect to be crushed. That was intolerable. A man should walk his own path, standing tall.
Seeing the dangerous standoff between the boy and the Uchiha examiner, the other two chūnin grew alarmed. They knew of the rivalry between the clans, but to have it play out so blatantly during an assessment was a disaster. If this escalated, higher authorities would get involved, and they would be held accountable.
One of them, a chūnin from the Ino-Shika-Chō contingent named Ino, spoke up carefully. "Fusa-senpai, perhaps… we could simply give him the chance? If he fails on his own merits, then we eliminate him. It maintains the procedure."
Uchiha Fusa replied in a strange, clipped tone. "To even test someone the Hyūga themselves have given up on… it feels like an insult to my judgment."
The other examiner quickly added, "Senpai, the school's rules do require it. And… it really wouldn't take much time."
Waste of time? Reitō thought, a cold anger settling in his gut. Fine. Let's see what you call a waste of time after this.
His face remained a placid mask. Seeing his lack of reaction, Uchiha Fusa gave a short, mocking laugh. "Very well. I'll grant you your chance. It will only prove that trash… is ultimately trash."
He said the words, but his mind was already made up. Hyūga Reitō would not pass. He would ensure the Hyūga clan bore this public humiliation, a small measure of revenge for the slights his own clan had endured. The memory of past shame demanded repayment.
"Begin," Fusa ordered, his voice dripping with condescension. "Show us this 'strength' of yours."
The other two examiners exchanged a relieved glance, though their looks toward Reitō were tinged with pity. They understood the situation perfectly. Unless the boy performed a miracle, Uchiha Fusa's verdict was a foregone conclusion.
What surprised them was Reitō's demeanor. He showed no panic, no desperation. Only a deep, unsettling calm.
"Hurry up!" Fusa snapped, impatient.
The more Fusa pushed, the more deliberate Reitō became. He took a slow breath, his voice steady. "First, I have awakened the Byakugan."
The words hung in the air. The two junior examiners blinked in surprise. Uchiha Fusa, who had been pointedly looking away, turned his head sharply, his eyes widening. "Awakened the Byakugan? He just said… could it be…?"
All three men, including the fourth chūnin who had been silently observing by the door, had the same thought.
Before them, Hyūga Reitō's face underwent a transformation. Veins bulged around his temples, mapping a dense network across his skin. His eyes, once simply pale, now gleamed with an activated, pearlescent intensity. The Hyūga clan's famed dōjutsu—the Byakugan.
Through its lens, the world resolved into perfect, 360-degree clarity within his ten-meter range. More than that, he could see into the three men before him. Their chakra pathways glowed like faint blue rivers under his gaze. Along those rivers, points of brighter light shone—opened tenketsu points. The two junior examiners each had several dozen active points in their arms and legs. Uchiha Fusa, in the center, had over sixty, with a few more clustered near his eyes, shimmering with latent potential.
All four men in the room—the three examiners and the observer—stared, their expressions shifting from boredom or contempt to open astonishment.
You don't… need hand signs to activate the Byakugan?
As an Uchiha who possessed the Sharingan, Fusa understood better than most the demanding nature of dōjutsu. Even for the Hyūga, whose eye activation was said to be more straightforward, it required fine chakra control and significant practice. Hand seals were the standard, safe method to channel the necessary energy. To forgo them entirely implied a terrifyingly instinctive mastery over one's own chakra system. At this age? It was unheard of.
"It's… remarkable," murmured the chūnin by the door, his voice thoughtful. "To wield a bloodline limit so effortlessly at such a young age…"
In Uchiha Fusa's mind, the calculus was upended. For the clan's "tail feather" to have awakened the Byakugan was one thing. But to control it with such seamless, seal-less precision? That defied all expectation. It hinted at a foundational talent that had been completely overlooked.
For a long moment, the three examiners sat in stunned silence, their earlier assumptions shattered by the luminous, vein-traced eyes of the boy they had been ready to dismiss. The air in the room changed, charged with a new, uncertain tension. Reitō had forced their attention. Now, he had to prove the rest.