Noon arrived.
Hyūga Kumokawa walked back from the Konoha Hospital toward the Hyūga clan grounds. He glanced down at the bandaged palm of his hand.
Thanks to the ever-strengthening self-healing ability of this body, the wound had actually closed completely on the way to the hospital. He had cut it open again just to avoid drawing unwanted attention.
Even so, the medical ninja at the hospital had still marveled at how rare such powerful regeneration was.
Of course, that wasn't the only reason he had done it.
"…"
Lost in thought, Kumokawa reached the edge of a training ground. He looked up and saw the figure surrounded respectfully by several others.
Hyūga Aoi, daughter of one of the Main House elders.
Her long black hair seemed to flow under the sunlight. The healthy rosy tint on her sixteen-year-old cheeks still carried a touch of baby fat, yet her white eyes were as cold and sharp as blades tempered in ice.
"Get out of my sight!"
She kicked away the Branch House member kneeling in front of her without mercy. The man only stifled a pained grunt, not daring to show even the slightest hint of resentment.
"Useless."
Hyūga Aoi glared at him with open disgust, then swept her gaze across the other Branch members, her voice laced with irritation. "All of you are worthless! Not a single one of you dares to fight back properly. Is this really what my father sends to protect me?"
The Branch members kept their heads lowered, respectful and submissive, not daring to talk back or step out of line.
The elder had only one daughter, and he had spoiled her rotten since childhood, turning her into a willful, arrogant, and domineering girl.
If that were all, it wouldn't have been so bad—many Main House children behaved the same way.
But she was also aggressive and competitive, always itching to leave the village and fight on the battlefield. To the Branch members, it looked like reckless overconfidence. To the Main House, it was simply asking for trouble.
This time she had been refused permission to go out again, so she had demanded these Branch members use their full strength against her in training.
Yet how could they? Even though Aoi was still too young for the Caged Bird Seal, injuring her by accident could still earn them agonizing punishment from her father.
Compared to the soul-crushing pain that made life feel worse than death, a few harsh words and beatings were nothing. If she wanted, they would even kneel and bark like dogs.
"Wait." Aoi suddenly frowned, as if noticing something. "Isn't someone missing?"
The Branch members glanced up briefly, their eyes meeting for a moment as they realized exactly who was absent.
"Lady Aoi."
After a short silence, the same clansman who had blocked Kumokawa that morning spoke first, his tone respectful. "It's…"
"Lady Aoi, I'm here."
Before he could finish, the familiar voice cut in. The man's body trembled involuntarily, and a dull ache flared in his bruised abdomen.
Aoi turned with a scowl and saw Hyūga Kumokawa approaching. Her voice turned icy. "So that's who's missing. You, the failure."
Kumokawa ignored her mockery. He simply raised his bandaged hand and bowed his head slightly. "My apologies, Lady Aoi. I injured my hand, so today I may not be able to…"
Whoosh!
A sharp whistle sliced through the air. He instinctively tilted his head to dodge. The fist grazed his earlobe, the wind whipping his tied-back black hair.
Kumokawa calmly lifted his lowered gaze and met a pair of emotionless white eyes.
"Save the excuses," Aoi said coldly. "Show me if this failure has improved at all."
The moment the words left her mouth, she pulled her fist back and thrust her palm toward his chest.
But in the next instant, Kumokawa's figure drifted backward with an almost weightless step, like a leaf carried by the wind, easily evading the strike.
A flash of surprise crossed Aoi's eyes. Veins bulged fiercely around her sockets as she dropped into the proper opening stance of the Gentle Fist.
Her right hand blurred into an afterimage. Three fingers extended, aiming straight for his left shoulder.
"…" Kumokawa sighed inwardly. "What a pain."
He still didn't want to reveal himself too early, but kneeling and playing the obedient dog was no longer an option.
After enduring three years to get this second chance at life, continuing to grovel would make the wait completely pointless.
So… stand tall, or make the "money"?
"I want both."
In that case.
Hyūga Kumokawa slowly closed his eyes.
Once again, he entered that state of total focus. Every physical sense—sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch—was completely sealed off, leaving only pure spiritual perception.
Boom!
His body spun and arched backward. Aoi's fingertips brushed past the tip of his nose, leaving a palm print an inch deep in the wooden post behind him. Wood chips scattered, carrying the bitter scent of pine resin as they landed on his lashes.
Aoi's fists and palms came in rapid succession, fast and fierce. Yet in Kumokawa's perception, every movement dragged like slow motion.
Inside him, his boiling blood surged like a tide, a scorching heat like molten rock letting his body keep pace with his mind.
He moved like the only thing at normal speed inside a film played in slow motion, freely navigating a timeline stretched to its limit.
"What's going on?"
Seeing every single one of her strikes dodged while Kumokawa's eyes remained closed, Aoi's pupils contracted. Her expression shifted from surprise to excitement, but her attacks grew increasingly frantic.
Kumokawa could "see" that her seemingly sharp offense left her ribs wide open every time she turned.
In the next second, he seized the opening. His raised palm slipped past her chest like a fish darting through water, seizing her wrist. His other arm locked hers in place as he twisted with a surge of power along the bones and tendons…
Crack! Snap!
In a single instant, two distinct sounds came from Aoi's arm.
One was the dislocation. The other was the reset.
The motion was smooth and practiced. She didn't even have time to cry out—only a brief, sharp stab of pain.
Before she could recover from the shock, Kumokawa moved again.
His body trembled with a subtle vibration almost too fast for the eye to catch. A penetrating force shot from his spine through his muscles and into his arm, whipping it toward Aoi like a lash.
Bang!
The sound was like a thick bamboo bent to its breaking point and suddenly released, cracking through the air. A thin white mist exploded outward like silk.
The strike slammed into the arm Aoi had raised to block. She staggered backward several steps as if hammered by a mallet, on the verge of falling in an undignified heap…
That would be too messy to deal with.
Kumokawa sighed, reached out, and grabbed her collar, yanking her upright without ceremony.
"Had enough yet, Lady Aoi?"
He opened his eyes and looked into her trembling gaze, his voice carrying a sharp edge as he lowered it. "If you truly want to go to the battlefield, you should at least understand one thing…"
"On this blood-soaked land, inside this ruthless clan, the only reason you're alive is because countless lives were sacrificed for you."
"The living must be worthy of that sacrifice."
"Unfortunately, in my eyes, you're not."
With that, he released her collar and gave her a light push.
Ignoring the stunned, fearful, or shocked stares around him, Kumokawa offered Aoi a slight bow, then turned and walked away.
His back to her, his expression remained calm, his steps steady as he left the training ground.
The moment he stepped outside, the system notification he had been waiting for finally sounded in his mind.
[Ding!]
[Your lie has been judged as [Feigned Sincerity] [Playing the Hero]. Hyūga Aoi experiences a strong emotional fluctuation, reaching [Self-Doubt]. You have gained 300 Truth Points…]
"…Tsk. That's slander."
The smile vanished from Kumokawa's face as he muttered under his breath, "Deceiving a woman is something I simply can't do."
Joke delivered, he caught a familiar figure from the corner of his eye—a young boy with a childish face twisted in resentment, running out from another residence.
That was… Hyūga Neji.
"Oh, look at that," Kumokawa murmured, narrowing his eyes with a smile. "My protagonist has finally appeared."
***
If you want to read up to 25 chapters ahead, don't hesitate to visit our patron: pat reon . com / XElenea (remove space)