Hiroshi shut the front door behind him and slipped off his sandals in silence. The house was quiet, as always. He walked past the empty hall, nodding his head to greet the guards as he passed by. He walked up the stairs and into his room, sliding the door closed.
The scroll with the Clone Technique was tucked under his arm. He glanced at it. It was just a simple roll of paper, unassuming. A basic technique every academy student would have to learn to pass their final exams.
He set it aside on his desk with a quiet sigh.
'Not right now.'
Instead, he sat cross-legged on the floor, his thoughts wandering to the Hokage's speech.
He'd been prepared to tune out the propaganda. The third Hokage was a true master of the SSS rank talk-no-jutsu, his skills perhaps rivaling even Naruto's. But when Hiruzen Sarutobi spoke, the room seemed to still. Something in his voice cut through the cynicism like a blade.
"Even I was moved," Hiroshi murmured.
For all his faults, Hiruzen was a master at what mattered. Leadership. Authority. Indoctrination, if he was being honest.
But beneath that speech lay a harsh truth: the village was fragile, and shadows gathered around its foundation.
He let out a slow breath, and the mask of the attentive student began to fall away.
Danzō. The man moved like a ghost behind the Hokage's back. Brainwashed Root operatives, secret experiments, and plans to take control of Konoha.
Obito. The masked man behind the Nine-Tails attack. The one whose machinations would set off the next shinobi world war, and the eventual revival of Madara Uchiha.
Could he be in Kirigakure now, pulling strings from behind the scenes? Whispers of the Blood Mist have reached as far as Konoha. The Mizukage was nothing more than a mere puppet in Obito's hands. Or perhaps he had already left that post behind, gathering followers for the Akatsuki?
And finally, Black Zetsu. The ancient manipulator and true hidden hand behind the conflict in the shinobi world.
Hiro clenched his fists.
He needed power, a whole lot of it.
His mind raced, reviewing everything he remembered from the anime.
The Bijuu (Tailed Beasts) were living chakra engines. Weapons of nations. If he could find a way to interact with one, it could tilt the balance, but that was much easier said than done.
The Eight Gates. A brutal, suicidal method of unlocking true potential. Even Madara Uchiha had acknowledged their might, and if even Madara had respected it? That said everything. But unlocking them required brutal conditioning—and worse, someone willing to teach him. Has Gai even become a jonin yet?
Then there was Senjutsu, sage mode. Natural energy. But where would he even begin? The Toads wouldn't accept just anyone. And Mount Myōboku wasn't exactly listed on any maps.
There were also his chakra natures to consider. Water and Earth.
His two affinities.
Solid. Practical. And utterly unremarkable.
There were few—if any—S-rank techniques shown in the anime. Certainly nothing like the Fire Style Amaterasu or Kakashi's flashy Lightning Cutter.
And no Wood Release. That was lame. No matter how much he trained, how well he shaped his two chakra natures, he couldn't force a kekkei genkai into existence.
He scoffed quietly to himself. "Of course, it couldn't be that easy. I should be thankful that I even have two affinities available to me. Most only have one natural affinity."
There was another factor to consider: Shadow Clone. An ability that could multiply his training time exponentially, letting him learn much faster. Mastering that jutsu would be a game-changer, and he intended to get it as soon as possible.
The room was silent, save for the soft rustle of paper.
"One step at a time," Hiroshi muttered as he unfurled the scroll before him.
There was one more tool in his arsenal—one he could access immediately.
The Byakugan.
It was supposed to be one of the Three Great Dōjutsu, a legendary bloodline passed down through the Hyūga clan. But what had it amounted to? 360-degree vision, x-ray sight, chakra detection, and the ability to precisely strike tenketsu points. All useful… but nothing game-changing. No evolution either.
Not like the Sharingan. And it didn't hold a candle to the Rinnegan. Certainly nowhere close to Kaguya's own Byakugan, which could bend dimensions and warp reality. Ōtsutsuki bullshit. Damn cheat code genetics.
Hiroshi didn't have that.
What he had was the basic Byakugan. And if its full potential hadn't been realized in centuries of Hyūga history… it was up to him to break that ceiling.
Maybe it couldn't evolve, but it could be optimized. He began running through possibilities. The ability to see chakra networks in real-time—how perfect was that for medical ninjutsu? Precise, detailed internal awareness. A skilled user could probably identify cellular abnormalities, nerve damage, and internal injuries instantly.
And Fūinjutsu? With the Byakugan's ability to perceive fine detail, he could watch chakra seal patterns form in motion, maybe even create or disarm seals faster than anyone else. Those two fields—medical and sealing—were complex and underappreciated. But they could be deadly weapons in the right hands.
He would make them his.
There was also the potential for accelerated learning. Could the Byakugan help him learn jutsu faster? See the chakra flow as he molded it? Watch its refinement in his tenketsu? He didn't know for sure how effective it would be, but he was going to find out.
He sat cross-legged and activated the dōjutsu with a quiet exhale.
Veins bulged at the sides of his face as the world shifted.
The ink on the scroll shimmered with faint chakra traces. He followed the instructions line by line, analyzing not just the words, but the chakra diagrams beneath. If there was one thing his past as a university student had given him, it was his studying prowess.
He brought his hands into the starting seal, then slowly, deliberately began shaping chakra in his core. The Byakugan let him see it: a faint blue glow spiraling out from his center, branching into his limbs, coalescing near his hands.
It was beautiful. Mesmerizing.
He sat there, watching the flow of his own life force move and shift, entranced. For the first time since awakening the Byakugan, he felt something deeper than combat utility. A system waiting to be understood and rewritten.
And he would be the one to do it.