Almost every member of the Hyuga Branch Family had a Main Family member they were responsible for serving. They were called "attendants" but were, in fact, "servants."
Not every Main Family member was as gentle as Hyuga Hinata. If you were unlucky enough to be assigned to serve a Main Family member with a nasty personality, you would have to add "training sandbag" to your duties as a "servant."
Coincidentally, the Main Family member Hyuga Kumo served was just such a person, one who didn't treat the lives of the branch family as human lives.
And the man before him was just a good dog.
The smile on Hyuga Kumo's face faded slightly. He ignored the Hyuga clansman's deliberate provocation and simply started walking out again.
The man clearly didn't expect that Hyuga Kumo, who had always passively accepted rumors and slander, would ignore him. His face instantly darkened, and he said grimly, calling him by his full name, "Hyuga Kumo, I am asking you a question!"
Hyuga Kumo still ignored him and continued walking. Seeing this, Might Guy just shrugged and followed.
"Failure! I told you to stop!"
An angry voice came from behind, followed by the sound of whistling wind.
The man was actually grabbing for Hyuga Kumo's shoulder, the force of his attack showing not a shred of clan camaraderie.
Might Guy stopped, his brows furrowed, just about to intervene.
But the moment the hand landed on his shoulder, Hyuga Kumo's body jolted forcefully like a "pine shaking off snow." A bone-penetrating force was instantly transmitted through his entire body to his shoulder, causing the Hyuga clansman's palm to go numb.
The next moment, before the astonished clansman could react...
Without turning his head, Hyuga Kumo bent his arm, stepped forward and to the side with his left foot, and his body moved in a "circle." The hem of his white clothes swirled gently with the movement, revealing the well-defined muscles of his abdomen as he pushed his palm out.
If someone from his past life had seen this move, they would have blurted out two words.
In the Hyuga clansman's eyes, his right hand was first jolted away, and the Hyuga Kumo before him disappeared with near-"Shunshin" speed, lowering his body and placing a palm on his abdomen.
Then, a power far superior to his own, an unimaginable force, submerged him like a tidal wave from that palm.
BOOM!!
A terrifying force erupted within half a centimeter, a power sufficient to shatter rock slammed into the Hyuga clansman's body, causing him to arch like he'd been hit by a battering ram.
Just as a mouthful of blood was about to erupt from the clansman's mouth...
"It wouldn't be good to see blood," a light voice entered his ear.
Hyuga Kumo's right palm faced up, his elbow down, as he expressionlessly tapped the man's chin with a light palm strike.
With a crisp "crack," the mouthful of dirty blood that had surged to his throat was swallowed back down.
"Cough, cough! Cough!!"
A look of agony spread across the clansman's face. He clutched his throat and abdomen, his body powerlessly kneeling before Hyuga Kumo.
"How dare you..."
His Byakugan bulged slightly, the veins around them popping, as he stared wide-eyed up at Hyuga Kumo.
But, meeting those calm eyes, the rest of his sentence inexplicably got stuck in his throat. A chill suddenly rose in his heart.
It was a baseless chill, crawling over his body like a poisonous snake, its cold temperature pressing down on him bit by bit.
Was he actually afraid?
Afraid of this failure? How was that possible...
"This palm strike is to pay you back." Hyuga Kumo looked down on him, a smile returning to his face. "Hyuga Aoi's extra training is in the afternoon. Next time, don't act like a dog borrowing its master's might in front of me."
Saying that, he gently patted the man's shoulder, ignored his slightly trembling body, and walked out of the clan grounds with Might Guy at his side.
"I didn't expect you to go that far!"
Along the way, Might Guy's tone remained light. He was only a little curious about Hyuga Kumo's actions.
He had, of course, heard of Hyuga Kumo's past "deeds," but Hyuga Kumo was a friend he acknowledged. He felt that Kumo was not the "failure" from the rumors.
If nothing else, just based on that taijutsu he had never seen before, which seemed to blend Strong Fist and Gentle Fist, he was already much stronger in his eyes than those hidebound Hyuga clansmen.
He just didn't understand why Kumo had always ignored the rumors.
"I've made a fool of myself in front of you, Senpai. They are my clansmen, after all. I didn't want to go too far," Hyuga Kumo said apologetically.
Might Guy shook his head and grinned, "You did nothing wrong. Youth cannot be tarnished."
Hyuga Kumo smiled, saying helplessly, "Things have gotten so noisy, I'm getting a little annoyed."
[Ding, your lie has been judged as [talking through one's hat]. Might Guy has experienced a slight emotional fluctuation, reaching the level of [firm belief]. 200 Manifestation Points obtained...]
This was, of course, a lie.
Why hadn't he paid any attention before?
On one hand, it was because his plan against Orochimaru had not yet succeeded, and the image of a harmless "failure" was more useful to him.
On the other hand...
"When the dog at the village entrance barks, the other dogs will follow, but they don't know why they're barking."
"If you have to stop and throw stones to drive away every stray dog that barks wildly, you'll never get anything else done."
Hyuga Kumo sneered inwardly.
He felt no emotional fluctuation whatsoever towards that nameless side character.
He had acted partly to test the new moves he'd thought of, and partly to lay the groundwork for his upcoming plans.
Only rats hide in the gutter. No one will believe the words of a "rat."
It was like if Danzo Shimura said something, the villagers would just say, "who is this old coot?" But if Hiruzen Sarutobi said something casually, no matter how bizarre, they would subconsciously suspect they had failed to understand it.
A lie only becomes truth when spoken from the mouth of someone with power and authority.
The transformation of Hyuga Kumo by his bloodline was from the inside out, from the ethereal realms of perception and talent to the physical level of strength.
Without external interference, the transformation and cleansing of his body by the bloodline should have been a long and slow process, gradually getting stronger over time.
Hyuga Kumo couldn't wait that long. He needed more Manifestation Points, which meant approaching other high-quality targets. He needed to appropriately display his abilities to increase his own utility value.
The "resistance" just now was only the first step.
If things went as expected, more people would soon learn the news that he had been subjected to human experimentation by Orochimaru.
Hiruzen Sarutobi should have already taken Yamato, now codenamed "Kinoe," under his wing. And as one of only two surviving test subjects of Orochimaru, Hiruzen Sarutobi and Danzo Shimura would definitely try to test the waters with him.
With this in mind, Hyuga Kumo once again thought of his eyes. They flickered as he silently recited in his mind, "Manifest item—a Pure Byakugan that, upon fusion, can awaken the Tenseigan."
[Spend 10,000 Manifestation Points. Confirm manifestation?]
"It's just enough to manifest?"
Hearing this, Hyuga Kumo hesitated for a moment. To be safe, he tentatively recited in his mind, "Manifest item—the method to fuse a Pure Byakugan with a pure Ōtsutsuki bloodline to awaken the Tenseigan."
[Insufficient points]
"..." Hyuga Kumo's face instantly darkened. "As expected, I'm still missing something."
Good thing he didn't fall for this damn system's trap.
If he had impulsively spent his entire fortune, only to get a pair of useless Byakugan in return, he would have no one to cry to.
"In that case, the second method is the only relatively stable and safe option," Hyuga Kumo frowned.
The Hyuga Clan's Byakugan should have a higher purity than that of the Ōtsutsuki branch on the moon. The only problem was that their numbers were far from comparable to the Ōtsutsuki clan that had peacefully occupied the moon for thousands of years. He didn't know if gouging out the eyes of the entire clan would be enough to fuse a Tenseigan...
"Ahem."
The thought arose, and Hyuga Kumo couldn't help but cough, quickly chanting "my sin, my sin" in his heart.
Gouging out everyone's eyes was too evil. He wasn't a beast like Uchiha Itachi.
Just gouging out the eyes of the Hyuga Clan members who had awakened them would be enough. There was no use in taking them from the ordinary members who hadn't awakened them.
Of course, this was not something he should do himself.
He had a better candidate in mind.
Now, all he had to do was wait for those old geezers to reveal their ugly faces.