Chapter 1 — The Stolen Byakugan
"Do you know what the essence of ninjutsu truly is?"
"The answer… is bloodline." — Hyūga Ritsu
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Konoha Year 50.
The Third Great Ninja War blazed on without end.
Along the eastern coastline of the Land of Fire, thousands of Konoha shinobi were spread across the rugged shore, clashing again and again with the advancing forces from the Land of Water — Kirigakure's Mist-nin.
The coastline, long and winding, had become a shared, festering wound — a place where both Konoha and Kirigakure bled endlessly.
At Konoha's forward base, within a dimly lit command tent—
Two figures sat across from each other, each with a steaming bowl of instant noodles in front of them.
"Here, sensei, have an egg."
Hyūga Ritsu smiled as he reached into his pocket, pulling out two boiled eggs. He placed one before himself, then stretched his arm across the table to drop the other into his teacher's bowl.
But his teacher, Orochimaru's protégé — Hiruko, didn't even glance at it. His sharp eyes were fixed instead on his student.
"Ritsu," he said gravely, "I'll ask you one last time. Are you sure you want to do this? Think carefully. If you fail… you'll die."
Ritsu chuckled softly, cracking the egg in his hand. "Sensei, I wish you had a little more confidence in the technique you perfected."
"I don't doubt my technique," Hiruko said, tapping his egg against the edge of the table to crack the shell before peeling it with both hands. "But you—"
He paused, his tone sharpening. "You're not planning to perform it the proper way, are you?"
As he spoke, he peeled the egg and dropped it into his noodles, stirring it slowly with his chopsticks.
"The improved Chimera Technique I created," he continued, "requires the absorption of five different Kekkei Genkai — balanced perfectly according to the Five Elements. Only then can they coexist within one body without backlash. That balance is everything!"
Across the table, Ritsu had already lifted his chopsticks, slurping up his noodles with a careless "shluurp", as if the words carried no weight.
Hiruko sighed, still holding his chopsticks midair. "And yet look at you! You've only secured one bloodline — the Shikotsumyaku, and you're already impatient to begin! How can I have faith in your success?"
His voice wavered between irritation and worry.
Ritsu looked up, his bowl already empty except for the lone egg floating in the broth.
He smiled faintly. "Sensei, I told you before — my clan's ancient records mention something intriguing. The Hyūga and the Kaguya once shared an ancestor. Sounds absurd, I know… but it's said that our bloodlines sprang from the same root. So I believe it might work. If I take in the Shikotsumyaku, perhaps my Byakugan will evolve — maybe even free me from the Caged Bird Seal."
"Show me those records," Hiruko demanded flatly.
"I would… but when I was a kid, I, uh… used them as toilet paper."
"…You couldn't come up with a better lie than that?" Hiruko muttered, exasperated, finally eating his now-cold noodles.
He truly didn't know what to do with this boy.
Ritsu had been his student for nearly ten years — sharp-minded, fearless, and just as obsessed with forbidden techniques as he was. In many ways, the boy was more than a student — he was a successor, even a son he never had. Hiruko never married, nor had any desire to raise a family. Ritsu was all he had.
Which was why, ever since the previous night — when Ritsu declared his intent to use the Chimera Technique on the captive Mist-nin from the Kaguya clan — Hiruko had felt a leaden weight pressing on his chest. He'd begun to regret teaching the boy the technique at all.
The Chimera Technique, after all, was no ordinary jutsu.
It was originally a forbidden art devised by Tobirama Senju, the Second Hokage — meant to fuse the limbs of ninja beasts with humans to strengthen the user's physical abilities.
But such experiments were abhorrent to human ethics — the resulting half-beasts grotesque and pitiful. The technique was banned by Hashirama himself and sealed deep within Konoha's archives.
Hiruko, however, had repurposed it — transforming it into a jutsu that could steal bloodline abilities from others.
And now, Hyūga Ritsu intended to use it — to seize the Kaguya clan's Shikotsumyaku, the bloodline of bones.
"Well then," Ritsu said at last, setting his empty bowl aside, his tone suddenly serious. "Let me give you another reason, sensei."
He met Hiruko's eyes.
"Did you hear about what happened yesterday?"
"…You mean Hyūga Taisho — having his Byakugan stolen by the Mist?"
Hiruko's expression hardened. He quickly finished his meal and set down his chopsticks.
There had been many incidents on the battlefield, but this one was different.
A Hyūga from the main family — Hyūga Taisho — had led his squad into battle, only to be ambushed by an elite Mist team. The squad was annihilated, and Taisho himself returned in disgrace — one eye gone.
A Byakugan, stolen by the enemy.
The news had shaken the entire village, and the Hyūga clan most of all.
Ritsu's gaze grew cold. "That's why, sensei. If the Mist can steal our eyes… then I'll steal theirs."
After all, the Hyūga's Byakugan is famed across the shinobi world — a top-tier Kekkei Genkai. It grants a full 360° field of vision with no blind spots, telescopic sight for kilometers, and the ability to see through flesh and bone. On a battlefield those gifts are priceless, and naturally many factions covet them.
A thousand years ago, the Hyūga's ancestors, determined to stop outsiders from stealing their bloodline, set up the Main House–Branch House system to protect the clan's heritage. The Main House brands the Branch Houses with a seal called the Caged Bird. If a Branch member dies or if anyone tries to extract a Branch member's Byakugan, the seal triggers — destroying the eye outright — and gives the Main House direct control over that Branch member's life and death.
That the Main House's own Byakugan could be taken — such a thing was unheard of.
So it's easy to imagine the fury that would sweep the Hyūga clan.
"Sensei," Ritsu asked, voice steady, "what do you think will happen to us Branch members at the front if the Main House's Byakugan was stolen?"
"Happen…?" Hiruko frowned at the loaded word. "What business is it of yours? You're a Branch, yes, but you weren't Taisho's bodyguard. If you hadn't shown up when you did and driven those Mist-nin off, Hyūga Taisho and the others might never have come back alive."
"That's exactly the problem," Ritsu said, exhaling once.
"What do you mean?"
"Do you think Hyūga Taisho is thanking me for saving his life, or blaming me for not arriving sooner?"
"He would dare—" Hiruko started, then stopped. The rest of the sentence died in his throat.
Because he could. The Hyūga system gives the Main House enormous power over Branch families: the Caged Bird can kill a Branch member on the spot, and Konoha traditionally keeps its distance from internal clan affairs. Village authorities rarely interfere in the private punishments of the great families.
And Hiruko knew Hyūga Taisho well enough to be worried: talented, arrogant, and lacking in responsibility — the sort of man who would rather shift blame than accept it. It was well within Taisho's character to resent Ritsu's impetuosity and make him pay.
"Ritsu," Hiruko said quietly, "do you really think this is the time to risk everything to remove the Caged Bird seal?"
"I don't want to gamble that the Main House are all wise, fair men who can tell right from wrong."
Hiruko let out a long, weary sigh. He pinched the soft-boiled egg from his bowl and stuffed it into his mouth, chewing as he muttered around it, "I'll go find Orochimaru. He can put you on a recon detail — something innocent, officially sanctioned. That'll get you away from the front without raising suspicion."
Ritsu's eyes flashed, but his voice was calm. "Sensei, I don't want to be hidden away. If the Main House can have a Byakugan taken from them, then the threat is immediate. I'd rather go after it than run from it."
Hiruko swallowed the last of his noodles and stared at his pupil a long moment. The tent's canvas rustled as distant artillery and the cries of men carried in on the sea breeze. Outside, the war continued to chew at both nations.
"What I can do," Hiruko said at last, tone flat, "is buy you time. I'll arrange something with Orochimaru — a cover mission. But Ritsu… if you move forward with that Chimera technique, remember this: there are costs we cannot foresee. If that balance you spoke of slips, the backlash may not be something we can fix."
Ritsu picked up his empty bowl, the single egg now gone. "I understand." He folded his hands around the rim and looked out toward the coastline as if he could already see the Mist-nin among the waves. "If they can take a Byakugan, then we must take what they possess. Not for glory — for survival."