chapter 1

Chapter 1 : Hinata

The sun was shining brightly, and cicadas were chirping everywhere.

In a classical and luxurious Japanese courtyard, a child about four or five years old was standing upright in the center, performing horse stance and throwing punches, creating muffled sounds that echoed through the yard.

The child's skin was different from that of ordinary people. It was pale and lifeless, slightly bluish, yet somewhat translucent under the sun. His hair was also bluish-white, matching his skin color.

Most striking were his bluish-white pupils. At first glance, they seemed a bit scary, but against the backdrop of his handsome and heroic features, they had a unique kind of beauty.

Heavy breathing came from his nose, and sweat dripped onto the ground beneath Hyuga Ryosuke's feet like raindrops.

This land belonged to the Hyuga clan, a powerful family in Konoha, and this was the residence of the Hyuga main family.

As a member of a branch family, Ryosuke could stand here because of his talent and because he married into the family, becoming the son-in-law of the Hyuga family head, Hyuga Hiashi.

Ryosuke had become the child husband of Hinata Hyuga.

"Ryosuke-kun..."

A faint voice was heard in the courtyard, and the sliding door opened.

A girl with bluish-white eyes like Ryosuke's walked out of the house tentatively. She was holding a plate of watermelon carefully in her hands, standing nervously on the wooden walkway, wanting to speak but unsure if she would disturb him, hesitating.

Pausing his movements, Ryosuke looked gently at the nervous girl. "Do you want me to rest for a while?"

"Um!"

Having her thoughts guessed, the girl nodded gratefully. "Father said that you are still young and your body is not fully developed. You can't practice excessively."

"I know, I know."

Listening to the girl's instructions with amusement, Ryosuke walked over obediently and sat with her on the porch to rest.

"Thanks..."

Ryosuke reached out and took the piece of watermelon handed to him by the girl and thanked her.

The pretty girl in front of him was his future wife, the eldest daughter of the Hyuga clan, Hinata Hyuga.

But this young lady didn't have the temper of a typical young lady at all.

In the face of this young boy who married into the family, she was actually very humble. Under her pretty and well-behaved exterior, she was somewhat timid and cowardly.

But this was within Ryosuke's known range.

The reason his future wife was so timid was that she, the head of the Hyuga clan's daughter, had no talent as a ninja, disappointing her father, Hyuga Hiashi, time and again.

As for why Ryosuke knew so much, it was because he was a time traveler.

Beneath this childish appearance was a mature soul.

Ryosuke's soul came from another world, and the ninja world he lived in now was actually the content of a comic book in his previous life.

But in that comic book, he didn't appear in any of the plots.

He was an outsider, an anomaly.

"Ryosuke-kun..."

It seemed that because Ryosuke's gaze lingered on her for a bit too long, Hinata bit her lower lip lightly and spoke in a hurried and uneasy voice.

"Sorry, sorry, it's just that little Hinata looks so cute." Ryosuke apologized, but with a smile on his face, not feeling embarrassed at all.

"Well..."

Hinata was a little confused by the sudden praise. She thought about the words in her mind and became more nervous. "I... I actually..."

After holding it in for a long time, she didn't say anything humble.

This was the first time she was praised by her peers. In the past, the children in the village always laughed at her appearance and her... eyes.

"But there's one thing I've always been curious about."

Sitting on the porch, looking at the little girl's blushing face, Ryosuke stretched out his free hand and gently stroked her hair. "Hinata, do you know what husband means? Do you understand the relationship between you and me?"

His tone was gentle, and his movements were soft.

Feeling the warm hand caressing her head, Hinata spoke in a daze, "Father... Father said that I am your wife and I must listen to you and always stay by your side."

Unconsciously, she moved a little closer to Ryosuke so that his palm wouldn't have to stretch so far.

"It seems little Hinata doesn't understand our relationship at all."

This answer was expected, but it still made Ryosuke feel helpless. "If you understand our relationship in the future, you must explain it to me."

"Okay..."

A faint reply was heard, and it was unclear whether she understood it or not.

The two sat quietly.

After finishing the watermelon in his hand, under Hinata's lost gaze, Ryosuke withdrew his palm. "Hinata, please go and ask my father to come over. I want to talk to him about something."

"Father... Father?"

Hinata hesitated at the mention of this person but nodded obediently and stood up.

The father mentioned by Ryosuke was Hyuga Hiashi, the Clan head of the Hyuga clan.

After being reborn into this world, Ryosuke, as a member of the Hyuga branch family, should have been branded with the Caged Bird Seal, becoming a tool to protect the main family's bloodline.

But relying on his special abilities, after he was born, he displayed talents and abilities far beyond those of ordinary families and opened his Byakugan with extremely high purity.

So, after his mother passed away, he, as an orphan, was adopted by Hyuga Hiashi.

After the birth of Hiashi's second daughter, his identity became Hinata's husband, the man of the future head of the family, and the real head of the family.

Hinata left, and Ryosuke was the only one left in the quiet courtyard.

He didn't get up to continue exercising. As the chakra in his body surged, several blue veins suddenly popped up near his bluish-white pupils.

Activating his Byakugan, he used his insight and clairvoyance to glance around the main house nearby, ensuring there were no extra prying eyes. Then he retracted his gaze and waited for Hiashi to arrive.

"Only about one-third of it? There's no change from what I observed a week ago. It seems unrelated to the duration and intensity of the training..."

Taking advantage of this time, Ryosuke observed the progress in his mind, which looked like an experience bar.

The progress bar in his brain was Ryosuke's special ability and the reason he opened his Byakugan and possessed physical fitness far beyond his peers.

It could be called a limiter or a gene lock. This was the name he gave to this progress bar because this thing didn't come with an instruction manual, and everything had to be figured out by oneself.

As a reborn person familiar with the plot, Ryosuke knew very well that this ninja world was not simple.

Fighting and killing were absolutely daily routines. Maybe even in a few years, when the ostracized yellow-haired boy in the village graduates, in addition to fighting and killing, their village, which was considered peaceful in the ninja world, would also face devastating shocks again and again.

If he was content with the status quo, there was a high probability he wouldn't have a good ending.

If he wanted to be able to protect himself or even change the situation when a crisis occurred, the first thing he needed to figure out was how to use this experience bar.

From the discovery of the experience bar to now, Ryosuke had tried many methods.

For example, eating a lot, taking medicinal baths, or even photosynthesis, but it was obvious that this experience bar had nothing to do with the nutrients taken in by the body.

Recently, he had been working on the intensity and duration of his training, but unfortunately, after a week, the growth rate of the experience bar was still the same as before.

In other words, this experience bar had nothing to do with physical strength or chakra amount.

So... can I just wait for time to pass and for it to reach 100%? Ryosuke pondered.

Currently, this progress bar had only gone through one-third of the way, but in the four years since rebirth, this progress bar had been completed once, reaching 100%.

When the progress bar was finished, his body seemed to have opened up some restrictions, and it evolved and changed, improving a certain level of life.

The originally thin bloodline of the branch family was improved and possessed a purity that surpassed that of the main family, opening up the Byakugan that was different from that of the Hyuga clan.

His pale skin and hair color were enough to prove that the concentration of his blood was far beyond the ability of the Hyuga family to detect.

As a reborn person, the various changes in his body clearly told Ryosuke that he had returned to his original form.

The source of this power today came from the Otsutsuki clan.

As one of the two major families of Konoha, the Hyuga family possessed a dojutsu that had been passed down for thousands of years and was inherited from the Otsutsuki family.

Since they were from that clan, the ability of their Byakugan would naturally not be weak.

At least... it wasn't the ordinary one that was only applicable to physical skills and sensory exploration.

 (End of this Chapter)