Naruto: The Primal Hyuga Pierces the Shinobi World

Not long after Hyuga Hanabi was born, a matter that had been suppressed for a long time was brought up again by the elders of the branch family.

That is about when Hinata Hyuga will inscribe the Caged Bird Seal.

Hinata was three years old at the time. According to custom, after Hinata's birthday, she would be imprinted with the Caged Bird Seal and become the Hyuga Branch.

However, due to some unforeseen circumstances, the clan head, Hiashi Hyuga, and the elder, Shin, went to the battlefield one after another, and the matter was put on hold.

After Hiashi was injured and returned to the village to recuperate, the elders were reluctant to bring up the matter at that time. Coincidentally, the young Shinichi Hyuga led the clan to hunt in the blue and returned to the village with a great victory, so the matter was put aside.

But so many years have passed, and now Shinichi Hyuga is ten years old, Hinata is five, and Hiashi's third child has been born. Naturally, the Caged Bird incident has been brought up again.

Hiashi Hyuga is indeed a traditional person, and there are some ingrained patriarchal ideas in his mind, but that doesn't mean he doesn't love his daughter.

A caged bird...

Hiashi knew that his daughter would not be able to escape this fate in the future, but he did his best to delay the date when his daughter would be branded like a caged bird.

Now that the elders are bringing up the old story again, Rizu knows he can't escape it any longer.

Just as he was about to agree to the elders' request during the clan meeting, he suddenly heard his son, Hyuga Shinichi, object:

"It's a bit too early to imprint Hinata with the Caged Bird Seal now."

"It's better to wait a few more years until the clan's succession sequence is fully established before discussing this matter."

Since Shinichi Hyuga successfully reclaimed the Byakugan with his clan, he gained the right to participate in clan meetings at a young age. Moreover, the elders of the branch clans valued Shinichi highly, and his words carried considerable weight.

In previous clan meetings, Shinichi mostly played the role of a listener, leaving an impression of a steady and reliable personality.

This was actually the first time Shinichi had clearly stated his thoughts at the clan meeting, and as soon as he opened his mouth, he stood on the opposite side of all the clan elders.

"Shinichi..."

"The lineage succession within the clan has long been established."

"No one knows this better than yourself."

"You are the future head of the Hyuga clan, and no one is more suitable than you!"

"There is no room for negotiation on the fact that Hinata Hyuga will be branded with the Caged Bird Seal."

"This is a rule of the Hyuga clan."

After Shinichi clearly expressed his opposition, the first person to speak out was not the representatives of the various branches of the family or the clan elders, but rather Shinichi Hyuga, who had always regarded Shinichi as his own grandson.

It's true that Shinichi is very protective of Hinata, but when it comes to matters of clan succession, this great-grandfather almost becomes synonymous with "old-fashioned".

He also strongly supports putting Hinata in the Caged Bird Seal, as Hyuga Shinichi believes this will solidify Hyuga Shinichi's position.

Even though... Hinata remains a member of the main branch of the family, she can't shake Shinichi's position...

"Grandpa, I'm not against putting Hinata in the Caged Bird Seal, I'm just against putting Hinata in the Caged Bird Seal now."

“I understand everything you’ve said. I know the effort and care my family has put into me.”

"But I'm still young, aren't I?"

"Being young means there's a possibility of accidents happening. If something happens to me..."

Before Shinichi Hyuga could finish speaking, Shinichi Hyuga angrily interrupted him:

"shut up!"

"What happened?!"

"We, the Hyuga clan, will do everything in our power to protect you. There will be absolutely no chance of anything going wrong!"

"I already know what you're thinking. Considering Hinata's young age, her ability to accept things is limited."

"This matter can be postponed, but Shinichi Hyuga, you must understand that in the future you will represent not only yourself, but also the entire Hyuga clan."

"You need to look at the whole thing from a higher perspective, instead of just acting on your own emotions."

Although Shinichi Hyuga rebuked Shinichi Hyuga in a stern tone, he changed his tone at the end and took the opportunity to postpone the time for Hinata to be imprinted with the Caged Bird Seal.

The elders of the branch family hadn't initially noticed anything amiss, but after hearing the rest, they realized just how much Shen doted on his eldest grandson.

How could he agree to something like this?! Does this guy... even respect the family rules?!

Although they secretly criticized Hyuga Shin, the branch families did not pursue the matter further.

Although the date was delayed, there were no bad rules, right?

There are precedents for this kind of thing, so it's not a big deal.

“Shinichi, Elder Shin is right.”

"However... there's some truth to your considerations."

"How about this, at the latest when you come of age, Hinata will have to accept the Caged Bird Seal."

"Now you should have no objections, right?"

Hiashi Hyuga also noticed Shinichi and Shinichi's coordinated remarks and chimed in.

Six years... It's still a full six years until Shinichi comes of age. The standard for adulthood in the ninja world is different from that in modern society. It is generally believed that 16 years old is considered an adult.

After all, in the ninja world where the average age is no more than 50, it is not unusual for 16-year-old boys and girls who are already capable of reproduction to be considered adults.

Hinata is 5 years younger than Shinichi. Based on this, Hinata would need to be branded with the Caged Bird Seal before graduating from the Ninja Academy. After careful consideration, the clan elders felt that there shouldn't be any major risks, so they didn't express any objections after hearing Hiashi's decision.

After the clan meeting was finalized by Rizu, it only discussed some trivial matters and then ended hastily.

The main family and the branch families are interdependent, but in the end, the main family still holds the final say. As long as they don't go too far, they won't face resistance or dissatisfaction from the branch families.

Moreover, although Shinichi is young, he has high prestige within the clan. He finally managed to express his opinion at the clan meeting, and constant negativity will only dampen his enthusiasm.

Even if it's for the sake of nurturing Shinichi, as long as it doesn't violate the ancestral rules, the elders will choose to support Shinichi.

Furthermore, Shinichi's opposition actually demonstrates that he is a family-loving person, and the elders are very satisfied with the future clan leader's character.

Only those who love their family can love their clan.

How can someone who doesn't even love their own family possibly care for their entire clan?!

Naturally, no one would tell Hinata what happened at the clan meeting. Now five years old, Hinata still showed no signs of being "quiet." On the contrary, since she began ninja training, Hinata has been very diligent and hardworking.

In her, one can even faintly see the shadow of Shinichi when he was a child.

In the eyes of the adults in the clan, Hinata must have been influenced by her outstanding older brother. At such a young age, she must have already felt the immense pressure that her genius brother brought her.

However, in reality, Hinata's efforts were not influenced by Shinichi at all. From Hinata's perspective, her brother was always busy and rarely seen, so how could he possibly affect her?!

The person who could influence her was actually her childhood friend, Naruto Namikaze...

Naruto, who has both parents, showed remarkable talent from a young age. Although his personality is like Kushina's, Minato's teachings also left their mark on him.

Even without the Nine-Tails, Naruto, being from the Uzumaki clan and the reincarnation of Ashura, would undoubtedly possess an enormous amount of chakra. Kushina, on the other hand, has been diligently training in recent years to master the Nine-Tails' power, focusing on improving her control over her vast chakra reserves.

Naruto was often taken by Kushina for training.

This gave Naruto, at a young age, a good ability to control chakra. With this foundation, Naruto's progress was actually very fast.

This gave Hinata a strong sense of crisis. She was afraid that she would fall behind Naruto and lose her good friend. Therefore, Hinata was also training like crazy in private, hoping to be able to stay close to Naruto.

Hinata's feelings for Naruto are hard to pinpoint when they began. Was it the bond of childhood friendship? Or perhaps Naruto's courage in standing up for her back then left an indelible mark on Hinata's heart?

In short, everything was moving in a positive direction. Even though Hanako had a vague feeling that something was wrong, she didn't want to interfere. Did the innocent idea of ​​a little girl playing house need to be interfered with?

As for Hiashi? He paid very little attention to Hinata's love life, or rather, he couldn't even imagine that his daughter was so precocious.

As for Shinichi, well, although Naruto is a "real" blond, compared to others, if his brother-in-law were Naruto, Shinichi would actually be happy to see it happen.

However, what worries Shinichi is that Hinata's personality doesn't seem to be the gentle and soft type he remembers.

From his older brother's observation, Hinata's love for Naruto made her possessiveness very strong, and he was not so sure whether the two little ones could stay together in the end.

I hope that in the future there won't be any emotional entanglements like "she loves me, I love her, but she doesn't love me."

If Hinata continues down this path... and if anyone tries to take Naruto away from her in the future, they'll probably be killed...

If things really develop to that point, Shinichi, as the older brother, will naturally have no choice but to stand on Hinata's side...

However, the future is still quite far away, but right now, there is one thing that is the most important matter for the Hitachi family.

That means Hinata will be six years old soon, which is the age when she should be starting school.

Hiashi's plans for Hinata were completely different from those of Shinichi Hyuga. He hoped that his daughter could live the life of an ordinary ninja, enjoy her time at school, and have a complete childhood.

This autumn, the Hiashi couple had already arranged for five-year-old Hinata to enroll in the Konoha Ninja Academy. Next year, in March or April when the cherry blossoms are in full bloom, Hinata will be able to become a student at the Ninja Academy.

Compared to ordinary families who still need to pass the Ninja Academy exams, the Hyuga clan has considerable strength in this regard.

...

At the end of February, the cherry blossoms in Konoha Village were in full bloom, and the Ninja Academy was once again accepting new students for enrollment.

Early in the morning, Hinata was woken up from her bed by Hanako, who spent nearly half an hour washing and dressing her before taking Hinata's hand and leading her out of the room to the front hall for breakfast.

On this day, Shinichi Hyuga unusually did not call a few of his confidants to go to the dojo for training. Instead, he and Hiashi ate breakfast early in the front hall while waiting for Hanako and Hinata.

Hinata's entire family is preparing to accompany her to the opening ceremony of the Ninja Academy. This is a major event in Hinata's life, and as her closest family members, even busy people like Hiashi and Shinichi will not be absent.

Hinata, who woke up early, showed no signs of sleepiness. In fact, her eyes were filled with excitement, as if she was really looking forward to her life at the Ninja Academy.

"Hey, Hinata, does going to school make you happy?"

Shinichi Hyuga had seen many children in his previous life who clamored not to go to kindergarten, but he had never seen a child like Hinata who was looking forward to going to school. Seeing the expectation and excitement in her eyes, Shinichi asked instinctively.