If she remembered correctly, the Hyuga Clan was a clan that had long practiced internal marriage. Even though it caused far more strange deformities to be born among them than in other clans, the Hyuga Clan had never abandoned the rule of marrying within the clan.
What were they pursuing?
Was it not the purity of their bloodline?
But now Kaede Kitahara was saying that compared to the Otsutsuki Clan, the Hyuga Clan's bloodline had degenerated greatly. How was that supposed to be understood?
Still, thinking about the terrifying strength of the Otsutsuki Clan, the current Hyuga Clan in Konoha really did look like a random roadside dog. There was nothing impressive about them at all.
"No, maybe it's exactly because their bloodline has degenerated so badly that they have to marry within the clan to preserve its purity."
Tsunade thought about it from another angle, and everything suddenly had a new explanation.
Clearly, Kaede Kitahara knew more. He knew that, in theory, the Byakugan should not be limited to this level.
The Byakugan's second stage?
It should correspond to the Mangekyo Sharingan. Then could there also be a third stage? Something equivalent to the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan?
Tsunade did not know. She was only following the information that had appeared so far and guessing at different possibilities.
But she did know about the system of Main House and Branch House within the Hyuga Clan. It could be called utterly absurd.
In truth, all major ninja clans had similar systems of Main House and Branch House. Based on the information Kaede Kitahara had given, the ancestors of the Senju Clan and Uzumaki Clan back then had very likely been a Main House and Branch House that eventually split apart completely.
However, no clan had a gap between Main House and Branch House as outrageous as the Hyuga Clan's.
It was just that the internal affairs of ninja clans were not something even the Hokage could interfere with. This was a rule established when Great Grandfather founded the Hidden Leaf Village. Konoha had been built through the cooperation of various ninja clans. At the time, Civilian Ninja were pitifully few. It was Second Great Grandfather who later established the Ninja Academy and trained them.
So even if everyone thought the rules of the Hyuga Clan's Main House and Branch House were absurd, they all kept to their place. The Hokage had already changed to the third generation, yet no one had stepped across that red line.
Interfering in the internal affairs of ninja clans was something every clan was deeply wary of.
Unlike Civilian Ninja, who had no one to rely on and could only depend on the village, ninja clans saw things in a completely different way.
"But why is he bringing this up?" Tsunade frowned. "What exactly is Kaede Kitahara feeling sorry about?"
She knew very well that Kaede Kitahara was not someone who spoke without reason. As for the ability of the Byakugan, forget him, even the current Tsunade did not really take it seriously. So what he regretted was definitely not the current Byakugan. It might be the second stage, or the third stage.
Perhaps even the Byakugan that came from the Otsutsuki.
Did Kaede Kitahara covet that power too?
"Byakugan? Hyuga Neji?"
Uchiha Sasuke remembered who Hyuga Neji was. He had once been one of the targets Sasuke wanted to defeat.
Just as Hyuga Neji saw Uchiha Sasuke as a certain kind of rival, Uchiha Sasuke had also regarded Hyuga Neji as a rival to some degree. He had been one of the targets Sasuke intended to use for practice before killing Uchiha Itachi.
But that was a long time ago. Now, he had already stopped considering Hyuga Neji as an opponent. It was not only because his own strength had improved tremendously over the past half year, but also because he had seen a much broader range of opponents.
The rival of his youth, Hyuga Neji, was no longer someone he placed in his eyes.
Besides, he also knew about the Main House and Branch House situation in the Hyuga Clan. Hyuga Neji's future, born from the Hyuga Clan Branch House, was limited.
And now Kaede Kitahara had sentenced him to death in the diary as well. If he was going to die in the future, there was even less need to pay attention to him.
[The Hyuga Clan has already degenerated to the level of a Watchdog. They guard the Byakugan, a bloodline from an Extraterrestrial God Clan, yet they live like Stray Dogs. The situation is already very obvious. The bloodline the Otsutsuki Clan built itself on should be the Byakugan. On the foundation of the Byakugan, all kinds of miraculous abilities were derived. Combined with the God Tree, that became the key to the Chakra cultivation system they created, allowing them to dominate the universe and become a god clan.
For the Hyuga Clan, which possesses such a bloodline, to become this kind of Watchdog is truly a shame.
There are also rumors that the Hyuga Clan are descendants of the defeated remnants of the Otsutsuki Main House who fled from the moon. So I suppose once bitten, twice shy. They insist on controlling every Branch House member.
Besides, an uncontrolled Byakugan is too dangerous. It could be dug out at any time. Whether the Caged Bird Seal is a restraint or a kind of protection to some degree is honestly hard to say.
With the Hyuga Clan's current situation, expecting a pair of Tenseigan to awaken among them is simply impossible. After all, the difficulty is too great. Otsutsuki Hamura's strength should have been inferior to his older brother Otsutsuki Hagoromo's, and he definitely never reached the level of Kekkei Mora. So the abilities of Otsutsuki Hamura's descendants are clearly weaker than those of Hagoromo's Lineage.
Unlike Hagoromo's Lineage, which has a clear upgrade system from the Sharingan to Mangekyo Sharingan, then to the Rinnegan, the cause of the evolution from Byakugan to Tenseigan is unclear. I don't know whether it has something to do with bloodline purity, or perhaps the purity of the Byakugan itself.
The same Byakugan, when placed in Hyuga Hanabi's eye sockets, is only an ordinary Byakugan. But in Otsutsuki Toneri's eye sockets, it could become a treasure like the Tenseigan. I'm afraid the difference should lie in their own inherent strength.]
The diary continued updating. The new content that appeared could be called an information explosion. At that moment, those who had been reading the diary one after another were completely shaken.
If the matter before had only involved a junior like Hyuga Neji, then no matter what, it would have been difficult to attract the attention of these great figures. At most, Uchiha Sasuke, who had once treated Hyuga Neji as an opponent, would pay attention. But now, the enormous amount of information revealed made everyone tremble inwardly.
"The Hyuga Clan is a Watchdog?"
When Hyuga Neji saw that evaluation, he instinctively wanted to refute it.
Even if, in private, he hated the Main House terribly, and even if, like many members of the Branch House, he wished for a day when he could truly be free, the obstacle standing in front of him was the Main House.
No matter what, he still acknowledged the clan itself. Just like Uchiha Sasuke, the glory of his clan was one of the sources of his own confidence and pride.
Being born into a prestigious dōjutsu clan was itself something worth taking pride in to them.
What the hell was this awful evaluation? It did not merely attack the Main House he hated. It trampled the entire Hyuga Clan into the mud, grinding it down until nothing remained.
Oh, and there was an even harsher evaluation than Watchdog.
Stray Dog!