The training field behind the Academy had grown quiet by the time most of the students drifted back toward the village. The usual noise of children arguing, laughing, or throwing kunai had faded, leaving only the soft murmur of wind moving through the surrounding trees. Branches swayed gently overhead, and the breeze carried thin spirals of dust across the packed earth. The grass beneath Reiji's sandals was worn and uneven from years of sparring drills, patches of dirt exposed where countless feet had dug into the ground during practice.
He stood several paces away from Hizashi, arms loosely folded, watching the Hyūga boy with patient curiosity.
Hizashi had activated his Byakugan.
The change was subtle but unmistakable. Thin veins had risen around the pale edges of his eyes, spreading outward like faint cracks in porcelain. His gaze sharpened into something unnervingly focused. He was no longer simply looking at Reiji, but through him, tracing the hidden network of chakra coils and pathways that ran beneath skin and muscle.
For several seconds neither of them spoke.
Reiji shifted his weight slightly, one sandal grinding softly against the dirt as he adjusted his stance. The quiet stretched long enough that the rustle of leaves overhead became strangely loud.
Finally Hizashi spoke.
"…Your chakra reserves are large."
Reiji raised an eyebrow.
"How large?"
Hiashi didn't answer immediately. His pale eyes continued following the currents of chakra circulating through Reiji's body, examining each pathway as though mapping unfamiliar terrain.
"Larger than most people our age," he said at last.
His gaze narrowed slightly as he focused deeper.
"Your chakra coils are also… well developed."
Reiji tilted his head.
"It's good no?"
Hizashi nodded slowly.
"Yes."
Reiji absorbed the comment without reacting outwardly, though the information settled somewhere in the back of his mind. Large reserves were useful, but that had never been the problem. For weeks he had been trying to solve something else entirely.
Hizashi's expression changed a moment later.
A faint crease appeared between his brows.
"But your chakra…"
Reiji straightened slightly.
"What about it?"
Hizashi leaned forward a fraction, concentrating more intensely as his gaze followed the movement of chakra through Reiji's coils.
"…It is strange."
Reiji crossed his arms.
"Strange how?"
Hizashi didn't respond right away. His eyes tracked the flow carefully, as if trying to reconcile what he was seeing with something that didn't quite fit.
"It feels… heavier," he said finally.
Reiji frowned slightly.
"Heavier?"
"Yes."
Hizashi's voice remained calm, though his attention did not waver.
"Denser, perhaps."
The explanation was vague, but the uncertainty in his tone suggested he was still trying to understand the observation himself.
Reiji let the comment pass. After a moment he lowered his arms.
"Watch this."
He inhaled slowly and gathered chakra.
The familiar sensation spread through his coils as the energy circulated naturally through his body, rising from his core and flowing along the pathways his father had taught him to control. Reiji focused, forcing the chakra to shift.
Wind.
The transformation came with the usual subtle resistance, like trying to twist something that didn't quite want to move.
Hizashi's eyes sharpened instantly.
Reiji guided the wind-nature chakra down his arm, directing it toward the tenketsu in his palm.
The chakra moved.
Then it slowed.
Then it stopped.
Hizashi leaned forward slightly.
"…There."
Reiji glanced at him.
"What?"
Hizashi didn't look away from the flow.
"When your chakra is neutral," he said slowly, "it moves normally."
Reiji pushed harder, attempting to force the wind chakra outward through the tenketsu.
The energy pressed forward.
Then stalled.
Like water slamming against a sealed gate.
Pressure built inside the pathway, the chakra refusing to pass no matter how carefully he adjusted the flow.
Hizashi spoke quietly.
"But the moment you change its nature…"
Reiji tried again.
The result was identical.
The chakra reached the tenketsu—
And stopped.
Hizashi frowned slightly.
"…It does not go through."
Reiji's brow furrowed as he released the technique and allowed the chakra to disperse.
"Why?"
Hizashi hesitated.
"…I don't know."
After a moment he deactivated the Byakugan, the veins around his eyes fading as the strange intensity left his gaze.
"But it is consistent," he added calmly.
Reiji remained silent.
Hizashi continued.
"It is like trying to force the wrong key into a lock."
The comparison lingered in the quiet clearing.
Reiji lowered his gaze to his hand.
Wrong key.
The words echoed in his mind as the pieces began rearranging themselves.
Wind had failed.
He had not even attempted water transformation yet, but suddenly the outcome felt obvious.
Fragments of his father's lessons surfaced in his memory.
Two natures.
One element.
Bloodline.
The realization formed almost instantly.
Reiji exhaled slowly.
Of course.
His fingers curled slightly as the conclusion settled into place with uncomfortable clarity.
A Kekkei Genkai normally did not prevent someone from using the base elements separately. In fact, most bloodline techniques were built on top of them.
Shinobi with Lava Release could still manipulate fire and earth individually. Those with Storm Release could use lightning and water without difficulty. The combined element was simply the product of merging those two natures together through a specific chakra pattern.
Which meant there had never been any reason for him to suspect the bloodline itself.
If anything, the opposite should have been true.
Possessing a Kekkei Genkai should have made learning the base elements easier, not impossible.
Every failure had pointed toward a much simpler explanation.
Bad control.
Poor execution.
A flaw in his own training.
So he had pushed harder, repeating the same exercises again and again, convinced the fault lay with him.
Now, replaying the image of his chakra stalling at the tenketsu, the pattern became obvious.
It had never been a matter of control.
His body simply refused to release the elements separately.
If his suspicion was correct, then only one path would function properly.
Hyōton.
The answer settled into place with quiet certainty.
For weeks he had been circling the problem blindly, forcing himself through exercises that had led nowhere. Now the shape of it stood plainly in front of him.
But he said nothing.
Hizashi watched him for a moment.
"…Do you understand?" he asked.
Reiji nodded once.
"Yes."
His voice had returned to its usual calm.
"My problem isn't chakra control."
Hizashi tilted his head slightly.
"No," he agreed.
"It is something else."
Reiji rubbed his temple briefly, letting the last pieces of the puzzle settle into place.
"…I need to tell my father."
Hiashi studied him for a moment before giving a small nod.
"That would be wise."
Reiji's attention drifted inward again.
Most shinobi could learn several elemental affinities with enough training—water, wind, earth, fire, lightning. But mastering multiple elements was not the same as merging them together. That ability existed only within certain bloodlines.
Take Mokuton.
Some shinobi possessed both water and earth affinity. With enough discipline they might master both elements separately.
But that alone would never allow them to create Wood Release.
That power belonged to a bloodline.
And apparently—
So did his problem.
Reiji stared down at the ground, the dust shifting beneath the tip of his sandal.
Why me?
The thought surfaced before he could stop it.
Why the hell did he have a defective Kekkei Genkai?
He had not even tested his other affinity yet, but the conclusion already felt inevitable. If his theory was correct, then the issue was not poor control or insufficient training.
His own chakra system was rejecting the elements themselves.
Only his Kekkei Genkai would function properly.
Reiji let out a quiet breath.
The air leaving his lungs felt strangely cool against his lips.
Well.
At least now he understood.
Which meant he could stop wasting time trying to solve the problem alone.
He had avoided telling his father about the issue until now, partly out of stubbornness and partly because admitting he could not master basic nature transformation felt too much like failure.
But if the limitation was structural—if it was something his body itself imposed—then hiding it served no purpose.
If he wanted a solution, he would have to involve his father.
They would find another way.
'Father must have noticed something was wrong.'
The thought lingered briefly.
If he had, he had chosen not to say anything.
That realization did not bother him as much as it might have before.
They would work around the limitation.
Reiji was not discouraged.
Not even slightly.
He knew what he was.
Talented.
Exceptional.
Better than most people around him.
A stubborn body or a capricious Kekkei Genkai would not stop him.
He looked back at Hizashi.
"So."
A faint smirk appeared at the corner of his mouth.
"Are you satisfied?"
Reiji considered the question before answering.
"…Yes."
His expression grew more serious.
"My thoughts were a mess before."
He exhaled slowly.
"Now my head is clear."
He inclined his head slightly in a rare gesture of sincerity.
"Thank you."
Hizashi nodded once, but the brief calm that had settled over him after the examination did not last. His expression tightened again, not outwardly enough for most people to notice, yet enough for Reiji to catch the shift.
"You will not speak of this to anyone," Hizashi said.
Reiji raised an eyebrow.
"You think I'm stupid?"
Hizashi ignored the comment with the same irritating composure he seemed to wear like a second skin. His pale eyes remained fixed somewhere slightly past Reiji's shoulder, as if meeting his gaze directly would only complicate what he was trying to say.
"My clan already suspects something," he said. "If they learn I helped you…"
He let the sentence die there.
He didn't need to finish it. Reiji understood enough from the way his jaw had set, from the careful control in his voice, from the fact that he was speaking about his own family the way other people spoke about traps in the forest.
Reiji gave a small nod.
"Don't worry," he said. "I owe you now."
Hizashi shook his head immediately, more sharply than before.
"Forget it."
Reiji blinked.
"…What?"
Hiashi looked away slightly, the movement so small it would have been easy to miss if Reiji had not already been watching him carefully.
"You can repay me," Hizashi said, "by ignoring me and my brother."
For a second Reiji simply stared at him. The request was so blunt, so devoid of politeness or pretense, that it almost circled back into something honest. A dry little laugh almost escaped him, but he held it back.
"I already disobeyed my clan once," Hiashi continued in the same even tone. "I will not dig my own grave further."
Reiji's gaze drifted briefly past him, beyond the Academy grounds and toward the distant direction of the Hyūga compound. He could not see it from here, only imagine high walls, neat courtyards, polished halls, rules layered over rules until a child had to weigh every word before he spoke it.
"They seem strict," Reiji said.
Hizashi did not respond.
Reiji tilted his head slightly.
"What is it like to live there?"
Hizashi looked at him for several long seconds.
"It is…" Hizashi began, then paused.
When he finally answered, the word came out measured, almost selected rather than spoken.
"…Peaceful."
Reiji watched him.
Hizashi's face remained composed, as unreadable as ever, but for the briefest instant something in his eyes had changed. Not fear. Not anger. Just a weariness that should not have belonged to a child their age.
Reiji filed that away and said nothing.
"Anyway," he said, as casually as if he were proposing another walk back to class, "wanna fight ?"
Hizashi blinked.
"…Huh?"
Reiji shrugged one shoulder.
"Come on. I know you want to."
The reaction was immediate. Hizashi stared at him as if the suggestion had arrived from some entirely unrelated conversation.
"We already have sparring lessons at the Academy," he said. "What would be the point of this?"
Reiji waved the objection away with lazy impatience.
"Yeah, but you never fight using your Byakugan."
Hizashi's expression tightened at once.
"I cannot," he said. "It is forbidden."
Reiji raised an eyebrow.
"You've already disobeyed them once today."
That landed. Not hard, but enough. Hizashi's pale eyes narrowed slightly as he studied him, and Reiji could almost feel the boy reassessing the ground beneath the conversation, looking for where exactly it had begun tilting against him.
"…Why do you suddenly want to fight me?"
A slow grin spread across Reiji's face.
"I recently sparred with Arata and his brother," he said. "I saw the Sharingan in action."
He tilted his head a little more, letting the curiosity show because this time it was genuine.
"Now I'm curious about your eyes too."
That was the plain truth of it. The Hyūga childrens were forbidden from using the Byakugan freely outside their compound. Under normal circumstances, getting one of them to test himself honestly against an opponent would be nearly impossible. But now Hizashi stood in front of him, the dōjutsu still fresh in Reiji's mind, the possibility of it too close to ignore. He wanted to know how those pale eyes changed movement, timing, distance. He wanted to feel the difference with his own body.
Hizashi hesitated.
"I really don't know…"
Reiji watched him for a moment, then chuckled softly.
"Come on," he said. "I know that look."
Hizashi frowned.
"What look?"
Reiji smirked.
"The look of someone staring at someone weaker."
Hizashi's posture stiffened.
"I am not—"
Reiji raised a hand lazily to cut him off.
"It's fine. I'd be a hypocrite if I got mad at you for that." His mouth twitched faintly. "It's normal to think you're superior when you're born with something like the Byakugan."
Hizashi did not answer. He didn't need to. Reiji had seen enough tiny reactions by then—the way his shoulders had gone tighter, the fraction of stillness before he spoke, the control that appeared most when something actually bothered him. Pride. There it was.
"But aren't you curious?" he asked, lowering his voice just a touch. "I beat Arata while he was using his Sharingan."
He watched Hizashi carefully as he said it.
"Don't you want to know if you're actually stronger than that?"
Hizashi rolled his eyes, though not quite dismissively enough to hide that he had taken the bait.
"Arata only awakened his eyes recently," he said calmly. "From what I've heard, mine have been active for years."
His gaze hardened, subtle but unmistakable.
"We are not the same."
Reiji's grin widened.
"Well," he said, spreading his hands slightly, "we can find out right now."
He tilted his head again, just enough to make the next line more irritating.
"Or are you afraid of losing?"
Hizashi stared at him.
Reiji kept going, his tone easy, almost conversational, which only made the pressure worse.
"If you beat me, that proves your eyes are better than the Sharingan."
He paused, then added with deliberate carelessness,
"And it must have been frustrating, right?"
Hizashi's expression remained controlled, but Reiji caught the faint tightening of his jaw.
"To watch someone like me beat you and your brother during sparring."
Reiji shrugged.
"You were probably thinking the same thing." His eyes stayed on Hizashi's face. " 'If I had used my eyes, I could beat him.' "
"Right ?"
Silence followed.
The wind moved through the clearing again, louder this time, bending the tall grass around the edges of the field and making the trees creak softly overhead. Reiji said nothing more for a few seconds. He simply watched. That was often the useful part—after the words were thrown, after pride had been touched, after irritation had been given time to settle into something harder.
Then he spoke again, quieter now.
"So now that you have the opportunity…"
He spread his arms slightly.
"You're really going to refuse?"
Hizashi still said nothing.
Reiji let the silence hang for one more beat.
"To let loose for once?"
That did it.
Hizashi stood there for several seconds, outwardly calm, but the decision was already visible in the set of his shoulders and the stillness that came over him right before he moved. Then he let out a slow breath.
"…Fine."
He turned without another word and began walking toward the edge of the training field,
"Where are we going?"
Reiji smirked.
'Easy.'