Chapter 35: A Bird in a Cage
Late July. The heat was getting worse by the day. Deep in the Hyuga clan compound, Hyuga Shuichi felt something bleak rising inside him.
"Amazing work, Shuichi! That's the clan's secret technique for you. The clan head and the Hokage have both been praising your performance lately."
"I want to be as good as Shuichi someday!"
"You even had a chance to use the Eight Trigrams techniques in the field. Keep it up, Shuichi."
"Shuichi, you're our pride..."
Every branch family member who crossed his path offered loud praise. When the secret technique gifted by the main house came up, they puffed their chests out with pride on his behalf.
Hyuga Shuichi kept a modest smile on his face for all of it. The moment he was out of their sight, he found his fist had closed without him deciding to, and the emotion surging through him nearly activated his Byakugan on its own.
"Shuichi. Don't let anyone else see you looking like that."
Hyuga Hiashi pulled the door open and spoke quietly. Shuichi took a slow breath, stepped inside, and the two of them sat without saying anything for a moment.
In the branch family, no matter how gifted you were, the clan's secret techniques were never yours to learn.
Most branch members accepted this without complaint. A smaller number found it humiliating. The same bloodline, the same eyes, and yet they were considered lesser.
"What did you take away from this mission?"
Hyuga Hizashi looked at the young man sitting with his head down across from him. Shuichi slowly raised it, and when he spoke, the envy in his voice was plain.
"Both Osamu and Kakashi have exceptional talent."
"They're free to learn whatever they want. I have to bow my head to a rotten clan system, and being granted the main house's technique feels less like an honor and more like charity."
Presenting a useful tool to the village as a show of goodwill. That was how being taught Palms Revolving Heaven felt to Hyuga Shuichi.
Hyuga Hizashi didn't respond right away. He asked the next question in the same steady tone.
"Does Furukawa Osamu pay attention to the Hyuga clan?"
"I can't say for certain. Osamu gives me a feeling I can't quite put into words. His talent may be far beyond what the village imagines."
Shuichi answered quietly. Thinking back over the time they'd spent together, he kept coming back to those two words. Stay alive.
"As I thought. There's no use putting hope in the next Hokage."
"Perhaps this is simply the branch family's lot. Shuichi, don't let the main house see your feelings."
"The world is what it is. There are things that can't be changed. Carry whatever hope you have and keep living."
Hyuga Hizashi said it gently, keeping his voice low. He had no interest in making empty promises. As a branch member himself, there was nothing he could change.
Shuichi gave a small nod, as though he'd already known this was how it would go. Thinking of what an ordinary ninja was worth in wartime, he murmured with a dry, quiet edge.
"Thank you, Hizashi-dono. At least I'm still a valuable tool."
* * *
Night fell. The commercial street was bright and noisy under its colored lights, and several new izakayas had opened in the village recently.
"Ha..."
Tsunade set her cup down on the table with a sharp crack after draining it, everything under her sleeveless top bouncing with the impact.
"Another round! This heat calls for cold beer!"
Shizune watched her teacher getting hazy with visible concern. Furukawa Osamu had long since stopped worrying. With Tsunade's level of chakra control, staying sober was trivially easy whenever she wanted to be.
He topped up her cup without comment, then tapped his oolong tea against it and smiled.
"Sensei, aside from the Hyuga clan, how would an ordinary ninja go about releasing chakra from every tenketsu across their whole body?"
Any other time, Tsunade would have flicked his forehead and told him to focus on the basics. A few drinks in was a different story entirely. She squinted at him and answered.
"Always with the complicated questions!"
"Releasing chakra from every tenketsu simultaneously? Outside of the Hyuga clan, nobody can do it."
"You saw Palms Revolving Heaven up close. Even with that technique, the results vary depending on who's using it."
"Extracting chakra quickly and steadily from the chakra pathway system and pushing it out through the tenketsu consistently, there are only a handful of people in the entire Hyuga clan who can fully manage it."
"Unlike the Earth Release kekkei genkai over in Stone, the Hyuga kekkei genkai isn't something that gets developed. It's an innate ability they're born with."
"..."
Furukawa Osamu nodded slowly, turning something over in his head. Then he smiled again and turned to Shizune as he picked up the bottle.
"The fried food here is really good!"
Shizune checked that Tsunade was still sharp enough to follow the conversation and relaxed. She picked up a piece of the tempura that had just arrived and gave an enthusiastic verdict.
"Osamu, it really is! Though I still think your cooking is better. Tsunade-sensei has complained about it a few times lately too..."
"Pour."
Tsunade cut the girl off. A comfortable life had made her dependent on certain things, and she knew it, but she had no intention of admitting it in front of her students.
Furukawa Osamu laughed and refilled her cup, then waved the staff over for a fresh round of small dishes. The mission had been bumped up to S-rank by Jiraiya in the end, which meant the pay had been decent.
He let the jutsu questions go after that and shared a few lighter moments from the mission instead. Shizune was laughing before long, and even Tsunade got drawn in, adding her own commentary and jabs.
They stayed until late into the night. Tsunade walked out with a satisfied flush on her face, the staff bowing them off at the door. She stopped just outside and squinted at Osamu.
"The short blade, is it working well for you?"
"The chakra conduction and storage are both excellent. I made it back in one piece thanks to your gift, Sensei."
Furukawa Osamu delivered the flattery with complete sincerity. Tsunade didn't press him for more details about the mission. She leaned forward, flicked his forehead, and said quietly:
"I don't want to be reading your name off the Memorial Stone in a few years. Don't ease up. Finish the Yin Seal."
"Sensei, isn't that technique still not fully developed on the back end?"
"You really are an insufferable little brat..."
* * *
Early August. Furukawa Osamu spent his holiday at home, working through his daily sage chakra refinement at the usual pace. With the supply of his special Essence medicine increased, progress had picked up a little more.
The small Katsuyu division on his shoulder stayed perfectly still until Furukawa Osamu had finished his full session, then spoke up in a bright, pleased tone.
"Osamu-sama, the Yin Seal's progress went up again!"
"Once you complete that technique, I'll be able to support you entering Sage Mode directly. Refining sage chakra after that should be much easier."
Furukawa Osamu gave a single nod, then asked quietly.
"Katsuyu, you mentioned before that Otsutsuki Hagoromo and Otsutsuki Hamura inherited different powers. The original chakra had more influence on the Sage of Six Paths?"
"Yes! The Sage of Six Paths' power has continued down to this day. The influence of that chakra surfaces every few years."
Katsuyu shifted her antennae and made her way up to his knee. Furukawa Osamu thought for a moment, then asked again.
"Can you sense the chakra passed down from Indra and Asura?"
"I can, Osamu-sama. But only once the person in question has awakened that power."
He didn't know exactly what form those two chakras took, but he knew with certainty that the Uchiha clan's strongest carried one of them.
The Byakugan was probably not something he could obtain through Gathering, and he had no interest in getting close to the Hyuga clan. But those two chakras were something he intended to have regardless.
"I may need your help with that in the future."
"Of course, Osamu-sama. I'm very much looking forward to seeing where your path leads."