Naruto : Monsters

My father and many of the clansmen may have had high expectations of me but they were not sadistic, even they would not force me to continue this training if I had asked them to stop. Some of those who occasionally stopped by to watch me 'train' actually seemed to hope that I would after seeing the results.

But I never said a single word of complaint…

Because this was exactly what I had wanted.

...

Sure this training hurt. And by God did it hurt. It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts. But even though it hurts so damn much….

I knew that there was no better way to get stronger.

Even though I knew I was behaving recklessly and maybe even a little bit mad, I also knew I had no other choice but to walk this path. Not if I had wanted to survive for long.

In this world there lived monsters. They walked on two legs, saw the world through two eyes and listened with two ears just like anybody else. Yet for all that they looked and sounded like men, they were monsters.

Orochimaru, Nagato, Madara, the list went on and on. They could massacre armies and conquer nations alone in the span of a day. These were beings that have long ago shed their human limitation and became something more.

And one day I had to fight them all. Of this, I had no doubt.

So I needed to get strong. I didn't have time to wait around and relax. If I wanted to live, no if I wanted to win, I needed to grow as strong as possible, as fast as possible.

If I had taken the proper course and trained like I was supposed to have been, I had no doubt I would have grown strong, unusually so. With the advantages my reincarnation gave me it wouldn't have been difficult for me to have been hailed as a prodigy, an up and coming genius. Just like Neji was.

But it wouldn't have been enough.

Not to defeat them. Not to kill those monsters, it wouldn't have been anywhere near enough. To kill a monster, you had to have the strength of one.

I wasn't Jinchuriki, I didn't have a literal demon of mass destruction living in my belly. I wasn't a Senju with the potential to unlock the Mokuton. I wasn't even an Uchiha with their Mangekyo and their ability to learn nearly anything with only a glance.

I was just a Hyuuga, all I had were these eyes that could see everything and an early head start. That was all I had.

It would do.

I had to push myself. Harder than anyone, farther than anyone, I had to push myself and become strong. And that was why it will be here on this training ground, through my blood and suffering, that the Hyuuga monster will be born.

So instead of listening to common sense and stopping like any sane person in my place would have done, I turned back to my opponent and took a stance, ignoring the warmth that dripped down my chin. For some reason I could not understand the boy began to back away, a frightened look on his face.

Huh, now what was that about?

Well, it didn't matter as one of the surrounding students jeered at him, he stopped backing away and flushed red. When he next looked at me, all his pretence of calm serenity was abandoned as his face twisted up with embarrassed fueled rage, before he began stalking back towards me.

I widened my feet, dropping lower in my stance as I prepared to meet the boy's charge. All for the desire to become strong.

The very strongest.

…

…

… I still got my ass handed to me again that day.

By a freaking nine-year-old!

...

Shadows danced on the wall, born from the moonlight that drifted through the room's window, the only source of illumination in an otherwise pitch-black room.

The Hyuuga estate has always been a silent place. Even in the middle of the day there were hardly any loud noises, and never any yelling or shouting, not even during training, as everyone carried themselves with quiet dignity.

At night it was worse. As a clan that generally woke with the coming dawn, most of the household fell asleep soon after sunset. This left the place almost deafeningly silent during the night. Only the occasional sound of creaking of wood as the guards patrolled the corridors breaking the otherwise silent monotony.

In the quiet of the night, the faint almost inaudible ticking of the clock sounded unnaturally loud to my ears. It was the only thing I could hear in the darkness other than the steady beating of my heart.

Wrapped up in the blankets of my futon, I stared at the dancing shadows of my bedroom wall, making sure to keep my head faced away from the window. I was alone in my room like I usually was when I slept, but I knew I would not be for long.

Every few minutes I flicked open my Byakugan, looking to see if he had arrived yet. And in between I would count the beats of my heart to pass the time as I strained my ears all the while, listening to any signs of the night's unwelcome, but not unexpected, visitor.

Tomorrow, I will officially become four years old. My birthday, an event that I was beginning to learn to loath. As the clan heir, I didn't have the privilege of having a quiet birthday party. No, every year I was forced to dress up in the most uncomfortable clothing imaginable and then paraded around like a doll in front of our esteemed guests.

In any other circumstance I would not have given the slightest damn about my upcoming birthday other than annoyance at the indignity I would no doubt be forced to experience. This year wouldn't have been any different if I hadn't overheard one of the clan's ninjas discussing the Kumo delegate that had arrived in Konoha just this morning to sign the peace treaty agreement.

To think that I had almost forgotten about it.

The Hyuuga Affair.

On Hinata's fourth birthday, or my fourth birthday in this case, one of the members of the Kumo delegates would break into Hyuuga compound and attempt to kidnap the clan heir.

It was due to tonight's event that Hizashi, Neji's father and my uncle, would die. A tragedy that would create a permanent rift between the main house and the branch house of the clan, along with souring the relationship between Kumo and Konoha for years.

And of course, there was the tiny little matter of me being kidnapped.

In other words a complete clusterfuck for all involved.

So naturally, I'm going to try to change it.

The rustling of leaves came from just beyond my window, and I instantly flooded chakra into my eyes. The darkness vanished as my Byakugan awakened and I could now see the world around me as clearly as if it were mid-day.

I quickly scanned the window and the area immediately around it for the perpetrator, making sure to keep perfectly still and show no sign that I was awake just in case he happened to be watching. I couldn't find anyone at first, but I knew I heard something so I kept looking and looking until I found-

A stray cat.

I slumped back into my bed, my heart beating so fast in my chest that it almost sounded like a jackhammer. Jeez, I got to calm down, my nerves won't last the night if I kept jumping over every little thing.

My plan to stop the entire affair from happening was simple. I knew I couldn't warn anybody about the kidnapping, not without raising more questions than I was willing to answer. So that only left one option, capturing the kidnapper alive.

The entire Hyuuga Affair stemmed from the death of one of the delegates. Delegates whose safety was promised by the Hokage himself. Kumo probably claimed that the entire kidnapping was staged by us after we assassinated the delegate. And the sad part was, that defence was entirely plausible. Going by the history books I've read, Konoha ninjas had assassinated people for their benefit only to plead self-defence on more than one occasion in the past.

So all I had to do to fix it was make sure that the delegate did not die. Easier said than done but fortunately, I had a plan. It wasn't much of a plan I had to admit but it was simple and workable, which were the most important things.

...

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