Naruto: Starting from the Reincarnation of the Otsutsuki.

Shimura Danzo looked Hyuga Aoran up and down for a moment, then took the letter of authorization from him, stamped it, and put it away.

"You've had a tough mission. Go back and rest now."

"Yes!"

Hinata Seiran glanced at the unconscious Saji and the stiff-faced Dekayi on the ground, bowed, and turned to leave.

"Ryoma, how are you?"

Only after Hyuga Seiran's figure had completely disappeared did Danzo slowly speak: "Was he lying?"

"Lord Danzo, the insect told me that Hyuga Seiran's emotions were very calm. He was only surprised for a moment at the beginning, and there was no other fluctuation."

"It doesn't sound like a lie."

Ryoma Aburame emerged quietly from the shadows and answered calmly.

"Is that so..."

Danzo tapped his fingers lightly on the table, recalling every detail of Qinglan's report.

The fact that Hyuga Aoran, as the team leader, was able to lead his team to encounter the Cloud Village squad and successfully capture two of them clearly demonstrates his considerable strength and decisiveness.

He's strong enough, and he's from a branch family... it's just unknown whether he was persecuted by the Hyuga main family.

If that's the case... perhaps it could become a pawn for monitoring the Hyuga clan's internal affairs.

"Take these two Cloud Village prisoners to the interrogation department and make sure to extract all the intelligence."

"Also, retrieve all of Hinata Seiran's information and send it to me."

"Yes."

Aburame Ryoma bowed and accepted the order, his figure disappearing back into the shadows.

Danzo sat alone in his chair, his gaze fixed on the direction of the Hyuga clan's territory outside the window.

It remained unmoved for a long time.

Chapter 21 (Please continue reading)

"Since Danzo has developed a grudge against the Hyuga clan... he will inevitably take some action."

"Judging from Danzo's eyes, could he be trying to recruit me?"

Hinata Seiran rubbed his slightly sore shoulders as he walked alone on the road in the Hui territory.

Although Danzo is portrayed as committing numerous evil deeds and misdeeds in the original work.

However, it cannot be denied that Danzo did have a distorted deterrent effect on the major families.

Just like after the Nine-Tails' rampage, Shimura Danzo was able to directly suppress Uchiha Fugaku with forceful means, forcing the latter to bow his head and give in, not only giving up his ancestral home, but also moving his entire clan to the edge of the village.

Of course, this was certainly mixed with Danzo's personal hostility and prejudice towards the Uchiha.

"What if... Danzo brings his prejudice against the Uchiha clan to the Hyuga clan?"

The thought appeared in Hinata Seiran's mind without warning, causing him to pause slightly.

The Uchiha clan is very well-behaved now.

Even though the extremist Uchiha Setsuna was still alive, the Uchiha clan, under Fugaku's leadership, worked diligently.

After finishing the battle in Kirigakure, they turned to fight Iwagakure. One after another, the Uchiha Jonin died in battle, and even Fugaku's four-year-old son went to the battlefield.

Even if Danzo wanted to cause trouble, he probably wouldn't know where to start.

Conversely, in contrast, Hinata frequently causes trouble...

Hinata Seiran paused for a moment, then continued walking into the clan compound, nodding to the branch family members guarding the gate as he went.

"Then... won't the Hyuga clan be wiped out by then?"

He chuckled at his own absurd association, and a silent smile crept onto his lips.

"Brother Qinglan, you're back!"

Hyuga Tokuma suddenly appeared out of nowhere, trotting up to Hyuga Seiran and looking at him with a hint of curiosity in his eyes. "What are you laughing at?"

"Huh? Was I laughing?"

Hinata Seiran raised an eyebrow, his expression instantly becoming completely composed, as if that smile had never existed.

"Oh fine."

Hyuga Tokuma didn't mind, quickening his pace to catch up with Hyuga Seiran, and complained in a low voice, "Seiran-nii, you went out to carry out a mission, but you made us suffer."

As he spoke, he looked around to make sure everyone in the tribe was busy with their own things before moving closer to continue, "Miss Yumi keeps dragging us along for practice, determined to find the murderer and take revenge."

"After the clan chief said the matter was over, she took all her anger out on us."

Tokuma's face was contorted with pain, and his voice was kept extremely low: "I didn't even dare to fight back..."

Hinata Seiran listened silently without interrupting.

Although he and Tokuma belonged to the same branch family, they were related within the clan to some extent. Strictly speaking, Hyuga Tokuma was his cousin.

In the past, Tokuma would also mutter like this after he returned from a mission, but he would usually stop after he finished.

But it's rare for someone to ramble on and on like this today.

Could it be...?

"By the way, Brother Qinglan, do you remember that time you took me hunting in the back mountains when we were little?"

Hyuga Tokuma suddenly slowed down and abruptly changed the subject.

hunt?

Hinata Seiran's eyes flickered slightly as she glanced at Tokuma, but she remained silent.

“That time, you said you would teach me to recognize prey tracks. We squatted in the woods for an entire afternoon, and suddenly you grabbed my shoulder and told me to be quiet.”

"Later you told me that real prey never swaggers right in front of you."

“You said… to pay attention to the sound of branches breaking, to notice when birds suddenly stop singing, and to feel if the wind behind you has suddenly stopped.”

"That way we'll know where the real prey is..."

"Yeah……"

Hinata Seiran felt the gaze that was quietly falling on him from behind, and then noticed Tokuma's slightly trembling fingers. He then smiled gently and said, "Now, do you understand the reason behind this?"

"Hehehe... I've grown up now..."

Hyuga Tokuma visibly breathed a sigh of relief, scratched his head, and smiled with a hint of embarrassment.

"I'll be going now..."

He turned around, waved to Qinglan, and quickly left.

Hinata Seiran stood there until Tokuma's figure disappeared at the alley entrance, then rubbed his shoulders again and continued walking towards his home.

-

"Clan leader, elders, Hyuga Seiran has returned."

Inside the meeting room, a clan ninja bowed to each of the main family elders seated in their seats and quickly finished reporting the matter.

"At the entrance of the clan's territory, we encountered Hyuga Tokuma, a guard from the branch family, and the two talked for a while. Hyuga Tokuma did all the talking, while Hyuga Seiran listened."

"As usual, nothing unusual happened. The only unusual thing was that Hyuga Tokuma brought up things from his childhood."

The elders listened quietly, the candlelight casting flickering shadows on the wall, and no one rushed to speak.

Silence lingered in the conference room for a long time.

"Okay, you go down first."

Hiashi Hyuga, seated at the head of the table, slowly spoke, gesturing for the clan ninja to step back.

Only when the footsteps faded into the distance and the door closed did he slowly look at the elders present.

"How about it? Qinglan's suspicion should be reduced a bit now."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over each face: "Tokuma is a chatterbox, Qinglan, listen, this isn't the first time something like this has happened."

"Moreover, the people sent to the Iwagakure battlefield have returned."

"Everything is exactly as Qinglan described."

As Hiashi Hyuga spoke, he took out the scrolls that his clan's ninjas had brought back from the ancient tombs in Iwagakure and handed them to the elders one by one for them to read.

“Even the traces of Qinglan’s hasty departure are still there.”

After reading the scroll, the elder finally spoke, his voice aged and steady.

"Hiashi was monitoring Hyuga Seiran precisely to clear his name of suspicion."

"His talent is indeed outstanding, but it is undeniable that the first person to come into contact with and master that scroll for a long time was Hyuga Seiran."

"Now that the scroll has fallen into the hands of that old scoundrel Danzo, it is almost impossible for us to obtain the Byakugan evolution method."

"Right now, if we still want to access that power, the only clue left is Hyuga Seiran."

"Even if there's a 99% chance he doesn't know the contents of the scroll, we'll still gamble on that one-in-a-million chance."