Hyūga Neji wasn't a fool who couldn't tell good from bad.
By now, he understood that Hyūga Kumokawa was trying to shock him awake.
"Kumokawa... brother. Please, tell me."
Hyūga Neji's voice was hoarse, but his tone was calm. "What should I do?"
Kumokawa didn't answer his question directly. Instead, he looked into the distance and began, "When we were handing over the body to Kumo, we encountered a monster."
"He was truly strong. Terrifyingly so."
"He effortlessly killed Magnet Release user Toroi and slaughtered nearly a hundred Kumo ninja."
"Even the Byakugan couldn't see his features. All we could see were those... dazzling, radiant blue eyes..."
Hearing this, Hyūga Neji froze. The image from his dream flashed vividly in his mind. "What did you say?"
Dazzling, radiant blue eyes?
How could that be? Wasn't it just an illusory dream?
"Find some time to visit the main family's ancestral archives."
Hyūga Kumokawa lowered his gaze, giving Neji a deep look. "I247.5, L632. Go look at that book. You'll understand many things."
Neji lay on the ground, staring blankly up at him. But when Kumokawa's eyes met his, those white orbs seemed tinged with a celestial glow.
Neji saw a blue light rising within them, like snow melting on the surface of a clear lake under the sun.
Yet when he focused, the eyes appeared to be their usual snow-like white again, as if it had all been an illusion.
"Remember," Hyūga Kumokawa said meaningfully, his voice soft. "He who cannot obey himself will be commanded by others."
With that, his figure vanished from Neji's sight, only the words faintly lingering in the air.
"..."
Hyūga Neji lay stunned on his back in the snow, his vacant white eyes gradually sharpening.
Beneath that glacier-like calm, deeper desires and loathing lay hidden.
"The ancestral archives?" he murmured.
....
Hokage Building, in a hidden underground space.
Following the directions on the scroll, Hyūga Kumokawa soon saw a door at the end of a corridor.
No guards stood outside, but he could feel the presence of seals and barriers. Even a mosquito flying in would instantly trigger alarms and defensive measures.
It was hard to imagine how, with such tight security, Uzumaki Naruto had managed to steal the Scroll of Seals under Mizuki's influence.
But considering Orochimaru had once broken in here, and Mizuki was a pawn Orochimaru had planted in Konoha, it wasn't impossible he used a backdoor left by his master.
Hyūga Kumokawa didn't need such convoluted methods.
As he took out the scroll Sarutobi Hiruzen had given him, the feeling of being sealed off and suppressed instantly vanished. A slight push was all it took to open the Forbidden Technique Vault's door.
Click.
Stepping into the silent vault, dust rose from the floor stirred by the draft, and the lamps in the room ignited automatically.
There were no windows in the surrounding walls. Towering rows of shelves stood against them.
Neatly arranged, clean scrolls filled the shelves, each sealed and marked with its classification level. They looked ancient and somber in the flickering candlelight.
"It seems the Third Hokage, known as the 'Professor,' visits often."
Noticing the shelves and scrolls, while old, were free of grime, Kumokawa understood. At the same time, he felt a sense of being watched.
Sarutobi Hiruzen's Telescope Technique?
This jutsu used a special crystal ball as its core medium. Through precise chakra control, it analyzed chakra fluctuations to achieve image transmission for long-distance surveillance. Sarutobi Hiruzen often used it for "protective observation" of Uzumaki Naruto.
The Great Toad Sage of Mount Myōboku also used a similar technique, but its surveillance range clearly broke conventional geographical limitations.
"Although it's used for non-combat reconnaissance, this technique really is quite convenient."
Hyūga Kumokawa mused inwardly but kept his expression neutral. As his gaze swept over the bookshelves, he even let a look of wide-eyed wonder and delight show on his face, like a country bumpkin entering a grand palace.
He casually pulled a scroll from a nearby shelf and unrolled it. The fabric felt smooth, densely packed with intricate ink brush calligraphy and a few illustrations.
It was a technique called Fire Release: Ash Pile Burning—a fairly ordinary B-rank Fire Release jutsu.
Of course, that "ordinary" was relative to Hyūga Kumokawa.
After all, the difficulty of learning jutsu was divided into six ranks. E-rank was basic Academy level, like the Substitution, Clone, and Transformation techniques, along with skills like Hiding and Escaping techniques, which were more akin to skills than true ninjutsu.
D-rank was Genin level. The Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique was the only D-rank jutsu an average ninja could learn during the Academy. C-rank was Chūnin level. At this tier, learning difficulty was already considerable. Techniques like the Summoning Technique and Puppetry Technique were C-rank.
B-rank jutsu were Jōnin level. Even among the Five Great Shinobi Villages, they were considered valuable. The Lightning Release Chakra Mode used by the Raikage was also in this category, so placing this technique here wasn't out of place.
Kumokawa merely skimmed it, seemingly unimpressed, and soon returned the scroll to its shelf.
He continued browsing, reading the contents of a few more scrolls—mostly B-rank Wind Release techniques and taijutsu.
Such as the Primary Lotus, Wind Release: Shuriken Production, Wind Release: Great Sickle Weasel, Wind Release: Pressure Damage, Wind Release: Vacuum Great Sphere...
"This is way too obvious."
The corner of Kumokawa's eye twitched slightly. After a brief glance, he directly returned them to the shelf.
Only a very few techniques made him pause, his gaze lingering for a moment. For example, Summoning: Rashōmon, Adamantine Sealing Chains, and Shadow Neck Binding Technique.
"He didn't leave a single Forbidden Jutsu for me, yet he didn't remove other clans' secret techniques. Seems the old man is confident I can't learn them?" Kumokawa couldn't help but smile inwardly.
Thinking this way was actually normal. The line between secret techniques and Kekkei Genkai was very blurry.
Techniques like the Nara clan's shadow manipulation and the Uzumaki clan's Adamantine Sealing Chains, while not innate through bloodline like Kekkei Genkai, were still extremely difficult to master without a specific "talent."
For instance, the Nara clan were born with stronger spiritual energy (Yin Release) than average, and the Akimichi clan with stronger physical energy (Yang Release). That was why they could master their clans' secret Shadow Imitation and Multi-Size Techniques.
The Uzumaki clan was similar.
According to what Uzumaki Mito told Uzumaki Kushina in the original story, Kushina was chosen as the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki precisely because she possessed a special talent others lacked.
Clearly, certain individuals within the Uzumaki clan also possessed special aptitudes. Only these few could learn the Adamantine Sealing Chains, born with the ability to suppress tailed beasts and suited to be Jinchūriki.
These clans with secret techniques gave the impression of being a lower tier compared to bloodline limit clans.
Because they consistently adhered to the tradition of intra-clan marriage, they began to purify the Ōtsutsuki bloodline within their bodies. Through the crucible of war, individuals with higher concentrations of this blood were selected, leading to the emergence of special constitutions that could be stably inherited. Based on these constitutions, unique ninjutsu were developed, forming the foundation of their secret arts.
If this intermarriage continued for a few hundred more years, they might indeed evolve into true Kekkei Genkai, abilities usable without needing to be learned.
So, unfortunately for that assumption...
From a bloodline perspective, Hyūga Kumokawa's body was the ancestor of all these shinobi clans.