NOVEL NEXT 7. Getting Revenge and Making a Splash
However, before the Side Branch guards stationed at the entrance could address him, Hikari, now standing in the expansive open area in front of the Seventh Estate, raised his voice.
Despite his young age, his call was unexpectedly strong, bolstered by the chakra he had consciously circulated through his body at a high frequency,
"I, Hikari Hyuga, insult the Seventh Lineage itself and every member of it, right here! If you don't want others to consider you as cowards and weaklings in the future, let the youngest of you Hiroto Hyuga come out to meet me in a battle right now and disprove my words.",
"Or I will come here every day from now on or hunt him down like a rabbit as soon as he leaves this compound in the future. So, Hiroto, you might as well come out right now and save face and show everyone that you are not afraid of me!", Hikari declared, fully aware of the impact of his words.
In the Hyuga clan, where honor and reputation were held in the highest regard, such a direct challenge, especially one that called into question the courage and strength of a lineage, was almost guaranteed to provoke a response.
By invoking the clan's deep-seated values and publicly challenging Hiroto, Hikari was leveraging the Hyuga's own traditions against them to force Hiroto's hand.
Feeling that his initial proclamation might not have been enough to stir the desired reaction, Hikari repeated his challenge several more times.
His persistent cries finally spurred the previously motionless and shocked Side Branch guards into action, sending one of them into the estate, presumably to relay the message.
In the meantime, a growing crowd of Main Branch members began to converge on the entrance courtyard of the Seventh Estate.
Drawn by the commotion, they watched with amusement and ridicule, gossiping amongst themselves and throwing mocking and insulting remarks in Hikari's direction. Yet, Hikari stood stoically amid the verbal onslaught, absorbing their scorn in silence as he awaited Hiroto's appearance.
After a few tense minutes, Hikari's gaze finally fell upon a child approaching with a distinctly arrogant expression and a 'clean' forehead, a clear indication of his status as a Main Branch member.
This was Hiroto, leading a group that was an unusual sight: older children and teenagers from the Side Branch trailed behind him. The composition of the group, with Hiroto at the forefront and his entourage of younger, Side Branch members following, gave a funny feel.
Hikari, preferring to take the initiative, didn't wait for Hiroto to speak. Before Hiroto could open his little arrogant mouth, Hikari seized the opportunity to launch the first verbal salvo,
"Look, everyone, it's the mighty Hiroto, hiding behind his lackeys like a scared little rabbit and taking minutes to respond! It's useless, no one can help you today. So, come and show us how brave you are when you're not ambushing someone when they are in their most vulnerable state. Try doing it again right now, you idiot.", Hikari called out, his voice laced with biting sarcasm that drew the attention of everyone present, his face full of disdain.
Hiroto's face, initially marked by arrogance, shifted quickly to surprise, shock, and then anger at Hikari's bold insult. His little face suddenly turned extremely red, as this was the first time in his life he got to experience such words coming his way, and from someone he deemed 'trash' before. Not to mention that Hikari's personality was completely opposite in the past.
Hiroto had always viewed Hikari as a submissive weirdo, an outcast from a lineage already deemed abnormal within the clan. Therefore, it took him a few seconds just to "process" this.
The unexpected attack caught him off guard, silencing him momentarily as he processed the challenge laid bare before his followers and the growing crowd. Regaining his composure, Hiroto's angry expression hardened, and he stepped forward, with his own retort ready.
"Am I seeing things, or did that weakling Hikari actually lose his mind after I beat him down last time? No matter the reason, you're about to get beaten again today, and then every day after, until you come crawling here to this residence and bow for an entire day as your apology. Those words of yours aren't something you can just throw around because you've gone a bit mad...",
Hiroto scowled, rolling up his sleeves in preparation for a fight, and signaled his followers to stay back as he advanced toward Hikari with quick, determined steps. His eyes were fierce and unforgiving, showing his intent to not just confront Hikari but to punish him very cruelly.
"Eat this fist, weirdo!", Hiroto shouted, his anger intensifying as he noticed Hikari's unmoved, stoic, and calculating demeanor. This only fueled his determination to teach Hikari a lesson.
So, with every step closer, his speed increased, driven by a mix of anger and a desire to assert his dominance. Finally closing the distance with remarkable speed, Hiroto launched a quick punch toward Hikari, aiming to connect with force and make his point through action.
'This is what I've been waiting for!', Hikari thought, seizing the moment. Just as Hiroto and the onlookers watched in disbelief, Hikari fluidly raised one hand, forming a single-hand seal he had learned just the day before to activate his Byakugan more effectively. The veins around his eyes bulged prominently, signaling the activation of his dojutsu.
To Hikari, with his Byakugan now fully active, Hiroto's incoming fist, his facial expression, and his body's movement all seemed to slow down dramatically.
Recognizing this as his prime opportunity, especially with Hiroto completely off guard and unable to adjust his stance, Hikari surged his chakra throughout his body with the help of his Byakugan inner vision of his internal chakra pathway system.
He then swiftly moved to sidestep Hiroto's punch, and before Hiroto could react, Hikari counterattacked, landing a series of quick punches on Hiroto's jaw and face, and knocking him to the ground.
Hiroto, caught completely by surprise and feeling as if he had stepped into a different world, struggled to stand up again, but Hikari, with the predictive capabilities of the Byakugan, anticipated each attempt and countered effectively, now kicking him in the stomach.
It was only then that Hiroto started to successfully mobilize his own chakra in an attempt to defend himself, after realizing his situation and the gravity of it, to fight back against Hikari's relentless assault.
However, by that point, Hikari already managed to pin himself down on top of him and realizing that he would lose if Hiroto managed to gather chakra successfully, began to choke him hard leading to him passing out completely under the accompanying 'gurgling' sound.
"Is that Byakugan, oh my God!?,
"Am I dreaming, someone please wake up!?",
"At only three years old!?",
"That damned lineage is truly blessed for someone reason!",
"What is going to happen next!?",
The spectators, a mix of Main and Side Branch members who had gathered to witness the confrontation, were taken aback by the sudden turn of events. Murmurs and gasps filled the air as they saw Hiroto, whom many had expected to dominate the fight due to his earlier training and aggressive approach, quickly overpowered and rendered unconscious by Hikari.
Whispers spread through the crowd, with some expressing shock at Hikari's unexpected prowess and others speculating about the implications of his victory.
A few of the spectators, particularly those from the Main Branch, appeared unsettled, their faces betraying a mix of concern and reevaluation of Hikari's place within the clan hierarchy.
"Hiroto-sama!", However, at this time, Hiroto's entourage of Side Branch members, who had been watching from a distance, finally realized the gravity of what had occurred.
They rushed to assist the young Hiroto, who lay on the ground, unconscious, his face red and swollen, clothes dirtied from the scuffle.
However, upon witnessing the Side Branch members rush to Hiroto's aid, Hikari couldn't help but secretly grin. Then, raising his voice for all to hear, he declared,
"Bold of you, preparing to attack a Main Branch member in such numbers and with those fierce looks in your eyes. There's no helping it; to defend myself, I must activate the Cursed Seal on all of you.",
With that, Hikari performed another one-handed seal, and under the shocked gazes of everyone present, he invoked the Cursed Seal Command. More than a dozen Side Branch attendants suddenly collapsed to the ground, yelling in agony and clutching their foreheads.
Hikari was acutely aware that activating the Cursed Seal Command on Side Branch members directly serving under different Main Branch lineages, other than your own, was strictly forbidden, except under exceptional circumstances. Thus, he felt compelled to add those words while doing it.
'Didn't you always secretly laugh at me while Hiroto bullied me while hiding behind him? And I'm not one to forget grudges or leave a payback unsettled...', Hikari mused silently, 'And didn't my parents always treat your kind with kindness? Yet, how did you repay them..?',
'Out of fear of threats from the Main Branch or envy, you still turned against them, leading to their downfall...',
'It seems being good in this world gets you nowhere. The more you stray from your true 'status', the more you will pay in the end like my parents.',
'The Main and Side Branches are simply incompatible, contrary to what my parents believed, and they paid for it with their lives...", He reflected as he watched them squirming in pain on the ground.
This act was not solely about retribution. Hikari recognized the need to demonstrate to the Nine Elders and the rest of the Main Branch that he had fully embraced his role within the Main Branch, distancing himself from his parents' well-known abnormal ideologies and naivety.
Activating the Cursed Seals was a clear message of his alignment with Main Branch values and a departure from his parents' ideals. It was a calculated step to show he had changed, that he was not like his parents. It was another move in climbing the hierarchy of this clan.
His actions were now guided by sheer cold logic; the pain inflicted on others in moments like this held no sway over him.
Hikari's only focus had shifted to climbing to the top of the food chain in this troubled world.
And the prospect of others growing suspicious due to the change in his personality, observable from his actions today, also wasn't a very significant concern for Hikari.
He rationalized that anyone would transform the series of events he had endured in recent months, culminating in the traumatic incident three days prior and the awakening of his Byakugan yesterday afternoon.
It was natural for his previously non-confrontational, naive, and accommodating demeanor to evolve into a more assertive, confident, and self-centered personality given his series of experiences.
This shift would probably be a 'reasonable response' to the trials he faced in the eyes of others, especially Main Branch members who were always very 'proud' like that by default.
Moreover, this Hikari in Konohagakure, while just embodying the soul 'richer' with another one from a totally different planet and dimension, now retained the same original memories and the brain as the spiritual of this body also carried before that partial transmigration.
Consequently, all the subtle, unconscious, 'micro' habits and behaviors that could make someone suspect something different in him remained unchanged for that exact reason.
These consistencies helped maintain the continuity of his identity, ensuring that any alterations in his personality could be attributed to his recent experiences rather than arousing suspicions of a deeper, more mysterious change within him like 'transmigration'.
However, soon, Hikari's attention was abruptly drawn to another figure—a slightly older boy fiercely charging towards him, his expression seething with anger while he roared loudly.
