Naruto: Cultivating to Immortality

Chapter 82 The New Patriarch

Looking at the polite middle-aged Hyuga clansman in front of him, Hyuga Kanan understood what the other party meant.

An unfamiliar member of the Hyuga clan was walking around the clan's territory. The fact that he had waited until now to inquire about his identity was already a sign of respect for his Byakugan eyes and smooth forehead.

Hyuga Kanan no longer has the Caged Bird Seal on his forehead. When he evolved to the Innate Realm, those remnants of other things within his body were directly expelled. Although the Caged Bird Seal was useless to him before, the mark still remained on his forehead. But after entering the Innate Realm, all the cells in his body underwent restructuring, so how could such a residual mark still exist?

"Hyuga Kanan!"

After answering, Hyuga Kanan nodded to the other person and continued walking towards his courtyard. He didn't want to waste any more time on this matter; he needed to think about how to seek help from the Hyuga clan.

As Hyuga Kanan's figure gradually disappeared into the distance, the Hyuga clan members who were watching began to discuss it.

The people around were all members of the Hyuga clan who were quite interested in gossip; otherwise, they wouldn't have stayed here waiting for the other party's answer. Being a ninja is a rather busy profession; they are either doing missions or training to improve their strength. Even ninjas from a prestigious clan like the Hyuga clan have to work hard to improve their strength, unless you only want to be a servant of the main family.

"Hyuga Kanan, is there such a person in the main family? The name sounds familiar, but I can't remember where I've heard it before!" A younger member of the clan asked his senior with a puzzled look.

"Could it be Hyuga Kanan? Impossible! How could it be!" The older clansman thought of something, but immediately dismissed his idea.

The name Hyuga Kanan was still quite memorable among those who were 17 or 8 years old, after all, the name of the Hyuga clan was constantly being spread within the clan at that time.

Despite being a member of a prestigious family in Konoha, he was a bottom-of-the-class student at the Ninja Academy. Later, it was said that he deserted during the battle due to fear of fighting, causing heavy losses to the Konoha team. As a result, the Hokage stripped him of his ninja status and expelled him from the battlefield.

Fearing punishment from the clan's higher-ups upon returning to the village, he stayed outside and dared not go back. It is said that the Hokage only refrained from treating him as a defector of Konoha because he was the former clan leader's youngest son and the Hyuga clan leader had given him face.

However, the current clan leader is not Hyuga Kanan's father, but his older brother. It is said that his older brother has a lot of opinions about this younger brother and does not like him very much.

But wasn't Hyuga Kanan a member of the branch family? In their minds, Hyuga Kanan was also a branch family member marked with the Caged Bird Seal. Although Hyuga Kanan rarely met or interacted with his clansmen, they were quite certain that he did have the Caged Bird Seal on his forehead at the time. Moreover, they had heard from the main family that Hyuga Kanan was very disrespectful to the main family. If it weren't for his father, the clan head, they would have used the Caged Bird Seal to execute this person who had brought shame to the Hyuga clan in Konoha.

Previously, it was rumored that Hyuga Kanan deserted on the battlefield and was directly executed by the elders of the main family using the Caged Bird Seal, which is why no news had come back.

But now a clansman who calls himself Hyuga Kanan has returned directly to the clan's territory, and the Caged Bird Seal on his forehead is gone. This makes the clansmen very curious: is this person who calls himself Hyuga Kanan the Hyuga Kanan they remember?

The patrolmen quickly left to report the situation to the chieftain's residence.

Hyuga Kanan's return was no small matter for the clan leader, as Hyuga Kanan had a truly terrible reputation in Konoha. Ever since the war ended, rumors had circulated in Konoha that Hyuga Kanan, from the prestigious Hyuga clan, was afraid of fighting the Mist Ninja and had deserted during a mission, causing Konoha heavy losses, including the death of Uchiha Kagami, a genius ninja from the Uchiha clan.

The Uchiha clan was extremely dissatisfied with the Hyuga clan. They even sent people outside the village to search for Hyuga Kanan, intending to capture him and bring him back to the village. At the same time, they kept pressuring the Konoha leadership to demand an explanation from the Hyuga clan.

The Hyuga clan paid a price to quell the Uchiha clan's anger, making them a laughingstock among Konoha ninja. If much time hadn't passed, Hyuga Kanan might have been arrested upon returning to the village.

Hyuga Kanan, who had returned to Konoha, was completely unaware of these events. When he explained the situation to Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Hokage returned to the village and discovered that Kanan had not returned. In order to prevent the Uchiha clan from developing hostility towards Danzo, a high-ranking official in Konoha, Hiruzen Sarutobi decided to abandon his efforts to stop Danzo from sending messages. After all, in Hiruzen Sarutobi's heart, Danzo was a close friend and comrade he had known since childhood. Most importantly, he wanted to prevent the Uchiha clan from clashing with the Konoha leadership because of Danzo.

He believed that with the war just over and Konoha in need of rebuilding, stability was paramount, so sacrificing Hyuga Kanan was no big deal.

In fact, he was overthinking it. Given Hyuga Kanan's personality, as long as they didn't bother his training or interfere with his cultivation plans, he didn't care about such low-level rumors about Konoha. In fact, if it weren't for the need to refine his natal magic weapon, he wouldn't have been interested in returning to Konoha at all.

At the residence of the Hyuga clan head, Hyuga Hiashi sat in the main seat, looking at the patrolling clansmen reporting to him. When he heard that Hyuga Kanan had returned to the clan, he also showed a thoughtful expression.

Hiashi Hyuga just took over as clan leader this year. His father passed away at the end of last year after a relapse of an old injury. Hiashi hastily succeeded his father as clan leader, but he has no prestige or status whatsoever.

The elders of the Hyuga main family are now taking advantage of the situation to seize a lot of power from the other side. Fortunately, his father seems to have anticipated what those main family elders would do and made many backup plans, which allows Hyuga Hiashi to barely maintain his basic status in the Hyuga clan. At least his orders can still be conveyed within the clan.

However, Hiashi Hyuga still disliked his younger brother very much, believing that he was not like a traditional member of the Hyuga clan at all. But before his death, his father kept emphasizing the importance of Kanan Hyuga and asked Hiashi Hyuga to try his best to meet Kanan Hyuga's conditions for the Hyuga clan so that Kanan Hyuga could take care of the Hyuga clan in the future.

In Hiashi Hyuga's mind, as a powerful clan in Konoha with such a special status, he didn't need to care about Hyuga Kanan at all. Previously, the Hyuga clan had used Kanan's performance on the battlefield as a pretext for the Uchiha clan to continuously oppress the Hyuga clan, which only ended after compensation was made under Konoha's mediation.

Compensation for interests is not of great importance to the Hyuga clan, a powerful family in Konoha, but the loss of face and dignity caused by making the Hyuga clan appear inferior to the other party is something that can never be made up for.

As both are powerful clans in Konoha, what Hyuga Hiashi was most dissatisfied with was that the Hyuga clan's status in Konoha was lower than that of the Uchiha clan. His father had always tried to make the Hyuga clan the number one powerful clan in Konoha, but Hyuga Kanan ruined it all. This is what made Hyuga Hiashi most dissatisfied with Hyuga Kanan.

In his eyes, even if he died on the battlefield, he could not lose the honor of the Hyuga clan. Since he had already left Konoha, he should not come back and remind the Konoha ninjas of what happened before.

The fact that he still has the face to return to his clan makes him even more furious.

"Ride, go and call Hyuga Kanan over. I want to see how this arrogant little brother has the nerve to return to the clan. Remember, he must come as quickly as possible."

"Yes, Chieftain!"

A Hyuga clansman outside the door immediately responded and quickly went over.

At this moment, Hyuga Kanan also arrived at his small courtyard. He was not surprised to see the somewhat dilapidated gate. He didn't have many friends in the Hyuga clan. The only person he was on good terms with was his second brother, Hyuga Hizashi. However, as a ninja, Hyuga Hizashi didn't have time to help him tidy up the courtyard.

Only her mother would come to help her tidy up, but she had previously asked her second brother to tell her that she might not be back for a long time. In addition, she needed to be with her father at all times, so she probably hadn't been to her little courtyard for a long time either.

Hyuga Kanan pushed open the door and entered. He didn't bother to tidy up the dilapidated courtyard. He was just waiting for the Hyuga clan to summon him. He was waiting to persuade the Hyuga clan to help him collect materials so that he could find a secluded place to cultivate in seclusion again.

Soon, sounds came from outside the courtyard. Hyuga Kanan turned his head slightly to look at the people who had arrived, waiting for their message. He knew that after his return, his father would definitely call him over for questioning immediately. After all, he had directly asked Hiruzen Sarutobi to revoke his ninja status without communicating with the Hyuga clan, and the Hyuga clan would definitely be very surprised.

In this world, ninjas hold a very high status, and many people are proud to become one. Just look at the number of people applying to the Konoha Ninja Academy every year; becoming a ninja is a great honor. Generally, aside from being forced to retire due to injury, even if someone gets old, they usually retire from ninja life rather than having their ninja status revoked.

Sure enough, the other party immediately announced that the clan leader had summoned them and demanded that they go immediately.

After Hyuga Kanan nodded to indicate that he understood, the other party left quickly without waiting to lead the way.

After seeing the other party leave, Hyuga Kanan didn't waste any time and quickly headed towards the clan head's residence. He was thinking of communicating with his father and asking him to mobilize the Hyuga clan's resources to help him collect materials and save him time.