Chapter 2: First months
Two months had passed since the new Neji mysteriously transported to this world.
Currently, he was in his room trying to activate his standard doujutsu instead of his precognition ability that he accidentally activated.
He had spent the last month desperately trying to activate the basic ability of his eyes without the desired result. Every time he applied chakra to his eyes, he ended up seeing the future two seconds before it happened. He tested it on the movement of birds and concluded that for every second he used his ability, he could see into the future for another second, meaning if he had enough control to keep the ability active for a minute, he could see what would happen in the next 60 seconds.
After several failed attempts applying chakra to his eyes, he tried to stop thinking about the parts that the ocular organ possessed—iris, cornea… He tried reducing the amount of chakra, causing the characteristic veins of the Byakugan to appear.
"Whoa," he exclaimed as new information flooded his mind, this time in the form of images. His field of vision expanded exponentially; he could see his entire room, no corner of his new room could be seen with his eyes.
"This is incredible," he muttered to himself.
As he observed his room once again, this time with a 360-degree field of vision, he realized that there was a point where his vision couldn't project at the back of his neck above the third thoracic vertebra, unable to see part of the Hyuga symbol hanging on the wall. It bothered him a bit.
"It's still impressive anyway. Now, if I concentrate, maybe I can see through walls. In the anime, it was seen several times. If I focus on a point, maybe…"
Neji focused on the flame symbol inside the quadrant on the wall, and his hypothesis was correct. Slowly, the wall disappeared, making it possible to see the next wall of the hallway. He tried to spy on what the other members of the clan were doing but didn't see anything of interest. The only notable thing was that they wore forehead bands with a visible symbol directly on them. Besides that, what he could see was people meditating, training with standard ninja weapons, fighting, or Hyuga maids doing tasks like cleaning. Everything they did was very correct, which made sense being in a clan where everyone could see everyone.
He continued exploring room by room, hall by hall, and still didn't see anything that deviated from the same patterns he had been seeing until now. Apart from several kitchens and training rooms with targets, straw men, and such.
"This complex is huge; it would take a long time to see all the rooms. How many people live here?"
Although a little tired of using the Byakugan, he decided to change the direction of his gaze 180 degrees, only to discover that he couldn't see through his quarters. He could only go through rooms like the kitchen or the garden; he couldn't penetrate the rest with his new X-ray vision. After a few seconds, only paintings appeared on the walls, something he assumed were sealing arts of his clan. Despite not being known as sealing masters, the Hyuga clan has always had experts in fuinjutsu at their disposal.
"They deliberately don't put seals on us, huh? That way, they keep an eye on us, and they keep us paranoid by taking away our privacy. What bastards," he thought.
"Ugh, my head. I'll have to practice more until I regain the ability of the original me," he said exhausted.
He deactivated the doujutsu before another individual appeared through the door. Minutes later, his intuition was right.
"Neji-kun, we need to prepare the food," shouted a girl as she opened the door.
Neji turned to see the face of his guest; she was a couple of years older than him, with short brown hair, wearing maid attire: a one-piece dress of black or dark blue color, combined with a white apron, and a bow whose function was to tie the hair in a conspicuous way.
It was Hanako Hyuga, trying to be friendlier with people and not blaming her entire clan as the previous Neji did. This girl had become almost friends with him in the last two weeks she was in the Naruto anime. She wasn't a genin; however, she knew the basic skills of the Hyuga clan like everyone else in the clan.
He had seen members of the main and branch families keep their Byakugan active for hours while training, while he had just learned that he could barely keep his active for a few minutes.
But it wasn't as easy as keeping his Byakugan active for as long as he could; the eyes were sensitive, especially Hyuga eyes, and required precise training.
Fortunately, the anime explained that Neji had a more advanced Byakugan than Hinata in the Chunin Exams.
Although the main family kept more advanced techniques like the Rotation, the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms, and the ability that Hinata used against Pain secret, all members had to train their Byakugan and taijutsu uniformly, even if they weren't ninjas.
Many family members remained primarily as civilians with chakra and worked for the family, receiving a civilian education and managing the various businesses and properties that the Hyuga clan had in the village. With the gradual extinction of rival clans like Senju and Sarutobi, the Hyuga clan had gradually absorbed more influence in the village. Later, with the virtually extinction of the Uchiha clan, the white-eyes clan became an indisputable financial and political power in the village. Neji had heard rumors in secret at the academy that other clans were not happy with the balance of power in Konoha currently.
"Well, good morning, Hanako-sempai, let's go," he said seriously.
Hanako was surprised to see the slight change in her Hyuga companion; lately, the young genius had been acting friendlier with her since they met, going from melancholic to friendly with some members of the branch family since that day. Two weeks ago, she was frightened to see the always cold and dangerous aura Hyuga start talking to her, but over time, she saw that he didn't mean any harm, and she got used to it.
The two went chatting to the kitchen of the branch family to prepare the food. They spent time cooking along with another twenty Hyugas for both the main and branch families. They spent an hour preparing a quality meal for the leaders of the Hyuga clan.
"Sir, Neji and I finished making the sukiyaki," Hanako said to the kitchen supervisor.
"Good job, you can go now."
After the order, they left the kitchen, bidding farewell but not before agreeing to split the work the next day.
After a few weeks of involuntarily joining this world and seeing the demanding behavior of the people, he couldn't help but think that this world is partly a critique of Japanese culture, where it is very common to dedicate oneself to work. Sometimes, many feel obliged to stay on duty and work overtime even if it's not necessary. Others (like Kakashi's father), however, can't bear the social pressure and end up committing suicide. The shame of failing at something in life, like the entrance exam to university, work, and family, ends up making the person leave life.
Seeing the discipline of Leaf Village society, Neji theorized that the similarities with Japan were not only aesthetic but also cultural.
In addition to that, the military training and the will of fire make this place very tough for foreigners.
"Living in this village as a servant and ninja is hell; I must plan with what I supposedly know from the canon some other way to remove the cursed seal."
For now, Neji could only think of a few possibilities:
1: Behave like an exemplary Hyuga, gaining recognition from the clan in the war that will take place in 6 years and hope that Naruto or the Hyuga decide to change the caste system. And above all, try not to die from a log. This option means that he would have to participate in a war and carry out assassination missions for 6 years, which didn't seem very appealing to him.
"Also, in the original work, we didn't even see how the Hyuga clan changed. I haven't seen Boruto, but I don't remember a scene abolishing the caste system."
2: Try to impress Jiraiya and become his disciple, which according to the anime doesn't seem possible. Jiraiya only trained Naruto initially because he was Minato's son and the prophecy; the rest of the time, he spent on spy missions or with a hedonistic life. Why would he risk offending the current most influential clan in Konoha?
3: Danzo, definitely a bad option. He turned people into emotionless soldiers from a young age and let Orochimaru experiment with children. He doesn't seem like someone to befriend.
"If I could remove the seal, I would put another one that ties me to the Leaf Village. And why would they remove the seal without suspecting that I want to leave this place?"
4: Possibly the most dangerous, Orochimaru. Taking advantage of the invasion, ally with Orochimaru through Kabuto and serve as a spy in exchange for removing the seal. Although again, it would be a matter of chance what Orochimaru would do with him later.
5: Tear out my eyes and die in Pain's attack, hoping for resurrection. Bad idea, I don't want to die.
6: Become strong enough to kill the leaders of the Hyuga clan capable of activating the curse mark, which are the 6 Hyuga elders and Hiashi.
"This last option is unreliable; I don't know if only they are capable of activating the mark. Is Hanabi capable of activating the curse mark? In that case, I would have to do an Itachi, and that's impossible with the Evasiva."
"Other options include finding scrolls containing sealing arts that could help me, although it's unlikely that I'll find a way to remove the seal."
"I had already searched the library for sealing arts, and I was disappointed with what I found. Basically, any fuinjutsu is hidden from normal ninjas, whether it's object summoning or paper bombs; any fuinjutsu was a secret that only another jounin could teach you."
"There's also the fact that I have nowhere to escape once I'm free. Living as a missing ninja is even more dangerous than living in Konoha, adding a prestigious bloodline like the Hyuga's and you'll have all nations and criminal organizations following you. Naruto had Jiraiya, and Sasuke had Orochimaru; Neji wasn't so lucky," the defeated young genius thought to himself as he went to the academy.
"I sigh, my future is dark. But I won't give up; I will be free. For now, I will be a good slave; I'll swallow my pride under the motto of 'he who laughs last, laughs best.' With that in mind, I went to the academy."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone