Neji had grown closer with his aunt over the past few months, mostly because the woman stubbornly refused to leave him alone. Ever since he broke down during his father's funeral she had pestered him to no end.

Every time she went out of the clan with Hinata, he was also brought along. He would have to sit through hours of walking around the garden or shopping for new kimonos.

While actually spending time with his aunt and cousin didn't bother Neji, his job was to protect the clan heir anyway, the reason why he was brought along did.

His aunt seemed to think he had been made fragile or weak after his father had died. As if he could not handle his grief.

Did she think he was so weak that he needed someone to hold his hand throughout every single walking moment?

But as time passed even that small annoyance with his aunt passed as he grew more comfortable being in her and his cousin's company.

Neji soon started his first year in the academy where of course he excelled. The first few years of the academy were mostly to build up general knowledge while letting children decide their future. He would have to share these classes with civilian and clan children alike for a few more years until they were split apart.

The kids that had to aptitude and talent to become ninja would start learning about ninja-related knowledge while the others could continue their education at a civilian school. After all, not everyone had the courage or talent to become a ninja.

The biggest event that happened during Neji's first year at the academy was the birth of his second cousin, Hanabi. While normally it would have been an event celebrated throughout the clan, his Aunt has died while giving birth.

She had started to grow weaker for weeks before the birth, and finally, during delivery, her body couldn't take anymore.

At the funeral, Neji had watched his cousin bawl her eyes out in her father's embrace while the Hyuga clan head had also surprised everyone by comforting his daughter and looked visibly in pain. It was perhaps a testament to how much he had loved his wife.

Neji on the contrary couldn't bring himself to shed tears during the funeral. At his father's death he had bawled his eyes out, but now with his aunt, he just felt numb.

Of course, the people who were affected the most by his aunt's death were his uncle and cousin. His cousin who had already been shy and soft-spoken somehow became even more introverted.

While his uncle had become more and more cold and stern as time passed. His pale eyes seemed to have lost the spark in them as he buried himself in clan matter as if to bury himself in work to hide from the pain.

Neji stopped spending time with his cousin after the passing of his aunt and dedicated himself to getting stronger.

At the academy, the pace that they learned at seemed so slow that Neji felt he could be number 1 in the class even if he slept through each class.

He ignored his taijutsu as he had already started learning the gentle fist at the clan. No other taijutsu style would really fit him anyway. He also didn't want to risk injury by trying to learn any other taijutsu styles. The beginner katas that they taught at the academy would be fine when they started their ninja training but more advanced styles would hurt him more than help.

The gentle fist style of the Hyuga relied on precise attacks that targetted chakra points, for this the style relied more on flexibility and fluidity rather than attacking head-on.

Instead of his taijutsu, Neji focused on his chakra control and his dojutsu. He had seen members of both the main and branch families keep their byakugan active for hours while they trained, while he could barely keep his active for twenty to thirty minutes right now.

But it wasn't as easy as just keeping his byakugan on for long as he could, eyes were sensitive, especially Hyuga eyes, and they needed precise training.

Luckily this information was common knowledge to all Hyuga clan members, not just the main family. Even though more advanced techniques like the revolving heaven and the 8 trigrams 64 palms were kept secret by the main family, everyone had a chance to train their byakugan evenly.

Neji made his way to the Hyuga clan library where generations of techniques and other secrets collected by their ancestors since the founding of the village were kept.

Neji made his way to the front door and greeted the librarian with a nod. The old librarian, Haruto Hyuga, quickly bowed to Neji as a greeting. He had the normal dark Hyuga hair that was starting to sprinkle with spots of grey and a rare but not uncommon set of brown pupils.

Of course, most Hyuga were born with the byakugan but it wasn't exactly uncommon for some of the clan members to not inherit the trait. These members were naturally put in the branch family but weren't required to be marked with the caged bird seal.

The main purpose of the seal was to protect the byakugan from theft, without the byakugan, not even the main family could give a good reason to mark them.

These members of the family mainly remained as civilians and worked for the family getting a civilian education and managing the various businesses and properties the Hyuga clan had throughout the city.

They weren't the most powerful clan just to their byakugan after all, they also were a financial powerhouse in the village.

"Neji-sama what's the purpose of your visit today," asked Haruto politely.

"I wanted to take a look at the manuals that have information of the Byakugan and the methods to train it," Neji replied.

"Of course Neji-sama," Haruto replied as he led Neji to the section with the dojutsu manuals.

Neji looked at the shelves full of manuals that explained the various uses of and ways to train the byakugan and sighed.

"Haruto get me a paper and pen please, I might be here for a while."