- Nine-Tails attack is 12 years ago.
- The Hyuga seal damages brain cells. It is activated at will by a main house member with a hand seal known only by them.
- Hyuga Elder: "The advanced blood of the Hyuga clan is a valuable trump card to this village. Protecting that has been the duty of the main family. That is why the branch families exist."
- The Hyuga affair happened 9 years ago.
- Hanabi is 7 years old at the start of the series.
- Danzo was well-versed in fuinjutsu and cursed seals. He branded members of Root with cursed seals to prevent them from revealing his secrets.
- Danzo had several dealings with Orochimaru, at least up to the Nine-Tails' attack.
- Danzo felt that the interests of the village should be placed above all else, even ethics and morals. Danzo believed Konoha was strongest and most stable when the village had a target to focus its anger and hatred on. To this end, Danzo was key in stigmatizing the Uchiha clan to the rest of the village and was the one to secretly leak out the knowledge that Naruto Uzumaki was the container of the Nine-Tailed Fox, ensuring the villagers would loathe him as a result.
Now the key facts from Team 8:
- Chapter 2: Hiashi doesn't want the Jyuuken paraded around in front of "commoners." Hinata has memories of the Hyuga affair. Hiashi has killer intent at mention of Kurenai, and far greater killer intent at mention of Naruto.
- Chapter 4: Kurenai believes Hiashi is systematically destroying Hinata's sense of worth, and is very involved in training Hanabi.
- Chapter 5: Hanabi clearly despises Hinata, and never knew her mother. She is described as the very image of her mother.
- Chapter 8: Hyuuga clan suffered heavy losses from the Kyuubi attack, from which they have yet to recover.
- Chapter 10: The AU divergence point is "a single event that occurred before Naruto was even born. Everything else that has changed has been a consequence of a single decision that was made."
- Chapter 13: Hinata "couldn't clearly remember" the day her mother died, but she does remember the branch family servants who told her and the old woman who comforted her. She doesn't remember seeing her father.
- Chapter 15: Hiashi willingly trains Neji for the chuunin exams unlike in canon, and has "unusual interest" in his development. He also adopted him. Neji's mother also died, but it's not specified when.
- Chapter 19: The Caged Bird Seal can be disrupted by a burst of chakra if there's "something very strange" about the chakra (in this case, being chakra of the Nine-Tails). Hiashi wanted to readminister the seal. Hiashi liked Neji better than Hinata, "as long as he had a seal on him."
- Chapter 21:
- Jiraiya:(Danzo) says that the perfect ninja has no emotions, but people that practice that nindo never seem to last. They either completely lose their personality, or they crack like Itachi did.
- Hinata describes her father as different before her mother died. Distant, but "not the looming angry presence he was now."
- Kakashi appears to trigger Hiashi with threat of exposing weaknesses.
- Jiraiya:
- Chapter 22: The the events that lead to the discovery of Mattai's byakugan and the assassination of Kurenai's team happened a couple years AFTER Naruto's birth. The Hyuga affair happened the previous year. Kyuubi attack -> Hyuga affair -> Mattai's death. In the Mattai event, "Hiashi" is described as the same cruel, stuck-up, arrogant person as in the story (Kurenai admits she does not know him well), and he and the Hyuga elders wanted Mattai in the clan and branded. Kurenai says he is obsessed with maintaining a monopoly on their bloodline.
Now here's the theory: Instead of putting up with his fate as in canon, Hizashi snapped under the enslavement of the seal, possibly losing his mind (the brain-damaging seal broke his mind, and/or he tried to restrain his emotions but "cracked"). He grew to hate Hiashi, and sought a chance for revenge. Regarding Naruto, perhaps something happened to Hizashi in the Nine-tails' attack on Konoha, like losing someone dear to him? At some point, Hizashi may have been approached by Danzo. They made a deal: if Danzo helped Hizashi get revenge and take over the Hyuga clan, Hizashi would serve Danzo for Konoha's sake. During the Hyuga affair, when Kumo demanded Hiashi's body, Hizashi saw his chance, and took Hiashi's place. He somehow got his own bird seal removed (this is proven possible in Ch. 19 of Team 8), and had Hiashi branded with the bird seal, and gave him up to Kumo. Skilled in fuinjitsu and cursed seals, Danzo may have had a significant role in this Kill and Replace. Similarly, Orochimaru may have also had a hand in it. Then Hizashi takes over the Hyuga clan, and directs some of his lingering hatred for Hiashi on his daughter, hence the abusive behavior (again, he may have gone insane). If Hizashi was influenced by Danzo's philosophies, then Hizashi may have also become obsessed with the strength of his clan (hence the "monopoly" on the Hyuga bloodline and abilities), and also helped him propagate prejudice against Naruto (remember Danzo's beliefs).
If we go by Hanabi's age, then the death of Hinata's mother must have happened a few years after the Hyuuga affair. At some point Hizashi might have had Hinata's mother killed (she might suspect him). After that, he is no longer distant and content, and doesn't have to worry about her mother suspecting him. His harsher behavior he could pass off as being bitter because of her death. The "monopoly" desire also leads to him and Danzo arranging Mattai's death. He realizes Kurenai is a threat because she suspects. Unlike in canon, Hizashi trains his son for the chuunin exams.
OBJECTION: Hanabi is only 7 years old, so her father would be dead already. EXPLANATION: The Hanabi of Team 8 is actually the daughter of Hizashi and Hinata's mother, and Hinata's mother had just always wanted the name Hanabi. Plus, Hizashi and Hiashi are genetically identical twins. Also, Chapter 5 describes Hanabi as being in the image of her mother, which appears to contradict the anime, so this might be intentional or Throw It In!.
- Bonus: she'll show Hinata how to smash through walls with her little finger.
- Hinata is paralleling Sakura's apprenticeship to Tsunade. In canon, Tsunade agreed to train Sakura partly because of her determination, partly because of her perfect chakra control making her an ideal candidate for medic-nin training. Hinata has plenty of the former, and the latter is more or less guaranteed for any Hyuuga. In fact, Hinata will probably do it better than Sakura, as not only is she used to transferring chakra through touch, but it seems likely that the training will also enhance her Jyuuken strikes. Not to mention the value of Tsunade's physical strength training. If there is a timeskip, then hopefully Hinata will be seen using a taijutsu style that hits with Goken and Jyuuken simultaneously.
- Confirmed: Tsunade makes the six-month period become a non-stop training regimen as an excuse to keep Hinata away from home.
- During the training, Hinata will learn the Chakra Scalpel technique, which will make her Gentle Fist strikes even more deadly.
- Confirmed.
- A better reason would be "because someone has to be and there aren't many suitable canon characters left".
- Also, he's one of the few shinobi with the skills to restrain the Nine-Tales and considering Naruto was briefly taken over by it after learning Itachi killed Kurenai....
- As of Chapter 24, It seems Jiraiya will lead the team into the next Chunin Exam in Kumo
- As of Chapter 24, It seems Jiraiya will lead the team into the next Chunin Exam in Kumo. Same spoiler as above.
- Nothing. He'll continue to hone his own skills.
- Bear. As a close-in combat specialist, it's ideal. Plus, the idea of Naruto riding a bear into battle is cool.
- Squirrels. Forest-capable, hyperactive... it worked for Squirrel Girl.
- Rats. Come in large hordes that can keep up with shadow clones, pack a nasty bite, and overwhelmingly misunderstood and disliked. Hopefully introduced in a bonding chapter.
- Tiger.
- Fennec fox. Because cute◊.
- Confirmed in Chapter 22 as Turtle. Didn't See That Coming...
- Crows. Specifically, Mobster crows.
- Otter.
- Tanuki.
- Fennec fox. Look, they're cute, okay? And it'd remind her of Naruto.
- A giant Hercules beetle. Those things are awesome.
- Canonically, Shino has a giant insect summon as an adult, so maybe that?
- MECHA. An also he learn know how to do the "Partial Summon" trick that Jiraiya used (He summoned only the stomach of a frog, once) so he will summon only hands or feet of his summons, just like Bayonetta does with her Wicked Weaves
- Fennec fox.
- Seems unlikely. The author already made a point that Itachi is not good in Team 8 and a lot of the plot after that point hinges somewhat on that. Regardless, there is no reason to wait.
- The author's stance is explicitly stated to be to not worry about updating the plot to reflect changes in canon. His story is already AU, and he considers going through the hassle not worth it.
- Completely wrong. The author's forum has an attached blog section revealing that the slowdown is due to a serious medical incidence. Further, the EvilAuthorLord simultaneously work on both Team 8 and their other project, Harry Potter and the Nightmares of Futures Past. As of June 20, 2017 both stories have their next chapters measured at 17% for Team 8 and 19% for HPatNoFP
- The death of her team caused Kurenai to become more introverted and stymied any chances of a relationship developing, sadly. Also, Asuma and Kakashi were both there and not fast enough to stop Kurenai from getting killed, so it's a particularly important event for them as well as the kids.
- Or alternatively, he could be executed and the kyuubi sealed into a young ROOT agent.
- Hiashi. He is notably much crueler, and the mentions of Mattai never add in a Cursed Seal. He may have tried to off her team so he could lead the clan. Also, the clan has something planned about Naruto...
- Chapter 22 definitely makes Hiashi a lead suspect for this. Although nothing's set in stone yet.
- Danzou. He's been mentioned a lot when he wasn't in canon. There must be a reason for this.
- That reason would be that Danzou didn't even exist in canon until after the timeskip.
- BOTH! There is nothing mutually-exclusive about them, and if Danzo aided Hiashi in this with ROOT, Danzo now has a debt to cash in with the Hyuuga Clan.
- Good one.
- If only.
- The Hidan and Kakuzu arc will play out completely differently because of Kurenai's death
- More likely Part II won't happen the way it did in canon at all because the series is about to go completely Off the Rails.
- It's probably going to be Mattai, and God knows he'll have more reason than Obito ever did, poor bastard.
- Kurenai's letter to Naruto in Chapter 22 reveals that she saw for herself that her teammates were all dead. Then again, Mattai was Impaled with Extreme Prejudice, but it might be that Kurenai's grief partially blinded her, meaning he might be Not Quite Dead after all...
- Alternatively, Mattai really is dead, but Madara stole his eyes for Rinnegan research (see below).
- One possibility: Here the Byakugan really did originate from the Rikudo Sennin, and the Rinnegan is basically Byakugan + Sharingan.
- Uh... how about no? Honestly, the bond between Naruto and Hinata is a fundamental part of Team 8. Even in this fanfic, Sakura ships the two.
- In canon, she was said to be well-suited for genjutsu, so maybe she'll study some of that. Maybe Kurenai left behind some of her knowledge in writing?
- Sakura was also said to be book smart and analytical in canon, so maybe she'll study to learn more advanced tactics and strategies to become a more competent Smart Girl and planner for Team 7?