At the same time, in the secret library of the Hyuga Clan.
"Sure enough… the relationship with the Kaguya Clan was exactly as I had assumed…"
Looking through the genealogy of the Hyuga Clan, Kuroto found that during the Warring States Period, there are records of marriages between the Hyuga Clan and the Kaguya Clan, although it's quite strange that only the women of the Kaguya Clan got married to the men of the Hyuga Clan, not the other way around, it was perhaps done to prevent the outflow of Byakugan…
Anyway, after reading these records of marriage, Kuroto can indeed confirm that the Hyuga Clan and the Kaguya Clan had a close relationship and that the two clans are blood relatives that are descendants of the same ancestral origin.
But with the establishment of Konoha, Kirigakure, and other Shinobi Villages, and several wars that took place that led to the death of countless shinobis, the relationship between the Hyuga Clan and the Kaguya Clan became distant, estranged, cold, and tense because of the enmity and hatred between the two Shinobi Villages.
All this information was already within Kuroto's expectations, so it did not surprise him all that much and he continued to go through the history of the Hyuga Clan with the hope that he will find something that would help him reach an answer to his question.
"This is…!"
And not long after he did stumble upon something…
As he was looking at the records of the population of the Hyuga Clan, Kuroto quickly noticed that in the millennium-year-long history of the Hyuga Clan, the population of the Hyuga Clan was mostly maintained in the numerical range of three thousand to four thousand, there were even times when the population of the Hyuga Clan reached as high as five thousand to six thousand… that was perhaps the most prosperous time for the Hyuga Clan, and during those times, the Hyuga Clan was comparable to the Senju Clan and the Uchiha Clan, in terms of population at least…
But for some inexplicable reason, after reaching the peak value of 5894 about three centuries ago, the population of the Hyuga Clan started to decline and has been decreasing since then.
The decline is so serious that at this point in time, the number of Hyuga Clansmen alive is only about seven hundred, including all the men, women, and children from both the main family and the branch family.
In just three centuries, the population of the Hyuga Clan has decreased from 5894 to 1200… this is a highly concerning matter… this decrease in population of the Hyuga Clan may not have attracted that much attention considering the decline was slow and steady and happened over a period of three centuries, but when Kuroto read entire Genealogy in ten minutes, he felt this slow and steady decline quite strange…
"Is it really because of the war?" muttered Kuroto with a thoughtful expression.
The war between Clans and nations has always been the major cause of the decline of the population among the Shinobi Clans… The former greatest Clan, the Senju Clan is the prime example… After the establishment of Konoha Village, during the first great shinobi war, and second great shinobi war, the shinobi of the Senju Clan took the lead in all the battlefronts and suffered the most casualties, the death rate of the Senju Clan reached such a high point that the number of men in Senju Clan declined heavily and male to female ratio was greatly affected…
Low male to female ratio along with the policies implemented by Shodaime Hokage with the intention of thoroughly integrating the Senju Clan into Konoha resulted in a large number of intermarriages between the women of the Senju Clan and ordinary villagers, which further lead to the dilution of the Senju blood and the decline of Senju Clan.
The decline of the Senju Clan is so severe that today Senju Clan exists in name only, and Senju Tsunade is the only member carrying the entire clan on her shoulders… In a few years from now, when she will pass away, the Senju Clan will completely cease to exist.
After all, Tsunade-hime doesn't seem to have any intention of leaving behind a descendant, so no one will be left to carry forward the Senju Clan, or maybe, that won't happen considering the fact that Shimizu Naomi's niece Mika also carries the Senju blood… even if Mika is only a quarter Senju, she is a Senju nonetheless, and may carry the banner of the once greatest clan in the future… but that is a matter to be discussed another time…
Coming back to the main topic, Kuroto first speculated that the cause of the decline of the population of the Hyuga Clan is also war, after all, all the deaths have happened in the wars between clans and villages, but after thinking over it, he denied it...
The reason is that after rereading the entire history of the Hyuga Clan, Kuroto found no record of too many deaths at once, except one time when several hundred Hyuga Clansmen died due to a mysterious cause.
Although the mysterious cause that led to the deaths of hundreds of clansmen is a matter to be frowned upon, Kuroto decided to not focus on it at this very moment.
Coming back to the topic, he only saw that the number of Hyuga Clansmen dying every year were within an acceptable range, and not too much that would cause a decline in the entire population.
But this is also natural, considering that the Hyuga Clan had no major enemies during the Warring States period.
During the Warring States Period, the relationship between each Shinobi Clan was tense, and a fight between shinobis of different clans was a common occurrence, but even if that was the case, it never reached the point where two clans were mortal enemies, except the Senju and Uchiha Clans, of course.
This means, even if Hyuga Clan had several conflicts with the shinobis of other clans, the scale of conflict with other shinobi clans should have never reached such a degree that would result in a drastic decline in the population of the clan.
Since this is the case, the cause of the decline of the Hyuga Clan's population is not war, nor is it the coup d'état from the branch family… then what is the cause?
Upon further research, Kuroto soon noticed one more detail…
"This is it… The number of births in the Hyuga Clan has also decreased with each year…"
The cause of the decline of the Hyuga Clan population is not the increased death toll caused by wars, rather it is the decreasing ratio of the number of births compared to the number of deaths per year.
If the number of children born in the Hyuga Clan is decreasing every year, and along with it, the ratio of the number of deaths to the number of births is decreasing, then obviously, the population will decline.
Although this is quite understandable, why exactly is this happening? Why is the number of newborns decreasing each year?
The decline in the population of the Hyuga Clan over time appears to be so smooth that at first glance it doesn't even attract any attention… it feels as if… as if someone is secretly controlling all this…!
After figuring out the cause of the decline in population, the doubts in Kuroto's heart not only did not decrease, but rather they became graver and graver.
In the cognition of ordinary villagers, the Hyuga Clan has the highest number of Shinobi compared to any other Clan, even more than the Uchiha Clan, this is another reason why everyone thinks that the Hyuga Clan and Uchiha Clan are rival clans. Even if Uchiha Clan has some shinobi who are quite strong, Hyuga Clan is able to compensate for that lack of strength with its advantage in numbers.
However, this is just their misunderstanding for they don't truly understand the Uchiha Clan.
Indeed, the number of Uchiha Shinobi is less compared to the Hyuga Clan, the number of Uchiha Shinobi is half as much as the Hyuga Clan, but this doesn't mean that the overall population of the Uchiha Clan is less compared to the Hyuga Clan. On the contrary, if the entire population of the Uchiha Clan is taken into account, then it is definitely twice the number of the Hyuga Clan…
The issue with the Uchiha Clan is that not everyone in their clan awakens their Kekkei Genkai Sharingan, unlike the Hyuga Clan in which almost everyone awakens the Byakugan. This is why, the ordinary Uchiha, who are only ordinary villagers and have no qualification of becoming shinobi are sometimes forgotten by everyone, which is obviously not the case in the Hyuga Clan, since everyone awakens the Byakugan.
The demise of the Senju Clan happened because of the decisions of Shodaime Hokage-sama, and Nidaime Hokage-sama… the demise of the Uzumaki Clan was the result of fear that the other shinobi villages had, the demise of the Kaguya Clan happened because of their curse… now only the Uchiha Clan and the Hyuga Clan are left…
It is said that, after Uchiha Madara left Konoha, internal strife broke out within the Uchiha clan for the position of the Uchiha Patriarch… this infighting displayed 'Izanagi' quite a few times, and led to the development of 'Izanami'. This infighting led to a large number of casualties in the Uchiha Clan, however, if Kuroto sees now, the overall population of the Uchiha Clan did not decline because of the internal fighting and remained stable…
"Then why is it that the number of Hyuga Clansmen is decreasing? This is too strange!"
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Read up to Chapter - 868 on P..a.t.r.e.o.n Page: p-atreon.com/Milta_translations