Chapter 11
Swear Loyalty to Me!
The pain felt as though ten thousand shuriken were stabbing into his brain.
Hiashi had experienced this kind of agony not long ago.
Back then, while watching Hinata’s training, he had felt intense killing intent toward the exceptionally talented girl. Hyuga Hiashi noticed it and immediately activated the Caged Bird Seal to punish him.
And it had happened right in front of Neji.
But why did this mysterious person know the hand seals used to activate the Caged Bird Seal?
This was one of the Hyuga clan’s most closely guarded secrets. For hundreds of years, it had never been leaked and had only been passed down verbally between clan heads and elders.
No branch family member should possibly know it.
And ever since the creation of the Caged Bird Seal centuries ago, there had never been any record of a non-main-family member being able to use it.
Yet the man before him kept shattering everything Hizashi believed about the traditions of the Hyuga clan.
As Uzumaki Menma finished his hand seals, the splitting headache finally eased somewhat.
“You’re not a member of the Hyuga clan!” Hyuga Hizashi panted heavily, staring at the mysterious man with lingering fear. This was the only thing he could be certain of.
“And you’re not one of the people who slaughtered the Hyuga clan in the past either!”
Without realizing it, Hizashi had already accepted the “historical truth” Menma had fed him.
It wasn’t as if the Byakugan had never fallen into outside hands. For example, Ao of Kirigakure had stolen a Byakugan from a Hyuga main family ninja during the Third Great Ninja War, earning himself the title of “Byakugan Killer.”
But that was an extremely rare incident.
It wasn’t enough to explain why the Hyuga clan had widely implemented the Caged Bird Seal.
The only explanation was that the Hyuga clan had once faced an external enemy powerful enough to threaten the entire clan.
Only such a threat could explain the birth of the Caged Bird Seal.
“Your target is that eye formed from countless fused Byakugan, isn’t it?”
Remembering the power of that gigantic eye, Hizashi’s voice trembled slightly.
He was not a fool.
On the contrary, Hizashi was extremely intelligent.
He had been smart enough to leave behind a so-called suicide letter after being forced to sacrifice himself, instructing Neji not to hate the main family.
But that letter had remained in Hiashi’s possession until the first Chunin Exams, when it was finally given to Neji.
Wasn’t that, in its own way, also Hizashi’s way of protecting his son?
“You’re very clever. That’s one of the reasons I chose you instead of your brother.”
Menma did not deny his ambition.
The Giant Tenseigan was essentially a celestial weapon capable of launching attacks on the ninja world directly from the moon, while the people below would have no means of retaliation.
Naturally, Menma wanted such a weapon under his control.
Back in the Limited Tsukuyomi World, he had searched for both the Giant Tenseigan and the moon’s Otsutsuki clan.
Unfortunately, even after thoroughly searching the Hyuga clan’s records in that world, he found nothing.
Hearing himself compared to his brother, Hizashi’s fingers clenched until they turned white.
“You’re no worse than him. In fact, I can tell you’ve already mastered the essence of the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms. So why didn’t you use it in our earlier battle?”
Menma continued provoking him with words.
That’s right…
Thinking back to the fight, if Menma’s attack on his blind spot hadn’t created such an overwhelming sense of mortal danger, he never would have used Rotation.
“I… am not inferior to him…”
Hizashi muttered to himself.
It was a wound that had plagued him for more than twenty years.
Simply because he had been born a few minutes later, he, despite being a twin, was forced into the branch family.
Not only was the Caged Bird Seal branded onto his forehead, preventing him from learning the clan’s higher-level Gentle Fist techniques and secret arts—
His children and descendants would also be branded with the seal for generation after generation.
“Swear loyalty to me.”
Wearing the white three-eyed fox mask, Uzumaki Menma stepped closer and formed a one-handed seal.
“Caged Bird Seal Lock!”
As the hand seal was completed, Menma pressed his palm against Hizashi’s forehead.
A dark and violent chakra surged into Hizashi’s mind, temporarily sealing the Caged Bird Seal.
In that instant, Hizashi felt something he had not experienced in years.
Clarity.
And—
Freedom.
The Caged Bird Seal on his forehead was not completely removed, but it had visibly dimmed.
The lingering pain vanished instantly.
Even the blind spot behind his head disappeared.
His Byakugan’s full three-hundred-and-sixty-degree vision had returned.
Tears flowed from his pale eyes and slowly rolled down his cheeks.
He had almost forgotten what it felt like.
The sensation of a complete Byakugan.
This long-lost freedom stirred something inside him.
The spirit that had been suppressed for more than twenty years, the spirit that had nearly resigned itself to fate, began to awaken once again.
“This technique will only last twenty-four hours.”
Menma withdrew his hand.
This was a sealing technique he had specifically developed in the Limited Tsukuyomi World using the Uzumaki clan’s natural talent for sealing arts.
The principle behind it was actually simple.
The Caged Bird Seal was a combination of a curse mark and sealing techniques.
Like a parasite, it attached itself to its host and continuously consumed chakra to maintain its existence.
Therefore, anyone sufficiently skilled in sealing arts who devoted enough research to it could eventually develop a technique capable of temporarily sealing the Caged Bird Seal.
But only temporarily.
As for completely removing the seal—
Menma knew at least three different methods.
Three.
Unfortunately, none of those methods could be tested in the Limited Tsukuyomi World.
And besides, who would dare conduct such research?
The Uzumaki clan, masters of sealing techniques, had been destroyed.
Within Konoha, only a handful of ninja still possessed advanced sealing knowledge.
As for members of the Hyuga clan, the moment any branch family member showed interest in sealing arts, the main family would immediately put a stop to it.
Hizashi raised a hand and touched the Caged Bird Seal on his forehead.
Feeling this precious taste of freedom, he remained silent.
“Will you spend your entire life as a coward?”
Menma’s voice echoed through the darkness.
“Or will you become a hero to the branch family… even if only for a few minutes?”
The next moment, Menma dispelled the illusionary space and vanished from Hizashi’s sight.
Hizashi found himself back in the hospital room.
Bright sunlight streamed through the window, so dazzling that it felt unreal.
After enduring multiple layers of illusion, he could no longer tell whether this was reality or another genjutsu.
Activating his Byakugan, he experienced once again the complete three-hundred-and-sixty-degree field of vision.
Never before had he felt such exhilarating freedom.
“So this… is the scent of freedom?”
He thought of his son.
When Neji had cried in agony during the ceremony where the Caged Bird Seal was branded onto his forehead, all Hizashi could do as a father was kneel nearby and watch helplessly.
He thought of the countless branch family members marked by the seal.
Those pale eyes, numb on the surface yet hiding resentment deep within.
And then he thought of the brother who had been born only a few minutes earlier—
The brother destined to stand above him forever.
Hyuga Hiashi.
“A coward for life… or a hero for a few minutes?”
The mysterious man’s whisper coiled around Hizashi’s heart like a venomous serpent.
