Chapter 10
The Truth of the Caged Bird
Title: Naruto: I Am Uzumaki Menma in Konoha
Author: Tofu Brain Likes Spicy Food
Word count: 2313
Updated: 2025-05-06 18:03:10
Inside Konoha Hospital.
Hyuga Hizashi tossed and turned in his hospital bed for most of the night, before exhaustion finally pulled him into sleep.
In his dream, he vaguely felt a gust of wind.
When he opened his eyes again, he was standing inside the Hyuga clan’s council hall, lit by flickering candlelight.
“Because Konoha can no longer continue the war with the Hidden Cloud, our Hyuga clan must give them an explanation…” Hyuga Hiashi sat in the main seat, his figure stretched long by the candlelight.
Below him, elders of the main branch and ninjas of the branch family were shocked.
“Why! It was clearly those Cloud ninjas who kidnapped Lady Hinata!” a branch family jonin said angrily.
“Because we cannot go to war anymore.” Hiashi’s voice was heavy with unwillingness.
But the pressure from the entire village was already forcing the Hyuga clan.
The hall erupted in chaos. A main branch elder’s Byakugan flickered in the shadows.
“What conditions did the Cloud demand?”
Yes—what exactly did the Hidden Cloud want after pushing things this far?
All the Hyuga ninjas turned toward the clan leader.
“A murderer.” Hiashi’s answer froze the entire room.
As his words fell, the discussions in the hall grew even louder.
Neither main branch nor branch family could accept such a condition.
It was clearly Cloud envoys who invaded Hyuga land and kidnapped the clan’s young lady, and were killed on the spot—yet now the victim must hand over a culprit?
“It doesn’t have to be the clan head. If they just want a murderer, we can give them one.” A main branch elder’s deep Byakugan gaze turned toward Hizashi, who was seated among the branch family.
Hizashi was about to say: “What about the mysterious person last night?”
But his body suddenly stood up on its own, walking forward to Hiashi and kneeling.
“Let me go, brother.”
“The value of the branch family is to protect the main branch. As the clan head, you must not die.”
No! That’s not it! Hizashi felt as if his soul had left his body, watching “himself” speak these cold words.
Where is that mysterious person? Wasn’t there a mysterious person? Just blame the Cloud envoy’s death on him! Hizashi shouted inwardly.
But none of the Hyuga ninjas in the hall could see him. They continued debating as if nothing was wrong.
Hiashi tried to say something, but “Hizashi” struck him, forcing him to accept responsibility as clan head.
After that, Hizashi watched “himself” say farewell to his son Neji, before calmly walking toward death.
With the Hyuga clan handing over the “killer of the Cloud envoy,” the Hidden Cloud had nothing more to say.
Hizashi, as a bystander, watched himself walk to his death, watched his family cry at his funeral, feeling only coldness spread through his body.
No! It’s an illusion!
Fake! It’s all fake!
Overwhelmed by emotion, Hizashi realized something was wrong and began circulating chakra to resist.
But he still could not break free.
Suddenly, everything went black.
He returned to Konoha Hospital.
Hizashi suddenly sat up in bed, drenched in cold sweat soaking through his bandages.
“Was it a dream?” he gasped, touching his forehead.
“No, it wasn’t.”
A cold voice came from the side.
Hizashi trembled and turned his head.
A mysterious man in a long robe stood by the window, wearing a white three-eyed fox mask. Moonlight shone on the mask, giving it a cold glow.
“You!” Hizashi was alarmed and tried to get up, but found himself completely restrained.
“Still an illusion!” he said, cold sweat pouring down.
This level of layered genjutsu—most jonin couldn’t even use it.
Menma Uzumaki jumped down from the windowsill and slowly walked toward him.
“Who are you! What do you want!” Hizashi struggled, but no matter how he disrupted his chakra flow, he couldn’t break the illusion.
“How pitiful,” Menma said.
“What you just saw—without me—that would have been your ending.”
Hizashi shook his head.
“Impossible! Even without you, the Cloud envoy kidnapped the Hyuga clan’s young lady and was killed. That would only mean…”
He suddenly stopped.
A chill ran through his body.
Even a top ninja like White Fang had been forced to death. For a branch family Hyuga like him to become a scapegoat… it wasn’t impossible.
“See?” Menma’s voice turned heavy and sorrowful.
“You have already accepted that fate in your heart.”
“That is why I say you are pitiful.”
“The Caged Bird seal was originally meant to protect the Hyuga clan… but instead it turned most branch family members into slave-like existences.”
Hizashi instinctively objected.
“What do you know! The Caged Bird! The branch family exists for—”
“Do you want to know?” Menma interrupted.
“The truth of the Caged Bird.”
The fox mask slowly approached Hizashi.
Menma placed his hand on Hizashi’s forehead.
A violent, dark chakra invaded his mind.
In an instant, Hizashi saw a different scene.
On a vast battlefield, two armies with different flags faced each other, then erupted into war.
Standing in the center, Hizashi saw that every soldier—both sides—had Byakugan eyes.
The scene changed.
In a war-torn era, ninjas wearing Hyuga clan symbols were slaughtered. The attackers were the very enemies from before.
Countless Hyuga were killed, their Byakugan extracted.
Then another shift.
A different army stood in formation, all of them with eyes closed, relying only on perception.
A tall structure stood behind them. On top of it was a sealed eyeball-shaped stone bound with chains and runes.
Their commander waved his hand.
The eyeball stone released a blinding light, firing a purple beam toward the enemy army.
Where the beam passed, explosions erupted.
Thousands of soldiers were wiped out.
“This… this is…” Hizashi trembled.
The victors collected the Byakugan from the defeated and merged them into the eyeball stone.
“This is the truth of the ‘Caged Bird’ seal.”
As the voice fell, the battlefield changed again.
Hyuga clan members appeared, each with the Caged Bird seal on their foreheads.
“No! It’s fake! It’s all fake!” Hizashi roared in fury.
“I can tell! I can tell the difference!”
“This is all your illusion! I will not be deceived!”
“In my mind, I can still tell what is real!”
In the illusion space, Hizashi went almost insane, denying everything.
“Then how about this.”
Menma appeared again in front of him and formed a hand sign.
A wave of chakra struck Hizashi.
“Aaah!!”
The next moment, it felt like countless blades pierced his brain.
The Caged Bird seal activated.
“Why… you… how…”
Hizashi grabbed his head in agony, his face twisted in pain, his Byakugan filled with shock and fear.
