Chapter 10: The Truth Of The Caged Bird
Inside Konoha Hospital.
Hizashi Hyuga tossed and turned in bed for most of the night, finally dragged into a dream by exhaustion.
In his sleep, Hizashi vaguely sensed some wind sound.
When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in the Hyuga Clan’s assembly hall with flickering candlelight.
“Konoha no longer has the strength to continue the war with Cloud Village. Our Hyuga Clan must give Cloud Village an explanation…” Hiashi Hyuga knelt on the main seat, his shadow elongated by the candlelight.
The elders of the Hyuga Main Family and the ninjas of the branch family below were all surprised.
“Why! It was clearly those Cloud Village people who kidnapped Miss Hinata!” A branch family jonin said discontentedly.
“Because we can’t fight anymore.” How could Hiashi Hyuga be willing to accept this.
But now the entire pressure of Konoha was forcing the Hyuga Clan.
The hall erupted in clamor, and a Main Family elder’s Byakugan flashed in the shadows:
“What conditions did Cloud Village propose?”
Indeed, Cloud Village was so aggressive, what they wanted was surely?
The Hyuga ninjas in the assembly hall all looked toward the clan head on the main seat.
“One murderer.” Hiashi’s answer caused the air to freeze instantly.
As Hiashi’s words fell, the discussion in the assembly hall grew even louder.
No Hyuga ninja, whether Main Family or branch family, could accept such conditions.
Clearly, it was the Cloud Village special envoy who came to the Hyuga Clan territory and kidnapped the Hyuga Clan’s young lady, only to be killed on the spot, yet the victim had to hand over the person?
“No need for the clan head to step forward. If it’s just the murderer, giving one is enough.” The Main Family clan head’s Byakugan under his long eyebrows gazed deeply toward Hizashi on the branch family seats.
Hizashi Hyuga was just about to say: ‘What about the mysterious person from last night?’
But he found his body standing up uncontrollably, walking to Hiashi, sitting down cross-legged: “Let me go, brother.”
“The value of the branch family’s existence is to protect the Main Family. As the clan head of the Hyuga Clan, you absolutely cannot have anything happen to you.”
‘No! That’s not it!’ Hizashi felt as if his soul had left his body, standing to the side watching his cold-faced ‘self’ say these words.
‘What about that mysterious person? Isn’t there that mysterious person? Just pin the Cloud Village special envoy’s death on him!’ Hizashi shouted at his ‘self’ from the side.
But the Hyuga ninjas in the assembly hall seemed unable to see him, still discussing the feasibility.
Hiashi Hyuga wanted to say something more, but was punched by his ‘self’ who stepped forward, demanding he bear the Main Family’s responsibility.
Next, Hizashi watched his ‘self’ say his final words to his son Neji, then gladly go to his death.
As the Hyuga Clan handed over the ‘murderer of the Cloud Village special envoy,’ Cloud Village had nothing more to say.
Hizashi watched as a bystander, helplessly seeing his ‘self’ walk toward death, seeing his wife and son hugging and wailing at his funeral, feeling cold all over.
‘No! It’s an illusion technique!’
‘Fake! All fake!’
The intense emotional stimulation made Hizashi sense something wrong and start circulating chakra to interfere.
But he still couldn’t break free from the illusion technique.
His vision suddenly went black, and Hizashi was back in Konoha Hospital.
He abruptly sat up from the bed, covered in cold sweat that soaked the bandages.
“Was it a dream?” Hizashi gasped, his right hand touching his forehead.
“Not a dream.” Suddenly, a cold voice came from beside him.
Hizashi shuddered all over, turning to look, only to see a mysterious person in a long robe wearing a white three-eyed fox mask, leaning against the window, the bright moonlight shining on the three-eyed fox mask emitting a cold glow.
“It’s you!” Hizashi was on high alert, trying to get up from the bed to fight, but found himself as if restrained, unable to leave the bed.
“Still an illusion technique!” Cold sweat kept pouring from Hizashi’s forehead; this kind of layered illusion technique was not even mastered by ordinary jonin.
Step—
Uzumaki Menma jumped down from the windowsill, slowly walking toward Hizashi.
“What exactly are you! What’s your purpose!” Hizashi was still struggling, but no matter how he disrupted the chakra flow in his body, he couldn’t break through this illusory world.
“How pitiful.” Uzumaki Menma came before Hizashi: “Everything you just saw, without me, would be your ending.”
Hearing this, Hizashi shook his head, trying to retort: “Impossible! Even without you, the Cloud Village special envoy kidnapping the Hyuga Clan’s young lady and being killed would just be…”
As he spoke, Hizashi suddenly stopped, feeling as if he had fallen into an ice cave.
Even a top ninja like White Fang was forced to death; for him, a Hyuga branch family ninja, being made a scapegoat—what was impossible about that.
“See, deep down you accept such a fate.” Uzumaki Menma’s voice was deep with a hint of sorrow.
“So, I say it’s pitiful.”
“The original intent of the Caged Bird was to protect Hyuga Clan members, yet it turned most Hyuga Clan members into servant-like inferiors.”
Hizashi instinctively retorted: “What do you know! The existence of the Caged Bird! The existence of the Hyuga branch family! All for…”
“Want to know?” Uzumaki Menma interrupted Hizashi.
“The truth of the Caged Bird.” The three-eyed fox mask slowly approached Hizashi Hyuga.
Menma reached out, slowly pressing his hand on Hizashi’s forehead.
A violent, dark chakra invaded Hizashi’s brain.
Instantly, Hizashi saw a different scene.
On a vast empty battlefield, two armies with different flags faced off, then erupted into fierce war!
Hizashi stood in the center of the battlefield, watching the slaughtering enemies around him; they wore strange attire, their race slightly different from the people of the Land of Fire, but what astonished Hizashi was that everyone in this war had a pair of Byakugan.
The scene shifted.
In the ninja world, ninjas wearing Warring States Period ninja attire with the Hyuga Clan crest on their backs were being massacred, and the culprits were one of the opposing sides from earlier.
Countless Hyuga Clan members were slaughtered, their Byakugan dug out, then these mysterious people vanished from the ninja world.
The scene shifted again,
Two armies facing off, one army with all members’ eyes tightly closed, sensing only with the Mind’s Eye.
A tall tower was pushed out from the army formation, and atop the tower, an eyeball-shaped stone was bound by various rune chains.
The commander of this army waved his hand, and the eyeball-shaped stone erupted with blinding light, a purple light beam blasting toward the charging enemy army opposite.
Wherever the purple light beam swept, explosions rose one after another!
The thousands of enemy troops opposite were reduced to ashes just like that.
“This is… this is…” Hizashi watched as the victorious side on the battlefield scavenged Byakugan from the defeated side, then fused them into the eyeball-shaped stone, his heart greatly shocked.
“This is—the truth of the Caged Bird’s existence.”
As the mysterious person’s words fell, the battlefield beside Hizashi changed again.
Before him were Hyuga Clan members one by one, and the prominent Caged Bird curse mark on their foreheads.
“Fake! All fake!” Hizashi roared in fury; more than twenty years of clan education made him unable to accept such a fact.
“These are all illusions you fabricated! All fake! I can tell! I can tell!”
“You won’t drive a wedge between the Hyuga Main Family and branch family’s relationship!”
In the illusionary space, Hizashi Hyuga denied it near madness.
“Then, how about this.” Uzumaki Menma appeared before Hizashi in the illusionary space, forming a hand seal with one hand.
A chakra fluctuation emanated from Uzumaki Menma’s body, precisely hitting Hizashi.
“Ah!” The next moment, Hizashi’s brain felt like it was pierced by ten thousand swords, convulsing in intense pain.
The Caged Bird curse mark activated.
“Why… how do you…” Hizashi clutched his head, his face contorted, his Byakugan filled with shock and fear.
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