A short time earlier.
When Hyūga Hizashi activated his Byakugan to locate the owner of the voice, his vision had already passed over Neji.
The boy lay quietly in bed.
Too quietly.
Normally, after venting his frustration, Neji would toss for hours, unable to sleep. Tonight, however, after binding his injured hands, he lay flat on his back, staring at the ceiling until drowsiness overtook him abruptly.
Sleep came unnaturally fast.
The moment his eyes closed, all sensation vanished.
No sound.
No body weight.
Only darkness, thick and uniform, like a sealed room with no dimensions.
Then, faintly, a voice reached him.
Distant. Indistinct.
Neji opened his eyes.
He stood before a collapsed torii gate. Rotten beams were half-buried in mud. Moss covered stone steps slick with moisture. The sound came from beyond.
Without resistance, he moved forward.
He passed the gate. Walked between broken guardian statues. Continued along a ruined stone path flanked by swaying shadows.
The space opened.
A shrine stood ahead. Decayed. The rope before the hall had rotted through. Wooden plaques clattered in the wind, their inscriptions erased.
In the open ground before it, four children stood hand in hand, forming a circle.
Two loosened their grip and extended their hands toward Neji.
He took them.
The instant their hands met, emotion surged up without cause. A smile spread across his face, and a laugh escaped his throat that did not feel like his own.
At the center of the circle knelt a girl with black hair. Her eyes were covered.
The children began to walk.
"Kagome, kagome."
Their voices were thin. Flat.
"Kago no naka no tori wa."
The setting sun cast long shadows. The silhouettes overlapped, enclosing the girl like the bars of a frame.
"Itsu itsu deyaru."
The pace quickened.
"Yoake no ban ni."
"Tsurukame ga subetta."
The steps stopped.
All four turned to face the girl.
"Ushiro no shoumen… dare?"
Neji followed their gaze.
The girl's back felt unfamiliar.
And familiar.
The rhyme echoed again, stripped of playfulness by the dead shrine and the pressing stillness.
Cold seeped into Neji's hands.
Suddenly, understanding struck.
The rules.
If she guessed correctly, the one named would take the bird's place.
The girl raised her head.
"Hyūga… Neji…"
His body shook.
The children released his hands.
"No—!"
He stepped forward uncontrollably and knelt before her. The children gathered closer, watching with ritual focus.
The girl reached up with both hands and touched his face.
Her thumbs pressed down.
On his eyes.
Blood burst outward.
Neji screamed.
The pain was immediate and overwhelming, like heated metal driven into his skull.
As his vision disappeared, the children joined hands again and resumed the circle.
"Kagome, kagome."
"Kago no naka no tori wa."
The voices distorted. Meaning broke apart. Noise flooded his senses.
The scene dissolved.
Images replaced it.
He saw countless foreheads branded with seals.
Those marked stood in front of the unmarked, dying in waves on soaked ground.
He saw a figure bearing the Cage Bird mark, face indistinct, cutting down others and tearing eyes free with bare hands.
He saw that figure before an altar, clutching its face in silent convulsions.
Then walking away.
Anyone who stood in its path was cut down, regardless of seal.
The figure entered a hall.
Survivors gathered outside, frozen.
Flames erupted.
The figure emerged through fire, carrying an old man's severed head. The spine dragged behind it, leaving a dark trail.
It stopped.
Blood pooled at its feet and reflected terrified white eyes.
Within those reflections were different eyes.
Not white.
Deep blue.
Neji stood among the last observers, unable to move or speak.
Fear twisted into something else.
Satisfaction.
Then the figure lifted its head.
It looked at him.
Neji knew, with certainty, that he had been seen.
Blood streamed down from those blue eyes.
"This clan should not exist."
A hand rose. Light formed along it, rigid and controlled.
"Purify it."
Golden light descended.
Death pressed in.
Neji jerked violently and fell from the bed.
Pain grounded him.
Reality snapped back into place.
He lay on the floor, staring at the ceiling, breathing hard.
"What… was that?"
His voice shook.
"And those eyes…"