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*****
Inside Konoha Hospital.
Hizashi Hyūga tossed and turned on his hospital bed for half the night before exhaustion finally dragged him into the realm of dreams.
In his sleep, Hizashi felt a vague, phantom whistling of wind.
When he opened his eyes again, he found himself standing within the flickering candlelight of the Hyūga Clan's grand assembly hall.
"Konoha no longer has the strength to continue the war with the Cloud. Our Hyūga Clan must give the Cloud an explanation..." Hiashi Hyūga sat in the primary seat, his shadow stretched long by the candlelight.
Below him, the elders of the Hyūga Main House and the shinobi of the Branch House were all visibly astonished.
"Why?! It was that Cloud shinobi who kidnapped Lady Hinata!" a Branch House Jonin said with fierce dissatisfaction.
"Because we can no longer afford to fight." Hiashi Hyūga was equally unwilling to accept this.
But currently, the pressure of all of Konoha was being exerted upon the Hyūga Clan.
The hall erupted in an uproar. In the shadows, the Byakugan of a Main House elder flickered.
"What conditions did the Cloud set?"
Indeed, with the Cloud being so aggressive, what they wanted was...?
The Hyūga shinobi in the assembly hall all turned their eyes toward the Clan Head in the primary seat.
"A culprit." Hiashi's answer caused the air to freeze instantly.
As Hiashi's words fell, the clamor of discussion in the hall grew even louder.
Whether they were Main House or Branch House, the Hyūga ninja could not accept such a condition.
It was clearly a Cloud Envoy who had trespassed into Hyūga territory to kidnap the clan's Eldest Miss and was killed on the spot—yet the victim was expected to hand over a life?
"There is no need for the Lord Clan Head to step forward. If they only want a culprit, we just need to provide one." From beneath long eyebrows, a Main House elder's Byakugan stared deeply toward the seats occupied by the Branch House, settling on Hizashi.
Hizashi was about to say, *'What about the mysterious man from last night?'*
But he found his body standing up uncontrollably. He walked toward Hiashi of his own accord and sat in a formal seiza position. "Let me go, Brother."
"The value of the Branch House's existence is to protect the Main House. As the Head of the Hyūga Clan, nothing must happen to you."
*No! That's not it!* Hizashi felt as if his soul had left his body, standing to the side and watching the cold-faced "self" say those words.
*What about that mysterious man? Isn't there a mysterious man? Just push the death of the Cloud Envoy onto him!* Hizashi screamed at his "self" from the sidelines.
But the Hyūga ninja in the hall seemed unable to see him, continuing to discuss the feasibility of the plan.
Hiashi Hyūga wanted to say more, but "self" stepped forward and punched him, telling him to take up the responsibility of the Main House.
Next, Hizashi watched as his "self" spoke his final words to his son, Neji, and then went to his death with grim satisfaction.
As the Hyūga Clan handed over the "culprit who murdered the Cloud Envoy," the Cloud was left with nothing to say.
Hizashi stood there as a bystander, watching his "self" walk toward death with open eyes. He watched his funeral, where his wife and son clung to each other and wailed. He felt chilled to the bone.
*No! It's a genjutsu!*
*Fake! It's all fake!*
The intense emotional stimulus allowed Hizashi to sense the anomaly. He began to circulate his chakra to interfere with the technique.
However, he was completely unable to break free from the illusion.
Everything suddenly went black, and Hizashi was back in Konoha Hospital.
He bolted upright in his bed, drenched in a cold sweat that soaked through his bandages.
"Was it a dream?" Hizashi gasped, his right hand touching his forehead.
"It wasn't a dream." Suddenly, a cold voice came from the side.
Hizashi shuddered and turned his head. He saw a mysterious figure in a long robe and a white three-eyed fox mask leaning against the window. The bright moonlight hit the mask, casting a chilling, faint shimmer.
"It's you!" Hizashi acted as if facing a mortal enemy, attempting to get out of bed to fight, only to find himself pinned down as if by invisible shackles, unable to leave the mattress.
"Still a genjutsu!" Cold sweat continued to pour down Hizashi's forehead. A multi-layered genjutsu of this caliber was something even an average Jonin might not be able to master.
*Step—*
Menma Uzumaki hopped down from the windowsill and walked slowly toward Hizashi.
"Who exactly are you! What is your goal!" Hizashi was still struggling, but no matter how he tried to disrupt his internal chakra flow, he couldn't break through this illusory world.
"How pathetic," Menma Uzumaki said, stopping in front of Hizashi. "Everything you just saw—if it weren't for me, that would be your end."
Hearing this, Hizashi shook his head, trying to refute it. "Impossible! Even without you, the Cloud Envoy kidnapped the Miss of the Hyūga Clan; being killed is only..."
As he spoke, Hizashi suddenly stopped, feeling as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.
Even a top-tier ninja like White Fang had been driven to death. What was so "impossible" about a Branch House ninja like himself being used as a scapegoat?
"See? Deep down, you've already accepted such a fate." Menma Uzumaki's voice was deep, carrying a hint of sorrow.
"That is why I say it is pathetic."
"The original intent of the Caged Bird was to protect the Hyūga clansmen, yet it has turned the majority of them into lower-class servants."
Hizashi instinctively countered: "What do you know! The existence of the Caged Bird! The existence of the Branch House! It is all for—"
"Do you want to know?" Menma interrupted him.
"The truth behind the Caged Bird." The three-eyed fox mask leaned closer to Hizashi.
Menma reached out and slowly pressed his hand against Hizashi's forehead.
A surge of violent, dark chakra invaded Hizashi's brain.
Instantly, Hizashi saw a different scene.
On a vast, empty battlefield, two armies with different flags were in a standoff. Then, a fierce war erupted!
Hizashi stood in the center of the battlefield, watching the enemies slaughtering each other. They wore strange clothing, and their race had slight differences from the people of the Land of Fire. But what Hizashi found unbelievable was that every single person in this war possessed a pair of Byakugan.
The scene shifted.
In the shinobi world, ninja wearing Warring States era clothing with the Hyūga crest on their backs were being hunted down en masse. The killers were one of the factions from the previous standoff.
Countless Hyūga clansmen were slaughtered, their Byakugan gouged out. Then, these mysterious people vanished from the shinobi world.
The scene shifted once more.
Two armies faced off. One army had every single member keeping their eyes tightly shut, perceiving only through the mind's eye.
A tall tower was pushed out from their ranks. Atop the tower, an eyeball-shaped stone was bound by various runic chains.
The commander of this army waved his hand, and the eyeball-shaped stone erupted with blinding light. A pillar of purple light roared toward the charging enemy army.
Wherever the purple beam swept, explosions followed one after another!
An army of thousands was wiped out just like that.
"This is... this is..." Hizashi watched as the victors of the battlefield scavenged the Byakugan of the defeated and merged them into the eyeball-shaped stone. His heart was profoundly shaken.
"This is—the truth of why the 'Caged Bird' exists."
As the mysterious man finished speaking, the battlefield around Hizashi changed again.
Before him were rows of Hyūga clansmen, each with the conspicuous "Caged Bird" seal on their foreheads.
"Fake! It's all fake!" Hizashi roared in a fury. Over twenty years of clan education made it impossible for him to accept such a reality.
"These are all illusions you've woven! They're fake! I can tell! I can tell the difference!"
"Don't you dare try to drive a wedge between the Hyūga Main and Branch Houses!"
Within the genjutsu space, Hizashi Hyūga was bordering on a frenzied state of denial.
"Then, how about this?" Menma Uzumaki appeared before Hizashi in the genjutsu space and formed a single seal.
A ripple of chakra emanated from Menma's body, accurately striking Hizashi.
"ARGH!" The next moment, Hizashi's brain felt as if ten thousand swords had pierced it. Intense, agonizing pain erupted.
The "Caged Bird" seal had been activated.
"Why... how can you..." Hizashi clutched his head with both hands, his face contorted in agony. His Byakugan were filled with shock and terror.
(End of Chapter)