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*****
This pain, as if ten thousand shuriken were piercing his brain, was something Hizashi had experienced quite recently.
It happened while he was watching Hinata's training; he had manifested a deep killing intent toward the exceptionally gifted girl, which was noticed by Hiashi Hyūga. Hiashi had then activated the "Caged Bird" to discipline him.
And he had done so right in front of Neji.
But why did the mysterious man before him know the activation hand signs for the "Caged Bird" cursed seal?
This was considered the core secret of the Hyūga Main House, never leaked for hundreds of years, passed down solely through word of mouth from one Clan Head and Elder to the next.
It was absolutely impossible for anyone outside the Main House to know!
Furthermore, in the centuries since the inception of the "Caged Bird," there had never been a report of anyone outside the Main House being able to use it!
Yet, the person before him was shattering Hizashi's traditional understanding of the Hyūga Clan piece by piece!
As Menma Uzumaki finished the hand signs, the splitting headache finally subsided significantly.
"You are not of the Hyūga Clan!" Hizashi gasped, looking at the mysterious man with lingering fear; this was the only thing he could be certain of.
"Nor are you one of those who once slaughtered my clan!" Unconsciously, Hizashi had already accepted the "historical truth" that Menma had force-fed him.
It wasn't that the Hyūga Clan had never lost a Byakugan to the outside—Ao of the Hidden Mist, for example, had seized a Byakugan from a Main House ninja during the Third Shinobi World War, earning him the title of "Byakugan Killer."
But these were extreme rarities, certainly not enough to justify the Hyūga Clan implementing the "Caged Bird" on such a massive scale.
Therefore, only an external enemy so powerful that even the Hyūga Clan found them difficult to resist could explain how the "Caged Bird" came to be.
"Your goal is that eyeball fused from a massive number of Byakugan, isn't it!" Hizashi recalled the power of that giant eye, his voice trembling slightly.
He was no fool; on the contrary, Hizashi was very intelligent—intelligent enough to willingly leave behind a so-called "suicide note" after being forced into death, telling Neji not to hate the Main House.
However, that letter remained in Hiashi's hands until the first Chunin Exams, when he finally gave it to Neji.
That, too, was Hizashi's way of protecting Neji.
"You are smart. That is one of the reasons I chose you over your brother." Menma Uzumaki did not deny his ambition.
The existence of a Giant Tenseigan was equivalent to a satellite weapon; one could launch attacks on the shinobi world directly from the moon, while those on the ground would have no way to fight back.
Such a weapon of mass destruction was naturally something Menma wanted to hold in his hands.
While in the "Limited Tsukuyomi" world, he had searched for traces of the Giant Tenseigan and the "Otsutsuki Clan" on the moon, but he had found nothing even after scouring the Hyūga records of that world.
Hearing the opponent compare him to his brother, Hizashi's knuckles turned white.
"You are no worse than him. Besides, I can sense that you have already mastered the essence of the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms. Why didn't you use it in our previous fight?" Menma continued to goad Hizashi with his words.
Indeed...
Recalling the battle, if it hadn't been for the sensation of mortal peril when the mysterious man attacked his blind spot, Hizashi would never have used the *Kaiten*.
"I am... no worse than him..." Hizashi muttered to himself.
This was the complex he had carried for over twenty years.
Simply because he was born ten minutes later, he, a twin, was relegated to the Branch House. Not only was the Caged Bird carved into his forehead, but he was also forbidden from learning high-level Gentle Fist taijutsu and the Hyūga secret techniques.
Even his child, and the descendants of his lineage for generations to come, would be branded with the "Caged Bird"!
"Swear your allegiance to me." Menma Uzumaki, wearing his white three-eyed fox mask, stepped closer to Hizashi. He extended his right hand and formed a seal.
"Caged Sealing!" After finishing the signs, Menma pressed his right hand against Hizashi's forehead.
A surge of dark, violent chakra flooded Hizashi's brain, temporarily suppressing the "Caged Bird" seal.
In an instant, Hizashi felt a clarity he had never known before and—
Freedom!
Although the "Caged Bird" on Hizashi's forehead wasn't completely erased, it had dimmed considerably.
The residual pain from moments ago vanished instantly, and the one-degree blind spot at the back of his head was gone. He had regained 360-degree Byakugan vision!
Tears welled up in Hizashi's white eyes and rolled slowly down his cheeks.
He had almost forgotten what 360-degree vision felt like.
This long-lost freedom caused the heart of Hizashi Hyūga—which had been stagnant for twenty years, almost resigned to fate—to surge with unrest once more.
"This technique only lasts for 24 hours." Menma Uzumaki withdrew his hand.
This was a specific seal targeting the "Caged Bird" that he had developed in the "Limited Tsukuyomi world," utilizing the Uzumaki Clan's natural talent for sealing.
In truth, the logic was simple: cursed seals like the "Caged Bird" are primarily a combination of sealing jutsu and chakra. Such seals act like parasites, latching onto a target and feeding on their chakra to sustain their existence.
As long as one was a master of sealing jutsu and conducted dedicated research, creating a temporary suppression seal was a natural outcome.
But it was only temporary.
However, as for completely erasing the "Caged Bird," Menma had at least three methods. Three!
It was just a pity those methods couldn't be tested in the "Limited Tsukuyomi world."
Furthermore, despite it being a relatively straightforward sealing concept, who would dare to research it?
The Uzumaki Clan, masters of sealing, had seen their nation destroyed and their people scattered. The number of ninja in Konoha proficient in sealing could be counted on one hand.
Any time a Hyūga ninja even had the chance to get close to sealing jutsu, they were immediately stopped by the Main House.
Hizashi raised his hand to touch the "Caged Bird" on his forehead, savoring this rare freedom.
"Will you be a coward for the rest of your life, or do you want to be a hero for the Branch House? Even if it's only for a few minutes." Menma Uzumaki released the genjutsu space and vanished from Hizashi's sight.
Hizashi was back in his hospital ward, but the blinding sunlight streaming through the window gave him a sense of unreality.
Having experienced multiple layers of genjutsu, he found it hard to tell if this was reality or another illusory world.
Hizashi activated his Byakugan. Feeling that newly regained 360-degree perspective, he felt a level of exhilaration he had never known.
"Is this the scent of freedom?" Hizashi thought of his child.
When Neji had wailed in agony during the ceremony to brand him with the "Caged Bird," he, as a father, could only kneel to the side and watch with worry.
He thought of the Branch House members branded with the seal, those pairs of white eyes where resentment was buried deep beneath numbness.
And he thought of his own older brother, Hiashi Hyūga, who was destined to be superior simply because he was born first!
"A coward for life, or... a hero for a few minutes?" The mysterious man's whisper wound around Hizashi's heart like a venomous snake.
(End of Chapter)