A chill ran through Neji's entire body.
It felt as if some unseen colossal beast had locked its gaze on him.
The cold crept up his spine all the way to the back of his skull.
Every hair on his body stood on end.
He was not the type to sit still and wait for death.
He immediately prepared to pull back and dodge...
His foot lifted, but it never came down.
His body seemed nailed in place.
His fingers would not move. His knees would not bend.
Even breathing became difficult.
That terrifying aura pressed down on him like an invisible mountain, leaving him without even the slightest room to struggle.
In front of him, that figure was walking toward him.
His pace was unhurried.
The dark-gold robe gave off a cold, eerie gleam in the alley's shadows.
The corners of his mouth still carried that half-smiling curve.
His gaze fell on Neji's face.
As if he were studying an interesting piece of prey.
Was this the power of a village's Kage?
Neji's heart sank to the bottom.
The other man had clearly done nothing.
He had merely walked over, yet Neji could not move at all.
In all his years as a ninja, he had faced countless opponents.
Never once had he felt this powerless.
This was not a fight.
This was suppression.
Absolute, unquestionable suppression.
Teizawa stopped in front of him.
Neji could only watch helplessly as that hand reached toward him.
Long fingers touched the forehead protector on his brow.
With a light flick, the forehead protector slipped down, revealing the blue-green mark beneath it.
The Caged Bird.
The shackle the Hyuga branch family had been unable to break free from for generations.
"So this is the Caged Bird."
Teizawa's voice was soft, carrying a hint of teasing.
It was as if he were examining an antique he had never seen before.
His gaze swept over the mark.
From top to bottom. From left to right.
That appraising look made humiliation and fury surge in Neji's chest.
This was his most unbearable scar.
The shame he wanted more than anything to erase from his life.
Yet now, an outsider had removed his forehead protector and was openly studying it as he pleased.
But Neji could do nothing.
He could not move. He could not curse.
He could not even close his eyes.
Teizawa reached out and pressed his fingers against the mark.
The instant his fingertips touched Neji's skin, Neji felt a strange warm current flow into his mind.
Like spring water spreading across a frozen riverbed.
Slow, yet unstoppable.
Teizawa closed his eyes.
His perception followed the mark deeper in.
Through the skin. Through the skull. Into the depths of the brain.
"So that's how it works..."
The restraint of the Caged Bird used chakra to seal the nerves.
No wonder it was called a curse mark that could not be undone.
The ninja world had no technology capable of conquering the nerves of the brain.
But that made Teizawa a little puzzled.
If they did not have that kind of technology, how had the Hyuga clan developed the Caged Bird in the first place?
A curse mark precise enough to reach the nervous system should have been impossible with the ninja world's current level of medical knowledge.
The doubt only lasted for an instant.
Teizawa drew his thoughts back and followed the method the system had given him.
He condensed chakra in his palm.
Then silently spoke that single word.
"Release."
Whoosh.
A force of suction burst from his palm.
Like a whirlpool. Like a black hole.
It pulled something out from the depths of Neji's mind.
The markings on Neji's forehead began to flash violently.
Blue-green light flickered, bright and dim by turns, like a lamp on the verge of going out.
Then the lines began to writhe, twist, and peel away.
At a speed visible to the naked eye, they rose out from beneath the skin.
They turned into wisps of blue-green smoke.
Then vanished between Teizawa's fingers.
All of it happened in an instant.
Teizawa released his hand and took one step back.
The terrifying aura pressing down on Neji receded like the tide, disappearing without a trace.
Neji's legs went weak.
With a thud, he collapsed to the ground.
He gasped for breath in great heaving gulps.
A faint red mark remained on his forehead where the seal had faded.
But that feeling of being restrained, that pressure that had suffocated him for years...
It was completely gone.
Teizawa stood in front of him.
Looking down at Neji, who was sitting on the ground, the corners of his mouth lifted slightly.
Still too young.
He thought silently.
In truth, he had not done anything particularly special.
He had only released a little killing intent.
Just like how Orochimaru had used killing intent to pin Sasuke down in the Forest of Death.
He had used sheer presence to make the other person unable to move.
He had not expected Neji to be this easy to frighten.
One scare, and he dropped.
"How does it feel?"
His voice was light, with a trace of amusement.
"Wh... what do you mean?"
Neji's voice stammered.
He sounded like a drowning man clinging to his last piece of driftwood.
He wanted to believe it.
But he did not dare to.
Teizawa looked at that face full of disbelief, the corners of his mouth rising slightly.
"You didn't feel it? The mark on your forehead... is gone."
"What?"
Neji's startled cry exploded through the alley.
The Caged Bird was gone?
How was that possible?
The restraint that the Hyuga clan had supposedly been unable to undo for centuries had vanished so casually?
His first reaction was disbelief.
This man had to be deceiving him.
He must have used some kind of genjutsu to confuse him. There had to be some hidden scheme.
But the hand he raised to touch his forehead...
Suddenly stopped.
The Caged Bird was not only a mark. Once carved into the forehead, it left behind a slight raised scar.
Like a wound that could never be erased.
From childhood until now, he had known every inch of those raised lines.
He could even trace its shape perfectly in the dark.
But now...
What he touched was smooth skin.
Flat. Warm. Empty.
Nothing was there.
Neji froze.
He hurriedly picked up the forehead protector that had fallen to the ground and turned it over.
Using the faint reflection on the back of the metal plate, he looked at his own forehead.
That blue-green, ugly mark he had hated for more than ten years...
It was truly gone.
It had not faded. It had not blurred.
It had vanished completely.
As if it had never existed at all.
His hand trembled, and the forehead protector shook lightly between his fingers.
He still did not believe it.
Or rather, he did not dare believe it.
For centuries, countless geniuses of the Hyuga branch family had tried, struggled, and fallen into despair.
Not one person had been able to undo the Caged Bird.
So why him?
An outsider. The Kazekage of Sunagakure.
He had only reached out and touched it.
And it was undone?
Neji gritted his teeth and rose from the ground.
His legs were still trembling. His body was still shaking slightly.
But he could not care about that now.
He had to confirm it.
Confirm it in the Hyuga clan's own way.
"Gentle Fist Art: Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven!"
He spun sharply.
Chakra erupted from the tenketsu all over his body, forming a high-speed rotating sphere of chakra.
Revolving Heaven.
The signature defensive technique of the Hyuga Gentle Fist.
By using the Byakugan in combination with full-body chakra release, it created an absolute defense that covered all three hundred and sixty degrees.
In theory, at least.
But because of the Caged Bird's restrictions, branch family members had a tiny blind spot when using Revolving Heaven.
Outsiders could not see it.
But they themselves knew.
That blind spot was the flaw left behind by the Caged Bird.
The life-saving safeguard the main family had left for itself.
But now...
Neji's Revolving Heaven was perfect.
Three hundred and sixty degrees. No blind spot. No flaw.
No damned defect that he had hated for more than ten years.
The rotation slowly stopped.
Neji stood where he was.
He gasped for breath.
His whole body looked as if it had been struck by lightning, his face blank with shock.
The Caged Bird was truly gone.
He lowered his head and looked at his own hands.
He had thought his life would always be this way.
He had thought the fate of the branch family was death. He had thought freedom was a dream forever out of reach.
But now...
"You..."
He raised his head and looked at Teizawa, his voice hoarse as if there were sand in his throat.
"Who exactly are you?"
Teizawa leaned against the wall, both hands tucked into his sleeves.
Looking at Neji's expression, he smiled.
"I told you. I have a way to undo the Caged Bird. You believe me now, don't you?"
(End of Chapter)
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