"You…"
The words heavy with temptation reached Hizashi's ear and jolted him out of his daze. He staggered back a step, nearly losing his balance.
"What the hell are you?" Hizashi's scalp prickled as he stared at the black-robed figure beside him. His voice trembled despite himself. "Why are you telling me all this?"
"I'm simply pruning away the pests while wondering what kind of flower will bloom in their place."
As Hyūga Kumokawa spoke, Hizashi could not see the face beneath the hood, yet he felt as if a pair of eyes was watching him—eyes brimming with deep, quiet malice.
Like a flame burning in silence. Not fierce or grand, just steadily flickering.
The stranger did not care what his fire would ignite or destroy. To him, the branch family head was nothing more than kindling.
Hizashi fell silent.
"The main house is the root of the Hyūga clan," his father the clan leader had drilled into him since childhood. "As long as the root remains, it doesn't matter whether the branches wither or flourish."
But when he thought again of Hinata—weak, full of openings, powerless during training—dark thoughts surged up uncontrollably.
"With Neji's talent, he could become one of the Hyūga clan's greatest shinobi. Yet because he was born into the branch family, he will be marked with the Caged Bird seal, lose his freedom forever, and live his entire life in the shadow of the main house…"
"While the timid, useless daughter of the main family gets to sit back and enjoy it all, accepting Neji's protection as her due and letting him offer up his life for her…"
As a father, if he had to strip away even his own child's freedom with his own hands, that would be the ultimate failure.
He himself had chosen to die a lowly death for the sake of a fleeting taste of freedom.
But he wanted Neji to live freely, to live with blood and passion.
Not as anyone's servant. Not shackled by so-called destiny.
"Believe me," Hyūga Kumokawa said softly, "there is no shame in selling your soul to the devil."
"The only shame is not getting a good price for it."
"…What can you do?"
After a long silence, Hizashi finally spoke. "What would I have to give?"
"I can grant you the power to break free from your cage." Kumokawa's voice remained calm. "You must offer everything you possess—your name, your future, your life, your soul…"
"You…" Hizashi blinked, stunned. "That trade isn't even fair."
"Isn't that how devils work?" Kumokawa answered frankly. "So, what is your answer?"
Hizashi's breathing grew ragged. Even though he knew the malice behind the offer, he found himself unable to argue.
The stranger had stripped him bare, peeling away layer after layer like a devil who could see straight into human desire, weighing every ounce of his longing and laying it out on the table.
After a moment, Hizashi gritted his teeth and shook his head. "I don't believe you can free Neji and me from the cage. I don't believe anyone can."
As long as the Caged Bird seal existed, Neji could never truly escape.
Even the head of the main family could only activate the seal; there was no known way to remove it.
"Fair enough." Kumokawa showed no irritation at the doubt. He simply nodded and extended one arm from the shadows of his black robe. "Then let me give you a taste."
At the same time, he silently commanded in his mind: Manifest item—Caged Bird seal release for ten seconds.
[Spend 300 actualization points to manifest?]
"As expected, removing it for only ten seconds doesn't cost much." Kumokawa's eyes flickered. "Manifest."
Hizashi froze at the words. He watched the two fingers extend toward his forehead and felt his blood run cold. Instinctively he tried to step back.
But before he could move, the fingertips paused just above his brow.
A powerful throb surged through him.
It felt as if a seam had opened on his forehead and cool spring water poured in, branching into countless tiny streams that washed away every blockage in his brain.
Hizashi even heard the sound of invisible chains shattering. The veil that had always clouded his vision slowly lifted.
The world had never been so clear.
His pupils trembled. The first thing he did when he came back to himself was activate his Byakugan.
It was gone.
It was really gone.
The blind spot behind him—the one that had always existed—had vanished.
How is this possible?!
Hizashi could hardly believe what he was feeling, yet a wild, almost feral grin of pure joy spread across his face.
"Hahahaha!"
Is this what freedom feels like?
Light. Transparent. Joyous.
The sensations flooded every corner of his body. It was as if hidden restraints had been lifted, and the entire world had suddenly grown brighter.
All the usual restraint and etiquette Hizashi maintained vanished. His laughter rang out wildly, freely, until tears shone at the corners of his eyes.
No one who had never experienced it could understand—having something taken from you, having your life held in someone else's hands every single day, then suddenly having it returned.
But the joy was short-lived.
The Caged Bird mark on Hizashi's forehead, which had faded considerably, darkened once more.
The perfect 360-degree vision of the Byakugan regained its blind spot directly behind the first thoracic vertebra. The world dimmed again.
"What…?"
The ecstatic expression on Hizashi's face froze. A trace of dazed pain flickered in his eyes.
Then he remembered—this had only been a taste.
"You!" Hizashi seized the arm of the figure beside him, desperate. "What do you want me to do?"
Kumokawa showed no surprise. He did not rush to answer. Instead he asked, "You and Hyūga Hiashi are identical twins, correct?"
"…Yes."
Seeing the dark look on Hizashi's face as he nodded, Kumokawa continued evenly, "I need you to become Hyūga Hiashi, while Hyūga Hizashi dies here and now."
"What?" Hizashi's pupils shrank. The words burst out. "Impossible!"
This man wanted him to fake his death and then take his brother's place?
How could that even be done?
"You said you could," Kumokawa replied, glancing at the hand gripping his arm. He gently pried the fingers away. "You only need to follow orders."
Moonlight cast their shadows across the ground, swaying among the shifting silhouettes of the surrounding trees.
"…"
The memory of that brief taste of freedom weighed on Hizashi like an overwhelming desire. He clenched his jaw until it ached. "Fine! I'll do it!"
Watching the man lose his composure, Kumokawa smiled inwardly.
A bird that had lost its freedom had been allowed to soar through the open sky once more, if only for a moment.
How could it ever be willing to return to such a narrow cage?
Still, Hyūga Hizashi was only a supporting piece in the game.
The truly important chess piece…
Kumokawa's gaze shifted slightly, drifting toward a distant, silent courtyard.
***
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