A few days later, the Konoha's Hyuga Clan's compound was enveloped in an unusual silence.
Different from the usual peace, a tense, expectant atmosphere spread silently through the Branch Family's residential area.
As evening fell, an emergency clan assembly summons issued in Hiashi's name of reached every Hyuga household, requiring at least one representative from each family to attend at the spacious, yet typically intimidating, indoor training hall of the Main Family's residence.
As night deepened, the Branch Family's representatives, hearts filled with complex, unspoken emotions, passed silently through the Main Family's imposing corridors.
Most wore grave expressions, steps hesitant, eyes interwoven with unease, confusion, and a faint, long-suppressed sliver of hope they dared not show.
No one knew the reason for this sudden assembly, but in the sensitive period following Hizashi's defection and the Main Family's plummeting prestige, any movement was enough to make their hearts race.
The indoor training hall was brightly lit.
The Branch Family's representatives, as was customary, knelt respectfully and silently on the cushions below, heads bowed, not daring to look up directly.
Opposite them, on a raised platform, the Main Family's members were already seated.
The Fourth Elder, grievously injured and blinded on the night of the turmoil, sat in the lead elder's seat, supported by a servant, his face ashen.
Beside him were three other young Main Family's members who had recently inherited their positions following the elders' deaths.
They showed the haughtiness of newfound power and the customary indifference towards the Branch Family below.
An oppressive silence filled the venue, broken only by the occasional crackle of torches.
In an adjacent resting room connected to the training hall, the atmosphere was equally tense.
Big Sis Hinata was peering through a crack in the door, carefully observing the gradually filling assembly hall outside.
Her white eyes shone with determination, even a hint of excitement, as if she were about to step onto a battlefield.
"They're almost all here," She whispered to herself.
A voice so faint it was almost nonexistent, like a breeze, sounded behind her. "Ready, Hinata?"
Menma's figure appeared in the shadows as if he had always been there.
His tone was calm, yet carried a cold finality. "I support you in whatever you want to do. But the moment any sign of loss of control appears, any attempt to harm you... I will immediately eliminate all Main Family's members."
There was no hint of jest in his words, it was a direct judgment on any potential threat.
Feeling Menma's unreserved support and protection, a faint blush spread across Hinata's cheeks, filling her with immense courage and warmth.
She turned and nodded firmly at Menma, her voice soft but resolute. "Don't worry! Those old stubborn fools won't dare do anything! They value their lives more than anyone!"
Just then, the sliding door behind them opened softly.
Hiashi entered with his wife and younger daughter, Hanabi.
Menma's figure vanished the moment the door opened, as if he had never been there.
Hiashi looked at his eldest daughter, so different in demeanor, his face filled with complex emotions… worry, struggle, and a trace of hard-to-detect expectation.
He took a deep breath and asked gravely, "Hinata, I'll ask you one last time. Are you... truly determined to do this? It's not too late to turn back now. Once you take this step, what happens next is beyond even my prediction."
Hinata turned and met her father's gaze without fear, countering, "Old man, at this point, do you have any other, better way to stabilize the Hyuga Clan, to break this centuries-old deadlock?"
Hiashi fell silent.
He truly had none.
He shook his head, but the look he gave Hinata now completely shed the filter of seeing a 'misbehaving child' for the first time.
Instead, he regarded her with a nearly equal, solemn gaze fit for appraising a clan leader.
Hinata's mother stepped forward and gently embraced her daughter, tears in her eyes but her voice firm. "Hinata, whatever you decide, Mom supports you. You have... more courage than your father."
Three-year-old Hanabi seemed to sense the special atmosphere, blinking her pure white eyes, curiously watching her sister.
And deep within Hinata's spiritual world, the usually timid, shy little Hinata who always bowed her head whispered, "Nee-san... your wish is grand. I... I support you too."
Having received support from all her important people, the last trace of hesitation vanished from Big Sis Hinata's eyes.
She took a deep breath and yanked open the sliding door leading to the main assembly hall!
Swish-
Almost all eyes instantly focused on her!
The Branch Family's members stared in surprise as this seven-year-old young lady strode directly to the front of the hall. The people on the Main Family's seats frowned even deeper, faces full of puzzlement.
What shocked them even more was that Hiashi didn't stop her. Instead, he followed silently behind her with his wife and daughter, and then...
Sat down in the secondary seats originally meant for important clan members!
And Hinata, without hesitation, stepped right up onto the highest platform, onto the seat symbolizing the highest authority of the Hyuga Clan, the clan head's seat!
"Hinata! You..." One of the newly promoted young Main Family's elders couldn't help but shout, finding this utterly absurd.
Hiashi stood up at this moment, his voice booming through the training hall. "Silence! I, Hyuga Hiashi, 32nd Leader of the Hyuga Clan, hereby announce that effective immediately, I pass the leadership of the clan to my eldest daughter… Hyuga Hinata!"
"What?!"
"Hiashi-sama? But she's only seven!"
"This... this can't be allowed!"
The Main Family immediately erupted!
The three young elders practically jumped up in opposition!
Even the blind Fourth Elder sharply raised his head, his empty eye sockets 'looking' towards Hiashi's direction, his withered lips moving, clearly extremely shocked as well.
The Branch Family's members below fell into dead silence. Everyone was stunned by this sudden turn of events, heads bowed, not even daring to breathe heavily, afraid of becoming the target of the Main Family's wrath.
"Are you questioning the clan head's decision?"
A cold, murderous voice filled with biting killing intent suddenly rang out, overpowering all the noise!
Hinata, seated firmly in the clan head's seat, had snapped her eyes open!
Her pure white eyes seemed to shoot out sharp light!
The aura emanating from her small frame was no longer childish innocence, but a pressuring presence tempered by blood and fire!
It was the aura honed alongside Menma in the [Limited Tsukuyomi] World!
The entire assembly hall instantly fell silent, the temperature seeming to drop several degrees.
The few elders who still wanted to refute were momentarily speechless, intimidated by her sudden imposing manner and killing intent.
They suddenly remembered that this young lady seemed to have another... 'little hellion' personality that even gave them, the old folks, headaches!
'Could it be that now it's...'
Big Sis Hinata's icy gaze swept over the Main Family's seats like a blade, making the young elders' spines chill.
She ignored them and turned to face the silent Branch Family's members below, her voice clear and powerful, ringing through the hall like a proclamation:
"I, Hyuga Hinata, 33rd Leader of the Hyuga Clan, hereby announce!"
"From this day forward, the Hyuga Clan shall no longer distinguish between Main and Branch Families!"
One sentence, earth-shattering!
All Branch Family's members below sharply raised their heads, eyes filled with disbelief!
Hinata continued, each word striking heavily on everyone's hearts: "All clan members who have reached the age of seven, regardless of previous status, shall be branded with the 'Caged Bird' seal!"
The faces of the people on the Main Family's seats instantly turned deathly pale!
The Branch Family's members erupted in an uproar, but this time, the uproar held a strange, suppressed excitement.
"However!" Hinata's voice suddenly rose, suppressing all the commotion. "All clan members under the age of seven, regardless of parental origin, shall from now on, never be branded with the 'Caged Bird'!"
"This curse, this shackle that has bound the Hyuga Clan for centuries, I will eradicate it from the Hyuga Clan within one generation! I will return true freedom to all Hyuga Clan's members!"
Silence.
Then came the sound of heavy, ragged breathing from below, like a volcano before eruption!
The Branch Family's members' eyes turned red, their bodies trembling slightly with excitement!
No branding! Freedom for future generations!
This was something they didn't even dare to dream of!
"Absurd! Preposterous!" One young Main Family elder trembled with rage, pointing at Hinata. "This is absolutely impossible! We will never accept it! Clan head, you must rescind this order and reconvene for discussion!"
Hinata didn't even glance at him, speaking with detached, yet undeniable authority. "This is not a topic for discussion. It is a notification."
Hiashi sighed at this moment, as if a heavy burden had been lifted off his shoulders, or as if he had made some final resolution.
He picked up the sealing tool symbolizing clan head's authority, which had been prepared earlier, and walked over to Hinata.
Under the stunned gaze of everyone, he personally, carefully, branded his daughter's smooth forehead with the green seal.
Caged Bird.
The moment the seal was completed, a faint green light glowed on Hinata's forehead.
Her body swayed almost imperceptibly, as if she could feel a certain spiritual constraint and a slight loss in her field of vision.
But she stubbornly straightened her back, her gaze still sharp as a blade.
At this moment, many Branch Family's members below could no longer hold back, tears streaming from their eyes!
These were not tears of sadness, but tears of excitement and reverence upon seeing hope, seeing their leader sharing their suffering!
One young Main Family's elder, face livid, a trace of ruthlessness flashing in his eyes, whispered to his companion, "She's insane! Hiashi is insane too! We can't just sit and wait for death. We should just-"
"Silence!" An aged yet exceptionally stern rebuke cut him off. It was the blind Fourth Elder.
Though he couldn't see, his sharp 'Mind's Eye' perceived the surging emotions below, like a volcano about to erupt, and the young elder's foolish killing intent.
He lowered his voice, speaking harshly, "If you dare act now, I guarantee, none of us will leave this hall alive! Use your Byakugan and look down there properly! Look at their eyes!"
The young elders subconsciously activated their Byakugan and looked below.
They saw that those pairs of white pupils no longer held submission and fear, but a near-fanatic reverence and support focused on one person!
That kind of power made them tremble from the depths of their hearts!
"The birds of the Hyuga Clan..." The Fourth Elder's voice held a complex emotion, as if resigned, yet also seeing a sliver of new hope. "...already have a true eagle leading them."
"From this moment on, her prestige will surpass that of all previous Hyuga Clan's Leaders."
Hearing this, the three new Main Family's elders trembled all over. Some even glanced around nervously, as if sensing some god of death watching them from the shadows.
The subsequent process proceeded with unexpected smoothness.
Under the pressure of Hinata's personal example and absolute authority, and the immense, intangible pressure formed by the Branch Family's members below, all Main Family's members, except the blind Fourth Elder who couldn't be branded, including the three young elders and their wives and children, were forced, faces ashen, to accept the Caged Bird branding.
Hiashi was the last Main Family's member to be branded.
When the Fourth Elder completed the seal on him, Hiashi raised his hand and gently touched the unfamiliar, slightly stinging, constricting mark on his own forehead, feeling the lost degree of vision, murmuring to himself, "So... this is the feeling of the 'Caged Bird'... Hizashi..."
He looked up towards his eldest daughter, surrounded by countless extremely excited, tearful Branch Family's members in the center, as if radiating light.
Watching her personally smash the Hyuga Clan's centuries-old, rotten birdcage, giving all the birds trapped within a solid promise of freedom-
All doubt and struggle vanished from Hiashi's heart, replaced only by immense relief and release.
At this moment, the green pattern of the Caged Bird seal was no longer a shameful 'cage', but a symbol of equality for all!
'She truly... is more suited to be Clan Leader than I am.'
Hidden in the shadows, Menma watched everything quietly.
Watching the bold, fearless Big Sis Hinata display such courage, responsibility, and wisdom, a strange ripple also stirred in his heart.
'It seems she has grown up too.'
Then, the Mangekyo Sharingan beneath his white three-eyed fox mask spun.
Dojutsu: Ame-no-Minakanushi activated, severing the connection between the Caged Bird on Hinata's forehead and her brain nerves and Byakugan, rendering it a mere symbolic mark.
After all, he couldn't be by Hinata's side at all times. He couldn't leave her with a dangerous hidden danger.
As for his initial instigation of Hizashi and the others to defect, it was more on a whim, to cause trouble for the Konoha's leadership, gather the Byakugan Kekkei Genkai for his own forces, and watch the show.
Now, Hinata had chosen to shoulder the burden of the Konoha's Hyuga Clan with such great resolve and wisdom, attempting internal, like scraping poison from the bone reform from within.
He had no reason to stop her. In fact... he was somewhat looking forward to the sparks that would fly between the reformed Konoha's Hyuga Clan and the Land of Stars' Hyuga Clan after this change.
It felt a bit like pitting fighting crickets against each other.
As for the Konoha's Hyuga still needing a generation to truly be free, with many from this generation and before dying with their shackles, while the Land of Stars' Hyuga Clan had already broken free completely...
Menma didn't mind this disparity, believing Hizashi and the others wouldn't envy it either.
After all, one was a bird that broke out of its cage and soared into the sky on its own, the other was a bird let out of its cage by someone else, but still with 'restraints'.
They were already on two completely different paths. Perhaps in the future, they would develop into two entirely new Ninja Clans?
Just like the descendants of Asura and Indra.