Hyuga Miyuki pressed a hand to her eyes, feeling the lingering stab of pain deep behind them.
She forced down the surge of excitement, cleaned up the traces she'd left behind, and deliberately guided the remaining clues toward the Yamanaka clan. She didn't spare the corpse a second glance—just turned and left.
The Hyuga's Caged Bird Seal destroyed neural tissue. Even the Yamanaka, specialists in extracting information from minds, would have a hard time pulling anything useful from a dead Branch House body.
And with so many temporary members in the police rotation, patrol coverage had gaps.
So Miyuki—using the Byakugan's advantage—had struck again and again without being caught.
Ten victims.
Ten.
She had absorbed the ocular power of ten Byakugan.
At first, absorbing ocular power only boosted her chakra—raising her physical strength along with it and accelerating her growth.
But the tenth pair felt different.
Not a gradual increase.
A shift.
A qualitative jump—an unfamiliar thrum in her blood, like something waking up.
"Byakugan… activate!"
Back home, after the pain finally faded, Miyuki opened her eyes.
HUM—
The air trembled.
Her desk, her chair—wood and furniture around her vibrated faintly as if crushed by an invisible pressure. Fine cracks spidered across the surface of a flimsy chair.
"My Byakugan range… three kilometers in diameter," she whispered, stunned. "And my chakra… tripled."
Dense blue chakra wrapped around her body, thick and vivid. Joy flooded her chest so fast it almost made her dizzy.
Before, she could barely trade blows with a jōnin.
Now…
Even an elite jōnin—she could try.
It took a long time for her breathing to steady.
She walked to her desk and lifted a mirror, studying her eyes.
Her once pure-white irises now carried a faint sky-blue tint.
And when the Byakugan was active, the bulging veins around her eyes were less obvious than before.
"From now on… I'll have to use the Transformation Technique before activating it," she murmured. "A sky-blue Byakugan is too noticeable."
She pushed the excitement down—hard.
Then her gaze snapped sharp.
"Who's there?!"
A breeze slipped in through the window.
In her Byakugan's field, there was no one nearby.
"…Was it a mistake?"
She shook her head slowly, refusing to accept it.
She had felt eyes on her.
A watcher.
…
"First visible mutation occurs at ten pairs."
In the shadows, Hyuga Yuu wrote silently in his notes.
"Chakra increased by nearly threefold. Density and refinement increased by approximately one tier. Byakugan range increased—unclear exact scaling. The change resembles the leap from Sharingan to Mangekyō."
"But unlike the Mangekyō's powerful ocular techniques, this 'evolution' strengthens fundamentals."
He wrote on.
"Hyuga Miyuki's chakra is exceptionally condensed. With the Gentle Fist, her striking power will multiply. Estimated combat level: elite jōnin."
At that point, Yuu noticed Miyuki's rising vigilance.
He stopped using his Byakugan to observe her and continued writing from memory and inference.
"As expected, the Byakugan's growth is not as explosive as the Sharingan's. It will not immediately elevate her to Kage-class."
"But the Byakugan has its own advantage—no high-consumption ocular techniques. Only a foundational boost. It likely will not suffer the Mangekyō's loss of light."
"Stability… as predicted, this is the Byakugan's most basic trait."
Because the Byakugan was the Ōtsutsuki's baseline—was it designed that way from the start?
With a new hypothesis forming, Yuu closed his research log and sealed it inside a specially prepared scroll.
He would observe a little longer.
If Miyuki's Byakugan showed no defects…
Then he would need to move as well.
The evolution had strengthened Miyuki's Yin chakra.
Even her soul felt tougher—her instincts sharper, her intuition more sensitive.
Simply watching with the Byakugan would no longer be enough.
Next time, he'd need direct contact.
And that meant one thing.
If he didn't have the strength to crush her outright…
It would be risky.
Yuu let out a quiet chuckle.
…
"We can't keep going like this, Hiruzen!"
Danzō's voice was cold. "Eleven Hyuga Yuve died recently. The killer keeps planting misdirection. If I hadn't controlled public opinion, Konoha would already be drowning in rumors!"
"Lock down the Hyuga Branch House. The murderer is likely among them!"
"No." Hiruzen's face looked tired, but his voice stayed firm. "The new Caged Bird is complete. Soon we'll re-engrave it onto the Branch House."
"I will personally oversee the screening."
"Hiruzen, you—" Danzō stared at him, furious, unable to understand what he was clinging to. "The village is short-handed. Root and ANBU are still gathering intelligence from the fronts."
"We don't have manpower to waste on Hyuga clan infighting!"
"You're the one who doesn't understand, Danzō."
Hiruzen's eyes carried exhaustion deeper than smoke.
"How many Branch House Hyuga do you think hate the Main House?"
Danzō's brow twitched. "You mean…?"
"Just before you came," Hiruzen said quietly, "another incident occurred."
"Three more dead."
His gaze sharpened.
"And among them… was a Main House shinobi."
…
"Well now…"
Yuu stared at the boy in front of him—the way his eyes darted, the way his breathing wavered.
"…This is an unexpected bonus."
He couldn't help replaying the scene he'd just walked into.
An old man lay face-down on the floor, terror frozen on his features. Blood flowed from his throat and pooled beneath him.
Hyuga Meikan.
A Hyuga Main House elder.
And the one who had killed him… was the boy standing here.
"Why did you do it?" Yuu asked, voice calm as still water.
That steadiness seemed to seep into the boy, easing his panic.
"If you hadn't helped," he said in a low voice, "I'd have been caught by the guards the moment they reacted."
He swallowed.
"My little sister is five this year. I thought this whole mess… might mean she wouldn't get engraved with the Caged Bird."
His mouth twisted bitterly.
"But of course… it won't happen."
He laughed at himself—thin, ugly.
"You understand, don't you? The village and the Main House treat us like dogs. Useful dogs. Give us a bone and we wag our tails."
"I hate them," he said, teeth clenched. "But I never had the courage to resist."
"Then someone acted first."
His eyes reddened as he spoke, anger rising like heat.
"I don't know who he is, but he's been killing shinobi close to the Main House. The Main House is terrified now—they've sent their personal guards to investigate."
"And what is a Main House member without guards?"
He spat the words.
"What does the Caged Bird matter then?"
"Branch House cooks their food. Branch House handles their daily lives. Branch House stands behind them at every step."
"So tell me—how hard is poisoning them? Assassinating them?"
His voice shook with something close to madness.
"They have no experience. No ability. They've forgotten what it means to be shinobi—washed clean by comfort and privilege!"
"If not for those traitors in the Branch House," he hissed, "would it really be hard to kill a bunch of Main House trash?"
The boy's bloodshot eyes locked onto Yuu.
"A bunch of high-and-mighty deadweight—why do they get to be our masters?!"
His breathing turned ragged.
"If the village won't change the Hyuga, then we just kill the Main House. Isn't that enough?!"
A smile appeared on Yuu's calm face.
Soft.
Almost gentle.
"Killing them all has no meaning," Yuu said. "You'd still be a bird in a cage."
The boy froze mid-breath, the fire in his face turning stiff and uncertain.
"But it's fine," Yuu continued lightly. "I know where you can find a way out."
"The research to modify the Caged Bird has already begun."
"And at the same time… research to break it is now on the table."
"You don't have enough power," Yuu said. "And you don't have enough comrades."
He watched the boy's pupils widen.
Then he asked softly—almost like a blessing.
"Can you become the bird that flies out of the cage?