Neji Hyuga paused, pressed his dry lips together, and lowered his head to look at the book again. This time he read with full focus and directly activated Byakugan, veins like twisted cords rising around his eyes. Under Neji Hyuga's Byakugan vision, the scene before him instantly changed.
Beneath the scribble-like characters, hidden images and text emerged like reefs revealed after the tide receded. His breath caught as a dull pain spread through his strained eyes.
"What is this?"
He read the words revealed under Byakugan, using his already limited grasp of the language to decipher them. His face quickly drained of color, then flushed with a sickly red.
He snapped the ancient book shut. In that brief moment, cold sweat had already soaked through his back.
Neji Hyuga stood there with his back against the cold wall, his body rigid. The surroundings were deathly silent, broken only by the pounding of his heart echoing in his ears, each beat bringing a heavier rush of heat.
A Branch Family member. A Branch Family member branded with the Caged Bird Seal. Such a person had slaughtered clan members during a sacred ancestral ceremony that the Main Family regarded as untouchable.
So the reason the Main Family now had only five pure bloodlines left was because that person had nearly wiped them out long ago. And the reason the Main Family treated the Branch Family so harshly today was also because of the shadow left by that massacre.
All of this seemed possible. What terrified Neji Hyuga most was the strong sense of familiarity this scene gave him. "Could it be those eyes that appeared in my dreams?" he murmured hoarsely.
One detail troubled him deeply. If the Branch Family recorded in this secret history could nearly kill all members of the Main Family, did that not mean the Caged Bird Seal had been broken? How had it been done?
Neji Hyuga's gaze swept over the short lines again and finally stopped at the sentence about the eyes being gouged out. Others might see this as revenge or venting hatred, but he knew more than that.
"Those eyes…"
Neji Hyuga muttered in a daze as a bold and terrifying guess surfaced in his mind, making his body tremble. To possess those eyes, would it require many Byakugan?
What Ryuji Hyuga had guided him to was not just a buried secret. It was a cold and bloody example meant to tell him that the cage of the Caged Bird could be broken, and that the Hyuga Clan still hid unknown power.
A life once bound by the Caged Bird suddenly felt as if a solid door had been shaken loose. A beam of light shone through the crack, letting Neji Hyuga see that there was still another path he could choose.
Yet the door was still locked and needed a key. And that key seemed to require the blood of his own clan.
"Cough, cough!"
A violent coughing sound suddenly echoed through the silent Forbidden Techniques Vault, so harsh it sounded as if the vocal cords would tear and bleed. In the entire Hyuga Clan, there was only one person who coughed like this.
The Main Family elder guarding the forbidden library held an extremely high seniority within the clan. The sound snapped Neji Hyuga out of his shock.
"Why is he back so soon?!"
Footsteps followed, light and dragging, slow with the stiffness of old age as they approached. In an instant, countless thoughts churned in Neji Hyuga's mind as fear clenched his heart, and his eyes dropped to the book in his hands.
The twisted characters seemed to glare back at him once more. His grip tightened as a fierce impulse spread through him.
He had to avoid being discovered. Zetsu could not be discovered. This old man had to disappear.
Neji Hyuga instinctively lowered his body and pressed himself deeper into the shadows. Dim candlelight stretched a human silhouette across the floor.
The elder approached slowly with a flickering lamp in hand, the light revealing those cloudy Byakugan eyes that had almost lost all shine. He noticed nothing unusual, or perhaps he never imagined anyone would dare intrude into the forbidden library, especially someone from the Branch Family.
He was simply making his habitual rounds through the place where he had spent the latter half of his life. Finally, he swayed to the bookshelf where Neji Hyuga was hiding.
One step, then another. As he drew closer, Neji Hyuga's body stiffened and hesitation flickered.
Then he remembered his father who had become a scapegoat. On Neji Hyuga's tense face, veins standing out, a look of fierce hatred flashed.
He, Zetsu, would not sink to that fate, not even in death.
Neji Hyuga shot forward along the ground, his Byakugan burning with pure and icy killing intent. His target was clear, the throat.
The elder's cloudy Byakugan shrank in shock, terror surfacing on his withered face. Before his dulled nerves could even form a cry, a hand like an iron clamp seized his thin neck.
The old throat was crushed instantly, cutting off any sound. Neji Hyuga followed with a brutal strike, snapping the neck with a sharp kacha.
The elder's body twitched a few times before falling completely still. His Byakugan lost their last trace of light.
Neji Hyuga gasped for breath, staring at the lifeless body as cold air flooded his lungs and his stomach churned violently. He realized what he had just done.
He had killed someone. He had killed an old man.
A strong wave of nausea surged up, and Neji Hyuga raised a hand to cover his mouth, his face pale. This was his first time killing, and the physical revulsion and shock hit him hard.
After a long while, his breathing slowly steadied. He looked at the corpse again, at the Byakugan without the Caged Bird.
At the elder's age, those eyes were already useless and close to blind. Even so, Neji Hyuga swallowed and reached out, fingers closing together as they moved toward them.
With a wet tearing sound, flesh was ripped apart in the silence. Two gray-white, cloudy eyeballs were forcibly dug from the sunken sockets, still carrying a trace of warmth.
Blood finally poured out, flowing from the empty sockets and mixing with a murky fluid as it spread across the cold floor. Neji Hyuga's fingers were slick with sticky red, tangled with fine nerves and flesh, and his body trembled despite himself.
He clenched his teeth and held those cloudy Byakugan tightly. It was as if he were gripping the key to the cage.
At dawn, the red light of sunrise filtered in like a stained veil. The glow barely passed through the vents of Forbidden Library and spilled into this silent place. Dust that had settled for years rolled in the beams, mixed with a sweet metallic smell that made people feel sick.
"How, how is this possible?"
Two young Hyuga Main Family Ninja stood pale as paper. Fear locked their bodies in place, and their pupils shook hard in the dim light.
"Another Main Family has been killed…"
"The Byakugan… it is gone…"
"It was dug out…"
Outside Ancestral Hall, members of the Hyuga whispered in panic. Their frightened voices broke the morning calm of the Hyuga Clan, and the news spread at once through the vast Hyuga Clan Compound. Shock and confusion moved faster than anyone could stop.
The last time a Main Family elder died and a pair of Byakugan was lost, the Hyuga Clan was shaken to its core. It was later confirmed to be the work of the traitor Orochimaru, and it already felt like a distant past. But now, it had happened again.
Another Main Family member had been killed, and their eyes taken.
"Disperse. What are you all crowding here for?"
A stern voice sounded from behind the crowd outside Ancestral Hall. With undeniable pressure, it forced people aside as its owner walked steadily into the blood filled scene.
Still disguised as Hiashi Hyuga, Hizashi Hyuga wore the robes of the Main Family, outlining a tall and straight figure. His cold face was rigid, precise like carved stone, with no sign of emotion.
Behind him followed Hizashi Hyuga and several Main Family Elder. Their pale eyes swept across the scene, and deep within them lay a frozen calm that made others lower their heads.
"C Clan Head…"
A young Main Family member stepped out of Ancestral Hall and looked at "Hiashi Hyuga" with a trembling voice. "Grandfather Heizuka's Byakugan was…"
"It must have been the Branch Family…" another young Main Family blurted out in fear.
"Silence."
Hizashi Hyuga cut him off with just two low words.
Many people had already heard it, and they all knew what he was trying to say. The atmosphere grew heavy, and the Branch Family Members lowered their heads, holding their breath and avoiding the gazes cast by the Main Family.
Under this pressure, both Main Family and Branch Family felt their nerves tighten. Anyone capable of doing this without alerting others was either someone like Orochimaru from the village's upper ranks, or someone from the Branch Family.
"Before the truth is found, no one is allowed to speak recklessly. Return to where you belong."
After the reprimand, Hizashi Hyuga led several Main Family Elder into Ancestral Hall and then deeper into Forbidden Library. Their steps echoed softly as they passed beyond the door.