Chapter 10

Chapter 10 — The Truth of the Caged Bird

Inside Konoha Hospital.

Hyūga Hizashi tossed and turned on his bed for most of the night before exhaustion finally dragged him into sleep.

Within his dream, he vaguely sensed the sound of wind.

When he opened his eyes again, he found himself standing inside the Hyūga clan council hall, candlelight flickering around him.

“Konoha no longer has the strength to continue a war with Kumogakure. The Hyūga clan must give them an explanation…” Hyūga Hiashi sat in the main seat, his shadow stretched long by the candlelight.

The elders of the main family and the branch family shinobi below erupted in shock.

“Why?! The Kumogakure envoy tried to kidnap Lady Hinata!” a branch family jōnin protested angrily.

“Because we cannot afford another war,” Hiashi replied, though unwilling.

The entire burden of Konoha now pressed upon the Hyūga clan.

Murmurs spread through the hall. A main family elder’s Byakugan gleamed faintly in the shadows.

“What condition did Kumogakure propose?”

All eyes turned toward the clan leader.

“A culprit,” Hiashi answered.

The air instantly froze.

Neither the main family nor the branch family could accept such a demand.

The envoy had invaded the Hyūga compound and attempted kidnapping, yet the victim’s side was expected to surrender someone?

“There is no need for the clan leader to act personally. If they want a culprit, giving them one will suffice.”
The elder’s pale eyes slowly settled on Hizashi seated among the branch family.

Hizashi wanted to speak—What about the mysterious attacker from last night?

But suddenly his body moved on its own.

He stood, walked before Hiashi, and knelt.

“Let me go, elder brother.”

“The purpose of the branch family is to protect the main family. As clan head, you must not die.”

No… that’s not right!

Hizashi felt as if his soul had separated from his body, watching another version of himself speak coldly.

What about the masked man? Blame the envoy’s death on him! he shouted desperately.

No one reacted. No one could see him.

The meeting continued.

Hiashi tried to object, only to be struck by “Hizashi,” who demanded he fulfill his duty as head of the main family.

Hizashi watched helplessly as his other self spoke final words to his son Neji… and then calmly accepted death.

The Hyūga clan handed over the “murderer of the Kumogakure envoy,” and Kumogakure dropped the matter.

As an observer, Hizashi watched himself walk toward execution.

He watched his own funeral.

His wife and child clung to each other, crying in grief.

Cold spread through his entire body.

No… this is genjutsu!
Fake. All of it is fake!

The overwhelming emotional shock finally made him realize something was wrong. He began circulating chakra to disrupt the illusion—

—but could not escape.

Darkness swallowed his vision.

He abruptly returned to Konoha Hospital.

Hizashi bolted upright in bed, drenched in cold sweat that soaked through his bandages.

“A dream…?”

“Not a dream.”

A calm voice sounded beside him.

Hizashi froze and turned.

A mysterious figure leaned against the window, wearing a long robe and a white three-eyed fox mask. Moonlight reflected coldly off the mask’s surface.

“You!”

Hizashi tried to rise and fight but found himself immobilized, as if restrained.

“Another genjutsu…” Sweat streamed down his forehead. Even elite jōnin rarely mastered layered illusions of this level.

Step—

Uzumaki Menma jumped down from the windowsill and slowly approached.

“Who are you? What do you want?” Hizashi struggled, disrupting his chakra flow repeatedly, yet the illusion would not break.

“How tragic,” Menma said as he stopped before him. “Everything you just witnessed would have been your fate if I had not intervened.”

Hizashi shook his head instinctively.

“Impossible! Even without you, the Kumogakure envoy attempted kidnapping. His death would only—”

He stopped mid-sentence.

A chill ran through him.

Even a legendary shinobi like the White Fang had been driven to death. What impossibility was there in sacrificing a branch family member as a scapegoat?

“You already accept that fate in your heart,” Menma said quietly, his tone heavy with faint sorrow.

“That is why I call it tragic.”

“The Caged Bird was meant to protect the Hyūga… yet it turned most of them into servants.”

“You know nothing!” Hizashi retorted. “The Caged Bird exists—the branch family exists—for—”

“Do you want to know?” Menma interrupted.

“The truth of the Caged Bird.”

The fox mask moved closer.

Menma placed a hand upon Hizashi’s forehead.

Violent, dark chakra invaded his mind.

Instantly, the scenery changed.

On a vast battlefield, two armies bearing different banners faced each other before erupting into fierce combat.

Hizashi stood at the center.

The warriors wore unfamiliar clothing and possessed subtle physical differences from the people of the Land of Fire—

—but every single soldier had Byakugan eyes.

The scene shifted.

During the Warring States era, shinobi wearing the Hyūga clan emblem were hunted and slaughtered by one of those armies.

Countless Hyūga were massacred.

Their Byakugan were gouged out.

The attackers vanished afterward.

Another shift—

Two armies confronted each other again. One side fought with eyes closed, sensing purely through perception.

A towering structure was pushed forward. At its peak stood a stone shaped like an eye, bound by chains inscribed with sealing runes.

The commander raised his hand.

The eye-shaped stone burst with blinding light.

A massive purple beam erupted toward the charging enemy forces.

Explosions followed wherever the beam swept.

Thousands of soldiers vanished instantly.

“This… this is…” Hizashi watched as the victors collected Byakugan from the fallen and fused them into the eye-shaped stone. His mind shook violently.

“This is the truth behind the ‘Caged Bird.’”

The battlefield transformed again.

Before him stood Hyūga clan members—each bearing the unmistakable Caged Bird seal upon their foreheads.

“Lies! All lies!” Hizashi roared in fury. Decades of clan doctrine made the truth impossible to accept.

“These are fabricated illusions! Fake! I know the difference!”

“You will not divide the main and branch families!”

Inside the genjutsu space, Hizashi denied everything in near hysteria.

“Then how about this?”

Menma appeared before him and formed a hand seal.

A pulse of chakra struck Hizashi precisely.

“Ahhh!”

Agony exploded in his mind like countless blades piercing his brain.

The Caged Bird seal activated.

“Why… how can you…” Hizashi clutched his head, his Byakugan filled with terror and disbelief.

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