"You two, father and son..." Mother looked worriedly at the father and son, both of whom had remained silent.
Yuzuru Hyuga smiled gently. "Mom, don't worry. It was my fault."
"Hizashi, Yuzuru has already admitted his mistake!" Mother glared at Hizashi Hyuga in irritation.
Hizashi Hyuga held up his rice bowl and snorted. "He didn't apologize."
"Yuzuru?" Mother turned to look at Yuzuru Hyuga.
Yuzuru Hyuga smiled and raised his bowl as well. "Has Neji eaten?"
"You! Two!" Even the gentlest mother had moments when she turned into a fierce tiger at home. She set down her chopsticks with a huff. "Hizashi, you're sleeping alone tonight."
"I..." Hizashi Hyuga looked utterly frustrated.
Yuzuru Hyuga put down his chopsticks. "Mom, I'm full. I won't disturb you and Father tonight. Good night."
He slipped away quickly.
Mother frowned. "Don't sulk with a child."
Hizashi Hyuga stiffened his neck. "You have no idea what that little bastard is thinking. Stop treating him like a child!"
"He's only four! If you don't treat him like a child, what are you supposed to treat him as? When you were four, you still wanted to bathe with me!" Mother glared at him.
"That's different!" Hizashi Hyuga instinctively checked with his Byakugan. That brat had indeed gone far away.
"You just... don't ask." Hizashi Hyuga let out a long sigh, put down his chopsticks, and lost his appetite.
Mother also realized that the issue seemed serious. "What happened, exactly?"
"Don't ask." Hizashi Hyuga repeated himself solemnly.
She fell silent for a long while, then finally covered her mouth and coughed twice. "Don't... cough, cough... argue for too long. Yuzuru is a good child. Cough... There are some things we, as parents, can't stop."
"Even if they're wrong?" Hizashi Hyuga frowned deeply.
"Yuzuru would never do anything wrong," Mother said firmly.
"He's only a four-year-old child!" Hizashi Hyuga took a deep breath.
"Stop treating him like a child all the time! Yuzuru is so sensible that it breaks my heart! You aren't home, so you have no idea how much he's done for you! In the Branch House, who doesn't know how capable Yuzuru is?" Mother retorted.
Hizashi Hyuga was dumbfounded.
Huh?
In the end, he decided not to discuss it anymore. He would think it over slowly himself.
Otherwise, after finally coming home from war, he might not even get to sleep in his own bed.
Inside his room, Yuzuru Hyuga's fingers glimmered with a faint blue light as they moved freely across the paper, copying poems and essays.
In truth, calling it copying was not quite right. He had long since committed the originals to memory. Reproducing them now was merely a familiar, mechanical habit.
As his fingers slid across the paper, lines of black text continuously appeared.
At the same time, the proficiency in his skill panel steadily advanced.
Finger Seal (C): Level 10 (3989/4000)
Fortunately, while skill upgrades increased exponentially with the skill's rank, they did not grow at an exponential rate themselves.
After more than a month of grueling practice, this C-rank ninjutsu had nearly given Yuzuru Hyuga calluses on his fingers. Still, he was finally approaching the threshold.
Fortunately, the difficulty of this Sealing Technique lay in control rather than chakra. As long as he maintained a steady output, he could practice it in large quantities.
After finishing the last sheet, Yuzuru Hyuga neatly folded the papers in his hand and threw them into the trash can.
Finger Seal (C): MAX (Can Break Through) Your C-rank Sealing Technique: Finger Seal has reached maximum level. Free experience gained: 5000 points. Breakthrough! Please determine the direction of the breakthrough.
This was Yuzuru Hyuga's first skill breakthrough. Honestly, he had no idea just how far this thing could go.
So, he first ran a small test.
I need a Sealing Technique capable of removing the Caged Bird.
Please specify the detailed direction of the breakthrough.
No, Caged Bird should have been specific enough.
No, there might be many ways to remove the Caged Bird. He needed to be more specific.
I need a Sealing Technique that can remove the Caged Bird curse mark, one that only targets the Caged Bird and not other cursed techniques. Keep the consumption and rank as low as possible.
The system text finally changed.
Current number of proposed breakthrough directions: 2 1: Specialized Sealing Technique (B-rank)—Can target the Caged Bird and consume a large amount of chakra to rapidly seal it, cutting off remote detection and activation between the Caged Bird and other curse marks. After multiple layers of sealing, it can completely isolate the Caged Bird or other curse marks, but cannot erase them entirely and requires frequent reinforcement. (Cost: 10000 free experience points) 2: Specialized Sealing Technique (B-rank)—Can target the Caged Bird with a sealing overlay. After activating the technique, it gradually covers the Caged Bird over a long period of time depending on the user's strength. Once fully covered, removing the seal will remove the Caged Bird. (Cost: 10000 free experience points)
I want both.
Even if it meant spending every last bit of his savings.
Only one option may be selected. You may break through again after maxing out proficiency, or spend more free experience points for a continuous breakthrough.
But from a cost-performance perspective, saving up and doing it all in one go was undoubtedly the best option. That would save him from having to max out a B-rank technique before breaking through again.
"What if I want to do it all in one step?"
1: Specialized Sealing Technique (S-rank)—Can consume a large amount of chakra to rapidly break most curse marks, including the Caged Bird. However, due to the enhancement of its curse-mark removal function, its effect on releasing Sealing Techniques is somewhat lacking. (Cost: 200000 free experience points)
How many zeroes was that?
Yuzuru Hyuga rubbed his brow.
Two hundred thousand.
It was not that difficult, though.
Even at his current strength, as long as he found a pile of useless but easy-to-learn ninjutsu or taijutsu, like Finger Seal, he could max out one in a little over a month. Considering that his learning efficiency would improve as he grew stronger, maxing out one a month would not be difficult.
By that calculation, he could accumulate at least fifty or sixty thousand free experience points a year.
In at most four years—perhaps even less in practice—he could solve the problem that had plagued the Hyuga Clan's Branch House for decades, starting from nothing.
But...
Yuzuru Hyuga sighed and made his choice.
Selected: Specialized Sealing Technique (B-rank)—Can target the Caged Bird with a sealing overlay. After activating the technique, it gradually covers the Caged Bird over a long period of time depending on the user's strength. Once fully covered, removing the seal will remove the Caged Bird. (Cost: 10000 free experience points) Breakthrough successful. Please name the new Sealing Technique.
After a long silence, Yuzuru Hyuga spoke softly. "Flying Bird."
Sealing Technique: Flying Bird (B): Level 1 (0/800)
A great deal of knowledge about Sealing Techniques appeared in his mind out of nowhere. Yuzuru Hyuga closed his eyes, studied the new technique in depth, then immediately chose to act.
He took a deep breath and sat in meditation to recover his chakra. Then he opened his eyes, slowly formed hand seals, ensured every seal was flawless, and finally pressed his palm against his forehead.
Blue light flickered across his forehead. Black sealing patterns flashed and vanished. The cyan Caged Bird emitted a faint, ghostly cyan glow before quickly returning to stillness.
Yuzuru Hyuga let out a breath of relief.
In truth, he had wanted to find someone to test it on first. But because this method of removing the seal was so unusual, he had no choice but to take the risk himself.
Covering his forehead, Yuzuru Hyuga could clearly sense that, although it looked no different from before, a white flying bird seemed to be slowly taking shape there.
Supplied with chakra, the white bird was like an exceptionally patient and seasoned hunter. Whenever it faced the Caged Bird curse mark on his forehead, it would occasionally peck at it in ambush. Before the curse mark could react, it would obediently hide again.
Slowly but steadily, it extracted the Caged Bird curse mark bit by bit.
Once the Flying Bird devoured the Caged Bird, the Caged Bird mark would become nothing more than decoration. Whenever he removed the Flying Bird Sealing Technique, the Caged Bird, reduced to an empty shell, would disappear as well.
But the price was that thirty percent of his chakra capacity had been occupied from then on. Perhaps that proportion would decrease as his chakra reserves grew, but for now, it would be difficult for his chakra to make any dramatic leap in growth.
Besides that, he also had to be more careful.
As the Flying Bird progressed in breaking the seal, the Caged Bird mark on his forehead would gradually fade. Of course, even once the technique was complete, the Caged Bird would not vanish as long as he did not remove the Flying Bird Sealing Technique. Even so, he would need to prepare something to conceal the steadily fading mark on his forehead.
Based on the current rate of progress...
"Within a year."
Yuzuru Hyuga calmly reached his conclusion.
The time was neither too long nor too short, and it was largely within his plans.
Within one year, he had to show his father that he could break the Caged Bird.
Only then could he make his father resolve himself and walk the same path as him.
Remove the Caged Bird and make the Hyuga Clan equal and just.
And the reason this had to be resolved within a year was the major event that would occur then: the Nine-Tails Incident.
From then on, the Uchiha Clan would be pushed into the eye of the storm. Their explosion was only a matter of time.
But Yuzuru Hyuga did not want the Uchiha Clan to explode.
At least, not yet. Not now, and not when they could not afford it.
Once the Uchiha Clan exploded, the Hyuga Clan, unable to stand alone, would lose the neutral advantage of the tripartite balance in Konoha's mire and be forced onto the stage against Konoha itself.
That meant he had to do something. But with his current status, it was difficult for him to find any leverage in the vast mire of Konoha, and he lacked the strength as well.
But Hizashi was different.
He had prestige, status, and the influence to sway Hiashi's decisions.
To be honest...
Yuzuru Hyuga calmly looked out the window.
Four years from now, using the Kumogakure incident...
He wanted to try moving his father to a different position.
To move their family from this side of the estate to the other.
He wanted those curse marks to become flying birds soaring into the sky.
He wanted a hundred birds paying homage to the phoenix, carrying him into the heavens.
He wanted to give filthy, bloated, aging Konoha...
A blood transfusion ahead of schedule.
Of course, such major matters had to be handled step by step.
And the first step had already been taken. The second step afterward was relatively simple.
"Get stronger."
Yuzuru Hyuga gazed into the distance with focused eyes. In the end, shinobi spoke with strength. If he were as powerful as Hashirama Senju right now, why would he need to scheme at all? Once the mark was removed, he could clap his hands, and the Third would collapse. The Hyuga Clan would agree to remove the Caged Bird. Madara Uchiha would go back to hiding in the Underworld and wait for him to die of old age. The other ninja villages would hand over their tailed beasts and choose to merge. If they could not beat him, they would join him, and the ninja world would finally know great peace.
Fortunately, that level of strength was not beyond Yuzuru Hyuga's reach.
Itachi should have recovered quite a bit by now.
By all rights, shouldn't it be about time for Shisui to come see me? Itachi must have badmouthed me quite a lot in front of Shisui.
Yuzuru Hyuga curled his lips into a smile, removed his black-rimmed glasses, and went to bed.
Tomorrow would be another day full of hope.
Before you continue