After killing Hizashi Hyuga.
Hyuga Shin stood amid the corpses strewn throughout the Hyuga Family compound.
He exhaled a breath of white mist. Blood flowed past, yet it could not stain those pure white eyes red:
"The Hyuga Family has been wiped out by me."
"From today onward..."
"The Hyuga Main Family no longer exists."
"I burned all the Hyuga Secret Jutsu."
"That includes the Caged Bird..."
"As for the Gentle Fist Style and the so-called Doctrine of the Mean, when combined with the Caged Bird, they really were a way to survive before..."
"But!"
"Now, the Caged Bird is gone!"
"You were slaves before, but the danger you faced came from the Main Family!"
Hyuga Shin shouted at all the branch-family shinobi around him.
His expression was utterly ferocious.
It was as if he wanted to roar out all the pent-up anger he had accumulated over the years!
"Now, you are no longer slaves... You will face the greed of other enemies toward your Kekkei Genkai, just like the Uchiha Clan."
"But this is also a much brighter path!"
"Fight... Fight!"
"As long as you activate the Byakugan, you have a detection range of one kilometer. What ninjutsu couldn't become far more effective when paired with that?!"
"Cover your eyes with black cloth, and who would know that you possess the Byakugan?"
"The Hyuga Clan should have had a much broader future!"
"As for this future... I have chosen it for you. You can accept it if you want, but even if you don't, you still have to accept it!!"
Hyuga Shin finished shouting.
All around him, there was only silence...
"Ultimately... if this group from the Hyuga Main Family hadn't bound themselves by learning that so-called Gentle Fist Style and following the Doctrine of the Mean, they wouldn't have been wiped out by an Elite Jonin like me, would they?"
Hyuga Shin finished speaking.
Covered in blood but without a single wound, he walked through the crowd, then leaped away from the Hyuga Family compound.
After a long while.
Hizashi Hyuga walked over, dropped to his knees with a thud, and fiercely knocked his head twice against the ground before his dead brother and the burning buildings of the Hyuga Main Family!
Then he stood up.
"You heard what Hyuga Shin said... didn't you?" Hizashi Hyuga said. "From now on, we are the new 'Hyuga Clan'! A Hyuga Clan... without any distinction between Main Family and Branch Family!"
"Waaah..." More Hyuga clansmen began to weep bitterly.
Afterward, several Hyuga clansmen stood up.
Their gazes became resolute.
"I choose... to bear this burden together with Hyuga Shin."
"New Clan Head! I hope you will protect the others!"
"Those willing to follow Lord Hyuga Shin, come with me!! Hyuga Shin ended the era of the Main Family and made us slaves no longer!"
"Hyuga Shin shouldn't be the only one to bear this burden!"
Several Hyuga shinobi, especially those who had fought on the battlefield, turned around at this moment and leaped after Hyuga Shin!
In the forest.
Uchiha Miya ran through the woods, panting.
Behind him, Uchiha Fugaku and many other Uchiha Clan shinobi followed.
The Hyuga Clan had been wiped out.
The Main Family had all been killed.
And the culprit was actually Hyuga Shin... that Branch Family shinobi who had seemed unbelievably gentle, the one who had earned great merit on the battlefield...
The Konoha High Command and many of the major shinobi clans already knew about this.
Uchiha Miya had rushed out at the first opportunity, with Uchiha Fugaku following him.
Uchiha Miya was close to Hyuga Shin.
Uchiha Fugaku actually could not make up his mind.
Should he support Miya? Or restrain him?
Unable to decide, he had no choice but to come out with Miya.
Soon.
Uchiha Miya arrived at that small forest.
He looked left and right but did not see Hyuga Shin.
"Shin!"
A moment later.
A figure covered in wounds walked out.
It was none other than Hyuga Shin.
"Shin!" Uchiha Miya rushed over.
Hyuga Shin, however, remained calm. With the hand missing its little finger, he threw out a pile of documents.
The Evil God... was no longer inside his body.
After entering Root, Hyuga Shin had lost his memories and been controlled by the Evil God. He had known nothing.
In the end, he had only obtained a large amount of memories related to Root.
Moreover, he still could not say anything.
This feeling was different from before.
Previously, he would not even form the thought of "revealing a secret."
Now, the moment such a thought arose, a tingling sensation would appear at the back of his neck, controlling his tongue and preventing him from speaking.
He did not know what ninjutsu it was...
While waiting for Uchiha Miya, he had looked through his memories and determined that it was probably called the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal.
Hyuga Shin raised his head and looked at the bright night sky.
He sighed.
"It's beautiful... This is probably the last time I'll see it."
"Shin! Hurry up and get treatment... You bastard! You've been distancing yourself from me these past few days just to cut ties with me, haven't you?!"
Uchiha Miya was extremely agitated, and the Three Tomoe in both his eyes spun furiously!
"Uchiha Fugaku... Those are the documents Root obtained. I broke into Root, and its leader, Shimura Danzō, seized many Sharingan from the Uchiha Clan..."
"What?!"
Uchiha Fugaku was stunned. He hurriedly picked up the documents and began reading them. The more he read, the darker his expression became.
In the end, he looked at Hyuga Shin, his gaze much gentler.
"Why? Why help our clan?"
"I was helping Uchiha Miya."
Hyuga Shin smiled gently.
At that moment, Uchiha Miya was struck as if by lightning.
"You... Shin... Who allowed you to make decisions on your own?! You never considered me your partner! If you wanted to wipe out the Hyuga Clan, I would have gone with you!" Uchiha Miya roared.
"I'm sorry... Forgive me, Miya. This is the last time." Hyuga Shin gave a helpless, bitter smile.
Uchiha Miya could not bear it the moment he saw that smile.
The usually proud man's lips trembled.
"Shin... Go get treated."
"Those Main Family shinobi deserved what they got. They deserved to die!"
"Konoha might accept you... You might not die!"
Hyuga Shin slowly shook his head.
He was already gravely wounded, and he had a premonition about the Evil God. The Evil God would never let him live.
Therefore, "death" was his only possible ending.
However, Hyuga Shin hoped that, at the very end, he could choose how he died...
Being controlled was clearly a bad thing. Yet because of the Evil God's control, I accomplished the lifelong wish I had always wanted to fulfill... Could this actually be a good thing...?
Because of the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal, Hyuga Shin could not say it aloud, but he could think about it inwardly.
"Danzō is still alive. Uchiha Clan Head... leave him to you."
"I cannot kill him."
"After all, sending me to the battlefield to die at the hands of Third Raikage A was the Third Hokage's decision... and he was the only one who opposed it."
"But I don't regret it either. After all, the Uchiha Clan is more important to me than those few kind words he once spoke..."
Uchiha Fugaku let out a long sigh.
He had already seen that Hyuga Shin was determined to die.
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