Bones Have Grown Soft

A Main Branch elder barely propped himself up and roared viciously at the hall, "What are you people doing? Hyuga Kagami is defying his superiors! Can't you see that?"

Yet the only response he received was silence.

"You...!?"

Sensing the eerie silence in the hall, the Main Branch elder's momentum immediately weakened. Having lived a life of privilege, he finally realized just how much resentment the branch family members had been bottling up.

If the entire branch family rose up in rebellion, then even the "Caged Bird Seal" would solve nothing. Without the branch family, the Hyuga Clan would be a tiger with its fangs pulled. The few remaining Main Branch members simply could not support a great clan on their own.

At that moment, Hiashi, the clan head, finally spoke. He ignored the three disheveled Main Branch elders beside him and stared at Hyuga Kagami as he asked seriously, "Kagami, do you really think Neji did nothing wrong this time?"

Hyuga Kagami answered, "He did his best."

Hiashi continued, "But he failed to protect Hinata. That is a fact!"

"Hinata is indeed the young lady of the Main Branch, but before that, she is a ninja—and my student!" After a brief pause, Hyuga Kagami said blandly, "As a ninja, she should be prepared to die at any time. If she had died during this combat exercise, it would only mean that she lacked both strength and a little luck."

The Main Branch elder beneath Hyuga Kagami's foot roared, "You bastard! Hinata is a member of the Main Branch, the future clan head! It is only right for Neji to protect her!"

Hyuga Kagami chuckled. "When a ninja entrusts their life and death entirely to someone else's protection, they are no longer a qualified ninja. And if she cannot even