Swapping Out the Caged Bird, Killing to Silence!

Hyuga Ken lay on the operating table and turned his head to ask, "Will it hurt a lot without anesthesia?" Then he added, "I heard anesthesia can damage your intelligence."

"Mm, anesthesia will damage your brain to some extent... Though I could sever your nerves, you probably wouldn't agree to that."

Uchiha Kin took out the medical protective suit, gloves, and mask Hyuga Ken had prepared long ago from a nearby wardrobe. He put them on and adjusted his goggles.

"Wait..." Hyuga Ken took a deep breath. "Let me look at this world one more time."

He stared at the tent ceiling for a while, then gripped the handles on both sides of the operating table tightly.

Uchiha Kin reminded him, "It'll hurt badly. You have to endure it and not make any movements—not even muscle spasms...

"You need to understand that even the slightest movement could cause an error in reconnecting the nerves and ruin everything."

Hyuga Ken said, "Don't underestimate a ninja's endurance—ninja are people who can endure what ordinary people cannot. Just watch. If I move even once, I'll be your grandson!"

Uchiha Kin said, "Whoever doesn't move is a turtle."

The joke eased the tension somewhat.

A square-shaped clamp forced Hyuga Ken's eyelids open to their limit. A tearing pain burrowed from the nerves in his eyelids deep into his skull, making his entire head ache along with it.

Pale yellow nerves extended from Uchiha Kin's palms and attached themselves to Hyuga Ken's eyeball.

They wriggled and crawled like worms, burrowing through the back of his eye into his cranial cavity. They temporarily formed a bridge, bypassing the tentacles extended by the Caged Bird seal and connected to his nerves—not only those of the Caged Bird, but other nerves as well.

He had no time to identify which nerves had been extended by the Caged Bird Sealing Technique, so he simply bridged every relevant part.

Bypass them!

Then, with a light touch of the scalpel, he severed the connected tendons. The entire eyeball, along with a cluster of nerve tendrils, was pulled out.

Uchiha Kin held the eye in his hand and examined it briefly before turning around. He placed it into a glass jar, took out another eye, and began installing it.

This time, the installation process was especially slow.

Human optic nerves were extraordinarily abundant and complex. Uchiha Kin carefully established the connections one by one.

He understood the human nervous system down to his bones. After all, the Nerve Manipulation Secret Technique was a technique he had painstakingly developed himself.

How could he possibly not understand nerves?

After a careful process of elimination, the "nerves" formed by the Caged Bird seal immediately stood out as superfluous.

He memorized each of the Caged Bird's connection points, then extended his own nerves along the seal's nerves.

Fine nerve roots, like tiny spider silk, stretched through Hyuga Ken's body. Since Hyuga Ken was focused on enduring the pain, he did not notice them at all.

"Interesting. It's practically like a tightening band, reaching directly into the cranial cavity. The roots are densely packed; once the seal activates, it can make someone wish they were dead from the pain. And the thing supplying power to the Caged Bird is actually the eyes.

"A nerve behind the Byakugan isn't connected to the conscious processing area of the visual nervous system. Instead, it's connected to the forehead.

"The two eyes continuously provide energy to the Caged Bird."

And the nerve connected to the Caged Bird was precisely the part missing from the Byakugan—the missing field of vision of the branch family's Byakugan. At the same time, because the eye's energy leaked away, it lost the possibility of progressing any further.

With a thought, Uchiha Kin reconnected the nerve that supplied energy to the Caged Bird to the optic nerve where it should have been connected.

As for the Caged Bird... he changed its energy source to the heart.

Then he used the Mystical Palm Technique again, causing the tendons and eyeball to grow back together.

The pain faded.

However, the eyelid around the entire eye was bright red, and the places where the tendons connected were covered in blood vessels. It looked rather horrifying.

Uchiha Kin asked, "How do you feel?"

Hyuga Ken blinked the eye that had been replaced a few times, then activated it. The colors in his vision faded into black and white, but his visual blind spot vanished.

Moreover, unlike before, activating the Byakugan this time gave him a sense of fullness. It no longer felt as though his ocular power was constantly leaking away... It was like a bag full of water with a small hole torn into it.

He could not suppress his delight. Especially when he compared it with his other eye, that sense of joy became even stronger.

His field of vision was perfect. The eye felt full, as though it had been reborn. Though the entire world was black and white, it was vivid.

"This feeling is truly incredible. Hurry and replace the other eye too—I'm already getting impatient!"

Uchiha Kin smiled. "All right." He then repeated the procedure and replaced Hyuga Ken's other eye.

"Hahaha, the Byakugan... the Caged Bird, that damned seal, has finally been dealt with. Kin, thank you so much, my dearest friend!"

Hyuga Ken's joy was impossible to conceal. He had plotted for this day for far too long. He had encouraged this man before him, who could not activate his eyes, to study Medical Ninjutsu. He had also racked his brains and used his Byakugan to study all kinds of medical materials.

It could be said that he had poured massive resources and tremendous effort into Uchiha Kin, all for this day.

He was smiling when a cold glint flashed in an instant. Uchiha Kin's neck was sliced open by a single slash.

"What a pity. My secret cannot be known by anyone else. So you can only go accompany Nara Tama.

"Still, this is a good thing for you. The Uchiha clan's fate of annihilation is already set. No matter how hard you try, you can't deal with that madman. So it's better for you to die now, sparing you the pain of watching your clansmen die when the time comes.

"I understand that feeling of helplessness very well!"

The strength seemed to drain from Uchiha Kin's body. He collapsed limply to the floor, using one hand to brace himself against the table and barely managing to sit with his back against it.

He opened his mouth, seemingly wanting to say something...

Hyuga Ken seemed to know what he wanted to say and spoke plainly. "I prepared for this day for a long time, and that included investing in you—I suppose I'm a little sad now as well.

"But, my dear friend, I have no choice. I cannot let another person who knows that I broke the Caged Bird remain alive.

"I know you like Kobayashi, Ozawa, Yuma Asami, and others... Don't worry. I'll send them down to accompany you. You can indulge yourself to your heart's content in the Pure Land."

He crouched down. The new Byakugan had lost that dull, lifeless grayness and suddenly gained vitality.

"Kin, I know you've always been on guard against me. Our relationship was always one of mutual exploitation and mutual wariness. You must have prepared some backup plan just now, didn't you? Unfortunately, you lost..." He pointed at his eyes. "Before these eyes, every scheme and calculation is meaningless. They can see through everything!"