Caged Bird Seal

"Eh?"

Far away in Otogakure, Orochimaru frowned at the respectful, fear-laden test subject before him. "The Mangekyo Sharingan has awakened, but... it can only control iron?"

"How is this any different from trash?"

Orochimaru shook his head in disappointment and turned away.

Hyuga Clan.

Hyuga Neji trained until sweat drenched his back, then suddenly thought of something and stopped. "I'm still too young now. I can't push myself too hard—I need to take it step by step."

Just then.

His gaze caught a figure entering, and he quickly bowed: "Clan Head!"

Hyuga Hiashi glanced at him, which passed for a greeting.

But then, a cautious young voice sounded from behind him: "Uncle, I've already learned the Sixteen Palms. Can... can you teach me the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms?"

The Sixteen Palms wasn't the true Eight Trigrams Palm—it was a simplified version of the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms.

Every Hyuga could learn the Sixteen Palms, but the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms required the Main Family's permission.

Hyuga Neji thought that although he was of the Branch Family.

His father had died for his uncle, and he was his nephew—surely his uncle would teach him.

Thinking this.

Neji showed a respectful, eager, and affectionate look.

Boom—!

Hyuga Hiashi merely waved his hand. Neji didn't even see the attack before his body was hurled violently by a heavy force, slamming into the wall. His organs ached with sharp pain!

"What nonsense are you spouting!"

Hyuga Hiashi's gaze was icy, carrying a condescending disdain and coldness: "Members of the Branch Family, before coming of age, have no right to learn the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms. Put away those improper thoughts of yours!"

"The Branch Family will always be the Branch Family!"

Hyuga Neji stood up, his face pale, and finally lowered his head: "I... I understand."

So, in the end, he was nothing but a Branch Family member.

A bird in a cage.

He let out a bitter laugh, his eyes dazed: "Father, what meaning did your sacrifice back then even have?"

The sky grew darker as he walked out of the Hyuga Clan, lost and dejected.

At this.

Hyuga Hiashi watched coldly. Just then, a small figure emerged, her voice timid and urgent: "Neji... where is Neji-nii going? It's already so late."

She hadn't seen what happened earlier.

"Hmph! Don't bother with him. The Branch Family should have the awareness of the Branch Family."

Hyuga Hiashi said coldly: "As for you, how is your Sixteen Palms training? Why haven't you learned it yet!"

Hyuga Hinata immediately lowered her head, her small face turning deathly pale.

Meanwhile, on the other side.

"Is dying for the Main Family the only meaning of the Branch Family's existence?"

Hyuga Neji didn't know how far he had walked. When he looked up, everything before him felt unfamiliar: "This... is where?"

Around him were lush, towering trees, with hundreds of houses in the middle. Countless vines and flowers grew freely here, yet there was no sense of disorder—as if someone had been carefully tending them all along.

Only on closer inspection did he realize these houses had long been abandoned.

But the natural atmosphere here was incredibly relaxing.

"Does the village even have a place like this?"

Hyuga Neji climbed to a treetop to observe, his eyes carrying a defeated grayness: "So I've already reached the village's edge? But no matter how far I go, I'll always have to return to the cage in the end."

Before, his heart had always held hope.

But now, he felt nothing had meaning anymore. Nothing could lift his spirits.

"Huh? What's that?"

He froze, walking toward the center of those hundreds of houses. On the roof of a three-story building, someone was actually sunbathing?!

Hyuga Neji found it absurd.

Someone was sunbathing in this abandoned place? Was this person crazy?

He was about to leave when a light laugh came from behind him: "Neji, in the beginning, the Main Family existed to ensure the clan's continuation, while the Branch Family existed to make the Main Family safer."

"The Branch Family and the Main Family watch over each other—that is the meaning of the Hyuga Clan's Branch Family's existence."

"This system, in principle, is not flawed."

Hyuga Neji's figure froze in place. He couldn't help but walk over, his expression stunned: "You're... Uchiha Siming?"

He had heard that name from the Uchiha clansman who had summoned Uchiha Siming.

"But why is the Branch Family now, the Branch Family..."

He didn't know how to describe it.

"But why is it that now the Branch Family, in front of the Main Family, is like dogs whose names can be stripped away at any moment, right?"

Uchiha Siming let out a light laugh, speaking the words Neji was too ashamed to say.

Hyuga Neji fell silent.

That, too, was a form of acknowledgment.

"The system isn't wrong."

Uchiha Siming explained: "Without the Branch Family system, all Hyuga clansmen on the battlefield would become the first targets for slaughter, and ordinary Hyuga simply don't have enough strength."

"But then again."

A trace of mockery flickered in his eyes: "The system is dead, while people are alive. For those who hold power, it's best if those beneath them are all dogs."

It was like when Hashirama Senju distributed the Tailed Beasts.

His intentions were good, but it didn't bring peace; instead, after his death, even the Tailed Beasts became tools of war.

"H-How can this be..."

Hyuga Neji's mouth fell open. He had been sharp since childhood, and once the key point was pointed out, everything became clear to him.

But that didn't solve his predicament.

It only plunged him into greater confusion.

He said indignantly: "Is this mistake supposed to go on forever?! In other people's eyes, the Hyuga Branch Family are nobles, but in our own eyes, we're worse than commoners!"

"At least commoners can decide their own life and death!"

And they—

Just as Uchiha Siming had said earlier, were nothing but a pack of caged dogs!

"Don't wallow in self-pity."

Uchiha Siming understood the mindset of a young man very well: "Neji, in the end, all your anger right now stems from your own lack of strength. The Branch Family's cage isn't unbreakable either."

He shifted his tone, speaking casually: "I once read an ancient text."

"It recorded that above the Hyuga Clan's Byakugan, there is an even stronger realm. Once you break through, the so-called Caged Bird will naturally cease to exist."

The so-called Caged Bird, put simply, used the Byakugan as a medium and the self as a cage to imprison the Branch Family.

But once the Byakugan evolved.

The Caged Bird would most likely become invalid.

"What?!"

Hyuga Neji was stunned, a glimmer of hope bursting in his eyes: "Are you serious? Once I reach the realm above the Byakugan, I can undo the Caged Bird?!"

"Most likely, yes."

Uchiha Siming indicated that he never lied.

He was just giving Neji a hope.

Hyuga Neji asked cautiously, yet with longing: "C-Can you help me?"

[Ding! O great Lord Hashirama, please respond to the purest hope from a villager. Please help Hyuga Neji find a way to undo the Caged Bird!]

[Task Reward: Wood Release: Flower Tree World Descent!]

The corners of Uchiha Siming's mouth lifted, his smile radiant: "Of course I can!"