Main Branch's Response (Part 2)

This Caged Bird incident has made it clear to every member of the Branch Family that waiting changes nothing, and endurance changes nothing.

The Main Family and Konoha have never regarded them as comrades from the very beginning, so their resentment—and even their resistance—is only logical.

"Do not provoke the Branch Family any further. I have already discussed this with the Hokage, and we will find a way to appease their anger."

As he spoke, the Hyuga Clan Head passed a ninjutsu scroll for them to examine.

After reading it, the Second Elder's expression shifted.

"Clan Head, was the Fourth Elder's death in vain? And this technique..."

The Clan Head shook his head, his eyes cold.

"It is merely a temporary compromise. Regardless, even if we were to identify the culprit who killed the Fourth Elder, we cannot execute them for the time being."

As the day for inscribing the new Caged Bird seals drew near, the anger of the Branch Family continued to accumulate. If no one led the resistance, it would have been nothing more than impotent rage, but with someone taking the lead, there was no guarantee that others wouldn't commit irrational acts.

To the Branch Family, the ninja acting in the shadows is a hero who dared to resist; killing them would ignite the powder keg that is the Branch Family.

The war has reached a critical juncture. If the Hyuga Branch Family were pushed into rebellion, it would not only make them a laughingstock to other villages, but it might even prompt the Cloud Village, which has already ceased hostilities, to launch another offensive.

Just like the start of the Third Shinobi World War.

The Raikage used the Sand Village's loss of the Third Kazekage as a pretext, claiming they were willing to generously accept the Sand Village and allow the Raikage to serve as the Shadow of the Sand as well, before launching a surprise attack.

If not for the active efforts of the Fourth Kazekage, it would have been questionable whether the Land of Wind could have continued to exist after that assault.

If the Fourth Raikage is as shameless as his father, a war with the Cloud Village will come again.

Seemingly seeing through the group's unwillingness, the Hyuga Clan Head let out a cold snort.

"Do not think about purging the Branch Family; that is no different from weakening our own strength."

"In the future, the individual capabilities of the Main Family must also be improved. Ultimately, the Fourth Elder died because he lost his caution."

With these two statements, the Clan Head set the tone for the meeting and began discussing the details of the new Caged Bird inscriptions with the lamenting elders.

By the time the meeting concluded, it was already the next morning. The Hyuga Clan Head walked toward his home alone, where two Hyuga ninja were waiting.

Hyuga Hiashi.

Hyuga Hizashi.

His two sons, yet they faced vastly different destinies.

"Clan Head." *2

Facing the brothers' salutes, the Hyuga Clan Head nodded. "From now on, Hizashi, you will be in charge of managing the Branch Family. Do not disappoint me."

"Yes!" Facing his father, Hizashi bowed his head deeply.

Seeing this, the Hyuga Clan Head looked indifferently toward Hiashi. "Hiashi, you should know what you need to say today without me having to prompt you, right?"

The morning sun rose as usual, casting light through the window. Hiashi felt himself enveloped by his father's shadow and could not help but lower his gaze.

"I understand."

The Hyuga Compound is vast.

With the area where the Main Family resides at the center, the buildings scattered in all four directions are the residences of the Branch Family.

The differences in area and elevation highlight the distinction between the Main Family and the Branch Family.

Not only that, but the graveyards for the Branch Family ninja and the Main Family ninja are not in the same location.

Because the Byakugan of the Main Family does not disappear immediately after death but only slowly decays, the Main Family graveyard is located at the core of the Hyuga Compound to prevent anyone from stealing the eyes from the corpses.

The Branch Family graveyard is located at the edge of the compound.

Hyuga Miyuki stood before her parents' tombstones and offered them a bow.

I am sorry, Father, Mother.

Even if my hands are stained with the blood of my clansmen, I do not want to let our people remain on their knees any longer.

"Is that you, Miyuki? Are you here to visit your parents as well?"

While Hyuga Miyuki was lost in sorrow, a voice accompanied by footsteps reached her.

She turned her head and gave a soft acknowledgment.

"Hane-kun, it has been a long time."

She and the clansman before her had performed missions together on the Mist Village Battlefield, so they were somewhat familiar with each other.

In her memory, he was one of the few notable Special Jonin of the Branch Family on the Mist Village Battlefield; his strength was quite good, and he was exceptionally diligent.

Most importantly, he did not lean toward the Hyuga Main Family!

Hyuga Miyuki crossed her hands over her abdomen, watching quietly as Hyuga Hane placed the flowers he had brought before the two tombstones.

He pressed his palms together in prayer.

Only after Hyuga Hane finished did Hyuga Miyuki ask softly:

"Is Hane-kun also worried about today's Caged Bird inscription ceremony?"

"Hmm, the recent actions of our clansmen have left me somewhat worried."

"Are you worried that someone might lose their restraint today and kill the Main Branch?"

Hyuga Miyuki did not play games, asking in a blunt, low voice.

At this point, every Hyuga ninja was well aware of the current situation.

"No," Hyuga Hane glanced at her, his tone calm, "I am worried about the Hokage's decision."

Hyuga Miyuki let out a sigh of relief, then frowned.

Indeed, it was too quiet.

Even if they hadn't found the culprit, the Hokage and those advisors shouldn't be this silent.

In recent days, more and more Branch Family members had been unable to restrain themselves, and even though the higher-ups blocked the news, rumors had begun to appear on the streets, yet the higher-ups acted as if they didn't care.

They only strengthened night patrols, dispatched more Anbu to investigate, and reduced casualties.

Although this had indeed caused trouble for her operations, that was only because she did not yet want to strike at her own comrades.

The ones she had killed previously were those who were close to the Main Branch.

Ever since her Byakugan evolved and she faintly sensed that the Caged Bird no longer had an effect on her, she had already thought about aiming her blade at the Main Branch.

Therefore, Hyuga Miyuki could not help but feel uneasy about the strange attitude of the higher-ups.

"It should be fine, we are all about to have the Caged Bird re-engraved anyway."

Hyuga Miyuki touched the curse mark on her forehead hidden by her headband and said softly, "The Hokage might just be hoping for us to reach a consensus internally."

Hane saw the look of confidence and resolute determination in Hyuga Miyuki's eyes, and his brow twitched as he guessed her thoughts.

She wanted to kill all the Main Branch members and then defect?

Because her strength was sufficient, and she felt she wouldn't be affected by the Caged Bird, she wanted to solve the problem with force?

It was truly in line with the way things worked in the Shinobi World...

Sasori of the Red Sands, a puppeteer, ambushed the Third Kazekage when he was weak and turned him into a human puppet. Once he grew stronger, he started acting recklessly, arrogantly wiping out a country single-handedly and challenging his own grandmother.

Nagato could endure humiliation, gathering the Six Paths of Pain before launching his revenge against Hanzo, only to end up attacking Konoha all by himself later on.

Konan could secretly collect hundreds of millions of explosive tags to guard against Obito without being discovered by Black Zetsu and White Zetsu, yet when dealing with Obito, she never thought to cooperate with the reconciled Naruto.

Looking across the entire Shinobi World, everyone basically laid low when they lacked strength, but once they felt their power was sufficient, they all started courting death, attempting to solve every problem with force.

Where did they get that confidence?

Secretly shaking his head, Hyuga Hane added the girl before him to the ranks of Nagato and the others as a negative example.

Master Dai could kick this body of his to death just by opening the Eight Gates; he truly could not be as confident as the aforementioned individuals.

"Miyuki, you haven't been paying attention to the voices in the village lately, have you? Legends of him are everywhere."

Under Hyuga Miyuki's puzzled gaze, Hyuga Hane looked up at the blue sky.

"The sun of Konoha has returned."