This is the Hyuga Main Family!

In the Hokage office, Minato looked at the four composed individuals before him and smiled.

"From this day forward, you are all Jonin. You are the pillars of the village, and you must set an example."

Should he have expected this?

None of the Chunin had qualified; only a few experienced and exceptionally skilled Special Jonin had passed the test.

Those Chunin still needed more seasoning.

"Yes!" the group replied solemnly.

"As former Special Jonin, you surely understand your duties well, so I won't say much more. Go and celebrate with your friends and family."

Minato smiled slightly. "Oh, and Hane, Yakumaru, stay behind. I have a mission for you both."

The other two ninjas took the hint and left, but Uchiha Yakumaru's expression shifted, and he lowered his head, not daring to meet Minato's gaze.

"Yakumaru, look up."

Minato watched him gently, and only when Uchiha Yakumaru raised his head did he speak.

"The pride of the Uchiha belongs to your clan, not just to you alone. There is no need for you to carry everything on your own shoulders."

"...I understand."

After a moment of silence, Uchiha Yakumaru nodded.

"Hane, the same goes for you. Forget about the distinction between the Branch Family and the Main Family. You are now a Konoha Jonin; that is your only identity."

Minato paused, then offered with a smile:

"Even if I say that, you won't truly take it to heart, will you? In that case, will you accept my help? As a designated member of the Shadow Guard."

Hyuga Hane's eyes narrowed.

It was finally here.

In the meeting room, a member of the Hyuga Main Family asked in confusion, "How did Hyuga Hane learn Rotation?"

Not long after the spar between Hyuga Hane and Uchiha Yakumaru, the details of their duel had already reached the ears of the Main Family through some loose-lipped individuals.

After all, any Branch Family member who promoted to Jonin was a primary focus of the Main Family; they were the best candidates to guard their travels.

They were also the individuals who required the most careful vigilance.

"Did it leak from the Fourth Elder's side? Is he the culprit?"

"Impossible. Didn't we already check? There was no loss of any inherited techniques in the Fourth Elder's household."

The Third Elder of the Hyuga Main Family shook his head, his expression grim. "I fear it is just as the Hokage said—he realized it on his own. The problem now is whether we need to reclaim it. Leaving Rotation to a member of the Branch Family is highly irregular..."

"Ahem!"

Two light coughs interrupted him, drawing everyone's attention.

The First Elder looked toward Hyuga Hiashi, who sat at the head of the meeting table, and asked in a low voice, "Clan Leader, what is your opinion?"

"Since he realized it on his own, do not do anything unnecessary."

Hearing this, Hiashi swept his gaze across the various elders. "I have just received word that Hyuga Hane has already been appointed by the Hokage as a member of the Shadow Guard, so do not think of making trouble for him in secret."

"From now on, let him serve as a bridge between the Hyuga and the Hokage."

"..."

Just as Hiashi had anticipated, once the Hokage was brought into the equation, these elders quieted down.

The elders of the Hyuga Clan were traditional and stubborn; they were low-key toward the outside world but exceptionally high-handed toward the Branch Family.

Unlike the Uchiha elders, these men had no great ambitions. They never dreamed of the Hokage's seat; they only wanted to guard their own small corner of the Hyuga Clan.

The reason for this lay in the warnings passed down by their ancestors.

With the Otsutsuki on the moon hanging over their heads like a sword, they only wanted to firmly control the power of the Hyuga Branch Family to protect themselves.

As long as the foundations of the Main Family were not involved, they were willing to make concessions.

Furthermore, there was no need to harbor a grudge against the new Hokage over a single Branch Family member.

The First Elder pondered for a moment, then sighed amidst the silence. "Very well, but Hyuga Hane must not pass Rotation on to others in the future."

"I will have Hizashi speak with him," Hiashi nodded.

"Understood. Clan Leader, how did the negotiations with the Third Hokage go?"

"He has already promised not to use the external transmission or activate the new Caged Bird seal, and he has even placed a seal upon himself to prevent any investigation into relevant memories."

"That is good." The members of the Main Family breathed a sigh of relief.

Aside from the Main Family, only two people knew how to activate the new Caged Bird seal.

One was the Third Hokage, and the other was Tsunade.

Now that the former had sincerely agreed, the latter should...

"Lady Tsunade says she knows nothing about it."

Hyuga Hiashi spoke words that left everyone in shock, and as he recalled Tsunade's actions at the time, his expression shifted slightly.

"Lady Tsunade was at the casino and played a round with me; she won. Then, when I asked her about this matter, she simply left, claiming she knew nothing."

What was one supposed to make of that?

The Third Hokage had personally stated that she had modified it alongside him, so how could she possibly not know?

The expressions of those present turned grim.

Tsunade's status was far too unique.

She was the granddaughter of the First Hokage, the princess of the Land of Fire, one of the Sannin, and the founder of Konoha's medical system.

Strictly speaking, her prestige in Konoha and the Land of Fire far exceeded that of the Third Hokage and the other two Sannin; if she wanted to become Hokage, no one could contend with her.

Because the Daimyo of the Land of Fire would undoubtedly support her!

Therefore... if Tsunade said she didn't know, there was nothing they could do.

Hiashi also furrowed his brows, remaining silent.

Tsunade loved to gamble, but she always lost, and her nickname, the Big Fat Sheep, was known to everyone.

So, if she had won... what would happen?

He felt a vague sense of unease. Carefully recalling recent events, he thought of something incongruous and asked the group, who were secretly complaining about Tsunade:

"To prevent the inheritance and the techniques of the Caged Bird from being leaked, all members of the Main Family have been placed under a curse seal. Do you have any theories regarding what happened on the side of the Mist Village?"

The clan elders exchanged glances, and the Second Elder stepped forward, saying:

"The curse seals for the Main Family members were all placed by me; the Clan Head surely still has memories of his childhood."

Hiashi nodded; he had met this elder when he was first chosen for the Main Family as a child.

"You know that the curse seal I set up shares similarities with the Cursed Tongue Eradication of Root, where the recipient cannot speak of anything related to the Caged Bird.

There are also techniques developed based on the principles of the Caged Bird that can actively destroy the brain and the Byakugan, preventing enemies from obtaining memories or the Byakugan."

When the Second Elder reached this point, he did not dare to look Hiashi in the eye.

"The former Clan Head and we speculated that Hyuga Hisanobu did not have time to use the brain-destruction technique before he died, and his memories were read by the Mist Village."

Hiashi lowered his eyelids, his hand beneath the table tightening into a fist.

"I have wanted to ask this before: why can the curse seal not be set to trigger automatically? Corpses can also have their memories read; wouldn't it be better to change it to automatically destroy the brain upon death?"

A ninja committing suicide is far faster than casting a curse seal.

"Then what difference would there be between us and the Branch Family? We wouldn't even die with dignity."

A Main Family member instinctively retorted, meeting Hiashi's cold gaze, yet he still looked at Hiashi unflinchingly.

Aside from not having one's life and death controlled by others, what difference would such a technique have from the Caged Bird?

Furthermore, the Main Family would never research a way to break the curse seal, which meant that after they died of old age, they would end up just like the Branch Family—dying without a complete corpse.

They were the Main Family; why should they have to be like this?

A moment later, Hiashi shifted his gaze away from him and turned to the others.

The expressions of agreement on their faces filled Hiashi with a sense of sorrow.

This is the Main Family... the Hyuga Main Family!