Multiple Ninja Arts to Resolve the Caged Bird

It was strange; it shouldn't have been like this.

His luck in gambling couldn't have failed him, could it?

Thinking this, Tsunade still did not choose the method Hane had suggested.

"We can talk about that novel wager later. I assume you've never played with dice, so let's try something simple. Just one die: four or higher is big, anything lower is small. You go first."

Hyuga Hane glanced at the dice cup and the die, but did not move.

"A wager like that is meaningless. Whether I win or lose depends entirely on whether I want to."

"You're quite confident." Tsunade raised an eyebrow.

"It has piqued my interest, though. Tell me your purpose first—there's no harm in me listening—and after that, you can gamble a few rounds with me."

In any case, it was nothing more than the Medical Corps...

"You have already researched a way to break the Caged Bird, haven't you?"

Tsunade's pupils constricted, and she stood up instantly.

"How do you know about that!"

Only the Third, herself, and the current Hokage, Namikaze Minato, knew of this matter. Why would Hyuga Hane, standing right before her, be aware of it?

A flurry of guesses surfaced in her mind, causing Tsunade's expression to shift uncertainly.

"Please, mind the influence." Sighing, Hyuga Hane gestured toward their surroundings.

Noticing the Konoha residents looking their way, Tsunade sat down with a stiff expression, staring daggers at Hyuga Hane. "Don't change the subject. This is not something you should know."

"Lord Hokage wants me to stay in the village to assist the advisors in governing."

Hyuga Hane studied Tsunade's expression, which had first furrowed in a frown before gradually softening. "This is not the arrangement one would expect for the Shadow Guard, nor is it the arrangement for a member of the Hyuga Branch Family."

Unless... Minato was confident he could ensure Hane no longer had to exist as a member of the Branch Family.

"I see. So you suspected me because I was the one researching the Caged Bird?"

Tsunade leaned back in her chair, looked at Hyuga Hane's calm expression, and muttered, "You're quite clever, kid, but a clever person shouldn't come asking about things like this."

"I wanted to confirm it," Hyuga Hane said, his eyelids drooping slightly. "And then, I will carefully consider Lord Hokage's suggestion."

Pouring another glass of wine, Tsunade shook her head. "I did complete it, but strictly speaking, that method of breaking it is not universal."

I knew it wouldn't be that easy. If the method to resolve the Caged Bird weren't so difficult to generalize, I wouldn't be borrowing your hand.

Hyuga Hane's gaze was profound.

Although he hadn't actively researched a way to break the Caged Bird, years of studying ninjutsu and forbidden arts had given him many ideas on how to solve it.

When researching ocular techniques and forbidden soul arts, he had even developed some methods to counter the Caged Bird curse seal.

Some were temporary fixes, others were permanent solutions.

It was just that they all had flaws and lacked universality.

For example—Izanagi!

He knew the Transcription Seal, so how could he pass up this bug-like ninjutsu of the Uchiha?

On the Mist Village Battlefield, obtaining a pair of Three Tomoe Sharingan hadn't been difficult for him, given that his Byakugan vision spanned two kilometers at the time.

As for the technique of Izanagi... this was something Orochimaru had obtained while researching the powers of the Senju and Uchiha. In order to better understand the Sharingan, that man had dug up the ancestral graves of the Uchiha...

Well, the father of Uchiha Madara... he didn't know where Orochimaru had found that grave.

Both Izanagi and the Transcription Seal were learned from the mouth of that reanimated Uchiha clan leader.

Had it not been for that, the White Prison, a sealing technique that reverse-absorbed ocular power, could not have been completed.

After obtaining the Three Tomoe Sharingan on the battlefield, he used the White Prison to directly carve Izanagi into his eyes.

He could currently use Izanagi twice, though this transcribed ocular technique was not as strong as when performed by an Uchiha clansman; he couldn't delay its activation like Madara, and it could only serve as a temporary means to deal with the Caged Bird.

Just as the Amaterasu Itachi transcribed for Sasuke could only burn Obito, it wasn't his own eyes or his own ocular technique, so it ultimately had too many limitations.

The price was that the Three Tomoe Sharingan would exhaust their ocular power and turn to ash.

Other temporary solutions included sealing techniques—using them to sever the connection between the Main Branch and the Caged Bird!

The Caged Bird was difficult to remove, but it was relatively simple to create a sealing technique specifically designed to prevent the curse from receiving external activation commands.

The flaw: sealing techniques had obvious signatures, and the flow of chakra in the sealed area would be abnormal, making it extremely easy for anyone with a Byakugan to discover. Once used, one had to be prepared to defect.

As for the permanent solutions, the best one he had previously developed was the Soul Reincarnation Technique, derived from the Spirit Transformation Technique and his own soul characteristics.

It could resolve the Caged Bird, but Hane didn't want to use it.

He was a taijutsu ninja, and one whose foundation was the Gentle Fist and the Byakugan; using that technique would be equivalent to abandoning all his strength.

But today, he had obtained an even more efficient means—Ranmaru.

The boy's Kurenai Eye allowed him to transfer his own life force, an ocular technique similar to Chiyo's One's Own Life Reincarnation used to revive Gaara, with the prerequisite being that there was vitality and the soul remained within the body.

For him, that condition was as good as non-existent.

And reviving after death would be just as effective in shaking off the Caged Bird.

However, it also lacks universal applicability.

In the memories of Hyuga Hane, within the story of Ranmaru, the boy nearly died after using this technique to resurrect Raiga Kurosuki, and his subsequent recovery was inexplicable.

But such a dojutsu cannot be used twice; once might be manageable, but using it twice would certainly kill the red-eyed boy.

To enable all members of the Hyuga Branch Family to resolve the Caged Bird, the only person in the current Konoha who can help is the Tsunade before him.

Or rather... the Slug Sage can!

Its millennium of heritage gives it knowledge and abilities that far exceed those of an ordinary ninja.

The other two Sages might be able to do it as well, but among the Sages, the Slug Sage is the most gentle and the most likely to lend a hand. The Third, Orochimaru, and he himself all placed high hopes on Tsunade precisely for this reason.

Thinking of this, Hyuga Hane feigned confusion and asked, "Is it a solution related to medical ninjutsu?"

As expected, it is that ninjutsu.

"It's useless to tell you; that is not something an ordinary person can achieve."

Tsunade's gaze was somewhat complex as she casually set up a small barrier to isolate the sound.

"That is an A-rank ninjutsu that only one person in the history of the Shinobi World has ever achieved—Division!"

Not a Clone Technique, but division.

The ninjutsu used by the Second Tsuchikage Mu, which splits one's own body into two, both of which are the original!

And besides Mu, there is one other creature that knows this technique, and that is the Slug Sage from one of the Three Great Sage Regions!

Its mastery of division is even more terrifying; it can split into countless individuals, large or small.

"The Caged Bird is ultimately a cursed seal, not a part of the body. Just like when you use a Clone Technique while the Main Branch activates the Caged Bird, your original body would suffer from the Caged Bird, but the clone would not, because the clone does not bear the cursed seal."

"A split body is similar to a clone, but different. Even if the original body dies, the split body can continue to live. Since the Caged Bird is not part of the body, as long as you perfectly split into another self, you can solve it completely!"

The split body would not have the Caged Bird, while the original body would. Therefore, once someone activates the Caged Bird, the original body would die, but the split body would not.

However, the price is that both strength and Chakra would be permanently halved.

Yet, through her communication with the Slug Sage, Tsunade knows that this loss of strength can be recovered through training.

The reason the Second Tsuchikage Mu could use division was because he had once met the Slug Sage and gained inspiration from it; no one understands this technique better than the Slug.

That Second Tsuchikage relied on this move several times to escape crises, and after surviving, he slowly recovered his strength each time.

This solution is the best answer Tsunade can provide at the moment.

Hyuga Hane nodded in thought.

Tsunade's line of reasoning matched his own.

The simplest and most violent solution to the Caged Bird is—to die once!

The Caged Bird disappears upon death. Although Hizashi still had the Caged Bird when he was reanimated via Edo Tensei, that was merely due to the long-term retention of cursed seal Chakra, a product similar to Nagato's Rinnegan.

He has seen cases of Branch Family ninjas dying; after death, once the eyes and brain nerves are destroyed, the Caged Bird cursed seal vanishes.

Therefore, as long as one possesses the ability to continue living after death, the Caged Bird can be resolved!

Division is an unconventional solution: the original body acts as a substitute for death, while the split body survives.

Besides that, Izanagi, which Madara once used with a delayed activation after death, would also work. After all, that involves restoring the body after death, by which time the Caged Bird cursed seal has already vanished.

Various reincarnation techniques and similar dojutsu can also solve it, which is why Ranmaru, Chiyo, and others could do it, as could Ryuzetsu, who mastered Dragon Life Reincarnation, or anyone possessing the Rinnegan.

Even according to the original timeline, the entire Hyuga Branch Family had a chance to resolve the Caged Bird.

—The Pain "carrying rice" incident!

That Super Shinra Tensei definitely affected the Hyuga Compound. The Caged Bird on the ninjas who died would have disappeared, yet Nagato would have resurrected them later.

What a perfect opportunity, but it seems the Branch Family did not seize it; they might have even voluntarily had the Caged Bird carved onto them again, just like the new Caged Bird mentioned before.