First Simulation Ends

The morning mist outside the dojo had yet to dissipate, but Hinata Hyuga's training gi was already soaked through with sweat.

With every breath, she exhaled a thick cloud of white mist, only for it to be scattered by the force of her palms. Despite her nose and cheeks being frozen red, her eyes remained fixed with intense focus on the acupuncture points marked on the Wooden Dummy.

"Stop."

Hyuga Hiashi's voice rang out suddenly. Hinata stopped immediately, her bangs plastered to her forehead by sweat, though it could not hide the flicker of anticipation in her eyes.

"Go bathe and change, then rest for a while. This afternoon, Hizashi will bring Neji over. You met him yesterday; do not show weakness."

His tone was calm, devoid of even a ripple, and no expression could be read on his face.

Yet, Hinata understood that sometimes, the absence of an answer was an answer in itself.

Not until Hyuga Hiashi's figure vanished into the corridor did the light in Hinata's eyes slowly dim: Is it still impossible to satisfy Father?

After a moment, Hinata patted her cheeks and took a deep breath to encourage herself: "This afternoon, I must do my best this afternoon!"

Time reached the afternoon, and Neji Hyuga and Hinata Hyuga were sparring in the dojo.

Although he had not yet activated his Byakugan, Neji was able to precisely predict every one of Hinata's movements based solely on his understanding of the Gentle Fist Technique, laying out his next steps in advance.

He deliberately slowed his speed to leave her room to react, yet even so, the pressure Neji exerted left Hinata's forehead covered in fine beads of sweat.

"Lady Hinata, please focus more." Neji reminded her softly.

He felt he had already broken down the Gentle Fist Technique into something very simple; Hinata's slow progress was merely because she was not serious enough. Even if a person were dull, how could they fail to learn the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms?

"Okay."

Hinata bit her lower lip and agreed, striving to make her movements faster. However, blindly increasing her speed only caused her to further disrupt her own rhythm, and she ultimately stumbled backward under Neji's constantly restrained fists, falling completely into a disadvantage.

On the sidelines, Hizashi Hyuga watched the two of them quietly.

He watched as Neji controlled the rhythm of the battle with ease, every move and stance revealing the composure of a genius, while Hinata, as the heir to the main branch, remained riddled with errors even though Neji had already made such considerations for her.

Hizashi's brows furrowed almost imperceptibly, his gaze drifting more than once toward Neji's forehead. A certain emotion he had thought long gone began to brew in the depths of his heart once more.

When Hinata nearly fell again due to her chaotic footwork, a trace of extremely faint killing intent leaked from him.

A bird with such talent, yet unable to soar freely!

And the root of it all was simply because he had been born a little later than his brother.

Almost at the same instant the killing intent leaked out, Hyuga Hiashi had already stepped in front of Hinata.

There was no questioning, no warning; he directly formed a seal.

"Ah!!!"

Hizashi clutched his head violently, let out a miserable scream, and collapsed to the ground. The burning pain of the Caged Bird Seal caused his body to curl up, writhing in agony on the dojo floor.

"Father!"

Neji's voice carried a panic never heard before. He rushed to Hizashi's side, but froze the moment he knelt down.

He dared not touch his father, who was struggling in pain, nor did he know what to do to help him, so he could only watch helplessly as his father's face twisted bit by bit.

Hiashi was soft-hearted in the end, lowering his hands from the seal: "Hizashi, I thought you had let go of this long ago."

Hizashi lay in Neji's arms, gasping violently, and revealed an ugly smile: "Yes, I also thought I had let go."

You do it for your daughter, and I do it for my son.

Only coldness remained in Hiashi's eyes: "Hizashi, do not forget your status. This pain is the price for your overstepping."

After leaving the dojo, Hinata stayed in her room alone, the scene from earlier still lingering in her mind. Even now, she could not figure out what had happened.

She ran to her desk and took the black notebook from the drawer. Opening the cover, she discovered that beneath the original [Start Simulation], two new options had appeared at some point:

[Continue Simulation]

[Specify Simulation]

The former was easy to understand, but the latter... just as she was puzzled, a line of small text slowly emerged on the paper.

"So that's how it is."

[Specify Simulation] meant manually adding content to change the plot direction of the simulator and obtain an ending in a specified direction, but using this function would increase the simulator's cooldown time.

Hinata bit her lower lip, picked up a pen, and wrote stroke by stroke in the blank space.

[This afternoon, Father suddenly used the Caged Bird Seal on Uncle Hizashi. Father clearly said that the seal was used to protect the eyes of the branch family members, so why did it become like this?]

[I want to know the reason, and what can I do?]

Soon, new text appeared on the notebook.

[Konoha Year 54, the Kumogakure delegation arrived, and Father became busy. I found an opportunity to sneak out of the residence again. Because of the doubts in my heart, I decided to go find Neji-niisan.]

[However, just outside the perimeter wall, I discovered a suspicious figure. The person had dark skin, looking very much like someone from the Land of Lightning.]

[Now, I have two choices.]

[1. Shout loudly that there is a spy from an enemy village here.]

[2. Ignore it and continue to look for Neji.]

Without hesitation, Hinata immediately tapped the second option.

Because I didn't want to be discovered, I decided to pretend I hadn't seen anything and sneak away.

When I arrived in front of Uncle Hizashi's residence, I didn't know what to say if we met. Just as I was hesitating, two figures suddenly appeared from a street corner in the distance; it was Neji and Kiyonari.

I was just about to reach out and wave when a sharp pain suddenly struck the back of my neck. In the final instant before losing consciousness, I saw a dark-skinned hand.

"It's... Kumogakure..."

When I woke up, the Kumogakure jonin who had attacked me was already dead. According to Father, he had been killed by Neji and Kiyonari; they were the ones who had saved me.

I was instinctively suspicious, but when Father saw the look in my eyes, he wore an expression of expectation, even carrying a hint of... relief.

Soon, Kumogakure accused Konoha and the Hyuga clan of shielding the true culprit, claiming that Father had killed the envoy they sent to Konoha, and demanded that Konoha and the Hyuga clan hand Father over.

No one would believe that two children who weren't even ninjas could kill a Kumogakure jonin. They only believed that Father had shifted the responsibility for the murder onto the two children. In the end, Father left a suicide note, destroyed his own eyes, and had the village hand over his corpse.

But Father's death was not the end; instead, this incident pushed the Hyuga clan toward the extreme.

The Main House believed that the Branch House had colluded with outsiders to force the clan leader to his death and intended to use the Caged Bird to tighten their control. This move further enraged the Branch House, who believed the Main House treated them merely as tools rather than fellow clansmen of the "Hyuga."

It seemed there were only two endings left for the Hyuga clan: schism or civil war.

This simulation has ended.

Evaluation: What exactly killed Hyuga Hiashi?