It had been more than a month since Genichi had faced the Nine-Tails. He was back to his routine of school, training, and going home to sleep—peaceful and fulfilling.
"Ah, I can't do this anymore. A ninja's abilities have limits. I learned something from my brief time at school: the more I throw myself into studying, the more I realize that a ninja's abilities have limits. Eventually, I'll end up in an unexpected predicament, and all my efforts will come to nothing—unless I surpass the limits of a ninja."
Genichi had secretly sat in on another lesson about Sealing Jutsu. He sighed.
During this time, Genichi had been incorporating Tobirama's Lightning Release techniques into his Taijutsu training to strengthen his body. He also had to slice leaves and stones to practice changing the nature of his Wind Release chakra, while swimming through the vast ocean of Sealing Jutsu knowledge—backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle.
Minato turned around. "Genichi, what exactly are you trying to say?"
"I'm done being a traditional ninja, Minato."
Genichi was very satisfied with his progress during this time. But he was also keenly aware that ordinary ninjas had their limits. Without Six Paths blood, he might well get stuck at the level of the Five Kage during the Fourth Shinobi World War—or perhaps just a little beyond it.
But what good would that do? Was he going to spend decades working hard after being transported to this world, only to go to war and clear out the grunts?
Whether he continued researching the secrets of chakra or found a way to break through the limits of the body, an excellent medical ninja was essential.
You're the one I choose—Hana.
The more he studied every field, the more time and energy it took. Genichi knew he couldn't keep up with both medical studies and the study of the human body. He had no choice but to train an excellent medical ninja to be his assistant.
Genichi turned to Hyuga Hana. "I gave you and the others the training method for the Rasengan ages ago. How come you're the only one who still hasn't learned it? Good thing I prepared one last little tool and my secret technique for you. Come by my house after school and pick them up."
Hana looked at her serious-faced deskmate, seeming to want to say something, but in the end, she nodded.
After school, she went to Genichi's house.
She had actually learned the Rasengan long ago. She was just afraid the Main Family would see the new jutsu and demand that the Branch Family hand it over. Besides, the Rasengan looked a lot like a miniature version of the Main Family's secret technique, Heavenly Rotation. With the Caged Bird Seal on her forehead, Hyuga Hana really didn't want to provoke the Main Family's sensitive nerves.
She closed the door, about to explain what was going on.
"You don't think I called you here over something as trivial as the Rasengan, do you? What I want to talk about is the Caged Bird." Genichi stood on the border between light and shadow, his expression cold and his tone utterly flat.
The sudden change in her deskmate caught her completely off guard.
Her time at school had been the happiest period of Hana's life. She could no longer remember much about her childhood. Ever since she had been branded with the Caged Bird Seal, all the color had drained from her life.
The Hyuga clan was strict and hidebound, with a rigid hierarchy. As a member of the lowly Branch Family, her life was in the Main Family's hands. She spent every day fearing the future and the unknown, numbing herself with the Hyuga clan's tedious rituals and repeating the ancestral precepts as if it were only natural for the Branch Family to bear the Curse Mark to protect the Main Family.
Only when she left the clan compound and came to school could Hana breathe a little easier. Away from the hidebound Hyuga clan, it felt as if she could set down the Branch Family's burden, too.
When she looked at her classmates, so full of life and energy, she could almost believe she was as free as they were—like a bird that had flown out of its cage.
The clan elders always said that, as a member of the Hyuga Branch Family, she should feel honored by the Branch Family's duty.
Hana couldn't understand. She had never been happy to be a Hyuga.
"You know, some birds are never meant to be caged. Every feather on their bodies shines with the light of freedom." Genichi continued to recite his lines in the same cold tone.
"Will you return to your cage, gradually become just like the elders you hate most, then pass down the despair you inherited to the next generation of the Branch Family?
"Or will you roar against this injustice and prove to the world that you were here? Cherry blossoms may fall to their deaths, but they still bloom, refusing to be bound by the branches.
"Is there anything you would pursue, even if it cost you your life?"
"But the Caged Bird Seal can't be undone. Every member of the Branch Family who betrayed the clan died. That's the fate of the Branch Family." Hana lowered her head and answered in a helpless whisper.
"This was never betrayal. You're simply choosing to be true to yourself.
"Do you know? There's no such thing as fate in this world. Only people who stumble because of ignorance and fear fall into the murky currents of life and get swept along for the rest of their days."
"But why are you helping me?" Everything was happening too fast. Hana's thoughts were still a tangled mess.
"If I had to say, it was both a whim and something I'd planned for a long time. Now it's time to decide. Hana, will you join me?"
The familiar scene made Hana feel as if she had returned to the first day of school. Back then, how could she have...?
"Was the way you usually act all an act?" Hana stared at her deskmate, unable to reconcile him with the person in her memories.
Genichi hadn't expected the invitation lines he had spent days crafting to establish a strong negotiating position to scare his deskmate so badly. The huge contrast with his usual self made him seem like some mastermind lurking behind the scenes of the Ninja World.
But at this point, the mood had been set, so Genichi could only keep it up. He held out a hand to Hana.
"The sky is actually colorless. It hasn't deceived you; your own eyes are deceiving you. Likewise, I'm not trying to trick you. You just haven't seen the real me.
"So, what's your answer?"
Hyuga Hana let out a long sigh, clasped Genichi's outstretched hand tightly, and replied with resolve:
"Give me liberty, or give me death."
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