Fairness! Or F***ing Fairness

"You lowly wretches, you truly lack discipline!"

The Great Elder formed seals with his hands, his ocular power bleeding into the gestures.

"Stop!"

Hyuga Hiashi tried to intervene, for he was all too familiar with that seal; it was the Caged Bird seal invoked only to execute members of the branch family!

The Great Elder was actually attempting to trigger the Caged Bird on every branch family member standing behind Shinichi Hyuga.

This time, the target was not just Shinichi Hyuga!

The scene fell into an instant, suffocating silence.

Some clenched their fists tightly; such an attitude only made them more determined to support Shinichi Hyuga.

Only Shinichi Hyuga could bring them the future he had promised, and they had become utterly disillusioned with the main family.

A brilliant azure light bloomed within Shinichi Hyuga's remaining eye.

He gazed at the Great Elder, who had been driven to fury and shame.

The man had gone so mad that he would use the Caged Bird to force them into submission, and if they refused, the end would be death!

Invisible ocular powers collided in the air.

Hummm~~

A shockwave erupted above Shinichi Hyuga's head, manifesting as a pale blue barrier that shielded those behind him.

"Shinichi Hyuga, you truly had a heart of rebellion all along! Hiashi, join me in invoking the Caged Bird; I do not believe he can withstand the two of us!"

The Great Elder's hands flew through the seals again and again.

At this moment, these were no longer simple seals of torture, but seals of death!

He realized now that with his own strength alone, he could not break through this protective barrier.

That pale blue ocular power gave him a sense of oppression and an urge to submit.

He roared the command at Hyuga Hiashi.

"I..."

Hyuga Hiashi fell into a state of internal conflict, unsure of what to do.

Beads of sweat the size of peas rolled down the Great Elder's face, and the look in Shinichi Hyuga's eye stirred the terror deep within him.

It was just like the time he had been forced to his knees at the wedding!

He felt as if he had been transported back to the battlefield in Kumogakure.

Back then, Shinichi Hyuga had been fighting the Eight-Tails jinchuriki, who had partially transformed into a Tailed Beast, yet he had activated the Caged Bird.

He had sealed some of Shinichi Hyuga's vision, leading to a misjudgment that cost him his right arm.

Shinichi Hyuga maintained the barrier without taking further action; he, too, wanted to see how Hyuga Hiashi would choose.

"Main family?..."

"Why?..."

"..."

A series of pained, weak voices reached Hyuga Hiashi's ears.

The branch family jonin standing behind Hyuga Hiashi had been caught in the wake of the maddened Great Elder.

The meridians in their eyes burst, and the ocular tissue was destroyed.

Chaotic chakra invaded their minds, shredding their brain tissue as their life force dissipated.

Without the protection of Shinichi Hyuga, these dozen or so elderly branch family jonin were struck by the backlash of the Caged Bird marks.

They lost their lives in the agony of the Caged Bird!

"Uncle? You all?"

Stung by the sight before him, Hyuga Hiashi rushed to the side of one of the elders.

He cradled the old man's body in his arms; this man had been his guardian since childhood and had watched him grow up. To see him die under the curse of the Caged Bird was truly ironic.

Two lines of tears streamed down his face, though he did not know if he wept for himself or for the old man who had cared for him his entire life.

He stood there, stunned and at a loss, his hearing lost to the world.

"Your rules have been trampled. Now, we shall proceed by my rules!"

Shinichi Hyuga formed a seal with one hand, and from beneath his feet, pale blue chains emerged—the same shade of blue as the Caged Bird mark on his forehead.

They locked down the entire ancestral hall, forming a massive curse seal.

Viewed from the sky, one could see a large 'X' shape, or rather, something remarkably similar to the Caged Bird mark currently hovering above Shinichi Hyuga's head.

Pale blue chains coiled around the Great Elder's legs, binding him into the shape of a human cocoon.

Hyuga Hiashi experienced the same fate.

The pale blue chains then vanished in an instant, merging into their bodies.

"What have you done to me?"

The Great Elder's face was twisted in terror, his features contorted as he frantically waved his hands around his head, roaring at Shinichi Hyuga.

"You should have realized it by now!"

Shinichi Hyuga pointed a finger at his own forehead, then gestured for him to look at Hyuga Hiashi.

Waving his hands—wasn't he just trying to confirm the blind spots in his field of vision?

On Hyuga Hiashi's forehead, a pale green curse mark appeared.

The shape of an X, combined with the chains of tomoe, was unmistakably the Caged Bird curse mark of the Hyuga Clan.

"No~~"

The Great Elder's voice pierced through the entire ancestral hall; had it not been for the barrier Shinichi Hyuga had set up, it likely would have echoed throughout the entire Hyuga Clan compound.

He shook his head repeatedly, trying to verify his own conjecture.

Within his field of vision, what should have been a perfect three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view now suffered from a massive, gaping defect!

This was a condition that only appeared in members of the branch family upon whom the Caged Bird curse mark had been placed.

And now, it had appeared on him.

"I've been branded with the Caged Bird?"

"I've become a lowly branch family member? Hahaha!!"

"How could I possibly be branded with the Caged Bird?"

The Great Elder kept asking, his voice growing increasingly frantic.

His eyes clouded with madness, and his hands turned into claws, raking across his forehead and leaving trails of blood, yet he could never destroy the curse mark etched into his skin.

Shinichi Hyuga watched the now-crazed Great Elder without a shred of pity.

A man who had been carried to the mountaintop by others would only fall all the harder when he finally lost his footing.

He had enjoyed the fruits of labor created by the Hyuga branch family while harboring nothing but contempt for those who truly struggled.

He had always been the one to decide the life and death of others, and now, his own life and fate hung on the whim of another.

This was the massive disparity Shinichi Hyuga wanted him to experience.

"Hyuga Muneoka, I now declare you guilty of treason! And the slaughter of your own kin!"

"Sentence: Execution!"

Behind Shinichi Hyuga, all the surviving members of the Hyuga branch family followed, forming a white torrent as they closed in on the Great Elder of the Hyuga Clan.

The tide was irreversible; this was the cry of a Hyuga Clan that had been oppressed for a thousand years.

Hyuga Muneoka, who had always identified himself as the Great Elder, finally remembered his own name at this moment.

Ever since he became part of the Hyuga main family, that name had been replaced by his title, only to be spoken aloud once again.

Hyuga Hiashi, meanwhile, lay like a pile of mud, silently watching everything unfold before him.

He was locked in the gaze of a dangerous presence; any movement on his part would surely result in death.

Shinichi Hyuga cast a single glance his way. As expected, those who defected to the Third Hokage were all "men of great foresight!"

No wonder that in the coming years, even when people from Kumogakure sought to uproot the Hyuga Clan, he still chose to compromise!

How could such a man be fit to be the clan head!

Shinichi Hyuga formed seals with his remaining hand, channeling both ocular power and chakra into the hand signs to trigger the Caged Bird mark.

"Ah!!!"

The Great Elder clutched his head, curling onto his side and rolling on the ground!

"That mark! It's the Caged Bird mark!"

Hyuga Hiashi screamed in his heart.

Even though it was a one-handed seal, those signs were indeed the ones used to trigger the Caged Bird curse.