Rules Are Meant to Restrain Those Who Follow Them

The wedding venue saw a few seemingly insignificant people depart, yet it remained lively.

Those were the men of the Third Hokage, the faction that currently held the reins of power in Konoha.

Kushina Uzumaki dodged the Third Hokage; she was pregnant now, and smoking was, after all, bad for the baby.

The Third Hokage noticed his own lapse in manners, yet he had no intention of putting down his pipe.

Minato Namikaze wore a fawning smile, but he, too, made no move to stop the Third Hokage.

Kushina Uzumaki approached Kakashi Hatake.

Though her pregnancy was not yet showing, her maternal instincts were already overflowing, and she, too, had noticed the predicament Kakashi Hatake was in.

Having lost his comrades, he had fallen into a state of total decadence.

This was precisely why she had insisted on dragging Kakashi Hatake along to act as a greeter; she hoped it would give him a different perspective.

"Kakashi, how did it go? Did Shinichi Hyuga accept those things?"

Kushina Uzumaki's voice was somewhat furtive, and she glanced around sneakily, as if afraid of being discovered.

"No, he refused, I believe."

Seeing his teacher's wife acting this way, a bead of cold sweat appeared on Kakashi Hatake's forehead.

His teacher's wife would always be like a child who never grew up.

Recalling his brief exchange with Shinichi Hyuga just moments ago, he realized his teacher's wife had likely done this without obtaining his teacher's consent.

Nor had she communicated with Shinichi Hyuga beforehand.

As he spoke, he pulled a scroll from his robes.

The character for "Seal" was written on it, and inside were some common sealing techniques of the Uzumaki Clan.

This was the sealing technique Kushina Uzumaki had asked him to pass on to Shinichi Hyuga.

And Shinichi Hyuga had not accepted it.

"Why?"

Kushina Uzumaki was somewhat puzzled.

A few days ago, Shinichi Hyuga had visited alone with two goals in mind.

One was to have Minato Namikaze use his influence to help him compete for the position of head family from the hidden branch at the upcoming Hyuga Clan meeting in a month.

The other was to request sealing techniques, because the Caged Bird was, at its core, a curse seal related to sealing arts.

The branch families of the Hyuga Clan were forbidden from studying deep-level sealing techniques, precisely because there was hope for the branch family to break the Caged Bird.

At that time, Minato Namikaze had rejected his request for the sealing techniques, saying instead that he wanted to strive for a chance for his daughter to be free.

It was then that Shinichi Hyuga knew.

With Minato Namikaze sitting in the position of Hokage, his mind was trapped in the Hokage's way of thinking; one should not hold out hope for him when it came to fighting for freedom.

His own daughter, Reiko Hyuga, possessed half the blood of the Uzumaki Clan, and even with such an excuse laid out for him, Minato Namikaze still would not budge.

This was likely why Kushina Uzumaki had given him the sealing scroll! This princess of the Uzumaki Clan still held great goodwill toward her own kin.

It was just a pity that the women of the Uzumaki Clan always entrusted their hearts to the wrong men.

"Teacher's wife, you should go back and ask Teacher."

Kakashi Hatake felt a headache coming on. He looked at Kushina Uzumaki with dead fish eyes; a husband and wife should be on the same page, and he felt that Shinichi Hyuga had done the right thing.

Kushina Uzumaki was being reckless, and she had already fallen into the schemes of those with ulterior motives.

Passing intelligence in a setting like this—how highly did his teacher's wife think of him? Furthermore, this scroll had long since been tampered with by the Konoha Anbu.

He had already detected a sealing barrier unique to the Konoha Anbu, a technique that could only be cast by someone at the captain level.

If his father hadn't served as the head of the Konoha Anbu for a time, he wouldn't have been able to detect it; his teacher's wife was already embroiled in something.

Judging by Shinichi Hyuga's performance, this matter involved a struggle within the Hyuga Clan.

If not for his teacher's wife's request, he would never have accepted such a thankless task.

Thump.

Just as he was thinking, Kushina Uzumaki's fist hammered onto the top of his head, raising a bump.

His body staggered, drawing the attention of those around them.

Yet he didn't cry out, simply because the sensation was all too familiar.

At that moment, Kushina Uzumaki grabbed his hair and explained to the surrounding crowd with an embarrassed smile.

"Sorry, this kid is just too mischievous!"

At the same time, she whispered a threat.

"Are you looking down on me, you brat?"

Her voice carried a hint of skepticism; she couldn't shake the feeling that the way Kakashi Hatake had looked at her just now was like looking at a pig.

"No... not at all..."

Kakashi Hatake waved his hands hurriedly.

Otherwise, he had no idea what his teacher's wife might do next.

This familiar gesture stirred a sense of warmth in his heart, a feeling he hadn't experienced in a very long time.

His entire life had been defined by loss.

He lost his mother at birth and his father at a tender age.

Later, he lost his most important comrades.

This was the reason he had become increasingly indifferent; it was as if he brought misfortune to everyone around him.

"Alright! Never mind then. I'll take your word for it and go ask Minato."

Kushina Uzumaki returned to her bright, cheerful smile, ruffling Kakashi Hatake's silver hair and casting her doubts to the back of her mind.

Shinichi Hyuga left the wedding venue and arrived at Konoha's Laboratory No. 8.

Located adjacent to the Forest of Death, this place was rarely visited by anyone. It was currently Orochimaru's laboratory, which had been borrowed by Shinichi Hyuga.

With one hand, he performed a quick sequence of hand seals to open the barrier.

He passed through a dim tunnel to reach the innermost laboratory.

What met his eyes were rows of glass containers filled with unknown liquids of various colors, some holding corpses, others holding organs.

At one of the experimental tables, a figure was busy at work.

Upon sensing Shinichi Hyuga's arrival, the figure turned around, revealing a pair of cold, serpentine eyes with purple eyeshadow at the corners.

This was the infamous Orochimaru of Konoha.

In his hand was a Byakugan that had lost its sight, sliced into numerous sections and marked with various cursed seals.

"Shinichi, you're here." At this time, Orochimaru's voice was still somewhat clear, not yet as deep as it would become, and he sensed the killing intent that had erupted from Shinichi Hyuga. "I truly don't understand you. Why would you attend such a boring wedding?"

"No, there was an unexpected gain. Your teacher will be participating in my plan a month from now." In this state, Orochimaru no longer had much interest in the position of Hokage.

"Then you're in for a rough time. My teacher is someone who has played me for a fool," Orochimaru laughed suddenly, then added, "As for the chips, I won't be returning them."

"Just focus on completing your research. The so-called immortality is even simpler than you imagine."

Shinichi Hyuga didn't mind Orochimaru's words. Just as Orochimaru had said, a man like the Third Hokage was someone who had mastered the manipulation of human hearts and rules to their peak.

The two of them could chat and laugh because their strength provided them with other avenues of retreat.

Even in the most unfavorable situation, he could still defect with his daughter.

It was just that, at that point, his quality of life would suffer somewhat.

He also had companions he couldn't bear to abandon, so that remained the worst-case scenario.