The Pawn Who Came Knocking, Saving Hizashi Hyuga!

The cold, rainy night seemed endless.

In the Hyuga Clan branch family, only a dim oil lamp burned in Hizashi's room.

Hizashi sat kneeling on the cold tatami.

He had already changed into spotless white prison clothes, as though awaiting his final judgment.

On the table lay a suicide note addressed to his elder brother, along with a polished ninja kunai.

"Brother, Neji... I'm leaving him to you."

Hizashi murmured to himself, the last trace of attachment in his eyes turning into resolve.

He picked up the kunai, its sharp point aimed at his heart.

To preserve the main family, to preserve Leaf Village's laughable peace.

This was the only value he had as a branch family member.

"Goodbye, this world that is like a cage."

Hizashi closed his eyes and suddenly exerted force with his wrist.

Just as the kunai's tip was about to pierce his skin.

"Buzz—"

The space before him twisted without warning, forming a strange vortex.

"Who?!"

Hizashi was startled, his movement abruptly freezing.

A slender yet powerful hand reached out from the vortex and clamped around his wrist like iron pincers.

Crack.

The finely forged steel kunai was casually pinched in half between the intruder's two fingers.

Clang.

The broken blade fell to the floor with a crisp ring.

A figure clad in a black cloak patterned with red clouds slowly stepped out of the spatial vortex.

The newcomer had messy black hair, and beneath the dim lamplight, his eyes gleamed with a frightening brightness.

"You're Hizashi Hyuga, right?"

Uchiha Yoru released his hand and disdainfully brushed at the hem of his clothes, as if he had touched something filthy.

"You're supposed to be an elite jonin. How did your brain end up like Kakashi's? Did a donkey kick you in the head?"

Hizashi stared blankly at the man who had suddenly appeared, then at the red cloud emblem on his clothes.

"The Akatsuki Organization? No... You're... Uchiha Yoru?!"

As one of the Hyuga Clan's upper ranks, of course he recognized the face that had stirred up monstrous waves throughout the ninja world.

"What are you doing here? Have you come to laugh at the Hyuga Clan?"

Hizashi laughed bitterly, his eyes filled with grief and indignation.

"That's right, the Hyuga are this pathetic! For the village, we have to obediently offer up even our lives!"

"Sacrificing yourself for the village?"

Yoru looked as if he had heard the greatest joke in the world and actually laughed in anger.

"You call that shitty village that tossed you out like garbage to take the blame a village?"

Yoru mercilessly rubbed salt into his wound.

"You call that sacrifice? That's stupidity! That's cowardice!"

"If you die, will Hidden Cloud Village really let this go? Will your brother truly be at peace? Will your son Neji escape the fate of the Caged Bird?"

With every question, Yoru stepped closer.

The invisible pressure made it difficult for Hizashi even to breathe.

"Don't be naive."

Yoru's voice was cold as frost.

"If you die, you'll only make your brother carry guilt for the rest of his life."

"You'll make your son live under the shadow of hatred for the main family and his fate."

"And those Leaf Village higher-ups will only shed a few hypocritical tears at your funeral before continuing to exploit the Hyuga Clan with a clear conscience!"

Every word pierced his heart.

Every sentence drew blood.

Hizashi was left speechless, his face deathly pale as his entire body began to tremble violently.

"Then... then what else can I do?"

He clutched his head in agony, his voice full of despair.

"I'm only from the branch family. Ever since this curse mark was branded on me, my life has no longer belonged to me!"

He pointed at the blue Caged Bird curse mark on his forehead, looking almost crazed.

"Do you understand?! This is a fate we can never escape!"

"Fate?"

Yoru sneered, stepped forward, and grabbed him.

"With me, there is no fate."

Yoru pulled out a scroll from his robes. With a bang, he unsealed a White Zetsu clone that looked exactly like Hizashi.

"This is?" Hizashi's eyes widened.

"Your stand-in."

Yoru kept it brief.

"Orochimaru's techniques aren't bad. He even cloned the Byakugan genes into it. It'll be convincing enough to pass for the real thing."

As he spoke, Yoru gave Hizashi no chance to react.

He raised his right hand, pressed his index and middle fingers together, and directly placed them on the Caged Bird curse mark on Hizashi's forehead.

"What are you doing?!" Hizashi's face changed drastically as he tried to struggle.

The Caged Bird curse mark was connected to the brain's nerves. Forcibly destroying it would only cause brain death!

"Don't move."

Yoru barked out the command, his voice carrying unquestionable authority.

His eyes flew open.

A crimson Mangekyō Sharingan pattern spun rapidly in his eyes.

Pure Yin Release chakra mixed with immense sage energy, transforming into a gentle yet irresistible force that slowly seeped through his fingertips into the core of the curse mark.

Sizzle...

An extremely faint sound, like an electrical short circuit, rang out.

Hizashi felt a numbness in his forehead, followed by an unprecedented sense of ease spreading instantly through every limb and bone.

It was as though a heavy shackle he had worn for decades had been utterly shattered in that moment.

The Caged Bird curse mark—the nightmare that had plagued the Hyuga Clan branch family for over a thousand years.

Yoru had effortlessly dismantled its chakra circuitry at the root.

The blue markings of the curse mark rapidly faded from Hizashi's forehead like a receding tide, until they vanished completely.

Hizashi tremblingly raised a hand and touched his smooth forehead.

It was gone.

That suffocating feeling of having his throat gripped at every moment was completely gone.

He felt freedom like never before.

He could no longer hold back his tears. They streamed from his eyes.

He turned around and looked at the man before him, who had so easily rewritten his fate like a god.

With a thud.

Hizashi Hyuga dropped heavily to both knees and offered Yoru the highest salute a ninja could give.

When he raised his head, those pale white eyes no longer held their earlier despair or resignation.

In their place burned reverence and fervor like raging flames.

Using every ounce of strength in his body, he declared hoarsely, one word at a time.

"From this day onward, this life is yours!"

"Lord Yoru!"