The Direction of the Spearhead

"What happened?"

"It's nothing, just a routine visit and investigation." Ning Qi brushed past Neji and walked straight into the kitchen.

"Did someone disappear again? Then does that mean Sister Tsuki also..." Neji trailed off.

He was very smart. From Takizawa Yamaaki's questions earlier, he had already figured out quite a few things.

Every so often, members of the Hyuga Branch Family would mysteriously disappear or be killed. It did not happen frequently, but as the number of disappearances increased every half year, many branch family members had gradually realized what was happening. They sought help from the clan head, but received no answer they wanted. They sought help from the Hokage, and Sarutobi had even sent people to investigate, yet no clues were ever found.

The number of missing people was still growing. Now, it had actually spread to someone close to Neji.

"Did you like her that much?" Ning Qi lit the stove and heated the oil, glancing at Neji in surprise.

"Hasn't she always been good to us? And she liked you a lot too, Brother..." Neji secretly watched his brother's expression.

Why did his brother not seem sad at all?

Was this the mental fortitude of a ninja...?

"Listen carefully, Neji." Ning Qi looked indifferent as he prepared the ingredients for dinner and began lecturing him. "It isn't that ninja must be cold and heartless, but compared to ordinary people, the greatest difference in a ninja's temperament lies in one word: endure."

"To achieve a goal, you must endure. To carry out a plan, you must endure."

"To avoid showing weakness to the enemy," Ning Qi said emphatically, chopping potatoes as he turned to stare at Neji, "you must endure grief even more."

Neji looked around. There were only him and his brother in the room. There was no so-called "enemy," so what was the point of "enduring grief"?

"Brother, you've really been lecturing a lot lately." Neji did not argue. He merely rested his chin in his hands and complained, yet his sadness inexplicably eased somewhat.

"I know you can't take it in, but I wasn't saying it for the current you anyway." Ning Qi spoke casually. He tossed the potatoes into the pan, but his gaze drifted toward somewhere outside the window.

It was a utility pole, and a crow stood atop it with its head tilted, quietly watching him.

How persistent...

Before the Byakugan, no method of concealment could remain undetected. The crow clearly knew that as well. After waiting for a while, it flapped its wings and flew away.

"Why are you wearing such oversized clothes?" Ning Qi came back to himself. The potatoes were done, and he suddenly looked at Neji and asked.

Seeing Neji's flustered expression, Ning Qi smiled faintly.

"You got into a fight?"

Neji froze for a moment, then immediately nodded. His brother was smart, and lies were easily seen through. It was better to let him misunderstand the injuries on his body as the result of an ordinary "fight."

Ning Qi was Neji's only family. He was Neji's pride, the glory of the Hyuga Branch Family, and one of Konoha's Twin Prodigies.

Neji had no intention of telling Ning Qi about what happened today. Ning Qi was strong, but he was also a member of the branch family. He too bore the Caged Bird Seal. If Neji saw Ning Qi kneeling before Hyuga Ling, restrained by an activated seal because of him and subjected to wanton humiliation, Neji felt he would be guilty until death.

"What's the big deal if you lost? Just win it back next time." Ning Qi's unconcerned manner made Neji relax slightly.

"I... I'll definitely get revenge!" Neji said seriously, clenching his fists.

Although he still had no idea how to counter the Caged Bird, perhaps... he really should endure for now?!

"Good. Go train first. I'll call you when dinner is ready." Ning Qi waved him away. As he watched Neji's retreating back, his gaze gradually deepened.

Neji's lie was full of holes. The taijutsu Lion Fang that he had taught him was enough for Neji to beat down the entire Ninja Academy. How could he possibly lose a fight against children his own age?!

Besides, the traces left behind after the Caged Bird Seal was activated were far too obvious. Those eyes that occasionally reddened and twitched could not possibly escape Ning Qi's notice.

As a genius who had risen from the Hyuga Branch Family, Ning Qi had also experienced being humiliated with the seal by mentally unbalanced members of the Hyuga Main Family. Of course, those who had offended him back then had gradually become corpses beneath the earth, while their eyes had become nourishment for the evolution of Ning Qi's Byakugan.

"I've fully adapted to the third stage of the Byakugan. Next, I can begin preparing for the final stage of evolution."

Ning Qi looked at the birds outside the window, his expression calm.

The evolutionary nourishment his Byakugan needed next was not something one or two pairs of Byakugan could provide...

His recent actions had clearly drawn the vigilance of Konoha's higher-ups and certain others. This world did not lack intelligent people. They had already begun focusing their suspicions on him. This was the result of Ning Qi's impatience in several earlier incidents, but he did not care much.

If each stage of his eyes' evolution had not required time to adapt, leaving him with a rather agonizing vulnerable period, he would never have allowed others to find such a loophole.

That ANBU member named Takizawa Yamaaki had clearly followed the clues all the way here after Hyuga Tsuki's corpse was exposed.

Fortunately, the only things that could be considered loopholes during this period were Hyuga Tsuki's corpse and Takizawa Yamaaki, who had stormed into his home for an inspection while he was away.

—Not too troublesome.

As fate approached its final moment, Ning Qi's heart grew ever calmer. He watched the steam rising from the pot, but his memories returned to that night four years ago.

His father, Hizashi Hyuga, had committed suicide at home. Ning Qi had been the first to push open the door, yet the Byakugan that should have been destroyed by the Caged Bird instead transformed into a pure essence and flew into his eyes.

That was the first time Ning Qi's Byakugan had evolved. He went blind for two days because of it. The clan members all assumed he had cried himself blind over his father's death, and even the clan head, Hyuga Hiashi, had come personally to console him.

But only Ning Qi himself knew that he was nowhere near that filial. He had known Hizashi Hyuga would die from the moment he transmigrated here with knowledge of the plot. When it happened, he had merely been saddened that he had ultimately lost his protection, but that level of grief was not enough to squeeze out even a single tear.

Yet the instant his father's Byakugan transformed into pure essence and flew into his eye sockets, when he realized his eyes were so special that they could absorb the Byakugan of his own clan and evolve, Ning Qi had even been unable to stop himself from bursting into laughter at Hizashi's funeral!

Father.

If not for your death.

How long would it have taken me to learn that I was born to kill all of you?

It was precisely Hizashi Hyuga's death that made Ning Qi's originally bleak life, one that could only be bound by the Caged Bird, suddenly seem as though an unyielding gate had been shaken open by a sliver. A beam of light shone through the crack, allowing Ning Qi to see that he actually had another path to choose.

The gate was tightly locked.

The key required the blood of every member of his clan to forge.

The strongest spear that guarded the Hyuga Main Family had, from that moment onward, already turned its spearhead toward the Hyuga clan.