Rebirth (Brain on Hold)

Reborn (Brain Deposit)

The moonlight of the Tzu hour cut through the mourning hall, and white mourning banners wrote elegiac couplets in the wind.

When the sandalwood burned out, a pair of small hands drew three sticks of incense from the incense box on the left side of the ancestral tablet, lit them, and placed them into the censer in front of the tablet.

Wisps of green smoke drifted and blurred the delicate face of the young body, and the bandage on his forehead seemed to tighten by a circle.

"Hizashi Hyuga?!"

He softly murmured the text on the ancestral tablet, his expression somewhat dazed.

After a moment...

"I never expected that I would cross over, and actually cross into the Naruto World, onto Neji Hyuga!"

Thinking of the future body pierced full of holes, the domesticated soul obedient to mediocrity, and the pale ancestral tablet held high at the wedding, the small figure could not help frowning.

"How did I cross over into this guy? Even though he is a genius, in the later stages because he lacked growth potential, just to set off Naruto Uzumaki's state of mind changes, Kishimoto forced him offline. You could say he is extremely tragic. No, now the tragic one has become me! Damn it, why didn't I cross into the Uchiha Clan..."

The small figure muttered somewhat irritably.

Memories rose and fell like a tide. Just last night he was still staying up late moving bricks, but at this moment he had become the orphan of a branch family from a prominent Konoha clan.

Suddenly, a stabbing pain came from his mind, and Neji could not help holding his head and groaning softly. Memories belonging to the original owner flashed past piece by piece—a pale palm print pressed against Hizashi Hyuga's chest, the curse mark burning between his brows, and an elder of the Main House saying this was "the glory of protection."

"Neji Hyuga..."

The young boy chewed the name between his teeth, tasting the iron-rust-flavored resolve.

"Forget it, since I'm already here, this journey is destined to be a one-way ticket. What will be, will be! From now on, I am Neji Hyuga. Moreover, is this the Byakugan... Hehe... Not bad at all, extraordinary power..."

As the newborn Neji suddenly activated the Byakugan, a black-and-white world instantly covered his original field of vision. His sight suddenly broke through the obstruction of the courtyard walls, seeing all scenes within a radius of one li.

Just as he shifted his perspective, a rebound force suddenly descended, and Neji instantly felt as if his head had crashed into a wall. Groaning in pain, he deactivated the Byakugan, and that peculiar vision instantly vanished.

"Is that... the Main House? It seems something at the core is guarding it; the Byakugan can't pierce through! Tsk! Of all times to die in this body, it just had to be a branch family member. It looks like in this script, I first need to clear the scene of family infighting! I wonder if my mind, pruned by nine years of compulsory education, can handle this grand drama?"

Suppressing the lingering anxiety in his heart, Neji began to calculate his current plight. The original owner's father, Hizashi Hyuga, died in place of his older brother, the Hyuga clan head Hiashi Hyuga. The reason was that the Cloud Shinobi Delegation had suddenly made a move during a lull in peace negotiations to kidnap Hinata Hyuga, and Hiashi Hyuga had struck out in anger, killing a Cloud Shinobi envoy with a single palm.

In order not to disrupt the peace negotiations, and because Konoha truly no longer had the strength to sustain a war, under the unreasonable demands of the Cloud Shinobi Delegation, the Third Hokage was forced to make concessions, demanding that the Hyuga hand over the so-called culprit. Under such circumstances, Hizashi—being Hiashi's twin brother and a branch family member whose duty was to guard the Main House—was naturally sacrificed.

His frail mother had also let go and passed away, and four-year-old Neji could not bear such a blow, causing his soul to shatter. Thus, his body was occupied by the modern soul that had crossed over.

"Where is the system? Where is the old grandpa?"

Resignedly accepting his identity, Neji began to summon the must-have item of traversers full of expectations—the golden finger!

A long time passed...

"Cruel heavens, don't toy with me like this! Without a damn thing, how am I supposed to make a counterattack? I couldn't make a counterattack even in my previous life's egalitarian environment, and this lifetime I'm tied up with a dog leash. It can't be that others cross over to become Buddhas and ancestors while I can only be a dog..."

Neji was on the verge of tears. After a long while, he thought: "If I'm a dog, I'm a dog! At least I'm a branch family young master, which still makes me the boss of the dogs!"

Neji comforted himself with plenty of Ah Q spirit. "To live is to have hope. If worst comes to worst, I'll cooperate with Orochimaru, or become his experimental material. It's merely a Caged Bird; Lord Oro is a scientific madman unprecedented in history. Even though I'm bargaining with a tiger for its skin, it's at least a path with hope!"

Having settled on a plan, Neji continued to review the original owner's memories.

He was, after all, the clan head's own younger brother, and furthermore died for the clan head. Neji inherited his father's small courtyard, which was fresh, elegant, and had a rather decent living environment, plus maidservants of ordinary clan status to attend to his daily life. At least in terms of living conditions, he wouldn't have to be as destitute as Naruto Uzumaki.

It was a large clan with strict hierarchies, densely packed houses, and convoluted clan rules. Neji's mind kept replaying the situation of the Hyuga clan from Naruto.

As the large clan that laughed last, and with the clan producing a First Lady, many things undoubtedly possessed their own reason for existing, such as this branch family matter. Furthermore, as someone who knew the whole picture, Neji was all the more aware of the unknown secrets hidden behind the Caged Bird.

The secret that numerous Byakugans could combine into a Giant Tenseigan was something even the Main House did not pass down.

The Caged Bird was a Caged Bird; naturally, it was immune to cold and heat, and never had to worry about food or clothing. Yet to a bird yearning for a broader world, it was shackles that made him blend in with the masses.

The moonlight of the Chou hour pierced through the paper window, casting a fine grid upon Neji's forehead. The Caged Bird curse mark emitted a faint glow in the dark, acting like an invisible iron chain that imprisoned his talent and ambition within this tiny body.

"This greenish mark is truly too ugly. At least design it a bit prettier. Branch family members aren't completely unaccepting, but what an arrogant clan! Even toward their own clansmen, and even toward blood-related siblings of the same mother, they humiliate them to this extreme..."

Neji pulled off the bandage on his forehead, the ugly curse mark coiled like a snake upon his brow. The moonlight refracted deep within his pupils, reflecting countless possible futures—every single one shrouded in the shadow of the Caged Bird.

He recalled the arrogant gazes of the Main House children during the day—those mediocre yet free souls who could squander their talents at will without fearing any backlash. Yet he himself, before he had even flown, already bore a scar upon his soul.

"Freedom... Chakra?!"

Neji softly murmured, feeling the novel phenomenon flowing within his body that he had never possessed before, and tried to condense a wisp of chakra at his fingertip.

Suddenly, a blue light abruptly lit up within his Sea of Consciousness, pushing the suppression of the curse mark back by a fraction.

Neji's spirit shook, and following a trace of inexplicable guidance, he walked out toward the courtyard.

The moonlight poured down like a silver waterfall, spilling onto the small courtyard, quiet and magnificent.

Neji felt a stirring in his heart, then stripped off his upper garments, exposing his tender, undeveloped physique. Every inch of his skin cast a glistening luster under the moonlight.

He sat cross-legged under the veranda. A wisp of moonlight penetrated his skin, and he formed a seal. The moonlight was drawn and absorbed into his Sea of Consciousness, and the blue light within the Sea of Consciousness suddenly darted out.

"Slurp..."

Neji seemed to hear a tiny sucking sound.

At this moment, the blue light in the Sea of Consciousness suddenly dispersed, revealing an object from within. It resembled an unfurled scroll, similar to silk fabric, and within the canvas was an Eight Trigrams Diagram, with traditional Taiji Yin-Yang fish right in the center.

At this moment, this Yin-Yang fish rotated clockwise, while the outer Eight Trigrams rotated counterclockwise. The entire diagram emitted bursts of blue light, and a flash of enlightenment suddenly welled up in Neji's heart.

"So this is the reason I crossed over! It was this Primordial Bagua Diagram that protected a wisp of my spiritual light from destruction. But speaking of which, how did I die again? Forget it, it doesn't matter. Hahaha, the golden finger has arrived, so it's not too tragic after all. But what on earth is this about needing high-quality energy to activate it?"

Neji felt the information transmitted from his Sea of Consciousness and scratched his head somewhat.

Suddenly, the Bagua Diagram in the Sea of Consciousness projected into reality, forming a light ring three zhang in diameter around Neji. The moonlight was refracted by the light ring, casting a complete Zhou-Tian star map onto the training ground. The night-watch ninja in the distance sensed something, but only saw an unusually bright full moon.

"Swish~ Swish~"

Someone was coming. Such a thought arose in Neji's mind, and he hurriedly and clumsily pulled the star map back into his Sea of Consciousness.

"What happened here?"

It was the branch family's night-patrol personnel. Due to the special nature of the Byakugan, it could not be activated casually within the village, so this ninja did not know what had happened. He looked over the small courtyard and the child beneath the veranda, instantly recognizing Neji's identity, though his gaze remained indifferent and numb.

"Nothing. Just now I tried to refine chakra, my meridians felt a bit strained, and the chakra leaked out."

Neji replied expressionlessly.

"Is that so?"

The ninja asked casually, his tone not stern, seeming to have no intention of pursuing the matter, except that a trace of emotion finally stirred in the depths of his eyes.

"Another genius?! To be able to perceive and refine chakra at this age... Although it failed, looking at that dissipated aura just now, without a doubt it wasn't achieved overnight. Was it even earlier?"

The ninja put away his thoughts and swept his gaze around the courtyard once more. Confirming there were no issues, he said to Neji: "It's already very late. Don't wander around casually. Tomorrow Lord Hizashi is to be buried, and there are quite a few affairs, so rest early! Also, don't activate the Byakugan casually..."

The ninja said pointedly.

With that, he looked once more at the cold, quiet young child, and swish, vanished instantly.

"Body Flicker Technique..."

Neji's eyes lit up. "This is ninjutsu?!"