The Truth of the Caged Bird Seal: Fragment One

Dust danced in the morning light of the archive, like countless tiny prisoners.

Hyuga Xiao knelt on the wooden floor, slowly wiping the edges of the bookshelves with a rag. This was a side archive where the Hyuga Clan's Branch House stored ancient texts. Aside from the routine monthly cleaning, almost no one ever came here. The Main House's core collection was kept in another, grander building, protected by barriers and guarded by dedicated personnel—but here, there was only dust, worm-eaten scrolls, and forgotten history.

"Branch House member Hyuga Xiao, by Elder Xiao's order, is responsible for this month's archive cleaning."

He quietly repeated the order he had received that morning to the empty attic, though the corner of his mouth lifted in the faintest curve.

The order was real.

But the purpose was something he had secured for himself.

Three days earlier, after Elder Xiao's probing summons, Xiao had not chosen to retreat. Instead, he had approached the steward responsible for Branch House chores and applied for this most neglected assignment under the pretext of "sharing the Main House's burdens and making amends for his recent unauthorized actions." His reasoning was impeccable, his attitude sincere and humble—the steward merely assumed this Branch House boy had been frightened out of his wits by the elder and wanted to prove his loyalty through hard work, so he approved it with a casual wave.

They would never know that this very "neglect" was exactly what Xiao wanted.

When the rag passed over the middle of the third shelf, his movements paused slightly.

The Byakugan's vision silently activated.

Pale-blue chakra pathways flowed deep within his pupils. The world before him lost its color, turning into stark black-and-white lines and currents of energy. Bookshelves, scrolls, dust—and the faint sealing fluctuations deliberately concealed among ordinary ancient texts.

"Found it."

Xiao set down the rag and formed the simplest possible Release hand seal. Chakra seeped from his fingertips, precisely piercing an inconspicuous indentation in the wood grain on the side of the shelf. There was no mechanism, no physical lock—only a membrane of chakra as thin as a cicada's wing, the most basic anti-peeping barrier set by the Main House.

For ordinary Branch House members, this barrier would have been enough to stop them.

But for Xiao, whose Byakugan purity had risen to 6% and whose mental perception had just been strengthened by the Illusion Talent Fragment, it was like a sheet of wet paper.

"Pop."

A rupture so faint it was nearly inaudible.

The instant the barrier dispersed, Xiao reached into the depths of the shelf and pulled out an ancient beast-hide manuscript. The hide had yellowed and become brittle, its edges marked by wormholes, crudely bound with hemp rope. There was no label on the scroll's surface, only a single character written in faded ink in the lower-right corner:

Forbidden.

Xiao did not open it immediately.

Instead, he dipped the rag back into the bucket, wrung it out, and continued wiping the other parts of the shelf. His movements were steady, his rhythm even, and his breathing did not falter in the slightest. Yet the Byakugan remained active, monitoring the entire archive and the courtyard outside with an unobstructed three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view.

Ten minutes.

Twenty minutes.

Only after confirming that no one was approaching did he sit cross-legged and place the beast-hide manuscript on his knees.

The hemp rope made a faint scraping sound as he untied it.

The hide unfolded. Its ink had bled, leaving much of the writing blurred and difficult to discern. But the very first line made Xiao's pupils abruptly contract—

<Study of the Evolution of the Hyuga Main and Branch House System · Fragment Three>

Compiler: Kagami Hyuga (Branch House · Deceased)

Compiled: Year 13 of Konoha

Year 13 of Konoha.

That was the final period of the Second Hokage Tobirama Senju's rule, barely twenty years after the First Hokage Hashirama Senju had founded Konoha Village.

Xiao's fingers brushed over the blurred ink as he continued reading.

The fragment's contents were intermittent, as though it had been torn apart and then pieced back together. The first half recorded the Hyuga Clan's old system during the Warring States era—though there had been a distinction between the Main House and Branch House, Branch House members had not been slaves from birth. If a Branch House child possessed extraordinary talent and earned outstanding military achievements, he could rise to the Main House through the "Clan Grand Tournament." If a Main House member committed serious wrongdoing, he could likewise be demoted to the Branch House.

"A fluid class system..."

Xiao muttered softly, his gaze gradually turning cold.

Then what had turned the Hyuga Clan into what it was today? The Main House born noble, the Branch House born enslaved, seals branded onto their foreheads, their lives and deaths beyond their own control?

His gaze quickly moved downward.

A large section in the middle of the beast-hide manuscript had been torn away. The surviving passages were abrupt and disjointed:

"...The Uchiha Clan's Sharingan can copy ninjutsu, the Senju Clan's Wood Release can control Tailed Beasts. Though our clan's Byakugan is unmatched in perception, it lacks the power to directly defeat enemies. Near the end of the Warring States era, incidents of Byakugan being stolen occurred frequently..."

"...The First Hokage proposed an alliance, founding a village to end the wars. Each clan was to contribute part of its secret techniques to jointly construct Leaf Village's defensive system. Our clan contributed the formation diagram for the 'Byakugan Insight Barrier,' the Senju contributed the foundational scrolls of the 'Wood Release Sealing Technique,' and the Uchiha..."

"...Yet the First Hokage made another proposal: to prevent the leakage of each clan's Kekkei Genkai, a 'Bloodline Seal' should be established. The Senju Clan was willing to use the Wood Release Sealing Technique as a foundation to help our clan improve the 'Caged Bird Seal'..."

At this point, Xiao's breathing stopped for an instant.

The cold sensation of the wooden floor pressed against his knees. Outside, wind passed through the bamboo tubes in the courtyard, producing a soft thunk. But those sensory details had become distant. All of his attention was fixed on the blurred yet glaring line of text on the beast-hide manuscript:

The Senju Clan was willing to use the Wood Release Sealing Technique as a foundation to help our clan improve the Caged Bird Seal.

Improve.

Not create.

In other words, the Caged Bird Seal had existed even earlier, only with a different function? During the Warring States era, perhaps it had merely been a technique that marked one's status rather than shackles controlling life and death?

Xiao forced himself to continue reading.

There were even more torn sections. The following passages were fragmented:

"...The Uchiha clan head strongly objected, claiming this seal violated a ninja's free will..."

"...The First Hokage promised that the seal would only be used to prevent bloodline techniques from leaking and would never be used for internal oppression..."

"...Our clan's Main House council debated for three consecutive days. In the end, the Great Elder Tennin Hyuga made the final decision: accept the improvement. His reasoning: the Uchiha possess the Sharingan to protect themselves, the Senju have Wood Release to suppress enemies, while our clan's Byakugan lacks offensive means. If it were seized on a large scale by foreign enemies, the clan would be in grave danger..."

"...Year 1 of Konoha, the first branding ceremony for the new 'Caged Bird Seal' was held. Of the three hundred and seventy-one Branch House members, fewer than one hundred accepted the seal voluntarily. The Main House pressured the rest with the 'survival of the clan,' and the remainder..."

Voluntarily.

Xiao stared at those two words and suddenly wanted to laugh.

So the original Caged Bird Seal had actually included the notion of "voluntary." Then what happened afterward? When had Branch House children begun to be branded from birth? When had "voluntary" become "mandatory"?

His fingers tightened slightly, leaving fine wrinkles along the edge of the beast-hide manuscript.

Continue.

The final sections of the fragment were written even more hastily, as though the compiler had been writing in desperate urgency:

"...Year 3 of Konoha, the First Hokage died of illness. The Second Hokage succeeded him, and policy shifted. Control of the Caged Bird Seal was completely monopolized by the Main House. The Branch House protested, and the Second Hokage replied: 'This is an internal matter of the Hyuga Clan. Leaf Village is not in a position to interfere.'..."

"...Year 8 of Konoha, Branch House member Retsu Hyuga attempted to break the Caged Bird Seal and died after failing. His autopsy report showed a second layer of seal nested deep within the curse mark, suspected to be a variation of the Senju Clan's Wood Release Sealing Technique, capable of remotely triggering brain death..."

"...I investigated in secret and discovered that the Main House and the Hokage's Office regularly exchanged confidential reports. Leaf Village's upper ranks should possess a backup of the complete formula for the Caged Bird Seal. This seal is no longer for defending against foreign enemies, but rather..."

The writing stopped abruptly there.

At the end of the final line, several words had been violently scratched out. Yet through the ink bleeding through the back of the hide, Xiao could barely make out the remaining strokes:

...a tool for checking the Uchiha.

A tool.

The Hyuga Branch House was a tool of the Main House.

And the entire Hyuga Clan was a... tool used by Leaf Village's upper ranks to check the Uchiha.

The attic was so quiet that he could hear his own heartbeat.

Xiao slowly closed the beast-hide manuscript and tied it back up with the hemp rope. His movements were slow, every step as precise as if he were dismantling an explosive tag. After binding it, he did not immediately return it to its place. Instead, he took out a palm-sized blank scroll from his clothes and spread it open.

The Byakugan activated once more.

This time, the pale-blue chakra pathways deep within his pupils began to tremble at a complex frequency. This was a Byakugan derivative ability he had developed on his own after its purity rose to 6%—Localized High-Precision X-Ray Vision and Memory Replication.

His gaze locked onto the beast-hide manuscript.

Every word on the manuscript, every pattern of bled ink, every torn mark, was broken down in the Byakugan's vision into countless minute lines and patches of color. This information entered his brain through his optic nerves before being guided by chakra toward his fingertips.

Xiao bit his right thumb, and the blood that seeped out rapidly wrote across the blank scroll.

He was not copying the text.

He was making an imprint.

The blood spread across the scroll, gradually outlining a complete image of the beast-hide manuscript—including the torn and missing portions, the hasty handwriting of Kagami Hyuga, and the final scratched-out sentence.

Three minutes later, the imprint was complete.

Xiao rolled up the blood scroll and tucked it close to his body. Then he returned the beast-hide manuscript to the depths of the shelf exactly as it had been, formed hand seals again, and restored the thin chakra barrier.

After finishing all this, he stood, picked up the bucket and rag, and continued wiping the other shelves.

His movements remained steady.

His breathing remained even.

But deep inside, something cold was growing wildly.

"The Senju Clan participated in its improvement..."

"The Uchiha knew and opposed it..."

"Leaf Village's upper ranks possess a backup..."

"A tool for checking the Uchiha..."

Fragmented information collided and assembled in his mind. It was still not enough. These clues were like puzzle pieces scattered across the ground. He could see portions of the image, but not the whole picture.

But one point was already clear:

The Caged Bird Seal had never been merely an "internal matter" of the Hyuga Clan.

Its birth, improvement, and solidification—every step bore the shadow of Leaf Village's upper ranks. The First Hokage Hashirama Senju might have had good intentions—preventing bloodline techniques from leaking and protecting the clan's safety. But during the reign of the Second Hokage Tobirama Senju, the nature of the curse mark had already changed.

It had become a chain.

A chain that bound the Branch House.

And holding the other end of that chain were not only the Main House, but also those great figures seated in the Hokage's Office, their mouths full of the "Will of Fire."

"Heh."

Xiao chuckled softly as the rag passed over the final shelf.

So, overthrowing the Main House alone would not be enough to completely shatter the Caged Bird Seal. Hiashi Hyuga and the Main House elders were merely the visible wardens. The true jailers were hidden within the core of Leaf Village's power.

And what he intended to do was smash this prison... along with its jailers, into pieces.

"Ding!"

The system prompt rang out in his mind, cold and clear:

[Detected that the host has touched upon a key clue regarding the 'Origin of the Caged Bird Seal']

[Hidden mission 'Curse Mark Truth' has been activated]

[Mission objective: determine the complete creation process of the Caged Bird Seal, the forces involved, and the current distribution of control]

[Mission reward: based on investigation progress, progressively unlock 'Caged Bird Seal Removal Rate' (current removal rate: 0.1%)]

[Warning: this mission involves secrets surrounding the founding of Leaf Village. Investigation may alert the upper ranks. Host, proceed with caution.]

Xiao closed the system interface, lifted the bucket, and turned toward the archive entrance.

The instant he pushed open the wooden door, afternoon sunlight poured in, almost blinding. He narrowed his eyes to adjust to the shift in light while the Byakugan swept across the courtyard—

No one was there.

But a black crow perched on a bamboo tube in the corner of the courtyard.

The crow's eyes were red.

It stared silently at Xiao for two seconds before spreading its wings and flying away, vanishing amid the buildings of Konoha Village.

Xiao stood where he was, watching the direction in which the crow disappeared for a long time without moving.

A Uchiha Clan summoning beast?

Or... surveillance from Root?

It did not matter.

He lifted the bucket and walked down the steps. His footsteps landed evenly upon the stone path. Sunlight stretched his shadow long behind him, casting it against the wooden door of the archive.

That door slowly closed, locking the dust in the attic, the beast-hide manuscript, and the buried history back into darkness.

But some things, once seen, could never be forgotten.

As Xiao walked back toward the Branch House residential district, the final scratched-out line from the beast-hide manuscript replayed over and over in his mind:

...a tool for checking the Uchiha.

If the Hyuga were tools to check the Uchiha.

Then what were the Uchiha?

Did they know about this?

If they did, what was their attitude?

Those questions had no answers for now.

But Xiao knew that he needed more clues. And aside from the Hyuga Clan's ancient texts, the source of those clues might also lie with... the other clans caught up in this game.

For example, the Uchiha.

For example, the Senju.

"One step at a time."

He muttered softly and pushed open the low wooden gate to the Branch House compound.

Several Branch House children were practicing the basic stances of the Gentle Fist in the courtyard. When they saw Xiao return, they stopped and bowed respectfully. "Brother Xiao."

Xiao nodded and smiled gently. "Keep practicing."

He entered his room and shut the door.

The warmth on his face vanished instantly, replaced by icy calm.

He took out the blood scroll from his clothes and spread it across the table. The imprinted image of the beast-hide manuscript gleamed dark red beneath the candlelight. Xiao stared at the final scratched-out line, his fingers unconsciously tapping against the tabletop.

"The Uchiha also knew..."

Those were the remaining words he had caught sight of along the edge of another torn page in the archive. There had been no time to inspect them carefully then, but now that he thought back, those five words were like a thorn driven deep into his mind.

If the Uchiha knew the truth about the Caged Bird Seal.

If the Uchiha knew that the Hyuga Clan was merely a tool Leaf Village's upper ranks used to check them.

Then the Uchiha Clan's attitude toward the Hyuga was worth reexamining.

It was not merely arrogance and contempt.

It was... the wary vigilance of those sharing the same illness? Or fury at being used?

Xiao closed his eyes and began sorting through the known timeline:

Near the end of the Warring States era, the First Hokage proposed founding a village, and the clans formed an alliance.

The Caged Bird Seal was "improved" at that time. The Senju Clan participated, and the Uchiha opposed it.

After Konoha Village was founded, control of the Caged Bird Seal was monopolized by the Main House, while Leaf Village's upper ranks retained a backup.

Branch House member Kagami Hyuga compiled this fragment in Year 13 of Konoha, and afterward... he had most likely been silenced.

Then when had the Uchiha Clan begun to distrust Leaf Village's upper ranks?

Had it begun when the Second Hokage Tobirama Senju established the Ninja Academy and ANBU, gradually weakening the clans' power?

Or had the seeds of betrayal been planted even earlier, when they realized that the so-called "alliance" was actually a meticulously calculated game of checks and balances?

Xiao opened his eyes.

Candlelight flickered in his pupils.

He suddenly recalled certain details from the original story: the Uchiha Clan's position in Konoha Village had always been delicate. They possessed one of the strongest Kekkei Genkai, yet they had always been excluded from the core of power. The Second Hokage had established the Police Force, ostensibly granting the Uchiha Clan authority, but in truth isolating them within the village's apparatus of violence while monitoring their every move.

And what about the Hyuga Clan?

The Main House enjoyed superficial honor, while the Branch House bore the reality of enslavement. The Byakugan was called "Leaf Village's strongest eye of insight," but did the Hyuga Clan truly possess any say among Konoha's upper ranks?

No.

A watchdog chained in place had no need for thoughts.

It only needed obedience.

"So that's how it is..."

Xiao slowly exhaled.

The Caged Bird Seal imprisoned not only the Branch House's freedom, but the backbone of the entire Hyuga Clan. When more than half of a clan's members were born as slaves, that clan could never truly unite, never form a collective will capable of threatening those in power.

The Uchiha, meanwhile, were relatively equal internally, yet were isolated, watched, and guarded against by the entire village.

Two different kinds of shackles.

The same hand wielding the whip.

"What... exquisite political maneuvering."

Xiao put away the blood scroll and blew out the candle.

The room sank into darkness.

He sat in the dark as the Byakugan's field of vision silently opened, piercing the walls to look at the Branch House children outside in the courtyard, still practicing Gentle Fist. Greenish-blue Caged Bird Seals were carved into every one of their foreheads.

In the Byakugan's vision, those seals resembled twisted nets, wrapping around their chakra pathways, burrowing deep into their brains, connected to some distant, unknowable control terminal.

At the other end of that terminal was the Main House.

And behind the Main House... was Leaf Village.

Xiao closed his eyes.

The system's notification sounded again. This time, it carried a deep resonance:

[Host's depth of understanding of the essence of the 'Caged Bird Seal' has increased]

['Curse Mark Truth' quest progress: 5%]

[Caged Bird Seal release level slightly loosened: 0.1% → 0.3%]

[Hint: Increasing the release level depends not only on accumulating strength, but also on understanding the essence of the curse mark. The deeper the understanding, the greater the chance of breaking it.]

0.3%.

It was still negligible.

But it was a beginning.

A beginning of shifting from "passive endurance" to "active deconstruction."

Xiao lay down, resting his head on his arm as he looked at the ceiling.

The path ahead was already clear:

First, continue increasing the purity of the Byakugan and accumulate strength.

Second, continue intercepting high-fortune women, obtain Destiny Points, and resist the future Divine Erosion.

Third, secretly investigate the complete truth behind the Caged Bird Seal—including the Senju Clan's involvement, the extent of the Uchiha Clan's knowledge, and the location of the "backup formula diagram" held by Konoha's upper ranks.

Fourth, at the right time... make contact with the Uchiha.

Not as a member of the Hyuga Branch House.

But as the "gravedigger of the old order."

Outside the window, the night deepened.

The lights of Konoha Village gradually came on. From afar, they resembled a warm sea of stars. Yet beneath that sea of stars, how many shackles were silently tightening in the darkness, how many destinies were being manipulated without a sound—no one knew.

Xiao turned over and closed his eyes.

Before sleep took him, his final thought was:

Tomorrow, it was time to go see Kurenai Yuhi.

The girl's fate had already been changed by him, but it was not enough. She needed to become stronger, tougher, more... worthy of becoming a piece in his future plans.

No.

Not a piece.

An anchor.

A Humanity Anchor against Divine Erosion.

And he needed many such anchors.

Enough that, on this path toward godhood—or rather, toward godslaying—he would not lose himself.

"Good night, Leaf Village."

He murmured.

Then he sank into sleep.

The ancient hide-bound books in the attic, the imprinted images on the blood scroll, the crow's red eyes, the greenish-blue curse marks on the children's foreheads... all those fragments intertwined and reassembled within his dreams, gradually forming a vast, dark image.

At the center of that image stood a birdcage.

What it held was not merely the Hyuga Branch House.

It was the entire Shinobi World.

And what he had to do was...

Smash that cage to pieces.