Tokuma's Secret

Late at night in Leaf Village, moonlight was shattered by the dense canopy and scattered across the stone paths of the Hyuga Branch Settlement.

Hyuga Xiao sat cross-legged in his cramped bedroom, his eyes closed.

With his Byakugan active, chakra slowly circulated through his meridians. With every cycle, the Caged Bird Seal on his forehead grew faintly hot—a tendril of the Main House's surveillance, and a noose hanging over every member of the Branch House.

The contents of the Chronicles of Evolution he had copied from the library during the day kept replaying in his mind.

"The Senju Clan assisted in its improvement... Leaf Village's upper ranks used it as a bargaining chip to balance the Uchiha Clan..."

A cold curve lifted at Xiao's lips.

Just as expected.

The so-called glory of the Main House, the so-called purity of the bloodline, were nothing more than a prison woven from layer upon layer of lies. And the key to that prison had never rested solely in the hands of the Hyuga Clan.

The insects outside suddenly fell silent.

Xiao opened his eyes. Within his Byakugan's field of vision, a familiar figure was swiftly moving along the shadows by the wall, cautious to the point of sneaking around. The person circled past the Branch House guards on patrol, precisely avoided every possible angle of observation, and finally stopped beneath Xiao's window.

Three long knocks, followed by two short ones.

Xiao rose and pushed open the window. Under the moonlight, Tokuma Hyuga's face, usually adorned with a gentle smile, was now drawn tight. Fine beads of sweat covered his forehead, and his Byakugan glimmered faintly in the darkness as he warily scanned his surroundings.

"Come in." Xiao stepped aside.

Tokuma vaulted into the room as lightly as a cat. He closed the window behind him, then stuck a Soundproofing Talisman into the gap—a standard-issue ninja tool only distributed to Chunin, clearly something he had secretly taken from his father.

"Something happened." Tokuma's breathing was somewhat rushed. "My father was summoned by the Main House to attend an elders' meeting tonight. I... I listened in with my Byakugan."

Xiao did not urge him on. He simply walked to the table, poured a cup of water, and pushed it over.

Tokuma accepted the cup, his hand trembling slightly. He gulped down a large mouthful, and water ran down the corner of his mouth, soaking his collar.

"They were discussing the 'Branch House Genius Control Plan.'" Tokuma lowered his voice, each word seeming to squeeze out through clenched teeth. "Your recent performance at the Ninja Academy has been too outstanding. You've been put on the list."

Xiao lightly tapped a finger against the tabletop.

Thud.

It was a soft sound, yet it was exceptionally clear in the silent room.

"The specifics." Xiao's tone was terrifyingly calm.

Tokuma took a deep breath. "The plan has three levels. The first level is assigning high-mortality missions—not openly S-rank missions, but border patrols with 'frequent accidents,' enemy infiltration missions. The mortality rate is over seventy percent."

"The second level is control through marriage. If they don't die in the first level, or if they display even greater value, the Main House will arrange for Branch House women to marry in, or have Branch House men marry into a collateral branch of the Main House. They will bind them with marriage and descendants."

He paused, his voice dropping even lower.

"The third level... if necessary, remotely activate the Caged Bird Seal."

The room fell quiet for several seconds.

Xiao suddenly laughed.

The laughter was quiet, but it had the texture of ice chips, making Tokuma's back turn cold.

"So it's finally here." Xiao stood and walked to the window. The Soundproofing Talisman blocked sound, but not moonlight. Pale light fell over his face, making those pure white eyes seem even more hollow. "I thought the Main House's reaction would be slower."

"Xiao, this isn't a joke!" Tokuma grew anxious. "Do you know what activating the Caged Bird Seal means? Brain death! Not even a complete corpse will be left behind!"

"I know." Xiao turned around, the moonlight casting a long shadow behind him. "So? You risked being discovered by the Main House to come find me. You didn't come merely to deliver a warning, did you?"

Tokuma froze.

He looked at the boy before him. They were both twelve years old. Both belonged to the Branch House. Both bore the same Curse Mark on their foreheads—but there was no fear or panic in Xiao's eyes, only an almost cruel calmness.

That calmness reminded Tokuma of his father.

"My father..." Tokuma swallowed. "My father was a 'genius' back then."

Xiao's brow rose slightly.

"Twelve years ago, he was the most outstanding of his generation in the Branch House. He had trained the Gentle Fist to the preliminary form of Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven, and his Byakugan's range was thirty percent greater than an ordinary Branch House member's." Tokuma's eyes reddened, but he clenched his teeth and refused to let the tears fall. "Then the Main House gave him a mission. Escorting a caravan belonging to the Land of Fire's daimyo to the border of the Land of Lightning—it sounded simple, right?"

"But the caravan was attacked. The enemy was an elite Hidden Cloud squad, led by a candidate for the future Fourth Raikage. The mission rating was temporarily raised from B-rank to S-rank."

Tokuma's voice began to shake.

"My father fought desperately to cover the caravan's retreat while he stayed behind. In the end, they couldn't even recover his full body. They only brought back an eye carved with the Caged Bird Seal."

"The Main House said it was an accident. They said Father had died heroically and that it was the Hyuga Clan's honor."

"Bullshit!"

Tokuma slammed a fist onto the table, making the wooden surface groan under the strain.

"I secretly checked the mission files later. The probability that that Hidden Cloud squad would appear at the border at the same time as the caravan's route was less than five percent. And..." He raised his head and stared hard at Xiao. "And three days before the mission departed, Elder Ko Hyuga of the Main House privately met with a Hidden Cloud envoy."

Xiao's pupils contracted slightly.

Ko Hyuga.

The elder whose heart was bound by the Heart-Binding Seal.

"That wasn't an accident." Tokuma spoke each word distinctly. "It was an elimination. The Main House won't allow the Branch House to produce geniuses who can truly threaten their status. My father was the first, but he definitely won't be the last."

The room fell silent again.

Xiao walked over to Tokuma and placed a hand on his shoulder. That hand was steady, steadier than a twelve-year-old boy's hand should have been.

"Why are you telling me this?" Xiao asked.

Tokuma wiped his face. "Because I've had enough. After my father died, my mother wasted away from grief. The Main House hypocritically gave me compensation and let me live in the best house in the Branch House—but what use was that? Every night, I dream of Father's excavated eye. I dream of the Caged Bird Seal glowing in the darkness."

"I don't want to become the next one."

"Neither do I," Xiao said.

His voice was quiet, but Tokuma could hear its weight.

"Tokuma, are there records of your father's case within the Main House?"

"Yes. But only elders can access them. And..." Tokuma hesitated. "I've heard that the mission records of every Branch House genius who was 'eliminated' are filed separately and sealed in the deepest part of the Main House Treasury. It holds all the Hyuga Clan's secrets from the past thousand years—including the complete inheritance of the Caged Bird Seal, and every method the Main House uses to control the Branch House."

Xiao's eyes lit up.

It was the gleam of a hunter spotting prey.

"The treasury's location."

"I don't know exactly." Tokuma shook his head. "But once, when my father was drunk, he said something. He said... the roots of the Hyuga Clan aren't in Leaf Village. They're on the moon."

The moon.

In an instant, records from the damaged volume of the Chronicles of Evolution flashed through Xiao's mind.

"Hamura Ōtsutsuki led his people to the moon to guard the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path..."

"The Hyuga are an earthly remnant bloodline..."

The clues began to connect.

"Tokuma." Xiao released his shoulder and returned to the table, taking out a blank scroll from the drawer. "Write down everything you heard at that meeting. Every detail, every elder who attended, all of it."

Tokuma accepted the scroll and brush, then began writing furiously.

Xiao went to the corner of the room, lifted a hidden panel in the floor, and took out a small iron box. Opening it revealed more than a dozen black crystals the size of fingernails—Byakugan Imprints he had refined with chakra, capable of briefly recording images from his Byakugan's field of vision.

"Take these." Xiao handed three crystals to Tokuma. "The next time the Main House summons your father for a meeting, find a chance to place them near the meeting room. They don't need to be too close. Within thirty meters is enough."

Tokuma accepted the crystals, his hand shaking again. "If they're discovered..."

"Then we die." Xiao looked at him. "Or we take a gamble and bring down the Main House."

Tokuma was silent for a full ten seconds.

Then he nodded hard and carefully stored the crystals in the innermost compartment of his ninja tool pouch.

"One more thing." Xiao suddenly said, "Lady Hinata has recently been practicing the third form of the Gentle Fist and has hit a bottleneck. Go find her tomorrow. Tell her I sent you, and teach her some basic chakra-guiding techniques—but don't mention the blockage in her meridians."

Tokuma was stunned. "Why?"

"Because that's my leverage." Xiao's voice was cold. "Hinata is the Main House's eldest daughter, and Hiashi's only legitimate child. She trusts me now. She relies on me. At some point in the future, that relationship will become the sharpest blade stabbed into Hiashi's heart."

Tokuma sucked in a cold breath.

He looked at Xiao and suddenly found the person before him terrifyingly unfamiliar.

Those were not the eyes a twelve-year-old Branch House boy should possess. Too much was hidden within them: calculation, ambition, hatred, and a nearly mad determination.

"Xiao..." Tokuma opened his mouth. "What exactly do you want to do?"

Xiao walked to the window and tore down the Soundproofing Talisman. The night wind poured in, stirring the loose hair over his forehead. Beneath the moonlight, the lines of the Caged Bird Seal flickered in and out of sight.

"I want to live," he said.

"I want to live like a human being."

"Not like a dog with a chain around its neck, ready to be strangled by its master at any time."

Tokuma left.

Xiao sat back down on the floor bedding and closed his eyes.

A system panel appeared in his mind.

[Current Main Quest: Completely remove the Caged Bird Seal (Progress: 7%)]

[Side Quest Triggered: Investigate the Hyuga Main House Treasury]

[Quest Hint: The treasury may contain the original imprint template of the Caged Bird Seal, as well as the complete inheritance of the Hyuga Clan's bloodline from Hamura Ōtsutsuki]

[Warning: The Main House has activated the "Branch House Genius Control Plan." Host has been listed as a Level One surveillance target]

A curve rose at Xiao's lips.

Surveillance?

Then let them watch.

He needed time. More Destiny Points, more high-fortune women to intercept, a more purified Byakugan bloodline, and the power of the Tenseigan unlocked.

And before that—

"Playing the obedient grandson? Who can't do that?"

Xiao muttered softly, his fingers gently brushing the Curse Mark on his forehead.

The pattern beneath his fingertips grew faintly hot, like a venomous snake ready to bite through his throat at any moment.

But no matter how venomous a snake was, it could still be skinned and have its tendons pulled out.

Outside, the moon rose to the center of the sky.

Pale, cold, and hanging high in the night sky, it looked down upon this cursed land.

Xiao opened his eyes, moonlight reflected in his pure white pupils.

One day.

He would personally drag that moon down as well.