The air in the safehouse froze.
Clone Shisui's words pierced through one of Hyuga Xiao's long-held suspicions like an ice pick. The Curse Mark on his forehead faintly heated up, as though something had been activated by the gaze of those Sharingan.
"What did you say?" Xiao's voice was calm, but Kurenai Yuhi could hear the suppressed turmoil beneath it.
Samui leaned against the wall, gravity appearing on her pale face as well. Though she was not a member of the Hyuga Clan, Hidden Cloud had never stopped researching the secret techniques of Konoha's clans—the Caged Bird Seal's infamy was notorious throughout the Shinobi World.
Clone Shisui clutched his head as the Three-Tomoe spun madly in his eyes. Fragments of memory cut through his consciousness like shards of glass. Panting heavily, he said in broken intervals, "Lord Danzo... no, that old bastard Danzo... he captured several Hyuga Branch House members as experimental specimens... used Sharingan to observe the energy structure of the Curse Mark..."
"And then?" Xiao crouched down, meeting the clone's gaze.
The pain in those eyes was too real.
"Then... he discovered that the Caged Bird Seal's technique circuit was seventy percent similar to some even older 'Soul Shackles.'" Clone Shisui tremblingly extended a finger and began tracing in the dust on the floor. "Look here... the Curse Mark's core node is inside the frontal bone, but the energy flow does not merely restrain the brain. Instead, it..."
His finger drew twisted lines.
Xiao's pupils contracted slightly.
He had seen the path of those lines within the Covenant Stone Fragments—it was the fundamental technique structure used by the Lunar Ōtsutsuki Clan to seal and extract the soul energy of lesser life forms! Though the Caged Bird Seal's version had been simplified, its core logic was identical!
"The energy