Recaps

Hyuga Xiao entered Mitaraishi Anko’s mindscape, sealed Orochimaru’s consciousness fragment in a monitored prison, and learned that the Caged Bird Seal might siphon Branch House bloodline power to the Main House. After stabilizing Anko, Xiao prepared to investigate the hidden altar beneath the Hyuga Ancestral Shrine.

• Hyuga Xiao entered Anko’s mindscape and used Tenseigan Chakra to push back Orochimaru’s snake phantoms.
• Orochimaru claimed the Caged Bird Seal harvested Branch House bloodline power and directed Xiao to a Bloodline Crystal beneath the Hyuga Ancestral Shrine.
• Xiao rejected Orochimaru’s request to enter his mind and sealed the fragment inside a Mind Prison cube under his surveillance.
• Orochimaru revealed that the shrine chamber entrance was behind the ancestral portrait in Hyuga Hiashi’s study and warned that the altar was alive.
• Xiao restored Anko’s consciousness and told her to remain loyal to him while receiving chakra suppression every three days.
• Xiao resolved to investigate the altar and expose the truth behind the Caged Bird Seal.

Hyuga Xiao struck a bargain with Orochimaru's fragment and learned that the Caged Bird Seal sent Branch House bloodline essence to a lunar Hyuga treasury. After secretly delivering Anko to Konoha Hospital, he planned to investigate the seal and turn its power against the Main House, while Hyuga Hiashi increased surveillance on him and Hinata.

• Hyuga Xiao agreed to trade for information, and Orochimaru's fragment revealed how the Caged Bird Seal extracted Branch House bloodline essence and named the hidden apparatus and lunar treasury.
• Hyuga Xiao sealed Orochimaru's fragment in a scroll, stabilized Anko with a Vitality Seed, and carried her through Konoha to Tsunade's hospital room with a note requesting treatment.
• Hyuga Xiao returned home, decided to study Orochimaru's laboratory data and treat Kimimaro before investigating further, and wrote plans to approach Kurenai Yuhi, Tsunade, and Hinata.
• Hyuga Hiashi received a report of unusual chakra fluctuations in Hyuga Xiao's room and ordered Ko Hyuga to intensify surveillance on Xiao and Hinata.
• Ko Hyuga told Hyuga Hiashi that Hinata had been researching clan history and the Caged Bird Seal's origins, prompting Hiashi to suspect someone was guiding her.

Tsunade stabilized Anko’s worsening Curse Mark with a sealing formation and recruited Hyuga Xiao to help maintain it while she taught him its principles. As Xiao began earning Tsunade’s trust, he resolved to enlist her in his plans against the Hyuga Main House and to change her tragic fate.

• Tsunade examined Anko and used Creation Rebirth and thirty-six silver needles to stabilize her Curse Mark for up to seventy-two hours.
• Tsunade noticed Xiao’s unusual chakra, then asked him to supply chakra to Anko’s sealing formation and taught him how it worked.
• Xiao quickly mastered maintaining eighteen needles, impressing Tsunade, who learned his name and said she would remember him.
• Xiao considered the Caged Bird Seal’s connection to the Hyuga Main House and the Moon, and strengthened his resolve to gather evidence and overthrow the Main House.
• Tsunade spoke of the seal and of losing loved ones, then rested while Xiao watched the formation and decided to bring her into his camp.

Hyuga Xiao helped Tsunade suppress Mitaraishi Anko’s Curse Mark, then learned she had chosen him as an assistant for a secret, politically sensitive case. He resolved to save the patient tied to Case MT-047 and began secretly searching Konoha Hospital’s archives for information.

• Hyuga Xiao stabilized Anko’s chakra while Tsunade sealed her Curse Mark, leaving her unconscious in a deep hibernation seal for up to seventy-two hours.
• Tsunade examined Xiao’s chakra and discovered his chakra pathways were unusually wide and resilient, then invited him to assist with a difficult consultation for Case MT-047.
• Tsunade told Xiao not to inform the Hyuga Main House about the consultation, while the system warned him that the case involved a power struggle and offered the Mystical Palm Technique if he changed the patient’s death outcome.
• Xiao decided to investigate the patient, improve his medical knowledge, and study the Caged Bird Seal before the consultation.
• Tsunade reviewed the top-secret MT-047 file and wondered whether Xiao’s chakra carried a trace of Hashirama Senju’s vitality.
• Xiao entered the hospital archive room unnoticed and opened an archive box labeled with the MT series.

Hyuga Xiao was forced by Hyuga Hiashi and the Main House elders to receive a Second-Level Curse Mark so they could control him and use his relationship with Tsunade. Xiao secretly severed and diverted part of the seal’s control structure, then left for Konoha Hospital determined to turn the Main House’s plan against them.

• Hyuga Hiashi ordered Xiao to receive a Second-Level Curse Mark, citing his unusual chakra purity and recent usefulness to the clan.
• The First Elder and two other elders restrained Xiao and engraved the seal at the back of his neck.
• During the engraving, Xiao used Tenseigan Chakra to graft a rootlet of the seal into a hidden False Core in his palm, secretly breaking its control link.
• Hiashi tested the seal by examining fragments of Xiao’s memories, then ordered Xiao to report twice a month and remain within thirty li of Konoha.
• Hiashi told Xiao to maintain his relationship with Tsunade so the Main House could gain her support, and privately ordered the elders to watch Xiao and detonate his seal if they detected anything unusual.
• Xiao left the shrine with the hidden backdoor intact and headed toward Konoha Hospital, planning to use the Main House’s scheme to his own advantage.

Hyuga Xiao and Tsunade saved an ANBU ninja infected with a growing Degraded Hashirama Cell Replica by luring it out with Tsunade’s blood and destroying it. The case strengthened Tsunade’s trust in Xiao and left them suspecting secret experiments within Leaf Village.

• Hyuga Xiao used his Byakugan to discover the tissue was nearing the ANBU ninja’s brain and identified it as a Degraded Hashirama Cell Replica entering its Mimicry Stage.
• Xiao told Tsunade that Sage Chakra or genuine Hashirama Cells could counter the infection, then proposed using her blood as bait because she carried Hashirama Senju’s direct bloodline.
• Tsunade injected diluted blood while Xiao stimulated the tissue, drawing it toward the patient’s neck as she repaired his chakra network with Creation Rebirth.
• Xiao trapped the gathered tissue with a Four Symbols Seal and burned it away with a carefully controlled Fire Release, saving the ANBU ninja.
• Tsunade agreed to conceal Xiao’s unusual abilities, and the system reported that he had changed the ninja’s fate and raised his bond with Tsunade to Friendly.
• Xiao left the hospital suspecting secret White Zetsu cell experiments and resolved to gain power to break the Caged Bird Seal and challenge Leaf Village’s leadership.

Hyuga Xiao convinced Tsunade that forbidden experiments were transforming living people with degraded Hashirama Cells, and explained how Sage Chakra or pure Hashirama Cells might stop the tissue. Tsunade recruited Xiao to help investigate and chose to retrieve a pure cell sample she had sealed beneath Konoha Hospital.

• Xiao claimed that records from a destroyed laboratory described degraded Hashirama Cells, and told Tsunade the Hyuga Main House had seized and destroyed them.
• Xiao explained that Sage Chakra could suppress the tissue and that pure Hashirama Cells could lure it away from its host.
• Tsunade reflected on her past and resolved to save Withered Wood with the Bait Method.
• Tsunade asked Xiao to join her investigation, and he agreed.
• Tsunade led Xiao toward a sealed laboratory on Konoha Hospital's third underground level, where she had hidden a pure cell sample taken from the First Hokage's corpse.

Hyuga Xiao investigated the source of Withered Wood’s rapidly spreading white tissue and discovered that Danzo’s White Fang-Revised project was behind it. He learned an inhibitor could be made from a rare fungus and headed into the laboratory to retrieve its final dose.

• Tsunade learned that Withered Wood’s seal would hold for only twelve hours, and Xiao proposed using Hashirama Cells or an inhibitor to save him.
• Xiao revealed the forbidden White Fang project and persuaded Tsunade to seek Hashirama Cell samples from Danzo while he investigated the weapon’s source.
• Xiao located an underground laboratory beneath the Medical Division’s herb base and sent Scout Beetles inside to gather information.
• The beetles uncovered that Danzo led the White Fang-Revised project with support from the Hyuga Main House, using injured ninja as test subjects.
• Xiao learned that a rare Shikkotsu Forest fungus could suppress the white tissue and that the laboratory’s vault held the last available dose of inhibitor.
• With an hour and forty minutes before his meeting with Tsunade, Xiao headed toward the laboratory’s ventilation entrance to retrieve the inhibitor.

Hyuga Xiao infiltrated Danzo’s underground laboratory and discovered its human experiments, the evolving Hashirama-cell tissue, and the Hyuga Main House’s cooperation with Root. He escaped with evidence, leaving Shin anesthetized and carrying information that could shape Tsunade’s decision and his next move.

• Xiao used a chakra-mimicking potion and a Shadow Clone to distract the guards, then disguised himself as a Root ninja and entered the facility.
• Xiao found five experimental subjects on the third level, recognized the child Shin, and anesthetized him instead of rescuing him.
• Xiao read records describing the tissue’s ability to parasitize and potentially spread through the air, and found a report identifying Kakashi as a prospective host.
• Xiao saw a Main House Hyuga ninja working with Root and learned that the Main House planned to supply five Branch House members as experimental subjects.
• Experimental Subject Zero detected Xiao, so he used Shadow Clones to cover his escape and fled toward Leaf Village with the documents.

Hyuga Xiao uncovered a joint laboratory run by Orochimaru, Danzo, and the Hyuga Main House to create Byakugan-Wood Release weapons using Branch House members, then fought and destroyed an Orochimaru clone. After disabling the laboratory’s self-destruct device, Xiao received a message from Tsunade and raced off to save someone, while Orochimaru’s true body learned of Xiao’s Tenseigan.

• Hyuga Xiao overheard Root and Hyuga Main House ninjas discuss experiments combining Byakugan, Hashirama Cells, and the Caged Bird Seal, including plans to use Branch House members as test subjects.
• Orochimaru confronted Hyuga Xiao, explained the laboratory’s purpose, and offered to help remove the Caged Bird Seal in exchange for Xiao’s cooperation and a supply of Branch House subjects.
• Hyuga Xiao refused to trade his clansmen’s lives for his freedom and revealed his Tenseigan’s embryonic form before Orochimaru attacked him with a clone.
• Hyuga Xiao activated Partial Tenseigan Chakra Mode, destroyed Orochimaru’s clone, and recorded the laboratory conversation as evidence.
• Hyuga Xiao temporarily sealed the laboratory’s self-destruct device, then left after receiving Tsunade’s message, “Got it,” and hurried to save someone.
• Orochimaru’s surviving cell fragment reached his true body, who learned about Hyuga Xiao’s Tenseigan and decided to adjust his plan.

Xiao defeated Orochimaru's clone with his evolving Tenseigan Prototype, then escaped as the laboratory self-destructed and released dangerous Hashirama Cell tissue. He left with memorized experimental evidence and decided to investigate the secret beneath the Hyuga Ancestral Shrine.

• Xiao saw through and shattered Orochimaru's clone's Myriad Forest Realm illusion with his Half-Step Tenseigan Prototype.
• Xiao used Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms to destroy the clone and strip away the vitality of its Hashirama Cells and altered Byakugan.
• Before disintegrating, Orochimaru's clone told Xiao that something beneath the Hyuga Ancestral Shrine would explain his evolving eyes.
• Xiao escaped the laboratory as its self-destruct sequence released Hashirama Cell tissue and destroyed the facility.
• Xiao realized the Caged Bird Seal had reacted to his power, preserved experimental records on a scroll, and resolved to visit the Hyuga Ancestral Shrine.
• Konoha's ANBU arrived at the forest, sealed off the area, and ordered an investigation into what was buried there.

Hyuga Xiao rescued Hyuga Rei from Orochimaru’s exploding laboratory, where she had been subjected to Hashirama Cell experiments, and escaped with her and the stolen records. After accepting a mission to protect Rei as her mutated Byakugan developed, Xiao prepared to face unknown figures approaching their hiding place.

• Xiao rescued the unconscious Hyuga Rei, broke Root’s seal on the experimental records, and fled the laboratory before its self-destruction.
• Xiao killed three Root shinobi guarding the escape route and shielded Rei from the laboratory’s explosion with his Revolving Heaven.
• Xiao stabilized Rei’s Hashirama Cell fusion by guiding her chakra, and the two escaped as ANBU began investigating the ruins.
• Xiao read records revealing that Root, the Hyuga Main House, and Orochimaru had experimented on Branch House members, and learned Rei could develop a Wood Release: Byakugan Kekkei Genkai.
• Xiao accepted the system’s mission to protect Rei, then woke her when three unknown figures approached their cave; Rei chose to fight so she could survive.

Hyuga Xiao stabilized Hyuga Rei and helped Tsunade remove the White Tissue from Withered Wood, learning that it could imitate Hyuga chakra meridians. As Danzo began moving again, Xiao left the hospital determined to act while Withered Wood showed a fleeting sign of lingering White Tissue.

• Hyuga Xiao used the Star-Meridian Suppression Lock to temporarily stabilize Rei and found records linking Hashirama Cell symbiosis to Hyuga chakra.
• Tsunade brought Xiao a Hashirama Cell sample, and he realized Danzo had purified it before handing it over.
• Xiao used an external Mimetic Meridian Network to lure the White Tissue out of Withered Wood, and Tsunade sealed it in a scroll.
• Withered Wood survived but suffered permanent organ and chakra-meridian damage, then warned Xiao and Tsunade that the White Tissue could learn and imitate Hyuga chakra meridians.
• Xiao concealed his investigation from Tsunade and saw a Root-marked raven fly toward the Hokage Tower as he prepared to make his move.
• After Xiao left, Withered Wood opened his eyes briefly with a faint milky-white glimmer.

Tsunade confronted Hyuga Xiao about his knowledge and learned that he was investigating the Hyuga Main House’s exploitation of the Branch House and seeking a way to remove his Caged Bird Seal. She recruited him as her assistant to investigate the experiments and Nawaki’s death, while they planned to protect Xiao and force the Third to intervene.

• Tsunade questioned Hyuga Xiao about his abilities, and he revealed his Caged Bird Seal and his fear that the Main House was exploiting Branch House members.
• Xiao showed Tsunade a report alleging that the Caged Bird Seal siphoned Branch House ocular power to strengthen the Main House, and he described suspicious deaths and experiments involving Branch House members.
• Tsunade agreed to make Xiao her assistant and proposed using the stolen report’s original location to prompt the Third to intervene, while arranging Xiao’s official transfer to the Medical Division.
• Tsunade asked Xiao to investigate Nawaki’s death in exchange for her help, and Xiao agreed.
• Xiao told Tsunade he would take Ling somewhere safe, then left with his Medical Division pass and instructions to report the next morning.

Hyuga Xiao revealed that Orochimaru intended to use Anko’s Curse Mark as a signal relay to trigger chaos in Leaf Village, then implanted an improved Vitality Seed to help her resist and trace the control signal. Anko and Xiao exposed Gekko Hayate as one of Orochimaru’s informants, and Xiao captured him as the search for the wider spy network began.

• Xiao showed Anko Orochimaru’s records, which identified her as a relay node meant to activate Curse Mark users during the Chunin Ninja Exams.
• Anko accepted Xiao’s plan, and Xiao implanted the Vitality Seed, warning that he would kill her if Orochimaru’s control made her a puppet.
• Xiao sent Anko to meet Orochimaru’s contact beneath the third bridge pier by the Naka River, where he followed her in secret.
• Anko discovered that Gekko Hayate had betrayed Leaf Village because Orochimaru had promised to heal Uzuki Yugao.
• Xiao attacked Hayate, defeated him, sealed his chakra points, and said he would be handed over to the ANBU Interrogation Division.

Anko and Hyuga Xiao uncovered Hayate’s ties to Orochimaru and accelerated the Vitality Seed’s disguise inside Anko’s Curse Mark. After Anko recovered memories linking Hayate to a red moon, Xiao planned to capture him during the Forest of Death chaos and learn what Orochimaru knew about the Curse Mark and the Hyuga Clan.

• Hayate ordered Anko to cause chaos in the Forest of Death, while Xiao observed their meeting and detected a Curse Mark-like energy node in Hayate.
• Xiao found and sealed Hayate’s surveillance talisman, then told Anko he would accelerate the Vitality Seed’s assimilation despite the risks.
• Hayate reported Xiao’s interference to Orochimaru, who ordered him to continue the plan and let Xiao get involved.
• At Xiao’s safehouse, Xiao used his chakra to target the Curse Mark’s primary node, allowing the Vitality Seed to finish disguising itself.
• Anko recalled Orochimaru calling Hayate his most successful creation and mentioning a red moon, prompting Xiao to plan to capture Hayate during the coming Forest of Death chaos.
• Xiao gave Anko a sealing kunai and prepared experimental bone armor and blades for the coming confrontation.

Hyuga Xiao uncovered evidence that the Forbidden Ground beneath the Ancestral Shrine might be tied to the Caged Bird Seal and the stolen ocular power of Branch House members. After Rei helped him prepare to sense the hidden lifeform, Xiao set out to infiltrate the bamboo grove as it began to awaken.

• Hyuga Xiao studied the shrine’s guard schedule and old blueprint, then learned from Rei that a powerful lifeform lay beneath the bamboo grove.
• Rei revealed that her altered eyes could sense life and that the underground presence was overwhelmed by sorrow, anger, and despair.
• Hyuga Xiao searched the clan medical archives and found records linking the Forbidden Ground to a curse mark resembling the Caged Bird Seal and to a quarterly supply of ocular power.
• Hyuga Xiao mapped a brief barrier gap and prepared a Mimetic Barrier to enter the Forbidden Ground.
• Rei gave Hyuga Xiao pills that could help him detect emotional waves, and he set out for the bamboo grove as the hidden lifeform began to awaken.

Xiao infiltrated the Hyuga Ancestral Shrine and discovered that the Main House had harvested the Branch House’s Byakugan for generations to strengthen its bloodline and sustain a mummified corpse with traces of Tenseigan power. After promising the dead Branch House members revenge, he left to learn more and planned to meet Hyuga Neji, a child who had survived an experiment.

• Xiao slipped past the shrine’s barrier and entered an underground chamber beneath the ancient well.
• Xiao found hundreds of Branch House Byakugan sealed in crystals and chakra conduits feeding their power to the Main House.
• Xiao saw a mummified corpse with traces of Tenseigan power beneath the altar and read records describing lethal experiments on Branch House children.
• The dead Branch House members’ lingering consciousnesses resonated with Xiao and demanded revenge, and he promised to make the Main House pay.
• Xiao returned to the surface and headed toward Hyuga Rei’s medical room, carrying records that identified Hyuga Neji as a child who had survived an experiment.

Hyuga Xiao received the dead Branch House members’ Byakugan power and learned that the Caged Bird Seal had enabled the Main House to plunder their bloodline for a thousand years. He met the altar’s ancient guardian, Ōtsutsuki Zongqing, who revealed that the Curse Mark’s origin was carved on the moon and that the altar’s core could only halt the extraction temporarily.

• Hyuga Xiao heard the dead Branch House members’ memories and discovered that the Main House had turned the Pupil-Gathering Array into a ritual for forcibly stealing their eye power.
• The dead entrusted their Byakugan origin power and unfinished struggle to Hyuga Xiao, raising his Byakugan purity to 65% and weakening his Caged Bird Seal by 30%.
• Hyuga Xiao approached the Pupil Essence Core to stop the altar, but chains beneath the platform broke and an ancient figure emerged.
• The figure told Hyuga Xiao that destroying the Pupil Essence Core would temporarily stop the extraction from living Branch House members.
• The guardian identified himself as Ōtsutsuki Zongqing and revealed that his elder brother, Ōtsutsuki Zongshou, had carved the Curse Mark’s origin runes onto the moon.

Hyuga Xiao learned from Hyuga Kaguya’s memories that the Hyuga Main House had plundered Branch House eye power for a thousand years to maintain contact with the moon, and that an Ōtsutsuki Observer Envoy could arrive within ten years. He destroyed the altar and freed the sacrificed souls, then discovered a hidden eye watching him from inside the Ancestral Shrine.

• Hyuga Xiao touched the remains and relived Hyuga Kaguya’s memories of the Branch House’s exploitation and the Main House’s sacrifices.
• Hyuga Kaguya warned Hyuga Xiao that the Ōtsutsuki Main House would send an Observer Envoy within ten years and that Hyuga Hiashi’s study held a Beacon connecting the clan to the moon.
• The Branch House souls infused Hyuga Xiao with eye power, raising his Byakugan purity from 65% to 70% and advancing his Caged Bird Seal analysis from 30% to 45%.
• Hyuga Kaguya’s remains yielded the Byakugan Origin Essence, which Hyuga Xiao used to destroy the altar and sever the thousand-year plundering system.
• Hyuga Xiao escaped as the underground altar collapsed and the souls of the sacrificed Branch House members faded away.
• Hyuga Xiao spotted a hidden crystal sphere containing a white eyeball that had been watching the underground passage from inside the Ancestral Shrine.

Hyuga Xiao discovered and concealed the altar’s Surveillance Eye, but Hyuga Hiashi detected his Tenseigan and activated his Second-Level Curse Mark. Xiao resisted, destroyed the altar, absorbed the remains’ information, and escaped as Hiashi declared him a traitor and ordered his death.

• Hyuga Xiao used Tenseigan Perception to find the Surveillance Eye and replaced the images it transmitted with an illusion.
• Hyuga Xiao gained control permissions from the Origin Essence while Hyuga Hiashi identified the tampered eye and activated Xiao’s Second-Level Curse Mark.
• Hyuga Xiao resisted the Curse Mark with Tenseigan Chakra and destroyed the Origin Essence, collapsing the altar and its plundering system.
• Hyuga Xiao absorbed the remains and received fragmentary information about an Observer Envoy, a Moon Passage, and coordinates, then fled through a hidden passage.
• Hyuga Hiashi found the altar destroyed and ordered the clan to kill Hyuga Xiao on sight.

Hyuga Xiao’s Second-Level Caged Bird Seal activated after his Byakugan power surged at the Ancestral Shrine, leaving him with less than two days to live. With Orochimaru’s help, Xiao learned that a counter-seal guide might be in the Forbidden Technique Archive and set out to steal it.

• Hyuga Xiao’s Curse Mark began draining his chakra and life force, and the Tenseigan only partially suppressed it.
• Xiao summoned Orochimaru’s consciousness from a sealed Curse Mark fragment and asked how to delay the Second-Level Caged Bird Seal.
• Orochimaru deduced that the altar’s boost to Xiao’s ocular power had triggered the seal and proposed using stronger Byakugan power with an operating guide to reverse-erode it.
• Orochimaru offered the location and layout of the Forbidden Technique Archive in exchange for a copy of the scroll and Xiao’s future help.
• Xiao accepted the deal, gathered supplies, and left for the Hokage Tower to steal the counter-seal scroll.

Hyuga Xiao bargained with Orochimaru’s fragment for a way to escape the Level-Two Caged Bird Seal and used the fragment’s help to buy time. After confirming that Hiashi’s right eye held the control rune, Xiao was discovered, leaving the hunt underway.

• Hyuga Xiao threatened Orochimaru’s fragment with his embryonic Tenseigan and agreed to provide a body with Hashirama Cells in exchange for a way to break the seal.
• The fragment revealed that Hiashi’s right pupil contained the control rune and that Xiao had to remove the eye while Hiashi was alive, then overwrite the rune within three minutes.
• Xiao gave the fragment 500 milliliters of blood, allowing it to divert some of the Curse Mark’s drain and give him seven days to prepare.
• Xiao activated a stolen Chakra Interference Array and used a crystal from the altar to borrow the perspectives of Branch House Byakugan and inspect Hiashi’s right eye.
• Hiashi detected Xiao through the borrowed viewpoint, shattering the crystal and ending the vision, but Xiao vowed to take Hiashi’s eye within seven days.

Hyuga Xiao learned that the Curse Mark would kill him within days, so Tsunade used her Yin Seal chakra to buy him time and agreed to distract Hiashi. Xiao prepared to infiltrate the White-Eyed Chamber for the Caged Bird Seal’s original designs, leaving the story hours before his planned operation.

• Hyuga Xiao contacted Tsunade, who examined his Curse Mark and determined he had at most forty-eight hours without intervention.
• Tsunade infused Xiao with Yin Seal chakra, slowing the Curse Mark and extending his survival time to three days.
• Xiao told Tsunade he intended to destroy the Caged Bird Seal, and she revealed that its original designs might be stored in the White-Eyed Chamber.
• Tsunade agreed to keep Hiashi occupied at the Hokage Tower while Xiao infiltrated the Hyuga Clan Grounds, and she gave him medical supplies.
• Xiao recruited Hyuga Takashi to cause a diversion at nine ten the next morning and spread a message of rebellion among trusted Branch House members.
• Xiao returned to his hideout, prepared for the operation, and considered the secrets that might await him in the White-Eyed Chamber.

Hyuga Xiao infiltrated the Hyuga Main House's White-Eyed Chamber to seek a way to break his Caged Bird Seal, while Tsunade agreed to distract Hiashi and the elders. Xiao entered the forbidden chamber, where an unseen voice welcomed him as a child of the Branch House.

• Hyuga Xiao told Tsunade he had three days to break the Curse Mark or die, and they planned for Tsunade to confront the Hyuga Main House while he searched the White-Eyed Chamber.
• Xiao prepared a self-destructive reverse seal as a last resort, then gave Mitaraishi Anko Hyuga Rei's bell and heard Rei's message that she would grow strong enough to stand beside him.
• Hyuga Hiashi learned Tsunade had joined Xiao and ordered the estate sealed, Xiao branded an S-rank rogue ninja, and the Ancestral Shrine and White-Eyed Chamber defenses strengthened.
• Xiao used a forbidden ocular technique that cost him three years of life to see through the White-Eyed Chamber's seven barriers, then slipped past them and opened its stone door.
• Xiao entered the White-Eyed Chamber, where the Caged Bird Seal heated on his forehead and a voice from the darkness welcomed him as a child of the Branch House.