Caged Bird Seal

Caged Bird Seal

"What is this..."

Neji—or rather, a soul who once answered to the name Neji, but now inwardly belonged to an ordinary twenty-first-century office worker—opened his eyes and stared blankly at the wooden ceiling for a full three minutes.

Then he abruptly sat up and touched his forehead.

That familiar, brand-like green seal pattern.

"Holy shit."

This was his first reaction.

His second reaction was to rush over to the blurry bronze mirror in the corner of the room, staring at the handsome teenage face in the reflection that bore a prominent curse mark on its forehead.

"Holy shit shit shit shit!"

He had transmigrated.

It was no dream, no hallucination. He, a hardcore Naruto fan who had just worked overtime until two in the morning in the real world and got clipped by an electric scooter on his way home, was now Hyuga Neji—that tragic character among the Konoha 11 who was hailed as a genius but died young.

And the timing... Neji surveyed the room, simple to the point of being crude, struggling to recall the plot. The eve of the Chunin Ninja Exams? Tomorrow was the beginning of that fate?

"Calm down, calm down." He took a deep breath, trying to arm himself with his knowledge of over seven hundred episodes of Naruto, plus all the movies, spin-offs, and fan-fiction. "First off, the Caged Bird."

His hand instinctively stroked the curse mark on his forehead.

In the real world, he had argued with people in countless forums about how to undo the Caged Bird. Some said evolving the Byakugan into the Tenseigan could remove it, some said the Rinnegan could, and others said Orochimaru's science and technology might work.

Yet when he truly became Neji, when this curse mark was not merely a setting, but genuinely carved into flesh and blood, intimately bound to the flow of chakra, those theories on a keyboard seemed so pale and powerless.

"The Main House... Hyuga Hiashi..." Neji gave a bitter laugh. "Right now I can't even throw a decent Gentle Fist, and I'm going to kill him? I'd probably be pinned to the ground and rubbed into the dirt with his pinky finger."

Watching the anime in the real world, he always felt Neji was too pessimistic. Now he understood it wasn't that Neji was pessimistic; this damn curse mark was truly despair-inducing as hell!

"Wait, Orochimaru!"

Neji's eyes lit up. Right, the mad scientist Snake-uncle! The man who even researched Living Corpse Reincarnation might actually have a way!

Yet immediately he wilted again. "How am I supposed to contact Orochimaru? He's an S-Rank Missing-nin right now, the boss of the Hidden Sound Village. If a Hyuga Branch Family Genin like me runs up and says, 'Hi Snake-uncle, can you help me remove a curse mark?', I'll probably be turned into a test subject in the next second."

Neji paced back and forth in the room, his mind racing at high speed.

"The Chunin Exams... Orochimaru will disguise himself as a Kusagakure ninja to approach Sasuke, and plant a Curse Mark on him. If I want to contact Orochimaru, I have to get close to Sasuke at that exact time point."

The problem was: why on earth would he, Hyuga Neji, approach Sasuke Uchiha for no reason? In the original work, the two of them had almost zero interaction before the official matches of the Chunin Ninja Exams.

"I need to come up with an excuse... Right, observing opponents! As fellow Genin, observing potential rivals is completely reasonable!" Neji slapped his thigh. "That's what we'll do!"

He sat down and began to plan in detail.

First, tomorrow during the Forest of Death exam, he had to ensure that his squad—Tenten and the other Genin assigned by Might Guy, oh right, Rock Lee—must make sure they agreed to an "chance encounter" with Team 7 inside the Forest of Death.

Second, after getting close to Sasuke, he had to make Orochimaru notice him without arousing Orochimaru's suspicion.

Third, how to make Orochimaru interested in him? The Caged Bird Seal itself might serve as bait. Orochimaru possessed a fanatical interest in Kekkei Genkai and curse mark research, so he would definitely be interested in the Hyuga clan's Caged Bird as a curse mark system passed down for thousands of years.

"But this also implies risk." Neji muttered to himself, "Orochimaru might just abduct me for experiments instead of helping me undo the curse mark."

The agony! This was the downside of knowing too much of the plot—you could see every possibility, and you could also foresee every risk.

"Screw it, it's still better than being a caged bird for life!" Neji clenched his fists. "In the original work, Neji never undid this thing until his dying breath, and in the end he even sacrificed himself to protect Naruto and Hinata. Since I've come here, I can't walk the old path!"

He walked over to the window and pushed it open. Konoha's night was peaceful and serene, and in the distance the Hokage Rock was faintly visible under the moonlight.

Who would have thought that starting tomorrow, this village would welcome such turmoil.

"Speaking of which..." Neji suddenly thought of a question. "How much strength do I have right now?"

He tried to assume the starting stance of the Gentle Fist, and his body actually reacted naturally! The muscle memory was still there!

Neji pleasantly tried to channel his chakra, feeling that energy flowing through his meridian pathways. When he activated his Byakugan, his vision instantly turned clear, able to see right through the walls into the next room—it was empty, so it seemed Tenten and Rock Lee didn't live near here.

"At least my combat instincts were preserved, or else stepping into the Forest of Death tomorrow would be walking straight to the slaughterhouse." Neji breathed a sigh of relief.

Yet immediately he realized another problem: his combat experience was Neji's, but his tactical mindset was his own. An ordinary office worker's tactical mindset...

"I'm doomed, I barely even get into fights, and now suddenly I have to participate in ninja life-or-death battles?" Cold sweat poured down Neji.

He hurriedly sat cross-legged and began recalling every combat scene in Naruto. Fortunately, he was a hardcore fan, able to recite every classic battle backward and forward.

"Inside the Forest of Death, Orochimaru will first wipe out the Amegakure trio, then disguise himself as a Kusagakure ninja to approach Team 7... Where should I stake out..."

Neji fetched pen and paper, drawing a rough map of the Forest of Death from memory. As a Naruto fan, he had even bought the official databooks and possessed a certain understanding of the Forest of Death's terrain.

"Right here, the spot where Team 7 encounters Orochimaru in the original work." He marked a point on the map. "Team 8's mission is to collect the Heaven and Earth Scrolls, so theoretically we can go anywhere. As long as I persuade Tenten and Rock Lee..."

Speaking of teammates, Neji felt a headache coming on.

Tenten was easy enough to talk to, a relatively normal kunoichi. But Rock Lee... that thick-eyebrowed taijutsu fanatic whose brain was filled with nothing but youth and hard work—persuading him to change the operational plan probably wouldn't be easy.

"Looks like I can only use Sakura Haruno." Neji had a flash of inspiration. "Saying I accidentally overheard ninja from another village plotting against Sakura Haruno—with Lee's personality, he definitely wouldn't just stand by and let that happen."

The prototype of the plan gradually cleared up, but Neji knew actual execution would surely run into trouble everywhere. After all, anime was anime, and reality was reality—even if this reality was also a 2D world.

"There's still one more problem: what consequences will altering the plot trigger?" Neji fell into deep thought. "Whatever, I'll shatter this damn Caged Bird first. As for sparking plot developments, that's not something I need to consider right now."

The term "butterfly effect" hovered in his mind.

Yet upon second thought, he had already transmigrated, so what did he care about a butterfly effect? The most important thing was to undo the Caged Bird, save his own skin, avoid getting crushed to death by Pain's Shinra Tensei, and not act as cannon fodder in the Fourth Shinobi World War.

"That's settled!" Neji made up his mind. "Chunin Exams, keep a close eye on Sasuke, and contact Orochimaru!"

He lay back down on the bed, yet couldn't sleep no matter what. Various plot points of Naruto flashed through his mind: the chaos of the Chunin Exams, Orochimaru's assault on Konoha, the death of the Third Hokage, Sasuke's defection, the Akatsuki's actions, Pain's assault, the Fourth Shinobi World War...

"Wait, if everything follows the original plot, I'm already dead by the Fourth Shinobi World War." Neji abruptly sat up, cold sweat pouring in streams. "And it was to protect Naruto and Hinata, pierced right through by the Ten-Tails' Wood-Splitting Technique and dying."

The crisis of death sent shudders through him just thinking about it.

"No way, absolutely not! I have to change all of this!"

Yet how to change it? With his current Genin strength? Even with a god's-eye view, knowing the abilities and weaknesses of every enemy, without matching strength it was all useless.

"Chakra cultivation, taijutsu training, refining the Gentle Fist... These all take time." Neji felt a wave of helplessness. "And less than three years remain until the Akatsuki's official actions."

Three years, to grow from a Genin to a level where he could fight Akatsuki members? Unless he cheated.

"Wait, I can use my foresight to acquire resources!" Neji perked up again. "For instance, I know the secret of the Heaven and Earth Bridge, I know Hidan's abilities and weaknesses, I know the truth behind the Six Paths of Pain... These pieces of information can be exchanged for help or guidance from powerhouses!"

A bold plan formed in his mind: contacting Orochimaru to undo the Caged Bird was only the first step. Afterward, he would use his information advantage to grow strong rapidly, ultimately altering his tragic ending.

"Easier said than done..." Neji smiled bitterly and shook his head. "Right now, though, I just need to survive the Chunin Exams first."

Outside the window, the sky was growing bright.

Neji decided not to sleep after all, getting up to begin practicing the Gentle Fist. The body's instincts let him smoothly execute a set of palm techniques, yet Neji could sense that this body's potential went far beyond this.

"In the original work, Neji was called a genius, teaching himself the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms at age thirteen." Neji pondered as he practiced. "Now I have an adult's thinking and comprehension skills, perhaps I can make a breakthrough even earlier."

He attempted to incorporate physics knowledge from the real world into the Gentle Fist—force transmission, angles, conservation of momentum... These might not fully apply in the shinobi world, but there were always aspects worth drawing upon.

As he practiced, Neji discovered he was truly immersed in it. That sensation of chakra condensing in his palms, sealing off the flow of chakra by striking an enemy's pressure points, was miraculous and powerful.

"No wonder so many people want to transmigrate into the Naruto world." Neji finished his stance and wiped away his sweat. "This feeling of possessing supernatural power is indeed captivating."

At breakfast time, Neji ran into Tenten and Rock Lee in the cafeteria.

"Neji! You look exceptionally spirited today!" Rock Lee gave a thumbs-up, his teeth flashing brightly. "Is this the vitality of youth!"

"Morning, Neji," Tenten greeted him relatively normally.

Neji looked at these two characters familiar from the original work, now standing alive and flesh-and-blood before him, feeling a complex mix of emotions. In the real world, they were merely paper cutouts; here, they were comrades of flesh and blood.

"Morning." Neji responded as naturally as possible. "Regarding today's Chunin Exams, I have a proposal."

"Oh? What proposal?" Tenten asked curiously.

"During the previous written exam, I inadvertently overheard that ninjas from another village are plotting against Team 7, where Naruto is." Neji followed the script he had worked out. "It sounds like they're intentionally targeting Sakura Haruno."

"Sakura?" Rock Lee immediately grew anxious. "Neji, can we secretly follow their squad?"

Tenten, meanwhile, was more pragmatic. "Our primary mission is to collect the Heaven and Earth Scrolls. Will following Team 7 affect our mission?"

"It won't," Neji said. "Besides, I heard that Sasuke Uchiha is a genius from the class below ours, so I imagine many teams also want to gather information on them. We can observe them from the shadows first."

"Sasuke Uchiha?" Rock Lee's eyes lit up. "That genius hailed as the number-one newcomer! If I can duel him, it'll surely test the fruits of my training!"

Tenten looked at her two teammates and sighed helplessly. "Fine, fine, minority submits to the majority. But we need a plan, we can't waste our squad's time."

The plan passed smoothly, and Neji let out a sigh of relief. Step one was complete.

Next came entering the Forest of Death and waiting for Orochimaru to appear.

"Lord Orochimaru, I hope you take an interest in this little decoration on my forehead." Neji touched the Caged Bird Seal, thinking silently to himself. "Otherwise, this game of mine is going to collapse right at the opening move."

Standing outside the Chunin Exam venue, watching the bustling Genin from various nations, Neji took a deep breath.

The god's-eye view gave him foresight, but it didn't give him an invincible cheat. In this world filled with danger, every step had to be taken with extreme caution.

"Still," a hint of a smile tugged at the corner of Neji's mouth, "knowing the plot's trajectory is in itself the greatest cheat."

He followed Tenten and Rock Lee into the examination hall, his gaze scanning the crowd for targets.

Before long, he located his targets: the cool-looking raven-haired Sasuke, the blonde whiskers Naruto, and the pink-haired Sakura.

Team 7, the critical node of the plot.

And not far away, among a few Kusagakure ninjas, existed a special presence—pale skin, vertical gold pupils, looking at Sasuke with a playful smile.

Orochimaru.

Neji felt his heartbeat accelerate.

"Don't panic, Neji," he told himself. "You're a man who's watched the entire Naruto series, what kind of scene haven't you seen?"

Even so, Orochimaru was one of the legendary Sannin and regarded life with utter indifference, causing Neji to feel unprecedented pressure.

This wasn't a character on a screen; this was an entity capable of killing him effortlessly.

"Yet this is also an opportunity." Neji clenched his fists. "An opportunity to undo the Caged Bird, an opportunity to change my fate."

The Chunin Exams officially began.