As his words fell, Hiashi drew a long sword of ancient design, its blade elegantly curved.
With half an inch of the blade exposed, cold light flashed. Intricate patterns of a sun wheel and a calamity god adorned the guard.
This was the sword Hizashi Hyuga had carried in life, the Great Sun Calamity Cutter.
Now, in Hiashi's hands, it took on an even more deadly air.
But Hiashi did not swing it. Instead, he hung the scabbard back at his waist. Then, before Neji could fully recover from this string of shocks,
he stepped forward, spread his arms, and pulled his nephew into a fierce, tight embrace-the boy who had lost his father so young and grown up bearing the Branch Family's fate and suffering.
This embrace belonged to Hiashi, and also to the "Hizashi" he was playing at that moment.
It was strong and warm, yet carried a steely resolve and profound remorse.
"My boy... I've failed both your father and you."
Hiashi's voice sounded beside Neji's ear. Beneath the cold, hard shell he deliberately maintained lay an affection and anguish he could not conceal.
Feeling the warmth of that unfamiliar yet familiar embrace, hearing that voice that seemed to rise from the depths of his memories yet sounded so different,
Neji's rigid body began to tremble slightly. His years of strength, repression, resentment, and confusion were like a dam with a breach chiseled into it, his emotions surging violently.
But he bit his lip hard, refusing to let his tears fall.
Hiashi gently patted his back, then loosened the embrace a little. With both hands on Neji's shoulders, he looked straight into those pure white eyes, identical to his own and Hizashi's, and spoke each word like the most solemn oath and passing of the torch:
"After