"Lady Shingetsu, I'm sorry..."
Under the Hyuga Main Family's all-pervasive surveillance, Qin Zhen ultimately failed to find her courage. Thinking of her father, whose fate remained unknown, she could only timidly accept the bundle Hyuga Hikomasa handed her and turn down Shingetsu and Inari's invitation.
Shingetsu sighed helplessly at Qin Zhen's renewed refusal, but she was not angry.
"All right. But when the time is right next time, don't turn me down again."
After leaving her with those seemingly meaningful words, she took the indignant Inari by the hand and walked straight away.
Hyuga Hikomasa, who had been watching their movements all along, secretly breathed a sigh of relief. The Hyuga Main Family only ever dared to bully their own. They would never dare use the Byakugan to casually monitor the village, much less keep watch on someone as important as Uchiha Shingetsu.
If Hinata Kotoma left with Shingetsu, they could only threaten her with Hyuga Yu and Hyuga Rong's lives. But if she really revealed anything, then, regrettable as it would be, and despite their fear of Madara Uchiha, the Main Family would have no choice but to kill her with the Caged Bird Seal.
To the Hyuga Main Family, it was better to have no Branch Family prodigy at all than one who refused to obey.
There was no denying that the Caged Bird Seal was an extremely effective instrument of enslavement. Combined with the Byakugan passed down through generations of the Hyuga Clan, it made freedom all but impossible for the Branch Family!
In these circumstances, only powerful outside intervention could break those seemingly unbreakable shackles.
With the deaths of this group of Branch Family rebels, the Hyuga Clan seemed to return to peace once again.
From then on, the remaining Branch Family members lived in