Blades in Hand, Follow Me, Slaughter Every Main Family Dog!

Inside the dim brick house, the sky outside the window had gone completely dark.

Shinichi untied the white cloth and casually laid it on the wooden table beside him.

His uncle stared fixedly at his forehead.

It was smooth and unblemished, without a green mark, much less the Caged Bird Seal.

His uncle froze in place, his eyelids twitching twice.

He edged half a step closer and reached out to touch Shinichi's forehead, but his fingertips hovered in midair before he forcibly stopped himself.

"Where's your Caged Bird Seal?"

"How did you break it?"

"You... what method did you use?"

His uncle's voice was dry. He swallowed. "Am I under a genjutsu?"

Shinichi said nothing and merely shook his head gently.

Shinichi half closed his eyes. When he opened them again, his Byakugan had changed.

They were eyes that glowed a pale blue, with a ring of intricate patterns swirling around the pupils.

The room was already dim, and that faint blue glow shone on his uncle's cheeks.

His uncle stumbled back half a step, his calf slamming into the wooden table behind him with a bang.

"What happened to your eyes?" his uncle asked, his voice trembling.

"Uncle, if the Uchiha's Sharingan can evolve, why can't our Byakugan?" Shinichi looked at him.

"This is the Tenseigan, the evolved form of the Byakugan."

His uncle stared blankly at him. "The Tenseigan... how can it evolve?"

"When the Hyuga Clan's bloodline becomes sufficiently concentrated, the Byakugan automatically evolves into the Tenseigan."

"The Main Family is the legitimate line," his uncle panted. "If it really comes down to bloodline purity, why hasn't the Main Family's Byakugan evolved into the Tenseigan?"

Shinichi's tone was calm. "If the Main Family's bloodline were really pure, would I have been the one to get the Tenseigan?"

His uncle opened his mouth but could not get a single word out for a long while.

He suddenly gritted his teeth and formed hand seals. Veins bulged at the corners of his eyes as he activated his Byakugan.

Through his Byakugan, Shinichi's chakra was unimaginably vast, several times greater than even the clan head, Hyuga Nissei's.

And Shinichi's forehead was perfectly clean, without a trace of the Caged Bird Seal's chakra.

His uncle's arm slipped sideways, and his elbow knocked the water bowl off the table. It hit the floor with a crash and shattered.

He paid no attention to the bowl on the floor, merely staring blankly at Shinichi.

Only after a long while did his uncle slowly withdraw his chakra, the veins at the corners of his eyes subsiding.

Shinichi closed his eyes as well. When he opened them again, they had returned to an ordinary Byakugan.

Shinichi looked at his uncle. "Tonight, I'll kill everyone in the Main Family."

His uncle's expression changed abruptly. He stepped back half a pace, his body leaning heavily against the edge of the table.

He stared fixedly at Shinichi, his lips trembling slightly, and said nothing for a long time.

Still calm, Shinichi continued, "After killing the Main Family, I'll abolish the Caged Bird Seal system. No child born into the Hyuga Clan will ever be branded with the Caged Bird Seal again!"

His uncle shuddered violently and instinctively gripped the corner of the table.

Just last month, the clan had branded three branch family children who had turned three with the Caged Bird Seal...

Those children had cried and screamed inside the room all night. The adults had stood outside in the courtyard listening, not one of them daring to open the door and go inside.

The room fell deathly silent.

After a long while, his uncle slowly bent down and reached for the broken pieces of the bowl on the floor.

His fingers trembled slightly as he picked up the pieces one by one and placed them on the table. Only then did he raise his head to look at Shinichi. "What do you need me to do?"

Shinichi lowered his voice. "Uncle, you're the branch family head. Everyone in the branch family listens to you."

"At midnight, gather everyone in the branch family who can fight in front of the ancestral hall. Have them bring kunai."

His uncle's brows knitted tightly. He pondered for a moment. "Keeping watch at night is the branch family's duty anyway. The Main Family really won't suspect anything if we're walking around late at night."

He paused, a trace of worry entering his voice. "But with the Caged Bird Seal in place, once the Main Family activates it, the branch family won't even be able to resist."

"You won't need to fight. Leave the Main Family to me!" Shinichi said calmly.

His uncle stared fixedly into Shinichi's eyes. Only after a long while did he slowly nod.

"Midnight. The ancestral hall."

At midnight, in front of the ancestral hall.

One after another, branch family members slipped out of their courtyards and gathered in the clearing before the ancestral hall.

There were a good forty or fifty of them.

The night wind blew. No one spoke, though a few occasionally glanced toward the Main Family compound.

His uncle stood at the very front, his hands behind his back, utterly motionless.

Shinichi emerged from the shadows, his footsteps extremely light.

Several branch family ninja in the crowd raised their heads to look at him.

"Isn't that Shinichi?" someone muttered quietly. "What's a sixteen-year-old Chunin calling us out here in the middle of the night for?"

No one answered. Their gazes returned to his uncle, waiting for him to speak.

Everyone stopped and quietly watched Shinichi.

Shinichi strode forward, climbing the ancestral hall's steps one by one before stopping at the very top.

Wasn't that where the clan head gave speeches?

Dozens of pairs of eyes stared at him from below. Someone muttered, "Why's he standing in the clan head's spot?"

Shinichi offered no explanation. He raised his hands and untied the white cloth around his forehead.

The white cloth fell at his feet.

His forehead was smooth and unblemished, without even the slightest green trace.

A stir immediately ran through the crowd.

"Where's his Caged Bird Seal?"

"Why's the mark gone?"

"Can the Caged Bird Seal actually be removed?"

His uncle, standing at the very front, suddenly spoke. His voice was quiet but carried clearly. "Shinichi has been hiding his abilities all along. Not only has he broken the Caged Bird Seal, he's also been concealing his strength. His true strength now surpasses even the clan head's."

At those words, the commotion below immediately subsided, and everyone exchanged looks.

Shinichi looked at the branch family members below and said solemnly, "Our branch family's children are branded with the Caged Bird Seal when they turn three. From then on, their lives and deaths are in the Main Family's hands."

Shinichi kept his voice low. It was not loud, but it struck straight at their hearts.

"We're all members of the Hyuga Clan, so why is it the branch family that goes out on missions while the Main Family gets to stay safely on the clan grounds?"

"And why does every bit of money the branch family risks their lives to earn have to be handed over to the Main Family?"

"We risk our lives out there while the Main Family enjoys themselves on the clan grounds."

"Even when we go on missions together, it's the branch family charging at the front, and the branch family taking the blades."

"And the Main Family? They stand behind us and watch."

"When someone dies, it's a branch family member. When we earn merit, the credit goes to the Main Family."

"Why?"

No one below spoke, but many lowered their heads.

"Just because of the Caged Bird Seal."

"The Caged Bird Seal has made our branch family slaves to the Main Family!"

"We were branded with the Caged Bird Seal at three and have spent our whole lives as the Main Family's slaves."

"If we accept that, so be it."

"But what about our children?"

"And our children's children?"

"Do they have to be like us, branded with the Caged Bird Seal at three and enslaved to the Main Family for life?"

Someone below raised his head.

A middle-aged ninja standing in the back murmured to himself, "My boy turns three next year."

"Fuck the Main Family," someone beside him spat through gritted teeth.

"He's right. Why should our children be slaves from the moment they're born?"

The crowd stirred, a few low murmurs spreading like sparks.

Just then, a branch family ninja with an injured face stepped out from the middle of the crowd.

"Easy for you to say!"

He sneered at Shinichi. "The Caged Bird Seal is still on our foreheads. The Main Family only has to activate it to make us wish we were dead. What are we supposed to fight them with?"

At those words, the clearing, which had just begun to warm, instantly turned cold.

The people who had spoken earlier shut their mouths.

Dozens of pairs of eyes turned back, staring fixedly at Shinichi on the steps.

"At the end of the day, the Caged Bird Seal is only a cursed seal. It still needs someone to activate it."

"Once everyone in the Main Family is dead, there won't be anyone left who knows the Caged Bird Seal."

Shinichi swept his gaze over the crowd, his tone utterly even. "All you need to do is guard the Main Family compound and make sure none of them escape."

"Leave the Main Family to me!"

"He who bears the nation's disgrace is called lord of its altars; he who bears the nation's misfortunes is king beneath heaven."

That was a line from the Tao Te Ching in his previous life.

It meant that only someone who could shoulder a nation's humiliation and calamities deserved to be its master.

The same held true for the Hyuga tonight.

Let Shinichi bear the charge of killing his own clansmen!

Shinichi turned toward the Main Family compound and drew the kunai at his waist.

"Blades in hand, follow me! Slaughter every Main Family dog!"