I have a wish!

Inside the Main Family compound.

Broken bricks and shattered tiles littered the ground. Half the doorframe had collapsed across the steps.

The clan leader, Nissei Hyuga, lay facedown outside the main hall, his blood spreading along the cracks between the flagstones.

Several branch family ninja stopped in their tracks, staring fixedly at the corpse, their breathing rapid.

Suddenly, hurried, disorderly footsteps came from the rear courtyard.

The two remaining members of the Main Family were fleeing blindly toward the back gate.

Scarface's eyes hardened. He waved a hand and led several branch family members around the side corridor, reaching the back gate first and hugging the wall to block it.

Keeping Shinichi's earlier instructions firmly in mind, they sealed off the back gate, gripping their kunai tightly. They stayed several paces away, neither advancing nor retreating.

The two Main Family members stopped abruptly, their faces deathly pale as they backed up against the rear wall, with nowhere left to retreat.

One young branch family ninja blocking the gate suddenly went pale.

The two Main Family members gritted their teeth and abruptly raised their hands. Chakra had only just appeared at their fingertips as they prepared to form hand seals.

A dark figure flashed beneath the side corridor.

Shinichi had not activated his Tenseigan. He had used it for too long earlier, and deep inside his eye sockets, the aching pressure still lingered.

But his chakra and movements were already vastly different from before.

Before their hands could meet, Shinichi was already in front of them, reaching out with both hands to seize their wrists.

Crack!

Two crisp snaps rang out almost simultaneously.

Shinichi followed through by bending them downward, and both arms immediately hung limp.

The two Main Family members screamed and collapsed onto the floor, unable to raise their hands again.

Scarface looked at the two men on the ground, his lips twitching, then turned toward Shinichi.

"What do we do with them?"

Shinichi did not answer.

He grabbed both men by their collars and dragged the two Main Family members with broken arms all the way to the front courtyard like dead dogs.

Two sharp thuds rang out.

The two men were hurled heavily onto the open ground outside the main hall, landing right beside the clan leader Nissei Hyuga's corpse.

All forty or fifty branch family members who had been outside the compound wall had now surged inside, filling the courtyard in a dense ring.

Shinichi swept his gaze over them.

"These two people in front of you controlled you with the Caged Bird Seal for decades."

His voice was not loud, but it carried far through the utterly silent courtyard.

"Tonight, every one of you will come forward and cut them once."

"With that cut, you can count it as having taken your revenge."

Shinichi spoke of revenge, but what he had in mind was that he had to make them prove their allegiance.

Once people did something with their own hands, they would do everything they could to convince themselves it was right. As long as they made that cut tonight, these branch family members would belong to the same camp from then on.

They would all be in the same boat.

After speaking, Shinichi stepped aside, clearing the open ground.

The courtyard was terrifyingly quiet.

Forty or fifty people stood motionless in the darkness. No one was the first to step forward.

Scarface moved first.

He strode into the middle of the clearing, drew his kunai, and viciously stabbed one of the Main Family members in a vital spot. Then he pulled out the blade and coldly returned to the crowd.

The middle-aged man was the second to step out.

His lips pressed tight, he gripped his kunai until his hand turned white and his knuckles creaked. He walked forward and stabbed once, then silently retreated.

Then the branch family members stepped forward one after another.

Some gritted their teeth as they struck, then pulled out their kunai and returned to their places without a word.

A young branch family member of seventeen or eighteen trembled violently. After stabbing once, he had barely returned to the crowd before his legs gave way, and he sank into a crouch against the wall.

Another middle-aged ninja finished his cut, then reached up, ripped the white cloth from his forehead, and hurled it to the ground.

His eldest uncle stepped out as well.

He stood before the two dying Main Family members for a moment before lowering his head and stabbing once, then turned and walked back to Shinichi's side.

Shinichi watched from the side.

By the time the last person withdrew their kunai and returned to the crowd, the two people in the clearing had long since fallen silent.

Not one member of the Hyuga Main Family remained.

The forty or fifty branch family members stood around the clearing, still holding their kunai, their eyes all fixed on him.

Amid the silence, the young branch family member crouching against the wall stood up.

He swallowed and called softly:

"Clan leader."

Then the middle-aged man whose child would turn three next year raised his head and called out after him:

"Clan leader."

The voices were still quiet, but a third, a fourth... people began speaking one after another.

Calls of "Clan leader" spread through the crowd.

There were no loud cries. Each voice was hoarse and restrained, yet each rang out more heavily than the last.

Shinichi walked up the stone steps outside the main hall.

People gradually crowded the courtyard entrance, all elderly people, women, and children who had hurried over after hearing the commotion, packing the gateway tight.

They all stared wide-eyed at the corpses strewn across the ground. No one dared take a step forward.

Shinichi looked at the clan members crowding the entrance and raised a hand to point at the bodies.

"We have overthrown the Main Family."

Shinichi's voice carried throughout the compound.

"From now on, we will no longer be birds in a cage."

"No one in this world can activate the Caged Bird Seal anymore."

"From now on, none of the children born into our Hyuga Clan will be branded with the Caged Bird Seal!"

The crowd fell silent for a moment.

"That can't be true, can it? Is the Main Family really all dead?"

"Will our children really never be branded with the Caged Bird Seal again?"

"With the Main Family all dead, what will happen to our Hyuga Clan now?"

Shinichi looked at the clan members below the steps and slowly spoke.

"Not only have we overthrown the Main Family, but we will also build a village of our own, belonging to our Hyuga Clan."

Everyone below froze.

After a brief silence, a clamor of discussion erupted.

"Build a village? Aren't we joining Konoha?"

"We've been packing boxes all day. Are we still moving or not?"

"It took the Senju and Uchiha, two great clans working together, to build Konoha."

"Just us Hyuga?"

"The clan leader is only sixteen, isn't he?"

"So what if he's sixteen? Didn't the clan leader take care of the Main Family all by himself?"

At those words, the discussion below quieted.

Shinichi took a step forward and stood at the edge of the steps.

"You ask whether we Hyuga alone can build a village."

"I'm telling you, if the Senju Clan can build a village, and the Uchiha Clan can build a village, where does our Hyuga Clan fall short of them? Why can't we build a village?"

"I have a wish!"

"In this village, there will be no Main Family and no branch family."

"In this village, not a single Hyuga will have the Caged Bird Seal carved into their forehead."

"In this village, no one will be destined from birth to serve as someone's guard for their entire life."

Someone below opened their mouth but said nothing.

Whether you belonged to the Main Family or a branch family was decided the day you were born.

They had heard those words all their lives, from childhood to adulthood.

"In this village, Rotation and Eight Trigrams Palm will no longer belong to any one family. Any Hyuga child who wants to learn them will be able to."

"In this village, children won't have to go onto the battlefield when they're only a few years old."

"In this village, the Hyuga will no longer have to bow to anyone-not to the Main Family, nor to the Senju or Uchiha."

"In this village, it won't be the Hyuga seeking refuge with others. Other ninja clans will bring their people to seek refuge with the Hyuga!"

Shinichi's voice grew more forceful with every sentence.

"Early this morning, in front of the ancestral hall, someone said Konoha would be the strongest village in the Shinobi World."

"I'm telling you, our Hyuga village will be stronger than Konoha!"

The crowd below erupted.

"Stronger than Konoha?"

"But that's Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha..."

"Just us?"

Shinichi did not answer.

He closed his eyes. When he opened them again, a pair of pale blue eyes shone in the firelight.

Chakra surged from his body, its pressure forcing the people at the very front below the steps half a step back.

For the elderly people and women at the entrance, this was their first time seeing those eyes.

"I am the Hyuga's clan leader."

"And the Hyuga's strongest ninja."

The courtyard instantly fell silent.

Those who had crouched outside the compound wall with their Byakugan activated earlier all recalled what they had seen through it.

Of the eight Main Family members, not one had lasted more than a few moves against him.

Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha could build Konoha.

With a clan leader like this leading the entire Hyuga Clan, why couldn't they build a village stronger than Konoha?

No one knew who spoke first.

"Clan leader."

This time, the voice was no longer held back.

"Clan leader!"

"Clan leader!"