The sensation—as if ten thousand shuriken were being driven into his brain—was one Hizashi had experienced not long ago.
It happened while he was watching Hinata's training. He had allowed a flash of pure, murderous intent toward the gifted girl to slip through his composure. Hiashi had sensed it instantly and activated the Caged Bird seal as a cold reminder of his place.
And he had done it right in front of Neji.
But why did the mysterious stranger in front of him know the hand signs to trigger the seal? This was the most guarded secret of the Hyuga Main House, a taboo knowledge passed down only through the whispers of patriarchs and elders for centuries.
It was impossible for an outsider to know. Since the birth of the Caged Bird centuries ago, there had never been a record of a non-Hyuga using it. Yet, this man was systematically dismantling every tradition and "truth" Hizashi held dear.
As Menma released the seal, the splitting headache finally began to recede.
"You aren't a Hyuga," Hizashi panted, looking at the masked man with lingering dread. That was the only thing he was certain of now.
"And you aren't one of those who slaughtered my clan in the past, either!"
Unconsciously, Hizashi had already begun to accept the "historical truth" Menma had fed him. It wasn't that the Byakugan had never been stolen before—Ao of the Hidden Mist had famously taken one during the Third War—but those were isolated incidents. They weren't enough to justify the systematic enslavement of an entire clan via the Caged Bird.
Only a threat so overwhelming that the Hyuga could not hope to resist it could explain the seal's desperate origin.
"Your goal... is that eye made of fused Byakugan, isn't it?" Hizashi recalled the terrifying power of the giant stone orb in the vision, his voice trembling.
Hizashi was no fool. He was a brilliant man—brilliant enough to leave behind a "suicide note" to ensure Neji wouldn't spend his life consumed by hatred for the Main House. Even if that note remained in Hiashi's hands, it was Hizashi's way of shielding his son from the clan's cruelty.
"You're smart. That's why I chose you over your brother," Menma replied, making no effort to hide his ambition.
The Giant Tenseigan was essentially a satellite weapon capable of striking the ninja world from the Moon. Menma wanted that level of absolute deterrent in his hands. He had searched for traces of the Moon's Otsutsuki in the "Limited Tsukuyomi" world, but the Hyuga archives there had been scrubbed clean.
Hizashi's knuckles turned white as he heard himself compared to his brother.
"You aren't inferior to him. I can tell you've already mastered the essence of the Eight Trigrams: Sixty-Four Palms. So why didn't you use it in our fight?" Menma continued to twist the knife of resentment.
It was true. Looking back at the battle, Hizashi realized he would never have used the Revolving Heaven—a technique he had forbidden himself from showing—if not for the literal shadow of death the stranger had cast on his blind spot.
"I... am not inferior..." Hizashi muttered to himself.
This was the sickness that had rotted his heart for twenty years. Simply because he was born a few minutes later, he was branded with a seal, denied the highest secrets of his own bloodline, and forced to watch his children—and his children's children—be born into eternal servitude.
"Swear your allegiance to me."
The masked Menma stepped forward, his right hand weaving a complex series of signs.
"Caged Seal: Suppression!"
Menma slammed his palm onto Hizashi's forehead. A surge of dark, violent chakra flooded Hizashi's mind, wrapping around the Caged Bird like a shroud.
In an instant, Hizashi felt a clarity he hadn't known since childhood. He felt... free.
The seal on his forehead hadn't vanished, but it had faded into a dull, lifeless grey. The lingering pain evaporated. Most importantly, the blind spot at the back of his neck was gone. He had regained his full three-hundred-and-sixty-degree vision.
A single tear escaped Hizashi's pale eye and rolled down his cheek. He had almost forgotten what the world looked like without that one sliver of darkness.
"This technique will only last twenty-four hours," Menma said, withdrawing his hand.
In the "Limited Tsukuyomi" world, Menma had used the Uzumaki clan's natural genius for sealing jutsu to research the Caged Bird. Since the seal acted like a parasite living off the host's chakra, it could be temporarily suppressed by a superior sealing frequency.
Menma actually had three different ways to remove the seal permanently, but he couldn't test them in the illusionary world. Besides, who in the current world would dare research such a thing? The Uzumaki were dead, and any Hyuga who even looked at a sealing scroll was immediately silenced by the Main House.
Hizashi touched his forehead, savoring the rare sensation of liberty.
"Do you want to be a coward for the rest of your life, or a hero of the Branch House? Even if only for a few minutes."
Menma dissolved the Genjutsu space and vanished.
Hizashi blinked, finding himself back in the hospital room. The morning sun was streaming through the window, so bright it felt surreal. After the layers of illusions, he wasn't sure what was real anymore—until he activated his Byakugan.
The world opened up. Three hundred and sixty degrees of absolute clarity.
"So this... is the scent of freedom?"
He thought of Neji. He remembered his son's agonized wailing during the branding ceremony, while he, the father, could only kneel and watch in silence. He thought of all his kin, their eyes filled with a numbness that hid a deep, festering resentment. And he thought of Hiashi—the brother who was born "superior."
A coward for life, or a hero for a few minutes?
The stranger's whisper coiled around Hizashi's heart like a serpent.