Her head was telling her to rush up the stairs, but her feet were planted firmly in place. She felt a slight tug in her gut, and she slowly started walking deeper into the room.
She kept going deeper and deeper, until she found herself standing at the gated entrance to the third sub level, which was reserved only for the direct family of the clan head.
Her whole body was shaking and wanted to flee, but she steeled herself and thought of an adventurous, young blonde before steeling her resolve. As she passed through the gate, her hand passed over the seal designated to detect and activate the cage-bird seal, and her hand unconsciously went to her forehead.
She grabbed a candle from the wall and lit it with a low-level fire jutsu. Nothing special, just something taught at the academy to help light fires on missions.
She descended down the stairway and creaked open the wooden door to the bottom floor. This was honestly the first time she had ever ventured down here, and she was surprised by how small it was compared to the rest of the building. Even though she had access to it, she had never felt like coming down here. The atmosphere it excluded just reminded her too much of the council.
There were fewer scrolls on this floor, but they were still neatly organized and piled on what few shelves there were. The room was full of secret and restricted jyuuken techniques known only to the clan heads and unedited versions of the clan's history.
As she ventured through the shelves, she caught sight of a rather large scroll sitting a pedestal. Unlike many of the other scrolls down here, this one was absent of cobwebs and dust. There were very few people with the access to this floor, and none of them would have come here with cleaning on their mind. That would be below their station.
To see one in such clean condition shocked her. She ran her fingertip along the kanji for tiger as she felt the same chill from before. She whipped her head around and happened to glimpse the faintest glow disappear behind a wooden door at the end of the room.
She tentatively tiptoed inch-by-inch up to the door. She reached out with her shaking fingers and touched the door handle.
"Hinata…"
Her back slammed against the door, and her byakugan flared to life, darting all across the room.
Nothing. Still nothing.
Her heart was beating in overtime and every instinct was telling her to run, but she slowly suppressed that feeling and deactivated her eyes.
She was going to keep going. She just had this strange obligation to continue.
Taking a deep breath, she creaked open the door and peaked inside. Even when she poked her candle through the doorway, she could barely see anything. She creeped down the stone hallway before entering a small round room.
It was pitch black and the air felt cold and damp. She glanced up towards the ceiling and was surprised she couldn't see it. Lifting her candle as high as she could, it barely illuminated the walls of the room. She lowered the candle with care and skipped a little to the side as hot wax dripped down its side. As she titled the candle to drip off the rest of the melted wax, she made her way towards the walls. When it finally came into view, she was surprised to discover a white rock with strange engravings. She ran her hand through one of the grooves and started walking to her right. She followed the circular path of the walls, and was surprised to discover that the strange stone encompassed the entire room, aside from the doorway. It rose up about 2 feet above her head, and she faintly make out faded outlines of something on the walls.
As she glanced back at the ground, she noticed a spot in the center where the sand had been disturbed. It looked as if someone or many people had stood in that exact spot. She hesitantly walked towards the center and faced the wall opposite of the hallway.
Slowly, she raised her hand due to some unknown urge and activated her byakugan.
In an instant, the entire room was visible and it overwhelmed her. The rock wall seemed to light up and the previously illegible markings bombarded her with information, most of which she didn't understand. The walls above the rocks depicted ancient murals and paintings of people resembling the Hyuuga praying and guarding over a large white circle in the sky.
Her mind was swirling with phrases and images, most of which she couldn't comprehend. Even in her stupor, she was able to catch one or two phrases from the wall such as "the will of the moon people" and their "duty to guard."
Hinata was confused and fascinated at the same time. This was unlike anything she had ever seen.
It was beautiful.
It was exhilarating.
It was terrifying.
She froze when she finally noticed that she was no longer the only one in the room. She slowly turned around to see a white, blurred figure standing in the exit of the hallway. She breath caught in her throat and she began backing away from the figure. With every step she took away from it, it grew closer. She felt her back press against the stone wall, and she curled up into a ball.
The blurry, horned figure made incomprehensible sounds as it moved towards her. She closed her eyes and covered her ears as she only picked up bits and pieces. Tears stung her face as she shook in fear.
"Help! Please! Please leave me alone!"
"Hinata!"
Her eyes shot open, and her father stormed into the room straight through the figure, dispelling it.
Read 10,20 advanced chapters earlier from webnovel.
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