"Ugh, ah!!"
"My arm! My arm!"
"Danzo! You treacherous... Ah!!"
Pained, shrill screams, not unlike human voices, mixed with curses that were cut short by the agonizing pain.
The sounds echoed within the washitsu (Japanese-style room), which was originally meant for refined discussions, bouncing off the paper-backed sliding doors. However, a barrier set up beforehand prevented any sound from escaping.
Hyūga Hiichigo and the three other Elder members of the Main Family were thrashing and screaming in the blood they had spilled, like live shrimp tossed into hot oil.
The expensive tatami mats were soaked and ruined. A thick stench of blood replaced the subtle sandalwood, filling the entire space and turning the air nauseating.
The flickering candlelight cast their distorted shadows on the wall, magnifying every painful spasm.
However, more intense than the crushing pain of severed limbs was the horror and chill that originated from the depths of their souls.
They struggled to lift their heads, their eyes fixed on the two towering figures, filled with incomprehensible fury and a sliver of fear they refused to admit!
"Danzo! You, how dare you do this?!"
Hiichigo's face was ashen. He gritted his teeth, forcing a roar through the heart-rending pain, his voice trembling with fury: "What exactly do you want?!"
"Hiashi!"
The skinny Elder stared intently at the figure standing beside Danzo, his eyes filled with disbelief: "Why, why would you ally with him? You are the Head of the Main Family! Are you insane?! And... your forehead..."
Their accusations were hysterical and chaotic, but they couldn't mask the deep tremor and panic beneath.
The reality before them was too absurd and terrifying for them to accept, even with their own eyes. They desperately clawed at any possible straw.
"Even with your own eyes, you refuse to accept the bloody reality before you?"
Danzō Shimura spoke slowly, his voice hoarse and low. His single eye coldly swept over the four figures struggling and curled up in the pool of blood, his contempt barely concealed.
He shook his head and said: "Even now, you are still deceiving yourselves, unwilling to believe that the one standing before you is the very same Hyūga Hizashi you personally sacrificed years ago?"
Hyūga Hizashi...
The name struck the hearts of the four like a curse, causing all their struggles and screams to instantly freeze!
Their gazes were locked on the silent figure, staring intensely at the face that was virtually identical to Hyūga Hiashi's.
Yes, that face was exactly the same as Hyūga Hiashi's!
But the most glaring, undeniable piece of evidence that stabbed at the four men was...
The distinct, ugly, and ferocious Cage Bird Seal on his forehead!
That dark-green mark, flickering in the dim, dancing candlelight, was like an ugly, never-healing scar that violently ripped apart all pretenses.
It brutally dug up the truth they most desperately tried to avoid, thrusting it before their eyes and utterly destroying their last shreds of hope and self-deception!
A Main Family member could never have the Cage Bird Seal!
The person before them was not Hyūga Hiashi!
It was, Hyūga Hizashi!
The Branch Family member whom, years ago, they had unequivocally pushed out in the name of "protecting the Byakugan from leaking" to die in Hiashi's place!
The 'sacrifice' they had tried to bury, forget, and even treated as self-evident, had shockingly returned to stand before them in this terrifying manner!
"No! Impossible!!"
An Elder screamed, shaking his head repeatedly, staring dead-eyed at Hizashi. His eyeballs twitched violently as if they might pop out: "You, you were clearly dead! That night, the Hidden Cloud... that corpse we handed over to them, we clearly saw with our own eyes..."
"Are you a man or a ghost?!"
Hiichigo's voice was also filled with shock and distortion. He even forgot the pain of his broken arms and shrieked: "Where is Hiashi? What did you do to him?! When? From exactly when did this start??"
Facing their hysterical, fear-laced questions, Hizashi merely looked down at them. There was no joy of revenge, nor any pity in his eyes, only coldness.
"From the very beginning." His tone was terrifyingly calm. "There was no Hyūga Hiashi."
"Only me."
"Only me, who wrapped a bandage around my forehead and played the part of my 'esteemed' elder brother, day after day, year after year, since the moment you pushed me out to die in his stead."
His gaze slowly swept over the four faces that were utterly distorted by fear, agony, and the collapse of their reality.
"No! N-no!" Hiichigo continued to shake his head, his voice hoarse: "How could this be? How could this be? How could you hide for so long?!"
Hizashi slowly crouched down, meeting the eyes of the paralyzed Hiichigo.
His movements were slow, with the composed ease of a cat toying with a mouse.
"I'm also curious," his voice was frighteningly gentle, "how did you all fail to notice?"
"On that note, I've been a very good clan head all these years, haven't I?"
The corner of his mouth slowly curved upward, not a smile, but a blend of mockery and self-derision: "Despite only needing one concealing bandage, you were never able to notice."
"You people are truly arrogant, and utterly ridiculous."
His words completely shattered the last line of defense in the Main Family Elders' hearts.
Looking at the glaring Seal on Hizashi's forehead, they felt as though everything they had believed in and upheld was collapsing before their eyes.
The sense of being completely fooled, of being judged by the very "sacrifice" they had created, mixed with the physical agony, was on the verge of driving them insane.
"Why, Hizashi! We... cough!Cough-cough!"
The skinny Elder nearby tried to speak but choked on blood due to the pain. His voice trembled: "We did it for the Hyūga Clan! It was for the order of the Hyūga Clan! It was a necessary sacrifice! Don't you understand that?!"
"Necessary sacrifice?" Hizashi turned to him, repeating the words. The mocking curve of his lip widened, and he chuckled: "Well said."
"Then," his gaze slowly swept over the four, "now, for me, and for the 'New Life' of the Hyūga Clan..."
He paused abruptly. Then, under the violently contracting pupils of the four Elders, he suddenly reached out and lunged for the skinny Elder who was still coughing!
"I will require you,"
"to also make a 'necessary sacrifice'!"
"No..." The skinny Elder let out a shriek of ultimate terror.
But his struggle was meaningless before the current Hizashi. Two fingers plunged precisely and coldly into his eye sockets!
Pchhh!
"Ah!"
Along with the sound of flesh being torn, a shrill, miserable scream erupted.
Blood mixed with unidentifiable tissue poured from the hollow sockets. A pale eyeball, still attached to nerves and blood vessels, was now held in Hizashi's hand!
This sudden, brutal scene caused Hiichigo and the two remaining Elders to completely freeze. Boundless terror surged from their hearts!
"You! What are you doing?!"
Hiichigo screamed hoarsely, his feet kicking frantically against the floor, trying to drag his ruined body backward, away from this Hizashi who had crawled out of hell!
The other two also let out terrified whimpers, desperately shrinking back!
"Hizashi! You can't do this!" Hiichigo roared. "You are destroying the Hyūga Clan! Destroying its heritage! You lunatic!"
Hizashi slowly stood up, holding the dripping eyeball in his hand.
"I told you,"
He walked step-by-step, unhurriedly, toward the struggling Hiichigo, his voice as soft as a whisper: "This will be the New Life of the Hyūga Clan."
The instant his voice fell, he was already in front of Hiichigo.
Ignoring the man's frantic head-shaking and futile struggles, he reached out his other hand and grasped Hiichigo's violently shaking head, forcing it still.
Then, two fingers reached for Hiichigo's Byakugan eyes, which were bulging with fear.
"No! Please! Hizashi! Don't..." Hiichigo pleaded with the most humble, desperate plea of his life.
Pchhh!
Another sound that made the hair stand on end!
"Ah!!"
Hiichigo's plea ended abruptly, turning into a scream of agony and terror. His body collapsed, convulsing and clutching the two bloody holes on his face.
The two remaining Elders who witnessed this turned as pale as corpses, their teeth chattering and clicking. They couldn't even manage a scream.
They could only watch helplessly as Hizashi walked toward them, expressionless, and then...
Pchhh! Pchhh!
Hizashi stood upright, took a container filled with green liquid from his clothes, and gently placed the four pairs of Byakugan eyes, which still carried the warmth of life and a trace of horror, inside.
He carefully sealed the container, ensuring not a drop would leak, and only then did he turn to Danzō Shimura, who had been observing with cold indifference.
"There are still some Main Family members outside. I'll go help Neji and the others clean up."
Ignoring the fleeting look of greed in Danzō's eye, Hizashi said coldly: "I'll leave this place to you."
Danzō's single eye narrowed slightly, a calculating look flashing through it. He nodded.
"Hmph," he replied hoarsely. "Don't forget the promise between us."
Although he coveted the Main Family's Byakugan, the 'Void' (Hollow) and the Branch Family were more important to him.
It wasn't worth turning on Hyūga Hizashi for a few pairs of Byakugan.
"I won't forget," Hizashi said without looking back. He turned and walked out of the washitsu, his figure quickly merging with the dense darkness outside the door and disappearing.
Inside the room, only the painful gasps and screams of the four Elders remained for a while.
However, shortly after Hizashi left, Hiichigo seemed to suddenly wake from his pain and terror.
He realized a terrifying piece of information, overlooked during his conversation with Hizashi and Danzō.
"W-wait a minute!" He struggled, using all his strength to shriek, his voice distorted: "What are you talking about? What cleanup?"
"The screaming outside just now, was it, was it not... Ah!!"
Before he could finish, he felt a foot wearing a wooden clog slam down hard on his calf bone and slowly begin to grind!
Kaka! Crack!
The bone-jarring sound of cracking bones returned. Hiichigo let out an even more agonizing scream than when his eyes were gouged out!
Danzō Shimura had walked up to him without him realizing, now looking down at him. His single eye was filled with cruel mockery and icy killing intent.
"Surely you weren't naive enough to believe that those screams you heard earlier..."
Danzō's voice was hoarse and malicious. He continued to press his foot down slowly, grinding the shattered bone, and chuckled: "...were my Root helping you clean up the Branch Family?"
As the words fell, Hiichigo's screams abruptly stopped.
Even without eyes, the expression on his face instantly solidified into one of terror, horror, and disbelief.
"The true prey," Danzō's chilling voice burrowed into his ears like a venomous snake, "was you arrogant Main Family members all along, you fool."
As the words fell, Hiichigo and the other three Main Family Elders realized the truth. A powerful chill surged forth, threatening to engulf them.
The attackers were not Root.
It was the Branch Family!
The slaughtered prey was not the Branch Family.
It was the Main Family!
"No! No! You're insane! You're all insane!"
Hiichigo completely collapsed. Blood mixed with tears poured from his empty eye sockets, and he shrieked in fury: "You can't do that! The Main Family is the root of the Hyūga... Ah!!"
Danzō straightened up, sneering and shaking his head. He brought his foot down hard again, crushing Hiichigo's other leg and making him scream!
"That is not your concern right now."
A cold smile spread across his face: "Too bad, for secrecy, you had Hyūga Tokuma take his family away. Otherwise, I would have had a few more materials for fusion."
"But, this is enough."
"Don't worry. I won't let you die easily."
"To increase the probability of you turning into a 'Void' after death, I will make absolutely sure that before you die, you will fully experience what is known as the extreme of pain and terror!"
Meanwhile, Hyūga Hizashi did not go to assist the other Branch Family members in cleaning up the Main Family, as he had told Danzō.
After leaving Hiichigo's bloody washitsu, his steps turned directly toward his own... no, toward Hyūga Hiashi's residence.
The mansion was silent, a stark contrast to the faint chaos echoing from outside.
He first arrived noiselessly outside Hyūga Hinata's bedroom.
Gently pushing the door ajar, he looked at Hinata, who was still asleep, and in a smaller cradle, the newly born Hyūga Hanabi, wrapped in swaddling clothes and slumbering peacefully.
Both were completely unaware of the night that was about to change their lives forever.
Hizashi's gaze lingered on them for a moment. He didn't enter, only taking one last, deep look before quietly closing the door, as if he had never been there.
Next, he returned to his room, the spacious bedroom belonging to the "Clan Head." He walked up to a seemingly ordinary wall and pressed his finger against it.
Click...
A faint mechanism sound rang out. A cleverly concealed secret door silently slid open, revealing a stone staircase descending into the floor. Cold, damp air wafted out from below.
Hizashi stepped into the darkness without hesitation.
The secret door quietly closed behind him, completely isolating the light and sound from outside.
Pat-a... pat-a...
He followed the familiar steps down. His footsteps echoed softly in the narrow space.
Soon, he reached the deepest part of the secret room, where a figure was seated.
The man wore old but clean clothes. His hair was slightly messy, and his face was gaunt, but his features were almost identical to the Hyūga Hizashi standing before him.
However, his forehead was smooth, lacking the ferocious Cage Bird Seal.
Hearing the footsteps, Hyūga Hiashi slowly raised his head.
Long-term imprisonment had made his eyes a little unfocused, but when he clearly saw the face of the visitor, an extremely complex emotion surfaced in his eyes.
There was anger, pain, confusion, and even a faint trace of hope.
"Why are you here?" Hiashi's voice was hoarse. "Did you come to let me out to see Hanabi?"
Hizashi did not answer immediately. He simply looked quietly at his elder brother, the man he had been impersonating for countless days and nights, his gaze sweeping over Hiashi's clean forehead.
After a long silence, Hizashi finally spoke, his voice terrifyingly calm: "Everything must end now, Brother."
"...What?" Hiashi froze.
Hizashi took out the container from his clothes. The four pairs of Byakugan eyes, seemingly still carrying traces of terror, shone with an eerie light in the dimness.
Hiashi's gaze fell upon the eyeballs. His pupils constricted violently, and all the color drained from his face!
He knew that this day had truly come.
---------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------
I only share the most exquisite and beautiful novels. Don't forget to check out my other novels!
p@treon DaoistWujinzi