Thud!
The body hit the ground heavily, letting out a muffled sound and kicking up a fine dust.
The pale, familiar face was turned to the side, facing the doorway. The empty eye sockets, which were still oozing blood, seemed to be staring straight at Hinata Hyuga standing outside the door.
Time seemed to freeze at that moment.
Hinata's small body stood rigidly in the doorway, the color draining from her face instantly, leaving her pale as a corpse.
Her Byakugan, always characterized by timidity, were now wide open, filled with shock, terror, and an incomprehensible blankness and confusion.
Her lips trembled. After several seconds, two almost inaudible, broken gasps escaped from the depths of her throat.
"F-father? Neji... Brother?" Her gaze fell upon the familiar back and then the figure standing over it.
The call was so faint, like a murmur in a dream, afraid to wake anything up.
Neji Hyuga's head snapped around.
His Byakugan, bloodshot from intense emotional stimulation, fixed fiercely on Hinata, who had suddenly appeared behind him!
Shadow perfectly obscured half of his face, while the flickering, weak candlelight clearly illuminated the other half.
That half of his face was covered in tears and blood, the muscles were hideously contorted and nearly unrecognizable from pain, and it was filled with an aura of madness and terror!
He looked like an Ashura crawling out of the blood pools of hell!
This was absolutely not the Neji she remembered—the one who, though cold, occasionally showed complex concern and sometimes even guided her training.
He was more like a demon.
All the blood in Hinata's body seemed to freeze. Fear made her body shake uncontrollably. She shook her head non-stop, instinctively turning to flee.
No, no!
Impossible!
How could this be? How is this possible?
This must be fake, this must be a dream, the most terrifying and absurd nightmare!
Wake up! Wake up quickly!
Thump!
Hinata stumbled, falling heavily onto the ground. Her elbows and knees slammed into the stone, sending a sharp, chilling pain through her.
The pain was so real, so clear, instantly shattering her last shred of hope. Tears instantly burst from her eyes.
This was not a dream.
This was a blood-soaked reality, more terrifying and cruel than any nightmare!
Neji Nii-san had truly killed her father!
Just then.
Tap... tap... tap...
A heavy, clear, unhurried set of footsteps echoed from the direction she had just run from, gradually closing in on her.
Hinata flipped over. Ignoring the pain, she scrambled backward on her hands and knees, fearfully looking toward the darkness at the end of the corridor.
A figure slowly emerged from the shadows.
The tears and blood were still on Neji's face, but all the twisting and madness seemed to have settled, leaving only a bone-chilling, almost numb, dead silence.
He looked at the fallen, disheveled Hinata—the child he had once considered a sister and protected.
On that face, Neji only saw confusion, distress, fear, and cowardice.
But there was no trace of anger. No trace of hatred.
Even now, there is no anger?
A flicker of indiscernible disappointment crossed Neji's eyes.
Father, even if a Hinata like this survives, how can she possibly exist in this increasingly cruel and chaotic world?
"Why..." Hinata kept shaking her head, her tears finally overflowing, repeating in a murmur, "Neji Nii-san, why... why would you do this..."
Neji's voice was hoarse and low, laced with a deliberate coldness and sarcasm: "You are still so timid and weak. Truly pathetic."
He advanced step by step, his footsteps echoing in the silent corridor, drumming on Hinata's heart.
"I avenged my father. What about you?" he said softly. "You are just a hatchling, hiding under the wings of your parents, lacking even the courage for anger and defiance."
"You were born with the right to fly to the sky, yet you have already lost the courage to do so."
"Even facing your father's gruesome death, even facing me who stands right before you, you are nothing more than a useless wreck who can only cry and tremble."
At this, a complex look flashed in Neji's eyes, as if he was speaking about Hinata, yet also about himself.
But quickly, his eyes turned cold, his tone devoid of any emotion: "My hopelessly weak sister, your only value is to be killed by me, and your Byakugan gouged out."
As the words fell, Neji's figure vanished from the spot, and the next moment, he reappeared like a wraith right in front of Hinata!
Whoosh!
A sharp, whistling sound rang out.
His blood-stained hand, fingers slightly curved, moved with uncompromising killing intent, grabbing directly for Hinata's face. The gust of wind created by his sleeve even lifted Hinata's hair!
Hinata's eyes were instantly filled with desperate fear, yet a thread of defiance surfaced beneath it, driving her to raise her trembling arm...
BAM!!
A heavy crash suddenly erupted right in front of her!
The anticipated agonizing pain did not come. There was only a fierce gust of air blowing on her face.
A seemingly slender, yet incredibly steady arm, covered in black clothing, was horizontally positioned between her and Neji, precisely blocking the fatal grab.
Neji's hand was firmly stopped less than half a foot from her eyes, unable to advance any further.
Neji slowly raised his head, his cold gaze sweeping over the arm to the figure who had suddenly appeared in front of Hinata.
"Neji Hyuga!"
Hyuga Aoi's eyes were wide with shock and anger. She stared fixedly at Neji's terrifying face, enunciating each word as if to crush the name: "What... what have you done?!"
Neji ignored her, looking past her figure to the person behind her.
—Hyuga Kado.
At this moment, Kado's expression was grave and filled with chilling coldness. He watched the blood-soaked Neji, his brow gradually furrowing.
He had been sent by Hyuga Higo to lure Aoi, who might leak secrets to the Branch Family, out of the compound. He hadn't expected to see the corpses of Branch Family guards upon returning to the Hyuga Clan grounds.
Feeling uneasy, the two rushed toward the Clan Head's residence, seeing numerous bodies of both Main and Branch Family members along the way. This only intensified their shock and apprehension.
But they never expected to witness the scene before them...
"Sister Aoi!" Hinata's voice trembled. "He killed my father!"
Catching the hint of deep-seated anger in her voice, Neji's eyes lowered.
Yes, that's right. Be angry. Hate me. Only through indignation, anger, and hatred for your own and others' fate can you be driven to become stronger in this cruel world.
Aoi and Kado's expressions instantly changed, looking in disbelief at the murderous Neji.
Are you kidding?!
Neji Hyuga killed the Clan Head, Hyuga Hiashi?!
"Neji Hyuga!" Kado roared in immense shock and fury. "Are you insane?!"
Meanwhile, in the secret room at the end of the corridor, the flickering candlelight gave one last faint crackle. The flame suddenly shrunk, struggled a few times, and finally died out completely.
Darkness, like a tidal wave, instantly engulfed the entire space.
Only a small point of light from a quiet burning fire faintly outlined the silhouettes of two blurred figures.
"It seems you succeeded."
'Shadow' looked down at the corpse Neji had set on fire, then casually waved his hand to extinguish the flames, commenting: "It's quite a pity to let you die like this."
With that, he raised the 'Gokuraku no Hako' (Box of Paradise) in his hand. A white-haired, white-eyed soul, being manipulated, merged into Hyuga Hizashi's body.
Undoubtedly, that was the soul of Ōtsutsuki Toneri's father.
'Shadow' had kept it until this day for this very moment.
"I heard someone say there is a bird in this world that has no feet. It can only fly, and when it is tired, it sleeps in the wind."
"This bird only lands once in its life, and that is when it dies."
'Shadow' chuckled softly: "You pushed the fledging under your wing off the cliff, and watched it struggle to finally fly toward the sky, breaking free from the cage of fate."
"However, he will become a 'Footless Bird' for the rest of his life, flying endlessly in the sky, with nowhere to rest, until the moment he falls and dies."
"If you still wish to see his future with your own eyes," 'Shadow' said, his low voice carrying a hint of amusement, "then continue to struggle in your pain."
Ommm!!
The moment his words fell, something seemed to be triggered. A chilling aura surged from Hizashi's body.
'Shadow' no longer looked at him. He slowly raised his head, his gaze seemingly passing through the wall to the four people outside, looking at Neji Hyuga, who seemed to have matured completely overnight.
"Now, you should be worthy of that blade," he murmured. "Let me add another 'fire' to Konoha tonight."
With that, he slowly raised his hand toward the direction of the Hokage Tower.
Simultaneously, almost at the exact moment he raised his hand, one of the 'Seven Deadly Sins' ninja tools, which was preserved in the Forbidden Jutsu Vault beneath the Hokage Tower, suddenly began to tremble.
The name of that blade was...
—'Wrath.'
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