Chapter 180: Evil Disguised as Rules!
No one had expected a ninja cat to openly criticize the Hyūga clan in front of so many Main and Branch House members.
And even occasionally mixing in vulgar language.
Hiashi Hyūga believed he had been calm enough by choosing to retreat.
But Kijirō's barrage of words still caused his tense expression to waver. He realized that if he didn't speak up, he would, as Clan Head, be tacitly agreeing with the cat's words.
If these words were to spread...
The Hyūga clan would never be able to hold their heads high.
And the Branch House ninja would certainly be galvanized by these words.
Hiashi had already sensed that many of the Hyūga Branch House ninja's faces were flushed red from the verbal assault.
This could easily escalate into a conflict between the Main House and the Branch House, and the rift between the two sides would grow larger and larger.
It might even escalate into armed conflict!
Even if the Main House could arbitrarily control the Branch House using the Caged Bird seal during an armed conflict, they wouldn't go so far as to kill every single Branch House member, would they?
"The Caged Bird seal was not created to enslave the Branch House, nor does the Main House intend to be superior," Hiashi said solemnly. "The Byakugan Kekkei Genkai is naturally coveted by enemies. Before the Caged Bird seal was created, many Hyūga clan members had their eyes taken by enemies. To protect the clan, an ancestor of the Hyūga clan created the 'Caged Bird' seal."
"If anyone tries to steal a Byakugan, the Caged Bird seal will automatically destroy the eyes. Over time, many people in the ninja world realized that the Hyūga clan's Byakugan cannot be stolen. This is how the clan is protected from being hunted by others."
"Hah! That is the explanation for why the Caged Bird seal is applied. The Caged Bird is not the oppression and exploitation that outsiders see it as."
"Is that so?" Uchiha Ikeizumi asked plainly. "Why doesn't the Main House apply the Caged Bird seal to themselves?"
Hiashi Hyūga answered by instinct, "Because the Branch House already serves as the protector of the Main House, the Main House naturally doesn't need to apply the Caged Bird."
As soon as this sentence left his lips, the scene fell into silence again.
The Branch House ninja looked at Hiashi Hyūga with astonishment.
"Why?" A young voice, sounding exceptionally abrupt, broke the silence.
It was Neji Hyūga. He looked straight at Hiashi, biting his lip in confusion. "Why must the Branch House be the protector of the Main House? Why must they die for the Main House? Just as Lord Ikeizumi said... if the Main House also applied the Caged Bird to themselves, wouldn't there be no need for the Branch House to be the protector, no need for the Branch House to be the Main House's scapegoat..."
Neji was so stimulated by Kijirō's words that he didn't know where he found the courage to pour out everything in his heart.
"The Hyūga clan has had the distinction between the Main House and the Branch House for hundreds, almost a thousand years."
A slightly heavy, hoarse voice sounded from the side. A Hyūga Main House elder slowly walked over. "Neji, as Hizashi's son, don't you understand this principle?"
"It's one thing for outsiders to misunderstand the Hyūga clan, but do you also misunderstand the Hyūga clan? Even Hiashi, the Clan Head, will have to separate his two daughters into the Main House and the Branch House in the future."
"As long as the Hyūga blood flows in your veins, no one can escape the family law, and no one can break the Ancestral Law."
"The Ancestral Law is immutable—that is the Hyūga clan's nindō."
The elder stopped, gazing at the two blood-stained heads on the ground.
He took a deep breath, the wrinkles on his face twitching slightly. But he didn't lash out. Instead, he calmly addressed Uchiha Ikeizumi, "Uchiha Ikeizumi, your duty of Absolute Justice is to eliminate the evil of the ninja world. Our Hyūga clan's family law is not within the scope of your duty, is it?"
"By killing two 'Hyūga criminals,' you should have completed your duty. Everything else is beyond the interference of your Absolute Justice nindō and the Uchiha clan."
However.
The Main House elder was astonished to find that Uchiha Ikeizumi completely ignored him.
The extremely dangerous young man suddenly turned and coldly asked Neji Hyūga, "Brat, what do you think 'Justice' is?"
The sudden question was jarring. Not only were Hiashi and the others confused, but Neji himself was momentarily stunned.
He hadn't expected Uchiha Ikeizumi to speak to him directly.
"Justice..."
For some reason, Naruto and Sasuke's previous words came to Neji's mind.
Those words were strictly rigid theories of justice that had left a deep impression on him.
But before Neji could hurry to answer, Uchiha Ikeizumi's voice sounded again: "Order, fairness, impartiality, morality, punishing evil, promoting good... and so on. Do you consider these to be Justice?"
"Yes!"
Neji answered quickly this time, afraid he would be interrupted again before he could speak.
"Have you seen fairness and impartiality in the Hyūga clan?"
"Do you think the Hyūga clan's order is a positive order?"
"Are the moral values you see or adhere to correct?"
A relentless series of questions followed the cold voice, directed at Neji.
The dropping of these questions clearly unsettled the Main House elder and Hiashi Hyūga.
"I..."
Neji felt many people staring at him, including Hiashi Hyūga and the elder.
Was the Hyūga clan fair? Was it impartial?
He couldn't help but touch his forehead, recalling his father becoming the Main House's scapegoat; he thought of Kōgari Hyūga, who was tortured in agony merely for trying to break the Caged Bird; he remembered Kijirō's words when it poked his face.
It certainly wasn't fair!
It certainly wasn't impartial!
The moral values the Hyūga clan adhered to were certainly wrong!
The members of the Hyūga clan, as those involved, might not have felt the severity, but when a ninja cat loudly berated them face-to-face, Neji faintly realized that some of his own thoughts might have been contaminated by the Hyūga clan's twisted moral values.
What was restricting his belief in Absolute Justice was not his own hesitation, nor his instinctive fear of Uchiha Ikeizumi.
It was the exclusive, deeply ingrained moral concepts of the Hyūga clan that differed starkly from the rest of Konoha, and they were binding him!
If the Caged Bird was merely a physical cage, then these deeply ingrained moral concepts were a spiritual cage.
One that his father, and one that he...
Could not escape!
"Your answer is already written on your face."
Uchiha Ikeizumi withdrew his gaze, giving a flat look at the slightly tense Hyūga Main House elder.
"The duty of Justice is not merely to arrest or judge the guilty. When confronted with distorted philosophies and morbid rules that violate Justice, Justice has the responsibility and the obligation to correct them. Otherwise, such distorted and pathological phenomena will breed vast quantities of evil."
"Therefore."
"Are you going to hinder the execution of Justice?!"
...
"Something doesn't feel right..."
Sweat beaded on Kakashi's forehead.
He thought Uchiha Ikeizumi would leave after killing the two criminals.
But the tense atmosphere now clearly indicated that Ikeizumi's objective was not just to eliminate the wrongdoers.
He was going to openly intervene in the Hyūga clan's generational family law!
He was even going to interfere with the Hyūga clan's traditional ideology!
Hiss...
Wasn't this getting too involved? Even successive Hokage had been unable to change some of the Hyūga clan's beliefs, nor could they interfere with their family law.
Could Uchiha Ikeizumi truly succeed?
With his immense power?
And his Absolute Justice?
"The looks on the faces of those Hyūga Main House ninja are all wrong when they look at Uchiha Ikeizumi."
Kakashi muttered to himself, persisting in observing everything in secret, despite knowing that some Hyūga ninja must have noticed him.
"They are the beneficiaries of the family law. How could they possibly agree to apply the Caged Bird seal to their own foreheads, just like the Branch House?"
In truth, many Konoha ninja clearly saw the internal issues of the Hyūga clan.
Just as they could see that the Uchiha clan was definitely planning something in Konoha before.
The Hyūga Main House was consequently not well-regarded in Konoha. Otherwise, the incident where the Main House heiress was bullied by commoners would not have happened.
Despite this, the Hyūga Main House was still unwilling to make the slightest change...
This was enough to show how stubborn and entrenched these people were.
Who wouldn't want to be protected and served by the Branch House?
Who would want to breathe the same air as the "muddy-footed" Branch House?
Furthermore.
If the Main House, which had been upheld for hundreds of years, were to truly "fall to the mundane," one couldn't imagine what the Branch House, having been repressed for so long, might do to the Main House.
"Phew, I feel like something is about to happen. I should have told Ranshīn Yamanaka to bring Lord Hokage along..."
Kakashi muttered.
...
"You see, brat." Kijirō, squatting on Neji's shoulder, poked Neji's cheek hard again. "An 'outsider' like Lord Ikeizumi is more concerned about the plight of your Branch House than your own Hyūga Main House, meow."
"In Lord Ikeizumi's justice values, the Hyūga Branch House doesn't need to kneel to the Hyūga Main House. The Hyūga Main House has no right to make you kneel for hundreds, nearly a thousand years."
"Meow, don't be brainwashed by 'evil disguised as rules', Hyūga brat!"
Both Uchiha Ikeizumi's words and Kijirō's words were deafening to Neji.
(End of Chapter)
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