The weekend was a collective holiday for the Ninja Academy, so Ayane stayed in the Hyuga clan compound and didn't go anywhere.
In the Hyuga clan, the living areas of the Branch Family and the Main Family were separated.
The Main Family rarely associated with the Branch Family; to the Main Family, the Branch Family only needed to diligently complete the tasks assigned to them.
Ayane was exceptionally talented among the current generation of Hyuga Branch Family members; not only the Branch Family, but the Main Family probably also had high hopes for her future.
Whether as a guard for the Main Family or an excellent mother to bear offspring for the Hyuga clan, her fate seemed to have been decided from the very beginning.
"Ayane, someone from the Main Family came earlier. They hope you will become a maid to take care of Young Master Hiashi's daily needs. For you, as a member of the Branch Family, this is a great honor."
Looking at her mother's proud smile for having such an outstanding daughter, Ayane was only stunned for a moment before nodding obediently.
However, would people from the Main Family use a word like "hope," which carries a sense of request?
Saying they hoped she would do it was more like a threat and a command.
After all, as a member of the Branch Family, she had no right to bargain with the Main Family.
When she witnessed several Branch Family members who resisted the Main Family being tormented by the Caged Bird Seal until they wished for death, she had already decided what attitude she should adopt towards the Main Family.
"Young Master Hiashi is an excellent ninja. He is fourteen this year and is already a well-known Chunin in the village. Everyone says he can become a Jonin before he turns twenty."
Ayane sat kneeling on the cushion, her long, straight black hair draped over her shoulders. Her silent white eyes showed no signs of excitement or joy; she just quietly listened to her mother's incessant chatter.
Her mother was a relatively traditional woman, submissive to fate.
Perhaps having seen too much, her resentment towards the Main Family, which she once harbored, had transformed into reverence and humility over thirty years.
The Branch Family had no right to resist the Main Family.
The Branch Family was born to dedicate everything to the Main Family: love, life, and dignity.
Everything the Branch Family had was bestowed by the Main Family.
Such traditional thinking, after so many years of pervasive influence, had probably turned her mother into a tool that obeyed the Main Family's commands.
That's why Ayane never engaged in meaningless arguments with her mother.
Habit is a terrifying thing.
"Ayane, don't resent the Main Family. They consider the future of the Hyuga family. Our clan's Byakugan has always been coveted by outsiders. The Caged Bird is not a curse; it is entirely to protect the Byakugan from falling into foreign hands. One day, the other Branch Family members will also understand this truth."
"I know, Mother."
Ayane didn't dislike her mother, even though she had become a tool for the Main Family.
However, Ayane couldn't agree that the Caged Bird was not a curse.
Perhaps the Caged Bird had a purpose in protecting the Byakugan, but should those Branch Family ninja who were killed by the Caged Bird Seal die so silently, so undignified, at the hands of their own people?
What was their fault?
Why didn't the village do anything?
Ayane didn't believe that the Hokage and other high-ranking officials were unaware of such matters.
Such acts of harming comrades should rightfully lead to imprisonment.
Shiraishi-kun was right; this village is twisted and boring. And we are all just a part of this twisted and boring village, the most humble part. Ayane recalled what Shiraishi had once told her, feeling the cruel and twisted nature of this helplessness even more deeply than before.
Therefore, every time the opening ceremony, personally presided over by the Hokage, proclaimed the Will of Fire, Ayane would feel out of place with this village, feeling alienated and afraid.
The blood flowing through her veins now was one that refused to submit to such a fate.
She wanted to become a bird flying freely in the sky.
Not a bird with broken wings, confined by the Main Family in a cage.
One day, she would break free from the cage that bound her and fly towards the sky.
◎
Hyuga Hiashi.
This name was still very prominent in the Hyuga clan.
He was the young master of the Hyuga clan's Main Family, a renowned genius Chunin in Konoha Village at a young age.
In this village, he was destined to become a great figure admired by countless people.
Ayane never expected that she would become this person's maid, and moreover, a member of the Main Family, whom she disliked the most.
However, considering that the Main Family's guards had always been chosen from the Branch Family, it seemed to be a matter of course.
"Young Master Hiashi, I am Hyuga Ayane, your maid starting today."
Sitting on the veranda of the courtyard, the handsome young man with long, straight black hair looked at the pond in the courtyard with his pure white eyes.
Only after hearing a sound beside him did he slowly turn his head and glance at the pure-hearted girl who, like him, had pure white eyes.
There was no emotional fluctuation in her eyes, but it wasn't a dead calm either; only a gentle smile hung on her face, a smile tinged with a faint sadness.
"Do you hate the Main Family?" Hiashi asked.
Ayane was slightly taken aback, not expecting him to ask such a question.
"Yes."
Lying would only invite suspicion; sometimes, being honest would make the other party lower their guard.
At least interacting would be less hypocritical.
Hiashi nodded and muttered to himself:
"I hate it too. Because of these rules, Hizashi hasn't smiled at me in many years. There's only indifference and hostility. Hizashi is my favorite younger brother; we used to play together often, teasing each other, even fighting fiercely over snacks without regard for our status..."
"Is that so? Young Master Hiashi is a gentle person."
Ayane said with a smile.
"I'm not gentle at all, and I can't be gentle. Three years ago, Hizashi and I had a match. I deliberately lost, hoping to make the Main Family look at Hizashi with new eyes. Unexpectedly, when I went back, Father used the Cursed Seal to make Hizashi scream and beg for mercy on the ground... Father told me that as the heir to the Main Family, I must always make the Branch Family remember their place, not to overstep their boundaries, and not to be disrespectful to the Main Family."
Hiashi looked at the clear blue sky and let out a sigh of regret.
Ayane listened in silence.
"From then on, I finally understood what rules were. In the strict Hyuga clan, Hizashi... no, everything about the Branch Family is arranged by the Main Family. No resistance, no freedom."
Hiashi stood up from the veranda and then glanced at Ayane again:
"So, it's right for you to hate me, to hate the Main Family. But you must remember not to show me hostility or murderous intent, because I am the Main Family, the master of your Branch Family."
If a caged bird glared at its master, displeasing them, it would invite merciless death.
That's exactly what was being conveyed.
Therefore, the so-called request for her to become a maid was, from the very beginning, a coercive act.
"I understand. I will mind my place, Young Master Hiashi."
Seeing Ayane's good sense, Hiashi nodded with satisfaction.
Hiashi walked back into the house and came out with a birdcage containing a white bird.
Ayane's expression became slightly unnatural at the sight.
Hiashi paid no attention to Ayane's unnatural expression and murmured softly:
"Do you know? I've never changed this birdcage, but the birds inside have been replaced seven times. This is the eighth bird, bought for you today."
"And the previous ones...?"
"The moment they flew out, I killed them."
"Why did Young Master Hiashi do that?"
"Before you, I had seven maids in total. All of them were executed by my father for various reasons."
Hiashi hung the birdcage outside.
"I hope you won't end up like them..."
This sentence seemed to be addressed to the bird, and also to Ayane.