Chapter 47: Sleeping Slaves
"Hinata, goodbye!"
Yamanaka Ino and Haruno Sakura turned back, waving.
"Goodbye."
Hyuga Hinata responded softly, unprecedented complex emotions surging through her heart. Not until their figures completely disappeared at the street's end did she turn around, walking homeward with Hyuga Kiyonari.
She held the fashion magazine set Ino had given her, recalling everything that happened today while walking. Shopping together, chatting, laughing... we should count as friends now, right?
Thinking this, she unknowingly returned to the Hyuga compound.
The compound's streets were orderly and quiet. Occasionally, clan members passed by, their pace unhurried. Everything appeared so well-organized, same as always.
But this time, Hinata inexplicably felt somewhat oppressed.
A young branch family member passed by. Seeing Hinata, he immediately stopped and bowed. "Young Lady."
Hinata nodded in response. Only then did the clan member straighten and continue forward.
Right—here, she wasn't "Hinata" but "Young Lady."
Hinata lowered her head, looking at the brightly colored magazine covers in her arms. They seemed so out of place here. A sense of guilt quietly crept into her heart.
"Kiyonari," she suddenly asked, "I neglected today's training, indulging in these meaningless things. So many people still expect things from me. Tell me... am I being selfish?"
Kiyonari thought for a moment but didn't answer directly. Instead, he said, "You know what? Through scientific calculation, people need to drink eight glasses of water daily, 250 milliliters per glass—2000 milliliters a day, 730 liters a year. If you live sixty years, that's 43,800 liters."
"So... your life is 43,800 liters of water, plus 65,700 meals, plus 21,900 days. Plus grades, missions, work, meaning, value, intelligence... right?"
Hinata pressed her lips together, corners lifting slightly. "How cunning. You're substituting concepts."
"Then you tell me—what is life?"
"It's..." She paused but didn't continue. The closer they got to the main house, the more silent she became.
Finally, she bid Kiyonari farewell and pushed open the main house door.
"Hinata."
Just entering the hall, she saw Hyuga Hiashi seated in a chair, arms folded across his chest, face expressionless.
"Tomorrow's training will be doubled to make up for today's truancy."
He didn't ask where Hinata had gone or what she'd done—just calmly announced his decision.
She'd deliberately left early in secret, not without testing intentions. Now she had her answer. Though expected, an inexplicable grievance welled up in her heart.
But Hinata didn't dare object, only responding quietly, "Yes."
Hinata turned to leave but stopped after two steps, looking back at Hiashi. Gathering courage, she asked tentatively, "Father... after the border situation stabilizes, if possible, could you take me to see it?"
Hiashi's expression abruptly grew even colder. "No!"
One simple word, yet allowing no room for negotiation.
But this time, Hinata didn't obediently lower her head as usual. Instead, she lifted her face, directly meeting Father's eyes, using a barely audible yet abnormally clear voice to question him.
"Why?"
"With your current strength, what could you accomplish at the border?"
"It's just..." Hinata bit her lip.
"There is no 'just.'" Hiashi interrupted her. "Your strength is far from adequate. Going to the border would only make you a burden."
Is it really because I'm too weak?
A bitter arc bloomed at her lips. "Or is it... because I'm main family, so I absolutely cannot be exposed to any danger?"
The instant those words fell, Hinata herself froze first.
She'd never talked back to Father like this, never so bluntly questioned family rules.
Hinata instinctively retreated half a step, nearly turning to flee. But ultimately she remained rooted, anxiously awaiting the expected rebuke. However, the anticipated storm never came. The hall instead fell into suffocating silence.
Was this the calm before the storm?
After a long while, Hinata carefully lifted her head, stealing a glance at Hiashi.
Hiashi's eyes were deep and inscrutable—no anger, no severity, just sitting there quietly.
After prolonged silence, Hiashi finally spoke, his voice much lower than before. "I will never allow you to leave Konoha."
Hinata bit her lower lip hard, saying nothing.
"Also," Hiashi paused slightly, "I've notified Neji. Starting tomorrow, he'll guide your training. Don't disappoint me."
Hinata's eyes widened in shock.
"That's all. Return to your room." After speaking, Hiashi rose and departed.
Notified... what an understated word.
Hinata crossed the corridor. Dusk deepened. Maids sequentially lit the estate's lanterns, dim yellow halos swaying in the gathering night.
When they passed her, bowing in greeting, Hinata couldn't help wondering:
Did they truly wish to become maids? Did they feel their lives had meaning? Did they occasionally fantasize about different lives?
Returning alone to her room, she recalled the earlier scene:
When I contradicted Father, what was he thinking? Why did he look at me like that?
Opening the black notebook, gazing at the words "Life Simulator," she couldn't help questioning herself:
"Clearly, at first, I only didn't want Father to die. Now... why have I become so greedy?"
When to rise, when to train, when to rest... her past life had been arranged seamlessly. Not until the Life Simulator arrived did it pry open a gap in that tightly formatted schedule.
Before that day, she'd never had opportunity to say "no"—hadn't even conceived the thought of saying "no."
Similarly, branch family members were like her—no opportunity to say "no," perhaps no thought of saying "no" either, because they... hadn't received their own "Life Simulator."
People who couldn't see the future—how could they abandon lives that, though regimented, were at least presently stable?
In the Hyuga clan, she'd never heard any clan member dream of becoming Hokage. But outside the Hyuga clan, every child could smile and say "I want to become Hokage."
Whether Ino or Sakura, at least they could speak freely.
Even an ordinary person who'd just moved to Konoha, not even a ninja—after Kiyonari's guidance, they had the power, the courage to change their life.
Yet in the Hyuga clan, Uncle Hizashi didn't even have power to choose his own life or death. Neji had no freedom to choose whether to teach her. She lacked courage to decide taking today off...
From the moment of birth, most Hyuga clan members' fates were already predetermined. They neither took action to change fate nor possessed courage to accept it. They simply slept.
This was the Caged Bird.
Here, everyone was a caged bird.
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