"So, are you going to take my eyes today as well?" Hiashi asked.
"Of course."
After the near-exposure earlier that night, there was no way Neiki could risk leaving Hiashi's eyes in the clan head's mansion any longer.
Neiki nodded and was about to act.
"If you're going to do it… can I be the one?" Hiashi said suddenly, rattling the chains on his body. He turned his empty gaze toward Hinata, who was unaware of the danger hanging over her head.
Neiki blinked, understanding what Hiashi meant. Thinking of the dozen preserved Byakugan he'd just learned about, he nodded slightly.
"No problem. Just don't damage my eyes."
He had long since counted Hiashi's eyes as part of his own future collection.
With his last hopes shattered, Hiashi became almost disturbingly cooperative. He nodded, indicating he would be careful.
Then he crooked one mangled hand at his daughter; his dislocated arm hung limply, like it had no bones.
"Hinat a, come here."
Although she had been hurt once by this ragged man, Hinata was obedient and gentle by nature. She lifted her head, looking first at him, then at Neiki.
"Don't you want to know where I took your father?" Hiashi coaxed.
"Come here.
"I'll tell you."
Hinata felt no malice from his soft tone and…
She looked at the chains wrapped around him, hesitated for a moment, then slowly approached.
She wanted to know where her father had gone.
She wanted to know why her mother had died.
She wanted to know why their house had become so filthy and ruined.
There were too many questions locked in her heart.
"Do you really know where my father went?" she asked quietly.
"Yes," Hiashi replied. "Come closer and I'll tell you."
His voice was like a wolf luring Little Red Riding Hood.
Hinata glanced back at Neiki. Seeing no reaction from him, she mustered her courage and stepped forward.
"I'm sorry, my daughter," Hiashi whispered.
All the calamities the Hyuga clan would face in the future were because he had been too weak as a clan head.
All the pain Hinata had already borne was because he had failed as a father.
His spirit was already dead.
But he could not die yet.
There were still things he had to do.
Slowly, he raised his hand.
As Hinata drew nearer, she suddenly felt that something about this man was strange, yet… familiar.
The next instant, a flash of blue chakra lit the air and vanished.
Splat!
Blood sprayed.
The cloth covering Hinata's left eye was torn away as Hiashi deftly extracted it.
"Ah—!"
The girl screamed as she was slammed down onto the desk, agony crashing over her like waves.
Hiashi used one arm to press the struggling Hinata flat against the table and held the freshly removed eye out toward Neiki with the other.
"This is the left eye," he said.
Previously, Hiashi and Hinata had swapped their left eyes so Hinata could see through Abyss of Deception. Now that Neiki wanted Hiashi's Byakugan, the exchange had to be undone.
After Neiki took the first eyeball, chakra like fine threads began to seep once more from Hiashi's palm. Reaching toward his own face, he dug out the left eye currently in his socket—Hinata's original—and carefully returned it to the terrified girl's left eye socket.
Thud.
Hiashi released Hinata. She rolled off the desk and collapsed onto the floor, clutching her face and sobbing.
Without a word, Hiashi repeated the process, using the same method to remove his remaining right eye.
"This is the right eye," he said.
Neiki took a small portable container from his pocket and placed both of Hiashi's eyes inside.
Hiashi wasn't dead yet. His Byakugan still held some vitality, which made it difficult to absorb their essence immediately.
That was why Neiki couldn't simply take the eyes and walk away. He still had to kill their owner.
Glancing at Hinata writhing on the ground, Neiki shook his head. If it hadn't been for Hiashi's last-minute "cleverness," she wouldn't have needed to suffer this much. As far as Neiki was concerned, all the blame lay with Hiashi.
"You've got some nerve," Neiki said. "Aren't you afraid she'll hate you for the rest of her life?"
"Even so, it's better than her hating you for the rest of her life," Hiashi answered calmly.
Now that his world was pure darkness, he no longer had to witness his daughter's suffering.
"The truth will come out one day. She'll eventually realise what really happened and blame it all on me. She'll hate both you and me—but it's true that I'm the one who caused her pain in the first place. When she comes for revenge, I won't hold back."
Neiki shrugged. He didn't put much faith in Hiashi's little gambit.
The hatred born from a massacre and the destruction of one's family didn't shift so easily.
Even his younger brother Neji would hate him for what he'd done—how could the Hyuga clan's eldest daughter, Hinata, be any different?
"Even if I can only shift a little of it, that's something," Hiashi said. Having done all he could, he felt as if the chains binding him had grown a little lighter.
"And Hinata is gentle by nature, with only average talent. She likely won't have the ability to seek revenge anyway."
Neiki shook his head. A catastrophe on this scale would inevitably twist Hinata's personality. As for her "talent"…
He knew better than anyone that it was far from average.
Hiashi hoped to preserve the Hyuga clan's legacy by letting its survivors temporarily forget their hatred. To Neiki, that was far too optimistic.
He didn't continue to argue. Instead, he stared at Hiashi's hand, where the strange chakra threads had appeared earlier.
"You…"
"You're wondering how I can still use chakra when all my tenketsu have been sealed?" Hiashi turned his head slightly, sensing Neiki's gaze.
"Cancel your transformation jutsu and take Hinata to get her wounds treated. Then I'll tell you."
"Fine."
Neiki knew this was just another one of Hiashi's attempts to reduce Hinata's hatred toward him.
He didn't mind indulging a dying father's futile good intentions.
"You've clearly never seriously studied Gentle Fist, nor truly used your eyes properly," Hiashi began. "Your talent is excellent, but you've squandered most of it on other, useless skills, when the Hyuga clan's heritage is the strongest weapon you have."
Neiki found it difficult to agree and glanced up at the ceiling.
This so-called "useless skill"—Abyss of Deception—had turned the entire main family into his hunting ground.
"Your genjutsu has fatal flaws. It won't last," Hiashi said. "How can it compare to the Hyuga clan's Gentle Fist? Deep down, you know this yourself."
He'd been imprisoned for so long that he had fully understood the workings—and weaknesses—of Abyss of Deception. Thinking back to how he'd been caught by such a flawed genjutsu and how it had led to the Hyuga clan's destruction only made him harsher in his judgement.
"No matter how much I don't want to admit it, your bloodline doesn't lie. You are Hizashi's son, a member of the Hyuga clan. Even if you become a rogue ninja, you will still be a rogue ninja of the Hyuga clan. I won't let you tarnish the Hyuga name any further," Hiashi said.
"You're suddenly enlightened now," Neiki said with a faint smile.
"I really did wake up," Hiashi replied. "The Cursed Seal of the Caged Bird should've been abolished long ago. If we had done that, we wouldn't be facing this disaster."
He sighed.
"The main family's line means nothing if there are no survivors. The world can exist without the main family—but it must not exist without the Hyuga clan."
"Since you've plotted things this far, no one can stop you anymore. So I'll pretend you're a reformer within our rotten house—someone who's slaughtering us to abolish the Caged Bird and rebuild a Hyuga clan free from that curse."
Neiki didn't care what label Hiashi slapped on his massacre. In a way, it was internal Hyuga clan strife.
"I don't care which side wins in the end," Hiashi continued, "but the true legacy of the Hyuga clan must be inherited. So listen carefully, Neiki."
Neiki folded his arms, a hint of curiosity flickering in his eyes. He wondered what this defeated clan head still thought he could hand down.
As if he'd forgotten that the boy in front of him was the very enemy about to wipe out his entire clan, Hiashi calmly began to speak about the essence of the Hyuga's legacy.
"Our kekkei genkai, the Byakugan, is often our greatest advantage in battle. Seeing chakra pathways, piercing obstacles, spotting hidden enemies—those are just the most basic uses of the Byakugan."
"When the rules by which the world operates are laid bare in front of us, our task isn't just to describe the present…"
"It's to summarise the future."
Neiki frowned slightly. The old man sounded more serious than ever.
As he spoke, Hiashi realised something himself: the path can outlive the person.
Even if Neiki's current actions were unforgivable, his sons and their descendants would one day return to the Hyuga's heritage—or forge a new Hyuga clan in their own image.
Flowing water doesn't fight to be the first to arrive.
It strives to keep flowing, endlessly.
Over a span of thousands of years of clan succession, a crisis like this might erupt every few centuries. A hundred years from now, Neiki's rampage might be nothing more than a single line carved on the Hyuga's ancestral stone.
PS :
Sarutobi Hiruzen (Third Hokage) - Hokage, ultimate decision-maker.
Koharu Utatane & Homura Mitokado (Elders) - Senior advisors to the Hokage.