"Bye, Hinata!"
Yamanaka Ino and Haruno Sakura waved back at her.
"Bye," Hinata replied softly, a kind of complicated feeling rising inside her—something she had never felt before. Only when their figures completely vanished at the end of the street did she turn around and start walking home with Hyuga Kiyonari.
She hugged the set of fashion magazines Ino had given her, replaying everything that had happened today as she walked. Shopping together, chatting, laughing… We should count as friends now, right?
Thinking that, she found herself back at the Hyuga compound before she even realized it.
The streets inside were neat and quiet. A few clan members occasionally passed by at an unhurried pace. Everything looked orderly—just like before.
But this time, Hinata felt inexplicably suffocated.
A young branch-family member passed by. The moment he saw Hinata, he stopped and bowed. "Young Lady."
Hinata nodded in response, and only then did he straighten up and continue on.
Right. Here, she wasn't "Hinata."
She was "Young Lady."
Hinata lowered her eyes to the bright, colorful magazine covers in her arms. They looked painfully out of place here, and a quiet sense of guilt crept up on her.
"Kiyonari," she asked suddenly, "I skipped training today and got absorbed in these meaningless things. Even though there are so many people expecting things of me… do you think I'm selfish?"
Kiyonari thought for a moment, but instead of answering directly, he said, "Did you know? Scientifically speaking, people should drink eight cups of water a day—250 milliliters each. That's 2,000 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. And then grades, missions, work, meaning, value, IQ… right?"
Hinata pressed her lips together, a faint smile appearing. "How sneaky. You're switching concepts."
"Then tell me," Kiyonari asked, "what is life?"
"It's…" She paused, but didn't continue. The closer she got to the main residence, the quieter she became.
At last, she said goodbye to Kiyonari and pushed open the door to the main house.
"Hinata."
The moment she entered the hall, she saw Hyuga Hiashi sitting upright in a chair, arms folded, his face blank.
"Tomorrow, double your training volume. Make up for what you skipped today."
He didn't ask where she'd gone or what she'd done. He simply announced his decision, calm and flat.
She had gotten up early and slipped out that morning—she hadn't been without a testing mind. Now she had her answer. It was expected, and yet a strange sting of grievance rose in her chest.
But Hinata didn't dare argue. She could only answer quietly, "Yes."
She turned to leave—but after two steps, she stopped, turned back, and looked at Hiashi. Gathering her courage, she asked tentatively, "Father… once the border situation stabilizes, if possible… could you take me to see it?"
Hiashi's expression turned even colder.
"No."
Two simple words, leaving no room for negotiation.
But this time, Hinata didn't lower her head obediently like she usually did. She lifted her face, met her father's eyes, and asked in a voice that was tiny—yet unmistakably clear.
"Why?"
"With your current strength, what could you do at the border?"
"I just…" Hinata bit her lip.
"There is no 'just.'" Hiashi cut her off. "Your strength is far from sufficient. Going to the border would only make you a burden."
Is it really because I'm too weak?
A bitter curve bloomed at the corner of her mouth. "Or is it… because I'm main family, so I'm never allowed to be anywhere dangerous?"
The moment the words left her mouth, Hinata herself froze.
She had never contradicted her father like this before—never questioned the clan's rules so directly.
She instinctively took half a step back, almost ready to run. But in the end she stayed rooted in place, trembling as she waited for the scolding she was sure would come.
Yet the storm she expected never arrived. Instead, the hall sank into a suffocating silence.
Was it the calm before a storm?
After a long time, Hinata cautiously lifted her head and stole a glance at Hiashi.
His gaze was deep and unreadable. No anger. No harshness. He simply sat there in stillness.
After a long silence, Hiashi finally spoke, his voice much lower than before.
"I will never allow you to leave Konoha."
Hinata bit her lower lip hard and said nothing.
"And," Hiashi paused slightly, "I've already informed Neji. Starting tomorrow, he will guide your training. Don't disappoint me."
Hinata's eyes widened in shock.
"That's all. Go back to your room," Hiashi said, then stood and left.
"Informed"… what a lightly spoken word.
Hinata walked down the corridor as dusk deepened. The maids lit the lanterns one by one, and the dim halos swayed in the growing night.
Whenever they passed her and bowed in greeting, Hinata couldn't help wondering:
Do they truly want to be maids? Do they feel their lives have meaning? Do they ever imagine a different life?
And when she returned to her room and was alone again, the scene from earlier replayed:
When I argued with Father… what was he thinking? Why did he look at me like that?
When she opened the black notebook and stared at the words Life Simulator, she couldn't help questioning herself:
"In the beginning, I only didn't want Father to die. How did I… become this greedy now?"
When to wake, when to train, when to rest—her past life had been arranged so tightly it left no gaps. Only when the Life Simulator appeared did it pry open a sliver of space in that densely packed schedule.
Before that day, she'd never had the chance to say "no." She'd never even had the thought of saying "no."
And in the same way, the branch family members were just like her—they'd never had the chance to say "no." Perhaps they'd never even had the thought of saying "no," because they… never received their own "Life Simulator."
If you can't see the future, how could you ever give up a life that might be rigid and rule-bound, but at least safe in the present?
Within the Hyuga clan, she had never heard any child say their dream was to become Hokage. But outside the Hyuga clan, every child could laugh and say, "I want to become Hokage."
Ino, Sakura—at the very least, they could say it freely.
Even an ordinary man who had just moved to Konoha, not even a ninja, could—after Kiyonari's guidance—have the right and the courage to change his own life.
But inside the Hyuga clan, Uncle Hizashi didn't even have the right to choose life or death. Neji didn't have the freedom to choose whether he would teach me. And I didn't have the courage to decide to rest today…
From the moment they were born, most Hyuga clan members' fates were already decided. They neither took action to change fate, nor had the courage to accept it—they simply slept.
That was the Caged Bird.
Here, everyone was a bird in a cage.
~~~
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