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[Goal 2: Reach 143/150 Collections to receive additional chapter]
Dear 143 collections, the unspoken warriors, Thank you for being a part of the journey.
[Let's make it 150 Collections, we are so close, come on bois]
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moshi moshi
Hiashi observed from the sidelines, intrigued. Hinata had managed to dominate. Maybe his pressure was working. Maybe Neji wasn't as dangerous as feared. He glanced at Hizashi, whose face was rigid with concern. Hizashi activated his Byakugan. His eyes widened. Something wasn't right.
Instantly in response, Hiashi's chakra flared and Hiashi's hands flashed into a Ram seal. Chakra surged.
A bolt of searing pain struck Hizashi's forehead.
The Caged Bird Seal pulsed.
Hizashi collapsed to one knee, a grunt of pain escaping his lips.
"Hizashi," Hiashi said coldly, "You activated your Byakugan aggressively during a spar between children. That is treason. You will be confined for two days."
Neji didn't move, but his True Eyes were now fully awakened. He scanned both his father and his uncle—memorizing chakra fluctuations, emotional patterns, the secret micro-expressions betraying intent. He burned the moment into his memory.
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Hiashi glanced at Neji, the warmth in his voice now slightly frayed. "You did fine, Neji. Learn from young Hinata."
Neji responded with a concern towards his father. "Yes, Hiashi-sama."
He turned to run to his father, crouching beside him, trying to hide his own trembling.
Hinata stepped forward, concern drawn across her face. "Neji-san... your father..."
Hiashi waved her back. "Hizashi, the branding ceremony will begin. Take Neji to the seal room."
Hizashi struggling to get up, Neji's voice quivered. "Otou-san? What happened to you?"
Tears brimmed at the edges of his eyes, but behind them was clarity, burning and bright.
It had been a quiet evening when Hizashi first brought it up.
The walls of their quarters trembled gently in the wind, moonlight casting silver streaks across the tatami floor. Hizashi had already sensed something deeper in his son — a sharpness, a quiet hunger to understand everything that had been denied to him.
"You'll activate the Byakugan soon," Hizashi said, folding his arms inside his sleeve, tone low. "And when you do… watch closely when the seal is used."
Neji had looked up, confused. "Why, Father?"
"There's more to the Caged Bird Seal than pain," Hizashi continued, voice steeled. "It's a technique. A method. They call it a punishment, but even punishment has structure. Precision. Learn that structure."
He paused, kneeling beside Neji. "If you understand how they cast it… maybe, someday, you'll find a way to break it."
From then on, it was a quiet pact between father and son — unspoken when others were around, but always present. Hizashi taught Neji to read the flow of chakra with meticulous care, made him study the elders when they activated the seal on others, made him feel how the chakra flared and locked like chains around the mind.
One day, Hizashi promised, he would volunteer himself for a minor infraction, just enough to provoke a light punishment from the main house. It would hurt, but Neji would be there, eyes open, observing.
"It won't be today," Hizashi had whispered, gently ruffling his son's hair. "But soon. And when it happens, don't panic. Just remember everything I taught you."
"Neji," he whispered. "Everything will be alright."
Neji nodded, tightening his grip on his father's sleeve.
Together, they walked toward the fate laid out before them.
The hallway was quiet.
Each step Neji took echoed with finality. His bare feet touched the wooden floor like the delicate weight of fate, carried along by the stern footsteps of Hizashi at his side. They passed through a set of sliding doors into the stone-walled seal room, a place veiled in the sorrowful history of the Hyūga clan.
There was a distinct scent here—like ink and old paper, but with an undercurrent of blood and sweat. A markless tatami mat sat at the center, worn smooth from generations of children branded into servitude.
In the dim light, a man sat cross-legged. Elder Ranken, they called him. He was ancient, folded in age like old parchment, but the chakra around his form pulsed heavy like gravity. His eyes, though barely open, radiated presence. Neji's True Eyes saw his chakra system: sluggish, yes, but coiled with centuries of condensed experience.
Hiashi bowed slightly. "Elder, the seal is to be placed."
Ranken didn't respond. His gaze shifted, slowly, onto Neji.
"Come here."
Neji did not hesitate. He stepped forward. Calm. Curious. But inside, thoughts fired like lightning. He had to act his part.
This is it.
He knew the Caged Bird Seal couldn't be evaded. Not now. Not without drawing suspicion. He was too young, too vulnerable. But there might be another way—a delay tactic. A technical loophole, The conclusion i have arrived after analysing father and mother's seal.
Ranken's chakra flared subtly, almost too subtle to detect. But Neji saw it.
"Lie down," the old man muttered.
Neji complied.
Then Ranken turned. "Hizashi, leave."
Hizashi clenched his jaw. "Elder, let me remain. I... I want to give him support."
"Leave."
"But—"
"Hizashi," Hiashi said, voice level. "Wait outside. I shall observe."
A beat of silence. Hizashi gave Neji one last look—something between grief and apology—and turned to leave.
When the doors shut, Ranken leaned closer. Neji closed his eyes.
He knew he was weak. He knew that in this moment, there was nothing he could do to stop the seal.
But he had the True Eyes.
And there was a way he thought and closed his eyes.
<6 Months ago>
It had been half a year ago. Neji stood across from Hizashi in a quiet forest clearing behind the compound. He was panting, his small chest rising and falling with effort. Hizashi moved like wind and fire, pressuring him without mercy.
"Again!"
Neji stepped forward with a Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms (Hakke Sanjūni Shō). Hizashi countered, twisting Neji's wrist and pressing chakra into his shoulder.
"You're not flowing, Neji. Don't try to mimic. React!"
Neji pushed off the ground, activated his Byakugan—and then, for a moment, more. A flicker. A shift. He felt it.
His perception stretched beyond even the Byakugan's clarity. Layers of chakra became readable—not just visible. Each node flickered with data, intent, pattern.
But then—
"Neji," Hizashi said, staring. "Your eyes… did you feel that? Your eyes turned blue for a moment."
Neji froze. So he saw it.
He smiled like a child caught with a snack.
"I felt something, otou-san. Just a little."
Hizashi looked disturbed. Not because he feared Neji—but because he knew something unnatural was awakening. Something that could make his son a target. and he felt these eyes could help him see the seal activation even better and resolved him self.
"Come, Neji—let's go. Your soon-to-come sibling might already be kicking. who do you want brother or sister?"
"Hmm... Brother" says Neji
Neji sat in the silence of the forest near the compound's edge, his eyes closed tight, barely breathing. He began meditating, channeling chakra into the center of his mind—not his eyes, but into the point between.
All he could see at first was red and black—the blood vessels of his eyelid. Occasionally, flickers of deep indigo would swirl through, like underwater currents.
"This is useless," he muttered, frustrated.
But he remembered what he observed: the first time his True Eyes activated involuntarily, his father noticed a faint royal blue glow in his eyes. Not violet like the Byakugan. Blue like deep sea flame.
That color would give him away.
He needed to see without being seen.
So he started to train with his eyes closed.
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