As promised for reaching 150 collections, here's your bonus chapter—thank you for the support!
------------------------------------------------
[Goal 3: Reach 152/200 Collections and 2/10 reviews to receive additional chapter]
Dear 152 collections, the unspoken warriors, Thank you for being a part of the journey.
Hey, you there! Yeah, the one who marked this story with your seal by adding it your collection-now, take the next step like a true shinobi. Leave a review and let your voice echo through the ninja world!
[Let's make it 200 Collections, we are so close, come on bois]
------------------------------------------------
moshi moshi
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.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He needed to understand how the Byakugan and the Caged Bird Seal functioned at a neurological level. He began studying chakra flow diagrams that Hizashi left lying around. His memory helped him rebuild their logic.
Byakugan enhanced perception by hyper-routing chakra through the optic nerves and reshaping ocular structures.
The Caged Bird Seal was different.
It was layered chakra ink, forcibly injected through the scalp and around the ocular chakra centers. Its primary function was reactive containment. The moment aggressive intent was directed toward a Main House member, the seal would activate and painfully attack the cerebellum and visual cortex.
It was protection-by-paralysis.
But Neji had an idea: what if he could overlay a layer of True Eye perception just outside the cortical boundary of the seal?
This was risky. He began small.
Each night, he would lie with his eyes closed and enter into a state of pre-dream meditation. When his body was still and the chakra around his head was calm, he would release a minimal pulse of his True Eyes.
Instead of pushing outward like the Byakugan, he compressed it inward.
Tiny tendrils of blue chakra would trace the inside of his optic nerves, winding around the seals, not touching—just observing. Then, he mapped them. Each pulse taught him more.
The idea was simple but terrifying: what if, once branded, he could implant a "flicker" of True Eye energy between the activation sequence of the seal?
When the Caged Bird Seal received the command via a special hand sign, there was a brief neural relay, like a chain of dominoes. He planned to insert a microscopic delay—a nanosecond disruption in that neural relay.
Too small to be detected.
But enough to give him choice.
Even if he couldn't deactivate it now, one day, when stronger than the Hokage, he could inject a True Eye feedback signal into the seal from within.
A trapdoor.
A loophole.
But today, he had to act weak.
He couldn't alert anyone. Not Hiashi. Not the Elder. Especially not Konoha's upper elite, who would see this as a threat to the fragile stability of the Hyūga and by extension, the village.
If he showed even the intent of rebellion, Hiruzen might be forced to act. The Hokage could order his assassination, or worse, lock him away in ANBU confinement. The old bandaged mummy would salivate at the idea of weaponizing a mutant Hyūga with untraceable eyes.
No.
The seal had to happen.
But on his terms.
The old man lifted a brush soaked in chakra-infused ink and held it above Neji's forehead.
"This will hurt," he said plainly.
Neji didn't flinch.
The brush lowered, tracing a familiar lotus-shaped sigil across Neji's brow. Pain surged as the chakra-infused ink pierced skin and soul.
Then the Elder activated the seal.
RAM SEAL. TIGER SEAL.
He could see it the flow of this seal. The inscriptions are ancient. Modified over centuries, but the logic still holds. Chakra suppression. Pain compliance. Neural conditioning.
Neji's True Eyes scanned the seal design engraved on the tatami and carved faintly into the ceiling. It wasn't just a jutsu. It was a mechanical framework. Like a circuit.
And circuits, even ones etched in chakra, could be manipulated.
He observed it fully. How it initiated: the location, the spread. The control sigil was external—worn by the Main Family. The anchor seal linked through the optic nerve and frontal lobe. Pain signal propagation originated from a particular chakra bundle.
If I disrupt this point here...
He noted a small convergence, a faint glyph that acted as a timing regulator for the activation.
It's crude. Ancient design. And the seal is only partially self-correcting.
If he could 'trip' that flow—even slightly—he might not negate the seal but create a desynchronization. A temporal glitch.
He could feel it moving.
Like a surgeon, he traced around the seal's pathways.
There—between the fifth and sixth neural relay point.
He injected a minuscule pulse.
No one noticed.
Neji gritted his teeth, tears flooding his eyes—not from the pain, but from the violation. A foreign chakra was now embedded into his brain.
"It is finished," the Elder said, rising slowly.
Hiashi nodded and offered a brief bow. "Thank you, Elder."
Neji sat up slowly. His forehead burned, and he could feel the mark—yet he didn't cry.
He looked at Hiashi with blank obedience. "Thank you, Hiashi-sama."
Hiashi observed him for a moment. Calm. No rebellion. No resentment.
Good.
He would make an excellent bodyguard.
Hizashi saw Neji emerge and ran forward, kneeling.
"Neji, are you alright?"
Neji gave him a smile, small and brave. "It didn't hurt that much, Otou-san."
Hizashi couldn't hold back. He pulled his son into his arms, guilt and fury flooding his heart.
But Neji? He held on for a moment—then whispered:
"It's alright. I planned for it."
Hizashi blinked.
Neji said nothing more.
------------------------------------------------
Check out my Patreon:
patreon.com/aizenDuchiha0
For early access to my works
------------------------------------------------
Sayonara