LightReader

Chapter 287 - The truth brings freedom

"Instead of circling around her, you could have gone and meet her." 

"If I go meet her, I will be beheaded." 

"They can't because I am here." 

"..." 

Two men were having a silent discussion in one the tavern in the city of Astapor in Slaver's bay. And these two men were Hiashi and Ned. After Ned had decided to come and see Daenerys and see if she was capable enough to lead. And someone else had joined him in this small adventure that he had ventured into. And that was Hiashi himself. 

Hiashi had been given free reign in Westeros. He was getting bored in the library. Though that place was the tomb of knowledge, he didn't like the closed place anymore and thus loved roaming in this new world that Aoto had forwarded to him. 

Thus with the advice of Aoto, he and Ned joined together to see how the world was and if this woman was fit to run an empire. And thus after travelling a lot, they landed in Astapor after hearing rumors of Dothrakhi princess being exiled and at the moment searching for troops for her legion. 

While they were discussing, Hiashi stiffened and this was noticed by Ned. Hiashi was someone Ned had huge respect for. This man was powerful and just like him was a father. Ned had always felt guilty with the way he treated Jon and it was just like Hiashi as he too never treated Hinata the way she deserved. Over this common topic both of them bonded. 

While on the way here on a ship, they were attacked by some pirates and these pirates once they boarded the ship, they seemed to sign their death sentence. They became a pool of blood with each hits Hiashi delivered. This made Ned respect Hiashi more. But now seeing his friend freeze up made him alert.

4 people walked in and only when Ned saw them did he calm down. He had seen and met these people before. One of the cute daughter of Hiashi while the other was his twin brother. In their journey, Hiashi's daughter would often come to visit him and once in a while would be his brother. Of course he knew Aoto, but he had never seen the boy before who seemed to be confused of what was happening. 

He seemed like the son of Hiashi, but Hiashi had never mentioned having a son. This made Ned a bit confused. 

"Uncle Ned, it's been some time." 

"Hello Hinata.. Yeah. I am sorry you are having to see the debauchery around." Ned felt ashamed. The tavern they were in was not a very good one. Men and women mingled and they didn't seem like people who had their urges under control. It was sickening to look at. Hinata didn't need to use her eyes to know what was happening and just shook her head. 

"We should move to a place." Aoto said. With that everyone left the place. Neji was the only one who had huge question marks but at the moment he only had one question. Why was he seeing two men having the same face as his father. Logic told him that a truth that his heart refused to believe. 

They soon came at a secluded place and then with the help of a portal they found themselves in a totally different scenario. It was one the edge of a cliff where one could overlook the raging seas thrashing at the steep mountain's foot. The wind was high enough to take away a light weighted person from its feet. The weather was quite cloudy and the winds chilly. 

"What is going on?" Neji couldn't help but shout out his frustration. In response, both of the twin brothers bent their knees and bowed down to Neji. Neji was taken aback and was struck between a rock and a hard place. Manners dictated him to stop these men from doing this but it also made his curious. The clan head Hizashi slowly removed the head band and the eyes of Neji went wide when he saw the clan mark on the top of his head. 

"What.. What is this?" Neji asked again. 

"Neji.. It's me.. Your father.. It was me who had been the clan head all this time." Hizashi said.

"No. This is impossible.. No. This is a genjutsu." Neji refused to accept. The twin brothers with the help of Hinata had to explain of what was actually happening including what really went down that day. 

How Aoto had come and saved them, replacing the body and also how Hinata had known about this. Hinata also asked for forgiveness as she had also been complicit of this. Neji listened to all of this and at the end, he started crying with the rest of them. 

Aoto had a smile in his face. Neji had suffered enough. It was time for him to know the truth.

"That's a perfect reunion if I have seen one." Ned said. 

"Better than meeting your sister?" Aoto asked. This threw Ned to a dilemma. During the war, it took a lot out of him to meet his sister only for her to die at the end. He felt bitter about it but he also was happy to meet her. 

"Yes, because there are no deaths here." Ned replied. 

This made Aoto smile. Neji had a lot of questions to ask and after an hour long discussion Neji finally had the whole picture. He was ashamed to feel that he couldn't be trusted because of his emotion outburst. He vowed to be more rational and not be be driven by hatred. 

Aoto returned with the same number of people he had gone with. But this time Neji had brand new emotions. He was beyond ecstatic and his loss in the exams didn't seem like a loss at all. 

"Neji.. I hope that you work hard and become the next head of the clan." Hiashi said. Neji didn't expect those words but he understood what an uphill battle would that be. 

----

Read 50 chapters ahead on my [email protected]/thelightedghost

More Chapters