June 15th, Konoha Year 61.
For the villagers of Konoha, it was an ordinary day.
They only noticed more ninja leaping across rooftops than usual, and that family and friends who had been out on missions were returning home.
But they were still bathed in the sunlight until the sun set and night slowly fell.
Like a curtain closing on a stage play, a calm and unremarkable day came to an end.
However, deep beneath the Hyūga Clan Compound.
This was a corner the sun could never reach, buried deep in the coldest cellar of the clan territory.
The air was stagnant and heavy, and every breath carried a sickening stench of metallic rust and aged mildew.
The only sources of light were a few flickering oil lamps on the walls.
The weak, yellow flames were constantly blown by a cold draft seeping in from an unknown source, casting two distorted, swaying shadows on the wall, like monstrous, clawing specters.
Drip... Drip...
A sound, whether of seeping water or dripping blood, punctuated the deadly silence, tapping against the eardrums and adding to the anxious gloom.
Crack!
A sharp, viscous crack of a whip suddenly tore through the oppressive silence, accompanied by a muffled groan and the subtle sound of flesh tearing.
Tokuma Hyūga stood in the center of the cell. His face, illuminated by the dim light, looked somewhat monstrous. Sweat beaded on his forehead, and his breathing was ragged.
In his hand, he tightly gripped a thick, raw leather whip, slick with cold water and blood, and brought it down hard again.
Crack!
The whip struck the chest of Hyūga Taka, whose skin was already a mess of raw flesh. It left a quickly swelling, purple welt that crisscrossed with the surrounding lacerations.
"Tell me! Who are the rest of your damned accomplices?!"
Whether due to exhaustion or some inner turmoil, Tokuma's voice was hoarse and distorted from the effort. "Who commanded you to murder the Main Family and steal the Byakugan?"
"..."
Taka's body was suspended by several wrist-thick, ice-cold iron chains. His chest and back were a bloody, pulpy mess; some areas were so deep the bone was visible.
Blood continuously seeped from his wounds, dripping down his limp limbs to form a viscous pool of dark red on the floor beneath him.
But he just gritted his teeth. Other than uncontrollable groans, he offered no plea for mercy and made no defense.
Seeing Taka remain silent, Tokuma's throat bobbed. A surge of reluctance welled up from his heart.
However, a glance at the figure sitting in the distance, eyes closed and arms crossed, made his face twitch. The whip was raised again, carrying a bloody gust of wind.
Crack!
As the whip landed, Taka's skinny body twitched, and the chains rattled with a heavy clang.
"Speak!" Tokuma trembled, grinding out the words. "Was it Hyūga Iroha? Or was it Hyūga Kawa?!"
Taka's head was bowed, his messy black hair plastered to his face with sweat and blood.
Sensing the slight reluctance and warning in Tokuma's words, he finally raised his head with difficulty.
His originally pure Byakugan were slightly stained red by dense blood vessels. He stared unblinkingly at Tokuma's face.
The curse and contempt in that gaze were so naked, so profound, that they seemed to burn right through Tokuma's soul.
It was as if he was saying...
Lackey, I will not be like you.
Stared at by this gaze, Tokuma's whipping motion suddenly froze. An indescribable mix of guilt and terror surged uncontrollably from the depths of his heart.
But this guilt and fear quickly morphed into fiercer anger and shame.
"How dare you look at me with those eyes?!" he roared in exasperation, putting all his strength into his arm and whipping the blade-like lash across Taka's cheek.
Snap!
Accompanied by an exceptionally loud crack, Taka's head snapped to the side.
A hideous wound split open on his cheek. Blood instantly gushed out, soaking his eyes, blurring his vision, and painting half his face a horrifying crimson.
"Hrk..."
Swallowing the scream and turning it into the taste of iron, he let out an ultimate, suppressed groan. His head dropped limply, and he panted violently.
"Enough."
A calm but unquestionable voice echoed from the shadows in the corner of the interrogation room.
Hyūga Hayato sat in the chair, dressed impeccably in Main Family attire, his hands resting on his knees, as if he were in his own tearoom, not a torture chamber.
He slowly opened his eyes. His cold Byakugan swept over the bloodied Taka without a ripple of emotion. His face stern, he slowly rose to his feet.
Seeing this, Tokuma's tense body immediately relaxed. He instantly stopped, stepped back to the side with fear and reverence, and stood slightly bowed, daring not to breathe loudly.
Hayato walked steadily toward Taka. His tall figure cast a condescending sense of oppression, completely shrouding the dying Taka in shadow.
"It seems you are determined to use your stubborn will to challenge my patience."
His voice was low but every word was ice-cold. "Unfortunately, if this were before, I might have admired your tenacity."
"But now, I only find it ridiculous, hypocritical, and disgusting."
"I will give you one last chance."
He leaned down slightly, his gaze resting on the Caged Bird Seal on Taka's forehead, which was soaked with blood. His tone was cold. "Who else was involved in this?"
"If you still refuse to speak, in your current state, enduring the Caged Bird Seal one more time... Hmph!"
Hearing this, Taka, whose head had been bowed, trembled slightly.
As if expending his last ounce of strength, he slowly raised his head with extreme difficulty. Blood continued to stream from the wound on his forehead, seeping into his bloodshot eyes.
The blood nearly obscured his vision, but he still stared intently through the crimson film at the condescending Hayato.
And then...
"Pah!"
A mouthful of bloody phlegm, mixed with blood and saliva, shot from Taka's mouth, landing accurately on Hayato's face, which was a mask of arrogance and cold indifference.
The warm, sticky, and foul-smelling sensation spread across Hayato's face—the ultimate, most vicious insult!
The air seemed to freeze at that moment.
Hayato's body stiffened completely, his pupils momentarily losing focus.
He seemed to have completely failed to anticipate, fully unable to comprehend, and utterly unable to believe that a dying Branch Family member would dare to do this!
Tokuma, standing aside, was terrified. His face turned pale, and he instinctively stepped back half a pace, not even daring to gasp!
Taka watched Hayato's stiff, disbelieving expression. The muscles in his face twitched, pulling into a fiercely mocking and satisfied smile.
"Do it..."
His voice was hoarse, like sandpaper rubbing rotten wood, yet every word clearly entered the ears of Hayato and Tokuma. "I'll be waiting for you... down there."
"None of you... will escape!"
The chamber fell into absolute silence again. Only the drip-drip of blood hitting the floor could be heard.
"Heh... hehe..."
Hayato trembled as he raised his sleeve, scrubbing the filth from his face with immense force. His face showed no furious outburst. Instead, he wore a distorted smile of rage taken to the extreme.
"Good! Good! Good!" He repeated the word three times. Each one was squeezed through gritted teeth. "You want to die? I will not let you have your wish!"
Before the words had faded, he violently snatched the whip from the terrified Tokuma's hand. Chakra visibly coated the whip, and the force of the Gentle Fist flowed into its length!
CRACK!!
The whip tore through the air with a piercing shriek and viciously struck Taka's chest!
This whip was far beyond Tokuma's previous strikes. The malignant force penetrated the flesh and deeply into the internal organs.
As the whip was pulled back, it violently sprayed a fan of blood mist, and the whip itself burst apart, unable to withstand the chakra.
"AAHH!!"
Taka, who had been fiercely clenching his jaw to endure, finally let out a soul-rending, unhuman shriek of agony. His body convulsed violently.
But Hayato did not continue the attack.
He seemed to have acted merely to vent the humiliation of that bloody spit. Expressionless, he casually threw the whip handle back to the trembling Tokuma, turned, and sat back down in his chair.
Inside the cell, only Taka's broken, ragged gasps and the overwhelmingly thick smell of blood remained.
Gulp.
Looking at the whip handle in his hand, Tokuma's throat convulsed violently. He asked in a dry, shaking voice, "Lord Hayato, do we... continue?"
"Continue, but don't kill him."
Hayato tidied his clothes. His voice returned to its usual cold indifference, as if that brief moment of losing control had never happened.
"Wait for Haruto to arrive," he said, glancing at the nearly breathless Taka. His voice was frigid. "Then let Haruto personally apply the Caged Bird Seal on this fellow."
"Let's see if he can still talk tough then!"
"No matter what he does here, even if he screams until his voice breaks, no one outside will hear a thing."
The malice and coldness in his words seemingly dropped the temperature of the already chilling air even further, making Tokuma shiver.
The night was exceptionally deep, an ink-like blackness that could not be diluted.
The moon, which should have been bright, had already been completely swallowed by layers of slowly churning dark clouds, stingily withholding any light.
The few scattered stars were dim, like the eyes of the dying. Only a few faint, pale threads of light pierced the clouds and reached the ground, accentuating the gloom and oppression of the night.
The secluded path leading to the Hyūga Clan's underground prison wound through the most remote and desolate corner of the clan compound.
The trees lining the path had gnarled, intertwining branches that cast black shadows in the faint moonlight. The night wind whispered through them, a low moan that sounded like secret conversations in the dark.
Three figures slowly made their way along this path toward the prison where Taka was being held.
The figure in the middle, Hyūga Haruto, had thick bandages covering his eyes. His once-proud Byakugan had been gouged out, leaving two empty sockets.
His face was extraordinarily pale in the moonlight, yet it could not hide the twisted malevolence within. His lips constantly moved, spitting out fragmented, vicious words like the hiss of a poisonous snake.
"...I'm going to pull out his fingernails, one by one... Yes! Burn his mouth! See how he talks tough then! And then, I'm going to soak his wounds with salt water..."
"Yes! And the Caged Bird... I'll make him beg me! Make him crawl on the ground like a dog and beg me!"
His voice, filled with resentment, was sometimes sharp, sometimes slurred, sounding particularly jarring and eerie in the quiet night.
The two Branch Family guards beside him looked like emotionless puppets, silently supporting him on either side. Only their tightly pressed lips betrayed a hint of barely tolerable annoyance and exhaustion.
Shh... Shh...
Just then, a faint sound came from the depths of the dark forest nearby. It was like a gust of wind rustling the leaves, or something moving through the grass.
Haruto's body instantly stiffened. All movement and words ceased. He instinctively clutched the arm of the guard beside him, his fingernails almost digging into the man's flesh.
"What was that sound?!" His voice suddenly rose, filled with alarm. "Did you hear that? Something's there! There's something in the woods!"
"..."
Though he spoke earnestly, the two guards exchanged glances, both seeing an inevitable weariness and a hint of impatience in the other's eyes.
Since the attack that stole his eyes, Haruto had retained his old arrogance but had become extremely sensitive, fragile, and paranoid.
He hadn't dared to leave his home during this time and overreacted to every subtle sound.
Only when Hayato sent word that Taka had been imprisoned did Haruto, driven by hatred, muster the courage to leave home.
But even so, Haruto's neurotic behavior had already driven the two Branch Family guards assigned to protect him to the brink of collapse.
Similar incidents had occurred no less than ten times. Wind, insect chirps, footsteps... even a falling leaf could set off the jumpy Haruto.
The first few times, the two Branch Family guards were tense and cautious. But after finding nothing each time, they were now completely numb.
However, the two guards dared not show their frustration, fearing they might enrage the now sensitive and volatile Haruto.
"Lord Haruto, please wait here for a moment," the scarred guard on the right tried to make his voice sound respectful and serious. "I will go and investigate."
"Quick! Go quickly!" Haruto urged, nodding rapidly.
The scarred guard released his arm, nodded to the other young guard, turned, and stepped into the shadows of the forest.
His steps looked cautious, but were actually filled with perfunctory indifference.
As he entered the shadows of the forest, moving away from Haruto's breath-stealing anxiety and jumpiness, the scarred guard couldn't help but sigh out a long-held breath of frustration.
Even choosing to betray the Branch Family and swear loyalty to the Main Family for a little pitiful space to survive, facing a master like Haruto was still incredibly oppressive and tiresome.
But who else is to blame? This was his choice.
His wife and children were here. How could he, like those lunatics, Hyūga Kawa and his followers, risk everything and gamble his life against the Main Family?
And, with a few low-born lives, could he even afford to gamble?
The scarred guard shook his head, clearing his complex thoughts. He walked a few steps deeper for appearance's sake, his eyes scanning the swaying tree shadows in the darkness.
Shh... Shh...
The air was permeated with the scent of decaying leaves and wet soil. The forest was unusually quiet. There was only the faint sound of leaves rustled by the wind, along with his own heartbeat and breathing.
"What a nuisance."
He mumbled softly. Just as he was about to turn back and call it a job done...
Suddenly, a completely unprompted, bone-chilling coldness crawled up his spine, and the hairs on his neck stood on end!
What?
His pupils contracted, and his body was just about to react.
But death was already at his ear.
A pair of hands had silently descended from above, giving him no chance to scream out.
One hand covered his mouth and nose with precise seal, stifling any gasp before it could leave his throat. The other encircled his jaw and the back of his head.
CRACK!
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