Time turned back a little.
When Hyūga Hizashi used the Byakugan to search for the source of that strange voice, he had, in fact, already glimpsed Neji lying quietly inside the room.
But because all his attention was locked on Hyūga Kumokawa, the one speaking to him, he overlooked the anomaly right before his eyes.
Normally, whenever Neji vented his inner grievances, he would toss and turn endlessly upon his bed, unable to fall asleep.
But this night, after bandaging the wound on his hand, Hyūga Neji lay on his back, gazing blankly at the ceiling. Very quickly, an overwhelming drowsiness surged over him like a tidal wave, dragging him under.
When his eyes closed, the world became utterly silent, as if he had died. A boundless black ocean spread before him.
And then… faintly, a hollow voice seemed to reach him, echoing from some faraway place.
"…"
Neji opened his eyes in bewilderment. Before him stood a ruined torii gate painted in faded vermilion, its decayed beams slanted, half-buried in the earth.
Ahead was a moss-covered stone stairway, slick with dampness. From somewhere beyond came that ethereal voice.
Almost without thinking, Neji raised his foot and ascended the steps, passing through the torii and the crumbling stone guardian-dogs on either side.
Step by step he climbed the stairway, then walked along a shadow-flickering path paved with weathered green stone. At last, the view opened up before him.
A dilapidated shrine stood ahead. The sacred ropes, rotted, dangled loosely, swaying with each gust of wind. Faded wooden plaques clattered together dully, their vermilion inscriptions blurred beyond recognition.
And on the wide, empty clearing before the ruined honden,
Four children stood in a circle, hand in hand.
Two faceless children let go and extended their hands toward him. Neji, as though not in control of himself, walked forward and placed his hands in theirs.
The instant his fingers touched theirs, a rush of joy welled up within him. Against his will, a smile tugged at his lips, and laughter—not his own—spilled from his throat.
He looked toward the black-haired, blindfolded girl kneeling in the center, her head bowed.
「Cage, Cage」
The four children began to turn in a circle, their tender voices singing the nursery rhyme. Bewildered, Neji too joined in.
「The bird within the cage…」
The crimson afterglow of the dying sun cast their shadows upon the ground, forming a lattice like bamboo bars—imprisoning both them and the girl inside a cage.
「When will it be set free?」
The singing quickened. The children moved faster. The shadows of the "bamboo bars" tangled tightly around the blindfolded girl in the middle.
「On the night of dawn…」
「The crane and turtle stumbled…」
「The one standing right behind—who is it?」
The four children stopped abruptly, turning in unison to stare at the girl in the center.
"…"
Neji too turned his eyes toward her. That strange-yet-familiar back made his once-muddled mind grow suddenly clear.
The childish song still echoed. But against the backdrop of the decayed shrine and desolate air, its innocent melody became grotesquely eerie.
Especially the icy chill seeping into his hands from the children's grasp—it gnawed at his heart, filling him with dread.
And then he understood. He understood the rules of this game.
If the girl guessed who stood behind her, that person would replace the bird in the cage, becoming the scapegoat, the sacrifice.
"…"
The blindfolded girl slowly raised her head. Her soft lips parted.
"Hyūga… Neji…" she whispered.
The moment she spoke his name, Neji's entire body convulsed violently. The two children beside him gently released his hands.
"No! I don't want this!"
But his legs betrayed him. He stepped forward, knelt before the girl. The other children closed in around them, their gazes reverent, fervent, as if bearing witness to a sacred rite.
At last, the girl raised her joined hands, delicately caressing Neji's face. But her thumbs pressed against his eyes.
Splurt!
Hot crimson blood gushed out, spilling onto the ground in thick streams with a sickening sound.
"Ahhh!!"
An ear-splitting scream tore from Neji's throat. It was as though red-hot iron rods had been driven straight into his brain.
And when his "blindfold" was in place, the four children joined hands again, circling him. Their shadows wove tighter, stitching him into the cage. The cheerful yet grotesque nursery song began again.
「Cage, cage)」
「The bird within the cage…」
「When will it be set free?」
The childish voices warped, dissolving into an unearthly tongue, strange and distorted. Neji's vision flooded with static, his retinas writhing with noise. Distorted images flickered madly before his eyes.
And then—the scene shifted.
He saw countless people, ugly curse marks carved into their foreheads, standing as shields before those without seals. He saw them fall one after another, slaughtered in bloody battlefields.
He saw a man, also bearing the Caged Bird Seal, though his face was hidden.
That man slaughtered ceaselessly, gouging out eyes, writhing in agony atop an altar, hands clamped over his own bleeding sockets.
He saw that man descend from the altar, carving words upon a stone stele before leaving.
And anyone—whether branded with the curse or not—who dared block his path was mercilessly cut down.
Even when the seal was activated against him, nothing could stop his advance.
Neji saw the man enter a shrine. Survivors clustered outside, too terrified to follow. The silence was suffocating, broken only by ragged breathing.
Soon, the grand shrine erupted in flames. The man walked out of the inferno, fire licking at his face.
And in his hand—he held the severed, terrified head of an elder.
A trail of pale spine dangled below, dragging across the earth, leaving a dark crimson smear in its wake.
He stopped. The blood pooled into a mirror on the ground, reflecting the horrified pale eyes of the onlookers.
And in those pale eyes—reflected the man's own bloodstained gaze.
Not the Byakugan.
But a pair of deep, sapphire-blue eyes.
Neji stood frozen at the back of the crowd, unable to act, unable to speak. Forced into the role of witness.
He had just endured the agony of becoming a scapegoat. Now, he watched the massacre unfold before his eyes. And within him stirred—an involuntary, perverse exhilaration.
But then—
The man raised his head at last. His gaze met Neji's directly.
A shiver seized Neji's spine. He realized—the man could see him.
Thick streams of blood poured from those sapphire eyes, tracing down the blurred face.
"Such a vile clan has no right to exist."
The man raised his hand. In his palm, a sword of golden light unfurled, piercing through the night sky, splitting the clouds apart.
"Let corruption be cleansed," he whispered. "Golden Wheel… Reincarnation Explosion."
The golden radiance descended, searing the heavens, making death itself tangible.
Boom!
Faced with this overwhelming reality of death, Neji instinctively tried to hurl himself aside. But all that happened was—he snapped awake with a start, his body thrashing off the bed, crashing to the floor.
"…"
He blinked blankly up at the ceiling. The ache in his body brought him back to reality.
"What… what was that?" he muttered. "Who was that man?"
"And… those eyes…"