Creak—
The wooden floorboards let out a sound sharp enough to set one's teeth on edge. Hyūga Neji pushed himself up with both hands, sitting upright. The alarm clock on the bedside table showed 2:00 a.m., the room still shrouded in muddled gloom.
Instinctively, he turned toward the window to check the time—only to see a figure standing silently before it, its whole body wrapped in an air of loneliness.
Still shaken from the dream, Neji flinched at first. But soon, under the moonlight, he recognized that familiar, sorrowful face.
"Father?"
At the sound of his son's doubtful voice, Hyūga Hizashi stirred from his daze, drawing his gaze back from the night sky outside. He looked toward Neji.
"Did you have a nightmare?"
There was complexity in his eyes, yet he still showed a gentle smile, raising his hand to ruffle Neji's hair.
"…It shouldn't count as a nightmare."
Neji's small face scrunched slightly. He pressed a hand against his throbbing temple.
He tried to recall the dream, but its details melted away like the first snow under morning sun—like fine sand slipping through his fingers, scattering with the wind.
When he opened his hand, only a few grains remained.
The eerie nursery rhyme at the ruined shrine. The dread of becoming the "sacrifice." The breathtakingly beautiful pair of blue eyes. And that final golden radiance that split the heavens.
"Father."
Clutching those faint fragments, Neji looked up at Hizashi and asked, almost without thinking:
"Is it possible… for the Hyūga clan to possess eyes other than the Byakugan?"
The words made Hizashi pause, momentarily confused. Still, he answered:
"If the bloodline isn't pure enough, a person may never awaken the Byakugan at all. Their eyes remain the same as ordinary people."
He hesitated, then added, as though recalling something:
"Actually, there is a distant branch of our clan, surnamed 'Kohinata.' Their blood has become so diluted that none of them awaken the Byakugan anymore."
(From Itachi Shinden)
"Of course, if someone of the Kohinata ever did awaken the Byakugan, they would be brought back at once, branded with the Caged Bird Seal, and absorbed into the branch family of the Hyūga."
"…So." Neji's dry lips pressed together, his voice lowering. "It was just a dream?"
Everything pointed to it being nothing more than a dream. Yet that figure striding from the flames with a severed head, and those dazzling eyes, seemed burned into his mind.
He could even recall the starlike rings within those eyes, and that final golden beam that pierced the heavens before crashing down.
"What happened before that?"
Neji frowned, struggling to remember. But the more he tried, the more it slipped away—leaving only the sense that it was important.
The dream had been too real. Real enough to make his heart tremble.
If I could wield such terrifying power… wouldn't I also…?
He spoke no further. Hizashi did not press him either. For a time, silence fell heavy between father and son.
Each wrestled with their own tangled thoughts—
The son, nurturing an unspoken yearning.
The father, recalling a fleeting taste of freedom and craving more.
Both gazes fixed on the same figure, without realizing it.
Neither knew that it was that very figure who had planted these seeds in their hearts.
---
[Ding! Your lie has been judged as [Bluffing] [Bewitching Words] [Luring into a Trap].
Hyūga Hizashi experienced intense emotional fluctuations, reaching the level of [Obedience]. You gained 600]Truth Points.]
[Ding! Your lie [Death of the Hyūga] has been judged as [Deception] [A Dream of Nanke].
Hyūga Neji experienced intense emotional fluctuations, reaching the level of [Delusion]. You gained 1600 Truth Points.]
[Remaining Reality Points: 11,193]
"Two achievements net more points than three… by a whole thousand?"
With a muffled poof, the clone burst into smoke. The black robe flowed like liquid, seeping into the shadow beneath another figure, revealing the pensive face of Hyūga Kumokawa.
"As expected. Only truly bizarre lies yield greater rewards."
After materializing the "Shadow Robe," Kumokawa had 10,293 points left.
Lifting Hizashi's Caged Bird Seal for ten seconds had only cost 300. But weaving Neji into a fabricated dream? That had consumed 1000.
This time, however, Kumokawa didn't grumble about the system's stinginess.
After all, only by manifesting a sliver of the Tenseigan's power could he burn that scene into Neji's mind—laying the groundwork for even greater lies to come.
"Anyway, I've profited. No loss—pure gain."
Changing into fresh clothes, Kumokawa sat at his desk and pulled out his "diary."
While jotting down irrelevant entries, he quietly reviewed his actions for flaws—and planned how best to use the points next.
His strength was still lacking.
Don't be fooled by Hizashi's subservience to Hiashi. In truth, Hizashi was one of the strongest in the clan, his combat experience far beyond that of the clan head himself.
Only a lunatic would dare to show up before Hizashi, pressuring him nearly to the point of explosion, and even taunting him.
If not for choosing Hizashi's own home as the setting.
If not for projecting such calm, overwhelming power.
If not for deliberately weaving a suffocating atmosphere.
If not for striking in the solitude of night.
If not for exploiting Hizashi's concern for Neji.
If not for knowing Hizashi inside and out—
Any one missing detail, and Kumokawa would've been exposed. And then, escape would have been impossible.
Even in hindsight, replaying the scheme, Kumokawa had to admit the sheer audacity of his gamble.
Yet, deep inside, he couldn't deny the thrill—the intoxicating exhilaration of dancing on the edge of a blade.
"…Next time, I must be more careful. Raise my strength first. I can't keep doing this."
Kumokawa nodded firmly, making a silent resolution.
Yes, next time for sure.
[Ding! Your lie has been judged as [Self-Deception].
Hyūga Kumokawa experienced subtle emotional fluctuations, reaching the level of [Hypocrisy]. You gained 1 Truth Point.]
"…I don't even care to argue with this braindead thing."
Lines of annoyance creased his forehead at the system's chime. He muttered inwardly:
"Manifest Ninjutsu—Lightning Release Armor."
[Cost: 1000 Truth Points. Confirm manifestation?]
"So expensive? That'll nearly drop me below ten thousand." Kumokawa ground his teeth.
It wasn't that he was stingy—it was more like a hamster's instinct to hoard. Seeing his balance fall under 10,000 filled him with unease.
He hesitated, considering whether to attempt developing it himself.
But before he could decide—
A faint cat's meow drifted in through the night.
"Meow~"
It blended easily with the chorus of insects outside. In mating season, nothing unusual.
Yet Kumokawa's eyes paused. A faint smile curved his lips.
Heh. Looks like "points" are delivering themselves right to my door.