"Stay sharp. Keep searching."
Uchiha Kōtarō forced his breathing back into rhythm. His gaze flicked to Hyuga Yuu—but he didn't ask him to use the Byakugan.
Three Hyuga were almost certainly dead, and they hadn't even managed to break out. That meant the enemy had a method to deal with the Byakugan.
It could've been a sensory technique with a longer reach than the Byakugan's scan… or a speed specialist—someone who moved like the Yellow Flash, closing distance with shunshin before you could react.
Right now, trusting the Byakugan too much could get them killed.
The squad kept a formation tight enough to support each other at any moment, combing through the forest inch by inch.
At one point, Hyuga Yuu's shadow clone slipped out of their sight for a heartbeat.
And in that same silent gap, the real Hyuga Yuu rejoined the team as if nothing had happened.
He was their sensor.
Fooling his own squad was easy.
Hyuga Hisanobu had already been knocked unconscious and sealed inside a storage scroll—one capable of holding living creatures. Once this mission ended, the real work could finally begin.
In the end, they found another set of battle traces several kilometers away… and nothing else.
With no further leads, they had no choice but to return to the commander's main camp and report.
The man behind the desk—black hair, a calm presence sharpened by war—listened to Uchiha Kōtarō's report, then turned his eyes to Hyuga Yuu.
One pair of Byakugan falling into enemy hands might not shift the war's overall tide.
But if a Hyuga Main House member fell into hostile hands?
That was a different kind of threat entirely.
Yuu knew it. Kōtarō knew it. The commander knew it.
"I'll report this to the Hokage," the commander said flatly. "You two, notify every Hyuga shinobi on this front immediately: operate with extreme caution. And the moment we confirm the enemy has obtained the method to activate the Caged Bird Seal—every Hyuga unit withdraws from the Mist front at once."
"Yes!"
The two vanished with shunshin.
Left alone, the commander leaned back and let out a quiet laugh.
What a disaster.
The old man is going to tear me apart for this.
…But you got what you wanted, didn't you, Yuu-kun?
…
Drip. Drip.
The sound of water echoed in a dark room.
Hyuga Hisanobu woke to that faint, irritating rhythm and tried to open his eyes—only to realize he couldn't.
His body didn't respond. His eyelids wouldn't lift. Even his breath felt like it belonged to someone else.
But the faint clinks nearby… the clinical sting of disinfectant in the air…
He knew.
That man was here.
"Hyuga Yuu…" Hisanobu's voice crawled out of his throat, hoarse and thin. "Traitor… You actually dared… to lay hands on the Main House…"
Yuu, focused on combining reagents, heard him anyway. A small smile curved his lips.
"Don't say it like that," Yuu said pleasantly. "I held back for a long time. A Main House idiot personally marching onto the battlefield with only two jōnin as guards? What a perfect opportunity. Passing that up would've been criminal."
Hisanobu's throat worked. Words came in broken pieces.
"My… movements… you… leaked them… to the Mist…?"
"Of course." Yuu didn't even bother denying it. "Though I didn't expect them to send three jōnin. Lucky for me, those two Branch House jōnin fought hard enough to keep them pinned down. Otherwise… there might've been traces left behind."
He finished mixing the solution and walked toward the slab where Hisanobu lay.
After he'd been dragged into this world, he'd relied on the shadow-clone training his late parents left him. He advanced at a ridiculous pace.
And with the advantage of foreknowledge, he'd gained Might Dai's trust—and inherited the Eight Gates.
By fourteen, he'd already climbed into the realm of an elite jōnin.
Against a group of chūnin? He could erase them quickly.
But if there were jōnin in the mix… things got troublesome.
"You…" Hisanobu murmured. "You… hate… the Main House? Hate… the Caged Bird…?"
His voice trembled, like he was trying to make sense of the monster he'd created in his own shadow.
"So this is… revenge…"
Yuu blinked, genuinely surprised. Then he laughed softly.
"Revenge?" he echoed, almost amused. "If you asked me yesterday, maybe I'd have had thoughts like that. But now…"
He tilted his head, eyes pale and indifferent.
"Why would I care?"
That flat tone made Hisanobu's blood turn cold.
He wasn't afraid of revenge. Revenge was predictable.
The Caged Bird Seal was still there—if Yuu acted out of hatred, he'd slip sooner or later. And the instant he slipped, the Main House would crush him.
This time only happened because it was a battlefield. Because chaos made mistakes possible. Because Hisanobu's stupidity had gifted Yuu a window.
After this, the Main House would be careful.
But Yuu's calm wasn't an act.
He truly didn't care.
How could a Branch House shinobi—someone whose life and death were chained by the Main House—be this detached?
"You… aren't afraid… of the Caged Bird?" Hisanobu whispered.
"I haven't mastered a way to completely remove it yet," Yuu replied, unhurried. "But ways to limit it… or make it fail temporarily? There are plenty."
He set two vials beside Hisanobu's head and smiled as if he were offering tea.
"And besides… didn't you already bring me the solution I need?"
"…What… are you talking about…?"
Unease spread through Hisanobu's chest like ink in water.
"Today," Yuu said, voice mild, "a Hyuga Main House shinobi fell into Kirigakure's hands."
He leaned closer.
"And that Main House shinobi knows the activation method for the Caged Bird Seal."
Hisanobu's pulse spiked.
"If he can't endure their torture," Yuu continued, "if he breaks and betrays the village… and the enemy learns how to trigger the seal—what do you think happens next?"
The Main House would become a hollow title.
Hisanobu understood instantly. The cold that hit him wasn't fear—it was doom.
If Kirigakure acquired the activation method, what would Konoha's leadership do?
They would force the Hyuga Main House to solve it.
Even if the Hokage never lifted a finger, the Main House would have to act—either dismantle the Caged Bird Seal or change it into something the enemy couldn't exploit.
Because at that point, Kirigakure would become another Main House.
A foreign hand that could decide the Branch House's life and death.
In this war—the Third Great Ninja War—Konoha was under pressure from multiple fronts. The Hyuga were a critical piece of the village's strength. They couldn't be allowed to collapse from within.
The Main House and the village would have no choice but to make the enemy's version of the seal useless.
"How… how could it… come to this…" Hisanobu whispered, face draining of color. "How… could it…"
Just because of his childish stubbornness…
The foundation of the Hyuga's control—the Caged Bird Seal—might vanish.
If that happened, what would the Branch House do?
What would become of the Main House?
What kind of retaliation would come once the collar was gone?
He couldn't even bear to imagine it.
So that was why Hyuga Yuu didn't care.
Who cares about a pile of corpses?
Hisanobu hadn't even considered what Yuu would do if he couldn't obtain the activation method—because it was never truly necessary.
Just like this "leak" that a Main House Hyuga Yud been captured…
All Yuu had to do was stage a few incidents—make it look like Branch House shinobi were dying from the Caged Bird Seal at the enemy's hands—and the village and the Main House would be forced to consider dismantling or altering it.
And with Yuu's strength, that kind of staging wouldn't be difficult at all.
"It's all because of you!" Hisanobu spat, voice cracking with hatred. "You're destroying the Hyuga! Without the Caged Bird, the Hyuga will be wiped out—you don't even understand what the Hyuga are up against—"
"The Ōtsutsuki on the moon?" Yuu cut in casually.
Hisanobu froze.
"I'm not their match yet," Yuu admitted, as if discussing the weather. "But why do you assume the Caged Bird would stop them? Look at today. They only need to target the Main House, pry out the activation method, and the Hyuga die all the same."
He didn't wait for an answer.
Ignoring Hisanobu's shock and fury, Yuu injected a sedative. When Hisanobu finally stilled, Yuu pulled on gloves and began the extraction.
How laughable.
A technique that controlled the lives of most of the clan… and every Main House member could use it, with no restrictions at all.
Wasn't that practically an invitation?
It screamed to the world: anyone can obtain the activation method.
Once it leaked, anyone could control the Branch House's life and death.
Even if the Main House swore they'd never reveal it while alive—so what?
This was the ninja world. There were jutsu that used the dead.
Reanimating a Hyuga Main House shinobi with Edo Tensei wasn't some impossible dream.
Yuu's hands paused.
His gaze slid toward the exit on the left—cool, watchful.
A shadow fell across the doorway.
And a figure stepped in.