Compared to the once infinitely glorious head of the Main House.
Hiashi Hyuga now appeared utterly disheveled, his face a pallid white from prolonged confinement in darkness, his Byakugan eyes filled with fine bloodshot veins.
Time seemed to freeze in the darkness.
He didn't know how long had passed in the outside world.
A day? A week? A month? Or a year?
Long-term solitary confinement in the dark had completely robbed him of his sense of time's passage.
However, his build wasn't emaciated, nor was his face withered; clearly, his needs for food and drink were met.
One could say that Hizashi Hyuga had accorded his brother the highest degree of respect, all while ensuring he couldn't escape.
However, the once-lofty head of the Hyūga clan's Main House, framed and replaced by his Branch House younger brother, Hiashi Hyuga's mental state was clearly very poor.
"Brother, it's been a long time."
Hizashi Hyuga greeted him with a calm tone.
Hiashi Hyuga didn't speak, only stared intently at him, his voice hoarse as he said, "What exactly... do you want to do..."
Even though his eyes were now blind, they could still convey deep hatred.
"That doesn't depend on me," Hizashi replied blandly. "I believe you also know the terror of that Lord. Whatever he tells me to do, I can only do."
Clank! Clatter!
Hearing this, Hiashi Hyuga's expression twisted grotesquely, and his body began to struggle violently, the chains rattling with his movements.
"Hizashi Hyuga!"
Hiashi's eyeballs almost bulged from their sockets. He struggled like a madman, roaring, "You clearly know that guy has ill intentions! Do you want to destroy the Hyūga clan?!!"
How could he not know the terror of that guy?
It was precisely because he knew that he felt such fear!
Ever since he was swapped and manipulated into walking into this secret room, everything that happened outside was learned through Hizashi.
He didn't know what relationship that monster, who single-handedly killed the Magnet Release user Troi and hundreds of Cloud Hidden ninja, had with that guy.
He only knew that the one who lured Hizashi to betray, deceive, and replace him, his own brother, was a complete and utter devil!
"The Branch House is doing very well now."
Hizashi Hyuga said calmly, "Neji has emerged from the shadows and is working even harder. I even allowed him to peek at the library's release seals; without the Main House's constraints, he will only go further."
"As for Kawa, freed from the Hyūga clan's restraints and burdens, he has already become Konoha's 'hero,' achieving military merits on the battlefield against Kumogakure."
"In contrast, the Main House you value is still stubbornly adhering to its own views and being opinionated, already rotten to the core."
"So, stop wasting your energy. Neither you nor I can change anything."
Hizashi Hyuga placed the insulated food container filled with meals on the table. As he opened it and took out the food, he spoke in a calm tone:
"You chose to be the 'Head of the Main House,' and I merely made my own choice: to be Neji's father."
"Regardless of the final outcome, good or bad, at least this choice was my own."
Saying this, he offered the food to Hiashi Hyuga's mouth, but Hiashi merely stared with dull Byakugan eyes, seemingly fixed on Hizashi before him.
The next moment, he completely shed the demeanor of the Main House head.
"Pah!"
"..."
Hizashi's chest was splattered with stains, but he didn't react, nor did he wipe them away. He simply watched his brother's unsightly display with cold indifference.
In his heart, uncontrollably, feelings of abhorrence, pity, pain, and... a twisted sense of satisfaction arose.
"Mmph... cough cough! Cough!"
Hizashi Hyuga expressionlessly shoved the food into Hiashi's mouth, his deep voice echoing hollowly in the underground chamber: "Do you feel it?"
"Think about your cold indifference when you controlled me with the cursed seal, showing no mercy."
"Think about how you made the decision back then to push me out to bear the consequences of your mistakes."
"This pain of being 'powerless,' this despair of being 'helpless.'"
Hizashi Hyuga's voice was calm and unruffled, yet every word was like a knife scraping against Hiashi's nerves. His cold words breathed onto Hiashi's face: "Can you empathize now?"
With that, he straightened up, looking down at Hiashi Hyuga, who lay like a pile of mud.
There was no victorious expression on his face, only an unfathomable weariness and a sorrow so heavy it almost drowned him too.
"You must live, you must live on." Hizashi Hyuga's voice suddenly carried a hint of coldness. "You are the head of the Main House; I am Neji's father."
"If we cannot be connected as family, then we are only connected by hatred."
"So, I want you to live and see what the future of the Hyūga clan truly holds."
With that, Hizashi Hyuga did not wait for Hiashi's response. He simply fed Hiashi more food, his movements revealing an almost eerie meticulousness.
Having done all this, Hizashi Hyuga did not look at Hiashi again, turning and walking out of this tomb-like secret room.
He had not taken any measures to prevent Hiashi from committing suicide from beginning to end.
Because Hizashi Hyuga knew very well that this person simply did not have the courage to face death directly.
Thud...
The door of the secret room closed. Darkness once again swallowed Hiashi's crestfallen face, leaving only a few dim candlelight flames flickering, casting distorted shadows on the walls, like silent mockery.
Only the chains on his body, due to his trembling, continued to make a faint yet suffocating "clink-clank" sound, echoing repeatedly in the dead silence of the underground.
Meanwhile, in Hizashi Hyuga's eyes, Neji Hyuga, who had stolen the library's release seals to learn ninjutsu, was currently searching for a book he had never seen before.
In the vast yet low-ceilinged stone chamber, towering bookshelves were densely packed, the scent of decaying scrolls and dust mixing in the air.
This was the forbidden library located deep within the Hyūga clan's ancestral shrine, a place that housed the clan's secret history, incomplete ninjutsu, and many other unknown dark secrets.
"I247.5, L632... I247.5, L632..."
Neji Hyuga, dressed in clothes suitable for night operations, moved silently through the long shadows cast by the bookshelves, murmuring to himself.
His Byakugan eyes filtered through the mountains of ancient scrolls and heavy books before him, his cold fingertips constantly brushing over rough spines, clearing away layers of accumulated dust.
Time passed bit by bit.
Neji Hyuga's heartbeat grew faster and faster. Even for him, entering this core forbidden area, symbolizing the absolute authority and countless secrets of the Main House, it was impossible to avoid a hint of tension.
Finally, in an inconspicuous corner, deep within the lowest shelf, his fingertips touched an unusually thick book. His steps suddenly halted.
Looking at the number "I247.5·L632" on the book, Neji Hyuga's heart suddenly pounded.
This was it!