For a second, Ryusei almost smiled at the sound of it. A single word, strained, confused, dragged from her like it hurt to speak.
"Why?" he repeated softly, still holding steady over her eyes. "Why what? Why I'm helping you? Why I don't hate you? Or…" His grin tugged faintly at the corner of his mouth. "Why you're shaking under my hands right now?"
Her lips pressed thin, and her shoulders stiffened, but she didn't pull away.
Ryusei's voice lowered, teasing but calm. "The answer's the same. We're teammates. We're supposed to help each other." A pause, deliberate. "Even when one of us insists on acting like an ice block with legs."
Kanae's breath hitched. "This… doesn't mean anything," she managed, her tone sharper than she intended.
"Of course not," Ryusei said easily. "Just teammates helping each other. Nothing more."
His chakra flared just enough for her to feel the warmth deepen, pushing into the raw ache behind her eyes. "But between you and me," he added, his voice dipping to a conspiratorial whisper, "I don't let just anyone this close."
Her throat tightened. Words gathered, but none came out.
She had told herself for so long that he was nothing but her assignment, her stepping stone.
That she could keep her walls up, cold and clean, while she climbed higher.
But right now, under the steady warmth of his hand, with his words sliding between mockery and sincerity, those walls felt like paper burning from the inside.
Kanae swallowed, forcing her voice to return, quieter this time. "…You're insufferable."
Ryusei chuckled softly. "Maybe. But your eyes feel better, don't they?"
Her silence was an answer on its own.
Ryusei was certain that he had broken another 'layer' of Kanae just now.
Not the last one, but close, perhaps one or two remained.
He wondered when those final walls would fall.
Not yet, probably not until he uncovered and addressed the real roots of her caution: the reasons she wanted to join ANBU, the core of her identity, her deepest grievances and insecurities.
He wasn't omnipotent, but he didn't need her to spell it out either.
With his understanding of the Hyūga clan from his past life, and the way she carried herself now, he had already pieced together a vague picture.
It was likely about securing herself through ANBU, safety, prestige, and a shield against being caged and humiliated, at least.
Or perhaps, if she were more ambitious, she aimed to use ANBU as a stepping stone, gaining leverage and knowledge to one day challenge the cursed mark itself.
Only if he could help her in those ways would she truly fall into his lap.
Until then, at most, he could tease her in rare moments like this, catching her off guard, but nothing more, and nothing permanent, as her rational self was not on the same page as well.
The obstacle wasn't small. The cursed seal was not something easily defeated.
In fact, even the Hokage, who was the only one qualified, had never truly intervened in Hyūga affairs.
At most, Hiruzen's influence restrained the Main Branch from acting too brutally in public or around his own lapdogs.
But the seal itself? That was another matter. The so-called "Caged Bird" was a seal that seemed impossible to unravel. whether literally or politically.
Ryusei remembered how even Naruto, hailed as the strongest Hokage in history, had failed to fulfill his promise to Neji.
In the Boruto era, the curse still remained. Ryusei didn't believe Naruto had forgotten.
More likely, the seal was too deeply tied to the Hyūga bloodline, more than just a symbol of superiority or ownership. Its design had withstood centuries.
How many indignant, talented Side Branch members must have tried to break it? And yet it still held. That alone proved its terrifying power.
If Ryusei had no way forward, he wouldn't bother wasting time on Kanae. But he did have a theory, far-fetched, sky-high in difficulty, but still a theory.
To him, a dōjutsu wasn't just a biological organ. It was closer to a chakra seal in itself, an intersection of the eyes, the brain, the soul, and the body.
The cursed mark was fused into that system, pressing its control into every layer.
That was why no one could remove it: because to destroy the seal, you would theoretically have to destroy the foundation of the Byakugan itself.
Some had tried, no doubt. Removing the eyes outright.
But the curse was designed for that too.
The moment the eyes were tampered with, the seal destroyed them preemptively.
Either way, you ended eyeless or dead.
A neat solution from the Main Branch: if your eyes were about to be taken away, you were worthless and about to die anyway, and if you tried to escape, you were already as good as dead to them.
So, you can't escape their control even if you vanquish them.
Running away? Also pointless. If not a single Side Branch member had attempted escape successfully across centuries, then the Main Branch must have had a way to enforce the seal from afar.
That meant they didn't need to be present.
They could kill you even at a distance, perhaps with just one command from a patriarch.
And that meant the seal could be triggered even if the Main Branch wasn't anywhere near you. Killing your direct handler before he gave the order wouldn't save you; another could activate it from a great distance.
Not to mention that with your bloodline suppressed by the mark, you can't finish them before they finish their command, so you were never truly superior to them in the first place. Escape wasn't just difficult, it was hopeless.
It was simply remarkable. That level of control, that reach, hinted that the Hyūga Main Branch weren't just petty aristocrats clinging to old pride.
They weren't pure wastes as some might assume; there was mystery behind them, background, and secrets that allowed their methods to endure through centuries.
Which meant the only real solution, in Ryusei's view, was to awaken a stronger dōjutsu.
To overwhelm the curse with a greater chakra flow, to liberate the eyes, the brain, the soul, and the body all at once. The Tenseigan.
But that was a near-impossible path. No one in the Main Branch had awakened it. No one on Earth, in fact, only one young man on the Moon from the future.
Still, Ryusei wasn't one to give up on possibilities. Not for Kanae's sake, but for his own.
In his past life, the untapped legacy of Hamura had fascinated him most, the paths left unexplored in the original story. He knew there was power there, hidden and immense.
Kanae, then, was more than just a pretty face or a cold teammate. She was an asset.
Hidden pawn within the Hokage's faction, within the Hyūga clan, and perhaps for his own research.
If she excelled in medical ninjutsu as he nudged her toward, she could also become his assistant, a partner in dissecting mysteries like the Tenseigan.
Her Byakugan was talented, her control sharp, her potential real.
Ryusei had no way of persuading Main Branch elites to lend him their eyes.
But a Side Branch girl, already leaning into her own hidden grievances?
That was another story.
Kanae could become his first running test subject.
Didn't she want to free herself from the curse?
That couldn't happen without risk.
If he succeeded, she'd gain freedom. If not… then she had been useful in other ways.
As for why he was close to sure she had other ambitions beyond mere survival? It was simple. Her aura.
He had grown sharper at reading them, and hers was not the dull, resigned shadow of an obedient slave.
It was darker, restless, a bit hateful, tinged with ambition. She wanted out of her cage. He could sense it.
That was why Ryusei concluded there was only one path forward: getting close enough to Kanae that she would accept his guidance.
Before he ever carved a Byakugan out of some Main Branch fool directly for himself, Kanae would do just fine.
Through her, he could observe, measure, and utilize a Byakugan 'externally', enough to advance his research and techniques, and his own body to some extent too, until he had the means to secure his own.
If she listened, if she followed, their goals could align well. Without him, her chance of accomplishing anything, breaking the seal, rising above her cage, was effectively zero.
With him, at least, Kanae had a chance, especially if her talent held up on the technical side.
With Ryusei's overflowing general insight, his growing strength, and hence his ability to maneuver through obstacles more in the future, maybe they could actually go somewhere and stumble upon something interesting.
As for Hiruzen helping her? Ryusei almost laughed at the thought.
She might gain some recognition eventually, valued for her talent, strength, rare and useful ability, and status.
Hiruzen might even encourage her on the surface, personally acting around her.
But expecting him to ever lift a finger in a way that offended the Hyūga was delusional.
Not to mention, she was literally their property.
How could Hiruzen ever fully trust her, or expect to use her freely, when she was always just one command away from betraying him at the whim of the Hyūga Main Branch?
At best, she would remain a servant bound between two masters, the Hokage and the Main Branch, forced to maneuver carefully between them for scraps of freedom, but never breaking her cage.
Hiruzen was too stingy, too calculating.
Even if he wanted to help, he lacked both the will and the leverage to act.
He might wear the Hokage's hat, but history had already shown.
Ryusei was certain he already knew more about her situation than Hiruzen ever could.
Worse, Hiruzen was exactly the type who might one day sacrifice her if it made killing Ryusei easier or silencing an inconvenient witness more effective.
Placing hope in him, even insincere hope, was foolish.
But Ryusei would never tell her that now.
This wasn't the time or place yet. He had to go slowly for her, as he had always been doing.