In the dark chamber, only a few lamps burned in wall niches, their yellow light casting wavering shadows. As Hizashi Hyuga went deeper, the sound of chains grew clearer.
At last, he entered the heart of the chamber and saw the figure within. Limbs were bound by four thick chains, and needles pierced one hundred and eight chakra points across the body.
Hearing Hizashi Hyuga's steps, the disheveled figure raised its head. That face, identical to Hizashi Hyuga's, could only belong to the real Hiashi Hyuga.
Compared with the once glorious head of the Main Family.
At this moment, Hiashi Hyuga looked miserable, his face a pale white from long confinement in darkness, and his Byakugan were filled with fine red veins. Time in the dark seemed frozen, and he had no idea how long the outside world had passed.
A day, a week, a month, or a year? Locked away for so long, he had completely lost any sense of time passing.
Yet his body was not thin and his face was not withered, which showed that his food and water had been properly provided. It could be said that Hizashi Hyuga had given his elder brother the highest level of respect possible, on the condition that escape was impossible.
However, for the lofty head of the Hyuga Clan Main Family to be framed by his own Branch Family brother and replaced by him, Hiashi Hyuga was clearly in a terrible state of mind.
"Elder brother, it has been a long time," Hizashi Hyuga said calmly.
Hiashi Hyuga did not answer. He stared at him and spoke in a hoarse voice, "What exactly do you want to do…"
Even though his eyes were now blind, they still revealed deep hatred.
"That does not depend on me," Hizashi Hyuga replied lightly. "I think you also know how terrifying that person from Akatsuki is. Whatever he tells me to do, I can only do it."
Clack, clack, clatter.
Hearing this, Hiashi Hyuga's expression twisted as his body struggled violently, the chains rattling with his movements. "Hizashi Hyuga!"
Hiashi Hyuga's eyes nearly bulged as he struggled like a madman and roared, "You know that guy has bad intentions! Do you want to destroy the Hyuga Clan?!"
How could he not know how terrifying that person was. It was exactly because he knew Akatsuki that he felt fear.
Ever since he was swapped and manipulated into walking into the secret chamber, everything outside had only been learned through Hizashi Hyuga's words. He did not know what relationship that monster who killed the Magnet Release Ninja Troy and hundreds of Kumogakure Ninja had with that person.
He only knew that the one who tempted Hizashi Hyuga into betrayal, deception, and replacing his elder brother was a complete demon from Root.
"The current Branch Family is very good," Hizashi Hyuga said calmly. "Neji Hyuga has walked out of the shadows and is working even harder. I even let him secretly read the unsealed texts in the library. Without the restraints of the Main Family, he will only go farther."
"As for Ryuji, free from the restraints and burdens of the Hyuga Clan, he has already become a 'hero' of Konoha and earned merits on the battlefield against Kumogakure."
"On the other hand, the Main Family you value is still stubborn and arrogant, rotten to the core."
"So stop wasting your strength. You and I are both powerless to change anything."
Hizashi Hyuga placed the Insulated Food Container filled with food on the table. As he opened it and took out the meal, he spoke in the same even tone.
"You chose to be the 'Main Family head', and I simply made my own choice, which was to be Neji Hyuga's father. No matter whether the final result is good or bad, at least this choice was made by me."
As he spoke, he brought the food to Hiashi Hyuga's mouth, but Hiashi Hyuga only stared with his dim Byakugan fixed on Hizashi Hyuga in front of him.
In the next moment, he completely lost the dignity of a Main Family head. "Pah!"
Hizashi Hyuga's chest was spattered with flecks of Madara Madara, but he did not react. He did not even wipe it off, only watching his elder brother's disgrace with cold eyes.
In his heart, feelings of hatred, pity, pain, and a twisted sense of pleasure rose without restraint.
"Mmph… cough, cough!" Hizashi Hyuga expressionlessly stuffed the food into Hiashi Hyuga's mouth. His low voice echoed hollowly in the underground chamber.
"Do you feel it? Think about when you used the Curse Seal to control me, how cold and merciless you were."
"Think about how you made the decision back then, pushing me out to bear your mistakes for you."
"This pain of being 'unable to act', this feeling of 'having no power', this Zetsu Wang." His voice was calm, but each word cut into Hiashi Hyuga's nerves as he spoke coldly into his face.
"Can you empathize now?"
After saying this, he straightened up and looked down at Hiashi Hyuga, who lay like a puddle of mud. There was no victor's pride on that face, only bottomless exhaustion and a heavy sorrow that almost drowned himself as well.
"You must live, you have to live," Hizashi Hyuga said, his voice suddenly turning cold. "You are the Main Family head, and I am Neji Hyuga's father."
"If we cannot be family, then we can only be bound by hatred. So I want you to live and see what the future of the Hyuga Clan will be."
With that, Hizashi Hyuga did not wait for Hiashi Hyuga's response. He fed him again, his movements showing an almost eerie carefulness.
After finishing all this, Hizashi Hyuga did not look at Hiashi Hyuga again. He turned and walked out of the secret chamber, which was like a tomb.
From beginning to end, he did nothing to prevent Hiashi Hyuga from committing suicide. Because Hizashi Hyuga knew very well that this man from Root never had the courage to face death.
Bang.
The door of the chamber closed, and darkness once again swallowed Hiashi Hyuga's lost expression. Only a few dim candles remained, casting twisted shadows on the walls like silent mockery.
Only the chains on his body continued to make faint, suffocating clanking sounds as his body trembled, echoing again and again in the dead silence underground.
At the same time, in Hizashi Hyuga's eyes, Neji Hyuga had stolen the library's unsealing only to learn Ninjutsu. Yet at this moment, he was searching for a book he had never seen before.
Inside the vast but low stone chamber, shelves rose to the ceiling, packed tightly together. The stale smell of old volumes mixed with dust in the air.
This was the forbidden library deep within the Hyuga Clan ancestral hall. It stored clan secret histories, incomplete Ninjutsu, and many dark secrets unknown to outsiders.
"I247.5, L632… I247.5, L632…" Neji Hyuga murmured softly as he moved soundlessly through the long shadows cast by the shelves, dressed in clothes suited for night movement.
Those Byakugan filtered the mountain of ancient Scroll and heavy books before him. His cold fingertips brushed over rough spines, sweeping away layers of accumulated dust.
Time passed little by little. Neji Hyuga's heartbeat grew faster, and even he could not avoid a trace of tension upon stepping into this core forbidden ground that symbolized the authority and countless secrets of the Main Family Zetsu.
Finally, deep on the bottom shelf in an unremarkable corner, his fingers touched an unusually thick volume, and his steps came to a sudden stop. Seeing the code "I247.5·L632" on the book, Neji Hyuga's heart jumped sharply.
This was it.
"So that person wanted me to read this book?"
Neji Hyuga swallowed and carefully slid the book out. The cover was tough but covered in Lie-like patterns, as if it had been tanned from some kind of animal hide. It felt cold and ancient in his hands.
"Let me see what it actually contains."
Neji Hyuga took a deep breath and opened the mysterious book. After flipping through more than a dozen pages, all he saw were obscure symbols that looked like meaningless scribbles.
Neji Hyuga frowned and forced himself to keep turning pages. What followed were even older records, clan history so ancient that he could barely piece together the sentences. The content described how a certain Main Family Elder of the Hyuga Clan once mediated a trivial internal dispute, using three full pages to praise his "wisdom and valor."
"This is the secret he hinted at so seriously, something supposed to overturn my understanding?"
Neji Hyuga's face darkened as his fingers pressed against the page, his fingertips turning pale. He had risked severe punishment or even death to sneak into this cursed place, only to find a hollow and meaningless book.
The anger of being fooled and the sense of losing Wang gradually replaced his earlier tension and anticipation. Was that person taking revenge on him, or just mocking him?
Thinking of this, Neji Hyuga instinctively wanted to put the useless thing back. He did not have much time, and the Main Family elder guarding the Forbidden Techniques Vault would return soon. At that moment, however, an image suddenly surfaced in his mind, the brief flash of brilliant color in Ryuji Hyuga's eyes that day, like a fleeting illusion.
"…"