Hearing Brook's words, Kurenai did not know how to respond. In the end, she could only stand there silently.
"Go back. I'm leaving."
Brook vanished from the spot.
Through Minato's perspective, he already knew that the Hyuga clan's upper ranks, including Hiashi, were still celebrating. With that in mind, he went straight to the Hyuga compound.
Kurenai pursed her lips when she saw him disappear, then returned to Minato's side to report that Brook had come back.
Brook reentered the Hyuga clan's territory through the Kamui space.
The place was still under extremely tight guard. Four Hyuga ninja were stationed in four directions around the compound, taking turns activating their Byakugan to monitor the entire area.
No outsider could infiltrate the Hyuga clan's grounds through ordinary ninjutsu.
[Limbo: Border Jail!]
Four invisible shadows slipped out from the Kamui space and began searching the Hyuga compound. Brook's target was simple. He wanted to find the previous clan head, Hyuga Tokugawa, kill him, and take his Byakugan.
Unless the Hyuga clan had some special habit of preserving spare eyes like the Uchiha, the old man was doomed.
As his shadows searched, Brook quickly noticed a heavily pregnant woman inside the main house. She possessed the Byakugan, and she could only be Hiashi's wife.
"There's no Caged Bird Seal on her forehead."
Brook narrowed his eyes in surprise.
With a single glance, he could distinguish members of the main family from those of the branch family. After all, the branch family carried the Caged Bird Seal and usually wore forehead protectors to cover that humiliating mark.
If a Hyuga was wearing a forehead protector casually, or not wearing one at all, then they were almost certainly from the main family.
To preserve the purity of the Byakugan, the main family usually chose branch family women with sufficient talent to marry into the main line, much like how the Uchiha clan head was expected to marry within the clan.
"There's no reason Hiashi's wife should be from the main family too. Otherwise that would just be incest."
Brook took a closer look at the beautiful pregnant woman.
He was certain now. She really was a Hyuga with highly pure Byakugan, and she truly did not bear the Caged Bird Seal.
That immediately made his thoughts shift.
"Could it be that the clan secretly selects gifted girls before the seal is ever applied, keeps them hidden away, and raises them in reserve specifically to produce heirs for the main family?"
Brook's eyes grew colder.
He recalled that Hinata's mother had vanished after giving birth to Hanabi. Some said she died of childbirth. Others said she died in battle.
But did a woman who became the wife of the Hyuga clan head really meet such an ordinary end?
There was definitely more to this than the outside world knew.
Perhaps the main family's public rules were only half true.
They openly declared that only branch family members bore the Caged Bird Seal, but if the clan leader and the elder responsible for applying it had ways to circumvent that system, then they could easily keep certain gifted girls hidden from view, raise them in secrecy, or even place them under house arrest while simply announcing to the outside world that they had died.
Thinking of that, Brook activated the Byakugan he had taken from Ao, sensing the power hidden within it.
That eye had been stolen by Ao of Kirigakure during the Third Shinobi World War from a member of the Hyuga main family. At the time, Ao had only been a jonin. How had he managed to take it?
Moreover, according to Minato's memories, no Hyuga main family head had died on the battlefield, and the old clan head, Hyuga Tokugawa, had returned with both of his eyes intact.
"So there really is a reserve Byakugan."
A pale glow flashed through Brook's eye.
One of the Limbo shadows had already found the answer.
Hidden in a secure location, there really was a preserved Byakugan.
If Ao's Byakugan truly had once belonged to Tokugawa, then the old man must have come back and simply had another eye transplanted.
That line of thought only raised another question. Was this generation's clan head really so weak that he had once been reduced to this state by someone like Ao?
Or had one of the clan's hidden reserves slipped through the cracks and escaped without ever receiving the Caged Bird Seal?
Brook did not care enough to keep digging into that.
All he wanted was a high quality Byakugan.
Inside a hidden underground chamber, the security became even tighter.
At that point, Brook finally understood.
The Hyuga clan's true hidden strength was not outside where everyone could see it, but buried beneath the compound, just like Danzo's Root.
"So that's why the Caged Bird Seal is only applied when the main branch's eldest son turns three."
Brook sneered from within the Kamui space.
If the clan head married late and had children late, then many branch family children would already be seven or eight years old by the time the seal was applied across that generation.
To avoid losing Byakugan, the Hyuga clan kept those children under unified internal education and control. They were not even allowed to attend the Ninja Academy.
The current clan head, Hiashi, had not fathered Hinata until he was twenty nine. Meanwhile, his younger brother Hizashi had married earlier and already had a son, Neji, who was one year older than Hinata.
Other branch family members of the same generation had also married young. Some of their children were already over six years old, yet because the main line had not produced its heir yet, those children still had not received the Caged Bird Seal. They were not permitted to leave the compound or enroll in the academy. Instead, they could only be taught by the Hyuga clan itself.
This underground complex was the training base for those children.
"So Neji was actually one of the lucky ones. The kids here have it even worse."
Brook sighed.
These Hyuga parents, already branded with the Caged Bird Seal themselves, could only watch as their children underwent training far harsher than anything the Ninja Academy imposed, all so they could someday throw themselves into danger for the main family.
Those who showed rebellious tendencies were likely eliminated early. Those who remained were the loyal ones, the ones who truly believed that serving the main family was an honor.
"The wife of the clan head was selected from the most gifted unsealed girls of the branch line, all so the main family could preserve the best possible bloodline. No wonder the purity of the Byakugan remains so strong."
Brook continued exploring the underground base.
Even Danzo's Root had never managed to reach a place like this.
That explained why the Hyuga could still stand as equals to the Uchiha. The visible members of the clan alone were nowhere near enough to support the future status of Konoha's strongest noble family.
Hiashi was not nearly as kind as he appeared.
When he activated the Caged Bird Seal on Hizashi and later on Neji, he showed no hesitation at all. He allowed his younger brother to die in his place, and the grief he displayed afterward was limited at best.
A rebellious younger brother had no value.
Still, outwardly, the clan had to keep up the performance of brotherly affection.
And Hiashi's choice to abandon Hinata in favor of Hanabi made his priorities even clearer. It was not paternal love that guided him, but disappointment in one daughter and expectations for another.
For Hiashi, clan inheritance came first.
Family affection was something to be kept only when convenient.
"If an enemy ever found this underground base, the Hyuga clan would be finished."
Brook smiled coldly.
Any child here who had not yet received the Caged Bird Seal would immediately become a kidnapping target.
But then he saw the second layer of defense.
These children were also raised with a special form of indoctrination, a twisted version of the Will of Fire, something closer to a Main Family Will. If captured, they were expected to destroy their own eyes. There was even a specialized self destruction ninjutsu taught for that purpose.
It was essentially a simplified substitute for the Caged Bird Seal.
Even if they were kidnapped, these children would likely commit suicide and destroy their Byakugan first.
Still, the Hyuga had every reason to be confident. Who could possibly reach this underground base when the compound itself stood in the heart of Konoha?
Not the Third Hokage. Not Danzo. Not even Minato, the commoner Hokage.
But Brook could.
And he was more than happy to accept everything the Hyuga clan had so carefully hidden.
----------
Inside the underground base beneath the Hyuga clan compound.
Hyuga Tokugawa, the former head of the Hyuga clan and now the senior elder of the main family, was the one currently responsible for inscribing the Caged Bird Seal on members of the branch family.
His father, the previous generation's supreme elder, Hyuga Hirotada, was already seventy nine this year. His life was nearing its end. His body had grown so frail that he could barely stand, and his trembling hands were no longer steady enough to carve the Caged Bird Seal.
Because of that, Tokugawa had stepped down as clan head in the prime of his life, at fifty four, and taken over the elder's duties instead.
That was how Hiashi had become the new clan head at only twenty eight or twenty nine.
This was the Hyuga clan's way of passing authority down through the generations, a custom that had continued for thousands of years.
"Tokugawa, that brat Hiashi married far too late. Forget that old rule for now. Don't wait until the eldest child of the main family turns three. Start inscribing the Caged Bird Seal on those branch family children immediately. As for Hizashi's child, handle it at the normal time."
Hirotada spoke weakly, but his tone still carried dissatisfaction toward Hiashi.
"That grandson of mine is already twenty nine, and his first child is still in his wife's belly. He truly doesn't care about the continuation of the Hyuga clan."
He did not even know whether he would live long enough to see his granddaughter born.
That was right. They had already confirmed the child's gender with the Byakugan.
That only made Hirotada even more irritated. If Hiashi's first child was not a son, then he might not survive long enough to see the second one.
He had suffered a serious injury in his younger years, so reaching eighty was already a miracle.
"Understood, Father."
Tokugawa lowered his head and answered obediently. Even though he had once stood at the very top of the Hyuga clan, before his father he still had no choice but to listen.
"Father, what if we transplant a fresh pair of eyes into you? That might let you hold on until Rizu's second child is born."
Looking at his father's cloudy Byakugan, Tokugawa could not help but suggest it.
Before the branch family children received the Caged Bird Seal, their Byakugan could still be reclaimed.
Throughout the Hyuga clan's history, the main family had done this before. Whenever a branch family member awakened an exceptionally pure Byakugan, the clan head could take that pair and transplant it for himself if he wished.
Hirotada let out a tired sigh.
"My body is already failing. Even if you transplant a better pair of eyes, I still won't live much longer."
Tokugawa fell silent for a moment.
But then, Hirotada changed his mind.
"Still, in order to witness your granddaughter's birth with my own eyes, make the arrangements."
That old man had actually accepted the suggestion.
Even if it meant ruining the future of a gifted branch family child, he wanted another half year, maybe a year.
"Understood."
Tokugawa immediately agreed.
To the main family, branch family members were nothing more than tools.
He soon selected two or three of the older branch family children whose Byakugan had the highest purity and took their eyes.
To make sure the matter stayed hidden, he did not intend to transplant replacement eyes into those children and let them live quietly as ordinary people. Instead, he planned to spread the word that they had died in training accidents.
As for the Byakugan he collected, one pair would go to his father.
The rest he intended to keep for himself.
Once the Caged Bird Seal was carved, even their own clan would no longer be able to recover those eyes freely. So having spare pairs in reserve was a matter of survival for the main family.
After seeing all this, Brook could only admire the darkness buried inside such a great clan.
As expected, once absolute control like the Caged Bird Seal existed, all kinds of rot would inevitably follow.
Still, compared to truly monstrous nobility, the Hyuga clan was almost restrained.
The main family had not stripped the branch family of reproduction rights or killed them casually. In the world of One Piece, the Celestial Dragons swapped slaves and attendants as casually as changing clothes. That was real cruelty.
The Hyuga clan only seized a few pairs of high purity Byakugan from gifted branch family children every generation. Under the framework of absolute power, that was almost considered mild darkness.
Even on Earth, many wealthy people kept organ donors, feeding and housing them well. The moment those wealthy people needed blood, marrow, a heart, or a kidney, those so called donors ceased to matter.
Brook stared at the three pairs of Byakugan in Tokugawa's hands.
Their owners were only branch family children around seven or eight years old.
Originally, he had thought that without the Caged Bird Seal, the only usable Byakugan would have to come from the Hyuga main family. That was why his first target had been Tokugawa alone.
But now that these extra eyes had appeared, he hesitated for a moment.
Should he act like some righteous protagonist, kill the Hyuga father and son in anger, free the branch family children, and smash the clan's rules?
Or should he simply take what he wanted and leave, pretending he had seen nothing?
And even if he did save those children, would they thank him?
These kids had been brainwashed since childhood. For all he knew, the moment he showed himself, they would strike him with the Gentle Fist as an intruder.
"Forget it. I don't have time for this nonsense."
Brook made up his mind.
"But the eyes of the main family, I'll take as many as I can. You people aren't innocent, and neither am I."
He quickly found himself a reason.
The Byakugan of the main family would fuse more smoothly with the Tenseigan. Even if they were still inferior to Hanabi's future Byakugan, one pair might not be enough, and if that happened, he could always use two pairs. Besides, his devouring and fusion ability from Jin remained as a final safeguard.
As for what happened afterward, whether Tokugawa and his father would use the two remaining eyes or simply destroy more gifted branch family children to seize their Byakugan, Brook had no interest in caring.
In the laboratory, his Limbo shadows also found several carefully preserved pairs of Byakugan. He had no idea whether they once belonged to the main family or the branch family, but he decided to keep two pairs for himself.
As for the Hyuga father and son, whether they would transplant those two pairs onto themselves or kill two more branch family children to replace what had been stolen, that was none of Brook's concern.
Once everything was confirmed, the four Limbo shadows struck at the same time.
One seized the stored Byakugan in the laboratory.
One snatched the three pairs from Tokugawa's hands.
One tore the main family's Byakugan directly out of Hirotada's face.
And the last action was Brook himself, working together with a Limbo shadow to pin Tokugawa in place and rip the Byakugan from his eyes by force.
Then the four shadows withdrew into the Kamui dimension, leaving behind only the screams of the two elders.
A large number of branch family Hyuga rushed forward in panic and immediately began emergency treatment on the two main family elders.
"My eyes! Bring me a pair of Byakugan, now!"
Tokugawa roared in fury.
The medical ninja from the branch family rushed to the laboratory, found the only two remaining pairs of Byakugan, and transplanted them into the two elders.
After suffering such a heavy blow, Hirotada's presence weakened even further, as though he might meet the King of Hell at any moment.
Tokugawa regained his sight soon after, but his expression was dark and ugly.
He and his father had both had their Byakugan stolen, yet neither of them had even seen the enemy's shadow.
Just how many people did the enemy have?
And more importantly, the enemy had deliberately left behind two pairs of Byakugan.
Was that a warning?
A warning to the father and son not to touch the unsealed children of the branch family?
Otherwise, the intruder would never have left them with even those two spare pairs. He would have taken every single Byakugan, or simply killed all the branch family children who had not yet been branded with the Caged Bird Seal and stolen everything.
.....
[If you don't want to wait for the next update, read 50 chapters ahead on P@treon.]
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