"It's simple. All you have to do is bring Madara-sama's soul back from the Pure Land!"
"In the entire shinobi world, only Impure World Reincarnation can pull a dead person's soul back from the Pure Land. And right now, you're the only one in the whole world who still knows that forbidden technique!"
What Black Zetsu needed Yakushi Kabuto to do was both very simple and very difficult.
Just as he said, Kabuto was the only person left in the shinobi world who could use Impure World Reincarnation. Without Kabuto's cooperation, Black Zetsu could only pray that Nagato would suddenly lose his mind and revive Uchiha Madara on his own.
"And can you really guarantee the Akatsuki's leader will be that obedient?"
Kabuto was already tempted—more than that, he was leaning toward cooperating—but before he agreed, he needed to know how capable his potential partner really was.
Put another way, not just any random stray had the right to work with him anymore.
"He doesn't have a choice!"
Black Zetsu said it with very little confidence himself. But that didn't matter—as long as Kabuto believed it.
When Yakushi Kabuto and Black Zetsu clasped hands, the two of them had officially entered into an alliance.
Meanwhile, back in Konoha, once Uchiha Chizumi returned, the atmosphere in the village changed almost overnight. The people who had still dared to commit petty crimes in secret were now wishing they could just leave the village altogether.
The ones who felt the greatest fear were actually the Hyūga clan's new main family elders.
To successfully rise to the position of new main family elder, every one of them had done more than a few things they couldn't afford to let the light touch. At the time, all they cared about was obtaining main family status.
But now that they had actually succeeded, they had finally begun to fear the reckoning.
"We…"
Inside the Hyūga clan shrine, the three new main family elders gathered together, each looking as grim as though their father had just died.
"We don't have a choice."
"While Uchiha Chizumi still hasn't noticed us, we break into Konoha Prison tonight!"
"The Caged Bird Seals on our foreheads have already been removed. Whether those old main family fossils like it or not, we are the main family now!"
"As long as we can get those main family elders out, then whether they want to or not, they'll have no choice but to follow us all the way down this road!"
One of the new main family elders, a middle-aged man named Hyūga Tsukasa, had a ruthless gleam in his eyes.
He did not regret becoming part of the main family. Only after becoming one had he truly understood how miserable his old life had been.
The entire Hyūga clan had treated him like something they could take and use at will. After experiencing the other side of that power, he had no intention of giving it up.
"Can't we negotiate with Uchiha Chizumi?"
"Or go ask Lady Tsunade? As long as the Hyūga clan is willing to submit to Lady Tsunade, then surely Uchiha Chizumi wouldn't go after us?"
Another elder voiced that childish idea. And in truth, the third elder was thinking the same thing.
To them, "Absolute Justice" was nothing but a slogan—a banner Uchiha Chizumi used to seize benefits for himself in broad daylight.
As long as they fully submitted to Tsunade, then as her allies, Chizumi shouldn't touch them.
After all, once you'd already become someone's dog, what sense did it make to kill the dog too?
"So that's really how you see Uchiha Chizumi?"
Hyūga Tsukasa frowned at the two elderly clan leaders in front of him. He genuinely didn't understand it. When they were fighting over the position of main family elder, these two old men had been vicious and relentless. So why were they shrinking back now?
"We should at least try."
"And if it really doesn't work, we can always pull Hyūga Neji into the main family too. After all, Neji is one of Uchiha Chizumi's followers. There's no way he'd kill his own follower too, right?"
The second elder laid out his plan, completely unaware that the person in the Hyūga clan who most wanted them dead was probably Neji. There was no chance Neji would ever join their so-called main family.
"Insects are unfit to scheme with!"
Hyūga Tsukasa shot the two old men a vicious glare. He had already made up his mind—no matter what, he was going to Konoha Prison tonight. Since these two old fools couldn't see reason, then it was time for them to be buried too.
"The three new main family elders of the Hyūga clan are going to die."
Inside Konoha Prison, Hyūga Neji stood in front of Hyūga Hiashi and told him that Uchiha Chizumi had returned.
Over this period of time, Hinata had asked Neji again and again to visit Hiashi, and Neji had finally learned the truth of what happened back then directly from Hiashi himself.
But even knowing that his father had died for Hyūga Hiashi's sake, he still couldn't forgive the existence of the Caged Bird Seal.
"They do deserve to die."
Hiashi looked at Neji with a complicated expression.
He hesitated.
He hesitated over whether he should tell Neji the Hyūga clan's greatest secret.
After all, Hiashi didn't know how long he would remain imprisoned. And among the Hyūga, Neji was already the most talented one. Now that he was no longer bound by the Caged Bird Seal, Neji might truly become the strongest Hyūga in the future.
"I'll remove your Caged Bird Seal."
After a long silence, Hiashi finally made up his mind.
The Hyūga clan's secret was too significant—so significant that someone in the clan had to know it and bear it. And in Hiashi's view, no one in the current Hyūga clan was more suitable for that burden than Neji.
"I don't need that."
"As long as all of you are branded with the Caged Bird Seal too, then everyone is the same. Whether I have one or not doesn't matter."
To Hiashi's surprise, Neji immediately refused his offer.
"That's impossible!"
"No matter what happens, there has to be at least one member of the main family left. Even if it's only one, there cannot be none."
"If every single Hyūga were branded with the Caged Bird Seal, that would mean the entire Hyūga clan could be controlled by outsiders!"
Hiashi spoke in a voice so low that only the two of them could hear it.
The moment Neji heard that, his brows knitted tightly together.
"What do you mean, the entire Hyūga clan would be controlled by others if everyone bore the Caged Bird Seal?"
Neji could tell that Hiashi was finally about to reveal the Hyūga clan's hidden secret.
"Exactly what it sounds like. The Hyūga clan's Caged Bird Seal was not created only to stop people inside the shinobi world from coveting the Byakugan…"
"It was also created to guard against those outside the shinobi world who covet it."
The instant those words left Hiashi's mouth, Neji's pupils trembled violently. Even his voice shook slightly when he spoke.
"What do you mean… outside the shinobi world?"
~~~
Thank you very much for reading!