"It can't be that every single clan member is freed from the Caged Bird Seal—that would give the Ōtsutsuki on the moon a chance to restart the Tenseigan plan, and possibly carry out another large-scale massacre of the Hyūga clan.
At the same time, we can't brand every single clan member with the Caged Bird Seal either. If we did, the entire Hyūga clan would become nothing more than slaves to the Ōtsutsuki…"
At last, Hyūga Neji was beginning to understand the kind of dilemma the Hyūga clan was truly facing.
For a moment, he even found himself thinking that the Hyūga division between main family and branch family might actually have been the best possible solution.
"If it were Uchiha Chizumi… could he go to the moon and deal with those Ōtsutsuki?"
Neji fell silent, but that bold thought suddenly rose in his mind.
A clan like the Ōtsutsuki—one that posed such an enormous threat to the shinobi world and was constantly thinking about destroying it—clearly violated Absolute Justice in Neji's eyes.
But the problem was, Neji had no idea whether Uchiha Chizumi had the ability to go to the moon at all.
"Probably… not?"
"Lord Chizumi is strong, but he's never shown any ability to fly. Let alone fly all the way to the moon."
Neji frowned tightly. Countless thoughts flashed through his mind, but no matter how he turned the problem over, he couldn't think of a good solution to the Hyūga clan's predicament.
"I'll remove your Caged Bird Seal, Neji. Protect your sister. Protect Hinata."
"If there's any real way to face the threat of the Ōtsutsuki on the moon, it probably lies in Hinata awakening the Tenseigan."
Hyūga Hiashi looked deeply at Neji. He had already passed on the full duties of the main family head to him. Even if he died now, the Hyūga clan's legacy would not be cut off.
"…I understand."
Neji remained silent, but after a long while, he slowly nodded.
He had not abandoned justice. He still despised the Caged Bird Seal and everything about the division between main and branch family. But for the sake of justice—or rather, for the sake of the entire shinobi world—he would have to become the very thing he had once hated: the main family.
"Justice…"
"Absolute Justice…"
Neji repeated the words silently in his heart, while on the other side, Hiashi removed the Caged Bird Seal from his forehead.
The moment the seal was lifted, Neji could clearly feel certain restraints vanish. If he activated his Byakugan now, there would no longer be any blind spot at all.
"Justice is right. But Absolute Justice may not be the path best suited to me.
My justice… is the justice of protection.
Protect Hinata. She has the potential to awaken the Tenseigan. If the Ōtsutsuki on the moon ever truly complete the Tenseigan, she may be the only ultimate weapon capable of resisting them.
Protect the Hyūga. That is my duty…
Protect the shinobi world. The Ōtsutsuki on the moon are of the same blood as us. Stopping them is also the Hyūga clan's responsibility.
So my justice will be the justice of protection.
Hinata, the Hyūga, Konoha, the shinobi world—these are the things I must protect. That is the justice I must defend with everything I have."
At that moment, Neji felt as though he had undergone some kind of transformation. He suddenly understood, a little, how Uchiha Chizumi had been able to do all the things he did. If anyone threatened the justice in Neji's heart, he too would pay any price.
Not long after Neji left Konoha Prison, a terrifying explosion rang out from the direction of the prison.
Hyūga Tsukasa had finally made his move. For the sake of his power, for the sake of everything he had fought so hard to obtain, he had chosen to take the risk and storm Konoha Prison in order to win the backing of people like Hiashi, the former main family heads.
"Hyūga Tsukasa!"
What Tsukasa had never expected, though, was that the very man who should have been supporting him—Hyūga Hiashi—would step out and block him himself.
"Why?"
Tsukasa looked at Hiashi rushing toward him, his face blank with disbelief.
Weren't they supposed to be allies?
He had just committed the outrageous act of breaking into Konoha Prison. Even if Hiashi and the others didn't want to flee with him, they still shouldn't have been reacting like this.
"Didn't your father ever teach you? One day a branch family member, a lifetime a branch family member!
So what if the seal on your forehead has been removed? A branch family member is still a branch family member!
If you had truly treated the clan as your family, maybe we old fools would have respected you a little. But you treated the clan like slaves—so what difference is there between you and us old fools?"
To Tsukasa's shock, it wasn't just Hiashi. Several other Hyūga elders attacked him as well.
Once they learned that Hiashi had passed the responsibilities of the main family head to Hyūga Neji—and that Neji had accepted them—the old elders changed their minds.
They understood, in their limited way, that the Hyūga clan bore a duty. Since they themselves had already become rotten old relics, and since that duty had now been passed on, then they would use what remained of their lives to help Neji sweep away the filth within the Hyūga clan.
"Why…"
Even now, with several main family elders attacking him at once, Tsukasa still couldn't understand.
He truly couldn't make sense of it.
Was it really just because, once branch family, always branch family?
"Do not overestimate him, and do not underestimate us.
Perhaps time has worn away our ambition. Perhaps it has made us rotten, and perhaps it led us to treat the branch family like slaves.
But we still know what burden we carry.
He, on the other hand, is nothing more than a rat who happened to steal his way into a high seat."
As another main family elder struck, Hyūga Tsukasa died without ever understanding why.
"But now that the prison has already been broken open, let us make our final blaze."
"You should all remember that the purest Hyūga blood runs through our veins. All that talk of grand righteousness is useless—but for the sake of our Byakugan Princess, it is time for us to make our final offering."
Hiashi looked down at Tsukasa's corpse without expression and gouged the Byakugan from his eye socket.
What Hiashi had not told Neji was this: yes, Hinata truly had the chance to awaken the Tenseigan—but to do so, she would need something else as well.
For example, the very plan the Ōtsutsuki on the moon had once tried to carry out, but failed to complete.
They had to sacrifice the entire Hyūga clan.
They had to end the Hyūga clan's duty completely.
"Should we kill the others too?"
On the other side, one of the main family elders looked toward people like Koharu Utatane inside the prison, a murderous light in his eyes.
Since they had already chosen a road that would end in death, then before dying, these main family elders wanted to drag a few more people down with them—
or, better yet, make the chaos even bigger."