Chapter 102: Bird in a Cage

Torifū then remembered that he had also drawn a tube of Mū's blood, which he could use to activate a puppet. But he was truly tired today, so he decided to leave it for tomorrow.

The next morning, the system still woke him up, perhaps because the Five Kage Summit hadn't officially ended yet. The system's reward was still pending. However, Torifū wasn't in a hurry; it was already a done deal. Moreover, the Kage wouldn't stay in Konoha for many more days; they should be heading back to their villages today or tomorrow. As the supreme leaders of their villages, many operations required the Kage's permission. Upon their return, they would find mountains of documents piled on their desks for approval.

However, old-timers like the Tsuchikage and Mizukage had already begun delegating authority, letting their trained successors try handling the paperwork. That way, they could sneak in some leisure time.

Today, because there were outsiders in the village, there was no training; it was considered a day off. It was a rare holiday, and Torifū hadn't decided how to spend it, but there was nothing interesting at home anyway, so he decided to wander around the village. Perhaps because of the summit, the streets had been quite crowded early these past few days, nearly double the usual number of people. Perhaps they wanted to see what outsiders looked like, so they woke up early to stake out spots.

People greeted Torifū as he passed by; the news of Torifū's victory yesterday had quickly spread throughout the village. As the Hokage's disciple, the villagers paid close attention to Torifū, though most villagers weren't ninja.

They could only learn about Torifū's strength through rumors, but this time, the villagers truly knew how strong Torifū was. Torifū's victory, combined with his consistently gentle demeanor and humility, further improved his reputation among the villagers; everyone genuinely liked Torifū.

Seeing the villagers' enthusiasm, Torifū was momentarily at a loss for what to do, so he could only return their greetings one by one. He ran into a few ninja he had been on missions with, and they held him for a long time before finally letting him go. In short, Torifū had only one thought: being too famous wasn't always a good thing.

Just greeting people had taken almost half an hour, and a short street had taken nearly an hour to walk. He finally reached a less crowded area and let out a sigh of relief.

He then encountered a familiar face, Hyūga Shishin, accompanied by a man who looked very much like him. However, Torifū noticed that the man seemed to deliberately stay half a step behind Shishin, and his expression was somewhat deferential. Torifū had a rough idea of what was going on and, after some thought, walked up to them. He wanted to chat with Shishin and strengthen their bond, after all, Torifū was still thinking about the Byakugan.

"Morning, Shishin." Torifū was the first to greet him.

Shishin heard the voice and then noticed Torifū. The somewhat annoyed expression on his face immediately brightened into a smile.

"Oh, it's Torifū. You're out so early? Looks like yesterday's battle was easy for you." Shishin joked.

"No, no, I just rested well. Speaking of which, who is this?" Torifū smiled and then asked.

Shishin turned to look at the man beside him, who had kept his head bowed the entire time. Seeing this, Shishin couldn't help but sigh, "Ah, this is my younger brother, Hyūga Kiharu." He then said to Kiharu, "This is Hokage-sama's disciple, the leader of the Kumotsuru clan."

Kiharu slowly lifted his head and nodded to Torifū, "Hello, I am Hyūga Kiharu. Please take care of me."

Torifū waved his hand, "No need to be so formal. You can just call me Torifū. I'm much younger than you."

Seeing Torifū say this, some of the smiles returned to Shishin's face, while Kiharu simply acknowledged it and continued to keep his head bowed. He didn't participate in their conversation, standing silently by the side like a servant. Torifū naturally knew why Kiharu was like this. The Hyūga clan's Caged Bird seal was truly a harmful ninjutsu. A perfectly good pair of brothers had been forced to act like a master and servant. All for the sake of protecting the so-called Main Family Byakugan.

Shishin felt great pain in his heart seeing Kiharu like this, but he was helpless. All of this was decided by his father and the elders. As the young head of the family, he only had a title; he had no real power and couldn't change any of this. He could only watch helplessly as his brother was marked with the Caged Bird seal. Since he was five years old, he had never seen his brother smile again.

"Kiharu, you go home first. Torifū and I are just getting into our conversation."

Kiharu bowed respectfully upon hearing this, "Yes, Shishin-sama." He then retreated a few meters and turned to leave.

Seeing his brother's demeanor, Shishin felt as if a knife was cutting at his heart. No wonder Torifū's had seen annoyance on his face when he first saw him.

"I'm sorry, Torifū, for letting you see that," Shishin said bitterly.

Torifū shook his head, "It's alright. I know how you feel right now, Shishin, and I deeply sympathize with Kiharu's situation." The Caged Bird was not a secret in Konoha Village; in fact, the Hyūga clan took pride in it.

They believed this system perfectly protected the Byakugan from being taken by outsiders. However, they didn't realize that in the long run, this would only cause the Hyūga clan to decline. In contrast, the Uchiha clan hadn't created any Caged Bird-like ninjutsu despite the power of the Sharingan. If someone's eyes were taken, they would simply find a way to get them back. Torifū had a premonition that if the Hyūga clan continued like this, they would face problems within a few generations.

"Sigh, sometimes I really hate myself. If only I weren't so incompetent, how could I have let Kiharu suffer such a..."

"Then haven't you thought about fighting back?"

Hearing Torifū's words, Shishin slowly raised his head. "Fighting back? How can I fight back? Even if I become the family head, the elders still restrict my actions. Fighting back isn't realistic." From Shishin's words, Torifū detected a sense of despondency. This immense pressure seemed to be slowly crushing the man before him.

Even the clan head couldn't bypass the elders to directly issue commands; sometimes the clan head's authority was even less than that of the elders. This was the cancerous growth that had formed in the Hyūga clan's development to this day!

Each generation of elders enjoyed the care of the branch families; everything was executed by the branch families. They only needed to lie in bed to enjoy wealth and luxury. How could they possibly give up such a life? The lives of branch family members were worthless in their eyes, driven around like slaves. Hashirama had once wanted the Hyūga clan to change this clan rule, but the Hyūga refused, stating it was their family's internal matter.