Chapter 11 – The Seal Beneath the Skin

The academy was smaller than Hinata expected.

The floors were polished wood. The walls smelled of chalk and paper and a faint tang of sweat. There were no statues. No shrines. No bloodline expectations written into the beams.

It was the first place that didn't feel like it belonged to the Hyūga.

Michel felt the difference immediately.

The spiritual pressure here was lighter. The threads more fluid. The children more alive.

And Hinata—though still quiet—breathed differently in these halls.

<<<< o >>>>

She struggled at first.

Her chakra was clumsy, scattered. But it responded. Slowly.

She lit a leaf. Held it with trembling fingers. She formed the basic hand signs.

Michel cheered her silently every time her fingers aligned correctly.

"You're doing it," he thought.

"Even if it's late. Even if it's hard. You're doing it."

But when the instructors asked her to activate the Byakugan…

Nothing came.

Her eyes remained soft. Passive.

No glow. No veins. No vision beyond vision.

She bowed in apology.

The teachers exchanged glances, but said little. "Some awaken later," one murmured. "Let her grow."

<<<< o >>>>

The clan was not so gentle.

Within the compound, scrolls were unsealed.

Whispers passed from elder to elder.

And Michel—though he could not always listen—felt the shift.

A cold decision crystallizing.

<<<< o >>>>

In the Silver World, Hinata asked him:

"Why can't I do what Hanabi does?"

Michel had no easy answer.

"Because you are not her," he said gently.

"And what you'll become… hasn't been seen before."

She didn't understand. But she smiled at his words.

<<<< o >>>>

Hiashi stood in the central hall of the Hyūga.

He listened as the elders spoke.

"She cannot awaken the Byakugan. She cannot inherit the clan."

"And without the seal, she is vulnerable. A risk to our bloodline."

"Even the Cloud still watches. You know this."

Hiashi's fingers tightened around the sleeve of his robe.

"She is my daughter."

His father's voice answered like ice.

"She is Hyūga. Nothing more."

<<<< o >>>>

The ritual was set.

At dawn, in the sacred chamber.

Just as it had been done for centuries.

Michel heard of it through the whispers of chakra.

Through the dreams of the servants who feared to speak aloud.

When the moment came, he followed.

He would not let her suffer alone.

The chamber was cold.

Hinata stood silently, dressed in ceremonial white. She said nothing. Her eyes were calm. Trusting. Too calm. As if her soul had gone quiet to protect itself.

Hiashi stood behind her, flanked by the elders and seal-bearers.

Michel hovered close.

He had seen this before—from a distance.

He had felt it on Hizashi, long ago.

But this time… it was Hinata.

As the seal was prepared, Michel extended a thread.

Just one.

He reached through Hinata's soul toward her father.

He had done this before—with Kuro, with ease.

He had revealed bonds. Strengthened them.

This time, he wanted to remind Hiashi:

That this girl was not a burden.

Not a weakness.

But his daughter.

He reached—

And was burned.

Pain.

Not in his soul—but in something deeper.

Like a thread fraying at the base of reality itself.

The silver thread twisted, then blackened, recoiling like a snake.

Michel staggered spiritually, stunned.

What he had felt was not rejection. It was rot, an ancient decay nestled beneath the bond, too deep for either soul to see.

The connection between father and daughter was tainted. Not broken, twisted. Something unseen devoured the space between them.

And as the seal was carved into her skin, Michel saw it

A mark behind the mark.

A darkness that wasn't chakra.

A hand behind the bloodline.

A whisper deeper than Hyūga tradition.

Shikashi.

Michel reeled.

His threads recoiled. His form flickered.

This wasn't imbalance.

This wasn't trauma.

This was interference.

A deliberate corruption.

A curse laid not on the body—but on the spiritual core of a lineage.

The elders did not know.

Hiashi did not know.

But Shikashi had marked her—through Michel himself.

Through their bond. Through their merger. Through the silver.

And now Hinata's soul carried more than just light.

It carried resistance.

After the ritual, Hinata was escorted to her room.

The mark was hidden beneath her bangs.

She said nothing.

<<<< o >>>>

But in the Silver World that night, she walked slower.

Her eyes heavier. Her steps muted.

Michel sat by the pond, watching.

He did not greet her.

She approached anyway.

And sat beside him.

After a long silence, she whispered:

"Did I do something wrong?"

Michel felt his soul fracture.

"No, little one," he whispered.

"You have done everything right."

She leaned her head on his shoulder.

He did not cry. But the Silver World shimmered around them.

"They have cut into you," he said. "But I will not let it define you."

"If the threads are poisoned… then we will weave new ones."

She closed her eyes.

The mark pulsed faintly on her forehead.

But so did the soul within her.

And Michel, now fully aware of his enemy, set his jaw.

"Shikashi," he murmured. "You touched her through me. But I see you now. And I will undo every thread you've woven."