"Hyūga Main Family's Cursed Seal Technique?" Tenji repeated slowly.
"Yes. The Hyūga clan uses the cursed seal to protect our kekkei genkai, the Byakugan. Members of the clan's main house brand us members of the clan's branch houses with the cursed seal so that, when we die, our Byakugan will be sealed away, preventing its secrets from being learned by enemies. It can also be used by the main house to torture branch house members: if a main house member uses a special hand seal, the branch house member will experience intense pain, discouraging us from disobeying the main house again. If the pain is great enough, it can even kill us by destroying our brain cells.
The Members of the branch house are branded with the cursed seal on the third birthday of the clan's next heir or heiress, regardless of our own age at the time. They are placed on our foreheads, which is why we tend to keep them covered, as I do with my forehead protector. Many of the branch family members struggle with the idea that his cursed seal binds us to a life of servitude to the main house. And because of that, we used to call it the caged bird seal unofficially."
Tenji looked at Hanato, then at the three children, who were back to practising their new jutsus. He told them to let him talk with his descendant alone for a while and asked him what he wanted to know. He found out that the Hyūga clan were descendants of his son, Hamura, but that Hanato didn't know how they returned from the moon. He learned about Konoha, the Uchiha clan, which Hanato spoke poorly of, and a lot more. Tenji listened to everything with interest. But to hear about the Cursed Seal was hard for him. It baffled Tenji to see all those new rules and savagery brought with chakra. In a way, he felt that his death led to his family's drama and then to this.
"Caged birds... Do only those of the branch families have it?"
"Yes."
"How disgusting and petty. Hamura would never have done that! How far everyone has fallen after they were given a bit of power. It seems my descendants haven't been brought up right. Truly, I will have to take care of that."
"What do you mean?" Hanato asked.
"It is time for a change. A family holds itself as slaves. Show me the seal," Tenji demanded.
"Huh?"
.
Hanato Hyūga watched as the father of the progenitor of their clan worked on his forehead. He hadn't believed any of Tenji's words initially. Still, the man could be very persuasive, especially after showing him a bit of what had happened and proving that he was the father of Hamura and Hagoromo, the famous Sage of Six Paths. There was a strange connection that Tenji was able to access and make Hanato believe his words for what they were.
Juinjutsu or Cursed Seal Techniques are a type of jutsu used to bring someone under the control of the user. By applying a seal to the victim's body, the user gained control over the victim's abilities and actions. Juinjutsu required a great deal of skill to use, and suppressing one was equally challenging. Removal of the seal was nigh-impossible, as many opted to seal them away instead. But Tenji was not one of those.
He studied the cursed seal, probing it with his powerful chakra. He didn't have any knowledge of Fuinjutsu or Juinjutsu, and neither did Hanato, but he was a 'quick learner'. And it showed. Tenji understood the purpose of the cursed seal right away and noticed how it had been integrated into Hanato's chakra pathways, which connected to his eyes and, through the optic nerve, to the brain. After 10 minutes, Tenji opened his eyes.
"Alright, there are two options."
"Two?! To do what?"
"To remove the cursed seal, what do you think? Option one: I could kill you for a short while. Like stopping your heart briefly, breaking the cursed seal that way and making it useless. I hold a tremendous amount of vitality now and with Nature Energy, bringing you back wouldn't be a problem."
"... Huh?! You want to kill me?"
"Only temporarily. You'd be back before you realised what happened."
"What's the second option?" Hanato asked.
"The second option would be for me to create a counter seal and nullify the cursed seal that way."
"YES! That one! Why didn't you start with that option?" Hanato almost cried.
"Well, it would take me longer. I first have to create it after all."
Hanato narrowed his eyes. He had already lost several hours today. Their mission was to reach the border and eliminate a bandit group suspected of harbouring shinobi in disguise. If they didn't get that done, several people would ask questions. But Hanato's wish of finally being free was far too powerful.
"How much longer?" he asked.
"An hour... probably less," Tenji said, almost embarrassed.
"O-one... hour?!?! I thought you'd say months!"
"Months? What do you take me for?! Hm, now that I think about it, there might be a third option."
"Like what?"
"I might be able to break the cursed seal by flooding your body with nature energy."
Tenji thought about it, but then shook his head. No, that wouldn't be a good idea. If the seal were gone entirely, the clan would realise it and bring Hanato a lot of trouble. The best way was to simply remove the dangerous aspects of the cursed seal, but leave it intact. After a moment, Tenji settled with that choice.
"So... what do I do now?" Hanato asked after Tenji had finished his initial research on the seal.
"Go and teach your team. I'll tell you when it's done," Tenji said.
"Very well."
So Hanato went to his three genin and observed their progress closely. He was impressed with their new jutsus and gave them tips on how to improve chakra control, and had them spar on the small lake to improve it. Every once in a while, he looked back at Tenji, who was writing on the ground and had an explosion tag and storage seals in his hands. He couldn't fathom how Tenji could possibly solve a problem that had been refined over centuries and never broken.
But the moment arrived sooner than anyone expected.
Tenji's talent worked in interesting ways. When he looked at the seals of the storage scroll, the explosion tag and the cursed seal, he understood them at the fundamental level. His talent in the field of fuinjutsu and juinjutsu was already unimaginable. But even then, it would have taken roughly an hour for him to fully reach a proficiency allowing him to solve the cursed seal problem.
But the longer he studied and focused on the seals, the faster his progress and discoveries came. His speed was almost exponential, and roughly 20 minutes after starting, he had reached the desired results.
After completing it, Tenji showed Hanato what to do and had him perform the necessary steps himself, while he supported. This way, despite not understanding what he was doing, Hanato got complete control over his cursed seal, and it would remain on him, without alerting the main clan members that he was now free.
Needless to say, Hanato was extremely thankful.
.
The figures of Tenji and Hanato moved through the clearing and the forest. After solving the cursed seal problem, Hanato had asked his ancestor for some tips and another sparring. Tenji, naturally, was all for it. Fighting the Hyūga was the best fight he had had to date. But it quickly became apparent that there was nothing Hanato could do to surprise or 'entertain' Tenji anymore. There was no longer a moment when Hanato managed even to touch Tenji. He dodged all of the Gentle Fist strikes, no matter which techniques were used.
"Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms!"
Hanato began attacking the 64 tenketsu points, but what he experienced instead was unreal. Tenji was performing the same movements he had been, and he stopped Hanato's attacks with his fingers. But it didn't stop there. Tenji took a step forward and performed the theoretical eighth step of the Hyūga clan's secret technique - the Eight Trigrams 256 Palms. At a speed that was more than five times the one used to perform the 64 palms, Tenji blocked 256 of the total 361 tenketsu points in Hanato's body.
The speed was so fast that Hanato didn't realise what had happened. One moment, he felt his last strike be blocked by Tenji, and then the next... the world turned entirely black.
And still, Tenji didn't stop. He had gotten into a flow of understanding and continued with the movements as he was.
"Eight Trigrams 512 Palms."
Not only was there no real eighth step in the Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven, and a Byakugan would have been necessary to even see the tenketsu points, but there were only 361 tenketsu points in the human body. Performing more than that was redundant. The speed at which Tenji moved his arms through the air created a small windstorm, affecting the surrounding area. Leaves flew everywhere, along with wood, stone, and dirt. But it was all uncontrolled and messy.
Tenji paused for a moment and let the surroundings settle again. Surprisingly, this wasn't enough for him. It was too chaotic and took too long to perform. Even getting to that point was stupid, and it allowed others to attack. What he wanted was an immediate way of attack. A second later, Tenji started moving again, the unconscious Hanato already forgotten on the ground. He jumped right into the Eight Trigrams 256 Palms, but this time, he added what he created earlier: Wind Style: Cutting Movement to each of his hits.
He once again started moving like the wind, performing powerful, explosive rotational movements and using that energy to shift the Eight Trigrams Palm's attack pattern, making it far more unpredictable. The earlier chaotic winds intensified into an actual tornado. But the manoeuvrability of this technique was staggering. Each of Tenji's strikes was capable of cutting apart the strongest of defences and was incredibly fast at the same time. Tenji had turned the Eight Trigrams Palm into a ridiculously overpowering technique, applicable in fights against most opponents, as long as you had enough chakra.
Naturally, Tenji wasn't satisfied with it just yet and saw much more potential in it.
"Urgh... my head..."
But that had to wait since Hanato was waking up again.
.
"I don't know how I will ever be able to thank you properly for this. I can't fathom why you would do something like this for me," Hanato said. "We've known one another for less than a day, and I attacked you."
"A father doesn't need a reason to help his children. And neither does an ancestor. I wanted what was best for my sons. That's no longer possible now, but since I am back, things will change. You can believe that."
Tenji had a plan, Hanato knew. He was aware that his ancestor had an agenda, but he didn't ask. He didn't dare to. It wasn't his place. But the euphoria he felt after removing the cursed seal made him very receptive to anything Tenji said.
"What will you do now, ancestor?" Hanato asked.
Their dialogue was hidden from the genin. They had taken too long to cover their meeting at this point, but the children didn't know anything. Only Hanato knew, and his clan would protect him. The Yamanaka clan wouldn't search his memories for something like this. Dangerous missing nin, were very common right now, and that's what the higher-ups will believe.
"Don't worry about that. Just make sure you do your part, while I will do mine. You now have the sealing tag I gave you. Should something come up, I will be sure to notify you."
"I understand. I will do my best, ancestor. Thank you!"
After saying goodbyes, the Konoha shinobi left to go back to Konoha, while Tenji continued his journey further north, towards the Land of Iron. Meeting a member of his descendants, even if it was a very distant one, somewhat helped Tenji to understand things better. He got information about Konoha, the different clans and the current situation of the world, without having to play a role or anything like that. It allowed him to realise just how bad things were. How bad they had become.
More and more, Tenji was convinced that he had had the right idea when he was alive. There was no one more capable than him when it came to ruling. Allowing people freedom was something he wanted as well, and to a degree, that was good. But with a skilled and fair ruler, things would be far better. Had Tenji not allowed himself to be distracted by his happiness brought by Kaguya and her pregnancy, he might have achieved his goals. Alas, he was still too young.
But the experience helped him change and understand things even better. The journey he was on right now also helped him and continued to help him as time passed. His wife hadn't been that wrong at all. But she hadn't been right either. Yet, no matter what, getting her back was his primary goal, and it started with growing in chakra and its applications. So that's what he did while walking.