Under the tranquil starry sky, gentle waves rolled across the lake.
The sea of stars reflected on the water's surface, as if it were studded with countless jewels.
Neiki roasted dog meat by the lakeside, wiping down his sword as he quietly waited for something.
Hanabi, holding a stick, poked at the campfire with great interest. After lighting the tip, she tossed it into the flames, then went to snap off another twig to repeat the process.
After doing this a few times, she finally asked,"Is Brother Neji okay?"
Neiki nodded and replied casually,"That sword was something he had to endure."
Hanabi didn't understand why Neji had to take that blow, but she was afraid that asking questions too quickly might annoy Neiki. So she decided she'd light five more sticks before asking again.
The wind blew across the lake, ruffling the surface with ripples. After she'd lit the third stick, Hanabi noticed Neiki suddenly stand up.
"What's wrong?" she asked curiously.
"The meat's ready. Divide it up." Neiki walked toward the dark forest with his sword.
The first task Hanabi received after leaving Konoha was "dividing the meat." Wanting to show she was useful and could help Neiki, she carefully used a kunai to scrape the hot dog meat onto two broad leaves.
"This much is for Brother Neiki."
"And this is mine."
She felt a little proud of herself.
Hearing footsteps, Hanabi looked up and saw Neiki returning.
The wind carried the thick scent of blood. His sword was stained red, but Neiki himself was spotless.
Hanabi had long since gotten used to that smell. Looking up at him, she said,"I've divided the meat."
Her tone was cheerful, her eyes full of expectation.
Neiki obligingly patted her head and praised,"Well done."
Hanabi was delighted. Being recognized by someone she valued made her smile sweetly.
"Do you want to see fireworks?" Neiki asked lazily as he sat back down.
"Yes!" Hanabi nodded eagerly.
"Alright. Finish eating first, then I'll show you." Neiki added some of his portion onto Hanabi's leaf.
After finishing her meal, Hanabi followed Neiki's demonstration, forming hand seals one by one. However, when she finished the sequence, nothing around them seemed to change.
Puzzled, she looked at Neiki.
He shook his head."Just wait a bit."
After a few seconds, the explosive tags would detonate.
Neiki looked into the distance, and Hanabi followed his gaze.
It was the direction of Konoha.
A while later, a gust of wind swept over the lake, bending countless branches on the far shore.
A light bright enough to dye half the night sky white suddenly flared to life.
Hanabi's eyes went wide.
Then came the thunderous roar of the explosion, and countless fish leapt out of the lake in fright. Neiki was very satisfied with the effects of a blast triggered by hundreds of thousands of explosive tags.
It was a masterpiece created with most of Yugakure's financial resources, painstakingly laid out by Genno over many years.
If not for the earlier individual detonations, the visual impact of a million explosive tags going off at once would have been a true work of art.
Although Konoha had, for the most part, completed evacuations and relocated important assets, as Neiki had said before, killing wasn't the goal—destroying the heart was.
A simple bombing would only unite Konoha against an external enemy.
Neiki was indeed the culprit, but the first rumble of this "avalanche" had come from inside Konoha itself. Once that was exposed, it would become the perfect excuse for internal strife, making the so-called "Will of Fire" look like a joke in the face of real, personal loss.
The corpses of those Root ninja in the forest proved that this farewell firework show wasn't Neiki "breaking the rules," but the result of internal discord in Konoha that had "forced" him to retaliate.
This would open a brand-new rift within the village.
Danzo hadn't disappointed him.
After suffering such a near-death humiliation, how could Danzo not send people to tail Neiki?
And once those people were deployed, they were no longer under Danzo's control.
With all the explosive tags in Konoha detonated, Neiki could easily imagine how lively the high-level meeting in the Hokage's office would be the next day.
After watching the fireworks, Neiki extinguished the campfire, then took a kunai and carved a deep scratch across the metal of his forehead protector.
As if marking a turning point in his fate.
From Konoha shinobi… to rogue ninja.
Neiki looked down at the forehead protector in his hand.
Though the scratch had been carved in a single stroke, the journey behind it hadn't been nearly so smooth.
From the moment the Caged Bird Seal was branded on his forehead, to slaughtering the Hyuga, to becoming a rogue—
That road had taken Neiki ten years.
Ten years to bring down a thousand-year-old clan's rigid hierarchy.
Ten years to drag a powerful Hidden Village toward decline.
From that angle, Neiki's efficiency was actually quite high.
Even if the Caged Bird Seal was still etched clearly on his brow…
Even if the eagle soaring above the clouds could still be dragged down and shoved into a cage at any time…
It was still a kind of progress.
And accomplishing all of this within ten years was already an impressive achievement.
Truly erasing the Caged Bird Seal would have to wait for Neiki's future efforts.
[Collected Essence: 96.7%]
The line of text still floated at the edge of Neiki's vision.
This was the current Byakugan essence collection rate after the Hyuga massacre—just 3.3% short of the final stage.
During the massacre, Neiki had only absorbed the Byakugan from branch members, preserving the main family's eyes—about twenty pairs in all, their purity varying. Even so, they would be more than enough to push his Byakugan straight to 100%.
He hadn't advanced his Byakugan to 100% on the spot because doing so would trigger a weakness period, and Konoha had been too chaotic at the time. The Uchiha rebellion was on the verge of breaking out; if he'd been weakened then, he would have missed too many opportunities.
"But soon, I can start preparing for the final-stage breakthrough."
Neiki smiled faintly.
He didn't know how long the weakness period would last, but it didn't matter. He would simply find a safe place and wait it out.
The method to erase the Caged Bird Seal lay within that final stage.
What abilities would the Byakugan unlock at its peak?
Neiki was very much looking forward to finding out.
"Let's go." Neiki put his forehead protector back on and kicked dirt over the embers of the campfire.
"Where to?" Hanabi glanced at the new scratch on Neiki's forehead protector, not understanding what it meant.
She didn't dare ask, but she noticed the faint curve at the corner of Neiki's lips and decided he must be in a good mood.
Does Brother Neiki really like fireworks that much? Hanabi wondered.
"To a place where we can watch the world crumble," Neiki replied.
The two figures, one tall and one small, crossed the lakeshore and walked together toward the star-lit path ahead.
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