Time rewound a moment.
When Hizashi Hyuga used Byakugan to search for the owner of the voice, he had actually already seen Neji Hyuga lying quietly in the room. However, because all his attention was fixed on Ryuji, who was making the sound, he ignored the strange detail right in front of him.
Normally, whenever Neji Hyuga finished venting the resentment in his heart, he would toss and turn on the bed for a long time, unable to fall asleep. Tonight, though, Neji Hyuga lay on the bed after bandaging the wound on his hand, staring blankly at the ceiling, and soon a strong drowsiness washed over him.
After he closed his eyes, the world became silent, as if dead. Before him was only darkness, like an endless black sea.
Then, an empty voice seemed to drift in, as if coming from a very distant place.
"..."
Neji Hyuga opened his eyes in confusion, and what he saw was a broken vermilion torii gate, with rotting beams stuck at angles in the soil. In front of him were damp stone steps covered in green moss, and the distant voice came from beyond them.
Neji Hyuga lifted his foot without thinking and walked up the steps, passing through the torii and the shattered stone guardian dogs on either side. He continued upward, then walked along a stone path lined with swaying tree shadows, until the space ahead opened up.
A ruined shrine came into view. The decayed sacred rope hung loosely and swayed, while faded wooden plaques knocked against each other in the wind, the vermilion writing on them blurred beyond recognition.
On the wide, empty ground before the main hall, four children stood hand in hand in a circle. Two children with indistinct faces let go and each reached out a hand toward him, and Neji Hyuga walked over without being able to resist.
The moment he grasped their hands, a cheerful feeling rose up on its own, and a smile appeared on Neji Hyuga's face. A laugh spilled from his throat that did not sound like his own.
He looked at the blindfolded black-haired girl kneeling in the center of the circle, her head lowered. She was surrounded by him and the other children.
"Kagome, kagome."
The four children began to spin happily, singing the nursery rhyme in their young voices, and Neji Hyuga joined in without really understanding it. The childish song echoed through the broken shrine grounds.
"The bird in the cage."
The blood-red light of the setting sun cast their shadows on the ground, shaping them like a bamboo cage that trapped them and the girl inside. The shadows stretched long and narrow.
"When will it come out."
The song suddenly quickened, and the children sped up, the long shadows twisting tightly around the blindfolded girl in the center. The rhythm became sharp and pressing.
"On the night of dawn."
"The crane and the turtle slipped."
"Who is behind you?"
The four children stopped and looked together at the girl in the middle. The air fell quiet.
"..."
Neji Hyuga also looked at the blindfolded girl, at her back that felt both unfamiliar and familiar. At that moment, his muddled thoughts began to clear.
The nursery rhyme sung in childish voices still echoed, and against the ruined surroundings, the once cheerful lyrics sounded deeply wrong. The icy cold coming from the hands he held made fear rise in Neji Hyuga's chest.
He suddenly understood the rules and meaning of this song and this game. If the girl guessed who was behind her, the person she named would replace the bird in the cage as a sacrifice.
"..."
The blindfolded girl raised her head, her soft lips parting slightly. "Hyuga... Neji Hyuga..." she said quietly.
Hearing his name, Neji Hyuga's entire body began to tremble uncontrollably, and the two children beside him gently released his hands. The circle loosened.
"No! I don't want this!"
He lifted his foot without control and moved in front of the girl, kneeling down before her. The four children gathered closer, their gazes earnest and intent, as if witnessing a ritual.
At last, the girl raised her hands together and gently touched Neji Hyuga's face, her thumbs pressing down on his eyes. The touch was careful and deliberate.
With a wet sound, thick red blood burst out and splashed across the ground, spreading with an audible flow. The smell and heat were overwhelming.
"Ah!"
Neji Hyuga let out a scream of unbearable pain, as if a red-hot iron rod had been driven into his brain. The pain swallowed all other thought.
After he was given the "blindfold," the four children once again held hands and began to spin. Their shifting shadows stitched him into the cage, and the cheerful yet twisted nursery rhyme rang out again.
"Kagome, kagome."
"The bird in the cage."
"When will it come out."
The young voices gradually turned into unclear, strange sounds, and heavy noise filled Neji Hyuga's vision. Distorted images flickered on and off before his eyes.
Slowly, the scene began to change. He saw countless people with ugly Curse Seal carved into their foreheads, standing in front of figures without Curse Seal, then dying one after another on fields of blood and flesh.
He saw a figure bearing Caged Bird whose face could not be seen, slaughtering others. He saw that figure digging out people's eyes, and then writhing silently on an altar, clutching his own eyes.
He saw the figure step down from the altar and carve something into a stone monument before leaving. Anyone who tried to block his path, whether marked with Curse Seal or not, was killed with a casual motion of his hand.
Even when someone raised a hand to activate Curse Seal, it still did not stop him. The figure continued forward without pause.
Neji Hyuga saw the figure enter a shrine, while the survivors gathered outside, not daring to go in. In the still air, only heavy breathing overlapped.
Soon, the grand shrine was swallowed by flames, and the figure walked out through the fire, flames licking across his cheeks. The heat bent the air around him.
In his hand, he carried an elderly head frozen in fear, with the pale red spine trailing along the ground. Wherever it passed, glaring dark-red bloodstains were left behind.
The figure stopped, and blood pooled on the ground into a dark mirror, reflecting the terrified white eyes of the others. In those white eyes were reflected the figure's bloodstained gaze.
Those were eyes different from Byakugan. They were deep blue eyes.
Neji Hyuga stood at the back of the crowd, unable to move or make a sound, watching everything as a bystander. After experiencing the pain of becoming a "sacrifice" and then witnessing this slaughter, he felt a twisted sense of pleasure rise from deep within.
In the next moment, the figure lifted his always lowered gaze and met Neji Hyuga's eyes directly. Neji Hyuga suddenly had a clear feeling.
That person saw him.
He saw thick, bloody tears flow from those eyes, sliding down the blurred face. The sight burned itself into his mind.
"Such an ugly clan has no need to exist."
The figure slowly raised one hand, as if gripping the hilt of a sword, and golden light surged upward, piercing through the clouds in the night sky. The light spread without restraint.
"Cleanse it," the figure said softly. "Golden Wheel... Reincarnation Explosion."
The golden light fell, lighting up the black night, and the fear of death became tangible. The world seemed to collapse inward.
With a loud crash, faced with death that felt utterly real, Neji Hyuga instinctively tried to dodge with all his strength. Instead, he jerked awake and tumbled off the bed before he could react.
"..."
He stared at the ceiling in confusion, and the dull pain spreading through his body finally pulled him back to reality. His breathing gradually steadied.
"What was that?" he murmured. "Who was that person?"
"And those eyes..."