The Hyūga compound was unnervingly quiet that morning.
Not peaceful—quiet in the way a storm makes the air heavy before it breaks. Servants moved faster than usual, bowing lower, whispering less, stepping out of the hallways before elders appeared. Even the birds in the garden seemed to keep their distance, as if sensing something was wrong.
Renji felt it the moment he woke.
He always woke early—but today, he had woken to the sound of sandals on polished wood, of hushed voices outside his small servant room.
"…Is it decided?"
"Yes. The ceremony will be today."
"So soon? He's only four—"
"We cannot delay any longer."
Renji froze.
He knew what they meant.
The seal.
The mark.
The thing branch families whispered about with pale faces. The rumor the elders never spoke of openly. The punishment meant for those who forgot their place.
He felt the coldness settle in his stomach, but he quietly dressed and stepped outside. Showing fear would only make things worse.
He was assigned to sweep the eastern corridors today, though the paths were already clean. Servants often gave him meaningless tasks when they didn't want him visible around important guests or clan meetings.
But just as he began sweeping—
"Renji."
A voice that made his blood turn to ice.
The elder from yesterday stood behind him, expression unreadable.
"Follow me."
Renji bowed immediately. "Yes, Elder."
He didn't ask why. Asking questions was a luxury he didn't have.
He walked behind the elder through a long hall lined with painted screens and lanterns. Each step echoed against the silent corridors. Renji's palms felt cold, his breath quiet and shallow.
As they approached the main assembly chamber, he noticed other elders standing outside, speaking in low tones that stopped abruptly the moment Renji appeared.
"Bring him inside," one said.
The doors opened with a soft slide.
Renji stepped into a room illuminated by dim candles.
The clan head, Hiashi Hyūga, sat at the center, composed and imposing. His expression held no cruelty—but no warmth either. A man bound entirely by duty.
Beside him stood two attendants holding ceremonial scrolls.
Renji bowed deeply, forehead nearly touching the floor.
"You summoned me, Clan Head."
Hiashi's eyes, pale and all-seeing, studied him for several long seconds.
Finally, he spoke.
"You have grown quickly, Renji."
The boy remained silent.
"You show talent beyond what we predicted," Hiashi continued. "Instinctive taijutsu. Chakra control above average. Natural precision."
The elders behind him muttered their disapproval, but Hiashi lifted a hand, silencing them.
"Such ability," he said, "is dangerous if left unbound."
Renji's heart sank.
"So today," Hiashi said, voice firm, "you will receive the seal that determines your place within this clan."
There it was.
The words he had feared.
The words he had known would come.
Renji bowed lower. "If that is the clan's decision, then I accept."
A soft breath—almost a sigh—escaped Hiashi.
"It is not a matter of acceptance," he said quietly. "It is necessity."
The doors opened again.
Renji lifted his head just enough to see—
Hinata.
Held gently by her attendant, eyes wide, trembling with confusion.
And behind her—
The nurse carrying Hanabi, still small, wrapped in warm blankets.
Renji's breath caught.
No.
Not them. Not in this room. Not for this.
Hinata stepped forward timidly, clutching the fabric of her sleeve. She looked so small under the weight of all the elders staring at her.
"Father… w-why am I here…?"
Hiashi did not look at her as a father, only as the head of the clan.
"The seal variant requires both heiresses to be present," he said. "Stand beside me, Hinata."
The girl hesitated—then obeyed, though her shaking was visible even from across the hall.
Hanabi, unaware of the gravity of the moment, gurgled softly in the nurse's arms.
Renji bowed again, forehead pressing into the tatami.
"Please… they should not—"
"Silence," an elder snapped. "You do not speak unless spoken to."
He fell silent instantly.
Hiashi continued as if nothing had happened.
"The seal will bind your chakra to the authority of my daughters. The clan requires absolute obedience from one in your position."
Renji's throat tightened.
Hinata stared at him, eyes shimmering with fear.
"F-Father… He… Renji doesn't need—"
"HINATA."
Hiashi's voice cracked through the room like a whip.
She flinched violently, shrinking into herself.
Tears welled up, but she forced herself to nod.
"Yes… Father…"
Renji wanted to tell her not to cry.
That it wasn't her fault.
That she shouldn't look at him like that.
But he didn't speak.
He couldn't.
Two attendants approached him and grabbed his arms.
Renji didn't resist—
—not because he accepted his fate,
but because fighting would only make things worse for Hinata.
He was dragged to the center of the room where intricate ink patterns were painted on the floor—forming a circular sealing array. He was forced to his knees.
His hands were bound behind him.
His head was pushed downward.
His forehead pressed to the inked lines.
Cold ink smeared his skin.
Hinata's breath hitched audibly.
"F-Father… please… I don't like this…!"
"This is the way of our clan," Hiashi said sternly. "You must fulfill your duty."
Hanabi made a soft humming sound, unaware that her presence was about to bind a life in chains.
Renji closed his eyes.
He did not pray.
He did not plead.
He simply braced himself.
Hiashi raised his hand.
The elders began chanting.
The sealing circle ignited with pale blue chakra flames.
Hinata covered her ears.
Hanabi whimpered.
Renji felt the air thicken—his skin prickling, his heartbeat racing.
And then—
Pain.
White-hot, searing, merciless—
exploded across his forehead and down his face.
He gasped, choking on the scream he couldn't hold back.
The cursed pattern burned itself into his flesh, branches spreading downward toward his eyes in jagged, unnatural lines.
Hinata cried out, "STOP IT! PLEASE STOP!"
But the ritual did not stop.
Renji collapsed forward, trembling violently as the seal carved itself into him, as if clawing through his very chakra pathways.
He wasn't sure if the screams echoing in the chamber were his or Hinata's.
Hiashi's voice rose over the chanting:
"Let the authority fall upon my daughters. Let this child be bound to their will. Let him never raise his eyes above his station."
Hinata sobbed, hands shaking.
"Please… don't hurt him anymore…!"
But her chakra signature—her presence—was already pouring into the seal.
It accepted her.
It obeyed her.
It bound him.
Even as she cried and begged for it to stop.
Hanabi's tiny hand reached out from the nurse's arms, brushing the glowing seal, activating the secondary binding.
The pain doubled.
Renji screamed, body arching violently before he collapsed onto the floor, chest heaving.
The light faded.
The chanting stopped.
The seal was complete.
Silence filled the chamber—heavy, suffocating, broken only by Renji's ragged breaths.
The cursed mark still smoldered faintly on his skin, glowing in dark lavender hues before slowly dimming. Where the traditional seal rested only on the forehead, Renji's variant had carved itself further—reaching down toward his eyelids, branching like veins of lightning across the temples, leaving faint lines circling the outer edges of his eyes.
He felt the burn deep in his skull.
He felt it in every nerve.
He felt it even in his heartbeat.
But worse than the pain…
…was the terrified sound of Hinata sobbing.
"R-Renji… I-I didn't want— I didn't want to—"
Her small hands trembled so violently that even the attendants struggled to steady her.
Renji lay still, forehead pressed to the cold floor. Every breath was a knife. But he forced himself to speak.
"Please… don't cry, Lady Hinata…"
His voice cracked.
Someone struck him across the back of the head—not hard, but sharply.
"Do not address the heiress without permission."
Renji bowed his head again, forcing his body not to tremble.
Hanabi's nurse adjusted her hold on the infant. The baby, sensing the tension, began to whimper.
Hiashi stood slowly, hands clasped behind his back.
"It is done," he announced.
The elders nodded, satisfied.
But Hiashi's eyes lingered—not on Renji's pain, not on Hinata's tears—but on the seal.
It pulsed once, faintly, with his daughters' chakra signatures intertwined in its center.
He exhaled softly.
"A necessary act," he murmured. "Though unpleasant."
Unpleasant.
Renji almost laughed, though he had no strength for such a sound. If he had the freedom, perhaps he would have cried instead.
The attendants dragged him to his knees.
Hinata tried to rush to him—"Renji!"—but the elder beside her caught her wrist.
"Lady Hinata, you must not approach him."
"He's hurt!" she cried, desperate. "He's hurt, and— and I saw— I saw—"
Her words dissolved into trembling sobs.
Hiashi closed his eyes briefly, not out of guilt, but out of weariness.
"A Hyūga must be strong. Even in this."
Hinata shook her head violently, tears spilling freely.
Renji lowered his gaze. He did not want her to see the mark. The pain, he could endure. But her fear? Her guilt?
That hurt far worse.
The attendants released him only when the elders stepped aside.
Hiashi gave a single order:
"Bring him to the outer hall. He must recover before he resumes duty."
Duty.
Even now, immediately after being branded with a life-binding curse, he still had duties.
The outer hall was cold.
Renji lay on a thin mat placed on the wooden floor. His body throbbed with heat, and each breath sent small shocks through the newly carved seal.
Time blurred.
He wasn't sure whether minutes or hours passed before footsteps approached.
He braced himself.
Expecting an elder.
Expecting another order.
Expecting punishment if he failed to rise quickly enough.
But the footsteps were soft.
Gentle.
Hesitant.
"R-Renji…?"
Hinata's voice.
He forced himself upright too quickly, wobbling as the room spun.
"Lady Hinata," he breathed, bowing even as his head burned.
When he lifted his head—just barely—he saw her eyes widen in horror.
The seal.
Even though it wasn't glowing anymore, the twisted, branch-like lines were dark and jagged—stretching around his forehead, dipping toward his eyes like cruel vines.
Hinata covered her mouth with trembling hands.
"N-No… that looks… that looks so painful…"
Renji lowered his head again.
"I am fine, Lady Hinata."
"You're not fine!" she cried, voice breaking. "I heard you… scream…"
Her small frame shook violently.
"It's my fault… I made it hurt you… I didn't want to… I didn't want—"
"Lady Hinata," he said softly, "you did nothing wrong."
"You're lying," she whispered, tears spilling down her cheeks. "They told me… that it wouldn't hurt you too much… and that it was important for the clan… but— but— you screamed…"
Renji hesitated.
Then slowly, painfully, he loosened the cloth placed beside him and lifted it.
A simple strip of white fabric.
Hinata blinked. "What… is that?"
"Something I was given," he said quietly. "To cover the seal."
Hinata flinched.
"Because… it frightened Hanabi?"
Renji remained silent.
Which was answer enough.
Hinata wiped her eyes and moved closer—not enough for attendants to scold her, but enough that her tiny feet nearly touched his knee.
"I'm sorry… I'm so sorry…" she whispered.
Renji bowed deeply, placing the blindfold over his eyes and forehead, tying it securely behind his head. The world dimmed—though with his Byakugan, he could still see everything.
"Please do not apologize," he said gently.
"B-But—"
"This is the clan's decision," he murmured. "My place… was chosen long ago."
Hinata's tears fell harder.
And then Renji said something he hadn't meant to say—but perhaps needed to.
"Please… do not pity me."
Her breath caught.
He bowed lower, trembling slightly.
"Your kindness is enough… more than I deserve."
Hinata shook her head fiercely—but before she could speak again, an attendant's sharp voice echoed down the hall.
"Lady Hinata! You must not wander after the ceremony!"
Hinata froze.
She gave Renji one last look—full of sorrow that cut deeper than any seal ever could—and whispered:
"I… I'll come again."
Then she was hurried away.
Renji remained kneeling long after she left.
Not because he was ordered to.
Because with the seal burning beneath the blindfold…
he wasn't sure he could stand.
In the elders' chamber, the discussion resumed.
"The seal took well," an elder said. "His reactions were strong. A sign of successful binding."
"And the children?" another asked.
"Hinata's chakra integrated perfectly," the sealing master replied. "Hanabi's signature was weaker, but present. She will grow into it."
Hiashi nodded slowly.
"This was necessary for the stability of the clan," he said.
"But what of the boy?" an elder asked. "Will he remain obedient?"
Hiashi closed his eyes.
"He no longer has the choice."
That night, Renji lay alone in the dark, blindfold covering the still-throbbing mark.
He felt the seal pulse faintly with every small shift of chakra from the compound—especially near Hinata's room, especially when Hanabi cried.
Their chakra.
Their authority.
Their presence intertwined with the curse that bound him.
He exhaled shakily.
My life… belongs to them now.
He was not free.
He had never been free.
But now, the chains had become real—etched into his skin, woven into his chakra, tied to two girls who did not deserve this burden any more than he did.
As he drifted into uneasy sleep, a single truth settled heavily in his heart:
Everything from this day forward—
every breath, every step, every pain, every comfort—
would no longer be his.
It would belong to the heiresses.
His masters.
His protectees.
His fate.
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