Naruto: I, who fooled the ninja world, was hailed as a savior.

Chapter 243 The Death Drama of the Main Family

January 61, Konoha 6.

For the villagers of Konoha, today was an ordinary day.

It just feels like there are more ninjas jumping around on the rooftops today, and family and friends who have been on missions outside are also coming home together.

But it remained bathed in sunlight until the sun set and night slowly fell.

Like the curtain falling on a stage play, a peaceful and ordinary day has come to an end.

However, deep underground within the Hyuga clan...

This is a corner where sunlight can never reach, buried deep underground in the coldest part of the Hyuga clan's territory.

The air was stagnant and heavy, and every breath carried a rusty, sweet, and musty smell that was nauseating.

The only light source was a few flickering oil lamps on the wall.

The dim flames flickered on and off, blown by a chilling wind that seemed to seep in from nowhere, casting two twisted, swaying shadows on the wall, like menacing ghosts.

Tick ​​tock...tick tock...

Whether it was the sound of water seeping from somewhere or the sound of blood dripping, it rang out in the dead silence, pounding against the eardrums and adding to the unsettling eeriness.

Snapped!
A crisp, sticky crack of a whip abruptly shattered the oppressive silence, accompanied by a muffled groan and the faint sound of flesh tearing.

Hyuga Tokuma stood in the center of the cell, his face contorted in the dim light, his forehead covered in sweat, and his breathing rapid.

He gripped a thick, tough leather whip, soaked in cold water and blood, and swished it down again.

Snapped!
The whip lashed across Hyuga Takashi's chest, where not an inch of skin remained intact, leaving a rapidly swelling and turning purple welt that intertwined with the surrounding open wounds.

"Tell me! Who are your damned accomplices?"

Whether from exhaustion or some inner struggle, Hyuga Tokuma's voice was hoarse and distorted from the effort as he asked, "Who was behind this, ordering you to kill the main family member and steal the Byakugan?"

"..."

Hinata Takashi was suspended by several wrist-thick, icy-cold iron chains, his chest and back a bloody mess, with some areas even revealing the bone.

Fresh blood kept seeping from the wound, dripping down his limp limbs and accumulating into a thick, dark red pool at his feet.

But he gritted his teeth and, apart from muffled groans he couldn't suppress, didn't utter a single word of begging for mercy or offer any explanation.

Seeing that Hyuga Takashi remained silent, Hyuga Tokuma's throat bobbed as a feeling of reluctance welled up from the bottom of his heart.

However, when he glanced at the figure sitting in the distance, eyes closed and arms crossed, his face twitched, and he raised the whip again, bringing with it a bloody gust of wind.

Snapped!
With a lash, Hyuga Takashi's gaunt body twitched, and the chains clanged heavily.

"Speak!" Hyuga Tokuma trembled as he gritted his teeth, "Is it Hyuga Iroha? Or Hyuga Kumokawa?!"

Hinata Takashi's head hung low, his messy black hair stuck to his face with sweat and blood.

Sensing the hint of reluctance and reminder in Hyuga Tokuma's words, he finally raised his head with difficulty.

Those once pure white eyes were now slightly stained red by the bloodshot eyes, staring intently at Hyuga Tokuma's face without blinking.

The curse and contempt in his eyes were so naked and so profound, as if they wanted to burn through Tokuma Hyuga's soul.

It's like saying...

Lackey, I won't be like you.

Stared at by that gaze, Hyuga Tokuma's whip-wielding motion suddenly froze, an indescribable sense of guilt and fear welling up uncontrollably from the depths of his heart.

But soon, this guilt and fear turned into a more intense shock and anger.

"How dare you look at me like that?!" he roared in a fit of rage, whipping Hinata Takashi's cheek with all his might.

Snapped!
With a particularly crisp pop, Hyuga Takashi's head suddenly tilted to one side.

A gruesome wound opened up on his cheek, and blood gushed out instantly, staining his eyes, blurring his vision, and turning half of his face a terrifying crimson.

"Ho..."

He forced down his screams, which turned into the metallic taste of blood. He couldn't help but let out a muffled groan, his head drooping limply as he gasped for breath.

"All right."

A calm yet undeniable voice rang out from the shadows in the corner of the interrogation room.

Hyuga Ryoto sat in a chair, dressed in impeccable main family attire, his hands resting on his knees, as if he were not in an interrogation room, but in his own tea room.

He slowly opened his eyes, his cold, white eyes sweeping over the blood-soaked Hyuga Takashi without the slightest ripple. His face was stern as he slowly stood up.

Upon seeing this, Hyuga Tokuma's tense body immediately relaxed, and he stopped moving. He retreated to the side with both respect and fear, bowed slightly, and dared not utter a sound.

Hinata Ryoto walked steadily to Hinata Takashi, his tall figure bringing a sense of oppressive dominance, and his shadow completely enveloped the dying Hinata Takashi.

"It seems you're determined to test my patience with your tough exterior."

His voice wasn't loud, but every word was icy: "What a pity. If it were before, I might have appreciated your tough attitude."

"But now, it just makes me feel ridiculous, hypocritical and disgusted."

"I'm giving you one last chance."

He leaned forward slightly, his gaze falling on the Caged Bird Curse mark on Hyuga Takashi's forehead, stained with blood, and asked in a cold tone, "Who else was involved in this?"

"If you still don't talk, given your current state, if you suffer the Caged Bird Curse again, the pain... humph!"

Upon hearing this, Hyuga Takashi, who had been keeping his head down, trembled slightly.

As if he had exhausted his last bit of strength, he slowly raised his head with great difficulty, blood flowing continuously from the wound on his forehead and seeping into his blood-red eyes.

Blood almost blinded him, but he still stared intently through the crimson light at Hyuga Ryoto, who was looking down at him.

then……

"Pooh!"

A mouthful of blood mixed with saliva was spat out from Hyuga Takashi's mouth, landing precisely on Hyuga Ryoto's arrogant and indifferent face.

The warm, sticky, and foul-smelling sensation was the ultimate, most vicious humiliation, spreading across Hyuga Ryoto's face!
The air seemed to freeze at this moment.

Hyuga Ryoto's body froze completely, and his pupils even went unfocused for a moment.

He seemed completely unprepared, completely unable to understand, and completely unable to believe that a dying branch family would actually dare to do this!

Hyuga Tokuma, who was standing to the side, was so frightened that his face turned pale. He subconsciously took half a step back and didn't even dare to breathe!
Looking at Hyuga Ryoto's stiff, incredulous expression, Hyuga Takashi's facial muscles twitched, and he pulled up an extremely mocking and gleeful smile.

"Let's do it..."

His voice was hoarse, like sandpaper rubbing against rotten wood, yet every word reached Hyuga Ryoto and his companion clearly: "I'm down there, waiting for you..."

"None of you will escape!"

Once again, all was silent except for the dripping sound of blood falling to the ground.

"Heh...heh..." Hyuga Ryoto trembled as he raised his sleeve and wiped the filth off his face with extreme force. Instead of rage, his face revealed a twisted smile of extreme anger.

"Fine, fine, fine!" He said "fine" three times in a row, each word seemingly squeezed out from between his teeth. "Want to die? I'll make sure you don't get your wish!"

Before he finished speaking, he suddenly snatched the whip from Hyuga Tokuma's hand, and visible chakra instantly covered it, the force of Gentle Fist penetrating into the whip!

Snapped! !

The whip tore through the air with a piercing shriek, striking Hyuga Takashi's chest with ruthless force!
This lash was far more powerful than the one Hyuga Tokuma had just delivered; its insidious force pierced through the flesh and penetrated deep into the internal organs.

When the whip returned, it forcefully unleashed a fan-shaped cloud of blood mist, and the whip itself exploded because it couldn't withstand the chakra.

"what!!"

Hinata Takashi, who had been gritting his teeth and enduring the pain, finally let out a heart-wrenching, inhuman scream, and his body began to convulse violently.

However, Hyuga Ryoto did not continue to make a move.

As if merely venting the humiliation of that mouthful of blood, he expressionlessly tossed the whip back to the trembling Hyuga Tokuma, then turned and sat back down in his chair.

Inside the cell, only Hyuga Takashi's broken, hoarse breathing and the thick, pungent smell of blood remained.

Gudong.

Looking at the whip in his hand, now only the handle remained, Hyuga Tokuma's throat bobbed violently, and he asked in a dry, trembling voice, "Lord Ryouto, shall we... shall we continue?"

"Continue, but don't kill him."

Hyuga Ryoto straightened his clothes, his voice returning to its usual coldness and indifference, as if his momentary loss of composure had never occurred.

"Wait for Yang Dou to come over." He glanced at Hyuga Takashi, who was barely clinging to life, and said coldly, "Then let Yang Dou personally use the Caged Bird Seal on this guy."

"Let's see if he can still keep up his stubbornness then!"

"Here, no matter what you do, even if you shout yourself hoarse, no one outside will hear you."

The malice and coldness in his words seemed to drop the temperature of the already chilly air even further, causing Hyuga Tokuma to shiver.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Tonight's night is exceptionally deep, as deep and dark as an inkstone of thick, unyielding ink.

Above the sky, the bright moon that should have been shining was completely swallowed up by layers of slowly creeping dark clouds, stingily refusing to let out a single ray of light.

The few scattered stars were as dim as the pupils of a dying person, with only a few faint rays of light shining through the clouds and falling to the ground, making the night seem even more gloomy and oppressive.

The secluded path leading to the Hyuga clan's underground prison winds through the most remote and desolate corner of the clan's territory.

The trees on both sides had gnarled branches that stretched out their shadows in the dim light of day. The night wind whistled through them, making a low, hoarse sound, as if someone was whispering in the dark.

Three figures were slowly making their way along the path in the woods toward the prison where Hyuga Takashi was being held.

In the middle, Hyuga Yoto's eyes were covered with thick gauze. His once proud white eyes had been gouged out, leaving only two empty hollows.

His face appeared unusually pale in the moonlight, yet it could not conceal the twisted resentment on his face. His lips moved constantly, and the words he uttered were broken and vicious, like the hiss of a venomous snake.

"...I'm going to pull out his fingernails one by one...Yes! Scald his mouth! Let's see how tough he can be then! And then, I'll soak his wounds with salt water..."

"Yes! And the caged bird... I'll make him kneel down and beg me! I'll make him crawl on the ground like a dog and beg me!"

His resentful voice was sometimes sharp and sometimes muffled, sounding particularly jarring and eerie in the quiet night.

The guards on either side of him were like emotionless puppets, silently supporting him from both sides, with only their tightly pursed lips revealing a hint of unbearable annoyance and exhaustion.

rustle……

Just then, a slight sound came from the depths of the dark woods nearby, like a gust of wind blowing through the leaves, or something brushing past the grass.

Hinata Hito's body stiffened abruptly, all his movements and words stopping instantly. He instinctively gripped the arm of the guard beside him tightly, his nails almost digging into the guard's flesh.

"What's that sound?!" His voice suddenly rose, filled with fear. "Did you hear that? Something's there! Something's in the woods!"

"..."

Although he spoke very seriously, the two guards turned to look at each other and saw helplessness and a hint of barely perceptible annoyance in each other's eyes.

Since his eyes were taken in the attack, Hinata Hito's former arrogance remains, but he has become extremely sensitive, fragile, and suspicious.

He has been staying at home all this time, and is too afraid to go out. He overreacts to any slight noise.

It wasn't until Hyuga Ryoto sent someone to tell him that Hyuga Takashi had been imprisoned that Hyuga Haruto, driven by hatred, mustered the courage to leave his house.

Even so, along the way, Hyuga Haruto's neuroticism had already driven the two branch family guards responsible for protecting him to the brink of collapse.

Similar situations have occurred no less than ten times. The sound of wind, insects chirping, footsteps... even the falling of leaves can make Hiyuki, who is now as easily frightened as a bird startled by the mere twang of a bow, bristle.

At first, the two guards from the branch family were still nervous and cautious, but they never noticed anything and have now become completely numb to it.

However, the two branch family guards dared not show their annoyance, for fear of angering the now sensitive and irritable Hyuga Hiuto.

“Lord Yangdou, please wait here for a moment.” The scarred guard on the right tried his best to make his tone sound respectful and serious. “I will go and find out the truth right away.”

"Hurry! Go quickly!" Hinata Haruto nodded hurriedly and urged.

The scarred guard released his grip, nodded to the other young guard, and turned to walk into the shadows of the woods.

His steps appeared cautious, but in reality, they were full of perfunctory and half-hearted behavior.

Entering the shadows of the woods, away from the suffocating anxiety and tension emanating from Hinata Hitsugu, the scarred guard couldn't help but let out a deep sigh of relief.

Even if they choose to betray the branch family and pledge allegiance to the main family in exchange for that pitiful space to live, they will still feel extremely oppressed and annoyed when facing a master like Hyuga Hito.

But who can blame him for making this choice?
His wife and children are here. How could he possibly be like those madmen like Hyuga Kumokawa, risking his life to gamble with the main family?
Besides, can you afford to gamble with a few worthless lives?

The scarred guard shook his head, shaking off his complicated thoughts, and pretended to walk a few steps deeper into the darkness, his gaze sweeping over the swaying shadows of the trees.

rustle……

The air was filled with the scent of decaying leaves and damp earth. The woods were exceptionally quiet, with only the faint sound of leaves rustling in the wind, and his own heartbeat and breathing.

"It's really troublesome."

He muttered something under his breath, just as he was about to turn around and go back to deal with it perfunctorily.

Suddenly, an inexplicable chill crept up his spine and up his neck, making the hairs on his neck stand on end!

what?
His pupils contracted, and his body was about to react.

But death was already close at hand.

A pair of hands had already silently fallen from above, giving him no chance to open his mouth and shout.

One hand precisely and tightly covered his mouth and nose, tightly silencing any screams that were about to escape his lips, while the other hand encircled his jaw and the back of his head.

Click!

(End of this chapter)