Naruto: I'm in Konoha, my name is Uzumaki Menma

Chapter 10 The Truth About the Caged Bird
Inside Konoha Hospital.

Hyuga Hizashi tossed and turned in bed for most of the night before finally succumbing to exhaustion and drifting off to sleep.

In his sleep, Riji vaguely sensed the sound of wind.

When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in the Hyuga clan's council hall, where candlelight flickered.

"Konoha is no longer able to continue the war with Kumogakure. We, the Hyuga clan, must give Kumogakure an explanation..." Hyuga Hiashi knelt in the main seat, his shadow elongated by the candlelight.

The elders of the Hyuga main family and the ninjas of the branch family below were all surprised.

"Why! It was clearly that Cloud Village that kidnapped Hinata!" a branch family Jonin said, quite dissatisfied.

"Because we can't fight anymore." How could Hiashi Hyuga be willing to accept this?

However, the pressure from the entire Hidden Leaf Village is now pressing on the Hyuga clan.

An uproar erupted in the hall, and a member of the clan elder's disdainful gaze flickered in the shadows:

"What conditions did Yunyin propose?"

Yes, what does the Cloud Village want from being so aggressive?

The Hyuga ninjas in the council hall all looked toward their clan leader, who sat in the main seat.

“A murderer.” Hiashi’s answer made the air freeze.

As Ritsu finished speaking, the discussions in the council hall grew even louder.

Neither the main family nor the branch family of the Hyuga ninja could accept such conditions.

It was clearly the Cloud Village envoy who ran to the Hyuga clan's territory and kidnapped the Hyuga clan's young lady, and was killed on the spot, yet the victim is being asked to hand her over?
"There's no need for the clan leader to intervene. If all we need is the culprit, just give us one." The clan leader's long eyebrows framed his deep white eyes as he gazed intently at the branch family's seat.

Hyuga Hizashi was about to ask, "Where is the mysterious person from last night?"

But he found his body standing up uncontrollably, and he walked to Hiashi, knelt down cross-legged and said: "Let me go, brother."

"The value of the branch family is to protect the main family. As the head of the Hyuga clan, you absolutely cannot be harmed."

'No! That's not how it is!' Hizashi felt as if his soul had left his body, standing aside watching his indifferent 'self' utter these words.

'Where is that mysterious person? Isn't there such a mysterious person? Just pin the death of the Cloud Village Envoy on him!' Hizashi shouted at 'himself' from the side.

However, the Hyuga ninjas in the council hall seemed oblivious to him, still discussing the feasibility.

Hyuga Hiashi wanted to say something, but 'himself' stepped forward and punched him, telling him to take responsibility for the main family.

Next, after watching "himself" say his last words to his son Neji, Hizashi gladly faced death.

With the Hyuga clan handing over the murderer of the Kumogakure envoy, Kumogakure had nothing more to say.

As a bystander, Hijichi watched helplessly as 'himself' walked towards death, and at his funeral, his wife and children embraced each other and wailed. He felt a chill run through his body.

'No! It's an illusion!'

'It's fake! It's all fake!'

The intense emotional stimulation made Hizashi realize something was wrong, and he began to use his chakra to interfere.

But he was never able to break free from the illusion.

Suddenly everything went black, and Hizashi was back at Konoha Hospital.

He suddenly sat up in bed, his body covered in cold sweat that soaked through his bandages.

"Was it a dream?" Hizashi asked breathlessly, touching his forehead with his right hand.

"It's not a dream." Suddenly, a cold voice came from the side.

Hijiri shuddered and turned to look, only to see a mysterious person wearing a long robe and a white three-eyed fox mask leaning against the window. The bright moonlight shone on the three-eyed fox mask, giving it a cold, faint glow.

"It's you!" Hizashi felt as if he were facing a formidable enemy. He tried to get up from his hospital bed to meet the enemy, but found himself as if he were imprisoned and unable to leave the bed.

"It's still an illusion!" Cold sweat poured down Hizashi's forehead. Even ordinary Jonin might not be able to master such a multi-layered illusion technique.

tread--

Uzumaki Menma jumped down from the windowsill and slowly walked towards Hizashi. "Who are you! What is your purpose!" Hizashi was still trying to struggle, but no matter how he tried to interrupt the flow of chakra within his body, he could not break through this illusionary world.

"How pathetic." Uzumaki Menma approached Hizashi: "What you just saw would have been your fate if it weren't for me."

Upon hearing this, Hizashi shook his head, trying to refute: "Impossible! Even without you, the Cloud Village envoy kidnapping the Hyuga clan's young lady and being killed would only be..."

As he was talking, Risa suddenly stopped, feeling as if he had fallen into an ice cave.

Even a top-tier ninja like White Fang was forced to his death, so why couldn't a ninja from the Hyuga branch family be used as a scapegoat?

"See? Deep down, you've accepted this fate." Uzumaki Menma's voice was deep and tinged with sorrow.

"That's why I said it's pathetic."

"The original intention of the Caged Bird Seal was to protect the Hyuga clan, but it turned most of the Hyuga clan into servants and inferior people."

Hizashi instinctively retorted, "What do you know! The existence of the Caged Bird Seal! The existence of the Hyuga branch family! It's all for..."

"Do you want to know?" Uzumaki Menma interrupted Hizashi.

"The truth about the caged bird." The three-eyed fox mask slowly approached Hyuga Hizashi.

Menma reached out and gently pressed his hand against Hizashi's forehead.

A violent, dark chakra invaded Hizashi's brain.

In an instant, Risa saw a different scene again.

On a vast, empty battlefield, two armies with different flags were facing each other, and then a fierce battle broke out!

Hizashi stood in the center of the battlefield, looking at the enemies fighting all around him. They wore strange clothes and their races were slightly different from those of the people of the Land of Fire. But what Hizashi found incredible was that everyone in this war had a pair of white eyes.

The scene changes.

In the ninja world, ninjas dressed in Sengoku-era ninja attire with the Hyuga clan crest printed on their backs are being hunted down, and the culprit turns out to be one of the people who were just confronting each other.

Countless Hyuga clan members were massacred, their Byakugan were dug out, and then these mysterious figures disappeared from the ninja world.

The scene changes again.
When the two armies faced each other, one side's soldiers kept their eyes closed and used only their mental perception.

A tall tower was raised from the ranks of the army, and on top of the tower, an eyeball-shaped stone was bound by various runic chains.

The army commander waved his hand, and the eye-shaped stone burst forth with a blinding light, a purple beam shooting towards the charging enemy troops.

Wherever the purple beam swept, explosions erupted one after another!
The thousands of troops on the other side were wiped out.

“This is…this is…” Hizashi watched as the victorious side on the battlefield plundered the white eyes of the defeated side and then incorporated them into an eyeball-shaped stone, and his mind was greatly shocked.

"This is the truth behind the existence of the 'caged bird'."

As the mysterious man finished speaking, the battlefield around Hizashi changed once again.

Before me stood members of the Hyuga clan, with the conspicuous 'Caged Bird' curse mark on their foreheads.

"Fake! It's all fake!" Richa roared furiously. More than twenty years of clan education made it impossible for him to accept this fact.

"These are all illusions you've created! They're all fake! I can tell the difference! I can tell the difference!"

"Don't even think about trying to sow discord between the Hyuga main family and the branch family!"

Within the illusion space, Hyuga Hizashi denied it almost frantically.

"Well then, how about this?" Uzumaki Menma appeared in front of Hizashi in the illusion space, forming a hand seal with one hand.

A surge of chakra emanated from Uzumaki Menma's body, precisely striking Hizashi.

"Ah!" The next moment, Hizashi's brain felt as if it had been pierced by a thousand swords, and he experienced intense pain.

The 'Caged Bird' spell seal is activated.

"Why...why would you..." Hizashi clutched his head with both hands, his face contorted in horror, his white eyes filled with shock and fear.

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(End of this chapter)