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Time rewinds just a moment.
When Hizashi activated his Byakugan to search for the source of the voice, he had already seen Neji lying peacefully in his room.
But because his mind was focused entirely on Unkawa, he missed the strange stillness right before his eyes.
Normally, after releasing his anger and frustration, Neji would lie awake for hours, restless and unable to fall asleep.
Yet tonight, after wrapping his injured hand and lying down, Neji simply stared at the ceiling, lost in thought — until a sudden wave of exhaustion crashed over him like a tide.
The world behind his closed eyes was silent, pitch-black — like an endless sea of darkness.
Then came a sound, distant and ethereal, as if carried by the wind from far away.
"…"
Neji opened his eyes.
Before him stood a broken vermillion torii gate, its wooden beams rotted and jutting crookedly from the earth.
A moss-covered stone staircase stretched ahead, slick and uneven.
That distant voice called again — from somewhere beyond.
Without thinking, Neji stepped forward, passing beneath the gate and between two worn statues of lion-dogs.
He climbed the steps slowly, then walked through the tree-lined stone path until the space before him widened.
A ruined shrine emerged from the shadows.
Its shimenawa rope hung in decayed strands. Faded wooden plaques clacked against each other in the breeze, their vermilion characters blurred and unreadable.
In the wide, open space before the shrine's main hall, four children stood hand-in-hand, forming a circle.
Two of them let go and reached toward Neji.
And without realizing it, Neji reached back.
As his hands met theirs, a sense of joy welled up inside him — foreign and unfamiliar.
A smile spread across his face. A laugh escaped his throat — not his own.
He looked down at the girl kneeling in the center of the circle, blindfolded and motionless.
"Kagome, Kagome."
The children began to spin, singing the nursery rhyme in high, innocent voices. Neji joined in, unaware.
"The bird in the cage…"
The crimson light of the setting sun cast long shadows across the ground — like bamboo bars sealing them all within a cage.
"When will it come out?"
Their voices quickened. The children moved faster. The shadow-cage tightened around the blindfolded girl.
"At dawn's eve…"
"The crane and the turtle slipped…"
"Who stands behind you now?"
They stopped.
All eyes turned to the girl in the middle.
Neji stared at her too.
Her back was both familiar and strange.
His thoughts, once muddled, suddenly sharpened.
The childish song echoed in the ruin, but here, in this place, it sounded twisted — unnatural.
Especially with the icy chill crawling through his palms.
He finally understood what the game meant.
— If the girl guessed who stood behind her, the one she named would become the new bird in the cage.
"…"
The blindfolded girl lifted her head slightly. Her soft lips parted.
"Hyūga… Neji…"
She whispered his name.
At the sound of it, Neji's body trembled uncontrollably. The two children beside him released his hands.
"No! I won't!"
But his legs moved on their own. He knelt before the girl, joining the circle.
The others gathered close, their expressions reverent, expectant — as though witnessing a ritual.
Finally, the girl raised her hands gently and brushed them across Neji's face. Her thumbs pressed lightly over his eyes.
Puchi!
Thick, crimson blood erupted, splattering across the stone floor with a wet sound.
"Aaaaaah!!"
Neji screamed — a shriek of unbearable agony, as if red-hot iron had been driven into his skull.
And as the "blindfold" settled over his eyes, the children resumed their dance.
Shadows wove around him, stitching him into the cage once more, while the eerie melody rang out again.
"Kagome, Kagome…"
"The bird in the cage…"
"When will it come out?"
Their innocent voices warped into distorted whispers. Static filled Neji's vision, flickering with fragmented images.
Then the scene shifted.
He saw countless people marked with the Caged Bird Seal, standing in front of those without it — dying one after another in a storm of blood and flesh.
He saw someone with the seal — a figure whose face remained hidden — walking through carnage.
He saw that person tear out eyes, one by one.
He saw them writhing on an altar, silently screaming in pain.
Then he saw the same figure step down from the altar, carving something into a stone tablet before walking away.
Anyone who tried to stop them — whether branded or free — fell before a single gesture.
Even the activation of the cursed seal could not halt their advance.
Neji watched as they entered a shrine, while the survivors gathered outside, afraid to follow.
Silence hung thick in the air, broken only by shallow breaths.
Then fire consumed the shrine.
The figure emerged from the flames, unharmed, their cheek kissed by firelight.
In one hand, they held the severed head of an elder, fear frozen onto its pale face.
The white spine trailed behind them, leaving streaks of vivid red across the earth.
The figure stopped.
Blood pooled beneath their feet, reflecting the terrified white eyes of the onlookers — and in those reflections, a pair of eyes unlike any other.
Not Byakugan.
But deep blue.
Neji stood at the edge of the crowd, unable to move or speak — forever a witness.
Just moments ago, he had suffered the pain of becoming the "scapegoat." Now, watching this massacre unfold, he felt a sickening thrill.
Then, the figure raised its gaze.
And looked directly at him.
Neji had a sudden realization.
That person… had seen him.
He watched dark blood stream from those blue eyes, trailing down the blurred face like tears.
"This wretched clan has no right to exist."
The figure raised a hand, as if grasping a blade. Golden light surged upward, slicing through the clouds.
"Purge the filth," the voice said calmly.
"Golden Wheel… Reincarnation Blast."
The golden light descended, illuminating the night sky — and with it came the weight of death itself.
Bang!
Faced with the most real terror imaginable, Neji instinctively tried to flee — only to snap his eyes open, heart pounding.
His body tumbled off the bed with a heavy thud.
"…"
He stared at the ceiling, the dull ache in his limbs pulling him back to reality.
"What… was that?" he murmured. "Who was that person?"
"And those eyes…"
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