Chapter 62 (C62) (End of main text)
The winter sun is cold, like a gleaming platinum dagger, its sharp edge pressed against the skin. The air is so clear it seems nonexistent, allowing one to see to the very end of the world.
The day of the succession ceremony was a rare sunny day.
The ancient buildings are filled with the cool scent of incense and old wood.
A white tunic, as white as snow, wrapped around the body, while a haori (traditional Japanese jacket) with intricately embroidered clan emblems was solemnly unfolded, weighing down the shoulders with the weight of years of heritage.
Tiny, glistening snowflakes were blown from the treetops by the wind onto the back of her hand, like stardust sifted by sunlight, melting like cool teardrops from the sky.
The slight chill reminded Kana of a day fifteen years ago, when a light snow fell, the day the main family wanted to capture her and Neji to have their seals engraved.
Although she did not actually succeed, in order to avoid being discovered, she had to act as if she were bound by a curse, and she endured such humiliation for so many years.
No wonder they had those expressions.
However, Kana did not specifically choose this day; she only chose today because Neji insisted on it.
He leaned down and whispered in her ear, "Happy birthday, sister."
—Oh, I see.
The belt with the dark pattern on its waist is the final step in the clan chief succession ceremony. Kana smooths out the last wrinkle and takes a step back.
The golden bell under the eaves struck lightly, producing a clear and crisp sound, like the long cry of a bird taking flight.
According to custom, the eldest member of the main family should make the announcement at this time, but now, no one but Hinata has the right to do so.
To bear witness, this change of head of the family was more grand than any previous succession ceremony. Not only did the Sixth Hokage attend as a representative of the Konoha leadership, but also representatives from the new generation of various clans, as well as nobles from the Land of Fire who had traveled day and night from Kotokawa City to witness the event.
Her gaze swept over the dark mass of people below the platform, rows upon rows of Hyuga clan members kneeling down—she had asked the system to help her remember that all of these people owed Neji a kneeling kowtow.
A cool voice, imbued with chakra, echoed, "The 32nd head of the Hyuga clan, Hyuga Neji, has been appointed."
Kakashi asked her about the selection of the head of the family, and Neji also asked her.
Her reply to Hokage Kakashi was the typical response a politician would give: logical, well-founded, and outlining the benefits as leverage.
Even if they are grateful to her now after the family splits up, it's hard to guarantee that in the long run, when they recall her bloody methods, they won't have any inappropriate emotions.
Moreover, those who were originally from the main family but have now lost their privileges hate her—even if they chose the path themselves, even if they think it's a better future for the Hyuga, their hatred will not disappear. Even someone as weak as Hinata, when she finally understands the preferential treatment she has always enjoyed as a member of the main family in the face of the sudden change, will also feel resentment.
The Hyuga clan needs a head who can truly unite its members, and the Konoha leadership also prefers a more moderate Hyuga leader.
If taking a step back superficially can put their minds at ease, what's wrong with that?
Therefore, she refused to let Neji interfere from beginning to end.
From the moment she took that step, she never thought about getting away with it or being clean, nor did she care about other people's hatred or opinions.
What she told Neji was simple—she was tired and didn't want to be that person anymore.
The boy who took on the heavy responsibility without hesitation because she said "I'm tired" has grown into a young man. He wears a well-fitting blue haori, his spine is straight, and there is a hint of majesty between his brows and eyes. A blue bird of contract perches on his shoulder. He takes two steps forward and declares loudly, "The curse of the caged bird is hereby abolished. No matter what lineage, his descendants will never be marked with it."
From now on, regardless of whose descendants they originally belonged to, there is no need to have their seals engraved anymore; the foundation upon which the clan system relied has been destroyed.
The task window unfolded before her eyes, gleaming with a faint golden light, and messages popped up one after another.
[Protect Hyuga Neji to survive the Fourth Shinobi World War √]
[Change the Hyuga clan's "Caged Bird" system √]
[Neji Hyuga's affection level is 100%√]
[Congratulations to player number 100 for completing the side quest "Flying Against the Wind is More Suitable for Soaring," and you can now claim your reward.]
[Please select whether to leave this world]
[Countdown 00:29:59]
It seemed someone had knocked over a celebratory glass, causing a minor commotion, but it was quickly swallowed up by the enthusiastic atmosphere, like ripples on a lake caused by a pebble thrown in.
Kana and Neji exchanged glances for a second before Kana looked away, indicating that she had something to do and would be leaving for a while. She withdrew from the crowd of people clinking glasses and exchanging pleasantries, walked around the corridor, and sure enough, found Tomomi in the first room around the corner, who had left the table on the grounds that his clothes were dirty.
Looking for me?
"Can we leave now?"
Kana frowned. The others shouldn't have received the system's announcement. The abolition of the Caged Bird Seal was only one of the evaluation criteria. Why was he so certain that the mission had been successful?
“I have died many times and been reincarnated many times. That sense of spatial fluctuation... my feeling is never wrong.”
Without a moment's hesitation or any attempt to test the waters, Yumi opened his arms and charged at her with an almost forceful impact, trying to pull her into his embrace.
There was a barely perceptible tremor in her voice, and a cold glint flashed from her wide sleeves. "Kana, let's go."
A drop of blood fell onto the floor, creeping along the fine ducts and grain of the wood, gradually spreading.
One drop, two drops...
New drops of blood fell one after another, some hitting the center of the previous pool, splashing out tiny crown-shaped specks, while others landed on the side, forming lonely islands.
Since acquiring the pain shield, Kana has kept it constantly active. As the difficulty of the missions she takes on increases and the severity of her injuries worsens, the shield level has increased from the original level three to the current highest level seven.
So, more than her senses, she noticed the faint smell of rust in the air.
Kana clutched her abdomen with one hand, blood seeping from between her fingers. With a sudden burst of force, she ripped Yuya's wrist apart, the dagger clattering to the ground. With a backhand slap, Yuya was sent flying several meters away, staggering and crashing into a low table against the wall. A vase with a plum blossom perched on it was knocked over, cracking with a crisp sound.
Almost simultaneously, Yumi's head was slammed to the ground with one hand. The pampered aristocratic body could not withstand the force and coughed up a mouthful of blood.
Even the strongest ninja is still human and must follow the basic structure of the human body. For example, the internal organs are vulnerable, and the loss of a lot of blood when an organ ruptures will drain strength.
Kana's consciousness went dark for a moment, and she stumbled back half a step. Then she felt someone support her, and with their help, she was able to sit steadily on the ground.
Yumi pressed his right cheek tightly against the wooden floor, but his eyes remained fixed on her direction. "Kana, you promised that we would leave together."
Sasuke showed no mercy because of his noble status and the potential political consequences. His right hand, gripping the back of Tomoya's neck, tightened suddenly, making it difficult for Tomoya to breathe.
Kana felt that if she didn't stop him, Yuya's fragile body would die on the spot. The space-time rift hadn't opened yet, and if he died now, he really wouldn't be able to leave. She called out to remind him, "Sasuke."
Upon hearing this, Sasuke loosened his grip slightly. After a moment's hesitation, he roughly lifted the person off the ground, twisted their hands behind their backs, and forced Yumi into a kneeling position.
"You can't just frame someone," Kana sighed. "I didn't say anything like that."
Shikato knelt on her right, took out a medical scroll from his pocket, and was about to wrap it around her without saying a word when Kana stopped him with her free hand.
"This is quite troublesome to make." Don't waste it.
Shikatoshi's jaw tightened abruptly, the muscles on both sides of his cheeks instantly becoming as stiff as stone. He spoke through clenched teeth, "Is your life more important than mine?"
She could have used the Palm Healing Technique to heal herself, but she hesitated to do so, which is why he resorted to this method.
Her outstretched hand was grabbed by the wrist and pulled back, firmly held at her side.
Itachi pressed his body against her back, and with his other hand pressed down on the back of her hand that was covering her abdominal wound, increasing the pressure in an attempt to stop the ruptured internal organs from flowing out.
He ignored the person's opinion and said directly to Shikato, "Thank you for your help."
The clothes around the waist and abdomen were torn open by a sharp weapon, leaving a narrow, jagged slit with the warp and weft threads sticking out awkwardly at the tear.
Through the crack, Yuya watched as the gruesome wound slowly healed under the effects of medical ninjutsu, as if the door to escape this world had slammed shut.
Tomomi's eyes were about to burst, "Kana!!!"
There is a visible depression at the shoulder joint, and the original rounded lines have been replaced by a strange indentation. One end of the arm bone may be pushing up a protruding lump in an inappropriate place, making the whole arm present a bizarre and twisted angle.
Sasuke didn't expect this person to be so crazy, even if it meant dislocating his hand, he still struggled forward. But for an ordinary person, struggling with all their might is nothing more than an ant trying to shake a tree in the face of absolute strength.
"What's so good about this place? You clearly hate this world too..."
But why stay any longer?
"We are clearly the ones who understand each other the most!"
Is it because of these people?
Are these the people you feel attached to?
But have you forgotten...?
"What are you to them?" The intense pain in his left shoulder and arm caused cold sweat to cover his forehead, and his body began to tremble uncontrollably, even his voice was shaking.
“You gave half your life to Itachi Uchiha, but in his heart, Sasuke Uchiha, Konoha Village… who isn’t more important than you? Since he abandoned you once, he will do it countless times.”
A cracking sound came from the bones, and the intensifying pain drained all the air from his lungs, choking the scream that was about to burst forth from his throat. Yumi's lips were already bloodless, but he still fearlessly turned his head to look at the culprit.
He gave a provocative smile, the corner of his mouth still damp with blood, making him look eerie and sinister. "You're angry? But what right do you have to be angry? You're no different, Uchiha Sasuke."
What have you done for her?
"If it weren't for her, you might have been captured by Root and trained into a killing machine long ago. If she hadn't placed a backlash technique in your cursed seal, you would just be Orochimaru's shell now... But if you had to choose between Itachi, Naruto, and Kana, can you honestly say that she wasn't the first one you would abandon?"
“Nara Shikatori… His roots are in Konoha, his heart is with his clan, he has too many concerns, I'm afraid he wouldn’t even be able to betray his village for you…”
“And Hyuga Neji…” Yuya’s eyes turned venomous, and he sneered, “Even if it’s Hyuga Neji, you’re not the only one in his heart!”
"I know," Kana said calmly.
She once genuinely hoped that she could be someone's only one, and was curious about the feeling of being cherished and valued wholeheartedly.
But then I thought, if it's just "unique," then that person has too little.
Therefore, she chose to let Neji follow Guy on missions with Team 3, rather than using her personal power to make him participate in the Chunin Exams and become independent too early;
So she had Neji travel outside the village with Jiraiya and Naruto for three years;
Therefore, she facilitated Qingyuan becoming his sworn partner;
So she let him go and participate in the fourth war, where he gained trustworthy comrades-in-arms...
—So she won't be Neji's only one.
—If she is someone else's only one, how can she leave this world?
As for the other things, since they were facts she had already come to understand, she was not surprised at all, nor did she have anything to be angry about.
“It’s fine,” she said.
Yumi's breath hitched, then she gasped for air, "But you're my only one!!"
No.
She was his only way to escape his cage, but that wasn't truly the "only" way.
He regarded this rare opportunity, which had appeared only once in over a hundred years of endless reincarnation, as his last lifeline. That's why he was so anxious, even willing to kill her to force her to leave this world.
However, it wouldn't be right for her to die on stage right after Neji took over, leaving him to clean up the mess.
"You're in too much of a hurry, Yumi."
"Kana, I beg you..." Tears streamed down her face, streaked like blood, "Let's go..."
His voice abruptly stopped.
Sasuke withdrew the chop that had struck his neck, and the unconscious Tomomi collapsed to the ground.
The Sharingan, and even the Rinnegan's genjutsu, were ineffective against him.
Besides Kana, he is the second person who can achieve complete immunity.
Given Kana's strength, it's impossible for her to be easily injured by an ordinary person—it can only mean that she has no defenses against him.
Sasuke's clenched hands were hidden beneath his robes.
What kind of relationship would it take for her to have this level of trust?
Could a guard duty of less than two years really be enough to generate such intense feelings and dedication?
Is it really as he said, that they are from the same world? And that only they can understand each other?
Sasuke's gaze fell on Kana—perhaps it was her calm, unwavering eyes, or perhaps it was the tranquility of her acceptance, the complete absence of any argument, that pierced his heart like an extremely fine yet sharp needle. His throat felt as if it were blocked by something warm and heavy. He realized that he might not understand her at all, and he didn't even know where to begin asking her questions.
Kana applied a little force and found that the person behind her was completely oblivious, maintaining the embrace from behind without loosening their grip. She had no choice but to speak up and say, "Let go."
She turned her head slightly to look at Shikaku, "Take back your shadow too."
Are Uchiha Itachi and Nara Shikatoki deaf? They didn't move an inch.
Kana looked up at the ceiling, blinked, and asked, "Do you want to fight?"
She broke free from the still-strong but not particularly forceful restraints, stood up, and walked to the person who was unconscious, whose brows were still furrowed in pain. She knelt down, and a vast and abundant amount of medical chakra flowed from her palms to the other side.
Perhaps because the sudden completion of a goal she had worked so hard for brought her emptiness, Kana was in a particularly peaceful state of mind. She even felt a little nostalgic seeing Sasuke with his hair all disheveled after so long. "Why the expression?"
In many ways, Sasuke seemed easy to understand. For example, his stubborn gaze at this moment seemed to say: "Aren't you always one to seek revenge? Why are you treating him?"
Who exactly is he?
“She was...an old friend.” This is evidence that she once lived in another world.
Therefore, there was neither hatred nor enmity between them.
"Go back first." The guards from the Land of Fire who had been dismissed were still waiting outside. Neji was largely to blame for the mysterious death of the daimyo's youngest son. "Take care of what you need to do, and then you can go home."
Just as Yumi was about to wake up, before she could even grab Sasuke's hand after hearing her words, Sasuke grabbed her by the back of the collar like a sack and lifted her up, disappearing in the next second.
Also disappearing from the spot was Shikatori, who had been forcibly taken away by the Rinnegan.
The Uchiha clan's protectiveness is so domineering and unreasonable.
Kana turned around, and the man remained as stubborn and silent as a rock. "Aren't you leaving?"
"Are you going to apologize again?"
The man, whose face was slightly pale, looked at her and asked, "Are you leaving?"
Kana did not answer.
The patch of white snow on the edge of the eaves shifted inexplicably, as if finally breaking free from some invisible constraint, and fell to the ground with a soft "plop," like a human exhaling a breath after suppressing their emotions for a long time.
He revealed a long-lost smile. "May I go with you?"
The pale gold electronic numbers kept jumping on the small screen, and time flew by.
The system, which had been silent after the announcement, suddenly spoke up: "[Do you want to choose to leave this world?]"
Compared to her original world, where she was almost completely free of ties, the mission taker had far more connections in this world, though she couldn't see them. Those red threads of remembrance were something she simply couldn't feel, the pain of having those threads severed.
[So that's why you gave me a bunch of favorability-building tasks?]
Instead of spending a huge amount of energy to send her away, it's better to let the red thread of bond make her stay willingly. These days, even the system can be deceptive.
[Would you like to try disabling the jammer?]
[What's the meaning? ]
[Because I was worried you would regret it.]
Humans are a very slow-witted species.
Love must be unrecognizable, hate must be heart-wrenching; only unforgettable pain can make them understand what is truly important.
The person on the mission didn't feel pain, but that doesn't mean she didn't care—she might not even know that she did care.
This was actually beyond the system's authority, but it persisted.
[Because you will definitely regret it.]
My heart felt as if it were being gripped and crushed by an invisible hand. Each contraction felt like squeezing out a pile of sharp shards of glass, and each relaxation brought a hollow, emptied sense of nothingness.
The air turns into a viscous solid, blocking the trachea and making breathing difficult.
My vision went out of focus, and the world before me shattered into blurry spots of light.
The pain that had been suppressed for so long suddenly erupted and backfired, with such force that it seemed to tear the soul out of a person.
Itachi reached out and wrapped his arms around her back, catching her as she suddenly collapsed from exhaustion.
The frantic calls of her name rang out, but they seemed to be separated by a layer, fading into distant and muffled background noise.
But she was still fully conscious.
The clothes that the sir draped over her body...
The warmth of still water's palm...
The sign Neji hung on her room door...
The knife that Shikatori and Kita gave her...
Naruto's smiling face, tinged with tears...
Sasuke's back as he stood in front of her...
The final words on the mail scroll, no longer pleading for a reply...
Like a revolving lantern, the deaths of Hizashi, Shisui, and Kita flashed before her eyes...
The regret of helplessness, the despair of being abandoned, the resentment of being deprived of freedom, the reluctance to part ways...
It turns out that both love and hate can cause pain.
His five fingers dug so hard into the fabric at his chest that his knuckles turned white and trembled from the excessive force, and the fabric was crumpled into a desperate crease in his palm.
Leaning against her chest, which was pounding like a drum, she tilted her head back and gasped for breath, letting tears stream down her face uncontrollably.
The voice embraced her, gradually pulling her out of the chaotic confusion.
"Kana? Kana..."
"Hang in there, I'll take you to Lady Tsunade..."
Perhaps it was her imagination, but the hands that had once so cruelly slaughtered her family were trembling.
Good people feel guilty, blame themselves, and suffer in order to atone for their sins.
Kana said they were even, but in her heart she still believed he was a traitor who broke his promise, so she viciously cursed him to remember forever, hoping he would suffer forever, hoping that he would feel heart-wrenching pain whenever he thought of her.
But was that pain really so unbearable?
Has he been enduring this kind of pain since he was thirteen?
What can humans say in this situation? Nothing more than that phrase she hates, and that phrase she's most powerless to change—
"I'm sorry."
I once cursed you like that.
It wasn't until Kana blurted out that she realized that "I'm sorry" meant she felt sorry for Kana.
I'm sorry.
I'm a coward who's afraid of pain.
Staying in this world is too painful.
Compared to other people's feelings, I still care more about myself.
He put Sasuke first, and she put herself first. Neither of them was the only one for the other, so it's fair.
The cracks suspended in the air distorted spacetime, opening the door to a pure land. Occasionally, fragmented images would flash by like schools of fish in the deep sea. Perhaps it was an ordinary and happy moment in a parallel world, or perhaps it was a memory that had been decided to be abandoned.
She reached out, her fingertips trembling in the air inaudible to anyone, like the last flower stubbornly resisting the wind and snow on a branch at the end of autumn. Her arm was halfway out, and she hadn't even had time to wipe away the unsightly tears.
The empty electronic timer screen showed only single digits remaining, and time was rapidly receding.
I forgive you, and I ask you to forgive yourself as well.
Forget about me.
The flower suddenly fell into the snow.
There was no heartbeat, no breathing, no vital signs. It was as if the soul belonging to this body had been completely ripped out in an instant, leaving the world in a deathly silence and empty.
He lowered his head and carefully pressed his face against her forehead.
Countless memories of the past flooded back to him.
I'm sorry, Kana...
I can't even grant your last request.
I'm so sorry...
Actually, that wasn't what I wanted to say to you back then.
I'm so sorry...
That person is wrong. I will not abandon you again for Konoha, but I am afraid that I am no longer worthy.
Water droplets landed on her closed eyes.
Those bright white eyes would never open again, yet at this moment, tears silently streamed down their faces.
I'm so sorry...
I never told you—
I have always loved you.
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