Earlier,while war simmered but had yet to erupt between the Uchiha and Konoha, the Hyuga clan meeting had dragged on from morning into the afternoon.
Even as battle smoke now rose over Konoha, the Hyuga main house remained peaceful and quiet.
The gates were tightly closed, like the entrance to some untouched paradise.
Even the Hokage's urgent requests for aid, once they crossed into the Hyuga compound, were twisted by the Jutsu of Tranquility into something else entirely—phrases of trust, words of praise, respectful reminders of how much Konoha relied on the Hyuga clan.
Letters that should have been emergency summons were passed among the elders, then relayed verbally to the branch family. By the time the message filtered down, it had become yet another story of how highly the village regarded the Hyuga.
Within the main estate, even the most exploited branch family member would unconsciously straighten their back at the thought of the Hyuga's glory and status—all too eager to brag to others.
If the person they bragged to was also Hyuga, that person would respond with another story of the clan's greatness.
Then another.
And another.
A loop of "we're strong," "we're respected," and "we're right"—reaffirming, over and over, that the Hyuga clan was indeed the greatest.
This was the core reason the Jutsu of Tranquility was so hard to break:
People only believe what they want to believe—
and the jutsu simply presented that belief as reality.
So even if a few sharp-minded individuals sensed that something was off, they would rarely be the ones to burst the bubble.
Humans are subjective creatures.
And the Hyuga, blessed with the Byakugan, were all the more convinced that what they saw had to be the truth.
In reality, skipping the Uchiha battlefield to lock themselves inside an all-day clan meeting was a more serious political blunder than missing the Konoha–Kumo conference for Hinata's birthday.
If nothing unexpected had happened and Konoha finished dealing with the Uchiha, the Hyuga would almost certainly have become the next target of the village leadership—likely facing something even harsher than the forced sacrifice of Hizashi.
Fortunately for them, something unexpected did happen.
And that "unexpected event" had just kicked the door in with a short blade in hand.
"Well, if it isn't our strongest spear, standing with the main family at last," someone sneered.
It was Ryo.
He clutched one of the Caged Bird command talismans that could control Neiki alone. If this weren't the main family's territory, with numerous clan elders present, he never would have had the courage to provoke Neiki like this.
Neiki didn't know this was the person who had bullied Neji—but even if he had, it wouldn't have changed anything.
He wasn't interested in drawn-out cruelty.
The blade flashed.
A head rolled.
That was all.
"So he was a main family member…" Neiki spared the body a brief glance, mildly surprised.
Then he raised his head and looked at the stunned Hyuga around him.
Branch family Byakugan could be harvested automatically when the Caged Bird seal activated upon death; main family Byakugan had to be taken by killing them and then extracting their eyes.
Efficiency was everything.
Neiki's method was simple.
Whether branch or main—
Kill everyone in sight.
"Wh-what are you doing…?" someone managed to choke out.
Slash.
He dropped to the floor, clutching his neck.
The Caged Bird seal activated. A stream of Byakugan essence flowed into Neiki's eyes.
[Essence Collected: 60.6%]
Neiki leapt into the crowd without slowing, blood blooming around him like bright, vicious cherry blossoms.
Blood sprayed across the floor, splashing into patterns that looked absurdly like tiny cat pawprints.
Some tried to run—Neiki caught them and cut them down.
Some froze in place—he slit their throats in passing.
Some tried to resist—Neiki put a short blade cleanly through their temples.
Over and over, the same monotonous motion.
Within the main house, under the Jutsu of Tranquility, killing was no harder than slaughtering pigs.
Often, before his sword even fell, Hyuga caught in the illusion would move "on instinct" to block an attack that wasn't aimed at them—giving Neiki room to smoothly change a slash into a thrust, driving the blade into their heart or throat.
"Forgive me, Lord Hizashi…"
The sword flashed again.
[Essence Collected: 70.4%]
Neiki glanced down at the corpse.
This one was from his father's generation.
To them, did he look like Hizashi returned from the grave, come to claim revenge?
Once Neiki began the massacre, the Jutsu of Tranquility automatically changed his appearance in the eyes of others—never letting him appear as himself. Some main family members still held Caged Bird commands that could control him. If they saw Neiki clearly and used them at the wrong moment, it could jeopardize everything.
No matter how the technique altered Neiki's image, it obeyed one rule:
It always reshaped reality into what people most expected or wanted to see.
Front Yard
There weren't many people here.
A family was flying a kite. The woman's hand held the string tight.
When Neiki sliced her cleanly in half, her upper body floated away with the drifting kite.
Fortunately for him, she was a branch family member.
If she'd been main family, that would've been a pair of Byakugan wasted.
[Essence Collected: 73.9%]
Garden
Bodies bobbed in the pond.
The ornamental fish darted in, nipping eagerly at this strange, soft "bait" in human shape.
Red lotus flowers bloomed brilliantly around them.
Neiki wasn't interested in aesthetics.
Seeing no one else alive, he turned and left.
[Essence Collected: 80.6%]
Courtyard
Because the main hall had limited space, the courtyard was packed with the largest number of Hyuga—and so Neiki encountered the fiercest resistance here.
"Tokuma, you'll pay for this, Tokuma—!"
"Forgive me, Tsubaki… I was wrong…"
"Hikaru, you murderous beast—!"
Neiki ignored them.
They weren't cursing him anyway.
[Essence Collected: 91.3%]
Hallway
In a dead-end corridor, Hyuga Nagaho knelt before him, sobbing.
"Spare me, Neji… I promise I'll listen to your brother next time… I'll take good care of my mother…"
Neiki sighed.
Maybe because he remembered "Aunt Nagaho," his blade paused for a moment.
Instead, he lifted his foot and stomped, crushing Nagaho's skull.
"What a useless blade. A few dozen kills and it's already dull."
[Essence Collected: 91.5%]
Neiki stood at the entrance of the main hall with a fresh sharp blade in hand.
This was where the last remaining Hyuga high-ranking members were gathered.
The Jutsu of Tranquility had quietly reshaped the layout of the compound—
Making it impossible for any Hyuga to find the true main hall or escape, leaving them wandering in circles like lambs in a maze built solely for Neiki to reap.
"Someone spilled paint… I'm cleaning it up…"
Holding a filthy rag, Natsu shuffled toward him, expression empty.
The main hall doors were stained red from the blood.
Neiki gave her a swift, clean death.
PS :
Hyuga Hisaku - Elder of the Hyuga clan; highly respected senior.
Gen - Young main family heir, Hisaku's grandson.
Hyuga Nagaho - Branch family adult; someone Neji calls "Aunt Nagaho."
Earlier, while war simmered but had yet to erupt between the Uchiha and Konoha, the Hyuga clan meeting had dragged on from morning into the afternoon.
Even as battle smoke now rose over Konoha, the Hyuga main house remained peaceful and quiet.
The gates were tightly closed, like the entrance to some untouched paradise.
Even the Hokage's urgent requests for aid, once they crossed into the Hyuga compound, were twisted by the Jutsu of Tranquility into something else entirely—phrases of trust, words of praise, respectful reminders of how much Konoha relied on the Hyuga clan.
Letters that should have been emergency summons were passed among the elders, then relayed verbally to the branch family. By the time the message filtered down, it had become yet another story of how highly the village regarded the Hyuga.
Within the main estate, even the most exploited branch family member would unconsciously straighten their back at the thought of the Hyuga's glory and status—all too eager to brag to others.
If the person they bragged to was also Hyuga, that person would respond with another story of the clan's greatness.
Then another.
And another.
A loop of "we're strong," "we're respected," and "we're right"—reaffirming, over and over, that the Hyuga clan was indeed the greatest.
This was the core reason the Jutsu of Tranquility was so hard to break:
People only believe what they want to believe—
and the jutsu simply presented that belief as reality.
So even if a few sharp-minded individuals sensed that something was off, they would rarely be the ones to burst the bubble.
Humans are subjective creatures.
And the Hyuga, blessed with the Byakugan, were all the more convinced that what they saw had to be the truth.
In reality, skipping the Uchiha battlefield to lock themselves inside an all-day clan meeting was a more serious political blunder than missing the Konoha–Kumo conference for Hinata's birthday.
If nothing unexpected had happened and Konoha finished dealing with the Uchiha, the Hyuga would almost certainly have become the next target of the village leadership—likely facing something even harsher than the forced sacrifice of Hizashi.
Fortunately for them, something unexpected did happen.
And that "unexpected event" had just kicked the door in with a short blade in hand.
"Well, if it isn't our strongest spear, standing with the main family at last," someone sneered.
It was Ryo.
He clutched one of the Caged Bird command talismans that could control Neiki alone. If this weren't the main family's territory, with numerous clan elders present, he never would have had the courage to provoke Neiki like this.
Neiki didn't know this was the person who had bullied Neji—but even if he had, it wouldn't have changed anything.
He wasn't interested in drawn-out cruelty.
The blade flashed.
A head rolled.
That was all.
"So he was a main family member…" Neiki spared the body a brief glance, mildly surprised.
Then he raised his head and looked at the stunned Hyuga around him.
Branch family Byakugan could be harvested automatically when the Caged Bird seal activated upon death; main family Byakugan had to be taken by killing them and then extracting their eyes.
Efficiency was everything.
Neiki's method was simple.
Whether branch or main—
Kill everyone in sight.
"Wh-what are you doing…?" someone managed to choke out.
Slash.
He dropped to the floor, clutching his neck.
The Caged Bird seal activated. A stream of Byakugan essence flowed into Neiki's eyes.
[Essence Collected: 60.6%]
Neiki leapt into the crowd without slowing, blood blooming around him like bright, vicious cherry blossoms.
Blood sprayed across the floor, splashing into patterns that looked absurdly like tiny cat pawprints.
Some tried to run—Neiki caught them and cut them down.
Some froze in place—he slit their throats in passing.
Some tried to resist—Neiki put a short blade cleanly through their temples.
Over and over, the same monotonous motion.
Within the main house, under the Jutsu of Tranquility, killing was no harder than slaughtering pigs.
Often, before his sword even fell, Hyuga caught in the illusion would move "on instinct" to block an attack that wasn't aimed at them—giving Neiki room to smoothly change a slash into a thrust, driving the blade into their heart or throat.
"Forgive me, Lord Hizashi…"
The sword flashed again.
[Essence Collected: 70.4%]
Neiki glanced down at the corpse.
This one was from his father's generation.
To them, did he look like Hizashi returned from the grave, come to claim revenge?
Once Neiki began the massacre, the Jutsu of Tranquility automatically changed his appearance in the eyes of others—never letting him appear as himself. Some main family members still held Caged Bird commands that could control him. If they saw Neiki clearly and used them at the wrong moment, it could jeopardize everything.
No matter how the technique altered Neiki's image, it obeyed one rule:
It always reshaped reality into what people most expected or wanted to see.
Front Yard
There weren't many people here.
A family was flying a kite. The woman's hand held the string tight.
When Neiki sliced her cleanly in half, her upper body floated away with the drifting kite.
Fortunately for him, she was a branch family member.
If she'd been main family, that would've been a pair of Byakugan wasted.
[Essence Collected: 73.9%]
Garden
Bodies bobbed in the pond.
The ornamental fish darted in, nipping eagerly at this strange, soft "bait" in human shape.
Red lotus flowers bloomed brilliantly around them.
Neiki wasn't interested in aesthetics.
Seeing no one else alive, he turned and left.
[Essence Collected: 80.6%]
Courtyard
Because the main hall had limited space, the courtyard was packed with the largest number of Hyuga—and so Neiki encountered the fiercest resistance here.
"Tokuma, you'll pay for this, Tokuma—!"
"Forgive me, Tsubaki… I was wrong…"
"Hikaru, you murderous beast—!"
Neiki ignored them.
They weren't cursing him anyway.
[Essence Collected: 91.3%]
Hallway
In a dead-end corridor, Hyuga Nagaho knelt before him, sobbing.
"Spare me, Neji… I promise I'll listen to your brother next time… I'll take good care of my mother…"
Neiki sighed.
Maybe because he remembered "Aunt Nagaho," his blade paused for a moment.
Instead, he lifted his foot and stomped, crushing Nagaho's skull.
"What a useless blade. A few dozen kills and it's already dull."
[Essence Collected: 91.5%]
Neiki stood at the entrance of the main hall with a fresh sharp blade in hand.
This was where the last remaining Hyuga high-ranking members were gathered.
The Jutsu of Tranquility had quietly reshaped the layout of the compound—
Making it impossible for any Hyuga to find the true main hall or escape, leaving them wandering in circles like lambs in a maze built solely for Neiki to reap.
"Someone spilled paint… I'm cleaning it up…"
Holding a filthy rag, Natsu shuffled toward him, expression empty.
The main hall doors were stained red from the blood.
Neiki gave her a swift, clean death.
PS : Author's Note -
Hyuga Hisaku - Elder of the Hyuga clan; highly respected senior.
Gen - Young main family heir, Hisaku's grandson.
Hyuga Nagaho - Branch family adult; someone Neji calls "Aunt Nagaho."
If you Enjoyed Reading
Visit my p@treon for more chapters
Advance 80+ Chapters Available
patreon.com/Sagamaster789
If you really Enjoyed Reading. Give Power Stones and Reviews!