Bab 108: Bound by Fate?
Seeing the elder furious and his Byakugan activated, Hiashi quickly blocked the elder from doing anything to Neji.
"Elder please calm down...don't take his words to heart." Hiashi said. He had left his usual cold demeanor because he knew how strict his father was.
"How dare he ask us this?" the elder roared still furious at Neji. He was hurt by the fact that someone accused him of being so ill-willed at his younger son that he killed him. The usually calm Hyuga elder had completely lost his cool.
After a few seconds, the elder calmed down a little and sat back down. Hiashi looked at Neji who was trying to maintain a tough face and asked
"Why would you ask this Neji?"
"That's what everyone says. I also know that no matter how skilled and strong I am, I can never be anything more than a servant of the main clan. This curse mark had bound my fate." Neji said clenching his fists tightly.
Hiashi and the elder could see the pained expression on his face. They also missed Hizashi but they could never tell anyone what really happened that day.
Hiashi looked at his father and said "Father". The elder looked at Hiashi and understood that Hiashi wasn't speaking as the Patriarch of the Hyuga clan but as his son, Hizashi's brother, and Neji's uncle.
The elder took a deep breath and looked at Neji whose fists already had a little blood coming out from them because of his own nails stabbing his palms. He also saw that Neji's hatred for the main clan was increasing over the past few years and very soon if not corrected, could become a poison that could have the Hyuga clan to suffer a fate similar to that of the Uchihas.
The elder looked at Neji who was facing the ground trying to hold back his tears and said "Look at me Neji." Neji quickly looked up at his grandpa.
"What I am about to tell you should never be known to anyone outside this room. Including your sisters. It all started when the Kumo envoy came to our village. Someone from the envoy tried to kidnap Hinata on the night of her birthday but Hiashi killed that man. The Kumos became furious at this and accused us of killing their man for no reason. They knew that our village wasn't in a state stable enough to start a war with the Land of Lightning so they tried to leverage this man's death to get their hands on Hiashi's eyes. Hiashi was ready to die for the peace of the village and pass the seat of Patriarch to your father Hizashi. But your father sneaked attacked Hiashi and knocked him out and replaced himself in Hiashi's place sacrificing his life. His being of the branch clan had the curse mark on him which made the Kumo ninjas unable to extract any secret of the Byakugan. Hizashi's sacrifice stopped our village from going through another war as well as stopped the secrets of our kekkai Genkai from releasing."
Neji stared wide-eyed at the elder. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. He had heard that someone did try to kidnap Hinata on the night of her birthday but he didn't know all this had happened that day. He looked at Hiashi who had a tear streaming down his eyes. He looked saddened. Neji wanted to cry, scream and ask his uncle why they let his father die but he knew that his father was the kind of man to sacrifice his life for others, especially his family.
"Wait a min." Hiashi said as he stood up and went near the big photo of Hizashi hanging on the wall. He then put his hand behind the photo and pulled out a white envelope. Hiashi then placed the envelope on the table in front of Neji. Neji looked at the envelope and then at Hiashi and asked
"What is this?"
"This is the letter your father wrote for you before he sacrificed himself. He told Father to give it to you when you were ready to know the truth. He didn't want you to grow to hate the family he loved enough to sacrifice his life for. I have been ridden with the guilt that my own brother died for me. Every time I see you...you remind me of him." Hiashi said.
The elder looked at Neji and said "Neji Hinata, and Hanabi's mother died right after giving birth to Hanabi. If Hiashi would have died as well then the entire main clan would have collapsed. The branch clan would have surely taken up the place of the main clan but due to our kekkai Genkai there are always vultures keeping an eye on our clan. If it wasn't for all these reasons I would have stopped Hizashi at all costs. I haven't read that letter because it was something from a father to his son and even as an elder or as a Patriarch we have no right to open it."
Neji understood what they meant and opened the envelope. He open the letter inside it and began reading. After each line, his hands started shivering and tears streamed down his eyes. The letter did explain the same things that Hizashi and the elder told him.
'So all this time the things I thought about the main clan were all wrong? I thought the Patriarch made his own brother into a scapegoat to solidify his and his children's positions as that of the main clan but after listening to what they said and this letter...the Patriarch himself is suffering in guilt. I thought I was being sent to the academy to keep me away from the main clan jutsus but according to the letter, this was one of the wishes he told the elder. He wanted me to see the outside world and not stay cooped up in the clan.
But there was a line that caught Neji's attention.
"Neji my son...I never saw you restrained or bound by your destiny as someone from the branch clan, in fact, I saw you as someone who has the potential and the chance to become bigger than our clan's Patriarch...Make me and your mother proud son...break those restraints you have bound your own mind in and protect the family and clan that I died protecting...I will watch over you...always...
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