Naruto: I, who fooled the ninja world, was hailed as a savior.

Chapter 18 What are those eyes?
Let's rewind a moment.

While Hyuga Hizashi was using his Byakugan to search for the source of the voice, he had already seen Neji lying peacefully in the room.

However, because his attention was focused on Hinata Kumokawa, who was making the sound, he overlooked the abnormality right in front of him.

In the past, whenever Neji vented his resentment, he would always lie in bed tossing and turning for a long time, unable to fall asleep.

But tonight, Hyuga Neji, after bandaging the wound on his hand, lay on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. Soon, he felt a strong drowsiness wash over him like a tide.

The world after closing my eyes was as silent as death, and all I could see was a dark expanse, like an endless black ocean.

Until then, a seemingly ethereal voice seemed to come from a distant place.

"..."

Hyuga Neji opened his eyes blankly. Before him stood a dilapidated vermilion torii gate, with rotten rafters stuck diagonally in the ground.

Before them lay slippery, green moss-covered stairs, and the ethereal voice came from afar.

Hyuga Neji subconsciously lifted his foot and walked up the steps, passing the torii gate and the broken komainu statues on both sides.

After walking up the steps and through the swaying bluestone path flanked by trees, the view opened up before me.

A dilapidated shrine came into view, with rotten shimenawa ropes hanging down and swaying, faded wooden plaques knocking against each other in the wind, and the words written in vermilion lacquer blurred and illegible.

In the wide, open space in front of the dilapidated main hall, four children held hands and formed a circle.

The two children, whose faces were obscured, let go of each other's hands and each extended a hand to him. Hyuga Neji walked over to them uncontrollably.

The moment he grasped those two hands, a feeling of joy welled up within him, and a smile appeared on Neji's face, a laugh that didn't sound like his own chuckle escaped his throat.

He looked at the blindfolded, black-haired girl who was surrounded by him and four other children, kneeling in the middle with her head bowed.

「かごめ、かごめ（cage seam, cage seam）」

The four children began to spin around happily, singing nursery rhymes in their childish voices, and Neji also joined in, somewhat bewildered.

"かご中の鸟は (bird in a cage)"

The blood-red afterglow of the setting sun cast their shadows on the ground, like a bamboo cage confining them and the girl inside.

「いついつやる（When can I come out）」

The singing suddenly intensified, and the children quickened their pace, the long shadow of the bamboo cage entangling the blindfolded girl in the center.

"Ye Ming けの晩に (Dawn Night)"

"Crane and turtle slipped"

Who's facing you from behind?

The four children stopped and looked at the girl in the middle.

"..."

Hyuga Neji also looked at the blindfolded girl in the middle. Looking at the girl's unfamiliar yet familiar back, his previously chaotic thoughts gradually became clear.

The nursery rhymes sung in tender voices still echoed, and against the backdrop of the dilapidated scenery, the originally cheerful and innocent lyrics seemed particularly eerie.

The biting coldness emanating from his hands, in particular, instilled a sense of fear in Hyuga Neji.

He suddenly understood the song, the rules of the game, and its meaning.

—If the girl guesses who is behind the bird, then that person will have to take the place of the caged bird and die.

"..."

The blindfolded girl raised her head, her pink lips slightly parted.

“Hyuga…Neji…” she said softly.

Hearing her pronounce his name, Hyuga Neji's entire body trembled uncontrollably, and the two children beside him gently released his hands.

"No! I don't want it!"

He uncontrollably lifted his foot and knelt down in front of the girl. The four children gathered around, their gazes devout and fervent, as if witnessing a ceremony. Finally, the girl raised her clasped hands and gently stroked Hyuga Neji's face, her thumbs pressing against his eyes.

puff!

Thick, scarlet blood gushed out, flowing onto the ground with a loud thud.

"what!!"

Hyuga Neji let out an extremely shrill scream, as if a red-hot steel bar had been pierced into his brain.

But after he put on the "blindfold," the four children held hands and spun around again, their swaying shadows sewing him into the cage, and the cheerful yet eerie nursery rhyme started playing once more.

「かごめ、かごめ（cage seam, cage seam）」

"かご中の鸟は (bird in a cage)"

「いついつやる（When can I come out）」

The childish voice gradually transformed into a vague and bizarre language, and a large amount of noise filled Hyuga Neji's retina, causing distorted images to flash before his eyes.

Gradually, the scene before my eyes began to change.

He saw countless people with ugly curse marks carved on their heads, saw them stand in front of those without curse marks, and saw them die one after another on the battlefield of flesh and blood.

He saw a person with a caged bird but whose face was obscured killing; he saw that person gouging out the eyes of others; he saw that person rolling around on the altar, covering their eyes and screaming silently.

He saw the man walk down from the altar, carve something on a stone tablet, and then walk away. Whether they had carved a curse mark or not, anyone who tried to stand in his way was slaughtered by him with a wave of his hand.

Even when someone raised their hand to activate the incantation, it still didn't stop the person from walking.

Hyuga Neji saw the figure enter a shrine. The survivors gathered outside the shrine, not daring to go in. The only sound in the silent air seemed to be the overlapping of heavy breathing.

Soon, the magnificent ancestral hall was engulfed in flames, and the figure emerged from the firelight, the flames licking at the person's cheeks.

In the man's hand was an old head, its face still bearing traces of fear, with its pale, scarlet spine dragging on the ground, leaving glaring dark red bloodstains wherever it went.

The man stopped, and the blood on the ground formed a dark red mirror, reflecting the terrified white eyes of the others, which in turn reflected the man's bloodstained eyes.

Those were eyes unlike any other.

Those were deep blue eyes.

Neji Hyuga stood at the very back of the crowd, unable to move or make a sound, watching as a mere bystander.

Having just experienced the agony of becoming a "scapegoat," and now witnessing this massacre firsthand, he felt a morbid sense of exhilaration.

However, the next moment, the figure raised his always lowered eyelids and actually met Hyuga Neji's eyes.

Hyuga Neji suddenly had a feeling.

That person saw himself.

He saw two lines of thick, pungent blood flow from those eyes, gradually sliding down that blurry face.

"Such an ugly family has no reason to exist."

The man slowly raised one hand, his palm seemingly holding a sword, golden light extending upwards and breaking through the dark clouds in the night sky.

"Let's cleanse the filth and promote purity," the man said softly. "Golden Wheel... Reincarnation Explosion."

The golden light descended, illuminating the pitch-black night, and the fear of death materialized.

boom!
Faced with the stark reality of death, Hyuga Neji almost instinctively tried his best to dodge, but he only managed to open his eyes suddenly and before he could react, he tumbled off the bed.

"..."

He stared blankly at the ceiling, the slight pain in his body finally pulling him back to reality.

"What's going on?" he murmured. "Who is that person?"

"And those eyes..."

(End of this chapter)