My name is Uchiha Touhuan, and I beat the villagers so badly they cried out in pain.

Chapter 115 Handle with care, dismantle the caged bird

With almost all members of the garrison mobilized, not a single rioter escaped, and the garrison's prisons were quickly filled to capacity.

Meanwhile, Kakashi also successfully helped Hiashi Hyuga suppress the internal rebellion.

After finishing his clan affairs, Hyuga Hiashi arrived at the Hokage Building late at night.

Before entering the Hokage's office, Hiashi Hyuga was still quite uneasy. Although he had sent his children to the Uchiha clan and sent word to the elders after realizing that something was wrong with the clan elders, in the end, it was Uchiha Tohsen's Hokage faction that cleaned up the mess for him. Therefore, it was impossible for the Hyuga clan to avoid paying a price for this matter.

When Hyuga Hiashi entered the Hokage's office, Uchiha Touken was leisurely maintaining his ninja sword.

Hearing Hiashi Hyuga enter, Touhuan Uchiha didn't even look up, focusing instead on applying oil to Jiraiya's hair at his desk.

Seeing this, Hyuga Hiashi felt a pang of anxiety, but for now he could only lower his head and wait for Uchiha Touhuan to speak first.

After finishing maintaining his ninja sword, Uchiha Touhuan sheathed it, stood up, and placed it back on the sword rack in his office before returning to his seat and looking at Hyuga Hiashi.

"It's so late, what brings the Hyuga clan head to my Hokage office?"

"Fifth Hokage, I have failed in my duty to manage my subordinates, resulting in several traitors within the clan. Therefore, I have come to apologize," said Hiashi Hyuga after bowing deeply.

"Is that so? Then, how did the Hyuga clan leader deal with those traitors?" Uchiha Touhuan asked.

"I have sealed the chakra of the leaders and handed them over to the security force. I await the Hokage's decision," said Hiashi Hyuga.

Uchiha Touhuan gave Hyuga Hiashi a deep look, and after a long while, a smile appeared on his face. Although Hyuga Hiashi and Uchiha Fugaku could be considered strong people of the same generation in the village, when it came to being the head of a clan, Hyuga Hiashi was much better than Uchiha Fugaku. At least, he was able to make timely decisions in this situation.

Honestly, if Fugaku Uchiha had made a decision earlier like him, whether it was by recruiting soldiers, stockpiling supplies, and attacking the village, or by dealing with those radicals and yielding to Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Uchiha clan wouldn't be in the predicament they are in now.

"So, Hyuga and Hikaru's involvement this time is just their own ambition?" Uchiha Touhuan said, looking at Hyuga Hiashi.

"But they are, after all, the main family elders of the Hyuga clan..."

"Lord Hokage, you need not worry about this matter. If necessary, Hyuga will remove their Byakugan and erase their names from the family tree," Hyuga Hiashi said without the slightest hesitation.

Uchiha Touhuan glanced at Hyuga Hiashi, thinking that the old man had probably been wanting to do this for a long time.

Based on the information that Uchiha Touhuan was able to obtain, it is not hard to see that after Hyuga Hizashi's death, the head of the Hyuga branch family became someone from Hyuga Kaname's lineage. It is clear that these Hyuga elders were not entirely innocent in the matter of Hyuga Hizashi's death.

"Hehe, the Hyuga clan head is so considerate of the village; the Hyuga clan truly deserves to be the backbone of the village," Uchiha Touhuan laughed. "However, the Hyuga clan head should still take this as a warning. After all, in a village, if everyone can completely control a private army that only obeys their own orders, it will create a lot of trouble for village management, don't you think?"

"Yes," Hiashi Hyuga nodded.

When Hyuga Hiashi heard Uchiha Touhuan's words, his heart sank. It seemed that the Fifth Hokage was planning to take action against the Caged Bird System of the clan.

Indeed, no ruler with a sound mind would tolerate having a group of armed forces within their own ranks whose lives are entirely in the hands of another, who can completely control them.

Previously, due to the existence of the Caged Bird system, the Hyuga clan had never entered the village's upper echelons, only guarding their own little territory. Therefore, even if the Hokage's faction wanted to interfere, they could not find a reason.

But this time, those idiots, Hyuga and Teru, were completely blinded by the temptation of the Hokage position offered by Utatane and Mitomon, and handed all the reasons to the Hokage.

Hiashi Hyuga had very complicated feelings about the Caged Bird Seal system of his family. For Hiashi Hyuga personally, this system could be said to be one of the reasons that led his younger brother to his death.

However, as the head of the Hyuga clan and the biggest beneficiary of this system, if he were to abolish it, firstly, he wouldn't have the ability, and secondly, he would really be reluctant. After all, with this system in place, unless several main clan forces unite to force him to abdicate like this time, his position as head of the clan would be completely unshakeable.

Even in the future, as long as he doesn't make any major mistakes, the position of family head will continue to be passed down among his descendants, just as he took over the position from his father.

But now, it's clear that Uchiha Tohkan intends to take action against the clan's Caged Bird System.

"Elder Hyuga, according to tradition, each Hokage personally takes on a three-person team as disciples. Before becoming Hokage, I already took on the second son of Elder Fugaku's family as a disciple, so I plan to choose the other two from among his peers," Uchiha Touhuan said. "I think Neji has good talent, and I plan to take him as my disciple at a later date. I wonder what the Hyuga clan head thinks?"

Hiashi Hyuga's pupils contracted. He understood Uchiha Touhuan's intentions almost instantly. Uchiha Touhuan's move was far more ruthless than directly ordering the Hyuga clan to abolish the Caged Bird system.

Although the Hyuga clan now has leverage over the other party, the Hokage's forceful interference in the internal affairs of the village's ninja clans will inevitably leave room for criticism.

But now, Uchiha Touhuan's sudden proposal to take Neji as his disciple has left everyone speechless.

After all, the tradition of the Hokage taking on talented young people from the village as disciples has been in place since the First and Second Hokage took on six disciples, including the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi.

The Third Hokage continued this tradition by taking on the three legendary Sannin as his disciples. Although the Fourth Hokage died young, he also took on a three-person team as his personal disciples before taking office. Now that Uchiha Tohsen has brought up and actively continued this tradition, there seems to be nothing wrong with it.

However, the problem lies in the fact that there is another unspoken rule under this tradition: the disciples accepted by the Hokage are eligible to inherit a portion of their teacher's political assets. In other words, becoming the Hokage's disciple means having the qualifications to become the Hokage in the future.

This is why Hiruzen Sarutobi's attempt to force Jiraiya into power recently did not encounter much resistance in the process.

Logically speaking, it would be a good thing for the Hyuga clan to take on a Hyuga child as a disciple, but the problem lies in the fact that the person Uchiha Tohsen chose was a member of the branch family.

Becoming a disciple of the Hokage gives you the potential to become the Hokage yourself. Regardless of whether you actually become the Hokage, the position itself carries a certain political significance.

Once Neji becomes Uchiha Touhuan's disciple, the Caged Bird Seal on his head will no longer exist.

The latest novel is first published here!

Otherwise, what would outsiders think of the Hyuga clan's main branch? Holding the future Hokage's life in their hands, are they trying to become the village's supreme ruler? At that point, the Hyuga would probably find themselves in an even more troublesome situation than the Uchiha clan before them.

However, even if Neji's Caged Bird Seal is lifted and he is promoted to the main family, it would still be a difficult thing for the Hyuga clan to accept.

After all, the Hyuga clan had never before removed the Caged Bird Seal from the branch family. Even during the Warring States period, when the main family was short-handed, they would only select talented children from the descendants of the branch families who had not yet been enshrined in the Caged Bird Seal to join the main family.

Once a caged bird, always a caged bird; this is why this system has been able to continue to this day.

Now that this precedent has been set, will the other branch families still obediently follow the orders of the main family?

More importantly, once Neji becomes the head of the main family, he could easily win over a large number of branch family members by offering to lift the Caged Bird Seal. It probably wouldn't be long before the Caged Bird Seal becomes a mere shell of its former self.

It can be said that Uchiha Touhuan silently placed two poisoned cakes in front of the Hyuga clan.

Hyuga Hiashi was sweating profusely. While he hesitated, he was also relieved that he had sent the children to the Uchiha clan as soon as possible to sever his ties. Otherwise, with Uchiha Touhuan's methods, it wouldn't have taken much effort to destroy the Hyuga clan.

As for directly rejecting Uchiha Touhuan's offer to take him as a disciple, if this incident hadn't happened, Hyuga Hiashi would still have had this option. But now, the Hyuga clan was involved in a coup, and the Hokage's lenient treatment was already an act of leniency. To refuse the Hokage's offer to take him as a disciple now would be like an old man eating poison—courting death.

[Fine, consider it compensation for the daily rate.]

Hiashi Hyuga sighed and nodded, saying, "In that case, I thank the Hokage for his kindness on behalf of Neji."

"Clan Chief Hiashi, please don't say that," Uchiha Touhuan chuckled. "Guiding the talented children in the village and leading them down the path of the Will of Fire is also the Hokage's duty, isn't it?"

"The Hokage is right," said Hiashi Hyuga.

"I've always thought Clan Chief Hiashi was a smart man, but I still want to remind Elder Hyuga that I don't want my disciples to have any questionable qualities on them when they become disciples." Uchiha Touhuan stared at Hyuga Hiashi. "Do you understand?"

……

(End of this chapter)