Chapter 109 - The Hyuga's Curse Seal
A shiver went through Neji's whole body when he saw Hinata looking at him like he was a speck of dust.
'What the hell just happened? Is what she said really true? Did she match every single one of my attacks by releasing some chakra from the corresponding tenketsu? No matter how I look at it, it is completely impossible to do something like that. However, that is the only explanation I can come up with for why my attacks didn't work. Wasn't she supposed to be weak and talentless? Isn't she a monster?'
Seeing a mix of disbelief and fear in Neji's face, Hinata immediately lost interest in him. She might have toyed with him while he was still arrogantly strutting around, but she had no interest in bullying someone who was afraid of her. Hinata tossed him aside like a child that had lost interest in a toy.
"Guess this is over, huh? Time for you to give up, Neji."
Although Neji gritted his teeth in anger, it was clear to see that he has lost most of his will to fight after Hinata's display just now. His body hurt from the multiple blows he received, his chakra reserve was almost empty due to his last two techniques, and his stamina isn't in good shape either. Hinata, on the other hand, seemed to be completely fine. She wasn't even breathing heavily.
No matter how he looked at this, it was clearly his loss and there was nothing he could do about it. Rather than getting humiliated even further, he might as well give up. He raised his hand and was about to forfeit when Hiashi's voice echoed through the arena.
"Stop playing around and activate it already, Neji!"
At first, he was confused by what Hiashi meant, after a few moments, however, he looked at Hiashi in bewilderment.
'He wants me to use the curse seal!?'
Neji clenched his fist hard enough to draw some blood and then slowly lifted his hands to activate the seal. He was just about to activate it when he met Hinata's eyes.
A shudder went through Neji's body as he immediately averted his eyes and lowered his head.
'Why does it feel like I am currently being evaluated? Shouldn't she be afraid that I will activate the seal? How can she be this calm? Besides that…I don't want to use it. This goes below my pride.'
Neji's eyes gleamed in determination, and he was just about to forfeit, no matter the consequences when Hinata's laughter echoed through the stadium.
"Hahaha, activate the seal? I wonder which seal you are talking about Hiashi?"
As she said that, she took off her headband and revealed that instead of the caged bird cursed seal, there was only a small blue dot on her forehead.
"IMPOSSIBLE!"
This, naturally, caused an outrage from the people of the Hyuga clan. Hinata had an amused smirk on her face while letting her eyes wander over them. As she expected, there were quite a few people that looked at her with envy. People from the branch family, obviously.
"Haha, no need to get all antsy…"
Hinata pointed at the dot on her forehead.
"…This will still seal away the Byakugan if I get killed or if it gets stolen. Only the "can be tortured by the main family whenever they want'' aspect has been removed."
"UNACCEPTABLE! There is no way we can allow some unknown seal to protect the Byakugan! The seal will be reapplied on you the moment this fight is over!"
Hinata couldn't help but sneer at the stupidity displayed in front of her.
"Ohh? Did you hear that, Hokage-sama? The patriarch of the esteemed Hyuga clan just ordered me, one of your faithful shinobi, to receive a curse seal that allows the Hyuga to kill me whenever they want. To think the Hyuga clan can just order shinobi without a backing to do whatever they want them to do."
Hiashi immediately shrunk back when Hinata finished speaking. This was not due to Hinata's words, but because a lot of people started glaring at him. Konoha's great clans might produce a steady stream of strong shinobi, but an overwhelming amount of Konoha's shinobi were actually not from a clan. On an individual basis, they might not be as strong as someone from the Hyuga clan, but the difference in numbers is overwhelming.
Before things could escalate, Hiruzen stood up to calm the crowd. He was inwardly cursing Yuna for not saying anything about this, but considering Anko's seal was removed, he really should have expected this.
"Silence! First of all, I declare Hinata as the winner of this fight. Any complaints?"
Also, there was some murmuring in the ranks of the Hyuga clan, but nobody said anything.
"Good. Hinata, tell us who put that seal on you."
Hinata nodded her head.
"Yes, Hokage-sama. It was put on me by Hiashi Hyuga and was later modified by Yuna Uzumaki."
As soon as Yuna's name was said, the crowd became unruly. Quite a lot of people were whispering about a demon, while a small fraction was repeatedly using the word princess. Without bothering about any of that, Yuna disappeared and reappeared in the middle of the arena with a smirk on her face.
"Yup, I modified it~"
Hiashi's killing intent immediately exploded when Yuna said that.
"How dare you modify our Hyuga clan's seal?! You will pay for this!"
Yuna, however, looked at him like he was an idiot.
"Have you been kicked by a donkey or did you use some kind of special jutsu to get this stupid?"
Hiashi was about to explode when Yuna continued talking.
"The Hyuga clan's seal? What a joke. Curse seals are, on a fundamental basis, malicious in nature and thus should be removed as soon as possible. There is even a law for that in the Land of Fire. You might wanna look that up.
Truth be told, you should be happy that Hokage-sama hasn't kicked the door of your clan's compound open and demanded you to get rid of this liability. It takes only one skilled seal master in a hostile nation to figure out how to activate the seal and over 90% of the Hyuga clan can no longer be sent to the front line."
Hiashi visibly paled when he heard that and the other people of the Hyuga clan weren't looking too great either. Despite that, Hiashi wouldn't falter that easily.
"Nonsense. There is no way that is possible. We have been using this seal for generations. It is impossible to figure it out."
A smirk appeared on Yuna's face, as she took out a small scroll and opened it up. She unfolded it and showed it to Hiashi. There was a massive number of seals intricately woven into each other on the scroll. Although Hiashi had a basic understanding of seal he couldn't even begin to fathom what he was looking at.
"Well, I had some free time and decided that I might as well make something like this. This is a one-time-use seal that triggers the mechanism to make the target feel pain and makes it impossible to stop the progress. We have quite a few foreigners here, right? Is anyone interested in buying it?"
Another uproar went through the spectators, and it was clear that Hiashi was just about to attack Yuna together with a few other elders.
"Haha, why are you suddenly so agitated? I thought your seal can't be cracked?"
Before Yuna could egg him on any further, Hiruzen started to speak.
"Yuna, I would appreciate it, if you didn't scam our foreign guests."
Was Hiruzen certain that Yuna was scamming them? He was around 60% certain that this was the case. An annoyed pout appeared on Yuna's face.
"What the hell old man? I could have made a lot of money with this deal."
The outrage of the crowd became even bigger, but Yuna still wasn't bothered by it. Hiruzen, however, could only shake his head when he heard Yuna going back to calling him old man instead of Hokage-sama. He thought she might endure it at least until the exam is over, but that apparently wasn't the case.
"Let us get this matter back on track. I certainly can't agree on just putting a curse seal on people, but you should at least explain what kind of modifications you did and how that affects the seal itself."
Yuna nodded her head and took out a photo of Hiashi, making Hiashi wonder where she got that, and some paint that can be easily removed with water.
"Let me give you a little demonstration of the progress."
Yuna held up Hiashi's photo.
"This is the part of the seal that is currently on Hinata. It has the functions that were already mentioned."
Yuna took the paint and messily painted a beard and an eyepatch on Hiashi.
"I am some random Hyuga who thought it would be a great idea to enslave a huge part of my clan and the paint is the part of the seal that involves torturing people."
Yuna gathered some water chakra on the tip of her finger and let it flow down the picture to wash off the paint.
"And this is what I did."
Oppressive silence reigned in the whole stadium. Even the dropping of a pin needle could be heard. It took a few moments before Hiashi regained his wits. His anger exploded. He activated his Byakugan and propelled himself forward to attack Yuna.
"YOU DARE TO SLANDER MY CLAN LIKE THIS!!!?"
Yuna looked at the charging Hiashi with indifference in her eyes. She didn't move at all, even when Hiashi was right in front of her. After all, there was no need to move.
"Lesson 7: Outclass them so far in chakra control that you can actually hide your presence even while they have the Byakugan active."
A thin sword appeared and stopped just before it cut into Hiashi's neck, forcing him to stop the attack. Truth be told, that lesson wasn't entirely true, but Hinata saw no reason to reveal all her cards. She only managed to gather a little bit of natural energy so far, but she has to admit that it is incredibly useful for hiding her presence. She would, naturally, not reveal anything about that publicly.
"Haha, no need to get angry, Hiashi. I am not slandering anybody. I bet your clan has some ancient-looking history scrolls lying around, why don't you give them a read? And if not, you can always invite an independent seal master to take a look at the seal. If he isn't completely inept at what he is doing he should easily be able to identify that someone not very skilled has messed with the seal."
Although Hiashi heard what Yuna said, he didn't really register it. After all, the person he personally kicked out of the clan was currently holding a sword to his neck. Hiashi, at least, understood that if Hinata wanted to, she could have killed him. Easily so.
'How is this possible? She was complete trash. No matter how much she trained she simply didn't become stronger. What the hell happened to her? There is no way I would have kicked her out if I had known that she would become this strong.'
Before he could ponder the situation any further a powerful presence appeared next to him and almost pressed him to the ground due to chakra pressure alone.
"Hiashi Hyuga, you will return to your seating area right now. Due to your position as a clan elder and since nobody was hurt, there will be no further consequences, but you had better don't let this happen again."
Hiashi glanced at Hiruzen Sarutobi who appeared next to him and shuddered a little when he met his eyes. It has been quite a while since he saw Hiruzen like that. Hiashi had almost forgotten why he was once called the God of Shinobi. Now, however, Hiashi realized that there was still quite a bit of power left in Hiruzen. More than enough power, to turn him into a corpse within moments.
"Yes, Hokage-sama!"
That was all he could say before walking back to his seat. As soon as he sat down, a few other elders started to talk to him and moments later, everyone except for a single young member left the stadium. The young girl was obviously left behind so the Hyuga clan could understand the strength of the contestants, especially Hinata and Yuna, who clearly had a grudge against them. As for why they left? Their "genius" was defeated in the first round, there was no reason to stay any longer and endure the mocking gazes.
Hiruzen let his gaze wander over the stadium and then started to speak.
"I apologize for the little… interlude. The chunin exam will continue with the next match: Ino Yamanaka vs Gaara of the Desert."
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