Chapter 588: The Scheming Namikaze Minato

"Where's Naruto?"

After restraining Namikaze Minato, Neji looked around and realized the one person he actually wanted had disappeared.

"Those Narutos from earlier were probably all shadow clones. If you want to catch the real one, you'll have to search for him slowly."

Having already given up resisting, Minato helpfully explained the situation.

Neji wanted to capture Naruto anyway, so Minato figured he might as well lend a hand and save himself the trouble of chasing his son personally.

"Damn Naruto."

Neji smoothly finished the closing stance of his Gentle Fist, then hauled Minato away.

All that remained on the ground was an extraordinarily stylish Eight Trigrams diagram formed entirely from the earlier mess.

Neji brought Minato back to the Hyūga compound and tossed him in front of Hyūga Hiashi.

"Keep an eye on him. Once I catch Naruto, I'll hand them both over to Lady Hokage for punishment."

"Yes. Understood."

Hiashi obediently accepted the order without the slightest hesitation.

Watching from outside, Hinata and Hanabi were completely dumbfounded.

Was that really their clan-head father?

Why was he acting so meek and submissive toward Neji?

What was going on?

Could it be that in this world, Neji was actually from the main family and his father had been clan head?

…

"Dad got caught?"

A Naruto shadow clone happened to be crouching in the Hyūga courtyard.

"And now Neji's the one hunting me?"

After witnessing the entire exchange, the clone immediately dispelled itself and transmitted the information back to the original.

Naruto was stunned.

After receiving reports from several clones in quick succession, he realized he couldn't keep guessing anymore.

He rushed back to the archives to investigate Neji.

This time, however, Naruto could no longer bluff his way inside using Kushina's name.

Kushina had recently learned that Naruto had been secretly accessing classified files and had already warned the archivist.

If persuasion wouldn't work—

Then brute force would!

Naruto charged straight in.

Using the sheer numbers of his shadow clones, he overwhelmed the situation long enough to locate Neji's file.

Outside the illusion, Hinata and Hanabi widened their eyes as well.

They desperately wanted to understand why this world's Neji was so outrageously confident while Hiashi acted so timid around him.

As it turned out, this Neji's life had initially followed much the same path as the real one.

His father, Hyūga Hizashi, had become a sacrificial substitute.

Neji concluded that destiny could never be changed and gradually sank into bitterness and resignation.

Then one event completely changed his understanding of the world.

The Uchiha massacre.

Thanks to the Byakugan's ability to see through obstacles, Neji had secretly witnessed enough of the massacre to discover the truth.

The clouds immediately parted before his eyes.

At last, Neji understood exactly what he needed to do.

He trained desperately.

Then he proactively swore absolute loyalty to Hokage Kushina.

And Hiashi?

Hiashi was terrified.

Neji hadn't been the only person with a Byakugan watching the Uchiha massacre that night.

Hiashi had seen it too.

All that nonsense about filial Uchiha Itachi betraying and exterminating his own clan was merely the surface story.

The truth was obvious.

The authoritarian Hokage had grown tired of the naturally righteous Uchiha constantly resisting her will, so she used Uchiha Itachi as an excuse and worked with him to wipe out the entire clan.

Now Neji had become Kushina's loyal enforcer—

Just like Uchiha Itachi had once been.

How could Hiashi not be afraid?

The Hyūga might not constantly preach justice the way the Uchiha supposedly did, nor had they openly resisted many of the Hokage's policies.

But they were still the largest surviving clan in Konoha.

Sometimes, merely continuing to exist was enough to become a crime.

Hiashi understood that deeply.

So he did everything possible to avoid giving Hokage Kushina even the slightest excuse to eliminate the Hyūga.

And above all else—

He absolutely could not disobey Neji, who now acted as an executor of the Hokage's will.

Even though Hiashi possessed the authority to activate Neji's Caged Bird seal, he dared not use it.

Because if he used it even once, that would mean Hyūga Hiashi was attempting to compete with the Hokage for ultimate control over one of her subordinates.

What would that imply?

Was he trying to use the Caged Bird seal to force Neji to disobey the Hokage?

Was he planning to use the seal to compel Neji to assassinate her?

Once Kushina wanted to accuse him, allegations like these could be piled onto his head as easily as hats at a clearance sale.

And so, although Neji had never removed the Caged Bird seal from his forehead, it no longer controlled him in any meaningful way.

Hiashi, as a member of the main family, had no Caged Bird seal on his forehead—

But one had effectively been planted inside his heart.

…

At the beach in the Land of Water, the real Neji had originally been annoyed when Konohamaru called him over to watch.

He had wanted to train instead.

But after seeing all this, he was completely shaken.

"So there was another way to solve it?"

Neji stared at the screen in amazement.

Was this the legendary strategy of—

'Only the village and the Hokage are qualified to judge and command me'?

If he went and swore loyalty to Tsunade right now, would it still work?

Or had Clan Head Hiashi already beaten him to it?

Neji seriously considered the idea for a moment.

Then decided against it.

His relationship with the main family had improved considerably in the real world.

Tsunade was also nothing like the dictatorial Kushina inside Engraved Tsukuyomi.

Most importantly—

Neji simply couldn't bring himself to sacrifice that much dignity.

…

"There's something wrong with this Engraved Tsukuyomi world."

In the backyard of a vacation cabin by the beach, Kushina lay on a deck chair with a drink in hand as she watched the broadcast.

Her brows gradually furrowed.

Neji changing his fate by entering public service was certainly inspirational in its own ridiculous way.

But that wasn't the important part.

Kushina wanted a story about bullying.

She needed to know whether the bullying-related events could actually influence Naruto.

Yet Neji's journey into government service had unexpectedly revealed several other pieces of information.

Apparently, this world's Namikaze Minato had never become the Fourth Hokage—

But he had competed for the position.

During the war, Minato had claimed that he wanted to protect everyone in the village, so he generously placed Flying Raijin marks on people's bodies.

That way, he could teleport to them at any moment and rescue them.

Everyone had been deeply moved.

Then peace arrived.

And when the competition for Hokage began—

Minato reported every single person carrying those marks for having tattoos, thereby disqualifying them from public office.

Among those victims was one of the strongest candidates for Fourth Hokage:

Orochimaru.

Orochimaru had never imagined that the seemingly innocent and kindhearted Minato possessed such sinister political cunning.

His heart practically died on the spot.

Desperate to qualify for government service, Orochimaru even researched the Living Corpse Reincarnation technique so he could obtain an entirely new body without tattoos.

Unfortunately, Living Corpse Reincarnation required the Cursed Seal.

And the Cursed Seal itself counted as a tattoo.

A perfect deadlock.

If even Orochimaru couldn't solve the problem, everyone else had even less hope.

Some people later discovered that Minato had even left Flying Raijin marks on their wives' stomachs.

And Flying Raijin markings could not be removed unless someone reached Six Paths-level power.

Otherwise, they were permanent.

But none of that was what Kushina truly wanted to complain about.

Her real problem was this:

If Engraved Tsukuyomi was going to invent a backstory like that, then wasn't Minato being bullied completely deserved?

After pulling something so inhuman, getting bullied was practically inevitable!

Bullying was supposed to mean an innocent person being mistreated despite having done nothing to deserve it.

That was what made it bullying.

But if someone had actually done something this outrageous—

Then people going after him wasn't bullying.

That was called justice.

How was this supposed to help change Naruto in a positive direction?