Kaguya's Legacy Chapter 131 - 127: The bird breaks free of its cage

As my explosive tags surrounded , they flashed for a mont in warning of imminent danger. I reached out.

Not with my body, but with my mind, I reached out far, far away from this battlefield, away from the danger of it, to a place far away.

And as my mind reached it, I found a bright point in the darkness, a beacon called on , and in the last mont before the explosion would consu , I gripped that beacon, and I pulled.

In the sa instance, as Killer B was forced to call upon the power of the tailed beast inside him to shield himself, I slipped away.

From the moon, I had watched countless people; I had seen them live and die, and I had witnessed the best and worst monts of their lives. I had seen countless great n and won co and go.

There were also a few rare people I watched closely, so I barely glanced away from, afraid to miss even a mont of their lives.

One such person had been Tobirama Senju. That was despite the fact so many other important people lived in his generation, despite the other important events.

Tobirama Senju was beyond important to ; it was his research into forbidden ninjutsu that had allowed to make my own, to pull a tiny fragnt of my chakra out of my body and seal, and be reborn as Yuki Hyūga.

But that wasn't all I had seen, I had seen him make all his special ninjutsu, which included the one I used this one mont.

Flying Thunder God Technique (Hiraishin no Jutsu)

I once possessed Anominaka, the space-ti technique that allowed to move between different dinsions at will, to teleport anywhere at any ti, sothing far beyond even Obito's Kamui.

This ant that I had so talent for space-ti techniques. Enough to feel a single beacon, a single mark, and reach it from far away, teleporting away just before death found .

It all happened in a single instant, all while a huge spike of chakra was released from the seal, masking what happened from any form of sensing.

I landed hard, coughing and in pain all over.

I was, after all, still pretty badly hurt from fighting Killer B, but I was safe, my Byakugan detecting nothing around ; I was all alone.

It felt strange… to cut all ties, to be free from everything…

Yet I only took a mont to rest, I wasn't done just yet, not free just yet. I still had the caged bird cursed seal on my forehead, and with that, my current state as still being among the living could be tracked and confird.

Sothing I couldn't allow.

So after two decades, I finally put my bleeding fingers together as I slowly worked through the hand signs needed. Slowly, I molded the chakra towards the desired effect, moving it just right. And it flowed under my skin, towards my eyes, and the mark on my forehead.

"Caged bird, Release!"

Instantly, the seal disappeared, the chakra holding it together disappeared, and all without causing any harm.

In fact, far from harming , I couldn't help but gasp in shock and moan in pleasure as a rush of chakra flowed through .

The world before my very eyes changed; it expanded tens of tis. From being able to reach a few kiloters around , I could see clearly many tis more, maybe as many as twenty tis.

I had long since determined that letting myself get sealed with the cursed seal shouldn't cause any damage or limit my strength, but clearly, I had been wrong.

My Byakugan felt stronger than ever, purer than ever. I focused on a bird sitting in a tree a few hundred ters away from , and instantly, the bird exploded in a shower of feathers and blood as if hit by a great force.

"Urgh!" I covered my eyes and groaned in pain. It had worked… but clearly it was still pushing things a little.

But even then, I couldn't suppress the smile on my face. Beyond the strengthening of my Byakugan, my total chakra pool was also growing quickly, already having doubled and only slightly slowing down the growth.

My wounds also started to heal much faster. Shikotsumyaku ca with a healing factor, and mine hadn't been very impressive, just like my control and strength of the Shikotsumyaku bloodline itself.

Yet now? It too grew stronger.

Then suddenly, I felt a coldness flood my mind.

A clarity.

My emotions muted, my happiness, while still present, grew far less prominent.

All my mories of the last few years lost their lustre.

The warmth and care I had once felt in my mother's arms seed like a minor note, barely worthy of my attention. The love I had felt from Hiashi and Koji, and my feelings for them, too, grew muted.

As my chakra grew, my power swelled, I realized that an imbalance of Yin and Yang chakra was being corrected.

Shikotsumyaku was a yang-based Kekkei Genkai and Byakugan Yin-based, yet clearly the caged bird seal had suppressed my Yin chakra. Causing an imbalance.

This caused to be overly emotional, like a budget version of Naruto.

Now that my Yin chakra could grow, it fixed that flaw in my personality, and I beca more rational. I realized that I had been wasting my ti playing lover with mortals.

That I really should have broken free long ago, years wasted.

And for what?

Love?

Yet… I couldn't even feel angry at myself; my muted emotions didn't allow to go that far.

Sure, I felt disappointed, but I also understood the root cause of everything.

I looked down at my hand, opening and closing it a few tis, before pointing a single finger towards a nearby tree.

My fingertip tingled with pressure as I gathered chakra at the nail. Bone shifted under my skin, flowing forward like liquid ivory. A narrow spike erged from the tip of my finger—smooth, gleaming, a bullet sculpted by instinct rather than thought.

I took a slow breath. My Byakugan traced every vein in the tree ahead, every knot of wood and strand of sap. The world was a lattice of weakness.

I flicked my finger.

PCHK! — the bone bullet shot out with a whip-crack hiss, faster than an arrow. It punched clean through the trunk, splinters bursting outward in a shower of bark and sap. A heartbeat later, the sound caught up — KSHHH! — as a fine line split across the bark, and the whole section slumped inward like sothing punched by a giant fist.

Another breath. Another spike slid from my fingertip, the process smoother this ti. My chakra molded it with less effort, the recoil less biting.

I fired again. PCHK! PCHK! PCHK!

Three white streaks snapped through the air, hamring the tree in a tight cluster. Each impact sent another violent shudder through the wood, holes blooming across its surface like sudden rot. The trunk groaned and tilted under its own weight.

A smile ghosted across my lips.

I lowered my hand, half-dried blood still covered the pure pale skin, but the flesh had all closed back up, not a hint of the wounds that had once caused all that blood.

"Good," I murmured, voice flat but satisfied.

Next, I turned towards my still growing chakra pool, once it was respectable, not quite enough for being a ninjutsu-focused fighter, but now? That was no longer the case; with this amount, I could throw out plenty of strong ninjutsu without running low.

I quickly used a wind style ninjutsu, it was almost like a chakra armor, but it just shot out sharp winds from all over my body, shredding my clothes into bits, causing them to fall off, leaving naked in the forest.

But I felt no sha, no hidden desire, nothing really.

Next, I used water prison on myself, trapping in a rotating sphere of water that washed all the blood, dirt, and sweat off of .

And all without using a single hand sign.

Despite my chakra growing this rapidly, my chakra control hadn't suffered; in fact, it grew better. It was one of the rarely noted benefits of the Byakugan; it enhanced chakra control.

After that, I pushed my control to the limit, mixing fire and wind to dry myself as the water collapsed, leaving both clean and dry.

With a chakra string, I pulled a sealing scroll into my hand and quickly unsealed another scroll. From there, I unsealed a new outfit. One I had commissioned in secret and finally gotten rid of the witnesses, including the person who made it.

I quickly got dressed, feeling the soft fabric around . My sleeves were wide and filled with special pockets for sealing scrolls. So I put my master scroll in there, but not before pulling out a blindfold and tying it around my head.

Walking around with the Byakugan on display would get more attention than I wanted. I wouldn't hide away, wouldn't crawl around in the shadows like a rat, but that didn't an I would invite undue attention to myself.

My Byakugan pierced effortlessly through silk, flesh, wood, and stone. To anyone else, I was a blind woman wandering the wilderness. Yet if they thought it a weakness, they would suffer for it.

I adjusted the sleeves of the robe, feeling the weight of my scrolls secure against my skin, the fabric swaying with every subtle motion. Regal, commanding, untouchable. No longer bound to the clan, to the village, to their gas.

I was free.

For the first ti since my rebirth, I did not feel the leash of others tugging at . No Hokage, no elders, no cursed seal smoldering on my forehead. The Inuzuka boy who called partner, the Hyūga who called bride-to-be — even they had no claim on anymore. They had been diversions, perhaps necessary for survival, but diversions nonetheless.

Yuki… she was dead, died fighting against Killer B, died a hero's death. Now… now I was once more Kaguya, the once and future goddess of this world.

The silence pressed close, broken only by the drip of water from the wounded tree. I turned slightly, feeling the air itself yield around , bowing in deference to the chakra that rolled off my form.

I took a single step forward, and the forest seed to recoil, every blade of grass bending as if afraid to cut against my robe. As I walked, I willed my chakra to move, and behind , the area filled with my blood and clothes burst into fire.

Burning away the last proof of Yuki being here, the evidence that Yuki had survived.

Away walked soone greater, stronger, and free.

With my newfound strength, I didn't fear running into anyone. Didn't need to keep a low profile. Few could threaten now, not even Killer B could do that.

The difference between Yuki and … it was night and day.

Chakra… chakra was the key to power; it was what divided shinobi from civilians. Skill did matter, but no Genin could kill soone like the first Hokage of Konoha; he was too strong.

And the source of this strength was two-fold: chakra and blood.

My blood, my chakra.

And now… it was starting to return.

Double the blood, triple the chakra, it pushed my strength firmly into the level of an S-rank shinobi, a Clan Lord, a kage, or whatever asure one used. I was at the very top… and that was just perfect, for my plan required it.

And as the mist curled through the trees and the blindfold's silk tightened against my brow, I whispered the na I had chosen to carry into this new life — a na that belonged to no clan, no village, no man.

"Kaguya-hi."

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