Hyuga Hiashi nodded in greeting to Kaede as he stepped out, but a faint sigh flickered in the depths of his eyes.
If Hiashi hadn't been able to have a child, then his son Neji might've had a chance to escape the fate of the branch family and rise to become a member of the main family.
But that possibility was now gone.
Hiashi's child had been born. Though it was a girl, as long as she lived safely to the age of three, Neji would inevitably be branded with the Caged Bird Seal and assigned to the branch family, an age-old Hyuga tradition.
Hizashi's gaze toward the inner chamber carried a subtle glint, which didn't escape Hiashi's notice.
Hiashi's eyes turned cold.
He didn't act on it, though. Smiling politely, he continued chatting with the guests. Only after Kaede had left did his expression finally darken as he turned to face Hizashi.
Kaede had also noticed the quiet tension between the brothers, but he didn't care much. If those two wanted to tear into each other, let them.
After leaving the Hyuga clan compound,
Kaede heard the voice of the Nine-Tails in his mind.
"Another one just showed up."
"You kill it?"
Kaede tilted his head slightly and started walking toward the outskirts of Konoha.
"Of course I did," the Nine-Tails growled. "Think I'd let some punk peep into my turf and live? …Hey, can you make this screen bigger and clearer?"
Whoosh! Whoosh!
A few flickers later, Kaede arrived outside the village and found the Nine-Tails lounging on an open field. At the very end of one of its tails, something white was skewered.
A White Zetsu.
Lately, White Zetsus had been trying to sneak peeks at Konoha, but every time one appeared, the Nine-Tails would sense it and swat it dead.
"This is really getting out of hand."
Kaede slapped the White Zetsu, turning it to ash with a single blow. He scowled. Lately, one of these things was showing up almost every day.
No fear of death at all. It was clearly just trying to die.
Kamikaze tactics, still the most annoying strategy whether in games or real life.
No exceptions.
Fortunately, with his "Gatekeeper Fox" stationed outside, these kamikaze scouts couldn't infiltrate the village. As soon as they got close, the Nine-Tails would sense and eliminate them.
"Relax, as long as I'm here, they so much as stick a nose out and I'll crush them like bugs. Now hurry up and help me make this thing bigger."
The Nine-Tails raised a paw and pointed.
Kaede followed the gesture and immediately darkened.
The Nine-Tails was sprawled across the field, in front of a raised stone wall. A large slab of rock blocked most of the sunlight, and beneath it was a giant projection screen.
Playing on the screen… was Rin's favorite TV drama.
And that wasn't even the worst part.
In front of the Nine-Tails' paws were carts, literal carts, loaded with rice cakes and snacks. Kaede squinted. Was it just his imagination, or had the fox gotten a bit chunkier?
"I don't know how to fix it! Go bug someone else!"
Kaede snapped. "And you seriously can't just shrink yourself?!"
The Nine-Tails' body was made of chakra. If more of its chakra stayed within Kaede, then its external form would shrink proportionally.
"If I cut my size in half, my sensory range drops. Then the White Zetsu can get closer to the village and gather intel."
The Nine-Tails gestured with a claw for emphasis.
Kaede sighed. "Fine. Shrink by half or maybe two-thirds. I'll have the Hyuga clan set up a sensor perimeter on that side to cover the gap."
He had considered pulling all of the Nine-Tails' chakra inside and leaving only a small portion out, maybe a fox no bigger than a person, but the Nine-Tails had vehemently refused. It claimed such a form would destroy its dignity.
It would rather die than be humiliated.
Personally, Kaede thought a smaller, cuter Nine-Tails would probably attract more fans in the village.
Unfortunately, just as he'd started planning that, the daily White Zetsu raids had begun. Since Kaede spent most of his time training or doing things he actually enjoyed, he didn't have the time to stand guard himself. That job had to go to the Nine-Tails.
"Shrink by half, huh?"
The Nine-Tails thought it over. Half-size was barely within its limits of tolerance.
And so, with Kaede's help, part of its chakra returned to Kaede's body, and the massive beast rapidly shrank to half its former size.
"…Are you drinking?" Kaede suddenly frowned and pointed to a different cart, filled with bottles. "Who gave you that?"
The Nine-Tails lazily replied, "Some white-haired shinobi… what was his name… forgot. That guy had the nerve to tease me, said he'd find me a mate or something… so I smacked him across the mountain."
"…That explains the report I just got, Jiraiya got sent flying across the hills."
Kaede rolled his eyes.
Serves Jiraiya right. Who in their right mind teases a thousand-year-old single fox?
The Nine-Tails turned its head and glared suspiciously at Kaede, sensing malice. "Hey. What are you thinking?"
"Nothing. Just keep watch."
Kaede shook his head, leapt into the air, and headed back to the village. He returned to Hiashi and made arrangements to build a few more watchtowers on Konoha's far side.
=============
Meanwhile,
Land of Rain.
Raindrops pelted down steadily on a rooftop. Uchiha Obito stood at the edge, wearing a conical hat, gazing down at the hidden village below with brooding eyes.
This was the new Amegakure, rebuilt by Nagato. It had grown into a sizable village, composed of former Akatsuki members and surviving Rain ninja.
Silently, a White Zetsu emerged beside him.
"No good," White Zetsu said. "We can't get into Konoha at all. That Kaede guy is using the Nine-Tails to guard the place, it's insane…"
Obito turned to Black Zetsu. "Should we focus on capturing the other Tailed Beasts instead?"
"That's possible," Black Zetsu said slowly, "but not advisable. Even if we capture them, we can't hold them. Besides the Three-Tails and Nine-Tails, there are still seven more. We can't capture them all before Kaede reacts."
"If Kaede comes after us and takes back a few of the beasts, and worse, gains control over them, there's no way to recover from that."
Obito frowned deeply. "Then… do we have no choice but to wait for Nagato to grow stronger and resurrect Madara before we move together?"
"That seems to be our only option."
Black Zetsu shrugged. "Or we keep building Akatsuki's strength and find a chance to strike the other seven beasts all at once, before Kaede can respond. He doesn't know the significance of the Tailed Beasts. That might give us an edge. If we can resurrect the Ten-Tails, we'll finally have the power to challenge him."
Kaede's strength was overwhelming. Even Obito, with all his abilities, couldn't hope to defeat him, especially now that Kaede controlled the Nine-Tails.
Obito didn't want to resurrect Uchiha Madara.
He wanted to shape the world with his own hands.
His only advantage now was that Kaede lacked a dōjutsu. That meant he couldn't decipher the Uchiha clan's stone tablet or uncover the connection between the Rinnegan, the Ten-Tails, and the Sage of Six Paths.
That ignorance was his one chance.
"For now, just keep having White Zetsu scout Konoha. One bit of intel is better than none."
==========
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