The night the Kumo delegation arrived in Konoha, another presence slipped into the village—unseen and unknown.
It wasn't easy to sneak into Konoha; it was, without a doubt, the best-protected of the great shinobi villages.
Not only did it have multiple clans skilled in tracking and sensing, but it also had the great sensing barrier: a sealing array that tracked chakra signatures entering and exiting, allowing Konoha to be notified of everyone coming and going.
That was why the best way to get inside was either with inside help—or with space-time ninjutsu.
Even Pain had tried to work around the barrier when he invaded, and even he had still been detected, even if it was pointless due to how overwhelmingly powerful he was.
I, too, didn't want to be detected. I wasn't as strong as Pain, and I didn't want to kill my way out either. So I had to figure out how to get past that obstacle.
Now, I did have the Flying Thunder God Jutsu—a tool that would allow me to get past the barrier without being found out—but despite how useful it was, I rarely used it.
And it wasn't just because I didn't have markers everywhere, but because that ninjutsu wasn't made for someone with the Byakugan. The way those two worked together really caused some serious motion sickness. It wasn't enough that I couldn't use it, but I would never be fighting the way Minato did.
No, I did think about using that ninjutsu, but in the end, I decided against it, as it would make it impossible to see where I entered—and I did want to leave some traces. After all, if Konoha investigated what happened here tonight and found no clues, they would start getting suspicious.
If they couldn't figure out how someone entered and left, then they would begin considering other means, such as space-time ninjutsu.
And that wasn't something I wanted connected with me.
Any user of such techniques was far more valuable than any normal S-rank shinobi; they were second only to Jinchūriki in value, and I didn't want to deal with the headache of being wanted that badly.
I had managed to deal with most of the great villages, at least getting them not to hunt me down openly.
Well, except for Kiri—they still wanted me captured or killed—but as long as I stayed away from the Land of Water, they were limited in what they could do.
Not to mention that they had their own problems, further limiting what they could send after me. As far as I knew, only one team of hunter-nin was still waiting for me to show myself, led by the Kaguya clan themselves.
Since they were so eager to cause me problems, it was only fair that I, in turn, caused them some problems. Wasn't it?
So rather than teleporting into Konoha, I used one of the secret entrances—those made by Danzō for his Root. Some I had long since scouted out thanks to my Byakugan.
It wasn't like he didn't add protections to prevent someone from finding and using them, but how could that stop me?
When it came to ninjutsu, I knew them all. I had even mastered multiple elemental kekkei genkai over the years.
And the sealing arts—I knew better than any living Uzumaki, not that it was a high bar to clear these days.
Given that the only ones I knew of were Naruto, a three-year-old child; Karin, a four-year-old child; her mother; and Nagato.
Yeah. Not a lot of sealing experts among those.
But even in the entire world, I—who had spent decades upon decades watching the Uzumaki clan—had long since mastered their skills, because I knew that seals were the one thing that could stop me.
Threaten me.
So naturally, I sought to master them all.
Which made it all but trivial to sneak past Danzō's seals and into Konoha.
This was the first time I had been here since I left. And much had changed; the most eye-catching of them all was Minato's face carved in rock, overlooking the village.
How long had that even been done before Minato's death?
Poor Kushina. She didn't deserve such a fate. She was a good friend.
As my Byakugan allowed me to see all of Konoha at once, I had to admit, I saw many old friends—many people who had once mattered a lot to me.
Including my parents…
Yuki's parents had both survived the war and had moved back into the small house I—Yuki—had been born in.
Was it because they had been forced to after I faked my death? Or because they couldn't stand living there on their own?
I was in no hurry to act. I was already tracking the Kumo delegation, so I would know when it was time.
Honestly, it was hard to imagine this kidnapping ever working. I had once been a member of the Hyūga clan, and as Hiashi's future wife, I knew a lot about the inner workings of the clan.
Including many of its defenses.
The Hyūga clan didn't blindly trust that the village would keep them safe, and with how large the clan was, having a few branch members as guards at all times wasn't hard.
So the question remained: how did someone sneak into the well-defended compound, evade every Hyūga who might possibly have their Byakugan active, sneak into the Clan Head's home—the most well-defended place in the entire compound—and get out while carrying a child?
It made no sense to me that someone could pull that off. Much less someone whom Hiashi could kill with one attack.
Yes, the Gentle Fist is deadly, and very dangerous, and Hiashi is very strong—not quite S-rank, but elite jōnin for sure.
Still, anyone he could kill that easily couldn't be more than a tokubetsu jōnin, and even I—an S-rank kunoichi with intimate knowledge of the clan compound—didn't think I could pull this kidnapping off.
At least not without using the Flying Thunder God Jutsu.
Sure, I could likely force my way in, grab Hinata, and force my way back out. It was possible that Konoha in its current state wouldn't be able to stop me—not unless Might Guy got serious.
But the sneaky act of Kumo, which Hiashi only discovered by chance?
No chance.
It was unrealistic. A pipe dream.
So that left the question: how did they pull it off?
I was curious, and so I remained at the edge of the village—outside the Byakugan range of the Hyūga clan—and watched, eager to see what would happen.
The Kumo delegation was relatively large, though not all that impressive; it wasn't what most people would expect from such an important delegation. It didn't have anyone overly important in it.
This was an important matter, yet from the people Kumo sent, it was clear they didn't take Konoha seriously at all.
It was a slap to the face, but Hiruzen swallowed the insult; he needed peace. Konoha needed it.
Still, the delegate team clearly had none that seemed strong or skilled enough to pull off what I knew was coming.
There was also the question of whether it was preplanned—or if they acted because they had an opportunity.
Both were options.
They hadn't sent anyone overly important, so they risked losing little even if Konoha decided to get tough.
And they also didn't have anyone overly powerful—someone who had a real chance of pulling something like this off.
So yes, both options were possible.
For hours, nothing happened—well, nothing relevant anyway.
Yet it soon became clear that Kumo was up to no good from the very start.
But that wasn't enough; they clearly needed an opportunity if they wanted to act on their desires.
"Danzō," I muttered as I watched things play out.
Members of Root moved out from one of Danzō's hidden bases, and through a series of interactions between dozens of different people—some likely spies—two things happened.
For one, the delegation was informed of something, likely a rare opportunity, one too rare—too valuable—to pass up.
And the second thing: the same Root shinobi went off to the Hyūga clan.
While I was rather good at reading lips, these shinobi were clearly trained to avoid that—a common enough skill—which meant I wasn't entirely sure what they discussed.
But I could infer what happened.
They were opening a hole in the Hyūga clan's defense.
Few people could tell the difference between Root and normal ANBU, and ANBU was a special force answering only to the Hokage—which meant that Danzō could easily trick a few clueless branch members into doing what he wanted.
I also suspected another order had been given, once more reminding the Hyūga clan that they weren't supposed to use their Byakugan inside the village.
Though everyone knew they did—and just liked to pretend they didn't, for their own peace of mind.
However, it was likely that, for politeness's sake, they would tone it down for a day or two after being reminded.
Which seemed to be the case.
Back when I lived in Konoha, there had always been many who kept their Byakugan open at any time—always hundreds, or at least dozens, at any point in time.
Now, only one or two would use them once in a while, making for plenty of moments where no one watched the compound.
This didn't happen by chance.
Danzō arranged for it, and it wasn't hard to imagine why.
Danzō clearly wanted war; he fully believed Konoha could defeat Kumo, and if the peace failed and a war started, that wouldn't look good for Hiruzen.
Giving him a chance to take the Hokage seat—or that was likely what he thought.
It was clever: the kidnapping of the heir to one of the largest clans in Konoha, the stealing of one of its kekkei genkai. The Byakugan was a crime worthy of starting a war.
It was something that should have started a war, but he could never have imagined that Hiruzen would be too focused on peace—that he would force the Hyūga clan to stand down.
Still, things wouldn't go like that.
Not tonight.
Not if I could help it.
I watched as things played out, as the Kumo delegation got ready to act, and then I moved into position myself.
(End of chapter)
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