"…I see." Neji exhaled. So his earlier thoughts hadn't been wrong after all.
Which meant… venting his hatred and resentment onto Hyūga Hinata had been a mistake?
Of course it was!
The real culprits were the Main House, the ones who made those decisions.
They were the ones who turned his father into a scapegoat.
Thinking this, his expression grew complicated as he glanced sideways at Hinata.
But to his shock, he found the young lady bowing her head deeply, as if too afraid to look anyone in the eye.
Neji: "???"
…
"Phew!"
Elsewhere, an exhausted Sarutobi Hiruzen finally returned to the Hokage's office. Letting out a heavy sigh, he slumped into his chair and rubbed his brow. "Calming a ten-year-old child is more tiring than dealing with dozens of official documents…"
When he thought of that child's ordeal, a shadow crossed his eyes.
Thankfully—
Under Keizumi's Sharingan genjutsu, she had temporarily forgotten what had happened.
Perhaps in the future, by some twist of fate, she might recall it. But by then, she would already be grown, her mind stronger, less likely to do something foolish.
Just then, a knock came at the door.
After steadying himself and saying, "Enter," an ANBU stepped inside smoothly, bowed his head, and reported, "Hokage-sama, the envoys from Amegakure have arrived for their exchange with Konohagakure."
Hiruzen blinked.
He furrowed his brow, thinking carefully—yes, there had indeed been such a matter.
It was a request from the daimyō of the Land of Rain, an attempt to ease tensions and deepen ties between the two villages. Mitokado Homura had approved it, and Hiruzen hadn't considered it significant enough to intervene.
Then Hiruzen suddenly asked, "If they were just ordinary envoys from Amegakure, there would be no need for the ANBU to report directly to me, would there?"
The ANBU nodded. "That's correct. We identified the leader of the delegation. Although he wore a gas mask to conceal his face, a unique weapon gave him away."
"He carries the Executioner's Blade of Kirigakure. Judging by his height and build, there's a ninety percent chance he is one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist—"
"—Biwa Juzo!"
Hiruzen's brows shot up. "One of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, Biwa Juzo… if I remember correctly, he already betrayed Kirigakure and became a missing-nin."
"For him to appear among Amegakure's envoys—and even lead them—does that mean he's joined Amegakure?"
The ANBU asked, "Hokage-sama, should we report this intelligence to Kirigakure?"
"No need."
Hiruzen shook his head. "For now, Konoha doesn't require friendship with the Bloody Mist, and it would only antagonize Amegakure."
At that, the ANBU fell silent.
…
At the same time.
Konohagakure's main gate.
"Looks like I've stumbled on some rather serious intel." From the hollow of a tree hidden beneath thick leaves, a grotesque White Zetsu emerged. One of its eyes peered through the gaps in the foliage, fixing on the Amegakure shinobi gathered not far ahead.
In particular, its gaze lingered on the figure of Jūzō, masked by a gas respirator.
White Zetsu's arm sagged down like a branch, slowly stretching until it touched the earth, then seeped into the soil, linking itself with the tree's root system.
Through the tangled network of roots, groundwater, and organic matter underground, it swiftly relayed the information to a much more distant point.
In less than ten seconds, far away—who knew how many kilometers—the eyes of "Zetsu" narrowed. Mid-stride as it rushed toward Konoha, it suddenly slowed.
Beside him, Uchiha Obito frowned and halted as well, displeasure in his voice. "Why are we stopping?"
"Obito."
Zetsu spoke. "My guess was right. Konan has grown suspicious. She sent a new member of Akatsuki into Konoha, trying to secretly gather intelligence on Uchiha Keizumi. Or rather, she may be after secrets that concern you and me."
Obito froze for a moment. "How could she know there are secrets about us tied to Uchiha Keizumi?"
After half a second of silence, Zetsu replied, "From the moment you tried to use Akatsuki's resources to investigate him, Konan likely pieced it together."
"And besides—" Zetsu sighed inwardly with helplessness, "—I already explained something like this to you last time."
"For now, we have three priorities."
Zetsu went on, "First, the original plan doesn't change. We still target that brat, Uchiha Keizumi. Second, if Akatsuki's new member uncovers anything, we attempt to draw him to our side. If that fails—he dies. Third, we find a way to eliminate Uchiha Keizumi."
"We're just twenty kilometers from the Land of Fire's border," Zetsu cautioned. "Do not use Akatsuki again to probe into him. Doing so only risks exposing information that must remain hidden."
"…Tch!" Obito snorted coldly. "That woman just stumbled onto it by sheer dumb luck."
Zetsu sighed again in his heart.
If it were Uchiha Madara, even in the face of a misstep, he would never cling to such stubborn, hollow pride.
Obito was still far from being Madara.
…
"A strange gaze…" Jūzō narrowed his eyes, staring at the treetop just ahead.
"Tch… an ANBU from Konoha?"
His wariness rose. This was their territory—if something happened, even as a former elite jōnin of Kirigakure, escape was far from guaranteed.
After all, this was the village that produced that man.
Memories of the Third Shinobi World War surged up—the near-extermination of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen at the hands of mere Konoha genin. A flash of dread flickered through Jūzō's eyes, impossible to forget.
He drew in a deep breath, forcing away the wandering thoughts.
What mattered now was the mission entrusted to him by that woman.
"Uchiha Keizumi…"
As Jūzō was still pondering how to approach the notorious "Lava Release Beast," a sudden voice caught his full attention.
—"Izumi, should we have Keizumi come handle this case?"
Keizumi?!
Jūzō turned his head discreetly. Not far to his left, two kunoichi from Konoha were speaking.
He heard one of them, with the Uchiha crest embroidered on the back of her clothes, reply, "This kind of case is fine for us to handle. If every case required Keizumi-senpai to intervene personally, our own [Justice] would never grow."
"Of course, we'll still send a ninja cat to report to him. And we'll need his directive of justice regardless, since this case involves a shinobi clan."
Jūzō grew thoughtful.
Expressionless, he said to one of the Amegakure shinobi beside him, "Go on ahead and meet the Hokage. I'll come later."
The Ame-nin hesitated. "But…"
Before he could voice his question, Jūzō cut him off: "If the Hokage asks about me, tell him I'm interested in Konoha and wanted to look around a bit first. And tell him—if he doesn't trust me, if he's worried I might cause trouble here—he's free to send ANBU to shadow me."
Faced with Jūzō's increasingly sharp gaze, the Ame-nin broke into a sweat, not daring to ask further.
"Yes!"
…
Not long after leaving the Sarutobi compound, Uchiha Keizumi received word from a ninja cat sent by Izumi about the case they had uncovered that morning.
"Keizumi-sama! Tachibana Jirō-sama! Uchiha Izumi and Mitarashi Anko, the two rookies, discovered that members of the Aburame Clan are using outsiders to cultivate some very unusual insects. And because of this, lives have already been lost."
A tortoiseshell-patterned ninja cat rattled off the report in a rapid voice.
"Meow? The Aburame Clan?" Tachibana Jirō muttered. "That clan is famous for its caution and meticulousness. If someone among them really committed such a crime, they'd never leave us the slightest trace of evidence."
Clicking his tongue, Tachibana Jirō added, "The rookie must have sent a ninja cat not just to report to Keizumi-sama, but also to seek his judgment on how to deal with it, right?"
He smirked with mock pride. "Without her 'Tachibana Jirō-sama' guiding her, she's still far too green, meow."
Keizumi ignored Jirō's inexplicable smugness.
Instead, he addressed the tortoiseshell cat: "Tell her, if the culprits cooperate with the investigation, follow proper procedure. If they refuse—kill them on the spot, then take them to the Yamanaka Clan for memory extraction."
"Meow! Yes, Keizumi-sama!"
The tortoiseshell cat departed as swiftly as it had come, hurrying back to find Anko and Izumi.
Repeating Keizumi's directive word for word, it left Anko a bit wide-eyed in shock.
Izumi, however, found it perfectly normal. "Come on, let's head to the Aburame compound and arrest the murderers!"
Anko still struggled to adjust to such a ruthless, uncompromising method.
However—
Perhaps only by such ruthless means could the sins of the shinobi world be restrained.
After all, the outcome of relying on lenient methods and laws was already plain to see—leniency only indulged evil, allowing it to flourish and grow stronger.
With that thought, the faint unease in Anko's heart dissipated like smoke.
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