Uchiha Keizumi had no wish to make the same mistake twice.
The tragedy of Sarutobi Sakurako—if it were to repeat—then Absolute Justice, failing to learn from its mistakes, would become nothing but a joke.
Now, the Hyūga Main House had only a few women and children left, relying on one special jōnin to barely serve as their last support.
If any Branch shinobi lost their mind and laid hands on the women and children—
A mere seven-year-old like Hinata would never survive.
And as for whether someone in the Branch might actually lose their mind?
Uchiha Keizumi was certain they would! Because in this twisted, diseased shinobi world, there were always people with bizarre thought processes, always people whose values and morals were grotesquely warped.
Harsh as it sounded, not every victim was innocent and kind—this was an answer Uchiha Keizumi had gained after witnessing countless twisted sides of human nature with his own eyes.
His cold words left Hyūga Hinata, who still had traces of soup at the corner of her mouth, momentarily dumbfounded.
Hinata, a little afraid, quietly glanced at Uchiha Keizumi.
Facing the "order" of this terrifying man who had thrown her father into Konoha's prison—
Hinata dared neither to refute nor to refuse.
Just like she hadn't dared to refuse when she was invited to eat so much ramen earlier.
"But…"
Her face written all over with conflict, Hinata clasped her hands together under the table, her ten fingers twisting back and forth. It seemed to take all the courage she could muster before she finally whispered, her voice as faint as a mosquito's buzz: "I… I can't leave Hanabi behind. She's my younger sister, five years younger than me."
"She's only two now. She still needs care, still needs someone to teach her how to live. Usually, Father took care of her, but Father has already… ah!"
Hinata startled herself with her slip of the tongue.
Her voice had grown louder, her words spilling out faster.
"I didn't mean to say anything bad about you, nor that you sending Father to prison was wrong… I just mean, I need to take care of Hanabi, so…"
"Bring your sister with you."
Uchiha Keizumi cut her off, face blank. "And bring the other women and children of the Hyūga Main House as well. Find me at Ichiraku Ramen before 8 p.m."
Hinata froze.
This terrifying man hadn't even spoken in a threatening way, yet his calm tone only made her more nervous. All the more so because this was someone even her father couldn't deal with.
Gulp.
Hinata secretly swallowed, then bobbed her head like a pecking chick.
"…Okay."
She didn't dare refuse.
"Go to school." With just those words from Uchiha Keizumi, Hinata shot to her feet as though the chair beneath her were a hot iron plate.
"Yes!" she blurted, then dashed straight out of Ichiraku Ramen toward the Ninja Academy without looking back.
To anyone watching, it was as if a man-eating beast were chasing her.
As they stared at the sight of the panicked little girl running away—
Tachibana Jirō muttered in bewilderment, "Meow, Hyūga Hiashi must've been abusing her, right? Otherwise, how could such a tiny kid possibly eat so much? How long's she been starving? Could it be she hasn't had a proper meal in a month, meow?"
Today had left Tachibana Jirō thoroughly shaken.
It shook its head. Just as it was about to say something to Uchiha Keizumi, Tachibana Jirō suddenly froze. Staring at Hyūga Hinata's figure growing smaller in the distance, his feline eyes narrowed slightly.
"Keizumi-sama…"
Tachibana Jirō said, "Looks like there's a little 'tagalong' behind that kid—and it doesn't seem to be a member of the Hyūga clan."
"A rat that's slipped into Konoha." Uchiha Keizumi rose to his feet. As he placed the ramen money on the table, he spoke slowly, eyes fixed on the conspicuous crimson frame above the man's head: "But this rat might still prove useful."
Tachibana Jirō didn't quite understand.
Then he heard Uchiha Keizumi continue: "Judging by the look of it, this is a new spy Orochimaru sent into Konoha. Someone of like mind with Orochimaru—once an unforgivable villain."
"And the evil yet to come…"
Uchiha Keizumi paused, then went on: "He's planning to help Orochimaru steal the Byakugan of the Hyūga Main House. He doesn't want survivors. He intends to kill his targets, dig out the Byakugan, and then escape Konoha."
Tachibana Jirō suddenly understood.
He licked his paw, rubbed it lightly across his whiskered face, and spoke in human tongue: "Maybe we can use him to dig out Orochimaru. Keizumi-sama has had his eye on Orochimaru for quite a while now."
…
'Huff… First, I'll use genjutsu to control Hyūga Hinata. Then, through her, I'll find her younger sister, Hyūga Hanabi. After that, I'll kill both brats outright, dig out their Byakugan, and leave Konoha.'
'Only that way can I get out safely. If I tried running off with two kids that young, I'd never get far before Konoha's shinobi caught me.'
'If, in the process, I get a chance to encounter other Main House members, I'll kill them too… The more Byakugan I bring back, the more Orochimaru-sama will value me.'
'Then I won't just be some disposable tool Orochimaru planted in Konoha. I'll become Orochimaru-sama's right hand!'
Keeping a calm face, the spy shinobi trailed Hinata from a distance, all the while plotting his crude plan.
With most of the Hyūga Main House locked in prison now, hardly anyone would be paying attention to Hyūga Hinata and Hyūga Hanabi. The odds of success looked decent.
Even though he knew such a rough plan carried a high chance of failure, if he delayed any longer, the opportunity would slip away.
Plain-looking though he was, his lips twisted into a feral sneer—a deliberate imitation of Orochimaru's own smile. "Brat, if you die, you can't blame me, nor can you blame Orochimaru-sama. Blame Uchiha Keizumi."
"After all…"
"After all, if not for me, Orochimaru wouldn't have set his sights on the Hyūga Main House's Byakugan. The odds of success weren't high. But I locked most of the Hyūga Main House's shinobi inside Konoha, giving Orochimaru just the chance he needed."
"—That's what you were trying to say."
"Isn't it?"
The sudden voice sounded from just behind the spy shinobi. Instantly, every hair on his body stood on end. His pupils contracted to pinpoints. Cold sweat streamed down his forehead in a rush, and every muscle in his body froze rigid.
'I've been exposed? Why? When? His mind flashed through question after question in the blink of an eye.'
When he spun around like a hissing, puffed-up cat, he saw the man he most did not want to see.
The spy shinobi's breath stalled.
He was nearly scared into a myocardial infarction!
"Uchiha—"
"Keizumi!!!"
…
Land of Rain.
Overcast sky drizzled rain that soon soaked Biwa Jūzō and Uchiha Keizumi's wood clone through and through.
Biwa Jūzō spat out a perfectly ordinary blade of grass he had been chewing and said, "This is the Land of Rain. Out of the three hundred plus days in a year, nearly three hundred of them it's raining. Places like the Land of Water already count as having abundant rain, but compared to the rainfall here, the Land of Water is like a place that never sees rain."
"And the Akatsuki headquarters is in the Land of Rain. Of course, you probably already knew that."
Biwa Jūzō paused, then asked, "Do you consider the Akatsuki an organization full of evil?"
"Yes."
Rain ran down to his eyes, but Uchiha Keizumi's wood clone didn't even blink.
He said coldly, "Even if we don't mention the twisted will the Akatsuki worship, simply the way they incite wars between small countries across the shinobi world and profit from them means the Akatsuki is an organization that gathers the evils of the shinobi world."
Biwa Jūzō let out a short laugh. "Should I be glad I'm only a newcomer and haven't been dragged in with them too deep? Otherwise, if this were my first time meeting you, I might already be dead?"
"Yes."
The wood clone's answer was still so frank and straightforward.
Biwa Jūzō's expression stiffened slightly.
The thrill of having one foot step over the gate of death and the other step back made him feel uneasy all over.
He thought for a moment, then spoke the intelligence he had been hiding: "That woman told me that once I return to the Land of Rain, I should go to a place she gave me, and she would wait there. I figure she wanted to guard against Uchiha Obito getting intelligence there in secret."
"Then go." the wood clone said.
…
Konoha Village.
Hyūga Hinata ran back to the Ninja Academy, breath ragged. She leaned against the wall and caught her breath for a while, sneaking a glance back over her shoulder.
When she saw that the terrifying man really had not followed her, she couldn't help but exhale in relief.
"Hey, you're that Hyūga Hinata, right?!"
The sudden voice rang not far from Hinata.
She trembled, still shaken, and turned her eyes to find two older academy students approaching—both at least a head taller than her.
They stood before her, looking down haughtily.
"…Yes."
Hinata nodded.
"Heh, I heard your Hyūga Main House all got rounded up by Uchiha Keizumi. That Uchiha plague-bringer only catches the most vicious criminals, right? Your father, head of the Hyūga, being locked up too means he must be no good!"
One academy student taunted, tapping Hinata's head hard with the paper fan folded in his hand.
"The daughter of a criminal is bound to be rotten too. Maybe one day you'll go on a killing spree in the academy and turn into some vicious murderer!"
Hyūga Hinata had already realized she was being bullied. She remembered that when she was younger, a few children from Konoha had bullied her too.
But back then, there had been someone called Uzumaki Naruto who had saved her.
Hinata instinctively tried to find Naruto's figure.
But she couldn't.
All she could do was purse her lips in grievance, not daring to lift her head to meet the eyes of the two academy students, and say softly, "I… I won't kill anyone… and I'm not rotten…"
"You saying you're not doesn't make it true." The other academy student curled his lip. "Before the truth comes out, no one can tell if a rotten seed is rotten. But you're different. Your father's rotten, so you must be too."
"I…"
Hinata's eyes brimmed with tears, and now they spilled down her cheeks. She tried to defend herself again.
But was she really not rotten?
After all, her father had already been locked up.
Yet if she were truly rotten, then why hadn't that terrifying man arrested her as well? Why had he instead arranged for her and Hanabi to be removed from the Hyūga and protected?
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