"Humble room, plain tea. Forgive the lack," Kokugetsu said.
"Not at all. Tastes no worse than the tea my brother drinks," Hyuga Hizashi replied with a smile, setting down his cup.
"Heh? Is that so?" Kokugetsu chuckled, then grew serious. "Back to business. What does Clan Head Hiashi intend?"
"My brother doesn't plan to pursue it further. However…" Hizashi trailed off.
"However, the main-house elders refuse to let it go," Kokugetsu said, half-smiling.
"Yes. My brother hasn't been clan head long. His authority isn't yet absolute," Hizashi explained.
"All right. I understand.
"Do me a favor and tell those elders this: if they want to play, we'll play. But if they lose, they don't get to run crying to someone else."
"Oh, they'll certainly have the chance to complain," Hizashi said.
The boy's voice was calm, but the self-assurance in it was unmistakable, and Hizashi couldn't help wondering.
On what basis?
As if reading his thoughts, Kokugetsu said, still smiling, "Curious why I'm so confident."
"I am," Hizashi admitted.
"Unfortunately, that's my secret. I can't tell you. Not yet."
"Understood. I haven't told you more than I had to either."
"You know," Kokugetsu said, surprised. "You shouldn't, unless you're the one carrying it out."
"I know a little. Not the specifics. My brother doesn't either," Hizashi said. He guessed the elders would likely hire bounty-nin, since the grand elder had mentioned it before.
"Fair enough."
"Be careful. They're harsher than my brother and I," Hizashi warned as he rose. "I'll take my leave."
"Mhm."
When Hizashi had gone, Kokugetsu drained his cup, flipped his left hand, and an ANBU mask appeared. He slipped it on. Behind the mask, his black pupils shifted to dark eyes threaded with faint gold, and he vanished.
Using the divine art to shrink himself to motes of dust, Kokugetsu lifted off, slipped through the window's gap, caught up to Hizashi, and settled on his shoulder.
Reclining on that shoulder, staring up at the bright sky, Kokugetsu's lips curled. His eyes were cold.
Strike first to gain the advantage; strike late and you suffer.
He wasn't afraid of the elders' schemes, but it was best not to let them unfold at all. Waiting and countering wasn't his style.
Let's hope you're cautious enough. If not, you'll die before your plan ever begins.
Through Hizashi, he slipped once more into the Hyuga compound and began searching for the main-house elders.
With Byakugan of his own, he locked onto all three quickly.
Of course, using telescopic and penetrating vision so freely inside the Hyuga compound meant stumbling on the occasional scene unfit for children. Fortunately, he was no child.
One elder was cautious. He had six branch-house shinobi posted in every direction, probing sky, ground, and the four corners. The other two were not so careful; aside from routine guards, they'd added no one.
Kokugetsu didn't fly straight in. Though he'd stilled all chakra ripples, the Byakugan could magnify to the microscopic. A serious sweep would catch even a dust mote.
He chose to ride in on a female house servant.
Branch-house guards would never sweep a main-house woman's body with Byakugan.
When the woman finished warming the tea and left the study, Kokugetsu slipped soundlessly behind the elder and returned to full size.
"Hm?"
Hands, cool against his skull.
The second elder, midway through tea and books, started to turn, but there was a sharp crack and a lance of pain in his neck, and the world went black.
After finishing him, Kokugetsu took a little more time and did the same to the other careless elder.
He was about to risk a move on the most cautious elder when a shrill, soul-tearing scream split the air.
Kokugetsu glanced toward the sound. It came from the first elder's residence.
"Hmph. Lucky old fox. Live a little longer."
In the shadowed garden, a tiny black-red spiral of space opened. Kokugetsu stepped through and was gone.
Back home, he immediately ate to replenish himself and restored his chakra.
Shrinking himself with that god-technique cost far more than shrinking lifeless matter. He had used it more than once and maintained it for a long stretch, then opened a space-time gate. More than half his chakra was gone.
The scream brought guards, then family, then the clan's leaders.
Before long, the third elder's body was found too. Both corpses were carried before Hiashi, the grand elder, Hizashi, and the others.
As the hall boiled with demands for vengeance and the wailing of kin, the grand elder's face was stone. He turned and strode into the inner room.
Hiashi followed. The grand elder's gaze was cold and fixed on him.
"We hadn't even acted. How did he get word and move first?"
The thought kindled his fury. Not only for his dead comrades and the boy's insolence, but for brushing so close to death himself. If not for his own caution, he might be a cooling corpse already.
"To keep things controlled, I sent Hizashi to warn him," Hiashi said, embarrassed. "But we don't know your plan, so there was nothing to leak.
"Who could have guessed he was so ruthless and quick to repay a slight. The moment he heard, he struck."
"Hmph!" The grand elder snarled, face iron-dark. "You are truly a fine clan head for the Hyuga. Biting the hand that—"
"Watch your mouth," Hiashi snapped. "I warned you.
"If you hadn't been stubborn, would it have come to this?"
With two elders dead and their factions leaderless, a lone grand elder didn't frighten him.
The old man choked, then glowered darker still. "So your wings have hardened. You dare—"
"At my age, they should be," Hiashi said.
"You—"
"Two senior Hyuga lie dead. He must die, and without a grave to claim him."
With that, the grand elder rose and swept out.
Watching him go, Hiashi smiled to himself without a sound.
From what Kokugetsu had shown—his stealth, his killing, his ruthless decisiveness—it wasn't clear who would die first.
If one Byakugan leaking out bought him unchecked power with no more shackles, then three dead elders might not be a bad thing at all.
When the sandpiper and clam fight, the fisherman profits. This time, perhaps he could win by doing nothing.
Buoyed by the thought, Hiashi went to oversee the funerals.
He didn't realize that with the three elders gone, the main-house versus branch-house conflict would now be borne chiefly by him, with other main-house members taking the lesser share. If Hinata's affair played out as it once had and there were no grand elder to play the villain, what choice would he make?
The funerals were handled quietly. The official line was sudden illness. No notices went out.
During the rites, Kokugetsu watched from the dark and saw the last old man guarded like a fortress by men and women both. Assassination would be brutally hard. Harder than a frontal kill, in fact.
He sheathed his blade for the time being.
A thief can steal for a thousand days, but no one can guard for a thousand. With time, they would slip.
No need to rush. Rush, and you give them a handle to seize. Then you leave Konoha.
Leaving Konoha was possible, but not for something this small.
When his leave ended, Kageyama Kokugetsu led his squad out of the village on assignment.
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