Chapter 39: Zetsu Appears
The only ones with a motive to assassinate him were the people from Konoha.
However, killing him would easily spark a conflict between the two great villages. Hiruzen Sarutobi might have wanted him dead, but his soft nature would prevent him from taking such a drastic step.
Danzō, on the other hand, was a different story.
He lived by the mantra "everything for Konoha." He could bring Neji's body back to the village, reopen the old case, and use it to finally unseat Hiruzen and take his place.
He had plenty of reasons to want Neji dead. And his Root organization was perfectly suited for such a task. Its members were all brainwashed, emotionless tools who would carry out his will to the letter. Most importantly, they were all marked with the Tongue-Cursing Seal. Capturing one alive was impossible. And preserving a body to use as evidence against Danzō was equally unrealistic.
If the operation was exposed, there would be no evidence left behind. Even if Neji told the Fourth Raikage what had happened, without concrete proof, A would be unable to act on his behalf.
"Such a powerful sealing jutsu," Neji mused. "Was it inherited from the master of forbidden jutsu, Senju Tobirama? Or stolen from the Uzumaki clan? Or did Danzō develop it himself?"
Sealing jutsu were not only useful for controlling subordinates; they could also be effective in combat. Neji was briefly impressed, but not envious. He had something better.
He picked up the severed arm, placed it in a storage scroll, and then, locking onto the direction the cloaked man had fled, he gave chase.
The cloaked man had lost a lot of blood. By the time he reached the foot of the mountain, he was slowing down, stumbling, on the verge of collapse.
Swoosh!
Several figures emerged from the shadows, blocking his path.
Aburame Torune looked at him, his voice cold. "Puppet, you're in a sorry state."
"Hmph." The cloaked man snorted in displeasure but didn't argue.
Torune had found him and presented him with a direct order from Danzō. He had no choice but to obey.
He had been undercover in the Hidden Cloud for years and was a cautious man. His original plan for the assassination had involved both himself and Torune, with at least fifteen elite Root ninja as backup. With that kind of force, they would have had a chance of escaping even from the Jinchūriki of the Two-Tails.
But Torune had rejected his plan.
Perhaps because he had been undercover for so long, Danzō had begun to doubt his loyalty. Torune's mission was, in part, a test. And so, he had only been given four men as backup.
Torune then noticed the man's severed arm, a flicker of surprise in his eyes. It's only been a few years. Hyūga Neji is only six. Has he really grown so strong? For the sake of Lord Danzō, he must be eliminated.
Torune collected himself and glanced at a smaller Root ninja beside him. "This one may be a useless failure, but he can't die here. Take him and treat his wounds."
"Yes, sir!"
After the medical-nin had led the cloaked man away, Torune looked at the silent forest. "Initiate the backup plan," he said, his voice low.
Neji raced through the forest. After a short while, his Byakugan's vision returned. He scanned the three-kilometer radius, but there was no sign of the cloaked man.
He got away?
With a severed arm, his movement should have been impaired. To have disappeared so quickly, he must have had help.
"Huh?"
Neji knelt down and picked up a fallen leaf with a single drop of blood on it. He followed the trail for a while, finding more traces of blood on the tree roots and in the grass.
He stroked his chin, deep in thought.
Was he in such a hurry to retreat that he didn't have time to cover his tracks... or is this a deliberately laid trap to lure me in?
But this was the Hidden Cloud. He had no reason to back down.
"Heh." Neji let out a small laugh. He took a signal flare from his pouch and fired it into the air.
Swoosh! Poom!
The flare exploded, and he knew that a patrol team would be here soon.
After a moment's thought, he didn't wait. He placed a kunai on the ground, its tip pointing in the direction of the blood trail, and then continued the pursuit alone.
The trail grew fainter and fainter. He had to stop several times, and he couldn't find the cloaked man.
Instead, a Kumo patrol team, following the marker he had left, caught up to him.
Neji glanced at the three shinobi in their standard combat gear, their short tachi strapped to their backs. He surreptitiously looked at their left arms.
They were all intact.
"Did you fire the signal flare?" the team leader asked, his expression grave as he looked at Neji's pure white eyes.
Neji had kept a low profile in the village, and very few people had ever had direct contact with him. But the team leader had heard of him.
"I was attacked by a mysterious cloaked man on Mount Kumokumo a short while ago," Neji said succinctly. "I cut off his left arm and have been tracking him ever since."
"Let's go," the team leader said, taking a sharp breath. The precious Byakugan had been attacked. If the assailant had succeeded, the village would have suffered a great loss. He knew that asking for more details now would be a waste of time. The priority was to catch the mysterious man as soon as possible.
Long after the four of them had left, a Venus flytrap-like plant emerged from the ground. In the center was a strange man with a face that was half-black and half-white.
"Hee hee hee," White Zetsu giggled. "So that's the little Byakugan brat that was kidnapped by the Cloud two years ago?"
"Yes," Black Zetsu's voice was a harsh rasp. "He's only six this year. I didn't expect him to already be a ninja."
"Tsk, tsk," White Zetsu said, his voice cheerful and carefree. "Not only did the Fourth Raikage not raise him as a breeding stud, but he even made the Jinchūriki of the Two-Tails his sensei. Does the Byakugan really have that much potential?"
"It does."
White Zetsu was taken aback. "Hah hah! Zetsu, since when did you learn to tell jokes?"
"Hmph." Black Zetsu snorted, not bothering to explain.
The Byakugan was the power of the Ōtsutsuki clan. Its potential was even greater than that of the Sharingan. In the early days of the Warring States Period, the Hyūga, along with the Senju and the Uchiha, were acknowledged as the strongest shinobi clans. The Hyūga had even produced masters who were on par with the reincarnations of Asura and Indra. For example, Hyūga Tenjin from three hundred years ago. That man had taken the Giant Tenseigan and gone to the moon, dealing a heavy blow to the Ōtsutsuki clan. It was because of him that the shinobi world had enjoyed three hundred years of relative peace.
But the glory of the Hyūga was a thing of the past. The Byakugan's potential was limitless, but to truly unlock it, one needed the blood of the Ōtsutsuki. And since the time of Hyūga Tenjin, the Ōtsutsuki bloodline in the Hyūga had declined precipitously. Now, the Byakugan was nothing more than a reconnaissance tool.
Of course, that was exactly what Black Zetsu wanted to see. He hated the Senju, the Uchiha, and the Hyūga with a passion. That bastard Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo and his brother Hamura... those parasites should all be in hell. What kind of son would do that to his own mother?
Black Zetsu pushed the thoughts from his mind. "The mission is what's important. Let's go," he said, his voice a low hiss.