Spy

The moment Sanada fell, a brief silence settled over the battlefield.

The campfire still crackled, and the night wind still stirred the treetops.

But everyone stopped what they were doing as one and looked at the boy standing in the moonlight. His Tachi was back in its sheath, the hem of his clothes was stained with Sand Ninja blood, and his expression was unusually calm.

It was hard to believe, but the battle was over.

Then cheers erupted.

"We won!"

Someone pulled off his Forehead Protector and raised it over his head, his voice so hoarse it nearly cracked. The young ninja of the medical team climbed to their feet and grabbed one another by the shoulders. Some laughed as they secretly wiped away tears.

Several ninja assigned to guard them leaned against tree trunks and let out long breaths, reaching for their canteens with trembling fingers.

When the Sand Ninja had surrounded them, everyone had prepared to die.

But now, the young medical-nin with a sword had driven the Sand Ninja back all by himself.

Hizashi Hyuga stood in front of the defensive line, his Byakugan deactivated.

He watched Baiye walk back from the battlefield at an unhurried pace, as though the fighting had been nothing more than routine training. He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but in the end he only let out a long breath and relaxed his shoulders, which had been tense for so long.

Then he felt utterly ashamed.

The Third's instructions before they set out came back to him.

[If things reach the point of no return, take Gekkō Byakuya alone to Kikyo Castle.]

He had thought he was being saddled with an extra burden...

A bitter smile tugged at his lips. Protect Baiye and help him escape if they ran into danger?

Hadn't Lord Third thought too highly of him? What could he have done when the boy had moved through the Sand Ninja ranks as though no one were there? Before his Gentle Fist had even touched a third enemy, Baiye had already taken down more than a dozen. If they really faced a crisis that even Baiye couldn't handle, what use could he possibly be?

Or perhaps?

Another possibility suddenly occurred to him. Perhaps even the Third himself did not fully understand Baiye's true strength.

Maybe this was what a top genius was like: his strength grew so quickly that even Lord Hokage couldn't keep up.

Hizashi Hyuga's thoughts were still wandering amid the joy of victory when he suddenly felt a chill shoot up his spine.

Someone was attacking from behind!

The faint swish through the air was almost indistinguishable amid the crackling of the campfire and the distant cheers. But the killing intent was too close, so close that he could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.

Another enemy? Why was he so close? His Byakugan wasn't active, and there was no time to form Hand Seals. Before his body could even react, his brain had already reached a conclusion.

He couldn't dodge it.

If he were part of the Main Family, if he had learned Rotation—

Before he could finish the thought, he felt as though he had plunged into a bottomless pool of ice water. The cheers around him suddenly receded into the distance, and the light of the campfire dimmed. All that remained was the path of that cold killing intent piercing into his back, as clear as an established fact that had already come to pass.

He gave up struggling.

"Bakudō #4: Hainawa."

The voice was still far away when it began, but by the time the last syllable fell, it was right in front of him.

Hizashi Hyuga felt something wrap tightly around his waist, and an irresistible force yanked him forward. He tumbled halfway over in midair and slammed into the ground, his shoulder striking loose stones hard enough to draw a muffled grunt of pain. The restraint vanished the moment he landed.

I'm alive.

He rolled over and saw Baiye standing where he had just been. Baiye held a poisoned Kunai between two fingers, its tip less than three inches from his chest.

The hand gripping the Kunai was covered in bulging veins. Its owner wore the standard vest of a Konoha Chunin and a Konoha Forehead Protector on his face. His eyes were full of madness and hatred, nothing like the calm an experienced ninja should have shown.

Asakura. Asakura of the communications squad.

"Asakura? Why?"

Hizashi Hyuga climbed to his feet, unable to hide the shock in his voice.

He had known Asakura for years. During the Second Shinobi World War, they had been stationed at the same camp. Asakura had handled battlefield communications while Hizashi had scouted the front lines, and they had worked together no fewer than ten times. Asakura was a Konoha native, born and raised. His parents ran a grocery store in the village, and his son had just been accepted into the ninja academy that year.

"After I killed you all, I could have gone back to Sunagakure!"

Asakura didn't look at Hizashi Hyuga. He stared fixedly at Baiye, the madness of a man driven into a corner burning in his eyes. "Why does a monster like you exist? Why?!"

"What are you talking about?" Hizashi Hyuga stepped forward, his white eyes full of disbelief. "What do you mean, go back to Sunagakure? You're a Konoha ninja!"

"Shut up! You Konoha scum! Your good days won't last much longer!"

Hizashi Hyuga was about to press him further when he saw Baiye turn to look at him and gently shake his head. Then Baiye struck the back of Asakura's neck with a precise, restrained chop of his hand.

Asakura's eyes rolled back, and he crumpled to the ground. The poisoned Kunai slipped from his hand, and Baiye kicked it away. It landed on the sandy ground a few steps away.

The cheers in the camp had stopped. Everyone was looking their way, their faces still bearing traces of joy at their victory and sudden confusion. Two medical-nin who had been sorting supplies stopped what they were doing. A Chunin on guard instinctively took a few steps forward, then stopped.

"Gekkō..."

Hizashi Hyuga looked at Asakura lying on the ground, his voice low. "He can't be from Sunagakure. His parents are both from Konoha too. I've known him for more than ten years."

"Is that so?" Baiye crouched down and swept his Reiatsu Detection over Asakura's head. The unnatural fluctuation in his soul was still there—as though someone had twisted something deep in the man's consciousness, leaving a slight crease in what had once been a smooth fluctuation.

"Then it should be the Mind Puppet Manipulation Sand Technique."

"What?"

"A Ninjutsu that can alter a person's loyalty. It implants false memories and a false object of loyalty in the target's brain, then seals those memories. Normally, the target is no different from anyone else. Even sensor ninja and memory probes have trouble detecting it. The sealed memories only return when the technique is released. Has he ever been captured by ninja from another village?"

"No..." Hizashi Hyuga shook his head instinctively, then suddenly froze. His white eyes widened slightly, and his expression turned even worse than when he had been ambushed.

He remembered something. "During the Second Shinobi World War... he went missing for two days. He came back alone two days later and said he'd gotten separated from his unit on the battlefield. Intelligence checked his memories at the time and found nothing unusual. We thought he'd just been lucky and escaped disaster."

He lowered his head and looked at Asakura's familiar face, which now seemed so unfamiliar. "That was years ago."

Baiye said nothing.

He had actually noticed the ninja from the communications squad long ago. Ever since the day they set out, Reiatsu Detection had picked up a subtle anomaly in the man's soul.

He just hadn't been sure what the anomaly meant at the time.

Now it seemed that from the moment they set out, the Sand Ninja had known every step of their journey and every time they had evaded pursuit. It wasn't that the scouting squads had been lucky; someone had been passing information out all along. Looking back, the ambushes they had "just happened" to avoid seemed more like traps meant to let them through.

It wasn't until this final battle that the Sand Ninja had stopped holding back, because Asakura no longer needed to stay hidden.

"Can he be restored?" Hizashi Hyuga asked.

"Let's take him with us for now. Once we reach Kikyo Castle, we'll have Lady Tsunade take a look."

Baiye stood and glanced at Asakura, who lay unconscious on the ground. "The technique has been released, and the seal in his brain is already gone, but his warped will won't change back. It probably altered part of his brain's structure. Once we reach Kikyo Castle, we should have a suitable environment to operate."

Hizashi Hyuga nodded. "I'll have him tied up and held separately."

He turned to instruct the guard squad to deal with Asakura, but after two steps he stopped and looked back at Baiye. "Gekkō, thank you."

Baiye had crouched down to check Asakura's pupils. He looked up at Hizashi when he heard him. "Just doing my job."

Hizashi Hyuga said nothing more. He went over to the guard squad and began quietly arranging the details of Asakura's confinement. Two Chunin lifted Asakura, sealed his Chakra with sealing tags, and carried him into the tent at the innermost part of the camp.

Baiye stood in the moonlight, watching the camp grow busy again. The medical team's ninja had recovered from their earlier shock and begun changing the wounded's dressings again.

Baiye looked away and went to sit by the campfire. He laid his Tachi across his knees and closed his eyes to rest. Reiatsu Detection remained active, covering the entire camp. Asakura's soul fluctuations gradually steadied in the tent, and everyone else's were within the normal range.

At least there wasn't a second spy in the team.

After making the arrangements for Asakura's confinement, Hizashi Hyuga glanced at Baiye from the other end of the camp. The boy sat by the campfire, its light falling across his profile, his expression as calm as though nothing had happened. Hizashi realized that, without noticing it, he had already begun to look in Baiye's direction before making decisions.