Stealing the Sealing Scroll

November 3, Konoha Year 53

Hyuga Kei and a group of the Hokage's trusted subordinates—Kakashi, Tenzo, Ameyuri, Zo, Sei, Rinkaku, and others—received a secret mission at the same time: proceed to Konoha's Sealing Room and protect the seals during an inspection.

It was a massive undertaking. Every sealed cabinet needed to be unsealed and resealed. These tasks could not possibly be left to just a few squads; that would be far too slow and would instead give the enemy time to react.

That was where Hyuga Kei and the other Anbu came in. The Sealing Force ninja applied the unsealing technique to their hands.

This sped up the process. They were responsible for clearing out the old seals, while four Sealing Force ninja were responsible for sealing the items again.

Many of the items inside were eye-opening to Hyuga Kei: Sealing Scrolls containing the claws and fangs of mysterious beasts, Sealing Scrolls recording incomplete Forbidden Jutsu, and more.

The greatest contributor among them was Tobirama Senju's forbidden techniques. He had succeeded with many of them, but failed with even more. Those incomplete forbidden techniques had all been sealed away here.

What Hyuga Kei cared about most, however, was Hiruko's Chimera Technique. Just as he was about to personally undo the seal on Cabinet 3/9, a tremendous explosion rang out from outside, and everyone immediately went on alert.

"Enemy attack! Zo, Sei, Rinkaku, Ushijima, come with me and intercept them!"

Several Anbu reacted with incredible speed and answered at once.

This was not one of Hyuga Kei's contingencies. He had only left a few Shadow Clones outside. It was not yet the agreed-upon time; the attack should not have begun now.

This was an attack by enemy-nation ninja.

But it suited Hyuga Kei's plans perfectly. Taking advantage of the chaos, he quickly opened the seal and activated Ninjutsu: Substitution Technique, swiftly swapping the scroll in his hand for Hizashi Hyuga's fake scroll.

Not long after several ninja set off in pursuit of the enemy, another wave of enemies attacked.

While everyone was on guard, an Anbu ninja in the room suddenly drew his blade and killed the companion beside him.

Before the remaining Anbu could react, he hurled several smoke bombs in every direction. In an instant, the Sealing Room was flooded with eye-searing smoke.

"Cough, cough, cough!" The ninja who inhaled the smoke broke into violent coughing they could not control, their eyes burning too badly to open.

Within the haze, Hyuga Kei only felt a figure swiftly pass by his side.

An Anbu from the Yamanaka clan endured his coughing and shouted, "Don't resist! I'll use Mind Transfer Jutsu to have everyone use Typhoon Sweep!"

Hyuga Kei understood in an instant. He relaxed his mind and allowed that ninja to perform the technique.

His consciousness felt as though it had been brought up into the stands. He lost control of his body and could only watch himself form hand seals.

Boar—Rooster—Goat.

"Wind Style: Typhoon Sweep!"

A fierce gale instantly rose within the Sealing Room and blew away all the smoke.

Hyuga Kei wiped his eyes and forced them open through the stinging pain. The sealed cabinet before him was already empty, and the fake Sealing Scroll he had placed there had been taken.

Looking around at the other sealed cabinets, he saw that many of the unsealed items had also been stolen.

A squad leader immediately stepped forward. "No one moves! Don't pursue the traitor. Anyone who leaves will be treated as a defector!"

He suspected there were still spies among them and did not dare let anyone leave, lest they escape amid the chaos.

At once, no one dared pursue the traitor. They all remained where they stood.

Not long afterward, Anbu Captain Commander Shinnosuke Sarutobi arrived belatedly to take charge of the situation, accompanied by several ninja from the Interrogation Squad and Reconnaissance Squad.

"Everyone whose name is called will go to the room next door for questioning. You may only leave if no problems are found."

"Miyagawa Higashi!"

"Here."

One ninja stepped forward and left with an Interrogation Squad ninja, while everyone else quietly waited for their names to be called.

This matter was far too serious. It meant that there was actually a spy among the Hokage's trusted subordinates. Anyone who had risen to such a position had undergone layer upon layer of screening.

Meanwhile, the Reconnaissance Squad ninja began examining the scene for traces.

Hyuga Kei also had his doubts. What method would they use to identify the spy? Would his actions be discovered?

And he did not know whether this sudden incident was a blessing or a curse.

"Kakashi!"

"Here!"

"Tenzo!"

"Here!"

Several of Hyuga Kei's companions were called away for questioning in turn.

"Hyuga Kei!"

"Here!"

Hyuga Kei left the Sealing Room and entered the simply assembled interrogation room next door. Inside sat Anbu Captain Commander Shinnosuke Sarutobi and numerous interrogation ninja.

"Sit." Shinnosuke Sarutobi pointed at the chair before him.

"Commander."

Hyuga Kei did not stand on ceremony. After addressing him as Commander, he sat directly across from Shinnosuke.

"This test is simple. I ask, and you answer. Yes or no."

Hyuga Kei glanced at the interrogation ninja around him and understood their methods. Naturally, they would not directly peer into the memories of ninja from their own village; such techniques could potentially turn someone into an idiot.

This was merely the simplest form of lie detection.

"Have you betrayed Konoha?"

Hyuga Kei answered without hesitation, "No."

"Have you ever acted against Konoha's interests?"

"No."

"Have you had any contact with today's traitor?"

"No."

When the members of the Interrogation Squad all shook their heads to indicate that Hyuga Kei was not a problem, Shinnosuke said, "All right. You may leave."

Hyuga Kei nodded, rose to his feet, and turned to leave.

"Stop." Shinnosuke Sarutobi suddenly spoke.

"What is it, Commander?" Hyuga Kei slowly turned back, his heart rising into his throat.

"Would you mind showing me what is stored in the Sealing Scroll on your back?"

Hyuga Kei nodded and placed the scroll from his back onto the table in front of Shinnosuke. "Of course."

Shinnosuke opened the scroll and revealed its four nodes.

They were labeled "Anbu," "Clothes," "Food," and one blank node.

The moment Shinnosuke released the seal marked "Anbu," a large number of Shuriken and Kunai appeared on the table. When he opened the two nodes marked clothes and food, many changes of clothing and packaged food appeared.

No prohibited items appeared. Shinnosuke carefully sealed everything back into the scroll.

He handed it back with both hands and apologized for his suspicion. "Sorry."

"It's all right. You were only conducting a routine inspection." Hyuga Kei took back the scroll and slung it over his back again.

After leaving the Sealing Room, Hyuga Kei felt as though he had entered another world. In truth, he had nearly been exposed during that interrogation.

However, Hyuga Kei had experience from his previous life. The lie-detection technique used by those ninja merely judged whether a person was lying through subtle details such as endocrine responses.

Others might not have known how it worked, but Hyuga Kei did. Using the Hyuga clan's chakra control techniques, he could precisely control every organ in his body and truly lie without changing expression.

And in the end, Shinnosuke Sarutobi had not discovered the Sealing Scroll sealed within the hidden compartment of the Great Sealing Scroll—the one containing the Sealing Scroll.

Let this other world experience the true terror of nested dolls!

Hyuga Kei had learned this trick from smugglers in his previous life. When it came to experience and knowledge, he could utterly crush the entire ninja world.

Hyuga Kei headed home when a flood of memories suddenly surged into his mind, leaving his body exhausted.

His Shadow Clones outside had released themselves. Originally, Hyuga Kei had left three Shadow Clones outside only in case he found no opportunity to swap out the Sealing Scroll inside.

If he had not dispelled the Shadow Clones by the appointed time, he would have had them act to create the illusion of an enemy ambush.

Then he would have struck amid the chaos. But he had not expected the accident to come so quickly. Before Hyuga Kei could act, real enemies had arrived.

After digesting the Shadow Clones' memories, Hyuga Kei suddenly revealed a strange smile.

"As expected of me!"