Daimyo Manor, study.
Chiba Ran listened to the messenger's report, and his expression froze for an instant.
The hand holding his teacup stopped in midair.
Even Minamoto, the butler standing nearby, sensed the sudden silence in the room.
After finishing his report, the messenger repeated Minato Namikaze's question.
"Then... what about the selection of consorts? Did the Daimyo not mention it?"
Chiba Ran blinked, his mind turning before he finally connected those two completely unrelated matters.
Then he felt something absurd.
An indescribable sense of absurdity nearly made him spray out the tea in his mouth.
"You mean..." Chiba Ran's tone was strange. "The people of Konoha, including their Fourth Hokage, all thought I was pressuring the Hyuga before because I wanted their family to hand over a woman?"
The messenger lowered his head, not daring to respond, but his silence was answer enough.
Chiba Ran was completely speechless. He raised a hand and rubbed his brow.
He remembered clearly that the edict for selecting consorts had been issued to the entire Land of Fire.
Its true purpose had been to use the opportunity to pressure and sift through the old nobility, to see who was loyal and who harbored ulterior motives, while conveniently reshuffling power.
As for Konoha...
From the very beginning, he had prepared only two choices for Konoha.
One concerned the future: the Genius Cultivation Plan.
The other concerned the present: the Guardians of the Twelve.
Those two choices were the means he intended to use to win Konoha over.
Selecting consorts?
At most, that was a political reality show for ordinary people to watch.
When had he ever treated such a trivial matter as a test of Konoha's loyalty?
Did he need to use such a lowly method to covet a pair of Byakugan?
Ridiculous!
Now that he thought about it, the Uchiha Clan's feverish enthusiasm was probably the beginning of this massive misunderstanding.
Once they moved, the Hyuga moved, and the other shinobi clans followed...
As a result, all of Konoha had fallen into the bizarre atmosphere of the Daimyo wanting to snatch the Shinobi World's beautiful young women.
At that thought, Chiba Ran could not help laughing.
"Heh heh..."
The laughter was soft, yet it made both Minamoto and the messenger's scalps prickle.
"It seems I overestimated them."
Chiba Ran muttered to himself, his tone carrying helpless self-mockery.
"I thought they truly had backbone. I never expected their thinking to still be stuck in the primitive stage of fighting over people and territory."
Shinobi were still shinobi, after all.
Their worldview was tightly bound by bloodlines, ninjutsu, and clan inheritance.
Asking them to understand political games at a higher level truly was asking too much of them.
In the future, every edict had to be worded rigorously. Every word had to be broken down and explained clearly. There could be no more phrasing that might cause misunderstandings.
Chiba Ran reflected on his own mistake.
Although this misunderstanding had done no real harm and had even provided an entertaining spectacle, it had indeed slowed the plan's progress.
He did not like that feeling of inefficiency.
"Enough."
He waved a hand, regaining the majesty of a ruler. "Go back and tell Minato to relay my exact words to the Hyuga Clan."
"Tell them to stop wasting their thoughts on useless things."
"I have no interest in watching them perform some tragic drama. I only want to see results."
"Yes, my lord!"
As if granted amnesty, the messenger bowed and withdrew.
Chiba Ran raised his teacup, took a light sip, and gazed into the distance.
A bunch of idiots.
Hyuga Clan estate.
The atmosphere was oppressive.
Hyuga Hiashi sat formally in the seat of honor, his eyes bloodshot.
Several elders of the Main Family sat on either side, each wearing a grave expression.
When Minato Namikaze entered the room, everyone inside turned to look at him.
"Lord Hokage."
Hyuga Hiashi's voice carried the resolve of someone with nothing left to lose.
"If you are still here because of that matter, then please leave."
"My Hyuga Clan would rather shatter like jade than survive in disgrace!"
He thought the Daimyo Manor had sent Minato to deliver its final ultimatum.
However, Minato Namikaze merely looked at him quietly, his expression complicated, sympathetic yet deeply awkward.
"Hiashi," Minato Namikaze said. "I am not here because of the selection of consorts."
Hyuga Hiashi's tone remained stiff. "Then what is the Fourth Hokage here for?"
Minato Namikaze ignored Hyuga Hiashi's bold declaration and explained the Daimyo's true intentions.
Finally, he added, "If the Daimyo Manor does not receive your reply within three days..."
"Officials from the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Internal Affairs will personally come to your door."
His words fell.
The entire room went silent.
Everyone was stunned.
They had imagined countless possibilities: threats, inducements, or even troops being sent to surround and destroy them.
Yet they had never imagined it would be this.
Hyuga Hiashi's mouth opened and closed as he asked instinctively, "That's... all?"
"Then what about the selection of consorts?" an elder could not help asking. "The Daimyo... no longer wants our clan's Byakugan?"
That question immediately gave Minato Namikaze a strange expression.
He looked at the Hyuga clansmen, who were acting as if they faced a formidable enemy, and finally could not hold it in any longer. He let out a long sigh.
"I think all of us got it wrong."
Minato Namikaze spoke helplessly. "From beginning to end, the Daimyo never connected the selection of consorts with your Hyuga Clan."
"He does not care whether you send someone over, and he cares even less about your Byakugan."
"That edict was meant for the entire country to see."
"Whether Konoha participates or not is completely unimportant to him."
Uh...
The Hyuga clansmen present felt their minds buzzing, rendered speechless.
Hyuga Hiashi's face, taut with determination, froze instantly.
He... what had Minato said?
He did not care about the Byakugan?
It was unimportant?
Then the struggle they had staked their entire clan's lives on...
The Kekkei Genkai they had been willing to protect at any cost...
The crisis of extermination that had kept them awake at night...
He was saying it had all been a misunderstanding?
Hyuga Hiashi's head buzzed, and the world spun around him.
Then what surged into his heart was not humiliation, but overwhelming ecstasy.
The sword hanging over the Hyuga Clan's heads had simply vanished?
That sword had never existed in the first place!
All along, they had been frightening themselves!
The relief was so intense that Hyuga Hiashi's tense muscles instantly gave out, cold sweat soaking through the clothes on his back.
But what followed was endless lingering fear and shame!
Because of a foolish misunderstanding, he had nearly buried the entire Hyuga Clan with his own hands.
The Hyuga's proud perception, that caution etched into their bones, had become a joke at this moment.
The Daimyo had never set his sights on their Byakugan.
Yet they had nearly sacrificed everything over it.
At the thought that his own misjudgment had nearly led them down a dead end, Hyuga Hiashi's knees went weak.
Only pallor and shame remained on his normally dignified face.
At last, he understood.
The Genius Cultivation Plan...
The Guardians of the Twelve...
Those were what the Daimyo truly wanted!
He did not want a woman or a pair of eyes.
He wanted the Hyuga Clan's wholehearted loyalty!
That very afternoon, Hyuga Hiashi sent two lists to the Hokage's Office.
One was the Hyuga Clan's application for the Genius Cultivation Plan, bearing the names of nearly every member of the Hyuga's younger generation.
If he had not yet been childless, and if his younger brother's children had not still been so young, he would have wanted to include their names in the application as well.
The other was a list of candidates for the Guardians of the Twelve. Hiashi wrote down his younger brother's name: Hizashi Hyuga!
With the most thorough attitude possible, the Hyuga Clan offered up its loyalty.
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