Defection Turmoil

Early the next morning, while Hyuga Kagami was training, he heard rumors that the clan head had been attacked. This also confirmed that the flesh and blood tissue Orochimaru had sent over yesterday did indeed belong to Hyuga Hiashi.

Though he had already suspected as much, the thought that Orochimaru could so casually injure the Hyuga Clan's strongest fighter left Hyuga Kagami somewhat disappointed. There had certainly been an element of surprise attack involved, but still...

From Hyuga Kagami's own experience, it was simply far too difficult for a Hyuga clansman to reach the level of the Sannin through conventional training.

Moreover, in terms of talent, Hyuga Kagami clearly belonged to the mediocre category. This was evident from the number of his activated Special Gene Sequences.

Among ordinary Hyuga clansmen, around twenty of the thirty-three sets of Special Gene Sequences were generally activated. Exceptional talents like Hyuga Hiashi could even reach twenty-eight, while Hyuga Kagami himself had only seventeen activated, clearly below the clan average.

If he continued step by step, Special Jonin might be the endpoint of Hyuga Kagami's entire life.

The Main Branch remained tight-lipped about the details of Hyuga Hiashi's attack.

Hyuga Kagami guessed that Hyuga Hiashi might have recognized Orochimaru during the attack. Orochimaru was the Third Hokage's disciple and one of the Sannin. Not only did he hold a high position, but his identity was also sensitive. Faced with such a thorny problem, the Main Branch surely had yet to reach a consensus internally, so naturally they kept silent toward outsiders.

"Orochimaru dared to attack the clan head, so he clearly wasn't afraid of exposing his identity. This confirms my guess: Orochimaru has indeed completed his preparations for defection and can make his move at any time."

After considering it briefly, Hyuga Kagami became even more convinced that Orochimaru would defect soon.

Orochimaru's defection had both benefits and drawbacks for Hyuga Kagami. The benefit was naturally the removal of a mountain pressing down on him, while the drawback was losing someone powerful who had sheltered him.

"Other than Orochimaru, everyone who knew I took part in human experiments died in the war. As long as nothing goes wrong on Orochimaru's end, the village shouldn't be able to trace it back to me."

The several people who had defected to Orochimaru alongside Hyuga Kagami had all died one after another in the war. After being transferred to the rear, because of the Byakugan's special nature, Hyuga Kagami had always conducted experiments in an independent laboratory. He had no contact with Orochimaru's other test subjects, and apart from Orochimaru himself, no one knew which project he was responsible for.

After quietly reviewing every potential danger in his mind, Hyuga Kagami resumed his morning training without showing any reaction, as though none of this had anything to do with him.

Over the following days, the village remained peaceful. Then, on the third night, an Anbu wearing a fox mask suddenly appeared in Hyuga Kagami's home and escorted him into a temporary Anbu base.

The base was located in the village's northwest corner. It covered a vast area and was heavily guarded. Hyuga Kagami alone spotted seven or eight Anbu squads standing watch.

After being led into a small single room, Hyuga Kagami frowned slightly.

The room was tiny, with no furniture or decorations whatsoever. Solid iron bars had been installed outside, and, to his surprise, an Anbu even stood guard beyond them.

Rather than a temporary base, this setup was more aptly described as a temporary prison.

There was no question that for the Anbu directly under the Hokage to mobilize on such a scale, Orochimaru must have officially defected. It might have happened today, perhaps even tonight.

Relying on the Byakugan's gifts, Hyuga Kagami calmly observed everything within the temporary prison.

Hyuga Kagami was neither among the first group of ninjas brought here nor the last. Even after him, more and more ninjas continued to be escorted in.

Without exception, every detained ninja was one of Orochimaru's subordinates. There were several hundred in total, and among them were even several Elite Jonin well known throughout the village.

Yet this was hardly strange. During the war, Orochimaru had successively commanded several units. After so many years, having several hundred former subordinates was nothing unusual. After all, the village had over ten thousand ninjas under wartime mobilization. If Orochimaru did not even have several hundred subordinates, he would not have been qualified to compete with the Fourth Hokage for the Hokage's position.

The several hundred detainees and an equal number of guards made the temporary prison increasingly noisy.

Not everyone knew the truth as Hyuga Kagami did. Among Orochimaru's several hundred detained subordinates, quite a few had no idea that Orochimaru had defected, so they showed intense dissatisfaction and indignation at being imprisoned here for no apparent reason.

Only when the Third Hokage appeared did the commotion gradually subside.

The Fourth Hokage had only recently taken office, and the Third Hokage still handled many of the village's large and small affairs. In the eyes of many ninjas, he was still habitually regarded as the Hokage.

Under the Third Hokage's direction, the screening process quickly began.

The first to undergo screening and interrogation were, without question, those powerful Elite Jonin. As for Chunin like Hyuga Kagami, who had been temporarily promoted during the war, there was no way they would be attended to anytime soon.

Three days passed in the blink of an eye.

Hyuga Kagami knew his own limits. He knew that his wartime Chunin rank had been an exceptional promotion granted to meet the needs of war, and that his actual strength was only at the level of an experienced Genin, so he would not receive much attention.

But after being detained for three whole days without anyone even asking about him, dissatisfaction slowly began to build within Hyuga Kagami.

Clearly, the village's screening process was not going smoothly. Many detainees simply did not believe that Orochimaru, one of the Sannin, would defect, and thus refused to cooperate with the investigation.

The village leadership was also divided over whether torture should be used.

After all, interrogation alone made it difficult to distinguish which detainees had participated in Orochimaru's human experiments and which were spies Orochimaru had left behind. These detained ninjas had all received strict anti-interrogation training and had just endured the crucible of war. They were no inexperienced rookies.

But once torture was used, the implications would become too great. There were not just one or two detainees, but several hundred. Torturing several hundred heroes who had just won a war for the village because of Orochimaru's defection was clearly not a wise choice.

On the fifth day of Hyuga Kagami's detention, Danzo appeared in the temporary prison.

Danzo visited the detained Jonin one by one. No one knew what exactly they discussed, but when Danzo left, he took the vast majority of them away with him.

"They were persuaded by Danzo and joined Root!"

Hyuga Kagami guessed the outcome without needing to think deeply about it.

If they could not use torture to screen them one by one, then these detained Jonin were undoubtedly the village's greatest source of instability. Thus, allowing Danzo to recruit them into Root became the village's only option.

These detained Jonin had clearly anticipated their situation in the village. As Orochimaru's former subordinates, they had little chance of being accepted by the Fourth Hokage. And the Fourth Hokage was still so young; he might hold power for another twenty or thirty years. If they did not find a patron quickly, they felt certain their days in the village would be difficult. Thus, entering Root, which stood independent of the Fourth Hokage, became their best option for the moment.

Over the following days, Root personnel also invited Hyuga Kagami to join Root, but he tactfully declined. In his view, even defecting was preferable to joining an organization like Root, which specialized in dirty work and lived under constant threat of becoming the scapegoat.

Fortunately, Root's personnel did not make things difficult for Hyuga Kagami. After he refused, they left readily.

Since the village had allowed Danzo to recruit so many detained Jonin, it would not permit him to extend his reach too far among the detained Chunin. Root's recruitment of the detained Chunin was therefore more of a formality, which was why Hyuga Kagami dared to refuse.