Leaving the Village

A week later, at the village's main gate.

A girl carefully arranged Hyuga Kagami's gear.

Her pale eyes showed that she, like Hyuga Kagami, was from the Hyuga Clan and around his age. Yet her delicate brows were faintly furrowed, and her pretty face was filled with worry.

Hyuga Kagami, gazing at Hokage Rock in the distance, smiled. "Don't worry. It's just a routine reassignment."

The girl nodded slightly, then took a new pair of Goggles from her waist pouch and handed them to Hyuga Kagami.

Hyuga Kagami glanced at her without saying much, then placed the Goggles in his own pouch.

Hyuga Kagami had begun wearing Goggles long ago, just like Obito. The lenses on his were darker, more like sunglasses.

He did so not only to protect his eyes, but also to conceal his identity as a member of the Hyuga Clan on the battlefield and avoid becoming a target for enemies. More importantly, it would conceal the Tenseigan he might possess someday. After all, the Tenseigan and the Byakugan differed somewhat in appearance.

The girl was clearly worried that the old Goggles on Hyuga Kagami's head would break and that he would be unable to find replacements at the border, so she had bought him a new pair as a spare.

Just then, a middle-aged ninja not far away waved his hand and called out, "Time's up. We should get going."

Hyuga Kagami patted the girl's shoulder. "Rin, I'm leaving. Don't worry about me. Maybe I'll be back soon."

Rin nodded gently, but she could not hide the concern on her face.

Finally, Hyuga Kagami looked once more toward Hokage Rock in the distance.

Konoha had been the biggest loser in the turmoil caused by Orochimaru's defection. Orochimaru had defected, and Jiraiya had pursued him. Thus, all of Konoha's Three Sannin had left the village!

Orochimaru had lost the village's support, but he had also freed himself from its restraints. He had gotten what he wanted, so it was neither a win nor a loss.

Danzo, who had absorbed most of Orochimaru's forces, had undoubtedly become the greatest winner. Hyuga Kagami even suspected that through this absorption, Danzo had obtained some of Orochimaru's human experimentation results, laying the groundwork for his future theft of the Sharingan and First Hokage Cells.

However, none of that mattered to Hyuga Kagami now.

The village's upper ranks had reached a consensus. All of Orochimaru's former subordinates who, like Hyuga Kagami, had not been absorbed into Root would gradually be reassigned to border regions.

Put simply, they were being exiled to the frontier, far from the village!

After joining the middle-aged ninja, Hyuga Kagami assessed his companions.

Including himself, there were twelve ninja in total, divided into three squads. Aside from the three squad leaders, the remaining nine members were all former subordinates of Orochimaru.

Their destination was a border outpost at the junction of the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind.

The moment they left the village, Hyuga Kagami activated his Byakugan and became fully alert, as though entering a war zone.

He was not making a fuss over nothing. He had learned a painful lesson only a few months earlier, when he had been attacked less than ten li from the village. The entire team escorting wounded soldiers back from the front had suffered devastating casualties. Had the Jonin reinforcements from the village not arrived in time, his name would likely have been on the Memorial Stone by now.

The brutal war had taught Hyuga Kagami many things. Although the war had now become a thing of the past, some habits were difficult to change overnight.

Hyuga Kagami was not the only one on guard. After leaving the village, the other ninja traveling with him also became vigilant without prior agreement, with only one exception.

Glancing at the small, thin figure trailing at the rear of the group, Hyuga Kagami sighed softly.

If there was anyone in the village least willing to believe that Orochimaru had defected, it was undoubtedly Mitaraishi Anko, who walked behind Hyuga Kagami!

Almost overnight, Mitaraishi Anko had fallen from being a disciple of one of the Sannin and a rising star of the village to a prisoner. After weeks of confinement, she had been exiled to the border alongside Hyuga Kagami, completely removed from the village's center of power.

Her vacant eyes and numb expression alone made it clear that she still found it impossible to accept that her teacher, Orochimaru, one of the Sannin, had betrayed the village.

The collapse of something so close to faith might never heal, even over the course of her lifetime.

After withdrawing his gaze from Anko, Hyuga Kagami carefully examined the ninja traveling with him.

Of the twelve, only the middle-aged squad leader was a Jonin. The other eleven, including Hyuga Kagami and Anko, were all Chunin. This team could be considered reasonably capable in battle. As long as they did not encounter an ambush squad composed entirely of Jonin, there would be almost no safety concerns along the way.

Besides, the war was over. The chances of enemy Jonin appearing within Konoha's territory were minuscule.

Sure enough, just as Hyuga Kagami had expected, they encountered no trouble along the way and arrived safely at the border outpost.

After settling into the outpost, the group of twelve was officially divided into three squads. Hyuga Kagami, Anko, and a Chunin named Oda were assigned to the Jonin squad leader's team.

The Land of Fire and the Land of Wind did not directly border each other. Small countries such as the Land of Rivers and the Land of Rain lay between them, but in practice, those small countries offered little separation.

The border outpost where Hyuga Kagami was stationed was responsible for a stretch of border about forty li long. One end bordered the edge of a forest, while the other opened onto an endless sea of sand.

And so, Hyuga Kagami began a dull life of patrolling back and forth through the desert.

Time flew by, and two months passed in the blink of an eye.

All news from the village had been cut off. At the border, Hyuga Kagami was like a man isolated from the world, endlessly cycling through patrols, guard duty, and rest.

During this time, he could sense that the Jonin squad leader had been monitoring the nine former subordinates of Orochimaru, so he behaved himself and made no suspicious moves.

He secretly guessed that such surveillance would not last long.

Even Konoha, wealthy in manpower as it was, could not afford to monitor more than a hundred ninja indefinitely. There had to be a time limit on the surveillance.

Sure enough, not long afterward, the village dispatched three new Chunin to replace the three former squad leaders, including the middle-aged Jonin.

At first, Hyuga Kagami thought the village had lifted its surveillance of them. But after observing them for a while, he discovered that all three new Chunin squad leaders were taciturn and gave off a chilling air!

These people aren't ordinary Chunin!

Hyuga Kagami quickly came to an understanding. The three new squad leaders were either Anbu or Root!

Did an ordinary border outpost need three Anbu or Root operatives serving as squad leaders?

The answer was obvious. Hyuga Kagami's thoughts immediately raced. He did not know what had happened in the village over the past two months, but he knew danger had arrived.

There was no time to lose. The Tenseigan Project had to begin immediately...