Hiashi's Death

Hizashi stepped slowly out of the Hokage's Office, only to find the light before him far too dazzling, making his vision go dark for a moment.

Then his sight gradually returned, like thick colored ink spreading across a black cloth.

He stood there motionless for a long while, yet his mind remained unable to settle.

"Hey, Hizashi."

Someone called out to him from nearby. Turning his head, he saw an acquaintance from the village.

An unnatural look flickered across his face. He took a deep breath and smiled. "Harutaka."

Harutaka walked up and made small talk. "I heard you ran into enemies during yesterday's mission."

"Yeah. We encountered some Mist Ninjas on the way back, and Renji was killed too."

At the mention of death, the conversation immediately grew heavy.

Harutaka sighed, then patted Hizashi's shoulder.

"Renji won't have died in vain. We'll avenge him."

"We definitely will."

Hizashi then asked, "Did you come here for something?"

Harutaka smiled. "I came to report to the Hokage."

"Then hurry on in. Don't keep him waiting."

"Alright. See you."

After parting with Harutaka, Hizashi could not help looking back toward the Hokage's Office. It seemed as though someone in the office high above was watching him.

Hizashi did not use his Byakugan to look. He silently turned and left.

But after only a few steps, he ran into another familiar person.

He immediately stepped forward and bowed. "Lord Orochimaru."

"Hizashi."

Hizashi's emotions stirred, but he forced himself to remain calm as he asked, "Did Lord Orochimaru come to see the Hokage?"

A cryptic smile rested on Orochimaru's lips. "I seem to have found some clues regarding the spy. I came to discuss it with Teacher Sarutobi."

"That's a serious matter."

"It is indeed a serious matter, one concerning the village's future. Hizashi, are you prepared?"

Hizashi was slightly stunned upon hearing this, unable for a moment to understand what Orochimaru meant by prepared.

But after a brief consideration, he answered, "Lord Orochimaru, I have always been prepared."

Orochimaru gave a faint laugh, ignored him, and walked straight past him.

Hizashi felt his heart pounding fiercely. He bowed to Orochimaru again, then hurried away.

It was a gloomy night.

As agreed, Hiashi arrived in a forest ten kilometers outside Konoha.

The sound of a river flowed beside him. Hiashi kept his Byakugan activated, vigilantly watching everything around him.

Suddenly, a cluster of firelight appeared.

Someone emerged from the depths of the forest holding a torch. Hiashi's expression changed slightly, because before that firelight appeared, his Byakugan had seen nothing at all.

There were fewer than five abilities in the shinobi world capable of blocking the Byakugan's vision!

"Hiashi, who are you waiting for?" the other person slowly asked. The familiar voice and familiar face made Hiashi's pupils contract sharply.

Orochimaru!

He was dragging an unmoving person in one hand, seemingly a corpse, with an Iwagakure forehead protector tied around his brow.

A terrible premonition rose in Hiashi's heart. Instinctively, he knew something was wrong.

"Lord Orochimaru..." he tried to speak.

"Hiashi, why did you betray Konoha?" Orochimaru asked, a smile still hanging at the corner of his lips.

Whoosh—

A cold wind swept over him, carrying bone-piercing chill through the silent forest.

Hiashi's expression changed instantly. "Lord Orochimaru, you cannot make such accusations lightly!"

Panic began to rise within him. He even wanted to turn around and flee back to the village right now, but the person before him was Orochimaru!

"Oh?" The smile on Orochimaru's face deepened.

"Didn't you come here to secretly communicate with this Stone Ninja? Fortunately, I caught you. When you saw that your scheme had been exposed, you tried to resist. Left with no choice, I had to kill you both."

"I came here..." Hiashi cried out.

But his words abruptly stopped halfway through, and cold sweat instantly broke out across his body.

He remembered that note, that kunai, those Byakugan...

It was a trap. A trap!

Several more veins bulged at the corners of Hiashi's eyes. He could clearly hear his own heartbeat and breathing as he pushed his Byakugan to its limit, rapidly sweeping his gaze around the darkness.

"Don't waste your effort. The air here contains a special Chakra dust I made. The Byakugan's vision is useless here."

Orochimaru spoke again, saying words that filled him with despair.

How could he escape? The other side was Orochimaru...

Hiashi forced himself to calm down. "Lord Orochimaru, why are you doing this?"

Orochimaru replied unhurriedly, "Because what I intend to do requires your life to pave the way."

"The spy in the village... was that you?"

"Oh my, you guessed it." Orochimaru sounded surprised, followed by a hoarse, sinister laugh.

"Then I certainly cannot let you live."

Hiashi hurriedly said, "Lord Orochimaru, I can keep this secret!"

Orochimaru smiled darkly. "Of course you can keep it. Besides me, there should be no one in this world capable of making the dead speak."

Hiashi's heart sank further, but he still refused to give up. "Lord Orochimaru, what do you want? Consider those Byakugan a gift from us. Whatever you need, you may ask. The Hyuga Clan will do everything in our power to satisfy you, and we will fully support your succession as the Fourth Hokage!"

He knew he could not possibly be Orochimaru's match, and the chances of escaping were pitifully low. He could only try to stall for time and bargain with him.

Yet his words only drew even more unrestrained laughter from Orochimaru.

"As expected, everyone is the same, Hiashi." Orochimaru's voice was hoarse. "Why fear death so much? Do not see death as the end. You will live on in my shadow, and perhaps one day in the future, I may even summon you back from the Pure Land to the Living World."

Listening to Orochimaru's madman-like words, Hiashi understood only one thing: Orochimaru was absolutely determined to kill him!

"Was there any need to say so much to him?"

Just as Hiashi's thoughts raced, another voice suddenly rang out in the forest.

It was a thin, small figure, slowly emerging from the darkness. Only by the light of Orochimaru's torch could Hiashi make him out clearly.

Shin.

Hyuga Shin!

Hiashi's eyes nearly split open, and endless regret filled his chest.

For an instant, he considered activating the Caged Bird Seal. But when he saw Shin's exposed forehead, bare of any forehead protector, his heart plunged into the abyss.

A variable. A variable! This was the variable!

I should have killed him long ago!

During the previous mission, he had thought Shin would die at the hands of the Mist Ninjas and had not acted. Now, his heart was filled with nothing but boundless regret.

Orochimaru gave another low laugh. "Don't you want to say something to your former clan head?"

Shin said indifferently, "I have no interest in speaking to a dead man."

He raised his head and glanced at the moon hanging in the night sky.

A lone cold moon hung overhead.

"The people from the village should be arriving soon."

He took the torch Orochimaru handed him, held up its light, then turned and walked back into the darkness from which he had come.

Hiashi immediately stopped hesitating. He turned around and fled swiftly toward the village.

The smile at the corner of Orochimaru's lips gradually faded, and his figure vanished into the night as well.

Tree shadows stretched askew.

The night grew darker, the forest quieter, and the wind colder.