"Yugito Nii began to tremble.
Her body started shuddering at an unbelievable frequency.
"Liar... You're lying!"
Her eyes widened, tears welling in them.
"This isn't true... Mihai!"
"Mihai? A partner? Love? What a boring relationship... You obediently fell into my trap and were thoroughly used by me..."
"No~."
The Kumogakure girl felt as though her heart had been viciously squeezed, the pain beyond unbearable.
"Why... Mihai..."
At last, Yugito murmured the question in her heart aloud.
The mask had vanished without a trace.
Yet the distance between them remained, and was even widening at an uncontrollable rate.
"'Mihai' was merely a meaningless alias. I'm neither the Demon Hunter Claude nor the Kumogakure ninja Mihai..."
Those blue eyes did not evade the girl's gaze.
Hyuga Sho paused, then began to answer in a firm, unfamiliar tone.
"The former was the mask I wore to complete my collection of Dark Chakra. The latter was a flawless illusion in your heart. Neither of them represents the person standing here now."
"Whoever it is..."
"Does it really not matter who it is? But what if I'm Konoha's White Devil?"
"!"
Yugito froze, and her pupils contracted at once.
Then, the brief silence was shattered by the girl's sharp cry. "You're lying! Stop joking around!"
"Search your memories carefully. You should still remember these 'Byakugan'..."
Hyuga Sho pressed his right hand against his face.
In an instant...
He tore open a layer of skin.
Or rather...
He tore away the entire disguise of the "Vanishing Facial Copy Technique."
Revealing long black hair...
A cold, impassive face...
And... those white eyes.
Like thin, razor-sharp blades, this sight instantly cleaved the air between them.
The girl stared at Hyuga Sho's white eyes in disbelief.
As if trying to determine exactly who was standing before her.
Long-sealed memories