The Only Road to Death

"How dare you ignore me!"

The red-haired giant, brandishing a large club, caught up with Neji and shouted, "Is this how you treat heroes?!"

Neji stopped and stared coldly at the arrogant fool before him. "... A hero?"

"That's right! The Hero of Konoha! It's me!"

The burly man puffed out his chest and proclaimed the long list of titles in his loudest voice, "I am the son of the Fourth Hokage! The disciple of the Fifth Hokage! The successor to the Golden Flash!"

"Uzumaki Naruto!"

Neji's eyelids began to twitch uncontrollably.

That feeling of frustration welled up in his chest, stuck in his throat, and gave him an urge to do something. He hadn't felt this way in many years.

But now, he's really angry, really angry.

That's strange.

Neji spoke up again, "If you are Naruto, then who is the Naruto currently in Konoha?"

The burly man's smile froze on his face.

"Wh... what?"

His eyes darted around, trying to salvage the situation. "I already told you I'm on a classified mission! How could an ordinary person like you know my whereabouts!"

As he spoke, he leaned forward, trying to use his height advantage to create a sense of intimidation. He was much taller and more muscular than the young man in the white kimono in front of him; if he could intimidate the other man, he might be able to scare him away.

He lowered his head, looking down at the other person.

Then he saw those eyes, those eyes he hadn't really noticed before, yet they were so clear they were almost blinding.

Pure white eyes, without pupils.

The big man broke out in a cold sweat.

That's the Byakugan, the Kekkei Genkai of the Konoha Hyuga Clan Konoha, Dojutsu renowned throughout the entire Ninja World.

This guy... is Konoha Ninja?!

The burly man felt a chill run up his spine and straight to the top of his head. His hand gripping the club trembled slightly, and his back was soaked with cold sweat.

My luck is just too bad! I randomly stopped someone and ended up stopping the Hyuga Clan of Konoha?

what to do?

Two thoughts flashed through his mind like lightning.

My first thought was to keep bluffing.

What if this guy has never seen the real Uzumaki Naruto? What if he's only heard of him but doesn't know the real person? If we can intimidate him and get him to hand over the money, then we can run away with it and never show our faces on this road again.

The second thought was even more ruthless and dangerous.

If this guy really had seen Uzumaki Naruto, then there was no way he could hide it from him. Those Byakugan had already seen the flaw in his Forehead Protector, already seen his guilty conscience. If he got away, and went back to Konoha and told everyone about it—

A fake son of the Hokage.

Impersonating a disciple of the Fifth Hokage.

If this gets back to Konoha, will the real Ninja let him off the hook? Will those who uphold the village's honor allow an imposter to swindle and deceive people outside?

He dared not think about it, but he knew that if it really came to that, he would be completely finished.

Therefore, there is only one way.

If bluffing doesn't work, then it's right here...

Kill him.

The burly man gripped his large club tightly, a fierce glint in his eyes.

Neji Hyuga, of course, had no idea that the burly man was plotting to kill him to silence him.

He had no interest in knowing.

He just wanted to subdue the guy as quickly as possible and then hand him over to the local law enforcement. Impersonating Ninja and robbing someone on the street—these two charges combined were enough to put him in jail for a while.

Neji raised his hand, preparing to adopt the Gentle Fist to counter the opening move.

"What an ignorant fool!" the burly man continued shouting, trying to mask his guilty conscience with his loud voice.

"How could an ordinary Konoha Ninja like you possibly understand my mission! You don't even acknowledge the hero who protects your territory!"

"A mission?" Neji's voice remained calm.

"That's strange. Not long ago, Uzumaki Naruto and his fiancée Uchiha Satsuki, just got married. He should be on his honeymoon right now. Why would Konoha assign him any missions?"

The big man's smile froze again.

"Huh? This..."

His eyes darted around rapidly, his brain working at breakneck speed. "That's definitely... a more important task than the wedding!"

He finally managed to utter a sentence, his voice rising several decibels, "I bear the weight of the entire world's safety on my shoulders!"

Neji was truly speechless.

Why is this guy so self-righteous? Why can he project someone else's identity onto himself without any shame? Doesn't he know what kind of person the real Naruto is?

... And her hair was still red! She should have put more effort into the disguise.

"Then tell me," Neji put his hand down, "What is this so-called mission?"

"This..."

Fine beads of sweat began to appear on the burly man's forehead. He racked his brains, trying to come up with a believable reason, a reason that this Hyūga Clan boy in front of him could believe.

Got it!

"Alright! If you want to know, I'll tell you!"

He straightened his chest and shouted in the loudest voice.

"My mission is to investigate the [Ember] organization!"

The rumors he'd heard over the years, the snippets of information about that mysterious organization, flashed through his mind. Although he'd never met any member of that organization, or even known where they operated, that didn't matter—what mattered was that the name was terrifying enough.

"To completely eradicate this scourge of the Ninja World! That rat hiding in the shadows!"

His voice grew louder and louder, more and more self-righteous.

"Destroy [Menma]! Destroy that organization! That's my mission!"

He thought with satisfaction that this name would surely intimidate this Hyūga Clan kid. Who didn't know how terrifying the [Jin] organization was? How impressive it would sound to say he would destroy that organization, how much like a true hero.

However.

The next moment.

The big man suddenly shuddered.

He saw a pair of eyes, pure white eyes, with bulging veins around them, and dense blood vessels distributed around the eyes like a spider web.

That's the sign of the Byakugan being activated at full power, the posture of the Hyuga Clan when they're ready to fight with all their might.

But what made him tremble was not those bulging veins.

It's what's in those eyes.

murderous look.

An overwhelming, tangible killing intent.

The young man, who had been as calm as ice just moments before, now exuded a suffocating aura of oppression. His Byakugan burned with a furious rage that seemed to want to tear people to pieces.

It was as if he were his greatest enemy.

"What... what did you say?"

Neji's voice was very soft, so soft it seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth, and the suppressed anger inside made the big man's lips tremble.