" Hiruzen! You've been tricked! They've been gone for ages!" Shimura Danzō was furious. He'd been having his subordinates implant a Sharingan in him and had just had a hole cut into his arm when he received Hiruzen Sarutobi's order to report to the Hokage Building immediately.
He had no desire to go, but Anbu told him the Hokage had issued a direct order: if he didn't show up, he'd be treated as a traitor to the village. Once he'd learned the reason, he'd cursed loudly in anger.
He hadn't even finished sorting through the Uchiha Clan's legacy. So many Sharingan were still soaking in jars, so many Ninjutsu remained unlearned, and a pile of confidential documents still sat in a corner of Root's warehouse. Where was he supposed to find time to play games with the Hyuga Clan?
After hurriedly wrapping a bandage around his arm, he went to Hiruzen Sarutobi and learned that the Hyuga Clan's Young Miss had been taken away. His old teammate was still in the dark and actually thought he was behind it all.
"There are plenty of ways to leave the village!" Danzō shouted, exasperated. "As long as you can fool the Ninja Dogs, suppress the chakra inside your body, and disguise yourself as an ordinary person, you can stroll right out through Konoha's gates!"
"But fooling both the Ninja Dogs and the Hyuga Clan's ninja at the same time isn't easy," Hiruzen Sarutobi said quietly, frowning.
"Ninja Dogs have sharp noses! If you cover your scent with something strong enough, they won't even want to come near you!" Shimura Danzō rapped his knuckles on the Hokage Office desk.
"As for the Hyuga Clan, ordinary people don't know this, but you do. Whether it's Hyuga Hiashi or the Branch Family's ninja, they'd all be glad to see Hyuga Hinata get into trouble!"
"I'm sorry, Elder Danzō, but Hanabi and I don't want to see the Young Miss get into trouble," Hyuga Yue said softly. She was still sitting on that sofa, holding Hanabi.
Hyuga Hanabi had just woken up. Though she was in an unfamiliar place, she wasn't panicked in the least; she was instead curious about everything. But when she learned that her sister had been taken, she began to sob.
Hyuga Yue tried to comfort her for a long while, but couldn't stop the little girl from crying. In the end, the Third Hokage came over himself and amused Hanabi with his wrinkled old face, finally calming her down.
Hiruzen Sarutobi might care, but Danzō certainly didn't. He gave Hyuga Yue and little Hanabi a cursory glance, then turned his attention back to the Third Hokage.
"Hiruzen! We need to act quickly. That guy who got away probably has deep ties to the Uchiha Clan. The materials in the device he used to break through the barrier were bought from outside the village by the Uchiha Clan. And the Ninjutsu he used to impersonate Hyuga Hinata came from the Uchiha, too!"
As he spoke, Shimura Danzō laid out several scrolls on the Hokage Office desk, then turned toward Hyuga Yue and little Hanabi. "The Hokage and I have some confidential matters to discuss. You two need to leave!"
"Ah!"
The carriage Uchiha Jie was riding in continued to rattle along. The sleeping medicine he'd given Hyuga Hinata wouldn't last long, and the lovely girl sitting opposite him began to stir. Her long eyelashes fluttered, and her pale eyes suddenly opened.
"Where am I?"
Hinata's voice was tender. As soon as she opened her eyes, she found herself in an unfamiliar place. She lifted her head and saw a man she'd never met before sitting very close to her.
"Who are you?" she asked in a small voice, shrinking back into the carriage.
"I'm here to save you," Uchiha Jie said with a chuckle, gazing at the adorable girl before him.
"Just like in a fairy tale, where a prince saves a princess from a vicious dragon."
"But Father..." Hyuga Hinata was confused. If someone was going to save her—or if she really needed saving—shouldn't her father be the one to rescue her?
Why was it this stranger in front of her?
Wait. A stranger?
"Ah! You're the dragon!" Hyuga Hinata suddenly realized.
"You were carried off by the dragon, but I rescued you. I'm the prince." Teasing the little ninja was so much fun that Uchiha Jie was grinning from ear to ear. "We're on our way back to Konoha."
"Are you a ninja from the village?" Hinata asked doubtfully. "Then where's your Forehead Protector?"
"Here..." Uchiha Jie actually took out a Forehead Protector and handed it to Hinata.
Little Hinata wasn't a ninja yet, but she'd seen Konoha ninja wearing their Forehead Protectors in all sorts of places around the village more than once. The symbol on this one was indeed the same as the one she remembered.
But there was something different about the otherwise identical symbol. A deep slash ran across the middle of the metal plate, cutting through Konoha's emblem.
She recognized this kind of Forehead Protector. In class two days ago, Iruka-sensei had sternly warned them that only ninja who had betrayed their village did this.
And all those rogue ninja were wicked people who committed every kind of evil.
"You're a rogue ninja!"
She cried out again and instinctively raised both hands into the Gentle Fist stance. Though she was still unpracticed and her hands trembled slightly, she managed to strike a convincing pose.
Uchiha Jie raised an eyebrow. It seemed the Hyuga Clan's Young Miss wasn't as hopeless as he'd imagined. How had this version of Hyuga Hinata lost to a little kid who hadn't even started at the Ninja Academy yet and was always asking Hyuga Yue to hold her?
But when Hyuga Hinata actually attacked, he realized just how wrong he'd been. If her Eight Trigrams Palm had been weak and ineffectual, that would have been understandable—she was a child who hadn't even turned ten.
But this was far too gentle.
Uchiha Jie only had to reach out a finger and lightly poke the crook of Hinata's arm.
Her whole arm immediately went numb and tingly, and she couldn't muster the slightest bit of strength.
"Thump!"
"Uh..." Seeing Hyuga Hinata topple into the carriage as she pitched forward, Uchiha Jie had no choice but to reach out and help her up.
"Th-thank you..." Whether she'd hit the carriage floor or felt embarrassed about how she'd performed, Hyuga Hinata's entire face turned bright red.
"Looks like it makes perfect sense that you can't beat Hanabi," Uchiha Jie said with a laugh, rubbing the tip of the girl's nose.
"Um, little sister Hanabi is really strong!"
Hinata was proud when she talked about her little sister. But then she thought of herself, lowered her head, and clasped her hands tightly together.
The rogue ninja in front of her had knocked her down with just one finger. Luckily, she hadn't tried anything against her little sister.
The last time she'd been taken, her father had arrived in time and killed the kidnapper with a single palm strike. But would he arrive in time this time?