An Identical Smile

Hyuga Hiashi stared in astonishment at the smile piled across Hyuga Yue's face. It was a smile he had never seen before, so sweet that it seemed to have completely cast off its former coldness.

Yet that coldness had been transferred entirely onto Hyuga Hiashi, because he knew perfectly well where Hyuga Yue's former coldness had come from.

He also knew perfectly well that the expressions now on the faces of the Main Family elders had appeared countless times on the Branch Family: timidity, fear, and anger.

"Clan Head, this is new tea I bought from Mr. An's merchant association."

Hyuga Yue held a small paper packet in her hand, and a refreshing fragrance of tea wafted from within.

"It's the first tender buds picked this year from the oldest tea trees in the finest tea garden in the Land of Fire."

As Hyuga Yue spoke, she gently opened the tea packet. Her pale fingers were nearly the same color as the white paper wrapping, yet they were nowhere near as enticing as the tea leaves inside.

Hyuga Hiashi was the head of a great clan. Though such clans came from the world of shinobi, they still had countless ties to daimyo and nobles. Naturally, he knew what truly expensive things looked like.

The costly luxuries coveted by the daimyo and nobles of every nation were, in truth, no less valuable than the heads of high-ranking shinobi.

Take this packet of tea before him. Perhaps it was not worth as much as Hyuga Hiashi's head, but it could certainly buy the life of a Jonin.

Although he knew why Mr. An's merchant association could obtain that tea and why Hyuga Yue had not had the money to buy it before, what was valuable was not the tea itself, but the