Hand Over the Body of the Murderer "Hyuga Hiashi"

Samui struggled to pull the senbon from her lower abdomen, her face full of wariness as she watched the Anbu ninja, still clinging to life in the distance.

Before dawn, she had failed to meet up with Toroi, so she and the Kumogakure ninja sent to escort her had set out for the Land of Lightning.

They had run into an Anbu pursuit team at the border.

All the Kumogakure ninja sent to escort her had been killed. She was covered in wounds and no longer had the strength to fight.

"Cough, cough!"

The Anbu squad leader coughed twice, a trickle of blood seeping from beneath his mask.

His condition wasn't much better than Samui's.

Fortunately, they were at the border of the Land of Fire, and reinforcements would arrive soon.

Rustle!

A sound suddenly came from the bushes. Samui and the Anbu squad leader tensed, turning to look at the same time.

Hyuga Neji emerged from the bushes, looking flustered, and hurried toward the Anbu squad leader.

The Anbu squad leader let out a long breath.

His mission was to retrieve Hyuga Neji or kill him.

In any case, he couldn't let Kumogakure obtain a living bearer of the Byakugan bloodline.

Of course, bringing Neji back unharmed would be even better.

A hint of panic showed on Neji's young face as he looked at the Anbu squad leader. "A-are you... all right?"

"I'm not dying yet. There are Soldier Pills and bandages in my Ninja Tool Pouch. Get them out for me."

As he spoke, the Anbu squad leader narrowed his eyes slightly, every muscle in his body tense.

"Okay!"

Neji crouched in front of the Anbu squad leader and reached for his Ninja Tool Pouch.

Whoosh!

A flash of cold light appeared.

At almost the same moment, the Anbu squad leader moved too. A shuriken between his fingers shot toward Neji's chest from an impossible angle.

The next instant, Neji tumbled across the ground, clutching his bloodied chest and gasping for breath.

The Anbu squad leader, meanwhile, had a tiny senbon embedded in his throat.

He had traded a wound for a life.

"That was impressive," Neji said, still shaken.

Anbu ninja were elite.

And the Anbu squad leader was the elite of the elite.

He was already gravely wounded, yet even so, he had nearly turned Neji's sneak attack into a counterkill.

Samui sat motionless on the ground, her mind reeling.

She had never expected Neji to suddenly attack the Anbu squad leader—and actually kill him.

"Kid, do you know what you're doing?"

Neji said nothing. He walked up to the Anbu squad leader, raised his pale hand, and gathered what little chakra he had left in his palm. Then he struck the Anbu squad leader's chest with a Gentle Fist.

The sight only left Samui even more confused.

Neji explained earnestly, "Big sister, I used the Gentle Fist to shatter that guy's heart. From now on, we're on the same side."

A look of surprise crossed Samui's pretty face, then she smiled. "All right, all right. We're on the same side."

Neji's actions had completely taken Samui by surprise.

But if Neji was willing to go back to Kumogakure with her, that was far better than having to take him by force.

They couldn't stay here.

The Anbu could come after them at any moment.

After bandaging her wounds, Samui quickly formed the Summoning Seal.

Poof!

As a cloud of white smoke burst open, a Sea Turtle appeared before them.

Samui picked Neji up, then leaped straight onto the Sea Turtle's back.

"Neji, come on. Let's go home. When we get to Kumogakure, I'll still be your big sister."

The Sea Turtle plunged into the ocean and swam toward the Land of Lightning.

Resting his head on Samui's shoulder, Neji watched the Land of Fire grow smaller and smaller, then slowly closed his eyes.

From now on, he would be like a bird soaring into the sky, like a fish diving into the sea—free of all entanglements.

Konoha publicly condemned Kumogakure for using the signing of a treaty as a pretext to steal the Byakugan.

Everyone had assumed that Kumogakure, being in the wrong, wouldn't dare respond. But who could have guessed that Kumogakure would insist its envoy had never even met Hyuga Neji, let alone abducted Hinata? It even turned around and accused Konoha of having no intention of negotiating, of cruelly killing its envoy, Toroi, and shamelessly demanded that Konoha hand over the body of the murderer, "Hyuga Hiashi," or face war.

This brazen attempt to turn the tables enraged countless Konoha Ninja who still had even a shred of fighting spirit.

But just then, rumors in the village pushed the Hyuga clan straight into the eye of the storm.

"Are we going to war again?"

"We've already been fighting for eight years. When will this ever end?"

"It's all the Hyuga clan's fault. Why didn't they just capture him? Why did they have to take his life?"

"Peace is hard-won. We can't go to war with Kumogakure for the Hyuga clan."

Rumors in the village swept over the Hyuga clan like a tidal wave.

Caught in the center of it all, Hyuga Hiashi spent the entire night unable to sleep and didn't drink a drop of water.

He suddenly realized how much this situation resembled what had happened to Konoha's White Fang all those years ago.

That day, Hiruzen Sarutobi convened a meeting to discuss how to respond.

As soon as the meeting began, Hyuga Hiashi took a deep breath. "Lord Hokage, this has been a Kumogakure conspiracy from beginning to end. They're after more than the Byakugan bloodline—they want war, too."

"Hiashi, I know this is a conspiracy. Everyone here knows it's a conspiracy. But from the moment Toroi died, whether it was a conspiracy or not stopped mattering."

Hiruzen Sarutobi removed his pipe and slowly shook his head.

He felt some resentment over the whole affair.

He resented the Fourth Raikage for having no magnanimity at all and resorting to such despicable tactics. He also resented Hyuga Hiashi for failing to show restraint and letting things spiral out of control.

After a brief pause, Hiruzen Sarutobi added, "We've already made the truth about Toroi's death public, and we've confirmed that Hyuga Neji is now in Kumogakure. But who cares about any of that?"

Everyone in the meeting room fell silent.

They all understood that reasoning with Kumogakure's bandits, who believed only in strength, was completely useless.

"Alas..."

Mitokado Homura sighed. "If Hiashi hadn't killed Toroi, there might still have been room to turn things around."

Hyuga Hiashi's face stiffened slightly.

Was this his fault?

In that situation, any father would have fought with everything he had.

Sitting nearby, Shikaku Nara heard him but remained expressionless and said nothing.

Mitokado Homura was being far too simplistic.

What kind of man was Toroi?

A renowned Magnet Release ninja, he had killed several elite jonin during the Third Shinobi World War. In terms of strength, he was certainly no weaker than Hyuga Hiashi.

If Toroi hadn't wanted to die, Hyuga Hiashi couldn't have killed him.

And if Toroi had wanted to die at Hyuga Hiashi's hands, there was nothing Hiashi could have done to stop him.

There was no helping it. Konoha had truly been outplayed this time.

Shikaku Nara hadn't expected Kumogakure, a village that had always valued strength above all, to resort to underhanded tactics for once.

At that moment, Shimura Danzo, seated at the far left of Hiruzen Sarutobi, tapped his cane against the floor and said coldly:

"Hiruzen, what are you hesitating for?"

"If Kumogakure wants war, fine. We'll fight them to the end!"

"Do those bandits really think Konoha is weak and easy to bully?!"

Hiruzen Sarutobi glanced at Danzo, puffed on his pipe in silence, and paid no heed to Danzo's anger.