A Puppet's Stage

Patter... patter...

The cold rain of late autumn blanketed the entire forest. Dark green canopies overlapped into a dome, while mist drifted through the branches, creating a gloomy, oppressive atmosphere.

Several black figures flickered among the trunks and branches. Rainwater streamed down the folds of their pitch-black raincoats, tracing winding trails across the waterproof fabric.

Hyuga Yunchuan, also clad in a black raincoat, stood in the middle of the group, discreetly sizing up the people accompanying this escort mission.

Of the fifteen people in the group, twelve were Anbu ninja—three squads, with four Anbu ninja in each.

This already showed how seriously they were taking it. As the Third Hokage's personal guard, the Anbu were not usually sent out on missions so easily.

As for the remaining three, aside from Hyuga Yunchuan, who was half a protected target himself, there were two Konoha Jonin.

One was a Jonin from the Akimichi Clan, while the other was a Jonin from the Aburame Clan.

Everyone else wore masks of different shapes and gave off a cold, murderous aura.

It could be said that this escort force possessed formidable combat strength. There should have been virtually no security concerns.

But...

"Danger may not necessarily come from outside."

Yunchuan's gaze swept over the Aburame Clan Jonin, keenly sensing that familiar, chilling feeling from him.

A Root ninja.

Shimura Danzō truly had not given up. Still, that was fine. Their goals were the same.

"Stop."

Yunchuan spoke abruptly. Everyone around him instinctively halted and turned their eyes toward him.

"At two o'clock, one kilometer away, thirteen ninja are gathered there. Their Chakra signatures are chaotic. They should be wandering ninja."

As he spoke, Yunchuan removed his goggles and wiped them clean, revealing the pale skin beneath his eyelids, soaked white by the damp air.

"Let's go around," the Akimichi Jonin said, his voice distorted by the rain.

As the name implied, wandering ninja were mostly unaffiliated, nontraditional ninja who drifted from place to place. They belonged to no ninja village, traveled among different countries, and stole Ninjutsu from each nation. Most had only learned the bare surface, or copied the form without grasping the essence, so they were generally weak.

Of course, if more than a dozen wandering ninja had gathered together, there was a strong possibility that they had been subdued by a Missing-nin from some village.

Their mission was merely to escort the body. The sooner they delivered it to Kumogakure, the better. It was best not to stir up trouble along the way.

"How far are we from the Land of Hot Water?"

The Aburame Clan Jonin—Aburame—suddenly asked.

Yunchuan glanced at the map and answered, "About another hundred and fifty kilometers."

The Land of Fire and the Land of Lightning did not share a border. The two small countries of the Land of Hot Water and the Land of the Moon lay between them, and their destination was within the Land of Hot Water.

At a ninja's usual pace, without using the Body Flicker Technique, it would take three days and three nights to travel from Konoha to Sunagakure. The Land of Hot Water was somewhat closer, but it would still take a day and a night.

"Senior Chodo." Aburame turned to the Akimichi Jonin beside him and suggested, "We still have a long way to go. Why not rest here for a while? With the Byakugan in our team, there's no need to worry about accidents."

"..."

Akamichi Chodo's eyes were squeezed into slits by his plump cheeks. He tilted his head slightly and glanced at Hyuga Yunchuan behind him, silently approving of the boy's performance along the way.

He was an experienced Jonin who had participated in the Third Shinobi World War, and had once served in the squad led by the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze.

He had initially thought that the Third Hokage had placed this boy in the group only to burden them. Yet Yunchuan had kept pace with all of them without issue, and thanks to the Byakugan, they had encountered no trouble whatsoever along the way.

That level of perception, that level of stamina, and the calm he had displayed...

Rumors really can't be trusted.

Akamichi Chodo silently remarked to himself. He did not reject Aburame's suggestion and said, "Then we'll rest here for a while."

With that, he looked toward the eight Anbu ninja of the Fourth and Fifth Squads. They nodded in understanding and vanished with Shunshin.

Since they had decided to rest here temporarily, they might as well clear out those wandering ninja. After all, they were within the Land of Fire, and wandering ninja were mostly little more than a blight.

The others each found a place to rest. Only the rustling of dark raincoats could be heard, like a flock of soaked owls preening their feathers.

Akamichi Chodo summoned an eagle, handed it a written Scroll, and had it deliver the message back to the Third Hokage.

They had to remain in contact with the village. If communication was lost, the village would immediately send someone to investigate.

Yunchuan also found a place to sit. Since someone had taken over for him, he deactivated his Byakugan and began refining Chakra to recover.

However, just as he took out his canteen and tipped his head back to drink, his eyes shifted slightly.

A bug had flown into his sleeve.

The bug was tiny and ordinary. No one else—not even Akamichi Chodo—would have noticed it.

But Yunchuan's sensory abilities did not rely solely on the Byakugan.

Shōkaichū from the Aburame Clan?

Yunchuan set down the canteen without changing expression, as though he had not noticed anything unusual about the bug.

Shōkaichū were reconnaissance insects used to gather intelligence. They were nowhere near as dangerous as Kikaichū or Nano Poisonous Insects.

Still, they would affect his next move somewhat.

Just as he considered how to deal with the bug, his eyes suddenly shifted again, and he lowered his gaze toward the ground.

"Watch out below—"

Yunchuan warned them without hesitation, but before he could finish, the muddy ground beneath his feet suddenly split open.

Earth Style: Headhunter Jutsu.

Bang!

Two hands shot out of the ground without warning, Kunai in their grips as they slashed at Yunchuan's ankles.

They were trying to cripple him—to cripple the "eyes" of this squad.

Hands also burst from the ground beneath Akamichi Chodo and Aburame.

But the former merely raised his hands to form seals, then lifted his muscular feet and stomped down with all his strength. The latter was enveloped by insects.

Crack! Crack! Splat!

A pool of red-and-white blood mixed with rainwater spread across the ground, while dense swarms of insects surged underground, producing a chilling sound of gnawing.

The two instantly dealt with their own enemies and instinctively turned toward Yunchuan.

They saw that after evading the strike, Yunchuan had grabbed the two hands reaching from the ground and forcibly yanked the figure beneath the earth out into the open.

He struck with one palm. The tremendous piercing force blasted a massive, transparent hole through the man's abdomen, and blood mixed with fragments of organs poured out without end.

"He's a Missing-nin from Iwagakure." Yunchuan glanced at the corpse's forehead and said, "The group up ahead must have discovered us..."

As he spoke, he raised his head toward Akamichi Chodo and the others, only to meet several astonished gazes.

It was no wonder Akamichi Chodo and the others looked at him that way. This brutally direct method of killing did not fit their preconceived impression of the Hyuga Clan.

These Missing-nin were at most Chunin-level. It was not particularly surprising that Yunchuan could kill them.

But what kind of Hyuga clansman shattered someone's stomach with a single palm strike? Wasn't that a little too cruel and violent?

At the same time, Aburame's brow furrowed slightly as he sensed that his Shōkaichū had died. He instinctively looked toward Yunchuan's sleeve, but saw only a blurry smear of blood and gore.

Assuming it had simply been accidentally crushed by Yunchuan during the attack, he released several more Shōkaichū, which silently flew over.

But now, no matter how many he released, it was useless.

Yunchuan's real body had already donned the Shadow Robe and quietly departed. The Yunchuan still sitting here with the same smile was merely a Shadow Clone.

He was going ahead to prepare the stage.

For his "puppet."

Within the dense shadows of the trees, Hyuga Yunchuan, clad in the Shadow Robe, had nearly become a black silhouette. As he moved stealthily, he silently recited, "Manifest—Ōtsutsuki Ruins..."

This time, the people he intended to fool were no longer one person, or even a group of people.

It was everyone in the Ninja World, including Kumogakure and Konoha.

Hyuga Yunchuan was going to tell an enormous lie.