Hyuga Hiashi spoke, asking in a calm voice,
"Nana, I heard you've been spending more time talking with the older women in the clan lately?"
"Ah?"
Hyuga Nana hadn't expected the clan head to ask her that. She was caught off guard, and her fair little face flushed red with embarrassment.
"That's right. I have."
Hyuga Hiashi nodded. His expression didn't change, but he shifted the subject.
"It's good to talk more with the female elders in the clan,"
"And since you'll be Dan-kun's disciple from now on, you should also keep seeking his guidance in your training."
Hyuga Nana stared blankly for a moment, but quickly understood what Hyuga Hiashi meant. She nodded in agreement, her fair little face growing even redder.
It was true: a great clan with a long history knew how to choose its words. Those two sentences might have seemed unrelated, but they carried a deeper meaning.
The idea was for Hyuga Nana to first secure her position as Nara Dan's disciple.
Then, she should try to rise in status. Whether a disciple could become her master's wife depended on how hard she worked—and the clan head supported her efforts. She could go right ahead.
Hyuga Hiashi knew perfectly well that someone like Nara Dan would never tolerate a woman he loved being held hostage by a Cursed Seal.
That way, the clan could win over a peerless Taijutsu genius and remove Hyuga Nana's Caged Bird as well.
Once one precedent was set, others would follow. As long as a crack appeared, it would be much easier to make progress afterward.
Hyuga Hiashi looked at the obedient, well-behaved Nana before him, his thoughts churning.
He remembered how close he and Hizashi had been as children, before Hizashi was assigned to the Branch Family. They had been so innocent and inseparable.
But then the Caged Bird was branded onto Hizashi's forehead, and everything changed.
He could no longer treat anyone from the Branch Family with kindness or warmth. Instead, he had to maintain the Main Family's authority. From then on, he and Hizashi became strangers.
Even now, the brothers' relationship was terrible.
Hyuga Hiashi remembered clearly that after he was chosen as the Main Family's heir, many girls from the Branch Family, about the same age as Hyuga Nana, had been assigned to serve him.
He'd especially liked one of them. They'd played together often, and he'd always treated her kindly.
But a few days later, he saw her corpse. The clan elders had also lectured him, telling him that the Main Family could not afford to lose its authority in front of the Branch Family.
After that, he became the perfect head of the Main Family.
"I hope you can break free of your fate, Nana."
"The Caged Bird... The Caged Bird."
"But in truth, am I not trapped too?"
"He was several miles away, and you were so overwhelmed by his presence that you passed out?!"
In a dark underground chamber somewhere in Konoha, Danzo looked incredulous.
"Y-yes."
The Anbu Jonin was also shocked—and embarrassed. He hadn't even seen Nara Dan, yet he'd been overwhelmed and knocked unconscious.
But the sensation of having his life and death in another's hands had been unmistakable.
"I saw Jonin Nara's eyes at the time. I felt him looking at me."
Danzo said nothing. He picked up the stone dust on the table before him and scattered it on the wind.
It was the powder from the boulder Nara Dan had shattered with a single palm strike that day. Danzo had collected it at some point.
Actually, compared to being knocked unconscious from several miles away, the boulder being pulverized was even harder for Danzo to accept.
There were always ways to knock someone unconscious without warning, whether by setting up Genjutsu or a Sealing Technique in advance, poisoning them, or bribing their teammates.
But the strength and penetration needed to pulverize a boulder with one strike were beyond Danzo's imagination.
If an attack like that hit a person, it would be unstoppable.
It wouldn't matter what armor they wore or how powerful a nature transformation they used to defend themselves.
If even a boulder several meters tall could be reduced to powder, even solid iron would probably shatter.
Now that the facts were clear, Danzo had no choice but to face them.
Nara Dan's Taijutsu had likely reached a level he couldn't understand.
He'd also heard that Nara Dan could now completely suppress his presence, and even had an ordinary physique.
He didn't seem like a Taijutsu ninja at all—in fact, he seemed more like a strategist from the Nara Clan.
"Defenses that render ordinary ninjutsu useless, overwhelming burst power, the ability to conceal his presence, and stamina far beyond that of an average ninja."
"Taken together..."
Danzo brooded. He knew all too well that Nara Dan had fought the Iwagakure Ninja for an entire day and night.
The Iwagakure Ninja called it a counteroffensive, but in truth, they'd been massacred.
The hundred-man tactical squad had been completely unable to fight back. Almost all of them had been killed.
"He's practically a perfect war machine, whether on the front lines or behind enemy lines."
"A strategic weapon on the level of a Jinchuriki."
"No—even more valuable."
Danzo's expression darkened. He could barely suppress the greed in his heart.
"Most Jinchuriki are out of control, but Nara Dan is completely controllable."
"Honestly, a Jinchuriki's large-scale destructive power is too much in a ninja war. It can easily hurt your own side."
"But a ninja like Nara Dan is different. He can target enemy villages alone."
"He's mobile enough to fight a one-man guerrilla war."
"This kind of power..."
But soon, Danzo sighed again, looking helpless.
"Yet I can't make that power serve me."
"Now that Nara Dan has grown this strong, the Third Great Ninja War is coming, and the village has lost two crucial fighters, White Fang and Tsunade."
"Sarutobi will definitely put him to use."
"By then, Nara Dan will have earned a great deal of prestige and distinguished service."
"He might even have a chance at becoming the Fourth..."
"But I'm the one who wants to become Hokage."
Suddenly, Danzo changed his mind.
"Maybe I should back him for Fifth, in exchange for his support when I become Fourth?!"
But then Danzo shook his head.
"He might not even want to become Hokage."
"And with the political influence of Ino-Shika-Cho, he wouldn't have much trouble becoming Hokage himself."
"I'll have to take a roundabout approach. At the very least, I can't let him oppose me."
At the Nara Clan's compound, in the clan head's residence,
As he listened to Nara Shikaku's account, the Nara Clan Head's expression grew grave.
"A technique like this..."
As a Jonin with an exceptionally discerning eye, the Nara Clan Head understood the value of the Immortal-Eating Technique all too well.
"If word of this got out, it could completely upset the balance of the ninja profession!"
"Even the balance of the Ninja World!"
Nara Shikaku nodded in agreement. With his intelligence, how could he fail to see how terrifying this technique was?
It completely disregarded the differences between individual ninja and raised the physical limits of every ninja.
In the long run, pure Taijutsu would struggle to reach the level of the Shadow, and even advancing to Jonin would be difficult.
But that didn't mean Taijutsu wasn't important. Among Genin, Chunin, and even Jonin, Taijutsu remained one of the most important ways to fight.
Even Madara Uchiha had studied the art of dance, after all—never mind everyone else.
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