A Prison Sentence

The girl's voice was taut as she stepped past the crowd and stood before Konoha's highest authority.

Surrounded by wary eyes, Ayako Hyuuga's hands trembled slightly, but she stubbornly met Hiruzen Sarutobi's hawklike gaze.

"Lord Hokage, would you tell the heroes beneath these gravestones about the Will of Fire once more?"

Unexpectedly, before the tombstones of the dead, Ayako stood up to the Hokage on behalf of those who had no voice.

"Ayako!" Hyuga Hiashi stepped through the crowd and bowed before the Hokage.

"Sorry, Lord Hokage. I failed to discipline my clanspeople, allowing them to disturb the heroes' rest."

Everyone present was astonished. The ninja clans in the front row were especially watchful, their gazes lingering on the slight-shouldered girl.

"Please enlighten me, Lord Hokage!" Ayako Hyuuga said, timid yet stubborn.

"Ayako!" The Hyuga clan leader's voice rose sharply. "Do you know what you're doing?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi raised a hand to stop Hyuga Hiashi, then calmly met the girl's gaze. "If there's something you want to ask, you can ask me directly."

His voice was steady as he looked around. "As Hokage, it's my duty to answer the questions weighing on the hearts of the village's new leaves."

Hiruzen Sarutobi could be called a competent Hokage. There were things he understood, but that didn't mean he could act on them.

The great ship that was Konoha had sprung a leak. He couldn't stop to repair it all at once, so he could only replace the broken planks one by one.

When every plank on the ship had been replaced, would it still be the same ship?

Perhaps there would never be an answer.

A breeze blew by, carrying a few leaves in lazy spirals. Some landed beneath the gravestones.

Ayako Hyuuga bent down and picked up two leaves.

Mo Jingxian knew what the girl was about to do. He had once told Ayako a little story to help her understand.

But he had never realized Ayako Hyuuga had been planning this.

To question the Hokage to his face, in front of the gravestones.

Didn't she know what the consequences would be?

Of course she did, but she had chosen to do it anyway.

She hadn't even let him in on the plan. She must have been afraid of dragging her friends into it.

Mo Jingxian suddenly felt a deep sense of shame—not toward her, but toward himself.

He had arrogantly thought himself superior, as if he were the chosen one.

Compared to that trembling girl, he was nothing but a coward.

He had talked his way around the elders' schemes, accepted being treated as a pawn, and kept trying to talk himself into it even after his friends had been betrayed. That was reality.

The truth was, he was the real loser, a complete and utter failure.

Rage churned inside him, and the volcano of his emotions erupted in his eyes.

The ocular power he had kept buried surged violently, as if it would pierce through everything and break free of its cage.

Mo Jingxian's vision began to blur, but he still made his way toward Ayako, one determined step at a time.

Thank you! Thank you for your courage. You helped me see myself clearly.

He told himself this, casting aside every scheme.

At that moment, he was no longer a detached observer of the world. He was a life born of this land.

"Lord Hokage, could you tell me which of these two leaves is more noble?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi's brow creased almost imperceptibly. He had already guessed what the girl was going to ask.

At first, Ayako's voice had trembled. But as soon as she spoke those words, she suddenly grew calm.

"Or let me put it another way... On the great tree that is Konoha, which leaves are more noble than the others?"

"Be quiet!" The Hyuga elder went pale.

He couldn't let her continue, or the entire clan would be isolated.

The Uchiha's fate showed them what that meant.

No one would believe a little girl who had graduated from the Ninja Academy less than a year ago would ask such a dangerously subversive question.

They would surely assume this was the Hyuga Clan's decision.

That the clan had simply put its words in the little girl's mouth.

There were many ninja clans present, and some rules were unspoken, understood by all.

But no matter how politically correct an unspoken rule was, it couldn't be brought into the open. Otherwise, everyone would flog you—and spit on you, too.

Clan or no clan, no one dared publicly support such unspoken rules.

Ayako Hyuuga was digging up the roots of every ninja clan, even shaking the foundations of the great tree that was Konoha.

So the Hokage didn't step in to stop her.

The Hyuga elder immediately activated the Caged Bird curse, and Ayako let out a sudden scream.

The next moment.

An Ice Flood Dragon coiled around the Hyuga elder out of nowhere, and the temperature plunged.

"Old man, try that again and you're dead!"

Mo Jingxian burst through the crowd and shielded Ayako.

A layer of frost spread at once, covering gravestone after gravestone with ice crystals like gemstones.

No one had expected Mo Jingxian to make a move at a time like this, especially against someone from the Hyuga Clan.

And that enormous Ice Flood Dragon—none of it was what anyone had expected.

A number of people began to wonder. It was no secret that Mo Jingxian came from the Uchiha Clan.

But what was the Ice Release?

Even Hiruzen Sarutobi narrowed his eyes. Two bloodline limits!

Seeing Ayako attacked, Mo Jingxian had struck without hesitation.

He would lay down his life here today. Anyone who wanted to hurt Ayako would have to step over his corpse.

It had nothing to do with faith or right and wrong. He just wanted to do what felt right.

The ocular power in his Uchiha blood was still surging wildly, but it had nowhere to escape. It kept building.

He felt as if his eyeballs were about to burst.

"How dare you act out in front of Lord Hokage? Let this old man teach you some manners."

Uchiha Yashiro swooped in to attack.

He had noticed Mo Jingxian the moment he appeared.

As Mo Jingxian's fame had grown, it had felt like a resounding slap across his face.

How could he not hate him?

Now, at last, he had the chance to teach this traitor a harsh lesson in the name of justice.

As a veteran Uchiha, Yashiro had once made a name for himself with his genjutsu.

Their gazes collided in midair.

"Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique!"

The Uchiha were born with Yin Release Chakra of extraordinary potency. It invaded Mo Jingxian's eyes through their locked gazes.

Everything had been going as planned. All he needed to do was finish the job.

But then he ran into the ocular power lurking in Mo Jingxian's eyes like a ferocious beast.

That long-accumulated power had finally found an outlet and surged down the path toward him.

As it happened, Yashiro was simply unlucky.

In a way, he had helped Mo Jingxian awaken his eyes. The ocular power fought back, triggering "Demonic Illusion: Mirror Heaven and Earth Change" without Mo Jingxian even meaning to use it.

The genjutsu rebounded. The Great Elder Yashiro's vision blurred, and he was kicked away like a cannonball.

It all happened too fast.

"Elder, are you all right?" A group of Uchiha clan members scrambled to help him up.

Another group rebuked Mo Jingxian. "How dare you attack the elder! Are you trying to rebel?"

Yashiro was beside himself with rage!

He had never been so humiliated. If he couldn't bring down this little brat, how could he ever face anyone again?

After all these years, Yashiro, the Uchiha Great Elder, had finally awakened his Three Tomoe.

But—

When he met Mo Jingxian's gaze, he froze for a moment.

He wasn't the only one. Everyone present stared at Mo Jingxian's eyes in astonishment.

They were unlike any eyes ever recorded in the Ninja World.

Just as the Byakugan seemed to have its opposite, Mo Jingxian's entire eyes had turned black, with a silver cross at the center of each pupil.

A horizontal and a vertical line crossed like two crossed swords.

The key was that no one had ever seen eyes like these—not even Mo Jingxian himself.

"Your eyes!" Ayako Hyuuga cried out in alarm.

Uchiha Yashiro had intended to seize his chance and take Mo Jingxian down, but Lord Hokage angrily stopped him.

"Enough!" Hiruzen Sarutobi swept a cold glance over them. "Do any of you still recognize me as Hokage?"

The enraged Hokage regained some of the Shinobi Hero's bearing, and no one dared object.

He turned to Ayako Hyuuga. "Young lady, I will give you an answer. I swear it in the name of the Hokage."

The promise was no small matter, and many clan ninja paled.

The clan leaders attending the funeral quietly began to consider how they might weather the coming storm.

"Where is the Anbu?"

This wasn't over. After dealing with Ayako Hyuuga's question, it was Mo Jingxian's turn.

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

The six Anbu members stationed nearby dropped to one knee in unison. "We are here."

"Take everyone who just attacked to prison. Kill anyone who resists!"

The Hokage was serious. A chorus of sharp intakes of breath rose from the crowd.

No one had expected things to go this far.

The Anbu members hesitated for only half a second before answering loudly, "Yes, Lord Hokage!"

The Hyuga elder, Yashiro, and Mo Jingxian were taken away by the Anbu Ninja.

The grand funeral had been thrown into chaos, and in the end it was hastily brought to a close.

Konoha Prison.

Mo Jingxian was treated fairly well, locked alone in a cell.

The walls were built of gray stone, damp and gloomy.

The smell of mold mingled with the earthy stench in the air, making his nasal passages itch.

Sealing Jutsu patterns covered both the walls and the iron door.

Sealing shackles bound his hands. Even a High Ninja trapped here would have to accept their fate.

Mo Jingxian studied the sealing patterns on the shackles for a while. They were far more complex than the ones at Hozuki Castle; there was no chance he'd figure out how to undo them anytime soon.

The Chakra in his body moved at a tortoise's pace, but his elemental power was unaffected.

Mo Jingxian didn't regret stepping in. If anything, he felt a sense of relief.

With some time to himself, he went over the day's events carefully.

Hiruzen Sarutobi wasn't incompetent. He had seen all the little tricks the ninja clans were playing.

It wasn't that he didn't want to intervene; he just couldn't break the balance that had formed in Konoha over the years.

Today, Ayako Hyuuga had torn away the veil, and Hiruzen Sarutobi had seized the opportunity to bring down the blade. It had all seemed to fall neatly into place, and he had even gained a great deal of public support.

That really left a bad taste in Mo Jingxian's mouth.

Thinking of that, Mo Jingxian curled his lip and muttered, "Old fox."

He wondered how Ayako was doing. Were those bastards from the Hyuga Clan making things difficult for her?

He couldn't help worrying about the usually spacey girl who had dared to stand against everyone on behalf of the civilian ninja.

At the same time.

Fukasaku the Toad found the Great Sage seated on a tall stone throne.

"Great Sage, our spy stationed in Konoha has sent back a report."

The Great Sage raised his eyes slightly. "Speak."

"A new bloodline eye has appeared." Fukasaku lowered his head to glance at the report. "It belongs to a ninja named Mo Jingxian. Oh, right... Jiraiya once took an interest in him, but it seems he later gave up."

"A new bloodline limit, one that's never appeared before?"

"Yes, there's no record of it."

With that, Fukasaku the Toad handed over the report. "The report describes the new bloodline. Please take a look, Great Sage."

The Great Sage took the report and skimmed it, focusing mainly on the description of the eyes.

"Could it be him?" His webbed foreclaw tapped against the armrest of the stone throne. "Fukasaku."

"I'm here, Great Sage. What are your orders?"

"From today on... keep a close watch..."

The Great Sage faltered again, and Fukasaku reminded him, "Mo Jingxian."

"Right, him. Keep a close watch on Mo Jingxian from now on."