Byakugan

A massive gash split the air. Blood sprayed as the ninja's body was cleaved diagonally from shoulder to waist. With a series of scraping creaks, the giant tree beside him, thick enough for five or six people to wrap their arms around, slowly split along the same line beneath its own tremendous weight. It began to topple to one side...

With half his body suspended in midair, the dog-masked ninja watched the scene, then turned his gaze to the girl hovering opposite him, who hadn't moved an inch. He spoke slowly.

"That was a sword, wasn't it..."

"Such beautiful swordsmanship..."

"Sharp enough to cut through steel..."

Blood welled from the corner of his mouth. The strength drained rapidly from his body, and the chakra he'd gathered dissipated in an instant. As dizziness washed over him, he closed his heavy eyes.

Praising his opponent right up to the moment of death—there was a certain grace in that.

Yura smiled faintly. "You've got a good eye~"

Inner Style. Secret Art. Pre-emptive Strike

Let the enemy make the first move, respond to their actions, strike after them but arrive first, and conserve your strength while they wear themselves out.

Its essence was to seek a fatal opening for a counterattack at any moment while on the defensive.

With a rumble, the tree fell among the woods, caught halfway by the dense branches.

Eight hundred meters away, White Fox staggered, her legs giving out as she dropped to her knees on a tree trunk. Her body trembled faintly.

It had all happened in the blink of an eye. Everyone was dead. They were all dead...

The girl stared blankly at the scene before her.

"You've got to be kidding me..."

Her whole body was shaking...

She was going to die...

She really was going to die...

Memories of her entire life flashed through her mind, scene after scene racing by until they settled on the one most deeply etched in her memory.

She was still very young then. Her frail mother held her in her arms, kneeling on the ground and bowing again and again as she desperately pleaded with an elder of the Main Family.

"Please, Elder, spare Akitsu... She's only six years old!"

"Don't be ridiculous! Uchiha brats are going to the battlefield at six! So are the Senju! Our Hyuga are no exception!"

The elders of the Main Family took her away and branded her with the Caged Bird seal. She waited in terror in the darkness, and then came the brutal training. After only three months, she went to the battlefield with a kunai in hand. After that, she never saw the woman she called Mother again.

She had tried.

"Accept your fate, Akitsu. No matter what you do, you can't change it."

"Your mother may have died on the battlefield fighting for the clan many years ago."

"Akitsu, don't waste your effort. Those of us in the Branch Family are fated to die for the Main Family."

"Do I not even have the right to choose how I die?"

Back then, the clan members had all fallen silent. No one could answer her.

Until one day...

"Akitsu, have you heard? The Warring States era is over! It was Lord Hashirama! The God of Shinobi! He's broken the fate that's bound shinobi for generations! We're all going to build a peaceful village!!!"

When the clan member shared the news, his face was alight with excitement and admiration.

When Akitsu saw that man with her own eyes, she made up her mind.

"I'd die for this man, for this village." On the day the village was founded, the clan members all spoke excitedly of things like that.

Akitsu felt the same. This man had given her the right to choose how she died. If she resented the Main Family and didn't want to die for them, then she could die for an ideal and a person worth following.

But now, at this moment of death...

Akitsu hesitated.

Why?

Why?!

Why did her heart brim not with the relief she'd finally found, but with endless resentment and hatred...

"Bird in a cage, bird in a cage~" A chuckle sounded beside her. The demon's voice was coldly mocking as she sang a nursery rhyme: "Little bird in the cage, always longing to fly free. On the night before the dawn, the crane and the turtle slipped and fell. Who's the one facing you from behind?"

Don't listen to her bewitching words. I have to do something for the village, for my comrades.

White Fox raised her head and straightened on the tree trunk, turning to face the girl hovering opposite her.

Who was facing her from behind?

A demon was facing her.

But it wasn't the one before her. It was the one deep inside her own heart...

For some reason, the moment they faced each other, Akitsu could tell at a glance that they were alike, that they came from similar backgrounds.

White Fox slowly assumed a Gentle Fist stance, lowering her body naturally. In a low voice, she said, "Enough talk. Come on."

Yura shook her head. "I'm more interested in those Byakugan of yours, you monster."

"Don't call me a Byakugan monster!" White Fox said coldly. "You're the real monster!"

The Byakugan's long-range vision usually extended one to two kilometers. Training could push that distance farther. The woman before her had stayed at a range of five kilometers behind Yura the whole time. The purity of her Byakugan seemed exceptionally high.

What a pity she belonged to the Branch Family.

If she'd been in the Main Family, there'd have been no need for talk. Yura would have taken her eyes and left.

The Byakugan bloodline left behind by Kaguya Otsutsuki was exceptionally potent.

Though Kaguya might have seemed like a servant girl at Isshiki's side, one theory held that she had brought Isshiki to this planet to revive her father, the God of Otsutsuki.

Sitting in midair with her legs crossed, Yura studied the girl and sensed the powerful negative emotions churning deep within her.

This girl and Lucy were polar opposites.

That was the Warring States era for you. The times had a way of turning people into demons.

"With those Byakugan, if you could see far enough, you might be able to see the fate of others—and even your own," Yura said. "Can you see your own fate now?"

That was a power of Momoshiki Otsutsuki's Byakugan.

Hearing this for the first time, Akitsu furrowed her brow slightly beneath her mask.

The Byakugan had that kind of power?

"When their ability to see through things and perceive reaches a certain level, those eyes can reveal the thoughts of others."

That was one of Kaguya Otsutsuki's abilities.

"Can you see into your own heart now?"

Yura smiled faintly as she asked.

"What are you trying to say?" Akitsu said.

"Your heart..." Yura smiled faintly. "It's filled with hatred. What is it you want to destroy?"

Akitsu's heart lurched. Beneath her mask, she bit her lip. "Are you saying you can read people's hearts?"

Yura shook her head with a faint smile. "You tell me..."

What an unpleasant woman. What an unpleasant ability. For a moment, Akitsu felt as if she were standing naked, and cold dread seeped into her heart.

She wasn't a demon who could read minds. She was a demon who toyed with people's hearts...

"No matter what you're planning, you won't succeed!" Before she'd even finished speaking, Akitsu thrust out a palm.

Eight Trigrams: Air Palm

A mass of chakra shot from her palm, hurtling toward Yura.

A dull impact sounded in midair. A palm-shaped imprint appeared in the air, stopped by something unseen.

Yura said, "Don't be so impatient. We have all the time in the world to play."

What was this woman planning? She hadn't simply killed Akitsu. Whatever she had in mind, it couldn't be anything good.

Suddenly, Akitsu's expression changed. She leapt back at high speed, putting distance between herself and Yura.

Yura stopped moving, and the scythe that had crept toward Akitsu in midair withdrew.

This was the first time anyone had sensed her weapon approaching.

"I admire you more and more." Yura looked at the Hyuga ninja who had landed on a tree trunk behind her. "Just for that, you're far stronger than your three companions."

She hadn't spotted it with her Byakugan.

Cold sweat soaked Akitsu's back...

Ordinary shinobi—even Jonin and Kage—could only release chakra from a few limited places, such as their hands, feet, and mouth. But the Hyuga Clan could release chakra from the tenketsu all over their bodies. That let them spread great amounts of chakra through the air around them and sense when foreign objects passed through it.

Neji had used this technique, too.

Yura's hair wasn't intangible, either.

"So that's how you did it. But can your body withstand releasing chakra over such a wide area?" Yura said.

"Shut up!" Akitsu snarled. A murderous glint blazed in her eyes. Even if she died, she'd take a bite out of her enemy.