The banquet had reached its liveliest point. Tsunade and Sarutobi Hiruzen had finished their meaningful conversation and were just about to say something when—
Suddenly, an Anbu burst in from outside the courtyard, breathing hard. He clearly had urgent news.
"Lord Hokage!" The Anbu's voice was taut with barely concealed anxiety. "There's an emergency to report!"
Sarutobi Hiruzen furrowed his brow. His first instinct was to keep things quiet, but he glanced at everyone present, especially the man he had personally chosen as the next Hokage, who was also watching him. He sighed inwardly.
"Go ahead."
"The Kumogakure delegation... found the body of their missing comrade in the Hyuga Clan Grounds!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, Hyuga Hiashi's face turned ashen.
"Let's go! We'll see for ourselves!"
Tsunade didn't give them time to react. She strode toward the exit, her voice loud and carrying an unmistakable note of authority.
"I want to see what those Land of Lightning thugs are up to this time!"
Sarutobi Hiruzen regretted it a little, but ultimately nodded. "Tsunade is right. Let's all go."
The group hurried toward the Hyuga Clan Grounds. Tsunade led the way, as if she had become the group's anchor. The Hokage, by contrast, followed at the rear, confirming the details with the Anbu who had delivered the report.
Hyuga Kiyonari held Hinata's hand as they brought up the rear. Feeling the pressure of her palm, he could almost sense the tension in her heart.
He gave her hand a gentle squeeze, then leaned toward her and whispered in her ear.
"Don't be nervous. I'm here."
"Mm."
Hinata Hyuga nodded, her cheeks flushed.
When they entered the Hyuga Clan Grounds, they could see a crowd gathered outside Hyuga Hiashi's residence. Besides the Hyuga clan members, several Kumogakure envoys were there as well. They surrounded a corpse, their faces twisted with anger as they pressed the matter aggressively.
"Lord Hokage!"
Nukai, the leader of the Kumogakure delegation, saw the group approaching from outside the Hyuga Clan Grounds and immediately rushed forward to demand an explanation.
But when he saw the large group behind them, he stopped short. Then, his muscle-packed brain filled with delight. In his eyes, the more witnesses there were, the easier it would be to make their comrade's death by the Gentle Fist seem like an established "fact."
All he cared about was making the "evidence" stick, leaving Konoha unable to argue. He had forgotten, though... blackmail didn't require evidence.
"Your Konoha has to give us an explanation! We've only just signed a ceasefire agreement, and now someone has murdered our comrade! And he died right here, in the head of the Hyuga Clan's residence!"
Sarutobi Hiruzen drew a deep breath and stepped to the front of the group. "Let me see what happened first."
The others gathered around as well.
The corpse lay against the wall. There were no obvious external injuries, sword or knife wounds, or traces of blood.
A Forensics Division ninja stepped forward and gave the autopsy results. "The deceased suffered ruptures to multiple internal organs. The direct cause of death was cardiac arrest. Our preliminary conclusion is that the Gentle Fist struck the heart and stopped it. For a more definitive result, we'd need to take the body to the Forensics Division and perform an autopsy."
"No!" Nukai immediately objected. "If you take the body away, you can say whatever you want about it. How are we supposed to know whether your findings are genuine or fabricated?"
The Forensics Division ninja paid him no heed and continued the report. "Judging from the rigor mortis, the time of death was approximately twenty to thirty minutes ago."
Tsunade studied the body on the ground and suddenly asked, "Could he have been poisoned?"
At once, Nukai reacted as if he'd been stung, shouting, "Why do you need to investigate anything else? Just to buy time to make up an excuse?"
"The truth is, our comrade died right here, in Hyuga Hiashi's residence. Your autopsy report is already out—he was killed by the Gentle Fist! The evidence is conclusive. Hyuga Hiashi is the murderer!"
Tsunade stepped forward and stood beside Sarutobi Hiruzen, challenging them. "Shouldn't you explain why a Kumogakure ninja was in the Hyuga Clan Grounds in the first place? And at the head of the Hyuga Clan's residence, no less?"
Nukai didn't argue with Tsunade. Instead, he looked at Sarutobi Hiruzen. "Lord Hokage, no matter what happened, the fact is that a Kumogakure ninja died in Konoha, and he was killed by the Hyuga Clan's Gentle Fist!"
"Lord Raikage treats every comrade in the village like a brother. Now one of Lord Raikage's brothers is dead. If Konoha can't give us an answer we find satisfactory, I'm afraid... Lord Raikage will reconsider the peace treaty between our villages!"
As soon as he said this, everyone present changed expressions.
It was a threat to restart the war.
No one who had left Tsunade's banquet was a fool. Even Itachi Uchiha, young as he was, could see that the real target of these bandits was the Hyuga Clan's Kekkei Genkai—the Byakugan.
Who had died, where he had died, how he had died... none of it mattered.
Kumogakure had ignored all logic and insisted that Hyuga Hiashi was responsible. They were blatantly lying through their teeth! This was outright blackmail! A public humiliation of Konoha!
By this point, Hyuga Hiashi had instead relaxed a little. To him, the worst outcome was his own death, but Sarutobi Hiruzen had far more to consider.
His face flushed in patches, and the veins in his forehead bulged. He was clearly doing his best to hold back his anger.
As the longest-serving Hokage in Konoha's history, he had seen every kind of shameless tactic. But never before had Kumogakure humiliated him so openly, in front of so many Konoha officials and clan heads!
Kumogakure was doing this to slap him in the face!
Sarutobi Hiruzen's fists clenched until his knuckles cracked. Without his exceptional restraint, he would have already cursed them out.
These bandits had deliberately killed their own comrade, fabricated a cause of death that pointed to the Gentle Fist, then framed the Hyuga Clan to force Konoha to hand over the Byakugan. And Kumogakure wasn't worried that Konoha would expose the truth. Their real leverage was "war."
Konoha had just endured the Third Shinobi World War, the Nine-Tails Incident, and the death of the Fourth Hokage... It had been gravely weakened and couldn't afford another war.
"Lord Hokage." Nukai's voice rang out again, tinged with smugness. "Please make your decision. Will you hand over Hyuga Hiashi, the murderer who killed my comrade, or... choose war?"
The atmosphere had turned icy. Everyone was waiting for Sarutobi Hiruzen's answer.
At that moment, all of Konoha's most important clan heads were standing there.
If he said to hand over Hyuga Hiashi, he might be able to silence Kumogakure, but the consequence would be that every clan would feel threatened. At worst... Konoha might fall apart.
But if he refused, would Kumogakure really restart the war?
In Konoha's current state, could it really withstand one?
Before you continue