A Talk

Hyuuga Nen knocked Kakashi and his team unconscious and brought them to a nearby cave. He then proceeded to strip them of their weapons and equipment, beginning an inventory.

Long swords, short swords, kunai, shuriken, explosive tags, and other such items were sorted out by Hyuuga Nen and placed to one side.

However, these were not what Hyuuga Nen was looking for. He wanted the correspondence between this squad and Konoha, but he found no such letters.

Hyuuga Nen approached Kakashi, roused him, and asked, "Where are the letters you used to communicate with Konoha?"

Kakashi's eyes drooped as he answered weakly, "Anbu missions are classified. Any letters are destroyed immediately upon reading. Don't waste your breath trying to extract useful information from us."

"How much intelligence does Konoha have on me? What orders did the Hokage give you? Is anyone coming to support you, and who are they?" Hyuuga Nen fired three questions at Kakashi in quick succession.

Kakashi did not answer. Instead, he turned his head away and closed his eyes.

Seeing Kakashi's lack of cooperation, Hyuuga Nen picked up a short sword and walked over to the unconscious Itachi Uchiha, holding the blade to his throat.

"If you don't answer my questions, your teammate's life is forfeit."

Hearing this, Kakashi turned his head, his eyes locked onto Hyuuga Nen. "A qualified ninja must prioritize the mission, even at the cost of their own life!" Kakashi said in a stern tone.

"So, between the mission and your teammate's life, you choose the former, is that it?" As he spoke, Hyuuga Nen applied slight pressure with the short sword, drawing blood from Itachi Uchiha's neck.

Kakashi watched Hyuuga Nen's actions intently, offering no verbal protest, his silence seemingly expressing his stance.

However, Hyuuga Nen noticed Kakashi's eyelashes trembling slightly; his inner state was clearly not as calm as his exterior suggested. After a moment of eye contact, Kakashi compromised.

"We don't have much intelligence on you. We only saw your battle with Kakuzu and moved in to investigate. After you left, Kakuzu told us about you, only mentioning that you were from the Hyuga Clan. We know nothing else."

"The Hokage's orders were to capture you alive if possible."

"Capture me alive—that is to say, if necessary, you are authorized to kill me, correct?" Hyuuga Nen pressed further.

Faced with the follow-up, Kakashi remained silent, tacitly confirming Hyuuga Nen's deduction.

Kakashi chose to ignore the third question, but since Hyuuga Nen had already deduced who the reinforcements were, he saw no point in wasting more time.

Hyuuga Nen turned his attention back to inventorying their supplies. He had consumed a fair amount of his own during the previous fight, and since he had captured them, he didn't intend to let their gear go to waste, planning to replenish his own stores.

He opened the three sealing scrolls belonging to the team. A pile of items spilled out, mostly miscellaneous goods like clothing, with very little of actual use to him.

Hyuuga Nen picked up a peculiarly shaped kunai and examined it closely. It was a three-pronged blade with four characters engraved on the handle: "Sword of Shinobi Love."

"Give that back to me!" Kakashi shouted, his voice strained and heavy with ragged breaths.

Hyuuga Nen glanced at Kakashi, ignored him, and activated his Byakugan to observe the interior of the kunai.

Through the Byakugan, Hyuuga Nen discovered that the four characters were not a sealing formula but mere text; the actual sealing formula was inscribed inside the weapon.

He could not decipher the formula, but he knew this was the weapon used by the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze. Through this kunai, Minato could pinpoint his location when using the Flying Thunder God.

Thinking I could understand the Flying Thunder God just by looking at a kunai—how delusional, Hyuuga Nen mocked himself internally before tossing the weapon aside and continuing his search.

"Are these two scrolls ninjutsu scrolls?" Hyuuga Nen asked. Kakashi merely glanced at him and remained silent.

Hyuuga Nen didn't mind. He carefully observed the sealing techniques on the scrolls and soon concluded that they were indeed ninjutsu scrolls. By using sealing arts to store specific techniques, one only needed to inject chakra to activate them, even if the user didn't know the technique themselves.

Hyuuga Nen created a shadow clone and took the scrolls outside the cave. He activated one, observing the changes through his Byakugan.

The scrolls contained only standard Fire Style and Wind Style techniques. However, as Hyuuga Nen was already highly skilled in sealing arts, and with the Byakugan providing a detailed view of the activation process, he was confident he could master this technique in the future.

"Not bad," Hyuuga Nen said with satisfaction before returning to the cave.

In the end, he didn't take much—just enough explosive tags, kunai, shuriken, and military rations to replenish his stock. He took the rest of the items outside and prepared to destroy them with a Fire Style technique.

"Hm? The Fourth Hokage's kunai didn't melt in the flames. Surprisingly durable." Hyuuga Nen paused, seeing the blade only glowing faintly red, but he didn't dwell on it and returned to the cave.

He crouched before the three captives, his eyes scanning them as he pondered his next move.

Kakashi, having seen Hyuuga Nen attempt to burn his teacher's kunai, glared at him with undisguised fury.

After a long while, Kakashi's emotions settled. He looked at Hyuuga Nen and said, "By the look of things, you intend to kill us all here?"

"That is the plan." As he said this, Hyuuga Nen stared fixedly at Kakashi's Sharingan.

"Then why haven't you done it yet? Are you hesitant?" Kakashi spoke, clearly trying to stall for time until reinforcements arrived.

Hyuuga Nen ignored him, rubbing his chin in thought. Killing them now would certainly make his situation safer in the short term, but it would also completely alienate Konoha.

The Hokage's order to Kakashi was to capture me alive. If possible, he doesn't want me dead immediately. Why is that? Hyuuga Nen wondered.

He glanced at the unconscious Itachi Uchiha and suddenly realized the reason. If the Third Hokage had issued a kill-on-sight order, it might have offended the Hyuga Clan.

Hyuuga Nen had calculated that Naruto should be nearing enrollment age.

This meant the Uchiha Clan massacre was likely approaching. Relations between Konoha and the Uchiha were surely strained; they wouldn't want to offend the Hyuga Clan at such a time.

Hyuuga Nen shifted his gaze from Itachi to Kakashi's Sharingan, thinking, Should I take this eye? The ocular technique it possesses is Kamui, a rare space-time ability.

Obito Uchiha had given this eye to Kakashi and never reclaimed it, suggesting he didn't care for it. If Hyuuga Nen took it, he would draw Obito's attention. While the eye's power could counter Obito, such a move would only bring danger directly upon himself.

With that thought, Hyuuga Nen shook his head, abandoned the idea, stood up, broke the limbs of his captives, and walked out of the cave.

Long after Hyuuga Nen had left, Itachi Uchiha finally regained consciousness. He turned his head with great difficulty to see Kakashi slumped against the wall and said shamefully:

"Captain Kakashi, it is my fault. If not for my suggestion, we wouldn't have ended up like this. I should have listened to you and waited for reinforcements. I'm sorry!"

"Being alive is enough. Don't blame yourself, Itachi," Kakashi replied.

After they spoke, silence returned to the cave. Since their chakra was sealed and they were bound by ropes, any shouting might attract unknown dangers, so they could only wait quietly for their reinforcements to arrive.