The Birth of Fanatics and the Aftermath in the Hokage's Office

Snow was still falling.

Fine ice crystals landed on the scorching skin of the surviving Hyuga clansmen, letting out faint sizzles before turning into cold mist.

The air was thick with the complicated stench of blood, ozone, and earth.

But at this moment, no one cared about any of it.

Over a hundred pale eyes converged into invisible torrents, fixed without the slightest deviation on the unconscious figure in the clearing—Hyuga Hiashi, head of the Hyuga Clan.

He was not the focus.

He was merely... a "holy relic" left behind after God had departed.

No one spoke. No one moved.

Time seemed to have fallen into a strange stagnation within this utterly crushed forest.

Until a suppressed groan filled with extreme pain shattered the frozen scene.

"Ugh..."

Hyuga Hiashi's eyelids trembled violently a few times before finally opening with difficulty.

His vision was a blur.

Having borne power beyond that of mortals, his Byakugan's Meridians were now on the verge of collapse. Agonizing pain surged through his mind in wave after wave. Every bone and every inch of muscle in his body groaned beneath an unbearable burden.

Yet he did not inspect his wounds, nor did he care whether the surrounding clansmen lived or died.

Through that chaotic haze, he seemed to still see that man's godlike gaze, coldly watching all living things through his eyes.

He could recall the irresistible trembling and submission born from the difference in their very levels of existence, when his body had been completely taken over by that warm yet tyrannical power.

He had experienced firsthand how a mortal body could become a god's weapon and wield might enough to alter heaven and earth.

The so-called foremost noble clan of Konoha, the so-called Byakugan bloodline—before that power, they were fragile, insignificant, and laughable as