Kawaki Aoba was a little surprised that they were leaving the village on a mission so soon. After all, with an "injured person" like him in the team, their leader, Yuhi Shinku, should have taken his condition into consideration. He hadn't even been given time to adjust.
That meant the only possibility was that Yuhi Shinku had a reason he couldn't put off taking Kawaki out of the village. And there was a 99 percent chance that reason had something to do with the Hyuga Clan.
Considering this was a long-term mission, it meant the whole team was taking him out of the village to "escape."
This was really... hard to know what to do about.
Ever since he and the Hyuga Clan had completely fallen out, Kawaki Aoba had prepared for the worst. But the situation now was far better than he'd expected, and completely different from what he'd imagined.
No brainless Hyuga clansmen had come looking for trouble, and no rats lurking in the shadows had questioned him about the Byakugan.
All he'd had was Yuhi Kurenai's concern as she ran around taking care of things over the past few days, and the many days Yuhi Shinku had spent working on his behalf.
Oh, right. There was also Sarutobi Asuma's help. Even that idiot himself might not have known what good he'd done, but without his status as the Hokage's son, Kawaki would never have been able to stay safe until now.
It seemed he owed them a pretty big favor.
Though even he thought he was being a little sentimental, Kawaki Aoba still made a note of this debt in his heart.
Well, he'd decided. Once he grew stronger, if he ever ran into Hidan, he'd chop him into pieces and bury him in advance.
And then there was his teacher, Yuhi Shinku. In the original story, he only appeared in flashbacks. He survived the Third Shinobi World War, but didn't make it through the night of the Nine-Tails' attack.
Of course, he couldn't forget his grudge against the Hyuga Clan, either.
There were plenty of things he needed to do, and just as many people he needed to help. So he had to get stronger as quickly as possible.
He followed Yuhi Kurenai to the meeting point. Yuhi Shinku and Sarutobi Asuma were already there, ready to go.
"Good. We're all here. Let's set off. I'll explain the details of the mission on the way." Yuhi Shinku looked at his three students, paying particular attention to Kawaki Aoba for a moment, before giving the order.
The four-person team headed straight for the village gate. Along the way, Yuhi Shinku kept turning his head aside, as though distracted.
Only Kawaki Aoba "saw" the little gesture. He knew Yuhi Shinku was watching the Hyuga Clan ninja concealed in the shadows.
And that was exactly what was happening. After noticing the hidden Hyuga ninja, Yuhi Shinku felt frustrated, but also a little relieved.
He hadn't expected the Hyuga Clan to keep such a close eye on them. He'd already done his best to move quickly, but in the end, they'd still been spotted.
Fortunately, he'd already accepted the mission. No matter how bold the Hyuga Clan was, they wouldn't dare ambush them on the road while Sarutobi Asuma was still with the team.
As soon as the four team members left the village, the Hyuga Clan received word.
"So they accepted a mission and left the village? That's not a bad way to do it." After reading the report, Second Elder Hyuga Huoshu offered only that brief comment.
But the Third Elder sitting beside him wasn't nearly so calm. "Damn it! When did our Hyuga Clan sink so low? A mere Jonin who specializes in genjutsu dares to oppose us.
"And Sarutobi Hiruzen—what does that junior think he's doing? Turning on us after we've helped him? He'd better not forget that there are still members of our Hyuga Clan in his Anbu."
Hyuga Third Elder was utterly furious. How could he not be? The bulk of the Hyuga Clan's losses had come from his branch. Nearly eighty percent of its elite ninja had been wiped out in one fell swoop.
And of those lost ninja, more than half had been shoved into that so-called training unit for Shimura Danzo's dogshit Anbu.
Among all the ninja clans in Konoha, Danzo was infamous. That dogshit Root organization of his had been established during the Second Shinobi World War.
When Root was first established, the clans had all assumed it was a department that would share power with the Anbu. They'd done everything they could to send their people into it, hoping to gain a share of that power.
But who could have guessed that Danzo was such a scoundrel? The first mission assigned to the elite ninja from the various clans had been to infiltrate enemy territory and carry out assassinations.
And that had been during the Second Shinobi World War! The survival rate for such a dangerous mission was easy to imagine. The odds were so bad that fewer than one in ten could be expected to make it back.
Fortunately, those ninja had been the elite of their respective clans, and quite a few had managed to complete the mission.
The losses had been heavy, but the clans could accept it as a way of avenging the Second Hokage. They gritted their teeth and tried to make their peace with it.
But Danzo really was inhuman. He was far too good at turning on people once they'd served their purpose and killing the donkey after it had done the work.
While the ninja of the various clans risked their lives to complete the mission, Danzo placed Curse Marks on their clansmen who'd joined Root. He didn't spare even the elite ninja lucky enough to return alive. Every last one of them became Danzo's personal ninja.
How could the various ninja clans not be furious at such behavior? But their anger was useless. By then, the Second Shinobi World War had all but died down, and Sarutobi Hiruzen had earned enough prestige by leading the charge on the front lines. The clans had lost their last bargaining chip.
They would have had to unite and appoint someone to lead them all, but that was unthinkable. Besides, no one was a fool. The first person to stick their neck out would surely be the one who suffered the worst fate.
And so the great loss the clans had suffered at Danzo's hands was simply allowed to fade away without consequence.
After that, the name Shimura Danzo became synonymous with loathing among the upper ranks of the various clans.
And with Sarutobi Hiruzen turning a blind eye to his actions, Danzo only grew more and more brazen. Whenever he visited the various clans, he usually left empty-handed, but by using all sorts of methods, he still managed to get quite a few clans to offer him one or two of their members as a token gesture.
Naturally, this only made Shimura Danzo's reputation among the ninja clans' upper ranks even worse. But did he care?
The only thing he might have cared about was expanding Root. And, of course, the "dream" no one knew about besides him.
Besides, there were rumors that Danzo had recently decided to raise and train ninja from childhood. It seemed he'd even set his sights on the Konoha Orphanage.
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