Miyamura Ayano's Death Notice

Upon learning that their arrangements had failed, the Hyuga Second Elder was the first to lose his composure, grabbing the teacup at his side and hurling it at the two men below.

"You two pieces of trash, you can't even handle such a trivial matter, so what use are you? Relying on you two to guard the Main House is less realistic than relying on a ninja hound."

Watching the Second Elder's uncontrollable rage and the submissive posture of the two Branch House ninjas below, who kept their heads bowed and dared not meet his gaze, Hyuga Hiashi frowned.

He held nothing but contempt for this Second Elder, who had caused their clan to suffer such massive losses, and those two ninjas below belonged to the Branch House under his own main lineage.

As the future head of the Main House, Hyuga Hiashi felt he should do something, but before he could speak, his arm was firmly pressed down by his father beside him.

Hyuga Xingcun patted the back of Hyuga Hiashi's hand, signaling him to remain calm, before speaking in an unhurried tone: "It was merely a failed probe, nothing of great consequence. As long as that little brat remains in the village, we have plenty of opportunities."

"If it doesn't work once, we try ten times; if ten times isn't enough, we try a hundred. The most important item has already been placed under that brat's bed. From here on, as long as one of the selected children from the outside branch families can befriend him, we will succeed."

"We can afford to fail countless times, but that brat can only afford to fail once."

"Besides, if the Second Elder still feels unsettled, you can personally create some trouble for him. After all, that brat has already lost his Byakugan; surely, under such circumstances, causing him a little trouble should be quite easy."

The "outside branch families" Hyuga Xingcun spoke of were naturally the mixed-blood children from their previous plans who possessed thin Hyuga bloodlines but lacked the Byakugan.

Because they had to consider the influence within the village and the constraints of time, only a portion of those individuals had been branded with the Caged Bird seal.

And those many others, who had yet to be branded, were the best candidates for plotting against Kawaki Aoba.

With this, the Hyuga clan's scheme became clear and concise.

By using the children of the outside branch families to befriend Kawaki Aoba and letting them grow close, they would then frame him by planting the Gentle Fist manual hidden in the secret compartment under his bed.

Once they had the moral high ground, given the weight of the Hyuga clan, dealing with Kawaki Aoba would be as easy as turning over one's hand; even if Yuhi Shinku were added to the mix, he wouldn't be able to stir up any waves.

To be honest, this scheme was not particularly clever, but it was extremely lethal.

If an ordinary ten-year-old ninja were caught unaware, they would very likely fall for it.

After all, who would constantly and groundlessly suspect the strangers appearing around them?

But now that Kawaki Aoba was aware of their conspiracy, it was a different matter entirely.

With his max-level Observation Haki, Kawaki Aoba had no need to worry about any schemes being plotted around him.

On the contrary, it was the Second Elder who might have some small tricks that required attention.

However, it would be nothing more than him trying every possible way to cause trouble; regarding this, Kawaki Aoba did not care much, as his own strength was his greatest trump card.

With the discussion on how to deal with him concluded, Kawaki Aoba had expected the meeting of these four to end, but to his surprise, they mentioned a name that was unexpected, yet logically fitting in this context.

"One more thing, Huoshu, how was the other little brat, Miyamura Ayano, handled?" Hyuga Xingcun asked casually.

"She has already been dealt with. After defecting to our Hyuga clan, she betrayed us and turned to be courted by Sarutobi Hiruzen, hoping to use that as a stepping stone—as if such a good thing exists in this world." The Hyuga Great Elder, Huoshu, shook his head; it was clear he held nothing but disdain for a ninja like Miyamura Ayano, who was accustomed to betrayal.

Kawaki Aoba felt a chill in his heart: Miyamura Ayano, the one who had sold him out, was dead.

He had long concluded that she would be dealt with, but he hadn't expected the Hyuga to act so quickly.

At this moment, Kawaki Aoba found that he could actually understand Sarutobi Hiruzen.

The energy held by these ninja clans in Konoha was simply too immense, especially when targeting civilian ninjas without backgrounds; one could even describe it as unscrupulous.

Thinking of it this way, these great clans were indeed objects that needed to be weakened and struck down.

The small meeting of the Hyuga clan's upper echelon ended there, but Kawaki Aoba did not withdraw his Observation Haki, instead continuing to probe other areas.

It was only because Kawaki Aoba suddenly realized that since obtaining max-level Observation Haki, he hadn't properly observed Konoha; now, he might as well take this opportunity to have a good look.

When Kawaki Aoba's Observation Haki fully expanded, the areas he focused on held almost no secrets from him. If he wanted to, he could even spend a great deal of time uncovering 99% of Konoha's secrets.

But Kawaki Aoba clearly wouldn't engage in such a time-wasting activity; even now, he only roughly observed a few important locations and figures.

For instance, inside the Hokage Building at this moment, several Konoha higher-ups were arguing in a mess over how much war supplies needed to be stockpiled;

Nara Shikaku was waiting outside the door for Sarutobi Hiruzen's summons;

A large and a small freak in green spandex were doing handstands while running laps around Konoha.

In one mansion, a woman with a terrifyingly large amount of chakra in her body was resting.

Within the Uchiha Police Force, Fugaku, whom he had met once before, was frowning as he looked at the files in his hands.

Yuhi Shinku was at home attempting to develop a chakra cloak.

Inside Konoha's Training Ground No. 3, a sunny, big-hearted boy was continuously rubbing a chakra sphere between his hands.

Hmm, if there were no surprises, that last one seemed to be Minato.

Judging by his appearance, was he developing the Rasengan? Could it be that he had already seen a Tailed Beast Bomb before the war began?

Tsk, his level of development wasn't even as good as his own; it looked like he had only just started not long ago.

Time flew like an arrow, and in the blink of an eye, several more days passed.

During these days, Kawaki Aoba's life was extremely regular; aside from learning the Darkness Technique from the person Sarutobi Hiruzen sent to teach him genjutsu, he spent his time routinely using his Observation Haki to observe Konoha.

And through these days of observation, Kawaki Aoba discovered another wonderful use for his Observation Haki: using it to identify spies from enemy villages.

If Kawaki Aoba were willing to put in the effort and spend the time to screen the entirety of Konoha, he wouldn't necessarily be able to dig out every single spy hidden in the village, but he could at least eliminate 99.9% of the hidden dangers.