Leaf Village Lacks Manpower, and the Hyuga Clan Becomes the Ultimate Scapegoat?

Just as Uchiha Yoru was developing like mad in Hidden Stone Village, his strength soaring beyond the heavens.

A thousand miles away, Leaf Village was shrouded in heavy gloom.

The cold rain of late autumn fell in an endless drizzle.

The entire village seemed submerged in water—chilly, damp, and devoid of life.

Several dozen more cold stone markers had appeared before the Memorial Stone.

The beds at Leaf Village Hospital were packed with wounded missing arms and legs, their groans continuing through the night.

"Damn Hidden Stone Village! Damn Uchiha!"

Inside the Hokage's office, Koharu Utatane slammed a fist onto the desk, his old face flushed red with rage.

"They've not only stolen a huge number of our S-rank commissions, they're even starting to interfere with C-rank and D-rank escort missions!"

"At this rate, the village's finances will completely collapse!"

Homura Mitokado's harsh face was also filled with anxiety.

"The most critical problem is manpower! The departure of the Uchiha Clan and the Fourth Hokage has left far too great a gap in our combat strength!"

"The mission fatality rate in the village is now even higher than during the Third Shinobi World War!"

Hiruzen Sarutobi sat at the head of the room, puffing on his pipe one drag after another.

Smoke filled the office, stinging everyone's eyes shut and concealing his exhausted old face.

How could he not know the village's current predicament?

More than half of its top-tier combat power had left, while another batch of its remaining backbone had been poached by Hidden Stone Village.

The current Leaf Village was like a giant whose organs had been hollowed out—formidable on the outside, weak within, ready to collapse at the slightest poke.

"Shift the pressure elsewhere."

From the corner, Shimura Danzo, who had remained silent all this time, suddenly spoke in a hoarse, unpleasant voice.

Though he had lost an arm, his nature as the darkness of Leaf Village had not changed in the slightest.

"If the Uchiha have left, aren't the Hyuga Clan still here?"

A cold gleam flickered in Danzō's single eye.

"They're also a great clan of ocular techniques. In terms of reconnaissance and intelligence gathering, the Byakugan is no worse than the Sharingan."

"This is a time of crisis for the village. As one of Leaf Village's founding great clans, the Hyuga Clan should naturally share the village's burdens."

Hiruzen Sarutobi paused slightly in the middle of exhaling smoke.

He glanced at Danzō, and in an instant, the two understood each other.

Hyuga Clan, main family residence.

It was already late at night, yet the study lamp was still lit.

Hiashi Hyuga sat kneeling on the tatami, with a thick stack of mission reports and casualty lists piled before him.

His normally stern and rigid face was visibly exhausted. His eye sockets were sunken, and his eyes were bloodshot.

"Cough, cough..."

Beside him, the head of the branch family—his twin younger brother, Hizashi Hyuga—could not help breaking into a violent coughing fit.

He had carried out high-intensity reconnaissance missions continuously for two months and had barely slept.

If he had not forced himself to hold on with the military ration pills supplied by the medical corps, he would have collapsed long ago.

"Brother, this can't go on."

Hizashi wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, his voice hoarse.

"This month alone, seventeen members of our branch family have died out there, and more than fifty have been seriously wounded!"

"The higher-ups have forcibly dumped seventy percent of the village's reconnaissance and high-risk escort missions onto our Hyuga Clan!"

Hizashi slammed his fist into the tatami, his eyes filled with resentment and fury.

"We're being used as cannon fodder! They're using our clansmen's lives to fill the hole left by the Uchiha's departure!"

"Silence!"

Hiashi Hyuga suddenly slapped the table and shouted sharply.

"Hizashi! Watch your words!"

The veins around Hiashi's Byakugan bulged, but his voice carried a deep sense of helplessness.

"This is a time of crisis for the village. As part of Leaf Village, we should devote everything to it."

"This is the Hyuga Clan's fate."

"Fate? Fate again!"

Hizashi laughed bitterly, his laughter full of sorrow.

"Just like this damned Caged Bird curse mark on my forehead, I was born destined to die for the main family, wasn't I?"

The study fell into deathly silence.

Only the rain outside coldly tapped against the eaves.

After a long while.

Hiashi Hyuga slowly rose to his feet, walked to the window, and pushed open the carved wooden shutters.

The cold night wind swept in with strands of rain, calming his restless heart slightly.

He raised his head and gazed toward the northwestern sky.

That was the direction of the Land of Earth.

"Brother, what are you looking at?" Hizashi asked in confusion.

Hiashi Hyuga did not answer.

Uncontrollably, news that had arrived from Hidden Stone Village several days ago surfaced in his mind.

The Uchiha Clan had been treated as honored guests and given the most prosperous district in the center of the village.

Hidden Stone Village's secret ninjutsu vault had been fully opened to them, with no limit placed on funding.

The clan's young people could freely choose to go into business or join the Anbu. They no longer had to do thankless work like serving in the police force and offending everyone.

There was no Byakugan, no surveillance.

There were only endless resources and the respect of being treated as true "family."

Hiashi Hyuga slowly closed his eyes, and two streams of tears slid from their corners.

Without comparison, there was no pain.

He had always believed that sacrificing for the village was an honor to be taken for granted.

Until the Uchiha Clan told him in the most drastic way possible that there was another way to live.

A way to stand tall, never needing to bow to anyone again.

He suddenly felt that the so-called "main family honor" and "Will of Fire" he had upheld for decades were nothing more than a colossal joke.

An unprecedented, utterly rebellious thought grew wildly within his heart like madly spreading vines, impossible to restrain.

He slowly opened his eyes. In those pure white pupils flashed a trace of resolve that even frightened himself.

Facing the night sky beyond the window, he murmured in a voice only he could hear.

"If... back then, we had followed the Uchiha... ...Clan and left together."

"Would the outcome... have been different?"