Konoha's Twin Prodigies, Peerless Grace

"It could have been the Uchiha Clan's doing," Ning Qi said.

Since the Hyuga clan's extermination had already been scheduled, the more chaotic the scene became, the more it served Ning Qi's interests.

In the original story, Itachi had been able to slaughter the Uchiha Clan with ease because behind him stood many Konoha ninja under orders to turn a blind eye, along with a father, Uchiha Fugaku, willing to offer his own son his neck for the blade.

Ning Qi was different. If he wanted to imitate Itachi's actions and wipe out the Hyuga clan, Konoha's higher-ups would not agree, and the Hyuga clan would not be willing to kill themselves. The circumstances were completely different.

But there was no helping it. The Byakugan's advancement required a great deal of Byakugan essence. Unless Ning Qi was willing to spend more than a decade proceeding gradually, the Byakugan's rapid advancement would inevitably be accompanied by his clan's "voluntary sacrifices."

No matter what, the lively, prosperous scene of the clan head's residence disguised by the Naraka Technique would eventually come to an end. No one was a fool. It was merely that the Uchiha Clan's rebellion had occupied too much of Konoha's higher-ups' attention, while the disappearance of several branch family members had never seemed important enough.

Having chosen this road, the matter of Ning Qi imprisoning the clan head and slaughtering his own clansmen would inevitably be exposed sooner or later. Rather than wait for the balloon to suddenly burst and be caught unprepared, it was better to choose a suitable time and squeeze it until it popped himself.

Half of the Hyuga clan had already fallen victim to Ning Qi's hand. With Ning Qi prepared, the remaining half would not possess much ability to resist either. The only thing he needed to consider was how to escape Konoha's pursuit forces once the news came out.

The Night of the Clan Massacre was the perfect time.

On the surface, Itachi would destroy the Uchiha Clan, and Konoha would surely deploy a large number of people to assist him and prevent the unrest from spreading further.

In secret, Ning Qi would destroy the Hyuga clan. No one would know that the Hyuga clan meeting organized by the clan head was actually a meeting for their extermination.

Konoha's Twin Prodigies, peerless in grace!

Without a plan in place, or even much attention paid to it, they would naturally be unable to organize an effective pursuit squad. Ning Qi would have more time to seize further benefits before calmly extricating himself from the whirlpool that was Konoha.

What he needed to do now was determine the date of the Uchiha Clan's Night of the Clan Massacre. The prerequisite for that was for Konoha's higher-ups to reach a consensus on exterminating the clan, allowing the hawkish faction led by Danzo to completely overwhelm the dovish faction led by the Third Hokage.

The Third Hokage would yield. That was inevitable. All Ning Qi had to do was use Takizawa Yamaaki's death to accelerate it slightly.

Danzo's only exposed eye stared coldly at Ning Qi for a long time before he gave a slight nod and asked,

"So, where is the body?"

Danzo would naturally suspect ulterior motives behind this. Though he was more than happy to frame the Uchiha Clan through such despicable means and push the clan extermination forward, he had no desire to be used by a subordinate without knowing anything.

Ning Qi's enthusiasm for destroying the Uchiha Clan was worrying. In particular, Ning Qi, controlled by the Caged Bird, could never be regarded by Danzo as a trusted confidant. The seeds of suspicion had already been planted, and Ning Qi understood that perfectly well. But it did not matter. He would not remain in Konoha for long, so Danzo's eventual reckoning would never have a chance to fall upon him.

"In the eastern forest," Ning Qi said.

"I'll send Zhili over," Danzo said, implying that Ning Qi no longer needed to concern himself with what came next.

As for how to create injuries on the corpse sufficient to frame the Uchiha Clan, Root had capable people to handle it.

"Then I'll take my leave." Having achieved his goal, Ning Qi bowed and left.

Ning Qi's Root squad had been tasked with monitoring the Uchiha Clan.

Honestly, it was a rather tedious job. During the day, they basically squatted in the trees outside the Uchiha residential district, tracking and recording Uchiha members entering and leaving. Other than making sure they were not discovered, there was not much technical difficulty involved.

Fortunately, Ning Qi was the squad leader and did not need to work that hard. He only had to remain at headquarters and compile the intelligence sent over by the team members responsible for surveillance.

"7:05. Uchiha Suzuka and seven others left the Uchiha compound together."

"7:40. Uchiha Ichigo and Uchiha Luffy had an argument at the entrance to the compound, apparently because the latter stole the former's girlfriend."

"8:11. Uchiha Suzuka and the others returned to the compound carrying a basket of fresh ingredients."

"8:41. A brawl broke out on Konoha's streets. Uchiha Yashiro of the police force stepped in to stop the conflict."

"8:50. Uchiha Tetsu and Uchiha Shin returned to the compound together after a night of heavy drinking."

Ning Qi leafed through the thick stack of surveillance reports sent in from various locations that day. Anything involving the Uchiha Clan, from firewood, rice, oil, and salt to the smallest triviality, had been recorded in full. It showed just how seriously Konoha had recently begun to regard the Uchiha Clan.

Although reports had already emerged that the Uchiha leadership had repeatedly plotted a coup within the clan, the surveillance records did not reveal even the slightest abnormality among the Uchiha Clan's members.

Ning Qi did not care. The Uchiha leadership could not possibly broadcast what they were plotting to every clansman. The Uchiha Clan also had ordinary people, and there were opponents within the clan as well. They did not know that the ground beneath their feet was already swirling with undercurrents and brimming with killing intent. Oblivious, they continued along the inertia of their lives day after day, year after year, remaining ignorant even when death descended... such was the life of the common people.

All of this was perfectly normal.

Ning Qi annotated the documents on his desk, placing those that might be useful on one side and those that definitely were not on the other. As for how he determined whether information was useful or useless, that depended entirely on Ning Qi's personal judgment.

That was the nature of intelligence work: picking out genuinely valuable information from all kinds of cumbersome, chaotic materials, following faint clues and seeing into hidden details. Since Ning Qi had taken the position of squad leader, he naturally did not lack the talent to find gold in the sand.

There was a mountain of intelligence, but Ning Qi worked even faster, so fast that the subordinates assisting beside him became somewhat flustered.

"Captain, another batch has arrived." The subordinate codenamed Firefly carried over another pile of raw materials that members from various locations had just recorded and urgently needed processing.

"Mm. Put it there," Ning Qi said casually.

Firefly did as instructed. She was about to leave when she seemed to notice a particular report on the desk. Her body stiffened, and after hesitating for a while, she could not help asking,

"Captain, will the Uchiha... really rebel?"

Aside from a few Konoha higher-ups, only the ANBU directly responsible for Uchiha affairs knew most clearly that the Uchiha were plotting a rebellion.

"I think they will. What is it?"

Firefly handed that report to Ning Qi.

"8:15. Uchiha Sasuke, Tuwei, and eleven other children left the Uchiha compound for the Ninja Academy."

This was an extremely ordinary report that could have been directly classified as useless. But coupled with Firefly's earlier question, it was clear that what she meant had nothing to do with the report's value.

Ning Qi pursed his lips and asked,

"Can't bear it?"

Once the Uchiha Clan's rebellion failed, what those seeds of hatred would experience went without saying.

Firefly shook her head. She possessed the qualities required of an ANBU. Drawing her blade against children was nothing; she had long grown accustomed to orders taking precedence over her personal feelings.

"I just think... how did it come to this?"

Power?

Strength?

Ning Qi did not know the answer either, so he said nothing more. Someone would bear this sin. There was no need for others to taint themselves with it. Firefly was worrying too much.

Besides, Ning Qi had sins of his own to bear. Come to think of it, he was not much nobler than that person.

For strength.

For the greater good.

No matter what, this was still the slaughter of an entire household and the extermination of a clan. I was a devil; he was an executioner.

I was steeped in evil.

He deserved to die a thousand deaths.

I don't think I'm wrong. Presumably, he won't regret it either.

That was Konoha's Twin Prodigies.