First Kill

Tonight, thick fog blanketed the area. Moisture beaded on the flagstones and dampened the soil.

Neji, moving stealthily, frowned as he looked back at the faint traces he had left despite being extremely careful. After a moment's thought, he raised his right hand, held his index and middle fingers together before his chest, and shouted in a low voice, "Shadow Clone Technique."

With a poof, two Nejis in the exact same pose appeared beside him.

"I'll leave it to you two. Disturb the trail as much as possible. Don't give them a chance to track us."

"Got it!"

"No problem!"

The two spoke at once, then vanished in a flash. After watching his clones leave, Neji took a detour and headed toward the Main House estate.

As dew dripped from the tips of leaf veins, Neji's Byakugan clearly saw the black chakra pulsing within Kosuke Hyuga's chest. That mass resembled a honeycomb hollowed out by maggots, throbbing with an ominous pulse beneath the third rib of the Main House's young master.

"His chakra has changed. What is this? It seems full of coldness and resentment."

Crouched beneath the eaves, Neji peered through the wall with his Byakugan and saw Kosuke Hyuga inside with someone whose chakra was quite powerful. Compared with Kosuke Hyuga's chakra from a year ago, however, the changes in it now left Neji rather startled.

"Is this some kind of chakra nature transformation?" Neji did not dare let down his guard. He fully circulated the Breath Concealment Art, suppressing every trace of his presence.

"That Branch House bastard should be strung up on an execution rack and dried in the wind!" Kosuke Hyuga slammed his fist onto the low table, shattering the candlelight reflected in the teacup into orange sparks.

He had used so much force that the veins on the back of his hand bulged like venomous snakes. "During the last clan competition, he actually dared to defeat me with the Gentle Fist. It was a disgrace to the Main House..."

Hyuga Ryota, the Jonin who had returned from the border, sat kneeling in the shadows. His Jonin vest was crisp but somewhat faded. When he raised a hand to catch a falling tea stem, Neji noticed the thick calluses on his palm. This was an expert.

"The Grand Elder wants authority over the clan head's line," Ryota said, his voice like a rusty shuriken scraping across stone. "He does not want the Main House's direct heir to be blinded by personal hatred."

Kosuke suddenly let out a mocking laugh like a night owl.

"Look at this before you decide." Kosuke flicked a jade token toward him. The Grand Elder's chakra mark glimmered faintly upon it. It was the Grand Elder's command token.

"This is Grandfather's will as well. If you don't believe me, you can ask him yourself."

Ryota clenched his fists at those words and lowered his head. "I would not dare. Of course I believe the Grand Elder."

"As long as he goes to the border." Kosuke licked his lips. "You only need to make that bastard get 'accidentally' captured by the enemy. As for the rest..." Yin-nature chakra gathered at his fingertips as he traced a dissolving Caged Bird curse mark through the air.

Beneath the eaves, Neji suddenly felt a stabbing pain in the crown of his head. In the vision of his Byakugan, he saw his father collapsing in agony a year ago.

Neji fought to keep himself from gritting his teeth and waited like a hunter for the right moment.

At last, Jonin Hyuga Ryota left. He had not noticed Neji's presence; the fog had given Neji the chance to remain hidden.

Kosuke showed no intention of sleeping. He continued to curse through gritted teeth.

"Bastard... Branch House trash... disgrace... Let's see how you survive this time. Die... die for me... Hahahaha..."

"I never thought my being alive would cause you such trouble... Kosuke Hyuga!"

A calm voice suddenly sounded behind Kosuke. At the same time, he felt a cold, terrifying killing intent lock onto his heart.

"Who—"

Kosuke Hyuga spun around sharply. Chakra surged through his entire chakra network as he assumed the opening stance of the Gentle Fist's Eight Trigrams Palm.

"It's you, you lowly thing. What are you trying to do? Are you going to betray the Main House?... Hahaha, I was just worrying about how to kill you reasonably. This truly took no effort at all. Die..."

Kosuke Hyuga was startled at first, then overjoyed. He raised his hand and struck at Neji's face. The force of the blow whistled through the air; clearly, he had not been idle in his training.

The chakra in his palm transformed into a cold venomous snake, coiling and writhing. Being bitten by it certainly would not feel pleasant. Unfortunately, he was facing Neji.

"My, my, I'm almost reluctant to kill you. Had I known you hated me this much—hated me so much you couldn't eat or sleep, hated me down to your bones—I should have kept you alive. What a pity. Since I'm already here..."

Neji spoke with a look of deep regret.

"Bastard! Nonsense! Die..."

The cold serpent flicked its tongue, about to touch Neji's nose. Then, in the next instant, Neji spoke indifferently.

"Heavenly Mirror Reversal!"

The chakra sphere that appeared from nowhere did not send Kosuke Hyuga flying when it touched him. Instead, it firmly absorbed the force of his palm. Kosuke Hyuga felt the chakra he had unleashed vanish like a mud ox sinking into the sea.

"How is that possible... How can you..."

Before he could finish, a familiar snake-like chakra burst from the chakra sphere and shot into Kosuke's body like lightning.

"Ah—" The familiar chakra had returned to his body, yet it was completely beyond his control and wreaked havoc within him. His chakra pathways shattered inch by inch, his tendons twisted, and the force surged into his organs, tearing apart the tissue inside. The unbearable pain struck in the next second, and the sensation of being sliced apart a thousand times forced Kosuke Hyuga to release an inhuman scream.

"You... you... I..." The anguished and furious Kosuke Hyuga tried to raise a hand and point at Neji.

"You what? I what? One Hundred Twenty-Eight Palms: Chaotic Stars."

Neji stopped wasting words. In an instant, he struck several of Kosuke's fatal points. Kosuke's Byakugan abruptly froze, and the malice and unwillingness slowly faded away, leaving behind eyes that had regained their clarity.

Neji looked at the wrecked room, then at Kosuke's corpse on the floor. After hesitating for a moment, he forced himself to endure the disgust and stored it away in his space.

Great power brought powerful nerves. Though this was Neji's first time taking a life, he felt only slight discomfort and no guilt.

"I originally wanted to deal with you silently, but seeing how crazed you were, I really didn't want you to die so quickly. Forget it, I'll store it away. At least it's a pair of Main House Byakugan."

"It's time to go." Neji unleashed a wave of Qi that swept through the room, erasing his traces. Sensing the patrol approaching, he suppressed all his aura in the next second and left the Main House after several flashes.

After avoiding personnel conducting patrols everywhere, Neji quietly returned home. He disposed of the clothes he was wearing, then carefully washed his entire body several times with Qi before finally feeling somewhat at ease.

He then raised his right hand with two fingers together and shouted softly, "Release!" The Shadow Clones that had been wandering through Konoha were dispelled by Neji.

The memories of both clones instantly appeared in Neji's mind. Seeing the trails they had left in various places, Neji nodded to himself.

As tangible Shadow Clones, and with both of them also using the Breath Concealment Art, they had followed normal infiltration methods along designated routes, avoiding Konoha's sensitive areas and leaving only physical traces. Even if those traces were discovered, no strange tracking technique would be able to follow them back to Neji.

The chakra used to maintain the Shadow Clones was also dissolved by the Qi that had been infused into them from the start.

"This should be foolproof now!" Neji carefully reviewed tonight's operation. Once he confirmed there were no mistakes or omissions, he lay down and quietly waited for the chaos at the Main House.