The moonlight was pale and bleak as it shone on Hyuga Qingkong's face, his eyes still open in death.
Blood poured from his slashed throat, winding across the altar's stone slabs into a grotesque pattern. Hyuga Xiao crouched down, azure light flowing through his pale eyes—the Tenseigan's retrospection ability was operating, attempting to capture the murderer's lingering chakra traces.
"Time of death was no more than thirty minutes ago." Kurenai Yuhi spoke softly, pressing her fingers against the already cold skin at Qingkong's neck. "Clean and decisive. One strike killed him. The other party was a professional assassin."
Xiao's gaze fell on the rubble clenched in Qingkong's right hand. Beneath it was a line of blood-written words, scrawled messily and clearly left behind with his last strength:
"The Watcher Seed can be transferred... Ko Hyuga has lost control... beware Hidden Cloud..."
"Hidden Cloud." Xiao savored those two words, his voice cold as ice.
Just then, the sound of dry branches snapping came from the woods beyond the altar.
Kurenai Yuhi formed hand seals at once, and a genjutsu barrier unfolded before them. Xiao raised a hand to stop her, however. The Tenseigan's vision pierced through layer after layer of tree trunks and locked onto a figure slowly approaching.
It was a woman.
Her tall figure was wrapped in Hidden Cloud's distinctive dark, tight-fitting combat uniform, while her silver-white short hair gleamed coldly under the moonlight. Two short blades hung at her waist. Her stride was steady, every step precisely landing where the fallen leaves were thickest, making almost no sound. Most striking of all were her eyes—those eyes calmly looked in Xiao's direction, as though she had already seen through the genjutsu barrier.
"A sensory-type ninja," Hong murmured.
"No." Xiao rose to his feet and brushed the dust from his