The tiles of the attic trembled slightly with the violent chakra explosion in the distance.
Hyuga Xiao stood in the shadows, the night wind stirring the hem of his clothes. His Tenseigan, reflecting the stars, clearly caught the three figures flung away by the raging shockwave before the Ancestral Shrine, their miserable forms exposed beneath the moonlight.
Pale bone masks, cold chakra, and that deathly aura of tools that seeped into the very marrow.
"The show has begun."
The corner of his lips curled into a cold arc, as if he were admiring a carefully staged play.
Boom—!
The heavy wooden doors of the Ancestral Shrine were blasted open from within by a surge of furious rage, splintered wood shooting outward in every direction!
Hyuga Hiashi charged out like a lion driven completely mad with fury.
His clan leader's haori snapped wildly in the raging chakra currents. That face which had always maintained an air of authority and hypocrisy was now twisted by madness. Blood vessels filled his Byakugan, while the veins on his temples and neck bulged like writhing earthworms, hideous and terrifying!
His gaze instantly locked onto the three Root members who had just regained their footing.
ANBU!
The dogs raised by the village elders!
Just as the Hyuga Clan was about to receive the unprecedented "Ancestor's Blessing," just as he was about to gain the supreme power to suppress all opposition and restore the Main House's absolute glory, these vermin that lurked in the shadows actually dared to infiltrate the Hyuga sacred grounds!
What did they want?
To sabotage the ritual? Steal its secrets? Or perhaps... they had come under the Hokage's orders to suppress the Hyuga Clan?!
In an instant, countless suspicions, fears, rage, and unwillingness over the formation's loss of control crashed through Hyuga Hiashi's