Hyuga Branch House Executed by the Caged Bird

But that was not important. It was a good thing that a member of the Uzumaki was willing to join Kumogakure.

She could do whatever she wanted, as long as she was willing to marry and have children.

With Akira Hyuga as a precedent, the Third Raikage did not have high demands for Maki Uzumaki.

He only found it a pity that Maki Uzumaki was a woman.

If she had been a man, she could have had more children. Before long, Kumogakure might have gained an entire Uzumaki clan.

The Third Raikage had ANBU arrange Maki Uzumaki's residence and work.

These matters had nothing to do with Chiba Shun. Just as he was about to leave, the Third Raikage stopped him.

After the Third Raikage had dealt with Maki Uzumaki's affairs, he said to Chiba Shun, "Tell me the details of this operation."

Chiba Shun coughed. He had been waiting for those words, so he gave a detailed account of his time outside the village, focusing on the several battles and Kakuzu.

In addition, Chiba Shun casually mentioned that he had spent 300,000 ryo hiring Maki Uzumaki to restore his body.

That's right, 300,000 ryo. With a mere flap of his lips, Chiba Shun had doubled the money spent on Maki Uzumaki.

The Third Raikage did not suspect anything. He nodded and directly counted it as an A-rank Jutsu mission for Chiba Shun, setting the reward at 600,000 ryo.

Chiba Shun was thrilled. He had expected an A-rank Jutsu mission worth 150,000 ryo, plus the additional 300,000 ryo in expenses, for at most 450,000 ryo.

If the corpses he had brought back were taken into account, he might have received a little more, but no more than 500,000 ryo.

He had not expected the Third Raikage to be so generous, directly doubling the original 300,000 ryo.

Afterward, the Third Raikage asked about Kakuzu and the Seven-Tails. Both were matters worth the attention of a major village's Kage.

As for Otogakure, the Third Raikage did not ask a single question.

Once he understood the details of Chiba Shun's mission, the Third Raikage suddenly said, "Konoha's upper ranks have learned about the Hyuga Branch House. What was happening in Sunshine Town, Land of Moon, can no longer continue."

"Do you have any other way to let members of the Hyuga Branch House leave descendants behind?"

Chiba Shun was startled. "It was exposed?"

After thinking for a moment, he asked, "Then what happened to Akira Hyuga and the others? How did Konoha react?"

The Third Raikage said, "Including Akira Hyuga, the Hyuga Main House likely executed every member of the Hyuga Branch House who had visited the Land of Moon using the Caged Bird."

"This happened before you left the village, but news reached us rather late."

"I only learned of it when Konoha sent its protest. Hiruzen Sarutobi demanded that we hand over everyone with Hyuga blood, but I refused."

Chiba Shun was not surprised by the Third Raikage's refusal. He sighed. "With Akira Hyuga and the others dead, this matter probably cannot continue."

"From now on, Konoha will not only guard against us, but against the other major ninja villages as well."

"It will no longer be easy for the Hyuga Branch House to leave the Land of Fire for missions as they did before."

"I suspect the Hyuga Clan may send more female members on missions that leave the Land of Fire."

"If they must send male members, they will definitely restrict how long those men can remain outside the Land of Fire."

Hearing this, the Third Raikage finally abandoned his unrealistic hopes.

Chiba Shun asked, "Lord Raikage, how many people with Hyuga blood does the village have now?"

The Third Raikage said, "Four have already been born. Another twenty-three are pregnant, and one of them is carrying twins."

"If all goes well, the village will have twenty-eight people with Hyuga blood in another five or six months."

Chiba Shun nodded. That was quite a number, more than he had imagined.

He simply did not know how Akira Hyuga and the others had been exposed.

But that no longer mattered. He asked, "Do the three newborns also have impurities in their Byakugan?"

The Third Raikage nodded. "Yes. They all have Byakugan, but all of them contain impurities."

"However, the amount of impurity differs. It is probably related to the purity of their Hyuga bloodline."

Chiba Shun said, "Even if their bloodlines are lacking, as long as they train well, the next generation should have a chance of producing pure Byakugan."

The Third Raikage thought the same way. Since Chiba Shun had no means of increasing the number of people with Hyuga blood, he prepared to dismiss him.

At that moment, Chiba Shun asked, "Lord Raikage, how were the Hyuga Branch House members exposed?"

"The information did not leak from our side, did it?"

The Third Raikage said, "I sent people to gather intelligence. It had nothing to do with us."

"This caused quite a stir in Konoha, so it was easy to find out."

It turned out that after more and more members of the Hyuga Branch House traveled to the Land of Moon, an accident finally occurred.

One branch house member who had gone to the Land of Moon multiple times without ever leaving behind descendants grew anxious. His mindset changed, and he exposed a flaw while interacting with a guard from the Hyuga Main House.

Before, no one had suspected anything. But once suspicion arose, investigating became easy.

They learned nothing without investigating. Once they did, they were horrified.

In just one year, so many male members of the Hyuga Branch House had gone on missions toward the Land of Moon or the Land of Hot Water!

Even some missions that had not originally required leaving the Land of Fire had changed routes for various reasons and gone to the Land of Moon.

The Hyuga Main House panicked completely when they heard this. The Byakugan bloodline limit might have leaked out!

For the Hyuga Main House, that was fatal!

The reason their main house possessed such great authority was because they could help Konoha protect the Byakugan bloodline limit!

If they could not prevent the Byakugan bloodline limit from leaking, would Konoha's upper ranks still allow them to retain so much authority?

So Dehong Hyuga, the current head of the Hyuga Clan, directly used the Caged Bird for interrogation.

Under the effects of the Caged Bird, not a single branch house member could endure.

Very quickly, the truth came to light.

Konoha's upper ranks were also alarmed. The hardliners led by Danzo directly demanded that the Hyuga Main House execute every Hyuga Branch House member who had disregarded the village's interests.

Even their families could not be spared!

After Danzo had made enough noise, Hiruzen Sarutobi said, "The families of Akira Hyuga and the others were unaware. They may be granted appropriate leniency."

What Hiruzen Sarutobi did not say was already perfectly clear.

Thus, the Hyuga Main House activated the Caged Bird and directly executed every branch house member who had traveled toward the Land of Moon, Land of Hot Water, or Land of Fields within the past year!

Then Danzo stepped in and branded all of their family members with the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal, dragging them into Root!

The women of the Hyuga Clan had generally awakened the Byakugan as well. Even if they were not strong in battle, they were qualified to serve as reconnaissance ninja.

Throughout all of Konoha, Danzo was the only one who benefited from this incident!

After hearing the Third Raikage's account, Chiba Shun felt somewhat emotional. Then he said, "Lord Raikage, I will remember this. In the future, I will tell the children of the Hyuga Clan in the village about it."

Uh...

The Third Raikage had not expected this matter to be used that way. But on second thought, it made sense. It would give those children an even stronger sense of belonging toward Kumogakure.

Sure enough, it had been right to leave the task of indoctrinating the Hyuga Clan to Chiba Shun. Some of those children had not even been born yet, but the Third Raikage could already see them being successfully indoctrinated by Chiba Shun.

Then Chiba Shun left the Raikage's office under the Third Raikage's strange gaze.

The next day, Chiba Shun brought the three little ones to the mission office and received the reward for this A-rank Jutsu mission from the female Chunin.

The female Chunin thoughtfully reminded Chiba Shun, "Lord Shun, you still have an S-rank Mission that has not been redeemed."

"Since it was wartime then, you can also choose to redeem it for an A-rank Jutsu. Would you like to do so now?"

Chiba Shun smiled. "No rush. Help me check how many B-rank Jutsu and C-rank Jutsu genjutsu the village has."

The female Chunin said, "All right. Please wait a moment."

While the female Chunin counted the jutsu, Chiba Shun put 300,000 ryo from the 600,000 ryo he had just received into his ninja tool pouch. He then told the three little ones, "This time, I told Lord Raikage that I spent 300,000 ryo on Maki Uzumaki. This is what he reimbursed me."

The three little ones' mouths fell open. All three knew, more or less, how much Maki Uzumaki had cost.

After all, every time he paid, Chiba Shun would grit his teeth and complain.

They had not expected Chiba Shun to be so bold as to inflate the expense by so much.

Chiba Shun ignored them. He put away half of the remaining 300,000 ryo—150,000 ryo—and said, "This is my reward as team leader. By the rules, I take half."

Then he divided the remaining 150,000 ryo into three portions and handed them over. "The three of you will split the remaining 150,000 ryo equally, which is 50,000 ryo each."

"However, you are not ninja yet, so this mission will not be entered into your records."

Only after receiving the reward did the three little ones understand why Chiba Shun had called them over. Holding the money, they were somewhat at a loss.

At that moment, the female Chunin said, "Lord Shun, I have finished counting."

When Chiba Shun looked over, she said, "The village has four B-rank Jutsu genjutsu and fifteen C-rank Jutsu genjutsu."

Chiba Shun asked, "The prices for genjutsu are the same as ordinary jutsu, right?"

The female Chunin smiled. "Yes, they are the same. Each C-rank Jutsu genjutsu costs 30,000 ryo, and each B-rank Jutsu genjutsu costs 100,000 ryo."

After hesitating, she asked again, "Lord Shun, are you going to buy them all again?"

Chiba Shun calculated first. Four B-rank Jutsu and fifteen C-rank Jutsu would cost a total of 850,000 ryo.

Before leaving the village this time, he had held 600,000 ryo. After several major battles outside the village, he had gained more than 200,000 ryo, but his expenses had been even greater, totaling 400,000 ryo. This A-rank Jutsu mission had earned him another 450,000 ryo.

So he still had 850,000 ryo on hand. Mm, two months had passed, and although he had not worked at the Ninja Academy, he had still received 100,000 ryo in wages.

So he had a total of 950,000 ryo he could use.

It looked like he could buy all the jutsu, but if he truly did that, he would have no money left for genjutsu training.

He clicked his tongue. "I can't afford them. Even if I bought them, I would not have enough resources to train."

"I'll buy three C-rank Jutsu genjutsu first and see whether I have talent for genjutsu."

The female Chunin smiled. "All right."