How Many Things Are You Hiding from Me?

Nohibi's voice was muffled. Half his face was swollen, making his words somewhat slurred.

Fugaku stood there with his mouth open, his brush raised in midair. After being stunned for a full three seconds, he finally couldn't help speaking, his voice dry.

"Who are you talking to?"

Hearing the voice, Nohibi slowly turned his neck, his cervical vertebrae making a soft crack.

Since his swollen eyelids left only a thin slit, he struggled to adjust his focus.

After turning less than halfway around and taking about five seconds, he finally locked onto the blurry figure actually seated behind the desk.

Without a word, Nohibi shuffled two steps and readjusted his position, once again striking a solemn pose toward Fugaku.

Fugaku frowned as he looked at the squad captain, who seemed as though he had been trampled by a ferocious beast.

"Nohibi, what happened to your face? Who dared beat a Security Force squad captain into this state inside Konoha?"

Nohibi froze.

The miserable image of Mikoto chasing him down and beating him senseless flashed uncontrollably through his mind.

He was an elite who had awakened the Three-Tomoe Sharingan.

Yet he had been beaten so badly by an enraged housewife that he couldn't fight back at all, left scrambling for his teeth on the ground.

Humiliating.

Fucking humiliating!

But he was the Night Faction's number-one lackey, the future chief minister who would assist the heaven-sent hero in usurping the throne!

How could he show weakness before this old clan head who was about to be cast aside?

So Nohibi forcibly straightened up, though the movement made his facial muscles twitch painfully from the strain.

He raised his bruised, swollen face, his tone low and incomparably aloof.

"There is only this one thing I don't want to tell you..."

``` [ Ding!