"Why are you all looking at me? If the esteemed people of Kumogakure want the Byakugan, isn't that only natural?
Wasn't that how it worked before? They wanted it, and the Hyuga Clan handed it over."
Miki Yūya's gaze passed over Yugito, fixing on Hyuga Hiashi, who sat slumped on the ground, as though he were already dead.
Hyuga Hiashi jerked his head up, a flicker of terror crossing his clouded eyes.
"You... what are you trying to say?"
Hiashi's heart sank.
He remembered Miki Yūya, that villager-the villager the Inuzuka Clan had protected.
And what Miki Yūya was referring to was the matter of Neji's father.
That incident was the greatest stain of his life, a scar he had spent his whole life concealing and dressing up.
He had thought that, with the passage of time and his rise to clan head, that humiliating history had long since been buried beneath the glory of the Hyuga Clan.
Yet now, a single casual remark from this young man was like a sharp knife, plunging straight into his most vulnerable spot.
"Doesn't everyone in the village already know what I'm trying to say?"
Miki Yūya wasn't speaking loudly, but his voice reached the ears of everyone present with perfect clarity.
"Back then, a Kumogakure ninja slipped into Konoha and abducted Hinata when she was little, intending to steal her Byakugan."
Dead silence fell over the crowd.
Hiashi felt as though his blood were flowing backward.
He instinctively clenched his fists, digging his nails deep into his palms. Word of this incident had long since spread through the village.
Danzo had publicized it to suppress the Hyuga Clan, but it was true. The Hyuga Clan had no way to deny it.
He wanted to stand, to roar, to use his authority as