We should have another identity...

By the time he left the old house, stars dotted the sky.

Zou Hyuga returned home alone, while Hyuga Yu stayed at the old house to discuss important clan affairs.

When the clan head, Hiashi, had called him over earlier, his manner had been rather warm, without the coldness Zou had expected.

His reason for calling Zou over was simple: he wanted him to remain in the ANBU and gather intelligence for the Hyuga Clan, keeping track of the village leadership's latest moves.

There was no other reason. Although the Hyuga Clan had no shortage of Ninja with the skills of elite ANBU members, they were much like their Uchiha neighbors.

Because they possessed a dojutsu kekkei genkai, very few could actually join the ANBU.

Even Ninja from other clans had a much easier time getting in.

This assignment from the Main Family brought Zou Hyuga some relief. He had thought someone his age from the Main Family had killed a person and needed him to die in their place, with his body then sent to an enemy village to settle the conflict.

As absurd as it sounded, that was not impossible in the Hyuga Clan...

Still, if things really reached that point, he might imitate a certain Ninja, strike first, and try to fuse a pair of Tenseigan.

Whether he succeeded was another matter. The important thing was not to take it lying down.

His thinking was simple: if they would not let him live in peace, he would not let his tormentors live either.

Early the next morning, dawn had barely broken.

In a corner of the Uchiha Clan Compound.

Oto Uchiha woke in her room, took off her cat-eared pajamas, and sighed quietly at the mirror before changing into her Ninja gear.

As a disciplined Ninja, she got up at five every morning to practice half an hour of taijutsu and half an hour of ninjutsu.

Even with her part-time job as a Ninja Academy teacher, she maintained this routine during the holidays.

Huff, huff... After swinging her blade, a light sheen of sweat covered her back.

Once she finished her daily practice, Oto Uchiha took bread and milk from the refrigerator and said goodbye to the empty house.

"I'm heading out!"

Although everyone in her family had died in the last great war, she still kept this childhood habit.

Walking through the compound, Oto Uchiha noticed that it seemed rather lively today. Even the clan's usually insufferably arrogant brats were nowhere to be seen.

That was a good thing, though. She hated those brats who could never open their mouths without mentioning the Sharingan.

Without their pestering, the road was much more peaceful.

Walking briskly toward the compound's exit, Oto Uchiha spotted a married couple surrounded by a crowd.

A blond young man and a red-haired woman.

The blond young man was the Fourth Hokage, whom she had seen before. The red-haired woman was reportedly his wife, the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, Kushina Uzumaki.

She sensed a suffocating amount of chakra from the woman, far more terrifying than even Zou's.

The couple's arrival did not surprise her. Rumor had it that the Fourth Hokage and his wife were good friends with the Uchiha Clan Head and his wife, and they often visited one another privately.

But those visits had been as friends. Now that the Fourth had become Hokage, the two sides represented the village and the Uchiha. His appearance meant that relations between the Uchiha and the village were moving toward reconciliation.

That ought to be a good thing.

Habitually recalling something Zou had once said, Oto Uchiha shook her head and dismissed those stray thoughts.

What did these trivial clan affairs have to do with her, anyway? Whatever attitude the village leadership took, the Uchiha were a powerful clan that could not be ignored.

Indeed, to put it bluntly, the Uchiha Clan was stronger than most small Ninja villages.

Even if the village wanted to move against the Uchiha, it would have to weigh the consequences.

Leaving the compound and crossing most of the village, Oto Uchiha reached the mountain behind it and saw Zou Hyuga with a grass stem between his teeth.

He actually managed not to be late for once! Oto Uchiha thought as she approached.

Bored enough to yawn, Zou Hyuga stretched before noticing Oto Uchiha beside him. He was somewhat surprised, and even wary.

With his sensory abilities, there was no way someone could approach without him reacting, even if they were one of the Sannin. Though his strength was lacking, he had some confidence in his senses.

Could Oto have secretly awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan behind my back? Was its ability blocking my senses?

Surely it couldn't be because I subconsciously thought Oto posed no threat. Impossible!

He had always stayed vigilant, wondering whether Oto might one day hack him to death to awaken her Mangekyo Sharingan.

"I'm here. Are we experimenting with chakra again today? In the Forest of Death again?"

Oto Uchiha looked up at Zou Hyuga.

"Not the Forest of Death. We can't keep using the same training ground. It makes us too easy to discover."

Zou Hyuga shook his head and pointed in another direction. There was a dense forest there as well, but it was not the Forest of Death, though it also lay within Konoha's territory.

As a national war machine, Konoha's heart was the village beneath Kage Rock, covered by a sensory barrier.

But Konoha's surrounding territory was astonishingly vast. The Forest of Death, where the chunin ninja exams were held, was merely one of its many training grounds.

Konoha had more than a dozen other training grounds that large.

Today, Zou Hyuga was headed to one of them, a training ground he had deliberately selected.

There had been only one criterion: ordinary, ordinary, and ordinary!

Before long, the two arrived at an unremarkable outdoor training ground, with a river running nearby.

Upon reaching their destination, Zou Hyuga unfurled a scroll and summoned Samehada.

At the moment, Samehada was grayish blue, and its body had shriveled somewhat. While held in his hand, it showed faint signs of wanting to escape. Only after being placed in the stream did it gradually return to normal.

As a living Ninja Blade, Samehada felt that its continued survival was already a miracle.

Over several nights in a row, the Byakugan demon before it had subjected it to inhumane experiments.

It liked devouring chakra, true, and could accept taking ninjutsu head-on or swallowing tailed beast chakra.

But that most certainly did not include natural energy. The astonishing quantities of natural energy had nearly turned it into a lifeless object, just like the other six Ninja Blades.

It was merely a helpless fish being used as a weapon. At the very least, it ought to be treated as a proper weapon, not made to endure all this.

Yet beyond the violent natural energy, it seemed to sense a gentler kind. Its instincts told it that consuming this energy would benefit it, making it somewhat reluctant to leave.

"Are you getting used to this Ninja Blade?" Oto Uchiha came over and asked.

"It's all right, but it's not much use!"

Zou Hyuga lifted Samehada from the water and casually swung it a few times. "If only it could turn into a Summoning Beast and fight for me on its own. Otherwise, I'd rather have the money."

Oto Uchiha said nothing, merely looking at Zou Hyuga.

A weapon that fought on its own was something he could only fantasize about. No daydreaming, please.

Zou Hyuga paid her no mind and continued, "Once I sell Samehada, I plan to get a flashy outfit made, along with a cold, intimidating mask. Ideally, we'd add some sophisticated sealing jutsu to keep people from identifying us.

"That way, we'll be much safer when we carry out missions, and we won't have to worry about earning credit.

"We're already ANBU Chunin. I don't dare imagine what'll happen if we advance any further!"

At the news that it would be sold, Samehada's body involuntarily trembled a few times. It could not understand the language, but it could recognize the demon's smile.

"All right, I understand. I'll go along with whatever you say."

Resting her chin on one hand, Oto Uchiha looked into Zou Hyuga's eyes. "But discussing outfits shouldn't be our objective today, should it? If it is, we ought to be at a clothing shop in the village right now."