The army camp of the Land of Grass and the Land of Fire.
"Mother, this is Father's..." Tian Muyan trembled as she held the blood-stained Hyuga Clan crest, her knuckles turning white. Mrs. Hyuga embraced her daughter, her white hair still stained with battlefield dust. She gazed at the mountain of coffins, a metallic taste rising in her throat—a lingering effect of using her Byakugan to search for corpses for days on end.
Six thousand coffins gleamed coldly in the twilight, six vermilion coffins standing out starkly. Mrs. Hyuga bent down, gently stroking the nearest coffin, her fingertips tracing the indented wood grain. " The Main Family members blinded themselves..." she murmured, her fingertips trembling slightly. "Our Hyuga's Kekkei Genkai must never be coveted by outsiders, even in death."
On the day the caravan set off, light snow was falling. The oxcarts carrying the corpses creaked and groaned, the white cloth covering them fluttering in the cold wind. Hyuga Hoshinin rode a black horse to bring up the rear, his Byakugan constantly on high alert, the veins at the corners of his eyes throbbing with each fluctuation of Chakra. No one could have imagined that this seemingly ordinary transport team would become "easy prey" in the eyes of the Land of Earth.
"Enemy attack!" A sharp alarm shattered the silence. A tan-clad ninja army surged forth from behind the hills like a tide, the leading ninja brandishing weapons bearing the insignia of Iwagakure. The Hyuga Clan guards quickly formed a defensive formation, while the commoners, guided by instructions, took refuge in the nearby forests. Tian Muyan crouched behind a carriage, observing her clansmen engage the Iwagakure ninja, her Ice Crystal Bow reflecting a ghostly blue light in her hand.
She took a deep breath, and her Byakugan in her left eye instantly activated, revealing the dense Chakra veins on her retina. The movements of the Earth Ninja became flowing thermal images in her eyes, and even the muscle contractions as they drew their bows were clearly visible. "First one, three hundred meters to the left, Iwagakure Genin." She murmured to herself, the bowstring emitting a teeth-grinding hum.
The ice arrow, trailing a long, fiery tail, Space Break, leaving a shimmering trail in the snow. The earth ninja had barely formed a defensive hand seal when the ice arrow pierced his Forehead Protector, pinning him to the rock wall behind him. The ice spread at a visible speed, instantly encasing the corpse in an ice sculpture.
"The second one, 500 meters to the right rear, Chunin..." Tian Muyan's voice was devoid of emotion, as if she were merely executing a predetermined procedure. Her fingers flew across the bowstring, and three icy arrows were released almost simultaneously, striking three Earth Ninjas who were attempting to Hand Seals. The muffled thuds of arrows piercing throats, the crisp cracking of ice crystals, and the Earth Ninjas' dying screams intertwined, echoing through the valley.
The earth ninja finally realized how terrifying this enemy hiding in the distance was. Dozens of earthen walls rose from the ground, completely obscuring their figures. Tian Muyan, however, revealed a cold smile; the Byakugan's ability to see through things rendered these illusions useless. She narrowed her eyes, aiming at the slightly swaying hem of clothing behind the earthen walls. "Found it..."
The icy arrow pierced precisely through the cracks in the earthen wall, striking the heart of the earth ninja. In the following minutes, screams of agony echoed from behind the earthen wall; whenever someone tried to peek out, they were met with a fatal arrow. Tian Muyan's breathing became increasingly rapid, and fine beads of sweat appeared on her forehead, but her hands remained as steady as a rock.
"Four hundred and thirty-seven, four hundred and thirty-eight..." She counted mechanically, her nails digging deep into her palms. The gruesome image of her father's severed head flashed before her eyes, tears blurring her vision, yet making her movements even more ruthless. As one ninja after another fell, the battlefield fell into an eerie silence, broken only by the rustling of ice crystals in the cold wind.
The leader of the earth ninja clan looked at the ice sculptures scattered on the ground, his legs went weak. The seemingly frail girl who shot arrows with a straight bow now appeared to him as the embodiment of Death God. "Retreat!" he shouted hoarsely, turning around to run away.
"Trying to leave?" Tian Muyan suddenly stood up, drawing her Ice Crystal Bow to its full draw once more. Her eyes burned with the flames of revenge, and the chill emanating from her body even froze the surrounding air. Those Earth Ninja who turned to flee were nothing more than moving targets in her eyes.
Frost arrows rained down like a storm, and the screams of the earth ninjas echoed through the valley. Tian Muyan chased and fired until her Chakra was exhausted. Only then did she stop, panting, and toss a Chakra- replenishing pill into her mouth. The corpses and ice sculptures scattered on the ground gleamed eerily in the setting sun, and her ice crystal bow was still adorned with unmelted beads of blood.
"Come here." Mrs. Hyuga's voice suddenly came from behind. When Tian Muyan turned around, she saw her mother wrapping her bleeding wrist with a strip of cloth—sometime during the day, while protecting the laborers, her forearm had been cut open by Ninjutsu from Iwa ninja. Lady Hyuga took out a painkiller pill from her waist and put it in her hand, her fingertips brushing against Tian Muyan's frostbitten earlobe. "Killing is easy, saving is hard. If your father knew you could protect your people with a bow and arrow..." She suddenly looked up at the sky, "Look, the signal smoke from the Land of Fire."
Tian Muyan followed her gaze and saw three shimmering orange lights floating in the clouds to the southeast. Those were reinforcements from the Land of Fire. Suddenly, the laborers erupted in cheers; some knelt and kissed the snow, others clung to the oxcart wheels, tears streaming down their faces. Hyuga Momoko, who had somehow appeared beside her, clutched her clothes, her palms sweaty. "Young lady, when we get back to the village, can I learn archery from you? I want to protect my people..."
"Of course." Tian Muyan knelt down and used her sleeve to wipe away the tears of this clansman who was about her age. Her fingertips touched the clan emblem in her arms, and she suddenly remembered the calligraphy in Senju Yasuhei's study—"The bow is the bone, the heart is the soul." In the distance, Mrs. Hyuga was directing the clansmen to re-bind the coffins. Snowflakes fell on her silver hair, but she could still accurately say how many vines should be used to secure each coffin.
The girl stood up, the ice crystal bow in her hand emitting gusts of cold air, and said to her clansmen, "When we return to Konoha, I will set up targets in the clan's training ground. Anyone who wants to learn archery can find me."
"Me too!" The youngest member of the Branch Family, eight-year-old Hyuga Manroku, ran over carrying a carrying pole, his cloth jacket covered in bits of grass. "I want to learn how to use a bow and arrow, I want to be as brave as the young lady..." His words were interrupted by laughter, but then Tian Muyan nodded seriously. "Okay, I'll teach you, but you must learn seriously."
Hyuga Manroku happily replied, "I will definitely study hard and never let Miss down."
Hyuga Momoko suddenly tugged at her sleeve, pointing to a crooked tree pierced by an ice arrow in the distance. "Young lady, what's that person in the ice sculpture holding?" Tian Muyan her Byakugan and looked over, only to see half a strip of cloth protruding from the earth ninja's palm, with the words " Hyuga Team's Long-Distance Delivery Route" written on it. She reached out, tore off the strip of cloth, and stuffed it into her bosom. It seemed someone had revealed their route and time back to the village. Just then, she heard her mother calling her from ahead, " Muyan, we should set off."
The girl responded and walked forward, her footsteps crunching on the snow. Six thousand coffins stretched out behind her like a white river, and she knew that beyond these cold coffins, two hundred and twenty-seven living members of her tribe were moving forward with hope.
As the caravan resumed its journey, the snow stopped. Mrs. Hyuga rode at the head of the procession, her white hair billowing in the wind like an unyielding flag. Tian Muyan walked in the middle of the group, listening to the laborers chattering about how "the young lady's arrows can pierce three walls" and "the young lady's bow and arrows can shoot three thousand meters to kill the enemy." Suddenly, she felt something fill the emptiness in her heart. She took out the bow that Tsubasa forged for her, her fingertips tracing the character "ice" engraved on the bow's shank. In the distance, the eaves of the Land of Fire's city walls were already visible, gleaming with a warm golden light in the setting sun.
The ice crystal bow shimmered with tiny lights on her shoulder, like stars scattered on the snow—stars left to her by her father, stars she wanted to teach her people, stars that could illuminate the night.