The noises in the woods caught the Hyūga clan members' attention. Up until then, they'd been focused on the battlefield; now everyone used their Byakugan to peer into the trees.
Hyūga Hizashi quickly came over to Shinichi's side and whispered into his ear: "Shinichi, those are our Konoha border troops."
In less than a minute, Hizashi had already identified the approaching ninjas.
"They're our people, Uncle. Leave this to you," Shinichi said. "I'll return to camp first."
With that, he handed Ao's severed head to Hizashi. Seeing Shinichi's action, Hizashi understood at once, nodded, and took the head.
Before Hizashi could react further, Shinichi vanished from the battlefield.
The Hyūga temporary camp was only a few hundred meters from the scene; Shinichi's move was meant to keep himself hidden.
For him, it was enough to have sufficient prestige and influence within the Hyūga. Leveraging the clan's standing in Konoha, he could project political influence without fully exposing all his abilities.
Defeating Danzo had boosted Shinichi's reputation among Konoha shinobi, but Danzo himself was not someone most village ninjas had a concrete sense of.
People only knew him as the leader of Root; since the Third Great Ninja War, the younger generation had rarely seen Danzo in action.
The battle between him and Shinichi only revealed that Danzo was a skilled jōnin-level manipulator of chakra transformation — without kekkei genkai or forbidden techniques, few would overestimate him.
So, although Danzo's defeat caused a stir, it faded quickly.
Ao, however, was different. The Mist's Ao had earned great merits in the war and was widely known in Konoha for the trouble he caused.
In some ways, his name carried more weight than Danzo's. The Hyūga needed only their own clan to know they'd killed him; making the news public would invite unwanted attention and targeted retaliation.
Not revealing full strength was part of self-protection.
Hizashi understood his nephew well and saw through Shinichi's thinking. He approved of the boy's caution. Someone who'd survived battles knew how vital prudence was.
Before the border troops arrived, Hizashi took a scroll from his chest, sealed Ao's head into it, and stored it away.
Soon after, four Konoha shinobi leapt from the treeline and reached the battlefield. They wore Konoha headbands. Leading them was a young man in his early twenties with a scar at the corner of his mouth.
"Hm?" "Hayama?"
Hizashi looked up and recognized the leader.
Byakumo Hayama was one of Konoha's jōnin. Hizashi knew him because Hayama had earned a small reputation in recent years as a capable young jōnin.
Becoming a jōnin wasn't easy—you needed battle achievements, experience, and recommendations from other village jōnin. Unlike Shinichi's specially appointed elite, Konoha's jōnin were rarely paper tigers; each had strong ability.
Hayama had been quietly scanning the scene before speaking. When he saw the twenty or so Hyūga present, all from the clan, he scented something unusual. The battlefield still showed signs of heavy fighting; the headless corpse in a pool of blood immediately drew his attention.
Hayama restrained his gaze and approached Hizashi with his men, trying to keep his tone casual: "I thought it might be enemies. We hurried over when we sensed the disturbance. Didn't expect it to be the Hyūga. What are you doing out here?"
Although they were all from the same village, a large Hyūga force appearing at the border raised questions. Hizashi answered stiffly: "On a secret mission. The mission's done; we're preparing to return."
Hayama sensed Hizashi's reluctance and, after a pause, said diplomatically, "I won't pry into what happened here. I'll report what I saw honestly—hope you understand. But before we leave, I have one question. Did the Hokage know about this secret mission by the Hyūga?"
"Yes. The Fourth knows," Hizashi replied.
Hearing that, Hayama relaxed inwardly. "Get packed and leave quickly. I'll resume patrol elsewhere." Without lingering, he led his squad back into the woods and disappeared from view.
Before he left, Hayama had left some men hidden in the trees as a precaution—just in case a fight broke out or a withdrawal was needed.
After Hayama and his men withdrew, his hidden subordinates surfaced, and one finally couldn't help but ask: "Captain, are we really leaving just like that? Isn't it strange that so many Hyūga appeared on the border? And that headless body—this fighting style doesn't look like the Hyūga's. What if—"
Hayama cut him off: "There won't be a 'what if.' If I'm not mistaken, the dead man is a Mist jōnin—Ao, the one called the Byakugan Slayer."
As a member of the border patrol, Hayama knew the Mist's commanding-level figures and could tell from Ao's distinctive blue robe and bearing who he was. Though the corpse was bloodied, Hayama's jōnin-level observation confirmed it: it was Ao.
Byakugan Slayer.
Realizing that, Hayama understood why the Hyūga had come here in force and why they'd taken the head. They'd recovered a stolen Byakugan. The Hyūga elders would be elated.
Yet Hayama had one question: why had Ao been on this side of the Land of Fire? From the battlefield traces, there were no other Mist ninja present. How had Ao ended up here? What method had the Hyūga used?
Although curious, Hayama had no intention of digging further. The Hyūga were a great clan, and regular shinobi like him weren't in a position to pry. He ordered his men to keep quiet: "Don't say anything you shouldn't. Leave Hyūga affairs to me to report."
"Yes!" the men replied.
Learning that Hyūga had killed Ao excited them, but it also stirred a quiet dread. Ao had brought Konoha huge trouble—yet the Hyūga alone had killed such a famed Mist jōnin? If a whole village force had done it, they might not feel this way. A single clan achieving this by itself was unnerving.
After the border patrol left, the Hyūga cleaned the scene. They erased battle traces, took Ao's body dozens of li away, and buried it deep. Hizashi then used Flying Thunder God several times to carry his people into the interior of the Land of Fire before they turned back toward Konoha.
Shinichi did not intend to publicize the successful recovery of the Byakugan. The fewer who knew, the better—ideally, only Hyūga clan members. He did not want to expose the Hyūga's connection to Jūzō Biwa.
Once Ao's disappearance became known, the Mist would intensify investigations; Jūzō's betrayal would soon be discovered. Whether the Mist would link Jūzō's disappearance to Ao's was uncertain. But until Jūzō was found, the Mist wouldn't know the Hyūga had killed Ao.
That intelligence gap gave Shinichi room to maneuver. As long as Jūzō the pawn remained unrevealed, Shinichi could use him to learn more about the Mist's actions.
From the moment Shinichi met Jūzō, he'd been plotting a larger scheme. If executed properly, it would let him monitor Akatsuki's moves and avoid certain risks.
The return trip was long, but the Hyūga were back in the village within a day, so quietly that the gate guards didn't notice. Shinichi's return with his people quickly shook the whole clan. Branch family heads received a summons from Hyūga Shinn (or the clan seat) and gathered at the clan shrine. In front of many elders, Hizashi unrolled the scroll and placed Ao's head on the offering table.
All present awakened their Byakugan; even with Ao's right eye covered, they could verify whether the eye existed beneath. Confirming it, the elders broke into joyful smiles.
The loss of a Byakugan to the outside had long been a torment for the Hyūga; years passed with little progress in recovering missing eyes. Even Hyūga Hiashi's expedition had failed against the Byakugan Slayer. Many had lost hope. Yet now, Shinn's eldest son had led the clan to the front and returned with Ao's head. The elders were comforted.
At their age, the elders cared only about direct descendants and the clan's continuity. Shinichi's feat reassured them that the Hyūga would remain strong for decades to come, allowing them to live out their old age in peace.
After the shrine rites, Shinichi quietly returned home. Hizashi would make the routine report to the Hokage.
Recovering the Byakugan wasn't merely a clan matter; the village had to be concerned. Sending out so many elite Hyūga risked weakening Konoha's defenses if casualties occurred—Konoha's two-front engagement had already deployed most of the village's elite. Except for the Uchiha and some Hyūga, most shinobi were at the front.
After suppressing the Root faction and exiling its leaders, Minato's (the Fourth Hokage's) grip on village power had tightened. He didn't want anything causing the Hyūga heavy losses now; that would disrupt his plans. Minato had few true political allies despite his humble origins—having the Hyūga as a reliable lever was valuable to him. Thus, he paid close attention to Hyūga affairs.
In the Hokage's office, listening to Hizashi's report, Minato replayed in his mind a simulation of Shinichi's current strength. The result startled him. Unconsciously, he compared Shinichi to the other village prodigy, Kakashi, and found Shinichi's growth startling—arguably surpassing Minato's own youth.
Minato remembered a warning from Sarutobi: a rising Hyūga could be just what Konoha needed. The answer formed quickly in his mind: yes. Konoha needed such strength. Whether from cloud or mist, any power daring to strike Konoha did so because Konoha was weak. A stronger Hyūga meant a stronger Konoha; outsiders would hesitate.
Besides, the Uchiha's missing member—Obito—had been absent, and Minato had a vague sense that some conspiracy was brewing. Against such enemies, Minato hoped the Hyūga would only grow stronger.
The Third Hokage and Danzo had narrower visions, viewing Konoha as their personal preserve, failing to recognize the immediacy of external threats. Minato's concerns were more personal; his wife had nearly died at Obito's hands. He wanted a village strong enough to protect his family.
Minato decided not to publicize Ao's assassination. Though it would boost morale on the front, he chose instead to coordinate with the Hyūga and conceal the truth.
He did, however, inform the advisory council and the Third Hokage, making sure they understood Shinichi's leading role in the recovery. Minato hoped to use the news to warn Danzo: know the Hyūga's level and stop causing trouble.
Danzo did not take Minato's hint well. Learning of Shinichi's feat made Danzo more aware of his own limitations—and more desperate for power. He wrote a secret letter and gave it to trusted subordinates to deliver to Orochimaru on the Mist front.
The letter was simple: Danzo would continue to finance and support Orochimaru, urging him to hurry his research on Hashirama's cells.
Yes—despite the Third and Fourth having shut down past human experiments and forbidden them, Danzo and Orochimaru covertly collaborated, rebuilding research on Hashirama's cells. The young ANBU-like ninja called Yamato (or "Daiwa" in some texts) was a product of those experiments.
On the Mist front, Orochimaru received Danzo's letter and recalled the earlier Byakumo Hayama sighting report from the border patrol. Combining Hayama's report with Danzo's urgent letter, Orochimaru's curiosity was piqued.
"Byakugan kekkei genkai…" he murmured. "Heh heh, interesting. Worth studying."
Orochimaru found another subject of interest, though his main obsessions remained Hashirama cells and the forbidden Reanimation technique.
He sensed Danzo's urgency but had no intention of accelerating his timetable on someone else's demand. His experiments never stopped; war provided abundant test subjects—prisoners of the Mist, locals from the Uzumaki lands, and countless corpses. In such times, research material was tragically plentiful.
Konoha's surface was calm, but beneath that still water, everyone amassed strength, waiting for the storm.
During this "calm," the Uchiha's resentment with the village accumulated. The Uchiha guard unit had widened the gap between them and ordinary villagers. Tensions and disputes rose. At recent clan meetings, more Uchiha voiced dissatisfaction with their treatment and began opposing the village more openly.
At first, Uchiha Fugaku—the clan head—didn't take it too seriously. He tried to mend rifts and remain a progressive leader, but others' will pushed him forward. Fugaku wasn't an iron-fisted patriarch; his openness sometimes looked like weakness. As the clan's sentiment hardened, Fugaku found himself swept along.
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