Chapter 101: Stolen Eyes
"That… are you alright?"
In the quiet of the jungle, Liumu cautiously covered his nose and mouth, his eyes watering slightly. He fumbled in his ninja pouch.
"I don't seem to have any tissues…"
...
"Whew—!"
A hearty, thunderous roar erupted from the bushes where Might Dai squatted.
Liumu hastily jumped back several more paces.
Plop-plop-plop-plop…
...
...
...
After a moment of profound, natural catharsis.
"Liumu… what in the world did you give me to eat?!" Dai's voice, now clear and no longer rasping with exertion, held a note of pained bewilderment. "And why was it… prickly?!"
...
"Are you feeling better now, Uncle Dai?"
On the path back to Konoha, Liumu watched the older man walking with a slight, awkward limp. A grin, which he tried and failed to suppress, spread across his face.
Having opened the Eighth Gate but not unleashed the final, suicidal technique, and with the Heluo's flesh working its miracle, Dai's body had miraculously stabilized. However, the chakra pathways that had been pushed to absolute zero and then flooded with alien energy were severely strained. Recovery would be slow.
When Kakashi's eye was healed, the Heluo's energy had integrated into his depleted system, gradually refilling his reserves. For Dai, who had burned his very life force to ashes… simply being alive was the victory.
"Weren't you assigned to the Grass Country front? When did you return to the village?" Dai asked, wincing slightly as he adjusted his pace.
"Ah…" Liumu hesitated briefly, then opted for honesty. "This body is just a shadow clone. I left it in the village intentionally before I departed."
At that moment, Dai, still unsteady, stumbled. They both looked down.
Protruding from the thick undergrowth beside the path was a pale, lifeless hand.
Dai's fatigue vanished. He quickly pushed aside the foliage and pulled the body from the bushes.
"This is…"
Might Dai's face paled with shock.
"He appears to be a member of the Hyūga clan. But why are his Byakugan…"
The corpse wore the distinct, traditional garb of the Hyūga. Though the face was marred, one shattered white eye was visible. The other socket was a hollow, gory pit. The veins around the ruined eye were still faintly contracted, a grim testimony.
This Byakugan had been gouged out while its owner was still alive.
For the Hyūga, the "Byakugan," the "All-Seeing White Eye," was everything. The clan was rigidly divided into the Main and Branch houses precisely to protect the purity and security of this kekkei genkai. Members of the Branch House were branded at a young age with the Caged Bird Seal, a curse that would destroy their Byakugan upon death to prevent theft.
For a Main House member—a bearer of the pure, unsealed Byakugan—to have an eye forcibly taken was an atrocity of the highest order. It was a violation that would send seismic shocks through the entire Hyūga clan.
Liumu understood the gravity instantly. He stood up, his expression turning grim. "Uncle Dai, take this body and return to the village immediately. I need to relay this information—the theft of a Byakugan—to my main body."
"Understood!"
There was no time for debate. As Dai hefted the lightweight but profoundly significant corpse, Liumu's shadow clone dissolved into a plume of white smoke.
At the Fire Country border, Liumu's main body jolted, his eyes snapping open wide.
Minato, walking beside him, noticed the sudden shift immediately. "What is it?"
"Kakashi, let's take a short rest here," Liumu called out.
"Right." Kakashi acknowledged without question.
Seizing the moment, Liumu pulled Minato aside and relayed everything his clone had seen and deduced.
"A Hyūga Main House member… Byakugan stolen?" Minato's voice was low, tense.
"Correct. And the body was found near where my clone intercepted the Seven Swordsmen."
Both of them, having lived in Konoha for years, understood the immense significance the Hyūga placed on their doujutsu. It was a bloodline guarded as fiercely as the Uchiha's Sharingan, if not more so due to the clan's rigid, protective laws. The theft of an active Byakugan was a catastrophic event.
"The Seven Swordsmen are dead, and no Byakugan was found on them," Liumu reasoned aloud, his mind racing. "Therefore, if my deduction is correct, that eye was likely the primary objective of a separate, covert operative. The Swordsmen may have been a distraction, or a secondary strike force."
The loss of a Byakugan was a major blow to Konoha's security and the Hyūga's sovereignty. But another thought nagged at Liumu. Did the Hyūga of this era truly understand the Byakugan's full potential? In the distant past, Kaguya Ōtsutsuki herself possessed this eye. In possible futures, it could evolve into the even more potent "Tenseigan." Yet here and now, the Hyūga primarily used it for透视 (tòushì, see-through vision) and chakra observation—incredibly useful, but perhaps only a fraction of its latent power.
He had intentionally let slip that his clone had dealt with the Seven Swordsmen. He hadn't meant for Minato to catch that detail, but the jonin was too sharp.
However, Liumu had already shocked Minato countless times with his capabilities. This time, Minato merely offered a wry, knowing smile and let it pass without further interrogation.
"What are you thinking?" Minato asked, observing Liumu's deep contemplation.
"Nothing important," Liumu shook his head, refocusing. "We need to hurry back to the village. We've already spent too much time in Grass Country investigating the owners of those two sets of footprints. This changes priorities."
...
Meanwhile, in Konoha.
When Might Dai delivered the body and reported the missing Byakugan to the Hyūga clan heads and the Hokage's office, the reaction was immediate and severe.
The Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, his face like storm clouds, authorized an S-rank recovery mission on the spot. A "Golden"-level alert and bounty were issued: retrieve the stolen eye at all costs.
"Find it! Do not let the Byakugan leave the Land of Fire!"
Within the Hyūga compound, an unprecedented mobilization took place. Dozens of Hyūga shinobi, their foreheads bare or branded, activated their Byakugan in unison. Without a word, they split into teams and streamed out of the village gates, their pale eyes scanning the world with furious intensity. They would turn over every leaf, peer through every wall, until their clan's treasure was recovered.
(End of Chapter)
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