This was the cruelest and most vital part of the plan between Iroha Hyuga Ryoma and Neji Hyuga Ryoma. Every Branch Family Members in tonight's action would show the face of Neji Hyuga Ryoma when needed. Even if others saw them, even if witnesses lived, all blame and hatred would point to a single name.
That name was Neji Hyuga Ryoma. He would be the only open killer of this bloody change, bearing all consequences alone so the other Branch Family Members could stay in Ryoma Clan and Konoha. He himself would walk the road of defection.
It was Neji Hyuga Ryoma's own choice. He believed the Branch Family Members plight came not only from old grudges with the Otsutsuki Clan Main Family but also from his own strikes against them. Without him taking this burden, many Branch Family Members would never have joined, since they could not and would not abandon Konoha.
This did not stop the others from feeling respect and gratitude toward Neji Hyuga Ryoma for his decision. The two "Neji Hyuga Ryoma" exchanged a silent look under the Moon. The air felt heavy and firm with resolve.
"Take care," said the unmasked Branch Family Members, giving a firm nod. He shot off toward Fugaku Uchiha's residence and vanished into the dark. Neji Hyuga Ryoma took one last look at the Main Family Residence with its faint sounds and bloody windows, then fixed his gaze on Fugaku Uchiha's residence.
Tonight, every score would end. He moved at once, racing toward the core of the Uchiha Clan Grounds. At the same time, the Branch Family Members who had split from him slowed after sensing Neji Hyuga Ryoma was far away.
High above, a Root ninja with an eagle mask lay still, blended into the roof shadows. Danzo had ordered him to watch all unusual movements, especially those Branch Family Members ninja involved in the action. His sharp gaze locked onto the "Branch Family Members" who had just parted from Neji Hyuga Ryoma.
Under his focused stare, that running figure began to melt in a strange way. It was not normal concealment or Body Flicker, but as if the body itself belonged to shadow and was returning to it. In a blink, the figure vanished completely, as if it had never existed.
"What is going on?" The eagle mask Root ninja felt his pupils shrink and a surge of dread seize his chest. Where did he go. He snapped back and reached toward the companion beside him.
"Xing," he whispered, unable to hide his doubt. "Did you see that just now?" His hand touched the companion's shoulder, and a clear pata sounded by his ear.
He turned his head. The masked head beside him had been cleanly severed at the neck, and at his touch it slid down without a sound. The eyes under the mask still held the careful focus from life, as if unaware that the body was already split.
Shock emptied his mind for an instant. In that tiny pause, a fine cold glint traced a silent arc in the corner of his vision. A brutal sound followed as a spike pierced his skull.
The shadowed thrust entered through his temple, destroyed his brain, and burst out the other side. The force was so fierce and fast that it pinned his head together with the one that had just fallen. Until the final moment of life, fear and disbelief still clung to his eyes.
A figure peeled away from the shadows and appeared beside the two bodies. It was the "Branch Family Members" who was meant to go to Fugaku Uchiha's residence. Or rather, it was "Shadow."
He drew back the Shadow spike and tilted his head to glance at the Moon, then looked toward the direction Neji Hyuga Ryoma had gone. The night wind stirred his robe and carried distant, sharper screams and clashes. "Meow."
A black cat leapt soundlessly into his arms and closed its eyes in ease. "You hear it too?" Shadow stroked it and spoke softly, pleased and cold at once, as if talking to the cat or to himself. "The wind has risen."
"Ahh!"
"My hand! My hand!"
"Danzo! You traitorous bastard… ahh!!"
The screams were broken and inhuman, curses cut off by raw pain. They echoed inside the Washitsu, struck the shoji screens covered with washi paper, and were stopped by a prepared Barrier Technique before a single sound could escape. Not even a whisper leaked outside.
One Otsutsuki Clan Main Family elder and three other Otsutsuki Clan Main Family elders thrashed like live shrimp thrown into boiling oil, rolling and screaming in pools of their own blood. The expensive tatami was soaked into a filthy mess, and the faint scent of sandalwood was replaced by thick blood that filled the room and made people retch. Flickering candlelight threw their twisted shadows onto the walls, enlarging every spasm of pain.
Yet worse than the agony of broken limbs was the terror rising from deep inside them. They struggled to lift their heads and stared at the two figures standing there, their eyes filled with incomprehensible wrath and a fear they did not want to admit. Their bodies shook as their understanding collapsed.
"Danzo! You… how dare you do this?!" One elder's face was pale as paper, and he forced out a roar through clenched teeth, his voice trembling with wrath. "What do you want?!"
"Fugaku Uchiha!" The thin elder glared at the figure beside Danzo in disbelief. "Why? Why would you work with him?"
"You are the head of the Otsutsuki Clan Main Family! Are you insane? And your forehead…"
Their questions came in a hoarse, chaotic rush, but they could not hide the fear beneath them. The reality before their eyes was too absurd and too cruel to accept, even when seen in person. They grasped for any excuse that might still save them.
"Even now, you refuse to accept the bloody truth in front of you?" Danzo spoke slowly, his voice low and hoarse, his single eye sweeping over the four elders struggling in blood. There was no effort to hide his contempt. "Until this moment, you still deceive yourselves and refuse to believe that the man standing here is the very Fugaku Uchiha you once sacrificed with your own hands."
Fugaku Uchiha. The name fell like a curse, smashing into their hearts and freezing all movement and sound. Their eyes locked onto the silent figure and the face that was almost identical to Fugaku Uchiha.
It was the same face, unmistakably the same. But the most blinding and undeniable proof lay on his forehead. There, clear and hideous, was the Caged Bird curse mark.
The dim green mark flickered under candlelight like a scar that could never heal, tearing away all pretense. It dragged the truth out in the open and crushed their last bit of denial. Someone of the Otsutsuki Clan Main Family could never bear the Caged Bird curse mark.
The man before them was not Fugaku Uchiha. He was Fugaku Uchiha.
He was the Branch Family's Fugaku Uchiha, the one they had pushed out years ago under the excuse of "protecting the Pure Byakugan," the one who died in place of Fugaku Uchiha. The sacrifice they tried to bury and forget now stood before them in a way that chilled the bones.
"No! Impossible!" One elder shook his head and screamed, his eyes quivering as if they would fall out. "You were already dead!"
"That night in Kumogakure, the body we handed over, we saw it ourselves…" "What are you, a man or a ghost?!"