Heavy snow fell like shredded cotton, frantically covering the sleeping Ninja Village.
But deep within the Hyuga Main Family's Side Estate, the air was so hot it felt as if it were about to ignite.
"Boom—!"
That was the explosive sound of Chakra as Hyuga Hiashi landed.
As the leader of the Hyuga Clan, when he sensed the battle fluctuations erupting from the Main Family's Side Estate, he had rushed over almost instantly using the Body Flicker Technique.
However, as he stepped into the devastated small courtyard, the sight before him caused his pupils to shrink violently.
Shards of broken paper doors and wood lay scattered on the snow. The Cloud Village Leader, dressed in night-ops gear, lay slumped on the ground like a dead dog. Beside the intruder, his younger brother Hyuga Hizashi knelt on one knee, one hand firmly gripping the opponent's throat while the other maintained a Tenketsu-striking posture, his entire body like a bow drawn to its limit.
"Hizashi!"
Hiashi's voice was low and raspy, suppressed with towering rage. "Where is Nozomi? Where is Nozomi?!"
"Uncle... I'm here."
A trembling, tearful voice emerged from the shadows of the corridor.
Hiashi turned his head sharply.
He saw five-year-old Hyuga Nozomi wrapped in a thick fox-fur coat, huddling in a corner. Those specially-made sunglasses hung crookedly on the bridge of his nose, his small face was as pale as paper, and his body was still shaking uncontrollably.
Seeing his nephew safe and sound, the heart that had been stuck in Hiashi's throat finally slammed back into his chest.
Immediately after, the endless lingering fear transformed into a violent killing intent.
The Kumogakure delegation... tomorrow was the day the peace treaty was to be signed!
To sneak into the Main Family tonight, their target was clearly Nozomi, who possessed the "Atavistic Byakugan"!
If Nozomi were taken, the Hyuga Clan would relive the disgrace of the Third Shinobi World War, and the hard-won peace would be shattered once again.
"Good! Very well played, Kumogakure!"
The veins on Hiashi's forehead bulged like earthworms. His originally elegant face was now as distorted and terrifying as a vengeful spirit.
"Since you dared to stretch your claws into the Hyuga Clan, then leave your life behind!"
Hiashi strode toward the Cloud Village Leader, his right hand raised high, terrifying Chakra condensing in his palm.
That was the most ruthless killing move in the Gentle Fist Style, capable of shattering the opponent's heart in a single strike.
"Clan Leader! Don't kill him!!"
Hyuga Hizashi suddenly looked up and roared.
But in his fury, how could Hiashi listen? His dignity and the safety of the clan needed to be washed clean with blood at this moment.
At the critical moment just as that palm was about to fall.
A small figure suddenly lunged forward, tightly hugging Hiashi's thigh.
"Uncle! No!!"
Hyuga Nozomi "cried out," hanging onto Hiashi's leg, his snot and tears smearing all over Hiashi.
"Don't kill him! There's something in his mouth!!"
Hiashi's movement froze abruptly.
The wind from that palm strike sent the snow on the ground flying in all directions.
"Nozomi?" Hiashi looked down at his nephew, who was clinging to his leg like an attachment, his chest heaving violently. "What did you say?"
Hyuga Nozomi looked up, his eyes behind the sunglasses full of fear, but his finger pointed precisely at the bulging left cheek of the Cloud Village Leader.
"Just now... just now when Uncle Hizashi knocked him down, I saw him trying to bite his teeth... there must be poison hidden there!"
Hyuga Nozomi sobbed, his voice intermittent but every word piercing:
"Uncle... if he dies in our house... will the people outside say we killed him to silence him?"
Boom.
These words were like a bolt of lightning, instantly clearing the fog of rage in Hiashi's mind.
Hiashi shuddered, cold sweat instantly drenching his clothes.
If this Cloud Village Leader died now.
Even if he was an intruder, even if he was wearing night-ops gear.
As long as he became a corpse, the Kumogakure could immediately bite back: accusing Konoha of lack of sincerity, or even framing the Hyuga Clan for deliberately sabotaging the peace and murdering an envoy!
When that time came, to appease the Kumogakure's anger and prevent war from breaking out, the Konoha higher-ups would surely force the Hyuga Clan to hand over the killer.
And this killer... Hiashi looked at Hizashi kneeling on the ground.
Other than Hizashi, the head of the Branch Family, no one else would be qualified to take the fall.
This was a dead-end trap set against the Hyuga Clan!
The only way to break the deadlock was this living witness!
"Huff... huff..."
Hiashi panted heavily, forcibly pulling back that fatal palm strike.
He crouched down, grabbed the Cloud Village Leader's jaw, and roughly pried his mouth open.
By the faint light reflected off the snow.
He clearly saw a black capsule the size of a grain of rice embedded beneath the opponent's left molar.
A lethal poison capsule.
A single bite would mean instant death.
Because Hizashi had dislocated his jaw in time, the poison capsule had been preserved intact.
"Damn it..."
Hiashi's fingers were trembling.
Not out of fear, but out of lingering dread.
If it hadn't been for Nozomi's lunge just now, if that palm strike had really landed... the Hyuga Clan would have truly been beyond redemption tonight.
"Hizashi."
Hiashi stood up, his voice returning to the coldness befitting a clan leader, though a trace of imperceptible trembling remained in his tone.
"Dislocate his limbs, seal his Chakra pathways, and put twenty locks on him."
"Remove that poison capsule and seal it away."
"Yes!"
Hizashi was also dripping with sweat now. He looked at the young master of the Main Family who was still wiping away tears, a deep sense of awe flashing in the depths of his eyes.
Five years old.
Under the extreme fear of being assassinated, he could still notice such a detail?
And he could instantly connect it to the consequences of "dead men tell no tales"?
Was this really a coincidence?
Just then, a chaotic and heavy set of footsteps shattered the silence of the courtyard gate.
"Nozomi! Who dares touch my Nozomi!!"
Grand Elder Hyuga Sozetsu, a man over sixty, rushed in with disheveled hair and even missing a shoe, looking like a furious old lion.
When he saw Hyuga Nozomi standing there safe and sound, the old man's tension finally broke. He swayed and almost collapsed into the snow.
"Grandpa!"
Hyuga Nozomi let go of Hiashi and threw himself into the Grand Elder's arms.
"It's okay... it's okay..."
The Grand Elder held his grandson tightly, his withered palms constantly stroking Nozomi's back, tears streaming down his face.
"You must have been terrified, right? Hmm? Tell Grandpa, are you hurt anywhere?"
"Grandpa, I'm scared..."
Hyuga Nozomi buried his head in the old man's chest, his voice muffled. "That person wanted to catch me... he said he was going to gouge my eyes out..."
"He wouldn't dare!!"
The Grand Elder let out a shrill roar.
He turned his head sharply, a terrifyingly fierce light erupting from his clouded old eyes as he glared at the Cloud Village Leader on the ground.
"Chop him into pieces and feed him to the dogs! Kill the entire Kumogakure delegation! This old man will go and kill all those bastards right now!!"
"Grand Elder! Calm down!"
Hiashi grabbed the nearly out-of-control old man.
"Uncle! Nozomi is fine! And we've captured him alive!"
Hiashi gripped the Grand Elder's shoulders firmly, his gaze as sharp as a blade. "A living leader! An intact poison capsule! And the Main Family's defense map found on him!"
"Do you understand what this means?"
The Grand Elder was stunned for a moment, and then those old eyes that had weathered countless storms gradually cleared, replaced by an extreme ruthlessness.
"You mean..."
"The tables have turned."
Hiashi smiled coldly and straightened his messy collar.
"Before, we were afraid of the Kumogakure's blackmail."
"But now, the evidence is in our hands. They are the ones who tore up the treaty, and they are the ones who plotted to steal the village's Bloodline Limit!"
"Men!"
Hiashi waved his hand, and several Hyuga elites instantly knelt on one knee.
"To the Hokage Building!"
"Drag this Cloud Village Leader there like a dead dog!"
"Tonight, we will demand an explanation from the village!"
In the wind and snow.
Huddled in the Grand Elder's arms, Hyuga Nozomi secretly straightened his crooked sunglasses.
He looked at his uncle's tall back, the corners of his mouth curling into a nearly imperceptible arc.
Very good.
The anger has been guided in the right direction.
The originally submissive Hyuga Clan has finally, under his prompting, bared its fangs.
_________
This chapter is incredibly affectionate and deserves energy stones, don't you think?
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