Night fell over Konoha.
A moonless sky hung above the village, and a cold wind swept through the streets.
It was the kind of night made for killing.
Outside the Hyuga compound, several figures dressed entirely in black crouched among the shadows.
Their presence blended seamlessly into the darkness, hidden from ordinary eyes.
A moment later—
Whoosh!
A shinobi appeared beside the group’s leader.
“Leader, everything is ready on the western side of the Hyuga compound.”
The leader gave a short nod.
“Good. Once the attack begins in the west, they’ll send most of their forces there. We’ll strike from the east while they’re distracted.”
His eyes hardened.
“Grab Tenriki Hyuga as quickly as possible. We can’t afford to get bogged down.”
“Yes!”
The plan to raid the Hyuga compound and abduct Tenriki had been prepared by the Fourth Raikage even before Kumogakure sent its delegation to negotiate with Konoha.
The Raikage had never been a cautious man.
His temper was fierce, his leadership aggressive, and when dealing with foreign villages, he had little fear of pushing matters toward war.
Especially when the village standing opposite him was Konoha—a Konoha that had suffered tremendous losses during the Nine-Tails’ attack.
Kumogakure had coveted the Hyuga Clan’s Byakugan for years.
The current negotiations provided the perfect opportunity.
While everyone’s attention remained fixed on diplomacy between Konoha and Kumogakure, Cloud shinobi could quietly seize Tenriki Hyuga.
In the Raikage’s eyes, the operation was every bit as important as the negotiations themselves.
That was why the man commanding tonight’s raid wasn’t an ordinary jonin.
He was an elite jonin of Kumogakure and a commander trusted with leading entire shinobi units.
The Raikage had made his priorities perfectly clear.
Before the operation began, the commander looked over his men one final time.
“Failure is not an option.”
“Yes!”
They waited.
Not for long.
BOOM!
A violent explosion erupted from the western side of the Hyuga compound.
Flames shot into the night sky.
The earth trembled beneath the force of the blast.
“ENEMY ATTACK!”
A shrill alarm tore through the compound.
The Hyuga residence exploded into motion.
Doors flew open.
Figures leapt from rooftops and courtyards, racing toward the western district.
Then another explosion sounded.
And another.
Buildings on the western side of the compound began erupting one after another, sending smoke and fire into the air.
The Hyuga had enjoyed peace for years.
Now confusion spread rapidly through the clan.
Inside Tenriki’s room, however, there was no panic.
Tenriki sat cross-legged on the floor, quietly circulating his chakra.
At the sound of the explosions, his eyes slowly opened.
A faint smile appeared on his face.
“So you’ve finally come.”
There was almost amusement in his voice.
“I’ve been waiting a long time.”
Elsewhere in the compound, Hiashi Hyuga’s expression turned cold.
“Since you’ve come…”
His Byakugan hardened.
A figure shot from the residence and raced toward the western district.
A clone.
Hiashi’s real body moved in the opposite direction, silently heading toward Tenriki’s location.
The disturbance didn’t remain confined to the Hyuga compound for long.
At Hiruzen Sarutobi’s residence, the Third Hokage heard the distant explosion and immediately rose to his feet.
“The Hyuga?”
His expression darkened.
“What happened?”
Across Konoha, other factions reacted just as quickly.
Danzo Shimura.
Homura Mitokado.
Koharu Utatane.
The Uchiha Clan.
The moment word spread that the Hyuga compound had come under attack, each faction dispatched shinobi to investigate.
Within minutes, scouts and intelligence operatives were racing toward the Hyuga district from every corner of the village.
At the same time, the Cloud commander watched the chaos unfolding in the west.
Most of the Hyuga shinobi had already been drawn toward the explosions.
Even Hiashi Hyuga appeared to have gone with them.
The opportunity had arrived.
“Move!”
The Cloud commander didn’t hesitate.
He and his men launched forward, leaping through the trees and across the rooftops as they rapidly approached the eastern side of the Hyuga compound.
Then the commander suddenly stopped.
A figure had appeared on the rooftop directly ahead of them.
A cold wind swept past.
The man’s robes snapped violently in the night.
The Cloud commander’s eyes widened.
“Hiashi Hyuga!”
His heart tightened.
Hiashi didn’t move.
He didn’t need to.
The pressure rolling off the Hyuga Clan Head was enough to make even an elite jonin wary.
But the Cloud commander quickly suppressed his shock.
They had already come too far to retreat.
He turned sharply toward his men.
“I’ll hold him here.”
His voice became commanding.
“You go after Tenriki Hyuga!”
“Yes!”
The remaining Cloud shinobi immediately broke away, racing toward Tenriki’s residence.
The commander charged directly toward Hiashi.
His hands blurred through a series of seals.
“Imitation Lightning Release Armor!”
Crackle!
Lightning erupted across his body.
Blue-white arcs crawled over his skin as chakra and electricity wrapped around him in a violent mantle.
The moment the technique stabilized—
His speed tripled.
BOOM!
The rooftop beneath his feet cracked.
The Cloud commander vanished forward.
Wind screamed around him as he closed the distance with terrifying speed.
His arm swelled with power, muscles bulging as chakra gathered into the strike.
“Imitation Lariat!”
Hiashi moved at the same instant.
Chakra surged through his palm.
“Gentle Fist: Mountain Breaker!”
Their attacks collided.
For one strange instant, everything went silent.
Then—
BOOM!
The building beneath Hiashi shattered.
Cracks tore across the ground below.
The shockwave erupted outward with enough force to rattle nearby structures, the impact even more violent than the explosions that had started the attack.
Dust and broken roof tiles filled the air.
Hiashi remained standing.
His clothes whipped wildly in the aftermath, but his pale eyes were sharp and steady.
The Cloud commander wasn’t so fortunate.
Blood burst from his mouth.
His body flew backward more than thirty meters.
CRACK!
He smashed through one tree.
Then another.
Then a third.
He crashed through six heavy walls before finally slamming into the base of another, leaving cracks spreading through the stone behind him.
His body collapsed.
“Cough…”
Blood spilled from his lips.
The Cloud commander struggled to raise his head.
“So this… is the Hyuga Clan…”
His vision blurred.
“The Raikage… was right to take them seriously…”
His breathing grew weaker.
I can only hope the others succeed.
He looked toward Hiashi one final time.
Then his eyes closed.
The commander was dead.
Hiashi’s strike had done far more than overpower the man’s imitation Lariat.
The Gentle Fist had smashed through the force behind the technique and driven chakra directly into his body.
There were almost no visible wounds.
Inside, however, his organs had been destroyed.
Hiashi activated his Byakugan and glanced at the corpse.
No chakra activity.
The internal damage was catastrophic.
There was no possibility of survival.
Hiashi looked away.
A moment later, he landed atop another roof.
From there, his gaze turned toward Tenriki’s residence in the distance.
He made no move to follow the Cloud shinobi.
Every shinobi eventually had to face bloodshed.
There was no escaping that reality.
Hiashi’s expression remained unreadable as he watched the eastern compound.
“Every shinobi needs a baptism of blood.”
His Byakugan narrowed.
“This time…”
“Let the Cloud provide yours.”