It was the depths of winter, and Konoha lay blanketed under a thin layer of snow.
A cold wind swept flurries of powder through the streets and alleys, and glittering icicles hung from every eave.
But the bitter cold of midwinter seemed to have no effect on the fervor of the festival, for the years-long border conflict between Konoha and Kumogakure was finally about to end.
Kumogakure of the Land of Lightning had taken the initiative to send envoys, proposing to conclude an alliance treaty and ease the tensions between the two sides.
After several rounds of deliberation, Konoha’s leadership decided to accept the peace talks, and both parties agreed to hold the signing ceremony within Konoha itself.
This festival, too, was held in honor of the negotiations.
“Whoa, is that Kumo ninja head cosplaying Kakashi Hatake?
Forehead protector slanted over one eye and all — problem is, the guy’s way too ugly to pull it off!”
Watching the delegation pass through the middle of the crowd, Genshin cracked wise while munching on takoyaki.
“Pfft— guh… cough cough cough.”
A strange sound came from beside him.
Genshin turned his head to see a button-nosed fellow struggling to hold back his laughter.
This guy really has a low bar for what he finds funny…
“Hey there, Senpai Shisui.
Laughing like that is pretty rude, you know — awfully disrespectful toward the delegation.”
“Pfft, pfft… You’re the rude one, little Genshin.
Whatever you say, that ninja head is a man of real power in Kumogakure, an envoy bringing peace to Konoha.”
“Is he now?
It’s just that there’s no profit left in fighting anymore.
Besides, it’s because our fists are hard and they couldn’t crack us.” Genshin didn’t take this so-called peace festival seriously at all.
He remembered perfectly well that Kumogakure never had good intentions — and there was going to be a whole big incident tonight.
“Peace never comes for free.
Here, take it.”
Shisui Uchiha reached out and took the takoyaki skewered on Genshin’s bamboo stick, and offered a word of thanks.
It was rare to find someone with no prejudice against the Uchiha Clan.
This kid was just a little precocious — only a few years old and already thinking about the profits of war.
When Shisui was that age, all he thought about was training and cutting people down!
By now the delegation had made its way into the Hokage’s building.
That ninja head with the slanted forehead protector walked at the very front, flanked by two tall Kumogakure shinobi who looked thoroughly on guard.
“I’ve got a mission to carry out.
I’m off — see you later, little Genshin.” Shisui gave a wave and vanished in a Body Flicker.
Mm, I should start thinking about how to deal with tonight’s disturbance too.
Genshin finished his last takoyaki and set off in a certain direction…
After night fell, all the daytime clamor of the festival dispersed.
Flurries of snow drifted down through the sky, whirled along by the night wind, settling on the courtyard walls and eaves of the Hyūga compound.
The thin layer of snow was just enough to muffle the footsteps of a shinobi, and the whole estate was wrapped deep in the silence of the winter night — the perfect moment for skulduggery.
A black shadow leapt soundlessly out of a passage outside the Hyūga compound.
Its face was masked with black cloth, and in its right arm it cradled an unconscious little girl.
It glanced around, confirmed no one had noticed, and was about to leave — when, out of the corner of its eye, it caught sight of a child passing by.
Red hair… an Uzumaki Clan member!?
The shadow froze for a moment, then was seized by wild elation.
It had only come for the Hyūga family’s Byakugan, and yet here, on its way out, it had run into someone bearing the bloodline of the Uzumaki Clan — a thing even rarer than the Byakugan.
Kumogakure had been practically going mad wanting the Uzumaki Clan’s bloodline for research.
The shadow softened its steps, yet closed in behind the child at blinding speed.
As it seized the boy by the neck, a surge of Chakra slammed into the child’s spine, and the child fell unconscious at once, hoisted onto the shadow’s shoulder to be carried off.
Suppressing its wild joy, the shadow was just about to flee when a loud shout suddenly rang out behind it.
“Die, thief!”
At the same time a gust of fierce wind came from behind.
The shadow twisted its body aside, dodging the palm strike that lashed out at it.
The newcomer was none other than Hiashi Hyuga, who had discovered his daughter had been kidnapped.
Hair bristling with rage, the old father raised his hand and struck at the pressure points on the shadow’s body, while his other hand reached for the little girl in the shadow’s arms.
Cold wind whipped snow pellets straight into their faces, flakes clinging to their collars and the tips of their hair.
The blizzard threw off everyone’s vision.
The Kumogakure ninja head was already restricted in movement, cradling two children, and with the wind and snow interfering with his evasion, his dodging grew ever more sluggish and clumsy.
What he failed to notice was that, as he dodged, the little hand of the red-haired lad slung over his shoulder had silently made its way onto his lower belly.
Hiashi Hyuga pressed in with another palm strike.
The shadow leapt backward to evade — and the instant it landed, it felt an eerie vibration ripple through its lower belly.
A tingling numbness then shot through its entire body in a flash, and the whole man toppled backward in the direction of his landing leap.
Unable to keep his hold, the little girl slipped from his grasp and flew out, only to be caught neatly by Genshin in a princess carry.
“Stop, mister.
This guy can’t move anymore.”
At that moment Hiashi Hyuga’s palm was only ten centimeters from the shadow’s forehead.
The shadow glared, eyes wide — it was obvious he desperately wanted to struggle, but having been struck by Genshin’s Hamon Chakra completely off guard, his entire Chakra Pathway System and nerves were paralyzed and numb, all sensation lost.
“Who are you?” Hiashi Hyuga asked, expressionless.
“My name is Uzumaki Genshin.” Genshin paid his blank face no mind.
In these early days, Hiashi Hyuga was just like the rest of the red-eyed lot — an aloof, icy-carved face.
Only later, once he had grandchildren, would he fail to keep it up and turn into a goofball.
“Good thing you didn’t finish him off, mister.
This guy’s no ordinary identity.
In my perception, his Chakra fluctuations are exactly the same as the Kumogakure ninja head’s from this afternoon.”
“Uzumaki… wait.” Hiashi Hyuga was taken aback.
Then his surprise turned to horror.
“You’re saying he’s the ninja head!?” He violently tore the black cloth from the shadow’s face, and his own face went instantly pale — for the man on the ground was indeed the ninja head of Kumogakure.
At this point Genshin waved toward the rooftop of a nearby building.
An ANBU shinobi leapt down from the roof and came before them — the ANBU responsible for protecting Genshin, whom Genshin had specifically told beforehand not to intervene.
“It’s fine.
I shielded my neck with Chakra in advance.
Right now I need you to go fetch Zō for me — have him inform Lord Hokage and the Elders to come here.
This matter is very serious.”
Then Genshin turned back to the now-recovered Hiashi Hyuga and said, “Anyway, that’s the situation.
Let’s just wait here patiently.”
Drawing a deep breath, Hiashi Hyuga finally felt the aftershock of fear.
If he had truly beaten the ninja head to death — even if it was because his daughter had been kidnapped, even as self-defense that killed the man by mistake — so long as conflict later erupted from it and the flames of war reignited, the Hyuga Clan would be flayed alive, if not wiped out entirely.
As the head of a great clan, he knew all too well that Konoha’s years of ceaseless war had left the daimyō, the ninja clans, and even the common folk brimming with weariness of battle.
If, at a time like this, the Hyuga Clan were to cause war to reignite… back in the day, White Fang, with all his towering reputation, had been driven to suicide simply because a failed mission brought loss to the village.
How much more so for a mere Hiashi Hyuga?
At that thought, another wave of relief washed over him.
He wanted to reach out and pat Genshin’s head, but on second thought felt it improper, and rested his hand on Genshin’s shoulder instead.
“Thank you… The Hyuga Clan owes you a favor.”
Genshin didn’t answer, because just then he felt a commotion in his arms.
When he’d caught little Hinata earlier, Genshin had already used Hamon Chakra to soothe the area of her spine.
Under the effect of the Hamon Chakra, little Hinata had come to, a pair of clear, limpid eyes brimming with tears fixed upon him.
Awake now?
The old father opened his arms, ready to take his daughter.
Genshin was about to hand little Hinata over — only to find two little hands pawing at the front of his clothes, then clutching tight and refusing to let go.
Mm, she’s probably just craving the warmth of the Hamon.
Though her eyes were brimming with tears, little Hinata simply would not let go.
Crack — from beside them came the sound of the old father crumbling like a statue splitting apart.
Hiashi Hyuga was just about to say something more when hurried footsteps came from afar.
Hiruzen Sarutobi arrived with the council of Elders and the ANBU.
Seeing the Kumogakure ninja head slumped on the ground and Genshin beside him holding little Hinata, the battle-hardened Third Hokage immediately grasped what had happened, and his expression turned dark enough to drip water.
A perfectly good peace negotiation and signing — and Kumogakure had dared to make a move on Konoha’s own soil.
What were these mountain savages trying to pull?
Hiruzen Sarutobi drew a deep breath, pressing down the fury in his heart.
First he had the ANBU take custody of the incapacitated ninja head on the spot, then turned to look at the Hinata in Genshin’s arms, and then at Hiashi Hyuga standing to one side.
“Hiashi, what’s the situation?”
Hiashi Hyuga steadied himself and recounted everything that had just happened, leaving nothing out.
At the end he made a point of adding that if Uzumaki Genshin hadn’t subdued the ninja head in advance, he’d very nearly have killed the man on the spot.
When Hiruzen Sarutobi had heard it all, his gaze fell upon Genshin, who was still comforting the little Hinata burrowed against him and refusing to let go.
That small body stood steady, without the slightest trace of panic.
Inwardly he marveled at the child’s composure and poise, and at once said gravely, “Kumogakure has broken faith and betrayed us.
I will most certainly demand an explanation from them for this, and give the village an accounting as well.”
An elder beside the Hokage stepped forward — none other than the Elder Homura Mitokado.
“Third, if Kumogakure dared to make a grab for the Byakugan on the eve of the signing, then in all likelihood the rest of the delegation knows of it as well.
If we suppress the matter now, it will only make it easier for them to seize on it and bite back at us.
Better instead…”
The other Elder, Koharu Utatane, continued, “Better to seize the living witness outright and lay him on the negotiating table, forcing Kumogakure to give us an explanation.
Whatever account they offer, at the very least the initiative rests in our hands, and it will shut Kumogakure’s mouth as well.”
At that moment, an ANBU Body-Flickered before Hiruzen Sarutobi.
“Lord Hokage, the members of Kumogakure’s delegation have arrived.”