They had just rushed over from the Hokage’s office.
Their purpose: talk Hiashi Hyūga down.
Moments ago, the Third had received a report, the entire Hyūga clan had mobilized.
The Third was numb.
Tiange Hyūga alone was already beyond handling.
And now the whole clan on top of that.
Danzō.
Danzō.
Just how far are you going to push this?
No matter how helpless the Third felt, the situation still had to be resolved.
The Third had no choice but to call on the heads of the major clans to come talk Hiashi Hyūga down.
This group had barely arrived when they were met with this feast of blood, bodies blossoming open across the ground.
Every last one of them went cold to the bone.
They forgot their original purpose entirely.
Or maybe not forgot.
Maybe just lost the nerve.
Take Shikaku Nara.
Sharp mind, that one.
The moment Shikaku Nara saw the full Hyūga formation, the conclusion was immediate.
Tonight was not going to end peacefully.
There was no version of this that did.
The entire Hyūga clan had turned out, elderly, women, children, all of them.
This was their declaration.
They were here to get justice.
If the Third dared make a move against the Hyūga tonight, Konohagakure would shatter by morning.
And besides, plenty of people standing there had no intention of mediating at all.
They were quietly hoping Tiange Hyūga would just cut that person down and be done with it.
All these years in Konoha.
Which clan had managed to avoid being wronged by that person?
Demand people and take them.
Fail to take them through demand, resort to force.
They had brought their grievances to the Third every single time, and every single time the Third took that person’s side.
How many talented people from their clans had been taken away like that, never to return, not a word of news afterward.
Before, they had been completely powerless.
Now…
The fierce one had finally come back.
Less than a day since returning, and that person had already made a move.
Shikaku Nara shook his head inwardly.
Was that person genuinely foolish, or did that person actually have some hidden card left to play?
To provoke this one so brazenly, so openly, without the slightest restraint, well.
Things had gone too far now.
Shikaku Nara had no intention of stepping in.
But there was always someone whose head was harder than stone.
“Stop!”
“Cough, cough…”
“You’ve already killed this many people — isn’t that enough?”
Tiange couldn’t be bothered.
He amplified the pressure of his dōjutsu, and the remaining forty or fifty people burst apart on the spot.
“You…”
“You murderous monster!
Cough, cough…”
“CLANG!”
The longsword on Tiange’s back flew from its scabbard, swift as wind, cutting through the air.
“Ah…”
“CLANG!”
Unsheathed to resheathed.
Barely a breath of time.
“That hand of yours — I’m taking it.”
“No one has ever dared point a finger at me like that.”
“That old woman pointed at me the same way once.
I severed her arm.”
“You get the same.”
“I don’t care whether you’re one of the Third’s most devoted loyalists or whatever else.
Even if the Third stood here right now and dared to block me, I’d cut through without hesitation.”
“Now — step aside.”
“Or die.”
Tiange’s voice was quiet.
Every person in the vicinity heard it with perfect clarity.
The message to everyone watching was simple: if you want to stop me, you had better have what it takes.
The one who had stepped forward was none other than the sickly Hayate Gekkō.
The Gekkō clan had always been among the Third’s most devoted loyalists.
“You…
you treasonous madman, cough, cough…”
“If you…
cough, cough…
have the nerve, then kill me!”
“Cough, cough…”
“The Third will not let you go for this…”
Tiange’s eyes narrowed.
Right hand formed a seal.
At that moment, a ninja in Anbu attire with purple hair appeared and bowed toward Tiange.
“Please wait!”
“I apologize on his behalf!”
“CLANG!”
“THUD!”
“THUMP!”
“I’m sorry.”
“Too late.
I already gave him a chance.”
“When I decide to kill someone, no one stops me.”
“Hayate!”
The purple-haired Anbu turned and saw the head lying on the ground, still rolling.
Grief surged up from somewhere deep, and the Anbu moved to step forward.
“HUM, ”
A sword-hum split the night.
The blade hovered directly in front of the Anbu, tip pointed and steady, blood still dripping from the steel.
“You’re in my way.
Move aside, or I’ll kill you.”
The voice was soaked in killing intent.
Tiange had already run out of patience.
These irritating flies.
Tiange suspected the old man back at the Hokage’s office had deliberately sent them to stall for time.
Any more noise from anyone, and Tiange wouldn’t mind cutting the lot of them down.
The purple-haired Anbu was Yūgao Uzuki, Hayate Gekkō’s girlfriend.
Beneath the boundless killing intent radiating off Tiange, Yūgao Uzuki’s whole body trembled and forced a path to the side with great difficulty.
No point in making a move.
There wasn’t even a sliver of a chance.
And no room to hesitate either, the slightest hesitation, and the figure standing there would genuinely follow through.
Dying personally would be one thing.
But Yūgao Uzuki was on Anbu duty right now.
If this caused a misread of the situation,
Far more people in Konoha would die tonight.
“CLANG!”
The moment Yūgao Uzuki stepped aside, the longsword snapped back into its scabbard.
Tiange’s expression didn’t shift at all.
Tiange walked past in calm silence.
Along the way, members of every major clan scrambled to clear a path, terrified that a single moment’s delay might draw that sword back out of its scabbard.
Or draw a glance from those Byakugan eyes.
The sword was bad enough.
At the current rate, it seemed to take only one person at a time.
But caught under that gaze?
An entire swath of people at once.
And not a bone left behind.
Neither method was anything any of them had ever heard of or laid eyes on before.
Could the Byakugan really be this powerful?
Surely even the Uchiha clan’s Sharingan couldn’t do something like this.
No wonder.
No wonder, back at the ninja academy, Tiange had kept that person from the Uchiha clan suppressed the entire time.
They watched the Hyūga clan members following behind Tiange, all those pairs of Byakugan eyes, and couldn’t help but feel their scalps prickle.
Was this something Tiange had developed personally, or something the Byakugan carried on its own?
If it was the latter, didn’t that mean…
Hss…
No one let the thought go any further.
Everyone present understood it in their bones, after tonight, the Hyūga clan had completely risen.
“Shikaku Nara, what do we do?”
Inoichi Yamanaka watched the Hyūga clan disappear into the distance and quietly asked.
“Nothing.
Go home.”
“Go back and give the order, no clan member steps outside tonight.”
“Anyone still out there, call them back immediately.”
“But the Third…”
“Heh.”
“That old fox just wants to drag everyone else down with him.”
“You’ve seen what happens to anyone stubborn enough to hold firm.”
“How come the Third hasn’t come out to stop any of this?”
“That was one of the Third’s most devoted loyalists, and dying still counted for nothing.”
“Go home.
Relax.”
“I guarantee it, absolutely no problem.”
Shikaku Nara finished and was the first to head back toward the clan’s district.
No plan to get tangled up in this, and no standing to do so either.
Inoichi Yamanaka was still wavering.
Chōza Akimichi had already turned and left.
“Chōza…”
“Inoichi.
Shikaku Nara’s calls have never been wrong.”
With that, Chōza Akimichi hesitated no further and headed home at a quick pace, a little worried the chubby kid at home was still out somewhere looking for food.
Inoichi Yamanaka glanced toward the Hokage Tower, bit down on the decision, and turned to walk toward the clan as well.
Chōza Akimichi was right.
Shikaku Nara had never made the wrong call.
And besides, the only real worry on Inoichi Yamanaka’s mind was the Third settling scores afterward.
Going up against Tiange Hyūga had never once crossed that mind.
That was not something Inoichi Yamanaka, nor the clan, could stand against.
The other major clans watched the Ino-Shika-Chō trio’s decision and fell in line one by one.
Very quickly, only one figure remained at the scene, a purple-haired Anbu standing motionless, staring at Hayate Gekkō’s body.
“Yūgao…”
“Anko, Hayate is dead.”
It was Anko Mitarashi, who had heard the news and come rushing back to comfort a close friend.
“Serves him right.”
Anko Mitarashi’s words made Yūgao Uzuki go completely still.
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