"No—don't kill me, please, Lord Haruki!" Hyūga Nisshin stammered, forcing each word out through trembling lips. His pants were already soaked; a foul-smelling yellow liquid seeped down his legs. He had wet himself in terror.
"Hmph! This strike is for Sister Miyuki! If you wanted to target me, you should have come at me directly! How dare you set up an innocent like her!"
Hinata Haruki's shadow clone moved in, slamming a palm into Nisshin's back.
"No! I—was—wrong!" Nisshin cried out, but his voice was so faint no one could hear it. Haruki didn't care whether he begged or not.
Crack!
With a sickening sound, the tremendous force broke Nisshin's spine.
"Aaah! Aaaah! Mother! Help me! Help!" Nisshin's voice turned shrill and desperate.
"That old dog Hideyoshi murdered my father… I will have my vengeance!"
Haruki's fury burned hotter. Nisshin had admitted with his own mouth the truth about his father's death—there was no longer any doubt. This was a blood debt.
The shadow clone kicked Nisshin over onto his back.
"W-What are you doing?" Nisshin's entire body was drenched in cold sweat, his face ghastly pale.
"For now… I'll take some interest. Consider it compensation for the original Haruki. You ugly beast—you don't deserve such pure Byakugan…" Haruki's voice was icy, each word sharp as a blade.
"No… spare me!" Nisshin pleaded pitifully.
Haruki ignored him entirely. From a pocket inside his flak vest, he laboriously pulled out a sealing scroll, broke the seal, and withdrew an insulated box packed with ice. Inside were several glass containers. Haruki took out one of the smaller ones.
Meanwhile, his shadow clone drew a gleaming scalpel and reached toward Nisshin's eyes.
"Let's start with one… to make up for the one you cost me," Haruki said coldly, his eyes brimming with rage and hatred.
"No! Aaaah—!"
A shrill scream tore through the air as Nisshin's left eye was ripped from its socket. Haruki carefully placed it into the small container, which was filled with a special preservative solution he had prepared for potential transplant surgeries. He had never expected to use it under such circumstances.
The shadow clone's hand moved again—this time toward Nisshin's right eye. The scalpel glinted ominously.
"Damn you… even as a ghost, I… I won't let you go!" Nisshin snarled, his face twisted and hideous.
"Hmph! When you were alive, killing you was no different from killing a dog. Do you think I'd fear you dead? If your ghost dares come for me, I'll cut you down again! I'll make sure you can't even enter the cycle of reincarnation." Haruki's cold laugh cut like steel, and the scalpel did not pause.
"Aaaah—!" Another scream, weaker this time, echoed as Haruki secured the second eye in the container.
"Let me… go… Lord Haruki… little brother… you can keep… the eyes," Nisshin gasped, trembling, making one last attempt to plead for his life.
"Sure. You can go," Haruki said, a faint smile playing at his lips.
"As long… as you let me go… I'll never… hurt you again… You can… have the eyes… my gift… to you." Nisshin tried to flatter him, his tone sickeningly servile. If he could move, he'd no doubt be groveling at Haruki's feet, wagging his tail.
"Then let me send you on your way… to reincarnate in the Animal Realm, 'big brother.'" Haruki's voice hardened. A beast who had tried to harm him again and again—and even target Miyuki—could never be allowed to live.
"No! Please—!" Desperation and regret were all that remained in Nisshin's voice.
Shhk!
The shadow clone's kunai sliced cleanly across his throat. Nisshin's mouth opened in a futile struggle, but the harder he fought, the faster his lifeblood poured out. Within moments, he was still.
Haruki's own body swayed; the willpower keeping him upright finally broke. He coughed up blood, clutching his chest, and collapsed to the ground. The shadow clone beside him flickered out of existence.
His eyes were in ruins—he could barely see anything. Pain still throbbed in his skull; it felt as though his brain itself had been damaged, his thoughts mired in a fog. His internal injuries were severe. If not for sheer willpower, he would have lost consciousness long ago.
With great effort, Haruki pulled out a jar of the Hyūga clan's medical salve, applying as much as he could to his wounds.
Good thing I spotted that lackey, Hyūga Ame, hiding in the distance when I first arrived at the clearing. If I'd tried to run off with Miyuki, he would've attacked for sure. I had no choice but to leave her hidden back there—otherwise it would've been far too dangerous.
When Haruki had first reached the clearing, his Byakugan revealed Ame's presence far away. After throwing down a smoke bomb, he had sealed Miyuki's chakra points and hidden her right there at the scene—so well that even a Byakugan would struggle to spot her.
To protect her, he risked leaving her behind.
Two shadow clones then lured the Sunagakure shinobi away. A third, carrying the false "Miyuki," took another route to draw Ame off. Haruki deliberately avoided the fastest path toward Konoha reinforcements—he needed Ame as far from Miyuki as possible. His plan ensured the incoming reinforcements would go straight to her, rather than wasting time trying to save him and risking her safety.
On his way to Miyuki, Haruki left secret markings that only Konoha shinobi would recognize, guaranteeing they'd reach the clearing first. No one could have guessed that both escape routes were decoys, and that Miyuki had never moved at all.
Every word Haruki spoke to the "Miyuki" he carried was an act for Ame's benefit. That was why she hadn't screamed or cried when Haruki was injured—it was a clone, and it had to remain intact to deliver the finishing blow. Fortunately, the fool Nisshin never realized the truth.
In the end, Haruki and the false Miyuki lured Nisshin right into their trap.
The reason Haruki endured the agony of the Caged Bird curse seal without defending against Nisshin's blow was to maintain that shadow clone at all costs—it was his final trump card.
Why kill them both with a kunai? If he'd used Gentle Fist, anyone finding the bodies later would know it was the work of a Hyūga—and suspect him directly. And he hadn't just killed them—he'd taken Nisshin's eyes.
Even if his actions could be justified as self-defense against two would-be murderers, would the old dog Hideyoshi simply let it go? Not likely. The Hyūga main family would never allow a branch member to possess a second pair of pure Byakugan.
Worse still, others would covet them—Orochimaru, Danzō, the Uchiha, other shinobi villages, even the Ōtsutsuki branch family on the moon. Any of them would seize such an opportunity. It wouldn't take much for someone to paint him as a murderous thief who slaughtered kin for their eyes.
Better to let Sunagakure take the blame. If Hideyoshi could use Suna's knife to kill him, Haruki could just as easily push the killings onto them. Let those who wanted Byakugan go hound Suna instead.
Haruki had never cared for "pure" Byakugan. But now, with his eyes destroyed, and with Nisshin both his mortal enemy and the cause of his blindness, taking them was only just. He would never show mercy to such a foe.
Still, until he grew stronger, this secret had to remain his alone. His life might depend on it.
He moved over to check the bodies, stripping them of valuables and erasing any clues pointing to him. He staged the scene to look like a Suna ambush, taking "spoils of war" as they might. The Caged Bird seal on Hyūga Ame's forehead had vanished in death, his Byakugan already sealed and destroyed—useless to anyone.
The remaining Suna-nin might already be closing in, drawn by the earlier battle. Haruki was badly injured, incapable of fighting back. He had to leave quickly and erase his tracks to avoid pursuit.
Step by step, swaying on the mountain path, every movement was torture. Gritting his teeth, he pushed forward, the world before him blurred.
Damn… my eyes are finished. No matter how careful you are, there's always that one slip-up—and Nisshin was mine. At least I have a spare now. Original Haruki… your vengeance is served.
But his body was giving out. His chest tightened; each breath grew harder. Every movement sent lances of agony through his organs. His head swam, vision darkening.
"Damn it… I'm not going to hold out, am I?"
He stopped, panting, reaching for a tree beside the path—but dizziness overwhelmed him. His hand slipped, missing its grip. His body pitched forward, right toward a sheer drop.
"…Damn—"
Darkness took him.
He tumbled down the steep slope, over the cliff's edge, and into a deep, jagged chasm—disappearing between massive boulders into a bottomless stone cavern below.
Ten minutes after Haruki had drawn Ame away, Konoha's reinforcements arrived at the clearing, following his markings. Tsunade led five jōnin, landing amid a grim scene: the corpses of three Konoha chūnin and four Suna chūnin. Her heart sank.
"Haruki was right… something did happen! Were we… too late?" Her fists clenched as anxiety gnawed at her.
With a gesture, the jōnin spread out to examine the area.
"Lady Tsunade! Over here!" one called. Moments later, they uncovered a carefully hidden mark Haruki had left on a boulder.
"He was here… then where is he now?" Tsunade wondered aloud.
The boulder shifted slightly.
"Something's not right," she said sharply. Weapons came out, the team tense.
Tsunade pushed the rock aside, finding the hollow beneath—where Miyuki lay, immobile, tears streaming down her face.
Tsunade knelt, quickly supporting her.
"Miyuki… where is Haruki?!"