"Hurry. Faster. We're almost back in our sector."
Ao kept urging, unable to hide his excitement. Once they reached Kirigakure's lines, the Byakugan would truly be theirs.
With his merit, and his strength in sensory, the Byakugan would most likely be transplanted into his eye. His perception would rank among the best in the shinobi world, his standing in Kirigakure would soar, and the village's internal squalls would threaten him far less.
"Yes, Captain."
The two Kirigakure chunin were excited as well, gritting through their injuries to speed up.
An instant later a cold, razor-bright arc of steel flashed from nowhere. Ao's head leapt skyward in a spray of blood. His headless body kept hurtling forward on momentum, slammed into a tree, then toppled to the ground.
Poor Ao. He had lived a high life, even risen to lead the Allied Shinobi Forces' sensory corps, yet now he did not even know how he died or by whose hand.
The sudden turn left the two chunin frozen until they landed in the branches and shock snapped them back.
"Captain!" they shouted, eyes blazing, as the severed head fell.
A moment later a thick steel wire cinched one chunin's waist and yanked him off his feet. From the trunk where no one stood, a chill gleam lanced out and drilled his heart.
"Leaf scum, die!"
The last Kirigakure chunin finally reacted. Eyes red, he yanked two kunai fitted with explosive tags from his pouch and hurled them with all his strength.
Kageyama flicked the corpse from his blade, slipped aside from the blast, and vanished again.
Two detonations bloomed in midair. Fireballs roared, wind hammered out, smoke boiled.
"Invisibility. Gekkō clan?"
Even as he spoke, the Kirigakure chunin's hands blurred through seals and he spewed a flood of white mist, shrouding the grove in haze.
It was the right response, but he faced a cheat.
Kageyama opened the Byakugan again, pinned the chunin's position, slid in behind him without a sound, and sank a blade into his heart.
"How… can this be…"
Snarling, blood on his lips, the mist-nin tried to look back, but his head sagged and he was gone.
"This way leaves the least to give away. Bring the bodies back and they'll just think I'm handy at assassination."
The mist thinned quickly and Kageyama's form came clear.
He snapped the blood from his blade, sheathed it, crouched by Ao's headless corpse, and found a clear vial with a white eye soaking inside.
He stowed the vial in Daikokuten, turned up a few valuables from the three bodies, then sprang into a tree, sat cross-legged, and closed his eyes to rest.
They would have to put the Byakugan on the table with the Hyuga sooner or later. Better sooner than later.
As for the captain, the Hyuga, and what they thought, he did not care. The goal mattered.
Three minutes later a squad reached the scene, led by Hyuga Hizashi.
"Captain Hizashi. I'm from Captain Seiga's team," Kageyama said with a slight bow and a smile.
A battalion commander was still a captain, so the address fit. Only three in camp warranted being called lord: Hiashi, Fugaku, and Mitokado Homura.
"All your work?"
Hizashi's gaze swept the clearing, lingered a breath on Ao's headless corpse, and he smiled.
"Luck, that's all," Kageyama answered evenly.
"Well done. I'll ask Lord Hiashi to commend you."
When on duty, use titles. A branch house Hyuga like Hizashi understood that well.
"Thank you, Captain Hizashi."
"Good. Hand me the Byakugan."
Kageyama looked genuinely taken aback. "Captain Hizashi, Konoha doesn't have a rule about turning in spoils during wartime."
War missions differed from peacetime. There was merit, not a fee.
The village provided basic supplies, treated wounds free, and paid death benefits.
If supplies were tight, you bought your own. If you wanted quality gear, you paid. Shinobi with money did, because lives were on the line.
So no village demanded war spoils be turned in.
Even in peacetime, unless it was truly critical or mission-related, shinobi were not forced to surrender finds.
The village already took its cut from missions.
This was a feudal-capitalist world. In army or shinobi corps alike, there was no such thing as spoils going to the state.
Faces tightened at his words, then darkened all at once.
"That Byakugan belongs to the Hyuga," a Hyuga behind Hizashi said loudly, glowering.
Kageyama neither bristled nor flinched. "Correction. It used to belong to the Hyuga."
"Kirigakure stole it. You should have reported the loss. By the time you moved, you weren't going to catch them."
"If you got lucky and fought and took it back, then you would report the haul and the eye would be yours."
"It's the same eye, but once Kirigakure laid hands on it, the ledger split in two."
"Bottom line, I didn't take a Byakugan from the Hyuga, did I?"
Two Hyuga nodded before they caught themselves and glared.
Hizashi drew a long breath and forced a smile. "Kokugestu, you don't understand."
"Our rules are strict. If the main family loses a Byakugan and it isn't recovered, the branch house charged with guarding it is punished severely."
"Stop. What's that to me?"
"This came down to three things."
"One, Kirigakure planned it. Two, the victim and guard were careless. Three, they were too weak."
"If I hadn't taken it back and it stayed in Kirigakure's hands, the Hyuga's disgrace would have been enormous."
"And with the Byakugan, Kirigakure would pose a greater threat to Konoha."
"If Konoha suffered for it, the Hyuga would bear indirect responsibility."
"I think the Hyuga should be thanking me. How do you have the face to seize my spoils?"
The run of words left the three Hyuga a bit dazed, and annoyingly, much of it sounded reasonable.
Hizashi exhaled. "Not seize. Trade."
"Give me the Byakugan and the Hyuga will pay richly, and you will have the clan's friendship."
"Tempting, but I think the Byakugan matters more to my future."
"And if I don't hand it over, will I earn the Hyuga's enmity?"
Seeing him unmoved, Hizashi's patience frayed. Veins stood on his brow and his tone chilled.
Losing a Byakugan was too serious. The branch house tied to it would be dragged over the coals from top to bottom, including him. Even his brother would face the elders' questioning.
"Kageyama Kokugetsu, do you know what it means to set yourself against the Hyuga?"
"To say nothing else, you serve under the Hyuga now."
Kageyama laughed easily, eyes bright. "So bribery fails and you turn to threats."
"What then, tripping me into missions that are very dangerous or certain death."
"Death is all. I've been on the line long enough to set life and death aside."
"And don't bother with family threats. I don't have any left."
With neither carrot nor stick working and even the dirty tricks headed off, Hizashi's patience snapped. Chakra gathered in him.
"Captain Hizashi, are you going to make a move?"
"Forgive me. The Byakugan must be recovered. You will be compensated."
"As for the consequences of striking a comrade of the same village, those will be handled," Hizashi said, a shade apologetic.
The two Hyuga with him flashed forward to surround Kageyama. The air went taut as a bowstring.