Late at night, the day's bustle finally ebbed. Konoha drifted into sleep—save for a few still moving in the dark.
Under the cover of his attendants, Kumogakure's jōnin commander Oumui slipped out of his lodging and ghosted toward the Hyūga compound.
Sarutobi Hiruzen and the others were naïve. Two great villages had been killing each other only days ago, yet once the Kumo delegation arrived they assigned no ANBU to shadow them, letting the visitors roam as they pleased. With a tail on them, there's no way Oumui would have reached the Hyūga compound.
After Kageyama Kogetsu's reconciliation with the Hyūga, their security had slid back to old habits; not full of holes, but far from tight. If a calamity came, both Konoha and the Hyūga had it coming.
Kageyama knew the Kumo delegation planned trouble, but he let it be. Chaos is a ladder.
So Oumui slipped into Hyūga Hiashi's residence and snatched Hyūga Hinata—only for Hiashi, who sensed the intrusion, to strike him dead with a single palm. When they pulled off the veil and saw the cloud symbol on the forehead protector, Hiashi's scalp went numb.
Because it was Hinata's third birthday, the Hyūga hadn't attended the day's ceremony. Not a single representative went. Hiashi didn't know Oumui's personal identity, but being one of the mission's envoys alone made this a nightmare.
After a brief daze, Hiashi decided to destroy the body and act as if nothing had happened—but it was already too late.
Two Kumo shinobi, on cue, swaggered toward the Hyūga compound and deliberately drew Konoha shinobi after them, then pushed straight inside. Hiding behind their envoy status, they forced the Hyūga to hesitate, and caught them red-handed.
The mess exploded.
By common sense, a Kumo infiltrator up to no good dying inside the compound would be that—but the world rarely runs on sense. Konoha says Kumo intruded with ill intent—so they did? Or are you all in it together, faking evidence to cover the murder of a Kumo envoy?
Each side swore its own truth. Whom would the world believe? In the ninja world's court of opinion, the weight leaned toward Kumo: a heavyweight was dead, which made them look like the victim. By ordinary inference, would a dignified Kumo jōnin commander really risk his life on a frame job?
And Konoha already sits on the richest land and the fattest mission market; everyone else envies them. Most would love to see Konoha stumble.
Mud in your trousers looks bad no matter what you call it.
The uproar reached Konoha's leadership, who dragged themselves from bed for an emergency council.
They already didn't want to keep fighting, and Hiashi had just offended them badly. Hinata's third birthday mattered to the clan, but not enough to send no one at all to the ceremony. If you won't give the village face, don't expect the village to carry your blame—clean up your own mess. Otherwise, be ready for payback in a thousand petty cuts.
Shinobi whose interests would suffer if war reignited, along with their clans and friends, wouldn't spare the Hyūga either.
Inside the meeting, Konoha's higher-ups shifted blame with practiced ease until Hiashi's head spun. The other department heads offered no defense, watching coolly from the sidelines. Some who had long disliked the Hyūga—or Hiashi—kicked them while they were down. Loudest among them was Uchiha Fugaku.
As their biggest rival, the Hyūga had long pushed Uchiha scandals, like how the Nine-Tails once reflected a Sharingan in its eyes. With Hiashi caught out, Fugaku took his revenge.
If Fugaku had looked further ahead, he would have done the opposite—spoken for Hiashi. Had the two great houses reconciled, even quietly allied, Konoha's leadership would have had to think twice, and so would everyone else. But neither the two clan heads nor their inner circles had that breadth of vision; the two great houses couldn't even "piss in the same pot." Others in power—up to and including the village leadership—fanned the feud, and ordinary shinobi didn't want to see the two giants join forces either. If they did, their people would be insufferable.
After eating crow at the village council, Hiashi returned to the clan hall to convene his own—and swallowed more.
During the recent shuffle of the three elders, Hiashi's main-line branch had carved into the other three main lines' interests. The elders who'd lost out had no intention of truly helping him, much less proposing that Hizashi die in his stead.
Don't ask—there's no solution. Figure it out yourself. The sky falling? There are taller shoulders than ours. Pressure inside and out might be crushing, but we won't be first to bear it.
Cold eyes watched and waited; perhaps they could claw back what they'd lost, even supplant the current main line.
When the elders finally left, servants brought wine and dishes. Hiashi, seething, drank in sullen silence.
Draped in a black kimono, Hinata's mother, Hyūga Miwa, stepped in. She frowned, then knelt opposite him.
"Miwa—how is Hinata?" Hiashi lifted his head, pulling himself together.
"She's asleep. Peacefully."
Miwa's long white hands poured him more wine. "Is it really that hard to fix?"
As the lady of the Hyūga house, she hardly knew nothing of the disaster.
"The village leadership and elders told me to handle it myself."
"Damn it. If everything is on me, what good are the clan and the village?"
"We've already offended them. We can only rely on ourselves. I do have a way."
"What way could you have?" He didn't believe it. If he had no answer, how could his pampered wife?
Miwa drew a long breath, face smooth. "The Branch House exists to protect the Main. Hizashi looks almost exactly like you."
"If we hand over his body, the matter ends."
The porcelain cup slipped from Hiashi's fingers and clattered across the table, wine splashing everywhere.
"Do you know what you're saying?"
"He's my own brother. You want him to die for me?"
"I—" Fury twisted Hiashi's face. His palm rose high.
"In the Hyūga, Branch House comes before blood."
Miwa held her chin high, gentle face full of stubborn steel, then softened her voice.
"I don't want to lose my husband. Hinata can't lose her father. The Hyūga can't lose its clan head."
His hand stopped a finger's width from her cheek, frozen in midair.
"Beyond this, I see no other path. Do you mean to stand against the clan, the village, and the world outside? Can you bear that weight?"
"The Branch exists to protect the Main at any cost. At worst, we treat Neji well from now on."
Hiashi bowed his head and murmured, "There must be another way. There must be another way."
Knowing her husband, Miwa understood he was wavering but couldn't bring himself to speak the words. Even before family, this was almost unspeakable—unless you shed shame entirely.
"It seems this sister-in-law will have to be the villain."
"Hizashi, Neji—don't blame me."
"I can't think of another way."
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