Chapter 16: Minato: He's Afraid of Me
Time rewound slightly.
After attending his student Uchiha Obito's funeral, Namikaze Minato encountered the dusty, hurried figure of the Hyuga clan's Branch Family's greatest prodigy—Hyuga Ritsu—on the street.
At the time, he hadn't noticed anything unusual, merely assuming Ritsu had been recalled from the front lines to rest in the village.
However—
When he returned home and sat on the sofa in a daze, his wife Uzumaki Kushina—trying to comfort him and divert his attention—shared some recent village events with him.
"Wait, you're saying the Hyuga Main Family had a Byakugan stolen by Mist ninja, then determined Ritsu failed to provide adequate rescue, so Clan Head Hyuga Hiashi and others went to the front lines intending to punish Ritsu and seize the opportunity to recover the stolen Byakugan?"
Minato suddenly sat up straight, staring at his startled wife beside him as he quickly summarized.
"Uh, yeah, that's about right."
Kushina instinctively nodded.
"This Ritsu you mentioned—he's the one called the Hyuga Branch Family's greatest prodigy, the student of Hiruko-senpai, right?"
"Uh... the Hyuga clan doesn't have duplicate names, does it?"
Kushina was made uncertain by her husband's questions.
However, she wasn't wrong.
The Hyuga clan hadn't heard of a second Hyuga Ritsu.
"Minato, what's wrong? Why are you concerned about this? Is it because of Hiruko-senpai?" Kushina asked puzzledly.
"I just encountered Ritsu."
Minato frowned, his expression serious.
"Huh?"
Kushina's mind was also quite sharp. In an instant, she realized what Minato was worried about. A talented Hyuga Branch Family member who should be facing punishment at the front lines suddenly appearing in the village—one could indeed smell danger in this situation.
"Maybe Orochimaru-senpai sent him back? Orochimaru-senpai and Hiruko-senpai are also classmates. Using this method to protect Hiruko-senpai's student is possible, right?"
Kushina speculated.
However, Minato shook his head. "If the plan was to help Ritsu avoid the Hyuga Main Family's accountability and punishment, he shouldn't return to the village but rather be assigned a classified mission and sent far away. Coming back to the village—isn't that walking into a trap?"
"That's true too."
Kushina thought about it and nodded in agreement.
Indeed, her speculation had problems.
"Then what's really going on? Is it serious?"
"Hard to say. I might be overthinking, but..." Minato pondered, recalling his encounter with Ritsu. When they first met, Ritsu's body had been slightly tense, as though ready to exert force at any moment. But this was normal—everyone just off the battlefield was like that.
What was truly off was that when he inquired about the Eastern Front situation, Ritsu suddenly relaxed, as though relieved.
"He's afraid of me!"
Minato murmured.
"What?"
"When we met earlier, Ritsu was initially afraid of me. He likely came back to the village without official orders. He returned on his own..."
Minato placed his hands on Kushina's shoulders. "Kushina, sorry, I need to go out again to report this to the Hokage. Wait for me at home. I'll be back quickly, and we'll make dinner together when I return."
"Take an umbrella. Actually, take this raincoat instead. This rain will probably arrive any moment."
Kushina hurriedly rose and found a bright yellow transparent raincoat folded in a carrying bag, handing it to Minato.
"I'll be back soon."
Minato took the bag, smiled at Kushina, and the next instant his figure vanished from the house, directly appearing on the Hokage Building's rooftop terrace.
Pushing open the unlocked terrace door, he descended the stairs and quickly arrived outside the Hokage's office.
Knock knock!
Minato raised his hand and knocked on the slightly ajar door left with a crack.
"Come in."
A slightly hoarse, turbid voice came from within.
"Hokage-sama."
Minato pushed open the door and entered.
The spacious office was wreathed in smoke, all originating from the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, sitting behind his desk holding a pipe and continuously puffing clouds.
"Ah, it's Minato! What happened?"
Seeing Minato enter, a smile appeared on Hiruzen's face.
"I heard that on the Eastern Front, a Hyuga Main Family Byakugan was stolen, and the Hyuga Main Family determined it was Branch Family member Ritsu's fault? What exactly happened?"
Minato walked through the door and stood before the desk.
"What? Are you here to plead for Ritsu, Minato? This matter isn't easy to handle. The Hyuga are a major clan in the village. The First Hokage allowed them to resolve family internal affairs themselves. They keep emphasizing this is a family internal matter. It's really inconvenient to intervene."
Hiruzen showed a troubled expression.
"No, Hokage-sama, I'm not here to plead for anyone. I may be overthinking this, but after Obito's funeral ended earlier, I encountered Ritsu on my way home."
"Hmm? You encountered Ritsu?"
"Judging by your reaction, you didn't know about Ritsu returning to the village?"
Minato's brow furrowed.
CRACK!
Lightning flashed outside the window, thunder following immediately.
Then torrential rain poured down. Bean-sized raindrops struck the floor-to-ceiling windows, splashing water everywhere.
Hiruzen's expression darkened.
He spoke coldly. "Someone, come."
The next instant, a masked ANBU appeared before the desk.
"Go investigate when exactly Ritsu returned to the village."
"Yes."
The ANBU answered and vanished instantly.
Hiruzen took two more heavy puffs from his pipe. "Minato, what do you think Ritsu's sudden return to the village intends to accomplish?"
"With too little known information, it's really difficult to—"
"Make a guess."
"Worst case scenario—Ritsu plans to defect. He risked returning to the village to retrieve his parents. I've had considerable contact with Ritsu. He's very filial and wouldn't abandon his parents to defect alone."
Minato shared speculation based on his understanding of Ritsu.
"Similar to what I was thinking. If Ritsu isn't willing to accept punishment from the Hyuga Main Family, defection is his only choice... What a headache, this Hyuga clan situation!"
Hiruzen sighed powerlessly.
Konoha Village currently had two major clans.
The Uchiha, who possessed the Sharingan bloodline, and the Hyuga, who possessed the Byakugan bloodline. The former had extreme personalities and easily went to extremes—according to the Second Hokage, an inherently evil clan.
The latter had stable personalities and hadn't produced dangerous figures like Uchiha Madara. But the Hyuga clan had the shinobi world's unique Main Family-Branch Family system. To outsiders like them, Hyuga Branch Family members were completely slaves to the Main Family. If not for the Caged Bird seal controlling Branch Family members' lives and deaths, the Hyuga clan would likely have erupted into civil war long ago.
Of course, precisely because the Caged Bird seal existed, they judged the worst-case scenario would merely be Ritsu defecting with his family.