The old banyan tree outside the Hyuga Clan's compound stood like a silent stone statue, its leaves utterly still, even the wind seeming to avoid it.
The air was thick with the damp smell of soil, pressing down on one's chest.
The clouds wrapped the moon into a fuzzy ball of light, only letting a few bleak silver rays leak through, barely sketching the outline of the Hyuga Clan's compound's walls on the ground, like a silhouette soaked in ink.
Aside from a few distant barks, the surroundings were so quiet you could hear your own heartbeat knocking against your ribs.
Relying on memories from his previous life, Makoto found the spot where Hiashi killed the Kumogakure's envoy in the original work and moved a bit further forward.
Concealed in the shadows, knees slightly bent like a beast ready to pounce, his breathing was light and slow, almost merging with the night.
Bang, bang, bang…
Five light sounds followed one after another. White mist, like punctured soap bubbles, suddenly dispersed and vanished.
Five shadow clones, identical in build to Makoto, stood ready. The wariness in their eyes was completely different from the casualness in the original's gaze.
Makoto pulled out five specially made kunai from his person. Each handle was stamped with an extremely small Succubus Mark, glowing with a faint red light in the dark.
He handed one to each shadow clone, his fingertips lightly tapping the kunai handles, making a light tapping sound.
"Disperse!"
With Makoto's soft command, the five shadow clones immediately moved.
The shadow clones transformed into several black shadows, heading off in all directions around the Hyuga Clan's compound.
He, Uchiha Makoto, wouldn't gamble on the original plot.
If the Kumogakure's Shinobi didn't take this route because of the butterfly effect caused by his actions, his all-nighter would be for nothing.
The moonlight finally struggled half its face out from the clouds. The clear light flowed over the treetops, casting mottled, broken shadows on the ground, as if someone had scattered silver fragments.
Since arriving in the Shinobi World, every time Makoto looked at the moon in the sky, he always felt as if someone was staring back at him from it. But it's probably just an illusion.
Dew dripped from the tips of grass blades, landing on the back of Makoto's hand, cold as ice shards. He couldn't help but sigh inwardly.
'These little haters from Kumogakure have pretty good luck, coming to kidnap Hinata only after the Otsutsuki father-son pair left. If they'd tried kidnapping in front of them, it would have been a real spectacle.'
Time passed slowly. The surroundings were silent. The long night felt particularly hard to endure.
After who knows how long, the faint sound of fabric rustling reached his ears, like a snake slithering through dry grass.
Makoto's breathing remained extremely steady.
He just slowly opened his eyes. His pupils contracted to pinpoints in the darkness. Though he hadn't activated his Sharingan, they were sharper than a cat's.
A black figure flipped over the rear wall of the Hyuga Clan's Main Family's residence, moving fast as lightning, a small figure clutched in its hand.
The bright kimono was especially conspicuous in the dark. It was Hinata. Her whole body hung limp in mid-air, swaying naturally with the wind, clearly drugged unconscious.
It was the leader of Kumogakure's envoys who had come to Konoha to sign the ceasefire agreement this morning.
Watching this scene, the corner of Makoto's mouth lifted slightly, 'Finally out.'
During the banquet earlier, this Kumogakure leader had left the Hyuga Clan early, claiming he had 'matters' to attend to, and never returned.
'So he had been hiding inside the Hyuga Clan's Main Family residence all along. But that made sense. Infiltrating the Hyuga Clan's compound at night would have been extremely difficult.'
'The Hyuga Clan had brought this upon themselves.'
Seeing the Kumogakure's Shinobi carrying Hinata, approaching the old banyan tree, Makoto bent his knees on the horizontal branch, lightly tapped the tip of his foot, and his figure drifted down like a leaf blown by the wind, landing without disturbing a single blade of grass.
Makoto tightened his grip on the specially made kunai in his hand. This Kumogakure's Shinobi was currently a live grenade in Konoha.
Held in Makoto's hand, whichever clan he wanted to suffer, that clan would be spewing black smoke overnight.
The Kumogakure's Shinobi's gaze caught the figure that had suddenly appeared under the old banyan tree.
He halted abruptly. Hinata, still clutched in his hand, must have been heavily drugged, as she still hadn't woken.
But upon seeing that the person blocking the way was just a half-grown child, the panic in the Kumogakure's Shinobi's single eye immediately dissipated, though he didn't let his guard down at all.
A fierce curve lifted the corner of his mouth. He thought inwardly: 'Running into me today is your bad luck, kid!'
Makoto acted as if he didn't see the killing intent in the other's eyes. Instead, he raised the specially made kunai in his hand and, looking at the one-eyed Kumogakure's Shinobi, which is similar to Danzo, said:
"I just found this kunai. The tip seems to have some dust on it. Can you come closer and take a careful look for me?"
Makoto extended the kunai forward. The extremely small Succubus Mark on the handle flashed under the moonlight, like a blood-red eye blinking.
Hearing this, the Kumogakure's Shinobi frowned. A flash of suspicion crossed his single eye, quickly replaced by bone-chilling killing intent.
'Time is tight now. Why overthink? Just kill him!' The Kumogakure's Shinobi snorted coldly in his heart.
His wrist suddenly twisted. Several shuriken shot out from his tool pouch. The sound of them cutting through the air was like a venomous snake hissing, carrying a piercing cold straight for vital points all over Makoto's body.
When the shuriken were mere inches from his heart, Makoto suddenly 'stumbled' and lurched to the side, his ankle as if caught on a stone, his body following the momentum tilting sideways.
The specially made kunai in his hand 'slipped' out, its trajectory wildly off course, like a dead leaf caught in a fierce wind, wobbling unsteadily towards the Kumogakure's Shinobi.
Seeing this, a scoff escaped the Kumogakure's Shinobi's throat, 'This accuracy was probably worse than a freshly weaned kid in Kumogakure!'
He couldn't even be bothered to lift an eyelid, as the trajectory suggested it wouldn't hit, so he couldn't be bothered to dodge.
Staring at Makoto on the ground, he swiftly threw out a few more shuriken. The glint of the blades wove a net of death under the moonlight.
The specially made kunai was about to brush past the Kumogakure's Shinobi's ear.
Seeing that the Kumogakure's Shinobi didn't take this specially made kunai seriously, the corner of Makoto's mouth lifted slightly.
Since obtaining the Flying Thunder God Technique, Makoto had specifically practiced kunai throwing with Itachi for a while and had extremely high accuracy. He mused inwardly:
'Flying Thunder God - Second Step…'
Before the thought even finished, only an illusory afterimage remained where he stood, vanishing in an instant, fast as ink erased by moonlight.
This move was an advanced application of the Flying Thunder God Technique.
The user could throw a kunai marked with the Flying Thunder God's imprint at the enemy, then instantly teleport to the kunai's location and attack the enemy in conjunction with the kunai.
A sharp whistling sound suddenly exploded next to the Kumogakure's Shinobi's ear. The fine hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.
He whipped his head around as if touched by a red-hot branding iron. What his single eye reflected was not the strangely shaped kunai from before.