The Hyuga compound was in utter chaos today.
Standing on the rooftop at the center of it all, Sasuke gazed down at the mist-shrouded grounds. A flicker of light flashed intermittently in his eyes.
"Only Hyuga Hiashi and his two daughters are missing. Everyone else from the Hyuga clan is here—none of them escaped."
"Uchiha Sasuke!" A group of Hyuga shinobi glared at him furiously. Some couldn't contain themselves and began attacking.
Mist coiled lazily around Sasuke's hands as he flicked them forward. A faint blur passed across the neck of the oncoming shinobi—and in the next instant, a dried, dismembered corpse crumpled to the ground with a dull thud, kicking up clouds of dust.
"Now!" A voice shouted from behind Sasuke as a figure lunged at his chest using textbook Gentle Fist technique.
"Eight Trigrams—!"
Unfortunately, the attacker didn't even finish shouting the technique's name before thick mist suddenly surged from Sasuke's body, wrapping around him like a cocoon.
"Announcing your attack before using it? Honestly, how stupid can you be?"
The Hyuga's palm struck the dense fog. In an instant, his hand withered and began to rot, the decay rapidly creeping up his arm. With no hesitation, he hacked off his own arm at the shoulder, saving himself by a hair.
"What the hell is this stuff?!"
The Hyuga ninja activated his Byakugan—but no matter how hard he focused, he couldn't see through the unnatural fog. Their vaunted bloodline ability had failed. No wonder they were panicking.
"Uchiha Sasuke! You dare lay hands on fellow Konoha shinobi? You're provoking the Hyuga clan—do you even have the guts to face the consequences?"
"Tch. So noisy." Sasuke replied with a lazy sneer.
"I never intended to kill anyone. I just want you all trapped here—that's all. As for you Branch House folks, killing you wouldn't even mean anything."
He looked completely obnoxious, but he wasn't lying. He was just helping Neji gather the clan in one place, to make things easier for when Neji made his move.
The Hyuga looked at the smug teen in front of them like he was a complete idiot.
"You think you can talk big just because you're alone? You've killed one of our own—Konoha won't let this slide! Everyone, together! Capture him first!"
The mass of Hyuga shinobi surged forward, Byakugan blazing. It made for an impressive sight—on the surface. But unfortunately for them, their opponent was Uchiha Sasuke.
"Where do you people get this confidence? That numbers alone can win a fight?"
Sasuke wasn't just showing off—he was dead serious. And this kind of arrogance? He wore it well.
In the blink of an eye, the thin mist engulfed the entire Hyuga compound. Every Hyuga shinobi dropped like puppets with their strings cut. They were all still alive—just unconscious.
Sasuke curled his lip in contempt, looking disappointed.
"That's it? Not even one decent opponent? So this is the so-called 'strongest noble clan of Konoha'? Tch, tch, tch..."
If he hadn't needed to save them for Neji to deal with personally, he wouldn't have wasted a single word on them.
As he gazed at the scattered, unconscious Hyuga, Sasuke's attention turned to the cursed seals on their foreheads.
The Uchiha didn't need cursed seals—Sharingan transplantations carried heavy risks for outsiders. More often than not, they weakened rather than empowered the recipient.
Even Copy Ninja Kakashi couldn't be said to have truly strengthened his overall ability with a transplanted Sharingan.
The Hyuga Main House always claimed that the Caged Bird Seal was to protect their eyes from being stolen by enemies—to prevent their bloodline from leaking out.
But anyone with a working brain could see through that excuse. The primary purpose of the seal was control. Protection was secondary. If it were really about safety, then the whole clan would bear the mark—not just the Branch House. Didn't the Hidden Mist already get its hands on a Byakugan?
What's more, the Caged Bird Seal had one fatal flaw—it weakened the Byakugan.
Creating cursed seals to protect bloodline abilities wasn't inherently wrong. The Main House wanting to preserve its superiority made a certain amount of sense too.
But why would the seal weaken the Byakugan? Just look at the canon—Kidomaru, a literal jobber, exploited the blind spot caused by the seal and nearly killed Neji.
Neji was a genius, and even he barely turned the tables on Kidomaru. How many such geniuses does the Branch House have? And how many Kidomarus are out there in the shinobi world?
"What kind of person created the Caged Bird Seal in the first place? Their intentions must've been seriously twisted..." Sasuke muttered.
"Maybe it was all part of some conspiracy," a demonic whisper drifted into his ear.
"Remember, the Hyuga ancestors—the Ōtsutsuki—were outsiders. What if this seal was originally a weapon disguised as protection, made by ancient local powers trying to suppress or take revenge on the Ōtsutsuki?"
There are some things that are harmful to the group, but beneficial to those in power. Like the caste system. When rulers get their hands on a weapon disguised as a 'safety measure', it's not always easy to resist temptation.
"You're full of wild theories," Sasuke snorted.
"Well, no one knows the real history anyway. At this point, any guess might be valid."
...
Elsewhere on the battlefield, Sarutobi Hiruzen summoned Enma, the Monkey King.
Aside from the simian face, Enma looked like a regular Konoha shinobi—flak jacket, hitai-ate, everything. Staring at Orochimaru, he spoke with a heavy tone:
"So it's come to this, huh? Hiruzen, you really should've killed him back then."
Orochimaru rolled his eyes dramatically.
"Let's go!" Hiruzen leapt into the air and shouted, "Transformation: Adamantine Staff"
"Got it!" With a puff of smoke, Enma transformed into a gleaming staff.
Hiruzen grabbed it midair and lunged at Orochimaru.
Orochimaru parried calmly with the Kusanagi blade. Hiruzen, on the other hand, was already breathing hard. Enma could feel it through the tremors in Hiruzen's hands. Even the Anbu watching from outside the barrier could tell.
"Hiruzen, what's going on? Are you hurt?" Enma asked, clearly worried by Hiruzen's drained state.
"He's just old," Orochimaru said casually.
As time passed, Hiruzen's mastery over jutsu had only grown—but he was still an old man. His stamina and chakra reserves weren't what they used to be. He was still the Professor of Ninjutsu. But titles like "The Strongest Hokage" and "Hero of the Hidden Leaf" had long faded with age.
Not to mention, he had taken a direct hit from Rasa's self-destruction just earlier. No matter how fast he reacted, it was impossible to come out unscathed.
The strange radiation from Rasa's body might've only pulsed once, but ordinary people couldn't endure it. Only seasoned shinobi with deep chakra pools could resist its effects.
"Haha..." Realizing his own limits, Hiruzen let out a dry, self-deprecating chuckle.
"Orochimaru, my most brilliant student... Let me give you one more taste of true shinobi battle—the kind soaked in blood and so terrifying it leaves you breathless!"
He pressed his palms together, gathering a vast amount of chakra. He was clearly preparing something big.
And watching him, Orochimaru only became more convinced—he had made the right choice all those years ago.
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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