On the night of the 24th, Hyuga Yu, accompanied by Sasori, Hiruko, and Kakuzu, arrived at the Konohagakure Hot Springs area, a short distance away from the Hidden Leaf Village.
Through written correspondence with Danzo Shimura, Konoha had scheduled Hyuga Yu's official return to the village for half a day later than his actual arrival time. As a result, Yu and his group stayed behind in this area for a brief rest.
His return was officially scheduled for noon on the 25th.
After a long-awaited night of rest in the largest local hot spring inn arranged by Root, it was now 7:00 AM on February 25th.
Root's advance liaison arrived to meet them. At the entrance of the hot spring inn, Hyuga Yu saw a familiar subordinate, though it was only Terai. At the moment, Terai was rambling, explaining what Yu's other subordinates were up to: "Ah, Yamato. This time, Root is responsible for preparing your welcoming ceremony. His Wood Style and Earth Style are highly convenient, so he's been transferred over to work around the clock. Tsk, poor kid, they say he hasn't closed his eyes for two days and two nights. It's pretty much the same reason for the others...
"You're asking about Shin? Oh, Shin was assigned to perform an aerial show at the ceremony... Ah, theoretically that's what it's called, but it seems to just be a political stunt by the village to show how much they value you. Its real purpose is to broadcast your location to the village at all times."
Hyuga Yu glanced up at the sky; it was a clear, washed blue.
Of course, one could also say it was completely empty.
"Then why don't I see him?"
Terai let out a shameless, cackling laugh. "Heh, it's all a political stunt. Does it really matter if you can see it or not?
"As long as the villagers can see it, and even the spies from other villages lurking around can see it, that's enough—that way, the other villages will think we have an aerial unit.
"But in reality—it's just Shin flying back and forth all by himself."
Hearing this, Hyuga Yu was rendered momentarily speechless, thinking to himself that this was too damn real. Behind him, Hiruko, clad in a black cloak to conceal his identity, started laughing. "Konoha... still the exact same as always."
Hyuga Yu shook his head, deciding to pretend he hadn't heard this outwardly stoic but inwardly chaotic birdman's political joke. After spending some time with him previously, he was quite certain that this guy Terai was doing it on purpose.
Because of the Cursed Seal of Tongue Eradication, he basically couldn't say anything to outsiders. But internally... he dared to blabber about absolutely everything.
"Enough about that. What are the arrangements from the village and Sensei?"
Terai immediately replied, "The ceremony starts at noon. We just need to arrive at Konoha around 11 o'clock. Then, we'll go through the Konoha Main Gate, down the main street to the central district, pass through Konoha Tea Street, and finally, arrive at the plaza beneath the Hokage Building.
"At that time, the higher-ups will present you with an award."
Hyuga Yu raised an eyebrow. "An award?"
At the mention of this, Terai's expression turned grave as he began, "Although the peace talks with Iwagakure won't officially begin for another month, the higher-ups are already largely aware of the substantial deterrent you've formed against them. With the signing of the alliance treaty between Amegakure and Konoha, the results of the Iwa peace talks are practically a foregone conclusion.
"Iwagakure has already secretly sent delegates to brief us in advance. When the time comes, you'll just need to make a trip there, sign your name, and the Third Shinobi World War will be considered completely over.
"And in light of the Kirigakure Collapse Operation, the signing of the Amegakure alliance, and the temporarily unpublicized results of the Iwa peace conference...
"Thanks to Danzo-sama fighting for it at the higher-ups' meeting, the village has decided to bestow upon you an unprecedented, exceptional award!"
Hyuga Yu rolled his eyes at Terai. "Be practical. What is it, exactly?"
Terai paused, then spoke with a solemn face: "If nothing unexpected happens, it should be..."
"[The Hokage Short Sleeves]!"
Hearing this, before Hyuga Yu could fully grasp the weight of it, Hiruko behind him gasped sharply, "Wait, the Hokage Short Sleeves? Seriously?
"The one Lord White Fang had?"
Terai turned his head, looking curiously at the three ninja Yu had brought back with him, and nodded. "Yes. The Hokage Short Sleeves worn by the former White Fang of Konoha, Sakumo Hatake. It is also the highest honor in all of Konoha, second only to the position of Hokage itself."
The former White Fang of Konoha possessed strength that surpassed the Sannin. During the Second Shinobi World War, he had almost single-handedly crushed Sunagakure at the front lines through unstoppable assassination operations, achieving terrifying military merits. It reached a point where Konoha had no higher rank to bestow upon him, so they granted him the Hokage Short Sleeves as a symbol of the ultimate honor for an elite Jonin of Konoha.
After that, Sakumo Hatake became the absolute benchmark for receiving the Hokage Short Sleeves. It required strength above the Sannin—at least above the Sannin during the Second Shinobi World War—and achieving feats on the battlefield that inflicted massive devastation on an entire country single-handedly.
And these two points were precisely what Hyuga Yu completely satisfied.
Furthermore, as Danzo's disciple, Hyuga Yu becoming a future top brass of Konoha was a certainty. The only thing left above his head was the seat of the Hokage. For Hyuga Yu, he had already reached a point where he could not be elevated any higher.
But the Third Hokage—oh, wait, the current Hokage Advisor Hiruzen Sarutobi—wanted to push Minato Namikaze to become the Fourth Hokage. Thus, his only option for a political compromise was to bring out the Hokage Short Sleeves, an award whose honorary value far outweighed its practical power.
Moreover, unlike Sakumo Hatake, who had no political faction and relied solely on his raw strength, Hyuga Yu had Danzo Shimura standing behind him. That meant this was a pure political trade-off. If the newly appointed Minato Namikaze lacked the ability to suppress and divide the massive faction backing Hyuga Yu, then Yu ultimately becoming the Fifth Hokage would be a foregone conclusion.
Looking at it this way, Hiruzen Sarutobi was taking a gamble, too...
Pinching his chin, Hyuga Yu gradually figured out the underlying implications. But soon, he looked at Terai again, his brow furrowing slightly. "You just said—if nothing unexpected happens?
"Meaning, there will be something unexpected?"
"Unexpected?" At this moment, Sasori, standing behind Hyuga Yu, sneered. "What unexpected thing could possibly hurt you now?"
Sasori revealed a mocking smile. "Could it be that the people in your village have absolutely no concrete understanding of your power? If anyone dares to stick their neck out, why don't you just kill them all!"
One could hear a hint of schadenfreude in Sasori's words. He was probably thinking to himself that he couldn't be the only one beaten up by the "Heavenly Ninja"... Moreover, he likely wanted to witness a scene that could truly be called art.
"I second that," Hiruko happily chimed in, joining the fun.
Hyuga Yu shot the two of them a somewhat helpless glance, giving them a massive eyeroll.
There really is a reason why you two became missing-nin...
He shook his head, refusing to follow the advice of these two homicidal maniacs. He gave them a faint look of disdain and said calmly, "When politics manifest externally, it's war.
"When politics manifest internally, it's compromise.
"The forms of struggle in both are different, but their essence is the same. You guys... forget it, you wouldn't understand even if I told you."
Sasori caught the contempt in Hyuga Yu's words. Although he was forced to live under someone else's roof, he still had his temper. He immediately snorted coldly, "Heavenly Ninja, I'd like to hear your brilliant thesis—"
Hyuga Yu gave the simplest example: "If you kill everyone, who's going to work for you?
"Although you yourself defected from Sunagakure, didn't you still leave behind sleeper agents in the village using your Memory-Concealing Manipulative Sand Technique to gather intelligence and funds for you?
"That can also be considered a method of internal political struggle. But don't you think the efficiency is too low, the returns too weak, and it leaves you more easily controlled by others?"
Hearing this, Sasori frowned and thought for a moment. That was indeed the truth. Following the Fourth Kazekage Rasa's ascension to power, several of the ninja he had planted in Sunagakure had been uprooted, causing his returns to shrink drastically, to the point where he had to personally leave his puppet workshop to gather materials.
But following this line of thought, Sasori suddenly remembered something strange and said, "That is true... But speaking of which, the sleeper agents I left in Sunagakure haven't passed any intel on the village to me for two days now..."
By this time, Hyuga Yu had already turned his head back to converse with Terai. However, he made a mental note of Sasori's words. If nothing else, Sunagakure's abnormality was likely influenced by the lunar Otsutsuki clan descending upon the shinobi world.
Terai was rummaging through his clothes and soon pulled out a letter. "This is a letter left at the Root site last night. We've determined it's meant for you. The person who left it was very skilled at hiding their tracks. The letter passed through many hands, and our people couldn't trace them. But we can at least determine the source..." Terai furrowed his brows and said gravely, "It's the Hyuga Clan."
Hyuga Yu took the letter. There was no indication on the envelope that it was for him, nor was there a sender's name. It had already been unsealed; Root had inspected its contents and confirmed it was harmless.
The reason Terai handed it over to him now was simple:
He was likely the only one who could understand it.
Hyuga Yu opened the envelope and unfolded the letter inside. On the paper, written succinctly in a cursive, flamboyant, yet somewhat familiar handwriting, were three characters—
[Caged Bird]!
Having grown up in the Main House estate since childhood and having served as an ink-grinding pageboy for the Main House Elder Hyuga Takahiro, Hyuga Yu immediately recognized this as a style of calligraphy that Hyuga Takahiro had only ever shown to him.
At the same time, the appearance of such a letter from the Hyuga Clan at the entrance of a Root base during this sensitive juncture had self-evident implications.
"Caged Bird? Does this mean... someone in the Hyuga Clan is planning to use this thing against me at today's ceremony?"
Hyuga Yu quickly deduced many things. The location of Root bases was a secret to ordinary ninja, but to the Byakugan-wielding Hyuga Clan, it wasn't much of a secret. In the eyes of the older generation of Hyuga ninja, it was practically built right under their noses.
Therefore, it wasn't surprising that Hyuga Takahiro knew the location of the Root base. With the rich shinobi experience he had accumulated living from the Warring States Period to the present, slipping past the Root guards to deliver a letter wasn't difficult for him either.
But what was strange was—
Why did Hyuga Takahiro do this?
Hyuga Takahiro was one of the Main House elders with real power in the clan. As a retired ninja, his daily movements were entirely unrestricted. Furthermore, an old man of his age, who could leisurely drive a mobility scooter around, essentially answered to no one but the Hokage. If the old man wanted to leave the village, he could just make up an excuse. Plus, with his connection to Hyuga Yu, if he needed anything, he could have just contacted Root directly.
But now, he had deliberately chosen this method.
This meant that his authority as a Main House elder was beginning to be restricted within the clan. He might even be under constant surveillance, forcing him to use this covert method to vaguely warn Hyuga Yu of the impending danger!
Pinching the letter, Hyuga Yu narrowed his eyes slightly. "Looking at it this way, during these past six months... the internal changes within the Hyuga Clan have been quite significant."
At this point, Terai looked at Hyuga Yu, his face turning stern. "Did you figure something out?"
"Danzo-sama told me to inform you that, if necessary, you can mobilize the Anbu, Root, and even temporarily summon the Jonin Commander to assemble a small-scale army to directly evict all voluntarily participating Hyuga clansmen from the ceremony grounds!
"Danzo-sama says you should understand what's at stake behind this!"
Hyuga Yu naturally understood. He was no longer a lone wolf; behind him was a massive interest group that Danzo had orchestrated for him. Moreover, the only reason this vast interest group rallied behind him was simply due to the title of "Heavenly Ninja."
At this point, the importance of Hyuga Yu's title had superseded his actual self.
"Heavenly Ninja."
—Must be invincible, standing at the very top of the shinobi world, and highly likely to fully realize his terrifying talents in the future, ultimately ascending to the pinnacle of the shinobi world!
Only under the protection of such a powerhouse could everyone's businesses expand further and reach broader aspects of society, while the influence and latent power of the Heavenly Ninja grew stronger.
Any incident that damaged the reputation of the Heavenly Ninja could affect the degree of trust this massive interest group placed in him.
Once that trust collapsed, the blow to Danzo Shimura and Hyuga Yu's future plans would be fatal.
Political struggles were never about flashing swords and blood, but they were far more perilous!
One could say this was an entirely different battlefield from direct combat and destruction!
Meanwhile, standing to the side and having silently listened to the conversation between Hyuga Yu and the Root operative without saying a word, Kakuzu also started to grasp the situation. Having experienced the collapse and reconstruction of Takigakure and witnessed the rise and fall of numerous factions over the years, he knew very well that under the current framework of the shinobi world, a ninja's individual strength, when viewed from the perspective of the entire world, could only be considered a calling card, a starting gun, the first link in pushing the gears of the world's order.
Unless one possessed the absolute suppressing power of Hashirama Senju to flip the entire table, everyone still operated within this framework.
But even for someone as powerful as Hashirama Senju, the order he established was imperfect. He still had to convene the Five Kage Summit, plan for the future, and compromise by distributing and selling the Tailed Beasts. Most importantly, he had to guard against his closest friend, Madara Uchiha, overturning everything he had built, to the point where he did not hesitate to kill his best friend with his own hands.
For Hashirama Senju, his limitations were his lifespan, the world's stubborn adherence to the old order, and Madara Uchiha.
And for the current Hyuga Yu, what was it?
Through their conversation, Kakuzu acutely realized that it was perhaps this [Caged Bird]!
Even though Hyuga Yu had grown terrifyingly strong, his teacher Danzo still harbored doubts about this. Calculating from this, it could trigger a domino effect, causing everything Hyuga Yu had fought for up to now to instantly collapse.
Thinking of this, and recalling the mountain of debt Hyuga Yu owed him, not to mention that Yu hadn't even paid him his first month's salary yet, Kakuzu suddenly stared blankly at Hyuga Yu. He abruptly pointed at Terai and said, "I can lend a hand and enter Konoha ahead of him, helping you eliminate the factors hindering the advancement of 'that plan'..."
"It wouldn't be difficult."
Slightly surprised, Hyuga Yu turned his head to look at Kakuzu. Then, he shook his head, slightly raised an eyebrow, and curled his lips into a faint, elegant smile. "I appreciate the gesture, Kakuzu-san.
"But given the current situation, I'm afraid it's not something that can be resolved so simply..."
Hyuga Yu's gaze was extremely calm as he said with certainty, "This is likely just the first link in the chain.
"Moreover, it shouldn't just be a simple chain of traps. Driving them away or killing them would directly play into the trap-setter's hands!"
Kakuzu's gaze sharpened as he asked, "Then what are your plans?"
Hyuga Yu took a deep breath, stepped onto the path with large strides, and calmly walked in the direction of the Konoha gates. His resolute demeanor was as if he were stepping onto another battlefield, one completely different from the Third Shinobi World War!
Without turning his head, he left behind a single sentence: "It's nothing more than a bit of wind and frost~"
"Let's go!"
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