Hiashi was tired—tired after a long day of work. The village was hosting the Kumogakure peace delegation, and despite them only sending some unimportant head jōnin—someone he had barely heard about before—Konoha still had to show them proper respect.
Or at least that was what the old fool Hiruzen Sarutobi claimed.
Hiashi didn't have much love left for their old Hokage.
Minato… now that man had been the real deal. Someone good—young, strong—someone who could right old wrongs.
Yet with his sudden death three years back, Hiruzen Sarutobi had once more taken power, and that was just the beginning of an endless series of headaches.
The old man clearly cared more about his own clan than he did any of the others, and while there was nothing wrong with that—normally—he was the Hokage. He should be doing what was best for everyone.
But he sure didn't have any problem hurting the other clans' interests and strengthening his own, all "for the good of the village."
The bloody hypocrite.
As he leaned back in his chair, he briefly opened his Byakugan. He knew he had been told not to do it, but he would be damned if he did everything Hiruzen told him like a damned dog.
Not even the Inuzuka followed him that blindly.
He only intended to take a quick look around, to make sure everything was as it should be—and he damn near deactivated it again, before he noticed something wasn't as it was supposed to be.
Hinata wasn't in her bed.
And at this time of night, she was very much supposed to be sleeping.
He quickly scanned the rest of the house and didn't find her anywhere.
He expanded his focus beyond the house itself. All those countless chakra signatures of the clan outside—those he normally ignored—he now focused on them.
And there.
"Hinata!"
He exclaimed as he stood up. He had spotted her chakra, but what really shocked him was that she wasn't alone. She wasn't even out with any of the servants.
No—by the look of it, she was on the back of some strange man, who was running fast. And given the way Hinata was facing down, she wasn't holding onto him—she was being carried.
In a sack.
He wasted no time calling the guards. He performed the Body Flicker Technique as fast as he could.
Yet before he reached his daughter's kidnapper, someone else got there first.
A powerful chakra signature—faintly familiar. It reminded him of someone long dead; if he didn't know Yuki's entire family, he would have assumed this person was related to her.
But that was impossible.
This new person was powerful—dangerously so. Their chakra… it was more than he had ever seen, with the exception of Kushina.
Indeed, only a jinchūriki might have more than this mysterious kunoichi—and she was mysterious because Hiashi knew there was no one like that in Konoha.
If the kidnapper handed Hinata over to this person, Hiashi doubted he would be able to save her on his own.
Yet as he rushed to the location, there wasn't a handoff.
Instead, the mysterious kunoichi attacked the kidnapper, grabbed the sack containing Hinata, and gently placed it down—before vanishing from the scene.
Hiashi arrived moments later.
The Body Flicker carried him across rooftops and narrow lanes in a blur of chakra and fury, his sandals barely touching the ground before he skidded to a halt in the shadow of a storage shed near the outer edge of the compound.
The sack lay on the ground.
Undisturbed.
He could see Hinata was still alive inside—unhurt—but he still tore into the fabric, ripping it open as fast as he could. The moment he did—when Hinata spotted him—she started crying.
Hinata's small hands reached for him blindly, fingers curling into his robes as she sobbed, frightened and confused.
"I'm here," Hiashi said immediately, his voice softer than it had been in years. "You're safe. Father is here."
He pulled her fully into his arms, one hand supporting her back, the other cradling her head, shielding her face against his chest. He didn't care who saw him like this. Not now.
Only when her crying slowed—when her breathing steadied just enough—did he finally allow himself to look away.
At the man who had taken her.
The kidnapper lay several paces away, twisted awkwardly against the ground.
Dead.
The reason was plain to see: a large object was sticking out of his chest, stabbing clean through his heart.
But what shocked Hiashi more was his face.
He knew that face. He had spent hours that very day watching it.
He was the head jōnin of the Kumogakure delegation.
And now… he was dead.
Troublesome.
"Hinata," he asked gently, looking away from the body and back to his daughter, "did the person who saved you say anything?"
He needed to know what was going on—who the other party was, and why they had saved his daughter.
Hinata sniffed. "She… she said that I was safe, and to… to not be afraid."
Hiashi's expression grew serious at her words.
But before he could say anything, several Hyūga guards rushed to his side.
"Clan Head!" one of them called, skidding to a halt beside him. "We felt a violent chakra surge—"
"Secure the area," Hiashi ordered, his tone snapping back into command. "No one approaches the body until I say so."
The guards hesitated only a fraction before obeying, fanning out with practiced efficiency. A few cast uneasy glances at the corpse, at the bone protruding from the man's chest like a grotesque spear.
Hiashi shifted Hinata in his arms, turning her face away from the sight. She clung to him, fingers still knotted in his robes, trembling now that the shock had fully set in.
"Take her inside," he said quietly to one of the senior branch members. "To her mother. Do not let her out of your sight."
"Yes, Clan Head."
Reluctantly, Hinata loosened her grip. She looked back once, pale eyes lingering on the body—then on the empty darkness where her savior had vanished.
With Hinata gone, Hiashi rounded on the guards.
"How?" he hissed, pointing at the corpse. "How did someone sneak into the clan and kidnap my daughter—and how did someone else also sneak in to kill the kidnapper? Were there no guards on duty tonight?"
The guard swallowed.
"There were guards on duty," he said carefully. "At every gate. Patrols as scheduled."
"Then explain it," Hiashi snapped. "Explain how two intruders crossed my compound without being seen."
Another guard stepped forward—older, more composed. "Clan Head… earlier this evening, ANBU delivered an order."
Hiashi's jaw tightened. "What order?"
"They stated that, due to the presence of the Kumogakure delegation, the use of the Byakugan within the compound was to be kept to a minimum. To avoid… misunderstandings."
Silence fell.
Hiashi closed his eyes for a single, dangerous heartbeat.
"ANBU," he repeated softly.
He didn't need to ask which ANBU.
Danzo's fingerprints were all over this.
"And you obeyed," Hiashi said, voice flat.
"They carried the Hokage's authority," the guard said, head lowering. "And they singled out specific watch rotations. Several branch members were reassigned."
Reassigned.
Blindfolded by protocol.
Hiashi exhaled slowly, forcing his temper down into something cold and sharp. Rage could come later. First, understanding.
"Go wake every elder," Hiashi ordered. "Have them gather for a meeting. Put the guards back in rotation—and use the Byakugan. If someone tells you not to, ignore it. Or you will be punished."
"Yes, Clan Head!" the guard replied, and body flickered away.
Hiashi turned back to the dead body.
This was going to be a headache. Having someone that important die here… wasn't good. Not to mention he had tried to kidnap Hinata.
Clearly, the Kumo delegation had ulterior motives—and they'd even had help from inside the village.
Not that he could prove it. Danzo, that bastard, was not that careless.
Still, many things made sense now: why Kumo had sent someone like this—some random, barely known jōnin—and why they had wasted the day rather than signing the treaty.
Looking closer, he confirmed the weapon had been bone. A large bone spear.
"Shikotsumyaku," he muttered.
Troublesome.
Not only was Kumo clearly involved… but now Kiri as well?
Just what kind of mess had he found himself in?
(End of chapter)
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