Hiashi knew before the doors fully opened that this would not be about justice.
The Kumogakure delegates entered first, faces composed, backs straight, their grief worn like armor. Behind them came the Hokage—Hiruzen Sarutobi—walking with measured steps, his presence heavy in the chamber. And lastly, Danzo.
Of course.
That man had his own plans and wanted to be here to position himself to his advantage. And despite them knowing that he played a role in all of this, they couldn't do anything about it; they couldn't start airing Konoha's internal problems in front of outsiders.
They knew it, Danzo knew it, and so he dared to come here himself and act like nothing had happened.
Hiashi did not bow.
Neither did the elders.
The Kumo delegation stopped a few paces in, their leader stepping forward. His eyes flicked once—briefly—to the bone shard still resting on the council table.
Then he spoke.
"The head Jōnin of our Kumogakure delegation has gone missing, and we have reason to believe that your Hyūga clan has something to do with it," the man said, voice controlled but sharp.
The accusation hung in the air.
Hiashi felt the elders tense around him—but he did not move.
"We came here," the delegate continued, "in good faith, to negotiate an end to the hostilities between us, and to bring peace to these lands—yet I sense hostility." He paused, looking at the Hyūga elders.
As a shinobi from Kumogakure, he was well aware of his village's desire for the Byakugan, and he could only barely resist licking his lips as he looked at all those unsealed Byakugan in the room.
Konoha was truly a village filled with treasure.
Hiashi did not rise to the bait.
"The Hyūga clan has nothing to do with your missing shinobi," he said evenly. "Your accusation is unfounded."
The Kumo delegate smiled thinly. "Is it?"
He turned his head slightly, gesturing with two fingers. One of the shinobi behind him stepped forward and placed a sealed scroll onto the floor between them.
"Our Jōnin was last seen leaving his assigned quarters," the delegate continued, "shortly before midnight. He was not accompanied. His chakra signature vanished soon after—within the perimeter of your village."
His eyes lifted again, this time settling fully on Hiashi.
"And not long after," he said, "we felt a violent chakra surge near the Hyūga compound."
A ripple passed through the elders.
Hiashi's jaw tightened, but his voice remained calm. "You are implying much."
"I am stating facts," the man replied smoothly. "A Kumogakure shinobi goes missing. The disturbance occurs near your clan. But if you have nothing to hide, surely you wouldn't mind us searching your compound?"
His words brought a hiss from the Konoha shinobi; even the Hokage couldn't help but frown. Though the biggest reaction was still from the Hyūga clan elders.
The chamber erupted.
"That is unacceptable!"
"You dare—!"
"Have you lost your mind?!"
Chairs scraped violently against stone as multiple Hyūga elders rose to their feet at once, chakra flaring openly now, no longer suppressed. The air thickened instantly, pressure bearing down like a storm about to break.
One elder slammed his palm against the table.
"Search our compound?" he snarled. "You presume far too much, Kumogakure."
Another elder's Byakugan flared fully, veins standing out starkly.
"The Hyūga clan predates your village," she said coldly. "We guarded our secrets when your ancestors were still killing each other with sharpened sticks."
The Kumo delegate stiffened—but did not retreat.
After all, he knew that his request was outrageous, but the situation allowed for it, so he was only going to push even harder.
Hiashi, however, clearly wasn't having it. He had long since seen through the Kumo delegation; they were here to cause problems, and if that was the case, he would gladly give them problems.
He took a deep breath and ignored that fool, instead looking at Hiruzen. "Hokage-sama, I'm glad you are here. There has been a situation tonight."
"Ah ha!" the leader of the Kumo delegation said. "So you admit it!"
Hiashi just turned his head slightly. "I didn't realize that you were the Hokage…" he said.
The delegation leader's face turned purple for a moment, but he still managed to control himself and not respond.
Hiashi turned back to Hiruzen.
"Not long ago, someone broke into the clan grounds and attempted to kidnap my daughter, Hinata. I am worried that there might still be infiltrators left in Konoha," he said. "I was about to send someone to inform you, but now that you are here, it saves us that trip."
Hiruzen's face was grave; he understood that Kumo was up to no good, but still, the situation was delicate, and the hard-won peace was at risk. "That is a serious situation for sure."
The Kumo delegation quickly cut him off, showing not even the Hokage any real respect. "Excuses, excuses. The head Jōnin is missing, and I suspect something might have happened to him—and I suspect it is the Hyūga clan who is responsible," he said, not even trying to hide it anymore.
"You ask us to believe that after failing to kidnap the Hyūga heiress, your head Jōnin just so happened to vanish?" Hiashi asked mockingly. "Your lies are almost as clumsy as your shinobi."
"What kidnapping? Is there any proof of any kidnapping? To me it just sounds like you are trying to come up with an excuse! Hokage, do something—it is clear that they are responsible. Do you want the peace treaty to collapse?" he threatened.
The threat landed like a kunai to the throat. The chamber, already taut with tension, went silent save for the faint, ragged breath of indignant elders.
Hiruzen Sarutobi's pipe had gone cold in his hand. His eyes, usually clouded with the weariness of decades, narrowed, focusing on the Raikage's representative with an unnerving sharpness. The threat was not subtle; it was a gambit. Force Konoha's hand, make them choose between the fragile treaty and the honor of one of their founding clans.
The Hokage knew the man's calculus: Konoha would not risk war over one clan's honor, not when the Land of Fire was still licking its wounds from the last great conflict.
In the end, he could only sigh and look to Hiashi, silently asking him for his cooperation. "Hiashi, do you know anything about the Kumo head Jōnin?"
Hiashi didn't look pleased at all, which was in stark contrast to the Kumo delegate, who seemed very pleased with himself and the situation. "In fact, I do. As I said, my daughter was attempted kidnapped by none other than the Kumo head Jōnin."
"Lies and slander!" the Kumo shinobi quickly interjected. "We would never do anything like that—don't forget we came here for peace."
Not a single Konoha shinobi believed a word of what he was saying; they all knew that Kumo was famous for kidnapping bloodline shinobi and doing anything to steal Kekkei Genkai. Konoha hadn't forgotten about their many previous attempts during the war.
Still, Hiruzen was desperate to secure peace, so he could only ignore the blatant lie, and hope that there was a way out of this mess—one that didn't end with either war, or further angering the Hyūga clan.
"Is there proof of this accusation?" Hiruzen asked Hiashi.
"Of course there is. Firstly, we can start by asking why he left his quarters. Alone. At night. During sensitive negotiations."
The Kumo delegate snapped back, "Our shinobi are not prisoners."
"Nor are they very good guests, apparently," Hiashi shot back. "Yet if you want more proof, I won't have my daughter further dragged into this. She was scared enough by the ruthless kidnapping attempt—but instead, I have something better."
He snapped his fingers, and some of the branch members who had been standing by since the group entered the clan grounds walked up, carrying with them a stretcher.
The stretcher was placed on the floor between the Hyūga elders and the delegation.
Hiashi gestured once.
The cloth was pulled back.
The body beneath was unmistakable.
The Kumogakure head Jōnin lay rigid, eyes glassy, face frozen in surprise. His uniform was torn at the chest, soaked dark around the wound where a pale, jagged bone had punched straight through his heart.
The chamber went deathly quiet.
No one spoke.
Not even the Kumo delegation.
Hiashi broke the silence.
"This," he said calmly, "is the man who attempted to abduct my daughter."
The Kumo delegate swallowed. "You—you murdered our head Jōnin!"
One of the elders spoke sharply, unable to restrain himself. "Your shinobi was found inside the Hyūga compound. Armed. Masked. Carrying our heir in a sack."
The Kumo representative recovered quickly, scoffing. "And we are meant to take your word for this?"
Hiashi's eyes hardened.
"No," he said. "You are meant to take the evidence."
He gestured again.
Another branch member stepped forward, placing a second item beside the stretcher: a torn sack, stained and frayed. Small clawed tears marked the inside where a frightened child had struggled.
A murmur rippled through the room.
Hiruzen's face darkened.
"You claim," the Kumo delegate said slowly, "that our head Jōnin entered your compound alone… attempted a kidnapping… and was killed."
"Yes," Hiashi said.
"By you?"
"No."
"By Konoha?"
"No."
The delegate's brow furrowed. "Then by whom?"
Hiashi reached down, lifted the bone shard from the table, and held it up once more.
"This," he said, "is what killed him."
Recognition flashed across the Kumo shinobi's faces.
And fear.
"Shikotsumyaku," Hiashi continued. "Not a Hyūga technique. Not a Leaf technique."
He met the delegate's eyes.
"Your shinobi broke into my clan compound, attempted to kidnap my daughter, and got killed using the Shikotsumyaku Kekkei Genkai. Care to explain anything?" he pressed.
The sudden exposure of Shikotsumyaku had the Kumo delegation on the back foot; that wasn't how it was supposed to go. He wanted to blame the Hyūga clan, demand the killer—but if the killer wasn't from Konoha, then what should he do?
Hiruzen wasn't caught up in those small details; what really caught his attention was the fact that someone had been killed inside his village using the Shikotsumyaku Kekkei Genkai. He knew very well that none of his shinobi had that.
Which meant it was an outsider…
Hiruzen's expression hardened.
"Enough," the Hokage said.
The single word cut through the chamber like a blade. Chakra pressure eased—not vanished, but restrained by sheer authority.
He stepped forward, eyes fixed on the corpse, then the bone shard, then the delegation.
"This discussion has gone far beyond accusations," Hiruzen continued. "A Kumogakure shinobi walked around my village without escort, without notification, and without authorization."
The Kumo delegate bristled. "Our shinobi are not required to—"
"They are," Hiruzen interrupted calmly. "If they want protection. Clearly, he didn't want that, and it got him killed. The question remains: how did he run into someone from Kirigakure inside Konoha?"
That silenced him.
Hiruzen turned slightly, addressing the room at large. "This is clearly more than just someone who walked around on his own, so for their own safety, take the peace delegation back to their quarters."
The delegate's jaw clenched.
"For your own protection," Hiruzen said before he could be interrupted, leaving the delegate no way out.
He knew this was some kind of trap, but also that something seemed to have gone wrong, so he didn't hesitate to take advantage of it—to give himself some time to figure out how to deal with the entire situation.
"What matters," Hiruzen continued, "is that a foreign shinobi violated Konoha's internal security and was killed by an unknown third party."
He emphasized the words carefully.
"Hiashi, I need your clan to screen the village. ANBU, inform the Inuzuka and Aburame clans to join in. And Danzo—you know what to do." Hiruzen quickly took control of the situation.
Hiruzen's words settled over the chamber like dust after an explosion.
Orders were being given.
Forces were being mobilized.
Investigations were being managed.
But not one word had been spoken about responsibility.
Hiashi watched the Kumogakure delegation being ushered out—guarded now, carefully contained, their outrage muffled beneath the Hokage's authority.
For now, they were subdued, but Hiashi knew that they weren't done yet.
Still, he doubted the Hyūga clan would get justice, but at this point, he guessed he would be satisfied with just not suffering any loss.
Hiruzen turned back toward the elders, his posture tired, his face drawn. "This will be handled," he said quietly. "Discreetly. I will not allow this to become a spark for war."
Hiashi met his gaze.
"No," he said evenly. "You will not allow it to become your war."
The words landed cleanly.
Hiruzen did not argue.
Danzo smiled.
And in that moment, every Hyūga elder understood the truth of it:
Their heir had nearly been stolen.
Their compound had been violated.
Their honor had been questioned.
And in the name of peace—
They had been told to wait.
(End of chapter)
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