Before Hyuga Satoru brought it up, Hyuga Shin had honestly never considered that the attacker who hit the Hyuga clan's exchange house might be acting on behalf of some organization. In the ninja world, powerful lone wolves were hardly uncommon.
But under Satoru's subtle prompting, Shin followed that line of thought and quickly realized it was entirely possible.
Just as Satoru had said—the assailant's outfit was far too conspicuous. A normal ninja, when doing this sort of thing, would hide their identity as much as possible.
Yet this person acted as if he wanted the whole world to know he had an identity.
A black cloak patterned with glaring red clouds… Forget ninja—even ordinary civilians would stare twice if they saw someone dressed like that.
"Satoru, if things are as you suspect… then how should we Hyuga handle this?"
Hyuga Shin's gaze deepened. This matter could be considered Satoru's first real test. He had never doubted the boy's strength, but a mature clan head needed more than raw power.
"Is the exchange house something our Hyuga clan must keep?" Satoru asked instead of answering directly.
Truthfully, the safest option was to turtle up. The enemy moved in the shadows while they remained in the open. Exchange houses were fixed, visible targets to an organization like Akatsuki. Even if the Hyuga tried to hunt them down, success wasn't guaranteed—while the cost in time, money, and lives was unknown.
If the existence or absence of the exchange-house business didn't matter, then the Hyuga could simply retract their influence and shut them all down.
But if the exchange houses were important—an asset that could not be abandoned—then their approach would have to change.
"The exchange houses are vital to the Hyuga," Shin said solemnly. "They're not only a major economic pillar but also crucial intelligence hubs."
"And unlike other industries, once we withdraw, getting back into this line of work is nearly impossible."
"I say this—do you understand?"
The importance of the exchange business went beyond what he put into words. Across the Land of Fire, these exchange houses employed large numbers of branch-family members who had failed to awaken the Byakugan. Since they did not bear the Caged Bird Seal, the only way to ensure their loyalty was through generous pay and benefits.
The exchange-house network functioned as critical connective tissue for the clan.
"If it's that important, then we don't really have a choice, do we?" Satoru replied.
Shin had already said enough—options were limited.
"We throw out bait," Satoru said calmly. "See if we can draw them out."
"If their goal is money, they'll strike again. And their targets won't be limited to Hyuga property."
"While placing bait, we narrow down their hunting grounds. Since I've mastered the Flying Thunder God, Great-grandfather, have the clan distribute my FTG kunai to every exchange house."
Satoru understood that this marked the beginning of his gradual assumption of clan-head duties.
He didn't reject it—he needed the authority of the Hyuga clan head. Only then could he act freely.
Konoha strictly regulated its shinobi; unless on an official mission, leaving the village was enough to brand a ninja a missing-nin.
Of course, such rules applied mainly to ordinary shinobi. Even Konoha had its "special cases"—ninja whose disappearances the higher-ups did not question, even if they were gone for years.
The Sannin belonged to that category. So did the Hyuga clan head.
As a main-house heir, Satoru's movements were still restricted. Only after becoming clan head could he travel freely "on clan business."
And this world was vast. Even while training relentlessly, Satoru wanted to explore it—seeking relics left from the Sage of Six Paths' era.
Before the "Giant Mecha Era" descended, he was already searching for traces of the "Seals and Sigils Era," hoping to bring certain people and events under his control ahead of time.
"Flying Thunder God… truly a convenient jutsu," Shin mused.
"I'll notify everyone. All exchange-house intel will be reported directly to you."
"This matter is yours to handle, Satoru. Perform well—let everyone understand the power of the Hyuga main family."
He gently patted Satoru's shoulder with a smile.
The younger generation had finally grown strong enough to shoulder real burdens. Shin's deepest wish was simply for Satoru to resolve this cleanly and imprint the main family's prestige firmly into the hearts of the branch family.
After returning to the village, Satoru didn't even have time to enjoy much family warmth. When Hinata came home from the academy, excited to see her long-absent brother, she was stopped outside the study by Hyuga Shin.
The elder had already brought Satoru all documents related to the exchange houses—precise locations, quarterly financial reports, personnel lists, details on the losses from the attacked branch, and more.
He also sent over dossiers for each exchange house's manager. Meanwhile, through the clan's trained messenger hawks, he notified all exchange houses that Satoru would be their new direct superior.
Satoru had thought this incident was merely a test—but whether he handled it well or not, Shin clearly intended for him to take full charge.
Running an underground network wasn't easy; managing the exchange houses would be valuable training. Even this critical industry—important as it was—was, in essence, just a special kind of "training ground."
"What the…?"
"Back home and I still can't see him. Big Brother is a dummy!"
Denied at the door, young Hinata pouted and complained. Inside, Satoru used his Byakugan to watch her stomp off in a huff and chuckled softly.
He was a reserved person. Even if he had more time with Hinata, they probably wouldn't have many topics to talk about.
Seeing her grow up healthy was enough.
After he finished this period of work, there would be plenty of time to spend with his little sisters.
Satoru lowered his head and buried himself in the documents again. For the time being, he ignored the business-operation reports and focused on personnel and combat readiness.
Each exchange house had a public-facing manager and two assistants—the minimum needed to keep operations running.
Beyond that were four hired ninja guards—non-Konoha shinobi.
In the Land of Fire, "extraordinary power" wasn't exclusive to Konoha or the Fire Temple. Plenty of independent ninja existed, self-taught in chakra control and ninjutsu.
If Konoha and the Fire Temple were "sect schools," then these freelancers were "rogue cultivators."
The exchange houses were private clan businesses—no official Konoha shinobi would serve as guards.
Though not "orthodox," these freelance ninja had unique skills and were by no means weak.
According to the reports, each group of four guards was roughly at chunin level, and with their unique jutsu, they could probably hold their ground against an average jonin.
Yet even that setup had been wiped out almost instantly. The attacker's strength was obvious.
The manager of the attacked branch had provided the main eyewitness account: after killing the guards and taking the money, the assailant hadn't eliminated the survivors—like a farmer harvesting leeks, he cut down one patch and left the rest to grow back.
"A Takigakure forehead protector… an Akatsuki cloak… killed the guards with overwhelming taijutsu."
"Judging from the intel, it should be Kakuzu."
"To think the Hyuga run exchange houses… and somehow this connects us to Akatsuki…"
Satoru rolled up the scroll and rubbed his temples, processing the flood of information while analyzing it.
He memorized the locations of the dozen-plus exchange houses. From that, he could roughly infer the attacker's route.
The man was heading straight toward the border with the Land of Rain—probably planning to deliver this "harvest" to his superiors.
Given his pace and trajectory, Kakuzu had likely already crossed the border by now. Satoru's setup wouldn't catch him this time.
Hyuga Shin had already dispatched the Flying Thunder God kunai, but the couriers wouldn't reach the exchange houses before Kakuzu left Fire Country.
Who knew when he would appear next?
But since Satoru now knew the enemy's identity, he wasn't anxious. Kakuzu would return—and the bait should lure him in.
Even if he sensed that it might be a trap, his arrogance would still push him forward.
After all, this was the man who claimed to have "fought the First Hokage." How could someone like that take a mere exchange house seriously?
And exchange houses were prime targets for black-on-black crime. Kakuzu only feared top-tier ninja from the Five Great Villages. The guards were nothing but small fry to him.
Satoru understood Kakuzu well enough. So long as reality didn't deviate too far from his expectations, his plan would work.
Until warning messages went out, all he could do was wait.
He didn't expect that wait to last over two months.
Life after returning to the village was peaceful. While studying the exchange-house system, Satoru also resumed training Neji and Hinata.
During his absence, Neji had improved greatly under Hizashi's instruction—his Gentle Fist had become sharp and precise, and he was learning ninjutsu uncommon among the Hyuga. Under Satoru's influence, Neji wasn't a rigid Byakugan specialist. With broadened horizons, he understood the importance of ninjutsu.
His chakra affinity leaned toward water, earth, and fire. To compensate for Gentle Fist's limitations, he focused on defensive Water and Earth Release and mid-range Fire Release.
Though Neji rarely had the chance to display these techniques in battle beside Satoru, the older boy could still read much from his demonstrations.
His little brother was strong—very strong.
As for Hinata, she trained diligently, but something in her development had… gone sideways. She hadn't quite grasped the essence of Gentle Fist, but the terrifying force behind her punches made Satoru secretly alarmed.
Hinata was walking the path of Hard Fist, relying on raw power. And someone had clearly taught her to channel chakra directly into her fists. It looked suspiciously like Monster Strength…
Her raw power forced Satoru to move their training outside; the home dojo couldn't withstand her. Even the courtyard's miniature rock garden had been reduced to rubble.
Soon enough, they had to move to the village training grounds—where Hinata could unleash without restraint. Neji also began weaving ninjutsu more naturally into his fighting style, and under Satoru's guidance, his taijutsu–ninjutsu integration improved rapidly.
One evening, as they trained, a clear hawk cry echoed overhead, cutting through the clash of blows and bursts of chakra.
Satoru casually sliced apart Neji's Fireball with a hand-chop and gestured for him to pause.
He looked up at the circling messenger hawk and raised his arm. The bird swooped down and perched on it.
He removed the letter from its leg and let it fly off again. After scanning the contents, he spoke briskly:
"That's all for today. I've got something to take care of—you two head home."
And with that, he vanished in a flash of Flying Thunder God.
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