The messenger hawk that brought Hyuga Satoru the letter had flown out from one of the Hyuga clan's exchange houses. After almost two months of silence, the web Satoru had cast finally trembled.
The attacked exchange house lay deep within the Land of Fire, only about a hundred kilometers from Konoha. After receiving the summons, Satoru used the Flying Thunder God to return to his study at once, sensed the corresponding FTG tags, and quickly locked the exchange house's position on a map.
He folded the map into his cloak, scribbled a short note, and left it on the desk before departing the village with another flicker of Flying Thunder God.
Only a handful of people could enter that study. Besides Satoru himself, the only ones likely to find the note were Hiashi and Hyuga Shin. The message was meant for Elder Shin.
Satoru wanted the old man to handle any necessary paperwork while he was gone—and, more importantly, to let the family know roughly where he'd gone so they wouldn't worry.
When Satoru's figure flashed out of the void again, he was already several dozen kilometers from the village, standing in a Hyuga-run relay station.
To hunt the ninja who had attacked their exchange house network, the Hyuga had distributed FTG-marked kunai to all their major enterprises. The clan's holdings were scattered across the Land of Fire, and with these pre-placed tags, Satoru could respond to incidents almost instantly.
Even if something happened far from Konoha, a few chained teleports would still get him there quickly.
No sooner had he appeared at the relay than he vanished again.
After several Flying Thunder God jumps, he reached his destination.
It was a dim bar, but the air didn't smell of good liquor. Instead, it reeked of alcohol mixed with sharp disinfectant.
Satoru materialized behind the bar. The shelves behind him were a mess—not lined with bottles, but with mission tags hanging at odd angles, others scattered on the floor.
To one side of the bar, a hidden door stood open. Light poured through it, along with a thick metallic scent of blood. Satoru quickly scanned the main room, then walked toward the door and peered inside.
The room beyond was a makeshift mortuary. Bodies lay slumped on the cold ground; blood had spilled from their wounds and pooled everywhere. The drawers in the side cabinets were all shut tight. Opposite the door, the wall safe had been blown open by some kind of jutsu—only shreds of torn banknotes remained inside.
Sweeping his gaze over the corpses, Satoru noticed they bore few superficial injuries—clearly overwhelmed before they could put up much resistance. The fatal blows were cleanly delivered to throats and hearts. It was a complete massacre.
Just then, light footsteps sounded outside the mortuary. Alert, Satoru turned—
Three black shadows sprang across the doorway, kunai already flying toward him. At the same time, they rushed in with short blades, surrounding him.
In the cramped space, dodging was almost impossible. Guessing the attackers' identity from their movements and timing, Satoru chose not to respond with lethal force.
He thrust his right palm forward and called out:
"Eight Trigrams: Air Palm!"
A compact blast of dense chakra erupted from his hand, swatting the incoming kunai out of the air. The shockwave knocked all three attackers back through the door.
They landed, skidded, and were just about to lunge forward again when a shout stopped them.
"Wait!"
A bespectacled middle-aged man hurried into view. He looked stunned to see Satoru standing in the mortuary.
"You… You are Lord Hyuga Satoru, aren't you?"
He pushed past the guards and stepped closer, staring at Satoru's face, and finally—almost feverishly—at his pale eyes.
"Yes, I am," Satoru replied. "Did you release the messenger hawk?"
He tried to place the man's face. It felt familiar, but the name wouldn't surface.
"Yes! I sent it." The man bowed quickly. "Lord Satoru, I didn't expect you to arrive so quickly."
"My name is Hyuga Kotachi. I'm the manager of this exchange house."
"As you can see… we were attacked."
While Kotachi spoke, Satoru's attention remained on the three ninja behind him.
The dead in the mortuary were almost certainly the house's regular guards. So who were these three still standing?
Kotachi had been running exchange houses for years; his eyesight and instincts were finely honed. Noticing Satoru's gaze, he hurried to explain.
"After I released the hawk, I contacted some brothers in town. These men are guards from Baishun Trading Company—clan members assigned to support me here."
Baishun Trading was another Hyuga enterprise—a transport and escort company. In the chaotic shinobi world, that kind of work was always in demand and highly profitable, but it required real strength to guarantee safety. Backed by the Hyuga, Baishun could recruit and train powerful guards.
Kotachi had done the reasonable thing by calling in reinforcements.
Satoru nodded. The explanation was clear enough. He moved on to the key details.
"Where did the attackers go? When did they leave? Which direction?"
Messenger hawks were fast. Ordinary hawks flew 50–100 kilometers an hour; properly trained ninja hawks could reach 200. This branch was only about a hundred kilometers from Konoha—half an hour of flight at most. Factoring in the time between the attack and Kotachi's response, the enemy had at most an hour's lead.
With careful calculation, Satoru could catch them.
"Around forty minutes ago," Kotachi replied quickly. "They killed the guards, took the money, and departed to the east without lingering."
"There were two attackers. One wore a Takigakure forehead protector, but it was slashed—likely a rogue ninja."
"The other was a masked, hunchbacked dwarf who never attacked."
"Both wore black cloaks embroidered with red clouds—most likely from the same organization."
"Lord Satoru, their strength was overwhelming. Our guards were no match for that Takigakure rogue. Please… gather Hyuga forces and finish them both!"
Kotachi emptied everything he knew in one breath, including details that hadn't been in the initial urgent note—the fact that there were two assailants.
Satoru had initially suspected a single opponent—Kakuzu—but Kotachi's description made it clear the attackers were a duo.
The masked, hunchbacked dwarf who hadn't lifted a finger was likely Sasori of the Red Sand—the one who had assassinated the Third Kazekage and then vanished.
That "immortal" money-grubbing duo's appearance made Satoru's brows knit together.
"To pursue or not…?"
Given the pair's combined might, Satoru hesitated.
If it had been just one enemy, he would have gone without a second thought. His growth over the past year had been tremendous; with his arsenal of techniques, he could already keep up with Kushina in her Sage-empowered state. One-on-one, armed with detailed knowledge of Kakuzu's abilities, Satoru was confident he could at least force the man into a corner.
But with a partner, two high-level shinobi working together were far more than the sum of their parts.
He couldn't count on them politely fighting him one at a time. "Akatsuki don't fight in teams" was the sort of joke only idiots believed—when lives were on the line, everyone jumped in.
Even if he retreated safely with Flying Thunder God, a failed engagement that couldn't capture or kill them would just alert them, prompting the duo to prepare countermeasures.
Moreover, if he shone too brightly here, he might draw the attention of Uchiha Obito—or, worse, Black Zetsu. That was trouble he did not want at this stage.
But after a moment's cool calculation, Satoru shook off his doubt and chose to pursue.
Doing nothing would never break a deadlock. Acting, at least, gave him a chance. No plan in this world came with a 100% guarantee. If he delayed to gather help, the duo might vanish again. Akatsuki's ability to hide was clearly top-tier.
"I'll chase them," he said decisively. "Notify all our exchange houses east of here and order them to evacuate temporarily."
He had made up his mind: hunt Kakuzu and Sasori.
Ideally, he would keep them in the Land of Fire forever. If not, he at least needed to strike hard enough to make further raids on Hyuga property… unappealing.
With that, he turned and left the exchange house.
The exchange house itself was underground; above it stood a funeral parlor on the town's outskirts, selling coffins, incense, and paper offerings. Very few people passed by.
Satoru stepped out of the funeral parlor with his Byakugan already open. After getting his bearings, he headed east in pursuit.
During his time at Mount Myoboku, Shin had taught him many tracking and investigative techniques. Combined with the Byakugan, Satoru quickly picked up the traces the two fleeing shinobi had left behind.
The Land of Fire was blanketed in primeval forest—damp, soft ground, rotting logs, moss-covered trunks. Anyone passing through left some sign of their passage.
Ninja usually moved by leaping through the trees to minimize tracks. But for some reason, Kakuzu and Sasori had chosen to walk instead of traveling at full speed, leaving two sets of footprints on the forest floor.
Even though they'd already gone on ahead, their measured pace suggested they might spend the night camping in the woods.
That thought calmed Satoru. He quickened his speed to close the distance and mentally prepared for battle.
In less than an hour, his tracking paid off.
Kakuzu and Sasori finally appeared at the edge of his Byakugan's range—and were locked.
Satoru had left Konoha in the afternoon; by now, dusk was settling in.
Under the dense canopy, what little light remained was already fading; shadows stretched and vision dimmed.
He continued to narrow the gap. For some reason, the two men who had been walking suddenly changed pace—leaping into the branches and racing forward.
Their sudden acceleration made Satoru's pupils contract. Sensing they might be trying to shake off a pursuer, he decided not to wait for full dark. He pushed his speed higher, rapidly closing in.
Ahead, it seemed Kakuzu and Sasori had somehow sensed him as well. Sasori flung a scroll open and released a puppet, sending it lunging into the forest behind them.
Though less than a hundred meters separated them, layers of foliage still lay between hunter and prey; under normal circumstances, they shouldn't have noticed him.
As Satoru leapt forward, a metallic clatter sounded from the trees ahead.
A humanoid puppet, draped in a black cloak, burst from the undergrowth and charged straight at him.
"So they've found me already?"
"Why?" Satoru wondered, even as his body moved.
He whipped a Flying Thunder God kunai at the puppet. The lightning-marked blade punched through its torso and spun on into the forest beyond.
The puppet didn't falter. It closed the distance and swung a blade down toward Satoru's head—but as the edge was about to bite into his neck, Satoru vanished and reappeared tens of meters away, where the kunai had landed.
He snatched the kunai out of the air, twisted his body, and hurled it again—this time straight at the distant Kakuzu.
Thud—thud—thud—thud!
The kunai bored through trunk after trunk, its trajectory unwavering as it streaked toward the center of Kakuzu's back.
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