"Understood. Both of you, this way…"
Ko Hyuga caught something familiar in the Anbu's voice, but he didn't have time to dwell on it. He flicked his hand at the two Branch House guards by the gate. "You two, go inform the clan head!"
The two Branch House shinobi moved without a word, obeying like puppets.
"Is the Main House going to lead me in?"
Hizashi watched Ko's wide grin, the way he tried so hard to look helpful, like he was desperate to leave a good impression.
Something sour slid through Hizashi's chest.
God, it was ugly.
He didn't want to be like the Main House, elevated for no reason, living as if he was born above other people. He only wanted to exist as himself, as a person.
But seeing Ko, who used to swagger around the compound like he owned the air, show this side of himself…
Hizashi couldn't deny the small, sharp satisfaction that bloomed anyway.
Because it proved something.
The Main House, at least a big chunk of it, only dared to posture in front of the Branch House because they had the Caged Bird Seal to lean on.
Outside these walls, if you didn't have real ability, that "status" meant nothing.
The Hyuga compound's reception hall sat deep within the estate, quiet and formal.
Hyuga Clan head Tenzo Hyuga, Hizashi's biological father, waited at the main seat.
Several Main House elders sat below him, still discussing what had happened earlier, and as always, a few Branch House shinobi stood along the sides as escorts and guards.
When Sakumo Hatake and Hizashi stepped through the doorway, Tenzo rose slowly and came forward with a polished, official smile.
"To what do we owe the visit today?" Tenzo asked, his tone cordial. "Is there an instruction from the Third?"
Hizashi stared at him.
At the way his father stood. The way he walked toward him. The smile.
It was all unfamiliar, like he was looking at a stranger wearing Tenzo's face.
And Tenzo, for his part, was turning the arrival over in his head.
What happened now?
He'd seen Hiruzen Sarutobi clash with Orochimaru. As clan head, Tenzo wasn't an idiot like Ko. His Byakugan was among the best in the clan.
Having one or two useless Main House members who coasted on their birth didn't matter. The Hyuga were wealthy enough to feed dead weight.
All that mattered was choosing the right successor.
Still, Tenzo couldn't stop thinking about what he'd seen.
The Hyuga avoided using the Byakugan at full power in the village, careful not to draw suspicion, but there were always moments where you could catch important people in your sight.
Today was one of those moments.
Through his Byakugan, Hiruzen's chakra and his channels' vitality had looked… stronger. Like the old man had been shaved younger by more than ten years.
How?
That was why Tenzo had been so anxious for Hizashi's report, why he'd asked Ko again and again whether Hizashi had returned.
Maintaining neutrality, letting the Hyuga enjoy the village's protection without bleeding for it…
That only worked if you watched the village's situation with ruthless clarity.
Riding the wall wasn't easy.
"I joined Anbu."
Hizashi forced down the tremor in his hands, the rush in his chest, and lifted his mask off his face.
"If the Hyuga Clan has something that needs to be communicated to Lord Hokage, and you can't say it directly…"
His gaze stayed steady.
"Tell me. I'll put it in a report and deliver it to the Third immediately."
The instant Hizashi opened his mouth, Tenzo knew something was wrong.
Tenzo had spent years enforcing the Main House and Branch House structure, and that meant enforcing Hizashi's status too. Hizashi's position and treatment had always been handled by Branch House standards, with no exceptions.
Because if Tenzo's own younger son could be used like a beast of burden, then no other Branch House member had any right to complain.
It was the cleanest proof possible for the clan rules, and it worked. Main House approval rose. Branch House compliance hardened.
You sacrifice one son, and you buy obedience from everyone else.
A method tested by time, sharpened by the Caged Bird Seal.
But no matter what Tenzo told himself, Hizashi was still his son.
Tenzo knew that voice.
His pale eyes widened, slowly, like they couldn't believe what they were seeing.
Hizashi had joined Anbu without informing him.
"Hizashi… it's you?!"
Ko Hyuga's eyes went wide, and a hot, ugly anger surged up his throat.
He snapped, loud enough to sting. "Why are you only back now? I told you to check the situation and report immediately. Are you deaf?!"
Damn it.
He'd actually smiled at him outside.
Me. A Main House member.
Ko's rage was almost childish, but it was real. He had no talent, no strength, nothing to speak of, and the only thing he truly owned was the absolute control the Main House held over the Branch House.
He'd lived on that control for more than twenty years. It had never failed him.
And Ko's anger didn't belong to him alone. The other Main House members in the hall were simmering too.
A Branch House member, privately coordinating with the Hokage?
If anyone talked, it should be the Main House. The Branch House were tools. Pawns.
And you thought you could sit at the table yourself?
It felt like betrayal.
Ko's eyes flicked over the elders, testing their reactions, finding confidence there. He opened his mouth, ready to let loose again.
That was his real purpose in the clan.
If you had no strength, you became the mouth that said the ugly things.
Then a calm voice cut through the room.
Sakumo Hatake, who had been silent the whole time, lifted a hand and pointed at Ko.
"What's his name?"
Ko's face froze. The speech he'd been building choked in his throat.
"Ko Hyuga," Hizashi answered after a beat, smiling faintly.
Sakumo nodded once. "I'll remember it."
His tone stayed even, but there was a thin edge under it, cold enough to raise hairs.
"I've been in Anbu a long time. This is the first time I've seen someone demand that Anbu,直属 to the Hokage, report to a shinobi clan."
He let the words settle.
"Since I heard it, I can't pretend it didn't happen."
Sakumo's gaze pinned Ko in place. "Ko Hyuga. Are you trying to order Anbu to serve you? Are you unhappy that Hizashi joined?"
Ko met Sakumo's eyes and instantly went soft, like someone pulled the bones out of him.
"No. I didn't mean it like that…" he stammered. "I just…"
He fumbled for words for several seconds and found nothing worth saying.
Tenzo watched it all and, inwardly, sighed.
This was the downside of a closed clan. It protected the Hyuga line, yes, but it also made people small. Narrow. Naive.
And yet, Tenzo's mind snapped back to the same thought it always did.
There was no other way.
The Hyuga had to maintain the Main House and Branch House system. The ancestors' law couldn't be changed.
All he needed was to raise Hiashi properly. Everything else was… necessary.
Tenzo stepped in smoothly, giving Ko an escape.
"My apologies," Tenzo said. "Ko has no other intentions. He rarely leaves the compound. He doesn't understand Anbu matters."
He lowered his head slightly, respectful. "He's thoughtless. Please forgive him. I will discipline him severely."
As he spoke, Tenzo's eyes flicked to the short blade at Sakumo's waist.
White Fang.
Tenzo's expression tightened.
So it was that man.
His younger son had sold himself for a very good price.
"Is that so?" Sakumo said simply, then nodded. "Understood."
He turned, and his attention shifted back to Hizashi.
Sakumo was pleased.
Not just because Hizashi kept his posture, kept his voice steady, but because of how he'd framed it.
Hizashi hadn't said the Third Hokage invited him. In front of the clan, he'd made it clear he joined of his own will.
A pledge.
A way to leave room for the Hokage and the Hyuga Main House to maneuver without ripping the situation open in public. He'd taken the weight onto himself, right there in the open.
He'd done it well.
"Keep performing like this," Sakumo said quietly, then reached out and patted Hizashi's shoulder. "I'm watching you."
Then Sakumo's figure blurred.
One moment he was there, the next he was gone, like a ghost slipping out of the world.
So fast.
Even with the Byakugan, it would be hard to track that kind of speed. Even if you could see it, your body might not be able to react in time.
Hizashi stood in the center of the hall.
And for the first time, he didn't lower his head. He didn't make himself small.
He swept his gaze across the Hyuga shinobi present and met their eyes one by one.
The Main House members burned with anger, but Sakumo's question to Ko still rang in their ears, sharp and dangerous.
And Hizashi's Anbu mask was still in his hand.
So when Hizashi's eyes landed on them, they were the ones who looked away first, snorting and turning their heads aside like they didn't care.
In the Branch House guards' eyes, something bright and aching hid behind their blank faces.
Envy.
How could they not envy it?
That kind of presence. That kind of freedom.
At the end, Hizashi and Tenzo looked at each other, father and son.
"I'm going to rest," Hizashi said, voice level. "And from now on, please don't send people to clean my room."
He paused, then added evenly, "If you think I'm causing the clan trouble, I can move out."
Tenzo's fist clenched under his sleeve, knuckles standing out hard, but his face kept its grace.
"Of course not," Tenzo said, forcing warmth into his voice. "The clan supports you. Why wouldn't we agree to something like that? Haha."
Hizashi nodded once. "Thank you for understanding."
That simple nod sent the Main House elders' anger flaring again.
What was that?
That was the clan head. That was your father.
And you were acting like you were on equal footing?
Hizashi walked out of the reception hall.
The moment he cleared the doorway, he threw his head back and laughed.
"Ha… hahahaha!"
It was loud, open, almost reckless.
And somewhere under it, a thin crack, like something that wanted to turn into a sob.
Hizashi laughed as he left the Hyuga compound, and today, he wasn't the Caged Bird.
The sound echoed through the estate.
It hooked the Main House's rage, but it also burned itself into every Branch House member's memory.
Hizashi lifted his eyes toward the Hokage Rock in the distance.
The Third Hokage's stone face sat in the glow of the setting sun, gilded like it wore a layer of gold.
"Third-sama…"
Hizashi bowed deeply toward the mountain, sincere enough it hurt.
"Thank you for your grace. I have nothing to repay you with but this life."
Elsewhere in the village, on the far side of Konoha, the Uchiha were holding their own report.
Fugaku Uchiha brought the members of the Konoha Military Police Force to speak with the current clan head, Isshin Uchiha, laying out everything that had happened that day.
Isshin sat with a smoking pipe in hand, puffing steadily as the smoke curled around him. His brows were knitted tight.
As Setsuna Uchiha's younger brother, he was the hawk faction's mouthpiece.
And the news Fugaku brought left a bad taste in his mouth.
How the hell could that old man get younger?
"Used the First Hokage's forbidden jutsu?"
Isshin spat a mouthful of smoke and cursed, voice rough. "That damn Tobirama Senju. Dead and still won't stop stirring trouble!"
Fugaku gave a helpless chuckle.
Inside the Uchiha compound, any hawk who'd lived long enough could work that line into anything. Their eyesight worsened, they blamed Tobirama. A kid struggled with jutsu, they blamed Tobirama.
Sometimes Fugaku honestly wondered if those old men would blame Tobirama Senju for constipation too.
"Isshin-sama, forget Tobirama Senju for a second. We have to face the real issue," Fugaku said, expression serious. "The Third Hokage's strength… do you think anyone in the clan can match it?"
"And his student, Orochimaru, is hiding something even a Three Tomoe can't see through."
Just thinking about what Orochimaru had shown made Fugaku's expression twist.
It wasn't that Fugaku lacked tact. He hadn't been trying to insult the man by calling him some kind of monster.
But that performance…
It was hard to describe it any other way.
He took a Fire Style at that level, got burned, then opened his mouth and spat out a snake.
The snake spat out him.
And suddenly he was fine again.
Then the snake spit out a sword.
What was that supposed to be?
A pocket Izanagi?
As the vice-captain of the Konoha Military Police Force, Fugaku knew about the forbidden technique said to rewrite reality itself.
Izanagi, the "second life" the Uchiha once boasted about.
It was one of the things Fugaku took pride in, even if it sat deep in the clan's shadows. A power that felt uniquely theirs, powerful and mysterious in a way the shinobi world couldn't replicate.
But after seeing Orochimaru…
Fugaku couldn't even pretend he was calm.
The world was full of monsters.
"Tricks," Isshin snorted. "Not worth mentioning."
He waved the thought away with a dismissive huff. "It can't be anything like Izanagi. And as for Hiruzen Sarutobi… he's Sasuke Sarutobi's son. Having talent isn't exactly shocking."
"Sure, it's not Izanagi," Fugaku said with a sigh, rubbing at his forehead. "But Orochimaru also didn't need to gouge his eyes out to do it."
He looked at Isshin steadily. "You keep saying we need to stay hardline, but we can't be stupid about it. Our Three Tomoe members aren't exactly plentiful right now, and the younger generation doesn't have many standouts."
He hesitated, then added, "Shisui is decent, but he's Kagami Uchiha's descendant…"
Isshin fell silent.
A long moment passed before the old Uchiha finally exhaled, the anger draining into something heavier.
"Fugaku," Isshin said slowly, "I'm not a fool."
"Being hawkish doesn't mean rebellion. It's a way of thinking. A warning we keep alive."
He stared at the smoke curling from his pipe.
"This village was built by Senju and Uchiha together."
"Yes, Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju fought to the death for reasons we still don't understand, but did we ever turn our backs on the village?"
Fugaku chuckled. "The elders always told me Madara Uchiha left without telling anyone. Walked right out the front gate of Konoha like he was taking a stroll."
"And then suddenly there was a battle at the Valley of the End, and nobody even realized what was happening until it was already too late."
Isshin smacked Fugaku on the head, hard enough to sting.
"You little brat. Of course he told people!"
But when Isshin talked about it, his eyes went distant, clouded with age.
"He did," Isshin said. "But back then, everyone was tired of war. People wanted peace so badly they could taste it. So they said they'd 'think about it.' The enthusiasm wasn't there."
"They all thought, Madara-sama is here, and Hashirama-sama is a good man. Even if Tobirama Senju is rotten, he can't do anything to the clan, right?"
Isshin's grip tightened on the pipe.
"And then Madara-sama and Hashirama-sama suddenly fought to the death."
"Madara-sama died. Hashirama-sama was gravely wounded. And Tobirama Senju took the seat of the Second Hokage, with both of them gone…"
Madara Uchiha was the only one the Uchiha called "the clan head" as if the title belonged to him alone.
And even after everything, Isshin still held a kind of respect for Hashirama Senju, a man who had lived through the Warring States.
But the moment he spoke Tobirama Senju's name, the respect vanished completely.
Isshin's eyes gleamed with poison.
"That man can't be trusted."
"Back in the Warring States, his hands were soaked in Uchiha blood. He had a sick obsession with the Sharingan, with Uchiha bloodlines. Who knows how many of our people he dissected."
"After the village was founded, he never stopped squeezing us, never stopped smearing Madara-sama's name, turning the village's children against him, making them think he was some kind of butcher. All of it to clear the road for the next Hokage election."
Isshin's voice grew harsher.
"And after he became Hokage, his methods only got worse."
"To split the Uchiha, he took the most talented, Kagami, and made him a personal guard. A wedge to crack the clan from the inside."
Fugaku frowned. "Taking Kagami into the inner circle could also be seen as accepting the Uchiha into leadership, right?"
"If you only look at that one point, sure," Isshin said, eyes narrowing. "Then explain something to me."
"When Tobirama Senju stayed behind, why was Kagami the only one who died?"
"Kagami's teammates, the people who became Konoha's top brass… did a single one of them ever show the Uchiha any kindness?"
"You want to call all of that coincidence?"
Isshin's jaw tightened.
"And Danzo Shimura… his hatred of the Uchiha never faded. He wears it like a medal, brags that he's the closest thing to that bastard Tobirama Senju."
"Those Root shinobi watch our compound in broad daylight."
Isshin shook his head, frustrated enough it hurt.
"I tell you to read history because I'm trying to save you from getting tricked, not because I enjoy nagging you."
"Tobirama Senju's disciples and grand-disciples aren't good people."
"If we don't keep the hawk stance, if we don't make the kids inherit that vigilance, then when all the old men are dead and no one remembers… that'll be the day the Uchiha get eaten clean."
"The day we get wiped out."
His stare bored into Fugaku.
"Do you understand?"
Fugaku nodded slowly, half understanding, half weighed down.
"Then when do we get our glory back?" he asked quietly. "Do we just… keep living like this forever?"
"We wait," Isshin said.
His voice went low, steady.
"We endure."
"We haven't surrendered. We're waiting for a turning point."
"Our blood carries infinite possibilities. That's the Uchiha's core advantage."
"When the next Madara-sama appears… when a young leader like Izuna rises again… everything will get better."
The next morning, Hiruzen Sarutobi arrived early at the Hokage's office.
And as he settled in, he found his thoughts returning, inevitably, to the Uchiha.
"The Second Hokage left a legacy," Hiruzen murmured to himself, eyes narrowing as he stared at the paperwork.
"And he left a mess."
A mess tangled in centuries of resentment, heavy as a curse.
"An unfinished problem that goes back a thousand years," Hiruzen said softly. "That won't be easy."