"Then kill them all."
Hiashi looked over at Koharu Utatane. Even though she had been the one to wake him up to the truth and bluntly tell him that, at its core, the Hyuga branch family were nothing more than slaves to the main family—
now that Koharu knew their plan, she could no longer be allowed to live.
"And destroy her brain while you're at it. Everyone, we're short on time. If we delay any longer, Uchiha Chizumi will probably get here."
At this moment, Hiashi showed a decisiveness completely unlike his usual self. Or rather, the moment he let that thought take root, he had already lost any path of retreat.
What Uchiha Itachi failed to do, he—the head of the Hyuga clan—would accomplish.
After all, the Hyuga clan had already rotted to the bone. If the new main family had shown even the slightest sign of change, Hiashi might never have gone this far.
But in his eyes, the new main family was even worse than the old guard.
Since the Hyuga clan had already decayed, then the only answer was to cut down the rotten tree completely and leave only the new shoots behind.
"No! Hiashi, how dare you?!"
Koharu had no idea what was really going on. All she knew was that the Hyuga main family seemed to have been plotting something in secret, but beyond that she knew absolutely nothing.
And now, just to keep their plan from leaking, Hiashi was actually going to kill her—a Hokage advisor?
"I'm already prepared to die, and you're asking whether I dare?"
Hiashi looked at her and pulled the corner of his mouth into a cold, mocking smile. He had already handed over everything that needed to be handed over. This rotten clan head had no intention of living any longer, so who the hell cared who she was?
Forget a Hokage advisor. For the sake of making this plan succeed, Hiashi felt like he could kill even the Hokage now.
As Koharu screamed in horror, the main family elders around him all smiled.
The truth was, they had wanted to kill Koharu for a long time. She might not have been as disgusting as Danzō Shimura, but she had always been in the same camp as him.
At this point, Koharu genuinely regretted everything. If she'd known the people locked up in Konoha Prison were this insane, nothing could have convinced her to come back here voluntarily.
Under her regretful gaze, her life came to an end.
Though these old Hyuga main family elders weren't exactly frequent fighters, several of them ganging up on Koharu—who wasn't exactly a seasoned combatant herself—left little room for anything unexpected.
Once Koharu's brain had been completely destroyed, the killing intent around Hiashi and the other elders seemed to deepen.
"Remember this. This time, our blades will not be turned against the students still in the academy."
Hiashi looked at the elders beside him and gave the warning in a serious tone. He had managed to convince these old men to sacrifice themselves, but there was no guarantee they wouldn't lose themselves in the killing once it began.
After all, in front of the main family, the branch family truly had no power to resist at all.
"Understood."
One of the main family elders grinned. They had indeed gone half mad—but at least not to the level of Uchiha Itachi.
As figure after figure began heading toward the Hyuga main estate, more and more Anbu and Uchiha Police Force shinobi started appearing around Konoha Prison.
"The entire Hyuga clan, including Hiashi himself, has vanished…"
"Hokage advisor Koharu Utatane has been killed—and her brain was completely destroyed."
The Anbu shinobi standing in the now-empty prison wore grim expressions. While these Anbu were no longer as blindly loyal to Hiruzen Sarutobi as they once had been, anyone who had chosen to remain in Anbu still unquestionably loved Konoha.
And now that something this serious had happened, they naturally understood how grave the situation was.
"We found another corpse from the Hyuga clan over here. His eyes were gouged out!"
"This one was a member of the Hyuga clan's current main family."
Another Anbu wearing a fox mask reported in.
If it had been only Koharu's death and Hiashi's disappearance, then it would have been fairly easy to conclude that Hiashi and the others had done something.
But now it wasn't just the Hokage advisor who was dead. Members of the new Hyuga main family had also been killed, and their eyes gouged out. That naturally misled the Anbu into thinking another village might be involved.
"Report this to the Third immediately. And send one Anbu to pass everything we've learned here to the Uchiha Police Force as well."
After a brief pause, the Anbu captain made his decision.
He wanted the Third informed, of course—but he also wanted Uchiha Chizumi informed.
There was no deeper meaning behind it. He was simply worried that the Third Hokage was already too old and might not be able to fight anymore.
Konoha was facing an unknown crisis. They needed someone who could still throw down.
And unfortunately—or perhaps fortunately—Uchiha Chizumi was exactly that kind of person.
Besides, Chizumi's alliance with Lady Tsunade was no secret in Konoha. These Anbu had spent most of their lives doing Anbu work, and if Tsunade took office, chances were they would still be doing it.
For the sake of his own future, the Anbu captain felt it was only prudent to have the Uchiha Police Force inform Lady Tsunade as well.
As the Anbu scattered and the Uchiha Police Force moved out, a massacre of unspeakable cruelty was already unfolding at the Hyuga estate.
No one had imagined that Hiashi and the other main family elders—who were supposed to be imprisoned—would suddenly appear.
And the moment they did, they gave no one a chance even to beg for mercy.
They immediately activated the Caged Bird Seal, stripping the victims of all ability to resist. And once resistance was gone, the seal on their foreheads was quickly removed again.
When the Caged Bird Seal disappeared, all they felt was their vision going dark, followed by agonizing pain in their eyes, and then the terrifying sensation of their lives draining away.
Whether it was Hiashi or the other elders, every one of their movements was clean and precise, as though they had rehearsed this countless times over the years.
And in truth, they had.
The Hyuga branch family all knew that the main family had a long tradition of killing branch family members for no apparent reason.
What no one knew was that, before those branch family members died, their Caged Bird Seals had been removed.
"For generations, our ancestors have been gathering Byakugan eyes. Through the Caged Bird Seal, they've continuously harvested them and created a giant Tenseigan."
"And yet that giant Tenseigan has only ever emitted a pale blue light—because each time, we only contributed one or two pairs of eyes."
"This time… perhaps the Hyuga clan's Tenseigan will finally be completed."
Hiashi's gaze turned toward the clan shrine.