Chapter 91: Unwelcome Guests
Passing through an ornate gate, Uchiha Akira—clad in the guise of Madara—entered a more secluded inner courtyard. His crimson Sharingan immediately locked onto a figure standing protectively behind Hyuga Hiashi, the stern-faced clan head. The person held a small, bundled infant.
Under the mask, Akira's eyebrow twitched in surprise. It was Hyuga Kaoru.
'She's the one tasked with caring for Hinata?' He shifted his gaze almost imperceptibly, focusing fully on Hiashi. Kaoru, as a member of the Branch House, could never be the clan head's wife or the child's mother; she was a guard, a nursemaid bound by the seal.
"Uchiha… Madara?" Hyuga Hiashi's voice was tight, his Byakugan veins pulsing around his eyes. His heart sank like a stone. He had been present during the Nine-Tails attack, though the scale of that battle had kept him on the periphery. He had witnessed enough, especially the terrifying duel between Minato and the masked foe. The same cloak, the same mask, the same aura of dread.
'Why? Why would he target the Hyuga?' Hiashi's mind raced, panic threatening to surface. His primary goal now was delay—stall until village reinforcements arrived. The Hyuga alone could not withstand a monster of this legend.
Yet, as clan head, pride and duty forced steel into his spine. He took several deliberate steps forward, placing himself between the intruder and his daughter. "Uchiha Madara," he stated, his voice deep and controlled. "State your purpose here."
The masked head tilted slightly. "Perhaps a whim," came the casual, distorted reply. "Or perhaps it was planned. The Byakugan has its uses. It is an excellent tool for locating specific things… like Jinchuriki."
Akira delivered the line deliberately. Let Konoha believe the Akatsuki's goal was tailed beast hunting. Let them prepare, let them fortify their defenses. Making the enemy's path more difficult was its own advantage.
Hiashi's composure cracked. His face paled. "Take Hinata and go! Now! She cannot remain here!" he barked over his shoulder, his earlier assumption shattered. He'd never considered the Byakugan itself would be the prize for a figure like Madara. In this moment, nowhere in the compound felt safe.
"Too slow."
The voice came from directly beside him. A chill colder than ice shot down Hiashi's spine. He hadn't seen a movement, a blur—nothing. The space next to him simply contained the enemy now.
Uchiha "Madara" stood behind him, a single crimson eye fixed not on Hiashi, but on Kaoru. The power of the Mangekyō Sharingan flared. Kaoru, her own Byakugan active, met that gaze. Her expression slackened instantly, her body going rigid. The Byakugan granted resistance to genjutsu, but the gulf between it and a Mangekyō, especially one enhanced by Hashirama's cells, was an ocean. She was trapped before she could even process the attack.
In the next heartbeat, the infant was gone from her arms, cradled instead in the crook of the masked man's arm.
Hiashi, with his 360-degree vision, saw it all. A wave of sheer, paralyzing terror washed over him. His daughter, the clan's heir, was in the hands of the most dangerous shinobi in history. One wrong move…
The surrounding Hyuga guards trembled, their Gentle Fist stances wavering. None dared to strike.
Holding the quietly stirring baby, Akira performed his true objective with chakra-aided subtlety, extracting a minuscule tissue sample. As he did, his senses flared. A familiar, powerful chakra was approaching at high speed from the village center.
Hiashi, sweat beading on his temple, made a decision born of clan dogma over paternal love. His voice was a gravelly whisper, meant for his clansmen. "Remember the intelligence. When he uses that intangibility technique to absorb something, he must become solid. That is our only opening."
As clan head, he had been briefed on the limited data from the Nine-Tails fight. In this scenario, even if it meant the child's death, the Byakugan could not be allowed to fall into enemy hands. The exposure of its secrets was an existential threat.
His grim order hung in the air when a new presence arrived.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Heavy footsteps preceded the arrival of Sarutobi Hiruzen, clad in his black combat armor, his face a mask of fury. Behind him, a small army of ANBU materialized on the surrounding rooftops, walls, and garden stones, kunai drawn, sealing tags at the ready. The courtyard was now a kill zone, with the masked figure at its center.
"Your reaction time is adequate," the intruder noted, his tone almost bored.
"Madara!" Hiruzen's roar cut through the tension. "You sink lower with the years! To use an infant as a shield? Has your longevity rotted what little honor you had left?"
"Heh." A cold laugh echoed. "This is no shield. The Byakugan is a useful component for my designs. It sees what others cannot." He glanced down at the baby in his arms, his voice dripping with false pity. "A pity. This one's potential… is lacking."
Hiruzen's blood ran cold. The target wasn't ransom or terror; it was the bloodline itself. A thief who could bypass Konoha's defenses at will, seeking to steal their most sacred genetic heritage. This was a nightmare.
His expression hardened into granite. "At all costs," he declared, his voice ringing with finality for all the ANBU and Hyuga to hear. "Even if it means the child's life, he does not leave with her."
Seeing the resolve settle on Hiruzen and Hiashi's faces, the masked man chuckled. "Third Hokage. Hyuga Hiashi. You are both thinking it now, aren't you? That it's better she dies here than lets her eyes become my tool."
Neither leader responded. They merely adjusted their stances, chakra boiling around them, waiting for the intangible moment to become tangible.
"Hm." The intruder's head suddenly tilted upward, as if noticing something amusing. "It seems Konoha has more visitors today. Quite the social gathering."
All eyes followed his gaze to the sky.
Approaching silently from above was a sight none had expected: a dark yellow, wheel-less chariot floating through the air, more like a railed platform. Standing upon it was an elderly man dressed in pristine white robes, a turban wrapped around his head. His eyes were closed, yet he seemed to perceive everything.
Escorting the chariot were dozens of figures clad in drab gray robes, their faces obscured by scarves. They moved with an eerie, weightless grace against the wind.
'That attire… the closed eyes…' Akira's mind connected the dots instantly. 'The Otsutsuki from the moon. Why are they here now?'
What he didn't know was that the lunar Otsutsuki had recently intensified their surveillance of the Hyuga clan. The reason was simple: a child of astonishingly pure blood had been born among them. Tests suggested this infant's lineage was a near-perfect atavism, his blood echoing that of their ancestor, Otsutsuki Hamura, with unprecedented clarity.
The elders on the moon were convinced. This child had the potential to awaken the Tenseigan. And they had come to ensure that potential was secured.
(End of Chapter)
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