Chapter 126: The Thunder that Never Struck
The Northern border of the Land of Fire was a jagged landscape of lightning-blasted pines and deep, fog-choked ravines. It was the perfect place for a ghost story.
Hizashi Hyuga moved at the head of the twenty-one Branch members, his Byakugan active but kept at a low pulse to avoid triggering the Leaf's primary sensory tower. Behind him, the trackers and medics moved with the practiced silence of those who had spent their lives being invisible.
"Hizashi-sama," Hanare whispered, her breath hitching as she looked back toward the silhouette of the village in the distance. "The shift change. The tower is cycling its sweep."
"I know," Hizashi replied, his eyes locked on a specific rocky outcrop ahead—the Extraction Point. "On my mark, initiate the suppression seals Rimon provided. We have exactly sixty seconds to become corpses."
The Shadow of the Cloud
Hizashi reached into his tactical vest and pulled out the Resonance Shard. It was a jagged piece of black metal that hummed with a low, artificial frequency. This was Rimon's masterpiece of sabotage—a device programmed to mimic the unique bio-electric signature of Kumogakure's Lightning Release.
"Now!" Hizashi commanded.
The twenty-one Hyuga slammed their palms into the earth, activating the Chakra-Dampening Array. Simultaneously, Hizashi crushed the shard in his hand.
The effect was instantaneous and violent.
A pillar of blinding blue light erupted into the sky, tearing through the fog. To any sensor sitting in the Leaf's tower miles away, it looked like a massive, high-level Lightning Style ambush. The air screamed with the smell of ozone.
Underneath the cover of the artificial storm, the Branch members fell to the ground. The dampened seals Rimon had distributed began to hum, creating a "feedback loop" that mimicked the exact frequency of a Caged Bird Seal being forcibly triggered by a lethal brain hemorrhage.
To the grand sensory network of Konoha, twenty-one Hyuga signatures suddenly spiked in agony and then... flatlined.
The Silence of the Grave
Hizashi lay on the cold moss, his heart rate slowed to a near-death rhythm by Rimon's medical tech. He watched through blurred vision as the "Lightning" dissipated, leaving behind scorched earth and shattered trees—the perfect crime scene of a Cloud skirmish.
A few minutes later, the air ten feet above them rippled.
There was no sound of a footfall, but the presence was unmistakable. Rimon Uzumaki stepped out of a void of folded space, his blue robes fluttering in the dying sparks of the fake lightning. Behind him, Nawaki stood with his hands on the hilts of two short blades, his emerald eyes scanning the tree line for any real Root scouts.
"Perfect timing," Rimon said, his voice a cool contrast to the scorched environment. He didn't waste time with pleasantries. He tapped a device on his wrist, and a shimmering, violet barrier expanded to cover the "fallen" Hyuga. "Nawaki, clear the trace energy. We don't want them finding a single Uzumaki footprint."
Nawaki stepped forward, his boots sinking into the charred soil. He didn't use a jutsu; he simply touched a nearby tree. The burnt wood didn't just grow back; it consumed the scorch marks, wrapping the area in fresh, silver bark that looked as though it had been there for centuries.
"The Uchiha are already at the cliffside," Nawaki reported, his voice tight from the strain. "The baby—Obito—he's safe. They're waiting for the pull."
"Good," Rimon said. He looked down at Hizashi, who was slowly pushing himself up from the moss, his forehead protector missing, revealing the new mark which he got after Rimon free him from Caged Bird.
"Is it done?" Hizashi rasped, clutching his head.
"Konoha is officially blind in the north," Rimon replied, offering a hand to the Hyuga leader. "As far as Hiruzen and Danzo are concerned, you and your unit are piles of ash and broken eyes. Welcome to the afterlife, Hizashi. It's a lot more productive than the Leaf."
Back in the heart of Konoha, deep within the subterranean bunkers of Root, a sensor suddenly stood up so fast his chair flipped over.
"Report!" Danzo Shimura demanded, stepping out of the gloom, his cane tapping rhythmically against the stone.
"Sir... the Northern Border patrol. The Hyuga scouting unit led by Hizashi," the sensor stammered, his eyes wide. "They're gone. Massive Lightning Release signature detected. Their seals... they all triggered at once. Sir, it was a total wipeout. No survivors."
Danzo's grip on his cane tightened until his knuckles turned white. His mind immediately went to the Raikage. A strike this surgical, this deep... it was a declaration of war. But something felt wrong. The timing was too convenient.
"And the Uchiha?" Danzo asked, his voice a low growl.
"Everything is quiet in the Uchiha district, sir. No movement reported."
Danzo narrowed his one visible eye. "Quiet is not the same as safe. Double the patrols. If the Cloud is moving, I want the Uchiha on the front lines by dawn. If they won't serve the Leaf with loyalty, they will serve it as meat."
He didn't know that at that very moment, the "meat" he was planning to use many of them are currently stepping onto the white sands of Uzushiogakure, miles away from his reach.