Before setting out to divert through the Land of Hot Water—aiming to circle toward the Land of Rain and rewrite the plot of Uchiha Obito's descent into darkness—Hyuga Yu had considered the possibility of encountering "accidents" that might disrupt his progress in reaching Nohara Rin.
Even though Yu hadn't explicitly stated his target was Nohara Rin, and despite having Terai prepare a disguise—using the escort of supplies to the Land of Hot Water as a cover while only briefly crossing paths with her route—accidents happened nonetheless.
Whether Yu's actions were intentional or not, Uchiha Madara would never allow anyone to sabotage his plans.
This was why Hiruko—who in the original timeline should have been hiding away and developing his power for over a decade until the celestial alignment—had suddenly appeared. He "just happened" to obtain intel on Hyuga Yu and "just happened" to be lying in wait.
After their clash, Yu had relied on a breakthrough with his Tenseigan techniques, using his superior lineage to suppress Hiruko's mechanics and barely clinch a victory.
However, the hidden mastermind's determination to prevent a meeting between Yu and Nohara Rin was unwavering. After Hiruko, Kakuzu had now emerged.
With two Kage-level experts blocking his path, even if Yu's strength was not inferior to either individually, he had no choice but to abandon his plan of personally taking Nohara Rin and prioritize his own survival.
But for Yu, who possessed a wealth of top-secret information about the shinobi world, this situation was also within his expectations. Before departing, he had already prepared a contingency plan in case he failed to intercept her himself. After all, this involved the leverage and advantages he needed for the upcoming negotiations with Iwagakure and the meeting in the Land of Rain.
The second plan was simple:
[Get Minato Namikaze to save Nohara Rin.]
Yu and Rin didn't have much of a history; they were merely former classmates who barely remembered each other's names. Given that he was on a Root mission, and despite knowing her death would alter the fate of the entire world, he could only take limited action within his sphere of influence.
Minato Namikaze, however, was different.
Minato was Rin's sensei, a relationship defined by clear bonds of teacher and student, acting as a close guardian in the shinobi world.
According to Minato's later accounts, the reason he failed to arrive before the Tailed Beast was sealed inside Rin was that he was busy with other vital missions. He had been unable to look away from the supposedly stable Eastern Front and never expected that Kirigakure, already in "garbage time," would be crazed enough to execute a "Jinchuriki Bomb" plot.
But the matter itself was quite strange.
Rin's death must have occurred after the Battle of Kannabi Bridge. In that battle, the Konoha forces led by Minato had already determined the subsequent trend of the war. In the directions of the Land of Grass and the Land of Rain, Konoha's victory was a foregone conclusion. At this time, the flames of war were dying down, and violent conflicts were subsiding.
The disputes between the Great Nations were moving underground. Aside from the primary negotiations with the Hidden Stone, there were no major events that required Minato to continue acting as Konoha's "fireman."
The negotiation team led by Jiraiya and Minato Namikaze had already finished the first round of talks. Now, the Root negotiation team—led by Danzo, Orochimaru, and Hyuga Yu—was taking over.
With the leadership of the negotiations falling to Root, theoretically, Minato Namikaze should have been free.
But in reality, he was still "busy."
Yu didn't know exactly what Minato was busy with, but that "business" must have had some leeway... or perhaps, it was designed.
It was the transition from failing to understand this "darkness" to gradually realizing it that drove Uchiha Obito into madness, making him lose all hope in the world until he fell beyond redemption.
Now, with his own failure and the danger preventing him from protecting Rin, the only person Yu could rely on to rewrite this situation was Minato Namikaze—his current rival for the position of Hokage.
He had to make Minato move a step faster to arrive before Kakashi struck Nohara Rin down.
Yu had two choices. First: tell Minato the truth directly and urge him to rush to the Eastern Front to rewrite the tragedy.
Given Minato's intelligence and methods, even if the information came from a Root member and political rival like Yu—someone who normally wouldn't be trusted and whose words might seem like a "Root conspiracy"—as long as the reason was a "Jinchuriki Bomb," Minato would surely arrange everything and set out immediately to fulfill his primary duty of protecting Konoha.
However, doing so would be too overt. Yu was certain that with White Zetsu's intelligence network, it wouldn't be long before Uchiha Madara personally came to crush him.
The second choice was to guide Minato, letting him realize something was wrong on his own so that he would abandon his "important tasks" and take action.
The key question was how to guide him.
Thus, the prerequisite for triggering the second plan was the failure of the first. Yu needed to do two things:
Point out the irrationalities in the Nohara Rin incident.
Find a "trustworthy and smart person" to pass this information to Minato in a "subtle" or even "dirty" way.
This couldn't be done by Root, nor by Terai or Shin.
It wasn't that Yu didn't trust Terai and the others, but the mechanics of Root dictated that unless he sat in Shimura Danzo's seat, he couldn't trust anyone in Root regarding matters that concerned his own future.
So, before departing, the full content of the second plan Yu gave Terai was:
[If an accident occurs on the road, go find Hyuga Natsu. Tell her everything, and then have her "ask" Minato Namikaze to save me.]
At this moment, like the other Root members, Terai couldn't fathom what Yu's second plan actually meant.
Upon hearing the command, the first thought that entered his and the others' minds was:
Yu wanted to use his own assassination as a pretext to "throw mud" at Minato Namikaze, his rival for the Hokage position.
But quickly, even if the other Root members thought so, Terai—who had come to understand Yu's style—rejected the idea.
Hyuga Yu was extremely intelligent, greedy, somewhat lawless, and prone to skimming off Root's profits for himself, but he never did anything useless.
Trying to smear Minato with this incident now would be as redundant as taking off one's pants to fart; the impact on the currently prestigious Minato would be negligible.
Given Minato's demonstrated charisma and conduct, no one would believe an "accusation" made by Hyuga Natsu on Yu's behalf.
So why do it?
With Yu's current status, if he wanted reinforcements, he could call on Danzo, Aburame Ryoma, or even Orochimaru. In extreme circumstances, he might even get the Third Hokage involved.
But when trouble struck, why ignore the others and insist on asking Minato Namikaze for rescue?
And why use Hyuga Natsu as the intermediary?
How would Lord Danzo and Lord Ryoma interpret this?
For a moment, Terai racked his brain but couldn't understand what Yu was thinking.
Nevertheless, he immediately followed Yu's instructions.
Of course, before contacting Hyuga Natsu, he did a series of other things first.
First, Terai had Shin write down the entire sequence of events: Yu's decisions and judgments, the full extent of the abilities he displayed, and an inquiry into whether they should continue following Yu's orders. This report was sent via Root's messenger hawk to Shimura Danzo in Konoha.
Then, he immediately took Yamato, Shin, and the remaining twenty-seven Root members back toward the rear of the Eastern Front in the Land of Fire, not far from the Land of Hot Water.
Hyuga Natsu, the intermediary designated by Yu, was there.
Currently, due to certain uncontrollable factors in the village, after Natsu recovered from her injuries in Konoha, she wasn't assigned to the frontline scouting team but was instead sent to the rear of the Eastern Front.
A month ago, having experienced the "loss of her husband," she was assigned here to perform clerical work that seemed useful but was actually pointless. Not only her, but Hyuga Tetsu, Might Duy and his son Might Guy, Shiranui Genma, Ebisu, and even Hyuga Iroha and Hyuga Homon—everyone with even a slight connection to Hyuga Yu—were in this incredibly safe camp, doing mundane, dead-end work.
When Terai arrived outside the camp, he didn't go in to find Natsu directly.
Instead, he and the Root members settled outside.
Twelve hours later, on the morning of the 29th, the messenger hawk arrived with a letter from Root Headquarters. Terai caught the bird, removed the letter, felt the texture of the paper, and checked the type of sealing jutsu on the envelope. Only then was he certain it was an order written by the Supreme Commander of Root, Shimura Danzo.
Terai nervously broke the seal and unfolded the letter. When he saw the contents, though still confused, he let out a massive sigh of relief.
On the letter, Danzo had written in a sweeping, powerful script:
[He has grown a bit, though his methods are still slightly naive. I will arrange the follow-up.]
[Terai and company, do exactly as "Tennin" arranged!]
The first sentence was clearly Danzo's encouragement for Yu. The world is a giant Rashomon; the same event often looks vastly different to different people. Unlike Terai, who doubted Yu's motives, Danzo—with his expectations for Yu and his perspective on the situation—only saw three key points:
First, Yu had made arrangements for Terai to send word in advance, and after the accident, he had personally lured Kakuzu away to save the Root members. This meant Yu was confident he could escape Kakuzu's pursuit safely and had foreseen the possibility of such an event. Therefore, Yu's safety was not the primary concern.
Second, before the event, Yu had investigated intel on Minato Namikaze and keenly noticed the unusual transfer of Minato's student, Nohara Rin, and told Terai to keep investigating.
In Danzo's eyes, combined with the first point, this clearly meant Yu had received intel through other channels and predicted the assassination. He had used the opportunity to divert to the Land of Hot Water, drawing the assassins there to tie the event to Minato's student.
Third, having Hyuga Natsu go to Minato for help.
Combining the first two points, this was clearly Yu's "dagger-revealing" move. Using the unaffiliated Hyuga Natsu to play the role of a "pitiful victim" would strike a blow against Minato Namikaze's massive prestige and image as he returned from his victories!
In Danzo's eyes, while these methods were laughably naive, they proved one thing: Yu was fighting for it!
Unlike Orochimaru, who was completely immersed in his world of immortality, even knowing it was hard to compete with Minato for the Fourth Hokage position, Yu hadn't given up.
Danzo was very gratified!
After all, Yu was just a newcomer who had officially stepped into the shinobi political arena. What kind of profound, unfathomable scheme could you expect from a fourteen-year-old boy?
Add to that Yu's conduct in luring away the danger to let his subordinates escape—it very much carried the spirit of the Second Hokage.
Danzo was so pleased he couldn't help but express his affirmation and expectations directly in the letter, even going as far as promising to back Yu up in the second half of the message!
By this point, Danzo was completely "infatuated" with Yu's potential.
The second sentence was even more direct. Knowing Yu's "little tricks," Danzo gave Terai a free hand to follow the arrangements. This was equivalent to letting Root accept an "outsider," and specifically Hyuga Natsu, who was also from the Hyuga branch family.
What did this signify?
Holding the letter, Terai—who was well-acquainted with Danzo's cold, inhuman style—couldn't help but tremble. The letter in his hand felt like it weighed a thousand pounds, almost like an imperial decree naming a Crown Prince!
Between the lines, it might as well have said: Work hard, Yu; my position will definitely be passed to you in the future!
Thinking of this, Terai took a deep breath, his resolve to cling to Yu's coattails becoming even firmer.
At that moment, Yamato, seeing Terai standing there like a wooden statue, couldn't help but ask, "Well, Terai? What did Lord Danzo say?"
"Can we go see my sister-in-law like Tennin arranged?"
Hearing this, Terai's brow furrowed, and he glared at Yamato. "Shut it!"
"Yamato, it's fine to say that in front of me, but in front of Lord Danzo, you must never show such eagerness to follow Tennin's orders!"
"Root is still Lord Danzo's Root!"
"..." Yamato curled his lip and turned his head away, a bit annoyed.
The Root ninjas present, all of whom had been saved by Yu, found his reaction slightly amusing. Yet, for some reason, they also felt a strange sense of envy.
Then, Terai coughed twice, adopting a slightly more relaxed expression as he looked at the group. "Lord Danzo has given his approval. Now, you will stay in the shadows on guard. Take control of the entire camp and let no one near. Yamato and I will go contact Hyuga Natsu!"
As he spoke, the Root members nodded in silence. They donned their masks and black cloaks, forming two ranks. Led by Terai, the team exuded an icy aura of intimidation as they marched toward the camp ahead!
Meanwhile, inside the camp...
As Hyuga Yu's "widow," Hyuga Natsu's situation was not exactly pleasant.
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