Konoha Year 44. Mid-winter.
White snow drifted silently through the dense woods.
Under a gloomy sky, a ninja was fleeing for his life.
No matter how harsh the weather, it could not stop the killing.
Ninjas were the most efficient reapers; harvesting lives was their primal instinct.
Systems breed war, ninjas walk to the battlefield, and combat brings death.
The hand ringing the death knell changes, but the rope is simply passed from one person to the next.
Death is the absolute and only true fairness.
As dusk approached, the wind, snow, and darkness blinded ordinary eyes.
The shadows hid a thousand secrets, but one ninja continued to sprint desperately.
His breathing was ragged, his steps unsteady, and his face pale with terror.
He had completely abandoned any attempt to hide his tracks.
His eyes, capable of seeing far beyond what any ordinary ninja was capable of, now seemed to see only a dark future.
And the only future waiting for him appeared to be death itself.
But he was still struggling; he had to struggle.
Through the shifting shadows of the trees, a swaying figure became visible.
On his forehead sat a protector from the Hidden Leaf Village.
He was a Konoha ninja.
He knew the enemies behind him were like maggots on a bone; there was no retreat.
In his current state, even eyes that could see through anything couldn't hide his trail.
His right arm had been sliced off at the shoulder.
Blood was flowing continuously from the jagged wound.
He had no way to treat it.
Dripping, losing heat, freezing, melting red into the white snow...
Even if he found a perfect hiding spot, the enemy would track the blood.
Moreover, the pursuers had their own specialized scouts.
Too much blood lost, chakra depleted, mind slipping into a daze.
He knew a large force was chasing him, but he couldn't count them anymore.
Was there truly no escape? He felt weak... and utterly helpless.
The young ninja did not want to die, but he knew death was now inevitable.
The clansmen who had stayed behind to cover him had surely fallen by now.
Now, it was his turn.
He had feared death, then anticipated it, and now he finally faced it with calm.
But before the end, he could not leave the most important thing to the enemy.
With that thought, he finally stopped running.
Fleeing had become a meaningless gesture.
He raised his remaining left hand, forming a V shape with two fingers.
Was he mocking the enemy's victory?
No, he had no such petty thoughts at this moment.
He had one final, crucial mission: at the very last second, he had to destroy his own eyes.
This was the final duty of a Konoha ninja and a member of the strongest clan.
He didn't even need to adjust the angle of his fingers.
He knew exactly how to crush those fragile organs.
However, at that exact moment, the whistling of a giant shuriken tore through the air.
Sharp and heavy, the weapon carried immense momentum along its pre-set path.
In an instant, it cleanly severed his head from his shoulders.
The impact caused his hand to tremble; only his index finger struck his left eye.
His middle finger hit his forehead protector instead.
His right eye remained perfectly intact.
But he knew nothing of this; his consciousness ended in that moment.
He died thinking he had protected his honor as a ninja of a prestigious clan.
The enemy walked over, stepped across the body, and picked up the head.
They tore off the forehead protector and looked at the clean, unmarked forehead.
The lead enemy let out a long sigh of relief.
"Mission accomplished!"
The enemy shouted to his hidden comrades with a mix of gravity and joy.
Generally, a ninja declared missing at the border is assumed dead.
But such deaths are rarely confirmed quickly; bodies are hard to find.
This time, however, things were different.
At the exact moment that ninja died on the distant border, Konoha knew.
The Hyuga clan instantly fell into a state of total chaos.
The news was reported immediately to the Hokage.
The village's machinery began to turn at its most efficient speed.
Every available ninja was summoned by the Hokage's emergency order.
Konoha, Hokage's Office Building.
The Third Hokage looked at the assembled ninjas, his face dark and somber.
He rarely showed such an expression, and many ninjas wondered what had happened.
Once everyone had arrived, the Third finally spoke:
"Due to unknown factors, our front-line mission intelligence was leaked a day ago."
"The Hidden Mist used this info to precisely ambush one of our elite four-man squads."
"The battle ended recently. According to reports, all four ninjas are dead..."
"But that is not the main point."
The death of four comrades wasn't the main point?
This was a shocking thing for a Hokage known for his kindness to say.
But the Hokage was right; it wasn't the focus of this crisis.
"Among the four fallen ninjas, two were from the Hyuga clan."
"One was from the Branch House, and one... was from the Main House."
The ninjas in the room stirred with unease.
The Hyuga clan's system was well known for its strictness.
Since Konoha's founding, the Main House members had rarely exceeded ten people.
To lose a Main House ninja was a catastrophe of the highest order.
But the worst was yet to come.
The death of a Main House member meant the potential loss of the Byakugan.
The Hokage confirmed their fears in the next sentence.
"Confirmed by the Hyuga clan's monitoring methods: a Byakugan has fallen into enemy hands."
"The Branch House member isn't the issue; the Caged Bird seal destroys the eye upon death."
"But the Main House ninja failed to destroy his eyes before he died."
"This resulted in a Byakugan falling into the hands of the Hidden Mist."
Such an accident had likely never happened in the history of the village.
The Hyuga valued their eyes above all else, often with a cruel level of protection.
If the enemy mastered the Byakugan, the clan's secrets would be laid bare.
To the proud Hyuga, this was a shame and a dagger aimed at their very heart.
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