"Alright, thank you for your hard work. Once their injuries have mostly healed, we can split up and go our separate ways."
In the evening, inside a hotel room in the Country of Frost, Hidekazu Ueno spoke to Hiroki Hyuga.
With the mission completed, Hidekazu no longer required everyone to sleep outdoors. Instead, he chose an inn as their temporary base.
Four injured shinobi temporarily shared one room while the others each had their own.
As the only member with some basic knowledge of medical ninjutsu and prior experience treating others, Hiroki took on the responsibility of daily healing duties.
As for Hana Inuzuka—who also had some medical skills—those were mainly used for treating ninja beasts. Since human and animal physiologies couldn't be treated the same way, Hidekazu didn't ask her for help.
"Understood," Hiroki replied evenly before walking away.
Although he performed various acts of kindness toward others, his mind remained clear.
He wouldn't develop any emotional attachments to these people.
Itachi Uchiha's eyes—he would still take them when the time came.
Even toward people like Hana Inuzuka and Hidekazu Ueno, with whom he had spent considerable time and held neither schemes nor ill intentions, he wouldn't actively harm anyone. But if they truly died, he wouldn't feel even a hint of sorrow.
He was actually glad he was born into the Hyuga clan. If he'd been born into the Uchiha clan, this inherently cold nature of his probably never would've awakened the Sharingan.
After all, that was a clan fueled by passion for love and bonds.
Though he had revealed some of his skills today, it didn't really matter.
Itachi Uchiha wasn't the type to meddle unnecessarily, and Hana didn't seem like a chatterbox either.
Even if Hiashi Hyuga found out about his [Heavenly Spin], it wouldn't matter much.
Hiashi would simply ignore it unless it directly threatened the family structure itself. At worst, Hinata Hyuga might receive a quiet scolding from Hiashi for favoring outsiders over her own family.
Passing by Itachi's room, his footsteps reached Itachi's ears.
"There's something strange about human relationships..." Itachi muttered to himself, deep in thought.
Three utterly emotionless individuals somehow ended up developing an unspoken understanding between them.
Using just this subtle coordination, they actually defeated a jonin from Kumogakure.
Itachi felt a mix of complicated emotions.
"It's just a temporary alliance—no need to overthink it," he told himself.
Perhaps Hana Inuzuka possessed the most normal mindset among this three-man team.
Right now, she was genuinely delighted about her squad's improved combat effectiveness.
"Never imagined someone from the Branch House of the Hyuga could be this powerful. Truly worthy of being considered an elite noble family."
"With strength like this, taking part in the Chunin Exams shouldn't be an issue anymore."
The next morning after waking up, Hiroki first performed his routine treatment on the injured before leaving the inn to train and relax.
"White Zetsu!"
"Here I am," White Zetsu responded, materializing instantly.
"You know what needs doing?"
"Spreading news about Frost village's destruction to the Daimyo?" White Zetsu replied cautiously.
"I guess even your brain can improve a little," Hiroki smirked.
"Should I tell him who did it?"
"No need."
White Zetsu understood. The daimyo would never know which shinobi were in the Country of Frost. It could simply transform into someone else's appearance, wear a Frost Shinobi forehead protector, and head toward the daimyo's mansion.
The battlefield at Yu and Frost border.
Creak...
A faint sound reached their ears, like something slicing through leaves.
As his body touched something taut, the Konoha ninja immediately realized what it was. His expression darkened as he passed the warning to his teammates.
"It's Chakra Threads! Sasori of the Red Sand is here—retreat quickly!"
Before the enemy even appeared, several Konoha ninja turned and ran.
A red-haired, fine-featured youth walked out from among the trees, watching emotionlessly as those figures grew increasingly distant.
He retracted the chakra threads from his hands and immediately moved toward his next target.
Because there was little material at Kumogakure Camp and no tools for repairing puppets, Sasori's Hiruko remained in poor condition. Forced to fight with his original body, he had no choice but to engage directly.
Since Sasori's identity had been exposed, Dodai stopped assigning him ambush missions altogether, instead throwing him straight onto the frontlines.
Yet for both Sasori and Kakuzu, the job became progressively harder—they found it difficult to capture anyone.
That's because the Konoha ninja would flee upon merely seeing them, disregarding entirely the dignity of being recognized as the mightiest among the Five Great Ninja Villages.
To them, the battlefield had become like a casual stroll—wherever they went, no one dared to stop them. Konoha ninja steered clear of them completely.
"This is Konoha now!" Sasori sneered mockingly. "A disorganized rabble."
Kumogakure shinobi laughed along, saying, "Truly pathetic. Why not just surrender?"
The Konoha ninja felt humiliated too.
In past battles, usually when enemies saw Konoha's elites, they would scramble away in defeat.
Take for example the late Sakumo Hatake and Minato Namikaze—former shinobi villages issued orders that if encountered on the battlefield, missions could be abandoned without conditions.
Their reputations alone had made enemies flee at first sight.
Now the situation had completely reversed. Konoha shinobi were the ones running from powerful warriors of other factions.
Indeed, when a tiger falls from the mountains, even dogs dare to mock it!
Times have changed.
Just two Kage-level fighters had driven them to flee in sheer panic.
Despite immense bitterness inside, for survival—and to avoid becoming captives used to threaten their village—they could only choose retreat.
Inside Konoha Camp, Hikaru Hyuga signed for a letter on behalf of Hiroki Hyuya, receiving correspondence from Hiashi Hyuga.
After carefully reading it once through, during a rest period for the Hyuga clan members, he gathered everyone together.
He held up a wooden plaque and a golden card, announcing, "This is the clan head's identification token, and this is a savings certificate. With these two items, you can withdraw funds at any legitimate bank."
"So that means," one Hyuga member said thoughtfully, "the clan head won't abandon us." They all felt relieved.
In times of crisis, blood still runs thicker than water—unlike Danzo Shimura, who was far too cold-hearted.
Although Hiashi's attitude reassured the clansmen, Hikaru kept reminding them repeatedly to stay cautious.
For members of the Hyuga Branch House, another life-or-death threat loomed—the Caged Bird Seal.
They weren't just in danger of being harmed — they might be captured specifically for their eyes.
The Byakugan doesn't require a specific bloodline like the Uchiha Clan's techniques. Any ninja could receive the Byakugan and use it immediately.
Once the Main House felt there was even a chance of losing the Byakugan, they would almost certainly activate the Caged Bird Seal without hesitation.
"That bratty girl from the Uchiha household — her eyes are still untouched, right?"
"Kumogakure ninjas have always resorted to deception and brute force — real bandit tactics. We can't possibly consider them decent people just because they've acted normally once."
A Hyuga clansman gave a polite smile and carefully took Hikaru Hyuga's words to heart.
After the other clan members had left, Hikaru remained deep in thought for a long time. Eventually, he turned to leave and decided to search for those two captives' allies.
Those two — the hostages Cloud Hidden publicly declared two days ago.
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