Clang...
The heavy iron door slammed shut, its echo reverberating long in the deep passageway before finally being swallowed by the silence of death.
Hyūga Tokuma watched the door cut off the last sliver of light and sound, watching the two figures disappear into the thick darkness behind the heavy barrier...
His tightly coiled body suddenly relaxed. He was utterly drained, his shoulders slumped, his back resting heavily against the frigid, slick-with-moss wall beside him.
"Hoo!"
He exhaled deeply, almost greedily, a long-held breath of stale air, as if trying to expel all the suppression, fear, and the nauseating smell of blood from his chest.
A complex mixture of guilt, terror, and profound relief threatened to drown him.
But, it was done.
Regardless of the outcome, his part of the dirty task was finally complete.
In this moment of deepest mental exhaustion, a voice softly spoke behind him:
"Are you very tired?"
The voice still carried the slightly clear tone characteristic of a youth, but beneath it lay a coldness that belied his age.
Tokuma just closed his eyes wearily, too exhausted to even lift his eyelids. Fatigue and numbness washed over him, and he didn't notice the strangeness of the voice.
"Tired," he forced a bitter, smile-like grimace, his voice muffled as he casually replied, "Of course I'm tired. After all, they're clan members..."
The voice paused, then spoke again, the tone unchanged: "Since you knew they were clan members, how could you bear to do this?"
Tokuma still kept his eyes closed, seemingly immersed in self-justification, mumbling in a dreamlike response: "Because we had no choice..."
But the moment the words left his mouth, an extremely subtle yet sharp sense of incongruity, like the tongue of a viper, suddenly licked his exhausted nerves.
That's not right.
The voice that asked the question this time was no longer the slightly clear, youthful voice from before.
It had become a deep, hoarse voice that felt faintly familiar!
"No, you had a choice."
The voice behind him continued, its tone finally settling, now stable and utterly emotionless, as if the speaker had understood something profound: "We are the ones who have no choice."
As the words fell, every hair on Tokuma's body stood on end. He instantly snapped his eyes open, and the terrifying veins around his eyes bulged out!
Chakra surged from his body on instinct. He didn't even have time to fully turn and see the appearance of the person behind him.
He slammed out with a counter-attack—a Gentle Fist palm strike, condensing all the power and terror he could muster, ripping through the air with a sharp sound as it lashed out behind him towards the source of the voice!
However, the instant he turned and swung his palm, the figure behind him suddenly ducked low, their movement so fluid it was as if they had calculated his every action. The lethal palm wind sliced past their scalp, and as they ducked, their own palm slammed out.
The Chakra condensed on their palm was not explosive, but intensely focused, cold, and carried an almost undisguised intent to kill!
Thud!!
A dull, heart-stopping sound, exceptionally jarring in the silence!
The palm struck Tokuma squarely in his completely undefended abdomen!
The Gentle Fist Chakra instantly penetrated his body, then violently erupted within him.
Tokuma's eyes bulged outwards, his eyeballs instantly bloodshot and veined. His entire abdominal cavity felt as if a red-hot poker had been brutally rammed in and then cruelly twisted and torn! The Chakra-circulating pathways were instantly shattered, and his internal organs were squeezed and severely damaged by the horrific force!
"Puh!"
Tokuma convulsed in pain, hunching over like a shrimp thrown into boiling water. A mouthful of thick blood, mixed with fragments of internal organs and bile, sprayed from his mouth!
Immediately afterward, an irresistible force came from his abdomen, sending his body flying completely out of control!
Bang!!
He slammed heavily against the cold, hard stone wall at the end of the passage. The massive impact made the entire wall subtly shake, and the distinct sound of bones shattering was audible. His body, as if boneless, slowly slid down the wall, leaving a long, shocking smear of blood on the surface, finally collapsing in a heap on the ground.
"Cough! How... is this possible..."
Another mouthful of blood gushed from his lips. He laboriously lifted his head, his vision blurred and scattered due to the intense pain. He could only see a figure slowly walking towards him.
Then, after a burst of white smoke, the Transformation Jutsu disguise of the "young guard" faded, and the figure emerged from the smoke.
A closely cropped haircut, completely alien to the Hyūga Clan, and a stern face that made Tokuma's pupils shrink, freezing the blood in his veins.
"Hyūga... Tetsu?" Tokuma's voice trembled violently from his internal injuries and terror. "How could it be you? Why?!"
Hyūga Tetsu, a Jōnin from the Branch Family, and a contemporary of Kurenai Yūhi, Asuma Sarutobi, and Might Guy.
If one of the guards who came in with Hyūga Yōto was Hyūga Tetsu, then who was the other person who walked through that door with Yōto...?
A name that made his liver and gallbladder split with fear surfaced in his mind, plunging his thoughts into instant confusion and panic!
Just as he was lost in this terrible conjecture, the light before him suddenly darkened. A tall shadow pressed down, completely enveloping him and blocking the faint light from the distant lamp. Tokuma instinctively raised his head and saw Tetsu's face—cold and devoid of emotion—and the Byakugan eyes filled with killing intent.
His breath caught in his throat. His survival instinct made him prop himself up on the ground with his hands, struggling to get up and fight back.
But in the next moment, Tetsu raised his foot and then stomped down on Tokuma's ankles.
Crack, crack, crack! Snap!
A clean, chilling sound of fine bone-cracking began to ring out!
"Aah!!!"
Tetsu relentlessly crushed both of Tokuma's ankles, little by little, eliciting an agonizing, desperate shriek. The sheer pain made his entire body twitch and spasm violently as if electrocuted. All his struggle instantly evaporated, leaving him to slump helplessly on the ground, like a pile of mud.
"Why? Hyūga Tetsu! Are you insane?! What exactly are you all doing?!" Tokuma roared in agony, his voice distorted by pain, his tone filled with incomprehension and rage.
"What are we doing?"
Tetsu's tone remained terrifyingly calm. He slowly crouched down, his gaze fixed directly on Tokuma's eyes. "Doing what you did to Hyūga Komon."
"Doing what they have always done to us."
Sensing the undisguised, bone-chilling killing intent in Tetsu's words, Tokuma finally realized what was happening. The expression on his face was instantly replaced by boundless terror!
This is a settlement?
A purge by the Branch Family against the Main Family faction??
These people actually dared to strike first before the Main Family could move?!
"No! No, no, no! Y-you can't do this!"
Tokuma frantically shook his head, his voice turning shrill with fear. "Hyūga Tetsu, Tetsu! We are clan members! We even... trained together when we were children!"
Seeing Tetsu slowly stand up, his eyes looking down at him unwavering, holding only coldness and resolve, Tokuma completely broke down.
He instantly abandoned all dignity, struggling to his knees with his still-mobile upper body, slamming his forehead heavily against the ground with a dull thud!
"I beg you, please spare my life! I shouldn't have been a dog for the Main Family! I was just... I was just too afraid, I didn't want to do it!"
His teeth chattered from fear, emitting a clicking sound, his body and voice trembling uncontrollably.
"Give me another chance! I'll help you! I can help you kill the Main Family! I know many things!"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I know I was wrong! Truly, I really know I was wrong!"
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Tears, snot, and blood mixed on his face. He pleaded relentlessly, repeatedly banging his head on the ground until his forehead was bloody and raw, looking miserable and contemptible, like a stray dog begging for scraps.
However, Tetsu merely looked down at him coldly, slowly shaking his head.
"No," he said coldly. "You don't know you were wrong."
"You just..."
As he spoke, Tetsu raised his foot again. This time, he aimed for Tokuma's jaw, exposed as he begged.
"Know you're going to die."
With the words spoken, the foot shot out like a cannonball, wrapped in fierce Chakra and accumulated killing intent, kicking upward from below with absolutely no reservation!
Bang! Snap!!
An extremely dull yet crisp, horrifying sound drowned out Tokuma's final, forcefully choked scream.
Tokuma's pleas, cries, and all his sound abruptly ceased.
Under the force of the kick, his head snapped back at an incredibly unnatural angle. The terrifying, sharp crack of his cervical vertebrae breaking was clearly audible, instantly severing his neck!
Tokuma's head was almost completely separated from his neck, connected only by a layer of flesh, drooping lifelessly down his back!
The Byakugan eyes, widened in fear and supplication, instantly lost all light, frozen in that last moment of regret and despair.
Blood gushed from his fractured neck, mouth, and nose, rapidly spreading across the ground, forming an ever-growing pool.
Tetsu coldly retracted his foot, not sparing a glance for the rapidly cooling corpse, as if he had merely crushed a rabid hyena.
Drip... Drip...
Blood, like a beautiful yet cruel crimson Night-blooming Cereus, suddenly bloomed on the mottled stone wall, then slowly flowed down the wall's texture.
In the passage, only the sound of blood dripping from the wall and the corpse, tapping rhythmically on the ground, could be heard—a prelude to the curtain rising on this long-delayed purge.
---------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------
I only share the most exquisite and beautiful novels. Don't forget to check out my other novels!
p@treon DaoistWujinzi