The night enveloped Hyūga Hiashi's estate in a heavy silence.
Hyūga Neji's figure slipped quietly into the shadows surrounding the compound. He frowned slightly, scrutinizing the building that should have been one of the most important targets this night.
Unlike the faint commotion and smell of blood vaguely carried from other parts of the compound, this place felt like the eye of the storm, presenting an unsettling stillness and calm.
The tall main gates were shut tight. No light escaped from the windows, and no sound could be heard. The entire estate seemed like an abandoned island.
This excessive silence stirred a strong feeling of unease in him.
Without a moment's hesitation, fierce, bulging veins appeared around Neji's eye sockets.
Byakugan: Activate!
His all-seeing vision penetrated walls and partitions, bringing the interior of the mansion into full view.
The first floor... the second floor...
He saw a weak, familiar bundle of chakra curled up in a bedroom—that was Hyūga Hinata.
Next to her were two even fainter chakras, likely Hiashi's wife and their infant daughter, Hyūga Hanabi. All seemed to be in a deep sleep.
But the chakra of Hyūga Hiashi was nowhere to be seen.
"What's going on?" Neji's eyes flickered.
On his journey here, he had briefly exchanged words with a few Branch Family members, taking several containers sealed with Byakugan from them. He had also confirmed a piece of news:
Several main branch elders, including Hyūga Hiza-tō, were not in their own homes tonight.
Why?
Were they truly all gathered at Hyūga Hiza-tō's residence?
"If that's the case, I wonder if the people sent there can cope..." Doubt surged in Neji's heart.
Hesitating for a moment, he concentrated again. The veins around his eye sockets bulged even more, threatening to burst.
His Byakugan, which had been enhanced multiple times, was now operating at full capacity, pushing his insight to the limit.
Finally, scanning the master bedroom he remembered belonging to Hiashi, he caught a wisp of an extremely faint, almost imperceptible chakra flow.
"Is that..." Neji's pupils sharply contracted. "A sealing barrier used to interfere with and block perception and scrying?"
There's something suspicious here, just as I thought!
Without any further hesitation, Neji's form flashed like a ghost, silently skimming over the high wall and landing in the courtyard.
His footsteps were light, making no sound whatsoever, like a shadow melting into the night. He quickly traversed the corridor and arrived outside Hiashi's room.
His finger lightly touched the door. A slight flow of chakra silently unlatched the bolt from within. He then slipped sideways into the room, his movement as fluid as if practiced a thousand times.
The room was pitch dark, but relying on his multi-enhanced Byakugan, he immediately locked onto a section of the wall.
Click.
He reached out and pressed the mechanism. With a slight sound of the mechanism engaging, a hidden door, perfectly merged with the wall, slowly slid inward, revealing stone steps leading down.
Neji took a deep breath, his eyes becoming razor-sharp, and he stepped into the darkness.
Creak. Creak.
The hidden door slowly closed behind him. Neji paid it no mind, focusing his attention on what lay ahead, his figure gradually swallowed by the shadow.
But he did not see that, as the hidden door behind him was about to fully close...
Fzzzt!
A faint whistling sound cut through the air. A kunai, its metal glinting coldly, wedged itself into the closing door, causing a subtle clicking sound as it jammed the mechanism.
Meanwhile, in another bedroom, only the sound of deep breathing could be heard, and the room was dimly lit.
A black shadow of a cat silently leaped onto the windowsill outside. One amber cat eye and one pure white eye looked into the room at the sleeping Hyūga Hinata.
"Meow..."
The sharp cat-cry seemed to ring right by her ear, causing Hinata's eyelids to flutter.
Finally, she slowly opened her eyes and sat up, still drowsy, instinctively looking out the window.
Nothing.
It felt like a dream.
She could only see the once-bright moon obscured by dark clouds, making the already dead-silent night even colder. A sudden sense of unease and coldness washed over her.
Sensing the source of the chill, Hinata turned her head to look behind her and saw the door was not completely closed.
"Father?" she called out softly, a hint of confusion in her voice.
No reply.
Only the deepening night and the intensifying cold.
In the underground passage now, Hyūga Neji walked silently, his frown deepening with every step.
He had expected to encounter resistance after breaching the barrier, so his muscles were tensed, his chakra was primed, and his focus was absolute.
Yet, all the way down, aside from his faint footsteps echoing on the stone steps, he met no resistance and triggered no traps whatsoever.
This unsettling ease instead ratcheted his anxiety and vigilance to a peak.
Finally, after the last step, a heavy iron door, also inscribed with complex seals, appeared before him.
The door was unlocked. He raised his hand and pushed it gently. With a creak, it opened inward.
Inside was a spacious secret chamber. The only light source was the flickering oil lamps on the walls, casting the room in shifting light and shadow.
The instant Hyūga Neji stepped into the chamber...
Whoosh!
A fierce whistling sound suddenly attacked from the side. A figure, as if lying in wait for a long time, lunged with astonishing speed. The wind stirred by the figure's clothes was dull and sharp.
Almost simultaneously with hearing the wind, Hyūga Neji immediately twisted his body. His internal chakra instantly exploded, and a full-power Gentle Fist palm strike slammed towards the attacker!
Bang!!
The two palms violently collided. A fierce shockwave erupted from the point of contact.
The flames of the oil lamps in the chamber were wildly whipped around, nearly extinguished, pulling the shadows of the two figures into a frantic, distorted dance on the walls.
"You! You were hiding here after all!"
Hyūga Neji stabilized his stance, staring intently at the figure before him. His chest heaved, and the flickering oil lamps illuminated the years of suppressed rage in his eyes with chilling clarity.
"Hyūga Hiashi!" He practically spat the name through gritted teeth.
However, Hiashi's face was completely devoid of emotion. There was no panic at being discovered, nor anger at facing Neji—only a stagnant, dead silence.
"You shouldn't have come," he said.
"I came to kill you!"
Staring into those white eyes, Hyūga Neji spoke deliberately, a fierce cold light glinting in his white pupils. "My eyes can already see the manner of your death!"
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