Under the night sky, the figure suspended high above slowly descended.
The black cloak was so dark it almost merged with the night itself. Only the seemingly ordinary crow mask stood out more and more.
The ninja from every village, who had formed a ring around the center, all retreated in silence, making the already wide open space even wider.
The Mist formation waiting behind Ao for inspection also grew scattered. Ringo Ameyuri clutched her pounding heart, her breathing becoming heavier and heavier. It felt as though something heavy were pressing on her chest, or as if the oxygen in the air had suddenly thinned.
And she was not the only one.
As that figure descended, Ao and the others from Mist, Asuma and the Konoha shinobi, and even the spectators from Cloud, Stone, Grass, and Sand all felt that same nameless pressure.
It was like a plump herbivore encountering a tiger or a wolf. Just seeing her figure was enough to make their hearts pound in terror.
They were not the same species at all.
"It's her!"
Danzo quietly took half a step back and hid behind Orochimaru, his single eye blinking frantically.
This was exactly that feeling.
He had experienced it once before, when he barged into that 雷池 chamber and felt this power up close. Even after walking out, his legs had still felt weak.
From that moment on, it was as though a seed of fear had been planted in his heart. The moment he recalled her face, his whole body tensed. By the time he discovered that Root had betrayed him, he no longer even had the courage to contend with Konome Taketori. He fled Root in the middle of the night.
If Orochimaru had not gone mad and insisted on attacking Konoha, he would never have come back.
The others felt pressure as well, but Ao felt even more.
As he watched that figure slowly descend before him, even his face began to flush red.
It was not the blush of a man moved by affection, but the result of his heart pumping wildly and driving his blood pressure higher and higher. If he had not hurriedly circulated chakra to ease the strain, he might already have passed out from a cerebral hemorrhage.
Even so, all he could do was barely keep himself alive. His body had almost lost all ability to move. The agile body he had trained for years now felt like a stiff corpse that had died long ago but never been buried.
"Lady... Lady Konome..."
Ao struggled to lift his head. The whites of his left eye were already bloodshot.
The figure before him was surrounded by a faint red glow. His Byakugan could not pierce through it. He could not even see her face, and yet he was already close to being frightened to death.
Not even two Mizukage had ever made him feel this way.
Stopping two meters above the ground, Konome Taketori looked down at Ao from above. Her eyes shone like two gray stars.
Thanks to the exquisite control granted by Takamagahara's left eye, she could now manipulate the fear aura she once could not control.
She had also found its true nature.
It was pressure born from the essence of life itself.
Her Sage Body had evolved by devouring external life force through Reverse Eight Gates.
After swallowing up the Forest of Death and the Thousand Hands Tree, she had been stained by countless traces of souls. Though all impurities in that life force had been filtered away, her murderous essence could not be concealed.
Under normal circumstances, such information could remain hidden. But her Reverse Eight Gates remained open for long periods, meaning she was constantly releasing her life signal into the outside world.
That was why every living thing before her reacted like mice encountering a cat. The stronger ones could resist a little. The weaker ones froze in place or even fainted outright.
And after this evolution, the fear aura that once could only clear out minor nuisances had increased in power by geometric multiples. She could even focus it on a single person and maximize its potency.
Kaguya Otsutsuki had once used Byakugan pressure to suppress Hamura Otsutsuki so completely that he could not move. Konome Taketori was still far from that level.
At present, she could only press an elite jonin to the brink of death.
"Take off your eyepatch and submit to inspection. Was I not clear enough?"
"Ngh..."
Ao's eyes were bloodshot. Veins bulged at his forehead and neck. He worked his mouth meaninglessly, but his tongue would not even straighten properly, much less perform a complex action like removing his eyepatch.
Seeing his fingers twitch as if he still wanted to struggle, Konome Taketori's expression remained emotionless as she concentrated the invisible fear aura entirely onto him.
"This Mist jonin, are you certain you want to resist inspection? You will die."
"Uh...!"
Ao's throat bobbed frantically. He opened his mouth, but only a weak, helpless sound emerged.
The pressure in his skull kept rising. His ears began to ring with phantom noise, and his eyes blurred from overfilling with blood. But he still understood her meaning.
Anyone who refused inspection was a terrorist threatening village security.
And by regulation, such a person would be executed publicly.
A flicker of understanding passed through Ao's eyes.
She wanted to kill him.
Why?
Just because of this Byakugan taken from the Hyuga Clan, she was going to kill him in front of all the other villages?
Was she not afraid of the Mizukage holding her accountable, or even of provoking war between their nations?
Her actions made no logical sense at all. He could not grasp the reason behind them. Driven by his intense desire to live, he turned his head and cast a pleading look toward Chojuro and the others.
"Something is wrong with Ao-sensei."
Chojuro struggled against the pressure, his voice trembling.
"You don't say."
Gritting his teeth, Suigetsu trembled so hard that his pants were already wet. Under the overwhelming mental pressure, his body had instinctively entered a liquefied state. It was like the body's own survival mechanism kicking in under attack.
The others were not fools.
Seeing Ao shaking all over, the veins in his eyes bursting red, and feeling the overwhelming fear themselves, how could they fail to understand his condition?
"Konoha is making a move against Mist."
Han, Baki, and Darui all murmured those words at nearly the same time. In a setting where the five great nations' ninja had gathered, there was no way this was some personal grudge. This was a signal Konoha was releasing to the world.
A shadow settled over everyone's hearts. Konoha daring to act against foreign ninja during the Chunin Exams, and doing it in front of everyone no less, made the meaning behind this action extremely thought-provoking.
Did Konoha intend to provoke a war through this opportunity, or was there some other purpose?
Thump. Thump.
Before they could think it through, the Grass ninja standing with the Cloud group collapsed one after another like stiff breadsticks. In the end, only the Grass jonin leader and three female ninja remained standing in the Grass formation.
Danzo and Orochimaru, now standing out like sore thumbs, could only stiffen their backs and remain upright after seeing Konome Taketori's gaze drift over them. They wanted to collapse too, but doing so now would look far too deliberate.
Rustle.
Konome Taketori was inwardly amused by the sight of Danzo and Orochimaru when a sudden sound of flowing water rose below.
Seizing the moment while her attention seemed diverted, Suigetsu transformed most of his sense organs into water. It was like uninstalling a system bottleneck to fix lag. He finally managed to shake off the deep terror gnawing at his heart.
"I'll answer for Ao-sensei. He is willing to submit to Konoha's inspection."
"Ngh, ngh!"
Ao shot Suigetsu a grateful look. His remaining eye was blood-red, as though he had found hope of survival again.
Since she had not killed him outright, then she must still have some scruples about his identity. As long as he did not give her an excuse, he still had a chance to live.
"All right then."
The regret in her voice made joy flash through Ao's eyes.
Konome Taketori slowly descended to the ground and stopped before him. Behind the crow mask, her smile could no longer be restrained.
Back then, this was probably how he had taken Hyuga Aoi's eye as well.
When she had been busy covering the Branch Family's retreat, he had acted at lightning speed and plucked out a Byakugan alive. That was why a special shinobi bearing both Kaguya and Hyuga blood had been born. That was why this revenge existed now.
The ring of Konoha ninja around them quietly stepped back. Asuma held the unlit cigarette in his mouth, suppressing the bad feeling rising in his chest. But remembering the order written on the appointment scroll, he could only remain silent.
Under the black night sky, Konome Taketori looked at the hope in Ao's eye, and the smile on her face grew colder and more beautiful.
A gloved hand reached toward the black eyepatch.
Danzo and Orochimaru, hidden in the crowd, frowned at the same time.
They knew those gloves very well. They were standard sterile medical gloves, the sort used only in laboratories and on operating tables.
So she was not even pretending anymore.
Judging her by themselves, both men instinctively assumed Konome Taketori was targeting Ao for his Byakugan.
And in that, they were not wrong.
She tore away the eyepatch without ceremony. Looking at that pure white eye from up close, the woman who had always stood in her memory with covered eyes and a gentle smile finally gained a complete face.
Back in Mist, she had fooled the ANBU by pretending to be blind because she had been shaped by what she saw at home from childhood.
"So beautiful."
After completing Hyuga Aoi's face in her mind, Konome Taketori smiled in genuine delight.
Then, before Ao's terrified stare, the three gloved fingers slowly sank into his eye socket.
"Guh... aaahhh!"
Ao's shriek was enough to chill the soul. The foreign ninja already trembling in fear now shook like sieves. Even many Konoha ninja frowned. For those who truly believed in the Will of Fire, Konome Taketori's methods were simply too brutal.
Thick blood dripped down from her gloves. As she pinched the pearl-like Byakugan between her fingers, the purple-red optic nerve still dangled from the bloody cavity of Ao's right eye.
"What are you doing?"
"Let go of Ao-sensei!"
Chojuro and Suigetsu roared and tried to rush forward, but Konoha ninja immediately surrounded them. They reached for their swords, only to remember their weapons were still lying on the ground. Faced with the gap in strength, the two of them immediately lost their momentum.
"The Byakugan!?"
Led by Asuma, the Konoha ninja quickly recognized the white eye in Konome Taketori's hand, and exclamations broke out.
Ao had taken the eye during the Third Shinobi War. Since then, because of the rarity of the Byakugan, he seldom left the village unless it was for important missions. The younger generation of Konoha ninja did not recognize him, much less know where that eye had come from.
"He's Ao, the Byakugan Butcher!"
At last, one veteran shinobi who had fought on the battlefield, a middle-aged man with a scar across his face, shouted out Ao's identity.
The foreign ninja also began to murmur among themselves. The story of Ao stealing a Hyuga eye during the war resurfaced at once.
"Was Mist stupid enough to send someone like him to the Chunin Exams?"
Kurotsuchi's mouth fell open. She could not understand it at all.
Han glanced at her and answered coolly, "Most of the elite jonin still alive in every village have foreign blood on their hands. Mist simply never expected Konoha to become this forceful."
Kurotsuchi stuck out her tongue and said no more. She was afraid that if she kept asking, Han's own hands would come up next, and then things would become awkward.
Whirr.
A gust of wind release cut through the optic nerve still attached to the eye. Under the stunned gaze of everyone present, Konome Taketori took out a glass vial from her sleeve. The bloody Byakugan dropped into the liquid inside, turning it pink almost at once.
Standing closest, Chojuro and the others could clearly see the label on it in the moonlight.
Saline solution.
She was not even trying to hide it.
Having reclaimed her mother's eye, Konome Taketori turned her back on the blood-covered Ao and announced in a flat, almost casual tone:
"After investigation, the Mist ninja Ao was found carrying prohibited items into the village and harboring malicious intent. I hereby sentence him to death as a warning to others."
Ao's remaining eye widened.
He had thought that once she took the Byakugan, it would be over. He had never expected her to still refuse to let him go.
Of course.
The rules she had set had never once specified what counted as a prohibited item.
That meant whatever she said was prohibited, was prohibited.
Whether he refused inspection or concealed contraband, one charge or another would always fit.
The Mist ninja gritted their teeth in fury. But the strong devoured the weak. Even their elite jonin leader had been reduced to this state without the slightest ability to resist. How could they, mere exam candidates, oppose this terrifying woman?
Chojuro and the others cast pleading looks toward the ninja of the other villages, only to find them all silent. Their heads lowered in despair.
Mist had remained isolated for years and held no real ties with the other villages. Even if they had, no one would risk conflict with Konoha over this.
Ao was doomed.
Konome Taketori looked at the obedient, silent crowd below in satisfaction.
Her judgment was indeed fair.
Not a single person objected.
Not even the condemned himself.
"Kh... kh... I..."
Ao had finally adapted to the fear aura a little. Though his body remained weak, he was no longer as utterly helpless as before.
But before he could say anything, he suddenly felt his lungs stop working, as though he were drowning.
"Hah... hah...!"
His face turned purple. Ao slammed his fist into his chest again and again, making sickening sounds as though he wanted to pound his own ribcage flat.
With her mother's Byakugan safely reclaimed, Konome Taketori rose into the air again with a light tap of her foot.
The light of Takamagahara did not target only the ground. It affected all lifeless matter.
Air was naturally included.
From the moment they entered Takamagahara's range, everyone's fate had already been hers to decide.
Ao collapsed to the ground. Blood poured from the empty socket of his right eye. He pounded at his chest like a madman, let out a beastlike howl, rolled on the ground, and finally clawed at his own throat, his face twisted like a demon's.
Gulp.
The watching ninja swallowed one after another. In the silent forest, the sound was painfully clear.
Oxygen existed to take part in mitochondrial oxidation and supply energy to the body's cells. But a ninja's chakra was itself an alternate energy source.
That was why, even deprived of oxygen, Ao could still survive for quite a while.
Thump. Thump.
Covered in dirt, Ao flopped like a fish dying on dry land. The sight sent chills down everyone's spine, and even their toes curled in fear.
"Sand and Stone, are you also going to evade inspection?"
The woman's voice from the sky sounded like a summons from death itself. The moment she called them out, the relevant parties jolted.
"Chief Proctor, we are willing to cooperate with inspection," Han and Baki answered at the same time, conviction overflowing from their eyes.
Until they understood her ability, they absolutely could not resist.
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