Two Months Later
Mist Shinobi Border
Cold wind swept across the shinobi encampment near the Mist border. Dozens of tents were arranged across the muddy ground, and groups of shinobi moved between watch posts, supply wagons, and defensive positions.
Inside the largest command tent, the atmosphere had become extremely tense.
Several shinobi stood silently along the edges of the tent, watching the confrontation unfolding before them.
Three figures stood at the centre.
Toyoma Uchiha.
Fugaku Uchiha.
Hyuga Toko.
The argument had already been going on for several minutes.
Toyoma suddenly slammed his hand against the wooden command table.
"Hey, white-eyed coward, if you are this afraid, why did you come here?"
Toyoma glared directly at Hyuga Toko, anger clear in his voice.
"Did you come here just so you can confirm your slaves are still your slaves?"
Several shinobi inside the tent immediately exchanged uneasy looks.
The insult was not small.
The Hyuga branch family system was always a sensitive subject.
But Toyoma clearly had no intention of holding back.
Most of the shinobi stationed at this border camp were Uchiha shinobi, along with several shinobi from other clans.
And now this Hyuga main branch shinobi had come here and demanded that more shinobi leave the battlefield.
Hyuga shinobi and their Byakugan were extremely valuable strategic assets.
Because of their vision ability, several Hyuga were always stationed at every border.
But this man had just demanded that more than half of the Hyuga branch shinobi here return with him, claiming that another Byakugan leak might happen.
For that reason, he argued that the Uchiha clan, as another dojutsu clan, should understand their situation.
Fugaku had tried to agree with the request.
But Toyoma immediately rebuked him.
"You call yourself the commander here and don't even understand the value of the Byakugan."
Toyoma said coldly as he looked directly at Fugaku.
"Toyoma," Fugaku replied in a calm, persuasive tone.
"The Hyuga senior is correct here. Their shinobi could become targets because of that incident."
"And they also have permission from the village to take any Hyuga whose seal appears unstable."
The tension inside the tent grew heavier.
Outside, several shinobi could already hear raised voices coming from the command tent.
The reason for this conflict had started only a few days ago.
A Hyuga shinobi had been killed while serving as part of a reinforcement squad on the Mist border.
Normally, that would not have been considered unusual.
Deaths were common during war.
But something unexpected had happened.
The Byakugan of the shinobi had not been destroyed.
Something had gone wrong with his Caged Bird Seal, and after his death, one of his Byakugan remained intact.
The Mist shinobi Ao, whose squad had been present at that battlefield, obtained the Byakugan.
And he transplanted it.
When the news spread to the other villages and finally reached Konoha, it quickly became a shocking topic.
To prevent something like this from happening again, the Hyuga clan immediately sent a main family jonin to the Mist border to personally inspect the Caged Bird Seal on every Hyuga shinobi stationed here.
The main branch shinobi arrived with several branch family shinobi accompanying him as guards.
After they inspected the seals of all Hyuga shinobi stationed at this border, the main branch shinobi began taking several Hyuga shinobi back with him, claiming they needed to be protected.
And that decision had directly created the current argument.
At the edge of the camp, Suki watched the group of Hyuga shinobi who had recently arrived.
"Uncle Uzuku, I didn't think those white-eyed people of the main branch would come here."
She glanced toward the Hyuga shinobi standing nearby.
Their pale eyes calmly observed everything happening in the camp.
At this moment, the situation on this battlefield had actually become much better compared to before.
After Toyoma had arrived with reinforcements, several dangerous Mist squads had already been eliminated.
After completing several difficult missions, Toyoma began to gain a reputation across the border forces.
Many shinobi had begun calling him a genius of space-time jutsu.
His combat style was extremely strange.
Using his Blink technique together with his Treasury Space, he could suddenly appear in different locations while launching large numbers of swords and kunai at his enemies.
To enemy shinobi, it often looked as if weapons were appearing from thin air.
Of course, there was one small inconvenience.
His Treasury Space lacked an automatic collection capability.
After every battle, members of his squad had to walk across the battlefield collecting the weapons he had thrown so that he could store them again.
Several shinobi still remembered the strange sight of Toyoma standing calmly nearby while his squad gathered swords scattered across the ground.
But despite that inconvenience—
His techniques had proven extremely effective.
And because of that, many shinobi stationed at this border now respected Toyoma deeply.
Which only made the argument inside the command tent even more intense.
"If you are here to check your clan shinobi only, I don't have any problem," Toyoma said coldly.
"But if you think that you can take back shinobi at the border without any serious reason, then you can get lost."
Toyoma's eyes shifted slightly as he looked past Hyuga Toko.
Behind him stood six Hyuga branch family shinobi, their pale Byakugan eyes watching the tense confrontation inside the command tent.
"If any branch Hyuga shinobi leaves with him," Toyoma continued in a calm and cold tone,
"Then he will be treated as a traitor and killed before reaching Konoha."
The moment those words were spoken, the atmosphere inside the tent turned extremely tense.
Several shinobi around the tent exchanged uneasy glances.A few frowned while others shifted their weight uncomfortably.
Threatening to kill a fellow Konoha shinobi was not a small matter.
Even Fugaku's expression slightly hardened at Toyoma's words.
Hyuga Toko, who had just been openly reprimanded by Toyoma, looked at him with burning anger.
He was barely controlling himself.
His breathing had become uneven, rising and falling rapidly as he stared at Toyoma.
The veins around his temples twitched faintly.
"Uchiha Fugaku!"
Hyuga Toko suddenly shouted, his voice loud and filled with anger as he turned toward the Uchiha commander.
"Is your Uchiha clan standing against us, Hyuga?"
The question echoed inside the command tent.
Several shinobi quietly looked toward Fugaku, waiting for his response.
Hyuga Toko's mood had already worsened the moment Toyoma insulted him earlier.
Calling the branch family slaves was a direct insult toward the Hyuga clan's internal system.
The branch family tradition of the Hyuga clan had existed for generations.
It was a complicated and sensitive topic even among the Hyuga themselves.
Most people inside Konoha avoided speaking about it directly.
But this Uchiha brat—
Had openly insulted it without any hesitation or consideration.
And that humiliation made Hyuga Toko's anger burn even stronger.
"Senior Toko, it is not like that," Fugaku said hurriedly, trying to calm him down.
"But letting a large number of Hyuga leave the border will greatly disadvantage us, and the risk here for our people would increase."
He slightly raised his hand in a calming gesture.
"Please try to understand it," Fugaku said.
Hyuga Toko heard Fugaku's words, but he did not even consider them for a moment.
Instead, he immediately replied in anger.
"Then what about my clan's protection?"
"If the Byakugan gets leaked again, will you take responsibility for it?" Toko said sharply.
His voice carried clear anger.
"Isn't this also risky for the Hyuga clan?"
Fugaku listened quietly, his expression becoming more serious as he looked at Toko.
It was clear that Toko had no intention of considering the situation at the border even a little.
"Senior, many lives here are already at risk without the Hyuga observation ability," Fugaku said again.
He kept his voice calm, but there was a faint firmness in his tone.
"Try to understand the situation a little."
But Toko did not even look at him.
He simply gave a cold snort.
"Hmph. The Hyuga clan can never allow its Byakugan to leak."
"We only want to secure our clan heritage."
"And that is enough."
Toko said as he looked directly at Fugaku.
His words were blunt and unapologetic.
Fugaku's expression slowly became grim after hearing that.
For a moment, the command tent fell into a heavy silence.
Several shinobi standing nearby quietly exchanged glances, clearly sensing that the situation was becoming worse.
Toyoma had been listening to the discussion between Toko and Fugaku for several minutes without speaking.
Fugaku continued trying to persuade Toko calmly, while Toko barely even acknowledged his words.
The more Toyoma watched, the worse his mood became.
His eyes moved between the two of them.
Finally—
Toyoma suddenly slammed his hand down on the wooden command table.
Bang!
The sound echoed inside the command tent.
The entire table cracked in the middle, splitting into two pieces.
For a moment, the entire atmosphere inside the tent froze.
Several shinobi instinctively stepped back, their eyes turning toward the source of the noise.
They all stared at the fifteen-year-old Toyoma standing beside the shattered table.
"Enough."
Toyoma's voice was cold and sharp.
"If you can't even think about the situation and understand it properly, then don't talk."
Then his gaze shifted toward Fugaku.
Anger flickered in his eyes as his Sharingan activated.
Six tomoe slowly spun within his crimson eyes as he stared directly at Fugaku.
"Do you even know that you are the commander here?"
Toyoma's voice became sharper.
"With this pleading tone, what exactly are you asking this old man for?"
His finger pointed toward Hyuga Toko.
"You just put him on your shoulder, and he started pissing there."
"Don't you have any dignity as the commander on this frontier?"
"And as the head of the Uchiha clan?"
Fugaku listened silently as Toyoma continued speaking.
His face slowly darkened as he looked at Toyoma.
What Toyoma was saying—
Was it wrong?
Not entirely.
But Fugaku had been trying to avoid escalating the conflict with the Hyuga.
That was why he had not pressured Toko more strongly.
Toyoma continued speaking without stopping.
"This old bastard doesn't even listen to you."
"And you are grovelling before him so that he might hear you."
Toyoma looked around the tent at the surrounding Hyuga shinobi.
"Tell me something."
"If this is your attitude toward him, then in front of all these Hyuga shinobi—"
"Will there be any fear of authority toward you?"
"Will they even listen to you now?"
Toyoma's words came out rapidly without pause.
"Don't you understand that you are their commander?"
"And that you have full authority over them until the end of this war?"
Several Uchiha shinobi standing inside the tent silently exchanged glances.
Many of them felt that Toyoma's words were not wrong.
On the battlefield, every shinobi present fell under the authority of the commander.
But Hyuga Toko had shown no intention of respecting that command structure.
Instead, he had only been asserting his authority over the Hyuga shinobi under his clan.
And that behaviour was something many shinobi inside the tent had already noticed.
Fugaku, who had been listening to Toyoma's nonstop rant about dignity and authority, finally lost some of his patience.
"Toyoma."
Fugaku's voice was calm.
"Remember who you are speaking to."
He said as he looked directly at Toyoma.
At the same time, Fugaku activated his Sharingan, the crimson eyes staring sharply at Toyoma as he released a faint pressure into the tent.
Toyoma, who heard Fugaku's words, suddenly looked baffled.
Instead of reprimanding Hyuga Toko—
Fugaku had chosen to reprimand him.
Did this idiot get kicked in the head by a donkey?
Dumbass. I want you to show your authority to this Hyuga old bastard, not me.
Toyoma cursed inwardly.
The same confused reaction appeared on the faces of several shinobi inside the tent.
When they saw Fugaku's expression calm down earlier, many of them had assumed he would reprimand Hyuga Toko.
But the opposite had happened.
He had reprimanded his own clan's genius.
Uzuku and Suki also looked toward their clan head, Fugaku, with baffled expressions.
Hyuga Toko had also been listening to Toyoma from beginning to end.
He had expected Fugaku to say something to him as well, since it was obvious that he had not even been listening to Fugaku's explanations.
Toko had even prepared himself to respond.
But the result completely overturned his expectations.
Fugaku reprimanded his own clan member instead.
Pff.
A small laugh escaped from Hyuga Toko's mouth before he managed to suppress it.
But the sound had already been heard by everyone inside the tent.
Several shinobi turned to look at him.
Toyoma's face darkened instantly.
His eyes slowly shifted toward Fugaku.
For a moment, the tent became silent.
Then Toyoma suddenly sighed.
A wide smile appeared on his face.
But the smile looked extremely chilling.
Several shinobi who saw it felt a cold chill run down their spines.
"Yes, Commander."
"I understand."
"I will keep quiet until you two come to some result."
Toyoma spoke slowly, emphasising each word as he looked directly at Fugaku.
Then he sat down calmly.
But his gaze remained fixed on Fugaku and Hyuga Toko with a stern and dangerous expression.
Toyoma's calm expression was far more unsettling than his earlier anger.
Both Fugaku and Toko knew very well what kind of person Toyoma was.
Fugaku looked at Toyoma's expression and felt a faint unease in his heart.
If I don't come up with a good solution...
I don't know what kind of chaos this brat might make.
Fugaku thought silently.
Fugaku glanced once more at Toyoma, who was now sitting quietly with his gaze fixed on him.
Then Fugaku slowly turned toward Hyuga Toko and spoke in a deep voice.
"Hyuga senior, as the commander here, I hold full authority over the shinobi stationed on this front."
"And whatever they do must go through me."
He said calmly as he looked directly at Hyuga Toko.
Hyuga Toko remained silent for a moment.
Even he understood that ignoring Fugaku completely now would not be wise.
Especially with Toyoma sitting there quietly and all those Uchiha shinobi standing behind him.
Toko had already heard plenty about this brat's reputation inside the village.
He knew very well how Toyoma had once openly rebuked the Hokage and the elders without caring about their authority.
The incident had spread across the village and embarrassed them publicly.
Because of that, Toko also understood something clearly.
If this situation escalated further, that brat might truly do something unpredictable.
Fugaku noticed that Toko was finally listening to him.
Seeing this, he felt slightly relieved and decided to explain his reasoning more clearly.
"Senior Hyuga, you also know how important the Byakugan's observation ability is during battle."
"Because of that, your clan's shinobi are needed on every border."
Fugaku spoke slowly, maintaining a calm and steady tone.
"I can allow you to take some of them back."
"But not all of them."
He paused slightly before continuing.
"You are not even considering what might happen to the soldiers here if more than half of the Hyuga leave this border."
"And how much the risk will increase if the Mist village learns about this?"
Fugaku finished speaking with a deep breath, his tone still calm but firm.
All eyes in the tent turned toward Hyuga Toko.
Now the decision was his.