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Chapter 257: Gifts and Death
Ino was here?
Hinata looked at the clock on the side. It wasn't even nine in the morning.
Ino wasn't at home packing but came to the Hyuga grounds to find her...
Hinata nodded. "Let her come in."
"Yes, Lady Hinata." The Branch member bowed and retreated.
Only when he couldn't see the living room did he stand up and run quickly towards the clan gate.
He breathed a huge sigh of relief in his heart.
In the past, deep down, he looked down on this always weak and shy Main House young lady.
Even though he had to maintain respect due to the status gap between Main and Branch families, it was only superficial.
How could such a shy and not-so-strong Main House lady be capable of inheriting the Hyuga Clan and controlling the fate of all their Branch families?
But she had no choice; even if he was dissatisfied deep down, she was born the Clan Leader's eldest daughter...
But now...
Since Lady Hinata was taken away and then appeared in front of them again, he felt a huge change.
There was a faint authority about her that made him feel fear.
Not just ninja power, but pressure on him as an ordinary person right now.
More importantly, status and position.
Lady Hinata was now not just the Main House young lady, but a core member of Akatsuki.
All Konoha ninjas, including the Fifth Hokage Lady Tsunade, had to obey her orders.
This Branch member's superficial respect for Hinata before had now turned into substance, strengthened a hundredfold.
A moment later.
Led by the Branch member, Ino arrived at the living room.
She was carrying an exquisite gift box in her hand.
Fight on!
She cheered herself on in her heart.
Taking a deep breath, a soft and sweet smile appeared on her face. "Hinata."
"Ino." Hinata responded with a smile.
Hanabi was still lying on her legs, looking curiously at the exquisite gift box with her eyes.
Ino knelt opposite Hinata. "Hinata, you returned safely and became a core member of Akatsuki. I came specifically to congratulate you."
She held up the gift box with both hands and smiled. "This is the Star Flower treasured by my Yamanaka Clan. Please accept it as a gift for your safe return."
Hinata was silent for a moment, then nodded. "Okay, thank you."
Since being cleared by Lord Alex, she felt she had become smarter than before.
If it were the past, she would definitely wonder why Ino came specifically to give her a precious gift.
But now, she knew Ino came representing the Yamanaka Clan.
The so-called gift was both for her and to express closeness and curry favor.
"Sister, let me." Hanabi abruptly climbed up, grinning as she took the gift box from Ino's hands.
"Ino." Hinata said calmly, "Living in Amegakure, as long as you don't cause trouble and don't disobey Lady Konan and Lord Alex's orders, there won't be life-threatening danger. It's just changing a place to live, you don't need to be too worried."
Ino looked at Hinata, feeling somewhat hesitant inside.
Perhaps it was truly as Hinata said—as long as they lived peacefully, safety wasn't an issue.
But after personal safety, they had to consider livelihood and the clan's survival...
Would Amegakure still allow them to live together as a clan?
Would they be broken up, or even forcibly have the ninja clan dissolved...
As the daughter of the Yamanaka Clan Leader, Ino had been influenced by what she saw and heard since childhood.
She knew very clearly what Konoha thought of their ninja clans.
If they became strong, they would face suppression from the Hokage and the village higher-ups.
If they were too strong and at odds with the top, they might be the next Uchiha, facing annihilation.
Her father once told her:
The Yamanaka Clan, although belonging to the so-called Hokage faction for a long time, was also walking on thin ice.
The clan's development had to know limits; they couldn't let the Hokage harbor suspicion and dislike towards the clan.
"Hinata..." Ino hesitated, finally asking the question she cared about most.
"Lady Konan... and that Lord Alex, how do they view ninja clans?"
"Going to live in Amegakure, will ninja clans like ours be forced to disband?"
"No." Hinata smiled knowingly. "You saw Lady Konan's power last night."
"In front of that power which is no different from a god, nothing can cause trouble for Lady Konan."
She looked at Ino. "So, ninja clans can continue to exist in Amegakure."
"No matter what stage the ninja clan develops to, neither Lady Konan nor Lord Alex will be fearful."
But if they swell to the point of forgetting who they are...
Then whether to destroy them or not is just a thought between the two of them.
Hinata didn't say this sentence out loud.
This was the confidence and conviction brought by absolute power.
Why did the Hokage suppress the ninja clans in the village?
In the final analysis, wasn't it because their own power wasn't strong enough, worrying that their status and power would be threatened?
This point didn't exist at all with Konan and Alex.
After chatting for a while, Ino bid farewell to Hinata and walked out of the Hyuga estate.
She looked back at many companions who, like her, were carrying gifts to visit Hinata.
Shikamaru, Choji, Tenten, and so on.
After greeting them one by one, she returned to the Yamanaka Clan.
The gift was delivered, and she sort of got a vague confirmation from Hinata that the situation was a bit better than imagined.
As for how it would actually be later, she could only know after arriving in Amegakure...
On the other side.
Hokage Building.
Inside the Hokage's Office, Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado stood by the window, both staring gloomily at the Hyuga estate.
On the road, quite a few people carrying all kinds of gift boxes swarmed towards the Hyuga grounds.
The stream of people was woven together, bustling with activity.
Yet their Hokage's Office was deserted.
"Hmph!! A bunch of snobs clinging to the powerful!" Koharu Utatane couldn't help but say sourly.
"These people clung to us before, now they turn around and run to cling to the legs of that white-eyed brat. Simply shameless to the extreme!"
Homura Mitokado's eyes were cold. "I didn't expect the Hyuga Clan, which we suppressed to death all this time, would thoroughly take off because of that white-eyed brat."
"Hiashi Hyuga really gave birth to a good daughter..."
"Homura." Koharu retracted her gaze, her aged face full of unwillingness. "What should we and our families do?"
"If we move to Amegakure, I'm afraid most of the assets our families stole from Konoha over this lifetime will be lost."
"Our families are now living in the Uchiha clan grounds located in the village center. That's a prime location. I really can't bear to part with it!"
Homura Mitokado was equally unwilling.
Waking up overnight, the ninja world had changed suddenly.
The power and wealth controlled for most of his life were about to turn to nothing. How could he be willing?
"Koharu." He narrowed his eyes. "Since we could develop from a small family in Konoha to this scale..."
"We can do the same in Amegakure!"
"Akatsuki?" He sneered. "So what if their power is strong? As long as we are within the village rules, it's enough for us to operate."
"Just treat her power as comparable to the First Hokage. But didn't the Konoha Village established by the First eventually fall into our hands? Even the Senju Clan disappeared."
Koharu Utatane nodded with a cold face. "Homura, you're right."
"The ninja world has never been about power, but about social connections and political tactics."
"As long as we operate properly, Amegakure might not necessarily fail to be replaced by our families like Konoha was!"
The two hadn't experienced last night's battle; they heard about it from the returning ninjas.
Their guess of Konan's strength was merely using Hashirama Senju as a comparison.
They had seen the battle between Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha when they were young.
But without seeing Konan's strength with their own eyes, it was hard to imagine what level power surpassing Hashirama Senju actually was.
Taking for granted that as long as they repeated their operations from Konoha in Amegakure, they could successfully usurp Amegakure.
Unfortunately... they didn't have time to do it...
Unknowingly, the two who were chatting and planning collapsed on the ground at the same time.
Their faces still retained the vicious expressions from just now, not even realizing their own deaths...
Bang!
Hiashi Hyuga pushed the door open and walked in. Without even looking at the two lying on the ground, he said coldly:
"Drag these two old dogs out and burn them."
"Yes!"
.....
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