บท 271: 271: Possible Paths to Take
Chapter 271: Possible Paths to Take
—
On the other side of the world, Sasuke Uchiha walked into the Uchiha Hideout where Itachi was waiting for him.
As per Tobi's promise, he dropped Sasuke nearby where Itachi was. Then Sasuke and Suigetsu found Itachi and Kisame not far from them— where Itachi told Sasuke to come to meet him in the Uchiha Hideout, alone.
A few hours after that, Sasuke did. Suigetsu and Kisame were outside, and would probably start fighting if the glint in the former's eyes said anything.
But Sasuke could care less about any of that.
Suigetsu, Kisame, or both of them could die. Sasuke didn't care at all.
He only had one thing he cared about, and that was the man sitting on the throne in front of him.
"Genjutsu of that level," Sasuke spoke as his Mangekyou Sharingan sprung up to life. "Don't work on me."
Then, he set the throne in the flames of Amaterasu.
—-—
Hinata Hyuga was mentally unstable for the last few days.
Naruto was everything she ever dreamed out. The amount of real interaction between Naruto and her may be close to none, but he was still the man of her dreams.
It hurt seeing him run after Sakura, who clearly didn't like him in that way. Yet, at least, he was alive, at least he was there for her to see from time to time.
But now, he was no more.
Not even his corpse remained.
He was dead, his body erased by probably a tailed beast bomb from the two women who had become the Nine-Tailed Fox back then.
Hinata… for the first time in her life, felt the irresistible urge to take revenge. To give those two women the same fate that Naruto had suffered.
Except the two women had fled from Konoha, consequently making it impossible for her to hurt them. The worst thing was, they were taken by her cousin, Neji-nii, who hadn't even bothered to meet her before leaving.
Truthfully, her hate wasn't directed towards Neji. Though it was painful knowing that Neji and Naruto were a bit close, yet Neji didn't punish Naruto's killer, it wasn't enough to make her hate him since— after all, he just may be closer to the two women compared to how close he was to Naruto. Because even though the two women had become Neji's maids just a bit more than a week ago, she was pretty sure he knew them from before.
The only thing she didn't like about Neji was how… uncaring he seemed about all this. He knew her feelings for Naruto, so the least he could have done was to apologise to her— or do anything, really. But he didn't even bother meeting her… It hurt her somewhat. She really thought they were close now, after so many years of distance. But maybe he couldn't entirely forgive her for the things she did to him before.
After all that, she thought she could just find him and have a talk with him— maybe get revenge on the two girls. 'Maybe', because she was aware she wouldn't be able to hurt them if Neji didn't allow her to.
Then, this happened.
Konoha was gone, and so was the Hyuga Clan. She had no idea if her parents and relatives were of the few lucky ones who managed to survive or not. If so, where were they? Where did Neji-nii take them to, why didn't it leave any tracks whatsoever?
The Konoha Ninjas didn't even have to reach the Rock Village to learn that Neji had come and was already gone. Even from a few towns away from the Rock Village, where the Konoha Ninjas had stopped to ask around, were the rumours about Neji single-handedly defeating all the Rock Ninjas, including the Tsuchikage.
"At least this means our previous hypothesis that Neji is collecting Jutsus and Kekkei Genkais from all the great villages was correct." Kakashi said, looking at all of them. "As far as we are aware, only the Sand and Mist is left for him to raid. The Sand is the closest from here, so he may be going there, however, we also have to consider that Neji shares an intimate relationship with Temari, the daughter of the 4th Kazekage and sister of the current Kazekage, so the chances of him raiding that village is low. So we are heading to the Mist Village. Any questions?"
"Is he really that strong?" The one to speak was Karin Uzumaki, the girl they were technically holding hostage but was basically travelling with them at this point, as she had no hand-cuffs or any restrictions to begin with. "It all seems… too much to believe for me. I have seen strong people, don't get me wrong, Orochimaru was pretty strong and Sasuke too. But…"
"It's alright, you don't have to believe us." Kakashi gave her a dry look. "We aren't obliged to convince you. Now, let's get moving."
Then, everyone moved towards the mist. They ran at their top speeds, not willing to waste this chance to meet Neji— as that'd mean they would only have one last chance to meet him in the Sand Village.
—-
Mei Terumī, the fifth Mizukage, sat in her Kage office as she read the letter from the Raikage that was delivered via the fastest messenger bird of Kumo.
"The Five Kage Summit…" she muttered under her breath as she looked at the letter. "This Neji Hyuga… Could it be he was the one behind the Rain village's destruction?"
The Raikage's letter talked about Neji Hyuga's attack first, and then the rest of Konoha and Sasuke Uchiha, who was later accompanied by Akatsuki members. Yet, what interested Mei the most was Neji Hyuga.
He had apparently, on his own, defeated the Raikage, the Eight Tails' Jinchuriki, and three more capable Ninjas with one being a Raikage candidate.
Before the Rain's destruction, the people who were on the edge of the city managed to flee outside. Since the Hidden Sand was the closest to the Hidden Rain, some Sand Ninjas managed to capture some Rain Ninjas. Later on, they, by themselves, had revealed information about this "Pain" guy who ran the Rain village until now. Unfortunately, the captured guys hadn't seen the person who attacked Rain, so they couldn't be sure of his identity. The Kazekage had sent messenger birds to the other villages to relay this information, which made Mei like the new Kazekage.
From her speculation though, the chances seemed high that this Neji Hyuga boy was the one who caused the catastrophe in Rain and thus had presumably killed Pain as well. What interested her though, was the question, what was he after? Why go after the Raikage, clean the Cloud Village's Jutsu Vault, and then leave? More Jutsus meant more power, sure, but he would need to spend centuries if he wished to master that many Jutsu. That seemed impractical.
Suddenly, knocks fell on the door.
"Come in," Mei allowed, watching her advisor, Ao, walk in with another letter in his hands. He was wearing a deep frown on his face. "What's up this time?"
"Neji Hyuga. Again." He put the letter on the table, gesturing to her to take it— and once she did and started reading it, her eyes widening, he spoke once more. "He's hunting Jutsus and Kekkei Genkai, for whatever reason. We don't know how he can steal the latter, but he can— the Tsuchikage isn't the type to joke about these things."
The letter came from the Tsuchikage himself, talking about the incident that had happened just two days ago.
Mei finished reading the letter.
"It is highly probable that he will come for us, as well… Though we may not face the relatively gentle treatment that the Tsuchikage received. It may rather be worse than Raikage's situation." She looked at his right eye, focusing on the veins that surrounded the eye patch. "Due to, well, your condition."
Ao had a Byakugan, a permanently activated one. Because it didn't belong to him and was rather implanted in him. He had killed a Hyuga Clan member in the third great ninja war, after which he implanted the Byakugan on his right eye socket.
Neji Hyuga, who was the Hyuga Branch Head for a long time, and had even briefly become the Head of Hyuga Main Family before the ultimate destruction of Konoha, might have a grudge against the Mist Village due to that.
"...I am ready to sacrifice myself for the village any day, Mizukage-sama," Ao said without hesitation after realising what he meant. "I will try to lessen the destruction as much as possible by presenting myself before him the moment he shows up."
"That won't be necessary," Mei shook her head. "From Tsuchikage's report, he runs a cult and all the cult priests were females. Perhaps he would want a Kage as his Priestess? In either case, it's better than dying without even the confirmation that my death would stop the destruction of the Mist. But if my plan works, if I hand over the Jutsus and then my Kekkei Genkais to him without any resistance, and then my body as well, we may escape this catastrophe."
"..." Ao frowned and lowered his head in self-anger.
"It's not your fault." Mei sighed. "It's just that I am not strong enough. The Raikage is much stronger and faster than me, yet this Neji Hyuga beat him badly. The Tsuchikage has countless deadly abilities, one of them is the Lava release, which is what my main set of attacks derive from, yet he was defeated as well. Moreover, the letters didn't clarify how Neji defeated the Raikage and Tsuchikage, probably because they don't want to embarrass themselves, so we don't know his attack pattern or his powers in general. We have no choice but to surrender."
"But still," Ao tried. "To sell yourself…"
Mei smiled sadly. "It's for the village, and hey, it's just one of the possible paths, it may not work. There is no reason why he should trust a Kage to join his ranks, as I can always betray him after learning about him from the inside."
"That's true…" Ao sighed. "Please be careful-"
Then the door sprung open and a Ninja ran in.
"M-Mizukage-sama!" The Ninja yelled. "Neji Hyuga is here!"
Mei jumped from her table and then ran outside, followed by Ao.
Really, she hoped he hadn't killed too many people by now. Because if he did, she may go all out to take revenge for her people.
God or a mortal pretending to be one, no one messes with her people and gets to walk out the Mist alive.
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