Land of Fire, Konoha.
In the reception room of Hiashi's mansion, Hizashi, who had returned from the Land of Water ahead of schedule, is now giving a detailed report to his elder brother about their hard work in the past few years.
While drinking tea, Hizashi is talking a lot of unimportant things.
With a dry cough, Hiashi interrupted him and said, "Hizashi, just get straight to the point."
"Okay."
Hizashi straightened his expression and said solemnly, "After several years of tracking him, we finally found the trace of Orochimaru some time ago and chased him all the way to the Land of Water, and then…"
Then, Hizashi told Hiashi about their experience in the Land of Water without omission and in detail, including some information about Akatsuki he heard from Kanpū.
When he heard that Orochimaru had joined Akatsuki, a Missing-nin organization whose mission is to capture all Biju, Hiashi showed a shocked and solemn expression. And when he heard about the series of Gentle Fist attacks outside Kirigakure, Hiashi couldn't help but put down the teacup in his hand with a bang, and stared at the little brother without blinking: "Hizashi, are you sure it is Gentle Fist?"
Hizashi nodded: "Those injuries on the bodies of Kirigakure's Shinobi are indeed caused by Gentle Fist, and the other party's Gentle Fist's mastery is definitely not below me!"
Hearing this, Hiashi's face gradually darkened, and the first thought in his mind was that there are indeed accomplices of Orochimaru hiding among Hizashi's group. He or they use shadow clones to create trouble outside Kirigakure to force Hizashi and his party to leave the Land of Water so that Orochimaru can escape!
Hiashi looked at his little brother, and asked nervously: "Hizashi, after entering the Land of Water, who among you…has been acting abnormally?"
"Abnormally?"
Hizashi was stunned for a moment, and his expression changed slightly after he came to his senses, "Big brother, are you doubting…"
Hiashi said: "Gentle Fist must rely on Byakugan to exert its maximum power, you should understand this! And the mastery of other party's Gentle Fist is not weaker than you, then…"
"Big brother!"
Hizashi hurriedly interrupted him. Thinking about it, he suddenly remembered something, and said, "I remember that in the Third Shinobi World War, Father died in Kirigakure's battlefield, and one of his Byakugan was taken away by Kirigakure's Shinobi. Could it be that…"
Hiashi shook his head: "If they want to cause the kind of injury you mentioned, they can't do it with Byakugan alone."
Hizashi opened his mouth to speak, but he couldn't find any reason to refute Hiashi.
In the end, he could only stiffen his neck and said: "Big brother, after entering the Land of Water, everyone has been acting together. The only time we acted separately was in Kirigakure, but at that time, we have Kirigakure's Shinobi monitoring us, so it is impossible for the situation you mentioned to happen!"
"Think carefully!" Hiashi frowned and said.
"Big brother, could it be that it is related to Akatsuki?" Hizashi abruptly changed the subject.
"Akatsuki…?"
Hiashi looked at his little brother's white eyes, sighed slightly, then nodded and said, "I will go to Yondaime later to find out the situation. You should also carefully recall your group's actions in the Land of Water!"
"Understood."
...
After sending away Hizashi, Hiashi quickly packed up and walked towards the Hokage Tower, but only halfway there, he met an Anbu who had been ordered to find him.
"Clan Head Hiashi, Hokage-sama is asking for your presence!" The Anbu said respectfully.
'Such a coincidence?'
Hiashi's face is slightly serious, and he had an intuition that Minato inviting him this time is related to what happened to Hizashi's group in the Land of Water, so he immediately sped up and rushed to the Hokage's Office.
"Yondaime-sama."
After Hiashi bowed, Minato invited him to sit on the sofa next to him.
"For Yondaime-sama to call me over at this time, it should be related to the Land of Water, right?" Hiashi asked straight to the point.
Minato nodded solemnly, and then handed over a letter to him.
The letter comes from Kirigakure and is signed by Elder Genki. As for the content, of course, it severely condemns the Shinobi of Konoha's Hyuga Clan for committing crimes outside Kirigakure. They not only injure and maimed a large number of Kirigakure's elite Genin, they even crazily killed Yondaime Mizukage!
He also urged Minato to surrender the immediately hand over the perpetrator and compensate Kirigakure for its massive losses!
Otherwise, Kirigakure will declare of war on Konoha!
This letter was sent by Genki immediately after confirming the death of Yondaime Mizukage. The attitude on the letter is very tough, and it shows the fierce stance that they will fight if Konoha doesn't hand over the culprit. Of course, these are all bluff. After experiencing the blood mist policy, Kirigakure urgently needs to recuperate, so how can they dare to start a war with Konoha?
Furthermore, Genki is old and weak. If Kirigakure really declares war against Konoha, he will definitely be in trouble, and he will not send Mei as envoy to Konoha.
So in Minato's view, this letter is just a letter of condemnation written in exasperation. Although he feels heartbroken about what happened to Kirigakure, it is nothing more than that.
After reading the letter, Hiashi's face turned blue!
"Yondaime-sama, is this a joke?!"
Hiashi gritted his teeth and said in a muffled voice, "Kirigakure's Yondaime Mizukage was said to be a Jinchuriki, who can perfectly control Sanbi, so how can such a character be killed by Gentle Fist?"
Although saying this is like belittling their Hyuga Clan's Gentle Fist, Hiashi can't openly admit that there is nothing wrong with the content of the letter, right?
Minato did not answer his question head-on, but instead asked: "I heard that your younger brother is back?"
"He and the rest of Branch House's members have just come back from the Land of Water…"
Hiashi nodded subconsciously, and then he was horrified, and asked nervously, "Yondaime-sama, you won't really believe it was Hizashi and his group who killed Yondaime Mizukage, right?!"
Minato smiled and shook his head: "Of course not, the one who did this should be Akatsuki."
Hiashi breathed a sigh of relief, and then quickly follow Minato's words to discuss about Akatsuki.
The two parties briefly exchanged information, and Minato said: "It seems that it is time to let Clan Head Hiashi know."
Hiashi's face turned serious, and he felt that what Minato said next will be very important.
"There is a member of the Akatsuki who is actually from the Hyuga Clan."
Minato said, "His name is… Hyuga Taki!"
"What?"
'Hyuga Taki?'
'How is it possible!'
Hiashi looked horrified, because he knew that Taki had died during the Third Shinobi World War and there was no body left!
'Wait!'
'Doesn't the absence of corpses mean that no one can be sure that he's really dead?'
'He faked his death?!'
'That means…'
'It was Hyuga Taki who attacked Kirigakure's Shinobi outside Kirigakure, and not Hizashi and the others?'
'The one who killed Yondaime Mizukage was also Hyuga Taki?'
Hiashi breathed a sigh of relief, and immediately remembered the theft incident at Root Headquarters many years ago.
Hiashi originally thought that someone in Branch House had colluded with Orochimaru for that incident, and even asked his younger brother to chase Orochimaru with twelve Branch House's Elite Jonin…
'But now, it seems that it is also Hyuga Taki's handiwork!'
'Bastard!!'
A raging anger surged from Hiashi's heart!
But there was a vague feeling that something was wrong.
'Hyuga Taki was just a Tokubetsu Jonin when he died…'
'After all these years, that guy has actually grown to the point of beating Yondaime Mizukage to death?'
'No, there was also Orochimaru in Kirigakure at that time. It must be Orochimaru who defeated Yondaime Mizukage, and then Hyuga Taki just deal with the last strike, which put the blame on our Hyuga Clan!'
Hiashi took a deep breath. At this moment, his perception seemed to be completely unleashed, and all the doubts that had once confused him are perfectly answered!
"Yondaime-sama, how do you plan to reply to Kirigakure?" After finally calming down the thoughts in his mind, Hiashi raised his head and asked nervously.
"I will hand over Hyuga Taki's information to Kirigakure and issue a wanted order for Hyuga Taki." Minato said.
Hiashi nodded solemnly and said: "Okay!"
To be honest, he was really worried that Minato would push the Hyuga Clan out as a scapegoat.
Although he doesn't know why he feels this way.
"As for the rest, let's wait until Kanpū comes back." The information Minato currently has is not enough, after all, many of the contents of this letter are ambiguous, and Hizashi brought back none of the information regarding the murder of Yondaime Mizukage, so everything has to wait for Kanpū.
In a blink of an eye, half a month has passed.
At the end of June Konoha's Year 56, Kirigakure's envoy group, which is headed by Mei, officially entered Konoha.