Twilight wasn't far off, but the road seemed endless, disappearing into the horizon. Rice fields dotted the landscape, with workers still gathering their tools and preparing to rest.
Even without his Byakugan, Kiyoshi had perfect vision for all these things and more. If the situation weren't so dire, he would surely have appreciated such a work of art.
The soft wind caressed his skin, the fabric on his head rustling gently. People came and went along the dirt road, casting strange looks at Kiyoshi, only making him feel even more irritated.
He was dirty, reeking with the stench of days of accumulated sweat. His once beautiful and exquisite armor was nowhere to be seen. His elegant kimono was torn in several places. His previously unblemished white skin was now covered in mud and some dried blood. Where there had been no scars on his body before, now there were several small cuts.
'I've accompanied the clan into battles and wars since I was 8 years old. Never in my entire existence have I been so humiliated!'
Kiyoshi's body burned with silent rage. His fists were clenched tightly, but his face remained stoic, never revealing his real emotions or feelings. Kiyoshi had been taught in his clan to never, ever, let an enemy know your thoughts and emotions.
Kiyoshi was tired, hungry, wounded, and distressed, and honestly, he missed his mother. But his mask of stone never broke, not for a single moment.
Activating his Byakugan briefly, Kiyoshi noticed that the road led into a small forest, and in the middle of that forest, he could vaguely sense four considerable chakra signatures. They weren't civilians. And a fifth chakra signature, far too powerful for a small hunting and assassination team.
That chakra signature felt like bubbling lava, and at the same time, like an ocean, vast, incomparable, immeasurably gigantic. The magnitude of that chakra was enough to make his whole body tremble, as if he were standing before something far beyond his understanding. Of course, this was just a feeling—the actual chakra reserve was a bit smaller than his father's, the current head of the Hyuuga clan.
Kiyoshi knew he couldn't stop walking now, or he'd be recognized. He couldn't run back to the city. He had no reinforcements, no escape route. Someone with that much chakra would certainly be well-versed in ninjutsu. They could hit Kiyoshi even from that distance. If that person was an Uzumaki, Kiyoshi stood no chance, for there were few arts more mysterious than fuinjutsu.
'Calm down, Kiyoshi! Think objectively! The Uzumaki clan would never be involved in this, especially if it had something to do with the assassination attempt on the current daimyo of the Land of Fire. That would be detrimental to the Land of Whirlpools—it doesn't make sense for them to be part of this. But who could have orchestrated all of this?'
Kiyoshi was sweating profusely, his legs felt like jelly, and his mind was blank. He knew he would die today. He knew there was no way to survive. But he was a Hyuuga! He would die fighting bravely for his life and his clan, with a stoic expression on his face, just as he had been taught!
'But that doesn't change the fact that I'm going to die. It doesn't matter if I die crying and begging or with a smile on my face. I'm going to die. And death is final.'
Kiyoshi could feel the tears welling up in his eyes, his mind a mess.
Kiyoshi sensed something strange in the air, as if the earth's breath had changed. The whisper of steel cut through the silence before his eyes could detect the movement—and then they appeared, like shadows triggered in the tall grass.
In that moment of distraction, from the tall grass surrounding the road, 20 fully armed samurai emerged, their katanas humming with chakra, their armor dirty with earth and grime, probably having waited a long time for this ambush.
Instead of attacking separately, five samurai immediately launched themselves onto the road, attacking with their chakra-imbued katanas, forcing Kiyoshi to activate his Byakugan instantly while dodging towards the grassy field on the other side of the road.
People started screaming and fleeing the area, while the old cloth on Kiyoshi's head was cut as he used his right palm to deflect a blade and his left palm descended on the attacking samurai's pancreas.
'I can't let them surround me… the moment they do, I'm done for.'
Kiyoshi was already panting, but his expression didn't change as he suffered a barrage of attacks from all directions. His chakra had been at its lowest for days, with no time to recover.
He ducked to avoid being cut in half, then performed a backflip, dodging a thrust. A samurai tried to rush him, thinking Kiyoshi was at his weakest.
A grave mistake. The last mistake that man would make in his life.
Kiyoshi used all he knew of the Gentle Fist, quickly striking the tenketsu in the man's shoulder, and swiftly coated his other hand with chakra, making it as sharp as a knife, decapitating the poor fool before he knew what his greatest mistake was.
'One down, 19 to go.'
Dodging by mere centimeters from a sword aimed at his neck, the fatigue increased, and Kiyoshi couldn't avoid a kick that sent him flying a few meters.
Seeing four enemies behind him, Kiyoshi quickly devised a plan and began weaving hand signs while still in the air.
'Listen, Kiyoshi. If you're ever surrounded, divide and conquer. Don't be a fool and think you can defeat them all at once. The less risk you take, the higher your chance of coming out victorious.' Kiyoshi could almost hear his father's voice in his mind. 'Heh, this blood loss must be making me hallucinate.'
Finishing the last hand sign, Kiyoshi landed with his hands on the ground.
"Earth Style: Earth Wall!"
The 174 cm tall, 3-meter wide wall rose in front of Kiyoshi, isolating the four samurai from the rest.
'I have to be fast and lethal. Now!'
Kiyoshi darted to the side, dodging two swords aimed at his head and neck.
Using his Byakugan to its minimum range around him to conserve the little chakra he had left, Kiyoshi imbued both hands with chakra and jumped back into the fray.
Sidestepping slightly, he escaped with just a small cut on his chest. One hand stopped the blow coming from his left, while the other went straight for the samurai's lung, whose sword was still extended.
Leaping to the side and then back, Kiyoshi used the Gentle Fist, quickly striking the tenketsu of the neck and arm of the samurai who wasn't fast enough to dodge. Kiyoshi finished by imbuing his hand with chakra and decapitating the man.
'One less, 18 to go.'
Quickly weaving hand signs, Kiyoshi created a small pillar of earth that momentarily blocked a samurai while he fought the other two, while the rest shouted curses and began circling around the earth wall Kiyoshi had created.
'I need to be faster! Faster!'
"Hah, hah…"
In a stroke of luck, he landed a good hit on the samurai's heart, then immediately pierced the man's chest with his Doton-enhanced hand, crushing the samurai's ribcage despite his sturdy armor.
Quickly ducking, Kiyoshi dodged a blow from behind, and from that position kicked the man with all his strength.
"Surround him, damn it! He's just a kid!"
One of them shouted, but Kiyoshi couldn't tell who. His Byakugan had deactivated from lack of chakra, his eyes blurred from fatigue.
He heard the wall collapse, probably from the man he had kicked falling into it, and hopefully, the man was dead.
'Just a few more… just a little more, and I can go home…'
Kiyoshi was dodging purely on instinct but no longer had the strength to attack. He forcibly reactivated his Byakugan, veins bulging on his face, his last effort before his death.
Then he felt it—he saw it—that massive wave of chakra heading his way. He quickly glanced over, only to see a child no older than 8 rushing towards him, a large wave of hot mist emanating from his mouth.
'So this is how I die?'
The mist began to spread, and Kiyoshi saw the disturbing smile on the child's face. That's when he belatedly noticed the two samurai behind him, their katanas raised and ready to kill him.
He could only feel endless anguish at this realization. He didn't want to die. Not yet. So much to see, so much to feel, so much to do.
All of this takes time to describe, but it happened in an instant. The boy leapt horizontally, and even with the heavy mist spreading from the boy's ninjutsu, Kiyoshi could still see everything clearly.
The boy stopped two meters away from the two samurai and threw a punch. A simple punch.
And then hellfire followed. The samurai were turned to ashes before they could notice anything. The flames formed a cone, stopping just millimeters from the boy's skin.
Kiyoshi came to his senses, the boy was already in another place, fighting with sloppy but terrifying taijutsu.
Each punch was accompanied by powerful flames, each kick followed by a burning, incandescent hell. Kiyoshi came to his senses and, using what was left of his endurance, joined the fight.
He needed to do little, as the boy's brutality and devastating power gradually broke the samurais' fighting spirit, and within a few minutes, the last samurai fell, incinerated to ashes before hitting the ground.
The boy sat near Kiyoshi, panting and visibly exhausted, while Kiyoshi used a rag to wipe the blood from his hands, barely maintaining a dignified image, even though his entire body trembled with fatigue, begging for nutrients and rest.
"I think that was more than enough," he said in a calm tone, as if what had just happened was an everyday occurrence.
"It was only the beginning," the boy replied with a tired smile on his face.
"My name is Engetsu Getsuya, and you?"
"Engetsu? From the same clan… hah hah… Engetsu? I apologize for… my lack of manners. My name is Hyuuga Kiyoshi. The circumstances aren't the best, but it's a pleasure to meet you." With each word Kiyoshi spoke, his body trembled in pain, his vision darkening, a clear sign he was about to pass out from exhaustion.
The boy just laughed stupidly, and Kiyoshi carefully sat down, panting slightly, and looked at the boy with his own eyes, the mist completely dissipating to reveal the setting sun on the horizon, behind the large trees that stood in the Land of Fire.
'Today is a beautiful day to be alive…'
—————
Years later, Kiyoshi would write in a journal that would be passed on to his children, and from his children to his grandchildren:
"It was on this day that I met my greatest and dearest friend. It
was on this day that the Hyuuga clan found a helping hand, a brother who is not of blood, a partnership that will last for ages."