The council chamber rattled with anger.
"Those other villages are pushing too far! Do they really think Konoha fears them?"
An elder slammed his palm on the table, the impact echoing off the wooden walls.
"Yes! Do they want to drag us all back into chaos and see who dies first?"
Another spat, teeth grinding.
One by one, the elders followed, voices rising like storm winds.
But in the center of the room, Senju Hashirama sat silent. Too silent.
Even without Raizen's sardonic inner monologue, the room felt like a gamer lobby before a rage-quit moment.
Hashirama finally exhaled, long and heavy.
"Konoha cannot go to war."
The shouting cracked. The temperature fell.
Now that the Hokage seat hung empty and Raizen… gone… Hashirama knew any large-scale war would tear the village apart from the inside before the enemy even crossed the border.
He wouldn't drag the world back into blood-soaked fields if he could stop it.
"Do you really intend to hand over the Tailed Beasts?"
The question came from someone who already feared the answer.
Hashirama closed his eyes.
If the beasts were divided, power across nations could stabilize. Checks and balances.
It wasn't Raizen's plan. But it was his ideal: peace through equilibrium.
He stood.
"I've reviewed every demand," he said quietly. "I've decided… to distribute the Tailed Beasts to the other great villages."
Silence collapsed over the council. Then chaos erupted again.
"You can't!"
"Konoha will lose its deterrence!"
"What if they still attack after taking them!?"
Hashirama let the noise burn out before speaking again.
"If we refuse, they attack immediately."
His voice cut through like a blade.
"And we are not ready."
Silence again. This time, colder.
"I'll summon the First Kage of each village," Hashirama continued. "We settle the matter face-to-face."
One by one, the elders backed down. Some reluctantly. Some bitterly.
But they all understood: there wasn't another path that didn't end in smoke and corpses.
When the meeting finally adjourned, the room emptied—
except for Hyūga Tennin.
He stayed seated, brows furrowed, thinking like a man chewing glass.
"If Hashirama-sama divides the Tailed Beasts… perhaps the crisis ends. But if negotiations fail, if every village joins against us… Konoha collapses."
And Raizen had warned him:
If Konoha ever stood on the brink, activate the contingency.
Hyūga Tennin rose swiftly and slipped away.
He headed straight to a secluded chamber deep within Hyūga territory.
Inside, a man already waited—his frame lean, his left arm missing, his presence quiet and sharp.
Amamiya Ten, one of Raizen's hidden hands.
"Lord Tennin," Ten said. "Did you come to initiate the plan Amamiya-dono left behind?"
"Yes." Tennin's jaw tightened. "Hashirama intends to hand out the Tailed Beasts. The village could spiral into chaos. We can't wait any longer."
Amamiya Ten nodded.
"Anbu captains were all personally installed by the lord. The Five-Elder network answers to us as well. In terms of leverage… we are ready."
"Not enough." Tennin shook his head. "If certain people rebel, especially the powerful ones… Konoha will splinter. We must be ready for both the snakes that jump and the snakes still hiding."
Amamiya Ten frowned.
"And how does the lord intend to expose those still lurking?"
Tennin's lips curved—half smile, half warning.
"My lord left… a method."
His normally white Byakugan flickered.
Then shifted.
The veins around his temples tightened, and the pristine white turned crimson, the pupil curving into a boomerang-shaped mirror of light.
A mutated dojutsu—
the Kagami Byakugan, Raizen's hidden gift.
"With this," Tennin said softly, voice shaking with a strange resonance,
"every serpent will reveal itself."
Amamiya Ten inhaled sharply but bowed.
"…Then all will proceed as the lord planned."
He vanished into the dark.
Tennin waited a moment, then summoned a loyal Hyūga operative.
Orders whispered.
A nod.
A disappearance.
Less than an hour later, the operative returned—dragging a Senju ninja bearing the clan's crest.
Tennin stepped forward.
The Kagami Byakugan spun like a turning blade.
The Senju ninja's expression emptied.
Then his pupils slowly reshaped into the same boomerang form…
before fading back to normal.
Another seed planted.
Another serpent collared.
Hyūga Tennin closed his eyes.
Raizen's shadow was long… even in absence.
And Konoha would need it.