Hiashi listened quietly, his fingers gripping the hilt turning slightly white from the force.
Behind him, Neji listened as these elders—whom he had once regarded as the embodiment of authority and rules—tore into each other like ugly beasts, slandering his uncle.
They even viciously tried to shift the blame onto Naruto and his two younger cousins; the stirring emotion he felt because of his uncle had long since been replaced by intense disgust, anger, and a bone-deep contempt for the people before him.
Decadent, cowardly, selfish, and malicious to such an extent!
When the final wail of "every debt has its debtor" fell, a brief, suffocating silence filled the tea room.
There were only heavy, terrified gasps and suppressed sobs.
Then, Hiashi moved.
He slowly, extremely slowly, raised the dainichi gatsukiri in his hand completely.
Under the interplay of lamplight and moonlight, the blade flowed with a bone-chilling cold light, steadily aimed at those few terrified old faces behind the tea table.
There was no expected roar of rage, nor any impassioned sentence.
Only a terrifyingly calm voice, sounding as if it came from the depths of the Nine Underworlds yet carrying a strange sense of familiarity, broke the suffocating silence in the tea room:
"It seems that I, Hyuga Hiashi... am truly not welcome by you elders."
The voice wasn't loud, but it exploded like thunder in the ears of the five elders!
"To think that while I was away, you pushed everything... onto my head."
Hiashi finished the latter half of the sentence calmly, the dainichi gatsukiri in his hand not even trembling in the slightest.
The five elders were as if struck by a paralysis technique, completely frozen in place.
The tears, snot, and terrified distortions on their faces were all frozen.
They stared wide-eyed, looking in disbelief at the figure in the doorway wearing a cloak, with the Caged Bird Seal on his forehead, holding the clan blade.
He is... Hyuga Hiashi?
Not Hizashi's Edo Tensei body!
Back then, they had only heard of the technique called Edo Tensei and didn't know the characteristics of those summoned by it.
Because of this, they had made an incorrect judgment.
The Third Elder's head buzzed, going completely blank.
In his extreme terror just now, he had indeed desperately tried to secretly activate the core authority of the Caged Bird Seal inscribed on the foreheads of the Branch House, which could remotely punish or even execute specific Branch House members.
But no matter how he tried to activate it, the "Hizashi" at the door had no reaction!
He originally thought it was because the other party was an "Edo Tensei body" and not bound by real-world cursed seals, or that the black-robed ice swordsman had done something... Now, he understood everything!
Bullshit Edo Tensei body!
Bullshit Hizashi's revenge!
The person in front of them was simply Hyuga Hiashi disguised as Hizashi!
That realistic Caged Bird Seal on his forehead was painted on!
So the punishment mechanism of the Caged Bird Seal was ineffective against him!
No wonder he was out of control!
No wonder although the temperament was imitated, it always felt like something was wrong!
"No... No wonder..."
The Third Elder muttered to himself in a daze, and immediately, a boundless chill swallowed him, making his teeth chatter, nearly collapsing to the ground.
Not good!
It's a disaster!
Just now, in order to survive, under extreme panic and foolish misjudgment, they had done it right in front of Hyuga Hiashi himself.
All the sordid dealings, filthy thoughts, shifting of blame, and even the malicious plan to involve his daughters and Naruto—they had spat it all out like dumping trash!
And in the ugliest, most despicable way possible.
This wasn't just a confession; it was washing their own necks and actively stretching them out under the Clan Chief's butcher knife.
They even polished the hilt and handed it over personally!
"Clan... Clan Chief... We, we..."
The Grand Elder's lips trembled, wanting to explain, wanting to take it back, but he found he couldn't even organize a complete sentence.
Immense fear and regret were like an abyss, completely swallowing them.
The other elders were also ashen-faced, with nothing but utter despair left in their eyes.
They knew it was over.
All over.
Not only because they might not escape death tonight, but also because they had personally exposed all their leverage, all their crimes, and all their shamelessness before this Clan Chief they had always tried to sideline and plot against.
With Hiashi hearing these "confessions," even if he didn't kill them tonight, they would never have a day to turn things around!
Hiashi slowly lowered his raised blade, but the tip still pointed diagonally at the ground, his killing intent not diminishing in the slightest.
In his pure white eyes, these five ugly and desperate faces were clearly reflected; there was no anger in them, only a cold, complete disappointment, and the resolve after the dust had settled.
"Now."
Hiashi's voice was still calm, but colder than before, as if tempered in ice.
"Do you have anything else to say?"
"Or rather."
He took a step forward, and the blade of the dainichi gatsukiri followed his movement, tracing a lethal arc of light in the illumination.
"Is it my turn to speak?"
A sharp light flashed in the Sixth Elder's eyes: "Not a dead person? Then what are we still afraid of him for? As long as we swarm him together, even Hiashi is no match for us!"
It's true that the young beat the old in boxing, but these elders were all Gentle Fist masters.
An Edo Tensei is a dead person, and there's no way to kill a dead person, but can't we kill you, a living person?
The Third Elder, who was closest to Hiashi and the one who had just tried to activate the Caged Bird Seal to no avail, feeling the most stifled and fearful, suddenly burst with a fierce and ruthless light in his eyes.
He no longer hesitated; the Chakra in his body surged wildly toward his hands, and with a burst of Chakra under his feet, he charged forward like an arrow from a bow, taking the lead!
"Eighty Trigrams Empty Palm!"
He didn't get completely close, instead striking out a palm from a distance; the highly compressed Chakra shockwave tore through the air, heading straight for Hiashi's face.
At the same time, he advanced rapidly, his fingers curved like hooks, clearly intending to follow the Empty Palm and close in to seal Hiashi's pressure points.
This sneak attack was both fast and ruthless, revealing the Third Elder's seasoned skill from decades of immersing himself in the Gentle Fist.
If it were an ordinary opponent, they would likely have been thrown into a panic by this combination of feint and real attacks.
However, he was facing Hyuga Hiashi, the strongest of the current Hyuga Clan.
Facing the whistling Chakra wave of the Empty Palm, Hiashi didn't even dodge.
He just expressionlessly raised his empty left hand, fingers spread, palm forward.
"Bang!"
A dull sound of impact.
Two Eighty Trigrams Empty Palms collided and dissipated into nothingness.
Hiashi's arm didn't even shake.
And at this moment, the Third Elder's Gentle Fist hand-blade had already arrived, stabbing straight at the vital point of Hiashi's left chest.
After dispersing the Empty Palm, Hiashi's left hand's trajectory didn't stall at all; he casually deflected it inward, a movement that seemed effortless yet precisely caught the Third Elder's incoming wrist.
A soft yet irresistible force came through; the Third Elder's certain-hit strike was instantly diverted, and he himself couldn't help but stumble forward half a step, leaving his vitals wide open.
It was this half-step opening!
His right hand, holding the dainichi gatsukiri, was like a bolt of black lightning; without any unnecessary flair, it thrust straight forward.
"Puchi!"
The dull sound of a sharp blade entering flesh was exceptionally piercing in the tea room.
Hyuga Hiashi, this guy, really dares to kill? Isn't he afraid of the Hokage holding him accountable?