Sweeping things under the rug only worked when nobody was looking. But what happened when the Hyuuga had already made it everyone's business?
If they'd simply handed Darbi over to the Sandaime quietly, Sarutobi Hiruzen would have returned the prisoner to Kumo's delegation behind closed doors. Neat. Silent. Done. But what if that was no longer an option?
"Setting aside everything else, the two hawkish advisors would never agree to handing him back. Not publicly. Which puts the Sandaime in a very uncomfortable position. He can't give Darbi up, but he can't dispose of him either. It becomes a stalemate."
"Exactly. And the longer that stalemate holds, the better. Every second that prisoner stays in our hands, Kumogakure gets more nervous. So they'll be the ones who blink first."
Miyuki's voice was absolute. He spoke as though Konoha's leadership and Kumo's delegation were pieces on a board he'd already finished reading.
He's right. As long as we have their man, they're the ones sweating.
Hiashi knew exactly how terrifying it was to have a living operative in enemy hands. He didn't need to guess what the Kumo delegation was feeling. He could picture it.
"If they want to resolve this as quickly as possible, and the Sandaime won't cooperate, Kumo has two options left."
"Execute the prisoner themselves in front of everyone, or assassinate him quietly. Either way, Darbi doesn't leave Konoha alive."
Hiashi could map out Kumo's likely decision almost instantly. Between the two options, a public execution was far more probable. Once Darbi was dead, the problem disappeared for Kumo. No living mouth to spill secrets.
I see. Using someone else's blade to do the cutting.
After thinking it through for about two minutes, a thin smile crossed Hiashi's face. He stood. "It's late. Get some rest."
He didn't explicitly say whether he'd go along with the plan. He didn't need to. Miyuki already knew his father would act on every word of it.
What the Hyuuga were about to do was, in essence, roast both villages' leadership over an open flame at the worst possible time. It would be deeply unpleasant for everyone involved.
But Hiashi wasn't worried about derailing the peace talks. He knew the ceasefire would happen regardless. Neither Konoha nor Kumo could afford to keep fighting. The agreement was inevitable.
Kumo's stunt tonight had been a last-ditch grab. The war was ending whether they liked it or not, so they'd figured they might as well squeeze whatever advantage they could out of Konoha before the ink dried. That was the real motive behind the kidnapping attempt.
Squeeze some advantage out of us? Hmph.
Hiashi slid open his son's door and stepped into the corridor. He looked up at the stars, and something he hadn't felt in years stirred in his chest. The fire he'd had as a young man.
"Nobody gets to help themselves to what belongs to the Hyuuga. Tomorrow, you'll see. Every last one of you."
Hiashi was the head of one of Konoha's most powerful clans. He had a temper too. Not the kind of temper that made you stage a coup like the Uchiha, but enough to remind people that pushing the Hyuuga around came with a price.
Heh. Sounds like the old man figured it out.
Listening to Hiashi's footsteps fade down the hallway, Miyuki knew his father was heading off to set tomorrow's events in motion. Which meant the morning would bring a show, with the imprisoned Kumo jounin as the star attraction.
"Ugh... I'm wiped. Gonna sleep. The rest of it's out of my hands now."
Having sorted through every angle he could think of, an exhausted Miyuki finally let himself collapse into his futon. This had been his first day in this world.
What a ride, though.
The thought that he, a three-year-old, had just been at the center of something this intense, and that even bigger things were waiting down the road, nearly kept him awake with excitement. Nearly.
Under the coordinated efforts of two generations of Hyuuga leadership, the news hit every corner of Konoha by the following morning.
"Hey boss, you hear about this? Apparently the Hyuuga caught some Kumo rogue ninja who snuck in disguised as part of the delegation."
"Of course I heard. It's all anyone's talking about. Right in the middle of Kumo's people coming here for negotiations, too. What was this rogue even thinking? Unbelievable."
"Whatever his deal was, breaking into our village like that? Guy had a death wish. Hmph!"
Bright and early at Ichiraku Ramen, old man Teuchi was pulling noodles and chatting with his morning customers about the story that had swept through the village overnight.
With the Hyuuga's well-organized, well-disciplined, and generously funded rumor campaign in full swing, the tale of "the Hyuuga caught a rogue ninja" had spread through Konoha like wildfire.
Meanwhile, inside the Hokage's office, the Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, stood by the window with his pipe clenched between his teeth, gazing out at the village streets below. He looked like any ordinary old man lost in thought.
The Sandaime wasn't as aged as he'd appear in the years to come. He was past sixty, but his physicality and bearing were closer to a man in his mid-forties. Still sharp. Still strong. The kind of trunk sturdy enough to hold up the great tree that was Konoha.
"Sandaime-sama, what exactly is going on today?"
While Hiruzen was staring out the window, the office door swung open and two visibly irritated elders walked in.
He knew them well. Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu. Former teammates from his genin days, now serving as Konoha's senior advisors. People who carried real weight in this village.
"What are you two referring to?"
"The Hyuuga capturing a rogue ninja! If it were a rogue from some other village, fine. But it's a Kumo rogue, isn't it? What is Hiashi thinking? Why stir things up at a time like this?"
Homura's tone was sharp. They were at the most delicate point of the ceasefire negotiations with Kumogakure, and the Hyuuga had chosen this exact moment to publicly parade a captured Kumo rogue around the village. What was that supposed to accomplish if not provocation?
"I'm not entirely sure myself, but Hiashi is on his way here. Why don't we hear what he has to say."
Hiruzen nodded toward the window. Down on the street below, the head of the Hyuuga clan, Hyuuga Hiashi, was already approaching the Hokage building with several subordinates in tow.
"So that's the situation. I'm requesting that the Torture and Interrogation Division extract whatever intelligence this rogue is carrying."
A short while later, Hiashi was seated on the guest sofa in the Hokage's office, facing the Sandaime and both advisors.
He didn't give them any room to steer the conversation. He laid out "the full story" of last night's events on his own terms, then stated his demand.
A Kumo rogue ninja infiltrated the Hyuuga compound and attempted to abduct the next clan head. The Hyuuga captured him and were now requesting a formal interrogation. Under normal circumstances, this was a perfectly reasonable ask. But...
"About that, Hiashi. The man you captured. Is he really a rogue?"
Hiruzen took a slow draw on his pipe and asked the question in a tone that was impossible to read.
Anyone who'd sized up Sarutobi Hiruzen based on his public reputation as a gentle, grandfatherly leader had made a serious mistake. The man had walked through decades of warfare to reach the seat he occupied now. He hadn't survived this long by being naive.
So almost the instant Hiashi finished his report, the Sandaime cut straight to the point. Because in his estimation, that so-called "rogue ninja" was almost certainly not a rogue at all. Nine times out of ten, the man was part of Kumo's delegation. They'd come for the Byakugan and sent someone to infiltrate the Hyuuga compound to get it.
"He is a rogue. And he must be a rogue. Because only a rogue would be foolish enough to cause trouble at the exact moment two villages are sitting down to negotiate peace. I believe Kumogakure's delegation will agree with that assessment."
Even under the weight of Hiruzen's sharp, probing gaze, Hiashi didn't waver. His answer came back like iron.