Naruto: Hyuga Warlord

No one—not even Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi—had expected that Hyuga Soushu, known for his arrogance and harsh rule, would be stopped so easily by just a simple airborne message ordering him to stay outside the Death Forest.

Originally, they were expecting to see a furious Hyuga Soushu storming into the Hidden Leaf Village to challenge the Hokage's authority directly; even the Anbu had prepared an entire performance framing Soushu as a traitor, with the Anbu dutifully suppressing this supposed rebellion. However, all these urgent preparations now felt like kicking a brick wall—utterly useless and painfully frustrating!

But soon, Konoha's F4 realized things weren't going as planned.

The internal situation among the various ninja clans within the Hidden Leaf Village—who had placed themselves under self-imposed martial law and fortified their strongholds—had not improved but instead worsened, especially after the Sealing Team squad secretly dispatched to cordon off the Tower area within the Death Forest completely withdrew, and the protective barrier collapsed under intense chakra fluctuations. Everything that happened to Hyuga Soushu was clearly observed by those sharp-eyed ninja clan leaders.

Even the weaker, declining ninja clans received visits from well-meaning messengers who warned them to stay vigilant, protect their families, and most importantly guard their promising young heirs—lest they fall victim to terrifying schemes orchestrated from above!

When things are said so clearly, if a clan still can't get it, then maybe it deserves to fall—or even die out.

Therefore, it's easy to imagine that even the leaders of the weakest clans weren't truly foolish. Even if they hesitated or doubted the anonymous letter at first, seeing nearby clans mobilizing forces made them anxious too. They immediately recalled their members abroad and declared armed neutrality.

This was exactly what the Hyuga Clan Leader wanted!

He didn't need the ninja clans to march upon the Hokage Tower or organize mass impeachment efforts against the Third Hokage. Simply leveraging prearranged allied clans allowed him to effortlessly carve out a faction right in Konoha's heart, forcing the once-unreachable Hokage Tower to bow down on its own.

Yet, what troubled the Hokage's faction most wasn't just the widespread panic among Konoha's various ninja clans.

Taking advantage of the standoff between the Anbu and the fortified ninja clans, the Uchiha Clan—which controlled the Policing Department—quickly deployed large numbers of personnel to take control of commercial districts, trading centers, and other bustling areas across Konoha. They set up checkpoints, allowing uninformed civilians to continue enjoying peace and tranquility.

In addition, the Uchiha secretly mobilized a private military unit to launch a sudden assault on the Barrier Unit's command center. Before the Hokage Tower could respond, they seized peripheral control of Konoha's defensive barrier system!

In other words, even if the Uchiha couldn't control the village's defense barrier themselves, they could still shut it down completely by eliminating the Barrier Unit personnel running it!

And this bold move threw the Hokage Tower into complete disarray!

If the collusion between the Hyuga Clan and other ninja clans was considered a potentially catastrophic internal unrest from within, then the Uchiha Clan's current actions were practically holding a blade to their throats!

Even if such internal unrest from within could eventually result in grave consequences, it still pales in comparison to the pressing danger posed by an imminent life-threatening crisis!

So after a short discussion, Konoha's F4 came up with several plans:

Firstly, maintaining the village's outward appearance of prosperity and stability was crucial. Conflicts between the top leadership and ninja clans must be kept under control in both scope and impact; at the same time, they also needed to preserve the peace of mind among lower-ranking ninja who remained unaware, so their simple, humble lives could continue uninterrupted.

Secondly, Homura Mitokado, one of the advisory elders, would personally head to Death Forest to oversee operations, ensuring smoother progression of the Chunin Exams. Though naturally, his true intention was to meet face-to-face with Soushu Hyuga, the one who had just been attacked, and discuss ways to push back against the Fire Daimyo's unjust treatment of an innocent Konoha Jonin. This was something Danzo wouldn't even dare dream of!

As for the third and most important task—it was for Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi, together with advisory elders Koharu Utatane and Danzo Shimura, to jointly organize a Ninja Clan Summit, intended to ease tensions among the clans and, where possible, drive wedges between them.

But faced with the effectively separatist Hyuga Clan and the aggressively advancing Uchiha Clan, not to mention the minor clans piggybacking on these two major powers, Hokage Tower currently had no better options.

Though things had already turned into a classic case of "shooting themselves in the foot," how to properly wrap things up was still extremely crucial.

The Hokage faction had little room left to retreat.

Especially when confronted by the increasingly pressuring Uchiha Clan, Hokage Tower had even withdrawn the Policing Department from newly established checkpoints in commercial districts. But honestly, who believed the Uchiha would just let that slide? Had the Uchiha ever been known for being reasonable?!

All these tangled matters were headache-inducing enough. As for Soushu Hyuga, caught right in the eye of this storm, although Third Hokage deeply regretted his miscalculation, he simply couldn't focus on him anymore. He could only hope Homura Mitokado would manage to calm him down through reasoned argument and heartfelt words.

As for bargaining conditions—weren't they all negotiable until actually fulfilled?

However, when Homura Mitokado quietly arrived at Death Forest accompanied by several direct subordinates from Anbu, he quickly realized the situation was far worse than he'd imagined.

Although the central tower had been roughly restored through emergency repairs, and most Genin candidates merely sensed something unusual happening in the tower area but remained preoccupied with stealing scrolls from each other—in reality, Soushu Hyuga's battle with the attacking Guardian Ninja lasted less than ten minutes, which felt like just the blink of an eye for most low-level ninja.

But truthfully, Homura Mitokado didn't care the slightest bit about the Chunin Exams themselves! He had only used them as an excuse to negotiate face-to-face with Soushu Hyuga.

Yet, as always, events never unfolded as wished.

As Homura Mitokado arrived at the central tower in Death Forest, he found that besides the original proctoring ninja, there were already three other groups gathered on site!

The first group was composed of some ninja from Sakumo's faction, mobilized under the name of Jonin Unit Councilor by Koryo Jonin. All of them had a red armband tied around their right arms.

The second group appeared to be a ragtag group of Martial Faction ninja. Most of them had come running after hearing about the attack on Death Forest through Yamanaka Toshimichi and others. Though their skills and motives varied, the Martial Faction types had a reputation for being hotheads — no telling when they'd fly off the handle and start something big.

The third and most troublesome group consisted of the Policing Department's Special Operations Unit from the Uchiha Clan. Led personally by Jonin Takahiro Uchiha, this squad contained fifteen Uchiha ninja altogether. In addition to them was yet another key individual — Mahiru Uchiha, who was currently clinging tearfully to Soushu Hyuga's chest.

Now what?

Homura felt a splitting headache coming on!

So many factions with clashing agendas? This was going to be extremely hard to manage!

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