Chiba Shun had been the one to suggest it, yet now that the matter had reached this stage, he finally felt awkward about it. He glanced at Yotsuki Ai and cleared his throat before asking, "Those female ninjas... they agreed to this on their own, right?"
Even to his own ears, the question sounded clumsy. After all, the plan had begun with a few casual words from him, spoken on a battlefield when he had only wanted to tempt a caged bird from the Hyuga clan. But now those words had become a real mission, with real people staking their futures on it.
Yotsuki Ai looked at him strangely. "Of course they agreed. I handled it myself. I quietly passed word to a number of female ninjas, and all of them wanted to go to the Land of the Moon."
He paused, then added matter-of-factly, "I selected dozens of chuunin. The three who went with Hyuga Akira were the ones with the cleanest backgrounds."
Chiba Shun blinked. For a moment, he honestly did not know what to say.
Ai seemed to understand his confusion and continued, "As long as one of them gets pregnant, the child is very likely to carry Hyuga blood. There's a good chance the child will inherit the Byakugan, one of the strongest bloodline limits in the entire ninja world. Who wouldn't want that?"
Shun fell silent.
Only then did he realize how deeply his old way of thinking still clung to him. He had lived in this world for years, had fought and schemed and bled for Kumogakure, yet there were still moments when he failed to understand the most basic desire that drove ninjas here: the hunger for power, and for the bloodline that could change a family's fate in a single generation.
To him, it still felt a little sordid. To them, it was opportunity. The chance to give birth to a genius. The chance to place their child at the very peak from the moment that child opened its eyes.
Ai continued, "Because the child hasn't been born yet, the village hasn't finalized the mission rank. Only after the baby is born, and the village confirms that the Byakugan bloodline has truly been obtained, will Father record it for you."
Shun waved a hand. "There's no hurry."
He really was not pressed for money at the moment. Even after exchanging a large number of Earth Release techniques and spending heavily on training, he still had enough left to keep going for a while. More importantly, what mattered here was not the reward, but whether the gamble would truly bear fruit.
Ai hesitated, then said, "Your suggestion worked, so you should handle the rest as well. Go to the Land of the Moon and meet Hyuga Akira again. You started this, you understand it best... and you're good at this sort of thing."
Chiba Shun's expression twitched. "Good at it?"
He wanted to ask what exactly that was supposed to mean, but in the end he swallowed the question. There was no point. Between the Third Raikage and Yotsuki Ai, he already had a reputation. Not as a frontal fighter like Ai, not as a swordsmanship prodigy like Killer Bee, but as a man who could look at a crack in the enemy's armor and wedge it open with a few carefully chosen words.
A few days later, he set out for the Land of the Moon.
Naturally, he did not go alone. The Third Raikage had approved the mission without much hesitation, clearly judging that if Hyuga Akira had been shaken once by Chiba Shun, then sending anyone else would only risk ruining the chance Kumogakure had created. So Shun traveled with the pregnant female chuunin, Mei, and four elite ANBU squads assigned to escort her.
The scale of protection left Shun speechless.
Back when he had led the Ninja Academy exchange group to Konoha, he had done so under a pitiful escort and nearly gotten himself killed several times along the road. But now, one pregnant woman carrying a possibly valuable Hyuga child was being guarded more tightly than he had ever been in his life.
He glanced at Mei as they traveled. She wore a constant smile, and every movement she made was careful without being timid. Sometimes, when she thought no one was looking, her hand would drift to her lower abdomen almost unconsciously.
That smile held no reluctance. No bitterness. Only expectation.
The other female ninjas stationed at the izakaya in Sunrise Town looked at her with naked envy. There were more than twenty of them waiting there already, and Shun could see the emotion in their eyes clearly. To them, Mei had already stepped one foot into a different future.
The sight made Shun feel unexpectedly ashamed.
He had thought of this as a dirty compromise, the kind of ugly thing nations did in the shadows. But to these women, it was not humiliation. It was a ladder. A chance. Perhaps even glory.
So he waited.
Seven full days passed before Hyuga Akira returned to the izakaya.
He arrived with three rookie genin under his command. The moment he stepped through the door, his manner was utterly ordinary, almost boring. He gave the room a sweeping glance so casual it would have meant nothing to anyone else, then sat down and treated his subordinates to a proper meal.
But Chiba Shun had already learned to read the small changes in a man's breathing, the tiny catches that slipped through discipline. Akira's breath faltered for the briefest instant. He had seen Mei.
Shun said nothing.
He merely watched as Akira waited for his three subordinates to finish eating. Then, after lingering long enough to avoid suspicion, he sent them out with a task to scout the town. Only once he had confirmed they were well away did he approach Shun's table.
His voice came out low, tight with excitement he could barely suppress. "Is she carrying my child?"
Chiba Shun nodded. "Your name is Hyuga Akira, correct?"
Akira almost ignored the question. His eyes kept drifting toward Mei before he forced them away. "Kumogakure values this child that much?"
"Of course," Shun said lightly. "The men protecting her are all direct subordinates of the Raikage's ANBU. If the child is born safely, they will receive resources from the village, proper training, and a future you could never guarantee inside the branch family. At the very least, your child will one day be taken in by an elite jounin."
He let the words settle before adding, "But as I told you before, Kumogakure doesn't only want a child with Hyuga blood. We want a Hyuga clan. That means I'll have to trouble you again tonight, Akira-senpai."
Akira stared at him for a long moment, then took a slow breath. "Understood."
That night, he entered the rooms of several female ninjas in succession.
When it was over and he tried to return quietly to his room, Chiba Shun stopped him again.
Akira's brow furrowed immediately. "My subordinates are in the next room. Do you want me exposed?"
"Relax," Shun said. "Kumogakure has no ill intentions toward the Hyuga branch family. I'm only asking for a small favor."
He handed over a blank scroll and a brush.
Akira looked at them, then at him. "What does this mean?"
"Write down every Gentle Fist technique you know."
The reaction was immediate.
Akira's face darkened, and killing intent flashed in his pale eyes. "How dare you Cloud Ninja covet the Gentle Fist of the Hyuga clan?"
Shun did not back down. "You're misunderstanding me. Gentle Fist requires the Byakugan. Without those eyes, it's incomplete. What you write will not be used by some random outsider. It will be preserved for your children, and for the Hyuga branch that Kumogakure intends to raise."
Akira's anger faltered, but suspicion remained.
Shun could almost hear the battle inside his head. Leaving behind blood was one thing. He could tell himself that was an act of rebellion against the main family, a private sin with a noble purpose. But writing down Gentle Fist was different. That was not private. That was betrayal. Not only of the Hyuga main house, but of Konoha itself. And no matter how much resentment he carried, some part of him still belonged to that village.
So Shun struck where the crack already existed.
"You still haven't changed your thinking, Akira-senpai," he said quietly. "Even now, you still stand on Konoha's side. On the Hyuga clan's side. On the main family's side. You've lived so long as a slave that you've mistaken their leash for your duty."
Akira's expression went rigid.
"Gentle Fist doesn't belong to you," Shun went on. "It doesn't belong to the branch family. In the eyes of the main house, it's theirs. Knowledge they allow you to touch only as long as you're obedient. A reward for being a good dog."
This time Akira's Byakugan opened in an instant, veins rising at his temples as he glared at Shun hard enough to pierce flesh.
Shun did not flinch.
If he wanted to break a cage, he had to first make the prisoner feel the bars around him.
"Your life is already decided," he said. "You know that better than anyone. The only future left to you lies in the children you leave behind. In a child who will breathe free air, and never lower his head before the main house."
That did it.
The anger in Akira's face drained into something colder. Something heavier. He took the scroll and brush from Shun's hand without another word.
He followed him into a private room and began to write.
He wrote everything carefully. Not only the techniques of the Gentle Fist, but the fundamental principles behind them. The method of using the Byakugan. The way the chakra pathways should be observed. The stages of practice. The mistakes novices most often made. How long it had taken him, and other branch family members he knew, to master certain forms. Even the insights gathered from years of pain and repetition.
When he finished, Chiba Shun rolled up the scroll and tucked it away. Then, as if asking an idle question, he said, "What about the main family's techniques? Rotation? Vacuum Palm?"
Akira shook his head. His voice had become flat again. "Those are not taught lightly. Only branch family members trusted deeply by the main house, or those with great merit, may learn them. I learned neither."
Shun nodded. Then he made his next move.
"The next time you return to Konoha," he said, "find others like you. Branch family members who hate the main family as much as you do. Bring them, one by one, to the Land of the Moon."
This time Akira reacted even more violently than before. His Byakugan opened again, and his stance shifted into the starting form of the Gentle Fist.
At once, four ANBU shadows appeared inside the room.
Shun raised a hand without turning. The squad leader halted his men immediately.
Then Shun looked back at Akira and said, "Why so angry? Think a little further ahead. The Hyuga clan practices internal marriage to preserve the purity of the Byakugan. Your child may live free, but what of that child's children? And theirs? Will they marry outsiders forever? What happens to the bloodline after generations of dilution?"
Akira's breathing turned ragged.
"If Kumogakure wants not just one child, but a living Hyuga clan, then your descendants will need partners who understand what they are. Who share their blood. Their resentment. Their purpose."
Shun leaned forward slightly. "And besides... can you truly guarantee the Byakugan will be pure every time? If your descendants marry others from the branch family, the line will be steadier. Stronger. More likely to awaken fully."
Akira's gaze wavered.
Then Shun lowered his voice and played his final card.
"Only those with the purest Byakugan can go further," he said. "The Raikage has seen records. Eyes beyond the Byakugan. A higher evolution. A legendary gaze called the Tenseigan."
That word struck Akira harder than any insult had.
His expression changed instantly. Desire, disbelief, hunger, all of it flashing across his face in a single breath. He looked, for the first time, like a man glimpsing the outline of a different heaven.
"Tenseigan..." he repeated hoarsely.
"That's what the records call it," Shun said. "I don't know the details. But if the Hyuga main family truly had the ability to reach it, do you think they would still be content hiding behind Konoha's walls as glorified watchdogs? The reason your clan has stagnated is simple. The caged bird seal strangles the branch family, while the main family has grown soft. If evolution ever comes, it won't come from obedient lapdogs. It'll come from those willing to break the cage."
For a long time, Akira said nothing.
At last he shut his Byakugan and turned away. He did not agree. He did not refuse. He simply left.
The next morning, he departed the izakaya with his three genin as if nothing had happened.
Chiba Shun watched him go from the doorway.
He had no illusions. Hyuga Akira was still not theirs. Not yet. But the seed had been planted, and seeds did not need to bloom overnight to matter.
When Shun finally left Sunrise Town, Mei and the three women who had spent the night with Akira went with him. If they failed to conceive, they would return the next time. If they succeeded, then Kumogakure's gamble would deepen another step.
As the convoy pulled away from the izakaya, Shun turned for one last glance at the quiet little town bathed in pale morning light.
Somewhere behind him, a caged bird was starting to dream of the sky.