Chapter 513: The Only Way Out
"How dare you ignore me!"
The red-haired man came charging after Neji with his club raised, closing the distance fast. "Is this how you treat a hero?!"
Neji stopped walking and turned to look at him with cold, unhurried calm. "...A hero?"
"That's right! The hero who saved the Leaf! Standing right here!"
The man puffed out his chest and rattled off the full list of titles at top volume. "I am the son of the Fourth Hokage! The student of the Fifth Hokage! The inheritor of the Yellow Flash!"
"Uzumaki Naruto!"
Neji felt an involuntary twitch begin somewhere behind his eye.
That particular brand of irritation -- the kind that built pressure in his chest and pushed up into his throat -- was something he had not felt in a very long time. He had grown past it, or so he thought.
But right now, standing on this road, he was genuinely and thoroughly annoyed.
"That's strange," Neji said.
He kept his voice even. "If you're Naruto, then who is the Naruto currently in Konoha?"
The smile on the man's face locked up.
"Wha... what?"
His eyes darted around, searching for purchase. "I told you -- I'm on a classified mission! Someone like you would have no way of tracking my movements!"
As he spoke, he took a step forward, trying to use the difference in their heights to his advantage. He had a good head of height on this white-clad young man, and considerably more bulk. If he could make him nervous, maybe he could still talk his way through this.
He looked down.
Then he saw the eyes. The eyes he had not paid much attention to until now -- pale, pupil-less, startlingly clear.
The cold sweat came all at once.
Byakugan. The Hyuga clan's kekkei genkai. One of the most recognizable dojutsu in the entire ninja world.
This guy... was a Leaf ninja?!
A chill ran from the base of the man's spine straight to the top of his skull. His grip on the club went unsteady. The back of his shirt was already soaked through.
Of all the people to rob on this road. Of all the travelers in the world. He had stopped a Hyuga.
What now?
Two thoughts crashed through his head in rapid succession.
The first: keep bluffing. Maybe this Hyuga had never actually met Uzumaki Naruto in person. Maybe he only knew the name. If there was any chance of talking his way out, he had to take it -- get the money, get clear, and never set foot on this road again.
The second thought was grimmer.
If this Hyuga had seen the real Naruto -- and those eyes had already picked apart the fake headband -- then there was no bluffing his way through. And if he let this ninja walk away, let him return to Konoha and report what had happened...
Impersonating the son of the Fourth Hokage. Impersonating the student of the Fifth Hokage.
If that got back to the village, would the real Leaf shinobi let it go? Would anyone with actual power -- people who cared about protecting those names -- allow a fraud to walk free?
He couldn't finish that thought. He didn't want to.
But there was only one answer if bluffing failed.
End it here. End him here.
The man's fingers tightened around the club. Something cold and ruthless passed through his eyes.
Neji, of course, had no idea the man was currently contemplating murder. He also had no particular interest in finding out. He simply wanted to subdue this idiot as quickly as possible and hand him off to whoever handled local law enforcement. Impersonating a ninja and armed robbery -- those two charges combined would keep him confined for a decent stretch of time.
Neji raised his hand and shifted into the Gentle Fist opening stance.
"You ignorant fool!" The man kept shouting, volume compensating for every ounce of confidence he lacked. "How could some ordinary Leaf ninja possibly understand the scope of my mission! You can't even recognize the hero who protects everything you stand on!"
"Mission?" Neji's voice remained entirely level.
"That's interesting. Not long ago, Uzumaki Naruto just completed his wedding with Uchiha Satsuki. He should currently be on his honeymoon. What kind of mission would Konoha be sending him on right now?"
The man's expression froze again.
"Ah... well, that's..."
His eyes spun. His brain worked frantically. "That's obviously a mission more important than a wedding! I carry the safety of the entire world on my shoulders!"
He had finally managed to grind out a response, and delivered it at even greater volume than before.
Neji genuinely did not know what to do with this person.
The sheer confidence of it. The complete absence of shame. Did this man have any idea who Naruto actually was? What kind of person wore that name?
...And the hair was red. Red. He had not even attempted the most basic disguise.
"All right then." Neji lowered his hand. "Tell me about this mission."
"Th... the mission..."
Beads of sweat broke out across the man's forehead. He wrung his thoughts desperately, trying to find something convincing -- something that would land with a Hyuga clansman.
Then it came to him.
"Fine! If you want to know, I'll tell you!"
He drew himself up to his full height and let the words out at full blast.
"My mission is to investigate the movements of the Ember organization!"
The fragments of rumors he had picked up over the years rushed back to him -- scattered whispers about that mysterious group, a name dropped here and there. He had never seen any of their members. He had no idea where they operated. None of that mattered. What mattered was that the name alone was enough to make people uneasy.
"To rid the ninja world of its greatest threat! That rat hiding in the shadows!"
He was building momentum now, his voice growing with every word.
"Destroy Menma! Destroy that organization! That is my mission!"
He felt satisfied with himself. Surely that would land. Everyone knew how dangerous the Ember organization was. Claiming to be the one hunting them down -- that sounded exactly like a real hero, exactly like something the actual Naruto would say.
Then the next moment arrived.
And the man's whole body shuddered.
He was looking at the Byakugan again -- but it was different now. The pale eyes had transformed. Veins had risen sharply around them, branching outward in dense networks beneath the skin, spreading like cracks across stone.
That was the Byakugan at full activation. The Hyuga clan's war face.
But the veins were not what made him tremble.
It was what lived inside those eyes.
Killing intent.
Absolute, suffocating, condensed to something almost physical -- killing intent that pressed down on him from all directions like a change in atmospheric pressure.
The young man who, moments ago, had been as cold and controlled as a winter blade, was now radiating something that made the air itself feel dangerous. Those pale eyes burned with a fury that said, without any ambiguity, that the man in front of him was his worst enemy in the world.
"You said..." Neji's voice came out very quietly. Quiet in the way that made it worse. It was pressed through clenched teeth, and the rage underneath it was so densely packed that the red-haired man's own lips began to tremble. "...what?"