Uchiha orphan, so what if I'm ruthless?

Hearing this, Hyuga Hiashi felt a chill run down his spine. Having witnessed Uchiha Taiga's methods, his earlier unease had now become a terrifying reality. Even if he desperately wished to stop the situation from spiraling out of control, Taiga's words had already been spoken, and there was no taking them back.

Hiashi opened his mouth to speak, but before a single word could escape his lips, Taiga moved.

The phrase 'hunting time' was no mere threat.

Taiga vanished from his spot, his speed so immense he blurred like a phantom.

In the next second, he appeared before another Main House elder.

This elder sat in the third seat to Hiashi's left. His hair was white, and the wrinkles on his face were even deeper than those of the elder who had just died.

His eyes were still wide open, his white pupils reflecting Taiga's figure, but his body couldn't react in time.

Taiga thrust his right hand forward, his five fingers pressed tightly together as lightning danced across his fingertips.

Chidori... No, it wasn't quite a complete Chidori yet. It was merely Lightning Style chakra concentrated at his fingertips, forming an incredibly short and razor-sharp blade of lightning.

He extended his arm and pierced forward with his palm. The movement was crisp and clean, like a hot knife slicing through butter.

With a sickening squelch, his hand plunged into the elder's chest.

Not from the front, but from the left side—slipping perfectly through the gaps between the ribs, precisely bypassing the bones to strike directly at the heart.

The elder's mouth fell open, his eyes widening even further as his white pupils filled with utter bewilderment.

He couldn't understand why his body wouldn't move, why his chest felt so cold, or why the face of the young man before him was growing increasingly blurry.

Taiga withdrew his hand. It was drenched in blood, a shred of torn myocardial tissue still clinging to his fingertips.

The elder's body swayed before toppling over stiffly, hitting the tatami mats with a dull thud.

"No!!!"

Hiashi's voice roared from the seat of honor, laced with shock, fury, and grief. He could no longer care about anything else. No matter how uneasy he felt, no matter how clearly he knew he might not be a match for this youth, he was the head of the Hyuga clan. He could not just sit and watch as the Main House elders were slaughtered like livestock right in front of him.

He made his move.

Leaping from his seat, Hiashi crossed his hands in front of him, gathering chakra in his palms.

His Byakugan was pushed to its absolute limit, the veins bulging fiercely around his eyes, throbbing with a terrifying intensity.

He tracked Taiga's movements, predicting his trajectory and the angle of his strikes.

*Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm!*

Thrusting both palms forward, two invisible blasts of concussive force hurtled toward Taiga.

Wherever the palm strikes passed, the air compressed into visible white ripples. Tatami mats were ripped away, the floorboards splintered, and wood chips flew into the air.

Taiga didn't even use his Mangekyo Sharingan's abilities. He merely shifted his body, stepping half a pace to the left. The two blasts of the Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm flew right past him, slamming into the back wall of the assembly hall.

Two massive holes were blown into the wall, sending shattered bricks and dust billowing into the air.

While sidestepping, Taiga swiped his right hand across the face of the fallen elder. Two fingers precisely dug into the eye sockets, lightly scooping out the two Byakugan, which fell perfectly into his palm.

Without even looking, he casually dropped the eyeballs into a glass vial inside his coat.

"You!!!"

Hiashi's eyes turned bloodshot. His breathing grew ragged, his chest heaving violently, and his hands trembled—a clear testament to his overwhelming rage.

*Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm: Cleave!*

He charged forward, his hands chopping toward Taiga like twin blades.

Every strike carried a razor-sharp edge capable of splitting rock and severing steel. His speed was astonishing; the Byakugan's insight allowed him to accurately capture Taiga's every movement and react in advance.

Yet, Taiga dodged them all with effortless grace.

At this moment, Taiga's body seemed weightless, drifting through Hiashi's palm strikes. He merely evaded, and in the brief gaps between his dodges, he vanished again, only to reappear in front of another Main House elder.

This elder was prepared.

The moment he saw Taiga rushing toward him, his hair stood on end. He traced a circular arc with his hands, chakra erupting from every tenketsu in his body as he spun at high speed.

Another Rotation!

The absolute defense.

Taiga didn't even slow down. He charged right up to the swirling barrier of chakra, extended his hand, spread his fingers, and slammed his palm against a specific point on the dome.

Under the gaze of his own Byakugan, no matter how much they boasted of an absolute defense, he could still perceive its weak point.

Chakra condensed into a single point in his palm and erupted in an instant.

The barrier trembled violently before collapsing from the point of impact. In a fraction of a second, the entire Rotation shattered like fragile glass.

The elder's body was left completely exposed. With his Rotation broken and his chakra thrown into chaos, he fell into a momentary state of paralysis.

Taiga reached out and swiped his right hand across the elder's face.

Two Byakugan fell into his hand.

He didn't kill this man—at least, not yet. He merely took his eyes.

The elder let out a bloodcurdling scream, clutching his empty eye sockets as blood poured through his fingers. He rolled on the floor, his agonizing wails echoing throughout the assembly hall.

From behind, Hiashi's *Eight Trigrams Mountain Crusher* came crashing down.

It was an enhanced version of the Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm, focusing all the body's chakra into both palms. A single strike possessed enough power to obliterate a small mountain.

Taiga didn't look back.

He vanished once more, reappearing on the opposite side of the hall.

Hiashi's palm strike blasted into the floor, blowing open a massive crater several meters wide. Shreds of tatami and splintered wood were launched into the air before raining back down with a clattering din.

Taiga moved through the assembly hall, his speed so great he appeared to be teleporting.

Every time he reappeared, another Main House elder fell victim. Their eyes were harvested with clean, efficient movements, without a single wasted motion.

Hiashi's fury continued to mount, but his attacks simply could not land on Taiga.

It wasn't that his speed was lacking or his palm techniques were unrefined; it was that Taiga simply refused to engage him.

Whenever Hiashi closed in, Taiga disappeared. Whenever Hiashi gave chase, Taiga reappeared in another direction.

The assembly hall was littered with the collateral damage of Hiashi's palm strikes.

Gaping holes in the walls, massive craters in the floor, shattered pillars, and a collapsing ceiling.

The Branch House ninjas no longer dared to just stand by. They swarmed Taiga from all directions. Some used the Gentle Fist, some used ninja tools, and some even drew kunai and shuriken.

But no one could touch him.

They couldn't even graze the hem of his clothes.

Taiga wove through the crowd like a slippery eel. His Byakugan took in everyone's movements, allowing him to execute the most precise evasions.

One Main House elder attempted a sneak attack from behind, thrusting both palms toward Taiga's heart.

Without turning his head, Taiga shifted his body slightly, letting the two palms glide harmlessly past him. Then, with a backhanded reach, he plunged two fingers into the elder's eye sockets and plucked out his Byakugan.

The elder collapsed with a scream, blood streaming from his face.

Hiashi's twin palms struck from the front.

Taiga blurred, reappearing three meters away. Hiashi's palm strike obliterated the spot where Taiga had just been standing, blasting another crater into the floor.

Just then, the sound of rushing wind pierced the air from outside.

*Swish! Swish! Swish!*

Figures descended from the night sky, landing on the corridor outside the assembly hall. The man leading them wore the Hokage robes, though he lacked his hat. The expression on his face shifted from shock to solemnity, and from solemnity to absolute fury.

Sarutobi Hiruzen.

He had hastily dealt with Shimura Danzo's corpse, sealing away the arm covered in Sharingan and the face of Senju Hashirama, before rushing to the Hyuga compound with his ANBU.

He had thought he would arrive in time to stop whatever was happening, but upon seeing the state of the assembly hall, he knew he was too late.

Several corpses lay on the ground. The tatami mats were painted with blood. Several Main House elders lay in pools of their own blood—some with their chests pierced, others with hollow, bleeding eye sockets, rolling and wailing on the floor.

Hyuga Hiashi stood in the center of the hall, panting heavily. His eyes were bloodshot, and his clothes were drenched in sweat.

And Uchiha Taiga stood beside a Main House elder, holding a glass vial as he dropped two freshly harvested Byakugan inside.

The vial was already nearly full.

"Uchiha Taiga!"

Hiruzen's voice boomed from the doorway, thick with rage.

"Stop this at once!"

Taiga turned his head. He looked at Hiruzen, at the ANBU behind him, and at the drawn ninja blades and forming hand signs of the operatives.

He gave a cold smile, then vanished.

In the next instant, he appeared before another Main House elder who was panting heavily after just executing a Rotation.

Before the elder could even react, Taiga's hand plunged into his chest and crushed his heart. Withdrawing his hand, he casually swiped across the elder's face, extracting his two Byakugan.

The movements were fluid and seamless.

Far too practiced.

Taiga dropped the Byakugan into the glass vial, screwed the cap on tight, and tucked it back into his coat. Then, he looked up at Sarutobi Hiruzen.

"Third Hokage."

His voice wasn't loud, but it rang out clearly amidst the wails and groans filling the room.

"Did you really think my earlier words were a joke?"

Hiruzen's pupils shrank violently.

He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and opened them again. All hesitation was gone, replaced by a heavy, crushing resolve.

"Everyone, hear my orders. Execute the village's Rogue Ninja... Uchiha Taiga!"

As his words fell, the ANBU he brought moved in unison.

They surged from the corridor into the assembly hall. Some drew their blades, some wove hand signs, and others threw kunai.

The Branch House ninjas of the Hyuga clan also moved, swarming from all directions to completely seal off the hall.

Taiga stood in the center of the hall, watching the people charging at him, watching Hiruzen's solemn face, and watching Hiashi's bloodshot eyes.

He smiled.

The laughter wasn't loud, but it carried a sense of liberated exhilaration.

"Hahaha..."

He laughed aloud, the sound echoing through the assembly hall.

"Finally done pretending, are we?"

His smile abruptly vanished, leaving his white eyes entirely devoid of warmth.

"Fine by me."

He vanished from his spot, reappearing right in the middle of the crowd.

"Then bring it on!"