A week later, at the village's main gate.
A girl was carefully adjusting Hyuga Kagami's travel attire.
From the girl's pure white eyes, it was clear she, like Hyuga Kagami, was from the Hyuga clan and of a similar age. However, her delicate eyebrows were slightly furrowed on her pretty face, making her look troubled.
Hyuga Kagami, who was gazing at the distant Hokage Rock, smiled and said, "Don't worry, it's just a normal rotation of guards."
The girl nodded slightly, then took out a new pair of goggles from her waist pouch and handed them to Hyuga Kagami.
Hyuga Kagami glanced at the girl, said nothing, and put the goggles into his own waist pouch.
In fact, for a long time now, Hyuga Kagami, like Obito, had been wearing goggles. It was just that the lenses of the goggles he bought were darker, like sunglasses.
He did this not only to protect his eyes but also to conceal his Hyuga clan identity on the battlefield, avoiding targeted attacks from enemies. Secondly, it was also to hide the Tenseigan he might awaken in the future, as there was a distinct difference in appearance between the Tenseigan and the Byakugan.
The girl was undoubtedly worried that the old goggles Hyuga Kagami was wearing might break, and it would be difficult to buy a replacement at the border, so she bought a new pair for him as a spare.
At this moment, a middle-aged ninja not far away waved his hand and shouted, "Time's up, we should get going."
Hearing this, Hyuga Kagami patted the girl's shoulder, "Suzo, I'm leaving. Don't worry about me; maybe I'll be back soon."
The girl named Suzo nodded gently, but the worry on her face could not be concealed.
Finally, Hyuga Kagami looked once more at the distant Hokage Rock.
In this turmoil of Orochimaru's defection, the village became the biggest loser. Orochimaru defected, Jiraiya pursued him, and thus, all of the renowned Sannin of Konoha had left the village!
Orochimaru lost the village's support but also freed himself from its constraints; it could be said he got what he wanted, neither winning nor losing.
Danzo, who had absorbed most of Orochimaru's forces, was undoubtedly the biggest winner. Hyuga Kagami even suspected that Danzo had used this absorption to grasp some of the results of Orochimaru's human experiments, laying the foundation for his future theft of the Sharingan and First Hokage's cells.
However, none of this mattered to the current Hyuga Kagami.
The village's higher-ups had reached a consensus: all of Orochimaru's former subordinates, like Hyuga Kagami, who hadn't been absorbed by Root, would be gradually reassigned to various border posts.
Simply put, it was exile to the frontier, far from the village!
Arriving beside the middle-aged ninja, Hyuga Kagami sized up his companions.
Including himself, there were twelve ninja in total, divided into three squads. Apart from the three squad leaders, the remaining nine members were all Orochimaru's former subordinates.
The destination for this team was a border outpost at the junction of the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind.
As soon as they left the village, Hyuga Kagami activated his Byakugan, becoming fully alert as if entering a war zone.
This wasn't Hyuga Kagami overreacting; he had learned a harsh lesson. Just a few months ago, he had been ambushed less than ten li (approx. 5 km or 3 miles) from the village. The entire team escorting wounded from the front lines back to the village had suffered heavy casualties. If the Jonin reinforcements from the village hadn't arrived in time, his name would likely be on the Memorial Stone by now.
The cruel war had taught Hyuga Kyo many things. Although the war was now a thing of the past, some habits were hard to change in a short time.
Hyuga Kagami wasn't the only one on high alert; the other ninjas accompanying him also instinctively became vigilant after leaving the village, with one exception.
Glancing at the small, slender figure lagging at the back of the group, Hyuga Kagami sighed softly.
If there was anyone in the village most unwilling to believe Orochimaru had defected, it was undoubtedly Mitarashi Anko, who was trailing behind Hyuga Kagami!
Almost overnight, Mitarashi Anko had gone from being a disciple of one of the Sannin, a rising star in the village, to a prisoner. After several weeks of imprisonment, she, along with Hyuga Kyo, was exiled to the border, completely removed from the village's center of power.
From her currently vacant eyes and dazed expression, it was clear she still found it hard to accept that her teacher, Orochimaru, one of the Sannin, would betray the village.
This collapse, almost like a loss of faith, might be something she could never recover from in her entire life.
After withdrawing his gaze from Anko, Hyuga Kagami carefully observed the ninjas traveling with him.
Among the twelve, only the middle-aged ninja leading them was a Jonin. The other eleven, including Hyuga Kagami and Anko, were Chunin. It could be said that this team still possessed considerable combat strength. As long as they didn't encounter an ambush squad composed entirely of Jonin, there would be virtually no safety concerns on this journey.
Moreover, the war was over, and the probability of enemy Jonin appearing within Konoha's territory was now minuscule.
Just as Hyuga Kagami had predicted, they encountered no trouble along the way, and the team arrived smoothly at the border outpost.
After settling into the border outpost, the team of twelve was formally divided into three squads. Hyuga Kagami, Anko, and a Chunin named Oda (小田) were assigned to the squad led by the Jonin.
The Land of Fire and the Land of Wind were not directly adjacent; small countries like the Land of Rivers and the Land of Rain lay between them. However, these small countries offered little actual separation.
The border outpost where Hyuga Kyo was stationed was responsible for a stretch of border about 40 li (approx. 20 km or 12.5 miles) long. One end of the outpost's territory was the edge of a forest, while the other was an endless sea of sand.
And so, Hyuga Kagami began a monotonous life of repetitive patrols in the desert.
Time flew, and in the blink of an eye, two months passed.
All news from the village was cut off. At the border, Hyuga Kagami felt as if he were isolated from the world, cycling through patrols, guard duty, and rest.
During this time, he could feel the Jonin leader constantly monitoring him and the other eight former subordinates of Orochimaru, so he behaved himself and made no unusual moves.
He secretly speculated that such surveillance wouldn't last long.
Even for a large and powerful village like Konoha, manpower wasn't so abundant that they could monitor hundreds of ninjas for an extended period. Therefore, the surveillance must have a time limit.
Sure enough, not long after, the village dispatched three new Chunin to replace the previous three squad leaders, including the middle-aged Jonin.
At first, Hyuga Kagami thought this meant the village had lifted its surveillance on them. But after some observation, he discovered that the three new Chunin leaders were all taciturn and gave off a chilling aura!
'These are not ordinary Chunin!'
Hyuga Kyo quickly understood: these three new leaders were either Anbu or Root members!
Does an ordinary border outpost need three Anbu or Root members to serve as squad leaders?
The answer was self-evident. Hyuga Kagami's thoughts immediately raced. He didn't know what had happened in the village these past two months, but he knew danger had arrived.
Time waits for no one. The Tenseigan plan must be initiated immediately...
(End of Chapter)