Hinata’s Misery

By hypnotizing and questioning those Kumogakure Ninja, Yota had learned that the prisoners being held here were no criminals, but ninja from small villages and minor clans.

Most of them possessed secret techniques or Bloodline Limits of their own, and after Kumogakure set its sights on them, they were secretly seized.

Aside from the ninja with secret techniques or Bloodline Limits who were captured and brought back, all the other ninja from those small factions had been silenced.

Just looking at the prisoners and test subjects in this underground base made it easy to imagine just how many bloody deeds Kumogakure had committed.

In the original manga, it was only briefly mentioned that Kumogakure liked to plunder the Bloodline Limits and secret techniques of other small ninja villages and Bloodline Clans. Yet that seemingly insignificant sentence, brought into reality, was so bloody it made one want to vomit.

Yota, whose face had remained taut, fully activated the power of the Dark-Dark Fruit and sucked all the test subjects and prisoners inside, along with the Kumogakure guards.

A moment later, the test subjects were released. Their injuries had all healed. Even brain injuries had mostly recovered under the Munch-Munch Fruit’s alteration ability. What remained should have been nothing more than psychological trauma.

As for the disabilities caused by the experiments, Yota directly extracted limbs from the Kumogakure guards and restored their bodies to wholeness.

The Kumogakure guards, meanwhile, had become a heap of dried corpses. This time, Yota had shown no mercy whatsoever.

Sara’s face had turned slightly pale, her lips pressed tightly together.

She had gone on quite a few missions with Yota by now. Sara was no longer the naïve girl who had never seen battle before, but the dead ninja she saw on the battlefield and these tortured test subjects were two entirely different things.

The latter revealed the pure evil of humanity, making Sara feel sick enough to vomit.

As a rare strategic Byakugan bloodline, Hinata Hyuga was held in a cell at the very bottom of the underground base.

Thus, as Yota made his way down, he had rescued nearly every test subject in the underground base and healed their injuries.

The test subjects Yota had healed did not flee at once. Instead, they followed behind him. Clearly, they understood that they had almost no chance of escaping Kumogakure on their own, so they placed all their hopes on Yota, the intruder.

By the time they reached the final level of the underground base, dozens of ninja were following behind Yota.

In the dim cell, a small figure was curled up in a corner. Upon hearing the many footsteps, her body trembled slightly.

As Yota slowly approached the cell, he frowned faintly, casually dismantled the cell door, and walked inside.

"Ugh…" The little figure whimpered and curled herself up even tighter. Yota could see numerous obvious needle marks on her arms.

"Hinata Hyuga?" Yota asked softly. Upon hearing that voice, the little girl finally raised her head with some agitation.

Ever since arriving here, Hinata Hyuga had no idea how long it had been since she had heard her own name. The Kumogakure Ninja always called her the Byakugan test subject. No one ever called her by name.

The moment Yota saw Hinata Hyuga raise her head, the rage in his heart surged upward. On that tender little face, there were only two dark, hollow eye sockets. Both of her Byakugan had been removed.

There were faint pink streaks on her fair little face, likely tear tracks mixed with blood.

Sara covered her mouth, barely stopping herself from crying out. Though she had seen many cruel scenes along the way, none had struck her as deeply as the sight of the young Hinata.

"W-who are you?" Hinata asked, both agitated and fearful.

"It’s all right. We’re here to save you." Yota gently stroked Hinata’s head, but a cold killing intent faintly surfaced in his eyes.

This was what ninja were. This was what ninja villages were. When reading the manga, people might have only felt Kumogakure’s unity and the Raikage’s imposing presence, never considering the crimes they had committed.

Hinata Hyuga’s incident only showed readers Konoha’s weakness, while Kushina Uzumaki’s kidnapping fulfilled Minato Namikaze’s love story. But if one thought carefully, what would have happened if the Kumogakure Ninja had succeeded in their kidnappings?

The miserable state of three-year-old Hinata was the true, cruel answer.

And if even Konoha had suffered harassment from Kumogakure, then what would happen to those ordinary small ninja villages and minor clans once Kumogakure took an interest in something they possessed?

"Those bastard Kumogakure Ninja actually dared to lay their hands on a three-year-old child!" Having calmed herself, Sara gritted her teeth. It was rare for her to be so truly enraged.

That was why organized crime carried out in the name of faith was what truly made people shudder!

With a single phrase—For Konoha, for Kumogakure—countless people erased their own sense of right and wrong and became complete and utter butchers!

Yota had once studied Orochimaru’s experimental notes and discovered something laughable within them—the bloodiest, most unscrupulous period of Orochimaru’s experiments had not been after he defected from Konoha, but while he served in Konoha’s Root.

During that period, whether ordinary civilians or newborn infants, all could be experimented on in the name of Konoha. A single Wood Release experiment, for instance, had consumed the lives of dozens of babies.

After leaving Konoha, on the other hand, Orochimaru’s experiments were still cruel, but unless he needed someone with a special bloodline ability, the people he found were merely ordinary rogue ninja, bandits, and wandering mercenaries. He had never used children for human experimentation.

There were certainly other factors involved, such as rogue ninja being less likely to draw attention, but it also reflected Orochimaru’s own thinking. He had once told Yota that childhood was the stage when one’s character was most malleable and one possessed the greatest potential. Using children with limitless potential for experiments was simply an enormous waste.

Though there was no warmth to be heard in Orochimaru’s words, he was still hundreds of times better than those who did dirty work for ninja villages!

Black mist spread from Yota’s hand as he directly placed Hinata Hyuga into the Dark Space. Then his expression grew even colder.

The Dark Space had now fused with the Munch-Munch Fruit’s alteration space, so Yota immediately scanned Hinata’s body.

There were signs that spinal fluid and brain matter had been extracted. There was no need to mention her blood, and a small portion of her liver had also been removed.

The reason Hinata Hyuga had managed to stay alive was likely because Kumogakure wanted to use her as a mother body for the Byakugan.

"Heh! Good! That means I won’t feel any psychological burden when I make my move!"