In the dim archive chamber, the only sound was the rustle of files being flipped through.
Akatsuchi stared at the two human silhouettes in the darkness, thinking that if Lord Ōnoki had not been tempted by Akatsuki, if he had not launched the Third Shinobi World War, the village would never have ended up in such misery.
After a long while, Uchiha Obito put down Kyoi's file and turned to ask:
"Akatsuchi, as Tsuchikage, you offered a surrender agreement to Fox in a manner close to humiliation.
As Tsuchikage, you admitted before tens of thousands of Iwagakure villagers that you were the defeated.
How do you intend to repay this pain?"
Akatsuchi knew he was not the Third Tsuchikage, Ōnoki.
He knew he did not have the right to take revenge.
But humiliation and resentment were certainly there.
He said, "I will secretly spread the title of Konoha's Fox as the God of Death of the Shinobi World, or the King of the Underworld of the Shinobi World, so everyone fears him.
As for whether it should be God of Death or King of the Underworld, I haven't decided yet."
"Oh? Hahahaha!"
Uchiha Obito burst into wild laughter, his voice echoing through the archive chamber.
Akatsuchi could not help glancing toward the direction of the temple.
If Fox returned to Iwagakure at this moment, Akatsuchi's life would be forfeit as well.
The Fourth Tsuchikage dying less than a month after taking office—would Iwagakure be forced to choose a Fifth Tsuchikage just like Sunagakure had chosen a Fifth Kazekage?
Uchiha Obito noticed Akatsuchi's gaze and mocked him:
"Relax, Akatsuchi. Fox won't come back.
You truly are pathetic. What are you trying to do? Curse Fox to death with vicious nicknames?
Even if everyone in the shinobi world lined up to curse Fox for three hundred days, Fox wouldn't even frown. He would simply kill them one by one.
God of Death of the Shinobi World? King of the Underworld of the Shinobi World? Are you trying to contrast him with Hashirama Senju's title, God of Shinobi?
Underworld King Fox. That title should scare cowards better."
Akatsuchi did not care about Uchiha Obito's mockery at all. He nodded repeatedly.
Underworld King Fox.
It did sound more intimidating than Death God Fox.
Uchiha Obito said, "Put this spy's file back where it was. Don't tell anyone I came here."
After the two left, Akatsuchi walked to the archive shelf and read through the file on Kyoi.
This female ninja had infiltrated Konoha Village very early on. She was a failed spy who had never sent back any valuable intelligence.
He had no idea what Uchiha Obito wanted with this person's information.
Konoha's counterintelligence system was far too excellent. Most of the spies Sunagakure had sent into Konoha had been cleaned out.
Akatsuchi estimated that the surviving spies were ones Konoha had deliberately left alive, to be used as scapegoats whenever Konoha's leadership needed to purge troublesome figures.
He walked out of the archive chamber and arrived on the rooftop of the Tsuchikage Building, overlooking the entire village.
It was humiliating.
But the village had welcomed peace.
At least they no longer had to worry about being completely destroyed by Konoha.
As the transitional Tsuchikage after the war, he knew he had only one responsibility—
to bear infamy and humiliation while waiting for the village's revival.
He wondered how Kumogakure and Kirigakure were doing.
He wondered what treatment Konoha would give them.
In the largest port city of the Land of Waves, Jiraiya stood outside the temple with the frontline command staff, waiting for reinforcements from the village.
The first two people to walk out of the temple courtyard were Fox and Orochimaru.
Jiraiya asked, "How did it go? Is the Land of Earth war over?"
"It's over. Iwagakure surrendered to Konoha, and the Daimyo of the Land of Earth was killed by Fox. He established something called a joint government in the Land of Earth."
Hearing Orochimaru say that Fox had killed the Earth Daimyo, Jiraiya froze.
As a traditional ninja, the Daimyo was the greatest employer of shinobi, their nominal leader. If it had been Jiraiya, he would not have been able to kill a Daimyo so decisively.
Yako said, "Lord Orochimaru, Lord Jiraiya, you will lead the forces against the Mist. I'll take a unit to clean out the Daimyo family.
The Daimyo of the Land of Waves and the Daimyo of the Land of Water will both be obstacles to Konoha managing the entire shinobi world.
Let the fat pigs fattened by the old era disappear completely."
Nara Shikaku thought for a few seconds before realizing that the "fat pigs fattened by the old era" Lord Fox mentioned referred to Daimyo and nobles.
His father, Nara Shikakaku, was coordinating matters from Konoha Village and establishing police divisions around the temples in various regions. Ninja stationed in those police divisions would help Konoha manage local security and prevent violent incidents.
Every region was short on ninja.
The solution was to end the war as quickly as possible, free the ninja from the front lines, and send them to police divisions across the land.
Lord Fox and Lord Orochimaru had come to the front line to defeat the Mist and the Daimyo of the two countries as quickly as possible.
After defeating the Mist and the Daimyo, they would capture more cities and towns, which would then require even more Konoha ninja to garrison them.
Yako said, "The Land of Earth war is over, freeing five thousand Konoha ninja.
Four thousand of them will be assigned by Advisor Shikakaku to establish police divisions across the regions.
This time, we brought one thousand reinforcement ninja. Two hundred will follow me to the capital, and the rest will head to the front line."
Konoha squads walked out of the temple courtyard one after another, quickly gathering under the command of their respective battalion commanders.
Nara Shikaku thought to himself that with such rapid troop deployment, what could the Mist possibly use to fight Konoha?
After sending off the other Konoha ninja, Yako met Hidan.
Hidan had visibly thinned down. He complained:
"Leader, I finished establishing temples and shrines across the Land of Hot Water during this time. Now I've come to the Land of Waves too. I'm running out of blood. Too busy. Too exhausting."
Yako asked, "What about the Land of Fire? Who did you assign the temples there to?"
"The Uzumaki ninja also believe in the Three Gods. They're responsible for constructing the temples in the Land of Fire."
"Good. Hidan, follow me to the capital of the Land of Waves. I'll clean out the Daimyo family there, and you'll be responsible for establishing the temple."
In the capital of the Land of Waves, the Daimyo, fat as an inflated pufferfish, had sweat rolling from his head down onto his many-layered neck, where it disappeared into the folds of flesh.
He did not know that the Daimyo family of the Land of Earth had already been slaughtered by Konoha.
But incidents of Konoha uprooting and exterminating noble families throughout the Land of Waves had occurred again and again, making the Daimyo sweat like rain each time.
"What are Konoha ninja trying to do? What exactly are they trying to do?!"
One of the Daimyo's ministers said, "I heard the strategy was made by a Konoha jōnin named Nara Shikakaku. Konoha Village despises nobles. I heard Nara Shikakaku's exact words were that Konoha intends to completely uproot the old order."
"Is the Fire Daimyo really dead? Isn't the Fire Daimyo going to intervene?"
The minister very much wanted to say that the Fire Daimyo truly was dead.
Thanks to whatever teleportation shrines Konoha had created, the speed of information transmission was far faster than before.
A samurai stumbled into the hall and said in terror:
"Daimyo! There's a white point of light in the sky outside!"
Sixteen servants lifted the royal palanquin. Upon it sat the Daimyo, weighing more than three hundred pounds.
When they arrived beneath the eaves, the Daimyo saw a ninja hovering in the sky. In that ninja's hand was a cubic point of light.
A Mist Guardian Ninja appeared with Body Flicker Technique, his eyes filled with despair. Even so, he had no choice but to fulfill his duty of protecting the Daimyo.
He explained:
"Daimyo, that is Konoha's Fox, who has mastered Iwagakure's secret technique, Dust Release…"
"Isn't Iwagakure your Kirigakure's ally? Why does Konoha know Iwagakure's secret technique?
Can I send someone to negotiate? I want to surrender. I want to surrender to the Land of Fire and Konoha Village!"