Chapter 297: The Karma Flames That Burn the Heavenly Demon
"Do you dare to gamble?"
Those words cast a dark shadow over Hiruzen. His expression was grim, and even he had to admit that he truly did not dare gamble on a matter like this, because the stakes were simply too high.
Those were the lives of an entire village.
As Hokage of Konoha, the greatest of the Hidden Villages, Hiruzen had always borne immense responsibility, and he truly loved the village deeply. Even if some personal and family interests were mixed in, that did not diminish his love for Konoha in the slightest.
Hiruzen believed that collective honor and personal interest were not mutually exclusive. He could preserve both.
He also knew that some of the choices he made would invite criticism, but he believed that one day people would understand that those sacrifices were necessary so Konoha could become better, and so its villagers could live in peace.
"You think you can say whatever you want?" Hiruzen gripped his pipe tightly, fury blazing in his eyes so intensely that it felt as if he wanted to burn Heavenly Demon to ashes.
He was furious, more furious than he had been in a very long time.
The current situation was utterly humiliating. The other side had come knocking on Konoha's door, attacked the village, and now stood there threatening him. What enraged Hiruzen the most was that he actually had to take those threats seriously. He could not strike back recklessly.
Humiliation. Endless humiliation.
In all his years, Hiruzen had rarely felt such humiliation. He wanted nothing more than to crush this Heavenly Demon on the spot, yet he had to endure it, and that endurance only made the humiliation bite deeper.
"You're welcome to try," Amamiya Kenichi replied in an indifferent tone.
That calm answer only pushed Hiruzen deeper into silence.
I'll kill this bastard.
That roar echoed inside Hiruzen's heart, but as he looked at the masked figure before him, he forcibly suppressed his rage.
Of course he could attack. He could strike without mercy. With the jonin around him, and Tsunade still near the blast site, Hiruzen was confident they could kill Heavenly Demon.
But what would it cost?
Was he really going to become Konoha's sinner?
Hiruzen looked at the fallen and wounded Konoha ninja scattered across the battlefield. The casualties were already severe, but compared to the scale of the funeral that might follow if he chose to continue fighting, this was still a small one.
"If you dare take further action against Konoha, then Konoha will hunt you down with everything it has!" Hiruzen roared.
That was as far as he could go.
He truly did not dare gamble.
How many villagers were in Konoha? How many ninja were still left in the village? If another two attacks like that landed, how many people would remain? The families of all these ninja were still inside Konoha.
Hiruzen did not turn around, but the ninja behind him all fell silent. Even Shikaku could only remain silent, because his family was in Konoha too. Everything they cared about was there.
"Naturally, Hokage sama. Then I'll be on my way." Kenichi smiled and dispelled his Shadow Clone.
Hiruzen could only give the order to halt pursuit, then stand there in humiliation as Sasori and Deidara withdrew together with the others.
By the time Tsunade arrived, Sasori and Deidara were already long gone. A blimp was rising into the sky near Konoha. Hiruzen watched in silence, saying nothing, merely puffing on his pipe.
The Konoha ninja behind him silently gathered the bodies of their fallen comrades.
The entire battlefield had fallen into a dead silence.
"Old man! You just stood there and watched?!" Tsunade roared the moment she arrived, dusty and furious.
She pointed straight at Hiruzen, her eyes full of disbelief and disgust.
They had attacked Konoha, desecrated the dead, and killed so many ninja.
Yet her teacher, the man praised as the Professor, had just stood there and watched. Watched them leave. Watched those bastards walk away.
At that moment, Tsunade was so angry that she had to keep taking deep breaths. It felt as if her lungs were going to burst. She wanted nothing more than to punch the old man in the face. In her eyes, he was no longer even worthy of being called Hokage.
Was this really how Konoha, the village her grandfather founded, dealt with invaders?
Earlier, she had been caught in that strange technique, her entire body wracked with pain. She had even tried to search for that masked bastard and failed. By the time she rushed back here, all she found was that Hiruzen had let Heavenly Demon leave.
Hiruzen silently smoked, head lowered, without saying a word.
That only made Tsunade angrier. The rage in her chest felt as if it were about to harden into something real and tear her apart from the inside.
"Tsunade sama, please calm down. Hokage sama has his reasons," Shikaku said at last.
The moment Tsunade turned her bloodshot gaze toward him, Shikaku knew he had little time, so he hurriedly explained everything Heavenly Demon had said just moments ago.
Tsunade fell silent.
Although she was furious that the bastard had insulted the remains of her lover and grandfather, and furious that her teacher had done nothing, she also understood just how powerless he must have felt in that moment.
When Konoha was attacked, she had seen the scene herself from below. Konoha's proud defensive barrier had nearly shattered in an instant. If not for the clan heads and the surrounding ninja helping weaken part of the force, the barrier might have collapsed completely on the spot.
Heavenly Demon had threatened to launch two more, even three more attacks of the same kind.
Could Konoha really withstand that?
With most of Konoha's strongest fighters already outside the village, if another strike landed, the destruction would be immeasurable. Could any of them bear that responsibility?
A wave of helplessness rose in Tsunade's chest. The anger still burned wildly, and she desperately wanted to find someone, anyone, to beat to death. But Heavenly Demon had already gone.
Frustration.
Humiliation.
Those were the only emotions left in her heart.
"Ahhhhhhh!"
Tsunade suddenly stomped down in rage.
The giant thorn tree before her snapped in half instantly, followed by a long chain of crashes. Then, as if infected by her fury, countless Konoha ninja also howled and surged forward, venting all of their humiliation and grief upon the monstrous tree.
"Thank you, Shikaku," Hiruzen said as he lowered his pipe and silently watched the scene unfold.
"Hokage sama, I have a suggestion. We need to begin researching anti air techniques immediately, and also study Heavenly Demon's attack methods as fast as possible," Shikaku said, suppressing his own anger while watching the nearby ninja rage at the tree.
"Hm. Konoha will devote everything it has to this. Funds will be allocated at the highest level. If it still isn't enough, then we'll ask the Daimyo," Hiruzen said firmly.
There was not the slightest trace of respect for the Daimyo in his tone. Nor did he spare a thought for what would happen if the Daimyo refused.
If the Daimyo of the Land of Fire refused funding after Konoha had suffered such humiliation, then there would be no need for the Daimyo to continue existing in comfort. He could come personally and experience Konoha's humiliation for himself.
Still, Hiruzen was also lost in thought.
He had been humiliated.
Konoha had been humiliated.
Every ninja in Konoha had been humiliated.
And that humiliation would become karma flames, flames that would one day burn Heavenly Demon to cinders.
Konoha would rise again from within those flames.
"It's going to be troublesome from here on out," Kenichi said as he scratched his cheek and looked at the distant silhouette of Konoha.
The humiliation Konoha suffered today was unimaginable.
Still, in his past life, scenes like this were not unheard of. Small countries without enough strength, when faced with military coercion from stronger nations, could only swallow their anger and endure it in silence.
He had merely recreated that scene here in this world.
The only difference was that this time the country forced into silence was Konoha, the greatest power in the ninja world.
As long as Konoha had no way to deal with his thermobaric bombs, then no matter how angry they were, they could only endure.
Of course, Kenichi knew very well that the Third Hokage was not some fool, and Konoha's ninja were not idiots either. Just by looking at the hot air balloons and improvised airships they had already managed to produce, it was obvious these people were capable of progress. The only reason they had not progressed faster before was because they lacked enough pressure.
Now, Kenichi had become that pressure.
It could be said with certainty that from now on, Konoha's research would advance at full speed. Their defensive barriers would be further upgraded as well.
This time they had already managed to defend against his God Slaying Bomb. In the past, using thermobaric bombs against Konoha would have been much easier.
"But it doesn't matter." Kenichi smiled faintly. "Even if you can defend against the God Slaying Bomb, what about a thermobaric bomb fused with all five nature transformations? What about a nuclear bomb?"
Ever since he acquired those books on nuclear physics, he had been having Shadow Clones study the subject constantly.
Once they finished, they would dispel themselves and all the knowledge, memories, and understanding would return to him.
That meant even while Kenichi was conducting experiments or making trouble outside, he was still steadily learning new fields of knowledge.
That was why Kenichi regarded the Shadow Clone Technique as the greatest divine skill in the ninja world. Other ninjutsu could not even compare.
A technique that seemed ordinary on the surface but had such monstrous value in research and learning was simply absurd.
So while Konoha might indeed rise from humiliation, all Kenichi had to do was maintain his technological lead. As long as he stayed ahead, Konoha's humiliation would only continue.
And once he unified the ninja world, he would slowly erase the idea of ninja villages and nations from people's minds.
After the Qin unified the six states, even if the remnants of the old states remained dissatisfied for a time, by the Han dynasty there was only the identity of Han.
That was the method Kenichi had learned from history, the method for creating long term stability and peace in a unified nation.
After all, once there were no external enemies, then everyone would become part of the same family. Peace would naturally follow.
Of course, Kenichi never believed people could live without conflict entirely. That was impossible.
But lasting peace on a large scale was still very achievable.
"Kenichi, thanks for earlier." Sasori walked over and handed Kenichi a cup of hot tea.
These days, Sasori had also developed a taste for tea.
"No problem. Now that you have real combat data, it'll be easier for you to improve your design, right?" Kenichi replied with a smile.
When he saw Sasori and Deidara getting surrounded, he had known something was wrong and that he needed to step in.
But support could not be given blindly. Blind support was not support. It was just throwing lives away.
That was why he had sent a Shadow Clone over first while he himself went toward Konoha. If the negotiation worked, then everyone could leave safely. If it did not, then he would have had to think of something else.
"That's true." Sasori nodded. "With actual combat data, things become much easier."
Then he gave Kenichi a meaningful look.
"And what about yours?"
Kenichi immediately understood what he meant.
Sasori knew exactly how protective Kenichi was of that strange weapon. Kenichi had told him before that the cost of producing one was extremely high.
So in Sasori's eyes, Kenichi should not have had many of them.
"I was bluffing." Kenichi shrugged.
At the time, he had been threatening the Third Hokage, and he knew Hiruzen well enough. That old man loved Konoha deeply, but he also had many weaknesses that could be exploited.
That was why Kenichi had chosen to gamble.
He had gambled that Hiruzen Sarutobi would not dare attack. He had gambled that Hiruzen would not dare risk the lives of so many people in Konoha just to kill him.
And if Hiruzen really had dared, then that Shadow Clone would have just stalled for as long as possible while Kenichi himself figured out another way to rescue Sasori and Deidara.
Fortunately, he had won the gamble.
Hiruzen truly had not dared.
"Amamiya senpai, was that explosion deep in the forest also your doing?" Deidara asked while wiping down the War Scorpion. He had been in a foul mood earlier, but now he could not hold back his curiosity.
"Yes. But the results weren't particularly impressive." Kenichi shrugged.
That God Slaying Bomb had originally been one he did not plan to use. Unexpectedly, it had come in handy.
Still, the end result had not stood out much. Tsunade had emerged right afterward, and as for Obito, Kenichi did not believe that man would die so easily.
After all, whether Obito hid outside Kamui or inside it, he still would have been blasted. So there was no reason not to retreat inside if he could.
As long as Obito was not stupid, nothing truly fatal should have happened to him.
"That bastard…" Obito cursed inwardly at that exact moment.
He had barely survived the God Slaying Bomb. In the end he had endured it by forcing out a huge amount of chakra and using a high level defensive technique.
But he had understood one thing from that explosion.
The sensation it left on his body was almost identical to what he had felt inside the Kamui dimension.
.....
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