Chapter 218: Shut Up. I'm the Hokage. My Word Is Final.
The decision was final: Tobirama Senju would lead the squad.
Team members: Hatake Kakashi, Might Guy, Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto.
Based on intelligence, the five of them would head to the Land of Water to locate the Three-Tails while simultaneously hunting down Akatsuki members.
No prisoners. No survivors. No unnecessary discussion.
Engage on sight. Eliminate.
Itachi had already sold out virtually every scrap of Akatsuki intelligence — including that of the recently recruited Hiruko, whom he'd also betrayed without hesitation.
Unsurprisingly, Hiruko turned out to be another Konoha rogue ninja.
Tobirama reviewed the Akatsuki intelligence in his hands, feeling a distinct headache coming on.
Setting aside Itachi, who could marginally still be counted as Konoha's own — Orochimaru (a former Akatsuki member who'd already left), Obito, and now Hiruko.
All three were Konoha rogue ninja.
And the Akatsuki's leader, Nagato, along with Konan — both were Jiraiya's own students, Konoha shinobi through and through.
Add Itachi to the tally, and roughly half the Akatsuki's roster had some tie to Konoha, one way or another.
"Fine. Understood."
"Not a single one of these people is walking away alive under my command."
Tobirama tucked the intelligence report away and looked at Pinky.
"Good. During this mission, everyone follows Lord Tobirama's orders without exception. No deviations."
Sakura tapped the desk, surveying the newly formed squad, before settling her gaze on the blond.
"Especially you, Naruto. No acting on impulse."
Sakura pointed this out with particular emphasis.
"Huh?"
"Why are you singling ME out, Sakura..."
"That's really embarrassing..."
Naruto slumped under her stern look.
"Hmph. That's because you're the most unpredictable ninja alive."
Sasuke chimed in from the side, a hint of amusement in his eyes.
"Why does everyone say that..."
Watching Naruto sulk, Sakura rubbed her chin.
"If your performance on this mission earns Lord Tobirama's approval, I'll have him teach you a new jutsu."
She offered this with a knowing smile.
"HUH?!"
"Seriously?!"
Naruto snapped back to full energy instantly.
"Have I ever lied to you?"
"YES!"
"I'm definitely gonna earn Old Man Stone-Face's approval!"
Watching the boy's sudden burst of enthusiasm, Tobirama's mouth twitched.
Was he just sold off without so much as a consultation?
Could Pinky maybe ask HIS opinion once in a while?
"Alright, no time to waste. Move out."
Sakura waved a hand.
"Wait for good news, Sakura!"
Watching the group depart, Sakura let out a breath of relief.
Tobirama leading the team, with Guy as the failsafe.
And Sasuke's fated Mangekyō.
Honestly — even if Pain himself showed up, this squad might not lose.
Worst case, Sasuke could use his Mangekyō to control Naruto and just detonate the Nine-Tails directly.
One-hit kill guaranteed.
Unless the entire Akatsuki roster swarmed them at once.
With the advantage of foresight against an unprepared enemy, Sakura could already picture the Akatsuki's grim future unfolding.
After everyone left, Sakura pulled the Flying Thunder God scroll back out of her drawer.
As Hokage now, all of Konoha's secrets were open to her. She could review whatever she pleased.
Having left the Hokage Building, Tobirama's squad wasted no time preparing to head straight for the Land of Water.
But before they'd even cleared the main gate, they ran into someone.
"Pervy Sage!"
Naruto called out to Jiraiya.
"Naruto?"
"What's all this?"
Jiraiya looked at the fully armed group with confusion.
"This time I'm—"
"Naruto."
Tobirama cut in, glancing at the sixteen-year-old boy.
"Er..."
"Heheh, it's nothing..."
Naruto belatedly remembered that this was an S-rank, absolute-secrecy mission.
"Lord Tobirama — is this about..."
Jiraiya studied the group, sensing something.
"Not your concern. Go about your business."
Tobirama gave the village's "prodigy" a cold look and led the group away without another word.
"Heheh, see you later, Pervy Sage!"
Naruto called his farewell and hurried to catch up with the others.
Jiraiya watched them go, brow furrowing.
What kind of mission would need this particular combination of people?
Was it...
The Akatsuki!
Nagato!
Realization struck Jiraiya like lightning.
That's it!
One Hokage, three jōnin!
He didn't understand why Naruto had been included, but Naruto was the Nine-Tails jinchūriki!
A lineup like this — what could it possibly be for, besides the Akatsuki, led by Nagato?
Was Konoha finally moving against Nagato?!
Jiraiya had always known this day might come. He just hadn't expected it so soon.
The moment Tobirama had been resurrected, Sakura had begun moving against Nagato.
Jiraiya gritted his teeth, thinking back to that red-haired boy from the day he'd left the Land of Rain.
The rest of the Akatsuki could die and it wouldn't matter. But Nagato and Konan...
CRASH!
The office door slammed open with such force that Sakura, absorbed in her scroll, jumped.
"Sakura!"
Jiraiya rushed in, breathless.
"Jiraiya, I shouldn't need to teach you how to use a door."
Sakura's brow creased at the man before her.
"Ah, sorry."
"But that's not important. Are you making a move against Nagato?"
Jiraiya pressed urgently.
"What — you ran into Tobirama's group?"
Sakura felt a headache coming on.
Of course. Tobirama's entire squad were vaults of discretion.
Except for a certain someone.
"Yes!"
Seeing that Sakura wasn't denying it, Jiraiya continued quickly.
"Sakura — if you capture Nagato."
"What will you do?"
Sakura set down her scroll and leaned back in her chair, regarding Jiraiya with a calm expression.
"What do you think I'll do?"
Her reaction was too flat, and it left Jiraiya momentarily speechless.
He knew her personality well enough.
When it came to enemies, Sakura had never once held back.
"I..."
Jiraiya gritted his teeth, looking at the girl in Hokage robes before him.
"Let ME go!"
"Let me go to the Land of Rain!"
"I can convince Nagato not to oppose Konoha!"
Jiraiya's words were far too naive, and Sakura shook her head slightly.
"Jiraiya, do you think it's enough for him to simply not oppose Konoha?"
"Go ask the fallen at the memorial stone whether they'd agree to that — the comrades who died at the Akatsuki's hands on the battlefield."
Countless Konoha shinobi had died, directly or indirectly, because of the Akatsuki during the Fourth Great Ninja War.
That wasn't something a few words could ever set right.
"..."
Jiraiya pressed his lips together, staring at the girl before him, and finally spoke slowly.
"Nagato is the Child of Prophecy the Great Toad Sage foretold. Before he was even ten years old, he'd already mastered nature transformation and shape manipulation across all five chakra elements."
"And he possesses the Rinnegan — a power we don't fully understand."
"Moving against him will come at a severe, severe cost."
Sakura, still flipping through the Flying Thunder God scroll, responded with mild indifference.
"So?"
Jiraiya stared at her, a note of frustrated disappointment creeping into his voice.
"Do you even understand what that MEANS?!"
"Nagato is not someone an ordinary shinobi can hope to fight!"
Snap!
Sakura closed the scroll and rose slowly to her feet, her emerald eyes flat with indifference.
"So you think I'm an ordinary shinobi?"
Jiraiya opened his mouth, then found he had nothing to say.
Was Sakura an ordinary shinobi?
Of course not.
By twelve, she'd already dominated the shinobi world. In a single war, three of the five most powerful Kage had become nothing more than stepping stones beneath her feet.
And now, at sixteen, she sat atop the throne of the world's foremost military power.
There was no way to describe someone like her as "ordinary."
"That's not what I meant."
"Don't twist my words."
Jiraiya said, somewhat annoyed.
Sakura's brow furrowed at this, but Jiraiya kept going.
"If you're moving against Nagato, you'll need his intelligence."
"So..."
"So you want to go to Amegakure?"
Sakura finished for him.
"Yes!"
That was Jiraiya's actual goal — one he'd never let go of, even now.
He wanted to talk to Nagato. His own student. The Child of Prophecy the Great Toad Sage had foreseen.
To convince him to abandon the Akatsuki, to stand down from opposing Konoha.
As far as Jiraiya was concerned, neither Tobirama's already-departed squad nor Sakura sitting here in the office could actually solve Nagato.
His earlier warnings about Nagato's talent and the Rinnegan had been meant to convince Sakura how formidable Nagato truly was — to make her back off from moving against him, so Jiraiya could negotiate first.
It seemed to have backfired spectacularly.
"Absolutely not."
Had Sakura ever considered sending Jiraiya against the Akatsuki? Of course she had. But she'd specifically avoided it precisely because she worried he'd charge blindly into the Akatsuki's stronghold and get himself killed for nothing.
Amegakure wasn't just Pain. There were other Akatsuki members present too.
And beyond that, Amegakure was, after the Five Great Villages, one of the most formidable hidden villages in the shinobi world. Its shinobi numbers, while smaller than Konoha's, were far from negligible.
In canon, when Jiraiya had infiltrated Amegakure, Nagato hadn't even intended to fight him at first — he'd sent Konan to try to talk him into leaving. Jiraiya had refused. Pain's bodies had come out one by one, and Jiraiya had killed three of them with a single Toad Summoning technique. Only when it became necessary had the Deva Path finally engaged directly — and by then, intelligence had already leaked significantly, leaving Nagato with no choice but to kill him.
"Sakura!"
Jiraiya's voice rose in frustration.
"Jiraiya, you should address me as Lady Hokage."
Sakura's expression didn't shift, regarding the man calmly.
"..."
The words caught in his throat. He stared at the girl before him, something indescribable churning in his chest. He opened his mouth, unsure what to say.
"Go home."
"And stop running around out there from now on."
"You've spent enough years traveling. It's time to rest."
Sakura's tone softened somewhat as she looked at him.
"Sakura, you'll regret this."
???
"Shut up. I'm the Hokage. My word is final."
Watching Jiraiya's retreating back, Sakura sank back into her chair, pressing a hand to her forehead with a sigh.
Honestly.
Jiraiya's plan was frankly naive.
Sakura had known him long enough to recognize this: outside the topic of the "Child of Prophecy," he was a genuinely level-headed, steady man. But the moment that particular subject came up, he lost all sense.
With Jiraiya gone, the office finally settled into quiet.
Sakura was about to return to the Flying Thunder God scroll when yet another visitor arrived at the office.
"Old Horse?"
Sakura blinked in surprise at the man before her.
"Sakura, there's something I need to discuss with you."
Asuma's expression was grave.
"What is it?"
Sakura closed her scroll.
Asuma pulled a letter from his pocket and placed it on the desk.
"This is a letter from Jiroubou at the Fire Temple."
"Take a look, Sakura."
Asuma's face was clouded with concern.
Sakura opened the letter and read through it, her eyes narrowing slightly.
It was an invitation, requesting Asuma's presence at the Fire Temple.
Jiroubou expressed how long it had been since they'd last met and hoped Asuma would join him for a gathering.
Buried between the lines was a mention that several nobles would also be in attendance.
"Heh. These people really don't know their place, do they."
A trace of coldness crept into her eyes as Sakura spoke, unbothered.
She didn't know what kind of man Jiroubou was.
But a monk was supposed to stay quietly in his temple, chanting scripture — not involve himself in matters like this.
Then again, thinking it through — if Jiroubou were really such an honest monk, how had he ended up joining the Guardian Shinobi Twelve and gaining access to the Daimyo in the first place?
Now that the Daimyo resided in Konoha, the Guardian Twelve had become something of a joke.
Sakura thought back to Himura, who'd visited Konoha earlier.
This was probably his handiwork.
With the entire Land of Fire's wealth flowing toward Konoha alongside the Daimyo, the nobility clearly couldn't sit still any longer.
"So what should I do?"
Asuma looked at Sakura, hesitant.
Asuma already knew the Daimyo was residing in Konoha, and he was aware of Sakura's somewhat delicate stance toward the nobility. Technically, this was a private matter that didn't need the Hokage's involvement. But given the circumstances, Asuma had decided to check with Sakura first.
"Bring Anko, Hayate, and Maruboshi Kosuke with you."
"The four of you go together."
Sakura's instructions caught Asuma off guard.
Hayate and Maruboshi Kosuke made sense — both were solid, seasoned veterans. Kosuke, though nominally a genin, was a battle-hardened shinobi with real experience.
But Anko...
"Anko will be team leader."
???
Asuma was even more confused now.
Anko? Team leader?
Between himself, Hayate, and Kosuke — wasn't ANY of them more reliable than Anko?
"That's all."
Despite the questions clearly swirling in his head, Sakura seemed uninterested in elaborating further.
"Alright, then."
Carrying his confusion, Asuma turned to leave — but Sakura suddenly called him back.
"Wait."
"Something else?"
Asuma turned, puzzled.
"Take a copy of this intelligence with you. Just in case."
With that, Sakura handed him a dossier on the Akatsuki.
The Fire Temple was some distance from Konoha, and in the original story, the Zombie Duo had struck the Fire Temple directly, on Fire Country soil. Better to be prepared than caught off guard.
"Understood."
Asuma glanced at the file and departed.
Watching him go, Sakura fell into thought.
In truth, bringing along both Hayate and Kosuke was somewhat excessive manpower.
Asuma and Anko alone would have sufficed.
But as insurance — to avoid having this thirty-five-million-ryō bounty of a Guardian Shinobi picked off by some nearly hundred-year-old geezer — she'd added Hayate and Kosuke for good measure.
Three jōnin plus one tokubetsu jōnin. Even if they couldn't win a fight, they could certainly outrun one.
As for why she'd chosen Anko as team leader—
Sakura simply liked Anko's personality. Especially at gatherings like this one, which Sakura had zero interest in attending herself.
Which only made her like Anko's temperament even more.
Of course, if Anko could just maintain her figure and lay off the sweets, Sakura would like her even more.
But even as Hokage, she couldn't control what her subordinates chose to eat.
All she could do was watch, helplessly, as Anko slowly transformed into a walking sweet potato.
With the office finally quiet, Sakura formed a one-handed seal.
Poof! White smoke billowed, and an exact duplicate of Sakura appeared beside her.
"You stay here and hold down the fort. I'm out."
Sakura instructed the clone.
"What's this? You get to run off and have fun, and I'm the one stuck here?"
The clone glared at her with obvious displeasure.
This was just a regular Shadow Clone — not Inner Sakura.
If she'd left Inner Sakura in charge of the Hokage's office, Konoha would probably be in flames by tomorrow.
Or sooner.
"Relax. I'll bring you back a snack."
Sakura grinned, pinching the clone's cheek. The clone stared back with a completely flat expression.
Heh. A snack, huh?
Who's even going to be around to eat it?
Watching the original saunter cheerfully toward the window, the clone's face fell into a look of pure resentment.
It's bad enough she never needs me most days — but the one time she actually calls on me, it's to do WORK.
Evil capitalist!
Sakura vaulted out the window, landed in a perfect roll to avoid detection, and vanished in a puff of smoke.
The Land of Water
A lake somewhere in the region
"Whoa, is THAT the Three-Tails?"
"That is one seriously huge turtle!"
"YEAH!"
The blond young man, balanced atop a white clay bird, stared at the massive black shadow lurking beneath the lake's broad surface and let out a whoop.
"Idiot. Just finish him off."
Sasori, seated on the same clay bird beside Deidara, spoke with irritation.
"Hey, hey, Sasori-danna, let me show you my most magnificent art!"
"YEAH!"
Deidara reached into the pouch at his waist, pulled out a wad of white clay, and stuffed it into the mouths embedded in his palms, chewing it thoroughly.
Before long, a series of freshly formed fish-shaped clay bombs emerged.
As Deidara channeled chakra into them, the little clay fish seemed to spring to life, hopping and twitching in his hands.
He hurled the bombs from high above, and the clay fish plunged into the water, swimming rapidly toward the enormous Three-Tails below.
Sensing his bombs had reached their target, Deidara raised a single-handed sword seal before his chest.
"ART IS AN EXPLOSION!"
"KATSU!"
At Deidara's shout, a series of muffled detonations rumbled beneath the water's surface, faint flashes of fire visible through the churning depths.
But at that moment, a colossal geyser of water erupted skyward, rocketing directly toward Deidara and Sasori above!
The clay bird couldn't evade in time and took the full impact.
Deidara and Sasori tumbled from the sky, landing steadily on the water's surface below.
"Idiot. THAT'S your art?"
"Doesn't come close to eternal beauty."
Sasori shot his partner a mocking smirk.
"Tch. This big turtle's such a pain."
"YEAH!"
Deidara pouted at Sasori's jab.
"Idiot. Watch this."
"Let me show you what TRUE eternal art looks like."
Ignoring Deidara's grumbling, Sasori let a scroll slide from his sleeve into his palm.
At that moment, the Three-Tails' colossal bulk finally surfaced fully from the water.
Beside its mountain-sized form, Sasori and Deidara looked like two ants.
The Three-Tails' single visible eye fixed coldly on the two humans before it.
Three years ago, its jinchūriki had been killed in a single punch by some pink-haired girl, forcing it into dormancy and a countdown to revival.
It hadn't even been awake a full month before shinobi were already circling it.
It had had ENOUGH of this.
It wanted freedom.
It wanted nothing more than to be a turtle, quietly minding its own business at the bottom of a lake.
Shinobi...
Could all just DIE.
"RRRAAAGH!"
A roar like thunder erupted from the Three-Tails' throat, shaking the entire lake.
Countless traces of chakra began converging in its mouth!
This was—
A Tailed Beast Bomb!
Sasori smirked coldly at the sight and unrolled the scroll in his hand.
As it opened, a single character — "Four" — appeared at its center.
With a puff of smoke, a towering humanoid puppet materialized on the water's surface!
That massive frame. That dark skin. Those thick, powerful muscles...
This was—
The Fourth Raikage!
The very Fourth Raikage who'd died three years ago at a certain pink-haired girl's hands!
Under Sasori's control, the puppet began to move...
Lightning crackled across its entire body. Every strand of hair stood on end.
Lightning Release Chakra Mode!
"Lightning Plow — Hot Blade."
Sasori quietly invoked the Hidden Cloud's forbidden secret technique. The puppet — now the Fourth Raikage reforged as a puppet — erupted in a blaze of electricity and vanished from the spot in an instant!
One punch!
Landed squarely against the Three-Tails' skull!
Under the crushing impact, the Tailed Beast Bomb forming in the Three-Tails' mouth discharged straight down into the lakebed!
!!!
In that instant, it was as though heaven and earth had collided!
The lake erupted like it had been struck by a nuclear warhead — a violent shockwave, an overwhelming surge of chakra, and a tsunami dozens of meters high all exploding skyward at once!
Sasori and Deidara were both sent tumbling through the air by the blast!
Even the Three-Tails' colossal body was flipped completely upside down!
"PERFECT OPPORTUNITY!"
"DEIDARA!"
Sasori, tumbling backward through the air, called out immediately.
"No need to tell ME, Sasori-danna!"
As he spoke, a clay dragon — some twenty or thirty centimeters long — had already taken shape in Deidara's hands.
"GO! Beauty in the instant — THAT is art!"
With a resounding dragon's roar, the toy-sized clay dragon suddenly ballooned into a monstrous creature some twenty or thirty meters long, rocketing straight toward the Three-Tails!
☆☆☆
-> 20 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Hollowborn
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you