Chapter 499: Shion's Plea and the Hokage's Ambition
The following day.
Konohagakure, Hokage Building.
While the front lines of the Ninja World burned under the suffocating smoke of relentless war, the Hidden Leaf Village basked in the tranquil golden glow of the afternoon sun. The contrast was absolute.
Despite the deployment of their main military forces, the village functioned with flawless precision. With Uchiha Akira presiding over the seat of power, Konoha had not merely stabilized; it thrived, growing more prosperous by the day. In the bustling streets and crowded tea houses, villagers eagerly traded the latest reports of triumph from the battlefield. The annexation of minor nations. The utter crushing of the allied shinobi forces. The live capture of both the Raikage and the Tsuchikage. These historic, world-shaking achievements painted unmatched pride across the faces of every citizen.
Inside the Hokage's office, Uchiha Akira leaned back against the plush leather of his expansive chair. His eyes were half-closed in quiet contemplation. Standing just behind him, Sara, the former Queen of Loulan, worked her delicate fingers into the muscles of his shoulders, her touch gentle and precise.
A sudden swirl of leaves signaled the arrival of an Anbu operative. The masked shinobi materialized before the mahogany desk via the Body Flicker Technique, immediately dropping to one knee in absolute reverence.
"Hokage-sama," the Anbu reported, his voice muffled behind the porcelain mask. "The Priestess of the Land of Demons, Shion, requests an immediate audience. She claims to bring critical intelligence concerning the survival of the entire Ninja World."
"The Land of Demons?" Akira's eyes opened, a faint gleam of calculation crossing his dark pupils. He let the name roll over in his mind for a brief second. "Let her in."
The Anbu bowed his head, accepting the command, and vanished as quickly as he had appeared.
Moments later, the heavy oak doors of the office creaked open.
Flanked by two silent Anbu guards, a young girl stepped hesitantly into the room. Shion possessed delicate features and porcelain skin, dressed in the traditional, elegant garb of a shrine maiden. Yet, the pristine image was marred by the sheer exhaustion radiating from her posture. Her pale purple eyes darted around the room, swimming with poorly concealed anxiety.
Her gaze immediately locked onto the man seated behind the desk. She had expected a monster. The rumors painting the Fifth Hokage as a bloodthirsty tyrant had reached even her isolated lands. Instead, she found a calm, striking young man who projected no suffocating aura of malice. If anything, his relaxed posture and the quiet serenity of the woman standing behind him offered a strange, grounding comfort. The tight knot of tension in Shion's chest loosened just a fraction.
"Are you... the Fifth Hokage, Uchiha Akira?" Shion asked. She forced a deep breath into her lungs, fighting to keep the tremor out of her voice.
Akira said nothing at first. He simply raised a hand and gestured toward the empty chair opposite his desk.
Shion bit her lower lip, clutching the fabric of her sleeves, and sat down stiffly.
"Speak," Akira commanded, his voice smooth but carrying a heavy weight. "Why has the Priestess of the Land of Demons abandoned her shrine to come to my Konoha? If you are here seeking asylum, you should already be aware of our rules."
"I... I am here to request Konoha to deploy troops!" Shion's head snapped up. The hesitation vanished, replaced by a desperate, burning urgency. "Moryo... Moryo's soul has been released!"
"Moryo?" Akira raised a single brow, his expression largely unchanged.
Misinterpreting his calm demeanor for ignorance, panic flared in Shion's chest. She leaned forward, her words spilling out in a rush.
"Moryo is a demon from another world! It possesses a truly immortal soul and wields a dark power capable of devouring everything it touches! Just a few days ago, a rogue faction of shinobi launched a surprise attack on the Sealing Shrine in my country. They shattered the barriers and broke the seal binding Moryo's soul!"
A violent shudder wracked her small frame. She gripped her knees to steady herself.
"Right now, they are marching toward the Volcano Shrine in the Land of Swamps. That is where Moryo's physical body remains imprisoned! If they succeed... if they allow that soul and body to merge, Moryo will achieve complete resurrection. It will summon an endless Ghost Army, an unkillable legion of stone soldiers, and turn the entire Ninja World into a wasteland of death!"
Her knuckles turned white as she gripped the fabric of her skirt, her voice cracking under the weight of her terror.
"In the current state of the world, only Konoha has the strength to intervene. Only you can stop this catastrophe!"
Akira listened in silence. A brief flash of realization crossed his dark eyes.
According to his knowledge of the original timeline, the resurrection of Moryo was not supposed to occur for another few years. Why had the schedule accelerated so drastically? He tapped a finger against the armrest, the rhythmic sound echoing softly in the quiet office. Within seconds, the answer presented itself.
The butterfly effect.
His meteoric rise to power had not merely reshaped the political landscape of Konoha; it had ignited a massive, sweeping war across the entire continent. The absolute attention of the major hidden villages was entirely fixated on him, their main military forces pinned down and bleeding out on the front lines. That global distraction had created a massive blind spot. It gave the rats hiding in the dark corners of the world the perfect opportunity to scurry out.
That dark medical ninja, Yomi, had likely observed the chaos engulfing the Five Great Nations. Seeing the major powers entirely consumed by their war against Konoha, the fool believed it was the perfect, unopposed window to resurrect his dark god and claim dominion over the ashes.
"Heh..." A low, quiet chuckle escaped Akira's lips. The sound was entirely devoid of warmth. "Interesting."
He had initially dismissed the affairs of the minor nations as a boring farce, entirely beneath his notice. He certainly had not expected his own global conquest to force this particular troupe of clowns onto the stage years ahead of schedule.
Seeing the faint, amused smile playing on the Hokage's lips, Shion's anxiety spiked into outright panic.
"Hokage-sama! Please, you must take this seriously!" she pleaded, half-rising from her seat. "Moryo's power defies human logic! Its Ghost Army is truly immortal. Ordinary ninjutsu cannot damage those stone soldiers at all! Once the demon is fully resurrected, even if the Five Great Nations were to abandon their war and join forces, I fear they would still fall—"
"The Five Great Nations?" Akira cut her off. The amusement vanished from his face, replaced by a cold, heavy contempt that seemed to drop the temperature in the room. "Do not compare me to such trash."
He rested his chin on the back of his intertwined hands, his gaze pinning her in place.
"This so-called Moryo is nothing more than a stray beast from another dimension. At its absolute peak, it is merely an uglier, lesser imitation of a Tailed Beast."
His tone was flat, completely indifferent to the apocalyptic threat that had driven the Priestess to despair. To a man who wielded the power of the gods, a Tailed Beast was little more than a disobedient pet waiting to be crushed underfoot. An army of slow, lumbering stone puppets meant absolutely nothing to him.
However...
A sharp, calculating glint flashed in Akira's dark eyes.
Moryo itself was utterly worthless. But the alternate dimension it hailed from? That held a certain degree of value. If his memory served him correctly, the dark chakra of the demon and the sealing light of the Priestess both originated from the exact same spatial plane.
For a master of the Rinnegan, someone who already commanded the absolute spatial authority of the [Six Paths: Imperial Heaven], an untouched, unknown dimension was a rare prize. Analyzing its spatial coordinates and dimensional structure could provide the exact inspiration needed to evolve his dōjutsu even further. He might even be able to shatter its boundaries and directly devour that alternate dimension, assimilating its mass to expand his own [Imperial Heaven] space.
The prospect finally ignited a genuine spark of interest within him.
"I can help you," Akira stated, his gaze locking onto the young Priestess.
"Truly?" Shion gasped, her pale purple eyes widening as a desperate, overwhelming joy flooded her features.
"However."
The single word dropped like an anvil, instantly shattering her fragile relief. Akira's tone shifted, growing sharp and businesslike.
"Konoha is not a charity. And I am certainly no savior. If you want the absolute protection of my village, if you want me to personally intervene and slaughter this demon..." He leaned forward slightly, the predatory aura of a conqueror finally bleeding into the room. "What price are you prepared to pay?"
Shion slowly lowered her head, the harsh reality of the ninja world crashing down upon her.
He was right. There was no such thing as unconditional salvation. What price could a ruined shrine and a terrified girl possibly offer a man who was currently conquering the entire continent?
She ground her teeth together, the metallic taste of blood blooming on her bitten lip. A heavy, absolute resolve settled over her. Shion stood up from her chair, stepped back, and bowed deeply, bending at the waist until she was staring at the wooden floorboards.
"As long as you eliminate Moryo and save the people of the Land of Demons..." Her voice trembled, but she forced the words out with every ounce of strength she possessed. "The Land of Demons will unconditionally submit to Konoha! I, Shion, swear this oath upon my life and my title as the Priestess!"
The moment the vow left her lips, it looked as though the invisible strings holding her upright had been severed. All the strength drained from her small body.
As the supreme spiritual leader of her nation, speaking those words was the ultimate surrender. She was stripping away the sovereignty and dignity of her homeland, placing it entirely in the hands of a foreign warlord. But she had no other choice. Between total annihilation at the hands of a dark god and bending the knee to a human conqueror, submission was the only path that allowed her people to live.
"Submission, is it?" Akira murmured, a faint, satisfied smile curving his lips.
In truth, he held very little political interest in an isolated, barren territory like the Land of Demons. It offered no strategic military advantage. Yet, since absolute loyalty was being hand-delivered directly to his desk, he saw no reason to refuse.
Even the smallest piece of territory was another stone in the foundation of his empire.
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