Danzo Applies Pressure

The dry sound of a shuriken striking something rang out.

But it wasn't the sound of it piercing flesh.

Earth Release had been destroyed, Fire Release had been countered, and his Water Release was less refined. If none of those worked—

A colossal shadow appeared.

Hearing Diejian's words, the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist looked up at the sky—

"Consider yourselves lucky. You're the first to witness this technique."

At that moment, the reason Diejian was called the "Rising Dragon" descended upon them.

Emerging from the mist was a dragon with brown skin.

It was a Wood Dragon.

Its sweeping tail cleared away the thick mist, revealing its full form.

The Kirigakure Ninja stared up at it in shock.

Above them, Kojian knelt on one knee atop the dragon's head, looking down at the Kirigakure Ninja.

"This is Konoha's Rising Dragon's trump card—the First's Wood Release, the Wood Dragon Technique."

"No. This is my dragon, not the old man's."

Diejian, perched on the Wood Dragon's head, frowned in displeasure and closed his eyes.

"Suikazan. Your greatsword is called Samehada, right? That thing seems to be a terrible match for me, since I specialize in using ninjutsu to suppress enemies from a distance. With the techniques I have on hand, it's difficult to figure out how to break through. You could say it's the natural enemy of anyone who uses ninjutsu. Even a ninja of equal strength would struggle to overcome its ability. Of course, that wouldn't apply to someone with a special technique like the Second Hokage or the White Fang, or someone who could see through and suppress taijutsu like the Uchiha or Hyuga—but anyway, Suikazan..."

Kojian kept his eyes closed, gave him a disdainful look, and twisted his mouth into a smirk.

"Tell me—how are you going to defend against a physical attack that's this overwhelming?"

Kojian, seated atop the Wood Dragon, suddenly raised his arm.

In sync with him, the Wood Dragon opened its mouth as wide as it could.

What grew from its jaws wasn't a set of fangs.

It was a mass of sharp branches.

"Come on, dance! Wood Release: Wood Branch Technique!"

Diejian brought his arm down.

At once, countless sharp branches burst from the Wood Dragon's mouth.

This was the sort of devastating, tentacle-like barrage that Kakuzu had once unleashed against Kojian.

It was less effective against opponents with strong defenses, but for ninja whose skills focused on fighting people, it was a deadly and effective technique.

If Kojian hadn't had a sturdy shield made from Wood Release, even he might not have been able to withstand that storm of attacks.

Ground to razor-sharp points and raining down with incredible force, the branches were no different from spears.

The Kirigakure Ninja desperately swung their Ninja Blades, trying to knock the falling branches aside.

"But that's not all!"

Watching the scene, Diejian began forming Hand Seals at a leisurely pace, as if showing off.

The seal was Tiger.

Diejian filled his lungs with air, then exhaled forcefully.

The air in his lungs, infused with Chakra, heated rapidly as it left his mouth, turning into flames hot enough to burn wood to ash.

"Fire Release: Hellfire Gravel Technique!"

The flames Kojian exhaled struck the branches released by the Wood Dragon, setting them alight.

Now transformed into fiery spears, they forced the Kirigakure Ninja to defend themselves even more desperately.

But unlike the dual-sword wielder, who had a wide variety of techniques, and the greatsword wielder, who could protect himself with his massive blade, Fuguki—swinging Samehada, whose blade was neither long enough nor suited to a wide range of moves—failed to respond in time.

A flaming branch struck Fuguki in the shoulder.

Fuguki groaned in pain.

Once that happened, it was only a matter of time before their defenses collapsed.

As another barrage was about to hit Fuguki—

"Release—Hiramekarei!"

The greatsword Hiramekarei transformed, its enormous blade broad enough to cover three Kirigakure Ninja.

The massive shield of Chakra knocked away every flaming spear.

"So it's called Hiramekarei... It changes shape when you feed it Chakra—and it can grow that big in an instant. I doubt there's a more terrifying blade in close combat."

You might think you'd kept a safe distance after judging the blade's length, only to realize too late that you were about to be cut in half.

Against Hiramekarei, close combat was out of the question.

That was probably why it could form a three-man squad alongside Samehada, which could completely shut down long-range ninjutsu.

Samehada, the Ninja Blade that drained Chakra—a ninja killer.

Hiramekarei, the close-combat killer that could change shape in an instant.

What troublesome weapons, Kojian thought, frowning in distaste.

Still, getting information here was useful.

If only he could finish them off here—

"Here it comes again!"

Diejian's thoughts were interrupted.

Kojian instantly leaped from the Wood Dragon's head.

A new attacker had suddenly appeared and launched a surprise attack.

The spot where Kojian had just been standing was struck, and the Wood Dragon's head exploded.

Its head blown away and its Wood Branch Technique interrupted, the Wood Dragon collapsed helplessly to the ground. Diejian landed66

"—?!"

He was swallowed by the water dragon's jaws as they bore down on him.

Caught in the water pressure and struggling to breathe, Kojian curled into a ball to reduce the surface area exposed to the pressure. At the same time, he poured everything he had into creating a Domain.

He pushed back, then ultimately dispersed the water dragon, but couldn't completely stop its momentum. His body slammed hard into the ground and rolled several times before he finally righted himself and landed on his feet.

His feet sank into the sand, but the soft beach couldn't slow him down.

Kojian scraped across the beach in a crouch, carving a furrow as he slid backward. Only after a moment did he come to a stop.

Soaked from head to toe, Diejian was panting heavily. The water dragon had cost him a huge amount of Chakra, he'd had to hold his breath inside it, and getting his body back into a proper position had taken a great deal of strength.

During the exchange, the impact seemed to have injured the inside of his mouth.

A little blood trickled from the corner of Diejian's mouth.

Kojian spat out the blood in his mouth and wiped the blood running down his chin.

"That was..."

The new attacker he'd glimpsed just before the explosion.

An enormous scroll was attached to the blade of a strange, wrapped greatsword.

It was probably another of Kirigakure's Ninja Blades—in other words, one of the newly arrived Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist.

"Did they really deploy more than half the Seven Ninja Swordsmen just to deal with me?"

His life had been targeted several times before.

But this was the first time Kojian had faced a force assembled so clearly for the sole purpose of killing him.

"So the enemy's getting serious, too."

In his previous life, the Second Hokage had often lectured Kojian about the significance of the Senju Clan and the position he held.

As a child, Kojian had ignored him, resisting at every turn, and had even taken a few punches for it. But now, he understood the genuine concern Hashirama and Tobirama had felt.

Ever since Kojian was old enough to understand, Konoha had repeatedly suffered damage from interference by other villages.

Kojian thought the successive Hokage had refrained from taking harsh measures because they wanted to protect the young shoots.

If Konoha had taken a hard line and suffered retaliation, the children of prominent clans might have been targeted. At the very least, before Kojian had learned the Sharingan and a host of other techniques, he wouldn't have been able to survive the clash he'd just endured.

"Assuming the Second Hokages of those villages are monsters on the same level, that means Iwagakure and Kirigakure each have two monsters at my masters' level... And below them are their next-generation Third Hokage candidates—the equivalent of Konoha's elite during the Kumogakure incident, huh? What a pain. I should've had Sakumo train with me."

He sighed.

"...This is awful."

He looked around.

The enemy's presence had vanished.

It seemed they had retreated.

He stood up and brushed the sand from his kimono.

Before Diejian stretched a completely devastated coastline.

The once-pure white beach was covered in filthy mud and sand, its surface gouged and uneven by the rushing water. Flames crept across discarded driftwood, illuminating the destruction in the darkening world.

The bodies of the Uzushio Ninja who had taken their own lives were nowhere to be found. He couldn't tell whether they had disappeared in the battle or been taken away by the Kirigakure Ninja.

The Uzumaki Clan inherited a physical Kekkei Genkai, making its members valuable subjects of study to other villages.

There was no loyalty to their fellow clansmen in the hearts of those who had served as spies.

Even if they took their own lives for the sake of another village, they would only be used, then used again, until they were spent. That was the world of ninja.

Kojian immediately returned to Uzushiogakure, took Nawaki with him, and left the village.

He didn't want to linger in a place that might be enemy territory.

Several days later, based on Senju Kojian's hints that Uzushio Village might have betrayed them and colluded with the Kirigakure Ninja, Shimura Danzo proposed a review of the alliance with Uzushio Village.

At the same time, Uzushiogakure ordered Senju Rujian to appear and explain himself over allegations that he had "kidnapped Uzushio Ninja."

The Third Hokage tried to defend Uzushio Village, Konoha's ally since the time of the First, but Danzo criticized him.

He advised the Third Hokage that if Kojian went to Uzushio Village again, Kirigakure and Uzushio might join forces to kill him. He said they should ignore the order.

Utatane Koharu joined Danzo's faction over Senju Kojian, while Mitokado Homura remained neutral.

Furthermore, Torifu Akimichi, who was close to the Third Hokage, had been sent to the front alongside the White Fang, leaving the Third Hokage short on support.

On top of that, Diejian, who possessed the Uzumaki Bloodline, had decided to give up his second home for Konoha.

Danzo emphasized this point and used it to pressure the Third Hokage. It was the decisive blow, and the Third Hokage made his decision to protect Konoha.

And so, the relationship between Konoha and Uzushio gradually cooled and grew distant.

As the relationship between Konohagakure and Uzushiogakure developed cracks, Konoha's leadership began arguing over how to treat Kushina Uzumaki, who had come from Uzushiogakure.

There was no shortage of debate over what to do about Kushina going forward.

Ideas included strengthening the surveillance that had previously been handled solely by Senju Diejian, and having "Root," under Danzo's command, forcibly convert her to Konoha's beliefs.

If Uzushiogakure had raised Kushina as a spy, then in the future, as the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, she would inevitably bring disaster upon Konohagakure with her immense power.

Danzo was concerned about this and argued that, to protect Konoha, they had to eliminate this source of instability.

The one who stood up to defend the Third Hokage and oppose this proposal was the current Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, Mito Uzumaki, who had remained silent about Uzushiogakure until then.

Mito could control and cloak herself in the Nine-Tails' power.

The Nine-Tails Chakra granted those cloaked in it the ability to sense the malice of others. Mito said that when she used this power to examine Kushina, she had sensed no malice toward Konoha at all. She appealed directly to Konoha's leadership and demanded that they stop worsening Kushina's treatment.

Mito strongly emphasized the terrifying and dangerous nature of the "hatred" within the Nine-Tails Chakra.

Forcing Kushina to change her heart would inevitably plant the seeds of hatred within her.

And when Kushina's body eventually became host to the Nine-Tails, those seeds of hatred would give the Nine-Tails an opening and begin to blaze fiercely.

She argued that, for now, they should forget the relationship between the villages and welcome the young Kushina as "a Konoha ninja." They should love and raise her as "a child living in Konoha." That was the true way to protect Konoha's future.

She also explained that "loving and raising children" was precisely the "true village" sought by the First and the Second Hokage, and the path that Konohagakure, the founding village, should follow.

Since the death of the First, Mito had remained politically silent throughout the Second Hokage's era and the years that followed. Her words deeply affected the current leaders of Konoha, who had received great kindness from both the First and Second Hokage.

At the same time, Mito declared that she would never interfere with Konoha's handling of Uzushiogakure, tacitly accepting the current state of affairs between Konoha and Uzushio.

The Third Hokage accepted Mito's advice and asked all the leaders to offer further opinions.

He said that they would listen to everyone before deciding how to handle Kushina.

Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu, who had trained hard under the First alongside Sarutobi Hiruzen, declared that they would support the Third Hokage's faction on the question of Kushina's treatment.

Worried that family ties might cloud his judgment, Diejian's grandson clearly declared himself neutral.

After several meetings, Danzo finally said that if the hardline approach was for Konoha's benefit, then there was nothing he could do. He withdrew his earlier proposal.

Time passed.

Not long after relations between Uzushio Village and Konoha Village began to cool, Sunagakure grew impatient with its minor clashes with Konohagakure. It assembled a large force and committed it to conflicts with the smaller nations.

In the fighting, Torifu Akimichi led a four-man squad. To let his comrades escape, he stayed behind alone to face dozens of enemies and was ultimately killed.

Another man who had followed in the footsteps of the Second Hokage had left this world.

Konohagakure protested, while Sunagakure declared war on Konoha in the name of "fair territorial expansion."

And so, the war between Sunagakure and Konoha began.

Diejian's classmate, Akimichi Chōza, was furious over the death of the Torifu he admired and volunteered to become one of the war's vanguard.

The Third Hokage understood the anger of the entire Akimichi Clan and approved his request.

The Nara and Yamanaka Clans, allies of the Akimichi Clan, were also burning with anger. They decided to send ninja from Diejian's generation in the Yamanaka and Nara Clans as reinforcements. The Yamanaka from Diejian's generation meant Yamanaka Ina.

The Akimichi, Nara, and Yamanaka Clans shared a deep bond that transcended their individual clans.

Ina had looked up to Torifu like an older brother since childhood. She felt just as furious about his death and had no objections to joining the war.

The leaders, headed by Danzo, weighed Ina's value as an intelligence operative against her value as a medical ninja. They decided that sending her to the front would be worthwhile and agreed to it.

The only one who objected was Diejian, who was worried about Ina's safety.

But his objection was obviously driven by personal feelings.

The Third Hokage understood some of Diejian's feelings but didn't accept his objection.

No one noticed the gears slowly falling out of alignment.

Some time after the Ino-Shika-Cho trio had been sent to the front, a piece of good news reached the worried Diejian: Hatake Sakumo was getting married.