Staging It Himself

It was not until Ning Qi appeared that Tsume Inuzuka finally realized the real reason Shikaku had come here.

She looked at Ning Qi, then at Shikaku.

The latter quietly stepped forward, placing himself between her and Ning Qi, and gave her a slight shake of his head.

The meaning was obvious.

No matter what—hold it in.

"What are you doing here?" Shikaku asked calmly.

"Looking for Hanabi." Ning Qi glanced at him and said blandly, "That was the final order of the Hyuga clan head. I have to carry it out."

...That bastard.

"You have five minutes left," Shikaku reminded him coldly.

"No need to worry." Ning Qi looked past Shikaku at Tsume Inuzuka, then grinned and pointed toward the Inuzuka Clan compound beside them.

"It's been a long time, Senior Tsume. I can smell some delicious dog meat inside. Can I take one home for a late-night snack?"

Tsume Inuzuka's eyes flew wide open.

"—Die!!!"

Shadow Binding Jutsu!!

The moment Tsume Inuzuka lost control, the prepared Shikaku immediately used Shadow Jutsu to restrain both her and Kō Inuzuka beside her.

Because of the nature of the Inuzuka Clan's techniques, most of them possessed the blunt, straightforward temperament of beasts. This was especially true of Tsume Inuzuka, the clan head. From the very beginning, Shikaku had not expected her to endure Ning Qi's provocation for long.

The instant Ning Qi uttered the words "dog meat," Shikaku knew things were going south.

Seeing Tsume Inuzuka's savage expression as she stood immobilized by the Shadow Binding Jutsu, Shikaku sighed. He knew he had truly offended her this time.

"Are you satisfied now?" Shikaku asked Ning Qi with a grim expression.

"More or less." Ning Qi chuckled, glanced at Senior Tsume, and then stepped into the Inuzuka Clan compound.

"What are you doing?"

"Looking for Hanabi. What if she's inside?" Ning Qi said.

"If she really were in there, you would've already blown her to pieces!" said the Jonin assigned to monitor Ning Qi.

Ning Qi ignored him and walked inside on his own. After wandering around for a while without seeming to find anything, he came back out with a roasted dog in his hands, charred on the outside and tender within.

Shikaku silently turned away. When it came to provoking others, Ning Qi was practically a genius.

"This dog is roasted really well. Want half of it, Senior Shikaku?" Ning Qi asked.

The dog meat really did smell delicious, but no one responded.

Ning Qi took out two coins and placed them before Tsume Inuzuka, whose face had already twisted with rage, then smiled.

"I'm not taking it for free."

After doing all that, Ning Qi turned and was about to head for the next place when Shikaku suddenly called out.

"Do you really hate Konoha that much?"

Destroying the Hyuga clan, instigating the Uchiha Rebellion, making the Nine-Tails appear as the Eight-Tails, setting off explosions across Konoha, and creating divisions within Konoha—aside from destroying the Hyuga clan, which could barely be explained, all his other actions showed a hatred for Konoha that others found impossible to understand.

Ning Qi waved a hand without answering.

He had answered that question many times already.

He did not hate Konoha. He merely wanted Konoha to decline.

And Konoha was as large as it was. Its decline would be an enormous undertaking and a lengthy process.

Leaving Konoha's decline entirely to the future Fourth Shinobi World War and the other hidden villages involved far too much uncertainty. That was not Ning Qi's way of doing things.

Although Konoha looked utterly desolate on the surface after Ning Qi's handiwork—the Hyuga clan destroyed, the Uchiha gone, everyone living in fear—a starving camel was still bigger than a horse. Konoha still possessed tremendous war potential.

Simply activating Gen'o's Explosive Tags would destroy most of Konoha's facilities and buildings, threaten civilians, and create chaos, but their actual lethality against able-bodied ninja was limited. They could destroy Konoha, but not Konoha's people. Otherwise, the Heat-Haze Village, which had devised that plan, would not have needed any "inside cooperation."

Besides, such purely violent attacks would only unite Konoha against a common enemy and make it more united than ever in the face of crisis.

The Fourth Shinobi World War was about to erupt. Konoha's morale was far too high. That was not what Ning Qi wanted to see.

Kill people.

Break their spirits.

Create divisions within Konoha.

Those were the concrete steps beneath the vast objective of [Konoha's Decline].

They were also the best use for Gen'o's million Explosive Tags.

After Ning Qi left, Shikaku released the Shadow Binding Jutsu, then warily watched Tsume Inuzuka.

"If you're really angry... I can let you hit me once," he said.

Tsume Inuzuka stared in the direction Ning Qi had left without speaking, while Kō Inuzuka beside her looked eager to give it a try.

→

After a brief silence,

Tsume Inuzuka turned back and merely gave Shikaku a cold glance. Then she bent down and carefully picked up the two coins Ning Qi had thrown before her as an insult, placing them in a box specially used to store clues.

—The coins carried Ning Qi's scent. Someday, these two coins would prove useful.

"I, the Inuzuka Clan, will remember what happened today," she said.

She remembered Ning Qi's hatred.

And she remembered Shikaku's humiliation.

Shikaku's expression stiffened. The outcome he feared most had appeared: the Inuzuka Clan had been successfully driven apart from Konoha.

He dryly reminded her, "...That is Ning Qi's goal."

"Does that matter?" Tsume Inuzuka asked, then shook her head. "You should have accepted the half of the dog Ning Qi offered you."

"After all, hasn't the Inuzuka Clan ended up in this state today because you and Ning Qi worked together?"

Though the course of events did seem to look that way... but... but...

Even Shikaku, brilliant as he was, did not know what to say. One wrong step led to another. Tsume Inuzuka saw him as Ning Qi's accomplice in devouring the "dog" that was the Inuzuka Clan. What rebuttal could he possibly make when he was already in the wrong?

Thinking that Tsume Inuzuka was likely still in the heat of the moment and might calm down later, he considered it before leaving and finally said,

"This is all for Konoha's greater good... But when it comes to the Inuzuka Clan's future reconstruction plans, the Nara Clan can cover the larger share."

"There is no need. The Inuzuka Clan... has no reconstruction plans for now," Tsume Inuzuka said. Her gaze was somewhat lost, but her voice was extremely firm. "I think it is time for me to consider the greater good of the Inuzuka Clan as well."

Shikaku's eyes immediately turned sharp and fierce. What did that mean? Was she planning to leave Konoha?

He was about to speak.

Suddenly.

Boom!

An explosion rang out.

Ning Qi moved quickly. When the sixth minute arrived, a ninja "ambushed" Ning Qi. In retaliation, Ning Qi decisively pressed the first button, and the Akimichi Clan compound was engulfed in explosions.

This time, there were no casualties. The Akimichi Clan had received word early and evacuated the entire compound. Even so, Choza Akimichi, the Akimichi Clan head, was furious, because many precious things within the compound had been consumed by the fire caused by the explosions.

"Ahhh, my snacks—" Choji sat beside his father, sobbing uncontrollably.

When Hiruzen Sarutobi arrived and learned that the Akimichi Clan had suffered no casualties, he breathed a sigh of relief.

"I'm very sorry, Choza. She was a ninja from the medical unit. We truly didn't expect her to attempt to assassinate Ning—"

But before he could finish,

Boom!

The Ninjutsu Library, which stored many of Konoha's ninjutsu scrolls, was instantly razed to the ground. Ning Qi's loud complaint came from the sky.

"You keep trying to assassinate me again and again! Don't push things too far, Konoha!"

Hiruzen stood stunned for several seconds before his face darkened.

Who had gone to assassinate Ning Qi without authorization this time?

Did they not know he had the Byakugan?

Had the two Jonin following Ning Qi failed to stop them?!

He had many questions and even more resentment, but when he thought that Ning Qi had most likely deliberately given those assassins an opportunity in order to create explosions and sow discord, he forcibly restrained his emotions.

"There is only one minute left..."

Konoha was not the only one searching for Hyuga Hanabi. Ning Qi was searching for Hanabi as well. They only wanted to find her first and hand her over to Ning Qi, but since the ten minutes were nearly over, it no longer mattered.

After all, they had agreed that whether Ning Qi found her or not, he would leave Konoha on his own after ten minutes and would no longer create explosions at will.

A promise was merely a verbal promise, and either side could tear it up at any time. But Ning Qi could not bear the cost of breaking it. The enraged Konoha ninja would tear him to pieces even if they had to charge through explosions in their own clans. Thus, this promise only bound Ning Qi, not Konoha.

From Konoha's perspective, the promise was still worth keeping.

Time passed safely to the final second.

This time, nothing else went wrong.

Except...

"Ning Qi found Hanabi at the very end," an ANBU agent came to report.

"Where did he find her?" Hiruzen asked. It was merely curiosity.

"In..." The ANBU hesitated. "His home."

Hiruzen clenched his fist in an instant.

At that moment, only four words filled his mind.

Staging it all himself.