Can This Merit Make Me Hokage?

"The sky was high, the clouds pale; my gaze followed the southbound geese. He who had not reached Wick was no true hero; counting on my fingers, the journey stretched twenty thousand li. Peaks rose atop the Hidden Cloud mountains, banners billowing wildly in the west wind.

"Today, with the long rope in hand, when would I bind the blue dragon?"

Masaichi led Konoha's shinobi into a town in the Land of Lightning called Wick.

According to their intelligence, the Third Raikage was currently locked in a major battle with Hidden Rock Village, leaving the Land of Lightning's defenses thin. If things went well, they might even make it all the way to Hidden Cloud Village.

When Dodai, the Elite Jonin left behind to guard Hidden Cloud Village, received the news, it felt as though the sky had fallen.

Where had a thousand shinobi come from?

A thousand shinobi!!

"The Third Raikage and Lord A took all the village's shinobi to the front," the Chunin reporting the mission said guiltily.

"Enough! Are you trying to shift the blame onto the Raikage?!"

The village had nearly fallen. They would have become the greatest sinners in Hidden Cloud Village's history.

Fortunately, this Konoha force was a mixed bunch and lacked the strength to keep advancing.

Dodai hurriedly led Hidden Cloud Village's entire ANBU force and its shinobi to reclaim the lost territory.

Once the Third Raikage returned, Dodai would apologize with his death.

Masaichi knew they could never hold the Land of Lightning's towns.

So he did something that would be enough to alter the course of Ninja World history.

After entering Wick, he raided the local nobles and distributed their properties among the poor.

After doing this good deed without leaving his name, he led the Konoha shinobi away to attack the next target.

By the time A and Killer B returned with the shinobi from the front lines, they found themselves facing Konoha shinobi conducting guerrilla warfare with the aid of Land of Lightning villagers.

"Ahhh!! Didn't you say those crafty Konoha bastards went southwest?"

Out in the wilderness, A grabbed a town resident by the collar.

This was the man who had just pointed out the way, claiming he knew where the Konoha shinobi had gone.

The bastard had led them this way and that.

Whenever they asked, he said they were close to finding the Konoha shinobi.

But he was practically about to run out of the Land of Lightning. Where the hell were any Konoha shinobi?

"It's here. I saw them walk this way with my own eyes."

"Konoha is on the sun. Go chase them." The townsman raised his chin at the sun, looking as if he did not care whether A killed him.

Slaughter the cattle and sheep, prepare the cattle and sheep, open the city gates to welcome Masaichi. When Masaichi came, he took no grain.

Eat his mother's food, sleep with her mother, and when that was not enough, there was Masaichi.

Lord Masaichi said he was the Child of Prophecy foretold by the Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku, the one who would bring peace to the Ninja World!

Peace!

He had truly seen it!

Masaichi gave them land and told them they were not allowed to kneel.

"Kill me."

"Kill one me, and thousands upon thousands more will rise in my place."

"Damn it!!!" A clenched the hand gripping the man's collar, desperately wanting to smash him to death.

But meticulous as he was, he knew that if he did so, he would fall right into Masaichi's trap.

That brat!!

"Hey, hey, you've all been fooled by Masaichi from Konoha Village!" a Cloud Shinobi roared angrily.

"Hmph, what would you know?" The townspeople answered with contemptuous looks.

Wouldn't I know who treated me well?

"Bastard."

"Who gave you permission to kill a Land of Lightning resident?"

Miami Square was packed with Land of Lightning residents that day. In the center knelt a shinobi with an indignant face, his chakra completely sealed and his body tightly bound.

The previous night, after the Konoha shinobi entered the city, a Special Jonin from the Sarutobi Clan had launched a round of looting as usual.

This was an old tradition from the Warring States era. After conquering enemy territory, they plundered the enemy's supplies—in plain words, they massacred the city.

Shinobi were hot-blooded and under immense pressure. Konoha's finances could not support rewarding them all, so to keep Konoha shinobi from committing crimes on a massive scale—

During the three Ninja World Wars, the Second Hokage and Third Hokage had chosen to turn a blind eye to such "minor matters," so long as domestic citizens were not harmed and no one reported it.

If a shinobi secretly killed a few residents, they generally received no punishment.

Because the Land of Fire's laws did not protect foreign civilians.

But today, Masaichi broke the rules and chose to execute a member of the Sarutobi Clan.

"What crime have I committed? You can't kill me! Masaichi! You're only a Chunin—what right do you have to kill me? I've rendered great service to Konoha!"

"Sarutobi Soku, I remember every contribution you made to Konoha. When we captured Miami City, you took the lead and used your clan's secret technique, Fire Release: Ash Pile Burning, earning the foremost merit."

Masaichi seemed to recall Sarutobi Soku's accomplishments and was overcome with appreciation for his talent. Yet after hesitating for a moment, he shed two tears. "But anyone who harms innocent townspeople—whether he is my brother, my teacher, or my child—I will not spare him."

"Behead him!"

Everything was for his teacher to become Hokage!

He had led Konoha's shinobi to such tremendous achievements. If his teacher still could not become Hokage, there had to be some shady deal behind it!!

"Biwa Lake is my aunt! Who dares kill me?!"

"So what if the Hokage's wife is your aunt? So what if the Third Hokage is your uncle by marriage?" Masaichi spoke loudly, making sure the people watching in Miami could hear that the man about to be executed had connections.

"Harming innocent villagers..."

Masaichi's righteous speech moved people deeply, provided they ignored everything he had done for Orochimaru.

But put another way, it sounded much better.

Though Masaichi stood in darkness, his heart still yearned for the light, for justice!

"Kill him."

Plea after plea rang out as a large number of people from shinobi clans came forward to beg for Sarutobi Soku's life.

He was actually related to Konoha Village's Hokage? Just as everyone assumed Masaichi would seize the chance to let the matter slide and handle it quietly—

He did not.

Masaichi held the Kusanagi Sword in his hand.

Orochimaru had given it to him. When he wielded it, it was as though Orochimaru himself had arrived, allowing him to command disobedient shinobi with it.

Using that Kusanagi Sword, Masaichi cut off the criminal's head.

When Masaichi came, fairness came with him.

No matter what Masaichi himself had done, he enforced military discipline with extreme strictness.

Konoha's shinobi of the future were meant to be sacred and could never be defiled by petty scum.

"You... you actually killed him?" Shibi Aburame was stunned. So it had not been an act? But...

"This is troublesome." A Jonin from the Nara Clan pinched the bridge of his nose.

Suppose that after Konoha redistributed the land, the Land of Lightning people's favorability toward them was 60.

Now it had soared straight past 80.

Konoha! They were an army of justice!

Konoha! They had truly come to liberate the Land of Lightning and bring peace!!

At dawn, Konoha captured another town. Daytime was warm at the beginning of spring, but the temperature dropped sharply at night, and the cold wind cut to the bone.

Masaichi led the shinobi to sleep right on the road.

When the people of the Land of Lightning stepped out of their homes early that morning, this was what they saw.

Nothing more needed to be said!

There was nothing to say!

Land of Lightning residents' favorability +1 +1 +1... exceeded the limit.