After deciphering the coded message in the scripture, Kazuko's face turned utterly ashen, as though all life and vitality had been drained from her in that instant.
Three years ago, before she was sent to Konoha, she should have known this day would come. Yet now that it had arrived, she still could not accept it. Her grief turned to hatred, blazing fiercely once more.
That piercing, bone-deep agony of despair and defiance was like an invisible hand clenched around Kazuko's heart. Every beat brought a sharp, wrenching pain, as though she were slowly killing herself with her own hands.
Yet in that moment, amid the fear and hatred, what filled Kazuko's heart most was confusion-
Why had Huanhai given such an order?
She hated Huanhai enough to want to flay him alive, grind his bones to dust, and even tear out his heart and swallow it raw. But despite that deep-seated hatred, she had to admit that the wicked monk possessed extraordinary intelligence and insight.
Huanhai excelled at reading the situation. He could always judge circumstances accurately and fathom people's minds. He should have seen clearly that the Daimyō's cause was lost, and that Konoha would become the master of the Land of Fire, if not the entire shinobi world.
Killing Shingetsu would do nothing to halt Konoha's annexation of the Land of Fire. Instead, it would utterly enrage Madara Uchiha and all of Konoha. The furious Asura of the Ninja World would raze the entire Fire Temple to the ground. Did Huanhai truly think he could withstand the combined wrath of Konoha and Madara Uchiha?
He could only manipulate weak people like her. Before Konoha, before that true colossus, the Fire Temple was nothing!
Besides, Kazuko was merely a civilian who could not even truss a chicken. Young