Kong stared at the woman who called herself Aunt Snake.
She didn't look like Konoha ninja; she wasn't wearing Konoha Forehead Protector.
Aunt Snake smiled.
"You're not Konoha ninja, are you? I've never seen you before."
Kong subconsciously looked left and right, and finding no one paying attention, asked in a low voice.
"I am a villager of Konoha, what do you want?"
"Don't be afraid, I won't reveal that you're a ninja from outside the village."
Aunt Snake didn't seem to care and continued speaking to herself, "I just saw you looking at the Hokage Building. You want to kill the Hokage?"
She leaned closer, lowered her voice, and stared intently into Kong's eyes with her golden vertical pupils.
Sora's pupils contracted sharply. The Nine-Tails 'Chakra surged within him, and a trace of crimson aura seeped from the edge of his robes.
Aunt Snake's eyes lit up. It was the light of someone who had seen a precious experimental subject, greedy yet restrained, but she still wore a kind smile on her face.
"Assassinate the Hokage, huh?" She took a step back, tucked her hands into her sleeves, and chuckled. "Actually, I'd like to too. Maybe I can even help you."
Kong was stunned for a moment, unable to process what was happening, and asked instinctively.
Are you also going to assassinate the Hokage?
"Yes, the Hokage is the root of all the turmoil in the Land of Fire!" Aunt Snake said slowly, her voice unhurried. "One country, one village, two pillars standing side by side. The Daimyo holds political power, the Hokage holds military power. They seem to have their own roles, but in reality, with two supreme powers coexisting, they will eventually devour each other. This is the root of all the disasters in the Land of Fire. Don't you agree?"
Kong nodded subconsciously. His father Kazuma had said the same things.
" The Third Shinobi World War." Aunt Snake narrowed her eyes, her golden pupils shrinking to slits. " The Yellow Flash achieved great feats, but Konoha White Fang was disgraced and forced to commit suicide for abandoning his mission. Whose responsibility is this? It's not that the enemy was too strong, but that the Hokage's decision-making was flawed."
The Third dragged Konoha into the quagmire of war, causing countless ninjas to die in vain.
And what about the Daimyo? The Daimyo could only allocate funds and watch. The dual leadership of the Hokage allowed the Hokage to initiate wars without authorization, leaving the Daimyo powerless to stop them.
That was the biggest mistake.
She paused, her gaze falling on Kong, her voice becoming even softer.
"And now, Shinsei has become Hokage. A fifteen-year-old boy, younger and more arrogant than Hiruzen Sarutobi."
He refused the title of Daimyo and demanded increased funding. What will he do next? He will launch a new war, one even more devastating than the Third Shinobi World War. At that time, the Land of Fire will be utterly destroyed.
Kong clenched his fists.
"So, you want to kill Shinsei, and that's right. But you can't do it alone. That kid is very strong, so strong that even if you and I combined our strength, we might not be able to beat him head-on. However, I can help you."
Why are you helping me?
"Because I'm just an ordinary woman who cares about the future of the Land of Fire." Aunt Snake smiled, a smile that held something no one could decipher. "My health isn't good, and I don't want to see this country dragged into the abyss by a young Hokage. That's all."
Kong remained silent for a moment.
"Tonight, in the woods behind Konoha Hospital. If you come, I can give you more information."
Perhaps it will allow you to find Hokage 'Shinsei weakness.
After finishing her sentence, Aunt Snake turned into a nearby alley and disappeared from sight.
He stood there, feeling a bit dazed, unsure of what to do.
His father taught him various Ninjutsu from a young age, as well as how to fight against the Nine-Tails Chakra within him.
But faced with this sudden situation, his father did not teach him how to handle it.
He wandered around Konoha until night fell. Unable to resist, he ended up in the woods behind the Konoha Hospital.
Aunt Snake was already waiting there, leaning against a camphor tree, playing with a leaf in her hand.
"You've come, come with me."
She went around to the back entrance of Konoha Hospital and Earth Flow she knew well. The staircase was long, and it got colder and colder as she went down, with the lights on the walls becoming dimmer and dimmer.
"Is this the basement of Konoha Hospital?" Sora asked in a low voice.
"It's below the basement. Nobody comes here usually. I've set up some things down there that can temporarily boost your Chakra activity."
So tonight, let's test the Nine-Tails 'Chakra within you to see if it's compatible with that formation.
If successful, it will grant you complete control over the power within you.
Kong had no doubts; having come this far, he had no choice but to believe.
At the end of the stairs was a heavy iron door.
Behind the door was a spacious room, with a huge sealing array carved in the center of the floor.
The runes were extremely intricate, and the layers of spells formed a massive sealing array.
"Stand on it," said Aunt Snake.
Kong stood at the edge of the sealing array, not taking a step. He looked at Aunt Snake and noticed that the smile on her face was different from that during the day. The corners of her mouth were still smiling, but there was no warmth left in her golden vertical pupils.
"Can this formation really help me?"
"Of course. Stand on it."
Kong gritted his teeth and stepped into the sealing array.
The moment his feet touched the center of the array, the sealing array lit up. Countless runes rose from the ground, climbing up his ankles, calves, and waist.
Sora suddenly realized something was wrong. This wasn't an increase in Chakra; it was a seal. The runes were devouring his power, drawing the Nine-Tails ' crimson Chakra away from his limbs and bones, bit by bit.
"You--!"
He tried to rush out, but the barrier had already risen. His fist slammed into the barrier, creating only a faint ripple.
Aunt Snake stood outside the barrier, her hands tucked into her sleeves, tilting her head to watch him struggle within the formation.
"The dual jades standing side by side are the source of the disaster; you are not wrong about that." Her voice, still languid, now sounded like a snake flicking its tongue. "However, the solution to this disaster is not to return power to the daimyo."
Her lips slowly parted, revealing a smile far wider than any human's.
"Instead, concentrate all the power in the hands of those who are more deserving of it."
Empty knees fell to the ground, long gray hair scattered across the runes.
In his final moments before his consciousness faded, he saw the woman raise her hand and tear off the mask from her face. Beneath the mask was a face as pale as paper.
On that face, golden vertical pupils were staring down at him as if he were looking at a newly unpacked experimental subject.