Chapter 98: The Holy Kala Connection Binds You and Me (Patreon)

Nearly everyone believed Yuan Zonglian's death was perfectly natural.

The Daimyo's court physician had warned Yuan Zonglian before: his body was far too overweight, putting him at serious risk of heart trouble. Even if he wouldn't lose the weight, he needed to cut out the alcohol and greasy food.

But Yuan Zonglian never listened, carrying on exactly as he pleased.

So when the court physician confirmed the cause of death as cardiac arrest, no one thought twice about it. The Daimyo's guardian shinobi had checked the barrier too — no shinobi had entered that day, and there wasn't a trace of Chakra anywhere in the body. The cause of death was so ordinary that not even the pickiest skeptic could find fault with it.

Only one person sensed something was off.

"Talk. What happened on that escort mission?"

In the room, Tsunade leaned back against her stool, legs crossed at ease, her striking features radiating quiet menace.

Genshin sat across from her, meek as could be, hands folded neatly on his knees — the very picture of a mischievous student getting a talking-to from his homeroom teacher.

The client had dropped dead of a heart attack exactly three days after the escort mission ended. If that had nothing to do with this little brat, she'd eat the table right here on the spot!

Tsunade drummed her fingers on the tabletop, her sharp gaze raking over her demurely downcast disciple.

He was her proudest student — a boy who carried Hamon in his very bloodline and had perfectly inherited her Medical Ninjutsu. Pulling something like this off wouldn't have been hard for him at all. And knowing how careful this disciple of hers was, if he really had done it, he'd have made absolutely sure to keep Konoha completely clear of suspicion.

Bottom line: it was precisely because Yuan Zonglian's death looked so perfectly natural that she'd caught the scent of something wrong. The older the ginger, the spicier it gets, eh...

Genshin scratched his head. Bluffing his way past this wasn't going to work — looked like honesty was his only option.

He gathered his thoughts, then told Tsunade everything that had happened on the road, leaving nothing out.

"Ow, ow, owww—!"

"You've got some nerve, you know that? Do you have any idea our village's finances still depend on the Daimyo?" Tsunade clamped down on Genshin's head with a bone-crushing grip, her voice thick with annoyance.

Genshin struggled to pry her iron fingers off his skull, forcing an apologetic grin. "That's exactly why I made sure to clean it up as carefully as I could."

He finally wriggled free, hissing through his teeth as he rubbed his head. Tsunade hadn't really put much force into it, and it hadn't really hurt — but a teacher needed to vent, after all, so he figured he'd better play along and look the part.

"As for what you told me — I don't like it either, but it's not something we can change right now. Remember this: the Shinobi World's had almost ten years of peace, and the next war could break out at any moment. Do you understand what I'm saying?" Tsunade's tone turned deadly serious.

"I understand, Master Tsunade. Konoha needs a stable rear right now. I won't make this kind of mistake again." — Though honestly... next time, he might just end up pulling something a whole lot bigger on the entire Land of Fire.

"Fine, I won't say any more. Honestly, I don't even know who's supposed to be teaching whom anymore — you and Jiraiya share the same rotten habit, always overthinking nonsense." Tsunade stood up, then suddenly remembered something.

"Oh, one more thing — other than me, you're not to breathe a word of what you just told me to anyone. Understood?"

"Understood. Thank you, Sister Tsunade." That thanks was genuine.

As the door clicked shut behind Tsunade, the room fell quiet again.

Genshin laced his hands behind his head and sank deep into the sofa. Thank god for Konoha's tech tree — it let him enjoy something close to a modern lifestyle.

Once things went quiet, it was easy for the mind to wander.

Hatred, war, and peace ran through the whole theme of Naruto.

Genshin's guiding thought had always been simple: he didn't want to end up strung up on a tree. Whether it was preventing the Uchiha Clan's massacre or training up Naruto and Sasuke ahead of schedule, every real action he'd taken had been in service of that goal.

Genshin's ideal life was simple: enough combat power to protect himself, a stable income, a few pretty wives to marry, and then just kick back and coast — wait for Naruto and Sasuke to power up and seal away Kaguya, so he could live out a shameless, carefree, happy life.

Now, though, his original plan needed a few small adjustments.

Wait, what had Tsunade just said? That he was like Jiraiya? Yeah, right — other than both of them liking Liu Bei and pretty women, where exactly was the resemblance!?

Besides, the kind of peace he wanted was nothing like Jiraiya's vision of a peace where everyone understood each other.

In the original timeline, the ending had basically played out the same as back in Hashirama's day — everything held up purely by Naruto and Sasuke, the two ceiling-level powerhouses. The moment those two ceilings got old and died, it probably wouldn't take long before the Shinobi World was back to beating each other's brains out.

So people say Akatsuki doesn't understand peace, that mutual understanding between people is the answer? What nonsense. Unless there's some sacred Khala linking every single one of us together — a whole nationwide mental network — that's the only way you'd get real mutual understanding. But that's basically no different from the Human Instrumentality Project.

And honestly, he'd rather be strung up on a tree than have anyone find out his browser history.

Wait a second.

Genshin suddenly remembered something. If he recalled correctly, the whole point of the Sage of Six Paths founding the shinobi faith had been to use Chakra as a medium connecting people's hearts — letting everyone share Chakra, directly sense each other's feelings, and understand one another without even needing words, all to dissolve conflict and achieve peace.

Wasn't that basically the Khala?! Was the Sage of Six Paths secretly the Judicator all along?

Even the Khala couldn't achieve real peace — in StarCraft, the villain hijacked the whole network and used it to brainwash and control every last Protoss. In the end, even the Judicator had no choice but to order everyone to sever their nerve cords and cut the Khala connection. And what happened? Everyone ended up as separate, independent individuals anyway.

Genshin knocked hard on his own head. Where was his mind even wandering off to? Time to rein it in.

In a world where individual power trumped everything else, Power was king. What he needed to do now was become someone on par with the First Hokage — then, even if he decided the whole world should stop eating beef, the world would have no choice but to comply.

The thought made even him chuckle. He sat up and stretched hard, working out the kinks.

Suddenly, a small head popped up beside him and plopped itself firmly onto his lap as a pillow.

Who dares?! Who has the audacity to so brazenly enjoy my magnificently sculpted quadriceps?

Oh, it's just my adorable little sister Karin. Never mind then.

"Genshin-niichan, please don't leave Karin behind, okay?"

Huh? What's brought this on, dear sister?

Genshin gently tilted Karin's head to face him. "Why would you say that? How could I ever leave you behind?"

"Last night, your Chakra felt really scary." Karin turned her head away again, burying her face in Genshin's lap, her voice coming out muffled and small.

So this is exactly why he'd said Chakra couldn't make people understand each other — he'd gone a little deepdark last night, and now his adorable little sister thought he was about to turn evil.

Thinking back over what had happened the night before, Genshin took a blind guess — Chakra probably reflected a person's mental state, and back then he really had gotten a bit worked up. On top of that, Karin was from the Uzumaki Clan, naturally sensitive when it came to Sensing — she'd probably scared herself.

God, how embarrassing — making Karin worry about him like this.

He patted Karin's head. "Don't worry. As long as you're around, I'm not going anywhere."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Then let me lie here a little longer."

"Sure thing."

Ten minutes later.

"Snnnrk— haaah! Snnnrk— haaah!"

Watching Karin snoring away face-down like a tiny storm, Genshin's face went flat with a deadpan sweat-drop.

Every single time, you gotta pull this stunt on me? Give me back my touching moment!