Chapter 9 (Patreon)

“Damn it! Have you still failed to discover who started those rumours?”

Danzo slammed his palm onto the desk, shattering it beneath his hand.

Several masked Root shinobi knelt before him. Though they trembled under his glare, none could provide the answer he wanted.

Fearing that Kushina might suspect him of being involved in the Nine-Tails’ attack, Danzo had remained inside Root’s underground headquarters for the past several days.

Then, two days ago, rumours suddenly began spreading throughout Konoha.

The good news was that they had nothing to do with the Nine-Tails’ attack.

The bad news was that they concerned the villagers who had mysteriously disappeared over the years.

According to the rumours, those people had been abducted and used in forbidden human experiments. Suspicion naturally fell upon Orochimaru, but the stories also suggested that someone within Konoha’s leadership had secretly helped him.

Most ordinary villagers did not know why Orochimaru had suddenly fled Konoha.

Some had not even known that he had become a missing-nin.

Danzo immediately suspected Kushina.

He was certain that she had begun taking revenge against him.

However, the Root shinobi sent to investigate had uncovered nothing.

Ever since Kushina had forced her way past the guards surrounding the Uchiha compound and spent half a day shopping with Uchiha Mikoto, she had barely left her home.

Nor had she met with anyone suspicious.

Danzo’s men had considered whether Kushina might have passed the information to Mikoto and used the Uchiha Clan to spread it.

However, after investigating the rumours carefully, they found no sign that any Uchiha had been involved.

“Useless,” Danzo growled. “Every last one of you is useless.”

The Root shinobi lowered their heads.

“Get out and continue searching. Find whoever is spreading this information, no matter what it takes.”

His eye narrowed.

“And find something else for the villagers to talk about. I want their attention turned away from Orochimaru’s experiments.”

Danzo was not the only person facing trouble.

Hiruzen, who had resumed his duties as Hokage, was dealing with an even greater problem.

Kumogakure had indeed begun moving against Konoha after learning of Minato’s death and the village’s losses during the Nine-Tails’ attack.

The shinobi guarding the Land of Fire’s border had detected the first group of attackers and managed to repel them.

Hiruzen had immediately appointed Nara Shikaku as the commander of Konoha’s forces and sent him to the front lines.

However, Konoha currently had no shinobi capable of reliably facing Killer B or the Fourth Raikage if either of them personally entered the battle.

The problem gave Hiruzen no peace.

He could not understand why the Raikage insisted on personally charging onto the battlefield whenever Kumogakure went to war.

The other Kage generally remained within their villages and commanded from a distance.

The Raikage, however, seemed determined to stand at the front of every battle himself.

In the past, Minato had been able to hold off A and Killer B together.

Now that Minato was gone, who could Konoha send against them?

After witnessing the Nine-Tails’ destruction only days earlier, no one in Konoha needed to be reminded how terrifying a Tailed Beast could be.

As if the threat from Kumogakure were not enough, Hiruzen’s youngest son had also caused him more trouble.

Two days ago, Asuma had left the village without saying a word.

Had he been any other shinobi, he would already have been declared a missing-nin.

When Hiruzen received the report, he nearly collapsed from anger.

He suspected that Asuma’s departure had something to do with Biwako’s death, but he had neither the time nor the strength to deal with his son at the moment.

All he could do was hope that Asuma had not travelled toward the border.

If Kumogakure captured the Hokage’s son, the situation would become far more dangerous.

News of Kumogakure’s attack placed the entire village on edge.

To some extent, that worked in Danzo’s favour. The threat of war distracted many villagers from the rumours surrounding Orochimaru’s experiments.

Danzo used the opportunity to send out even more Root shinobi in search of whoever had spread them.

He also approached Hiruzen with a plan.

Danzo proposed travelling to Iwagakure and taking advantage of the hatred between Iwa and Kumo. If the Stone moved against the Cloud while its forces were attacking Konoha, Kumogakure might be forced to retreat.

Hiruzen rejected the idea immediately.

He knew Danzo’s methods far too well.

Allowing him to interfere with Iwagakure at such a dangerous time could easily make matters worse.

If Danzo’s involvement was uncovered, Konoha would not only be fighting Kumogakure. Iwagakure might also turn its forces against the Land of Fire.

Less than a year had passed since the end of the Third Shinobi World War.

Konoha could not afford another war against two Great Shinobi Villages.

Elsewhere in the village, Kushina was once again awakened by something pressing against her.

A faint blush crossed her face as she calmly moved out of Roy’s arms.

Every night, she made sure to sleep on her side.

Yet at some point during her sleep, she would inevitably roll onto her back and pin Roy beneath her.

Had he not woken her by struggling his way free each morning, she might already have grown used to sleeping on top of someone every night.

Later, inside the bathroom, Kushina saw Roy’s strained and speechless expression reflected in the mirror.

Her cheeks reddened further.

She silently apologised to him.

Hoping to distract herself from the awkward situation, Kushina spoke while using the toilet.

“Roy, what do you think about Kumogakure’s attack?”

“Kumogakure has two reasons for moving now,” Roy answered.

He carefully focused his attention elsewhere.

“First, Minato is gone, so they want to recover what they lost against Konoha during the Third Shinobi World War.”

He continued after a brief pause.

“Second, the Fourth Raikage has only recently taken over from his father. A victory over Konoha would strengthen his position and prove his ability to lead the village.”

Roy considered the situation.

“That means he will almost certainly come to the battlefield himself. He’ll want to break through Konoha’s defences before the village has time to recover and claim a quick victory.”

“As long as Konoha can stop Kumogakure’s first major attack and prevent them from gaining an early advantage, the war will drag on.”

His expression remained calm.

“Kumo cannot leave its forces in the Land of Fire forever. If the fighting lasts too long, they will eventually be forced to withdraw.”

Roy remembered that Kumogakure had also moved against Konoha after the Nine-Tails’ attack in the history he knew.

However, the details of how Konoha had stopped them had never been clearly explained.

Judging by the village’s current lack of powerful shinobi, Danzo might actually have contributed something during that conflict.

The Third Raikage had been killed after fighting against ten thousand Iwagakure shinobi during the Third Shinobi World War.

Relations between Iwa and Kumo had already been hostile for many years.

If someone stirred up that hatred at the right moment, Iwagakure would certainly consider attacking the Land of Lightning while Kumogakure’s forces were occupied with Konoha.

Roy also remembered that Iwagakure had later fought against Konoha as well.

Perhaps Danzo’s interference had been discovered, causing the Stone to retaliate against the Leaf.

Without Minato, the Sannin or many of the village’s former elites, Konoha had still survived attacks from both Kumogakure and Iwagakure.

Whatever problems the village possessed, its strength ran deep.

The quiet sound of water continued inside the bathroom.

“Do you think I should go to the front lines?” Kushina asked. “A battlefield would give me the best chance to remind the village of my strength.”

She hesitated briefly.

“And there would be plenty of spiritual energy for you to absorb.”

Roy’s attention, which he had been carefully directing elsewhere, immediately returned to the conversation.

The idea was tempting.

A battlefield filled with fallen shinobi would provide more than enough spiritual energy to speed up his recovery.

Even so, he rejected it.

“Your body hasn’t fully recovered yet,” Roy said. “That comes first.”

“Konoha won’t fall so easily. There’s no reason for you to rush into another battle while you’re still recovering from childbirth and having the Nine-Tails extracted.”

He paused before adding, “Once your body has healed, you should try speaking to the Nine-Tails.”

Kushina stared at his reflection in surprise.

“Speak to the Nine-Tails?”

“That’s right.”

To Kushina, Tailed Beasts were living disasters.

They hated humans, and their jinchūriki existed to restrain their power.

The ruins left behind by the Nine-Tails’ attack were proof of how much destruction a Tailed Beast could cause when released.

Could someone truly speak with such a creature?

“Only a jinchūriki who forms a connection with their Tailed Beast can draw out its full power,” Roy explained.

“Killer B of Kumogakure has earned the Eight-Tails’ trust. That is why he can control its chakra and transform without losing himself.”

“The Fourth Mizukage, Yagura, was also known for having complete control over the Three-Tails.”

Roy looked toward Kushina.

“If they were able to reach that level, then you can as well.”

His voice softened slightly.

“You don’t have to keep treating the Nine-Tails as nothing more than a monster sealed inside you. Try speaking to it.”

“I believe you can earn its acknowledgement.”