Chapter 196 (Patreon)

Konoha made no attempt to conceal Kizaru’s appointment as Hokage. Instead, the village held a grand succession ceremony and celebrated the occasion openly. Naturally, the news quickly spread to the other hidden villages.

The first to receive it were the three great shinobi villages preparing to besiege Konoha. They had been closely monitoring every piece of intelligence coming out of the village.

The moment they learned that Konoha had changed Hokage on the eve of war, they began analyzing the reason behind it.

Some senior officials believed it was evidence of internal conflict within Konoha. In their view, the faction supporting Kizaru must have clashed with the faction led by his teacher, the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Those who supported this theory were utterly convinced of their conclusion. If Konoha were not suffering from internal strife, why would it make the foolish decision to replace its Hokage just before a major war?

This theory gained widespread support among the upper ranks of all three villages and soon became the prevailing opinion.

The second theory was the exact opposite.

Some believed Hiruzen had willingly elevated his disciple and intended to use the coming war to help Kizaru firmly establish his authority as Hokage.

Compared with the first theory, however, this one had far fewer supporters. Most people simply could not believe that Hiruzen Sarutobi, who was not even fifty years old, would willingly surrender the position of Hokage to a disciple who had yet to reach adulthood.

In truth, the age difference between master and disciple was almost perfect for an eventual transfer of power. Kizaru was more than thirty years younger than Hiruzen. By the time Kizaru entered his twenties, Hiruzen would be approaching sixty, which would be the ideal time for succession.

Judging Hiruzen by their own standards, the leaders of the three villages could not imagine a man still in his prime voluntarily relinquishing control of the strongest hidden village in the shinobi world.

And to hand that power to his disciple?

Impossible.

Absolutely impossible!

Before authority of that magnitude, almost no one would willingly step aside. It would make little difference whether the successor was a direct disciple or even one’s own son.

For that reason, most senior officials in the three villages favored the theory that Konoha was suffering from internal conflict.

Officials beneath the rank of Kage could speculate as freely as they wished, but the Kage of the three villages could not afford to be so careless.

The coming siege of Konoha was a war that would decide the futures of all three villages and their nations. None of their Kage dared to treat it lightly.

They watched Konoha’s every movement, and something as important as the sudden appointment of a new Hokage demanded their full attention.

As the oldest and most composed of the three Kage, Ōnoki convened a high-level council on the same day he received news of Kizaru’s appointment. He listened carefully to the analyses of Iwagakure’s senior officials and strategists.

Deep down, Ōnoki hoped the most widely accepted theory—that Konoha was divided by internal strife—was correct.

However, he did not believe it was very likely.

As the Kage of a village, Ōnoki understood one thing better than most: he could never place his hopes for victory on the possibility that the enemy might collapse on its own.

Some of Iwagakure’s senior officials continued analyzing the situation from every possible angle, trying to prove that Konoha must be divided and that the alliance’s chances of victory had therefore risen considerably.

To Ōnoki, their arguments were little more than an attempt to raise morale and reassure themselves.

What he wanted to understand was how Kizaru’s appointment would affect the coming war. More importantly, could the alliance take advantage of Kizaru’s recent succession to formulate a strategy that would gradually exhaust Konoha’s strength?

Unlike some of the more optimistic officials, Ōnoki felt an enormous amount of pressure—especially after Kizaru had swept through the Land of Grass and slaughtered thousands of Kumogakure shinobi by himself.

A new God of Shinobi?

To Ōnoki, Kizaru resembled Uchiha Madara, the Shura of the Shinobi World, far more closely. In certain respects, Kizaru was even more aggressive than Madara had been.

Madara was arrogant and looked down upon almost everyone other than Hashirama Senju. Even so, he possessed the pride and restraint of an unrivaled warrior. He had rarely carried out large-scale massacres against ordinary shinobi.

Kizaru, the strongest shinobi of the new era, was different.

That man was truly ruthless.

From everything Ōnoki had gathered about his past battles, Kizaru had never shown mercy merely because an opponent was weaker than him. As long as someone stood against him as an enemy, their strength made no difference.

Looking back at Kizaru’s record since his debut was enough to prove it.

He had raided Kumogakure and killed hundreds of Cloud shinobi.

While defending the border of the Land of Fire, he had killed Kumogakure’s invading Two-Tails jinchūriki, captured the Third Raikage, and slaughtered hundreds more Cloud shinobi.

His confrontation with Amegakure in the Land of Rain had ended relatively peacefully only because Hanzō surrendered quickly, paying for his defeat with a single arm.

Then, during the war against Sunagakure, Kizaru ambushed the Third Kazekage and single-handedly wiped out nearly two thousand Sand shinobi.

When the recent slaughter of thousands of Kumogakure shinobi in the Land of Grass was added to that record, the newly appointed Fourth Hokage, Shimura Kizaru, could only be described as a god of slaughter.

By Ōnoki’s most conservative estimate, at least four thousand shinobi from the other great villages had already died at Kizaru’s hands.

Compared with him, even Uchiha Madara—the Shura of the Shinobi World—seemed almost peace-loving.

And now, such a man had become Konoha’s Fourth Hokage.

Once the war began, would Kizaru launch indiscriminate aerial assaults against the three great nations to secure victory?

Would he wait until the main forces of their villages had deployed to the front, then attack their weakened homelands and massacre everyone left behind?

The thought alone made Ōnoki’s hands and feet turn cold.

If Kizaru adopted such a strategy, Ōnoki had no idea how the alliance could stop him.

Defending every possible target was impossible.

The best response Ōnoki could devise was to trade destruction for destruction. If Kizaru attacked the three great nations, the allied shinobi army would invade the Land of Fire and wreak havoc there, forcing both sides to suffer the consequences.

Ōnoki’s Dust Release might struggle to strike an opponent as fast and perceptive as Kizaru, but against stationary targets such as cities and villages, its destructive power would be overwhelming.

Ōnoki had already prepared a plan.

If Kizaru repeatedly launched aerial attacks against the alliance’s rear, Ōnoki would use his ability to fly and personally strike the Land of Fire with Dust Release, destroying its most important cities and villages in retaliation.

This was the best method Ōnoki could devise to restrain Kizaru and protect the alliance’s rear.

He had already discussed the plan privately with the Third Raikage and received his full support.

Ōnoki had also sent the proposal to Kirigakure. Although he had yet to receive a reply, he expected the Mist to support the plan as well.

His prediction was correct.

After receiving Iwagakure’s proposal, the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura Karatachi, and Kirigakure’s senior leadership all expressed their support. Uchiha Madara, who was secretly controlling everything from behind the scenes, also approved of the plan.

Kirigakure immediately made the necessary arrangements and promised to cooperate with Ōnoki’s attack on the Land of Fire.

The only reason their reply had not reached Iwagakure was the vast distance separating the two villages. The messenger was still on the way.

Madara was naturally pleased by a strategy that could weaken the Land of Fire’s logistical strength while deepening the anger and hatred between both sides.

If the two sides developed a blood feud, destroyed one another’s strongholds, and left each other severely weakened, it would be an ideal outcome.

As the mastermind operating behind the scenes, Madara would be perfectly positioned to take advantage of the aftermath.

In Madara’s estimation, Kizaru was a shinobi comparable to himself. With the strength and coordination the three-village alliance had displayed thus far, its chances of defeating him were not particularly high.

After recognizing that fact, Madara adjusted his strategy.

The primary purpose of this war would no longer be victory. Instead, it would be used to exhaust the military strength of every hidden village involved.

At the same time, Black Zetsu would take advantage of the chaos and lead the assembled organization of missing-nin and White Zetsu forces into Konoha.

Their objective was to abduct Nagato, the bearer of the Rinnegan, along with the children of the Uchiha clan.