Realizing he didn't even have the means to go down swinging, the Takigakure leader's last bit of resolve crumbled.
Humiliated, face burning with shame, he still forced out a fawning smile at Uchiha Yorin and said:
"Yorin-sama, is it… still not too late to surrender now?"
Of course it was too late.
Yorin answered him with a pleasant, almost gentle smile. After smiling, he raised his twin Lightning–Flame swords, pointed them at the Takigakure leader, and with a single Lightning–Flame Sword Dance, blasted him into dust.
Using that kind of overkill finishing move on an enemy of this level was basically a grand send-off. In his entire life, nobody had ever bothered to kill him with something as flashy as Lightning–Flame Sword Dance.
"Invincible…"
As he watched lightning and fire crash down on him, the Takigakure leader found himself thinking exactly that.
Then came the regret—violent, suffocating regret.
If he could, he'd go back in time and slap his past self awake. At that moment, he would have rushed to swear loyalty to Uchiha Yorin, handed over the Seven-Tails Chōmei on the spot.
If Yorin had wanted, he would have thrown in his wife and daughter too.
But unfortunately, there's no medicine for regret, and time travel is a protagonist-only perk. A no-name NPC like him doesn't qualify.
And so the leader of Takigakure died, just like that—without suspense.
The remaining shinobi of the village glanced at each other. They felt sad, yes, but… not that sad.
All of the leader's closest loyalists and true diehards—the ones actually willing to die for Takigakure—had already been wiped out in the fighting.
Next came Konoha's cleanup crews.
They began selecting, screening, and testing the Takigakure shinobi.
Those who passed would become outer members of Konoha and, after a long period of observation, might one day earn a Konoha "green card."
As for those who failed, Konoha would coordinate with its allied villages and redistribute them.
One way or another, Takigakure's ninjas were a valuable resource. No village would turn down combat-ready shinobi—especially now, when everyone's finances were strong enough to support them.
…
Just like that, the Takigakure ninja were split up, and the same happened to the civilians. The village's accumulated wealth was distributed among its people and shinobi; as for resources like the Hero Water and forbidden techniques such as Earth Grudge Fear, Yorin didn't hoard them for himself. He split them fairly with his allies and the former Takigakure ninja.
Handled with such fairness, Takigakure's last bit of resentment faded.
But their hearts were still heavy.
When they turned to look at the now-empty space behind the great waterfall—the place that had once hidden their village—a wave of sorrow rose up in their chests. Some of them couldn't help but cry.
Yorin had been very gentle with individual ninjas—almost no one was killed unnecessarily.
But toward Takigakure the village, he was utterly ruthless.
A small hidden village that had survived from the Warring States era through the Hidden Village era, enduring for decades, was wiped cleanly from the map at his hands.
…
"With this, people will understand just how serious the consequences are when you defy Yorin-sama," Shisui murmured, staring at the empty site where Takigakure had stood.
As he spoke, more Konoha ninjas formed seals and unleashed Fire Release techniques, setting what was left of the village ablaze.
Before long, even the last physical trace of that little village vanished into the flames.
Yorin turned and looked at Shisui. "Shisui."
"Yes, Yorin-sama!"
"You're very fired up. In future, you should try being a bit more laid back like Kakashi."
"Yes, sir… Huh?"
"Kakashi." Yorin turned his head again, calling Kakashi's name.
"Yes, Yorin-sama."
"You're too lazy. You should learn from Shisui and show a little more energy."
"Yes, sir… huh…?"
It sounded contradictory—but the more they thought about it, the more they realized it was very on-brand for him.
Yorin didn't bother clarifying and simply said:
"All right, that's enough for here.
From now on, you two move as a team. I'm heading out."
"Yorin-sama, do you have another urgent mission for us?" Shisui was still more proactive than Kakashi; seeing Yorin ready to leave, he quickly asked.
"No need. I've already sent Minato and Kushina for that one. I'm just going to check how well they're doing."
Hearing that, Kakashi and Shisui shared a look of speechless disbelief.
Minato and Kushina? You sure you don't want to listen to yourself when you talk?
Since when does a Hokage's adviser assign missions to the Hokage? Isn't that flipping the hierarchy upside down?
Then again… given that the "adviser" is Uchiha Yorin and the Hokage is Namikaze Minato, it… kinda tracks.
Nobody said it out loud, but everyone in Konoha had already noticed the shift: Yorin's influence overshadowed Minato's.
Yes, Minato was the Hokage—but Yorin was the Hokage's assistant.
Still, they were both puzzled about one thing: what kind of mission could possibly require both Minato and Kushina? Did aliens finally show up?
Yorin: "It's not that serious."
If it really were the Ōtsutsuki clan invading, Minato could barely help on defense with Flying Thunder God; Kushina would be useless unless she got buffed up to post-timeskip Naruto's "Nine-Tails Tamamo" level. With just her current sealing techniques and Uzumaki chakra and no real upgrade, she'd just be a widow in waiting.
So no, not an Ōtsutsuki-level threat. Just a routine problem—under normal circumstances, nowhere near high enough priority to warrant sending the Hokage and his wife.
It's just that lately, Minato had been whining to Yorin that his hair was falling out, his hairline was receding, and even styling it couldn't hide it anymore. If this continued, he'd end up bald and glowing, and Kushina might start disliking him for it.
Knowing his bro was suffering, Yorin obviously had to step in.
So he made a decision: send the couple out on a "mission."
In name, it was a mission. In reality, it was fully-funded travel and paid vacation. The Hokage's workload was handed over to the now-expanded Hokage's secretariat and the Konoha cabinet—thanks to Yorin's political reforms, the system could finally function without enslaving the Hokage.
The way the original Boruto timeline worked was just wrong.
Konoha's a city of several hundred thousand, maybe over a million, and somehow Naruto has to personally handle clogged toilets and sewer issues? That's insane.
Whatever was going on in that timeline, in this world Yorin was in charge—and he would never allow that level of dysfunction.
…
As for Minato and Kushina's mission, yes, it did have something to do with them personally.
Namely: the Land of Grass.
Yorin was dead serious about reviving the Uzumaki clan.
He'd already issued a worldwide call for all scattered Uzumaki to return home.
In the process, he ran into three kinds of Uzumaki:
Those who were willing to return
Those who were unwilling
And a third kind—those who wanted to go back but were being held hostage.
Just like all those fanfics where somebody "captures an Uchiha and uses them for breeding," there were people who had grabbed Uzumaki and tried to use them as "breeding stock" to grow their own Uzumaki line.
Special-bloodline clans and kekkei genkai are irresistible treasure to every power bloc.
The Uzumaki technically don't have an explicit kekkei genkai, but their constitution and sealing talent are plenty tempting.
So when word came down from Konoha that the Uzumaki homeland was being rebuilt and all clansmen were being called home, some people quietly intercepted that news and locked their "precious Uzumaki" up tighter.
In those cases, Konoha's Anbu had to go "have a talk" with the local power.
The small fry and trash-tier factions usually broke immediately and sent their Uzumaki back trembling.
The Five Great Nations and their villages, beaten into obedience by Yorin, also didn't dare hold onto anyone too obvious.
Which left a specific problem group: the mid-tier nations and minor villages—tough enough to be a nuisance, but not tough enough to make Yorin notice early and smack them into line.
Like Kusagakure.
Kusagakure in the Land of Grass was exactly that type.
In the original timeline, Karin Uzumaki came from the Grass. She's hardly anyone's favorite, but compared to a certain pink-haired kunoichi, plenty of people felt she was more suitable for Sasuke.
Yorin thought so too, for the record.
Anyway, Grass had Karin and her mother locked up. When the recall of the Uzumaki clan went out, Kusagakure acted like it had never heard of such a thing, and even sealed the news to prevent Karin's family from knowing.
That was unacceptable.
If they dared to block his road to Uzumaki revival, he had to go hard.
And since Minato and Kushina happened to need a honeymoon vacation, Yorin simply wrapped this up as a mission and handed it to them.
All they really had to do was go knock on Kusa's door, "explain things," and bring Karin and her mother home safely. What happened to Kusa itself… was negotiable.
That mission had been assigned in parallel to Kakashi and Shisui's trip to Takigakure.
While those two were fighting and ending the Hidden Waterfall, Minato and Kushina had already entered Kusagakure, strongly "requesting" that the Grass hand over their Uzumaki captives.
Now that Takigakure was gone, Yorin figured it was the perfect time to go check in on how things were going in the Land of Grass.
~~~
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