Chapter 81: Whispers in the Shadows
Akatsurugi couldn't help but grin upon hearing about Jiraiya's fate. Poor guy.
With a final wave, he headed home, leaving Kato Dan and Tsunade to their stroll.
Arriving at his house, he was surprised to find Kato Ei inside. It was rare to see the boy during the day; he was usually out from dawn till dusk, pushing his body to the limit under Might Dai's relentless training regimen.
"You're not training today?" Akatsurugi asked, curious.
Kato Ei offered a small smile. "Brother Dai is on a mission, so I'm taking a couple of days off."
"I see," Akatsurugi said. "And how is the physical training coming along?"
At this, Ei's eyes lit up with pride. "I can now open the first three of the Eight Gates!"
Akatsurugi tilted his head, processing this for a moment. "You mean... after several years of training, you've only managed to open three gates?" he asked, his voice rising slightly in disbelief. He was thinking of Rock Lee, who could casually open five.
Kato Ei visibly deflated, his shoulders slumping. He was desperate to improve, and he hadn't been lazy. His aptitude was simply... limited.
Akatsurugi facepalmed. It's like God not only closed a door for you, but welded the window shut and only left a tiny chimney.
Then again, considering Kato Ei's unique immortality, if he could also easily master the Eight Gates, he would be utterly broken.
"Keep training hard. Aim for the Fifth Gate," Akatsurugi said, clapping a hand on Ei's shoulder encouragingly. "If you can reach that, combined with your clan's secret technique, very few will be a match for you."
Kato Ei nodded, his resolve returning. That was the goal. With the speed boost from the Fifth Gate, acquiring an opponent's blood for his ritual would become trivial.
In Kumogakure, a somber mood had fallen. The confirmed news of the Third Raikage's death had spread, a painful wound salted by the fact that his body had not been recovered. The official word: slain by that monster, Akatsurugi.
The village was leaderless.
"Dodai," an elder addressed the man, his voice heavy with grief. "The council has decided. You will be the Fourth Raikage."
Dodai accepted the burden with a grim nod. He wasn't necessarily the strongest shinobi in Kumo, but he was the most experienced in administration, having been the Third's right-hand man. In the crowd, a teenage A, the late Raikage's son, clenched his fists. His father was gone, and he was not yet strong enough to claim the title himself. He would train, harder than ever. He would have his revenge on Akatsurugi, and he would become the Fifth Raikage.
Once formally instated, the Fourth Raikage, Dodai, convened his council. The people of Konoha had killed their leader. The village demanded an answer, a response. The reasons why the Third Raikage was in that situation—that he had willingly joined an ambush—were irrelevant to the public's fury.
"Everyone understands the situation," Dodai stated, laying out the full story of the two-year-long plot. "What are your thoughts?"
"Konoha's Blaze God is too powerful. He survived the trap. While our people are rightfully angry, can our village truly afford a war against him now?" one elder sighed.
A heavy silence filled the room. Akatsurugi was the immovable obstacle. His file sat on the table, detailing the village-level destructive power of his "Blazing Hell." The Third Raikage himself had feared it. They had no counter.
"Ahem." A wizened old man cleared his throat, a cunning glint in his eye. "Precisely because Akatsurugi is so powerful, and because he also killed the Mizukage, we can unite with the other villages to pressure Konoha. We force them to disavow him, to exile him. Otherwise, we threaten a joint war. Konoha does not want to face Kumo, Kiri, and Iwa simultaneously. Ōnoki will not pass up such an opportunity."
The mood in the room shifted. Eyes lit up around the table. It was a devious plan, and it just might work.
"Yes! And we should spread propaganda within Konoha," another advisor added eagerly. "We say Akatsurugi recklessly shattered the peace, that his actions alone will bring war upon them. Let the Konoha civilians turn their fear and anger against him!"
The plan solidified, becoming brighter and more malicious with each contribution. Dodai nodded in approval. Destroy the man's reputation along with his life. An excellent strategy. He immediately dispatched envoys to Iwagakure and Kirigakure, not forgetting to include Sunagakure for good measure. While weak, they were still one of the Five Great Villages. He was certain they would be happy to help pressure their common rival.
Unaware of the political storm brewing against him, Akatsurugi was deep in meditation, practicing his sword zen. His other abilities had plateaued without a radical power-up like Hashirama's cells—something Danzō was secretly, and slowly, researching. His only clear path to greater power now was to increase his spiritual pressure, to strive for the ultimate release of his zanpakutō: Bankai.
If he could master that, if he could unleash techniques like Zanka no Tachi... then let Uchiha Madara himself try to withstand him.
In the depths of the Root headquarters, Danzō read the intelligence report, his eyebrow lifting slightly. Kumo was secretly allying with Iwa, Suna, and Kiri. They were planning something.
"Have you determined the reason for this alliance?" Danzō asked, his voice calm.
The Root ninja kneeling before him kept his head low. "We are still investigating, Lord Danzō. But it is almost certainly related to Lord Akatsurugi."
Danzō nodded. He had suspected as much. While a part of him was pleased—Akatsurugi's existence was the primary obstacle to his own ambition of becoming Hokage—he could do nothing overt. Not yet. For now, all he could do was wait and watch, a spider at the edge of a web not of his own making.