Chapter 121: A Slap (Bonus Chapter)
How much force was packed into that single slap? Enough to send a person flying through the air like a broken kite. The sharp crack echoed through the room, a brutal display of the sheer strength behind the blow. Yet, beneath the violence lay a stroke of absolute genius. That singular, heavy strike launched Uchiha Kou straight out of the deadly encirclement formed by the four elite shinobi.
As expected of a future Sannin and the chosen spokesperson for Mount Myōboku, Jiraiya's battle intuition was terrifyingly sharp. He had read the room in a fraction of a second. Had Kou been touched by even one of the four powerhouses surging toward her, the outcome would have been catastrophic. She would have been left crippled, her life hanging by a frayed thread.
Kou collapsed onto the hard wooden floorboards, her hand trembling as she clutched her rapidly swelling cheek. Her dark eyes were blown wide, swimming with absolute, unadulterated shock.
She had just been slapped. By Jiraiya.
"I'm so sorry, my Lords! Kou didn't mean a word of it!" Jiraiya shouted, his voice cracking slightly under the suffocating killing intent filling the office. "She just spoke without thinking! Her brain short-circuited for a second... In short, she didn't do it on purpose! I'll drill some sense into her, I promise!"
Braving the crushing atmospheric pressure, the white-haired genin lunged forward. He hauled the completely dazed Uchiha up from the floor by her collar and bolted out of the Hokage's office like a madman. His instincts screamed at him that if they didn't run right this very second, Kou would meet a gruesome end right there on the rug.
Tsunade stood frozen, entirely unprepared for the situation to spiral out of control so violently. Panic seized her chest. Terrified that the furious elders would instantly issue a warrant for the Anbu or the Uchiha Military Police Force to drag Kou away to the interrogation cells, she frantically bowed to every single person in the room.
"Kou was just spouting absolute nonsense! She only drew that sword casually—a muscle spasm, really! Just a reflex, haha..." Tsunade laughed nervously, a drop of cold sweat sliding down her neck as she racked her brain for any plausible excuse. Finally, she shot a desperate, pleading look at Hiruzen Sarutobi. Her eyes screamed, 'Sensei, I'm begging you, save us!'Hiruzen felt a massive migraine pulsing at his temples. The mere mention of the cursed title'Sandaime' dragged up bitter, exhausting memories of being constantly suspected and scrutinized. And yet, here he was, still forced to wipe the messes of his reckless students.
"Just get out of here already!" Hiruzen barked, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Tell Jiraiya to get this mess sorted out immediately. If a stunt like today's ever happens again, no one else will even need to lift a finger. As the Hokage's Assistant, I will personally arrest Kou, and absolutely no one's pleas will save her!"
"Understood! Thank you, Sarutobi-sensei!" Tsunade hastily wiped the sheen of cold sweat from her forehead and scrambled out of the office as fast as her legs could carry her.
She had to admit, Jiraiya was truly audacious. To grab the girl and run without a moment's hesitation in the face of such overwhelming power took serious guts. Tsunade herself had nearly been scared to death by the sheer, suffocating aura that had erupted from the village's top brass. Senior Kagami and Senior Sakumo, in particular, had radiated a terrifyingly cold bloodlust that made her skin crawl.
Stepping into the hallway, she pulled the heavy oak door shut and gripped the brass doorknob, holding her breath. She stood there in absolute silence for several long seconds. Only after confirming that no one inside was shouting orders for the Anbu did she finally exhale and hurry down the corridor.
Back inside the office, the tension had not dissipated. Danzo slammed his cane against the floor, flying into a sudden rage.
"That Uchiha brat is becoming more and more outrageous! She has zero regard for her own status, yet she dares to spout such treasonous nonsense right here in the Hokage Building! This matter absolutely cannot be swept under the rug."
What the war hawk dreaded most was that unpredictable girl blabbing about matters regarding the 'Root' from the other world. Every time she opened her mouth, he felt a looming sense of impending disaster. It was precisely for this reason that he had secretly planted the Cursed Seal of Tongue Eradication on the back of her tongue.
Wait.
Danzo froze, his lone visible eye narrowing sharply. He turned his head to glare at Stelle.
"Didn't I place the Cursed Seal of Tongue Eradication on her?" Danzo demanded, his voice dropping to a dangerous hiss. "It's one thing for her to casually mention 'Monkey,' but how could she possibly speak the name of my Root aloud? Has my cursed seal failed?"
Oh my, Stelle thought, her lips twitching in dry amusement. Danzo actually discovered a plot hole. That was a close one.
Fortunately, as the resident Game Master of this chaotic world, she was fully equipped to patch such bugs on the fly.
"I have already undone that cursed seal for her," Stelle stated calmly, her tone completely even.
Danzo's jaw tightened. He instinctively wanted to snap back that his specialized cursed seal wasn't something that could be so easily broken. But then his mind flashed to the revolutionary Medical Ninjutsu theories she had casually drafted, and the monstrous scroll containing a hundred overlapping layers of Sealing Techniques that the village's entire Sealing Squad was still crying over.
He swallowed his pride. Stelle could absolutely undo it.
Forget it, Danzo grumbled internally. He wouldn't dwell on the cursed seal. Stelle's abilities were already as perverse and unfathomable as a tailed beast's.
"Regardless," Danzo continued, tapping his cane once more, "what Uchiha Kou did today crossed the line. Stelle, you cannot afford to be soft-hearted with her again."
For once, Uchiha Kagami actually nodded in agreement, a rare alignment with the hawk's views. "It was indeed excessive. Let's punish her according to the standard disciplinary measures for a Konoha shinobi."
In Kagami's heart, Stelle's safety and authority sat at the absolute pinnacle of his priorities. By drawing a blade in this office, Kou had recklessly stomped right onto his personal minefield. Even if she was a fellow clansman, she had to receive the punishment she deserved.
Although there might have been some convoluted reason behind her outburst, rules were rules. If any random shinobi could just barge into the Hokage Building, throw a massive tantrum over a minor grievance, and draw a sword against the village leadership, where would the Hokage's dignity be? The village would become a laughingstock.
"Then let's proceed as you suggest," Stelle agreed mildly.
With just a few casual exchanges between the three heavyweights, the girl's grim fate was seemingly sealed.
"How about we give the child one more chance?" Hiruzen interjected smoothly, exhaling a thin stream of smoke from his pipe. "Her core nature isn't malicious; she merely suffers from a deeply flawed personality. Given her... unique mental state, it's somewhat understandable that she would act out so abnormally."
Hiruzen genuinely wanted to agree with Kagami and Danzo, but the image of Jiraiya's desperate, pleading expression flashed in his mind. He simply couldn't ignore his idiot student's feelings.
That foolish boy had truly fallen head over heels for Kou. If Hiruzen allowed Kou—who was clearly already teetering on the edge of emotional collapse—to be dragged off to the Military Police Force and locked in a dark disciplinary cell for two days...
He could practically guarantee the outcome. Jiraiya, reckless and driven by hormones, would absolutely charge into the holding cells to stage a prison break, or at the very least, chain himself to the bars demanding to take the punishment in her place. It would be a political nightmare.
"Hiruzen, you are blatantly showing favoritism," Danzo sneered, his eye narrowing with deep dissatisfaction. "Remember your status. You are the Hokage's Assistant, not a babysitter."
"She really is just an ignorant, traumatized child," Hiruzen countered, waving his hand dismissively. "Why do men of your stature need to lower yourselves to a brat's level? So what if she drew a blade? With her meager skills, who in this room could she possibly defeat?"
As the words left his mouth, Hiruzen suddenly paused, realizing how bizarre this situation was. The girl was a pure-blooded Uchiha. Why was he, a proud member of the Sarutobi clan, fighting tooth and nail to defend her from her own clan elder?
He shot Kagami a deeply resentful glare. It felt as though this troublesome kid had been forcefully dumped onto the Sarutobi doorstep, and her actual family had simply washed their hands of her.
In the end, worn down by Hiruzen's relentless, silver-tongued arguments, Stelle sighed and waved off the idea of sending Kou to the disciplinary cells.
Danzo scoffed, thoroughly displeased with the soft-hearted ruling.
"Keep pampering them, Hiruzen," Danzo warned darkly, turning his back. "Sooner or later, that Uchiha brat is going to trigger a major disaster. Do not come crying with regrets when that day arrives."
And just like that, the chaotic incident of Uchiha Kou assaulting the Hokage Building was officially swept under the rug.
"Alright, enough of that. Let's resume the meeting," Stelle announced, casually pulling a fresh document from her desk. "First on the agenda: we have received a formal diplomatic application from the Land of Wind. Sunagakure is requesting to establish a friendly alliance with Konoha., they wish to initiate a massive tree-planting project near the shared border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind. They are formally requesting that Konoha does not interfere with their agricultural efforts."
"Planting trees at the border?" Kagami frowned, exchanging a skeptical look with Hiruzen. "What kind of trees? Are we absolutely certain this isn't a cover for constructing defensive trenches or a hidden military forward base?"
The three men stared at the document, utterly baffled by the bizarre request. In their defense, one couldn't entirely blame them for their paranoid myopia.
The Ninja World was a brutal landscape defined by endless bloodshed, espionage, and warfare. also, the Land of Fire was blessed with incredibly fertile soil, lush forests, and abundant natural resources. Concepts like 'desertification control'and'ecological restoration' were completely alien to them.
Stelle pulled out a secondary scroll and tossed it onto the center of the table. "The Third Kazekage went out of his way to explain the logistics. They intend to siphon the natural fertility of the borderlands to cultivate a massive forest, acting as a windbreak to control the encroaching desert sands. If they can successfully root the trees and slowly push the treeline deeper into the Land of Wind, he estimates that within a few decades, their nation's harsh environment will be drastically improved."
"His proposal states that as long as they maintain the project, in a hundred years, the Land of Wind could theoretically transform from a barren wasteland of swirling dust into a lush, green sanctuary."
Hiruzen picked up the scroll, his eyes scanning the detailed agricultural charts. A look of genuine surprise crossed his weathered face. "It seems this new Third Kazekage is a man of grand vision. However... his timeline is far too optimistic. Unless the entire Ninja World miraculously remains at absolute peace for the next fifty years, this project is doomed. A single small-scale border skirmish involving Fire Release would reduce decades of hard work to ash."
Hiruzen's tactical assessment was spot on. Over in Sunagakure, Kazushi was currently sweating blood, working himself to the bone just to keep a handful of saplings alive in the unforgiving dunes.
"If they want to play gardener, let them," Stelle said, leaning back in her chair with a sly smirk. "Besides, the Third Kazekage explicitly stated that Suna intends to periodically hire Konoha's Water Release shinobi to irrigate the border forests. The missions are incredibly low-risk and the payout is exceptionally high. Shall we accept?"
"Yes, absolutely! Leave the logistical arrangements for this matter entirely to me."
The moment Danzo heard there was a massive influx of foreign funds to be exploited, the old hawk's lone eye practically lit up with dollar signs. Without missing a beat, he immediately snatched the lucrative contract for himself.
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