Chapter 122: He Actually Dared to Hit Me
Stelle casually tossed the tree-planting assignment onto Danzo's lap before fishing out a second, far more interesting document.
"Oh, by the way," she began, her tone entirely too breezy. "The Daimyo of the Land of Fire sent over a delegation. Apparently, they've acquired a rather exquisite batch of gemstones to fund the infrastructure of the Konoha New District. Don't stress your old bones over it, Danzo. I'll take this burden off your hands."
Danzo's lone visible eye narrowed. A deep sense of dread settled in the pit of his stomach. "And exactly how do you intend to 'handle' them?"
Stelle rubbed her thumb and index finger together. A shamelessly greedy grin split her face, her golden eyes practically flashing with ryo symbols. "Naturally, I'm going to funnel them straight into my private treasury. I'm down to my last few thousand! This little windfall is exactly what I need to get back in the black."
Danzo slammed his hand on the table, his face turning an ugly shade of purple. "Absolutely not! Those funds are strictly for village infrastructure! You cannot simply embezzle the entire treasury for yourself! At the absolute most, I will personally cover the cost of your three daily meals from now on."
"Me? The dignified Fourth Hokage? Going to your musty old estate to beg for scraps?" Stelle scoffed, leaning back in her chair with a theatrical roll of her eyes. "You have quite the imagination, elder. If I'm going to stoop that low, why don't I just grab a cracked begging bowl and squat outside a different Ninja Clan's compound every night at dinner time?"
Furious, Danzo moved to stand up and shout her down, but a heavy hand clamped down onto his shoulder, pinning him to his seat. Kagami leaned over him. The crimson pinwheels of the Mangekyo Sharingan were already spinning lazily in the Uchiha's eyes. He wore a smile that was terrifyingly gentle.
"I believe you've been far too busy lately, Danzo," Kagami murmured, his voice dripping with veiled threat. "You simply don't have the time to manage this."
Danzo choked on his words. He cast a desperate glare across the table toward his oldest friend for backup. Unfortunately for him, Hiruzen was still drowning in guilt over the recent incident involving Uchiha Kou. The Sarutobi patriarch deliberately turned his head to stare at a blank wall, pretending he was entirely deaf and blind to the blatant corruption happening three feet away.
Unable to take it anymore, Danzo shoved his chair back and stormed out, slamming the office door hard enough to rattle the hinges. He refused to spend another second in this wretched room.
The esteemed Fourth Hokage was openly discussing embezzling public funds with absolute righteous conviction, and one of the village elders was actively threatening him to support it! Was there no justice left in Konoha? Had the entire system gone mad?
Once the room was finally clear, Stelle dropped the greedy act. She unsealed a confidential intelligence scroll provided by Kazushi. The report confirmed her suspicions: the Great Nations had intercepted rumors claiming the Fourth Hokage's body was breaking down due to the backlash of Forbidden Techniques.
Stelle smirked. Black Zetsu had swallowed the bait hook, line, and sinker, all thanks to a single, carefully planted sentence from Ye. Still, she knew the Four Great Nations wouldn't dare make a move in the near future. Their borders had only just stabilized, and none of the Kage were foolish enough to provoke her over unverified gossip.
She tapped her chin, genuinely curious about what strings Black Zetsu would pull next to 'prove' her supposed injuries to the world. Oh, she was thoroughly looking forward to the show.
In fact, her other persona, Kou, was already getting impatient. Black Zetsu was moving far too slowly for her tastes.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the village, Kou was genuinely, deeply stunned.
Jiraiya's slap had completely short-circuited her brain. For once, there was zero acting involved—just pure, unadulterated shock. Let it be known: she was a woman whose mere presence had once intimidated the most legendary monsters of the Sengoku era.
Yet, here she was, nursing a stinging cheek because a teenage Jiraiya had backhanded her. Sakumo's lethal blade had been mere millimeters from her throat, ready to execute her for treason, and instead of a glorious, dramatic clash, she got slapped in the face by a toad-summoning idiot.
Was Jiraiya actually that impressive, or was the universe just playing a massive joke on her?
Jiraiya dragged Kou through the winding streets of Konoha. He had no idea how long they had been walking, only that his entire body was coiled tighter than a tripwire. Cold sweat slicked his palms. He kept glancing over his shoulder, utterly terrified that they hadn't run far enough—that the moment he stopped, a swarm of Anbu would drop from the rooftops and drag Kou away to the interrogation cells.
His mind raced, desperately trying to figure out a safe place to hide her. If worse came to worst, he'd stash her inside Hiruzen's private estate. If the old man tried to hand her over, Jiraiya was fully prepared to resort to blackmail. He would threaten to burn the massive stash of gravure photo albums hidden beneath his sensei's bed, or perhaps hold that precious voyeuristic crystal ball hostage until the Anbu were called off.
Being a man of action, Jiraiya immediately pivoted and dragged her straight toward the Sarutobi Clan compound. Just as they reached the outer gates, a sudden influx of memories hit him—his Shadow Clone, left behind to scout the Hokage Building, had dispersed. The coast was clear. No pursuers.
Only then did Jiraiya finally skid to a halt.
He exhaled a shaky breath, wiping the nervous sweat from his brow before turning to face her. Ever since he had hauled her out of that office, Kou had kept her hand clamped over her cheek, trapped in a dead silence.
Gently, he reached out and pulled her hand away. Her normally pale, flawless skin was now sporting an angry, swollen red handprint, and a thin trickle of blood leaked from the corner of her mouth. Jiraiya's heart dropped into his stomach. Total panic seized him.
"I-I'm so sorry, Kou," he stammered, his hands hovering awkwardly in the air, terrified to touch her again. "I swear I didn't mean to hit you that hard! I just... I just needed to stop you from talking before you made it worse!"
Kou wasn't listening to a single word. Her golden eyes were slightly glazed over, her mind stuck on an endless, looping error message: He actually slapped me.
Jiraiya was no medical-nin, but he always carried a basic first-aid kit for field missions. Fumbling with his pouches, he produced a small tin of medicinal ointment. He scooped out a dollop and carefully, tentatively dabbed it onto her bruised cheek.
"This might sting a little, so just bear with it," he muttered, his voice thick with guilt. "I know what I did was way out of line, Kou. But you have to understand... if I had been even a second slower, Sensei or Sakumo would have struck you down. If either of them had landed a hit, you would have been critically injured. Or worse. I just... I couldn't stand by and watch you get hurt."
He gritted his teeth, overwhelmingly frustrated with his own clumsiness. How could he have lost control of his strength like that? Kou hadn't argued once. She just stood there like a broken doll, staring blankly ahead, letting him apply the stinging ointment without so much as a flinch. To Jiraiya, it looked exactly as if she had been frightened completely out of her wits.
Desperate to calm her down, Jiraiya spotted a clean patch of grass beneath a nearby oak tree. He gently guided her over by the shoulders and eased her down to sit.
"You don't need to worry anymore," he promised, his tone fiercely protective. "Hokage-sama won't pursue this. And even if they do decide to hand down a punishment... I'll take it. I'll shoulder whatever penalty they throw at you, I swear it."
Kou's internal monologue was still entirely derailed: He actually slapped me.
Why a slap? It was such a bizarre, melodramatic choice of attack! Couldn't he have just punched her? Hell, a flying kick to the ribs would have made more sense in a shinobi battle! But a slap?
"Look, honestly... what you said in there today was way out of line," Jiraiya continued, sitting beside her with a heavy sigh. "You came here from a parallel world, Kou. It was Hokage-sama who went out of her way to ensure you could live the life of a normal shinobi in our village. If it wasn't for her, you and I would have never met. We wouldn't be teammates. She's always been protecting you, just... in her own weird way."
Jiraiya rambled on for several more minutes, trying to fill the heavy silence, but Kou remained entirely unresponsive. He let out another long, defeated sigh.
"Kou, please don't be discouraged. You belong in Konoha now. Things are only going to get better from here on out. And never forget—no matter what happens, no matter who turns against you, I will always stand by your side." He offered her a small, reassuring smile. "Tsunade and Orochimaru, too. We're your team. We believe in you unconditionally."
Slowly, the gears in Kou's head finally re-engaged, pulling her out of her slap-induced stupor. She lowered her head, taking a brief moment to bury her genuine bewilderment and slip her mask back into place. When she lifted her gaze, she wore the exact same gentle, reassuring smile Jiraiya was so familiar with—though it pulled awkwardly at the swollen skin of her cheek.
"I'm sorry, Jiraiya," she murmured, her voice soft and perfectly laced with feigned vulnerability. "I was far too impulsive today. I let my emotions get the better of me. Thank goodness you were there to pull me out, otherwise... I really wouldn't have known what to do."
A soft, emerald-green glow of medical chakra flared to life in her palm. She pressed her hand against her bruised cheek, letting the soothing energy knit the damaged tissue back together. "My mental state was just a bit unstable," she added, offering an apologetic look. "I didn't mean to make you worry. I promise it won't happen again."
Jiraiya stared deeply into her golden eyes. Looking at that flawless, placid smile, a knot of doubt formed in his chest. He couldn't tell if she had truly accepted his words, or if she was just burying her true feelings behind another impenetrable wall. Kou was simply too difficult to read. He could usually guess what was going through Tsunade's head just by looking at her posture, but Kou? Trying to decipher her mind was like staring into a bottomless abyss.
"I'm glad you see it that way," he said softly, though the unease lingered. "Just... find some time later to formally apologize to Hokage-sama, alright? She seemed genuinely furious."
"I will. I'll listen to you, Jiraiya," she replied obediently.
The two eventually rose and left the perimeter of the Sarutobi compound. Desperate to lift her spirits, Jiraiya dragged her to a barbecue restaurant and treated her to a massive feast. Hours later, as they finally parted ways beneath the evening sky, Jiraiya stood beneath a streetlamp, watching Kou's retreating silhouette.
Despite her reassurances, his heart refused to settle. Was everything really okay now?
If so, why did this suffocating sense of dread refuse to leave him? His instincts were screaming at him, warning him that something terrible was looming just over the horizon.
The very next morning, Kou woke up to discover she was officially unemployed.
It was true. Thanks to Hiruzen's desperate intervention, Kou had managed to avoid execution or imprisonment for the high treason of drawing a blade on the Hokage. However, her status as an elite Anbu operative was immediately and permanently revoked. The motion had been led by none other than Sakumo.
It made perfect logical sense. As an Anbu, her sworn, sacred duty was to protect the Hokage with her life. Instead, she had drawn her sword with lethal intent against the very leader she served. The only reason the White Fang hadn't severed her head from her shoulders on the spot was because Jiraiya had moved a fraction of a second faster.
Just like that, Kou was stripped of her rank and demoted to an ordinary shinobi. If she wanted to take on missions now, she would have to find a standard squad willing to take in a disgraced traitor.
Naturally, she didn't bother. Instead, she locked the doors to her apartment, closed the blinds, and refused to step foot outside.
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