Chapter 331: Death Raises His Scythe
"Sigh, this is really troublesome. I went and found more work for myself. I should've known better than to touch that question mark." Kenichi let out a wistful sigh.
He had originally gone there just to test the power of his new weapon.
Instead, he had accidentally triggered a new event, giving him the strange feeling of picking up a side quest in a game.
[Quest Objective: Obtain Chiyo's Self Reanimation Ninjutsu from the Hidden Sand Village.]
[Quest Requirement: Self Reanimation x1]
[Quest Reward: Amado's favor increased to "Respected."]
That was more or less how it felt.
Still, Kenichi could accept it. Amado was worth the investment. If he could use a forbidden ninjutsu to earn Amado's favor and wholehearted support, then the returns would be enormous.
"What are you talking about, Brother Amamiya?" Hikari asked curiously, tugging at his sleeve.
They were already aboard the airship, heading toward the Hidden Sand Village in the Land of Wind. Sasori and Deidara were with them as well.
"Nothing. I was just thinking that sometimes life really likes dumping extra work on you," Kenichi said with a shrug.
Beside him, Deidara was excitedly fiddling with something in his hands. Kenichi glanced over and could not help feeling a little uneasy. He was genuinely worried Deidara might blow up the airship before they even arrived.
Originally, Kenichi had not intended to bring him along.
Deidara's current strength was still lacking. He was nowhere near the Deidara who would one day join the Akatsuki as a true combat asset. But Deidara had insisted on coming, eager to show off his latest research, and in the end Kenichi agreed.
Besides, while Deidara might still struggle against powerful opponents, he was more than useful against ordinary enemies. This trip could also serve as field training for him. Otherwise, Deidara could not spend the rest of his life cooped up in a lab or office, could he?
Unless Kenichi found some way to solve the storage issue of Deidara's Explosion Release, the best use of Deidara in the future would still be to throw him directly onto the battlefield. Only there could the full value of his Bloodline Limit truly shine.
"Sasori, are you alright? You look pretty gloomy," Deidara said, finally tucking his little invention away as he glanced at Sasori.
Sasori sat nearby, staring out through the airship window at the endless desert with a complicated expression.
"I'm fine," Sasori said, shaking his head. He clearly had no intention of saying more.
Even though going with Kenichi had been his own decision, the closer they drew to the Land of Wind and the Hidden Sand Village, the more unsettled he became.
Kenichi looked at him and sighed inwardly.
At this point, he was beginning to suspect Sasori had turned himself into a puppet partly to rid himself of the burden of human emotion. If feelings dulled enough, then perhaps there would be no more pain.
"Sasori, if you..." Kenichi started, intending to persuade him. Not to let the past go, and certainly not to forgive anyone, but simply to say that if he truly could not bear it, then perhaps not going would be the better choice.
Kenichi knew only fragments of Sasori's story, not the full picture. But he did know one thing. Unless you had suffered the same pain, you had no right to casually tell someone else to let it go.
Those who had never lived through it were not qualified to preach about release.
"It's alright, Kenichi. I already made my decision." Sasori took a deep breath, then lowered his gaze in silence.
No matter what, the things of the past had to be brought to an end.
Yes, he had already killed the previous Kazekage.
But the deaths of his parents were irreversible.
Kenichi let out a quiet sigh and said nothing more. Since Sasori had already chosen, it was not his place to stop him.
Before long, Kenichi brought the airship down and landed it on the desert.
He had considered simply flying overhead, but the Hidden Sand Village now possessed both airships and hot air balloons. If he approached openly from the sky, they would detect him immediately, and that would ruin his purpose here.
Still, before landing, Kenichi had also released a hot air balloon and left one of his Shadow Clones aboard it. He needed it to estimate the distance more precisely.
Once they landed, he led Sasori, Deidara, and Hikari to a smaller dune near the Hidden Sand Village.
By that time, the Shadow Clone had already popped the balloon and dispelled itself, sending all of its memories back to him.
"So it's about here..." Kenichi muttered to himself.
He looked ahead and saw almost nothing. There were only a few faint black dots in the sky, blurry and indistinct. Even so, he knew those had to be the Hidden Sand Village's current aerial defenses.
Konoha really did know how to do dirty work.
If they had not copied his hot air balloon in the first place, he would never have needed to expose core technology at all. But now hot air balloons and airships had spread across the Ninja World like weeds.
At this rate, even border patrols would soon be equipped with them. If he wanted to crush that development completely, he would have to build fighter aircraft. But the technical difficulty of that was absurdly high.
"Now it's time to assemble everything."
Kenichi pulled the rockets out of a sealing scroll.
He did not have a proper launch vehicle yet, but that was not a major issue. He had built simple triangular stands instead, enough to serve as temporary launch platforms.
"Senior Amamiya, what is this?" Deidara asked curiously, staring at the massive object Kenichi had just taken out.
He reached out and touched it. It was solid metal and very heavy looking. He genuinely had no idea what Kenichi intended to do with it here.
After all, they were still some distance from the Hidden Sand Village. Even though they stood on high ground, the village was only a dark blot on the horizon.
A normal person's vision could extend roughly twenty five kilometers, but that did not mean one could make out people's clothes from that distance. At best, one could distinguish large objects like mountains or buildings.
Seeing individual trees, much less details carved into them, was impossible.
Even with chakra enhanced sight, ninja still only saw vague outlines at this distance. And if terrain blocked the view, they saw even less.
"This is my latest research," Kenichi said, licking his lips in excitement as he loaded one rocket after another into the launcher.
Soon all thirty six rockets were in place.
But apparently that still was not enough for him, because he pulled out a second launch array as well.
Sasori and Deidara both came closer, watching in fascination. Hikari blinked, then tilted her head.
She had seen this thing before. Back when it was first made, she had curiously asked what it was, and Kenichi had told her it was for hot pot.
But now that she looked at it again, it really did not resemble a hot pot tool at all.
"Brother Amamiya, is this really for hot pot?" Hikari finally asked.
She had eaten hot pot before, made by Kenichi himself, and the unique flavor and style of eating it had left a deep impression on her.
He had even taught her how to use serving chopsticks, how long to blanch beef and lamb, and how to cook tripe properly. By now, Hikari was already highly skilled at eating hot pot.
She had seen Kenichi use a nine section pot before, but this deep thirty six section contraption hardly looked like the same thing.
"...This? Ah, yes. It sends enemies to the Pure Land for hot pot," Kenichi said.
Then he immediately regretted it.
He really should not have lied to Hikari about this kind of thing in the first place.
"Enemies? Brother, where are the enemies?" Hikari's eyes sharpened at once.
Kenichi scratched his head.
Maybe he really had been overthinking it. A girl like Hikari, who had been sealed away since the Warring States era, had probably long since gotten used to the idea of enemies and battle.
"It's nothing. Just watch carefully," he said, waving the question away.
By then he had already finished loading the second launch array.
Now all that remained was to test the first salvo.
Hikari blinked, then quietly took her place beside him. Sasori and Deidara stood nearby as well, both eager to see how this strange weapon actually attacked.
Kenichi narrowed his eyes and began estimating the precise landing area. After that, he extended a hand to gauge the wind direction and speed, then adjusted the angles of both rocket arrays.
"Now."
He took a deep breath.
Normally, launching rockets would be as simple as pressing a switch. But since he had not installed any control circuitry, he had to use chakra directly, wrapping the rockets in it to trigger their ignition mechanisms.
The next instant, the sand dune vanished behind a cloud of dust.
Shrill whistles and explosive roars ripped through the air as the chemical propellant ignited. Sand and grit sprayed everywhere beneath the launch platforms, and the rockets shot upward in a blazing storm, racing straight toward the Hidden Sand Village.
Deidara's eyes widened.
He had spent all his time studying how to make explosions stronger and more powerful, but he had never once imagined making explosives fly so far on their own.
At that moment, he understood exactly what Kenichi intended.
Senior Amamiya was launching a long range bombardment on the Hidden Sand Village from here.
Kenichi squinted into the distance.
These rockets were loaded with trinitrotoluene enhanced by Wind Release, Lightning Release, and Fire Release chakra. It was a true fusion of chakra and explosive compounds.
Still, each rocket's total yield was not especially high. Whether that would be enough, he could not say yet.
But that was exactly why he had come.
He was here to test them.
In the sky, the exhaust trails of all seventy two launched rockets carved pale marks across the heavens.
Death had raised its scythe.
"So the Barrier Squad wants even more funding this time? They want to reinforce the defensive barrier?" Rasa frowned as he looked over the document in his office.
He had only taken over the village a few years ago. After the disappearance of the previous Kazekage, he had been chosen as the new one. Only after taking office had he truly understood how exhausting it was to be Kazekage.
"Yes, Lord Kazekage. Konoha, Kumogakure, and even Iwagakure are all researching better defensive barriers," a Sand Jonin said respectfully.
Rasa sighed. "I know. But all of this takes money. Right now, everything in this entire village takes money."
The Jonin said nothing.
This was something the Kazekage had to think about. At most, Chiyo might also have been able to, but she had long since withdrawn from daily affairs.
"I also know why other villages are strengthening their defenses. They were all attacked by the Heavenly Demon. Aerial attacks really are a headache..." Rasa muttered darkly.
But the Hidden Sand Village was simply too poor.
The Land of Wind was barren, and there were still debts left over from wartime. So much so that he, the Kazekage, had to go panning for gold dust himself in the desert from time to time just to help pay off the village's obligations.
Rasa genuinely doubted there had ever been many Kazekage as miserable as he was.
"Lord Kazekage! We're under attack!"
A Jonin suddenly burst into the office, shouting in alarm.
Rasa's pupils shrank and he rushed outside at once.
Then he saw it.
Aerial bombardment.
Those strange creations were already within striking distance.
"The Heavenly Demon!"
Rasa did not know exactly what those things were, but he recognized the attack pattern. This was absolutely the Heavenly Demon's style.
But in the next instant, the projectiles slammed into the Hidden Sand Village's emergency defensive barrier.
Countless explosions erupted in succession.
The sharp thunderous detonations made Rasa instinctively cover his ears. For a moment, he thought he had gone deaf.
Still, he reacted immediately, beginning to construct defensive ninjutsu at once. He did not know what the Heavenly Demon wanted, but protecting the village was his duty.
That was what it meant to be Kazekage.
But the emergency barrier barely lasted a moment.
Under the concentrated barrage, it shattered almost instantly.
Then dozens of those strange weapons crashed into the village itself, kicking up towering clouds of sand and flame. Violent shockwaves burst outward, and the ninja along the defensive line who had been trying to form protective jutsu all began convulsing before they could finish.
Then the following wave of fire and force tore through them.
The flames devoured everything in an instant.
Nothing remained.
"Defend! There's Lightning Release mixed into the explosion!" Rasa roared hoarsely.
His village.
This was his village.
Yet right now it had become a living hell.
"What happened?" Chiyo, who had still been sunk in her own gloom, was also startled by the catastrophe.
Controlling her puppets, she hurried outside, only to be greeted by burning buildings and collapsed homes.
The Hidden Sand Village paid dearly for its poverty.
At that same moment, Rasa stared at the burning village, his hands clenched so tightly that his nails bit into his palms and blood slowly dripped down.
"Heavenly Demon!" he roared through gritted teeth.
But even now, fury was secondary.
He still had more important things to do.
"Truly worthy of a Kazekage," Kenichi said with a smile as he watched the towering black wall rise up and wrap around the Hidden Sand Village.
.....
[If you don't want to wait for the next update, read 10–50 chapters ahead on P@treon.]
[[email protected]/FanficLord03]