Chapter 364: Konoha's Countermeasures
"Naruto was taken away by Amamiya Kenichi."
In Konoha, Hiruzen's face was as dark as storm clouds, his fists clenched so tightly that the veins stood out. He truly had not expected Amamiya Kenichi to act so brazenly, snatching Naruto away in broad daylight and even standing there to greet him as if nothing were wrong.
"I just feel like something about this is off." Tsunade sat in her chair, deep in thought.
She had only just returned from Konoha Hospital when she heard from her teacher that suffocating piece of news.
At that moment, Tsunade suddenly felt that the position of Hokage, which so many in Konoha admired and coveted, was not nearly as easy to hold as people imagined. If she had a choice, she would rather shove that title right back into her teacher's hands.
The Nine Tails Jinchuriki being taken away was a devastating blow to Konoha. The village's status as the strongest hidden village in the ninja world did not rely solely on its many powerful ninja. It also relied on the Nine Tails.
What Tsunade could not understand was why Kenichi would do something like this.
As for Heavenly Demon's identity, there was nothing left to doubt.
The moment she saw the chakra extraction method Naruto had been practicing, she recognized it as Orochimaru's work. Her teacher had confirmed the same. For Naruto to possess Orochimaru's chakra extraction method, and for Naruto to show no resistance at all to the person who approached him, the other party's identity was obvious. It could only be Orochimaru or Amamiya Kenichi.
And judging from the ninjutsu he used and his style in battle, Tsunade could already confirm that the so-called Heavenly Demon was Amamiya Kenichi.
She knew Orochimaru's fighting style too well. If it had been him, snakes would have been involved sooner or later. But the Heavenly Demon style was different. He was powerful, very powerful, but he always gave her the feeling that he did not truly want to fight head on. He always preferred to solve things another way, which felt slippery and underhanded and annoyed Tsunade to no end.
She would rather Kenichi just fight her directly.
"What a mess..." Tsunade shook her head.
She truly had not expected Kenichi to grow this quickly, nor to display such terrifying talent. He had even mastered Wood Release. That alone made her think of her grandfather.
If Kenichi had remained in Konoha, then perhaps Konoha really might have gained its next God of Shinobi.
"He had no reason to expose himself like that." Hiruzen lit his pipe and took a drag.
Even while smoking, he did not forget to use Wind Release to blow the smoke away. Tsunade had insisted on that.
The reason, naturally, was that thing inside his body.
Tsunade had once performed surgery to remove it, but later examinations showed signs that it seemed to be growing back. She believed smoking was closely connected to the condition, and now she refused to allow his secondhand smoke to bother anyone else.
She was still researching that strange illness, but there had been no progress so far. It was an extremely troublesome disease. It grew inside the body itself, which meant that ordinary detoxification methods and techniques that expelled harmful substances were almost useless against it.
Still, that difficulty had stirred Tsunade's competitive spirit. She had already sworn that she would uncover the true nature of the illness and then find a complete cure.
As for Asuma, Hiruzen had personally forced him to quit smoking. Asuma had resisted at first, but after Tsunade intervened, he gave it up obediently. Lately, he even seemed to be picking up new hobbies.
But Hiruzen's real concern at the moment was elsewhere.
He could not understand why Amamiya Kenichi had acted the way he did. He could have taken Naruto away without revealing himself at all. Instead, he not only noticed Hiruzen's surveillance technique, he had even looked up and waved.
That proved he had wanted Hiruzen to know exactly who had taken Naruto.
But why?
Was he deliberately trying to draw Konoha's attention toward that mysterious organization?
"What do you plan to do, old man?" Tsunade asked.
She already had an idea of her own, but she still wanted to hear Hiruzen's thoughts. After all, the old man had sat in the Hokage's seat for far too many years. His perspective was bound to differ from hers.
Hiruzen pinched the bridge of his nose.
Amamiya Kenichi had joined a mysterious organization. Its leader had attacked Konoha that very day. Hiruzen had sharply noticed that the man did not seem to be a living person at all, but something closer to a puppet.
And those eyes...
"Let me put it this way," Tsunade said, looking at Hiruzen. "That guy clearly wasn't using his full strength."
Naturally, she meant Yahiko.
She remembered him now. While they were fighting, she had finally recalled who he was. And because she recognized him, she was even more certain that throughout the battle, he had remained oddly calm, as though he still held some trump card that would guarantee victory if he ever chose to use it.
If Kenichi had been the one describing it, he would have said Nagato had looked like a landlord holding a perfect hand of cards, completely unafraid of the farmers turning the game around.
"That person was Yahiko? Jiraiya's disciple?" Hiruzen took another puff of his pipe.
Why did none of the disciples around him ever turn out easy to deal with?
There was no need to mention his own students. But even Jiraiya's disciple had grown powerful enough to storm Konoha and kill one of its elders.
"Yes. It was Yahiko." Tsunade flipped through the files in her hand. "I remember him. Back then, Jiraiya's three students formed an organization in the Land of Rain called the Akatsuki. Later, Hanzo of the Hidden Rain wiped them out. Jiraiya was depressed over it for quite some time."
Hiruzen slowly exhaled smoke.
"So... the Akatsuki. The Hidden Rain."
When Heavenly Demon had once been recruited, the other party had named a different organization. Looking at it now, that had almost certainly been a lie. Even though Yahiko had apparently been turned into a puppet, that did not necessarily mean the Akatsuki had really perished. If it truly was the Akatsuki, then the Hidden Rain was very likely their base.
Which meant that the Akatsuki had now become an obstacle standing directly in front of Konoha, and a major threat.
Whether Konoha wanted to treat Amamiya Kenichi leniently and persuade him to return, or forcefully take back the Nine Tails Jinchuriki, Uzumaki Naruto, one thing came first.
They needed information.
"Where's Jiraiya?" Hiruzen narrowed his eyes. "If that person is really his disciple, then he should want to know what happened."
Konoha still had far too many things to deal with.
Naruto's disappearance had to be concealed. Outwardly, Konoha needed to pretend that the Nine Tails was still safely in the village.
Tsunade pouted.
She naturally saw through the old man's intentions. Even she had to admit that if Jiraiya learned of this, he would investigate immediately. Sending Jiraiya alone was not an option, because nobody knew what the enemy side was thinking. Moreover, after Danzo had been hunted down in that fashion, it was obvious that the fall of the Akatsuki likely had something to do with Danzo.
Danzo had clearly shared an old grudge with them.
If Jiraiya and Tsunade went together, it would be safer. And if Jiraiya was there, perhaps the other side might show some restraint. After all, Yahiko had once been Jiraiya's disciple, and even as a puppet, he still seemed to hold a leading role within that organization.
That relationship should matter somehow.
"Hokage sama! Jiraiya sama has returned to the village!" An Anbu burst in at that moment, speaking hurriedly.
Tsunade and Hiruzen exchanged glances.
Jiraiya's timing could not have been better.
But when Tsunade found Jiraiya, she quickly realized the matter was not as simple as she had hoped.
"Do you remember that prophecy I told you about before?" Jiraiya asked, his expression grave.
He no longer looked like the carefree lecher he usually pretended to be, and that alone made Tsunade feel strangely uncomfortable.
"You mean the Child of Prophecy?" Tsunade asked.
Jiraiya had indeed spoken to her about it before, in that mysterious tone of his.
"Yes. But now there's a problem..." Jiraiya took a deep breath, his face darkening.
Not long ago, he had been lurking outside a women's bathhouse, gathering inspiration for his novel, when he suddenly sensed the chakra fluctuations of a Reverse Summoning Technique. He had immediately been pulled to Mount Myoboku. There, the awakened Great Toad Sage had told him something new.
The prophecy had changed.
"I saw a demonic god descending from the stars. The ninja world was destroyed, the earth shattered, and the world stood on the edge of annihilation."
Every time Jiraiya recalled those words, his scalp tingled.
The Great Toad Sage's prophecies had never been wrong.
That was why he had hurried back to Konoha in the first place. He wanted to know whether anything major had recently happened in the ninja world. While he could gather information outside, an organization like Konoha, with a dedicated intelligence apparatus, would always gather it faster and more thoroughly.
And after hearing Tsunade's explanation, Jiraiya finally understood what had happened in Konoha while he had been away.
The moment he heard that Naruto had been taken by Amamiya Kenichi, his expression turned ugly.
Naruto was Minato's son. The child of his disciple. The only child left behind by his dead student.
And yet that child had been living such a miserable life in Konoha, only to be abducted so easily.
Jiraiya took a deep breath and forcefully suppressed the anger boiling inside him.
He truly wanted to storm into the Hokage's office and demand an explanation from his teacher.
You said you would protect Minato's son. Was this your version of protection?
Naruto had barely enough to eat, barely enough to wear, and lived under constant hatred and discrimination. And now he had been taken away by Kenichi with the Nine Tails.
Was this really Konoha, the strongest village in the ninja world?
If Naruto could be taken away that easily, then why had they not let him enjoy the status and treatment he should have had as the Fourth Hokage's son in the first place? Why throw him to the villagers as a target for all their resentment? Why force all that weight onto a child who also happened to be a Jinchuriki?
Were they not afraid that one day the boy would simply break?
That he might kill himself, or worse, come to hate Konoha and vow to destroy everyone who had tormented him?
"Yahiko... the Akatsuki... I see." Jiraiya rubbed his temples and forced himself back to the matter at hand. "When I was in the Hidden Rain before, I did feel as though someone was watching me. But at the time..."
Tsunade said nothing.
She could see the anger in Jiraiya's eyes, and she knew exactly where it came from. She herself had once been furious for the same reason. That fury had even driven her desire to become Hokage, if only to clean up the old man's disastrous decisions. Minato and Kushina had sacrificed their lives for the village. What Konoha did to Naruto in return had been shameful.
But she was not Hokage yet, and Naruto had already been taken.
Now all they could do was try to salvage what remained.
"If that's the case, then we..." Jiraiya narrowed his eyes.
Now that Yahiko's identity had been confirmed, the next step was simple in theory. They had to investigate the Akatsuki, uncover Yahiko's situation, and determine what had really happened.
Of course, in practice, it would be anything but simple.
"So, you took that brat as your disciple?" Orochimaru leaned lazily against the sofa, licking an ice pop as he glanced at Kenichi.
"Yes, Teacher," Kenichi replied. "Naruto's talent is definitely excellent."
.....
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