new story: Tokyo Relics: Only I Can See the Abnormal Equipment
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Eastern Front Camp.
Taiichi led the way, walking ahead while Hyuga Hiashi followed closely behind at a measured pace.
To outsiders, the scene looked completely natural.
Along the way, many shinobi who spotted them lowered their heads in respect, especially toward Taiichi at the front.
The two of them made their way straight to the main command tent without any need for announcements. Taiichi simply lifted the tent flap and strode inside, with Hyuga Hiashi right behind him.
"Tsunade-sama, you wanted to see me?"
Taiichi put on the act of someone who had no idea what was going on and looked at Tsunade with complete seriousness.
Tsunade only needed to hear the way he spoke to know this kid was about to stir up trouble. She played along and simply nodded.
"The village's commendation order has arrived. There's also a separate instruction for you. Take a look."
With that, she tossed the scroll straight at him.
Taiichi caught it casually and didn't even glance at the Root shinobi. He started reading it himself, shaking his head and swaying his body as he read with dramatic rhythm and emphasis. He made sure to read the praise and encouragement for the front-line shinobi with full emotion, and when he reached the final order directed at himself, he read it especially loudly and clearly.
"Upon the issuance of this order," "accompanied by," "immediately," "other arrangements."
"Messenger shinobi, did I read that correctly? Word for word?"
Taiichi's tone was sincere, even carrying a hint of a smile.
The Root shinobi didn't understand what was happening, but since Taiichi's question was straightforward, he nodded in confirmation.
"Which faction planted you as a spy? How dare you forge the Hokage's orders?!"
Taiichi suddenly shouted, cutting through everyone's thoughts.
"Put your hands up and surrender right now, or today will be the day you die here."
As soon as he finished speaking, his aura exploded outward. A powerful pressure locked completely onto the Root shinobi.
The shinobi was only a special jonin. He couldn't withstand Taiichi's mental pressure at all and instantly froze in place.
Taiichi flickered forward in an instant. Both hands clapped down hard on the Root shinobi's chest.
Everyone saw a flash of sealing runes. By the time they reacted, the shinobi had already gone limp in Taiichi's hands, clearly under a sealing technique.
"I'm… not a spy. The order… is real."
The Root shinobi, now slumped on the ground, still hadn't fully processed what had happened, but he instinctively tried to defend himself.
"Whether it's real or not, I'll personally take you to see the Hokage. I want to find out if this ridiculous order really came from the Hokage… or if someone has their own agenda."
At that moment, everyone finally understood Taiichi's intention. He was kicking the problem right back to the Hokage, forcing him to decide how to handle it.
Whether the order was the Hokage's true intention or not, the fact that it came through Root's hands meant the Hokage didn't want to be directly associated with it.
Now that Taiichi was personally escorting this so-called "spy" to confront the Hokage, it was clearly a way to force the Hokage to give him and all the front-line shinobi an explanation.
But no matter how the Hokage chose to handle it, the one suffering the most right now was definitely the Root shinobi lying on the ground.
Everyone looked at the sealed shinobi with sympathy… until they remembered he was from Root. Then they immediately felt better. Root members didn't deserve sympathy.
"Tsunade-sama, I'm taking him back to Konoha right now. I'll leave things here to you."
"Go with peace of mind. The front line will be fine."
Everyone understood that the content of the order itself probably wasn't the real issue. Root was just trying to make their presence known by turning a simple recall order into something that felt like an escort.
In other words, starting today, Taiichi would be leaving the eastern front. They were about to lose one of their strongest fighters.
When Taiichi and the Root shinobi vanished in front of everyone, the remaining shinobi felt an inexplicable pressure. It was the pressure of the unknown. Only now did they realize just how important Taiichi had been to them—how much weight he had been carrying on their behalf.
When Taiichi reappeared, he was already standing inside his house in Konoha.
Looking at the half-dead Root shinobi he was still carrying, he didn't hesitate. To avoid any complications, he headed straight for the Hokage Tower.
Along the way, many people gave him curious looks.
In Konoha, it wasn't unusual to see people leaping across rooftops and eaves. But seeing someone carrying another person while doing so? That was rare.
Soon, Taiichi arrived at the Hokage's office. He knocked, waited for a response, opened the door, and walked in. He was still being polite, giving Hiruzen plenty of face.
Hiruzen was currently buried in paperwork, going through stacks of documents piled high on his desk.
It was unclear whether he even realized that the person standing in front of him was the very Matsushita Taiichi he had been so eager to recall.
Taiichi didn't rush. He simply stood quietly in the office, looking around. The Root shinobi in his hands had already been completely sealed in consciousness and now looked like a corpse.
Perhaps Taiichi's gaze was too blatantly obvious, because Hiruzen finally stopped what he was doing and looked up.
The sight that greeted him immediately gave him a headache. Taiichi had grown noticeably taller in the three months since they last met. But the shinobi he was holding made Hiruzen frown.
For now, he could only pretend he knew nothing.
"Why are you back so soon? And who's this Konoha shinobi?"
Taiichi wasn't about to follow Hiruzen's rhythm. Instead of answering the question, he put on an expression like he had just done something praiseworthy and spoke urgently.
"Hokage-sama, I caught a spy who was forging the Hokage's orders."
As he spoke, he shook the shinobi in his hands, signaling that this was the person he was talking about.
"He's managed to offend every single jonin in the eastern camp. Everyone has a very low opinion of him."
The hidden meaning was clear: My actions represent the interests of the entire eastern camp.
As a veteran political animal, Hiruzen could easily read between the lines. His pupils shrank slightly, revealing his inner turmoil.
Taiichi then handed over the commendation scroll. "Hokage-sama, look at this. The commendation order was actually drafted by Root. Who doesn't know that Konoha's commendation orders are supposed to be drafted by the Hokage's office? This spy really isn't very professional."
Hiruzen took the scroll. The corner of his mouth twitched involuntarily. This commendation order was indeed one he had signed. However, at the time, to avoid suspicion, he hadn't even read it—everything had already been discussed and agreed upon beforehand.
He hadn't expected problems to arise even so. He opened the scroll and scanned through it line by line.
When he saw the words "after discussion by Root," his eyebrow only twitched. He silently cursed Homura Mitokado for being an idiot, trying to assert Root's presence at a time like this.
But when he reached the final part and read the order about Taiichi returning and the way it was phrased, he finally understood why a simple commendation order had caused such a huge commotion.
Forget Taiichi, a top-tier shinobi—even an ordinary jonin wouldn't tolerate this kind of humiliation. Fighting and bleeding on the front lines, only to be treated like this behind their backs? It would make every front-line shinobi feel cold.
No wonder Taiichi dared to say the entire eastern camp supported him.
At that moment, Hiruzen wanted nothing more than to drag Homura Mitokado over and beat the crap out of him. He had wanted the two of them to clash, but there was a proper way to do it. This kind of blatant hostility was something even Danzo wouldn't have done so openly.
But he had no choice. He still had to clean up after Homura.
His gaze returned to the Root shinobi on the floor. Seeing that the man still hadn't moved at all, Hiruzen's expression grew serious. His voice dropped low as he asked, "Did you kill him?"
"Of course not. He's important evidence. A live one is obviously more valuable than a dead one."
Hiruzen let out a quiet breath of relief. Good that he's not dead. There's still room to maneuver.
Up until now, all their conflicts had stayed beneath the surface. Even though they were fighting, no one had crossed the line into life-or-death territory. He didn't want Taiichi to be the first to break that unspoken rule. Otherwise, his opinion of Taiichi would change completely.
"Don't worry, Taiichi. I'll give you a satisfactory answer. I'll take this spy. You won't see him again."
Taiichi smiled. On this matter, he still trusted Hiruzen's credibility.
"What about the commendation order?"
He clearly remembered that the original order had given quite generous rewards to the front-line forces. He didn't want his actions to cause everyone's rewards to be reduced.
Hiruzen gave him a speechless look and said irritably, "Fine, I understand. I'll have the office issue a new commendation order to the front lines."
"That's great. The shinobi on the front lines will be grateful to know the Hokage cares so much about them."
His goal achieved, Taiichi naturally knew when to say the right things.
"You little brat—" Hiruzen pointed at him and scolded with a laugh. "Since you're already back, just stay in the village and rest for now. I'll arrange new work for you later."
This was the exchange. After fighting for so long and running around constantly, Taiichi was also tired of it. Resting for a while wouldn't be bad.
He knew very well that even stronger enemies were waiting for him ahead.
"Understood, Hokage-sama. I'll be going then."
Watching Taiichi's figure disappear from the office, Hiruzen felt a complicated mix of emotions. The child had finally grown up and had his own ideas. He didn't even call him "Hokage-jiji" anymore.
"Go bring Homura Mitokado to me!"
His words carried a trace of anger. The frustration he had just received from Taiichi needed an outlet somewhere.
Ignoring the verbal sparring that would soon erupt in the Hokage's office, Taiichi had already returned to his own house.
Now that he had no missions or official duties, he actually had more time for personal training. At the same time, he could finally fulfill an old wish—traveling across the shinobi world's mountains and rivers to experience nature and refine his chakra nature transformations.
Surely no one actually thought he would stay obediently inside Konoha Village, right? As a master of Flying Thunder God and the creator of countless shadow clones, turning into multiple versions of himself to travel wasn't difficult at all. A few clones wandering around was child's play.
On his private training ground, Taiichi set up an isolation barrier and stepped inside to begin training in Sage Mode.
From the beginning, when it took him five minutes to enter Sage Mode, to now, when he could do it in just three minutes, Taiichi felt a strong sense of progress.
His current goal was simple. For the time being, he didn't need to reach Hashirama's level of entering Sage Mode instantly. But at least he wanted to bring it down to within ten seconds.
That goal wasn't too high. He believed that with enough practice, it would be no problem.
While Taiichi was busy training Sage Mode at home, Jiraiya in the Land of Rivers was finally running into trouble.
At first, he had received orders from the village to take advantage of the heavy fighting between Mist and Sand. He was supposed to lead his forces into the Land of Wind and force Sand to surrender.
When Jiraiya first saw the order, he thought it was a good plan with high feasibility.
The entire southern camp had been celebrating, happy to become the first battlefront to force an enemy village to surrender. But then something happened that left the entire southern sector completely stunned.
Sand had mobilized their entire village and assembled a force of two thousand shinobi. They threw every last one of them straight into the fight against Konoha.
The moment Konoha's forces entered the Land of Wind, they were met with an ambush by this army.
Their ferocity was something else. If you didn't know better, you'd think Konoha had invaded Sand, not that Mist was causing trouble behind Sand's back in the Land of Wind.
Inside the main command tent.
Jiraiya looked at the battle reports coming in one after another and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
It was bad. They hadn't fought such a brutal battle since the start of the war.
Whether it was small-team skirmishes or large-scale engagements, Sand was fighting like they had nothing to lose. In just three short days, both sides had already lost over two hundred people each—and Konoha's casualties were clearly higher than Sand's.
This kind of intense attrition had already exceeded what Jiraiya could handle. He had come to force Sand to surrender, not to lead his people to their deaths.
"Shikaku, what do you think Sand is really trying to do? This kind of heavy fighting doesn't benefit either side."
Jiraiya removed two more small flags representing his own squads from the map. Those were the two squads that had just been reported as wiped out.
"Sand is trying to force us to back down."
Shikaku stared at the map. The battle lines were tangled, and fighting was happening constantly.
"Forcing us to back down? Sand must be delusional. Worst case, we just hole up in our camp and drag this out with them. I don't believe we can't outlast them."
Jiraiya and Shikaku both turned to look at the staff officer who had spoken and sighed without saying anything.
At that moment, another staff officer who couldn't watch anymore elbowed his colleague and pointed upward, also staying silent.
No one in the room was stupid. The staff officer quickly understood the meaning.
Sand didn't have time. Neither did they.
Sand had Mist causing trouble behind them. They had the village leadership constantly pressuring them.
Both sides were in similar situations. Both wanted to force the other to give in first so they could free up forces for other fronts.
"Report the situation to the village. This kind of stalemate is no longer something the front line can decide on its own. We need to wait for the village's response.
Besides, we've had quite a few of our high-level fighters pulled away. We're already struggling against Sand right now. Include all of that in the report."
Jiraiya finally made the decision. The three staff officers didn't hesitate and immediately went to draft the report.
Just as Jiraiya was about to pick up the next document to review, a strange summoning call echoed in his mind.
It was a reverse summoning. This was already the third time today. The first two times, the situation hadn't been right, so he hadn't responded. He hadn't expected a third one to come so soon.
He glanced at the pile of documents on his desk that still needed reviewing. Since there wasn't anything else urgent right now, Jiraiya created a shadow clone and had his real body respond to the summon, disappearing in a puff of smoke.
The movement immediately drew the attention of the three staff officers. Jiraiya's shadow clone now had a dark expression, looking like a workhorse that had been overworked.
"My real body went out to handle something. He'll be back later."
The three of them looked at each other and could only continue with their own work.