"Tobirama Senju is dead!"
Just as Hii Kōri was scooping fried eggs and meat skewers from the frying pan, preparing to handle the third breakfast serving, Pakura—who should have been out buying the morning newspaper—slammed open the kitchen door and told him this, panting breathlessly.
As an elite chūnin specializing in taijutsu, for Pakura's breathing to be so unsteady was proof enough of just how urgent her news was.
This could also be seen from the snowflakes not yet melted among her hair.
"Huh? So that old bastard, the Second Raikage, did manage to ambush him after all?"
Hii Kōri wasn't particularly surprised by this, though.
He had known several days ago that Tobirama Senju was going to the Country of Lightning to sign a peace agreement with Kumogakure—even earlier than most of the jōnin squad knew.
After all, his foster uncle Ebizō was, shall we say, the highest authority in Sunagakure's intelligence division. This level of lead time was guaranteed.
"I always said those black-hearted guys in Kumogakure couldn't be trusted. Treachery and betrayal are just routine for them. Tobirama Senju must have gotten senile to go to the Country of Lightning and sign a treaty with them."
When he first learned of this intelligence, Hii Kōri thought it was a stupid move.
Although there was some subjective dissatisfaction with Kumogakure on his part, it was more based on stereotypes from their long record of misdeeds.
As one of the five great hidden villages, Kumogakure's reputation with clients was passable. But as a buyer or partner, these people were way too "Indian."
The trading company under Hii Kōri's name had been robbed several times over there, to the point where Sakaki Tatsuma wanted to completely cut off business with the Country of Lightning.
But considering that the Country of Lightning really was too suitable for building factories, they had to endure it in the end, protesting a few more times as a consolation.
The money lost was just considered feeding watermelons to the black guys—although he didn't understand the humor in this isekai classic joke his boss told, just imagining the scene was enough to make Sakaki Tatsuma, whose humor threshold wasn't high to begin with, lose it.
Anyway, Hii Kōri wasn't at all surprised that the Second Hokage had been assassinated in Kumogakure territory.
Even if Tobirama Senju was the fastest shinobi in the world, the Country of Lightning was still Kumogakure's home turf. What if they really had set up some little tool that could block the Flying Thunder God Technique?
Don't forget, those famous Six Paths Tools had all been gradually recovered by Kumogakure.
"Next, Konoha should go to war with Kumogakure, right... In terms of national relations, Suna should probably support Konoha, but the geographical location isn't great... Iwagakure's attitude is also hard to predict..."
"No... The Second Raikage, A, seems to be dead too. This time, it was a coup launched by Kumogakure's Kinkaku and Ginkaku brothers."
Just as Hii Kōri was guessing about the movements of the other villages, Pakura—who had downed the warm water he handed her in one gulp—added another piece of information.
"...Who? Kinkaku and Ginkaku?"
Hii Kōri set down the third batch of fried eggs and meat skewers with a surprised expression, handing the first two portions—now at the right temperature—to Pakura and Karura, who had just entered.
It wasn't that he hadn't heard of these two—quite the opposite. As veteran figures from Kumogakure's founding era, the Kinkaku and Ginkaku brothers had earned brilliant military exploits with their fierce personalities and formidable strength. They were quite famous in the ninja world.
In the past, after these two were swallowed by the Nine-Tails, they had instead eaten the Nine-Tails' flesh and gained its chakra, allowing them to maintain a semi-tailed beast transformation to some extent.
As for what Kinkaku and Ginkaku were most proud of—"the Sage of Six Paths' bloodline"...
Hard to judge.
Looking through the ancient texts he had collected, one could find that quite a few ninja clans in the ninja world claimed their ancestors were the Sage of Six Paths. Considering the Sage was a figure from a thousand years ago, these claims weren't necessarily all self-aggrandizement.
But after so many years of branching out, how much of those clans' bloodlines had actually been passed down was also unknown.
The most famous Six Paths bloodlines with verifiable records were actually in Konoha.
Among them, the Uchiha Clan had indeed been active in the Country of Lightning before Konoha's founding.
Long before Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha were born, a daughter of the Chinoike Clan from the Country of Lightning had married the Daimyō of the Country of Lightning as a concubine. The girl had a gentle disposition and beautiful features, but this provoked the jealousy of the principal wife.
Soon after marrying the girl, the Daimyō fell ill and died. The principal wife falsely accused the concubine of being involved in the Daimyō's death, resulting in the Chinoike Clan being exiled to Hell Valley. The clan responsible for overseeing the Chinoike Clan at that time was the Uchiha Clan.
This mission was considered a long-term meal ticket for the Uchiha back then.
Since the Uchiha Clan had neither refuted Kinkaku and Ginkaku's claims in the past nor the present, and since Kumogakure had indeed been collecting Six Paths Tools for them, their bloodline was probably quite pure.
If it was a case of the prepared striking the unprepared, the probability of these two brutes suddenly killing the big black guy wasn't low. Add in possibly wonderful little tools, taking down Tobirama Senju wasn't impossible.
After all, calculating the timing, Tobirama Senju was about sixty years old—past his prime. A significant decline in strength was normal.
But they'd need more detailed intelligence to analyze the specific situation.
"No, wait—how many people do they even have under them to launch a coup?"
This was actually the point of strong doubt for Hii Kōri.
"Could there really be thirty people willing to follow those two? Even if they did kill the Raikage in the end, do those two really think they can take the top position?"
Despite their strength, because they had become increasingly arrogant after obtaining Nine-Tails chakra, these two brothers apparently weren't particularly well-liked.
Although the Kage was generally the strongest person in the village, once seated in that position, they became a sacrifice for the "village."
In a hidden village, the overwhelming majority were ordinary ninja not holding public office.
Perhaps in peacetime, ninja with official duties enjoyed various privileges, but ultimately, a ninja village was ultimately a military base—everything in it existed for the ninja.
Compared to the ordinary ninja who made up the vast majority, ninja with official duties weren't actually that important.
Civilians, departments and institutions, even the Kage himself—all served the collective of "ninja" and acted to maintain the structure of the "ninja village."
Granted, a living Kage aside—a dead Kage wasn't much in the face of village interests, that much was true.
But what benefits could Kinkaku and Ginkaku bring to Kumogakure, I'd like to ask? Unprovoked, interrupting the treaty signing process with Konoha and killing their Kage in the process—who exactly would consider that a benefit?
So after their reputation completely collapsed among the chūnin and jōnin, did Kinkaku and Ginkaku really think they could become the next Raikage with the support of their few die-hard followers?
"Could it be that tailed beast chakra fries the brain? I haven't noticed that—I've used Shukaku's chakra without these symptoms?"
With his triple-core, twenty-seven-thread brain nearly smoking from overwork, Hii Kōri still couldn't figure out where Kinkaku and Ginkaku got their confidence.
***
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