Chapter 274: Trampling Mount Myōboku Underfoot
Oppressive. Suffocating.
Like the wind and pressure that build before a summer downpour — in that instant, every single frog on Mount Myōboku fell silent. The weaker ones dove straight into the water, trembling.
"What's happening?"
Off in one corner of the mountain, the toad Bunta exhaled a thick plume of smoke and looked up at the sky.
He could feel it — something had arrived on Mount Myōboku. And it was not a friend.
But for a presence to single-handedly crush the voices of every toad on the mountain through sheer force of will alone — that was terrifying beyond reason.
Before he could even locate the source, a roar cracked across the sky like thunder!
"Gamabunta!"
"Get out here. Now!"
!!!
Bunta's eyes — round as brass bells — snapped wide with fury.
How many years has it been.
How many years has it been since anyone dared speak the Great Toad Sage's name so brazenly?
Whoever it was clearly had a death wish.
This was Mount Myōboku, after all. One of the Three Great Sacred Lands!
Bunta drew the long blade at his hip and charged toward the source of the voice without a second thought.
But the moment he arrived, his massive body froze in place of its own accord.
He stared, stunned, at the lone figure hovering in the sky, and his voice came out trembling despite himself:
"The... the Hokage."
A pair of emerald eyes, cold as ice, turned to look at him.
It wasn't just Bunta. Hiro had arrived as well, and beyond the two of them, over a hundred toads of every size had gathered.
"Bunta. What should you be calling me?"
The pressure of someone standing far above him rolled outward, carried on Yang Release — Dominion, and Bunta found himself bowing his head before he could stop it.
"...Lord Hokage."
Bunta forced the words out through gritted teeth.
"In consideration of what you've done for Konoha, stand down now."
"Before this brings ruin down on you."
The Hokage's robe snapped and fluttered in the wind, pink hair streaming behind her, as the Fifth Hokage walked step by step across empty air toward the place that every toad on the mountain held most sacred, most revered.
"Lord Hokage, what business brings you here?"
Watching Bunta lose his nerve, Sage Shima appeared atop his head — though no one had seen her arrive — and called up toward the figure hovering in the sky.
"You don't know why I'm here?"
The Hokage's eyes settled on her, deep and unreadable, and a chill ran down Shima's spine.
Trouble. This is real trouble.
I told the old man not to get involved. Did he listen? No.
And now what — she's come knocking on our door.
"Lord Hokage, I believe there's some kind of misunderstanding here."
Shima forced the words out, though they came with difficulty.
But the Hokage gave no sign of having heard her at all. As if invisible steps hung suspended in the air for her to climb, she walked on, expression calm, straight toward the palace at the heart of Mount Myōboku.
"Please. Stop right there."
A massive, blue-green shape blocked her path.
Hiro.
Unlike Bunta, he'd never once laid eyes on this Hokage of Konoha. To him, she was simply a stranger.
Under normal circumstances, given that Naruto — Mount Myōboku's own contract-holder — was a Konoha shinobi, he might have shown some measure of respect on principle alone.
But this was their first meeting, and she hadn't shown him the slightest courtesy — barging straight toward the Great Toad Sage's palace like she owned the place. Hiro wasn't about to offer courtesy in return.
The Hokage, however, gave no indication of stopping.
Just as she was about to step clean over his head, Hiro's patience snapped, and he drew the twin blades from his back!
"Stop this!"
Shima tried to hold her son back before he could do something suicidal.
Does he not know what this woman is capable of? I do.
Three years ago, this woman had killed tailed beasts with her bare hands. Whatever she was now, three years later, could only be stronger.
And Myōboku and the Hokage hadn't exchanged a single blow yet — whoever struck first, the whole situation would spiral out of control in an instant, and after that, there'd be no telling where things would end up.
But Shima's warning came a beat too late. The moment Hiro drew his blades seemed to serve as a signal — countless toads puffed out their cheeks, and jets of water shot skyward toward the hovering Hokage!
And Hiro's twin blades came slashing down at her at the same moment.
A faint smile crossed her calm face.
A dangerous smile.
The Fifth Hokage of Konoha raised a single hand before her chest, fingers held in a sword-seal, lips parting slightly — and Shima's pupils contracted in an instant. She spun toward the wall of toads, waving both arms wildly, screaming with something close to grief:
"Fall back!"
But it was already too late.
Hiro, closest to the Hokage, heard exactly what came out of her mouth.
Yang Release — Water Dragon Bite-Crash.
Every jet of water converging on her twisted, warped, and bent — centered entirely on her.
Water spiraled around her, coiled, took shape, and then—
"ROOOAR!"
A dragon's roar tore through the sky, loud enough to split the heavens themselves — the first sound of its kind this sacred, thousand-year-still mountain had ever heard.
A creature dozens of meters long wound and danced through the air around her.
Antlers of a deer. Ears of an ox. The body of a serpent. Scales of a crocodile. The tail of a fish. A lion's mane. Talons of a hawk.
The great blue-water dragon regarded the countless ants below it as though it were truly alive.
"Im... impossible."
Shima stared up at that living, breathing water dragon and couldn't stop the words from escaping her.
As a master of Water Release herself, she understood immediately — this was nothing like an ordinary jutsu.
In this moment, the Hokage had granted that water dragon true, if temporary, life.
"Go."
At her quiet word, the monstrous dragon in the sky moved.
It slammed into Hiro first, the one who'd swung his blade at her — razor claws tearing through skin and sinking deep into flesh.
"ROOOAR!"
The dragon let out a low, guttural growl, as if meting out punishment to some fool who didn't know better than to raise a blade against its master.
Its crimson eyes flashed with savage violence, and Hiro thrashed desperately against the claws pinning him, unable to budge them even a fraction.
Watching that gaping maw descend toward his own throat, Hiro's heart screamed in despair.
This is it. I'm finished.
But at that instant, an enormous blade intercepted the dragon's strike, and its jaws clamped down on steel instead.
"Brother!"
Hiro looked over at Bunta — the one who'd just saved him — and cried out, overwhelmed.
"Save your breath!"
Bunta gripped his blade with both hands, locked in a contest of raw strength against the dragon.
The dragon seemed to grow only angrier. Its whole body surged with force, abandoning Hiro entirely to lunge at Bunta instead.
In an instant, that massive body had wound itself tight around Bunta, four claws raking bone-deep gashes across his hide.
"This thing... it's worse than that Ten Thousand Snakes bastard..."
Bunta clenched his jaw against the overwhelming force bearing down on him.
"Little Bunta!"
"Are you all right?!"
It wasn't just Hiro — Bunta was Shima and Fukasaku's son too.
"Mom. Help."
Bunta could feel himself starting to give out.
"Right!"
Whether or not Shima wanted to raise a hand against this Hokage, she no longer had a choice.
She puffed out her cheeks and spoke in a low voice:
"Sage Technique — Water Release — Water Slash!"
A blade of high-speed water shot from her mouth, slicing toward the massive dragon.
Water sprayed in every direction!
The dragon let out a pained cry, its huge body nearly torn in half by the blow.
And still — it didn't lose its will to fight. If anything, the strike only made it coil tighter around Bunta.
Shima swore she could hear the faint crack of bone.
The Hokage's emerald eyes flicked briefly toward the chaos below, but her steps didn't slow for even a moment as she continued walking toward the palace.
One Yang Release technique. If I wanted to, I could throw out ten more without breaking a sweat.
Walking across empty air toward the palace, her eyes remained still as a well with no ripples.
One step...
Back then, this Gamabunta business already turned Jiraiya's life into a mess — not fully human, not fully ghost. He even took off his Konoha headband and put on Myōboku's oil-character one instead.
The old man never said anything about it at the time. Later, once I took his seat, I let it go too — out of respect for him, and because Jiraiya really had earned his keep.
Two steps...
And now, Jiraiya's dead. Because of this so-called prophecy.
And Gamabunta's set his sights on me instead.
Rejected by me — so now he's turned his attention to Mirai.
How fitting.
There was a road to heaven, and you chose not to take it.
There's no gate to hell, and yet here you come, banging on the door.
Three steps...
Invisible ripples spread outward from her like rings on water...
I've made this much noise, and Gamabunta still hasn't shown his face.
Fine, then.
A flicker of golden flame stirred within her emerald eyes...
The invisible pressure surged violently — as if the sky itself were tilting.
Mount Myōboku, already silenced by the Hokage's arrival, now sank into something closer to the stillness of death.
It wasn't just the weak ones anymore. Even Bunta and Hiro, still locked in struggle with the dragon, even Shima and her two sons together, all felt the terror radiating from that invisible force.
The weakest toads were simply crushed flat where they stood.
"Stop!"
A figure, no bigger than an ordinary toad, stepped out from the palace.
Sage Fukasaku.
And behind him—
Mirai.
"Sister!"
Seeing her big sister hovering there in the sky, Mirai waved cheerfully.
"Lord Hokage, your own sister stands here before you — please, no need for such drastic measures!"
Fukasaku called up toward the sky.
But the Hokage paid him no mind whatsoever. Her eyes were fixed on her little sister.
The Heavenly Canopy Method activated.
Unseen, a thread of sensory chakra swept invisibly across Mirai's body, checking her over.
Within moments, the Hokage's expression darkened.
She landed softly on the great courtyard before the palace and beckoned to her sister.
The little pink-haired girl skipped over happily, beaming up at her.
Too young, too innocent, to understand what was happening.
The Hokage crouched down and gently stroked her sister's pink hair.
Golden chakra flame rose and curled around her palm. Mirai didn't feel anything wrong at all — if anything, her sister's touch left her feeling warm all over.
But as if by accident, that flame-wreathed hand brushed against the back of the little girl's neck — and there, a thread of pale blue sage chakra was silently, seamlessly snuffed out beneath the golden fire.
Everyone in the shinobi world carried their own chakra, without exception, even ordinary people.
And that extinguished thread of sage chakra clearly did not belong to Mirai.
Watching this, Fukasaku's heart sank, his expression shifting almost imperceptibly.
That was... the Great Toad Sage's chakra...
"Do you know something?"
The Hokage smiled warmly down at her sister, who understood none of the world around her.
"There's one thing I hate more than anything else."
"When someone can't touch me — so they go after the people around me instead."
Mirai blinked up at her sister, not quite following.
"If you've got the nerve, come find me."
"She's three years old."
Stroking her sister's soft hair, something tender and unmistakably protective flickered, just for a moment, in the Hokage's eyes.
"Sister?"
Mirai tilted her head, looking up at her.
"Good girl. Sleep now."
She brushed a hand gently across Mirai's forehead, and drowsiness swept over the little girl at once — she slumped, unresisting, into her sister's familiar embrace.
Sister smells so nice...
Off to the side, beads of cold sweat had already broken out across Fukasaku's brow.
He knew. None of those words had been meant for Mirai.
They'd been meant for him — and for the Great Toad Sage, still waiting somewhere in the palace behind him.
The Hokage unfastened her own robe and carefully wrapped it around the little girl in her arms, as if afraid she might catch a chill.
"This child carries our parents' hopes. And mine."
"So — do you understand what I'm saying?"
Her emerald eyes, still flickering with gold, turned toward Fukasaku, then past him, toward the palace, toward the calm, watching gaze somewhere within it.
Fukasaku opened his mouth, about to speak—
—when a furious roar cut him off.
"Die!"
Having watched Ken die with his own eyes, and his own brother brought to the edge of death defending him, Hiro could no longer hold back the fury burning in his chest. He raised his blade and swung it down at the Hokage, still cradling her sister in her arms.
"Hiro!"
Fukasaku's face went white with shock, and he reached out, trying to stop his reckless son.
But—
The Hokage simply rose to her feet without so much as a glance at the enraged toad bearing down on her, tapped her toe lightly against the ground, and floated upward.
The massive blade — tens of meters long — slammed down into the palace courtyard instead, burying itself in stone.
Then, one foot came down, resting lightly atop the buried blade.
"See that? His brother gets hurt, and he comes for revenge."
"And now — my sister's been touched by your people. So tell me. What exactly am I supposed to do about that?"
The Hokage's voice was calm as she looked at Fukasaku.
Fukasaku stared at the scene before him, mouth working uselessly, no idea what he could possibly say.
"Father, why bother talking to her at all!"
"Everyone, swarm her! Kill her!"
"We are Mount Myōboku!"
"One of the Three Great Sacred Lands!"
Hiro, consumed with rage, strained with everything he had to wrench the blade out from beneath the Hokage's foot.
But the sword might as well have taken root in the earth. No matter how hard he pulled—
It didn't move. Not even a fraction.
(End of chapter.)
☆☆☆
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