Chapter 237: One Man Against a Village
"Akira!"
Tsunade was the first to lose her composure. She grabbed Akira's arm, her grip surprisingly strong, her face filled with raw anxiety and utter confusion.
"What in the world are you doing?! Have you lost your mind?!"
"They've gathered at least eight thousand people! Eight thousand! We only have two thousand!" Her voice was rising, bordering on frantic.
"Our only advantage is surprise! We must rely on a swift, coordinated surprise attack and Shikaku's formation advantages to break through their defenses! And now... now you're telling everyone to stand by?!"
Her eyes widened in dawning horror. "You... you want to go alone?"
Nara Shikaku also stepped forward, his usual lazy demeanor completely gone. His expression was more solemn, more alarmed, than Tsunade had ever seen it.
"Hokage-sama! Please reconsider!" His voice was low, urgent.
"This is no time for individual heroics! This is war! They are eight thousand shinobi! Eight thousand!"
"Even if their individual strength is lacking compared to our elites, a human wave tactic... an overwhelming amount of sheer chakra... it is enough to exhaust, to overwhelm, any Kage-level expert!"
"Your safety, Hokage-sama, concerns the future of the entire Konoha! The future of our world!" Shikaku pleaded, stepping directly in front of Akira. "You absolutely cannot take such a reckless risk in a place like this!"
Nara Shikaku's brilliant mind was racing, trying desperately to understand the strategic logic behind this suicidal move.
But he completely failed to grasp Akira's intentions.
This fundamentally defied all military logic! All conventional strategy!
This wasn't brave. It wasn't even reckless.
This was suicide!
Listening to their impassioned, terrified pleas, Uchiha Akira merely smiled faintly.
He gently, but firmly, took Tsunade's hand from his arm, holding it in his own. His gaze swept over both of them—the panicked Sannin and the alarmed strategist.
"Shikaku," Akira said calmly, "what you said is indeed correct. From a conventional standpoint."
"But... you don't understand my true intention."
Akira looked at Shikaku. "I ask you, how many elite shinobi did we bring on this expedition?"
Shikaku was startled by the simple question. He instinctively replied, "Two thousand, Hokage-sama."
"That's right. Two thousand," Akira nodded.
"Given Sunagure's size, its history as one of the Five Great Villages... no matter how much it has declined, it's not surprising for them to muster a defensive force of nearly ten thousand by mobilizing the entire village. You, Shikaku, should be clearer on this point than I am."
"Under normal circumstances," Akira continued, his voice still calm, "to deal with such an entrenched enemy, defending their home... we would need to deploy at least five thousand, or even more, elite Konoha shinobi to be truly confident of a swift, decisive victory."
He paused, letting the numbers sink in.
"But I only brought two thousand."
Akira looked directly at Shikaku, his dark eyes piercing. "Do you understand why now?"
Boom!
Nara Shikaku's mind felt as if it had been struck by a bolt of pure, blinding lightning!
A thought—a possibility so absurd, so insane, yet, given who Akira was, so terrifyingly, incredibly logical—instantly surfaced!
The numbers... the troop deployment... it never made sense for a conventional assault...
So... that's how it is...
From the very beginning... from the moment he decided to only bring two thousand people on this expedition...
Shikaku's eyes widened in horrified realization.
Hokage-sama... he never even considered letting our two thousand people participate in a direct, bloody confrontation!
This expedition... the so-called 'main army'... it was never meant for actual combat!
It was for... occupation. After...
Nara Shikaku felt his own idea was incredibly preposterous, borderline insane... yet it was also the only hypothesis that fit all the facts. The only explanation for Akira's calm, unwavering confidence.
"You... you mean to..." Shikaku whispered, his voice hoarse.
"Exactly." Uchiha Akira directly interrupted him, confirming his strategist's impossible conclusion.
Akira turned, his gaze sweeping over the two thousand elite Konoha shinobi assembled behind him—shinobi who were also looking shocked and confused by their Hokage's orders.
He spoke loudly, his voice amplified by chakra, ringing clear across the silent desert sands.
"The reason I brought you here is not for you to charge into battle!"
"It is not for you to sacrifice yourselves needlessly against inferior numbers!"
"Your mission," Akira declared, his voice resonating with absolute authority, "is to wait! Wait until I have crushed Sunagure's resistance!"
"Your duty begins after the battle! To clear the battlefield! To detain prisoners! And to take over, and secure, that village!"
"This battle..."
Akira turned back towards the distant walls of Sunagure. His voice suddenly became incredibly, terrifyingly domineering, laced with palpable power.
"Is a war between me, alone... and the entire Sunagure!"
Silence.
A profound, stunned, absolute silence fell over the Konoha army.
Two thousand elite shinobi... all utterly dumbfounded. Their minds went completely blank.
One person...
...against an entire Great Ninja Village?!
What arrogant... what god-like... what utterly domineering declaration was this?!
If these words had come from anyone else—any other Kage, any other shinobi in history—they would have simply thought he was a complete, utter lunatic.
But!
The one who said this... was Uchiha Akira!
He was their Godaime Hokage!
He was the man who possessed Wood Release!
He was the man who, by his own power, had ended the Sandaime Hokage's era and established a new, powerful Konoha!
He was the man who had promised them victory!
After a brief, deathly silence...
Came the fervent, earth-shattering roar of a volcano erupting!
One shinobi, an Uchiha Jōnin whose face was flushed with extreme, almost religious excitement, roared with all his might, pumping his fist in the air!
"HOKAGE-SAMA!!"
It was like a signal! A spark hitting dry tinder!
"OOH OOH OOH OOH OOH--!!"
"HOKAGE-SAMA!!"
"KONOHA WILL WIN!!"
A thundering roar, like a mountain collapsing and a tsunami crashing, completely erupted! Two thousand shinobi shouted frantically, hysterically, venting the shock, the awe, and the absolute, blinding admiration in their hearts with their primal cries!
The entire sand dune trembled with this fervent, deafening wave of sound! Their belief in their leader was absolute!
Tsunade stared blankly at Akira's back. She opened her mouth, but was unable to utter a single word.
Her heart pounded wildly, painfully, in her chest. Her cheeks flushed an uncontrollable, deep red.
This man... this impossible, arrogant, infuriating man...
"Damn it..." she whispered, unheard in the roar. "...he's really too handsome..."
Nara Shikaku let his hands drop weakly to his sides. A bitter, resigned expression settled on his face.
He looked up at the vast, indifferent desert sky, muttering to himself.
"Living in the same era as such a Hokage... I truly don't know if it's my fortune... or my misfortune..."
On the high ramparts of Sunagure.
The Yondaime Kazekage, Rasa, stood clad in his battle armor, gold dust swirling faintly around him. He took in the movements—or lack thereof—of the Konoha army opposite him.
When Rasa saw Uchiha Akira order the Konoha army to stop, then slowly walk forward alone, leaving his troops far behind...
He was first startled. Confused.
Then, he let out a mocking, wild, utterly disbelieving laugh.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
His laughter echoed across the silent battlefield, amplified by the wind.
"UCHIHA AKIRA! DO YOU TRULY BELIEVE YOURSELF TO BE SENJU HASHIRAMA REBORN?!"
Rasa's voice, now amplified by chakra, spread across the entire battlefield, reaching the ears of his own troops and the distant Konoha army.
"ARROGANT! CONCEITED! UTTERLY FOOLISH!"
"DO YOU THINK YOU ALONE CAN CONTEND WITH THE WRATH OF OUR ENTIRE SUNAGAKURE?!"
"TODAY," Rasa roared, his eyes blazing with fury, "I WILL MAKE YOU PAY THE PRICE OF YOUR LIFE FOR YOUR ARROGANCE!"
He turned to his own army, eight thousand strong, packed onto the walls and behind the gates.
"WARRIORS OF SUNAGAKURE!" Rasa suddenly raised his voice, raising his arm high.
"CRUSH HIM!! SHOW THIS KONOHA ARROGANCE THE POWER OF THE DESERT!"
"OOH OOH OOH OOH OOH--!"
Over eight thousand Sunagure shinobi roared in unison, their combined momentum, their sheer numbers, overwhelming! Arrows were nocked, kunai were drawn, jutsus were prepared!
Facing this terrifying formation—a sight that would make any Kage-level expert tremble—Uchiha Akira's steps did not falter in the slightest.
He continued his slow, deliberate walk forward.
One step.
Another step.
The very air around him seemed to gradually solidify. Thicken.
The aura emanating from Akira, initially calm, gradually began to rise. To swell.
Eventually, it completely overshadowed, crushed, the chaotic momentum created by an army of eight thousand people.
On the ramparts, the Sunagure shinobi who had been frantically shouting, their bravado fueled by numbers... they unconsciously fell silent. One by one.
A ripple of unease, of dread, spread through their ranks.
Why?
Why was this man so calm?
Why did he feel... so dangerous?
How could one man stand against an army of eight thousand?
How could he be?!
Uchiha Akira finally stopped.
At this moment, he was only a few hundred meters from Sunagure's massive, imposing ramparts. Close enough to see the faces of the terrified shinobi lining the walls.
One person. Against one village.
Akira looked up, his dark eyes meeting the furious, gold-flecked gaze of the Yondaime Kazekage, Rasa, standing at the highest point of the ramparts.
"Shinobi of Sunagure," Akira's voice, though calm, echoed across the battlefield, clear as a bell.
"I am the Godaime Hokage of Konoha. Uchiha Akira."
"I have come to give you one final chance. To choose."
"First option: Surrender."
"Disband Sunagure as an independent hidden village. All shinobi will be integrated into Konoha's military structure. The Land of Wind will become a protected territory of the Land of Fire. You will continue to exist... as the Sand Clan of Konoha."
"In return," Akira continued, his voice resonating with promise, "you will receive abundant resources. Clean water. Food. Medicine. And... peace."
"Your children will no longer have to struggle for bare survival in such barren, unforgiving land."
"Second option..."
Akira paused. His voice turned cold.
"Refuse."
"And then... be completely, utterly erased from this world... by me."
"I will only say this once."
Akira looked up at Rasa, his gaze absolute.
"Now... tell me your choice."
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