With One Blade, Overturning Konoha!

Kurama had gained another devout follower, but it made little difference to the elite of Night Owl Team and the ANBU.

Their forces spread out around Iwa Village, striking down any ninja who approached or tried to leave without hesitation. Blood seeped across kilometers of land. A light breeze passed through, yet no one paid attention to the carnage. Only the honest earth recorded everything that had happened.

Hakken led the operation personally. With just over two hundred men working in flawless coordination, they completely severed Iwagakure’s connection to the outside world.

Ōnoki wasn’t without the will to fight. He had tried to gather the remaining strength of Iwagakure for one last assault, but it was pointless. The moment any spiritual pressure shifted, Hakken sensed it instantly and issued precise commands. Then he ordered the Nine-Tails and its underlings to unleash a few “artistic” blasts at the already-ruined village struggling through reconstruction.

Just as Hakken had said.

Surrounded by rock, Iwagakure had natural defenses anyone would envy. But once every path leading out of the village became lethal, and no one dared set foot outside, the village turned into a one-of-a-kind graveyard.

There were many Iwa ninja in the Land of Earth, but not all of them lived in the village. As a high-ranking member of Konoha’s leadership, Hakken knew this well. Ninja were assassins hidden in the dark. Tens of thousands of Iwa ninja were scattered across hidden bases throughout the Land of Earth or posted on reconnaissance missions in other nations.

Only a portion of them happened to be inside Iwa Village.

The killing continued. With radar-like spiritual pressure scans, true bloodshed descended upon the Land of Earth. Death and slaughter walked side by side. This ANBU unit awakened completely amid blood and combat.

A new force had risen suddenly and violently. The entire ninja world felt the tremor.

The major villages couldn’t hide from the changes in the Land of Earth. Once they learned what had happened, they were stunned. Two hundred ANBU elites had pushed an entire ninja village into chaos, forcing it to pay a devastating price without finding a single effective countermeasure.

A full-scale counterattack? That would have meant the ruin of their home. Not that Iwa Village had much left of value, but the survivors still cowered in corners, waiting for the killing to end.

Prepare elite jōnin for an ambush and seize a chance to strike back? Forget it. Every time they tried, the attack came from behind, and it was their so-called elites who died. This ghost-like, unpredictable style of assault sent Iwagakure’s death toll soaring.

Send squads out in batches to break through the encirclement? And go where? This was their home. If they left, where could they possibly go?

Seek protection from other villages? Don’t make them laugh. In this brutal world, when others heard of your suffering, you were lucky if they didn’t make it worse.

Iwagakure was their home. Leaving wouldn’t even make them prisoners—they’d be nothing at all.

In the end, Ōnoki gave up resisting. He pulled his forces back, strengthened the village defenses, and resumed reconstruction efforts. Because he realized one thing: stepping outside meant certain death.

It was an invisible terror, a crushing psychological weight. The air in Iwagakure grew suffocatingly oppressive.

As time passed, sealed letters arrived in the hands of the Kage of every major village. For three months, they watched the Land of Earth closely. They went from dismissive… to astonished… to silent.

They had no choice but to admit a terrifying truth.

That’s because if these elite ANBU from Konoha were to wreak havoc in their own country, their fate wouldn’t necessarily be any better than what happened to Iwa Village.

There were still doubts.

Did Konoha really not fear retaliation for doing something like this?

Just as that Konoha’s Kenpachi had said—drench every villager’s blood over himself, let them feel its warmth.

But thinking back, the last time those elites were sent to the Land of Fire, they didn’t even make it into the village before being stopped outside. Fresh chapters posted on novel·fire·net

Konoha was terrifying.

That young powerhouse had finally earned universal acknowledgment.

The Land of Earth was only the first step of Konoha’s retaliation.

The name Konoha’s Kenpachi left a deep impression.

Different from every Hokage before him.

He carried a resolve harsher than anyone else’s.

He embodied the saying “If you're not ruthless, you’ll never stand firm.”

“Knowing my name, how dare you trespass?”

The devastation across the Land of Earth was the perfect reflection of that phrase.

Invade Konoha?

Go ahead.

As long as you’re prepared to endure that level of agony.

In the midst of this slaughter, Jiraiya once again voiced the question weighing on his heart.

Under the rule of overwhelming force, the world may see brief unity. Yet once the strongest pillar falls, everything will splinter apart again.

How could this cycle ever be broken?

Hakken’s answer stunned Jiraiya even further.

“I won’t die. And in the future, all those restless ninja will have a place to unleash their fists.

“If we step outside the perspective of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, and they suddenly face a common enemy—one that wants to destroy this world and treat it like a nursery—then all their conflicts will disappear.”

“The God of Death will never die.”

This was Hakken’s reply, though it was something Jiraiya could never truly understand.

With the System in hand, he was the first to unlock the Shinigami Template. And the benefit of that template was a soul unmatched in strength.

Once his blade reached its absolute limit, he would no longer die.

He would stand alone at the peak.

What kind of view awaited him there? Hakken longed to see it.

...

“Kazekage-sama, if we don’t act soon, it’s certain that Konoha’s next target for retaliation will be the Land of the Wind!”

Land of the Wind, Sunagakure.

Inside the Kazekage’s office.

Chiyo, the elder preparing for retirement, looked at Rasa and spoke her mind.

Stacked across the desk were reports from the Land of Earth.

They detailed the nation’s changes over the past few months.

And just as she had said, if they did nothing, Sunagakure would become the next target of retaliation.

The reasoning wasn’t difficult to understand.

News of the coup in the Mist had already spread, but looking closely, the whole incident felt abrupt and unnatural.

They couldn’t be sure whether Konoha had interfered, but it was undeniable that there was some connection between Terumi and Konoha.

And the Land of Lightning’s Kumogakure had taken no part in the previous assault on Konoha.

That left only the Land of the Wind.

“Option one: abandon our prejudice against Iwagakure now, offer them support, and stand together against Konoha.

“Option two: launch a direct attack on the Land of Fire.

“Option three: before Konoha’s ANBU arrive in the Land of the Wind, send an envoy to the Land of Fire and humble ourselves.”

As the frontline commander for Sunagakure during both the Second and Third Shinobi World Wars, Chiyo’s mind was still sharp.

But she couldn’t deny that those two wars had cost Sunagakure dearly.

“We... have no choice.”

With a weary sigh, Rasa finally let out a bitter smile.

What right did Sunagakure have to invade Konoha?

“It seems we’ll have to trouble you to make the trip.”