Chapter 80: The end of one of the Great Five

Riku got up a bit before dawn. This time the real him had spent the night with Hinata. Karin had him often inside the Botib and Ino got him all for lunch, so Hinata got him for the night. It was a bit unfair towards Ino but of the three she was the one who got him the most. None of his wives knew that however. It wasn’t because he loved her the most. That privilege belonged to his mother only but Ino always glued herself to him lewdly and he just loved it. Hinata was more restrained in her affection and simply slept close and Karin… Karin slept however the hell she wanted, sometimes shifting position in her sleep.

After laying a lingering kiss on his moon princess’ lips, and a squeeze of her wonder-bulous tits, Riku went inside the Botib, to take a shower and armed himself to the teeth with shurifuins, tags and armor. Once ready he flashed away to his office. Taking the Hokage hat, he put it on his head and stepped out of it to reach the command center. There he found Shikaku already at work. With the rested look on his face, Riku was sure the man had a long night inside the Botib.

“Is everything ready?”

Shikaku looked up from the many documents he was looking over. “Yes, Hokage-sama. The orders had been given immediately at the end of our meeting yesterday morning. The latest group to check in did so a few hours ago.”

“The troops behind the enemy lines?”

“Included. Jiraiya-sama and the leaders of Ame left two hours ago. They haven’t been happy to learn we have infiltrated their country with our underground bases.” ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ novel(ꜰ)ire.net

“Understandable. They will all be removed after the war as Ame is officially our ally now.” Riku noticed the look Shikaku was giving him. “I mean it. If a base is discovered that could cause diplomatic problems. I know, believe me, every fiber of my being is telling me it’s foolish but sometimes… You have to extend a hand genuinely.”

With nothing else to say regarding the battle plans, Shikaku wished his Hokage good luck. Perhaps a joke from the man as Riku was about to slaughter a whole village. Old and children included.

For the first time, Riku’s heart felt heavy. Until now he never had to take the life of a child or an elderly who was not from the shinobi life. Now he’s going to reap thousands in one go. Each step he took towards the basement of the building felt like moving lead with his feet.

After passing all the identification checks needed, Riku was teleported to the last furthest hiraishin tag into the Land of Earth. It was the last location his team had been before they had to rush back to Konoha so he could be made Hokage. After their departure, Riku had put away his own Botib but left behind a marker. That was just common sense.

Upon his arrival, he entered sage mode on the spot. Now able to sense the most minuscule fluctuation of chakra into the environment, he moved towards Iwagakure. There were many patrols around the village but they were all avoided. The mountain terrain facilitated his movement and thanks to sage mode, he could jump from a peak to another. It only took him two hours to get the village in sight.

Before he could launch his assault, he created a small cave inside the rock and pulled out a regular botib. One of the few left inside his book of seals that Team Yukari hadn’t had the time to install before it was ordered to return to Konoha. It wasn’t any regular Botib though. There was one main difference.

Riku had put a Time seal inside of it. He used it for eight hours, making sure only a second had passed outside. All so he could replenish his chakra reserves but also his nature chakra on the diamond shape seal on his forehead. Once at full power, he stepped out of it, put it back inside his BoS and started the plan.

He made a shadow clone and handed him two wood shurifuins. Of course a hiraishin tag was placed on them. Next, he delicately teared away the last page of his book.

“You really think it will be enough?” The clone inquired, putting the page inside his armored jacket. He was voicing Riku’s doubts. What he had in mind may not finish the whole village in one go.

“If it’s not then we do the deed ourselves.”

The clone’s shoulders slumped. “This sucks.”

“We’re Hokage.”

“And we’re doing what Danzo would have done.” the clone retorted, a last effort to stop everything but he knew it was futile. He too would not back down but it was necessary to say aloud the comparison with the darkness of shinobi.

“Unfortunately. Thankfully, something like this will not happen again.”

“Hopefully.” The clone corrected.

Riku didn’t give any reply and simply looked at his double who understood the message. ‘Go’. With a nod he departed towards Iwagakure. It only took a few minutes, at the speed he was moving, to reach his destination. Riku saw two groups of Iwa-nin converge into the clone position and stopped abruptly when he disappeared. Looking up he saw a black dot very high up in the sky. It was falling towards the ground.

The true attack began then.

A massive black ball of chakra appeared up in the air and shot down right onto the village creating a huge explosion. Riku couldn’t tell from his position how much of Iwa had been destroyed but it didn’t matter. A high and thick column of smoke covered the whole area. It was joined soon enough by multiple explosions, creating smaller ones. There was no end to them. Dozens turned into a hundred and into hundreds perhaps even thousand.

Riku could do nothing but wait for the smoke to dissipate.

He waited and waited but saw no movement. Finally the anxiety was too much and he used sage mode again. Iwa was close enough his senses could feel even beyond it. With intense focus he tried to detect any kind of chakra.

He found none.

Deciding to check for himself with his own eyes. He exited sage mode and teleported to the hiraishin tag the clone had used which he could feel. Riku landed among a crater. One not much different than Konoha had been after Nagato’s massive Shinra Tensei when he attacked. All around there was nothing but dirt. Even at the edges of the villages there was nothing. A few rubbles here and there at most.

Total annihilation.

“Biju should really be removed from the world.”

The massive black ball of chakra had been the bijudama Yin Kyubi had shot at Konoha when he reformed. Riku had thrown a shurifuin with a hiraishin tag at it and made it disappear. Everyone thought he had teleported it far away but the truth was that Riku simply sent it to a storage dimension. It had been stuck there, frozen in time, ever since. Just in case he needed it one day. For what? He didn’t know when he stored it away but he knew it would be for something like war. Besides, it would have been a waste of resources to let it implode on nothing and just scar the earth and reshape the landscape.

The other explosions came from the reproduction of his great uncle’s mutually multiplying explosive tags. Perhaps the most destructive jutsu in the nidaime’s arsenal. It employs the use of special explosive tags to create a near infinite series of explosions. Riku however modified it a lot. Instead of using tags he used explosive shurifuins which were then shadow clones indefinitely. Right up until there was no more chakra for the multiplying seal to work. Considering he had Karin charge the seal with as much chakra of the Kyubi she could, it duplicated an uncountable number of shurifuins and so an uncountable number of explosions.

For good measure, Riku entered sage mode again and checked deep underground for any survivor that would have survived the bijudama then reacted fast and burrowed itself very deep. Once again he found nothing.

Making hand seals, he sprouted a tall and thick oak tree in the epicenter of the crater. As tall as the trees surrounding Konoha. The first thing he did was apply a hiraishin seal into its root and camouflaged it. The second was to pick the kunai from the holster on his right leg. Then, he began to carve something onto the tree’s trunk in the big capital later. It took a while. Perhaps ten to fifteen minutes, before he was done. Seething the kunai he took a step back and looked at the carving.

Here lies the people of Iwagakure no sato

They reaped what they sowed

He hesitated signing the epitaph with his name but decided otherwise. It would follow him and his descendants forever as it was proof of his doing. Sure, a few people knew about what his plan had been for Iwa and his ability to use Mokuton to make the tree but time will turn what he just did into a myth. A possibility, a rumor. His name etched onto the wood would never make anyone forget.

With his task done, Riku teleported to the nearest underground base. It took a lot of chakra out of him but it was inconsequential. Once there, he made a call to Central and warned them that the deed was done.

“I need to know the closest base from the front line.”

“Ally or enemy territory, Hokage-sama?” The feminine voice at the other end of the call asked.

“Enemy.”

“One moment, please.”

Riku summoned the botib with the Time seal while he waited. It only took a few seconds at best.

“LoE-03, Hokage-sama.”

“Warn them of my arrival in half a minute.”

“Understood, sir.”

The handset was put down and the call ended, Riku went inside the Botib and slept away inside the barracks for a bit. Then he stepped out of it, put it back inside his BoS and teleported to the designated base.

There he was greeted by two chunins who saluted him on the spot. Riku didn’t waste any time and asked about the current situation. He learned that the assault had started a few minutes ago. The troops had all departed all over the bases along the borders to take the Iwa nin from behind.

At this point, Konoha’s victory was only a formality. All that was left was to kill every single shinobi and Kunoichi wearing the symbol of the rock. No prisoner would be made, none would be spared.

Taking a deep breath, Riku stepped out of the base and reached the surface. He needed to catch up and fast if he wanted to offer support to his subordinates.

It has been a complete slaughter.

Iwa ninja were holding their own very well against their attackers. Bases and forts were well defended and they gave back as much as they took. It was done on purpose to give time to Konoha’s reinforcement coming from behind to arrive. Shikaku had expertly calculated the distance and the speed necessary for those groups to travel from the underground bases to the battlefield and came to the conclusion that the first attack force needed to be aggressive but also stall for time. That way, Iwa wouldn’t retreat and encounter the reinforcements too soon while a few shinobis stayed behind to give the time to escape.

In the end they were overwhelmed with numbers. Not by much but the reinforcements were fresh while Iwa’s forces were already tired after a few hours of fighting. They stood absolutely no chance. Especially when only the defense on the front had been bolstered, leaving the back unprotected. Konoha’s second troops arrived and hit like a brick on the spot, taking their enemies by surprise.

Being taken from the back, they diverted their attention to the most present matter. For those who were fast enough to react to the surprised assault. The chaos created offered an opening from the first troops who finally pushed forward. Most of Iwa shinobi were dead when the few that were left either took their own lives in a kamikaze attempt or surrendered.

Riku had thrown his wooden shurifuins all around and flashed away to locations that needed help the most. His arrival bolstered morale. Even more when he dealt easily with the enemies. He didn’t even have to fight much as the fight was on its end when he arrived on site.

Once the battle was over, he praised everyone and flashed away to join another group attacking another base. He wouldn’t stop until he would have gone through them all.

Afterwards? He needed to join Mei on the North-East front.