The sky battleship descended onto the open field near the castle.
Kamihara Hayato sat casually on the edge of the ship, holding a notebook in his hands and writing swiftly with a fountain pen,
"6,17 a.m., operation begins."
"6,49 a.m., operation ends."
"Killed 493 Snow ninja. The King of the Land of Snow, Kazahana Dotō, executed."
"With this, the operation concludes."
He snapped the notebook shut and recalled what the intel said about the Land of Snow.
It was a small, remote country with a sparse population, something Kazahana Dotō treasured far more than it was worth.
A place like this, if you offered it for free to the Five Great Nations, none of them would want it. They'd rather pay to not manage it.
But no matter how remote or empty it was, it was still a nation.
"This is the first country Ryosuke has taken by pure conquest," Hayato murmured, spinning his pen between his fingers.
The Land of Water was gained through persuading Oda Ieyasu to cooperate. The Land of Wind came through Tokugawa Shingen's compromise.
But the Land of Snow, this one was different.
This was the complete collapse of the old regime, total destruction from beginning to end, and the rebuilding of new rules, Ryosuke's rules, on top of its ruins.
For those with sharp eyes, this was a message.
"Heh,"
Kamihara Hayato gave a cold laugh.
"Who cares about what message it sends? War's coming anyway. This whole 'Ryosuke threat theory' has been running wild through the Five Great Nations for ages. In the end, it's just about who's got the bigger, harder fist!"
"Winners rule, losers rot. That's all there is to it."
As the head of Ryosuke's intelligence division, Kamihara Hayato knew exactly how massive this next war would be.
They were about to challenge the entire world.
But so what?
A real man is born into chaos, he should carry three feet of steel and carve out eternal glory.
Whether it's for ideals or ambition, everyone who follows Ryosuke shares one thing in common.
They don't fear the enemy, because they are the ones to be feared.
Kamihara Hayato jumped down from the sky battleship, landing in the muddy snow of the Land of Snow.
The blood of the Snow ninja army had melted the snow. Blood and ice clung together, half-frozen in the cold, crunching faintly beneath his boots.
He entered the royal castle. Inside, the Anhilation Army and the Snow Country's surviving workers and civilians were busy, conducting the final round of purges on the former oppressors.
One by one, the lofty officials were dragged out, stripped of their ornate uniforms, and thrown into cells to await judgment for their crimes.
Kamihara Hayato walked through the crowd and made his way to the grand central hall.
The ceiling rose high above, portraits of past kings lining both sides.
At the far end, facing the main door, hung the portrait of Kazahana Dotō.
Someone had hurled a hammer into it, right between Dotō's brows. The hammer was still embedded there, making it look as if a single bullet had ended him.
Beneath the painting stood a massive throne.
Kazahana Koyuki held a little girl in her arms, standing before it with her eyes closed.
"What are you doing?"
Hayato asked as he approached.
Koyuki slowly opened her eyes. A tear slipped from the corner, and the little girl gently wiped it away for her.
"I'm listening to the cries of the dead."
"The cries of the dead?"
"I asked Ryosuke about it… He said it's probably an effect of Ripple."
After Kazahana Dotō was killed by the iron ball, the lingering resonance of Ripple spread through the city's sky.
If the people of the Snow Country stayed still and listened closely, they could faintly hear the world breathing, the cries and laughter of the loved ones they had lost.
Kamihara Hayato shrugged.
Ripple, he'd seen it do everything from healing and fighting to cutting hair, heating leftovers, even removing dead skin. Its effects were endless and strange.
Nothing about it surprised him anymore.
He gestured toward the throne.
"Why not sit? Your Majesty."
Kazahana Koyuki quietly ran her fingers over the throne's armrest.
The familiar texture.
In the past, she had sat here beside her father, watching him rule the country.
All those years, she had imagined it countless times, overthrowing Dotō's tyranny, reclaiming her homeland, and sitting proudly upon this very throne.
"But now… I don't want to sit anymore."
Koyuki gently placed the little girl onto the throne.
Looking at her was like looking at her younger self.
She crouched down and brushed the girl's bangs behind her ear, her voice soft as she recalled all the tragedies she'd seen along the way.
"Ryosuke was right. This country doesn't need a 'king.' And the one sitting here shouldn't be me."
When all power gathers in one person's hands and passes through bloodlines, tyranny becomes only a matter of time.
Just then, the sound of stumbling footsteps came from afar, followed by heavy, ragged breathing.
A man rushed in.
He looked terrible, covered in snow, wood dust, and blood, clothes torn in several places, face filthy.
But the instant his eyes met the girl sitting on the throne, they lit up.
"Papa!"
The girl jumped down from the throne and ran straight into his arms.
The man was the carpenter who had been forcibly conscripted.
Amid the chaos caused by Sasuke and his group, he had escaped from the castle.
On the way, he saw too much, chaos, death, countless bodies. His heart nearly broke.
He ran first to the alley where he'd last seen his daughter, no one there, only his wife's corpse.
He searched nearby for a long time, then ran back home.
Still nothing.
His daughter was gone. Or maybe…
Dead?
His heart sank into the abyss. After everything, he was on the verge of collapse.
"When we found him," one Anhilation Army soldier explained, "the guy was about to stab himself with a screwdriver. We brought him back, thinking we could use Boss Ryosuke's little vines to help him find his kid."
Father and daughter reunited, a good thing, normally.
But thinking of the mother lying in a pool of blood, even their smiles carried a quiet sorrow.
After the father and daughter left, Kamihara Hayato turned again to Kazahana Koyuki.
"Now that it's over, how about a drink?"
"Sorry, I..."
Before she could finish, Hayato handed her two cans.
Both were coffee.
"I didn't mean alcohol."
He tossed her one. "This stuff hits harder than liquor anyway."
Koyuki let out a small laugh, cracked open the can, and took a sip, only to wince instantly. Her pretty nose wrinkled as her face scrunched from the bitterness.
"This is way too bitter."
"Yeah, but tell me, does it pack a punch or not?"
Hayato smirked, straightened his hat, and turned to leave.
On the castle rooftop, he found Ryosuke.
A violet vine was coiled around Ryosuke's arm. In his palm, golden flames flickered, and within them appeared a masked man.
Uchiha Obito.
"You planning to kill him?" Hayato asked.
Ryosuke shook his head. "He's too alert, and too fast. Once he decides to run, catching or killing him is a waste of time."
"Then what are you doing?"
"I've picked up the habit of raising fish lately. When I've got nothing else to do, I just watch this guy, see what he's up to. Maybe I'll even catch him taking off the mask one day. Feels like watching a live stream."
Spying from a thousand miles away, on someone's secrets.
Hearing that, Kamihara Hayato's interest immediately spiked.
"You already know who he is?"
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