Chapter 446: Deterrence
Land of Earth, Iwagakure.
Having finished a day of heavy official duties, Onoki slowly walked back to his residence in Iwagakure. His already diminutive frame appeared even more hunched. Were it not for this aged body having reached the point of being repeatedly scorched by heavy thoughts, he couldn't possibly feel the slightest drowsiness at this moment.
Namikaze Minato had been resurrected.
This news repeatedly hammered at his nerves. Konoha—that village which had once appeared outwardly strong but inwardly weak after the Nine-Tails incident, making him secretly scoff at the "First Great Village"—was now recovering its former deterrent power.
Once upon a time, Onoki had coldly observed Konoha's "weakness." The Legendary Sannin scattered without trace, the Fourth Hokage and Nine-Tails jinchuriki both sacrificed, the Uchiha Clan's annihilation leaving only a few cats and dogs, the "White Fang of Konoha" committing suicide...
This had forced that old fool Sarutobi Hiruzen to reluctantly resume the Hokage position. Back then, Konoha's high-end combat power showed severe gaps, the new generation hadn't yet matured. On the chessboard of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, its weight had once lightened to the point where Onoki nearly crossed it off the "primary opponent" list.
But now? Tsunade had returned to command medical affairs and partial administration. Jiraiya had even ascended to the Fifth Hokage position, governing the village in perfect order.
More terrifying was that rising star—Uzumaki Naruto. When Onoki first truly focused his attention on this name, the other party had already become a "perfect jinchuriki" perfectly controlling Nine-Tails power, moreover mastering the long-lost Flying Thunder God Technique. A being capable of instantaneous movement—nearly impossible to lock onto—who could explode with Tailed Beast-level destructive power anytime, anywhere? An "infinite nuclear bomb"?
Just imagining this combination made Onoki's scalp tingle.
If not for Iwagakure's research department recently expending enormous resources to finally successfully construct that complex sealing barrier formation theoretically capable of interfering with and delaying space-time ninjutsu operation—providing a fragile yet necessary psychological barrier for Onoki's plans—he probably wouldn't dare easily attempt even these recent probing small moves.
Minato's resurrection was undoubtedly the final straw breaking rational calculation. One "Yellow Flash" was already troublesome enough. Now adding Uzumaki Naruto... Konoha's high-end combat power comparison presented a suffocating tilt for Iwagakure.
Allowing this to continue, Iwagakure would completely lose qualification for equal dialogue with Konoha, possibly even degenerating someday into an existence requiring subservience. This was something Onoki absolutely couldn't accept.
He was gambling. Gambling on a possibility.
The Ember organization... Over the years, though occasional sighting reports showed its members active in various locations—annihilating rogue ninja groups, sweeping away bandits causing regional havoc—seemingly becoming their "new business."
But their foundational purpose—using absolute force to deter, intervene, and prevent large-scale war—this "original profession" had rarely manifested during the ninja world's relatively peaceful period.
So many years had passed. That leader wearing a fox mask calling himself "Menma" had never again directly intervened in great nation power struggles and frictions like at Konoha and Kumogakure.
Could it be that such power—capable of instantly erasing an entire ninja village, resembling natural disaster—possessed some limitation?
Couldn't be frequently used? Or required enormous cost? Or perhaps... Ember organization's internal focus had shifted?
This vague speculation became Onoki's psychological basis for daring to probe at the edges—a bit of wishful thinking.
He gambled that Ember wouldn't easily display those destructive fangs again for these small moves that hadn't yet escalated into true war and could be explained as "normal diplomatic friction."
Thinking this way, Onoki finally felt deep drowsiness surge like a tide, forcibly suppressing the chaos in his heart. He slowly closed his heavy eyelids, attempting to sink himself into brief darkness and tranquility.
However—
Outside the window, something was being dyed by a dark red radiance that was neither dawn nor lamplight.
Simultaneously, an incomparably familiar chakra fluctuation penetrated walls and barriers without obstruction, crushing down on his perception.
"..."
"This isn't what we agreed... Hashirama-sama, he..."
"No alliance exists. You need only submit before Konoha's power. Also... don't speak his name before me! Susanoo!"
Memories from years ago flashed through his mind.
Onoki's eyes shot open abruptly. Not the slightest drowsiness remained in his turbid old eyes.
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The complete body Susanoo's dark red form towering hundreds of meters high stood like a war deity descended directly from ancient mythology, silently erect at the high point outside Iwagakure.
Uchiha Shisui stood within the diamond-shaped crystal at Susanoo's forehead, his view unprecedentedly expansive.
He could clearly see Iwagakure below "squirming"—originally regularly flickering lamplight began moving chaotically, originally silent streets rapidly filled with swarming figures and urgent whistle sounds. One defense installation and sentry post after another lit up with glaring warning lights, like a startled beehive.
The atmosphere of commotion, shock, doubt, and panic—even separated by hundreds of meters and thick chakra armor—could be vaguely sensed.
But this wasn't enough. For a ninja village like Iwagakure with strict discipline, famous for tenacious stubbornness, merely relying on outward deterrence might momentarily shock them but wouldn't necessarily completely extinguish the flames of wishful thinking in certain hearts.
He needed a more direct "demonstration" to place a sufficiently eye-catching period on this midnight visit.
With a slight thought, the complete body Susanoo slowly raised its enormous arm. Red energy madly gathered in its palm. Then three massive magatama burning with blazing red energy flames appeared from nothing, slowly rotating in Susanoo's palm.
"Yasaka Magatama!"
The instant the magatama formed, the commotion within Iwagakure reached a peak. Countless terrified gazes fixed on those three lethal magatama.
Just then—
"Please wait!!"
An aged yet desperately maintaining composure voice accompanied breaking air sounds. A figure rose at extreme speed from Iwagakure's center, flying swiftly toward Susanoo's direction.
It was Onoki. He employed Earth Release: Ultra-Light Weight Rock Technique, enabling high-speed flight. Behind him followed several Iwagakure elite jonin, each face deathly pale, gazes locked deadly onto that red giant.
Onoki hovered in midair not far before Susanoo, maintaining a cautious distance. He looked up at that figure hidden behind the giant's forehead crystal wearing the same fox mask as Ember organization's Menma.
This mask sufficiently indicated the visitor's identity.
"Your Excellency must be an Ember organization member."
Onoki's voice amplified through chakra, clearly resonating through the night sky, striving to maintain a village Kage's dignity. But listening carefully, one could still detect a trace of desperately suppressed tension. "A midnight visit in such manner... I wonder what offense Iwagakure has committed?"
He paused slightly, arduously organizing words, continuing: "Perhaps regarding recent... unpleasant diplomatic and border matters with Konoha, this old one has heard something. There must be many misunderstandings!"
Onoki's speech quickened somewhat. "Iwagakure absolutely has no intention of disrupting peace or provoking Konoha! Those resource allocation delays, trade frictions—all resulted from poor coordination and communication among subordinate departments. This old one's management was inadequate, supervision lax!"
"I guarantee in the Tsuchikage's name such matters will absolutely never occur again! Iwagakure treasures its peaceful relationship with Konoha, has no divided heart whatsoever!"
His words skillfully diluted and transferred his and Iwagakure's responsibility to "management oversights" and "subordinate misunderstandings," attempting to explain a deliberate strategic probe as an accidental work error in understated fashion.
Uchiha Shisui quietly listened to Onoki's explanation, calmly observing every minute expression and body language from the old Tsuchikage.
This rhetoric, to his ears, nearly matched what the organization's intelligence department had analyzed as Iwagakure upper echelon's possible response strategy—deflect, dilute, guarantee. But the core intent and probing ambition probably hadn't truly been dispelled.
Mere verbal guarantees weren't enough. Deterrence required deeper "memory points." Like what the leader had done.
Thus, the moment Onoki's words fell, in the tense expectant silence permeating the air, the complete body Susanoo's arm gripping the Yasaka Magatama moved.
It didn't swing toward Iwagakure but toward an extremely prominent geographical feature outside Iwagakure's periphery—a barren stone mountain—violently hurling the three burning red magatama in its hand!
Whoosh—!!!
Three massive red streams of light tore through the night sky like falling blood-colored comets, viciously bombarding that isolated mountain peak hundreds of meters tall with craggy rocks!
BOOOOOM—!!!!
The deafening explosion made heaven and earth tremble! Blinding red radiance instantly swallowed the entire mountain peak's outline.
An enormous sphere mixed with red light and dust expanded outward. Shockwaves spread violently in rings in all directions. Wherever they passed, the ground was scraped away layer by layer, nearby rock walls collapsed like sandcastles!
Merely one throw.
When the blinding radiance and churning smoke gradually dispersed, that originally towering majestic stone mountain—one of Iwagakure's peripheral natural barriers—had completely vanished.
Only an enormous pit remained in its place, emitting wisps of smoke and high temperature, plus radiating outward in star patterns—extending as far as several kilometers—glass-like fragments melted by extreme heat then rapidly cooled.
A mountain had been completely erased from the map just like that.
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