Chapter 251: Can't Beat Konoha's White Yaksha!
The anticlimactic invasion ultimately ended in complete failure. Far from obtaining Hiruko's cellular tissue, Tatsuhata himself simply fell into Ritsu's hands, captured alive. Seeing the situation was hopeless, the reanimated Madara decisively withdrew. Orochimaru likewise fled.
The flames of war burned for less than twenty minutes before being extinguished.
The sky remained iron-gray.
But Hiruko's mood at this moment was bright as spring. Looking at the captured Tatsuhata, he couldn't suppress the corners of his mouth. Finally, he simply stopped trying. His quite handsome face bloomed with a flower-like smile.
"Ritsu, good job!"
Hiruko praised loudly.
Not only did he heap praise on Ritsu—the other dozen-plus jonin who'd fought the replica First Hokage also looked at Ritsu with reverent gazes.
The principle of respecting the strong was an unshakeable truth in the ninja world.
Already engraved in all ninja's souls.
Ritsu had crushed the invading enemies and captured alive this missing-nin Tatsuhata who'd killed the Fourth Hokage, displaying overwhelmingly powerful strength. Naturally, he would earn their respect.
"Ritsu, I think you should just take the Fifth Hokage position!"
With emotions surging, Hiruko spoke somewhat carelessly, making the Hokage position sound like something that could be casually granted.
However, no one nitpicked.
The gathered jonin didn't feel Hiruko's words had any problems. Though they hadn't felt it deeply before, after personally witnessing Ritsu's incomparably formidable strength, they felt Hiruko actually made quite a lot of sense. Clan Head Hyuga's abilities warranted assuming the Hokage position.
To speak bluntly, the two Legendary Sannin—Lord Jiraiya and Lady Tsunade—just had bigger reputations. In terms of actual strength, they might not necessarily be Clan Head Hyuga's opponents!
"Sensei, let's clean up first!"
Ritsu didn't take the bait. His Byakugan captured the surrounding devastation in its entirety. "The Hokage matter can be discussed later. Right now, we should quickly organize personnel to clean up the battlefield.
"The New Year approaches. We can't greet the New Year with our Konoha Village in such a broken, disheveled state, can we?"
"You're right."
Hiruko smiled, then immediately restrained his smile. He assumed the dignity of the Hokage Advisor who held the Hokage's authority. His gaze fell on the dozen-plus surrounding jonin. He called out names one by one, assigning tasks.
He'd served as Hokage Advisor for over a year now. If not exceptionally, at least he'd been conscientious and responsible, never making major mistakes.
Before long, the village's prominent figures all gathered before the Hokage Building, now reduced to ruins. Oh right, Jiraiya didn't come—he'd gone chasing after Orochimaru again. The others couldn't stop him.
In any case, this battle lasting less than twenty minutes had brought Konoha considerable casualties. Cleanup work proved exceptionally complicated and heavy.
Last time, the Fourth Hokage had actively drawn the battlefield outside the village. Apart from ANBU's devastating casualties, the village had basically suffered no impact.
But this time, Konoha lacked the Fourth Hokage. Fighting erupted inside the village. Buildings within a two-hundred-meter radius around the Hokage Building had almost all been razed to the ground. Konoha Hospital's situation was similar—the hospital building and many auxiliary structures were destroyed.
The Hyuga clan's Tamae Shrine was about the same. Half the shrine area had also been destroyed.
Moreover, the above only represented visible building damage. Specific death tolls and economic losses still required time to calculate. But casualties and losses were certainly substantial.
Konoha Hospital's situation was especially tragic!
Fortunately, Ritsu had captured Tatsuhata alive, greatly boosting morale. Otherwise, given the village's already uneasy people's hearts, the situation might have become even worse!
"Inoichi, you have three days to excavate the secrets in Tatsuhata's brain."
"Return the person to me after three days."
"Remember, don't kill him. I have use for this person."
Ritsu ultimately restrained the impulse to use Chimera Technique on the spot. He couldn't predict what changes would occur from completing this final puzzle piece.
So better to proceed privately.
Anyway, he now had Heavenly Transfer. Wherever his gaze reached, he could arrive instantly. Temporarily handing Tatsuhata to Yamanaka Inoichi for interrogation posed no worries about problems arising.
Though logically, such village missing-nin should be publicly executed according to village rules. There was no reason to hand him to Ritsu for private personal handling, even though Ritsu had captured him alive.
But then again, everything required flexibility.
The powerful strength Ritsu displayed had brought everyone extremely profound influence. Especially after Nara Shikaku's earlier proposal for Ritsu to inherit the Fifth Hokage position... Now it seemed that as long as Ritsu himself didn't oppose it like Tsunade and Jiraiya, it was basically a done deal.
Therefore, if Ritsu wanted to privately handle this damned missing-nin Tatsuhata, so be it. After all, even Uchiha Fugaku, the Uchiha clan head, had no objections. He wasn't at all worried about Sharingan secrets being stolen. These people had even less need to sing contrary tunes to Ritsu.
"Inoichi, though it's the New Year, this matter is extremely important. Work hard these next three days. Once you finish these three days, I'll give you a week's vacation. You can rest well at home then."
Hiruko repeatedly instructed Yamanaka Inoichi.
Inoichi's expression turned grave. He answered in a deep voice, "Lord Hokage Advisor, please entrust it to me. I'll do everything in my power to dig out all the secrets in Tatsuhata's brain!"
Hiruko nodded with satisfaction.
Then his gaze turned toward the numerous village leadership headed by the two Advisor Elders. He asked, "Everyone, I need not elaborate further on how critical today's situation was. Thanks to Clan Head Hyuga turning the tide, rescuing the village from danger..."
He paused, his gaze burning as he spoke with conviction. "Therefore, I think Shikaku's earlier proposal was excellent. The Fifth Hokage position should be held by Clan Head Hyuga. Only Clan Head Hyuga can currently protect the village from harm.
"What do you all think?"
Hiruko didn't choose to "discuss later." Instead, he chose to strike while the iron was hot. Taking advantage of Ritsu having just saved the village and captured the missing-nin Tatsuhata alive, he directly proposed letting Ritsu inherit the Fifth Hokage position.
Everyone exchanged glances.
Then they directed their gazes toward Ritsu.
Akimichi Torikaze thought for a moment before asking aloud, "Clan Head Hyuga, are you willing to inherit the Fifth Hokage position?"
"Of course."
Ritsu nodded lightly, without ceremony.
He didn't plan to play games of declining three times before accepting. Ninja didn't much care for such things. If you wanted something, you should express it directly and clearly.
Akimichi Torikaze stared deeply at Ritsu before speaking. "Since Clan Head Hyuga desires the Fifth Hokage position, I have no objections. The village currently indeed urgently needs a sufficiently powerful Kage to maintain order."
"I agree."
Nara Shikaku decisively voiced support.
He'd been the one to initially propose this. At this time, naturally, he wouldn't reverse course. He hadn't mixed in much personal interest—this recommendation could be said to come from considering the village's interests.
The village truly couldn't endure more setbacks.
Ritsu could fight. Moreover, he seemed damn near unkillable. With Ritsu serving as Fifth Hokage, the village's safety could be guaranteed. Simultaneously, they needn't worry too much about having to consider Hokage succession again before long.
Frequent Kage changes weren't good.
This was Nara Shikaku's consideration from a public-minded perspective. Of course, he couldn't say he had absolutely no private interest. But in this matter, the Ino-Shika-Cho trio's interests completely overlapped with the village's interests. Village instability brought the Ino-Shika-Cho families absolutely no benefits.
"We Uchiha clan have no objections. Clan Head Hyuga's strength poses no problems for assuming the Hokage position."
Uchiha Fugaku likewise cast a vote of approval.
Next, voices of agreement rose one after another.
No one dared sing contrary tunes at this time. Ritsu inheriting the Fifth Hokage position was already an inevitable trend not subject to individual will.
Of course, this only unified opinions.
The Hokage inauguration couldn't proceed so hastily. A whole basket of preparatory work still needed doing!
"Sensei, you're too hasty!"
Ritsu said softly.
Hearing Ritsu's words, Hiruko smiled. "Ritsu, being a bit hasty is fine. Rather, in the current situation, being hasty is better. This isn't my selfishness at work—it's entirely from public-minded consideration. What Elder Torikaze said is correct. The village currently urgently needs a sufficiently powerful Kage to maintain order."
At this moment, the crowd gathered on the Hokage Building ruins had dispersed. They went separately to handle cleanup and Fifth Hokage inauguration matters. Both tasks could be said to proceed simultaneously. The purpose of doing this was to pacify people's hearts.
Simply put, similar to holding a joyous celebration to ward off bad luck.
The village suffered attack with devastating casualties and massive losses. To minimize negative impact as much as possible, they'd use the good news of the Fifth Hokage's imminent assumption to offset this string of bad news.
"Hmm..."
Ritsu shook his head and asked, "Then, Sensei, what do I need to do next?"
"You? Just prepare to be Hokage."
"...But what does being Hokage require preparing?"
"Well! If you really must say something, there indeed isn't anything particularly requiring preparation... Just do what the Fourth did. Anyway, this thing ultimately has no fixed rules."
"Oh! Sensei, I'll still need you to help me a lot in the future."
Hiruko's eyes widened. "Ritsu, you're not planning to push all the work onto me, are you?"
"Not at all."
Ritsu shook his head repeatedly. "The two Advisor Elders and Shikaku must all help share some burden too. I don't want to be shackled by so many miscellaneous matters."
He spoke very straightforwardly.
The benefits of serving as Hokage—he wanted them. The corresponding responsibilities—he'd shoulder them. But... if he could slack off, he absolutely would. He wouldn't work himself to exhaustion like the Fourth.
Hiruko sighed helplessly.
Even with the Fourth working diligently and conscientiously, he as Hokage Advisor still had many troublesome matters he couldn't finish handling. In the future, once Ritsu truly became Fifth Hokage, he'd probably be even busier than before.
However—
At least he no longer had to shoulder this heavy pressure. Holding the Hokage's authority wasn't just power—it was also pressure as heavy as mountains. These past two months, he'd truly eaten poorly and slept uneasily. His entire person had aged considerably.
Now, he could finally breathe easier!
"By the way, Ritsu, what you used was the Hidden Cloud Village's Heavenly Transfer Technique, right? Where did you get it?"
"I figured it out based on predecessors' research results."
"Really? That's possible?"
"No big problem. Heavenly Transfer's mystery lies in Lightning Release. The difficulty is needing to develop Lightning Release technique's extreme speed to the utmost..."
In a forest approximately thirty kilometers outside Konoha Village, trees swayed slightly, producing rustling sounds. The entirely pale figure of the reanimated Madara emerged from a tree trunk. Immediately afterward, the White Zetsu wrapped around his entire body peeled off, revealing his gloomy true appearance.
The next second, Black Zetsu also emerged from underground.
"Madara, what do we do now?"
Black Zetsu asked.
"What do you mean, what do we do?"
"Tatsuhata fell into that White Yaksha's hands. We need to rescue him quickly..."
"No need."
"Eh?"
Black Zetsu froze, looking at the reanimated Madara somewhat bewildered. What did he mean "no need"? Tatsuhata was the chess piece you painstakingly trained. How could there be no need now?
The reanimated Madara crossed his arms over his chest, facing south as though looking at Konoha Village thirty kilometers away, which he couldn't actually see. "The original purpose of training Tatsuhata was hoping he could replace me in advancing the Moon's Eye Plan after my death. Setting aside how poorly he's performed this job.
"In any case, now that I've been awakened by Reanimation Jutsu, strictly speaking, whether Tatsuhata exists doesn't matter at all. I'll personally advance the Moon's Eye Plan. Speaking of which, I truly didn't think back then of using this forbidden technique Tobirama developed to continue activities after death. If I'd thought of this earlier, there actually would have been no need to cultivate any chess piece!"
At the end, he sighed with considerable regret.
These words left Black Zetsu speechless.
But he still felt somewhat regretful. Even if advancing the Moon's Eye Plan could be personally handled by the reanimated Madara, rescuing Tatsuhata would allow transplanting the Rinnegan into him and using Outer Path: Samsara of Heavenly Life to truly resurrect Madara!
"I know what you're thinking. I also feel somewhat regretful. But when something's impossible, it's impossible. That Hyuga brat is a genuine monster. He can already be mentioned in the same breath as me before I awakened the Rinnegan in life. With my current state, seeking him out would be suicide!
"Therefore, Tatsuhata is beyond saving. Rather than waste time on impossible matters, have the White Zetsu keep close watch on that interesting snake instead! We need his technology to help create a vessel capable of bearing the Rinnegan!"
Black Zetsu understood.
After saying so much, the truth was simple:
They couldn't beat Konoha's White Yaksha!