Chapter 255: Feigning an Attack on One Front While Sneaking Through Another
Scorching wind swept across the desert, the blazing sun overhead making everyone's eyes ache — but even as sweat trickled down foreheads and dripped off chins, not a single person moved to wipe it away. Every eye was locked on the figure standing atop that distant platform.
To the Konoha shinobi, she was the Hokage who'd led them to victory in the Fourth Great Ninja War.
To Kumogakure, Kirigakure, and Sunagakure, she was the nightmare from the battlefield — the one who'd personally shattered their forces, a horror they couldn't shake loose from memory even now.
To Iwagakure, she was their distant, uneasy ally — and a formidable shinobi who could just as easily become an enemy at any moment.
And this was the person who, at a moment like this, had just said—
"You worthless bunch!"
Her words carried across the desert sky, amplified by that boundless chakra, echoing endlessly.
Every eye that had been fixed on her figure now filled with open shock.
"Kumogakure?"
"Coveted my clan's kekkei genkai time and time again, stole a Byakugan under the pretense of 'peace,' and then had the gall to play the victim afterward. Absolute rats, every one of you!"
"Sunagakure?"
"Nominally my village's ally, and yet in both the Third and Fourth Great Ninja Wars, it was your precious 'ally' who struck first against Konoha!"
"A pack of fickle, treacherous little snakes!"
"Kirigakure?"
"Heh. Cowering in your corner, tearing yourselves apart from within — pathetic."
"Standing here today with the lot of you — honestly, I can barely believe it."
"It's downright embarrassing!"
Her open, brutal contempt landed on every ear present without mercy.
Not just the twenty-thousand-plus shinobi assembled below — even the Kazekage, Raikage, and Mizukage among the five Kage themselves went grim at the words.
What exactly was the Hokage trying to accomplish? Did she not realize this would only stoke the long-suppressed hatred everyone here already carried?
"She's lost her mind."
Killer Bee shook his head and started forward, meaning to drag the Hokage off her ridiculous platform himself — but a hand caught his arm.
"Lord Raikage. If you go up there right now, that's when this truly falls apart."
Ōnoki's expression was grave.
He didn't understand why this Hokage, who normally built her reputation on cunning and calculation, would open her mouth like this — but one thing was beyond question.
This Fifth Hokage's true strength had never been raw power alone.
There was no possible way she'd deliberately sabotage her own foundation.
Right now, trusting her was the only hope any of them had left.
As the Hokage's merciless words continued, unrest was already beginning to ripple visibly through the ranks below.
The three factions she'd just called out directly were now shooting Sakura looks that had turned decidedly ugly.
Even with the so-called intimidation effect of her Yang-Release presence bearing down on everyone, that pressure wasn't unbreakable.
Enough raw courage in one's heart could shatter it entirely.
And there was another factor at play here too — right now, for instance.
Numbers. With enough allies standing shoulder to shoulder facing the same pressure together, the intimidating effect of Yang Release dropped off dramatically.
Their already-simmering unrest, deliberately stoked further by the Hokage above, was now visibly on the verge of erupting.
And beyond Kirigakure, Kumogakure, and Sunagakure, the Amegakure, Iwagakure, and Konoha contingents were now looking at those three factions with something unmistakable in their eyes.
Mockery. Contempt. The particular pleasure of watching a good spectacle unfold.
Just as the Hokage had said. It was all true, every word of it.
Scattered, sharp laughter even broke out here and there through the crowd.
"What's so funny?"
"You find something amusing?"
Her cold green eyes swept toward the three formations that had laughed.
"Amegakure?"
"A pack of arrogant garbage, launching your so-called Second Great Ninja War out of sheer ambition, brazenly declaring war on the Three Great Villages at once without a shred of self-awareness."
"What's this?"
"Beaten into submission, were you?"
Amegakure's shinobi stopped laughing.
"And Iwagakure!"
"Sneaking in wherever the cracks show, playing both sides, waiting for the perfect opening before ever committing to anything — I genuinely cannot understand what gives you the right to laugh, when your entire village got run over by a single man, Minato Namikaze, during the Third Great Ninja War!"
"Not embarrassed at all?!"
Iwagakure's shinobi went dark-faced instantly.
Only Konoha's own shinobi remained openly smug through all of this, watching their so-called "allies" with unmistakable satisfaction.
Look at that!
Our Hokage's got some real bite!
Cursed those mutts speechless!
Oho, someone's mad~~~
Yeah, well, choke on it!
Way to go, Lord Hokage!
You yelled at THEM — that means you're not allowed to yell at US, right?~~~
Plenty of Konoha shinobi — especially among the administrative staff — had long since gotten used to their Hokage's particular temperament.
Who among them, over these past three years, hadn't been chewed out by this Hokage at least once?
"And you lot!"
But then, to the utter shock of the thousands of Konoha shinobi present, their own Hokage turned her fire squarely on them instead.
"Ever since the First Hokage passed, Konoha — once unmatched, once feared across the entire shinobi world — has become nothing more than a paper tiger any random idiot thinks they can grope!"
"What's this?"
"Can't you people survive without Hashirama Senju holding your hand?!"
"Do I need to personally teach every single one of you how to properly grip your own weapon?"
Countless Konoha shinobi stared up at their Hokage on the platform, stunned into silence.
That's... also true, unfortunately.
"So, to sum up — I called all of you worthless."
"Anyone have a problem with that?"
"Not happy about it? Choking on it?"
"Well, keep choking!"
Arms crossed, her green eyes sharp as blades, the Hokage regarded the tens of thousands of shinobi before her with pure, unbothered contempt.
"Right now! The entire—"
Right at that moment, a sharp whistling sound cut through the air!
A dark blur shot out of the assembled ranks, streaking straight toward the Hokage!
The Hokage simply tilted her head, letting the incoming kunai slip past — and casually caught it out of the air with one hand.
That single moment sent Gaara's heart plummeting.
It's over.
Full-scale mutiny.
And it wasn't just Gaara — the tension holding every single shinobi present snapped instantly, all at once.
Every Konoha shinobi drew their weapons on pure instinct, eyes locked warily on the direction the kunai had come from, ready to strike at a moment's notice.
The instant the Hokage on the platform gave the word, they'd cut down every one of these Kumogakure shinobi where they stood.
Kumogakure only had two thousand men here. Konoha had forty-five hundred.
Plus the Hokage on the platform — someone capable of single-handedly hunting down an entire battalion of Kirigakure shinobi by herself!
Advantage: us.
We win this.
And it wasn't just Konoha — Iwagakure, Sunagakure, Kirigakure, and Amegakure all drew their weapons too, bracing for whatever came next.
Right now, the six strongest factions in the shinobi world stood gathered in one place — and if this went wrong even slightly, it could ignite into an absolutely catastrophic battle at any second.
"Heh. Not bad."
"Better than I expected, actually. At least you people know how to fight back."
The kunai spun once in her hand and shot straight back out — but this time, faster, far more violent than the throw that had come in.
It cut through the air with an agonized shriek, driving deep into the ground right in front of the shinobi who'd thrown it.
That shinobi didn't wear the expression of someone who'd narrowly escaped death. Instead, his face was twisted with pure resentment.
He hated.
Hated himself, for being this weak.
Hated that he had to keep living, at the mercy of the very person who'd wronged him.
And it wasn't just him — nearly everyone in the crowd, outside of Konoha, Iwagakure, and Amegakure, looked up at the Hokage on that platform with exactly the same feeling.
That war, three years ago, felt like it had happened yesterday — some of the bones buried in the ground from it probably hadn't even finished decomposing.
In a span of time this short, expecting anyone to forget the loved ones they'd lost — family, friends, husbands and wives — was simply impossible.
That kind of thing couldn't be done.
"Right now — as much as I'd rather not admit it — every single one of us is facing one enemy."
"An enemy unlike anything we've ever faced before."
"Look around you. Every one of these people were once your enemies. Our enemies. Everyone's enemies."
"And it's precisely because of this new enemy that all of us are forced to stand together, right now."
"If this enemy picks us apart one village at a time, you die. They die. We all die."
"Clinging to a moment's hatred — I don't blame you for that."
"But if that same hatred causes the bigger picture to collapse, then whatever comrades you have left, standing beside you right now, will be gone from your side too."
Her pink hair drifting in the wind, the Hokage — perched high above them all just moments ago — casually sat herself down on the platform's edge, all trace of her earlier commanding fury gone.
She looked, in that moment, almost relaxed. Casual.
"Ha. Easy for you to say. My friends. My wife. Already dead, killed in that war!"
"I've got no one left. Nothing left to worry about losing."
A voice rang out from somewhere within the Sunagakure ranks.
The Hokage didn't bother tracking down who'd said it. She simply gave a dismissive, faintly scornful smile and replied:
"Well then, why are you still standing here?"
"If you truly have no one left to care about, you should be free as a bird — no ties, no obligations."
"Take a look around you. Not a single person here that you care about at all?"
The Hokage's tone stayed casual, utterly indifferent to whoever had spoken up in protest.
The man didn't speak again.
"So — with a formidable enemy bearing down on us all, I don't care what history, what grudges, what rights and wrongs exist between any of you. Choke it all down."
"If you absolutely must take it out on someone — come find me directly."
"Manage to put a blade through me, and I'll admit you're genuinely skilled."
"If you don't think you can beat me outright, poisoning my food or assassinating me in my sleep both work just fine too."
"If I survive and go looking for who did it afterward — I'll resign as Hokage."
"All of this, of course, applies before the enemy actually arrives."
Silence.
Every single person present stared at the Hokage without a word.
Is she seriously taking on the accumulated hatred of every single person here, single-handedly?
"And of course, once we've defeated this enemy — you go your way, I'll go mine."
"If we meet again after that, and you still hold a grudge, still bear me ill will — by all means, do whatever you like to try to kill me."
"But all of that comes after we've actually crushed this enemy that threatens every one of us."
"And if we can't manage that much — well, that would just prove what I said earlier. That you're nothing but a pack of worthless failures."
With that, the Hokage — who'd been sitting so casually a moment ago — rose slowly to her feet, sweeping her gaze across the entire assembled field.
"So then, everyone."
"Can you prove to me you're not worthless?"
"Can you prove to me you're strong enough to swallow the hatred in your hearts?"
"Worthless people gathered together are still nothing but a crowd of worthless people. That would only prove..."
Her words trailed off, and the entire field fell into absolute stillness — quiet enough to hear a pin drop, nothing but the dry, crackling wind of the desert breaking the silence.
"I am not worthless..."
A single voice rang out from somewhere within the Konoha ranks.
"I am not worthless!"
Another voice echoed close behind it.
"I am not worthless!"
"I am not worthless!"
"I am not worthless!"
One voice became ten. Ten became a hundred...
Wave after wave of voices rippled outward across that boundless desert, until finally, only a single unified chant remained, echoing between earth and sky.
I am not worthless.
The Hokage watched it all unfold, calm.
See? This is exactly what status and power can accomplish.
If an ordinary person had tried something this crude — a simple provocation, a basic taunt — some might have taken the bait, and just as many would have dismissed it outright with contempt.
But who was she?
She was Hiruzen Sarutobi's own closed-door disciple, the Witch who'd single-handedly turned the shinobi world on its head, and the Fifth Hokage risen to power through sheer force alone.
More than that — the very woman whose actions had, indirectly, been widely credited as the spark behind the Fourth Great Ninja War itself.
Never mind that Danzō had actually been the one responsible; through pure coincidence, the blame had somehow landed squarely at Sakura's feet anyway. Not that it mattered now.
The Fourth Raikage, Fourth Kazekage, Fourth Mizukage — all of them had ultimately fallen as stepping stones beneath her rise.
She'd personally cut a swath through several thousand enemy shinobi single-handedly on the battlefield of the Land of Whirlpools.
For a figure like that to stand right in front of you — bearing down on you, insulting you, provoking you, deliberately, to your face —
Something inborn stirs. A refusal, buried deep, against being trampled by the powerful.
A commoner's rage.
Right now, that fury was still small. Barely a whisper.
But that was already more than enough.
Just as Sakura had once forged Yang-Release Body Technique from nothing — drawing together centuries of accumulated Senju clan research on Yang Release, combined with the Second, Third, Tsunade, and her own innate ability, building something from absolute zero into existence — the hardest part had always been getting to zero in the first place.
Once that threshold was crossed, everything else followed naturally.
What Sakura truly wanted was to ignite the "hatred" already sitting in each of these people's hearts — but rather than let it stay directed at each other, she wanted them to redirect it at her instead, while facing Mōryō — and, more importantly, to plant a seed inside them.
A seed named defiance.
One furious commoner's wrath — blood spilled across five paces, and the whole world dressed in mourning white.
Watching the tens of thousands of shinobi below her, their voices thundering skyward, the Hokage's lips curved into a satisfied smile.
Mōryō?
As she'd already concluded earlier — she and Hikaru together would be more than enough to handle him.
But how could dealing with a mere demon compare to shattering the chains that bound ordinary people's hearts before the powerful?
This world had grown far too stagnant, far too rotten. It needed a jolt of genuine vitality.
And right now, as the Fifth Hokage, all Sakura was doing was using her own position to inject exactly that vitality — the vitality of rebellion — into this decaying world.
Once Mōryō was dealt with, and all these shinobi returned home, their instinctive posture of submission toward the nobility above them would never quite be the same again.
Perhaps they'd still bow their heads, for a while longer.
But as time passed, those same aristocrats — still oblivious, still perched high above — would keep unwittingly watering and fertilizing that same seed of "commoner's rage" planted in every one of their subjects' hearts.
And it would sprout.
Grow.
Eventually rising into a towering tree — until, one day, it broke straight through the sky itself, the sky called chains.
And then, for the first time, openly, in full daylight, before everyone — the class known as shinobi would finally collide, directly and without pretense, with the class known as nobility.
What a beautiful thing, vitality.
This move had a name. Feigning an attack on one front, while secretly crossing through another.
A pre-battle address? Unifying the army's morale?
Please. Give me a break.
What use was any of that, really?
Where was the fun in it?
Sakura could already, almost impatiently, picture the scene: some perfectly ordinary shinobi, standing before some lofty noble, unable to bear the humiliation any longer, drawing his blade in open defiance.
That would be a truly fun sight to see.
(End of chapter)
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