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Chapter 96 – The Fox, the Fist, and the Flame
🕑 Added 2025-07-08 01:41:13 +0000 UTCChapter 96 – The Fox, the Fist, and the Flame
The Hokage’s office was quiet for once. The rain that had blanketed the Land of Fire for days had stopped, replaced by golden sun filtering through the window.
Tsunade stared at the scroll in her hand.
The wax seal had been broken with care. Its contents were brief, direct, and heavy with implication.
“Kumogakure’s forward military compound destroyed.
Enemy shinobi, eliminated.
No Konoha casualties.
Two-Tails jinchūriki captured alive.
Awaiting further instruction.
Hajime.”
There was a long silence.
Shizune looked up from her papers, unsure of the Hokage’s mood. “Is it… bad?”
Tsunade didn't answer at first. She just kept rereading the last line. Her knuckles were white from gripping the scroll.
Then, slowly, her lips curled into a grin.
“He did it,” she whispered.
She stood up.
“He actually did it!”
She turned, marched toward the cabinet behind her desk, and threw it open. Bottles of sake lined the shelves. With little ceremony, she grabbed one of the aged ones, one she’d been saving for the anniversary of Orochimaru’s death, and slammed it onto the desk.
“Get two cups,” she ordered.
Shizune blinked. “Hokage-sama?”
“Do it, Shizune! We’re celebrating!”
Tsunade poured herself a drink before Shizune could react. “The bastards from Kumo sent their elite. Sent their jinchūriki. Probably thought we’d bend, maybe beg for mercy.”
She raised the sake cup.
“Well now they’re the ones bleeding.”
Tsunade downed it in one gulp, the heat burning all the way down, and slammed the cup back onto the table with a satisfied sigh.
Shizune hesitated. “So… we’re not worried? About retaliation?”
Tsunade poured another.
“Let them try,” she said. “We’ve already won. They just don’t know it yet.”
She turned and looked out the window, toward the north.
“My apprentice destroyed a fortress, captured a bijū, and didn’t even scratch the paint on his armor. That’s not just a victory… that’s a declaration.”
Her voice softened as she raised her cup once more.
“To Hajime. A job done better than any goddamn Sannin could.”
...
Far to the north, on the edge of the neutral zone between Konoha and Kumogakure, a pavilion stood atop a cliff.
It wasn’t grand, just reinforced wooden posts and cloth roofing over a wide platform, but it served as the nerve center of Konoha’s border command.
Inside, maps were unrolled, fūinjutsu communication scrolls lined the walls, and messengers moved quickly with updates.
At the center of it all, Hajime stood, his armor still bearing the scorches and dents of battle. His psychic presence was dampened but not gone, like standing near a thunderstorm still waiting to break.
Next to him stood Shikaku Nara, Konoha’s most brilliant strategist, pipe in hand, hair slightly messy, eyes tired but focused.
Shikaku blew out a slow breath of smoke. “So... it’s true.”
He looked to the side where Yugito Nii lay, bound by five-layer chakra seals reinforced with metal binding rings. Her breathing was slow. She was unconscious, but definitely alive.
“We confirmed her identity,” Shikaku muttered. “Jinchūriki of Matatabi. That makes her more than just a prisoner. She’s leverage.”
Hajime nodded once. “She’ll live. But not fight again anytime soon.”
Shikaku stepped forward and examined the nearby table, which held a sketched battle report.
“The damage to Kumo’s compound,” he said, “wasn’t just from jutsu. You tore the buildings down with physical force.”
Hajime didn’t respond.
Shikaku smirked faintly. “The enemy scouts who returned to the village reported nothing but ruins. No bodies. No scrolls. No intel left behind.”
He looked back at Hajime.
“You didn’t just defeat them. You erased their ability to respond.”
Hajime finally spoke.
“It was necessary.”
There was no arrogance in his voice. No pride. Just certainty.
Shikaku nodded. “Agreed. It was clean. Decisive.”
He lit another puff of smoke, then looked over the horizon.
“With the Two-Tails in our hands, Kumogakure has lost its strongest asset on this front. Their jinchūriki is down. Their forward base is gone. They can’t afford escalation.”
“They might still try,” Hajime said.
“True,” Shikaku admitted. “But I doubt it. The elders will pull the Raikage back. They’ll look to save face, maybe offer negotiations.”
He pointed to the sealed scroll on the table, already drafted.
“We send this to the Land of Lightning within the day. It outlines our demands:
Immediate cessation of all hostile activity on the border.
Public admission of unauthorized operations.
Return of the Two-Tails only after peace is confirmed.
50¥ Million Worth of military supplies
He looked at Hajime again.
“You agree?”
Hajime was silent for a moment.
Then he said, “Yes.” Hajime is quite surprised at shikaku for having the last demand, as it's huge, like 50S Missions.
Shikaku grinned. “Good. Then let’s send it.”
He reached down, picked up the scroll, and handed it to the waiting courier, who bowed and vanished with a shunshin.
“Funny,” Shikaku said, turning back to Hajime. “If the commander are someone else, i will not be adding the 50¥ Million as demands, as like jiraiya or Third Hokage, They are content enough if there are peace even if there are loses. You'll be famous in this battle as well."
“I didn’t ask for that.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Shikaku said. “The world just watched you break a hidden village’s backbone.”
He looked toward the sealed Yugito Nii.
“We’ll hold her. Keep her alive. Feed her. Treat her right. She’s a prisoner, not a tool.”
“Understood,” Hajime said.
The two men stood in silence, watching the horizon.
For now, the skies were quiet.
No scouts.
No lightning.
Just the soft rustle of wind through the pine trees.
The war wasn’t officially over.
But everyone watching knew…
Konoha had already won.
