Zander
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Chapter 87 – “The Hand That Strikes”
🕑 Added 2025-07-06 03:57:58 +0000 UTCChapter 87 – “The Hand That Strikes”
The borderlands were still.
Kakashi Hatake stood atop a sloped ridge, his weight balanced effortlessly as he scanned the mist-veiled valley below. His visible eye narrowed, watching the breeze carry leaves over the tree line, listening for the rhythm of chakra.
The air was calm, but deceptive.
Below, his elite squad remained at the ready.
Tenzo, partially fused into a tree trunk, extended his chakra into the surrounding woods like a patient net, alert for any tremor, movement, or foreign pulse.
Genma Shiranui crouched on a moss-covered rock, senbon between his teeth, golden eyes sharp.
Raido Namiashi leaned against a low boulder, arms folded, sealing tags faintly visible beneath his sleeves.
Yugao Uzuki sat silently on a high branch, her sword across her back, eyes moving like a hawk’s. She had joined them after the skirmish days ago, when Toroi, the Magnetic Release shinobi of Kumogakure, had led a probing strike across the northern border.
That fight had been brutal and fast, Kakashi’s team had intercepted them, held the line, and forced them into retreat.
But it wasn’t over. That much was certain.
The Raikage wouldn’t stop with just one failed test.
They were waiting now, for the next strike.
Yugao murmured, “Still no movement. Not even animals.”
“Which is the problem,” Genma muttered. “They’re never quiet for long.”
Raido ran a hand along the back of his neck. “They’re either circling or they’re watching.”
“We’re being measured,” Tenzo added softly from the bark. “Kumo wants to see how fast we react.”
Kakashi exhaled. “Then let’s give them nothing.”
But then, the earth shuddered.
Not chakra.
Weight.
Heavy branches above rustled. A wave of displaced air pushed downward.
A metal-clad shadow dropped from the treetops with a low whistle—
CRACK!
The ridge shook with a thunderous impact. The ground split where something, or someone, landed, steel striking stone and soil like a hammer of judgment.
Weapons were drawn in an instant. The squad snapped into formation.
But the tension dissolved almost immediately.
The figure that rose from the impact crater was unmistakable.
A giant in armor.
Hajime.
He stood like a fortress of steel, 2.32 meters tall in full armor, the height accentuated by the weight of a great halberd slung across his back and the seamless overlapping plates of his matte silver-gray suit. The armor was etched with ancient patterns, subtle ridges, and glowing lines of energy humming with psychic resonance.
The helm was sharp and angular, with a single horizontal blue-lit slit, like a sentinel’s eye, unblinking.
Across his chestplate, the inscription shimmered faintly:
Armatus Puritate Propositi.
None of them had sensed him coming.
Genma blinked. “I swear… he dropped out of nowhere.”
Kakashi slowly lowered his hand. “No chakra signature. Nothing.”
Yugao nodded warily. “I thought only ghosts could do that.”
Tenzo muttered, “He’s heavier than the trees, but they didn’t warn us. That’s not stealth. That’s suppression.”
Raido stepped back slightly. “He’s like a walking fortress.”
Hajime, unmoved by the remarks, reached behind his hip. From his belt, he withdrew a sealed scroll, thick and formal, marked in red wax and stamped with the Hokage’s insignia.
He tossed it cleanly.
Kakashi caught it, unrolled it quickly, and scanned the message.
He exhaled. “This is official.”
He raised his voice for the rest of the team to hear.
“By Tsunade-sama’s order, Hajime is now in field command of this sector. All operational decisions go through him. Full authority.”
A pause.
Then Kakashi stepped forward.
“I accept the handover.”
No hesitation.
Raido gave a tight nod. “Was only a matter of time. Should’ve known when they sent you.” as he was one of the anbu who knows that the Hokage apprentice killed Danzo and his Roots, by himself
Genma gave a low whistle. “Hell of an entrance, though.”
Yugao’s eyes narrowed behind her bangs. “So the Hokage really sent her Apprentice.”
Kakashi’s lone eye met Hajime’s blue-lit visor.
“You’ve been briefed, I assume?”
Hajime’s voice came low and cold from behind the helm, distorted slightly by the helmet's vocal mesh, but perfectly clear.
“I read the reports. Toroi’s team tested the wall. You held it.”
“We got lucky,” Yugao said. “They didn’t press.”
“They will next time,” Tenzo murmured. “This was just the first knock.”
Hajime turned his helm northward.
“Let them knock.”
He stepped forward, halberd on his back humming faintly with sealed chakra channels. His footsteps were deliberate. Heavy. Not concealed.
Because he didn’t need to hide.
“We will show them,” Hajime said, “that the gates of Konoha do not crack. Not while we stand.”
He turned slightly to Kakashi.
“You’ll stay with me for strategic coordination. Genma, Yugao, flank scouting, alternate shifts. Tenzo, Raido, sealing perimeter and chakra suppression. I’ll adjust the formation later.”
Kakashi raised a brow, then smiled beneath his mask. “Understood, commander.”
As the team dispersed, Hajime turned back toward the ridge’s northern line. The trees bent in the wind, and a hawk cried overhead.
He said nothing.
He didn’t need to.
He was the hand that strikes
and Kumo would soon feel it.
End of Chapter 87 – “The Hand That Strikes”
