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Chapter 47 – Gaze Of the Grey Knight
🕑 Added 2025-06-29 00:35:05 +0000 UTCChapter 47 – Gaze Of the Grey Knight
The gates of Konoha loomed ahead, wide and familiar.
Jiraiya and Naruto stepped forward with easy strides. Shizune followed, Tonton tucked securely under her arm, her expression soft with anticipation. Tsunade walked in silence, cloak swaying behind her, the afternoon sun making her golden hair gleam.
And behind them, Hajime.
The towering figure, nearly two meters tall, marched quietly through the gates with his halberd strapped to his back like a silent sentinel. His cloak shifted gently in the wind, the steel-blue weapon across his back faintly pulsing, like it had a heartbeat of its own.
Whispers stirred immediately.
"It's Lady Tsunade, She's back."
“Who’s that with her?”
“That guy’s massive…”
“Is that a weapon on his back?”
“No headband. He’s not from here.”
"Maybe a Samurai."
Tsunade didn’t stop. She didn’t need to explain.
Not yet.
......
Inside the Hokage Tower, the familiar scent of paper, wood polish, and old chakra clung to the air.
Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane waited in the high chamber, seated beside a fresh scroll from the Fire Daimyō. Two ANBU guards stood by, silent as stone.
Tsunade stepped forward with a calm expression. “I accept the position of Fifth Hokage.”
Homura blinked. “You’ve returned sooner than expected.”
“And not alone,” Koharu added, eyes narrowing behind her glasses.
They both turned toward the tall figure who stepped in behind her.
Hajime stood still as a statue, head slightly bowed in polite silence. His halberd, though unactivated, was unmistakably wrong in its presence. The elders’ eyes locked onto it—on the twin blades, on the strange symbols faintly carved into its shaft.
Homura's voice sharpened. “Who is this?”
Tsunade’s tone didn’t waver. “This is Hajime. My apprentice. My assistant. And my bodyguard.”
Koharu frowned. “An outsider. Not of Konoha. Not from any clan. Why is he allowed access here?”
“Because he earned it,” Tsunade replied flatly.
Homura shifted uncomfortably. “Tsunade… we’ve just survived an invasion. We can’t afford unknown variables. Who trained him? Who vetted him? Where is his record?”
Tsunade's eyes narrowed. “He healed more patients in Tanzaku Quarters than most of your best chūnin. He carries no bloodline. He belongs to no clan. But he’s more loyal and capable than anyone I’ve met in years.”
Koharu pressed further. “Then let ANBU monitor him. If he stays near the Hokage.”
A shift.
Just a shift.
Hajime stepped forward, just once. And then he looked up.
The pressure hit the room like a falling mountain.
It wasn’t killing intent in the way most shinobi knew it. It wasn’t a flex of chakra or a display of power.
It was deeper.
Colder.
Older.
A murderous presence born from a thousand battlefields where reason died and monsters screamed. An aura carved from burning worlds, broken heretics, and daemon-scarred air. His eyes were calm, but they held the gaze of a Grey Knight, one who had seen the very worst of existence, and judged it.
The ANBU froze.
Sweat broke on Homura’s brow.
Koharu gripped the edge of her seat, spine rigid.
Hajime didn’t speak.
He didn’t have to.
They felt it. That if he wanted to, he wouldn’t need a jutsu. He wouldn’t need a blade.
He would walk through them like a god walks through fog.
And in that moment, despite their age and history, the elders remembered what fear felt like.
Tsunade, unmoved, crossed her arms. “He stays.”
The tension cracked like glass. The pressure faded. Hajime lowered his eyes and stepped back.
Silence returned, but it was broken now. The elders looked away.
“…Fine,” Homura muttered. “But if anything happens—”
“It won’t,” Tsunade snapped. “Because unlike many, he still understands what the Will of Fire is supposed to mean.”
Koharu didn’t argue again.
The ANBU beside the door shifted awkwardly, sweat still clinging to their temples.
....
Minutes later, Hajime stepped out into the fresh air of Konoha.
Civilians gawked. Children pointed. A few shinobi, especially the younger ones, stared in awe.
“Is that her assistant?”
“He’s huge…”
“I saw him walk past ANBU like they were nothing.”
Tsunade emerged beside him, cloak fluttering, her gaze scanning the rebuilt village.
Shizune walked on ahead with Tonton. Naruto was already shouting something at a vendor nearby.
Jiraiya caught up, grinning. “I think you gave those two old fossils a heart attack.”
Tsunade gave a faint smirk. “They needed it.”
Hajime said nothing.
But behind him, his halberd glowed just faintly.
Like it agreed.
End of Chapter 47 – Gaze Of the Grey Knights
