Malphegor
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HSU: Ch. 172
🕑 Added 2025-02-01 22:35:28 +0000 UTCToday, the atmosphere at the gate was rather serious.
The north gate of Konoha was closed today.
To accommodate clients who would have normally used the north gate, the Konoha Police Force had carved out a temporary path through the woods. Numerous Konoha ninja were assigned to manage security and direct traffic.
The main road leading to the north gate was unusually quiet.
Currently, the only people gathered there were Konoha ninjas.
Several hundred ninjas had assembled. Members of the ANBU and the security forces stood ready.
Even the elite jonin corps, who had no other duties today, had shown up.
The highest-ranking person present was Fugaku, the Hokage Advisor.
All the Uchiha clan's jonin were gathered as well.
Without the power of Wood Style, the Sharingan was Konoha's only reliable method to deal with sudden emergencies.
That said, there was indeed a young man in the ANBU who could use Wood Style.
He was the sole success of Konoha's Wood Style experiments. After Danzō's death, this young man, an elite of the Root, was integrated into the ANBU ranks.
His codename was Tenzo.
But that Wood Style... well, let's just say it wasn't quite the legendary.
When it came to fighting tailed beasts, it was hopeless.
Standing beside Tenzo was Kakashi.
"Captain?"
"Hmm?"
"What if the Two-Tails goes berserk?"
"Both the Advisor and Shisui possess the legendary eyes. Nothing will happen."
"But what if they can't handle it?" Tenzo pressed, looking up to his idol with concern.
Kakashi shot him a rather deadpan look.
"Tenzo, who's your best friend?"
"Best friend…?" Tenzo started to think seriously.
"Think carefully, and when you've decided, make sure to tell them to put some flowers on your grave every year starting next year." Kakashi teased him.
After poking fun at his overly earnest junior, he reached into his pouch, sighing internally.
He'd just gotten his hands on Jiraiya's latest novel today and hadn't even had the chance to read it.
If he had to die, he would at least want to take a look before the end.
Otherwise, he'd die with regrets.
Suddenly, the ground began to tremble.
The gathered ninjas immediately tensed up.
Soon, the trees in the distance began to shake.
"Remain calm, guys," Fugaku's voice rang out. "Masashi has subdued the Two-Tails. Nothing will happen, and the Hokage is also on his way back."
The mention of these two names immediately steadied the nerves of the assembled ninjas.
"Masashi-sama is incredible!" Tenzo couldn't help but exclaim in admiration. "When will I ever be that strong?"
Kakashi glanced at him but said nothing.
Although he occasionally teased his subordinate, he was a kind person and didn't want to crush Tenzo's dreams for the future.
"They're here!" someone shouted.
Everyone saw it now.
In the distance, the enormous silhouette of a tailed beast appeared among the trees.
Seeing that massive form, the reactions of those present varied.
The Uchiha members wore proud expressions.
The others? They were thinking, Holy crap, that's huge! Are we sure it won't go berserk?
Among the tailed beasts, their sizes weren't all equal, and the Two-Tails, Matatabi, was on the smaller side.
But that "smaller side" only applied when compared to other tailed beasts.
To humans, it was still unbelievably massive.
"Ah, it's Masashi-nii!" A young Uchiha ninja shouted excitedly, waving his arms. "Masashi-nii! I'm over here!"
The crowd turned to glare at him.
"Tetsuka, what are you yelling for?"
"You're scaring people. Do you want us to beat you up?" A group of Uchiha, annoyed that their 'Our future clan leader is so impressive, and we're so proud' vibe had been interrupted, all looked ready to pummel him.
Everyone had been keeping their cool, radiating a dignified aura. But thanks to that outburst, they now looked like parents waiting to pick up their kids outside the Ninja Academy.
This was supposed to be a historic moment. Couldn't he be a little more sophisticated?
A massive paw emerged from the forest.
Matatabi had now arrived within sight of the gathered ninja. Those perched in the trees could clearly see the trail of destruction it had left behind.
The forests of Konoha were among the largest in the Land of Fire, with dense vegetation and diverse species of trees.
But Matatabi's body was far too massive to navigate such terrain gracefully.
Even the tallest trees barely reached its legs. Its passage had toppled many of them.
It liked this place.
The forest felt like a soft, cozy meadow to the tailed beast.
But as it gazed at the Konoha ninjas ahead, it felt uneasy.
Especially with Konoha itself—it seemed to ruin the environment.
These tiny humans loved chopping down trees, leaving bare patches everywhere.
"Hey, Tetsuka, causing trouble again?" Masashi, sitting atop Matatabi's head, called down cheerfully.
Good. Tetsuka seemed to be in high spirits. The village must be at peace. Wonderful.
"Fugaku-sama, I'm back!" Masashi announced.
"Welcome back. How's the front line?"
"Our forces achieved a decisive victory. The entire Kumo army was wiped out. This time, they'll have no choice but to accept Konoha's terms," Masashi reported, sharing the good news.
Although this news was already widely known, Fugaku had asked for a reason, and Masashi was happy to oblige.
The gathered Konoha ninja erupted into cheers.
With Masashi's confirmation, the news was officially verified.
Konoha had triumphed.
This marked the end of a series of battles that had begun with the Third Great Ninja War. True peace had finally returned.
Now, they could all enjoy the privileges of being the ultimate victors.
"I'll take Matatabi to see her new home," Masashi said. "The Hokage is right behind us and should arrive soon."
"Go ahead," Fugaku replied, satisfied. "Everything has been prepared. The section of forest west of the training grounds will now belong to the Two-Tails."
Masashi nodded and activated the Flying Thunder God.
The massive form of Matatabi vanished before everyone's eyes.
As the tailed beast disappeared, the crowd could clearly see the chaotic trail left in the forest behind it.
"Even though I was expecting this, the expenses for cleanup are going to be high," Shikaku remarked with a sigh.
Around forty jonin had gathered today.
But when Matatabi crouched in front of them earlier, no one had dared to move.
Even the tailed beast's normal movements felt like a continuous barrage of ninjutsu.
"The Uchiha clan will handle those costs," Fugaku said.
"There's no need to draw such clear lines," Shikaku scratched his head, finding it troublesome. "If we can keep things stable, these costs won't matter much."
Fugaku understood that Shikaku was referring to the Nine-Tails.
But in his opinion, that was much harder to manage.
While the Two-Tails had been captured by the First Hokage, its seal had long been maintained by Kumo, so most of its animosity was directed there.
The Nine-Tails, however, was an entirely different matter.
From the start, it had been Madara's plaything before being captured by the First Hokage. It had since been sealed in Konoha.
To the Nine-Tails, regaining its freedom would mean destroying Konoha.
This difference in circumstances ensured Konoha's attitudes toward the Nine-Tails and the Two-Tails would be worlds apart.
---
Within the ninjutsu system developed in partnership with Mount Myōboku, summoners could leverage the massive size of the toads to execute a "heavenly descending butt slam."
However, with the Flying Thunder God, the effect was more or less the same.
After all, as a standardized space-time ninjutsu, the operational principle behind its teleportation function was essentially the same as that of summoning techniques.
Masashi, too, based on the mechanics of reverse summoning, refined his ability to manipulate objects marked with the Flying Thunder God seal for movement.
Minato's Flying Thunder God leaned more heavily on the sealing arts. His seals were permanent—unless the target lost their ability to mold chakra, the Flying Thunder God mark would remain.
This likely reflected his expertise in sealing techniques and his limited chakra reserves, which didn't reach the level of a tailed beast.
In contrast, Masashi's Flying Thunder God embodied the summoning arts more clearly. The connection between his physical body and the Flying Thunder God marks—or between marks themselves—was highly flexible. His marks sustained themselves through the chakra networking principle, with his own ample reserves ensuring their persistence. With his tailed-beast-level chakra, he could easily handle this overhead.
Deep within the Uchiha training grounds, on the same simulated battlefield where Masashi and Fugaku had once sparred, a patrol unit from the Police Force was now stationed.
Suddenly, from the western forest came a rumbling roar—a mix of earth-shaking vibrations and joyous howls.
The ground trembled as the sound grew nearer. The patrolling Police Force, already prepared, stabilized the terrain with Earth Release techniques. Everyone crouched low, bracing for the gale-like shockwave.
Before they knew it, a strong wind burst from the forest, sweeping from west to east. Trees swayed violently, stones were hurled into the air, and a sandstorm kicked up along the way.
At the front of the group, a mud wall rose to block the dust storm. Unlike certain others, this wall wasn't sculpted into finely-detailed, lifelike dog heads—it was practical and plain.
The wall crackled and snapped under the wind's assault. As the gusts weakened and the noise subsided, the wall dispersed, leaving the area clear once more.
From afar, Yaku, the team leader, spotted a massive beast emerging from the forest.
"As expected, it's the Two-Tails."
He nodded in satisfaction.
This development spelled the end for the Sarutobi faction—they couldn't hold out anymore.
After all, strictly speaking, the Nine-Tails wasn't truly theirs to control.
What was foreseeable now was that the Sarutobi clan and the Ino-Shika-Chō alliance would certainly push for the remaining Uzumaki survivors in Konoha to reestablish the Uzumaki clan, creating a new alliance to safeguard their interests.
Previously, the Fourth Hokage had no strong ties to any ninja clan and was counted among the Sarutobi faction by default.
If the Uzumaki clan were revived, however, the Sarutobi clan might end up being counted as part of the Uzumaki faction instead. Even during the Fourth Hokage's era, the Uzumaki survivors had begun to show their strength. Though their influence within Konoha wasn't weak, they lacked a leader to unite their forces.
Now that the Two-Tails belonged to the Uchiha clan, such a leader had appeared.
That person was Kushina, the one who actually controlled the Nine-Tails' power.
Konoha today was thriving.
In the upper echelons of the ninja corps and the ANBU, all factions were represented. The Police Force wasn't anyone's private army anymore. Though clans like the Uchiha, Hyūga, Inuzuka, and Aburame had greater sway in managing the Police Force and prisons, the administrative departments were a mix of clans and non-clan individuals.
Currently, Yaku was acting as the head of the Police Force in a transitional capacity, but the next appointee would likely be Hizashi.
The internal fragmentation of Konoha's organizations had been eliminated. Now, everyone was competing on a relatively fair playing field.
In this process, the Uchiha clan had realized that many past conflicts weren't as simple as one side oppressing the other.
They couldn't demand both privilege and fairness simultaneously—that just wasn't feasible. Yet in the past, if the Uchiha clan gave up their privileges, they wouldn't even have had a seat at the table.
Yaku felt deeply grateful that his clan had Masashi—a man who had channeled all the clan's accumulated power into meaningful change, reshaping everything with an almost revolutionary vigor.
Subduing the Two-Tails marked the climax of this transformation. From this point on, Konoha's balance of power, with the Hokage as a neutral center and everyone competing based on merit, was firmly established.
If someone lacked ability and lost out, the Uchiha wouldn't complain. They weren't about to blame others or throw a tantrum.
After all, the clan culture was simple: "The weak should shut up. And why did you hit my little brother?"
Of course it was not this extrem like in some wuxia stories, still, the clan culture was built on strength. This was a fact.
While it sounded odd, the principles of protecting one's own and respecting strength didn't conflict. After all, wasn't it perfectly reasonable for an older sibling to supervise their younger sibling's homework?
The Two-Tails gradually moved westward, its massive form fading into the distance until only its silhouette remained. Yet the distant roars were still audible.
A while later, Masashi suddenly appeared in front of the team on the empty field.
"Yaku-sama," he called out, his face showing a hint of fatigue but brimming with joy.
"Masashi, well done."
"Not at all. It had to be done all at once."
Masashi grinned brightly.
As it turned out, Matatabi—despite its identity as a tailed beast—really just acted like a giant cat.
Masashi figured it was because, over the years, Matatabi hadn't encountered anything resembling itself except for cats, so it had subconsciously adopted feline traits.
I'm too tired today. Maybe in a few days, I'll use Susanoo to go pet it.
"Everyone's been waiting for you to return," Yaku said with a familiar expression that Masashi recognized all too well. "I've already booked a private room for tonight. It's on me—let's do this!"
"That's a bit much. Isn't it too expensive? How about we split the bill?" Masashi suddenly felt his fatigue disappear, but he still felt the need to put on a show.
There were rules, after all.
"Are you looking down on me? This little expense is nothing to me."
"No, no, but rules are rules. How about you cover the drinks, and the rest we'll pay ourselves?"
"Fine, fine. Dinner's at six tonight, no excuses, no skipping!" Yaku was satisfied and visibly excited.
"Why are so many of you here in full gear? Are you on a training exercise?" Masashi asked, eyeing the large group of fully armed Uchiha members behind Yaku.
"We're here to escort you, of course," Yaku replied. "You know how it is. It's been ages since anyone in our clan subdued a tailed beast, let alone one living within our territory."
"Actually, 'raising' is not the right word," Masashi corrected. "They don't eat anything, after all."
"Ah, right! My bad!" Yaku slapped his forehead. "Honestly, if you don't look at its tails, the Two-Tails just looks like a giant ninja cat."
Aside from its size, it really didn't seem much different from those ninja cats.
"Don't worry. In the future, Matatabi will live here peacefully. You guys can do your usual routines and not worry too much. Matatabi is naturally gentle but timid. Once it's familiar with you, it won't resist anymore."
"Got it." Yaku's mind conjured up an amusing image of Uchiha children playing a new game: climbing on Matatabi.
Could that actually happen? Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
"Alright, Yaku-sama, I'll head home for now."
"Good. You should. You've been away a lot recently, and some people have been quite worried about you."
Masashi nodded and disappeared with Flying Thunder God.
After Masashi left, Yaku turned back, his expression switching to his usual "super-reliable and serious squad leader" mode.
"You've all heard him," he addressed the group of Uchiha behind him. "From now on, make sure not to disturb the Two-Tails' life. Gradually ease its wariness toward the clan. Don't let Masashi's hard work go to waste."
"Yes, Captain!"
"Now, drop the formalities—no need to call me 'Captain' here. Speaking of which, when Hizashi officially takes over as head of the Police Force, make sure to maintain the right attitude. Just because the new captain won't be a clan member doesn't mean we can slack off."
"Don't worry, Yaku. Honestly, we only care about one thing," said one of the older Uchiha in the group with a sigh. "Can we suggest something to Hizashi? Like… having more Hyūga women assigned to the administrative department?"
"Exactly! I was just about to say that!"
"Right, right! The Hyūga women are so elegant. No offense, I just want something pleasant for the eyes."
"Shut up! Are you really just thinking about your eyes? Don't cause trouble, I'm warning you."
"Hey, we've had Uchiha women marry outside the clan too, haven't we?"
"Yeah, but we don't have a cursed seal like the 'Caged Bird,' do we? Imagine having that carved on your wife's forehead—could you live with that?"
As the group argued noisily, Yaku watched with some satisfaction. It was good to see everyone still in high spirits and adapting to the new changes, even if the leadership of the Police Force would soon shift to a Hyūga.
Why is everyone talking about Hyūga women?
Yaku was furious. Were they mocking him just because he could no longer flirt with women for love?
This was unacceptable. He'd drink freely tonight in honor of his lost youth!
