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Chapter 158n
🕑 Added 2025-09-12 20:34:25 +0000 UTCChapter 158n
2-in-1-chapter
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Rēn laid out his reasoning clearly.
Compared with Jiraiya or Tsunade, he much preferred Torifu as Hokage. Torifu was more than a generation older than the Sannin, and his health was not strong.
The Akimichi clan’s secret techniques were rooted in Yang Release, but they did not preserve the body. On the contrary, the Multi-Size Technique consumed vitality recklessly, and the clan’s secret food pills forced out further reserves of strength. Their famed appetite was necessary to replenish energy constantly drained away. But what was lost in life force could not truly be restored by eating. In youth, the damage went unnoticed, but with age, the accumulated strain brought on many ailments.
Torifu was no exception.
One of the main reasons he wished to hand over responsibility to a true Fifth Hokage was his own failing strength.
For Rēn, this made Torifu the ideal transitional figure: a Hokage who could not sit in power for long, who bore no malice toward the Uchiha, and who lacked the ability to suppress them. He was the perfect placeholder. Once Rēn was a little older, the Fifth could step down, and the Sixth could rise in due course.
A puppet?
Torifu narrowed his eyes, recalling Hiruzen’s words at the time of his impeachment, meant to sow discord:
“Uchiha Rēn, who do you intend to place on the seat as your puppet?”
The line echoed unbidden in his thoughts.
“Rēn, this is a matter for another time. For now, you’ve just returned from your journey—rest properly. After you went to the Land of Water, Elder Genji often chided me for sending his treasured grandchildren so far away.”
In the end, Torifu did not give a direct answer, setting the proposal aside instead.
“My grandfather’s heart isn’t with me—Fujika is the one he dotes on.”
Rēn sighed as he set down his teacup. “When I get back, I’ll almost certainly be scolded. After taking his precious Fujika away for so long, to be honest, I just want to go home.”
As for Torifu’s conversion from acting to full Hokage, Rēn did not believe there would be any change. No, even if there was the slightest sign of change, he would strangle it in its cradle. Otherwise, there would have been no need for him to return to the village at all—he would have gone directly to the front.
Since everyone had returned, the village would not be allowed to drift from the track he had already set for it.
After taking his leave from Akimichi Torifu, Rēn left the Hokage Building. Instead of returning directly to the Uchiha compound or going to the Police Force headquarters, he went to the residence prepared for the Mist-nin.
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“So lively!”
Ringo Ameyuri stood on the balcony, gazing at the crowded street below where people pressed shoulder to shoulder in a steady stream. After a long while she gave voice to that simple but weighty impression. In Kirigakure—or more broadly in the Land of Water—she had never seen anything this vibrant.
There was no need to mention Kirigakure itself, where under its oppressive rule the streets were nearly empty even in broad daylight. Even compared to the daimyo’s capital, the most prosperous city in the Land of Water, Konohagakure’s bustle put it to shame.
“This village is so crowded it’s a headache,” said Momochi Zabuza, his face wrapped in bandages.
Before leaving the village, the Fourth Mizukage had ordered Hōzuki Mangetsu to select companions to bring to Konoha. His first choice had been Ringo Ameyuri, whose straightforward strength he could trust. His second choice had been Momochi Zabuza, not Hoshigaki Kisame.
Why not pick Kisame, whose strength was greater and whose loyalty was unquestionable? The reason was simple—he could not.
He already knew Terumī Mei had been marked as the Fifth Mizukage, and Kisame had been drawn into her circle, assigned to ANBU and made part of the foundation she was building for the future. There was no way to take him away, so instead he settled for choosing Zabuza.
“Zabuza, this crowd is part of Konoha’s strength as well,” said Hōzuki Mangetsu as he joined them on the balcony. It wasn’t that they had no other place to go and were forced to gather together, but rather that this balcony offered the best view of the village’s prosperity. Standing beside Zabuza, he looked out at the endless traffic and sighed with envy.
“It’s because Konoha has so many people that it could fight the other villages at once during the great wars. The Second Hokage was a true genius—without his founding of the Academy…”
Without the Academy, without the steady stream of shinobi it produced from among the commoners, Konoha might long ago have been torn apart by the other four great villages.
But such words could never be spoken aloud here. After all, this was Konoha’s territory.
As he spoke, Mangetsu glanced at Zabuza. After all, Zabuza had changed the bloody graduation ritual of the Kirigakure Academy through sheer force. The price had been steep: he had slaughtered every one of his classmates.
“What are you looking at me for? Those weaklings would have been killed sooner or later by someone else anyway.”
Zabuza’s instincts were sharp; he had immediately noticed Mangetsu’s look and snapped at him in a rough voice. That massacre was his dark history. He didn’t regret it, but as he grew older and came to understand the hardships facing the village, he had come to wish there could be more young shinobi in Kirigakure.
He truly hoped the village would grow stronger.
“I was only thinking… when will Kirigakure ever become this prosperous?”
Mangetsu had no interest in quarreling with him. He turned his gaze back to the scene before them. Konohagakure’s city planning lacked the rigid order of Kirigakure, but in that seeming disorder he sensed a vitality his own village lacked.
“If such a day ever comes…”
Zabuza narrowed his eyes. He too felt envy as he looked at this flourishing village. For Kirigakure to reach this level of prosperity was a long road indeed. “Terumī Mei… if she cannot change the village, I will kill her myself.”
“You already know?” Mangetsu was a little surprised.
The appointment of Terumī Mei as the Fifth Mizukage was still a strict secret in Kirigakure. Other than Genji and the Fourth Mizukage, even the heads of the clans did not know. Mangetsu knew only because he was close to Genji, was himself a candidate for the office, and was also the heir of the Hōzuki clan.
That he knew was not unusual. But how had Zabuza learned of it?
“I have my own channels. Don’t take me for some fool who thinks raw strength alone is enough to seize the Mizukage’s chair. Since Genji has already chosen, I want to see if Terumī Mei truly has the ability to hold that seat. If she doesn’t… hmph.”
The snort made his stance clear. If she proved unworthy, he would not hesitate to solve the matter with violence.
“Mangetsu, instead of worrying over what I would do, you’d do better as a leader to think about how to bring back as many of our people as possible. I don’t want to be sent to the front lines as cannon fodder for Konoha,” Zabuza said, returning to a topic they had discussed many times on the road.
“Zabuza, I’ve already told you many times—when under another’s roof, one must bow the head.” Mangetsu shook his head helplessly. “I want to bring everyone back whole as well, but it’s not realistic. To be blunt, the moment these two thousand left the village they were already considered dead. The harsher truth is that it would be best if all two thousand of them died in battle.
Only then would Konoha’s alliance with Kirigakure be truly solid. Both Genji and the Fourth Mizukage were determined. Before leaving the village, Yagura Karatachi spoke to me in private and said, ‘Do your best to come back alive, even if you are the only one.’ Genji too passed word that if possible, I should make sure Ameyuri comes back.”
By strict reckoning, Zabuza was one of those who could be abandoned and sacrificed.
“To sacrifice for the village is one thing, but to die for Konoha—I have no interest in that kind of future.” Zabuza’s obstinacy was not something a few words could change. Along the way, he and Mangetsu had gone back and forth over this many times, until Mangetsu’s tongue was worn out, but without result.
“You—supposedly the ‘Demon of the Mist’—yet you make me sound more like the real demon.” Mangetsu sighed.
“The Uchiha clan head has arrived.”
Ringo Ameyuri, who had paid no attention to their argument from beginning to end, suddenly spoke.
From the balcony they could see the guest entering through the front gate of the compound.
Mangetsu and Zabuza followed her gaze and saw Uchiha Rēn walking in. At the same time, sensing the sharp gazes upon him, Rēn looked up and saw the three figures gathered on the balcony.
Their eyes met across the distance.
Rēn’s lips curved into an easy smile. “So? Are you satisfied here? If there’s anything you need, say so. As long as it isn’t too unreasonable, we will do our best to provide it.”
“It’s already excellent. Your village’s hospitality is impeccable.”
“Is that so? Then all is well.”
Mangetsu led Rēn into the reception room.
