With a single use of the Flying Thunder God Technique, Danzo transported the Land of Fire's monks and samurai straight to the gates of Konoh
With a single use of the Flying Thunder God Technique, Danzo transported the Land of Fire's monks and samurai straight to the gates of Konohagakure.
As for why they didn't storm the village outright?
Kazuma chickened out.
If Konoha turned the tables and trapped them like fish in a barrel, he'd have no time to cry over the outcome.
To play it safe, Kazuma decided to let Danzo scout ahead and test Konoha's strength and preparedness.
"I'm running low on chakra… it's time to release Sora's seal," Danzo said, breathing heavily.
"Alright," Kazuma nodded, not suspecting a thing. After all, transporting a whole army from the Land of Fire to Konoha would've consumed a massive amount of chakra. Danzo's pale face and ragged breath sold the act perfectly—he looked every bit the exhausted wreck.
Kazuma glanced tenderly at the sleeping Sora in his arms, brushing a hand gently over his cheek.
Even a tiger doesn't eat its cubs. The thought that his own child might soon be overtaken by Kurama's chakra, losing himself completely, made Kazuma's heart ache.
But then he remembered: destroy Konoha, unify the Land of Fire.
If they succeeded, he and his son would be hailed as heroes. What was a little pain compared to that?
No hero is forged without hardship.
Besides, this was Sora's fate as a pseudo-jinchūriki of the Nine-Tails. Sooner or later, he would have to face it.
Steeling himself, Kazuma pressed five fingers against Sora's navel.
"Unsealing Technique – Five Elements Release! Open!"
"AAAGHHH!!" Sora's screams tore through the air.
A scorching surge of Nine-Tails chakra erupted from his body. In an instant, his mind was consumed. Fiery red chakra tails unfurled behind him, one after another.
"Quick! Get him out of here!" Kazuma turned his head away, unable to bear the sight.
"On it!" Danzo used Flying Thunder God again to teleport Sora atop the Hokage Rock. Using his Sharingan, he manipulated Sora to form a Tailed Beast Bomb, aiming directly at the Hokage's office building—and the territories of the Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado clans.
Meanwhile, Kazuma unrolled a scroll.
Poof!
Several corpses appeared in a burst of smoke.
If Itachi Uchiha's physical clone had been there, he would've recognized every face—these were the nobles and retainers slain at the daimyō's estate that very day.
Among them were former members of the Twelve Guardian Ninja, as well as monks from the Fire Temple killed earlier.
Kazuma quickly formed a string of hand signs and slammed a palm on the ground:
"Earth Style: Resurrection Technique!"
"Earth Style Creation – Soil of the Dead!"
One by one, the corpses were enveloped in earth and rose again—reanimated, now nothing more than Kazuma's puppets.
"Chiriku," Kazuma said with a grim smile, "go."
It was clear he intended to send Chiriku and Kitane, along with the monks, in first as cannon fodder—to probe Konoha's strength with their lives.
"Y-Yes, sir…" Though Chiriku was bitter, the binding curse placed on him left him no room for resistance.
BOOM! A thunderous explosion shook the ground.
A blinding red mushroom cloud bloomed over the village. The Tailed Beast Bomb's sheer destructive power leveled the Hokage Building in an instant.
Konoha was under attack once again.
The villagers, who had just endured a day of battle and were preparing to rest, barely flinched. The sound of the explosion and the blaring alarm sirens didn't cause panic. Calmly, they carried their elderly and led their children toward the shelters under the guidance of the Uchiha Police Force.
They were used to this. To them, this was just another skirmish.
"Citizens of Konoha! Please remain calm! Trust in the Police Force! We'll have this chaos resolved and the mastermind captured within thirty minutes!"
"Take a breath, have a drink—this'll be over before you know it!" Uchiha officers called out, voices firm and steady.
"Mm-hmm! Go get 'em, big brothers and sisters!" a toddler cheered on the passing shinobi.
"Don't worry, little one," said Uchiha Sasuke, who was helping maintain order, chest puffed with pride. "We Uchiha are born to counter Tailed Beasts. Even the real Nine-Tails couldn't take us down—this faker doesn't stand a chance."
He had just seen his father battle the Nine-Tails with his own eyes, and was brimming with admiration.
If even the real Nine-Tails couldn't win, then this "mini Nine-Tails" definitely couldn't either.
"Mhm!" The little girl nodded rapidly, like a pecking chick.
"What's your name, big brother?"
"Remember this—I'm Uchiha Sasuke, the future Seventh Hokage!" Sasuke said, chin raised proudly. His brother had told him their father might become the Fifth, which would make Itachi the Sixth, and obviously he would be the Seventh.
"Idiot Sasuke! A loser like you wants to be Hokage? The Seventh's gonna be me! I'm the one who'll become Hokage!" shouted Naruto, who was evacuating with the crowd. He couldn't take that lying down.
"I'm the one who'll become Hokage!" Sasuke snapped back, eyes blazing.
"I will!" Naruto shouted, refusing to back down.
Watching the two boys argue, the little girl clutched her fingers and then raised her head: "Then… then Moegi wants to be the Seventh Hokage too!"
"If Moegi becomes the Seventh Hokage, then doesn't that make Sasuke and Naruto the real… 'men of the Seventh Hokage'?" muttered Shikamaru from the sidelines.
The moment he said it, Ino, Sakura, and Hinata all shot him death glares.
Shikamaru immediately sensed the incoming bloodlust and wisely shut his mouth.
Sasuke and Naruto: "…"
"Attack! Monks of the Fire Temple, follow me!" Chiriku charged into Konoha, leading the undead puppets and reanimated monks.
The Uchiha, Hyūga, Inuzuka, Aburame, and Nara-Akimichi-Yamanaka clans had all been stewing in silence, exhausted but not defeated. Now, seeing enemies rush into the village, their rage ignited.
"For the good of Konoha!"
"Life or death—our fate is tied to hers!"
"Do you think—!"
"—we'll run from our village's trials?!"
"You really thought Konoha was made of clay?"
"Shinobi of Konoha!" Itachi Uchiha shouted. "We're not war-hungry, but we'll never back down from a fight. We're not afraid of battle. But these bastards have brought the war to our front door—what do we say to that?!"
"KILL!!" came the united roar from every clan.
"KILL!!"
"Sharingan, activate!"
"Byakugan, activate!"
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
"Rotation!"
"Fang Over Fang!"
"Secret Insect Technique!"
"Mind Transfer Jutsu! Shadow Imitation Technique! Multi-Size Technique – Human Boulder!"
Explosions rocked the battlefield.
Chiriku learned what true fear meant.
Under the relentless assault of Konoha's coordinated forces, the monks and reanimated corpses were utterly annihilated.
Not a single Konoha shinobi fell. The village's defenses held strong, just as promised: the battle was over in thirty minutes.
Meanwhile, towering Susano'o avatars rose from the rubble where the Hokage Building once stood.
But the Koharu and Homura clan compounds weren't as fortunate. The Tailed Beast-empowered Sora had decimated them with a Chakra Bomb, leaving nothing behind but scorched earth and ruins.
"Danzo!" growled Tobirama Senju, eyes wide with fury as he saw Danzo strike at Konoha once more. Minato Namikaze and Itachi Uchiha followed hot on his heels.
"Hmph. Think you can catch me? Bring it on!" Danzo scoffed, refusing to stay and fight. He immediately turned tail and ran.
"Itachi! Use your Mangekyō to control the Nine-Tails. The Second and I will chase Danzo!" Minato commanded.
"Yes, sensei." Itachi nodded and engaged Sora. The two clashed fiercely atop the Hokage Rock while Minato and Tobirama pursued Danzo through the forest.
Once the two were out of sight, Itachi feigned a few more attacks before catching Sora off guard. He placed a hand on the boy's stomach:
"Sealing Technique: Five Elements Seal!"
The tomoe in Sora's eyes faded. The Nine-Tails' chakra slowly withdrew into his body, and he collapsed, unconscious.
Gazing down at the destroyed Hokage's office building and the ruins of the Koharu and Homura clan compounds, Itachi muttered to himself:
"A man should keep his word. If you say, 'One more drink,' then you have one more. Then another. No backing out."
He glanced up at the sky.
"Also… the Hokage Building's long overdue for a remodel. Something grander, like the Daimyo Palace—that's real prestige."
"From this day forward… Konoha is the capital of the Land of Fire!"