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Sorry for disappearing for so long. Exams came along and completely took over my life, so I had to take a break from writing.
But now I'm back, and I'll be trying to upload chapters consistently again.
Thanks for sticking around, and as always...
Enjoy the chapter!
...
"Let the world know."
— Tywin Lannister, Game of Thrones
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He lowered the cup with care and stood.
This time, he turned.
"…Continue," he said.
The man behind him straightened unconsciously.
He was younger, broad-shouldered, his presence carrying authority tempered by restraint. The posture of someone who had grown up beneath the shadow of a legend.
"This time, the information is confirmed," he said. "Hikari's child survived."
He paused, then spoke evenly.
"A shinobi. He goes by the name Otis. A jōnin of Konohagakure."
For a moment, the room was utterly still.
Then the man laughed…
A deep, loud, and unrestrained laugh.
"Hahahahha!" He leaned back against the window frame as memories surfaced uninvited. "That woman… she always did leave scars."
The man was towering, heavily built, his body marked with the remnants of an era that had buried thousands. Old battle scars crossed his torso like a map of wars long past. Lightning crackled faintly around him, chakra responding to his presence.
This was the Third Raikage of Kumogakure.
And the shinobi standing before him was his son. The current Raikage. The Fourth.
(Pic)
He remembered Hikari clearly.
His thoughts drifted back to a battlefield soaked in rain and blood. To Hikari standing her ground, eyes blazing. To the cloth wrapped tightly across her back, two infants secured against her spine as she fought.
Their battle had scarred them both.
She had pushed him harder than almost anyone ever had.
After that fight, the news came that she was dead. By then, he had been injured badly enough that even he could not continue the war. He touched the old scars on his torso unconsciously, fingers tracing memories burned into flesh.
That Earth Release…
He could never forget it.
Perhaps it had been a blessing to the ninja world that she died that day. He could not fathom how powerful she would have become if she had lived long enough to refine it further.
That fight had nearly killed him.
Worse, he had been forced to retreat. Wounded not only in body, but in pride. Defeated by a woman who had given birth only hours before their battle. He had returned to Kumogakure for treatment while the war continued without him.
And while he was gone…
The war spiraled out of control.
The Yellow Flash appeared.
More than five thousand shinobi dead in a single campaign.
Then the destruction of the Kannabi Bridge, severing Iwagakure's supply lines and sealing their defeat in the Third Shinobi War. The balance collapsed almost overnight.
One by one, the great villages fell back.
Even Kumogakure had no choice.
Even the Third Raikage, in his prime, had understood the truth then.
No single man could fight Konoha alone.
Not against Hiruzen, Jiraiya, Minato, Orochimaru, Danzō, and the full force of Konohagakure when the other great villages were already broken.
Kumogakure had lost too many. Its elite shinobi were dead. More than half its forces wiped out.
Defeat had been inevitable.
So they accepted it.
The Raikage's laughter faded. He looked back out toward the village below, eyes heavy as lightning flashed through the clouds.
"…Her son, huh," he murmured. "A jōnin of Konoha. With her blood."
His son watched him carefully.
"Should we ki—"
"No," the Raikage interrupted, raising a hand.
He turned back toward the window as thunder rolled faintly in the distance. He picked up his teacup again, its surface rippling as lightning illuminated the sky.
"For now?" he said. "Nothing."
He took a slow sip.
A slow, dangerous smile tugged at his lips in anticipation.
"If he truly carries her blood," the Raikage said, "then the world hasn't finished paying for the past."
Thunder rumbled overhead.
…
Far to the west, beneath layers of stone, the Hidden Stone Village stirred.
The news reached Iwagakure three days later.
Ōnoki hovered silently in his chamber, suspended a few feet above the ground, arms folded inside his robes. Scrolls lay open on the table below him.
(Pic)
He was already irritated when the report was placed before him. Another exaggerated rumor. Another so-called monster wandering the world. He almost dismissed it out of habit…But Ōnoki did not like uncertainty.
A shinobi knelt before him, head lowered.
"There was an incident," the shinobi reported. "Large-scale shinobi casualties in the Hidden Grass Village. All experimental facilities destroyed. The Grass Daimyō is dead."
Ōnoki raised an eyebrow.
"…Dead?" he repeated.
"Yes," the shinobi continued. "And witnesses describe a single shinobi responsible. Earth techniques far beyond standard limits. Defensive constructs, large-scale terrain manipulation, and physical strength inconsistent with normal chakra output."
He hesitated before adding, "There is no direct evidence linking the incident in the Hidden Grass Village to the death of the Grass Daimyō in the capital. However, our analysts believe both events were carried out by the same individual… or at least by his accomplices."
"Earth Release," Ōnoki muttered.
A giant…
The word surfaced on its own.
The description painted something uncomfortably familiar. Giants had vanished more than a decade ago. And if his memory served him correctly… Hikari had died during the Third Shinobi War.
Hadn't she?
The shinobi swallowed. "There are also reports of a confrontation with a woman using paper-based techniques. The villagers referred to her as… an angel."
Ōnoki descended slowly until his feet touched the stone floor.
He reached for the report and read it...
[Subject: Otis
Affiliation: Konohagakure
Rank: Jōnin
Notable traits: abnormal physical size, earth-based combat style, abnormal pebble-throwing capability
Maternal link: Hikari]
Ōnoki froze.
"…Hikari," he muttered.
Memories resurfaced, sharp and unpleasant.
That name had never belonged to just a kunoichi. It had belonged to a problem.
A ghost from a time when battlefields broke under the weight of monsters pretending to be human. A woman whose presence alone had forced entire units to retreat.
Ōnoki exhaled through his nose.
"So… the apple didn't fall far at all."
A giant shinobi, earth techniques beyond reason, strength that did not fit his age or rank.
And now…
Hikari's son.
The pieces slid into place one by one, forming a picture Ōnoki did not like.
Not at all.
Konoha again.
They always did this. Collected talent. Sheltered anomalies. Nurtured monsters in the name of "the Will of Fire." Turned children into weapons and called it hope.
Ōnoki leaned back slowly, age pressing down on his bones.
First Hikari. Then the Yellow Flash. Now this…
His jaw tightened.
Ōnoki slammed his palm onto the stone desk. The impact cracked its surface.
"I will not," he said, every word heavy, "sit and watch Konoha raise another one."
A shinobi dropped to one knee instantly.
"Lord Tsuchikage… what are your orders?"
Ōnoki did not answer right away.
He stared at the wall, seeing something else entirely. Old battlefields. Broken alliances. Konoha rising again and again, no matter how many times the world tried to beat it down.
Ōnoki lifted off the ground, floating a few inches above the floor, his expression hard.
"Konoha already gave the world Hiruzen. Jiraiya. Minato. And Orochimaru," he said coldly. "We barely survived that era."
His gaze sharpened.
"And now they have Hikari's son."
Another future disaster.
Silence filled the room…
"No," Ōnoki said quietly. "We're not letting Konoha hide this one."
"Spread it," he ordered.
(Pic)
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(A/N):
'Cough 'cough
"Spread it."Politically? Yes.
Socially .... ╭∩╮( ＾◡＾)╭∩╮
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