Chapter 180 – The Price of Talking Stupidly
"Arudo, well done," Uchiha Shihu said with a calm smile. Then, turning toward Beiji and the others, his expression turned cold.
"Don't bother resisting pointlessly. Hand over the Lord Daimyo, and perhaps I'll let you keep a whole corpse."
Beiji's lips trembled bitterly. "Sir… before that, could you at least grant us a quick death?"
Uchiha Shihu glanced sideways at Hyuga Hiashi standing beside him. It was still early in the day; revealing a few truths wouldn't matter.
He replied indifferently, "Ask whatever you wish."
Beiji took a deep breath. "Why is Konoha attacking us? Why do you want the Lord Daimyo?"
"Heh… it's no secret." Shihu's tone carried a mocking edge. "Your Lord Daimyo brought this upon himself. He cut off supplies to the Hidden Leaf, trying to make us bow like in the old days. But our Clan Head isn't that frail old man—the Third Hokage. We won't bend to the Daimyo's whims."
He sneered.
"For years, we tolerated his arrogance. But now? Hokage-sama has already wiped out the Hidden Cloud and the royal family of the Land of Lightning. Destroying one more royal house—the Daimyo of the Land of Fire—won't make any difference."
The words struck like thunder.
Everyone present froze in disbelief.
So the rumor was true—the royal family of the Land of Lightning was gone!
And this Fifth Hokage… was that terrifying?
"Enough talk," Uchiha Shihu said coldly. "Throw the Daimyo over here."
His sharp gaze swept toward the Lord Daimyo trembling beneath the table.
Beiji hesitated, when suddenly one of his comrades, Dongmao, stepped forward.
"Wait—what happened to Asuma?" she demanded, her eyes filled with desperate hope.
Her heart clenched painfully; she feared the answer but still needed to know.
Shihu smirked. "Asuma? He's been dead a long time. The grass on his grave must be three zhang high by now."
Arudo chuckled beside him. "Great Elder, have you forgotten? Asuma didn't even get a grave. We took his head to the black market for thirty million ryō."
Shihu waved a dismissive hand. "Whatever. He was just a fool."
Dongmao's eyes filled with tears and rage. "You monsters! How dare you defile Asuma like that?!"
Shihu's smile vanished. His gaze turned ice-cold.
"How dare you speak to me like that. Arudo—don't kill her too quickly. I want her to learn what happens to those who speak without thinking."
"Yes, Great Elder," Arudo replied with a cruel grin.
Beiji sighed. "Dongmao… why provoke them? You already know how this ends."
When Asuma went missing, they had all guessed the truth. One man could never stand against the Uchiha Clan that now ruled Konoha.
He was doomed from the start.
Still, Dongmao glared fiercely at Shihu, refusing to bow.
Seeing that none of them moved, Shihu finally lost patience.
"Capture the Lord Daimyo alive. Kill the rest. And that woman—make sure she suffers before she dies."
"Understood, Great Elder," Arudo said. He flexed his fingers eagerly.
Back in his days with the Konoha Military Police Force, he had learned countless interrogation techniques. He'd never thought he'd get to use them on a battlefield.
The Konoha shinobi surged forward like a black tide.
Chiriku, who could no longer fight, was the first to fall. Captured, beheaded, and his head sealed into a scroll—for bounty collection later.
Soon after, the other three members of the Guardian Twelve were overwhelmed and slaughtered one by one.
Only Dongmao remained.
Her heart was hollow, her comrades dead. She knew why they hadn't killed her yet—they wanted her alive.
Clenching her teeth, Dongmao raised a kunai and plunged it toward her own heart—
—but Arudo's kunai flew faster, knocking it aside with precision.
Before she could move again, his Sharingan spun, casting her into an illusion.
Her body froze mid-motion, trapped in a genjutsu.
"Such a waste," Arudo murmured with a pitying smirk. "Pretty face, but no sense of restraint."
He pulled out a scroll, unsealing metal implements gleaming under the dim light.
After another ninja sealed Dongmao's chakra, Arudo stepped closer, smiling faintly as he prepared to begin.
Meanwhile, the Lord Daimyo was dragged out from beneath the table, trembling uncontrollably.
"Don't touch me! Don't touch me!" he shrieked.
The shinobi holding him found his voice irritating and slapped him across the face.
The pampered noble, who had likely never been struck before, saw stars.
"Shut up, or I'll beat you to death," the ninja growled.
The Daimyo's knees buckled. A few drops of urine fell to the ground as he whimpered into silence.
"Finish quickly," Uchiha Shihu ordered coldly. "We have other matters to attend to."
With Arudo's acknowledgment, Shihu and Hyuga Hiashi led their men toward the city gates.
From high atop a distant watchtower, Konan had seen everything.
"Nagato," she said softly, "it seems Uchiha Fugaku isn't coming in to negotiate. He's probably staying outside the city. What should we do?"
Nagato's eyes glowed faintly. "If he won't come in… then we'll go out and find him."
The Yatagarasu perched at the tower's peak spread its enormous wings. The Six Paths of Pain leapt onto its back as it gave a piercing cry that echoed across the city.
"Caw!!"
The giant bird dove from the tower, its shadow sweeping over the streets below before it soared upward again, ignoring the startled Konoha shinobi leaping across rooftops.
"What in the world is that?" one ninja gasped.
Uchiha Shihu looked up as the enormous bird cut across the sky.
"This bird… it's quite large," he remarked calmly.
But after witnessing Hokage-sama's towering Susanoo—larger than mountains—few of the Konoha shinobi were impressed anymore.
Compared to that giant, this bird was nothing—barely a third the size of the Eight-Tails.
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