Chapter 584: I Threaten You, and You'll Regret It
Land of Earth.
Near Iwagakure.
"Finally, I'm back."
One weary Iwagakure Ninja looked at the Village surrounded by towering mountains, and a trace of relief appeared on his face.
After surviving that kind of crisis, simply making it home already felt like a blessing.
"Sigh, we really disgraced ourselves this time, losing so badly," another Iwagakure Ninja could not help but lament.
A two thousand man Ninja force had been reduced to just over three hundred. It was probably one of the most tragic defeats in recent wars.
As they looked at their homeland, now just within reach, most of the Iwagakure Ninja in the returning force felt complicated emotions.
Even Roshi, the Jinchūriki, was no exception.
"I just hope they send someone more reliable next time," Roshi sighed inwardly.
Roshi usually kept to himself and had very few friends. He did not know most of the Iwagakure Ninja who had died, and even among the ones he did know, most were only acquaintances by name.
But those sixteen hundred plus dead Ninja had still been fellow villagers, people born and raised in the same Village as him. It was impossible for him to feel nothing.
The Iwagakure Ninja guarding the gate seemed to have been notified beforehand. They showed no surprise at the approaching force. After a brief inspection, they let them through.
Normally, when a Ninja force returned to the Village, the commander or other senior officers would report in, while the rest would be dismissed directly.
But this time, most of the Jōnin in important positions had died, including the commander. The few who remained neither held high enough rank nor had enough experience.
Roshi watched them gather and hesitate, clearly conflicted and unable to decide what to do. In the end, he simply helped Han and headed straight for the Iwagakure Hospital.
Though he and Han were the highest combat power in the force, their official positions were not especially high. They were essentially just the fists of the unit.
Since there was nothing for them to handle, Roshi thought it was better to get Han treated as quickly as possible.
After all, Han's injuries were severe, and Roshi himself bore some responsibility for that.
His Tailed Beast Ball had been intended to help Han, but the fact that it had blasted Han as well was still the truth.
Someone noticed Roshi leaving the group and opened their mouth as if to call after him. But after recalling the scene of Roshi's Tailed Beast Ball devouring both Iwagakure and Konoha Ninja alike, they quietly shut their mouth again.
When Roshi was halfway there, several Iwagakure Ninja dressed in ANBU uniforms suddenly appeared and blocked his way.
Roshi frowned slightly. "What do you want? Han is injured. I need to get him to the hospital."
"You do not need to concern yourself with Han. Our people will make sure he receives the best treatment immediately," the leading ANBU said flatly.
Then the two ANBU behind him stepped forward and moved to take Han.
Although Roshi was somewhat displeased, he did not stop them. He did not want to delay Han's treatment.
He then turned and made to go home, while the Iwagakure ANBU disappeared from the main road as well.
After walking some distance, the Four Tails' voice sounded in Roshi's mind.
"They're following you."
Roshi's brows drew together even more, his confusion deepening.
Shouldn't the ANBU be extremely busy during wartime? They had to gather intelligence from other countries and prevent enemy spies from stealing their own. Why were they wasting manpower tailing him?
A Jinchūriki like him, one who could freely use Full Tailed Beast Transformation, would not suddenly lose control for no reason.
Roshi returned home, cleaned himself up, rested briefly, then went out again to buy food and cook lunch.
After eating, he asked the Four Tails, "Are they still there?"
"They're still there," the Four Tails replied.
As Roshi washed the dishes, the irritation in his chest only grew stronger.
Although they had lost the battle, what exactly had that got to do with him?
He had already fought with everything he had. If not for him, that two thousand man force might not have come back with even three hundred. It might have been barely a hundred, or even none at all.
When night came and it was nearly time to sleep, Roshi asked again.
"That group left, but another one came."
Roshi could no longer hold back. They were taking turns monitoring him around the clock.
Still, he suppressed the anger in his heart and went to sleep.
Although his mood was terrible, it was already late, and making a scene now would only disturb others.
The next day, after washing up and preparing breakfast, Roshi once again confirmed with the Four Tails that he was still being watched.
"Just underground, west of your house," the Four Tails replied.
If the ANBU had not used Earth Release to hide beneath the ground, the Four Tails might not have noticed them. But as a Tailed Beast whose chakra carried lava properties, it was extremely sensitive to the energy of the earth.
Roshi strode to the spot the Four Tails had indicated and said coldly, "Stop hiding. I know you're here."
At that moment, a breeze swept past, carrying sand and dust with it, but the ground ahead remained empty.
"Lava Release: Scorching Stream Rock Technique!"
Roshi condensed Lava Release chakra and quickly formed hand seals, his aura surging.
"What are you trying to do?!" Two Iwagakure ANBU instantly emerged to stop him.
Roshi had indeed killed many Iwagakure Ninja on the battlefield this time. They did not dare gamble on whether he might really attack with Lava Release.
"That's what I should be asking you! Why are you constantly monitoring me?!" Roshi shouted without restraint.
"Is the ANBU so idle? If you spent half this much effort on gathering intelligence, the front line wouldn't have been defeated so badly."
"That is not something you need to worry about. Intelligence matters will naturally be handled by others. We are protecting you," the Iwagakure ANBU emphasized.
Their mission was surveillance, but obviously they could not say that out loud.
"Protecting me? Protecting me, a Perfect Jinchūriki, inside Iwagakure?" Roshi was so furious he laughed.
If someone of his strength still needed protection within the Village, then Iwagakure was truly finished.
The ANBU remained silent, merely watching him.
Looking at their silence, Roshi felt a fresh wave of disgust. It was not as though he would casually kill his own fellow villagers.
"Ōnoki, what exactly are you thinking...?" Roshi muttered to himself, then turned his gaze toward the tallest stone building in Iwagakure.
The ANBU answered directly to the Tsuchikage. This had to be Ōnoki's order.
Roshi was never one to sit still. He ignored the ANBU entirely and marched straight toward the Tsuchikage's office.
He wanted an answer from Ōnoki. He wanted to know why he was wasting resources like this, and why he was having him watched.
At first, the ANBU did not understand what Roshi intended. But as he drew closer and closer to the Tsuchikage's office, they gradually realized it.
One of them immediately went to report the situation, while the other tried to stop him.
"Lord Tsuchikage is busy with official duties. You cannot disturb him casually," the Iwagakure ANBU said.
"He has time to order you to monitor me, but no time to speak to me personally?" Roshi replied coldly, continuing forward.
The ANBU tried to drag him back, but Roshi shoved him aside with brute force.
Then he strode directly toward the Tsuchikage's office, ignoring every Ninja he passed on the way.
Bang!
Roshi shoved the office door open with force and stared straight at Ōnoki, who sat in the office chair.
"Lord Tsuchikage, I apologize," the pursuing ANBU said with lowered head.
Inside the Tsuchikage's office, they could not fight recklessly. And relying on raw strength, they had been no match for Roshi while the Four Tails empowered him.
"It's fine. You may leave," Ōnoki said calmly, his face unreadable.
The ANBU nodded and quickly withdrew, shutting the door behind him.
The moment they were alone, Ōnoki's expression turned cold and severe.
"Roshi, what exactly are you trying to do? Attacking ANBU, forcing your way into the Tsuchikage's office. Those crimes alone are enough to put you in prison for ten years," Ōnoki said in a low voice, releasing a terrifying pressure.
If it were an ordinary Iwagakure Jōnin standing here, they would probably already be trembling uncontrollably beneath the weight of the Third Tsuchikage's presence.
But Roshi was no ordinary Jōnin. He was a Jinchūriki, and now one who had finally opened communication with the Four Tails.
Roshi showed no fear and answered directly.
"I should be the one asking you that. The moment I got back, you sent ANBU to watch me. And you call that protection? Are the ANBU really that free?"
"This was the collective decision of Iwagakure's upper ranks. Whether you are dissatisfied or not is irrelevant," Ōnoki replied bluntly.
Since Roshi had already discovered the truth, there was no point in pretending further.
"Collective decision..." Roshi clenched his fists, his eyelids twitching.
He had fought desperately on the front line, only to be distrusted like this the moment he returned.
"This is already the best outcome. Think about what you did on the battlefield. That was one of the greatest taboos imaginable."
Ōnoki's tone grew heavier.
"Some people even proposed replacing the Four Tails Jinchūriki. If I hadn't firmly opposed it, what you would be facing now would be more than simple surveillance."
There had indeed been such discussion in the high level meeting, though Ōnoki exaggerated it somewhat here.
His main goal was to use the opportunity to suppress Roshi's temperament and force him into obedience.
Roshi froze. He truly had not expected that some of the higher ups had gone so far as to consider replacing him.
And for a Jinchūriki, replacing the Jinchūriki meant one thing.
Death.
Once a Tailed Beast was sealed into a host, the two lives became closely bound. If the host died, the Tailed Beast died. If the Tailed Beast was extracted, the host died as well.
"The full Tailed Beast Transformation in the middle of the force and the use of the Tailed Beast Ball to break through were both Iwakura's orders," Roshi explained.
He had not gone insane. If Iwakura had not pushed him with his own self destruction, Roshi might not even have obeyed those orders at all.
"The battlefield report sent back did not mention any of that," Ōnoki said, shaking his head.
Roshi froze again.
He quickly realized the problem.
The battlefield had been far too chaotic. Very few Iwagakure Ninja could have clearly heard Iwakura's orders.
And with Mugetsu, that death god, nearby, the chances of survival had been abysmal.
"At the time, I had already been injured by Hayate Mugetsu's Water Release. Iwakura, as commander, saw that and ordered me to use Full Tailed Beast Transformation and coordinate with him and the Iwa Explosion Corps in an attack..." Roshi tried his best to recall the exact details and explained them carefully.
Although he did feel some respect for Iwakura's final act of self destruction, Roshi had no intention of taking the blame for him.
"Is there anyone who can testify for you?" Ōnoki asked after hearing him out.
"How do you prove that it was Iwakura's order rather than you becoming violent under the influence of Tailed Beast chakra?"
Roshi opened his mouth, but no words came out.
He did not even know whether anyone who had heard the order was still alive.
"I will send people to investigate for you. If there is nothing else, then leave. I still have work to do," Ōnoki said, making it clear the conversation was over.
In truth, he already believed Roshi.
Roshi was a stubborn and prideful man. Someone like that would disdain making up lies to escape responsibility.
But if Roshi could not produce a witness, Ōnoki still intended to keep things as they were.
First, he could not overturn the decision of the high level meeting based solely on personal intuition. That would be too arbitrary.
Second, he wanted Roshi to suffer a bit and learn obedience.
A Jinchūriki was the strongest weapon of a Ninja Village.
And a weapon, in Ōnoki's eyes, ought to act like one.
Han, who silently accepted missions and carried them out without complaint, was exactly the kind of Jinchūriki Ōnoki liked.
Roshi had nothing left to say.
As Ōnoki instructed, he left the office and walked out of the Tsuchikage Building.
But as he made his way through the streets of Iwagakure, he noticed something different.
The gazes of the villagers and Ninja around him were filled with visible fear.
Even on the bustling commercial street, empty space opened up wherever he passed.
Roshi walked home expressionlessly, vaguely hearing words like "monster" and "cruel" whispered behind him.
As a Jinchūriki, Roshi had experienced such treatment long ago.
He did not know why it felt so unbearable now.
Was it because he had helped the force break through and had still been treated like a war criminal?
Or was it because he had slept poorly and his nerves were more raw than usual?
Roshi did not know.
But he knew one thing very clearly.
He felt terrible.
Over the next week, Roshi rarely stepped outside. He stayed home almost the entire time.
Once he judged that Ōnoki should have completed his investigation, he went once more to the Tsuchikage Building.
This time, unlike before, he had filed a request in advance.
"I sent people to question every surviving member of your Land of Grass force except you. Every one of them said they heard no such order. Do you have anything else to say?" Ōnoki asked directly, wasting no time.
Roshi stood in silence and looked at him.
What was there left to say?
Should he blame the dead for dying before they could testify?
Should he personally search out every survivor and question them one by one?
"You need to behave more honestly from now on. Follow orders and carry out missions steadily. Learn from Han, and things will be fine," Ōnoki said in a tone that sounded almost like advice.
During wartime, Iwagakure could not suddenly replace a Jinchūriki. That would amount to severing one of its own arms.
It was no easy matter for a Jinchūriki to master a Tailed Beast's power.
"Withdraw the surveillance on me," Roshi said expressionlessly.
After hearing Ōnoki's words, he had finally understood.
The issue of killing comrades had only been an excuse. What the higher ups truly wanted was to suppress him.
In the past, Roshi might have endured it.
After all, this was the Village that had raised him. He had always believed he owed Iwagakure for that.
But this time, he truly could not endure it.
He had already acted on Iwakura's orders, yet the higher ups were still dissatisfied. They still wanted him to become some obedient machine that only followed commands.
Roshi felt he had already done everything he could for Iwagakure.
If the Four Tails had not helped him this time, he should have died on the battlefield.
He had already repaid Iwagakure with that life.
The life he had now belonged to the Four Tails.
Ōnoki frowned.
"Behave yourself from now on, and no one will interfere with your life. I am the Tsuchikage."
His meaning was obvious.
Whether Roshi was watched or not was a matter of his personal authority.
"If you don't withdraw the surveillance, you will definitely regret it later."
After saying that, Roshi turned and walked straight for the office door, prepared to leave.
What the higher ups wanted was for him to become a mission carrying machine, a tool with no will.
Roshi refused to grant that wish.
If Ōnoki continued to send ANBU to monitor him, Roshi would not kill them.
But he would leave Iwagakure.
He could not bring himself to slaughter innocent people of his own Village, so he would rather leave than remain tangled in all this.
Bang!
The office door slammed shut behind him.
Ōnoki's face darkened.
In all his years as Tsuchikage, Roshi was the first person who had dared treat him with such blatant disrespect.
A mere Jinchūriki.
"Withdraw the current ANBU assigned to monitor him. Replace them with the squad leader personally. Have elite ANBU take over," Ōnoki immediately ordered once Roshi had gone.
If he truly backed down under Roshi's threat, where would his authority as Tsuchikage remain?
So not only would the surveillance continue, it would intensify.
"Report to me immediately if Roshi shows any unusual movement."
Previously, Ōnoki had believed Roshi was only following Iwakura's order. But after Roshi's conduct here today, Ōnoki could not help but wonder whether some of that temperament truly was the influence of Tailed Beast chakra.
His temper had become too explosive.
Outside the Tsuchikage Building, Roshi let out a long sigh.
He had said those words and even considered leaving Iwagakure if the surveillance continued.
But in truth, Iwagakure was still his home.
The moment he truly considered leaving, Roshi found himself at a loss.
Where would he go after leaving?
What would he even do?
He had never thought about it before. Now that he did, he suddenly realized just how empty his life really was.
He could not think of a single thing he wanted to do once he left Iwagakure.
"Since I don't know where to go, maybe I should just travel everywhere," Roshi thought.
Whenever he had gone abroad before, it had always been on missions. He had never truly experienced what life in other countries was like compared to the Land of Earth.
"In that case, the first stop could be the Land of Rain. I can meet Ninja Master Sōsuke, the man with thousands of disciples, and see what a country covered in endless rain is really like."
The great deeds associated with Sōsuke had spread throughout the entire Ninja World. Roshi had heard countless legends about him.
Very few people could earn Roshi's admiration.
But if Sōsuke truly was as the stories claimed, then Roshi felt he might become one of those few.
"No point thinking that far ahead yet. Maybe Ōnoki will come to his senses and call off the ANBU."
Realizing he was thinking too much, Roshi shook his head and returned home.
For him, staying in Iwagakure was still the best outcome.
After all, once he left, it would not be so easy to come back.
.....
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