"On your knees?!"
Kairen stated a condition.
The high-level officials looked at me, I looked at you, and all saw the flicker of temptation in each other's eyes.
If it were gold, they would've scraped it off long ago.
Toadzo croaked once. "Don't believe him. It's not like you don't know how ruthless this brat is—he wipes out everything to the roots. He won't show mercy."
Sarutobi Hiruzen fell silent and swept his gaze over the surrounding ruins.
In the end, his eyes froze on the ninjas in the distance who were still stubbornly resisting.
As time passed, there were already very few ninjas left who could still pick up weapons.
A shadow clone pointed a gun at the Inuzuka clan members and cursed, "Kneel!"
"Alright, alright! I'll kneel! I'll kneel!"
"Tell your dog to kneel too!"
"Woof! Woof! Woof!"
Before the Inuzuka clan member could give an order, the ninja dog beside him obediently knelt down, its posture even more standard than its master's.
"Truly courting death. You're just a dog breeder—how did you get the guts to oppose us?"
"I had no choice. They said as long as I got rid of Moku Kairen, they'd give me two big bags of dog food."
"Hmph, wealth moves people's hearts!"
...
One by one, the ninjas gave up resisting, but there were always some who insisted on upholding the spirit of bushidō.
The shadow-clone army naturally had to take care of them.
As for the batch that surrendered, the shadow clones naturally treated them differently.
"I… I'm from the Kurama clan. My family really couldn't make ends meet, so I came out to do a job!"
The leader of the shadow clones waved his hand.
"You look short of breath. You don't have many years left anyway. Go home. Don't come out!"
"Okay, okay, thank you!"
"Sir, I'm from the Yamanaka clan."
"Oh! I've long heard the Yamanaka clan is especially good-looking, you—"
...
"Smack!"
The shadow clone gave a ninja a hard slap.
"Who are you trying to fool? You didn't even take off your clothes and you claim you're from the Aburame clan? You've got the Shimura clan crest right there—do you think I wouldn't recognize it?"
"Sir…"
"Men, take a few people to his house and confiscate everything. Same old rules—tie up the good-looking ones, and send the ugly ones to mine for the rest of their lives!"
"Sir… ꒦ິ^꒦ິ"
In the blink of an eye, Konoha's fighting strength had been completely wiped out.
All because of a single person!
Sarutobi Hiruzen felt a stab of pain in his heart. This battle had drained the clan's entire foundation.
The collapsing situation finally made people unable to hold back.
With a sharp sound, knees struck the ground.
It was Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado.
Neither of them was particularly tough. They were used to a pampered life, and under such pressure, they immediately couldn't hold on.
"Hahaha…"
Kairen laughed directly into a fool in the sky, looking down at the two advisors with eyes full of contempt.
"You usually look like you hold great power and work wholeheartedly for the village. When crisis strikes… your true faces are instead revealed!"
Homura Mitokado lowered his head. "Kairen-sama, don't blame us. It was all Hiruzen and Danzō's orders. We were just following along."
Koharu Utatane no longer had that aggressive air of wanting to bite anyone she looked at.
"It was all Hiruzen and Danzō's fault. It has nothing to do with us."
The two of them firmly pinned the blame on Sarutobi and Danzō, cleanly extricating themselves.
Back when the plan was being made, the two advisors had been extremely enthusiastic.
"Croak! Spineless—look at what you've done. Even a toad has more backbone than you!"
Sarutobi looked at his old friends of many years, and the pain in his heart only deepened.
"You—"
Koharu Utatane bit back at Sarutobi. "Hiruzen, you've done all kinds of evil. Retribution will come sooner or later."
Homura Mitokado chimed in. "Hiruzen, Danzō, all those ugly things you've done—we've seen them all. Today, retribution has finally arrived."
"Damn it!" Sarutobi Hiruzen clenched his fists, his heart filled with rage.
But there was nothing he could do. Their bonds had long been tied together.
Toadzo was livid. "Croak! Fine, so that's how it is. Each of you looks so righteous, yet you live worse than a toad."
"Since that's the case, I… I…"
Toadzo immediately sprawled flat on the ground like a toad.
"I surrender too. It's all that Sarutobi Hiruzen's fault. It has nothing to do with me!"
It was just a toad from Mount Myōboku that drank dew every day and ate grasshoppers, living a pretty good life.
Then one day it was suddenly summoned by the big boss to pretend to be human and do some human things.
Now it was basically a failure, and with no further instructions from the big boss, of course it couldn't die together with humans.
...
"Danzō!"
Seeing that Danzō had also knelt, Sarutobi Hiruzen felt even more alone.
In that case!
"I surrender!"
As the bandit leader, Sarutobi Hiruzen knelt straight down, causing the two people and one toad beside him to stare wide-eyed.
You're the ringleader! He'd let anyone go before letting you go!
"Father!"
Shinnosuke stared with eyes wide open. His father's character wasn't great, but he valued dignity immensely.
Now kneeling beneath a young man—such a thing was simply unimaginable.
Even his father had knelt. What should he do now?
Right, I'll kneel too.
Sarutobi Hiruzen, of course, was not truly submitting to Kairen.
He slightly narrowed his eyes at Kairen. The distance was still a bit far; using the Dead Demon Consuming Seal would be easy for the other party to dodge.
So he had to wait for the moment when Kairen was most relaxed.
Seeing that even Konoha's Hokage had knelt, Kairen burst into laughter and slowly flew down.
When he was no more than ten meters from Sarutobi Hiruzen, he mocked,
"Look at you all—your kneeling postures are exactly the same. Truly a bunch of friends across generations!"
The hand Sarutobi was hiding beneath him was already preparing to cast a technique.
Suddenly, a massive shadow appeared from the sky and leapt down heavily—it was Gamahiro, carrying two ninja blades on his back, his expression solemn.
On his head stood a tall man with long white hair, wearing a red outer garment.
It was Jiraiya.
At a glance, Jiraiya saw Sarutobi Hiruzen kneeling on the ground with a humble expression.
"Sensei…"
Jiraiya murmured. Even in defeat, one should die standing tall.
Like a Hokage.
Yet his teacher, Sarutobi Hiruzen, was pitifully kneeling on the ground.
With a complex expression, Jiraiya said to Sarutobi Hiruzen, "Sensei, is this your true self?!"
At the same time, he jumped down from Gamahiro's head.
As a junior, he kept to proper conduct and did not place himself above his elder.
Sarutobi Hiruzen glanced at Jiraiya, his eyes filled with complicated emotion.
Once, he had been just like Jiraiya—a ninja with a clear sense of right and wrong.
But at some point, he had changed, becoming calculating and ugly in his scramble for power.
Facing this disciple who had not yet been tainted by darkness—especially losing all dignity before him—
Sarutobi Hiruzen found it hard to endure.
He did not answer Jiraiya's question. He remained kneeling, silently searching for that moment of opportunity.
As long as Kairen was sealed, everything would return to normal.
Even if it cost him his life, he would win this war and leave behind a clean reputation.
Just now, Jiraiya's arrival had delayed things. Kairen had flown back onto the Nine-Tails' head, and Sarutobi Hiruzen lost the opportunity once again.
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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