Chapter 53: Double Kage Down
"Senju Tobirama is dead!"
Just as Hiiro Rinko was plating the last of the eggs and meat skewers, preparing a third breakfast, Pakura—who was supposed to be buying the morning paper—slammed open the kitchen door, panting as she delivered the news.
For a master of taijutsu like Pakura to be this out of breath was proof enough of her urgency. The unmelted snowflakes in her hair confirmed it.
"? Was he assassinated by that old bastard, the Second Raikage?"
Rinko, however, wasn't particularly surprised.
He had known for days that Senju Tobirama was heading to the Land of Lightning to sign a peace treaty with Kumogakure. He'd known earlier than most of the Jōnin Corps. After all, his uncle-in-law, Ebizō, was the head of Suna Intelligence.
"I knew those Kumo thugs were untrustworthy. Betrayal is second nature to them. Senju Tobirama must have been senile to go to their territory to sign a treaty."
When he first heard the news, Rinko had thought it was a stupid move. Part of it was his subjective disdain for Kumo, but most of it was an impression built on their terrible track record.
As one of the Five Great Villages, Kumo's reputation with clients was decent. But as a buyer or partner, those guys were just... crooked.
Hiiro Rinko's own trading company had been robbed by them several times. It had gotten so bad that Sakaki Tatsuma wanted to cut off all business with the Land of Lightning. But, considering the Land of Lightning was just too good for setting up factories, they had to endure it and just file more complaints.
The lost money was just the cost of doing business.
So, Rinko was not at all surprised that the Second Hokage had been assassinated in Kumo territory.
Even if Senju Tobirama was the 'God of Speed,' the Land of Lightning was Kumo's home turf. What if they had some little gadget capable of blocking the Flying Raijin Jutsu (Hiraishin no Jutsu)?
Don't forget, Kumo had been steadily collecting those famous Treasured Tools of the Sage of Six Paths.
"Konoha will probably declare war on Kumo now... In terms of politics, Suna should support Konoha, but the geography is bad... and Iwagakure's stance is hard to say..."
"No... the Second Raikage, A, is apparently dead, too. This time, it was a coup d'état by Kumo's Gold and Silver Brothers."
Just as Rinko was speculating on the other villages' movements, Pakura, who had downed the warm water he gave her, added another piece of news.
"...Who? Kinkaku and Ginkaku?"
Rinko paused, putting down the third plate of breakfast. He handed the first two, which were now at a good temperature, to Pakura and Karura, who had just walked in.
It wasn't that he hadn't heard of them. On the contrary, as veteran Kumo shinobi, the Kinkaku and Ginkaku brothers were infamous throughout the Shinobi World, having built a reputation on their savage personalities and immense strength.
In the past, those two had been swallowed by the Nine-Tails, only to eat its flesh from the inside, thereby gaining its Chakra and the ability to maintain a partial Tailed Beast state.
As for their proudest claim, the "blood of the Sage of Six Paths"...
Hard to say.
Flipping through the old records he'd collected, he found that plenty of clans in the Shinobi World claimed descent from the Sage. Considering the Sage was a figure from a thousand years ago, these claims weren't necessarily all boasts. But after so many years of dilution, how much of that bloodline was left was anyone's guess.
The most famous, verifiable Sage bloodlines were all in Konoha.
Though, the Uchiha Clan had been active in the Land of Lightning before Konoha's founding. Long before Hashirama and Madara were born, a daughter of the Chinoike Clan had married the Land of Lightning's Daimyō as a concubine. She was framed by the jealous wife after the Daimyō's death and her entire clan was exiled, with the Uchiha assigned to guard them. That mission had been the Uchiha's long-term meal ticket.
Since the Uchiha had never refuted the Gold and Silver Brothers' claims, and Kumo was actively collecting the Sage's Tools for them, their bloodline was probably legitimate.
If they caught him off-guard, the chance of those two brutes killing the Raikage was high. Add in a potential 'little gadget,' and taking down Senju Tobirama wasn't impossible.
After all, Tobirama was almost sixty. He was past his peak; a sharp decline in strength was normal.
But he'd have to wait for more detailed intel to analyze the situation.
"No, wait. How many people do they even have to stage a coup?"
This was what Rinko was stuck on.
"Do they even have thirty followers? Even if they killed the Raikage, do they really think they can take over?"
They were strong, but their arrogance had only grown after gaining the Nine-Tails' Chakra. Their reputations were terrible.
Sure, the Kage is usually the strongest in the village, but once you sit in that seat, you become a sacrifice for the 'village.' The vast majority of a village are regular shinobi. The Kage, the admin staff... they all exist to serve the 'shinobi' as a group, to maintain the 'village' structure.
A dead Kage isn't worth as much as the village's interests.
"But what benefit do Kinkaku and Ginkaku bring Kumo? They interrupted the Konoha treaty and killed their Kage. Who sees that as a benefit?"
After their reputation with the Chūnin and Jōnin corps completely collapsed, did they really think they could become the next Raikage with just a few loyalists?
"Don't tell me Tailed Beast Chakra fries your brain? I haven't felt that. Shukaku's Chakra doesn't give me that symptom."
His triple-core, twenty-seven-thread brain was about to overheat, but Hiiro Rinko still couldn't understand where Kinkaku and Ginkaku got their confidence.