Chapter 304: The Thoughts of the Women
Night fell, and the newly constructed Central District of the Holy City was already blazing with lights.
On a recently completed commercial street, a newly opened izakaya was bustling with noise. The warm, yellow glow of chakra lamps spilled through the wooden lattice windows onto the bluestone pavement, while the rich scent of sake and the smoky aroma of grilled meat drifted through the air.
In a corner booth, the female ninjas of Konoha sat gathered around a round table.
"Haa—!"
Anko Mitarashi boldly tilted her head back, downing her cup of sake in one gulp. She wiped the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand and let out a long breath reeking of alcohol.
"I'm absolutely exhausted. I've been supervising the digging of the moat for three days straight; my bones are about to fall apart."
Shizune, sitting beside her, smiled helplessly. She picked up the sake bottle and gently refilled Anko's cup. "Drink slower. You still have to oversee the bridge closure project tomorrow."
"I know, I know..." Anko picked up a piece of grilled meat, stuffed it into her mouth, and chewed a couple of times before freezing mid-bite.
Her sharp eyes cut through the swirling steam of the grill, locking dead onto Sakura and Tenten, who had been sitting opposite her, completely absent-minded the entire night.
"Let's get down to business."
Anko put down her chopsticks, leaned forward slightly, and lowered her voice. "You two used the excuse of delivering blueprints to go to the command center to find Ino and Hinata today, didn't you? So, what did you find out?"
The moment she said this, the atmosphere in the booth completely shifted.
Yugao Uzuki, who had been quietly holding a cup of green tea, casually set her cup down. Though she was an Anbu and an expert at hiding her emotions, her slightly whitened knuckles betrayed the turmoil in her heart.
Kurenai Yuhi, sitting furthest inside, also slowly raised her head. An incredibly complex light flickered within her ruby-red eyes.
"That girl, Hinata..." Kurenai's voice was very soft, carrying a profound sense of disbelief. "A few days ago in the central square... she was just standing there. She didn't even weave a single sign. But the natural pressure radiating from her was so immense that I actually felt an illusion that I wasn't even worthy of looking up at her."
Kurenai used to be Hinata's Jonin instructor.
In her memories, the frail girl who always blushed, stuttered when she spoke, and didn't even dare to look people in the eye felt like just yesterday.
Yet that very same timid girl, who couldn't even defeat a genius from the Hyuga Branch House, was now standing above tens of thousands of the ninja world's most elite shinobi.
Kage level?
No. That terrifying, suffocating pressure that smothered even the thought of resistance had long surpassed the Pain who had attacked Konoha. It had reached a 'divine dimension' that they simply could not comprehend.
"It's true..." Yugao took a deep breath, her cold voice tinged with awe. "Orochimaru and Lady Tsunade were both present at the time. Yet, faced with Lady Hinata's orders, they didn't even dare show a hint of a questioning tone. For her strength to skyrocket to such a level overnight... it completely defies all logic of ninjutsu."
Everyone's gaze converged onto Sakura and Tenten's faces once more.
Being stared at so intensely gave Tenten the chills. Her naturally thin skin flushed red, and she desperately kicked Sakura under the table for help.
Sakura bit her lip. Her emerald eyes flashed with the image of Ino in the corridor—sultry eyes, flushed ears, and that irresistible allure.
"Ino... didn't go into the details," Sakura said, her voice a little dry.
"Didn't go into details?" Anko raised a brow. "That gossipy little Ino-pig has the loosest lips of anyone I know. When she has something to brag about, you think she could hold it in?"
"It's not that she didn't want to say it, it's..." Sakura took a deep breath, throwing caution to the wind as she lowered her voice. "Ino said that Hinata didn't train at all. That power was a gift from Lord Alex. She called it... the sublimation of the origin of life."
The booth went silent for a second.
"Sublimation of the origin of life?" Shizune blinked. "Is that some sort of medical ninjutsu? It doesn't require chakra extraction and directly elevates the life tier?"
Tenten kept her head buried, staring dead at her teacup as she added in a voice as small as a mosquito's: "Ino also said... it's a girl's special... privilege. Only by becoming one of them can you..."
Tenten couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence. Her face was as red as dripping blood.
Shizune still didn't quite grasp it and was about to ask further, but Anko and Kurenai—women with far more worldly experience—instantly froze the moment the words left Tenten's mouth.
Clack.
The sake cup Anko had just picked up slipped from her fingers, clattering onto the table. A few drops splashed onto the back of her hand, but she didn't even notice.
"It was actually that??" Anko's eyes bulged. Even with her usually bold and uninhibited personality, her voice actually hitched.
The air around the table seemed to be instantly sucked away.
An indescribably sensual, ambiguous tension settled over the female Konoha ninjas like an invisible net.
Shizune finally realized what they meant. Her face instantly burned up like a boiled crab as she covered her mouth, stuttering, "Y-You guys mean, Hinata and Lord Alex... How is that possible?!"
No one refuted her.
Because everyone was frantically recalling the changes in Hinata over the past few days.
Kurenai leaned back against her chair, her eyes unfathomably complex.
She suddenly remembered looking at Hinata during a work report at the Administrative Center two days ago.
The little girl who used to walk with her head down now wore her long hair elegantly pinned up. The green naivety in her features had faded, replaced by an absolutely breathtaking, mature allure.
That hydrated, supple glow to her skin that looked so tender it could drip water. That inadvertent, enchanting laziness that belonged only to a true woman...
That was unmistakably the mesmerizing charm of a young wife who had been thoroughly showered in rain and dew, completely shedding her adolescent innocence.
It wasn't just Hinata. Shion, Samui, and even the once utterly unapproachable Rabbit Goddess, Kaguya Otsutsuki... the radiant luster in their eyes over the past few days was practically blinding!
No wonder... no wonder someone as proud as the Mizukage, Mei Terumi, willingly moved into that courtyard in the Central District.
Because the price was merely a single night of passionate submission. And the reward... was the divine power that a mortal could cultivate for several lifetimes and still never touch.
The noise of the izakaya carried on, but their table had fallen into a deathly silence.
It was as if a massive boulder had been dropped into every woman's heart, kicking up monstrous, surging waves.
Who didn't want the power to look down upon the masses? Who didn't want to be protected by a man as perfect as a God?
"But..."
After a long silence, Yugao Uzuki suddenly spoke, her cold voice laced with a deep, bone-chilling clarity.
She toyed with the empty sake cup in her hand. "Do we... even have a way back now?"
Those words were like a bucket of ice water, instantly extinguishing the pink bubbles floating in the air.
Everyone's hearts violently clenched.
Yugao raised her head, her gaze sweeping across everyone present. Her eyes carried the cruel lucidity unique to an Anbu. "Don't forget, half a month ago, Lord Alex drained all the chakra from the ninja world."
At this, Sakura and Shizune paled.
That day—having their power forcefully ripped from their bodies and plummeting from exalted ninjas to helpless, ordinary humans—left them with a crushing weakness that felt worse than death itself!
"We have chakra in our bodies again right now, but it's only because Lord Alex temporarily lent it to us to build the Holy City."
Yugao's voice was quiet, but every word pierced their souls.
"Take a guess. Once this month of construction is over and the Holy City is completely finished... will this chakra continue to remain ours, or will it be taken back again, leaving us to live the rest of our lives as ordinary women?"
Shizune's hand violently trembled.
The drunken flush completely vanished from Anko's face.
It was easy to grow accustomed to absolute power, but agonizing to have it stripped away.
Having tasted the supernatural power of a ninja, who could endure reverting to a weak, defenseless woman waiting to be slaughtered? Especially in this world where a new order had just been established and statuses could be reshuffled at any moment!
Gulp. Sakura swallowed hard. Underneath the table, her hands gripped her clothes in a death vice.
The image of Hinata sitting on high, deciding the life and death of countless people with a single word, surfaced in her mind once more.
Never! I refuse to ever become a weakling hiding behind someone else's back again. Never!
A flash of unprecedented resolution and wild ambition flared within Sakura's emerald eyes.
"Ino said..." Sakura suddenly lifted her head, staring at the group with burning eyes. Her voice was low, but it carried the heavy weight of someone ready to bet everything.
"Ino said that Lord Alex and Lady Konan will be returning in a few days."
As soon as she said this, the chilling atmosphere was instantly reignited. And this time, it burned even hotter, even more crazily than before.
Kurenai Yuhi picked up her sake cup, using it to hide her slightly trembling red lips.
Anko narrowed her eyes, the tip of her tongue gently licking the corner of her mouth.
Yugao slowly took her empty cup and placed it upside-down on the table.
The booth fell back into silence.
But beneath that silence, the beast lurking at the bottom of every woman's heart had quietly opened its eyes.
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