💎 WEEKLY POWER GOALS 💎
🔥 30→2ch | 60→5ch | 100→8ch | 200→15ch | 400→25ch
⏰ Resets Monday!
~~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~~
An hour later, a group of bruised and battered children hid behind their parents.
Several burly, middle-aged women glared at Tsukimi Heshu.
"You're the brat who hit my son!" roared a woman in a red dress, her fleshy face twisted with rage.
Heshu smiled.
Just you wait. I'll smack you too.
"My child wouldn't hit anyone without reason! There must be more to this story!" cried Kyo Terumi, who had gone to buy snacks and missed the whole fight, rushing over in a panic to shield Heshu.
"Hmph! I don't care about your reasons! Your little brat hit my precious boy! That's a fact!"
The women began rolling up their sleeves, snarling warnings. "Today, you'll learn what happens when you mess with my son!"
Heshu looked at the fierce woman. Now he understood why the little ringleader had been so arrogant.
The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
"Oh? Is that so?"
A voice came from above. A figure dropped lightly from a rooftop, landing in front of Heshu. "I'd love to see what that is."
Mei Terumi planted her hands on her hips, a sinister smile on her face. She looked ready to slaughter everyone present.
"That… that's… Mei Terumi!"
Mei was famous in Kirigakure. Some of the women recognized her. Their arrogant demeanor vanished on the spot.
"Ahem. Your child hit mine. That's an indisputable fact," the lead woman coughed twice, stubbornly holding her ground.
"He started it! Picking on others, then crying to his mommy when he loses? Pathetic!" Heshu's voice dripped with contempt.
"Lies! My boy… would never bully anyone!" the woman retorted, though she sounded less than confident. She probably knew her son's true nature.
"Hmph. Whether it's a lie or not, we can take him to the Disciplinary Office and find out," Mei said coldly, seeing right through the woman.
The woman broke into a cold sweat. "The… the Disciplinary Office? Th-that's not necessary!" She grabbed her child, forcing a laugh. "It's just kids playing! No big deal! No big deal! Ha… haha…" Still laughing nervously, she retreated.
The remaining women exchanged glances and scattered.
"You little devil!" Mei turned, fixing Heshu with a fierce stare.
Then, the anger melted from her face, replaced by a proud grin. Her hand landed on Heshu's head. "Not bad! Beating up a whole gang! Worthy of being my niece!"
[Ding! Affection of Conquest Target Mei Terumi: 60!]
Kyo Terumi smiled, relieved to hear her sister finally acknowledge the girl.
It was getting late. Time for Heshu to go home with the Terumi sisters.
Before leaving, Heshu held Haku's small hand, reluctant to let go. "Come play here tomorrow! I'll wait for you!"
My Conquest Target!
[Ding! Affection of Conquest Target Haku: 65!]
Heshu remained excited, eagerly awaiting the next day.
"I've never seen you this enthusiastic about a Conquest Target before," the System observed.
"The essence of humanity is being a lolicon. You might prefer older women, but you can never refuse a loli." Heshu smirked triumphantly.
The next day.
Heshu stood in the dense white mist of Kirigakure. His heart turned cold.
"Haku?"
"Where's my Conquest Target?"
"Where did he go?"
Kirigakure was an island village. Summer temperatures here were much lower than in other villages. The morning wind carried a slight chill.
"It's fine!"
"Maybe Haku likes to sleep in!"
"I can understand!"
Noon.
Heshu had petrified into a statue.
"Sweetie, let's go home for lunch! Did your friend go home already?" Kyo Terumi had come to fetch him. Looking around and not seeing yesterday's friend, she assumed he'd gone home for lunch first.
"…" Heshu forced a smile. Under Kyo's expectant gaze, he nodded. "He said he was hungry, so he left first!"
Can't tell her I got stood up by a little kid.
Heshu let Kyo lead him by the hand back to the small villa.
"Something's wrong."
Looking at the door ahead, Heshu instinctively activated his chakra.
Infinity, full-body coverage.
"What's wrong?" Kyo asked, noticing her daughter's sudden stop, a flicker of confusion in her eyes.
Heshu shook his head. Several unfamiliar chakra signatures were inside.
Identity exposed?
Shouldn't be possible.
He stepped forward slightly, smiling at Kyo. "Let me open it!"
Kyo saw no reason to object, attributing it to a child's whim. She nodded indulgently.
One step. Two. Three.
The atmosphere grew eerily quiet.
Under Kyo's loving gaze, Heshu's hand grasped the doorknob.
"Water Style: Water Gun!"
In an instant, pellets of condensed water pierced through the wooden door, shooting directly at Heshu's entire body.
The smile vanished from Kyo's face. Red threads crept into the whites of her eyes. Anger, shock, and fear flashed across her expression.
"NO!" Kyo's cry was piercing.
The water pellets halted ten centimeters from Heshu's body, as if frozen in mid-air. They dissolved into fine trickles of water, dripping to the floor.
"So it's true. Konoha's Tsukimi Heshu."
As the words fell, the riddled wooden door was kicked to splinters.
Mei Terumi stood there, backed by dozens of Kirigakure shinobi.
Among them, Ao, the young shinobi with a Byakugan, stared intently at Heshu, his brow furrowed.
[Ding! Affection of Conquest Target Mei Terumi: 40!]
[Ding! Affection of Conquest Target Mei Terumi: 20!]
[Ding! Affection of Conquest Target Mei Terumi: -20!]
Impressive drop speed.
But how did they know he was Tsukimi Heshu?
Perhaps reading his confusion, perhaps confident in their victory, or perhaps filled with pride at uncovering the truth, Ao spoke. "You may not know this. The moment you defeated the Two-Tails on the battlefield, your shinobi profile, through various channels, entered the hostile-ninja registry systems of all Five Great Shinobi Countries."
If the intel hadn't arrived in Kirigakure just this morning, they might have been deceived by this shameless spy for much longer. When Mei had seen Heshu's photo, she'd nearly demolished the entire Mizukage Tower in her rage.
Well, now.
Heshu raised an eyebrow. So he was a somewhat notorious ninja.
"But unfortunately, coming to Kirigakure will be the biggest mistake you ever make," Ao said coldly.
"What are you talking about?!" Kyo Terumi cried, her heart filled with dread. She rushed forward, placing herself resolutely between Heshu and the others, her eyes pleading with Mei Terumi. "Mei! She's your niece! How can you hurt her?"
Mei felt a headache coming on.
What kind of technique had this spy used to bewitch her sister so thoroughly?
"Sister, she is not your daughter. You've been deceived!"
"Whether she's my daughter or not, who would know better than her own mother?" Kyo's eyes welled up with tears. How could she mistake the daughter she carried for ten months and gave birth to with such pain?
Mei Terumi: "…"
"What did you do to my sister?" Mei glared at Heshu.
"Nothing. She'll return to normal after I leave Kirigakure," Heshu said, glancing at Kyo.
"Hmph! Do you really think you'll walk out of Kirigakure alive today?" Mei's eyes were filled with scorn.
Heshu: "You think I can't?"
"Of course you can't! You'll never leave Kirigakure alive!" Mei snapped back.
"A lie's lie will become reality." While Heshu was confident in his own strength, who would say no to an extra layer of insurance? "Kirigakure's military strength isn't top-tier. Prolonging this war benefits neither side. Wouldn't a ceasefire be better?"
Among the Five Great Shinobi Countries, Kirigakure couldn't match Kumogakure in power, Iwagakure in numbers, or Konoha in resources. They could only bully Sunagakure. Yet here they were, punching above their weight, fighting Kumo and now picking a fight with Konoha.
What's the difference between this and Sasuke's mentality?
"Hmph! Konoha sent a spy to our village! Did you expect us not to retaliate?" Mei knew Heshu spoke the truth, but her pride wouldn't let her concede verbally.
"I haven't done anything since I got here!" Heshu put on an innocent face. "All I did was eat some seafood and beat up a bunch of kids. I even upheld justice!"
Mei and the other Kiri shinobi's faces darkened as if coated in soot. Every word from Tsukimi Heshu was tap-dancing on their last nerve. It wasn't that he'd committed some heinous act. It was the sheer humiliation of letting a spy roam their village freely.
"Water Style: Water Prison Technique!"
A Kiri shinobi attacked first.
Too bad. The water prison hadn't even fully formed before Heshu's extended Kamishini no Yari pierced right through the user.
Kyo Terumi watched it all, feeling the world tilt on its axis.
Since when was her daughter this strong?
"Water Style: Water Formation Pillar!"
Mei attacked.
A massive torrent, like a tidal wave, surged toward Heshu.
Heshu's figure vanished. He reappeared, hovering in mid-air. He grinned down at Mei and the others. "A little gift for you."
"Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue."
"Cursed Technique Reversal: Red."
Two forces of suffocating power coalesced around him. Violet lightning wreathed his body.
"Hollow Technique: Purple."
The energy detonated over Kirigakure.
The ground trembled.
Violet lightning arced across fifty meters.
In a massive fissure that split the earth, Kiri shinobi lay scattered and unconscious.
Wanting to capture Heshu, the Kiri forces had evacuated civilians from the area beforehand. Ironically, this ended up reducing their own casualties.
Mei was fast. Though slightly injured, she could still move. Her first instinct was to find her sister.
"Wow, sweetie! You're amazing!" Kyo Terumi gazed at Heshu in admiration.
Heshu hadn't included her in the attack's radius.
"…"
"Sister!" Mei looked nervously at Heshu, terrified he might do something to Kyo.
Worrying about Kyo was unnecessary. Heshu wasn't that depraved.
"Relax. I'm not as despicable as you think." He had genuinely enjoyed Kyo's meticulous care these past few days.
"Water Style: Isobu's Great Waterfall!"
A colossal wave, roaring with wind, crashed toward Heshu from behind.
Heshu raised a hand. A biting cold erupted. Ice spread with terrifying speed, flash-freezing the oncoming tsunami solid.
A figure landed on a roof beam opposite him.
"Kirigakure is not a place you can come and go as you please!"
The speaker was short, with green hair and pink eyes—Yagura Karatachi, the Fourth Mizukage and Jinchūriki of the Three-Tails, Isobu. Despite his childlike appearance, his voice held immense authority. He stood unmoving on the roof, as if waiting for Heshu to make the first move. As the Mizukage, attacking first on his own turf would be beneath his dignity.
"You sure about that?" Heshu had tried to hand him a way out.
"Excessive arrogance is not a virtue," Yagura said, a faint trace of disappointment in his heart. He had thought the one who so easily defeated the Two-Tails would be a humble, talented shinobi. He hadn't expected such blatant arrogance, even when facing him.
This wasn't just arrogance. It was ignorance. Yagura's pink eyes flashed with contempt.
"Alright then." Heshu nodded.
His figure seemed to hang in the air for a split second. The next moment, a powerful spatial distortion shook the senses.
But the spot was empty.
"…"
An awkward silence thickened the air.
The arriving Kiri shinobi barely dared to look at their Mizukage's face.
Mei averted her gaze. She could almost hear crows cawing as they flew over the Mizukage's head.
Then, she clenched her fists in fury.
That bastard!
"Sister!" Mei cried out as Kyo Terumi's body swayed and collapsed.
"Relay this order! Add a note to the profile of Konoha-nin Tsukimi Heshu," Yagura said through gritted teeth, his face dark. "Possesses extremely powerful space-time ninjutsu."
Even Minato Namikaze wasn't this brazen!
Yagura's hands trembled. He swore to all previous Mizukages that he would make Tsukimi Heshu regret his actions today.
"System, show me my current mission panel."
Heshu, now strolling leisurely through the forests of the Land of Fire, issued the command.
The System projected a blue electronic screen in his mind.
Haku's affection: 60.
Yugito's affection: stable at 85. Heshu tutted in surprise. He'd thought she would hate his guts after the spy revelation. Unexpected.
Killer Bee's affection: still holding at 60.
Heshu stroked his chin. "System, did you get the permissions you applied for?"
The permissions were to keep skills even if affection dropped.
The reason Heshu hadn't let the System assign skills immediately upon gaining affection was precisely this worry—that affection from Yugito and Killer Bee might plummet after his cover was blown, and the skills might be reclaimed.
It was better to never have something than to have it and lose it.
"Application approved," the System replied.
Wasn't that why it had clashed with the Alluring Conquest System's head administrator? Just a petty head admin, thinking they were so great. It had connections too, you know.
"Assign skills now?" the System asked.
"No!" Heshu shook his head firmly. Sasuke was already in Mikoto's womb.
What did that mean?
It meant Naruto would soon be in Kushina's womb.
The Nine-Tails attack was approaching.
Heshu needed to save up more affection points for a rainy day.
Save!
Hoard!
It was one of the finest traditions of the Chinese nation.
Though he wore a kimono, his heart remained Chinese.
~~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~~
Read up to (40+ ) advanced chapters on Patre\on
Visit us here: patreon.com/GoldenLong
Happy reading, everyone!