Rasa opened his eyes and scanned the empty courtyard around him.
Clearly this Aoki Ni lived alone.
"Konoha, huh."
He climbed to a high vantage point and looked out over the village. Scars from the Nine-Tails attack were still visible, but a lot had already been patched up. People moved through the night like the disaster had happened years ago. Warm yellow lights flickered everywhere.
"Konoha really is something else."
"Even after the Nine-Tails rampage it still looks richer and more alive than my Sunagakure."
"This is what real foundation looks like."
"Damn impressive."
"But being born here isn't always a blessing."
Rasa thought of the names that had paid the price for living in this golden cage.
Sakumo Hatake. The Uchiha clan. Minato Namikaze. Naruto Uzumaki.
He spent the rest of the morning walking Aoki Ni's body through every place that mattered.
As a jonin, Aoki Ni could go almost anywhere. Fire Shadow Tower. Hokage Rock. The Uchiha compound. The Hyuga compound. Rasa took it all in.
By noon the commercial district was packed. People lined up outside ramen stalls and yakiniku joints because half the village was still rebuilding after the fox. The smell of broth and grilled meat hung thick in the air.
Rasa steered Aoki Ni straight to the base of the Hokage Tower.
Then he opened his mouth and let the words fly.
"Who the hell is the Hokage to lecture us about the Will of Fire?"
"Who actually let the Nine-Tails loose?"
"Why the fuck did Minato have to die?"
"Why wasn't the old man the one who used the Reaper Death Seal?"
"Is the Will of Fire just bullshit we tell kids?"
"Was the Second Hokage wrong to stay behind that day?"
"Who's supposed to sacrifice for who?"
The voice boomed across the plaza. Every head snapped toward the tower. Faces went white.
"Who the hell is that?"
"Balls the size of boulders!"
"He's got a death wish!"
These were the exact questions people had been whispering ever since the rumors started. Some had already started wondering why Minato's death lined up so neatly with the "Will of Fire." But nobody had ever shouted them in the Hokage's face before.
ANBU flooded the square in seconds.
Hiruzen Sarutobi appeared at the window, face carved from stone, staring down at the man below.
"Who is he?"
"Lord Hokage, that's Aoki Ni. A jonin."
"A jonin?" Hiruzen's mind raced through everything he knew about the man. Civilian background. Completely average. Nothing special.
Why would a nobody like that suddenly grow a spine and scream treason right under his window?
"Take him alive! ANBU interrogation!"
The black-masked shinobi charged.
Hiruzen's stomach twisted as he caught the looks on the crowd's faces. The same looks he'd seen when Uchiha Yashiro had come here and ripped him apart.
Uchiha again?
Right before the first ANBU could grab him, Aoki Ni yanked a kunai from his pouch.
Shunk.
He drove it straight into his own throat, ripped it sideways, and blood sprayed in a hot arc.
"Without the Will of Fire, what the fuck is Konoha even worth?"
"A village like this doesn't deserve to exist!"
"Lord Minato, nobody gave a damn about your death. Nobody stood up for you. You must've been so disappointed. Well, Aoki Ni's doing it now. Aoki Ni's standing up for you!"
His body hit the ground hard.
The ANBU froze mid-step, masks already speckled red.
Screams ripped through the plaza.
"Dead! He's dead!"
Chaos exploded.
"Find out who put him up to this! I want the mastermind!" Hiruzen roared, veins bulging.
If Aoki Ni had lived, Hiruzen could have spun it. But a dead jonin screaming Minato's name on the steps of the tower? That was gasoline on a bonfire.
And just like he feared, the crowd was already turning.
"Not just civilians. Even some jonin think the same thing."
"Aoki Ni was a jonin. He knew things."
"When the village needs a sacrifice, why is it always the young ones who die?"
"Back in the day the old generation stepped up. Now it's the kids?"
"That's not the Will of Fire. That's just bullshit."
Rasa's consciousness snapped back into his own body the second Aoki Ni's heart stopped.
He checked the system panel.
Points were climbing like a rocket.
3000.
3100.
3200.
Rasa grinned.
"Thirty consecutive draws. Start."
The invisible wheel spun.
[Congratulations, Host. You have obtained an F-rank item: one tael of gold.]
...