Combined with the fact that half a year earlier, Village Hidden in the Mist's Three-Tails Jinchūriki, Hyakume Sōsuke, had likewise died at Shinichi Higashino's hands, Shinichi had already begun to earn the title of the Jinchūriki killer throughout the Shinobi World.
"Indeed, Shinichi-sama."
The Village Hidden in the Sand also spoke at this moment. As the representative, Pakura still wore an icy expression and remained silent, while the bespectacled middle-aged man beside her spoke first.
Shinichi glanced at the nameplate in front of him: Fumonon Tokotama.
According to the intelligence reports, he was currently the head of the Village Hidden in the Sand's advisory division.
"As the initiator of this agreement, if Shinichi-sama himself takes the lead in violating its provisions, yet receives no punishment whatsoever, then..."
At this point, Fumonon Tokotama deliberately dragged out his words. Pushing up the glasses on the bridge of his nose, he looked through the lenses with meaningful eyes.
"... That would make things rather difficult."
As his words fell, the atmosphere instantly froze.
The representatives of the Four Great Ninja Villages had spoken one after another, perfectly coordinating with one another as they directed the spearhead straight at Konoha, straight at Shinichi Higashino. They had clearly discussed this beforehand, waiting for this very moment to launch their offensive against him.
The delegates and reporters in the audience held their breath. Even the camera flashes paused for a brief instant as every eye focused on Konoha's delegation, waiting to see how Shinichi Higashino would respond.
But what no one expected was that before the man at the center of it all could answer, someone else at the center of the round table moved first.
A moment later, everyone stared in stunned disbelief at the samurai who had suddenly flipped the table and leaped to his feet. The reporters were the first to recover, their camera flashes exploding wildly.
'That kid!'
Mifune and Rokkaku both closed their eyes helplessly, sighing inwardly at the same time. They should have known from the start that Isshin would never sit quietly until the meeting ended.
"Kid, what do you mean by this?"
After a brief pause, A Yotsuki was the first to recover from his shock. With a dark expression, he glanced at the utterly unconcerned Isshin before turning toward Mifune and demanding coldly,
"Mifune-sama, is this the Land of Iron's position?"
"A-sama, please calm yourself."
Without changing expression, Mifune apologized calmly.
"Isshin is young and impulsive, and he acts recklessly. I will discipline him properly afterward."
Then, changing the subject, Mifune continued unhurriedly, "However, although this young man acted impulsively, his intentions were good. I believe that before pursuing responsibility for certain matters, there must first be laws to rely upon. Since these provisions had not yet been established at the time, trying to hold people accountable now for past events does seem somewhat unreasonable. I imagine it was precisely because Shinichi-sama experienced such an incident that he conceived the idea of drafting this agreement."
At this point, Mifune slowly swept his gaze across the representatives of the great ninja villages.
"Since all of the great ninja villages have gathered here today, I believe you have all come with at least a measure of sincerity. If that is the case, then rather than dwelling endlessly on past grudges, we should focus on the future and work together to bring this agreement into existence and ensure its implementation."
"Hmph!"
A Yotsuki snorted coldly and was about to speak again.
"A."
At that moment, Shinichi Higashino, the central figure of this conference, who had remained silent the entire time and allowed everyone to point fingers at him without responding, finally spoke.
The instant he opened his mouth, not only did A Yotsuki stop instinctively, but everyone's gaze in the hall also immediately converged upon him, as though he had been born to stand at the center of every gathering.
"What? Are you dissatisfied? Or rather..."
Shinichi slowly rose to his feet, looked directly at A Yotsuki, then slowly swept his gaze over the representatives of the other Three Great Ninja Villages, not even sparing the Village Hidden in the Stones.
"All of you are dissatisfied too, aren't you?"
The representatives wore varying expressions, yet all remained silent.
A moment later, the hot-tempered A Yotsuki, the first unable to hold back any longer, was about to speak.
But Shinichi nodded first, as though speaking to himself.
"In that case, today's meeting ends here."
"Go back and continue preparing for war. However long you wish to fight, Konoha will fight alongside you for exactly that long."
"But you'd all better pray that during this war you can find some way, any way at all, to kill me, Shinichi Higashino. Otherwise..."
At this point, Shinichi raised his eyes, and his gaze suddenly became as sharp as blades.
"Five years! At most five years!"
"Five years from now, I, Shinichi Higashino, will kill every last one of you by myself."
The moment those words were spoken, the entire conference hall fell into absolute silence before erupting into an uproar.
Everyone had expected Shinichi Higashino's response to be forceful.
But no one had imagined it would be this forceful, so forceful that it bordered on absolute madness.
To declare before a conference that had drawn the attention of the entire Shinobi World that, five years from now, he alone would slaughter all Four Great Ninja Villages… that was the ravings of a madman.
And yet, the one who had uttered those words was Shinichi Higashino, hailed as the greatest genius in the history of the Shinobi World.
At only eleven years old, his strength was already so terrifying.
No one knew just how powerful he would become five years from now.
Especially since a ninja's strength naturally advanced by leaps and bounds during adolescence.
At eleven years old, he could already charge into the Village Hidden in the Cloud and back out alive while crushing an army of three thousand Kirigakure ninja.
What about at sixteen?
Who even dared imagine it?
Even so, Shinichi Higashino's words still sounded unbelievably arrogant.
Yes, Shinichi Higashino, you're young. Your talent truly is monstrous. We even believe that five years from now, you may genuinely possess such strength.
But by saying it so openly, were you truly not afraid that the Four Great Ninja Villages, and perhaps even more forces besides, would unite right now to eliminate you before you could fully mature?
Or even disregard the neutrality of the Land of Iron altogether and join forces to strike you down on the spot?
Yet even more shocking words followed.
Without changing expression, Shinichi continued, "I imagine that after hearing what I've just said, everyone here now wants to make a move against me."
As he spoke, Shinichi actually spread both arms wide before the nearly one thousand people present, facing the representatives of the Four Great Ninja Villages and the furious guards glaring at him, making an inviting gesture.
"Then come! Try it. Let's see whether you can kill me!"
Check my Patreon for 150 more chapters
Pa treon. com/SweetestDeath