Chapter 143: Creating Konoha's Guardian Beast
Stelle offered a careless shrug. "It is a trivial matter. There is nothing left to discuss."
Hiruzen Sarutobi stared at her, a muscle twitching near his jaw. He recalled his frantic, sleepless night, pacing the forest perimeter, fully expecting a catastrophic rampage. Instead, he had found the legendary Nine-Tails wandering aimlessly through the trees, showing absolutely zero interest in slaughtering the populace.
How did a terrifying Tailed Beast undergo such a drastic personality shift the moment it stepped foot inside their village? He certainly did not want the demon fox to flatten Konoha and incite mass panic, but this bizarre docility felt completely unnatural.
Beside him, Uchiha Kagami focused on a different, equally baffling problem. He scrutinized the human vessel currently housing the massive chakra entity. "What exactly is the deal with the Nine-Tails' current body?"
"Oh, that?" Stelle waved a hand dismissively. "It is an artificial human prototype from Tobirama-sensei's old laboratory. I had it sealed away in a storage scroll ages ago. I just remembered it recently, so I brought it out for a little waste utilization."
She spun the lie without a single blink, her expression a mask of absolute innocence.
It was a foolproof excuse. None of them had unrestricted access to Tobirama Senju's private research facilities. Stelle was the only one who treated that forbidden lab like her own personal playground, which meant her word was absolute law.
Thank goodness for the Second Hokage's reputation as a mad genius. Whenever an anomaly defied all logical explanation, Stelle simply slapped Tobirama's name on it. Perfect.
"Will there not be lingering side effects?" Kagami asked, rubbing the back of his neck. "Perhaps it would be safer to let him stay within the Uchiha compound. I believe the village elders would sleep much better if my clan kept a close eye on him."
"Nonsense. The Nine-Tails is incredibly friendly." Stelle reached out, firmly planting her hand on top of the Nine-Tails'head just as the beast-man bared his teeth in a feral snarl. She pushed down with enough force to make his knees buckle, forcing the newly minted human to quiet down and practice standing upright.'Friendly?''Only toward you!'
Hiruzen and Kagami exchanged deadpan looks, screaming the exact same complaint inside their heads.
Since the Nine-Tails was officially integrating into Konoha, he required a bulletproof cover story. Stelle, in her infinite generosity, bestowed upon him the prestigious title of her sworn younger brother—specifically, a younger brother who suffered from severe brain damage and required special care.
To ensure his smooth transition, she assigned elite Jonin to take the Nine-Tails on daily walks during their downtime, giving them strict orders to charge any of his purchases directly to the village's expense account.
However, for his very first handler, Stelle specifically selected Might Duy.
The reasoning was simple. The Nine-Tails still possessed the humiliating habit of dropping onto all fours to sprint like a wild animal. A normal ninja would die of secondhand embarrassment. Duy, on the other hand, operated on a completely different wavelength.
Predictably, the moment the Nine-Tails grew frustrated with the sluggish pace of bipedal walking and dropped to his hands and knees to bolt down the street, Duy's eyes practically erupted with fiery passion.
"Is Kurama undergoing a special physical conditioning regimen?!" Duy roared, striking a dramatic pose. "This is the true essence of YOUTH! Very well! Let us run fifty laps around Konoha on all fours!"
The Nine-Tails let out a frustrated, guttural bark, bounding forward. Duy immediately dropped to the dirt beside him, scampering along the road like an overly enthusiastic macaque.
"Proper relaxation is a vital component of training! Keep pushing your limits, Kurama!" Duy shouted, kicking up a cloud of dust. "Once we loosen up, we shall escalate the routine! How about walking a hundred laps exclusively on our hands?!"
For the next few days, the citizens of Konoha were treated to a deeply surreal spectacle.
A grown shinobi would lead the Hokage's supposedly brain-damaged younger brother down the main street. Halfway through the stroll, both men would suddenly drop to the ground, galloping on all fours and occasionally leaping over market stalls like rabid monkeys.
It was a scene so deeply absurd that even the most stoic Anbu operatives had to bite their tongues to keep from bursting into laughter.
To Stelle's mild surprise, the sheer humiliation of the ordeal worked wonders. It took exactly one week for the Nine-Tails to completely master his bipedal coordination. He began walking, sitting, and acting exactly like a normal human being. To an outside observer, there was absolutely nothing wrong with him.
"You adapted quite fast," Stelle praised, leaning back in her chair. "Not bad at all."
Kurama turned his head away, letting out a sharp, dismissive huff.
He would rather die than admit the truth to this wretched woman. He had only realized how utterly ridiculous he looked because watching Might Duy scurry around on the dirt to accommodate him had inflicted critical psychic damage. The secondhand embarrassment had been lethal.
He was the great and terrible Nine-Tails! How could he crawl through the mud like a circus clown while commoners pointed and stared?
Fueled by an explosive surge of wounded pride, Kurama had forced himself through a hellish week of self-imposed training, mastering human motor skills purely out of spite.
Watching the ancient demon fox act like a petulant, tsundere teenager, Stelle checked the massive influx of mood value flooding her system. She was winning on every conceivable front.
She was farming emotional reactions by the truckload, and she had successfully manufactured a Guardian Beast for Konoha—a strategic asset no other hidden village possessed.
This infrastructure-building game was getting dangerously addictive.
Stelle shifted comfortably in the grand seat reserved exclusively for the Hokage.
With a fluid wave of her hand, she brought the heavy, square Hokage Seal down onto the official Peace and Diplomatic Relations Document submitted by the Third Kazekage. The ink stamped perfectly. She slid the parchment across the desk to Nara Kajisuke, who stood nearby organizing a mountain of scrolls.
"The Third Kazekage formally requested that Konoha host a joint Chunin Exam," Stelle instructed, her tone shifting to a professional cadence. "He wants to bring the new generation of Sand shinobi here to broaden their horizons. Hand this over to Hiruzen. Tell him to hash out the logistical details."
"Understood, Hokage-sama!" Kajisuke bowed, gathering the documents.
Time pressed its invisible fast-forward button. In the blink of an eye, five years evaporated.
With an absolute powerhouse like Ida Mutzuki acting as the terrifying pillar of stability, the entire ninja world remained calm. It was a suffocating, terrifyingly quiet peace.
Every hidden village strictly confined themselves to their own borders, focusing entirely on internal development. Nobody dared to provoke their neighbors.
During this five-year golden age, Konoha's research laboratories shifted into overdrive. Household appliances like televisions and washing machines entered mass production. These luxury goods flooded the markets within the Land of Fire and quickly bled into neighboring countries through heavily guarded trading ports.
These revolutionary, quality-of-life inventions triggered a consumer frenzy. The market demand was insatiable. No matter how many units the factories churned out, they were instantly snapped off the shelves.
Konoha was drowning in revenue. When Shimura Danzo personally inspected the village's secondary treasury, staring at the literal mountains of stacked currency, the corners of his mouth stretched into a smile so wide his eyes practically vanished.
The notoriously ruthless spymaster even made a special, unprompted visit to the research division. He stared at Orochimaru and Hiruko with a gaze so warm and sickeningly affectionate, one would think he was looking at two divine children capable of laying solid gold eggs.
Following the massive success of the joint Chunin Exams, the Hidden Sand and Konoha entered an unmatched era of diplomatic friendship.
The Sand provided Konoha with a steady stream of rare minerals and earth elements, cracking open their previously isolated market. In return, Konoha dispatched elite construction battalions to overhaul the Sand's crumbling infrastructure. Massive merchant caravans rolled across the dunes, injecting life into the barren wastes. The Land of Wind, a nation perpetually choked by dust and despair, began a drastic metamorphosis.
The most immediate impact was felt by the commoners. For the first time in generations, the people of the Land of Wind had full stomachs. The booming market created a massive demand for labor. Civilians who previously spent their days staring blankly into the sandstorms, wondering if they would survive the winter, now had stable jobs and guaranteed meals.
Along the jagged border separating the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind, a miracle took root. A towering wall of trees stretched for hundreds of meters. Guided by agricultural experts deployed from Konoha's labs, the foliage grew thick, lush, and vibrantly green, acting as a massive windbreak.
Behind this protective timberline, farmers planted specialized, drought-resistant seeds engineered by Konoha. The crops exploded across the arid soil, forming vast, interconnected patches of gold and green.
This was merely the baseline prototype. Once Hiruko finished improving the genetic structure, the next generation of seeds would yield even higher harvests.
Convoys of heavy trucks, loaded with grain purchased at heavily subsidized rates, rolled into the Land of Wind. The food was distributed to the starving populace for pennies. Across the desert, civilians wept in the streets, raising their hands to the sky and chanting, "Long live the Third Kazekage!"
At the border checkpoint, Ebizo stood amidst the howling wind, personally inspecting the latest shipment from Konoha.
Thirty massive cargo carts, heavily guarded by Konoha Jonin, sat parked on the sand. They were packed to the brim with high-quality, low-cost medicinal herbs and vital resources the Sand desperately lacked.
Calculating the laughably low price they had paid for this absolute treasure trove, Ebizo's eyes practically sparkled. His usually calm demeanor cracked, replaced by sheer excitement.
"This New Year, our people will not have to freeze or starve," Ebizo muttered, gripping his clipboard. "No, not just our village. The entire Land of Wind is going to experience a truly prosperous New Year."
Beside him, Kazushi raised a single finger, wagging it lazily back and forth.
"Think bigger, Ebizo," Kazushi drawled. "Starting this year, the Sand will never experience a famine again. As long as we play our cards right and secure the core genetic technology for those drought-resistant seeds from the Land of Fire, the entire nation will be permanently cured of food shortages."
Chiyo stood a few paces away, her arms crossed tightly over her chest. She was a naturally paranoid woman, and this situation felt entirely too good to be true.
"Is Konoha's Fourth Hokage not being a bit too accommodating?" Chiyo asked, her eyes narrowing at the Konoha escorts in the distance. "We paid a fraction of the market value and received a king's ransom in resources. It feels deeply surreal."
She had personally accompanied the Third Kazekage to Konoha for the summit. She had sat across from the Fourth Hokage. She knew perfectly well that the woman was a ruthless, manipulative monster. During the First Great Ninja War, when the Kages of the other nations tried to extort reparations from Konoha, the Fourth Hokage had violently dismantled their demands right there in the meeting room.
Receiving this much charity from a known predator made Chiyo's skin crawl.
"Chiyo, you are overthinking things," Kazushi said smoothly. "Relax. With me at the helm, nothing will go wrong. I promised you I would make the Sand, and the entire Land of Wind, prosperous and strong. I do not break my promises."
Without warning, Kazushi draped an arm over Chiyo's neck, slumping sideways and dropping her entire body weight onto the older woman's shoulder.
'The main account raising the alt account,'Kazushi thought, hiding a smirk.'Isn't this exactly how it should be?'
"Kazushi, we are in public," Chiyo hissed, shifting her shoulder in a vain attempt to dislodge the Kazekage. "Mind your image."
"But I am so exhausted," Kazushi whined, her voice dripping with exaggerated misery. "During this trip to Konoha, I got into another spar with the Fourth Hokage. I couldn't win. I just couldn't win! Her punches were so heavy, I thought my ribs were going to shatter. I can't even walk anymore. You have to carry me back, or I am simply going to lay down and die right here."
Instead of standing up, the supreme leader of the Hidden Sand Village went completely limp, hanging off Chiyo like a wet rag.
"Fine! Fine, I will carry you!" Chiyo snapped, her face flushing with embarrassment. "Just stop clinging to me like a giant octopus! You might not care about your dignity, but I certainly care about mine!"
With a heavy, defeated sigh, Chiyo hoisted Kazushi onto her back. Glancing around to ensure none of the regular shinobi were watching, she channeled chakra into her legs, leaping toward a secluded path and sprinting back toward the village center.
Carrying the Third Kazekage through the shadows, Chiyo felt a deep, humiliating sensation, as if she were a thief fleeing a crime scene.
From the sidelines, Kakuzu's eyes locked onto the retreating duo. His financial radar pinged violently. He immediately gave chase.
"Kazushi!" Kakuzu shouted, matching their pace. "Let me carry you! Since we are all close colleagues, I will only charge you five hundred ryo! No, wait, one hundred ryo! A bone-breaking discount! My daily earning quota is exactly one hundred ryo short! Give me this business opportunity!"
"Get lost!" Kazushi barked from Chiyo's back.
"Understood. Have a nice day," Kakuzu replied instantly, skidding to a halt.
Left behind in the dust, Matsumoto Akira stood frozen, aggressively biting down on a white handkerchief. Tears welled in his eyes.
"Why does Lady Kazushi refuse to lean on my shoulder?" Akira whimpered, his voice trembling with heartbreak. "My shoulder is available to her for an entire lifetime! Did I do something to offend her? Is Lady Kazushi repulsed by my very existence?!"
Ebizo, whose face had been glowing with joy just moments prior, twisted into a mask of pure disgust. He glared at the weeping shinobi.
"A grown man acting this pathetic," Ebizo sneered. "Who wouldn't be repulsed by you?"
Akira ripped the handkerchief from his mouth, glaring back. "You aren't exactly a prize either! I can tell just by looking at your hairline that you are going to be a bald, ugly monster when you get old!"
Far in the distance, the howling, violent sandstorms crashed against the newly planted timberline, completely blocked from entering the village.
Within the borders of the Sand, for the first time in history, there was a genuine sense of peace.
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