Chapter 171: Air Raid on Konoha
"So that's how it is."
Kazue's voice was a fragile whisper in the dimly lit office. She twitched her pale fingers, desperately trying to weave a single hand seal, but her muscles refused to obey. The chakra pathways within her body were completely ravaged, spiraling into violent chaos. Every ounce of her strength was being devoured, siphoned away by a cold, creeping numbness.
She lifted her heavy gaze. "That cup of tea Sasori offered me just a moment ago... you poisoned it, didn't you?"
Chiyo stood rigid across the desk. Tears welled in the elder woman's wrinkled eyes, spilling over her weathered cheeks in absolute silence. Her agonizing expression was all the confirmation Kazue needed.
A violent fit of coughing suddenly wracked Kazue's frame. Dark, venomous blood trickled down her chin, staining her Kazekage robes. Yet, looking at her oldest friend, there was no anger in her eyes.
"Chiyo... I don't blame you," Kazue murmured, her breathing ragged. "I moved too fast. I tried to drag Sunagakure into the future, and the times simply couldn't keep up with my pace. The pressure on your shoulders must have been suffocating, with half the village looking to you for guidance. You must have agonized over this choice for so long..."
The chakra threads extending from Chiyo's trembling fingertips flickered erratically. The elder opened her mouth, her lips quivering, but her throat seized up. She was standing here, fully prepared to personally execute her closest confidant—the very Kazekage she had once proudly endorsed. The sheer cruelty of the moment crushed her spirit.
"I'm sorry..." Chiyo finally choked out, her voice breaking. "Kazue... I am so sorry..."
Gripping the edge of her mahogany desk, Kazue fought to keep her collapsing body upright. "No, you haven't wronged me," she replied, her tone carrying a tragic, quiet dignity. "Your vision is simply too narrow, Chiyo. You are confined to the borders of a single village, a single nation. You could never fully grasp my ideals. But it doesn't matter anymore. The seeds of true peace have already been sown in the shifting sands. One day... someone will understand."
Seeing Chiyo's resolve fracturing, one of the conservative elders stepped forward, his face twisting with anxious malice. "Chiyo, stop listening to her treasonous nonsense! Do it now! Send her on her final journey!"
But Chiyo remained frozen, paralyzed by her own grief.
Kazue shifted her gaze toward the shadowed elders. A weak, mocking smile touched her bloodstained lips. "Are you afraid?" she taunted, her voice dripping with dry sarcasm. "You high and mighty conservatives. You cower at the thought of war, yet you are utterly terrified of peace. You know that if true harmony is ever achieved, your lofty, comfortable seats of power will become obsolete."
She coughed again, her smile never fading. "In the end, you are nothing more than dead grains of sand drifting aimlessly with the tide. One day, the torrent of peace will rise up and swallow you all whole."
"Shut your mouth!"
Enraged by the piercing truth, several elders lunged forward in unison. Lethal bursts of Wind Release and jagged spikes of Sand Release erupted across the room, tearing the Kazekage's office to shreds. In such a confined space, Chiyo's puppets were practically useless, tangled in the crossfire. But against the combined assault of Sunagakure's elite, the poisoned and crippled Kazue stood no chance. Fresh, bloody lacerations bloomed across her skin as she was violently thrown back against the wall.
A rogue puppet, manipulated by an elder, shattered through the swirling wind currents. Its concealed blade snapped out, aiming directly for Kazue's carotid artery.
Before the steel could bite into her flesh, the office window exploded inward. A pair of massive hands, stitched together by hundreds of writhing black threads, shot through the shattered glass. The hands clamped down onto Kazue's shoulders with bone-bruising force and violently yanked her backward into the night air.
Kakuzu didn't waste a single millisecond. The moment he secured her against his chest, the towering rogue ninja pivoted and launched himself out of Sunagakure's perimeter, his powerful legs tearing up the desert terrain.
"After them! Do not let her escape!" the elders roared, pouring out of the ruined tower in hot pursuit.
Kakuzu hoisted Kazue over his broad shoulder, sprinting at breakneck speed through the complex canyons. He strictly followed the clandestine retreat route Ebizō had mapped out for them.
"Damn it all," Kakuzu cursed under his breath, his eyes scanning the dark cliffs. "If that idiot Ebizō hadn't gotten himself locked up, this complete disaster would never have happened!"
Despite his imprisonment, Ebizō's careful advance planning proved very useful. He had quietly dismantled the outer security patrols, leaving the escape path completely devoid of ambushes. Kakuzu's relentless pace eventually left the Sunagakure pursuers eating dust in the desert winds. Slowing to a halt in a secluded cavern miles away, Kakuzu finally let out a harsh breath of relief.
It was only then that he noticed the heavy, wet warmth seeping through his cloak. His clothes were completely saturated in blood. A sudden, cold spike of dread pierced his chest. He shook the limp figure slung over his shoulder.
"Kazue! Wake up! Kazue Enkawa!" he barked, his gruff voice echoing off the cavern walls. "Hey! You haven't paid out my year-end bonus yet! Wake up right now!"
Panic, an emotion he hadn't felt in decades, began to claw at his throat. He hurriedly set her down against the rocky wall. Her head lolled to the side, lifeless.
"Kazue Enkawa, didn't you confidently assure me there would be absolutely no problems?" Kakuzu demanded, his hands hovering over her still form. "You even ordered me to go buy groceries and cook dinner tonight! Say something!"
He grabbed her shoulders, shaking her slightly. "You damn woman, were you planning to drag me on another bounty hunt to cover this year's bonus? Fine! You provide the intel, I do the dirty work, and we take every last ryo we can carry. Just stop playing dead! I don't even want the bonus anymore, okay?"
Silence answered him.
"Fine, fine, fine!" Kakuzu's voice cracked, a desperate edge bleeding into his usual stoicism. "Since you actually made my life in the Land of Wind more tolerable than that miserable pit in Takigakure, I won't even ask for a salary anymore! Just open your eyes! Open them, or I swear I'll rip out your heart and use it myself!"
But the woman slumped against the stone had long since lost the ability to reply. She remained perfectly motionless, her skin cold. The only sound left in the cavern was the desolate, mournful whistling of the desert wind.
Miles away, back in the bloodstained office of Sunagakure, Chiyo finally collapsed. Her knees hit the floorboards with a heavy thud. Staring out the shattered window into the endless, dark desert where her friend had vanished, she bowed her head and screamed, her voice tearing through the night, "Farewell to the Third Kazekage!"
Three days later, the drums of war echoed across the dunes. The mobilized army of the Land of Wind marched outward, launching a furious offensive aimed directly at Konohagakure.
Elder Chiyo, now acting as the supreme commander of Sunagakure, issued a venomous public denunciation: "The Third Kazekage, Kazue Enkawa, was brutally assassinated by a sleeper agent planted by the Fourth Hokage. Sunagakure demands that Konoha pays for this treachery in blood."
Fortunately, Stelle, sitting comfortably on the Hokage's seat, had anticipated this exact geopolitical fallout. She had deployed Sakumo Hatake to the western borders weeks in advance, leading a heavily fortified Konoha vanguard. The White Fang's forces successfully intercepted the advancing Sand shinobi right at the volatile intersection between the Land of Rain and the Land of Wind, effectively quarantining the violence and ensuring the civilian villages within the Land of Fire remained untouched by the flames of war.
Because Mutzuki Ida—widely recognized as the current apex powerhouse of the shinobi world—had yet to officially take the field, the global conflict remained trapped in a cautious, probing phase. None of the hidden villages dared to commit their main forces, holding their elite divisions back as they waited for a decisive opening. The war zones were restricted to bloody, small-scale skirmishes. The massive armies of the Land of Wind and the Land of Earth found their battlefronts compressed entirely into the miserable, muddy territories of the Land of Rivers and the Land of Rain.
Hanzō of the Salamander, the undisputed dictator of Amegakure, was absolutely livid. Watching his weeping country be reduced to a disposable combat buffer zone for the second time in history pushed him over the edge. In a fit of venomous rage, Hanzō proactively declared war on all the invading major nations simultaneously, his only desperate goal being to slaughter enough foreign shinobi to drive them out of his borders forever.
At night, the Konohagakure Command Center was a hive of frantic activity. Endless stacks of encrypted battle reports flooded in from the border outposts. Dozens of intelligence operatives worked feverishly under the harsh fluorescent lights, deciphering enemy movements. At the main strategic table, Kajisuke Nara and the head of the Yamanaka clan carefully organized the incoming data, mapping out the shifting tactical landscape.
Stelle slouched in the Hokage's high-backed chair, her index finger tapping a lazy, rhythmic beat against the polished wood of her desk.
The situation was almost comical to her. The Four Great Nations were fighting with such pathetic caution, restricting themselves to minor skirmishes, absolutely terrified of a direct, all-out confrontation. The moment any side took a slightly heavy hit, they would instantly deploy a Jinchūriki to fire off a few warning Tailed Beast Balls just to force a tactical retreat. There were no genuine existential threats on the major battlefields; Hiruzen Sarutobi and the veteran commanders were more than capable of holding the line.
Over in the Land of Rain, Hanzō was lashing out like a cornered beast, attacking indiscriminately. He was slaughtering Konoha and Sand shinobi alike, desperately trying to rout their main camps. But with Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru stationed at that front, Stelle didn't feel the slightest ounce of worry.
At this stage in the geopolitical game, it was simply a waiting match to see which idiot village would stick their neck out first.
A polite knock interrupted her thoughts. A masked Anbu operative slipped into the office, carefully holding a lacquered bento box. "Hokage-sama," the Anbu murmured respectfully. "This is a late-night meal prepared by your student, Minato-kun. He specifically requested that I deliver it to you."
Stelle's lips curled into a pleased smirk. "Minato really is the most thoughtful student. Bring it here."
She eagerly accepted the bento box and popped the lid. It was a lavish three-tiered spread packed with perfectly roasted meat, crispy tempura, and rich braised beef—every single one of her absolute favorites.
"Kajisuke!" Stelle called out, waving her chopsticks. "You guys come over here and try some of Minato's cooking. The kid's culinary skills are genuinely top-tier."
She pinched a piece of tempura with her chopsticks, bringing it toward her mouth—but suddenly froze.
Her casual demeanor vanished in a heartbeat. Her golden eyes sharpened into dangerous slits as she snapped her gaze toward the night sky beyond her office window.
High above the distant horizon, dozens of faint, eerie blue lights were rapidly approaching Konoha's airspace. Through her overwhelming sensory perception, she could feel the distinct, buzzing chakra signatures radiating from every single point of light. Shinobi. They were approaching from the sky, positioning themselves for an aerial bombardment on the village.
Stelle's encyclopedic memory of the original plotline instantly provided the answer. During the Second Great Ninja War, there was only one faction arrogant enough to attempt an aerial raid on the Leaf.
She immediately deduced the identity of the incoming hostiles. Those blue lights were the advanced technological flight units of Soragakure, carrying a squadron of Sora-nin straight toward her village.
A dark, utterly thrilled grin spread across the Fourth Hokage's face. The real battle had finally arrived.
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