Chapter Forty-Four: Ten Years (Please Keep Reading and Cast Your Monthly Votes!)

Ten years.

This was a long passage of time.

During this period, many events transpired within the shinobi world.

After the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama, led the Anbu back to Konoha, nobody knew what he and Senju Tobirama had discussed, but Hashirama immediately made his first major move.

Capturing the Tailed Beasts.

There were a total of nine Tailed Beasts in the shinobi world.

Except for the One-Tail, which had already been captured by Sunagakure, and the Nine-Tails, which Konoha had sealed within Uzumaki Mito, Hashirama captured every single remaining Tailed Beast.

Soon after.

The first Five Kage Summit was convened.

Hashirama sold the Tailed Beasts to the major hidden villages of the shinobi world at reasonable prices, ostensibly wanting to ensure a balance of power among them.

When Emiya Shihara happened to cross paths with Hashirama during his travels, he received the answer as to why the Tailed Beasts were distributed in this way straight from Hashirama's own mouth.

"This was Tobirama's idea."

"Relying solely on Konoha's strength might not be enough to stop Madara."

"Now Mito has the Nine-Tails sealed inside her, and Madara might target the power of the other Tailed Beasts. Therefore, Tobirama proposed distributing the Tailed Beasts to the other villages so that everyone could protect them together. Konoha has no way of keeping all of them..."

After all...

The power of the Tailed Beasts was immensely formidable.

Even if just a single Tailed Beast were to go on a rampage, if the Konoha leadership failed to react in time, it would bring catastrophic losses to the village.

As it happened.

During the operation to capture the Tailed Beasts, Senju Tobirama also discovered that the power of the other Tailed Beasts fell far short of the supreme Nine-Tails. There was no need to worry that the villages receiving them would ever be able to use those beasts to counter Konoha's Nine-Tails in the future.

Of course.

The Tailed Beasts were not the true focus.

Tobirama's real intention was merely to use this opportunity to drag the other hidden villages into the muddy waters.

Aside from Konoha, no other hidden village dared to provoke Uchiha Madara. Even if Madara were to destroy Konoha in the future, it would not draw assistance from any other village.

However...

What about protecting their own Tailed Beasts?

With the Nine-Tails sealed inside Uzumaki Mito, Madara would never again be able to borrow its power, and he might not feel confident enough to face Hashirama alone.

If Madara wished to fight Hashirama, he would definitely find a way to acquire the other Tailed Beasts in the world. At that time, conflict with the villages possessing those beasts would be inevitable.

In this way, the major hidden villages would naturally unite to counter the threat of Uchiha Madara.

Tobirama's methods were quite insidious.

Once Konoha acquired the power of the Nine-Tails, the other villages could not sit idly by and watch the gap between them and Konoha widen; they would inevitably covet the power of the Tailed Beasts.

Since ancient times...

Humanity had never abandoned the quest to seize the power of the Tailed Beasts.

For the Tailed Beasts symbolized endless chakra and ferocious offensive capabilities, and their explosive combat power was sufficient to rival an entire shinobi army!

Tobirama never expected to receive help from the other hidden villages; he merely used this opportunity to trick them into falling into the exact same trap.

At present, one of Uchiha Madara's eyes was still blind. To cope with the trouble of Hashirama hunting him down, and unable to obtain the Nine-Tails, there was a high probability that he would sneak into other hidden villages to control a Tailed Beast, thereby forging deep animosity between himself and those villages...

Judging by the results...

Tobirama's strategy proved remarkably effective.

The first to suffer misfortune on account of the Tailed Beasts was Kumogakure.

At the first Five Kage Summit, the First Raikage of Kumogakure, possessing vast wealth and resources, extravagantly purchased two Tailed Beasts: the Two-Tails and the Eight-Tails.

Equally.

This brought disaster upon Kumogakure.

When Uchiha Madara was being hunted down by Hashirama, he lost the ocular power of one eye, and his strength was temporarily unable to match Hashirama. The Eight-Tails of Kumogakure that he had manipulated managed to break free during the chaos, which even served to draw the relations between Konoha and Kumogakure closer.

Pity...

This solved nothing at all.

Madara was forced to continue hiding from Hashirama across the shinobi world.

Hashirama was forced to continue tracking Madara across the shinobi world.

When Emiya Shihara journeyed alongside Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shimura Danzo, they would often encounter Uchiha Madara and the fiercely pursuing Senju Hashirama.

"Long time no see, Lord Emiya."

Madara would simply offer a greeting, his face completely devoid of the tension of someone being hunted. As he departed, a mocking smirk even lingered at the corner of his mouth: "Though I must be going now, that fellow Hashirama is about to catch up again..."

No sooner had Madara departed on his front foot...

Than Hashirama arrived on his back foot.

"I must go and track down Madara's whereabouts."

The arriving Hashirama dared not spare the time to linger in idle chatter with them; he had to seize every single opportunity to catch Uchiha Madara, leaving behind only a few words of encouragement for the younger generation.

"Monkey, Danzo."

"The two of you have grown up as well..."

Every time Hashirama met them and saw how much taller Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shimura Danzo had grown since their last encounter, he would praise their progress.

"You two are finally about to shoulder the heavy responsibility of protecting Konoha..."

Hashirama patted their shoulders, a heavy and oppressive weight pressing upon his heart, for he knew that his own lifespan was slowly drawing near its limit.

Perhaps the road ahead would be arduous.

Yet the future of Konoha had to be entrusted to the youth nonetheless.

Ten years.

This truly was a sufficiently long duration.

For Emiya Shihara, he had long since grown accustomed to such travels.

For Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shimura Danzo, ten years was enough time to transform them from often bewildered boys into worldly-wise young men.

They had lived through many tales.

Such as Kakuzu, whom they had once encountered.

Word had it that after Kakuzu returned to Takigakure, he slaughtered all the high-ranking shinobi of the village, stole the village's treasured Earth Grudge Fear technique, and forced Takigakure to pledge allegiance to Konoha, exhausting its treasury to purchase a Tailed Beast from Konoha to secure its military strength.

Later...

Kakuzu was branded an S-rank missing-nin by Takigakure.

And later still...

Emiya Shihara and the others heard news of Kakuzu from the First Hokage as well, except Kakuzu's recent circumstances were somewhat absurd.

The First Hokage, Senju Hashirama, had received word from his younger brother, Senju Tobirama, instructing him to track down Uchiha Madara while simultaneously eliminating Kakuzu, the S-rank missing-nin of Takigakure. The purpose was to establish Konoha's image as a village that valued its allies and to attract other villages to ally with Konoha.

As it turned out, when Hashirama ran into Kakuzu, he found the man working as a hitman to earn money.

Hashirama subdued Kakuzu in a single move, only to hear Kakuzu's dying wish: to donate his money to an orphanage.

Discovering that Kakuzu worked so hard to earn money simply to donate to orphanages and constantly aid impoverished elderly people, Hashirama chose to spare him, and even donated a little sum of money himself following Kakuzu's example.

This...

This was beyond ordinary levels of absurd...

"I find it hard to believe that such a man betrayed his own village for the sake of so-called power..."

Hashirama could not help but sigh at the complexity of a shinobi like Kakuzu: "That man spared no regard for his own life in battle, yet he strived to use the money earned through risking death to assist the weak. It made even me feel somewhat ashamed of myself..."

"You mean... Kakuzu is making donations?"

Emiya Shihara was somewhat baffled by Kakuzu's transformation, and could only let out a sigh of his own: "Very well, even in ancient times, anyone willing to care for the weak is worthy of respect..."

"Indeed..."

"Actually, I once thought tracking Madara would be a grueling journey."

"Yet in pursuit of Madara's tracks, I've met many people along the way and heard many interesting stories."

Hashirama recalled the numerous tales from his travels and spoke with genuine admiration: "Even in some small nations, there are many commendable young people."

"The shinobi world is small."

"Yet it holds far too many exceptional individuals."

Emiya Shihara's gaze was piercingly sharp, as if he could always perceive the noble facets of humanity.

For instance.

The current Land of Rain.

When Emiya Shihara was bringing Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shimura Danzo back to Konoha, they passed through the Land of Rain and encountered a young rain shinobi seeking help, hoping Emiya Shihara could relieve his suffering.

This young rain shinobi was named Hanzo, and his swordsmanship was extraordinarily ferocious, able to beat Shimura Danzo—who had fancied himself skilled with a blade throughout the journey—until he could not even raise his head.

However...

Hanzo's most formidable asset was his lethal poison.

Because a poisonous salamander venom sac had been forcibly transplanted into his body since childhood, Hanzo was able to fight using this terrifying salamander toxic gas, and even his very breath carried poison.

Equally.

Tormented by the deadly poison, Hanzo was forced to wear a mask, and constantly faced the peril of the venom sac inside him rupturing and causing him to poison himself to death.

This was precisely why Hanzo had come seeking aid.

Unfortunately...

Hanzo's request was somewhat too outrageous.

This young shinobi hoped Emiya Shihara could allow him to continue wielding the power of deadly poison while ensuring his life would no longer be threatened by the salamander venom sac within his body.

"I can only help you extract the venom sac."

Emiya Shihara was supremely confident in performing such tricky and perilous surgery, but he still could not alter human genetics.

Though removing the venom sac embedded within the respiratory organs was extremely troublesome—where even the slightest carelessness could cause the sac to rupture and poison both patient and doctor to death—Emiya Shihara's medical skills were advanced enough to guarantee he would make no mistakes.

"Then will I no longer be able to use the power of poisonous gas in the future?"

Young Hanzo found it difficult to part with the very power that tormented him, knowing full well how potent the salamander's toxic gas was—it was enough to guarantee his strength would remain invincible across the Land of Rain.

"Your swordsmanship is already formidable."

Young Sarutobi Hiruzen sincerely praised his sword skills: "Even when we traveled with Lord Emiya through the Land of Iron, renowned for its swordsmanship, we never encountered anyone whose blade skills surpassed yours."

"Hmph..."

Young Danzo was somewhat displeased by Hiruzen's remark, though he had to admit that his own attainments in swordsmanship fell short of Hanzo's: "Perhaps aside from Lord Emiya, the shinobi world truly cannot produce anyone with higher sword mastery than you..."

This had been a major discovery of theirs.

Initially, Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shimura Danzo believed that Emiya Shihara's formidable power lay solely in his cursed seals. Then they encountered trouble while traveling through the Land of Iron, where someone suspected Shimura Danzo of assassinating a samurai.

The Land of Iron.

That was the domain of the samurai.

It was also a neutral nation recognized by the shinobi world.

For the sake of Konoha's reputation, Hiruzen and Danzo decided to handle the trouble according to the ways of the Land of Iron when it arose. Danzo engaged in a sword duel with a samurai of the Land of Iron, and ultimately suffered defeat at the hands of a young samurai.

In the end...

Emiya Shihara had to step in personally.

Holding only his scabbard, Emiya Shihara dueled the supreme general of the Land of Iron.

When the general of the Land of Iron raised his katana for a thrust, Emiya Shihara casually extended the scabbard in his hand and smoothly sheathed the general's blade right then and there, effortlessly robbing his opponent of his weapon!

The general of the Land of Iron was utterly won over by Emiya Shihara's supreme swordsmanship. Although the samurai still suspected Danzo of killing one of their own, the general resolved to let Emiya Shihara and his party depart freely.

"Let's not dwell on unpleasant matters..."

Emiya Shihara frowned, appearing quite displeased with what had transpired in the Land of Iron.

"..."

Hanzo, who had originally intended to challenge Emiya Shihara, had no choice but to abandon the thought, ultimately deciding to forgo the surgery to excise the venom sac.

If even Shimura Danzo considered his skills short of top-tier, he felt his current strength was still insufficient to protect his nation; at the very least, the venom sac inside him could guarantee he could drag any invading enemies down to hell with him in a moment of crisis.

Hanzo departed.

He was a man born in a small nation who nonetheless harbored grand ambitions.

"This fellow's strength might even surpass my own."

Young Sarutobi Hiruzen watched the retreating figure of Hanzo, his expression turning exceptionally solemn: "I never expected a small nation like the Land of Rain could produce such a figure. His combat experience is extraordinarily rich, and his chakra is also formidable..."

"..."

Young Danzo instantly felt a great deal of the humiliation of losing to Hanzo dissipate, though his mouth remained as stubbornly defiant as ever.

"Hmph, I merely lost to him in a contest of swordsmanship. If I were allowed to use chakra and ninjutsu, I would definitely be able to defeat him using Lord Emiya's cursed seal..."

"Danzo."

"You always love to fight and contend."

Emiya Shihara could not stop himself from sighing, appearing regretful that he could not alter Danzo's mindset: "I imparted the power of the cursed seals to you not so that you could use it to fight others, but in the hope that you would use the seal to protect your comrades and what is precious in your heart."

"..."

Young Danzo frowned as he looked down at his arm.

Back during their travels, when they repeatedly encountered shinobi from other nations attempting to assassinate them, Shimura Danzo had spoken falsely in order to deceive Emiya Shihara and acquire the power of the cursed seal.

However...

He had gone to such great lengths to master the cursed seal at last...

Was he really not supposed to use its power in battle, but simply treat the patterns of the seal as decorations?

"Sooner or later, you will understand."

"The cursed seal I passed to you is not meant for combat."

Emiya Shihara shook his head and said no more, turning his attention to tidying up his medical scrolls.

"Lord Emiya."

Sensing the shift in mood, young Sarutobi Hiruzen quickly brought up the business at hand: "Are we returning to Konoha tomorrow?"

"Mn."

"It's time to return to Konoha."

Emiya Shihara nodded, lifting his head to gaze at the perpetually overcast, cloud-laden sky of the Land of Rain—a nation forever shrouded in gloom.

"I haven't heard any news of Hashirama's activities in the shinobi world lately. I worry that his time is running out. Ten years without finding the remains of the Divine Tree... perhaps it's time to try an alternative treatment method..."