Chapter 438: Wind Release: Airship Bursting Charge Technique
"As expected of you, Third Hokage."
Amamiya Kenichi could not help exclaiming as he looked at the towering flames before him.
Hiruzen Sarutobi truly was Hiruzen Sarutobi. Even though Kenichi had only given him a genin's body as the vessel for Edo Tensei, he could still unleash such a powerful Ninjutsu with that physique.
He truly lived up to the title of Konoha's Strongest Hokage.
At the very least, before Kishimoto revised the First Hokage's setting, Hiruzen's performance had certainly justified that title.
After all, who had Hiruzen been facing at the time?
Orochimaru, the First Hokage, and the Second Hokage.
That was equivalent to facing three Kage-level powerhouses at once. Yet Hiruzen had still successfully sealed the arms of the First, the Second, and Orochimaru.
One could only say that his strength had truly been formidable.
One had to remember that there had not been as many later revisions back then, nor had there been the setting that the strength of Edo Tensei depended on the completion level of the technique.
Furthermore, Hiruzen had already been old at the time, and his physical stamina had greatly declined.
Otherwise, if he had directly sealed Orochimaru, perhaps Sasuke's later defection might never have happened.
"Amamiya Kenichi! You... you actually used Edo Tensei on me?!"
Hiruzen stared at Kenichi, both shocked and enraged.
How had this little rascal turned into something like this?
Although Kenichi used to be somewhat troublesome, Hiruzen had once thought of him as a child who inherited the Will of Fire.
Now look at him.
To hell with the Will of Fire.
This scoundrel was simply the greatest villain, the kind who would be sentenced directly to death if sent to Konoha's prison. There was no saving him.
"Hiruzen, long time no see," Danzo Shimura said slowly, his emotions complicated as he looked at his old friend.
Only then did Hiruzen notice the other person in the laboratory.
"Danzo, you... you were also subjected to Edo Tensei?"
Hiruzen stared at his old friend, stunned for a moment.
However, he immediately saw the cracks on Danzo's face and his black eyes.
All of those signs proved that the person before him was not alive.
Moreover, Hiruzen had personally presided over Danzo's funeral.
He simply had not expected to meet him again in this place, and in this manner.
"Hmm." Danzo sighed.
He felt that his past self had been far too foolish.
He had competed with Hiruzen for so long, yet he had never experienced even a single day as Hokage, not even on the day he died.
And judging by Kenichi's strength, if Kenichi had not defected from the village, the next Hokage certainly would not have been Danzo either.
"...You're serving Amamiya Kenichi?" Hiruzen narrowed his eyes.
Ever since he had been reincarnated by Edo Tensei, he had sensed something abnormal in his body.
Compared to before, his current body no longer had the uncomfortable feeling of old age.
However, his strength was also greatly restricted.
The power he could exert was nowhere near what he possessed while alive. At most, it was probably comparable to his strength when he had been a chunin.
If Danzo was also serving Kenichi, then dealing with the two of them would be nothing more than a pipe dream.
"Third Hokage, I summoned you out simply because I want you to help me develop a Ninjutsu," Kenichi said, unable to stop himself from cutting in.
If he did not speak now, this place would turn into a reunion between Hiruzen and Danzo.
But had Hiruzen not seen Danzo after going to the Pure Land?
"I will not help you," Hiruzen refused decisively.
Kenichi tried to threaten Hiruzen using the same method he had used against Danzo, but Hiruzen showed no sign of compromise.
That left Kenichi somewhat frustrated.
People with persistence and principles were indeed harder to threaten.
For Hiruzen, having his soul bound, being unable to return to the Pure Land, and being imprisoned in this body were still not enough to shake the will of this Professor of Ninjutsu.
"Then I'll just have to drop an atomic bomb on Konoha," Kenichi said with a smile.
Since that did not work, how about threatening him with Konoha?
As long as a person had something they were tied to, something they cared about, they could be threatened.
For Hiruzen, he might not care about himself, but he would definitely care about Konoha.
That was why many spies could not allow themselves to leave behind attachments.
Once they had attachments, they had weaknesses.
And weaknesses could be exploited by enemies.
Hiruzen's expression instantly turned grim.
He did not know what an atomic bomb was, but he knew how severe the consequences of the previous explosion had been.
And that had been with him present.
What if he had not been there?
If Kenichi, that scoundrel, really dropped that thing called an atomic bomb on Konoha, how many ninja would be killed or injured?
Perhaps Kirigakure had sent out no news precisely because it had been attacked by that strange weapon.
"You truly are a demon, kid," Danzo said.
Looking at his old friend's dark expression, Danzo knew Hiruzen had compromised.
There was no other way.
Kenichi, that little scoundrel, had seized the thing Hiruzen cared about most.
Although Danzo often mocked his old friend for losing his courage as a ninja and becoming cowardly, he also knew that Hiruzen truly held Konoha in his heart.
On the day of that explosion, if Hiruzen had chosen self-preservation, he should not have died.
But Hiruzen chose to sacrifice himself.
He protected Konoha's future.
Even Danzo had to admit that compared to himself, Hiruzen was more suited to being Hokage.
Because if Danzo had faced such a threat, his first reaction would have been to preserve himself, not to unconditionally protect the Konoha ninja behind him.
"I don't like threatening others either. Cooperation is a pretty good option. The problem is that many people don't like cooperating with me," Kenichi said with a shrug.
If he were truly a villain, there would be even more things he could do.
But he still had a bit of a moral bottom line.
Hiruzen and Danzo could not help looking at Kenichi at the same time.
They were a little confused.
How did Kenichi have the nerve to say that?
Did he have a moral bottom line?
Perhaps.
But certainly not much.
After all, just playing with the souls of the dead was already enough to be scorned by the people of the ninja world.
Moreover, this guy was using Edo Tensei, which directly desecrated the corpses of the dead and required remains as a medium.
That meant Kenichi possessed some of Hiruzen and Danzo's remains.
Kenichi's mouth twitched.
What did the looks on those two guys' faces mean?
If Konoha was willing to cooperate with him and follow his lead, then Kenichi certainly would not attack Konoha.
But that was clearly impossible.
Whether it was Konoha or the other ninja villages, they would certainly prioritize their own interests.
That was unavoidable.
So war was also unavoidable.
After all, what could not be obtained at the negotiating table could only be obtained through war.
This time, the letter Kenichi sent to Konoha was only meant to make it more difficult for the other ninja villages to unite.
He did not truly expect those villages to choose to cooperate with him and attack other ninja villages.
"Counting the time, Kabuto should have arrived at Kumogakure by now, right?" Kenichi rubbed his hands.
He was indeed a little curious about how the muscular brothers of Kumogakure would view his letter.
Kenichi had written two letters.
One was sent to Kumogakure, and one was sent to Konoha.
As for Sunagakure and Iwagakure, those two villages were not especially outstanding in strength. Considering the issue of time, as well as the possibility of problems arising if he gave too many offers, Kenichi did not write to them.
In the letter to Konoha, Kenichi revealed his true identity.
In any case, he had never expected an alias to hide his identity forever.
He himself knew that certain things might expose who he really was.
As for the letter to Kumogakure, he did not reveal his identity.
He merely proposed the intention to jointly govern the Land of Water with Kumogakure.
Such conditions would certainly be very tempting.
After all, neither Kumogakure nor Konoha could possibly let go of a large nation like the Land of Water.
Moreover, the Land of Water was relatively close to both the Land of Fire and the Land of Lightning.
In Kenichi's view, this bait was extremely tempting.
It was absolutely impossible for Kumogakure and Konoha not to be tempted.
Although the relationship between Konoha and Kumogakure seemed good recently, once the interests of an entire country were involved, neither side could truly trust the other.
Under such circumstances, it would be difficult for the ninja of the Four Great Ninja Villages to unite.
That could give Kenichi more time to strengthen his own power.
If there were some unexpected gains, that would naturally be even better, such as making Konoha and Kumogakure fight each other.
However, Kenichi himself knew that this was a bit difficult unless his luck was exceptionally good and various coincidences all came together.
But if he truly had that kind of luck, it would be better to just manually create a hydrogen bomb and, by coincidence, have the hydrogen bomb succeed.
That would have a much better effect.
"What Ninjutsu do you want to modify?" Hiruzen asked with a frown.
He did not want to cooperate.
But could Konoha truly withstand Kenichi's attack now?
Although Hiruzen was dead, he still cared about Konoha.
During this time in the Pure Land, Hiruzen had met some ninja from Konoha who had come down after him. All of them had died from serious injuries sustained in the previous explosion.
If Kenichi used that thing called an atomic bomb on Konoha again, then Konoha would probably lose many, many more lives.
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough. I need to modify this Ninjutsu to maximize its recoil," Kenichi said without hesitation.
The moment Hiruzen heard this, he understood what Kenichi intended to do.
After all, the airship Kenichi had previously developed used Wind Release Ninjutsu for propulsion, and Hiruzen himself knew this.
"If I modify it, you truly won't attack Konoha?" Hiruzen asked, narrowing his eyes.
Kenichi nodded without hesitation.
He truly had no intention of attacking Konoha.
The destructive power of an atomic bomb against a village was simply too strong.
Just look at Kirigakure.
A perfectly good village was now gone.
That had also made Kenichi's rule over the Land of Water more difficult, and the loss of the intelligence network had also been extremely fatal.
So Kenichi really did not plan to use an atomic bomb against a village.
Occupying a village and slowly winning over its people was better than directly destroying the village and having to start everything from scratch.
Moreover, in the future, he would have to deal with the Ōtsutsuki clan.
Having enough troops to replenish his forces was also very important.
"You can try this Ninjutsu."
Unexpectedly, after a moment of silence, Hiruzen directly took out a piece of paper, wrote something down, and threw it to Kenichi.
Kenichi picked it up suspiciously and glanced at it.
Wind Release: Airship Bursting Charge Technique.
Kenichi blinked.
He even suspected that he had read it wrong.
But that was indeed the name written on the paper.
What in the world was this Airship Bursting Charge Technique?
"Previously, after the village developed hot air balloons and airships, we tried to research them. I arranged for people to organize and develop Ninjutsu suitable for those two flying tools. The Airship Bursting Charge Technique is the one that best fits your requirements," Hiruzen said.
He touched his chest, then lowered his hand.
Kenichi casually threw him a cigarette.
He knew what this old smoker wanted to do.
However, he did not smoke and did not have tobacco or a pipe, so he could only give the old smoker this.
Hiruzen caught it with a complicated expression, then lit it and put it in his mouth.
He had considered what would happen if Kenichi broke his word.
He knew it was possible.
But he still did not dare to gamble.
If he refused and Kenichi truly dropped the atomic bomb, how would Hiruzen face the villagers and ninja in the Pure Land?
He would probably wish he could bash his own head against something and die again in the Pure Land.
"Is there anything more powerful?" Kenichi asked after he finished reading.
Konoha was indeed Konoha.
They had improved a specialized Ninjutsu so quickly.
However, he could also tell that this Ninjutsu was still very conservative for the sake of the airship and hot air balloon's safety.
The problem was, Kenichi was using stone radars and Shadow Clones.
He did not need to worry about safety.
All he wanted was speed.
Nothing else.
"It can be modified, but an ordinary airship wouldn't be able to withstand it," Hiruzen said, taking another puff.
In any case, he was dead now, so smoking no longer mattered.
He simply wondered how Tsunade was doing.
Thankfully, he had already handed the Hokage position to Tsunade beforehand.
Even if he died, the Hokage position would still belong to Tsunade.
Otherwise, things would have been far too troublesome.
"It doesn't matter. I only need speed," Kenichi said with a wave of his hand.
He did not care about safety.
It was only a Shadow Clone anyway. It would not truly die.
As long as it was fast enough, that was all that mattered.
"It will take some time," Hiruzen agreed.
This was not too difficult a problem.
He only wondered what Kenichi had invented this time.
Alas.
He hoped the village would be safe and sound.
That way, his efforts would not be in vain.
.....
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