Uzumaki Naruto's POV
I sat on a throne in a massive hall where a couple thousand people were currently swarming about, watching them with measured calm. This was the sorting and disarmament facility, and also the single largest concentration of Mist shinobi at this particular moment.
Suppressing the army that showed up went about as smoothly as expected. After the second stage of enhancement, my energy output had taken yet another step forward. And my Mangekyō control, keeping perfect pace, let me not only crush them good and proper but top it off with an equally impressive genjutsu illusion.
Extracting another Tailed Beast while keeping the vessel alive went even more smoothly than with the One-Tail. As for the revolutionaries afterward, not one of them dared peep a word about the global "balance." Yagura, for his part, was currently sitting in one of the temple's rooms awaiting trial, which would double as yet another act of cementing my authority. Cementing the image of someone who has the right to judge, obviously.
My eyes caught on Mei standing nearby, watching the proceedings alongside me.
Goes without saying, the revolutionaries had been through quite a lot themselves, what with the crushing aura (even though it wasn't aimed at them this time), the barrier, and then the Three-Tails making its grand entrance and, by sheer coincidence, firing a Tailed Beast Ball right at the section of the barrier where a sizable number of said revolutionaries happened to be standing. But because Mei had adopted a tactic similar to Yagura's, namely screaming at her subordinates that everything was fine and projecting confidence, that sprinkled just enough reassurance over her shinobi that they not only didn't scatter, but once the barrier dropped, they remembered Plan B fairly quickly. Which had always been Plan A from my end. Meaning they started accepting the surrendering Mist ninja.
Of course, not everything went perfectly. A few hundred brave souls preferred to scatter across the water like ants. But more than four out of five were captured by the revolutionaries who happened to be awake at that hour. The ones who escaped were not very significant in the grand scheme of things.
What actually pleased me was that a full fifth of all the Mist shinobi, even though they'd arrived, never dared step off the ships to follow their comrades. They only came ashore after the whole barrier business was over. That made it crystal clear: my global authority was still growing.
As for the immediate business at hand, I was sitting on my throne to serve as a big scary scarecrow so the ninja below didn't start pulling shit while they were still bunched together. Once the Mist shinobi were properly split up, organized resistance would be impossible, and neither the revolution nor I would need to worry about them. After that, we could move on to the final consolidation of power.
I'd ordered the Mist shinobi to surrender for the obvious reasons, but also so several thousand people didn't slit each other's throats over my arrival, and, once again, to solidify my position. Lately it felt like every sneeze of mine was some global political chess move.
This "detention" might look hypocritical on my part, but not entirely. I'd told the revolutionaries before that I wasn't, like, holding them by the hand, and could replace them. I'd also stated that all sides in their conflict bore guilt, meaning even Yagura would get a chance at redemption. But the Mist shinobi? I had no intention of just letting them walk. Not a significant chunk of them. Because they'd gone against me. And I, as the world's leader, shouldn't forgive that. Thanks to my particularly sharp memory, every face that had jumped off those ships was seared into my brain; several thousand shinobi would get harsher punishment than the rest. But all of them would be going into... well, not penal battalions, but, hmm, mandatory contract service. Not for life: those who hadn't been too rowdy would get a couple of years; the more spirited ones, five. And obviously, those contracts wouldn't be a sweet deal.
It might remind the locals of the first and third castes, with the shinobi mostly just swapping places. But... it lined up with what I'd said, since I'd told them I would judge impartially based on what people had actually done. And this was exactly that: judgment by actions, not because I didn't like someone's face. Plus there was a clear exit criteria: obedience, quality of service, and a few other things if you got into the details.
Five hours later, deep into the night, everyone had been sorted. The process wasn't so much random as it was designed to figure out who was a genuine massacre fanatic and who was just a sane person stuck in a shitty, suffocating situation. They used interrogations, cross-referencing against various lists (slightly less obsessive about remembering faces than me, the revolutionaries still had their own archives), and various testimonies from both revolutionaries and Mist shinobi. Fates varied based on the results. And the revolutionaries handled it well. I only had to make three corrections: call Mei over and point out a few individuals who needed particularly close attention, to head off any future incidents like "disgruntled types" organizing against me or anyone else in the structure I was building.
I could've done it all myself. Shadow Clones and all. But if I personally solved every problem, no system would ever form.
And so, the main milestone in my takeover of the Mist was cleared. After the show, the revolutionaries started obeying me properly, and more than that, they'd actually seen me do something genuinely positive for them. Preventing a mass slaughter, for example. The shinobi of the former Bloody Mist, currently scared out of their minds, would integrate into the unified structure and obey me too.
Two days passed in these proceedings and sorting until things more or less settled down, and then we moved to the next phase.
Yours truly was currently sprawled across yet another throne in one of the halls of the same temple.
Sakura was beside me, along with an unremarkable-looking man in Mist shinobi garb.
"I didn't think I'd have to work with him. But if you're sure..." she said, glancing oddly at said man and then at me.
"He'll stay in the shadows, just as backup."
"Yeah, I get it..."
We were both talking about Snake, and it was indeed him, just with a changed appearance, as if he were a piece of furniture. Said piece of furniture paid this no mind, just listening carefully to the substance of the conversation.
"Unfortunately, it'd be better if I stayed here for now and then moved to the Mist village—"
"Yeah, yeah, you told me," she cut me off with a knowing nod. "Who knows what those nutjobs might pull. And I'll do what you want: lead the capture of the Land of Water's capital..."
Her voice trailed off toward the end. Clearly, Sakura hadn't expected she'd be doing anything like this in her life.
"Sometimes I really love how fast you get things," a soft smile appeared on my face. "So few problems and so much efficiency. The contrast is striking."
At my somewhat odd compliment she waved me off, telling me not to embarrass her.
The mini-meeting, whose purpose was to introduce Sakura to Orochimaru's new appearance, was essentially over. The plans had been drawn up beforehand. Orochimaru left the room immediately. Since his submission, he'd dialed back the snark and hadn't said a single word.
Sakura though... she held her gaze on my face for a second, then lingered on my abs longer than she should have, before hurrying out after him.
"Hah..." Left alone, a sigh escaped me. "And it's all heading somewhere obvious."
Toward a harem, essentially, one that had already more or less formed around me. Now, with the second body enhancement, when my body and the girls' bodies had become fully physiologically adult, it seemed like maybe it was time to stop being a guardian of my seed. And yet... one of them was thirteen. The other, twelve.
I mean, that excuse was pretty weak. Considering that my patchy memory recalled several members of the human race from my past life who were supposedly adults on paper, but look closer and it was all wind between the ears, drool dribbling from the lips, and no trace of an adult personality beyond bad habits. Some of my genin acquaintances looked far more interesting in terms of depth of character, to say nothing of Sakura. The girl had gone through catharsis (gotten rid of that manic obsession with one particular individual) and had toughened up considerably as both a shinobi and a human being. And her enhanced brain introduced plenty of corrections away from typical teenage problems.
Still, I'd decided to give the girl time to gain experience. Sending Sakura to take the capital was exactly that: she'd work with a bunch of people and grow another step.
I could've brought Hinata along in the same way. But honestly, she wasn't someone who particularly enjoyed the shinobi life or combat in general. She was a pretty sensitive person, even if she could be fierce when needed. So after a careful question from me, she'd chosen to stay in the Leaf. How much effort it took to convince her not to worry about Sakura and me is hard to put into words. But my tongue turned out to be flexible enough that day to talk her down from spiraling too hard.
The one who'd really been dying to follow me here was Karin. After I told my overly nosy "employee" with that overly fanatical look in her eyes what I was planning to do here, she immediately caught fire with the idea of tagging along. And that wasn't surprising.
She'd been spending more and more time handling affairs and paperwork around my home and lab, and at one point begged me to start training her as a shinobi. Back during the Chunin Exams, sitting on the edge of the world just to protect herself had really not sat well with her.
But she was still too weak for anything like what was happening in Kiri right now. Even if I'd enhanced her body, this required precision thinking, not just raw power. And so, forcing myself, under her pleading and clinging to my leg, I left the girl at home.
To sum it up, I'd decided to keep waiting and keep carrying my proud title of virgin. After all, they always said it was true, and after thirty years of holding the position I'd become not just a mage but a godlike being!
Although... Hmm. Mei was quite easy on the eyes. More accurately, she was one of the most beautiful women I'd ever seen in this world. But nothing was likely to happen with someone who was a bit afraid of me. And besides, it wasn't beauty I valued in people. Not with my kind of options.
"Alright, enough," I stood up from the throne. "Capturing the Mist village. Let me check how the preparations are going."
Having finally surfaced from my musings, I got to work.
Specifically, checking on how the revolutionaries' preparations were going, and they were going well. That very evening a couple thousand troops loaded onto ships and headed out with Mei, Josame, and Natsuo toward the Mist. On the western flank, Ao remained behind as deputy.
A day and a half later, in the early morning, I watched with satisfaction through the Telescope Technique as my little minions, showing up unannounced at the village, immediately spread through it like they owned the place.
Several squads took the Residence right off the bat, handling it cleanly. The building had been left guarded by genin, who had nothing to put up against coordinated jonin; after taking a few slaps, they quickly surrendered the building. The stronger shinobi also guarding it were crushed by sheer numbers.
The revolutionaries had a slightly harder time with the handful of "pureblooded" shinobi who had somehow managed to stay in the village. But again, numerical advantage, when five tokubetsu jonin of roughly equal strength jumped on one, didn't give much chance of even going down fighting, let alone winning.
Several more squads had to get creative to take the remaining administrative buildings besides the Residence: archives and other facilities needed so the new government didn't end up bare-assed. Meaning without even understanding what was going on in their own country. They had to get creative because a couple of said archives had a particularly battle-happy retiree holed up inside who, upon spotting the intruders, started chucking kunai with explosive tags, shredding and blasting everything around them to hell. So not everything was saved intact. A couple of fires even had to be put out.
By evening, having captured everything and handed out beatdowns to anyone with complaints, Mei stood on the special announcement plaza and declared that the Mist now had a new boss, and a bunch of reforms would be implemented (elimination of the caste system, ending the hunt for people with bloodline limits, and so on down the list).
Those remaining in the Mist, still mostly genin, simply folded, acknowledging that yes, they surrendered. And this wasn't all that surprising, considering the old regime hadn't been the brightest, while the new one was being established by what were essentially their own shinobi.
The next day, practically like Aladdin, I flew in on yet another mobile temple. Parking it near the village while flooding the surroundings with pomp and pulling the most arrogant face I could manage, I announced that I was satisfied with how the revolutionaries had restored order. Then declared that they were no longer revolutionaries, just Mist shinobi, and by extension, my vassals. After which, accepting the oath in return with a weird expression (weird because I'd already announced the fact of their submission as a given), I departed back to the island where most of the Mist shinobi and Ao still were.
Then came the trial. The guilty were executed, the innocent were punished, and the uninvolved were chewed out for letting this whole mess happen.
The guilty were mostly drawn from the backbone of the village's previous administration, which, thanks to nepotism and the elimination of anyone who was "different," had been pretty unified in its thinking. Also the majority of the Hunter-nin, meaning the ones who had carried out the persecutions and killings that had been very unjust for the local populace. The innocent were those who'd followed the guilty's orders, but not out of enjoyment: out of fear of punishment for desertion, because they didn't know how to live any other way, because they were "following orders." Also the handful from the now-former revolutionaries who hadn't held back and tried to take "revenge" on the captured, plus other assorted criminals. The uninvolved were those who'd been against Yagura: the former revolutionaries and those associated with them.
Yagura himself, by the way, was placed in the innocent category due to the control he'd been under.
And so, having affirmed my authority yet again, demonstrating mercy alongside impartial application of law, yours truly continued to "loom over everyone's souls" to maintain order in the region after the initial shock wore off.
Meanwhile, my clone had been watching the capture of the capital. Orochimaru and Sakura hadn't needed help; there wasn't anyone in the city who could threaten her. And on her end, things had also gone more or less smoothly.
The key positions were captured, complete with all the important papers, and a new person was put on the throne. The capital's guard for the now-former Daimyo turned out to be no joke: a dozen jonin. But for Sakura after the second stage of body enhancement, that wasn't her level.
The only headache was having to replace a lot of people. And finding replacements wasn't easy. Luckily, the former revolution had some really solid people to cover at least part of the top. Natsuo, who arrived in the capital later, wasn't much of a shinobi himself but came from a clan of administrators native to the capital. They'd been kicked out under Yagura, but now they could reclaim their old positions with plenty of energy.
And so, the Land of Water was reunified fairly quickly and brought, de facto, under my authority. These had clearly been eventful days for its people. Though not only for them. Actions of this scale can't help but ripple across the entire world...
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