Chapter 112: Found You
Inside the Hokage Administration Building, Hiruzen Sarutobi—currently serving as the Fourth Hokage's advisor and one-man brain trust—was bent over Minato's desk processing paperwork.
Say what you like, Minato was still a rookie. He'd been Hokage for a handful of months. There were mountains of administrative knowledge the man simply didn't have yet, and Hiruzen's seasoned hand was needed to keep things running.
But mid-brushstroke, Hiruzen froze. He'd sensed something wrong.
His pen hovered. His pupils contracted. Disbelief washed across his features as he turned his head toward the window, where a colossal silhouette loomed faintly on the skyline.
No. We took every precaution. How?
So the Nine-Tails broke free after all. Tailed Beasts really are in a class of their own—and among them, the Nine-Tails is the strongest. I can only hope there are no casualties.
Hiruzen set his work down immediately and summoned a squad of ANBU through channels only a former Hokage would still have access to.
"The three of you—split up and notify every elite combatant in the village. All jōnin and above, mobilize immediately. Chūnin and genin are to evacuate civilians. Issue a village-wide emergency alert, effective now."
He paused, then added: "And do not summon any jōnin under the age of twenty-five. Konoha's seeds must survive. We cannot afford to lose them here."
Order after order flowed out of him. The ANBU departed instantly.
Hiruzen drew one long, heavy breath. His eyes darkened.
Then—instead of taking the door—he vaulted out the window, moving with the agility of his monkey-sage namesake, and hurtled toward the epicenter.
* * *
The Nine-Tails. So the seal finally weakened. Tch. Minato should already be engaging it—otherwise a beast of the Nine-Tails' caliber wouldn't still be standing in one spot. This should be interesting.
Shimura Danzō allowed himself a cold, private smirk. Outwardly, he showed nothing.
From a considerable distance, he could still make out the Nine-Tails clearly—its sheer size ensured that. It appeared to be locked in combat with someone.
Not Hiruzen. He'd have been in the Hokage Building. No way he'd have gotten there that fast. So it's definitely Minato.
Danzō did not move. Not a flicker of intent to provide backup.
Because he was hoping, quite fervently, that Namikaze Minato would die.
Looks like quite the spectacle over there. Tsk tsk… I wonder if that overgrown fox can actually kill the brat. If so—well, that suits me perfectly. Reinforcements? In your dreams.
Danzō shook his head in disdain and turned his attention elsewhere.
The Nine-Tails versus Minato was a no-lose scenario for him. Nine-Tails goes down? Not his problem. Minato goes down? He gets to campaign for the Hokage seat.
So Danzō had no intention of lifting a finger.
Would he be questioned later? He couldn't be bothered to care. A convenient excuse was all it took: "I was prioritizing the civilian evacuation."
* * *
Some distance behind, Orochimaru—who had been quietly tailing the "Imiao Ichirō" figure—paused mid-step, his expression snapping into genuine surprise.
A Tailed Beast? That's… the Nine-Tails?!
Orochimaru was completely blindsided. He had no idea who the jinchūriki was, let alone why the Nine-Tails—which should have been under seal—had suddenly materialized inside Konoha.
From the looks of it, something was already fighting the beast.
The reverberations were constant—deep, bone-shaking booms rolling across the village.
The only people in Konoha who could take on the Nine-Tails are Hiruzen-sensei, Danzō, and Minato. As for the Uchiha clan… I don't know enough about their current strength. Kushina might qualify, since she's from the Uzumaki bloodline—but she's pregnant. She can't fight.
Danzō would never volunteer. That direction is far from the Uchiha compound. So it's either Minato or Hiruzen-sensei. What a spectacle, though…
Orochimaru licked his dry lips, his thoughts unreadable.
In the distance, the Nine-Tails' immense body was impossible to contain. Even with Minato fighting desperately to hold the line, buildings were being flattened. People were getting caught in the crossfire.
It had happened too suddenly. Nobody had been given time to prepare.
* * *
And walking ahead of Orochimaru by forty or fifty meters, Imiao Ichirō—the Rogue Reincarnator—was staring at the Nine-Tails with his own brand of astonishment.
Damn… it's enormous. That kind of power—even if all three of us jumped it at once, it'd mop the floor with us.
The Naruto world really is way too dangerous. If we hadn't sold the pot to buy those artifacts, this mission would have been dead before it started. Wouldn't have even needed the Lord God to execute us—the natives would have handled that.
Imiao's mumbling was, to anyone around him, completely incomprehensible. He might as well have been reciting advanced quantum physics to a room full of arts majors.
Nobody within earshot could have parsed a word of it.
Nobody, except—
* * *
A figure on the street behind him had stopped walking.
A pair of narrowed eyes settled onto Imiao Ichirō. Their owner rubbed one ear, as if the oversensitivity of his senses had become genuinely uncomfortable.
Looking at the man dressed in clothes indistinguishable from any other Konoha civilian—
Ryū's eyes thinned to slits.
He'd just heard something very, very interesting.
Ryū had been walking Konoha's streets for hours now. He'd covered the entire village, end to end, with his Observation Haki running at full stretch the whole time.
At full deployment, his sensory acuity was off the charts. He could hear an ant crawling. Not perfectly clearly, perhaps—but he could hear it.
The development paths for Observation Haki varied wildly between users. Enel could read surface thoughts across an island. Fujitora could sense meteorites in outer space. Katakuri could see a few seconds into the future. Big Mom's Observation Haki could perceive through solid objects. And Usopp's could laser-focus on a single pinpoint target with absurd clarity.
Ryū's Observation Haki, however, was a bit of an oddity.
It seemed to have traces of all of the above.
Probably a consequence of the Points-based upgrade path—multi-faceted development across all vectors simultaneously, rather than specialization.
So with his Haki fully deployed, Imiao Ichirō's mutterings—and Orochimaru's murmuring from dozens of meters further back—had all landed squarely in Ryū's ears.
* * *
Hours of walking, and I finally found one.
He glanced toward the distant Nine-Tails, currently wreaking havoc across Konoha, then back at Imiao Ichirō—now just twenty or thirty meters ahead.
Ryū rolled his neck once.
He ignored Orochimaru behind him entirely.
And began walking toward Imiao Ichirō. Calm. Unhurried.
☆☆☆
-> 20 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Hollowborn
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you