"Lord Hagoromo, this is the last one..."
An Anbu ninja said to Hagoromo.
Although they were both Jonin of the same rank, it wasn't surprising for another ninja to use the honorific "Lord" for him. Hagoromo held no permanent executive post or administrative rank in Konoha, so he couldn't be classified as "upper management." However, by sheer strength alone, he had already established a certain status.
Just the fact that he dared to infiltrate Kumogakure alone was enough to make others willingly submit to him, not to mention he successfully liberated the Eight-Tails.
If anyone questioned him, Hagoromo could easily retort, "You do it if you're so tough," though given his personality, he wouldn't care enough to say such a thing.
"That's fine."
Hagoromo nodded, signaling the man to proceed.
He was still completely covered in bandages, so he needed others to handle some of the manual labor for him.
Although only one eye was exposed, one could tell from his posture that he was not in high spirits... nor could he possibly be.
The injuries on his face and body would fully heal sooner or later. The so-called "skin" only served this purpose anyway. But some things could never be restored...
Compared to his face, Hagoromo wished the injuries on his hands would heal faster. Being unable to weave signs was truly far too inconvenient.
Right now, what he was doing alongside an Anbu squad and a Sealing Corps team was dismantling the Mutually Multiplying Complex Four Symbols Sealing Barrier he had spent four months setting up. This time-consuming, labor-intensive, and highly powerful barrier had ultimately never been activated.
This was exactly why Hagoromo had needed to stay by Kushina's side. He had anticipated this outcome, which was why he had left a backdoor in the activation formula.
In that situation, Minato should have been able to successfully teleport the two children away. But even so, Kushina probably still wouldn't have activated the jutsu... because there were dozens of Anbu present, and even Kakashi.
As for Hagoromo, to say he didn't view those Anbu as human might be a bit too harsh, but comparing the two sides, they definitely belonged to the "expendable" category—Kakashi included.
Even Hagoromo himself was included.
Risking death was an act he had attempted very early on. During his first battle with the Eight-Tails, he had made a completely spontaneous, desperate gamble, hoping to force his eyes to awaken. However, it hadn't succeeded. Reality isn't dictated by willpower.
Similarly, one person cannot dictate another's thoughts and actions. Given Kushina's personality, she wouldn't allow so many people to die pointlessly.
She hadn't even done it after the Nine-Tails escaped. Part of it was her nature, and furthermore, considering her premature labor might have been drug-induced, her physical condition at the time was easily imaginable.
Truth be told, the masked man had indeed gotten his hands on the Nine-Tails. The Sharingan is ultimately an incredibly convenient ability, and powerful eyes possess the potential to control Tailed Beasts. If Minato hadn't suddenly used the Flying Thunder God and a Contract Seal to sever the connection between the Nine-Tails and the masked man, the Nine-Tails might have been taken away from Konoha entirely.
Later, after repelling the masked man and facing the Tailed Beast alone, Minato split the Nine-Tails' Yin and Yang halves. He sealed one half into Naruto, while the other half went with him into the Reaper Death Seal, rather than sealing it into the other infant.
This was relatively easy to understand. In Minato's mind, the Hokage's son probably had a rightful duty to bear a portion of the responsibility. As for the other child, she was a girl after all... it wasn't that she couldn't bear this burden, but rather that she shouldn't.
No one knew better than Minato the kind of suffering a female Jinchuriki had to endure, his wife was one after all. He couldn't plunge both of his children into that torment. Did he struggle with making his son a Jinchuriki? It was impossible that he didn't.
Selflessness has its limits. Even the Fourth Hokage had moments of selfishness.
Now that everything was over, leaving this sealing jutsu here served no purpose. After returning from Kumogakure, visiting the twins, and sorting through Kushina's belongings, Hagoromo finally decided to erase all traces of the jutsu formula. He simply didn't want to expose it to irrelevant people.
Honestly, if possible, he wouldn't have wanted to come to this place at all.
In this war, Hagoromo's mission was complete. Frankly, he no longer paid much attention to the great war.
The current situation was that neither Konoha nor Kumogakure had the will to launch offensives. Regardless, at this stage, the war was just dragging its feet. It was only a matter of how long both sides could hold out.
Hagoromo seemed to have heard a rumor that Kumogakure had demanded handing him over as a condition for peace... He really didn't know how to evaluate this, but for the current Konoha, this was an absolute impossibility.
It wasn't because Hagoromo couldn't be "sacrificed." Setting aside factors like his strength, the danger he posed under certain states, the likelihood of him turning hostile, and the impossibility of him willingly sacrificing himself, the main reason was that such a demand didn't align with Konoha's strategies.
What truly killed this possibility was that Kumogakure's demand came a step too late. Hagoromo's current image had been molded into the near-successor of the Yellow Flash. Asking Konoha to hand him over now was like asking them to hand over Minato a few years ago. Was that possible?
If it really came to that, Konoha would have no right calling itself one of the Five Great Ninja Villages; they would be a disgrace to the "Five Great Thugs."
As the war drew to a close, Konoha's internal troubles surfaced. At the root of it all was the Nine-Tails incident—Danzo Shimura was making his move against the Uchiha.
Considering that the Fourth Hokage had encountered a formidable enemy that day, and that the Nine-Tails was clearly being manipulated, the blame had to be pinned on a suitable target. It just so happened that there was a certain faction that wasn't exactly well-behaved and remained somewhat detached from Konoha's system.
Thus, almost overnight, everyone in Konoha came to know that only the Sharingan possessed the ability to control a Tailed Beast... The Uchiha's predicament could be easily imagined.
They became the murderers who killed the Fourth Hokage and his wife; the village just lacked direct evidence.
This claim couldn't entirely be called wrong. After all, the perpetrator was indeed an "Uchiha."
Regardless, the equilibrium of the war had been restored by Hagoromo. Given the losses Kumogakure sustained, even if the war continued, large-scale battles were no longer possible.
Therefore, in the judgment of the higher-ups, the hidden threat posed by the Uchiha now outweighed the usefulness they could provide in the remaining war.
Danzo had seized the opportunity.
Hagoromo paid no mind to these matters. He had his own plans for everything.
In fact, regarding the intelligence on Pain, he had only mentioned the Rinnegan. He described the battle process simply as constantly fleeing from the Rinnegan...
He wasn't that forgiving, nor did he like misdirecting his anger. After completing the "teleportation," Minato's three bodyguards were swiftly killed by the masked man. To Hagoromo, it was for the best that all ninjas capable of using Space-Time Ninjutsu disappeared.
Assuming they were still alive, it was hard to say whether Hagoromo would actually strike them down; after all, those three were merely manipulated puppets.
But from a certain moment onward, it became impossible for Hagoromo to harbor any goodwill toward the Uchiha. He wouldn't get involved in these affairs, but to ask him to stop Danzo's actions? One, he couldn't do it. Two... why should he?
Bluntly speaking, whether the Uchiha thrived or were exterminated was none of his business.
Therefore, Hagoromo remained silent. For certain people and certain matters, he had already arranged an order of death in his mind. This order could not be disrupted, because certain things could only be accomplished by specific individuals before they died.
Compared to the Uchiha's plight, another matter drew Hagoromo's attention more... The movements of the Amegakure leader, Hanzo of the Salamander, had been sighted once again.
Did that mean he wasn't dead?
But the more this happened, the more it reinforced Hagoromo's own judgment: Hanzo was definitively dead.
Before Akatsuki officially began their objective-driven operations, they worked as mercenaries for a long time. During that period, they likely hid within the "Blood Mist" of Kirigakure... But now, the Fourth Mizukage was no longer the original Mizukage, and the masked man had neither the inclination nor the reason to manipulate the Mizukage anymore.
Furthermore, the hiding place to accumulate power didn't have to be Kirigakure. Amegakure was equally closed off.
Due to a combination of various reasons, Hanzo's death occurred at least ten years earlier than originally scheduled. Amegakure had now become Akatsuki's hideout.
However, it was not yet time for them to make their move. Thus, they needed "Hanzo" to step up and stabilize the situation—the Hanzo appearing now was either someone using a Transformation Jutsu or a puppet manipulated by Pain.
Hagoromo could roughly piece together these details in his mind, but he wouldn't act immediately. First, his current physical condition. Second, the disparity in strength. Third, as he said before: things required order and procedure.
He wasn't in a rush, but the people destined to die would not be spared—not a single one.
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