On one side was enormous profit; on the other, the threat of war. At that mont, many in Konoha couldn't help but feel that Tsunade marrying into Kumo… wasn't entirely unacceptable.
"Ah!" At Konoha Hospital, Tsunade was already so consud by rage that she had lost all reason. With a punch, she blasted straight through the hospital building, punching a hole clean through it. But right now, she didn't care about anything else, she just wanted to kill soone.
Seeing the building now open on both ends, everyone in the hospital, including the patients, shrank fearfully into corners, not daring to make a single sound. They were terrified that if they made even the slightest mistake, she would kill them with a single punch.
Fortunately, at that mont, a figure suddenly appeared and stopped her just as she was about to throw a second punch.
"Stop," The figure spoke gently, grabbing her wrist with deep concern. "It's going to be okay. Trust , alright?"
Seeing who it was, all of Tsunade's anger instantly turned into grievance. Tears welled up in her eyes.
Shin hadn't gone to his lab today. Instead, he'd stayed ho, waiting for news from the negotiations. When the ssenger arrived with the results, his first instinct had been the sa as hers, to find soone and make them pay.
But the thought of Tsunade made him forcefully suppress all his emotions. He rushed to the hospital to her side.
She could afford to be angry. But he could not.
Because if he lost his mind too, who would be there to comfort her?
After bringing her ho and coaxing her to sleep, Shin's expression changed. In a flash, he vanished from the spot.
---
By now, night had fallen.
In the Hokage's office, Hiruzen sat behind a mountain of docunts. The stacks nearly covered him completely, giving the impression of an incredibly busy man. In front of others, he was always the diligent Hokage, this image he maintained until death.
But behind those piles of papers, he was currently using the Telescope Technique to secretly observe the entrance of Shin and Tsunade's ho.
The technique had never failed as a surveillance tool.
However, it had one limitation: it could only spy on targets whose chakra signatures he had already morized.
Just as his gaze turned sinister, clearly scheming sothing malicious, a figure suddenly appeared in front of him.
"Shin?" Hiruzen quickly dispelled his technique, but not before Shin had seen exactly what he'd been doing. "What brings you here so late?"
But when he saw Shin's eyes, he felt a chill run through his soul.
How could his eyes still be intact?
And what was he planning?
"Having fun?" Shin walked slowly toward Hiruzen and nodded at the crystal ball. "Nice hobby you've got there."
"Shin, how... Guards! Guards!" Hiruzen quickly assud a combat stance, shouting for help in alarm.
Nothing happened.
"They can't hear you," Shin said, settling into the chair across from Hiruzen's desk as if this were a casual eting. "I've made sure we won't be interrupted. Still don't believe ? Go on, yell again."
"You… You want to assassinate the Hokage?" Hiruzen prepared to perform a summoning jutsu. But suddenly, his chakra went haywire, causing the summoning to fail. So, he quickly threw two kunai at Shin.
But in the next instant, the two kunai returned to his hands.
Shin stood there with his arms crossed, watching the scene as if it were a performance.
The Mangekyō Sharingan…
The mont he saw those eyes, Hiruzen had already lost the will to fight. The psychological shadow they cast on him was simply too great.
Those were the sa eyes Madara had once possessed!
As Shin stood unmoving, Hiruzen suddenly turned and tried to flee through the window. As long as he could escape and rally enough people, he didn't believe Shin could still do anything to him. But in the very next mont, his body was inexplicably pulled back to its original position, leaving him completely stunned.
He rembered everything that had just happened, it wasn't an illusion, and ti hadn't been reversed, but it had still sohow happened in such a strange way.
Unwilling to give up, he imdiately charged toward the office door. But just as he thought he was about to escape, his body was once again returned to where he started.
His willpower wasn't sothing the average person could compare to. Seeing there was no way to escape, he rushed straight at Shin. But the next mont, he was once again back where he had been.
Even more terrifyingly, no matter what jutsu he tried to use, his chakra was sohow disrupted, preventing him from casting anything.
"What do you want?" he finally asked.
Shin leaned forward, his expression never changing from that unsettling calm. "You hurt soone I care about. Did you really think there wouldn't be consequences? If you'd co after directly, I might have respected that. Politics, manipulation, trying to eliminate a perceived threat, that's just the nature of our world. But targeting Tsunade? Using her as a bargaining chip? That was a mistake."
"You've misunderstood!" Hiruzen said, mind racing as he tried to explain. "It was the Third Raikage's idea! He threatened with war, I was forced into it!"
"Hahaha." Shin's laugh was utterly without humor. "You had many choices, Hiruzen. You chose the one that hurt her most. A won't die in Konoha. He'll die in Kumo, in his own ho. For Tsunade's sake, I can't let anyone know he died by my hand. After all, I still need to use him to unravel the trap you set. And for a long while after, Kumo will know no peace. Maybe the Eight-Tails will randomly go berserk."
He casually picked up the crystal ball used for the Telescope Technique, playing with it idly, as though speaking of sothing that had nothing to do with him. Then, suddenly, he raised his head and looked at Hiruzen. "As for you... what should I do with the man who orchestrated all this?"
"What… what do you want?" Hiruzen asked through gritted teeth.
Shin let the crystal ball fall from his hand. It hit the floor and shattered in two.
In the next instant, Shin was behind Hiruzen's chair, one hand resting on the Hokage's shoulder.
Feeling the complete inability to summon any chakra, he grit his teeth and growled, "Are you going to kill ? Have you thought about the consequences?"
"Hahaha, consequences?" Shin laughed. "Do I need to consider the consequences? I just don't want you to die too easily. So don't worry, I won't kill you today. Killing is the lowest form of revenge. It's too easy. Too rciful. You care so much about your reputation, don't you? So obsessed you'd do anything for it? I'll make you utterly ruined. I'll make everyone in Konoha despise you, wish you were dead. Until you beco the ultimate disgrace of the village, I won't let you die."
"And not just you. Doesn't Danzō want to be Hokage so badly? I'll give him that chance. Then, just when he thinks he's succeeded in assassinating you and is about to finally realize his dream of becoming Hokage, I'll drag him straight into hell. As for Koharu, don't you think it'd be fitting for her to completely lose her dignity and sanity? When she's at her most helpless, most afraid, you'll kill her with your own hands to silence her. How about that idea? I can't wait to see the terror, the disbelief, and the unresolved horror on her face as she's killed by you."
"And Homura." Shin chuckled like he was telling a bedti story. "Doesn't he like being the peacemaker?"
"I really want to see his face when he watches you kill Koharu. Will he still try to smooth things over after that? Just imagining you turning on each other, killing one another... I'm sure, with them to keep you company, you won't be lonely in the Pure Land. And as for you, after your reputation is utterly destroyed, I'll have Tobirama resurrected using Edo Tensei. I want him to see everything you've done, to see what kind of man his chosen successor really turned out to be. And when you're at your most hopeless, I'll have him kill you with his own hands."
"Ah… you… you're a demon… a demon!" Hiruzen's entire body trembled uncontrollably as he scread in terror. "Why are you doing this?!"
It was horrifying.
Absolutely terrifying.
Just hearing Shin describe it all made his soul tremble.
Why?
Why?!
Why are you doing this to ?
"Hahahahahaha!" Shin clutched his forehead and laughed like a madman. "Isn't it obvious?"
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