Chapter 228: Cut a Pinky Open, and It's Black Inside
On the rooftop terrace of the Hokage Building, the young Hokage leaned against the railing, gazing out over the scenery below.
At the far edge of her view, a cluster of buildings was being torn down and rebuilt.
The relocation district.
Before long, the whole of Konoha would be rebuilt this way, one district at a time.
Wind stirred the Hokage's hair and robes. Behind her stood a refined man dressed in fine black robes.
Himura, the noble.
The same man who'd once come to collect the Daimyo.
"Lady Hokage."
Himura kept his eyes on the young Hokage before him, his tone steady on the surface, though a faint tremor lurked beneath.
The tremor of suppressed fury.
"Something you need?"
The Hokage didn't turn around. She simply stood there, back to him, as though he hardly registered as worth acknowledging.
"Several lords went to the Fire Temple to burn incense and pay their respects, with no ill intent whatsoever. Instead, they fell victim to savage villains."
"I ask that you send men to capture the perpetrators."
Himura bowed his head deeply.
Whatever purpose those "lords" had actually gathered for, they were, whatever else, nobles of the Land of Fire. Now that a group of unidentified shinobi had slaughtered them, it was the Hokage's duty to bring the culprits to justice — publicly, decisively.
"Burning incense? Paying respects?"
The Hokage let out a light laugh, clear as a silver bell — and the sound made Himura bow his head even lower still, not daring to meet even her sidelong glance, terrified she might glimpse the unease hidden behind his eyes.
"Tell me — what incense were these 'lords' actually burning? What deity were they actually paying respects to? What wish were they actually praying for?"
The Hokage's tone carried genuine amusement, and it made the man's scalp crawl.
Could it be — could this Hokage already know?
But hadn't Asuma always been aligned with the Guardian faction...
Facing this Hokage, the man had no idea how to answer.
Of course they'd been burning incense to shinobi. Paying respects to nobility. Praying for wishes centered on the Daimyo.
"Lady Hokage..."
The man's lips moved slightly, wanting to say something, but the words caught in his throat, unable to escape.
"Himura. You're a rare, genuinely clever man."
"Unfortunately, sometimes being too clever isn't necessarily a good thing."
The Hokage withdrew her gaze, returning her attention to the village sprawled before her. The wind stirred her pink hair and rustled her robes, and Himura felt a chill run through him.
Summer was approaching. The spring breeze blew gently. There was no logical reason for this cold.
"Lady Hokage..."
"You..."
Himura forced himself to raise his head, looking up at the Hokage before him.
But all he could see was her back.
The vivid, blood-red character for "Fire" emblazoned across the back of her robe sent a genuine shiver through him.
Such a vivid, striking character.
But before this Fifth Hokage, that character had represented the Land of Fire.
Now...
It represented something else entirely: the Hokage.
"Lady Hokage..."
"Since ancient times, the Daimyo has governed, and the nobility has assisted."
"This has been the rule everyone has followed for a thousand years. Even Hashirama Senju in his day never..."
Himura's emotions rose slightly. He wanted to counsel her.
To talk this Hokage out of the terrifying notion he sensed taking shape in her.
"Since ancient times — does that make it right?"
The Hokage's voice was quiet, almost a murmur to herself — but Himura heard every word with perfect clarity.
"..."
Such a simple sentence, and yet it choked off every word Himura had prepared to say next.
"You..."
"You cannot DO this!"
"The nobility provides shinobi with funding, resources, everything they need."
"And shinobi, in turn, provide the strength to defend the nobility and the nation from outside enemies."
"That is the relationship between nobility and shinobi!"
"If you continue down this path, the entire world will rise up against you!"
"You will be written into history as a pillar of shame!"
Himura rose to his feet, gesturing with his hands, as though summoning courage he didn't actually possess — a common vassal of the Daimyo, attempting to argue philosophy with a Hokage.
"Himura. You're a loyal servant."
"A pity, though, that your loyalty was never mine to begin with."
"I can tell you now — it was, once."
The Hokage turned to face him, her expression calm, as though discussing something entirely mundane. And yet every word landed on this noble's heart like a hammer blow.
"As I see it — why do shinobi defend against enemies at all?"
"Because they protect the commoners within their borders."
"Not the so-called nobility."
"Because it's the commoners who sustain the shinobi. But they also sustain the nobility."
The Hokage's words made the noble's eyes widen slightly.
What... what is she saying?
It's always been the nobility that sustains the shinobi!
"Lady Hokage!"
Himura wanted to correct what he saw as a deeply flawed premise, but the Hokage kept speaking.
"Three percent of the population in the Land of Fire is nobility. And that three percent consumes sixty percent of the nation's resources."
"Himura — do you think that's right?"
At her question, Himura answered without a moment's hesitation, as though the answer were self-evident:
"Of course it's right!"
"Nobility is ordained by heaven's mandate, and the Daimyo is beyond noble, beyond precious."
"To claim sixty percent of the nation's resources, and generously share the remaining forty with shinobi and commoners — how magnanimous!"
At this, something unreadable flickered through the Hokage's eyes.
"I'd assumed you were different from the rest of the nobility."
"I was mistaken, it seems."
"Just another jackal from the same pack."
The Hokage now understood the man's true nature completely.
He was among the fiercest, most fervent believers in the very concept of nobility itself.
"People exist in tiers!"
"Just as with the Hokage and the shinobi beneath her!"
"Daimyo, nobility, shinobi, commoners!"
"Hokage, jōnin, chūnin, genin!"
"Kekkei genkai shinobi, commoner shinobi!"
"Is this not the fundamental law governing everything in this world?!"
"Lady Hokage!"
"Turn back now, before this becomes an irreparable mistake. If you insist on this path, you will suffer a devastating backlash!"
Even now, Himura still hoped to drag this Hokage back onto the "righteous" path.
"You're right."
Unexpectedly, the Hokage agreed with him, and Himura's face lit up with an excited smile.
"However..."
"You're only half right."
At the Hokage's words, Himura's smile froze in place.
"A genin can become a chūnin. A chūnin can become a jōnin. A jōnin can become Hokage."
"Kekkei genkai shinobi are powerful, certainly. But they can still be surpassed by a commoner shinobi."
Only then did a genuine smile cross the Hokage's face.
That smile was blinding in its intensity, and Himura found himself unable to meet her eyes directly — this shinobi among shinobi.
"I am a commoner shinobi. Look across the entire shinobi world — is there a single fool who'd dare claim to be stronger than me?"
"So — do you understand now?"
Nobles were born nobles. Commoners were born commoners.
A commoner could spend their entire life without ever daring to look a noble directly in the eye.
They could only remain humble, obedient, bowing their heads low, degraded, faces pressed toward the filthy ground.
Because a commoner's gaze might sully the hem of a noble's robes.
Without shinobi in the world, this arrangement would have persisted for a hundred years, a thousand, ten thousand — indefinitely.
A commoner could become a shinobi.
But even as a shinobi, they could never become nobility.
Except for Hashirama Senju.
A once-in-a-millennium absolute powerhouse.
But even Hashirama Senju, standing before nobility, had ultimately been forced to bend his knee before the Daimyo.
And to offer his own daughter to him.
Himura's eyes trembled. He understood now — he understood exactly what this Hokage's true intent was.
The nobility was merely something she intended to sweep aside, almost incidentally.
Her real goal was to shatter the entire unchanging system of class monopoly!
The nobility had simply happened to stand in her way.
Which was why she intended to kick them aside without a second thought.
To open a path of advancement for even the most ordinary commoner, the lowliest of the low.
To let the farmer wielding a sickle in the fields, the craftsman hammering tools at the forge, stand at the summit of glory itself — receiving the gaze of the entire world.
This — this was—
This was pure madness!
What manner of lunatic could possibly conceive such an insane ambition?
If the person before him had merely sought the Daimyo's throne — or even dominion over the entire world — Himura could have grudgingly comprehended it.
But—
But WHY?
Why would she harbor such a mad ambition?
"...As I understand it, Lady Hokage grew up in Konoha from childhood."
"Then was taken as a student by the Third Hokage."
Himura spoke quietly, recounting the Hokage's known history.
"I don't understand. Lady Hokage never lived as a commoner."
"So why would she have... such an aberrant way of thinking?"
Listening to the man's words, Sakura couldn't help a small smile, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear, speaking as though to herself.
"Heh. Who knows?"
What kind of answer is that?
Did she genuinely not even know why she harbored such a mad conviction?
Himura wanted to press further, but the Hokage before him already looked bored, regarding him with mild disinterest.
"Don't worry. Whether noble or commoner, they are all people of the Land of Fire."
"If someone is killing people within my nation, I will not let it stand."
"The perpetrators behind the Fire Temple massacre will be caught soon enough."
Himura's heart raced with urgency. Compared to this Hokage's actual convictions, what did the Fire Temple incident even matter?
The Fire Temple had cost the lives of a mere twenty-odd nobles.
But the Hokage before him intended to eliminate the nobility entirely!
If the Hokage established this precedent, there was no guarantee the other four nations — Wind, Earth, Lightning, Water — wouldn't follow suit.
At which point, nobility would truly vanish from this world altogether!
"Lady Hokage!"
Himura wanted to continue, but the Hokage's expression had already turned cold.
"Himura. I've indulged you with this much conversation because I chose to, not because I owed you a response."
"Do you understand?"
A single sentence, and the man's expression darkened, his mouth clamping shut.
"Yes, Lady Hokage."
"I shall take my leave."
Even though the Hokage had openly revealed her ambitions, the man still bowed at the waist before departing.
The Hokage could reject the rules of nobility all she liked — but he, as a devoted upholder of that same system, could not do the same.
His bow wasn't for the person before him. It was for her title.
The Hokage.
Save for the Daimyo himself, every noble was required to bow before the Hokage.
Standing atop the Hokage Building's rooftop terrace, watching the man climb into his carriage and slowly depart toward Konoha's main gate, Sakura's expression remained utterly unchanged.
"You didn't kill him?"
A voice sounded beside her.
At some point, Uchiha Hikaru had appeared, standing shoulder to shoulder with Sakura.
"He's just an ant."
"Letting him carry this message back will bring me a bit of amusement."
Sakura had no concerns whatsoever about whatever retaliation this noble might attempt against her.
As far as Sakura was concerned, if the man genuinely managed to accomplish something troublesome, she'd let him live — let him witness the arrival of her era firsthand.
"You really do have a nasty sense of humor."
Hikaru glanced sideways at the Hokage in her red-and-white robes.
"Aren't you curious? These nobles have lorded over this world for a thousand years — how will they react when the shinobi beneath them finally rebel?"
"Will they resist to the death? Or grovel and beg for mercy?"
Hikaru opened her mouth to object, but ultimately found herself unable to.
Fine. I'm curious too.
Damn it — have I been spending too much time with this pinky? Am I starting to turn black inside too?
"Honestly, I'm actually looking forward to seeing it."
"Think about it. All those lords who normally strut around, so high and mighty — kneeling before you, in front of everyone."
"Groveling, wagging their tails, begging for mercy with the most obsequious manner imaginable. That scene's going to be genuinely entertaining."
Pinky's mouth curved into a wicked smile that made Hikaru's scalp crawl.
"And if they resist to the end?"
Hikaru asked, curious.
"To honor such devoted loyalists, I'll kill them."
Sakura said this with total nonchalance.
Hikaru nodded at this.
Fair enough — even a rotten system, if someone was willing to defend it unto death, deserved a measure of respect. Killing them and letting them die for their loyalty was, in a sense, the best resolution available.
"And if they surrender?"
Hikaru asked again.
"A bunch of garbage. Letting them satisfy my mood for a moment is already the most value they'll ever provide. What, should I let them keep breathing and wasting food?"
Sakura rolled her eyes at Hikaru, as though looking at an idiot.
???
Great. So either way, they're all dead.
Hikaru genuinely had nothing left to say to that.
"So, what's this? Did the sun rise in the west today?"
"You actually came to find me?"
Sakura eyed the girl beside her, one eyebrow arched.
At this, Hikaru's gaze drifted pointedly toward a tree standing near the Hokage Building.
"Um..."
Hikaru mumbled, hesitant.
Huh?
Sakura looked at her, confused.
This was a rare sight — Hikaru acting this way.
"You... you..."
"I want cake..."
The small, mumbled words escaped Hikaru's mouth, and Sakura's brow curved into an involuntary smile.
Ah. My emotional entertainment has arrived at my doorstep, all on its own.
This time, Sakura had plenty of chakra to spare — no need to worry about overdoing the teasing and getting beaten up for it~~~
"Sure~~~"
Hikaru's eyes brightened.
"But you have to ask nicely~~~"
☆☆☆
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