Chapter 414: Disposal
"It's over."
Natsuhi said softly.
Akahoshi fainted on the ground, his breath weak, gradually fading into nothingness.
The Star Ninja silently walked forward, helped him up, and leaned him against the large pillar in front of the training hall. Akahoshi was in a deep coma, all his muscles had lost strength, and he couldn't sit still even leaning against the pillar. He slumped there barely, like a limp worm, looking nothing like the person bursting with power just before.
The contrast was chilling.
Purple tumors gradually climbed up Akahoshi's neck, parasitizing the blood vessels, piling up lump by lump, extremely disgusting.
This man had been the Hoshikage for more than ten years, and within a few short days, he lost everything: power, strength, and life, all gone.
The Star Ninja looked at the inhuman Akahoshi with complex expressions. According to Hoshigakure's custom, since Akahoshi was defeated, the Star meteorite should be banned. However, although if they continued to practice the Mysterious Peacock Method, Akahoshi's appearance would be their future, and no one liked looking like neither human nor ghost; but without relying on the Star meteorite, where could the Star Ninja get a cultivation method to gain power?
Without power, how could they protect the village, protect their families, and protect themselves?
Everyone couldn't help feeling lost. The ninja then secretly glanced at Natsuhi, wanting to know what arrangements this woman who brought change would make.
Natsuhi ignored them, just stimulated Akahoshi's brain with chakra to wake him up: "Do you have anything else to say?"
"My two children... cough, cough, have nothing to do with my affairs... cough, please don't hurt them." Akahoshi said weakly.
He was gradually losing the ability to breathe, his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water.
Natsuhi nodded solemnly and asked again: "Anything else?"
Akahoshi smiled weakly.
"And... you will regret it..."
He took out the Star meteorite from his chest. Before Natsuhi reached out to take it, Akahoshi's head tilted, and he breathed his last breath.
The stone fell with Akahoshi's powerless sliding hand, rolled to Natsuhi's feet, emitting a faint glow.
Natsuhi sighed deeply, closed Akahoshi's widened eyes, and then took out a special scroll to seal the meteorite inside. Then she turned her head and said loudly to everyone: "Star Ninja, my compatriots! Akahoshi is dead! Therefore, all his policies are declared void starting today!"
The Star Ninja turned their heads in unison to look at Natsuhi. After Akahoshi was defeated, this woman was the only ninja in Hoshigakure who had cultivated the Mysterious Peacock Method to the highest realm, which meant she was the strongest among the current Star Ninja—the next Hoshikage.
"I, Natsuhi, daughter of the Second Hoshikage! Hereby announce that from now on, Star Ninja are not allowed to use the 'Star' meteorite for cultivation anymore!" (Note 1)
The Star Ninja crowd made a low uproar. Although they were mentally prepared, they couldn't help but be surprised and hesitant when hearing this news. However, even if they had doubts about this order, the Star Ninja were used to obeying the words of the strongest. Thus, after hesitating for a moment, they all half-knelt on the ground in unison, lowered their heads and said in unison: "Yes, Natsuhi-sama!"
Natsuhi nodded with satisfaction.
After disciplining the Star Ninja, she handed the scroll to Naruto beside her and said with a smile: "Thank you, Naruto! This is the scroll sealing the Star meteorite. Hoshigakure no longer needs it... Please accept it!"
Naruto hesitated for a moment and took the scroll.
"Without this meteorite, you won't be able to cultivate the Mysterious Peacock Method, right? What will you do?"
Natsuhi smiled bitterly: "Start over... The Five Great Ninja Villages don't have Star meteorites, yet they can still cultivate powerful ninja. There is no reason why Hoshigakure can only rely on the Star meteorite with endless troubles to gain power."
"It's been fully two hundred years! Repeatedly entangled in the matter of the Star meteorite, entangled in endless internal strife and side effects of cultivation, have we really gained power from the Star meteorite? Hoshigakure has not developed new ninjutsu for many years, nor has it given birth to a true 'Kage' level ninja! Perhaps without the Star meteorite, our village will truly grow into a great ninja village?"
Speaking of this, Natsuhi sighed and looked up at the sky; in the early summer evening, the sunset glow was as brilliant as fire, but her mood was as heavy as water.
"After Akahoshi came to power, I left the village and wandered outside... Without the Star meteorite to help cultivation, my Mysterious Peacock Method, which had stagnated in cultivation progress, actually made a breakthrough. Is it possible that the Mysterious Peacock Method doesn't need the Star meteorite for cultivation in the first place?"
Naruto didn't know how to answer this question, so he remained silent.
Natsuhi didn't expect Naruto to answer either; she didn't even know the answer to such a question herself. She was just murmuring, almost talking to herself.
For a moment, both fell silent.
"The side effects of the Mysterious Peacock Method... medical ninjutsu should be able to cure it." Naruto said, trying to make conversation, "Um, I have a few friends who are proficient in medical ninjutsu. If you need—"
"Really? Is Konoha willing to send medical ninja to help us?" Natsuhi asked pleasantly surprised. She had traveled for many years and at least knew that Tsunade had returned to the village a few years ago to serve as the Fifth Hokage. With her there, the level of Konoha's current medical ninja must be quite brilliant. It was just that Natsuhi doubted whether Hoshigakure had enough face to invite them for a mission. Since Naruto took the initiative to propose this, she would naturally be very pleasantly surprised.
"Sakura-chan is a good person, they won't refuse." Naruto smiled.
Sakura-chan Good Person Card get√
"That's really great. To thank you for your kindness, I'll make the decision to give you all the remaining meteorites!"
"Eh? Remaining?"
"You don't think we only have one meteorite, do you?" Natsuhi smiled slyly. This nearly forty-year-old aunt still retained her charm under the nourishment of chakra, smiling beautifully.
"Under the training hall, there are thousands of 'Star' meteorites sealed underground—back then, the meteorite disintegrated in the air and was collected by us. The one in your hand is just the smallest piece among them. This secret is only known to successive Hoshikage, even Akahoshi didn't know."
"Since I have decided to abandon the Star meteorite, this harmful thing, I might as well give it all to you! Keeping it in the village as a memento would easily cause trouble again in the future!"
Naruto didn't empty the underground warehouse of the training hall on the spot—firstly, he didn't have that many precious sealing scrolls, and he couldn't carry them by hand; secondly, he didn't know if this was the radioactive ore Sakura needed.
Since those meteorites had been safely sealed under the training hall for so many years, it didn't matter if they stayed for a while longer.
Declining Natsuhi's enthusiastic retention, Naruto turned and left Hoshigakure. The unexpected Hoshigakure incident interrupted his training for several days, and Naruto needed to hurry up to make up for it.
At the same time, the toads summoned by Naruto also left Hoshigakure with letters and scrolls.
When he reunited with Jiraiya, the setting sun happened to shed its last bit of afterglow. The Pervy Sage stood on the top of the mountain, watching the red disc sink completely below the horizon.
"You're back."
He waved to Naruto. Out of the corner of his eye, the expression on Naruto's face was not the joy of completing the mission perfectly, but rather a bit of puzzled confusion.
Jiraiya was delighted instead of alarmed.
Confusion meant he had thought.
Whether he got the correct answer wasn't important; what was important was the process of thinking.
Because for some questions, there is simply no correct answer.
Jiraiya's requirement for Naruto was simple. He could be clumsy—because Jiraiya himself was also very clumsy, and he didn't really like disciples who were too smart—but he couldn't lack thought.
"Full marks, Naruto."
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