Chapter 273: Wild Lightning
[Special Event: Fall of the Five Nations Progress Update, Current: 33.6%]
[Special Event: Fall of the Five Nations Progress Update, Current: 33.8%]
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Kaito Shirogane sat on the edge of a steep cliff in the Land of Lightning, watching the clouds and mist churning in the mountain stream. He knew that every change in the decimal point inevitably meant that the members of Akatsuki were slaughtering in the Land of Fire, the Land of Lightning, and the Land of Wind. Those traditional nobles were constantly being assassinated.
This wasn't like the past where a powerful rogue ninja would appear occasionally. Instead, ninjas with top-tier combat power were acting in teams.
It was simply not something that ninjas from ordinary villages could protect against.
Currently, apart from the Land of Wind where the situation was still okay because Akatsuki couldn't spare enough manpower and Sasori's plan to assassinate the Daimyo failed, the nobles and Daimyos of the Land of Fire and the Land of Lightning had basically been massacred.
The ninjas of both countries were thrown into chaos due to the death and disappearance of their Kages and couldn't coordinate well.
The Land of Water, which should have been destroyed under the attacks of Zetsu and Sasori, was put on hold because Sasori insisted on assassinating the Daimyo of the Land of Wind.
Sasori didn't expect that after he assassinated the Third Kazekage, the successor Rasa would be equally dark, actually trading Sunagakure's hero Pakura to Kirigakure to be killed for political reasons. This act made him thoroughly disappointed in Sunagakure.
He resolved to first deal with the Land of Wind that Sunagakure was supposed to protect.
Unfortunately, after realizing Mercenary Tao's terror and the appearance of the Golden Order, Black Zetsu temporarily abandoned the operation on Akatsuki's side, leaving Sasori without support. In the end, Rasa arrived with reinforcements, and the assassination failed.
Kaito Shirogane was in no hurry to support the Land of Wind battlefield to seize the Tailed Beast.
Instead, above the mountain stream cliff in the Land of Lightning where clouds surged, in this place where thunder was most active, he activated the special item [Legacy of the Hakkesshu: Wild Lightning].
Kaito Shirogane didn't worry about the negative effects of failure in using this item. His sea of consciousness had long since turned into a place akin to a small hell.
The Yellow Springs flowed, spirits were everywhere, and powerful spirits like Gojo Satoru, Uchiha Madara, and Shinigami were all accommodated within. What difference would one more Hakkesshu make?
He was only worried that the legacy he obtained wouldn't be powerful enough.
He gripped the Magatama flashing with lightning tightly and suddenly crushed it.
At this moment, because it was dawn, Kaito Shirogane had lost the full moon transformation effect of [Silver Wolf under the Moon], and his body size had returned to normal.
After the Magatama shattered, the sky suddenly began to darken. Above the mountain stream, dark clouds began to gather, and intense thunder condensed continuously.
Even the people of the Land of Lightning hadn't seen this kind of scene many times, as if the dark clouds were about to touch the mountain peak.
Crack!
A bolt of lightning lit up the entire world, followed by a terrifying roar that drowned out all sounds.
Standing on the outskirts of the Royal Capital, at the bottom of the cliff, Minoru Hiranaka stared blankly at this scene with a worried expression. He wanted to cast an incantation for Mercenary Tao, but he had been warned earlier not to set foot above.
"Minoru, what exactly... happened to you?"
Hana Hiranaka stood behind her husband, looking at him still wearing that set of heavy armor, her eyes confused.
She felt that her honest and simple husband seemed to have become a different person since escaping from Konoha. He hadn't even asked how everyone in the town was doing until now, nor had he asked if their neighbors were safe, nor had he... asked if she was scared.
She reached out to Minoru Hiranaka. Her husband was clearly standing in front of her, but it felt like they were far apart.
The golden ring in Minoru Hiranaka's eyes became more solid. He found that facing the wife he used to think about day and night, he wasn't that excited. Or rather, his heart had been filled by something grander.
Minoru Hiranaka turned his head, his eyes meeting his wife's. His gaze became calm, and the golden luster stung Hana Hiranaka.
Minoru Hiranaka said:
"I'm fine, Hana. I'm just..."
He tried his best not to look at the chaotic Royal Capital. Minoru Hiranaka was unwilling to call Mercenary Tao's crazy "tyranny" last night benevolence.
It was a kind of wanton recklessness without any restrictions, allowing everyone to state their needs without limitation, and then Mercenary Tao would fulfill them with pure violence.
Under the temptation of such violence, he found that what most people craved in their bones was violence. Whether it was wealth, hatred, beauty, or power, everything was rooted in violence against others.
"I just hope this world can become a little better."
"Hana, I hope you will never die, I hope mother will never die, I hope everyone in the town will never die, I hope... Haruka, will never die..."
Minoru Hiranaka murmured to himself. The pain he had suffered was probably all related to those passings. His mother, who had raised him with great difficulty, died of a sudden cold.
The war orphan he adopted, clearly so kind and lovable, died at the hands of another war orphan just for the little food he left behind.
Minoru Hiranaka looked down at his wife, sorrow revealed in his eyes.
"Death is so painful, Hana. A world where no one dies... I will definitely make it come. By then..."
Slap!
A crisp slap sounded. Minoru Hiranaka didn't feel pain. Instead, Hana Hiranaka's right hand had almost lost sensation. With tears in the corners of her eyes, she couldn't distinguish whether the pain was from hitting her husband's armor or the panic of a familiar person becoming a stranger.
"Minoru!"
"Those kinds of things... those kinds of things have nothing to do with us!"
Following behind Mercenary Tao for the past seven or eight days, Hana Hiranaka had fully realized that this world didn't belong to ordinary people like them who lived diligently.
Those ninjas could kill dozens, hundreds of people like her with a wave of their hands;
And Mercenary Tao could kill hundreds of such ninjas with a wave of his hand.
Seeing her husband staring at her blankly, Hana Hiranaka threw herself into his arms, tears streaming down her face.
"Let them fight over those things, let them decide. I... only hope we can live well..."
"Along with Mother's and Haruka's share!"
"Mr. Nishikawa died, Mr. Tsunoda died too. Everyone died! Minoru, I only have you left. Don't do those dangerous things. Don't get mixed up with guys like Mercenary Tao!"
The woman hugged her husband tightly with all her might, as if wanting to merge her body into his armor, calling out hoarsely.
No one had moved on from those deaths, but life couldn't stand still. Rather than being constantly bound by the past, Hana Hiranaka hoped to face the future together with her husband.
Minoru Hiranaka looked at his wife hugging him tightly. He seemed to see that after his mother and Haruka died, she had held him and cried bitterly like this. But at that time, he could do nothing.
"It's different now..."
As Minoru Hiranaka spoke, a golden magic circle shone beneath him, and the glow of the Golden Order became increasingly dazzling.
I will change this sorrowful world!
Minoru Hiranaka's fiercely fluctuating heart seemed to be calling for the descent of a certain Greater Will.
Hana Hiranaka was bathed in the warm golden incantation, but her heart grew colder and colder.
She looked at her husband in despair, feeling that he had been occupied by something else. He could no longer see her, would no longer clumsily warm her.
How many things must this world take away from me?!
What exactly does this kind of world want me to do before it's willing to let me be happy?!
Hana Hiranaka released her hands holding Minoru Hiranaka. She turned to look at the top of the cliff completely covered by black clouds. She knew that up there, there was a thorough tyrant.
Perhaps, only that guy can...
Crack!
Another thunderbolt lit up. Between the changes of light and dark, Hana Hiranaka's peaceful face also flickered uncertainly.
(End of Chapter)
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