As a "Kage," one must possess extreme confidence—in both strength and strategy. The mindset of "I'm number one in the world" is essential.
Theoretically, a Kage should rank among the top five strongest in the shinobi world—practically making them part of the "Five Absolutes." This theory is both right and wrong. Kage-level shinobi are indeed rare as phoenix feathers, but the problem is that while the power ladder before Kage level is smooth, after Kage it becomes fragmented.
Some elite jonin can fight a Kage for three hundred rounds, but what about those above Kage?
The First Tsuchikage Mu believed his strength dominated the world. Pressure breeds progress. After shouldering the hopes of his clan, village, and even the Land of Earth, his strength naturally surpassed what it would have been in the original timeline.
Without such strength, one cannot bear the fate of a nation.
Since mastering Dust Release, the First Tsuchikage hadn't exactly been invincible, but he'd never lost. His worst battlefield record was a draw.
The First Tsuchikage came from the warring era. He'd heard of the "Super-Kage legends." He acknowledged that people like Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara were exceptions in the shinobi world, and that his current strength fell far short of such figures at their peak.
But mere acknowledgment isn't enough. The First Tsuchikage thought he'd rationally measured the gap between himself and Hashirama-level powerhouses. He'd already placed himself as the weaker party—wasn't that enough?
However, this gap wasn't accurate. Any estimation from the sidelines is inaccurate. Mu had never actually fought Hashirama or Madara, so he couldn't properly grasp their strength.
In this timeline, Mu didn't have the experience of visiting Konoha with Onoki only to be blocked by Uchiha Madara.
But no matter. What you miss in school, society's university will make up. The lesson still needs to be learned. How delightful.
For various reasons—serving Iwagakure's and the Land of Earth's ambitions—the Tsuchikage had to act.
Iwagakure had designs on the Land of Fire. This was "natural," because the benefits they could easily seize had already been obtained in the last Great Shinobi War. If they wanted to be the ultimate victors in this war, their strategy had to be bolder.
First, they needed to gather intelligence on Konoha. Without intelligence, any so-called strategy would be a castle in the air. But this "first step" was now blocked, forcing the Tsuchikage to take action himself.
Nothing strange about that. Early-generation Kage were more accustomed to hands-on work.
Even contractors occasionally carry cement bags on construction sites—though doing so risks sending themselves into the concrete mixer, concrete pile, or concrete foundation.
What he needed to do was quite difficult. If Hanetsu hadn't set up checkpoints in the Land of Rain, infiltrating the Land of Fire would be relatively easy. But figuring out what exactly happened to the Sunagakure shinobi?
Heh.
Forget Iwagakure—even Sunagakure couldn't figure it out.
Forget Sunagakure—even Konoha couldn't figure it out.
Unless the Tsuchikage could capture Nara Hideyuki alive, everything was off the table. Hideyuki's reports even to Konoha were so concise they were cryptic. Want to extract intelligence from him? Frankly, killing him outright would be simpler.
After making his war deployments, the Tsuchikage immediately set out with a small squad.
"Oh, he actually came... makes sense though. In chess, you play your rook when needed, your king when needed. But the problem in the shinobi world is that the rook IS the king."
When the Tsuchikage began penetrating deep into the Land of Rain, Hanetsu immediately sensed them.
He'd set up this checkpoint to block traffic—not to collect taxes or protection money, just to harvest lives. Any normal village couldn't tolerate this. Anyone who could execute such missions had to be elite shinobi. Losing a squad of elites versus losing a squad of cannon fodder—villages felt very differently about that.
Asuma could die. Kakashi couldn't. Same principle.
The Tsuchikage's squad stopped shortly after entering the Land of Rain. A shinobi climbed to high ground and swept his arm horizontally. A bird of prey circling overhead immediately dove down and landed on his arm.
The shinobi removed the message tube tied to the bird's talons, extracted the note, and after decrypting the intelligence, immediately fell into shock.
"Tsuchikage-sama, the Second Raikage has fallen." He quickly returned to the Tsuchikage's side.
"Dead? What's the reason?"
The Tsuchikage paused. First the Second Kazekage, now the Second Raikage. The war just started—what's going on?
"Kumogakure is tightly sealing information, but according to intelligence leaked from Konoha's front lines, the Raikage died at the hands of the Second Hokage's daughter."
"Konoha still has depth. But the Second Raikage's death isn't necessarily good news for them."
"Tsuchikage-sama?"
The Tsuchikage shook his head without explaining.
After the new Raikage took office, he'd act with less regard for rules and consequences. After all, he was younger, more vigorous, and naturally more impulsive.
Three Kage dead at the war's start. The Tsuchikage was also a Kage. Logically, even if he didn't feel sympathy for his kind, he should view this as an ill omen. Yet the Tsuchikage seemed oblivious.
Though all were Kage, could they really be the same? What's their strength, and what's mine?
Though the Tsuchikage was confident, his subordinates felt a shadow fall over their hearts. The Tsuchikage personally executing a mission and receiving news of the Raikage's death en route—wasn't this a warning?
But since the Tsuchikage paid no mind, his subordinates couldn't voice such concerns and shake morale.
Setting the intelligence aside, the squad moved out again.
After some time, the sensory shinobi in the Tsuchikage's squad suddenly raised a blocking hand, and the entire squad stopped again.
"Tsuchikage-sama, enemy detected ahead... should be an enemy."
The Tsuchikage frowned. What kind of ambiguous intelligence was this? What did "should be an enemy" mean?
"Explain."
"There's a chakra signature, but not strong. No signs of combat preparation. Seems to just be waiting quietly."
"Just one person?"
"Yes, just one person."
"Then that's him."
Anyone acting abnormal on a battlefield is abnormal.
The Tsuchikage didn't hesitate. He led his squad through the Land of Rain's curtain of rain, instantly arriving before Hanetsu.
Then the Tsuchikage couldn't confirm whether the person before him was the enemy who'd been disrupting Iwagakure's operations—the one he'd come to find.
Outside, rain fell steadily. A person crouched in a dry tree hollow, head and shoulders protruding outside. Though wearing a conical hat, everyone could see he was intently watching the stream's surface ahead. The man held a fishing rod—he was fishing.
Looking closer, they could see a campfire burning in the tree hollow. Like some wilderness survival show.
Too bad the Tsuchikage wasn't an angler, or he'd know the spot where his opponent sat was the fishing spot thousands of anglers dreamed of.
"Hooked."
Seeing his opponents had indeed arrived, Hanetsu tossed aside his rod. He walked out of the tree hollow, stretched, then removed his conical hat.
He'd caught fish, so he hadn't caught fish.
After staring at Hanetsu's face for a while, the Tsuchikage finally spoke: "I know you... I should have been the Second Tsuchikage."
If the previous Ishikawa clan leader and the leaders of various shinobi clans within the Land of Earth's territory hadn't died, Mu would indeed have been the Second Tsuchikage rather than the founding First Tsuchikage of Iwagakure.
Without the Battle of Iwaryoka, the plateau wouldn't have continued its internal strife while other regions had already established shinobi villages.
In short, if he hadn't encountered Hanetsu, the Tsuchikage could pretend nothing happened. But now that they'd met, the Tsuchikage had absolutely no reason for peaceful coexistence.
Enemies meeting—next they must decide who stands and who falls. But since the Tsuchikage had this awareness, he naturally believed firmly that he'd be the one standing.
"From follower to architect of a series of systems—you gained opportunities to further display your talents. Isn't that good? I think, at least for you, I shouldn't be some heinous villain, right?"
He hadn't expected his opponent's impression of him to be so deep. Hanetsu had no memory of encountering Mu, but since the other could recognize him, he must have been on the Iwaryoka battlefield then.
What grudge, what resentment, to remember for forty years? This showed the opponent wasn't broad-minded.
The Tsuchikage didn't bother refuting. Judging by results, after losing his previous leader he did gain more opportunities to display his talents. But only he understood the hardships of starting a business, the bitterness involved.
"Are you the one blocking Iwagakure shinobi operations here?"
"No. I'm just fishing."
What Hanetsu said didn't really matter, but years of shinobi habits still made him unwilling to reveal any intelligence to enemies.
"This battle should have happened decades ago... You're still alive—surprising. But what about those helpers around you? Seems they're gone."
This small provocation had no effect on Hanetsu. Instead, it exposed the fact that the Tsuchikage had always been bothered by the Battle of Iwaryoka's outcome.
"Then why didn't the battle happen decades ago?"
Simple. Decades ago, the Tsuchikage didn't know Dust Release at all. If he didn't know Dust Release, what methods could he bring out to threaten the four-bloodline-limit version of Hanetsu back then?
"What didn't happen decades ago doesn't need to happen now either... If you retreat now, that would be the most rational choice."
Hanetsu still kindly advised. After all, the strength gap between him and the Tsuchikage now was even more exaggerated than before.
"Who do you think I am? I'm the founding First Tsuchikage of Iwagakure!"
"Who do you think I am"—this phrase seemed innocuous but was actually a standard death flag.
Hanetsu shook his head:
"A demigod is ultimately not a god."
Good advice can't save a ghost determined to die. Hanetsu felt somewhat rueful that during his activities in the shinobi world this time, all he'd done was "punch nursing homes."
His enemies, put nicely, were veterans. Put less nicely, old geezers.
"You can't help in this battle. Withdraw to a distance."
The Tsuchikage turned to address the three shinobi behind him.
"Tsuchikage-sama, the enemy is just one person, we..."
"Follow orders."
"Yes, Tsuchikage-sama."
The three shinobi could only obey and withdraw.
The Tsuchikage's order was correct, very proper. Except for one thing—he should have ordered himself to withdraw too.
"Hm?"
After the three left, the Tsuchikage immediately placed both hands before him, as if gripping a cone-shaped lampshade of a spotlight.
「Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World Technique」
A beam of light shot horizontally. An attack with annihilation properties could indeed be considered the shinobi world's strongest.
Though this move targeted Hanetsu, the goal wasn't to directly eliminate him.
Hanetsu leaped up, reaching midair to dodge the enemy's attack.
Next, the Tsuchikage rotated his body, making the light beam spin in a circle—using Dust Release's attack range as a radius to draw a circle.
A large swath of rainforest was leveled, including even Hanetsu's five-star fishing spot. The Tsuchikage had created a flat battlefield.
This approach left Hanetsu both amused and exasperated. What did this mean? Preventing his acid mist?
Damn, what version was the Tsuchikage living in? Boil Release had long since rotated out of Hanetsu's meta.
"Midair? Isn't that exposing your weakness?"
In the Tsuchikage's understanding, the more open the battlefield, the more disadvantageous for Hanetsu. Hanetsu jumping into the air was suicide—he really wanted to fight a Konoha Year One battle in Konoha Year Forty.
The Tsuchikage leaped up as well. But just then, dozens of dark red chakra energy weapons materialized behind Hanetsu.
Their spearheads and blades pointed directly at the Tsuchikage, followed by a high-speed covering strike.
Hanetsu treated this battle somewhat unseriously. This attack method was just playing around. Dust Release was ranged, so he used ranged attacks too.
These high-density chakra weapons clearly weren't ordinary, and energy weapons were characteristically difficult to defend against, so the Tsuchikage could only evade.
Thunk!
With a soft sound and sharp pain, a dark red longsword pierced the Tsuchikage's right shoulder.
What happened?
The Tsuchikage frowned deeply. He'd clearly dodged all these attacks.
Looking down at his wound, the sword's tip was in front of him, but the hilt was behind him—meaning the attack came from behind.
What kind of gun kata was this? Bullets that curve?
Hanetsu smiled faintly. Can't figure it out, can you? Though this battle's intensity was average, still...
Shinobi must use sneak attacks. Without sneak attacks, are they even shinobi? Hanetsu had to incorporate sneak attacks into combat so everyone would understand this battle took place in the shinobi world.
Objectively speaking, Dust Release's attack effectiveness was beyond question. But there was one problem: activating Dust Release required accumulating chakra—meaning this powerful technique needed "channeling."
Meaning, whether longer or shorter, Dust Release had a windup.
This windup was deadly.
For the caster, deadly.
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