Chapter 110: Replacement
There were not many customers at Ichiraku Ramen in the afternoon, since it was the hottest time of day. Anyone who came to eat ramen at this hour had to be a truly devoted ramen maniac.
Minato Namikaze did not count. He had only come to check on things and ended up eating with the others. Having ramen once in a while was fine for him, but eating it all the time would be too much trouble.
The one who truly loved ramen was Kakashi Hatake. Ever since the time Aizen treated him to a bowl, whenever he had a little spare money and time, Kakashi would make his way to Ichiraku for ramen. Over time, everyone came to a simple conclusion: if Kakashi was not in the library during his free hours, he was most likely at the ramen shop.
In other words, was this actually a safe and relaxed moment for Kakashi right now...?
To be honest, that judgment was a little insulting, but based on what he knew of Aizen and Kakashi, Minato felt it was probably true.
Neither of them could be judged by common sense. Although Kakashi was only around eight years old, in this era the total amount of chakra was no longer the only thing that mattered. What mattered was the quality and nature of that chakra.
If Kakashi had not changed at all, Minato would never have believed it. But he also never expected to stop the two of them from slipping away by himself. After all, while he was Hokage, he was also a young man. And what was a young man's favorite weapon in battle?
Calling for backup.
"You two really dare to sit here eating and drinking like this?"
A fair hand lifted the shop curtain. A woman with a fine figure, wearing a haori, stepped inside and looked at the two men at the counter with open surprise.
Her short, neat golden hair, stunning figure, and unrestrained air made her instantly recognizable to anyone. This was Tsunade, Konoha's princess and granddaughter of the God of Shinobi.
Behind her stood a man with long moon white hair, also wearing a haori with the number two on his back. He looked a bit awkward as he faced the two men inside, or rather, as he faced the middle aged man with messy white hair, and greeted them with some embarrassment.
"Good afternoon, both of you. Sorry to disturb you."
"Oh, if it isn't Dan."
The white haired man at the counter greeted him with a gentle smile.
"So, when are you two going to leave together? Aren't you both from the Thirteenth Division? Are you comfortable staying in Konoha?"
"How could he possibly leave?"
Before Dan could reply, Tsunade cut in flatly.
But then she glanced at her own haori, then at the smiling man behind her, and let out a sigh. She grabbed the glass of beer that had been prepared in advance and drained it in one go.
"At least not yet."
"..."
Isn't it a bit much to be talking about desertion so openly in front of me, the Hokage?
Minato silently took a sip of his own beer. The bitter taste burned all the way down his throat. He admitted he was still fairly inexperienced as Hokage, but having a group of people casually discussing defection right in front of him was still quite a shock.
He genuinely did not know what was wrong with this world anymore.
If this had been two years ago, even Danzo's Borderless organization would have been stamped down with overwhelming force. But now, with the Moon Dream having swept through everything and Konoha still not fully settled from the upheaval, everyone seemed tired in a way that went beyond simple fatigue.
Attachment to the village was no longer as absolute as before. Life and death no longer felt like a single coin toss. After being forced again and again to brush past death and destruction, and under the crushing pressure of war, just as Shimura Danzo had said, a strange kind of peace and circulation had appeared among the villages, and it was quietly spreading.
In the past, such treasonous thoughts would have remained locked in someone's heart at most. No one would have said them out loud. But now, not only were they being spoken, there was even a subtle sense that people might actually act on them. Minato could not say whether this trend was good or bad, but he knew one thing clearly.
If he tried to suppress it by force, Konoha would probably be destroyed in an instant.
I should just pretend I did not see anything.
No wonder the Third Hokage always played deaf and dumb. Now it was finally his turn to sit in that seat and understand why.
Minato drank again, feeling the bitterness spread.
At that moment, another pale hand lifted the curtain. The owner of that hand looked at the people inside and spoke in mild surprise.
"Oh? You are all still here? Kagami is on his way. Once he arrives, this will not be such a casual chat anymore."
Orochimaru. You have not left yet?
"There are still a few documents in Konoha that I have not managed to retrieve. I suspect they were left for me by Aizen, but unfortunately they were taken away. I want to make a copy."
"..."
So here was yet another one who ran off halfway and then remembered he had forgotten to collect his things.
Minato's heart hurt, but he really had nothing to say anymore.
Orochimaru, in a plain tunic tied at the waist, noticed Minato in the corner nursing his beer. A hint of apology flickered over his slightly eerie features.
"Minato, it is not that I dislike Konoha. As a researcher, there are times when I have to make a choice. I will leave proper compensation behind for Konoha. After all, there are some things I do not want to test on villagers."
"Oh..."
Should I praise you for having a conscience?
Looking at Orochimaru's soft apology, Minato suddenly felt he should never have gone to inspect that chakra signal tower today.
If he had not gone, he would not have to deal with any of this idiotic mess. If he had ignored it, he could have kept his good mood for the day, gone back home, and continued fantasizing on his bed about how to defeat Aizen, instead of being roasted alive over the flames like he was now.
"Speaking of which, what is Kakashi doing here this time? Is it only for the chakra signal tower?"
"That is only one part of it."
Having finished his large bowl of Ichiraku ramen, Kakashi let out a quiet sigh and glanced at the current Konoha leadership gathered in the shop.
"On the other hand, I mainly came to do what people like us should be doing at this stage. But after thinking it over, it felt a bit too crude, so I decided to just come and eat a bowl of noodles instead."
"What do you mean, 'what you should be doing now that you are in this position'?"
"It is probably something like causing destruction, formally announcing we belong to some organization, declaring war on the world, then running some kind of elimination game."
Propping his chin with one hand, Kakashi lazily rattled off a series of outrageous statements with a bored expression.
For a moment, even Orochimaru was speechless.
From the standpoint of rogue ninja, there was nothing strange about such behavior. Shadows like that popped up in the ninja world all the time. If Aizen played that role, he could naturally shift into handling that type of enemy, blending into the pattern of how things already worked.
After more than a year of this kind of gradual transition, it had already become part of the ninja world. In thought and in practice, everything had been smoothly assimilated into that shape, even those who claimed to be descendants of the Sage of Six Paths or wielders of mysterious tools and powerful weapons.
However, Kakashi's tone made it very clear that they were not "just another" band of rogue ninja spawned by the world.
"So what exactly do you intend to do? What does Aizen really want to achieve?"
Minato, who had been quietly sitting on the side for quite some time, finally could not hold back his curiosity and tangled emotions. He leaned closer and asked in a low voice.
"Kakashi, I do not know what you are all planning. You have not killed anyone. You have not caused damage. So what exactly is it that you want to do? Can't you just tell me clearly?"
"What we want to do... well, to put it simply, we want to act like shinobi."
"What is that supposed to mean, 'like shinobi'?"
"You know about shrine maidens and samurai from the past, right? They had systems that used spiritual power and life force respectively. Shrine maidens are now mostly legends, with only scattered traditions and traces in various places, mostly in the small lands. As for samurai, they were absorbed into the ninja system long ago. They are called samurai, but in truth they only use chakra. What we are doing is something similar."
"What does that mean?"
"To kick the ninja system off the stage of history and replace it with our own power. That is about it. You all know this already, don't you? After all, some of you have been using it quite a lot."
"..."
Under Minato's strange gaze, Orochimaru, Tsunade, and Kato Dan all guiltily turned their heads away.
A sharp sense of unease ran through Minato. It felt like he was being quietly excluded.
So this power of yours has been around for quite some time, and I am the only one who did not know anything about it, is that it?
"...Is that why you had to betray them?"
"Well, if we had stayed in Konoha, everything would have been considered unofficial. There would have been a high chance that chakra would end up mixed into the theories behind our power, which would make things complicated. So we chose the simplest strategy. A very common one."
Kakashi looked at the empty bowl, sighed softly, and rose to his feet.
"Shinobi have existed for long enough. It is time for them to be replaced. Do you not think that makes sense? But replacement is not something that happens just because you smile sweetly and say, 'Please replace this for me,' and the other party nods and agrees. That is impossible. So, if you want to reset everything from zero, this is the only path."
"And now, the ones who will help us demonstrate that power have arrived as well."
"What are you going to do?"
As a violent, scorching chakra surged up from somewhere nearby, Kakashi tilted his head and looked at Minato with calm curiosity.
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