Gekko Chizan used Flying Thunder God to slip away, which meant his clones had already finished their looting.
Right now, Amegakure looked as though a swarm of locusts had passed through—utterly devastated.
The castle belonging to the demi-god of the ninja world, Salamander Hanzō, was already unrecognizable, and the area around it was nothing but ruins.
Hanzō's expression was so dark it looked like water would start dripping off his face.
"That damned brat..."
"Konoha's ghost… good, very good!"
Hanzō turned and walked toward the castle. Since the kid had already run off, there was no point in staying angry.
Stabilizing the situation in the village took priority. After all, he had just heard that many of Amegakure's ninja were looting shops and preparing to flee. To him, that was nothing short of humiliation.
Hanzō had just stepped into the ruined remains of his castle when he discovered that it was covered in explosive tags.
His heart lurched. Before he could react, several tags detonated at once.
After the thick smoke cleared, Hanzō got up, covered in soot, fury blazing in his eyes.
"That brat is truly cunning!"
"He even left so many explosive tags—just when did he plant all this?!"
He gritted his teeth and split into several Water Clones to begin clearing the tags one by one.
He was most proficient in explosive tag formations, so removing them wasn't difficult.
But after he spent half the day clearing them and finally reached the lowest level of the castle—
He nearly spat blood on the spot.
"Brat! I swear this doesn't end between us!"
"AHHH!!"
Hanzō could no longer contain himself. His furious roar burst out completely.
In front of him was an empty treasury—nothing left behind at all. It was so clean it looked as though nothing had ever been stored there.
"Hanzō-sama, the situation in the village is extremely chaotic."
"The shop owners who were robbed are already heading this way."
"They said that if we don't give them an explanation, they'll jointly appeal to the daimyo."
This time, Hanzō truly snapped. At the peak of rage, he suddenly laughed instead.
"Good. Very good!"
Amegakure was in turmoil, but people tended to forget one thing—Hanzō was still Hanzō. As a demi-god, he had more than enough methods.
...
On the other side, Gekko Chizan had already left Amegakure and found a very quiet forest. He leaned against a tree trunk to rest.
His clones were returning one after another, each carrying many large bags.
"Tsk tsk… Chizan, I've figured you out. You're seriously bad, you know."
"Boldly killing people and stealing money in Amegakure, then dumping all the blame on their own villagers… tsk tsk, I can already imagine how ugly Salamander Hanzō's face must be right now."
Tagitsuhime, Tagorihime, and Ichikishimahime had returned to their human forms. The first leaned against a tree trunk as well, her expression full of amusement.
"He offended me. This is already light. Back then, Kumogakure had it much worse."
Gekko Chizan's words brought back Tagitsuhime's memories.
She nodded. She had been present on the battlefield of the Land of Hot Water, and it was she who cast the Genjutsu that caused the Eight-Tails to go berserk.
And later she heard this brat had even tricked the Third Raikage into dying on the battlefield.
Gekko Chizan waited for an hour—after all, not all clones had escaped Amegakure when he left the village.
It wasn't his fault. He had held Hanzō back for a long time. If the clones couldn't finish looting in that time, then nothing could be done.
Out of more than a hundred clones, ninety-nine returned.
He gathered all the items, then began sorting everything with the three Snake Princesses.
This sorting took quite a while, but Gekko Chizan wasn't in a hurry. Amegakure was in complete chaos, and Hanzō had no time to chase him. What was there to worry about?
Meanwhile, Amegakure was filled with fear and unrest because of the attack.
Many believed Hanzō could no longer protect the village. Some were even secretly discussing defecting to other great villages.
But Hanzō was still Hanzō. He rode Salamanders straight into the center of the village and unleashed overwhelming force.
Then, in front of the civilians, he executed more than ten ninja he judged guilty of dereliction of duty. Only then did the people temporarily drop their thoughts of defection.
...
Just as the heads of a dozen ninja were falling, Gekko Chizan—who was in the middle of counting money—received a system notification.
[Ding! Detected that the host used clones to throw Amegakure into chaos and shifted the blame onto Amegakure's own people, causing Salamander Hanzō to execute fifteen ninja in anger. This has pushed Hanzō deeper into rage while also awakening a sliver of fear in his heart.]
[Ding! Special Reward: Rasengan Nature Transformation +20%. When progress reaches 100%, the Rasengan can advance again.]
Not a bad harvest—but compared to the pile of wealth before Gekko Chizan's eyes… tsk tsk, it really didn't compare.
After finishing the count, there were seventy million ryō in cash, plus countless medicinal materials and ninja tools.
There were also many pieces of clothing. When Gekko Chizan saw certain unspeakable types of fabric peeking out, he was puzzled.
Had his clones gotten so red-eyed from looting they stole even this kind of thing?
But whatever—he could sell them in another village. It all turned into money anyway.
Without hesitation, Gekko Chizan pulled out a scroll, sealed all the clothing and miscellaneous items into it, then thought for a moment and headed northeast.
...
A day later, the news of Amegakure's chaos had already spread.
Even though Salamander Hanzō tried his best to suppress the information, this incident was simply too big.
Both Iwagakure and Konoha received the news.
Iwagakure, Tsuchikage's Office.
Ōnoki's expression could be compared to a rock—specifically coal, pitch-black.
"That Hanzō… he's regressing the older he gets! To let a kid turn him upside down like this—he has become a complete joke!"
"And he lost so much of our supplies! I'm furious!"
Before him stood a group of Iwa jōnin, all trembling as they watched their Tsuchikage rage.
"Tōshirō, depart immediately for the daimyo's palace. Have the daimyo announce a ceasefire."
Ōnoki knew very well that the war couldn't continue anymore.
...
Konoha's Hokage Office, however, was filled with joy.
"Hahahahahaha!"
"That kid… good! Very good!"
"He actually fought Hanzō in Amegakure, and even used clones to throw the entire village into chaos—what was he thinking?!"
"He didn't harm a single civilian, yet managed to deal a huge blow to Amegakure—ahaha!"
Sarutobi Hiruzen looked at the intelligence report, laughing so hard his face bloomed like a flower.