Happy days pass quickly. Once the celebrations ended, shinobi were busy again.
Because the war had dragged on, missions had piled up across the great villages, with Konoha's backlog the heaviest.
Konoha had won the Third Shinobi World War. The victory was hard-won, but a win is a win.
Employers favor the victor.
Order had yet to return after the war, and as a member of ANBU, Kageyama Kokugetsu had no time to idle.
Meanwhile, word spread through the village that Sarutobi Hiruzen would retire and Konoha would choose a Fourth Hokage.
Currents swirled beneath the surface, and every faction placed its bets in the open or in the dark.
Kokugetsu did little beyond stating plainly to Hiruzen that he supported Namikaze Minato.
To him, no one in Konoha was more suited for the hat.
First, Minato had custody of the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki, Kushina. He held both sealing craft and a girl's heart. That was a powerful chip, akin to owning the launch key to a nuclear weapon.
Second, his feats in the war outshone even the Sannin. He had become a living legend.
Third, Minato was a civilian genius, free of clan strings.
Fourth, his character invited affection and his virtue trust. Orochimaru inspired fear.
As for the rest: Jiraiya had no interest and backed his student. Tsunade's hemophobia and drifting days left her disinclined to lead. Orochimaru had the weight to contend, but out of pride or a change of aim—or to watch Hiruzen's attitude—he wasn't pressing, almost Buddhist about it. If he went all in, there might be suspense.
Uchiha Fugaku and Hyūga Hiashi were being strung along, set up to pace the field.
With the advantage of foreknowledge, Kokugetsu chose to buy goodwill. It might open a path upward. Strength mattered, but not for everything. Plenty in this warped world weren't afraid to die. You could have enemies—many, even—but if you ended up the enemy of all, you had failed at being a person.
…
In a forest outside Konoha, four figures in ANBU gear stood on branches in a ring.
"This sweep of unruly rogue shinobi inside Fire Country will be long-running.
"I'm splitting Squad One into two teams. You three together. I'll work alone."
The three were silent.
"Captain, maybe reconsider," said Hawk of the Nara clan, low-voiced. "Rogues are usually weak, but some are sly, and we might meet a strong one."
"You're right. I'll be careful.
"Anyone who survived the war won't underestimate another."
Seeing his mind was set, the three said no more.
"You've all received the intel scrolls. I'll take the north and west. You take the south and east.
"If you finish early, support me. I'll clear north, then west."
"Yes," the three answered together.
"Move," Kokugetsu said, flicking his hand. The three vanished.
Once they were gone, he sprang to a treetop, summoned his golden eagle, and rode it toward Fire Country's north.
Half an hour later the eagle stooped toward a fog-wrapped, verdant, steep-ridged mountain and landed on the highest point of Blackwater Stockade.
"Bandits, out here. A Konoha shinobi has come to collect you," Kokugetsu called, voice flat and cold.
The rowdy hall below fell still. Footsteps scrambled, and a hive of bandits swarmed out.
There were about fifty, waving all manner of weapons. Only the three leaders wore bright katana and leaked chakra.
They had panicked at first, but seeing only one young ANBU, they steadied.
One ANBU chūnin, and three leaders at their front. Odds weren't bad.
Their leaders were chūnin from small villages. Three against one. Advantage, us.
"Kill!" barked the lanky, fiercest-looking chief.
Archers loosed. Others scrambled up to the roof.
Kokugetsu blurred, sliding past and slicing arrows aside, dropped to the yard in a breath, and cut at a rogue shinobi.
The man barely slipped it and felt lucky—until Kokugetsu turned on a heel and opened his throat.
That speed was no chūnin's. Run.
The other two rogues felt their scalps prickle and split in different directions.
Kokugetsu lifted his left hand and pointed. A lance of lightning flashed and punched through one man's back.
The headman glanced back, saw it, and felt despair. Sending someone like this for them was overkill.
Survival drove him to stop, spin, drop to his knees, and bang his head to the ground.
"Don't kill me. I surrender."
Pain lanced his skull. Darkness swallowed him.
The remaining bandits stared dumbly at the yard. That was it?
"Run!"
At someone's shout, they broke and scattered.
Earth Release: Four-Sided Earth Flow Wall.
The ground heaved and four walls rose and slammed together, penning them in.
With their way out gone, some slumped, some knelt and begged, some cursed and called him a noble's dog.
Kokugetsu ignored them, went down to the cells, freed the dazed, disheveled women the bandits had taken, then cast a wide-area genjutsu.
From the women he learned which bandits were vicious and which were merely there to eat, their crimes light by comparison.
With the list in hand, he made spikes bud from ground and wall and killed every name on it.
While the rest shook with fear, he gave a hard warning.
Then he parceled the freed women to the remaining bandits as wives and promised that if they mistreated them, the women could come to Konoha themselves or send someone to complain.
He would handle it and kill as needed.
At last he let the rest go.
He did it partly out of leftovers from another life's schooling, partly because their lot was wretched.
In a world of the extraordinary, common folk cannot revolt successfully. They are squeezed, generation after generation.
As long as the current order stands, banditry won't be erased.
Nobles and officials squeeze without stop. Villages need escort work to feed shinobi, and won't wipe out bandits entirely.
Since that's so, there's no point in annihilation. If someone must be a bandit, better one with experience who knows the rules. It's easier for both shinobi and merchants.
When the chores were done, Kokugetsu hauled up the chief and slapped him.
Crack. Crack. Crack.
Three crisp blows, true and clean.
As the man came to, Kokugetsu seized his forehead and poured in chakra.
The chief's eyes rolled white under the flood. His mind went slack.
Elephant Transformation Technique.
Kokugetsu flashed through seals. The chakra he'd driven in spread through every limb and organ, remaking the body by force.
The chief screamed as he turned swiftly into Kokugetsu's likeness. Not just the face, but height, bearing, clothing—even the gear was there.
The Elephant Transformation Technique was a strongman's trial card. It held thirty percent of the original's power, shared vision, could act on its own, yet bent to the original's will.
"Thirty percent is plenty for rogues. With this, ordinary missions can be handled by the elephant double.
"Work hours are free to slack. I can do what I want.
"I didn't come back to Konoha to be a beast of burden."
The transformed double vaulted onto the golden eagle's back and flew. Kokugetsu went to find some fun.