~ Every 100 Power Stones = Bonus Chapter! Your votes keep this climbing. Thanks!
Hiruzen Sarutobi tried to pull the old card—how the Leaf had sheltered Qianyu all these years.
Qianyu cut him off with a wave. "All right. Back to the main point. About Naruto. Fine, you won't let me adopt him. Then give me a solution."
Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado tried to speak. Qianyu's killing intent slammed down on them, a physical weight. "If either of you old fossils utters a single word," he said, his voice flat, "you won't see tomorrow's sun. I'm negotiating with the Hokage. Not with you two walking corpses. Your lives mean nothing to me."
Koharu and Homura paled. Their lips moved. No sound came out.
Hiruzen remained silent, thinking.
After a moment, he spoke. "Naruto will live in Konoha as an orphan. Neither Danzō nor you will have any contact with him. Do you accept these terms?"
Qianyu gave a shallow smile. "I can't contact him? It seems the Third Hokage doesn't actually want me to leave the village. You could propose it right now—for me and Kushina to leave Konoha. I wouldn't refuse. But remember this: if I ever learn that Naruto has been taken by Danzō, I will burn this village to the ground. So. The chance to make me leave is right here in front of you. Will you take it?"
Hiruzen looked at him deeply.
Honestly, he didn't want Qianyu to leave. He wanted Qianyu to stay in Konoha forever. Just… not the breathing kind.
But that was clearly impossible now.
Letting Qianyu leave was unthinkable. Konoha needed him. A large part of why the foreign spies lurking outside the village walls didn't dare make a move was because of the Blood-Eyed Asura. The story of how he'd taken Kakashi to Kiri, killed the Third Mizukage, and leveled a quarter of the village single-handedly… that kept them wary.
There was also the matter of those three ninja who had extracted Miyuki Uzumaki. If they were Qianyu's people, then he likely commanded a hidden force outside the village.
And if other villages learned Qianyu had left Konoha? They would recruit him. A shinobi of his power, with intimate knowledge of the Leaf's workings? The risk to Konoha would be catastrophic.
He could not be allowed to leave.
"Qianyu," Hiruzen said, his tone earnest. "I have always hoped we could let bygones be bygones. Build trust. The past is the past. We all live in Konoha. This village is our home. Don't abandon your home over… disagreements."
Qianyu's smile turned into a sneer. "Oh? And what does 'poaching my student' count as, then? I can sense him. Kakashi is in the village. In the ANBU headquarters. He's joined your little black-ops squad, hasn't he? I nurtured that seedling, poured effort into him. And now that he's grown, you just pluck the ripe fruit?"
"That is not poaching," Hiruzen stated firmly. "Kakashi is willing to contribute his strength to Konoha."
"Hypocrites. All of you. Fine. If that fool wants to be your pawn, then I never had a student named Kakashi. Do me a favor, Hokage-sama. Tell him to stay out of my sight. If he doesn't, I'll take back everything I ever gave him."
Qianyu's voice dropped, cold and final. "Since you don't want me to leave, I'll say it again. I'm not playing your political games. Leave me in peace, and I remain a Leaf shinobi. Naruto's situation will proceed as you said. I expect no changes. Miyuki was my friend. Naruto is her son. I do not want him harmed."
He leaned forward slightly, the air in the room growing heavier. "If you try to move against me… I suggest you weigh your strength carefully. I promised Mito Uzumaki I would never take the first step against Konoha. But if you strike first? That promise is null and void."
He stood. "That's all. Handle the rest as you will."
A shunshin. He was gone.
The pressure in the room vanished. Hiruzen's eyes were shadowed.
Koharu and Homura, finally able to breathe, immediately clamored. "Hiruzen! We must take measures against Qianyu at once! We cannot let him act so recklessly!"
"Measures?" Hiruzen snapped, irritation fraying his patience. "What measures? Who will enact them? You? Him? Or perhaps I should go myself?"
Koharu's face hardened with a terrible idea. "Perhaps… we could use Uzumaki Kushina and her son, Uzumaki Cang M, as leverage—"
A hand clamped around her throat.
Qianyu stood before her, his face a blank mask, his eyes glaciers. He had never left.
"I didn't catch that," he said, his voice quiet. Deadly. "Say it again."
Koharu froze. Sweat beaded on her brow. She couldn't speak.
"Qianyu!" Hiruzen shouted, stepping forward. "She's confused! She misspoke!"
Qianyu turned his glacial gaze to the Hokage. "You don't believe I can destroy Konoha, do you? Should I give you a demonstration?"
BOOM.
Chakra erupted. Violet, monstrous, consuming. The skeletal form of a Susano'o manifested around Qianyu, then flesh and armor flowed over it. The Third State. The full-bodied warrior clad in the armor of a tengu.
The colossal Susano'o towered over the ruins of the office, its three ethereal blades floating behind its back like a deadly halo. It hadn't even attacked yet—just the act of forming had shattered walls, collapsed ceilings.
Hiruzen and Homura landed awkwardly on falling debris, scrambling onto a pile of rubble that was once the Hokage Building's top floor. They stared up, hearts pounding against their ribs.
Inside the Susano'o's core, Qianyu held Koharu by the neck. He didn't crush it. Not yet. His fingers tightened, inch by agonizing inch. Let her feel it. Let her drown in the slow, creeping certainty of death. Her feet kicked uselessly in the air.
"Qianyu! Be reasonable!" Hiruzen pleaded.
"I am being perfectly reasonable," Qianyu replied, his voice echoing slightly from within the violet giant. "I gave you face. You spat on it."
"I swear it! On my name as Hokage!" Hiruzen yelled, desperation clawing at his throat. "No one in Konoha will lay a finger on Uzumaki Kushina or her son!"
Qianyu's grip did not loosen.
Hiruzen looked at Koharu—his comrade, his friend from their genin days—turning purple in that merciless grip. He swallowed his pride, his strategy, everything. "If… if you do not reveal Naruto's true parentage to him… then I will allow you supervised contact with the boy! After reporting to me first!"
The pressure on Koharu's neck stopped.
Qianyu had been ready to kill her regardless. He hadn't expected Hiruzen to value this old hawk enough to offer this concession. He turned the offer over in his mind.
Then, he simply opened his hand.
Koharu Utatane dropped to the shattered floorboards like a sack of grain, gasping and clutching her bruised throat.
The monstrous Susano'o dissolved into swirling violet chakra, then into nothing. Qianyu stood amidst the wreckage, dust settling around him.
"Remember your words."
He was gone. Truly, this time.
On the ruins of his office, Hiruzen Sarutobi and Homura Mitokado let out shaky, simultaneous breaths. The only sound was Koharu's ragged, terrified weeping.
~~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~~
Read up to (100+ ) advanced chapters on Patre\on
Visit us here: patreon.com/GoldenLong
Happy reading, everyone!