Chapter 87.1- One Thousand Hands

I stared back at Iwa. This was the place, for good or for ill that would mark the beginning of my legacy. Here I had fought the third Raikage to a standstill, and then been robbed of a true conclusion by a foolish woman. A foolish woman who had gone on, along with her Suna lies to kill my Cousin and one of her teammates. The other sat in a seal now waiting to see if we can manage to fix him with the greatest medic of our generation killed before her time.

And this was also going to be the first time in history one of the Five would fall. It would be replaced by another, I knew. Maybe if I tossed my weight around and fought any village’ attempt to become one of the Five, then that would take longer, but what was the point.

“Toshiro?” I asked, and my genin teammates stepped up. He had grown into a man of his own with time. A fantastic swordsman, a master of genjutsu in his own right, but oh so lacking. I wondered if that was the ultimate fate of any who did not bear the last names Uchiha or Senju. To strain and strive, but be our lessers in the end.

He was about to form a ram seal before I was reminded of something.

“Inoken, unseal the good Tsuchikage for me would you? I want her to see that I always keep my word” I said, small smile appearing on my face. She hadn’t done anything to gather my ire other than her stubbornness but there was an other of that to be fair. Far too much if it all things considered. Her neck was too straight for something I had my boot on, and I wanted to show that to her. I wanted to see the despair on her face as she realised what she had chosen— what her stubbornness and pride had wrought.

Inoken, good man that he was had an easy enough time unsealing and waking her up, while Shika captured her in her shadow, forcing her to rise and step next to me.

“You can let her talk right?” I asked.

“If she spits a fireball on you, that’s not on me” Shika said, but still I saw the woman’s next free itself.

“Watch the faith of Iwa, Tsuchikage-dono. This is the value of your pride” I said.

Toshiro brought his hands together, and in a chain of explosions, each one bigger than the last, Iwa fell. The wall was first, giving us an unobstructed view of the buildings that remained collapsing to rubble thanks to specially placed charges. Good. It took about five minutes in all, but when it finished, I cast my byakugan across the breadth of Iwa, and smiled when there was nothing taller than my knee.

“And what do you have to say about that, Tsuchikage-dono? Would it not have been better to bend rather than break?” I said, turning to her.

“Worth it” She said, and then spat a rock I caught before it even got close enough to reach my head. And then I dropped it when I felt the saliva still on it.