Chapter 86.4- One Thousand Hands

“I have my boot on your neck, Tsuchikage-dono. I have your arms and legs broken. You are subject to every whim and caprice of mine, and you think I will let up with only a piece of paper to show for it?”

“Iwa will never agree to vassal hood. This is the best deal you can get, Hokage. Take it and begone”

“I believe you, Tsuchikage-dono. For good or for ill, I believe you.” I told her. The triumph that appeared in her eyes made me chuckle.

“I said I believe you that it is the best deal I can get, but what need have I of a deal when I can impose my will” And the triumph was gone, replaced by confusion.

“You see, there were only two possibilities when the sun rose today. Either Iwa would cease to be one of the great five and pledge vassalage to Konoha, or Iwa would cease to be. Now that you have convinced me of the former, the latter is the only avenue open to you. I apologise, Tsuchikage-dono. Your people shall not be thanking you for your stubbornness” I said, before gesturing to Inoken. She tried to move, but Shika’s shadow held her still while another syringe found its way into her neck.

“But what do we do about the civilians and academy students?”

“Were we able to get their records of forbidden techniques?” I asked.

“They have a seal protected vault in the Kage’s office. We have been able to breach all vaults to the exception of that one so far, and we suspect it has their forbidden and classified techniques.” Uraume said.

“Good. I’ll take a look at it once we finish here. Toshiro, get our people ready to move out at day’s end. Shika, Ino, you know what to do with these” I said, unsealing a mountain of tags from my storage. Explosion tags all made my yours truly to have near double the yield of a regular class five tag. That had been a bitch and a half to figure out but so worth it.

“You still didn’t answer the question, Shori”

“Is it not obvious? Nothing. If they survive what happens to the village, then let them come back and rebuild it. I doubt some civilians and academy students would manage it, but they should feel free to try. Iwa will be gone today though.” I said. Those in the bunkers would be non-combatants one and all. Even the genin had been drafted to fight off Kumo. So that meant that they were no threat. If they even wanted to rebuild, they would be starting from Ground Zero. That meant decades at the least before they would become anything even resembling a competent shinobi village, and that was if everything went well, the Daimyo committed full resources, and they stayed disciplined.

Most likely, they would return, take one look at the rubble that remained and go their separate ways. Iwa was done. It just didn’t know it yet.

“Let’s get moving, guys. The quicker we get out of this place, the better my mood will be” I said, rising from my desk and moving towards Uraume while the others left.