Chapter 75.6- One Thousand Hands

“Maybe that would have been a good offer if it came from anyone else, but I have taken your measure, Koga-san. And I fin you wanting” I enjoyed the way his eyes twitched at me using his name. Uraume’s control over the anbu had borne fruit in the past few weeks. Enough fruit that I knew this man only had his interests in mind. Nothing, not Kusa, not the greater good, his only interest was his personal position and power.

In the time it took his expression to return to normal, I had covered the space between us. The office exploded in even more poison. I took control of the air around me, creating a shell, my wind-armour of old finally saw some use. He tried to flee, but nothing could hide from the byakugan, and while he wielded earth release with some competence, he earth was my element. The ground turned to mud, and said mud delivered him to my hands.

“I think I won’t mind sharing a border with Iwa. I’m sure they and I can come to a suitable enough arrangement.” I said and tapped him on the forehead with two fingers. Holding him still like that, I had enough time to focus my chakra and scramble his brains with the gentle fist, circumventing what protection his headband offered by making the lance of chakra longer than I usually would have.

I turned, leaving the bungalow. The decision had been an easy one to make. The equilibrium of villages was not worth it. In canon, after every war, Konoha returned things to an equilibrium hoping that would be enough to keep the peace, or at least make it so the other nations did not ally against them in future.

Needless to say, that had not worked well. So I would be doing the opposite. The Eigth and Four tails were now Konoha’s and we wouldn’t be letting them go. Kiri would give up a tailed beast for peace as well— I would make sure of it. And Suna? Well, they had little to offer but I would take the secrets of puppetry and all their information on puppetry. We would hold Kusa as a knife against Iwa’s throat and when the time came we would take Frost to accomplish a similar goal against Kumo. The goal was to win the war so thoroughly that the only possible outcome of any other war would be total victory.

If another war began, we would take even more to strengthen our position. After two more wars, we would own the other villages in all but name. And if they rebelled again, well the United Shinobi Alliance could be born again except this time as an empire with Konoha at the helm.

“Good hunt?” Uraume asked, dropping to the ground next to me as I stepped out of the bungalow and into the Kusa sun again.

“The best. Were you able to get it?” I asked.

She passed me a scroll from a pocket and I nodded, sealing it into my storage without checking. Uraume was not the type to be mistaken.

“Now to Iwa.”

A/N: For those wondering why Konoha doesn’t just pull empire now, think of what happened with Rome. If Shori tries expanding with how weak they are he’d spend his whole reign putting down rebellion after rebellion. Fighting in the deserts one day, and in the seas the next. The Shinobi villages would be hell to conquer. So he’s going to do things step by step. In twenty years, Konoha will have three fully trained Jinchuriki (if they don’t get more). In forty, Naruto and Sasuke would have hit their primes (if they end up being born but even without them that generation would be stacked). Shori just has to wait and in this case, he has patience in droves.