Chapter 73.5- One Thousand Hands

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Once the matter of getting rid of Hiruzen had concluded itself, getting myself appointed as Hokage proud to be shockingly simple. We called for nominations, Uzume nominated me. Kagami Saratobi nominated Orochimaru, and I won by a landslide. Might have even felt sorry for Orochimaru if he wasn’t so obviously being used as a pawn by those who would rather I failed.

“So what do we do now?” Uzume asked, looking around the office.

“It feels different, you know?” I asked instead.

“What do you mean?”

“The office. I’ve been here for weeks now, but now that the hat is mine, it feels different heavier. Like it’s to just a place I’m borrowing. It’s mine. The office is mine” I said, looking out the window at the village. Not just the office, in truth. The village. All of Konoha was now mine. I wasn’t too certain how to think about that, but I’d wanted this. I’d worked for this. It felt good to win.

“Yeah, that’s nice and all, but I was talking about our Kumo problem. If they’re moving at Iwa, do we intercept where they don’t expect us, or do we wait for them to take Iwa and see what happens then.” Uzume said, cutting through my thoughts with that brutal efficiency the only she could ever manage.

“If they take Iwa, they’ll come for us next” Shikahime said, not even mincing words about it.

“So the question is if we want to fight a defensive war or an offense one.” Uraume summarized.

“I doubt the Daimyo would be much pleased if we let his Kingdom get burned again” I said, even as I began to turn my mind around the problem.

“So we invade Iwa then?” Uzume asked, smile as sharp as ever.

“Through Kusa. Best we liberate them from the yoke of the troublesome hidden stone while we’re at it.” I completed. Invading Iwa— it was the kind of offensive action I would have shied away from because of our relatively diminished numbers and military, but now the everyone was guaranteed to have taken heavy losses, I was willing to risk it. There was no chance Iwa would fall without a fight— they were just too damn stubborn. And when they bleed Kumo for the taking and Kumo wins regardless, I would be there to fuck Kumo in the arse.

“Risky. Very risky.”

“But think about the payoff” Uzume replied Shika immediately.

“This is going to be the defining moment of your reign, Shori. If you win here, you come off like a god among men. If you lose, someone’s going to do to you what you did to Hiruzen” And wasn’t that a scary thought.