Chapter 71.2- One Thousand Hands

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He entered the war tent and found it almost bursting at the seams. Everyone had been called in, it seemed. He was one of the last fro what he could tell looking about the room he moved to take the seat at his Kage’s right hand side. Killua gave him a smirk as he sat next to him while Yui opposite him seemed to not even have noticed that he was here.

“Silence” The Raikage commanded, and the whole room snapped to attention. Well, the whole room except for those two idiots. The Gold and Silver brothers were still whispering to each other.

“Another word from either of you and I will rip your tongues from your head” Ay-sama growled. Even the stubborn brothers knew better than top court the wrath of their Kage and so they went silent as well.

“Iwa has lost.” He said.

What? Cee asked mentally. How had they lost? He hadn’t even known that they were engaged in combat.

“Our spies report that Onoki of the two scales abandoned his nickname and launched a risky gambit on Konoha with a thousand of his best Jounin and chunin. So far, less than a hundred chunin have returned from the front. The story is the same Onoki perished in single combat agent Shorirama Senju, and then the boy went ahead to single-handedly slaughter whatever remained of his forces.”

Killua whistled and Cee found himself sharing the sentiment. Shorirama Senju. He knew the name. Everyone with two brain cells to rub together knew the name of the man that was credited with killing their former Kage. He had been a boy at the time. Now he had another Kage kill under his belt.

“So what do we do now?” Yui asked, seeming to come out of her internal world for a few moments to ask the question before she returned there almost immediately. And it was a good question. Konoha had been all but destroyed by their loss in Frost. Their Kage was dead— Ay-sama saw no way he could survive those wounds, and neither did Cee. The bulk of their forces had died in Rain. That Hanzo character worried Cee as well, but it would not be their problem for a long time so he kicked it down the road. Iwa was supposed to be the only other remaining threat and so they waited.

They waited either for Iwa to attack Konoha first and then be weakened by their victory before falling upon them or for their recruits to get to the point where they had enough bodies to take Konoha first and then be strong enough to rebuff Iwa inevitably falling on their backs.

“It is simple enough. We take Iwa” Killua said. Ay-sama just grunted. They had discussed this, he realised. Killua had spoken to the Raikage before him. The ambitious bastard. Not even war would temper his lust for advancement, it seemed.