Chapter 50.3- One Thousand Hands

XXXXXX- SHORIRAMA SENJU

I considered my options now. I had sage mode, at least I was sure that I would once the hero water ran its course. I could feel the nature chakra all around me now, and sure I might need to speak to the Whales about properly balancing it with my internal reserves to avoid turning to stone or whatever, but that was probably the easier bit of the puzzle. I was on my way to being stronger than ever, and that tempted me to continue into Kusa. I had accomplished my mission here, and to go farther would be tantamount to going rogue but who was Hiruzen to presume to order me around like some servant.

The truth was that the only question that mattered was whether I wanted to do it or not, and I was leaning more towards the latter than the former.There was nothing to gain from fighting what paltry forces Iwa had in Kusa. Sure, I could increase my reputation by doing so, but I would gain even more if I let them run roughshod and only intervened when they made their way into the Land of Fire. And in that case, Hiruzen’s decision to leave them unmolested would backfire on him while I got to reap the fruits of bringing things to a close.

“What now, Captain?” One of the Nara walked forwards to ask me. I considered the options for a final time before I shrugged.

“Our orders said to drive Iwa out. We’ve done that. We have no duty to stay and remain as bodyguards. If Iwa return, we will do the same” I said, turning to leave.

I could see Shino breathe a sigh of relief at that and smiled. To him, it must have seemed like I was considering the merits of choosing to stay as opposed to leaving. I could see why it would have seemed so. The average shinobi had expansionist dreams in their pockets. Everyone wanted to see their village getting bigger, and stronger. By asking for our help, Taki had taken a calculated risk. But part of their calculations must have included us losing a substantial force in taking out Iwa and being in no place to push for ownership of their land. Except that I had managed to secure victory with little in the way of casualties and that meant we had the leeway to decide to stay.

Still, I felt like Konoha had more than enough land it was in charge of and seizing the land of waterfalls did little to benefit us. The small nations might not have come to realise it yet, but we benefited immensely from their existence. They meant we had no borders with the other large nations, and also meant that when situations like this arose, we had convenient battlefields that we would not have to spend money cleaning up or making habitable. We could show up, fight to our hearts’ content and leave the mess for someone else to clean up. It was a good deal, a better deal than if we shared direct borders that we would have to spend man hours on tightly policing and all that other crap.

I turned to the men that I had led here, and directed them to move out with a series of hand motions.