· Just as Hideki Sato wrapped up his medical ninjutsu drills and prepared to return home, Tsunade abruptly called out to him.
“I’m departing the village tomorrow for a high-priority deployment, and I likely won’t return for a considerable duration.
During this window, you, Kushina, and Mikoto are to remain safely within the perimeter to focus on your internal training.
Even if you apply for assignments, you are strictly forbidden from leaving the village gates.
Understood?” Staring at the intense solemnity marring Tsunade’s features, Hideki could only offer a firm nod.
With her warning delivered, Tsunade casually waved a hand, dismissing him from the grounds.
Following her departure, Hideki’s routine drifted forward exactly as before.
Aside from the occasional afternoon spent accompanying Kushina and Mikoto for walks through the shopping districts, he anchored his hours within his private pocket dimension, systematically deepening his emotional rapport with Charmeleon and Larvitar.
On a quiet night beneath a cloudless, star-choked sky, Hideki was sitting outside his quarters, cooling down in the late-night breeze after dinner, when an uninvited variable abruptly breached his perimeter.
A lone shinobi, shrouded in a flawless set of obsidian stealth gear that completely masked his facial features, materialized silently from the deep shadows of a nearby tree line.
“Hideki Sato, correct?
Accompany me.” Evaluating the figure’s deeply aggressive, authoritative posture, Hideki offered a smooth, compliant nod.
He took a few steps forward as if to submit, closing the distance between them.
The exact microsecond he stepped into point-blank range, Hideki violently drove a heavy fist straight toward the operative’s kidney.
The stealth operative reacted as if he had thoroughly anticipated the insubordination, fluidly sweeping his right palm down to clamp around Hideki’s fist.
However, his tactical calculations completely failed to account for the staggering, anomalous volume of raw physical force driving the strike.
The sheer kinetic output violently launched his body airborne, sending him crashing through a succession of massive oaks before slamming into the dirt.
Simultaneously, Hideki bit his thumb, summoning Charmeleon onto the battlefield in a massive swirl of smoke as he barked an immediate command.
“Charmeleon, deploy Heat Wave!” A roaring, suffocating gale of pure scorching air instantaneously engulfed the operative, the thermal intensity scaling so rapidly that his specialized stealth gear caught fire in seconds.
Trapped in the thermal vacuum, the operative shrieked desperately, “Hideki Sato!
I am not a hostile variable!
Cease your fire immediately!” Hearing the plea, Hideki curled his lip in absolute disdain.
“Every single psychiatric patient swears they’re entirely sane.
You breach my property in the dead of night clad in black ops gear to execute an illegal abduction, and you expect me to buy the logic that you aren’t an enemy?
Save your testimony for the Anbu interrogation cells.
Charmeleon, finish him with Focus Punch.” In a localized blur of movement, Charmeleon’s silhouette materialized directly behind the operative.
Thoroughly disoriented by the lingering effects of the Heat Wave, the agent completely failed to register the dinosaur’s arrival until it was entirely too late.
BOOM!
Following a deafening, thunderous detonation of kinetic force, Hideki stared down at the crater containing what could only be structurally described as a pile of organic sludge, falling into deep contemplation.
“Charmeleon…
I think your output calibration was a bit entirely too high.” Charmeleon merely scratched the back of its horned skull, wearing an expression that clearly signaled: You ordered a Focus Punch; whatever happened to his structural integrity after the hit is entirely beyond my department.
Since the deployment had already resolved with absolute finality, Hideki executed a quick sensory scan of the perimeter.
Verifying the complete absence of any external eyewitnesses, he gestured toward the crater.
Charmeleon snapped its jaws open, siphoning a precise loop of Flamethrower to systematically incinerate every single molecular remnant of the operative from the face of the earth.
With the cleanup protocols finalized, Hideki ran a supportive hand over Charmeleon’s head scales before quietly retreating into his quarters to sleep.
At the end of the day, that operative had approached him with clear, malicious intent.
Eliminating the variable fell strictly under the legal umbrella of absolute self-defense; no administrative authority could logically manufacture a charge against his character.
Deep within the midnight shadows of a highly restricted underground installation inside the Leaf.
Danzo Shimura stared down at the kneeling operative before him, his features exceptionally dark and rigid.
“F2 has still failed to report back to the perimeter?” “Lord Danzo, our tracking networks have completely lost F2’s energetic signature.
The probability metrics heavily dictate he has met a terminal end.” Danzo swept his hand down, dismissing the agent from the chamber.
Left alone in the subterranean dark, he stood completely frozen like an ancient stone monument, remaining entirely motionless for an immense stretch of time before a cold murmur escaped his lips.
“Hiruzen…
was this tactical interference orchestrated by your hand?
Just you wait…
the seat of the Hokage will undeniably belong to me…” Resting comfortably in his bed, Hideki remained entirely oblivious to the fact that because of his proximity to Kushina, his profile had officially been locked onto by a thoroughly subhuman creature.
As the active Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tails, the defensive vanguard surrounding Kushina’s daily life was obscenely dense.
Consequently, even a ruthless strategist like Danzo lacked the operational clearance to deploy the Foundation to establish direct contact with her.
Hideki Sato, however, presented a completely different risk profile.
As of this moment, the absolute most strategically valuable metrics tied to his file were his twin titles: Kushina’s romantic anchor and Tsunade’s choice disciple.
Therefore, the exact microsecond Tsunade cleared the village gates, Danzo had impatiently deployed a specialized Foundation operative to systematically bring Hideki under his control.
What the chief of the underground completely failed to calculate was that his agent—an operative possessing the baseline combat metrics of a seasoned Special Jonin—would be effortlessly reduced to ash in a matter of minutes.
Precisely as Hideki had calculated, following the absolute destruction of the operative’s remains, zero administrative blowback materialized.
Not a single authority approached his estate.
Time drifted forward in a seamless, uneventful routine.
Because Tsunade had issued a strict mandate restricting them from out-of-village deployments, Hideki’s cell desisted from logging active missions.
After all, the current registry available within the Leaf boundaries consisted entirely of mundane D-rank assignments—tedious, low-yield manual labor that offered zero functional contribution to his progression.
One afternoon, while strolling casually through the primary commercial strips, Hideki noticed a sudden influx of highly agitated, frantic shinobi moving through the sectors.
The atmospheric pressure within the village had abruptly shifted into something deeply unsettling.
Seeking to verify his structural hypothesis, Hideki made a quick detour toward a primary agricultural depot.
Exactly as he anticipated, the market pricing of baseline food rations—which had maintained absolute equilibrium for years—had violently surged several tiers overnight.
Every single logistical index pointed to a singular, terrifying reality: war was looming on the horizon, or more accurately, the opening salvos had already been fired.
Inside the high-order chambers of the Hokage Residence, Hiruzen Sarutobi drew heavily from his pipe, letting out a long, slow exhale as a dense cloud of smoke drifted across the map table.
“Dispatch a high-level diplomatic vanguard to the Hidden Stone Village.
Demand a formal explanation as to why their shinobi detachments are actively breaching the territorial borders of the Land of Fire.” BANG!
Danzo brought his palm down against the mahogany table with violent force, interrupting the decree.
“What is there to demand, Hiruzen?!
Those wretched Stone ninja are openly triggering a continent-spanning conflagration!
We cannot afford a single fraction of administrative hesitation!
Deploy our combat divisions immediately to systematically butcher their vanguard!” Homura Mitokado stepped forward, lending his voice to the hawkish front.
“Ever since Lady Mito passed, the rival hidden villages have grown increasingly volatile.
This encroachment by the Hidden Stone is undeniably a tactical probe designed to measure the current military density of the Leaf.
Our administrative response must be uncompromisingly aggressive.” Faced with collective council pressure, Hiruzen finally locked down his resolve.
“Very well.
Task Sakumo Hatake to lead the primary interception force and eliminate the Stone detachments.” Right as the directive finalized, Danzo’s eye narrowed as he interjected smoothly.
“Let us assign Hideki Sato to the vanguard roster as well.” Hiruzen raised his head, a look of profound surprise marring his features.
“Hideki Sato?
He is a newly minted Genin.
What functional utility does adding him to a high-tier border engagement offer?
If a stray variable hits his position and he terminates on the battlefield, the sudden emotional fallout could violently fracture the Jinchuriki’s seal, triggering an immediate Nine-Tails rampage.” Danzo merely offered a cold, intensely self-satisfied smirk.
“Heh, it appears your internal intelligence network is severely lagging, Hiruzen.
While his official paperwork lists him as a mere Genin, the diagnostic reviews processed by my Foundation operatives indicate his unassisted combat metrics have already comfortably scaled to the Jonin tier.
Furthermore, with Tsunade currently detached from the village, this deployment offers the perfect metric to formalize his battlefield promotion to Chunin, allowing him to officially assume command of his own cell moving forward.” ( End of Chapter ) To access early / aditional chapters ↓ Join Patreon.com/pen14
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