Naruto: The Senju After the Age of Gods

"What the hell is going on?"

Inside an office in the Mizukage Building, Obito’s voice sounded hoarse, puzzled, and laced with anger.

Who knew what that damned mysterious bastard was thinking? The violent tremor that felt like an earthquake had thrown Kirigakure into chaos.

Worse, quite a few shinobi had already noticed that the quake had carried an overwhelming chakra fluctuation within it.

The chakra itself was bizarre and unfamiliar, but no one would mistake it for a natural disaster.

Obito certainly wouldn’t.

Because he knew very well that there was a terrifying outsider lurking somewhere inside Kirigakure.

If there were no surprises, that disturbance had to be that person’s doing.

The only question was—

Was that guy fighting someone?

To unleash such power, at such a sensitive time, inside Kirigakure of all places...

How could Obito not feel confused and furious?

Black Zetsu was just as baffled.

If Obito could think that far, then someone like Black Zetsu—who had lived for over a thousand years—would naturally think even more.

He didn’t believe for a second that the mysterious Nine-Tails jinchūriki had moved without a purpose.

Was he probing their attitude?

Trying to divert their attention so he could accomplish something else?

Or was this a deliberate show of force?

Black Zetsu racked his brain and still couldn’t figure it out.

Not once did it cross his mind that the man might simply be testing a new jutsu.

After all, no normal person would do something like that in enemy territory.

"I can’t make sense of it either."

Black Zetsu shook his head and sighed.

"But that person’s strength really is terrifying."

"It is."

Obito nodded, thinking back to the reports he had received. His brow tightened.

The technique hikaru had used—Konohanasakuya-hime—had only been a test swing.

But it had been a maximum-output release of his own chakra.

He had not even added senjutsu or the Nine-Tails’ chakra to strengthen it.

What he had used was still Bloodline Elimination—a chakra nature fusion on the same tier as Dust Release.

When Ōnoki had burned through his chakra recklessly against Madara, his Dust Release had shredded the entire Wood Release: Deep Forest Bloom, saving the Five Kage from being slowly poisoned to death.

hikaru probably didn’t have as much chakra as Ōnoki at his peak.

But by that point, Ōnoki had already gone through a brutal prolonged battle, so his reserves weren’t exactly at their best either.

hikaru, on the other hand, had been in perfect condition.

With a full-power release like that, even without systematic refinement, the result was still enough to make people despair.

By hikaru’s own estimate, that slash had probably reached roughly half the destructive force of the full-powered blade strike Madara’s Perfect Susanoo had used against the Five Kage.

Madara’s slash had leveled multiple mountain peaks.

hikaru felt his own could probably split one outright before the remaining force began to fade.

"Forget it. Don’t worry about him for now."

After thinking for a long while, Black Zetsu finally shook his head.

"At the moment, he probably still doesn’t know our actual situation. Most likely, he came here for the Fourth Mizukage."

"That makes sense."

Obito nodded.

"He’s a Nine-Tails jinchūriki. His target is probably the Three-Tails jinchūriki."

He had already guessed that much.

"In that case, all we can do is wait for him to make the first move."

"Actually, I do have a way to force him out."

Black Zetsu suddenly smiled.

His pitch-black face already looked sinister enough, and with that eerie grin, he was downright grotesque.

"Oh?"

Even Obito found him revolting like this, but he still asked the obvious question.

"What are you thinking?"

"If Kirigakure stays too peaceful, he might not do anything. But what if the village suddenly falls into chaos?"

Black Zetsu’s expression darkened further. His voice was low and hoarse, carrying a strange, unsettling magnetism.

"The Kaguya Clan killed our ANBU and still hasn’t offered any explanation.

"Murdering fellow villagers is equivalent to treason.

"And that clan was already refusing to obey us.

"If we eliminate them, we can also flush out the other unstable elements in the village.

"In that case..."

He stopped there and stared at Obito with a vicious expression.

Obito stared right back.

For a moment, the room fell into an inexplicably awkward silence.

After a long pause, Obito finally asked, baffled,

"Then what?"

"..."

Black Zetsu had a nearly overwhelming urge to rub his brow, but he forcibly stopped himself.

He knew Obito wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed.

Most of the long-term planning had always fallen to him.

But even after everything had been spelled out this clearly, Obito still hadn’t grasped it.

In Black Zetsu’s eyes, this wasn’t just "a little slow."

This was a brain problem.

Still, stupid had its advantages.

If Obito had been too smart, he never would have been so easy to manipulate.

"We can use this chance to purge the village’s unstable elements more thoroughly," Black Zetsu said at last, forcing himself calm and carefully organizing his thoughts.

"In simple terms: you want revenge on Kirigakure. This is the perfect opportunity.

"Let’s assume that Nine-Tails jinchūriki is here for the Three-Tails jinchūriki.

"We deliberately place the Fourth Mizukage on the battlefield.

"That might even create greater destruction, wouldn’t it?"

"That’s a good idea!"

Combining Black Zetsu’s explanation with what he already knew, Obito finally understood.

And he had to admit—it was vicious, but practical.

He immediately stood up.

"Killing off the Kaguya Clan can also draw out more dangerous elements from the village. Good. Very good."

By the time he finished speaking, Obito was already grinding his teeth.

He had never forgotten the moment Kakashi’s hand pierced Rin’s chest.

He had never forgotten the Mist ANBU who had hunted them relentlessly.

Everyone involved in that incident—everyone connected to it—would pay.

Kirigakure. Konoha. His teacher. Kakashi. The Mist shinobi.

One by one.

He would settle every last account.

Inside Kirigakure, in an old-fashioned room near the center of the village, Elder Genji sat quietly.

Two half-burned ANBU masks lay before him.

His face remained calm.

His heart was anything but.

Ao was dead.

The Byakugan was gone.

Mei was dead as well—his most promising subordinate, the one he had placed the greatest hopes on, had become nothing but a charred corpse.

That blow hit hard.

He couldn’t understand why this had happened.

Nor could he understand how Ao and Mei had been drawn into it at all.

"The Kaguya Clan... the Mizukage..."

At last, Genji let out a quiet sigh.

There was no visible sorrow in it.

Only a strange, icy stillness.

According to the earliest investigation, it looked as though the Kaguya Clan and ANBU had clashed directly, resulting in a deadly battle where both sides were wiped out.

That was the surface conclusion.

Whether there were truly no survivors remained uncertain.

But even if there were, they would either belong to the Kaguya Clan or the Mizukage’s faction.

Genji had never expected that a relatively simple task would cost the lives of two outstanding shinobi.

No matter who had struck first, it filled him with anger.

If the Kaguya Clan had done it, then everything was easy to explain.

That clan had never possessed the brains to act prudently.

If they discovered they were being watched, such a reckless eruption would be entirely in character.

If, however, the Mizukage’s ANBU had done it...

That too was possible.

The struggle between Mizukage and Elder had always existed.

Especially now, with the Mizukage acting with increasing tyranny and using "reform" to tear apart Kirigakure from the inside, the two sides stood in sharper opposition than ever.

In a situation like that, it would not be surprising if the Mizukage’s ANBU had used the Kaguya Clan as cover to quietly eliminate some of Genji’s people.

Understanding the logic of that possibility did not make it any easier to accept.

Right now, Genji’s calm existed only because Kirigakure itself still mattered to him.

Once he moved openly, the Mizukage would finally have a reason to crush them all.

And no matter what official influence he supposedly held over the village’s shinobi forces, when forced to choose between a Mizukage and an Elder, who would truly side with the Elder?

He had influence.

But not enough.

He had authority.

But not legitimacy.

If he acted now, it would be tantamount to suicide.

Closing his eyes, Genji forced himself to calm down.

A shinobi had to remain calm at all times.

Only calm minds could deal with changing crises.

"Elder."

A knock came at the door, snapping him back to the present.

"Come in," Genji said gravely.

A Mist ANBU entered and knelt on one knee, offering a scroll with both hands.

"Elder, this is the deeper investigation result."

Genji nodded and accepted the scroll.

He opened it quickly.

The moment he read the contents, his eyes changed.

Because the information within was enough to shock anyone.

According to the updated investigation, there had been more than one battlefield at the scene near the Kaguya Clan compound.

More than one battlefield.

That meant it was very possible that neither the Kaguya Clan nor the ANBU had actually killed each other.

There might have been a third party present.

And that third party may have slaughtered everyone for their own purpose.

If so...

Then the one who struck had been terrifyingly meticulous.

Genji thought rapidly.

That attacker was not only powerful enough to eliminate everyone present—

they had also been precise enough to kill multiple ANBU teams and Kaguya shinobi alike while keeping the entire affair under control.

In the end, they had even gathered the corpses together and made it look like a violent clash between ANBU and the Kaguya Clan.

Perhaps the Mizukage’s side had noticed these inconsistencies too.

But if so, the man seated at the top of power likely preferred this conclusion.

At that thought, Genji’s heart suddenly clenched.

For a moment, he even suspected that this had all been orchestrated by the Mizukage himself.

If it truly had been the Mizukage...

If all of these people had died without even being on guard...

Genji immediately forced himself to stop thinking.

He did not want to go down that road.

Because if that were true, the implications would be far too severe.

There was one more important note in the scroll as well.

One corpse was missing.

And because of that detail alone, Genji became even less willing to believe the Mizukage himself had done it.

Maybe an outside enemy had infiltrated the village, disguised themselves as ANBU, and struck from the shadows.

And then there was the massive tremor and that suffocating, overwhelming chakra that had shaken the village recently.

All of it pointed to something far more complicated.

"How many people have seen this report?" Genji finally asked. "Does the Mizukage’s side have the same information?"

"Elder, no one else knows."

The ANBU lowered his head deeply and answered in a steady voice.

"The Mizukage’s ANBU reportedly sealed away all related files. They are already moving on the Kaguya Clan and have stopped investigating.

"On our side, only a very small number of people know this."

"I see."

Genji nodded slowly, then stood up, his expression severe.

"Forget it.

"Forget all of it.

"Do not reveal this to anyone. Understood?"

"Yes, Elder!"

The ANBU answered with absolute firmness.

"Go."

Once the ANBU left, Genji turned around without hesitation and held the scroll over a candle flame.

The secret could not come out.

At least not now.

Strictly speaking, the best way to keep a secret was always to eliminate everyone who knew it.

But Genji would never do that.

Neither because of the image he had built, nor because of the man he actually was.

That, perhaps, was the source of his authority.

Otherwise, he never could have held his place so firmly through the long era without a Mizukage.

"So the village is finally about to move."

Inside a safehouse, hikaru quietly processed the information arriving from his shadow clone and murmured to himself.

It had been nearly a month since he first left Konoha and arrived in Kirigakure.

The time had passed faster than expected.

Then again, the month had been full.

Traveling.

Training.

Experimenting.

There hadn’t really been much room to feel bored.

And throughout all that time, Konoha still hadn’t activated his Flying Thunder God mark to summon him back.

Which meant there were no major problems there.

Even if there were minor issues, his shadow clone could handle them.

hikaru had plenty of confidence in that clone.

After all, he had stuffed it full of senjutsu chakra and Nine-Tails chakra.

Unless it took a fatal one-hit kill, it could absolutely deal with most ordinary trouble.

That much had already been proven the night he fought the Mist shinobi. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

And more importantly—

in Konoha, he was the ANBU Minister.

That identity alone made him ten thousand times safer there than he was here.

"Looks like the show’s about to start."

He rose to his feet, then glanced at Mei, who had long since regained consciousness and was staring at him coldly.

He smiled faintly.

"Not curious what your village is about to do?"

Mei didn’t answer.

She just kept glaring at him with those icy, emotionless eyes.

It was a silent form of resistance.

The only resistance she still had left.

Faced with that gaze, hikaru merely chuckled.

He had seen far worse.

In the ANBU, especially during assassination missions, plenty of defeated enemies had glared at him with hatred and murderous intent so thick it almost felt tangible.

None of that had ever frightened him.

So what was one powerless prisoner’s glare supposed to do?

"I told you already," hikaru said with an amused shake of his head. "You’re not an Uchiha. You can’t kill people with your eyes."

At that, Mei finally spoke.

Her voice was hoarse, like something dragged up from the underworld.

"What about your promise?"

"Oh?"

hikaru tilted his head.

"Which part?"

"You made a promise to us," Mei said through clenched teeth. "And it seems you never intended to keep it."

"I promised I wouldn’t kill you. I kept that."

He walked over and picked up a black coat.

"You’re still alive, aren’t you?"

He draped it over his shoulders and continued calmly,

"As for letting you go—yes, I still intend to keep that too. At least once I’ve finished what I need to do.

"If nothing unexpected happens, you should be free tomorrow."

Tomorrow.

Judging from the information his shadow clones had gathered, the Mist’s shinobi mobilization had already become extremely obvious.

And from an ANBU commander’s perspective, he had also noticed the same thing inside the hidden forces.

Even civilian evacuation measures had begun in secret.

All of that meant only one thing.

Obito had finally made his move.

And in that regard, hikaru had to admit something:

With Black Zetsu assisting him, Obito had become much sharper than he used to be.

hikaru’s own actions had pushed the Kaguya Clan one step closer to destruction, and Obito had simply chosen to capitalize on it.

Still, hikaru also had to consider the possibility that there were additional traps layered behind it.

If Obito were the only one making decisions, hikaru wouldn’t have needed to think too hard.

But Black Zetsu was there too.

And that ancient schemer was never someone to underestimate.

Even so, things had already progressed this far.

No matter how much more he thought about it, the outcome wouldn’t really change.

He had already planned both his attack and his retreat.

Kimimaro had already been sent safely out of Kirigakure.

At this point, he could treat the village as his personal testing ground.

The giant lizards had a useful ability hikaru had known about for a long time but never used—

a concealment/transport method similar to Jiraiya’s Toad Mouth Bind, allowing him to hide inside a summoned creature and leave.

That alone gave him a solid fallback even without Flying Thunder God.

In truth, he had once considered using it back in Konoha too.

But at the time, he hadn’t fully mastered it, and lizards were already part of his signature style there.

Using them too casually risked exposing too much.

Now, though, things were different.

If he arranged everything in advance, he could use it without worry.

At that point, his entire escape route would be secure.

Thinking of that, hikaru cast one last glance at Mei.

Then he walked over and sliced the ropes binding her with a kunai.

The cords fell away.

He straightened and put the blade away.

At once, Mei’s eyes changed.

Shock.

Confusion.

Wariness.

"You..."

"Don’t misunderstand."

hikaru’s tone remained flat.

"I didn’t change my mind because I pity you.

"I always intended to let you go.

"The point of keeping you alive was so you could speak."

Strictly speaking, hikaru had indeed never planned to kill her.

He had no sentimental attachment to her as a "canon character."

If he cared about that, Ao would still be alive.

No—he needed a messenger.

He needed someone with enough status to spread exactly the kind of fear and misinformation he wanted spread.

The bigger and more terrifying this false identity became, the safer the real Senju hikaru would be.

That was the entire point.

Still, Mei’s hands clenched as she asked in a strained voice,

"You knew all along, didn’t you?

"They already knew you were here."

"Not from the very start," hikaru replied calmly. "But not too late either."

He looked toward the darkness outside.

"The moment I caused a disturbance in the village, they were bound to notice.

"What puzzled me was how light their search efforts were afterward.

"But once I realized their focus never truly left the Kaguya Clan, I started suspecting something."

He paused, then smiled faintly.

"So I tested them.

"And just as I expected, it turned out exactly the way I thought."

His tone shifted colder.

"It seems that in your Mizukage’s eyes, political advantage is something worth compromising for.

"Even if that means quietly cooperating with me."

He stopped there.

The poison had already been delivered.

If Mei now returned to Genji and sowed doubt, conflict within Kirigakure would only deepen.

That suited him perfectly.

Because the more chaotic the Mist became, the less energy Obito could spend looking outward.

And everything hikaru did now was, in one way or another, laying groundwork for the future.

Night draped itself over the earth.

Under the moonlight, Kirigakure’s endless fog looked even more hazy and dreamlike than usual.

But there was nothing beautiful about it tonight.

Only killing intent.

In the darkness, hundreds upon hundreds of shinobi gathered in silence.

They advanced in neat encirclement toward the Kaguya Clan compound.

Standing silently atop a tree, hikaru swept his gaze across the scene.

With the aid of his perception, he quickly found the Fourth Mizukage.

He hadn’t expected Obito and Black Zetsu to actually place the Fourth Mizukage on the battlefield.

This was basically using hikaru himself as a blade.

"That means they really did discover the Nine-Tails’ chakra," he thought. "And my exposure happened earlier than expected."

Under normal circumstances, Obito should never have allowed the Mizukage onto the battlefield.

After all, Yagura was his puppet.

If anything went wrong, the fact that the Mizukage was under outside control might be exposed.

Yet Obito had done it anyway.

There was only one reasonable explanation—

when hikaru fought Mei and Ao, the Nine-Tails’ chakra had already been detected.

Black Zetsu and Obito must have guessed that the intruder’s target was the Three-Tails jinchūriki.

After that, once hikaru’s own actions conveniently accelerated the destruction of the Kaguya Clan, they simply chose to exploit the situation and test the "Nine-Tails jinchūriki" identity directly.

Placing the Mizukage on the battlefield was risky.

But on one hand, it increased pressure and raised the morale of the Mist forces.

Being watched by the Mizukage while fighting had a huge psychological effect.

On the other hand, it dangled bait directly in front of hikaru.

If he attacked, then from Kirigakure’s perspective, he would become someone openly interfering on behalf of the Kaguya Clan.

That, in turn, would further justify their extermination.

And if he made that move, the next thing waiting for him would be the full force of the assembled Mist shinobi.

"One arrow, four birds," hikaru thought with a sigh.

He had planned many steps ahead.

But Black Zetsu clearly wasn’t idle either.

Still...

Only a back-and-forth struggle was ever interesting.

It was just like his political struggle in Konoha with Sarutobi Hiruzen.

Once, he had still relied on that so-called enemy to shelter him from the wind and rain.

But now?

Now he could stand on his own.

Now he had his hands on Hiruzen’s weak point.

And that meant the initiative was his.

Shaking his head, hikaru let those thoughts go.

He focused instead on Yagura’s chakra.

Then, through his perception, he traced the chaotic root buried within the Mizukage’s chakra system.

Inside that disorder, he clearly found a thin thread.

A thread stretching backward from Yagura.

A control line.

The farther he followed it, the clearer it became.

At the same time, the Kaguya Clan finally began to move.

A large number of Kaguya shinobi burst out all at once.

Even under total encirclement, their fighting spirit remained absurdly high.

If anything, being surrounded only made them more excited.

More eager.

More ferocious.

It was the first time hikaru had ever witnessed something quite like it.

He had to admit—

the Kaguya Clan really was something.

No wonder they had once established such fearsome renown.

This willingness to embrace battle and death simply wasn’t something ordinary shinobi could compare to.

Especially considering that the current Kaguya Clan had, for the most part, already lost their true bloodline potential.

Just then, hikaru’s eyes narrowed.

Because in his perception, he had finally followed that chakra thread all the way to its source.

Two familiar, disgusting rats hiding in the dark.

Their chakra was bizarre.

And within it, he could sense a type of power oddly similar to his own.

"Found you."

He knew who they were the moment he sensed them.

Obito.

Black Zetsu.

Now that he had their exact chakra signatures and exact positions, he decided there was no more reason to hold back.

Yes—acting now would mean letting Obito use him as a piece in his own plan.

But so what?

They could use him once.

He could tolerate that.

Especially since he intended to collect repayment immediately.

His targets included not only the Three-Tails’ chakra—

but also the White Zetsu matter hidden within Obito and Black Zetsu themselves.

At that thought, a faint layer of golden chakra emerged over hikaru’s body.

It remained tightly controlled, not bright enough to immediately attract every eye in the darkness.

His gaze passed through the barrier and locked onto the Fourth Mizukage.

Then he slowly raised one hand.

A vast, annihilating force instantly condensed in his palm.

"Ninja Art..."

His voice was calm.

Yet beneath that calm lay unrestrained destruction.

"Tailed Beast Bomb."

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