chapter 121 part 2
Tsukasa Kaede said: "Achieving Hokage with such a background, doesn't it further prove the authenticity of the Will of Fire? If I can become Hokage, so can others. I've even thought of campaign slogans, like 'Once you're here, you're Konoha, making Konoha great forever,' and so on…"
Kushina realized that Tsukasa Kaede wasn't just amusing himself out of boredom; he genuinely wanted to acquire the position of Fourth Hokage.
But… how could the Third Hokage agree? How could the two Advisors agree? How could Danzo and the Hokage's disciples agree? Would he really rely on accumulating Merit to run for Hokage? If not… then the method of campaigning would be…
"You certainly aren't planning to honestly gather fame and trust, are you? So you're planning…"
"A coup d'état. If things don't develop as I expect, then a coup it is."
"That's difficult. Once it escalates to using force, you alone would face a multitude of Kage-level shinobi, as well as the encirclement of countless Elite Jonin and Jonin."
Kushina didn't mention the vast numbers of Chunin and Genin. For Tsukasa Kaede, who had no shortage of Chakra, these weaker individuals, should they dare to show their faces, would simply become Tsukasa Kaede's zombies.
But even so, to contend with the siege of so many powerful individuals alone, even Tsukasa Kaede couldn't possibly succeed, could he?
"Even if I, as a Jinchuriki, don't make a move, or even step forward to help you, even if we win the civil war, the Hidden Leaf Village would be practically finished. The defeated would become latent threats, and Ninja Clans of all sizes might not listen to us." Kushina pondered deeply, trying to figure out how Tsukasa Kaede's chances of victory could be raised.
"No need to think so much about that now; we're not at that stage yet. There's an important prerequisite for this course of action: if I don't do something, I won't be able to stay in this Village. …This is what I mean by a respectable position. A respectable position isn't some cheap thing like simple face or self-esteem."
However, despite saying that, based on Tsukasa Kaede's understanding of the Village, he feared some people wouldn't allow him to maintain his respectable position—after all, his reputation was too high. He was an army of one, and he could still win! Regardless of how the Hidden Sand forces were routed, Tsukasa Kaede genuinely could hold up thousands of troops by himself, and even counter-kill top enemy shinobi.
This strength alone, when the next Shinobi World War truly arrived, could prevent the deaths of countless Konoha shinobi. He could even single-handedly hold an entire battlefront, and challenging a major force from a certain hidden village alone wouldn't be impossible.
Furthermore, Tsukasa Kaede's repeated unauthorized actions had probably already pushed the Village's patience to its limit.
When Tsukasa Kaede left Kushina's place using the Spatial Rift jutsu and returned to his own home, he began to wait patiently.
"So you didn't die out there?" Konan looked up at him with a hint of disappointment, then resumed her work of manufacturing explosive tags. At every moment, large quantities of paper flowed from her hands, with jutsu formulas appearing on them.
"Not only did I not die, I'm doing quite well. The explosive tags you make for me are indeed very effective, and they've given me another interesting tactic. Ebizō was surrounded by countless explosive tags and blown to pieces."
Without Space-Time Ninjutsu, and without an absolute defense jutsu formula, being trapped by a barrage of explosive tags truly left one without options.
Konan snorted coldly and continued her work. She felt an immense sorrow in her heart, only hoping that Tsukasa Kaede would not use the explosive tags she made to fight Nagato and Yahiko in the future.
"They…"
"They are doing well, and have become even stronger. There are few left in this world who can threaten their lives. As far as I know, they recently attacked the Hidden Sand Village, captured Chiyo, and will soon master the Living Corpse Reincarnation jutsu, I imagine." Tsukasa Kaede said.
"Yahiko and Nagato attacked the Hidden Sand Village?!"
Konan gasped in surprise, looking at Tsukasa Kaede in disbelief—she knew Tsukasa Kaede wasn't someone who lied casually, nor did he have any reason to lie. But something like this…
Why would those two, who harbored such ideals, leave their homeland to attack another Great Shinobi Village? There must have been some change she wasn't aware of.
However, the silver lining in this misfortune was that they fortunately attacked the Hidden Sand Village, instead of coming to fight the Hidden Leaf Village to rescue her.
But knowing those two, that day would come sooner or later… Thinking of this, Konan abruptly sped up her explosive tag production.
"One hundred billion," Konan said, gritting her teeth, "once I've made that many, I'm leaving. Otherwise, I'll kill myself; I won't give you a chance to threaten them."
"Alright." Tsukasa Kaede said calmly.
The two fell silent then, neither speaking another word, their minds occupied with their own thoughts.
As time passed, sure enough, the public opinion in the Village quietly began to change.
At first, only a very few individuals voiced different opinions—which was actually quite normal. The Hidden Leaf Village had a large population, and it was perfectly natural for different people to have different ideas and raise objections.
But slowly, the views put forth by this minority began to spread rapidly. Leveraging the massive attention generated by Tsukasa Kaede's defeat of the Hidden Sand forces and the Hidden Sand Village's heavy losses from multiple strong enemy attacks, their influence grew increasingly large.
People shifted their focus from wildly praising Tsukasa Kaede and mocking their mortal enemy, the Hidden Sand Village, and once again redirected their attention to Tsukasa Kaede.
But this time, the shift wasn't merely to praise and comment on Tsukasa Kaede's actions and achievements. Instead, it approached the matter from a more cunning angle.
"Kaedence Lord Tsukasa Kaede mastered the Living Corpse Reincarnation jutsu so early, why doesn't he use this jutsu to resurrect the fallen comrades in the Village?"
"Living Corpse Reincarnation jutsu? Isn't that the Forbidden Jutsu of the Hidden Sand Village that's been widely discussed recently?"
"Idiot, you actually don't know? Lord Tsukasa Kaede snatched this resurrection jutsu from the Hidden Sand Village several years ago. I heard he can even cast the jutsu using a corpse, thereby circumventing the jutsu's cost—he doesn't need to sacrifice his own life; he just needs to make the corpses 'die' again!"
"What, you mean to say, by using many corpses to cast the jutsu, one can resurrect the dead? That's preposterous, impossible!"
"Why impossible? Who doesn't know that Lord Tsukasa Kaede was very frail in his early years, with very little Chakra? He only later suddenly acquired a vast amount of Chakra that he could use freely. It's said that he obtained the Chakra from numerous corpses using the Living Corpse Reincarnation jutsu!"
These voices grew louder and louder.
Information about forbidden jutsu was inherently highly confidential; it was the same in any village. But this time, the commotion grew quite large. More and more people learned that the Hidden Sand Village had been besieged and plundered by various factions due to the Living Corpse Reincarnation jutsu, and also that Tsukasa Kaede had mastered the Living Corpse Reincarnation jutsu a long time ago.