"You... you did what?!" Kurotsuchi's voice cracked.
She stared at Deidara, her brain short-circuiting as she tried to process the sheer scale of what he'd just admitted.
This wasn't just one of his explosive pranks.
He had casually wiped the entire ruling class of the Land of Earth off the map!
"...Don't tell me you went back to Iwagakure just for that," Makoto groaned, rubbing his temples.
He looked exhausted.
It was like herding cats.
Extremely dangerous, S-rank criminal cats.
First Nagato tries to turn him into a moon because he got too excited, and now Deidara commits regicide on a whim.
"Of course not, un," Deidara scoffed, crossing his arms defensively. "I went to perfect my Art. Killing the old tyrant was just... a warm-up. He was ruining the aesthetic."
Deidara's artistic justifications didn't matter to Kurotsuchi.
The blood drained from her face.
The bridge back to her old life was gone—vaporized in a cloud of microscopic clay.
"Oh right, Kurotsuchi," Deidara added, his tone shifting from arrogant to surprisingly serious. "You'd better hurry back."
"Forget about becoming Tsuchikage for a second. If anyone enters the Daimyo's palace to investigate... they aren't coming back out. You need to seal it off. Immediately."
"Why?"
"Because of my new masterpiece—C4 Garuda," Deidara grinned, a manic glint in his eye.
He described it to her.
The invisible cloud, the microscopic bombs entering the bloodstream, the cellular disintegration.
Kurotsuchi's stomach churned.
An invisible minefield of death was currently hanging over the capital city.
"I..."
She looked at Makoto, torn.
Ten minutes ago, she was begging to join the Akatsuki.
Now, she had to rush back to save her home from the very people she wanted to join.
The emotional whiplash was making her dizzy!
"Go," Makoto said gently.
"The Daimyo is dead, but the fight has just started. The court is full of sharks—ministers and advisors who are no better than the Daimyo himself. They'll try to fill the power vacuum before the body is even cold."
"If you don't deal with them now, you'll never be free. You'll just be trading one master for another."
Makoto didn't mind her leaving.
In fact, this was better.
When he agreed to let Kurotsuchi join, he never expected her to stay anyway.
The main purpose was to let Kurotsuchi understand Akatsuki's goals up close - she still needed to become Tsuchikage in the end.
"Okay. I get it," Kurotsuchi clenched her fists, her knuckles turning white.
The hesitation vanished, replaced by a steely resolve.
"I won't fail. And I definitely won't do a worse job than that Mizukage!"
"Get going! Shoo!" Deidara waved her off like a pest. "If you run into trouble you can't handle, just hire us! We accept cash, un!"
He was secretly relieved.
Having his annoying little sister figure looming over his shoulder was cramping his style.
"Fine. I'm going."
For once, Kurotsuchi didn't bite back.
"Wait. Take this," Makoto said as she turned to leave. "Consider it a glimpse of what's possible."
He pressed something into her palm.
By the time she looked down, Makoto and Deidara were already blurring into the distance, heading toward the rain.
Kurotsuchi opened her hand.
It was a small, glossy photograph.
It was a group shot.
There was Makoto who's looking a little older and a little sharper.
And standing next to him was a woman.
She wore a high-slit red cheongsam that left little to the imagination, standing confidently in front of a massive rock golem.
She radiated power and charisma, her long, pale leg propped up on the stone giant.
Kurotsuchi stared at the woman's face.
It was her.
It was an older, stronger, undeniably cooler version of herself.
The Earth Release Golem Technique required insane chakra control—something she currently sucked at.
But the woman in the photo use it like it was nothing.
"No wonder he keep calling me 'Leg Kage'..." Kurotsuchi muttered, her cheeks flushing slightly as she compared the photo to her own fifteen-year-old legs.
'Okay, so I have a growth spurt to look forward to. Noice.'
She carefully tucked the photo into the deepest pocket of her ninja pouch, right next to her heart.
The appearance of this photo made Kurotsuchi completely trust what Makoto had told her earlier.
"Otsutsuki..."
She whispered the name Makoto had warned her about.
She also remember Deidara who's risking himself getting captured just to steal forbidden scrolls to get stronger.
Even the idiot bomber was taking this seriously.
'I need to get stronger, too.'
"No wonder that scroll talked about delegating the Kage's workload," she realized, a grin spreading across her face.
"It's about making time to train for the end of the world."
Poof.
She activated her Light-Weight Rock Technique and shot into the sky, streaking back toward Iwagakure like a comet.
....
"Konan," Makoto said as they fly, the adrenaline of the encounter fading. "Send a message to Kisame in the Land of Waves."
"Tell him to inform the Mizukage that she's not alone anymore. Let her know that the future Fourth Tsuchikage of Iwagakure is officially her 'comrade in revolution'."
"...Alright."
Konan nodded, but she gave Makoto a sharp, sidelong glance.
First, he tells Kurotsuchi that the Mizukage is involved to motivate her.
Now he's telling the Mizukage that the Tsuchikage is involved to motivate her.
It was a classic confidence game.
A damn political Ponzi scheme!
But instead of stealing their money, Makoto was stealing their hesitation.
By believing they were part of a massive, coordinated movement, both Kage would commit harder to the cause.
...
Over a month later.
The Shinobi World was in uproar.
While the revolution in the Mist Village remained hidden behind its veil of fog and isolation, the events in the Land of Earth exploded onto the global stage.
News spread like wildfire: The Earth Daimyo and his entire lineage had died overnight.
"Natural causes," the official report said, though everyone knew that was code for assassination.
Onoki took responsibility for failing to protect the daimyo.
He resigned as Tsuchikage, retreating to an advisory role, and placed the Kage hat on the head of his fifteen-year-old granddaughter, Kurotsuchi.
With the Daimyo gone, the Tsuchikage became the supreme authority in the Land of Earth.
The feudal ministers tried to circle like vultures, hoping to carve up the power for themselves.
But they underestimated the girl.
Kurotsuchi ruthlessly suppressed them.
Using Iwagakure ANBU and intelligence networks, she seized control of the nation's treasury and resources.
Then, following the command from Makoto's scroll, she launched her own revolution.
She slashed taxes for commoners by half.
She doubled mission pay and death benefits for ninja. She took the Daimyo's hoarded wealth and poured it back into the streets.
No one mourned the Daimyo.
Instead, they celebrated the Tsuchikage!
Once the common folk tasted prosperity, there was no going back to the old system.
However, this "treason" terrified the other nations.
The Fire Daimyo panicked, doubling the budget for the Twelve Guardian Shinobi, seeing potential traitors in every shadow.
The Wind Daimyo used the incident as an excuse to strangle the Sand Village's funding even further, warning the Kazekage that one toe out of line would result in a total embargo.
The Lightning Daimyo was furious!
He sent angry letters demanding an explanation.
He was surprised, however, when the Fourth Raikage agreed with him.
"Iwagakure has broken the unspoken rules!" the Raikage roared, smashing his desk. "They threaten the stability of the entire system! If a Kage can depose a Daimyo, chaos will rule!"
The Raikage proposed war and the Lightning Daimyo happily stamped the approval.
...
The Land of Rivers.
The buffer zone between the nations had become a churning sea of mud and steel.
The armies of Kumo and Iwa faced off, tension crackling in the air like static electricity.
Both Kage had also arrived at the front lines!
Kurotsuchi stood on a high ridge, the wind whipping her hair.
She looked at the massive Kumo army gathering on the horizon with thousands of troops, led by the Raikage himself.
Then she looked to her side.
"I emptied the treasury for this contract," she hissed, pointing a trembling finger at her 'mercenaries'.
"I paid a literal fortune."
"And you sent me two people?"
Standing next to her was her acquaintance, Makoto, looking as relaxed as if he were on a picnic.
And beside him stood a lone man in a black cloak with red clouds, wearing a mask.