manynovel Chapter 70 Decision
Chapter 70 Decision
Inside the Konoha Confinement Room, Hyuga Kanan was watching the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, who was deep in thought. The atmosphere around them was somewhat oppressive and heavy.
In fact, from the moment Shimura Danzo returned with the intelligence, Konoha had already methodically completed its preparations for the enemy. Konoha had previously noticed the frequent movements of the Mist Ninja forces, knowing that they were preparing to launch an attack on Konoha's headquarters soon.
Danzo Shimura's intelligence, which revealed to the Konoha command the main direction of the Kirigakure attack and the approximate number of ninja, put Konoha in an invincible position.
Konoha has made more preparations to meet the enemy and is now just waiting for the Mist Ninja to launch an attack before counterattacking. After all, the loss of intelligence on the Mist Ninja has exposed their direction of attack on Konoha, allowing Konoha to better mobilize its ninja for defense.
The Mist Ninja lost their chance for a surprise attack and are now forced to confront Konoha head-on, with the question of which village is stronger remaining unresolved. However, Konoha has never been afraid of direct combat with other villages. Konoha ninjas have always been stronger than those of other villages, and under the leadership of the First and Second Hokage, Konoha's confidence in battle is exceptionally high.
It can be said that if the Mist Ninja wanted to fight the Konoha Ninja head-on, they could have suppressed Konoha with their numerical advantage before, but with the arrival of Konoha reinforcements, the Mist Ninja had no chance of victory at all.
Hiruzen Sarutobi finally snapped out of his reverie. He coughed softly, pulling himself back from his thoughts, and slowly said:
“Indeed, when I received Elder Shimura Danzo’s information, my first reaction was to agree with his judgment. That’s why I asked the ANBU squad to bring you here, so I could confirm with you what happened during the mission.”
Looking at Hyuga Kanan again, Hiruzen Sarutobi had already guessed what had happened during the mission. Based on his understanding of Danzo, he knew that what Hyuga Kanan said was basically true.
"If what you say is true, then Konoha's elite squad was ambushed by the Mist Ninja, and even a strongman of Uchiha Kagami's level didn't have a chance to retreat and died in the ambush. So you, as a genin, had even less chance to escape."
"Although it may be very unfair to you, I still want to ask you not to publicize the details of this mission, at least not to tell the Konoha ninja about the mission in detail."
"The Mist Ninja has already launched their attack, and the war has begun. I don't want anything to affect the morale of the Konoha ninja forces on the front lines. Konoha cannot afford any disunity right now. Let's wait until after the war to discuss everything, and then I will give you a satisfactory answer."
Hiruzen Sarutobi slowly revealed his current thoughts. He couldn't let the Konoha ninja know that the Konoha higher-ups were shifting the blame onto a genin in order to escape punishment, as that would shake the morale of Konoha in their battle against the Mist Ninja.
After all, if the Konoha frontline ninjas knew about the actions of the Konoha leadership, they couldn't help but wonder if they would become scapegoats for the Konoha leadership if something unexpected happened during the war.
Finally, Hiruzen Sarutobi crossed his arms and spoke these words heavily. For the highest leader of a village to make a request to a genin was extremely shameful, but for the sake of Konoha's future war, he was willing to lose face for Danzo.
Silence filled the confinement room. After a long while, Hyuga Kanan spoke.
"Excuse my bluntness, Hokage-sama."
"I have no complaints about the Konoha leadership. Whatever decisions you make are your business and have nothing to do with me. I have no interest in discussing the morale of the frontline ninja forces with you, nor do I need any fairness from you after the war. My only request is that Lord Danzo stop bothering me in the future. I don't want to waste my time on these trivial matters."
"Now I hope I can leave this battlefield directly, so that the thing you're worried about won't happen, and I can also get rid of Danzo's trouble for me later. Besides, I have no interest in your war and have no intention of joining it. I don't even want to become a ninja. I hope you can take back my ninja identity. I've had enough of ninjas killing each other."
Upon hearing this, Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at the boy in front of him with some surprise. Seeing the serious expression on Kana Hyuga's face, he hesitated before speaking.
"Are you sure? Are you really that resistant to becoming a Konoha ninja?"
"I have no interest in becoming a ninja in that village. I never intended to become a ninja. It was only because my mother wanted me to become a ninja, not an ordinary villager, that I went to the ninja academy."
“I’ve been thinking about what exactly a ninja’s profession is, and what the point of constant fighting is. You think ninjas can only live off mission rewards, but I think they would be even more successful if they used ninjutsu to do other things.”
"You keep killing each other, sowing seeds of hatred. Then you keep training children to become ninjas so they can grow up and seek revenge. You keep going in this cycle, and what do you get in the end? Countless names of the dead?"
Hiruzen Sarutobi stared dumbfounded at the boy before him, unsure how to answer his questions. If Kanan Hyuga was completely denying the meaning of ninjas, then what was the point of him being the Hokage, the leader of the Leaf Village ninjas?
After thinking for a moment, Hiruzen Sarutobi finally spoke up to explain:
"The existence of us Konoha ninjas is to protect our village and its people. Without the protection of us Konoha ninjas, how could the Land of Fire be so peaceful? How could our children grow up smoothly? Your thinking is wrong. Only by becoming a ninja can you better protect the village and help the children grow up. This is the Will of Fire of Konoha!"
"Oh! Without the protection of the Leaf Village ninja, the Land of Fire has no peace? Then have you ever thought about this: all the daimyo of the Five Great Nations are basically related, and the battles are fought between your five ninja villages. The Five Great Nations have never actually fought a major war. As for peace, you should go outside and see what you are doing right now. You are at war right now. Where is the peace when there is war?"
"Forget it, these things don't really concern me. All I want now is for the Hokage to revoke my ninja status. From now on, I will no longer live in Konoha as a Konoha ninja, but as an ordinary villager. Is that alright?"
Hyuga Kanan felt somewhat bored. He had once again become a busybody. What happened in Konoha, what the ninja profession was like—none of his business. What he needed now was to leave this place and find a place where he could break through to the Innate Realm, not to stay here discussing ninja matters with the Hokage.
He already sensed that after forcibly absorbing Mizuki's soul energy last time, the Sage of Six Paths would definitely be paying more attention to this battlefield, as there might be some dangerous situations for him on the battlefield between Konoha and Kirigakure.
It's best to leave as soon as possible. The world's will isn't omnipotent; it can only block divine sense scanning. Absorbing soul energy on the battlefield now would be extremely dangerous. Besides, I currently have a lot of Jonin soul energy in my Qiankun Inheritance Jade, and even the soul energy of a Kage-level being, Mizuki-hen. There's no need to risk everything for the soul energy of those Genin.
Looking at the somewhat uninterested boy in front of him, Hiruzen Sarutobi understood that the other party did not want to say anything more to him. He just wanted him to cancel the boy's ninja identity so that the boy's departure would not be considered an act of treason.
Furthermore, the other party has absolutely no motivation to become a ninja. If their ninja status is not forcibly revoked, they are unlikely to fight to the death for Konoha like other Konoha ninjas. On the contrary, if their words spread among Konoha ninjas, it may affect the morale of other Konoha ninjas.
In the end, Hiruzen Sarutobi compromised. He believed that the best solution was to revoke the other party's ninja status, which would appease most of the Konoha ninjas and also resolve Danzo Shimura's anger towards him.
"Alright, Hyuga Kanan. I agree to revoke your Konoha ninja status. I will announce publicly that this is the punishment for causing such significant damage to your mission. Afterwards, I will explain the mission situation to the Uchiha clan so they won't bother you again. You are now just an ordinary Konoha villager."
"Thank you, Hokage. It would be very inappropriate for an ordinary villager like me to remain at the Konoha front-line war headquarters. I will leave here soon so as not to cause you any more trouble."
Hyuga Kanan said with some delight, and immediately took off his Konoha headband and handed it to Sarutobi Hiruzen.
"Finally, I've finally gotten rid of my identity as a Konoha ninja. Now I can fly freely and no longer worry about being a Konoha ninja."
Hyuga Kanan thought to himself, "Ever since I became a ninja, it seems like I've been bound by something. I worry about the trouble Konoha will cause me if I become a rogue ninja, and I worry about not having a stable training environment in the future."
Now, Hyuga Kanan can peacefully seek a safe environment for secluded cultivation to break through his limitations, instead of wasting his precious training time in this tedious war. Moreover, the World Will seems quite satisfied with the soul energy it absorbed this time, while also remaining wary of the previous divine sense scan.
It's unlikely that they'll force me to continue absorbing and refining the ninja's soul energy, given the current extremely dangerous situation and the world's will's awareness that this cannot continue.
Hyuga Kanan was painstakingly brought into this world from the void by the World's Will, and cannot be allowed to die easily. This is one of the important means to fight against the Sage of Six Paths later.