Chapter 102: Chapter 102
After Kiriya defeated the A-B brothers, he carried out several more operations against Kumogakure of the Land of Lightning.
His main target was Kumogakure’s camps.
The process was simple, divided into three steps.
First, he would sneak close to a Kumo camp, then find an opportunity to capture and subdue a lone Kumo-nin.
Second, he would have a shadow clone hide inside that Kumo-nin’s shadow and use the Toad Flat Shadow Manipulation Technique to infiltrate near the camp’s command center.
Third, once he entered Sage Mode, he would condense Senjutsu: Wind Release: Rasenshuriken and use the Flying Thunder God mark on the shadow clone as a coordinate, teleporting the attack directly in front of the enemy command center with Flying Thunder God: Guiding Thunder.
Boom!
After one earth-shaking explosion, the command center of a Kumo camp was gone.
Kiriya did not even need his main body to appear.
The enemy would lose a large number of commanders, strategists, and elite fighters without ever understanding what had happened.
After this happened several times in a row, the entire Kumo front became jumpy and paranoid, seeing threats in every shadow.
To be fair, the Kumo-nin were not afraid of battle.
On the contrary, among the Five Great Nations, their ambitions for expansion were among the strongest.
Their aggressive nature and desire to expand were no weaker than Iwagakure’s, perhaps even stronger.
When they faced an enemy head-on on the battlefield, they fought with fearless brutality.
Otherwise, the Sandaime Raikage would never have possessed the sheer heroic courage to fight ten thousand enemies alone.
But this time was different.
They did not even see the enemy’s face before—boom—they were gone.
There was no heat of battle, no heroic story worth singing about, nothing at all.
As shinobi, they were not afraid of sacrifice.
But sacrifices like this, meaningless and unclear from beginning to end, were something they absolutely could not accept.
For a while, fear and hesitation spread across the front line, and the entire Land of Lightning force began filling with one thought.
End the war quickly and go home.
Kumogakure’s higher-ups were helpless against this.
Of course, they could force the troops to continue holding the line and fighting, but that would only add pointless casualties. It would mean nothing.
It was not that they had never tried to trap Kiriya for good.
After all, Kiriya’s extremely powerful Senjutsu: Wind Release: Rasenshuriken was far too recognizable.
Unless they were blind or stupid, they would obviously know who was responsible.
But even after Raikage-sama and an entire group of advisors racked their brains, they still could not do anything to him.
Kiriya was too slippery!
The moment something felt wrong, he would retreat immediately.
Then, every so often, he would drop by again to "say hello."
After half a day of struggling, they would fail to catch even a single hair from the enemy and only exhaust themselves mentally and physically.
Then Kiriya would come knocking again.
Several experienced frontline commanders died that way.
The Flying Thunder God Technique was simply that unfair. Using it for assassination was as easy as going home.
If one attempt failed, he could try again next time, and there was no pattern to his movements. It all depended on his mood.
This series of operations left Kumogakure completely numb.
After repeatedly weighing the cost and risk of continuing the war, they finally decided to seek peace.
The Raikage’s reasoning was simple.
If the war did not end soon, Kiriya would kill off the backbone of their village.
Naturally, the daimyō of the Land of Fire and Konoha were happy to accept.
After all, the Land of Fire had been attacked from all sides this time.
Fighting on multiple fronts had drained their manpower, resources, and finances heavily.
Their vitality had already been damaged.
Even with two exceptional figures like Kiriya and Minato Namikaze rising unexpectedly, almost dominating two local battlefields and even changing the direction of the entire war, Konoha no longer had the strength to keep the war going.
"Konoha has already shed enough blood."
That was the consensus among the higher-ups.
Of course, there were still hardliners who wanted to fight to the end, such as Danzō.
But Hiruzen silenced him with one sentence.
"I am the Hokage."
That single line nearly choked Danzō half to death.
He looked constipated for a long while, but in the end, he still could not say anything.
And so, peace talks began.
Because Kiriya was such a powerful deterrent, Konoha took a heavy payment from Kumogakure, recovering some of its losses.
Even if Kumogakure could not swallow that anger, there was nothing they could do.
What they could not win on the battlefield, they had even less hope of gaining at the negotiation table.
They could only pinch their noses and accept it, then turn around and vent their anger by beating Iwagakure.
Ōnoki, who had been attacking cities and seizing territory everywhere, enjoying victories against the Lands of Fire, Lightning, and Wind all at once, suddenly discovered that he was surrounded by enemies on three sides.
Sunagakure, Kumogakure, and Konoha were all cracking their knuckles and closing in.
The powerful Iwagakure now looked like a fresh inmate cornered by a pack of predators in prison.
Iwagakure: "Gentlemen, let’s talk this over."
Sunagakure / Konoha / Kumogakure: "Shut up and pick up the soap!"
Ōnoki had thought he could kick Konoha, punch Kumogakure, and sweep across every front.
Then he woke up in the middle of the night and realized the clown had been himself all along.
"Damn it. I became the punching bag in the end."
Facing the Land of Earth’s battered and smoking front lines, Ōnoki gritted his teeth and finally, with tears in his eyes, sent out a request for peace talks.
Sunagakure, Kumogakure, and Konoha all treated it as if he had farted.
How could they pass up a chance to beat someone while he was down and carve off a piece of meat for themselves?
If they did not make Iwagakure pay now, how could they justify their earlier losses and sacrifices?
When the Sandaime Tsuchikage, Ōnoki, saw how ugly the three sides looked while trying to divide the spoils, he knew this would not be settled by simply lowering his head.
He quickly contracted his forces and concentrated all of them in Sunagakure’s direction, putting on a posture that said he would drag them down with him if necessary.
His meaning was clear.
If you want me dead, then don’t expect to live either.
Sunagakure could not withstand that kind of pressure. They immediately became cautious and agreed to peace talks without much hesitation.
After reclaiming the land that had been taken from them, they quickly went home.
Their strategic goal had already been achieved.
Why keep wasting effort?
When Kumogakure and Konoha saw Sunagakure back down, they also knew the momentum was gone.
They began peace negotiations as well, extracted plenty of benefits from the Land of Earth, and only then withdrew their troops.
Ōnoki looked at the Land of Earth’s border, which now looked as if it had been gnawed by dogs, and nearly cried.
After exhausting himself for years, everything had returned to where it began.
All his previous efforts had come to nothing.
"Senju Kiriya!"
Every time Ōnoki thought of that name, he gnashed his teeth.
If that brat had not suddenly started causing chaos on Kumogakure’s side, those people would never have made peace with Konoha.
Sunagakure, Konoha, and Kumogakure would never have been able to align their interests, and he would not have been robbed while his house was on fire, losing so many gains he had already taken into his hands.
So if one had to name the person Ōnoki hated most right now, it was undoubtedly Kiriya.
"I have to find a way to get rid of him."
Ōnoki, the Sandaime Raikage, and the leaders of the other great shinobi villages all felt killing intent rise in their hearts.
...
And what was Kiriya, the current focus of the entire shinobi world’s attention, doing at this moment?
He was saying goodbye to Jiraiya.
"What? You’re going traveling?"
Jiraiya’s eyes widened.
"You’re not going back to the village? The Sandaime and the higher-ups are preparing a grand victory celebration for you."
"Sounds boring. I’d rather go out and look around. I can train properly while I’m at it."
Kiriya curled his lips.
"I feel like my Sage Mode still has a lot of room to improve. Oh, and my chakra nature transformation and shape transformation too."
"You brat..."
Jiraiya looked at his disciple with complicated eyes.
This boy’s strength...
Perhaps even he could no longer make him sweat.
If it were any other young man who achieved this much at his age, his pride would have shot straight into the sky long ago.
Yet Kiriya could still maintain a calm, grounded attitude, seriously analyze his shortcomings, and immediately work to improve them.
That steadiness was truly astonishing.
"You brat... Since you’ve already made up your mind, I won’t say much."
Jiraiya shook his head and took out two scrolls from behind him.
"These are some of my insights on senjutsu and summoning techniques. Take them. They should be useful to you."
"This... I couldn’t possibly..."
Kiriya said he felt embarrassed, but his hand had already reached out and smoothly tucked the scrolls into his clothes.
The entire movement was unbelievably practiced.
Jiraiya’s mouth twitched at how shameless he was.
"With that thick skin of yours... you really might accomplish great things. I just hope that no matter how high or far you go in the future, you don’t forget Konoha. In the end, that place is still your home."
"Of course. For your sake, if nothing else."
Kiriya patted Jiraiya’s arm, then turned and walked away.
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Naruto Arc end for now.
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