"So that's the situation. There might be bandits lying in wait along the route."
"Mm. Your mission is a little complicated. I think…"
On the first floor of the Mission Hall, a squad leader in a chūnin flak jacket was speaking with a young, wealthy merchant, two teammates standing behind him.
They questioned the client in meticulous detail about every possible risk. The brief commotion Konome Taketori had caused earlier had already been forgotten.
A person only had one life. Any mission that involved danger and combat had to be investigated thoroughly before anyone moved.
Of course, there were shinobi who weren't that cautious. Either they were truly powerful and fearless, or they were already dead and no longer able to accept missions here. The ordinary shinobi who couldn't go up to the higher floors and were still very much alive obviously didn't belong to either group.
As for gossip about beauties, geniuses, and the people at the top, it was never as important as staying alive. They might glance once or twice when they saw something eye-catching, but no one was bored enough to keep talking about it forever.
"If it really comes to it," the merchant said through gritted teeth, "we can raise the pay by another twenty percent."
Hearing the client offer more money, the shinobi exchanged looks. The moment the chūnin leader saw his teammates wavering, his troubled expression vanished and he smiled.
"Fine. We'll take it."
"Great. Pleasure doing business," the merchant said, all smiles as well.
He'd never expected to hire shinobi at the original price anyway. His personal limit had been a sixty percent increase. He hadn't thought a mere twenty would make these people fold so quickly.
They controlled supernatural power, but they looked no different from the laborers working under him. No head for business. No brains at all.
"Since it's not too late," the merchant continued, smooth as silk, "how about you brothers honor me with a simple meal? My treat. You can tell me some of Konoha's interesting stories too. The Village Hidden in the Leaves really lives up to being the number one shinobi village. Talented people everywhere, blessed land and spirit. And that young lady earlier, haha… no offense, brothers, but this trip has truly opened my eyes."
The merchant didn't think much of them inside, but he knew how to talk. He knew how to make people feel good.
The shinobi, flattered that a rich boss was being so courteous, felt their faces brighten with pride. Before long, they were calling each other brothers.
They were just about to head out to eat when…
Boom!!
Without the slightest warning, a thunderclap of an explosion erupted from above, followed by a shockwave so violent it was visible to the naked eye. The entire Hokage Building shook as if the earth itself had begun to roll.
Everyone in the hall stumbled and dropped, reflexively looking up.
Rattle, rattle.
The ceiling trembled. Dust, grit, and broken stone rained down.
"W-what was that?"
"That sound came from the Hokage's office on the third floor. Is the Third Hokage under attack? Move, upstairs!"
"Maybe there's an enemy hiding inside the building. Lock the Hokage Building down. No one leaves. Anyone who tries, kill on sight!"
"Yes!"
As the tremors eased, the building erupted into chaos.
Shinobi who looked like ordinary people launched themselves up the stairs. When the staircase jammed, others didn't even bother using it, sprinting out the doors and running straight up the steep exterior walls.
ANBU hidden in the corners detonated smoke with heavy booms and flashed upward with Body Flicker. Earth Release, Wind Release, secret techniques, explosions, smoke, and dust. In an instant, the normally calm Hokage Building became a battlefield.
"T-this…"
The young merchant, who had been about to leave, was stunned into silence as two shinobi forced him back.
The same "simple-minded" shinobi who had just been laughing and calling him brother now drew kunai and sealed every client inside the building. Anyone slow to obey was beaten to their knees.
No one spoke. Their eyes were sharp, murderous, and scorching, nothing like their earlier friendly manner.
Staring at the flashing blade of a kunai, the merchant tried to summon his famous silver tongue, only to find his tongue stiff as an old shoe sole. His throat felt glued shut. Not a sound came out.
He could only crouch, hands over his head, trembling like a quail.
Under that icy killing intent, the wealth, connections, and social skills he prided himself on instantly lost all meaning.
Only now did he truly understand what the word shinobi meant.
These weren't laborers he could exploit. These people were the ultimate military force of the shinobi world.
And in that moment, it struck him with sudden clarity.
That beautiful young girl the shinobi revered as a genius, the one rumored to be fit to inherit the Hokage seat, just how terrifying must she be?
The last traces of foolish fantasy vanished from his mind. So did the unspeakable crooked thoughts he'd never dared to voice.
All the noise inside him faded, leaving only one thing.
Respect for power beyond the ordinary.
This trip to Konoha really had opened his eyes.
Thank goodness. Truly, thank goodness.
The thoughts of an ordinary man didn't matter to anyone.
Shinobi rushed toward the third floor. Some with advanced Earth Release tunneled through the floors and broke straight into the office. Before they even arrived, waves of ANBU had already flickered inside.
The moment they entered, the sight in front of them made the killing intent in their bodies freeze.
The wide office held a massive summoning contract scroll spread across the redwood desk. And on the wall that once bore the Hokage emblem, there was now a hole more than two meters tall.
A hole shaped like a person. With arms and legs.
Inside it, twisted and broken steel supports could still be seen.
Brilliant sunlight poured through the opening, lighting the office as if it were noon. The reinforced concrete wall had been punched through by something with absurd force.
But there was no vicious enemy waiting inside.
Only the Third Hokage, looking faintly dazed, and the silver-haired girl beside him with her lips pressed tight, the floor beneath her feet spiderwebbed with cracks.
They all knew Konome Taketori. No one believed Konoha's number one prodigy was an assassin attacking the Hokage. The enemy had to be someone else.
They looked at the human-shaped hole in the wall, then at the cracked floor under Konome, and a guess began to form.
But first, they had to confirm the Hokage's safety.
"T-Third Hokage-sama, are you alright?"
Questions flew from every direction, concern sincere.
Hiruzen's prestige in the village was immense, especially among civilian-born shinobi. To them, the Third's reputation had already surpassed even the legendary God of Shinobi.
The title "Strongest Hokage" was something they themselves had created.
"I'm fine," Hiruzen said, shaking his head.
Then he turned to the sunlight pouring through that human-shaped hole. Worry creased his aged face as he muttered to himself.
"I just hope he's fine too."
Konome licked the corner of her lips, awkward. The feral muscle groups hidden under her skin slowly relaxed.
Good thing she hadn't actually listened and gone all out. Otherwise Enma would probably be "Monkey-Imp" right now.
She hadn't activated Lightning Release Chakra Mode. She hadn't opened any Gates. She hadn't used her armor-piercing move, Rift Split. She'd barely stirred the ocean of chakra inside her.
And yet even so, that punch, with her whole body behind it, was easily in the thousands, tens of thousands of tons.
Even a tailed beast wouldn't enjoy taking it head-on.
But Enma's adamantine body truly lived up to its name.
He had taken the blow right over his heart with his chest, didn't even grunt, only spat a mouthful of heart's blood, then smashed straight through the outer wall and left.
Because he'd flown out folded in half, eyes closed like he was asleep, the posture wasn't exactly majestic. If not for that, he might have actually looked like the Monkey King of legend, leaping across heaven and earth.
The distance was too far. Even her Byakugan couldn't track him anymore. Judging by the time, he was probably already out of Konoha.
She could only hope he would go home, recover, and still help her find a suitable monkey partner.
Thinking that, Konome felt a little guilty.
She had the uneasy feeling the contract she'd just signed might fall apart.
Enma had come in a hurry and left in a hurry. She hadn't even had time to ask about natural energy, much less senjutsu. She didn't even know whether the monkey tribe had any foundation in that realm.
While Konome was still thinking about senjutsu, Hiruzen suppressed his worry and chose to trust his old partner's adamantine durability.
"Everyone, don't panic. There's no enemy. It was just a small accident."
As more and more shinobi crowded into the office, Hiruzen quickly explained, stabilized order, and ordered ANBU to bring in repair crews to fix the Hokage Building. The rest of the shinobi were dismissed.
They were disciplined. They followed orders. Seeing that the Third Hokage was unharmed, they withdrew in an orderly fashion back to the first and second floors. The small chaos smoothed over into calm.
Of course, that was only the surface.
Konome's hearing was sharp enough to catch the rumors already spreading.
That she and the Hokage had argued, even fought. That an enemy had tried to assassinate the Hokage, only to be defeated by her and flee through the wall. The proof was the human-shaped hole.
People said everything.
In no time, this "Third Hokage attacked" incident turned into a giant story exchange. Anyone with a brain and an imagination stuffed their theories into it. The truth didn't matter anymore.
The wilder it sounded, the more mysterious, the more people nodded along.
And in all those stories, she was the main character.
Maybe the next time she came to the Hokage Building, she'd hear shinobi in the Mission Hall telling clients fresh "facts" about her.
Facts she didn't even know herself.
"No, brother, sorry about earlier…"
"It's fine. I get it. So what happened up there?"
"The Third Hokage fought with that Konome Taketori girl and accidentally broke the building."
"She fought the Hokage? That kid's really that crazy?"
"You think?"
Oh, come on.
So she didn't even need to wait. It was already spreading. Give it another hour and it would become her forcing a coup and trying to steal the Hokage seat.
Konome felt her face go flat.
After finally finishing the cleanup, Hiruzen rolled up the summoning scroll. Looking at his disciple, who was even more violent than Tsunade, he couldn't help feeling his spine go cold.
Tsunade. Kushina. Konome.
Every female shinobi he knew was some kind of violence incarnate.
He'd thought Konome had become much gentler after five years of cultivating her temperament. But that single punch shattered the floor and shattered his illusion at the same time.
"Enma's adamantine body is truly incredible," Hiruzen said gravely. "In decades of fighting alongside him, I've never seen him injured. Never use that kind of punch on shinobi from our own village."
His tone was heavy with warning. He didn't mention her "not training taijutsu for five years" again.
Not training was correct.
Forget the kids at the Academy. There weren't many people in the entire shinobi world who could take that punch.
If it hadn't been a plain, straightforward taijutsu punch, he would have already sealed it into a scroll as a forbidden technique.
Konome nodded repeatedly. That was exactly why she didn't use taijutsu anymore.
She'd only dared to throw that punch because Enma had an adamantine body. If it had been any of Konoha's fragile shinobi, even stepping on them would have meant shattered bones. She certainly wouldn't seriously use taijutsu.
Even so, she hadn't come away empty-handed.
Enma's adamantine body had not disappointed her at all. The moment her fist met his chest, she felt it, a strange rigidity unlike anything else.
Her bones were fine, but the surface skin, without lightning armor or a tailed beast cloak to protect it, was crushed apart under the reflected force, mashed like porridge.
After years of being tempered by plasma, her body in its normal state was already tough and thick like oxhide. But it still couldn't compare to Enma's adamant flesh.
That absurd durability was only slightly weaker than her Gray Bone.
But she only had one skeleton and the bone membrane beneath her skin.
Enma, however, was hard everywhere.
Every organ. Every cell.
The entire ape was like a solid block of iron, no inside or outside, seamless and whole.
He was a living Adamantine Staff.
After taking the punch, he'd flown out of Konoha spitting blood, yes, but that alone proved his physical strength. A normal person would have simply disintegrated under that force, exploding into meat paste on the wall. They wouldn't have "ascended" into daylight.
She didn't dare stack her three state techniques lightly because her body still had too many weak points.
Her bones were hard enough, but her brain, blood vessels, internal organs, and nerves would rupture under excessive pressure. Her muscles would tear and break down under overwhelming power.
If she could also cultivate Enma's kind of iron body, a body forged into one seamless whole, if her blood vessels, skin, and internal organs could catch up to the strength of her Gray Bone, then she could solve the problem of not being able to stack state techniques.
At that point, even without relying on any special abilities, just pure taijutsu would be enough for her to smash Susanoo and step into the pinnacle of Kage level. If she opened the Eight Gates, she could dance with Kaguya Ōtsutsuki herself.
Senjutsu could be acquired from the Three Great Sage Regions.
But an iron body like Enma's?
Only the monkey tribe might hold a clue.
This monkey contract was even more important than she'd imagined.
The only problem was… she had just punched Enma hard enough to make him vomit blood. She wasn't exactly eager to summon him again and ask, "So how do I train that body of yours?" Even if she did, he probably wouldn't tell her.
Once he healed, she could have Hiruzen arrange a talk with Enma.
If she could get the training method, perfect.
If not, she'd have to use Reverse Summoning and personally visit the monkey tribe's territory.
"You need to seal your taijutsu from now on," Hiruzen was saying, not knowing Konome had already started coveting Enma's iron body. "And that Gray Bone that melts everything, don't use it. And Lightning Release Chakra Mode too…"
He was already imagining how to lock away her dangerous abilities.
He thought for a long time and couldn't find any good way to restrict taijutsu, so he could only lecture her verbally.
After talking himself dry, he glanced outside through the "monkey hole" in the wall at the sky.
"How about we go get a meal?"
"No, Sensei. I have something to do," Konome said. She didn't want to listen to him nagging, and she did have business.
"What business?"
"Today is our post-graduation team assignment," Konome said. "You know that."
"?"
A question mark practically floated over Hiruzen's head.
"So you still haven't gone back to the Academy for the team assignment?"
"Of course not." Konome lifted her chin with the pride of a transmigrator. "I knew you'd assign Kakashi as my jōnin-sensei. That guy is the King of Late. I wasn't going to stand around at school waiting like an idiot. And since you told me to come to the Hokage Building today anyway, I used the time."
Hearing her extremely reasonable analysis, Hiruzen ground his teeth, unsure what expression to make.
"I reminded him yesterday not to be late," he said slowly. "So this time… you're the one who's late, Konome."
"…Huh?"
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