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Faced with twenty-four ANBU operatives alone, Ye Dou didn't feel the slightest fear. After all, he had already killed a Root shinobi of comparable strength years ago—what difference would ANBU make?
The real problem was the setting. This wasn't a remote village like Nanhechuan, but the Hokage Building—the symbolic heart of Konohagakure. Making a move here would be far too conspicuous.
If he caused too much of a commotion, the twenty-four ANBU might quickly multiply into two hundred and forty—or more. Even someone like him couldn't take on a fully mobilized Konoha and come out unscathed.
"Can I only pin my hopes on Orochimaru's operation?" he muttered, unsure of whether that wild card would play out as planned.
The attack on Naruto Uzumaki wasn't a trivial matter. As the Hokage's personal guard, ANBU would certainly be diverted to assist. But Ye Dou still had no real understanding of their full strength. If ANBU's forces proved too overwhelming, or if the Hokage Building's defenses didn't thin out as hoped, his plan would be meaningless.
Sighing, he pulled back the fingers forming his chakra seal, opened his eyes, and quietly left the park.
This area was crawling with surveillance squads. Lingering too long would only invite suspicion.
As he moved through the village, Ye Dou kept pondering how to worsen the chaos inside Konoha—enough to pull ANBU away from the Hokage Building and weaken its guard. That was the only way he'd be able to move in unnoticed.
He was so deep in thought, he forgot to use Kenbunshoku Haki—his "observation haki."
Suddenly, while passing by the Ninja Academy, something strange entered his sensory field.
"What… is this?"
He stopped abruptly, his brow furrowed, and placed a hand against the wooden wall.
"…Why are there detonating tags embedded here?"
[Blow Konoha into the sky?]
"There are so many detonating tags," he muttered.
The mongoose perched on Ye Dou's shoulder widened its eyes in shock.
Had Ye Dou not stumbled upon it, even the mongoose's heightened senses might have missed the danger.
These tags weren't casually placed—they were embedded inside the structure, interconnected through a hidden sealing array. They covered the entirety of the Ninja Academy. One detonation, and the place would collapse instantly into rubble.
Realizing the magnitude of the setup, Ye Dou leapt to the rooftop of the Academy.
The chakra in his body surged violently as he activated his Kenbunshoku Haki at full force.
One… three… five… ten… in just moments, he located hundreds of thousands of explosive tags, spread like a hidden web across every floor, room, and corridor of the Academy.
But it didn't stop there.
By tracing the chakra threads connecting the tags, Ye Dou discovered something even more terrifying—they weren't limited to the Academy.
The web extended outward, weaving through all of Konoha.
"Xuanneng…" Ye Dou whispered. "This has his signature."
"You know who did this?" asked the mongoose.
"Who else but Xuanneng from Yanyang Village?"
Ye Dou nodded grimly.
Around thirty years ago, during a period of large-scale infrastructure development in Konoha, architects from outside the village flooded in. Xuanneng had been among them.
"An architect trying to blow up the village? Don't lie to me, I may not be a scholar, but that's absurd!" the mongoose exclaimed.
"On the surface, he was just a skilled architect. But in truth, he was a shinobi from Yanyang Village, a now-destroyed ninja village in the Land of Mountains that once went to war with Konoha."
"He was a spy?"
"Yes. During the war, Konoha launched a surprise attack while Yanyang's main force was away. The war tilted in Konoha's favor. It was recorded in Konoha's archives—though briefly."
"But what the records don't detail," Ye Dou continued, "is what happened in the three months between that ambush and the eventual peace treaty."
At the time, Yanyang's leader refused to accept defeat. Xuanneng was secretly sent to Konoha to embed explosive tags throughout the village in preparation for a large-scale retaliation.
"What happened after that?"
"The leader of Yanyang Village died—some say it was internal conflict. His successor wasn't as radical and accepted the treaty. And just two weeks later, Yanyang was attacked by Guren Village and erased from existence."
The detonation plan died with the village.
Yet the tags remained.
Ye Dou followed the network traced by his Haki and arrived at a side hall in the Academy, his eyes locking onto a wooden stake embedded with a faint red glow.
This was the activation core.
If someone struck that point, the detonation would spread across the village in seconds.
Though the plan had been laid thirty years ago, and Konoha had since rebuilt parts of itself through two reconstruction booms, the damage from those tags would still be catastrophic.
"Detonating these would throw Konoha into complete chaos."
"How many people would die if this place blew up?" the mongoose asked.
"That depends on how fast Konoha reacts."
Ye Dou had no intention of triggering the explosion himself—not yet. He would wait until Orochimaru and the Sand shinobi began their invasion. Only then would he act and further fan the flames.
If Konoha responded quickly, casualties could be minimized.
If not... the death toll would be catastrophic.
"Now, I just need to confirm whether Xuanneng really abandoned the plan."
Xuanneng had a son. His resemblance to Uzumaki Naruto was uncanny—nine out of ten.
Ye Dou had heard that after meeting Naruto, Xuanneng saw in him the image of the son he'd lost along with Yanyang Village. He grew hesitant. Regretful. Human.
Apparently, Xuanneng even went so far as to destroy several key nodes in the detonation array. As a result, even if the tags were triggered now, the explosion wouldn't be as devastating as originally intended.
"You humans are too complicated," the mongoose muttered. "He went from a saboteur to playing hide-and-seek with his fake son."
"His son died with Yanyang Village. Since then, his heart's been buried with the rubble. Naruto Uzumaki gave him a reason to live again."
As Ye Dou walked down the dim corridors of the Academy, checking every node and link in the detonation network, he murmured:
"People always need a reason to keep going."
For some reason, his thoughts turned to what that young man from the Land of Snow once said…
His brow furrowed. A strange irritation twisted in his chest.
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