Chapter 214: Kazahana Fubuki: The Advantage Is Mine!
The cold wind whipped up snowflakes, blowing across the land outside the eastern wall of the Hoshigakure Outpost that had just experienced a brief but bloody conflict.
Four corpses in ice-blue armor lay quietly on the snow, their blood staining the pure white like a few hideous blooming red plums.
Hotaru’s gaze swept over the corpses, and she steadily ordered: “Yukimi, use the storage scroll to properly seal Rōga Yukinami’s corpse. The body of an elite jonin from the Land of Snow, whether the intelligence it carries or that strange chakra armor, holds extremely high value for the research department.”
“Understood!” Yukimi nodded immediately, taking a specially made storage scroll from her ninja tool pouch and skillfully forming hand seals.
With the injection of chakra, Rōga Yukinami’s corpse, pierced full of senbon and in a gruesome state of death, was drawn into the scroll.
Next, Hotaru and Gōta crouched down and began carefully examining the bodies of the other three Snow Ninja chunin.
Gōta’s rough fingers probed the damaged chakra armor on the corpses, his eyes gleaming with curiosity: “Tsk tsk, this armor is indeed intricately constructed. It can amplify chakra and assist in performing Ice Release… Unfortunately, the material strength and energy conduction seem flawed; its power is far less pure and powerful than Bai’s Ice Release Bloodline Limit.”
As he evaluated, he deftly stripped the armor from the three corpses and carefully packed it.
“Take the armor back for the research department to analyze. The corpses…” Hotaru stood up, lifting one cold corpse in each hand, while Gōta picked up another.
“Return them.”
The two exchanged a glance, then exerted force simultaneously, hurling the three nearly naked, wound-covered Snow Ninja corpses toward the distant Land of Shadows Army camp like throwing stones!
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The three dull thumps of heavy objects hitting the ground were exceptionally clear in the silent cold night, landing right at the edge of the torchlight from patrolling soldiers on the camp’s perimeter.
“Enemy attack?!”
“What is that?!”
Shouts of panic and chaotic footsteps immediately erupted from behind the camp’s fences.
Several soldiers cautiously approached. When the firelight illuminated those three faces frozen in fear and pain—familiar yet strange—the terrified screams instantly tore through the night sky!
“It’s… it’s the ninja lords from the Land of Snow!!”
“They’re dead! Stripped naked!!”
“Oh god! Who did this?!”
The camp instantly buzzed like a kicked hornet’s nest!
Panic spread among the common soldiers like a plague.
Those high-and-mighty ninja lords had been killed so easily and thrown back like trash?!
Shogetsu Ryunosuke was startled by the commotion outside and hurriedly arrived draped in a coat.
When he saw the three nearly stripped Snow Ninja corpses on the ground, clearly dead after a brutal battle, his face—always scheming—turned incomparably grim, his goatee trembling with rage.
“Useless! A bunch of useless trash!” He cursed Rōga Yukinami’s incompetence in his heart, but more than that, it was unease and shock at things slipping out of control.
He knew Rōga Yukinami’s strength well. With custom chakra armor for jonin and three chunin as subordinates, they hadn’t even made a splash before being wiped out, their corpses even turned into trophies and tools of provocation?!
The power in the Hoshigakure Outpost was far more terrifying than he had estimated!
He forcibly suppressed his inner shock and barked at the trembling messenger beside him: “Immediately! Send an emergency request for aid to the homeland by the fastest means! Report to Lord Nutou: Hoshigakure resistance is fierce, Jonin Langya Xuebeng and his squad… dead! Request Lord Nutou dispatch stronger support immediately! Hurry!”
His voice carried a faint, imperceptible tremor.
Meanwhile, the portly noble from the Land of Shadows who had rushed over upon hearing the news glanced at the corpses on the ground, first startled, then showing disdain and resentment on his face as he muttered softly: “Hmph, I thought the Land of Snow ninjas were so impressive, hyped up to the skies, but that’s all they’ve got? Dead without even touching a hair of the Star Ninja? What a waste of our money and grain…”
Shogetsu Ryunosuke heard this idiot’s muttering and was furious, but with the situation stronger than the people, he could only keep a grim face, ignore the fool, and rapidly think about his next move.
In the following days, the situation fell into an eerie calm.
From the Hoshigakure Outpost side, Hotaru and Gōta strictly carried out Menma’s orders, holding firm without sortieing, merely strengthening their alert and defensive works.
Kimimaro, Bai, Yukimi, and the other Star Ninja at the outpost took turns on guard duty. The deterrence of the Snow Ninja corpses thrown at the camp gate that night kept the Land of Shadows Army from daring to cross the line.
In the camp, Shogetsu Ryunosuke and the Land of Shadows nobles were hesitant, neither daring to send small units to die nor having the strength for a general assault. They could only anxiously await reinforcements from the homeland while guarding against a sudden Star Ninja attack from the outpost.
The two sides faced off silently across the cold snowfield and that low wall, the air tense as if ready to ignite at any moment.
Meanwhile, in the Land of Swamps, suffering from famine and noble oppression.
The figure of Miko Miroku appeared like a warm light in the hardest-hit region.
She still wore her elegant and solemn miko robe, her brows filled with compassion and resolve.
Behind her were over a dozen priests and mikos from the Shrine of the Land of Demons.
In addition, an elite squad of Star Country Anbu Ninja personally led by Kisame Hoshigaki lurked in the shadows around them, responsible for protecting their group.
Miroku personally directed the setup of a congee stall on the outskirts of the most severely affected town.
Grain provided by the Land of Stars was boiled into thick hot porridge, emitting a life-saving aroma.
“It’s Miroku Miko!”
“Miko lord has come to save us!”
“Quick! Line up! The Star Country miko lord is distributing porridge!”
Miroku’s lofty prestige in the western countries was fully evident at this moment.
The news spread like it had grown wings. Countless gaunt, ragged disaster victims surged in from all directions, gathering around the congee stall, their eyes reigniting with hope.
Under the direction of the priests and mikos, they lined up in orderly queues, receiving the life-saving food and expressing endless gratitude to Miroku and the Star Ninja.
This scene starkly contrasted with the nobles’ indifference.
This gathering of popular support and prestige soon aroused extreme unease and jealousy in the Land of Swamps daimyo, Ono Takuto.
He personally led an army of over three thousand commoner soldiers, marching grandly into Bonsō Castle where Miroku was located.
The army roughly dispersed some disaster victims and completely surrounded the inn where Miroku was staying.
In the inn room, the short and stout Ono Takuto with sinister eyes, dressed in luxurious brocade robes, met the calmly seated Miroku amid a crowd of samurai and several wandering ninja.
“Miroku Miko’s gracious visit truly brings splendor to my humble Land of Swamps,” Ono Takuto toyed with a folding fan in his hand, feigning a smile, his gaze greedily scanning Miroku’s body.
“Miko lord is compassionate, extending aid to our disaster-stricken land. I am endlessly grateful. Why not… have Miko lord stay long-term in our Land of Swamps? I will treat you with the honors of a national advisor—far better than being subordinate in that rogue ninja’s Star Country, right?”
Miroku slowly raised her head, her purple eyes calm and unwavering, her voice gentle yet firm: “Thank you for Your Excellency the daimyo’s kind intent. But Miroku’s journey here is solely to relieve the disaster victims, carrying out the will of Lord Shura of the Star Country. Once the disaster eases, we will depart. I must decline to stay in the Land of Swamps.”
Ono Takuto’s face instantly darkened, his hypocritical smile vanishing completely.
He leaned back slightly, opening the folding fan to cover half his face: “Miko lord, please don’t refuse a toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit. Look outside the city! Tens of thousands of starving commoners! Their lives hang on your single thought! If you insist on leaving and anger me, these people… hmph, I dare not guarantee if they can have even one more bowl of hot porridge!”
He openly tore off the facade, threatening with the lives of the disaster victims outside the city.
Miroku’s eyes suddenly turned cold, her fingers tightening slightly.
But she remained composed: “Is Your Excellency the daimyo threatening Miroku, or threatening the commoners outside the city whom you should protect?”
“Think whatever you like!” Ono Takuto grinned ferociously: “I give you one day to consider! Think well: stay in the Land of Swamps enjoying wealth and honor, or… watch those lowly commoners starve and freeze to death because of you!”
With that, he snorted coldly, leading his subordinates away in a huff, leaving the inn heavily surrounded by the army.
After Ono Takuto left, Kisame Hoshigaki silently emerged from the room’s shadows, his shark-like face expressionless, but his small eyes gleaming with icy killing intent: “Miko lord, do you need me to ‘deal’ with that fool?”
His right hand fingers twitched slightly, as if already gripping Samehada’s hilt.
Miroku walked to the window, looking at the dense army below bristling with blades and spears, gently shaking her head with a sigh: “No need, Mr. Kisame. Killing him is easy, but the resulting chaos would affect countless commoners. Lord Shura promised me he would strive to minimize civilian casualties. We… wait for his instructions.”
Her gaze turned to the distance, as if she could see the figure scheming in the Star Capital.
Time passed in tense standoff and silent oppression; a week flew by.
At the Land of Shadows Border, the wind and snow grew fiercer.
A massive ninja force quietly arrived at the Land of Shadows Army camp amid the flying snow.
Leading them was the Land of Snow daimyo, Fūka Nutou!
He wore even more ornate chakra armor embedded with blue crystals, his face under the helmet cold as ice, his eyes filled with ambition and brutality.
Behind him followed two powerful Snow Ninja jonin, along with an elite force of over twenty chunin and more than fifty genin!
The cold chakra armor reflected cold light in the snowfield, like a legion from an icy hell.
However, after entering Land of Shadows territory, Fūka Nutou sensed something amiss.
The villages along the way were exceptionally desolate and deathly still, with occasional burned houses and frozen corpses scattered by the roadside.
The air was thick with oppression and panic, utterly different from what he had imagined.
In his meeting with Land of Shadows daimyo Yokogawa Taichi, Fūka Nutou frowned and raised the question.
Yokogawa Taichi waved dismissively, unbothered, lifting his wine cup for a sip and spraying alcohol breath as he said: “Lord Nutou need not worry; it’s just some starving lowly commoners making trouble! They can’t stir up waves! Once your Snow Ninja army crushes the Star Ninja, my army can easily suppress them upon return!”
“In this deep winter, some lowly commoners starving or freezing to death is perfectly normal—saves grain! Those Star Country ninja, though, are like nails embedded in my land. Your Excellency, look…”
A flicker of barely perceptible contempt passed through Fūka Nutou’s eyes; he had seen plenty of such foolish, shortsighted nobles.
Though he wouldn’t care about civilian deaths either, population was an important cornerstone of a country.
Though the prior loss of Rōga Yukinami’s elite squad had erased his complete disdain for the Star Country, he remained confident in his own power and winter environmental advantages.
“The Star Ninja must be dealt with,” Fūka Nutou’s voice was ice-cold.
“Winter is the Snow Ninja’s home field! With wind and snow boosting it, chakra armor can bring Ice Release to its peak power! Star Ninja? Just rats hiding behind dirt walls!”
After days of standoff, Shogetsu Ryunosuke had nearly fully scouted the Star Ninja outpost, estimating fewer than ten ninja there.
As for Hoshigakure itself, it was just a small ninja village, probably with at most around a hundred ninja.
Meanwhile, Fūka Nutou’s force of over seventy ninja, all in chakra armor and optimized for winter combat, could maximize Ice Release Ninjutsu.
Once this Star Ninja force was eliminated, they could press straight into the Star Country, catching Hoshigakure off guard!
In any case, winter combat—advantage mine!
Then, Fūka Nutou changed tack, proposing the conditions he had long prepared: “However, Daimyo Yokogawa, for the Land of Snow to go all out, the cost… is not low. After success, that ‘forest’ bordering the Land of Shadows north and the Land of Snow must be permanently ceded to my Land of Snow! How about it?”
Yokogawa Taichi’s eyes darted.
That forest was sizable but perennially harsh, yielding only hardy timber and beasts—far less valuable in his eyes than the fertile land the Star Ninja had transformed.
He was already fantasizing: after defeating the Star Country, not only reclaiming land, but perhaps counterattacking to bite a big chunk from the Star Country!
“No problem! Deal!” Yokogawa Taichi agreed readily: “As long as Your Excellency drives out the Star Ninja and takes the plains, that broken forest—what’s giving it to you?”
The two, each harboring ulterior motives, struck this deal.
Fūka Nutou smiled satisfiedly; claiming the forest was mere smokescreen. What he truly wanted was the entire Land of Shadows!
‘Wait and see; after cleaning up the Star Ninja, you’ll be next…’ Those Hoshigakure rogue ninja could kill nobles and daimyo; I, Fūka Nutou, can do the same!
Winter’s snow fell heavier, like a thick white shroud burying the Land of Swamps and Land of Shadows.
The dire consequences of the Star Country’s full trade cutoff began to manifest wildly.
The two nations, already hit by poor harvests from natural disasters, plunged completely into grain shortages.
Market grain prices had soared to despairing heights, and even then, none was available.
Ordinary merchants and minor nobles began feeling the pressure, but the top-tier nobles and daimyo continued their nightly revelries, drowning in wine and meat, as if the tragedies outside their doors had nothing to do with them.
In the cities, more and more commoners froze or starved to death, their corpses casually dumped in alleys or mass graves, soon buried by heavy snow.
Despair spread, and finally, some desperation-driven folk banded together, risking it all to rob warehouses and mansions of heartless rich merchants and minor nobles.
Scattered resistance and unrest began erupting in towns across both countries.
However, the long-ingrained class oppression and mental shackles were so heavy that the vast majority of the lower classes, even watching kin starve and freeze, remained numbly enduring, not daring the slightest thought of rebellion.
The scattered resistance was quickly bloodily crushed by the nobles’ private soldiers and samurai, reinforced by troops withdrawn from the borders.
And laughably—or pathetically—the two countries’ daimyo and nobles not only failed to relieve the disaster victims but doubled down, issuing harsher tax edicts under pretexts like “wartime” and “resisting Star Country invasion,” frantically squeezing the last drops from the populace to sustain their armies and lavish lives.
Star Capital, top floor office of the administration building.
Menma stood before the huge floor-to-ceiling window, overlooking the silver-clad yet orderly city outside the window.
Uzumaki Kushina stood behind him, detailing the intelligence gathered from all sides.
“…In summary, my lord. The lower classes in the Lands of Shadows and Swamps are like volcanoes on the verge of eruption, but suppressed by long-term high-pressure rule and bitter cold. The nobles remain lost in debauchery, extorting heavily. Fūka Nutou has personally led the Snow Ninja main force to the Land of Shadows Border and reached some agreement with the Land of Shadows daimyo. They seem to believe winter is their absolute home field.”
Menma listened quietly, his deep blue eyes serene.
After a moment, he sighed softly, a faint disappointment in his voice: “The people’s awakening is even slower and harder than expected… Has a thousand years of oppression eroded their last shred of bloodlust?”
But he quickly suppressed the emotion, his gaze sharpening with resolve: “However, the timing is about right. With Fūka Nutou personally jumping into this trap, we can… settle the Land of Snow’s restless cold current along with these two rotten nations at once.”
He turned to Uzumaki Kushina, tone decisive: “Pass the order! Proceed with pre-war preparations as originally planned! Once Fūka Nutou’s Snow Ninja main force moves out, immediately execute annihilation operations!!”
“Yes! My lord!” Uzumaki Kushina’s eyes gleamed with excitement and reverence; she bowed and swiftly turned to make arrangements.
As winds of change swept the western Ninja Continent with war clouds gathering.
Far away in the Land of Fire, Konohagakure.
Inside a bustling movie filming site.
The twelve-year-old “Fujikaze Yukie,” already showing stunning beauty in budding form, sat before the makeup mirror, letting the makeup artist carefully prepare her.
She had long black hair, snow-white skin, and exquisite features, but deep in those beautiful blue eyes hid a melancholy and alienation beyond her years.
At this moment, she was doing makeup for her next ninja-themed film.
Suddenly, the dressing room door was flung open!
Her agent, Asama Santayū, wearing black-rimmed glasses and always impeccably neat, rushed in with an unusually serious expression.
“Sorry, everyone, please step out for a moment. I have urgent business with Miss Yukie,” Asama Santayū’s voice carried urgency.
The makeup artists and assistants exchanged glances but, under Santayū’s stern gaze, quickly packed up and left, closing the door behind them.
Only the two remained in the room.
Asama Santayū took a deep breath, strode to Fūka Koyuki, and pulled several crumpled newspapers from his bosom, trembling as he spread them on the makeup table.
“Princess! Look at this!” His voice was hoarse with agitation, even using the long-forbidden title.
Fūka Koyuki, active on screen under the stage name Fujikaze Yukie, frowned slightly, somewhat displeased as she looked at the newspapers.
The front-page headlines jumped out: 《Famine spreads in Lands of Shadows and Swamps, social unrest!》, 《Star Country cuts trade, worsening the plight!》, 《Land of Snow announces military protection for Lands of Shadows and Swamps, intervening in regional disputes!》…
“This… what does this have to do with me?” Fūka Koyuki’s voice held a faint tremor, instinctively wanting to look away.
“Princess! How could it not?!” Asama Santayū excitedly pointed to the Land of Snow reports on the newspapers, voice lowering but more urgent.
“Look! That traitorous minister Fūka Nutou! He has personally led the Snow Ninja core elites out of the Land of Snow! The homeland is now undefended! This is our once-in-a-lifetime chance!”
He grabbed Fūka Koyuki’s shoulders fiercely, eyes behind glasses bloodshot and fanatic: “Princess! Stop evading! You are the sole bloodline of Lord Fūka Sayuki! The rightful heir to the Land of Snow!”
“The old retainers of the previous lord, over forty still scattered incognito across the Land of Snow! They all received deep favors from Lord Sayuki; if you but raise your arm, they will follow to the death! We can rally forces, storm the palace, reclaim your throne! Avenge Lord Sayuki!”
Asama Santayū’s words boomed like thunder in Fūka Koyuki’s ears.
The deliberately forgotten, cold and bloody memory fragments surged back instantly.
Uncle Fūka Nutou’s ferocious grin, her father’s blood, the cold palace, endless flight…
Her face paled instantly, body shaking uncontrollably. She flung off Santayū’s hands, retreating like a startled fawn, voice filled with fear and rejection: “Stop! Santayū! Say no more! I’m not some princess! I’m just Fujikaze Yukie! An actor! The Land of Snow… throne… none of it has anything to do with me anymore! I don’t want to go back to that cold place!”
“Please… just stop wasting effort!”
Her voice cracked with sobs, blue eyes filled with deep fear and evasion, as if the Land of Snow existing only in memory and reports was a nightmare ready to devour her.
Fūka Koyuki turned away, hugging her arms tightly, burying her face, shoulders trembling slightly.
Asama Santayū watched the princess like this, pain and reluctance flashing in his eyes. He opened his mouth, but it became a helpless sigh. Silently, he picked up the newspapers from the floor and carefully stowed them.
The flame of restoration burned in his heart, but the princess’s resistance and inner knots clearly couldn’t be undone overnight.
Still, Asama Santayū found ways to send secret letters to old friends in the Land of Snow, linking them up in preparation for the right moment.
【PS: Konoha 57, Ninja World map】
