ALL NOVEL Chapter 161: Chapter 161
Hui's "airstrike" soon came to an end, leaving behind a landscape of devastation and scattered bodies.
This aerial assault inflicted heavy losses on the Kumogakure forces, plunging them into another bout of deep despair.
Among the most shaken was the Third Raikage, Ay. His face had turned ashen, and although he was still in his prime, he now seemed aged, burdened with an overwhelming weariness.
"Raikage-sama…" one of the elite shinobi standing beside him spoke, his voice heavy with despair but struggling to find the right words.
"This war…" another elite shinobi started, looking as exhausted as he sounded, but he too fell silent, unsure how to finish the sentence.
Ay didn't need to hear their words to understand their thoughts. He knew what they were implying.
They were suggesting surrender.
But how could he bring himself to say those words? How could he let go of all that they had lost?
His mentor, the Second Raikage, his friend, the Jinchūriki of the Eight-Tails, and countless elite shinobi from Kumogakure had all perished in this war. How could he casually utter the words "we surrender" in the face of so many sacrifices?
Ay looked around him.
The camp, now reduced to smoldering ashes, filled the air with the sounds of pain, cries of grief, and quiet sobs.
The sky above was gray, casting a bleak shadow over everything, filling Ay with an intense sense of suffocation.
His mind flooded with memories—laughing with his friends, the admiring gazes of the younger shinobi, his close comrades by his side.
Faces from the past flashed before his eyes, each a reminder of the bonds he had now lost. He saw his teacher, the Second Raikage, and his old friend, the Eight-Tails Jinchūriki, both waving goodbye as they turned and walked away.
Finally, just before his mentor faded from view, he seemed to say, "You've done enough, Ay. Let this war end here."
Tears began to slip from Ay's closed eyes, silent yet filled with all the sorrow of his defeat. This powerful man, two meters tall and once unyielding, was now quietly weeping.
At last, in a voice rough with grief, he spoke, "The war is over. We… surrender."
The elite shinobi standing beside him were stunned, momentarily speechless.
An emptiness filled their hearts as if something crucial to their being had been lost. Yet they felt a surprising lightness in the release of that burden.
The war was over.
What was meant to be an overwhelming invasion had turned into their crushing defeat, all because of one man— Mochizuki Hui.
Hui, with his strength, had claimed Moonfall Mountain and shattered Kumogakure's numerical advantage.
His powerful jutsu had rendered their attempts to conquer the mountain futile.
Hui had slain their Second Raikage, the Jinchūriki of the Eight-Tails and Two-Tails, and two other elite shinobi—all of this instilling an insurmountable fear within the ranks of their nearly ten thousand shinobi.
And finally, Hui had struck down their last defences from the sky, completing the assault on their hearts and driving them into utter despair.
They had lost this war not so much to Konoha's forces as to Mochizuki Hui alone.
What they didn't yet know was that Hui's loyal lieutenant, Sakumo Hatake, had infiltrated the Land of Lightning to cut off Kumogakure's supply lines.
If they did, their fear of Hui might have been even greater.
Having reached the end of their resolve, the nearly seven thousand remaining Kumogakure shinobi now surrendered to a Konoha force of just over two thousand.
That day, at the base of Moonfall Mountain, the Third Raikage stood quietly, holding their letter of surrender.
Hui descended from the sky, retracting his wings as he landed, meeting the eyes of the man who had come to embody both fear and hatred within him.
The Third Raikage addressed him formally, his voice steady, "Ay, the Third Raikage of Kumogakure, surrenders on behalf of our forces to Mochizuki Hui."
Hui accepted the letter of surrender with respect, his tone equally solemn. "I, Mochizuki Hui of Konohagakure, hereby accept your surrender."
With those words, Konoha's shinobi erupted in cheers, raising their weapons in celebration. Their faces were lit with pride, each one ecstatic at their victory.
The shinobi of Kumogakure, however, hung their heads in silence, looking lost and defeated.
"We've won… I never would have believed it," one of Konoha's elite shinobi murmured, watching Hui with admiration.
"Indeed," said the leader of the Uchiha clan, his voice filled with awe as he watched Hui holding the surrender document.
"Before we left for the front, Hui-kun promised we'd win, though none of us were certain. And now, he's done exactly that. He's ended the war, practically by himself."
"I can hardly believe it," added another elite. "We were up against nearly ten thousand shinobi with only a force of around two thousand, yet in less than ten days, we've defeated Kumogakure. It's a miracle. And what's more, we lost less than a hundred of our own."
Another shinobi voiced what everyone was thinking, "This war wasn't won by Konoha's forces—it was won by Hui Mochizuki himself."
"It's like witnessing the birth of a new 'God of Shinobi,' one who's as compassionate and devoted to everyone as the First Hokage himself," someone else remarked with reverence.
Others chimed in, their voices filled with admiration. Hui had won their loyalty in full; their respect and faith in him were now absolute.
The leader of the Uchiha clan, listening to these words, smiled but remained silent, a thought taking shape in his mind.
As the Second Hokage had come to power, the Uchiha clan had reached a peak in influence.
Yet, as the head of the clan, he was all too aware of the growing tensions within the village, they were in a precarious position masked by their current prominence.
The Uchiha's influence was a fragile thing, more of a grand facade than a solid foundation.
Beneath this surface were simmering tensions, and an unspoken hostility within Konoha that grew by the day. It felt as if a breaking point would eventually come, threatening the entire clan's future.
Though he could see the threat clearly, there was little he could do to change it, especially under the rule of Tobirama Senju, a Hokage whose mistrust of the Uchiha was barely concealed.
But today, he saw a glimmer of hope, a new path that might secure the Uchiha's future.
If the Second Hokage didn't favor the Uchiha… then what if there was a Third?
The next Hokage could very well be Sarutobi Hiruzen.
Or… perhaps… it could be Mochizuki Hui.
join my patreon for 80+ advanced chapters: patreon.com/HyppoTL