III

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Arc III Chapter 7

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Asami grinned. “I think I have a solution for our little problem, Naritomo?”

 

“And that would be?” Naritomo raised an eyebrow.

 

“To avoid a costly urban campaign, I recommend levelling the playing field, in the literal sense of the word.”

 

“What do you mean?” Naritomo had a hunch.

 

“We won’t fight for every house, every floor, every basement. It would be futile. Instead, we should just flatten the entire city. We will level the entire city, razing it down to the ground if necessary.” Asami sparkled with childish glee.

 

“...” Naritomo stiffened, staring at her together with the rest of his staff. His face paled. “I don't want to question your authority, but do you understand the implications of your actions?”

 

“I can’t follow.” Asami looked up in confusion, unable to understand where she had lost him. 

 

“With all due respect, but thousands of innocent civilians will die ...” Naritomo protested, but his accusations didn't bother her in the slightest. The village council issued her a carte blanche. A few thousand civilians were considered acceptable collateral damage in the eyes of Konoha.

 

Asami merely giggled, slightly amused by his naivety. “I beg to differ, Naritomo, thousands are hardly a realistic estimate. Personally, I expect something between fifteen and thirty thousand civilian casualties, but why should we care? A few thousand dead civilians are hardly unusual for an operation like ours. They perish in the flames of war and nobody cares.

 

Alternatively, we can also request further reinforcements and feed their corpses to the meat grinder. We can crush them through the sheer weight of our numbers if that is what you wish for, but I doubt you do so, Naritomo, right?”

 

“... ... ...” Awkward silence befell the tent. Nobody uttered a word.

 

Naritomo regained a semblance of composure. “But how are we supposed to level Shimabara? We neither have the numbers, nor the fire power to flatten the city if we wanted.”

 

Asami chuckled. “That is correct, but I am glad that you ask. I am currently developing a new jutsu, a little personal project of mine. The jutsu isn’t completed yet, but the results so far look promising. The prototype is ready for use and I would like to field test it.” 

 

“...” Her words surprised Naritomo. “A personal jutsu at such a young age ... That is quite ... impressive ...”

 

Asami raised the palm of her hand to demonstrate her jutsu. It was a technique that she developed for the last five years, but little progress was made due to the excessive amounts of chakra involved and the tricky matter of control; until recently: Her mangekyou sharingan enhanced her chakra control. They rendered the impossible possible.

 

Her palm produced a nucleus of purple chakra, a small orb of pure, concentrated chakra. Swirling spheres surrounded her beloved creation. “The first step is to create a sphere of concentrated chakra. The sphere forms the basis. 

 

Now the second step. As you might know, there exists a direct correlation between the amount of chakra  and the potency of your jutsu. The more chakra you use, the stronger your katon, the stronger your raiton, the stronger your suiton, the stronger your futon. The amount of chakra increases potency. The same principle applies to my sphere.” Her sphere expanded. 

“The more chakra I mobilise, the more volume, density, concentration will increase. Lastly, I combine my chakra with my elemental affinity, katon, to generate even more power.”

 

Her element enriched her sphere. Naritomo and his men felt the raw unrestrained energy, the immense power her chakra radiated.

 

Aurora was satisfied. “And last but not least, now I compress my chakra.” Her hand closed, and in the fraction of a second, the sphere imploded, contracting, forming a nucleus of pure purple chakra. Her control maintained the pressure. After all, she needed to be careful. A single lapse in concentration, and her creation would rip the whole tent apart.

 

“And then ...” Asami raised her palm, blowing her little child away. Her chakra dispersed into fine purple mist.

 

“...” Naritomo started sweating, well aware that she was serious about the prospect of razing Shimabara to the ground. “How strong do you expect the explosion to be?”

 

Asami hesitated. “Hard to say ... The theoretical yield ranges from nothing to significant, depending on the amount of chakra used. To be honest, I don't even know whether the jutsu works at all. But don't worry, it will work. I will make it work, by brute force if necessary. But before we level Shimabara, we should try a more civilised approach, namely diplomacy.”

 

Naritomo blinked. “Diplomacy?”

 

Asami offered an innocent smile. “Indeed, diplomacy.”

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