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Tsunade, Hiruzen, and the others received their orders one by one and left the office.
The large room soon emptied out, leaving only Minato and Nara Shikaku, along with a few other high-ranking officials.
"My lord," Minato said quickly, stepping forward with an urgent tone in his voice. "The Kumogakure army will be here soon. It's very dangerous for you to stay here."
"Please go to the shelter behind the Hokage Rock right away!"
"That's the safest place in the village!"
The shelter was a special location. The First Hokage himself had overseen its construction, and it was hidden deep within the mountain. The structure was strong enough to withstand a direct hit from a tailed beast ball.
As Hokage, one of Minato's most basic duties was to keep the daimyo away from danger.
Shin simply smiled at this suggestion.
He didn't answer. Instead, he turned and walked toward the large floor-to-ceiling window of the office.
Outside the window, the setting sun had already disappeared into darkness. The village lights twinkled like stars scattered across the night.
Under Tsunade's direction, countless citizens of Konoha were moving steadily toward the shelter in organized groups.
"The shelter?" Shin's voice was soft, almost as if he was talking to himself. "Minato, tell me something. In this world, is there truly a place that's absolutely safe?"
Minato froze for a moment. He hadn't expected the daimyo to ask such a question.
He answered instinctively. "Yes. A place where someone has enough strength to protect themselves."
"That's right." Shin's smile widened instantly.
He stood with his back to everyone in the room. In his perception, he could sense countless chakra signatures converging together, sweeping in from the west like a tide.
The killing intent of three thousand people gathered together felt almost solid, like it had physical weight.
They had arrived.
The moment they were discovered, they would launch their attack immediately. The Fourth Raikage A was quite bold, Shin had to admit.
"My lord?" Nara Shikaku sensed something was wrong with the atmosphere.
Just as he opened his mouth to speak, something sudden happened!
Bang!
A loud crash echoed through the room.
The sound made everyone's eardrums ring!
The sturdy glass of the floor-to-ceiling window shattered under everyone's horrified gaze, pieces falling like rain!
A fierce wind immediately rushed in, blowing the maps and scrolls on the desk everywhere.
In the middle of this chaos, Shin's figure leaped out through the broken window!
"My lord!" Minato shouted, instinctively moving to use Flying Thunder God to save him. But his movements froze in mid-air.
He saw something unbelievable.
The daimyo, who had leaped out of the window, didn't fall as expected.
Under Minato's gaze, the daimyo's body stopped in mid-air after jumping out. Then he tapped his toes against the wall, and his entire body rose higher!
In just a few breaths, under the gaze of countless people watching from below, that figure dressed in expensive robes was already standing on top of the Hokage Rock.
The entire Hokage office fell completely silent.
Nara Shikaku's mouth hung open. He didn't even notice that the scrolls in his hand had scattered all over the floor.
"The daimyo can use ninjutsu?" Asuma, who had just left to deliver orders, returned to the office and witnessed this scene. He muttered to himself, sounding completely stunned.
"This isn't ninjutsu," Minato said, his voice shaking. "This kind of movement, this kind of control over his body, he—"
He couldn't find the right words. His gaze stayed fixed on the figure standing on the Hokage Rock.
Even he would need several leaps to get from the office to the Hokage Rock without using Flying Thunder God.
But the daimyo needed no foothold at all. He had simply moved through the air.
At this moment, Shin stood on the Hokage Rock and slowly closed his eyes.
His huge perception ability spread out instantly, clashing head-on with the rapidly approaching killing intent from the west!
In his perception, there were a few familiar figures.
"A, Killer Bee..."
"Three thousand Kumogakure shinobi..."
"Very good. Everyone's here!"
He spoke quietly to himself, then opened his eyes.
The Nine Tomoe Rinnegan activated silently!
Then he slowly raised his hands, bringing them together in front of his chest.
"What is that?"
"What is the daimyo going to do?"
The Konoha shinobi who saw this scene were all filled with surprise and confusion.
Then they heard a voice.
The voice wasn't loud, but it spread clearly to every corner of the village.
"Earth Release: Earth Style Barrier!"
Boom boom boom boom!
The moment the words fell, the ground began to shake violently!
Starting from the Hokage Rock, the ground suddenly cracked open!
A towering yellow-brown wall rose from the earth!
The moment the wall appeared, it tore through the dense forests on both sides.
Soil and rocks were thrown up as the wall extended outward at incredible speed!
Ten meters!
Fifty meters!
One hundred meters!
The wall kept growing taller and thicker.
A metallic shine appeared on its surface, and glowing symbols flowed across it like water.
The wall on both sides extended continuously along the edge of the village, forming a perfect circle as it moved toward the other end!
Finally, in front of the village gate, the two ends of the wall slammed together!
The barrier was complete!
A gigantic circular wall, over one hundred meters high and more than ten meters thick, completely surrounded the entire village of Konoha. It had risen from the ground in just a dozen breaths!
"This is Earth Release?" In the village, Tsunade, who was helping evacuate the villagers, showed a look of pure horror on her face.
She felt like her entire understanding of the world was being thrown to the ground and stomped on.
No one answered her question, because everyone in the village was completely stunned by this impossible sight.
Inside the Hokage office, Minato, Nara Shikaku, and the others looked through the shattered window at the scene before them. Their minds had gone blank.
"This scale, this amount of chakra," Minato said in a daze, his voice barely above a whisper.
Everyone in the office, along with every shinobi throughout Konoha, was left speechless by what they had just witnessed.
At the same time, in the western part of the Land of Fire, three thousand Kumogakure shinobi charged forward like an unstoppable tide.
"Roar!"
"Konoha scum! We're here!"
"Clean your necks and wait!"
The Kumogakure shinobi let out deafening roars as they pushed forward wildly toward Konoha.
The Fourth Raikage A led the charge at the front. His body was covered in crackling lightning as he moved at extreme speed, leaving a long trail of afterimages behind him.
"Bee, don't think about anything later. Just rush in and release the Eight-Tails!"
"Yo, stupid big brother, I know," Killer Bee replied in his usual strange singing tone.
Suddenly, a loud bang echoed across the land.
The earth trembled beneath their feet!
Just as the outline of Konoha appeared at the edge of their vision, a yellow line suddenly rose from the horizon. It grew rapidly taller and wider right before their eyes!
"What the hell is that thing?" A suddenly stopped in his tracks. The shinobi behind him came to an emergency halt one after another.
All the Kumogakure shinobi stared in horror at what stood in front of them.
In just a dozen seconds, that thin line had transformed into an impossible cliff. It stood between them and Konoha, stretching as far as they could see in both directions with no end in sight!
The only path forward seemed to be through this wall.
"Damn it!" A let out a beast-like roar.
He couldn't understand what this was! Was it some kind of genjutsu?
Killer Bee put away his casual expression at this moment. The Eight-Tails' chakra surged through him as he reached out with his senses.
After checking carefully, his expression became extremely serious. "Big brother, this thing is real."
Far away, in an even denser part of the forest, White Zetsu and Obito peered out from behind a tree trunk.
Obito's Sharingan behind his spiral mask spun frantically as he stared at the giant wall that had appeared out of nowhere.
His earlier amusement and playfulness vanished completely.
It was replaced by a feeling of deep horror he had never experienced before.
"What is this?" Beside him, Black Zetsu emerged as well, his eyes filled with the same horror.
This development completely exceeded all of his calculations!
This power even reminded him of that legendary figure, the Sage of Six Paths himself!
He suddenly turned his head, looking at the figure standing on top of the wall.
"The daimyo of the Land of Fire, Shin!"
"Who exactly are you?