Raikage A's scream made Mabui tremble, and all her struggles and hesitation shattered completely.
A devil.
"Put… put down… your weapons…" she gritted out, her voice dry and hoarse, as if being dragged from her throat.
Her ninja tool pouch fell to the ground with a dull thud.
The other Kumo shinobi, faces full of humiliation and anguish, began to lay down their weapons as well.
"Pick it up!"
An angry roar suddenly exploded.
It was the Raikage.
Suspended in mid-air, watching the shinobi below one after another dropping their weapons, his eyes looked like they were about to split open from rage.
"All of you… pick up your weapons!" His voice was full of grief and fury. "You… are not allowed to kneel!"
He struggled violently, the pain from his broken limbs stabbing through him like blades, but he didn't care.
His village.
The pride of Kumogakure.
It was being crushed right before his eyes.
"Kill me! Mabui! I order you, kill me!"
"Use my death… to reclaim Kumogakure's dignity!"
A's roar was like a blade, stabbing into the hearts of every Kumo shinobi.
They looked at the man hanging in the air. The man who, in their eyes, had always been unbeatable.
Now, he was begging them to end his life.
A young Kumo shinobi could no longer hold back. Tears streamed down his face.
He let go of the kunai in his hand, letting it fall to the ground.
Then, under A's disbelieving gaze, he knelt heavily.
His forehead pressed tightly against the cold earth as despair filled his chest.
"I'm sorry… Raikage-sama!"
"Please… no matter what, you must live!"
This act, like a domino, triggered the collapse of the entire Kumo force.
The dull thuds of weapons falling to the ground rang out one after another until it became a collective silence.
All of Kumogakure's shinobi knelt.
"Don't kneel!!!" A roared, tears of blood flowing down his face.
The shinobi lowered their heads even further, as if trying to carve this shame and sorrow deep into the earth itself.
Above the city wall.
Shikaku looked at the nearly three thousand prisoners below, feeling his temples throb.
"Minato… this is really troublesome now," he leaned toward Minato, lowering his voice.
"There are too many of them. Should we…"
He didn't finish the sentence, but the meaning was clear.
The eight hundred Konoha shinobi currently on guard, even with returning reinforcements, wouldn't be enough to manage all the prisoners.
The victory was so complete that it became a burden.
Minato's expression was also tense. Of course he understood what Shikaku meant.
If it were just a few dozen, or even a few hundred, for the sake of the village's safety, he could steel his heart and execute them.
But now, there were three thousand living shinobi. If he truly gave the order to massacre them, Konoha's reputation in the ninja world would be utterly destroyed.
They would be forever branded as Bloody Konoha.
And more importantly, Arashi had yet to speak.
Minato scratched his head, clearly distressed. "Use barriers to separate them into groups first. We'll figure out what to do afterward."
"That's all we can do for now," Shikaku sighed.
Arashi heard their conversation clearly.
He stood calmly atop the city wall, overlooking the grand scene he had orchestrated with his own hands.
A satisfied smile lingered on his lips.
To him, these kneeling people weren't three thousand problems.
They were three thousand precious heads.
This was the first great gift he planned to give this chaotic era.
As for now… Arashi restrained his killing intent and watched the scene like a spectator at a play.
He wanted to see how these Konoha higher-ups, trapped in their naive compassion, would handle the mess before them.
Just then, an Anbu who had been holding back could no longer stay silent and urgently spoke up, "Lord Fourth! It's about Kushina!"
Kushina?
Minato's entire body tensed. The color drained from his face.
That's right.
Kushina.
And that masked man.
Panic surged in his heart. He wanted to activate Flying Thunder God immediately and return to his beloved, to confirm her safety.
But… below the wall was a sea of prisoners, and beside him were companions all watching solemnly.
As Hokage of Konoha… how could he abandon the village for personal feelings when the war wasn't yet completely over, and this enormous hidden danger hadn't been resolved?
He couldn't do it.
"I understand," Minato clenched his fists, forcing himself to calm down. His voice trembled slightly. "The intruder was already repelled, wasn't he?"
"But… Kushina, she…"
"No buts. That's an order. Retreat!" Minato coldly cut him off. He couldn't allow himself to hear more. He was afraid he'd lose control.
He believed Kushina would understand.
"…Yes!" The Anbu responded and retreated.
Just then, Hiruzen's shadow clones all dispersed in clouds of smoke.
The real bodies had arrived atop the city wall.
When they saw the vast number of Kumo shinobi kneeling below, and the Raikage brothers still hanging, even though they had been informed earlier by clones, they were speechless.
"This… this is…" Hiruzen bit his pipe and couldn't finish a sentence for a long time.
Orochimaru's vertical pupils gleamed with rare brilliance.
"Daimyo-sama." Hiruzen quickly composed himself and stepped forward to report. "The village is safe."
"It's just that the intruder used a strange space-time ninjutsu and escaped."
Tsunade added, "His body can become intangible, immune to all physical attacks. Very tricky to deal with."
"Intangible?" Arashi repeated the word.
Kamui, huh.
Obito, you still couldn't help but show yourself.
"A rat that hides from the light," Arashi scoffed. "Compared to that, don't you think there's something more important?"
"Three thousand from Kumogakure," Arashi clasped his hands behind his back, his fingers tapping lightly. His gaze turned to the scene below. "They bypassed our border defenses and marched straight here, laying siege to the village."
"They didn't appear until they were at Konoha's gates."
"Don't you think we should first figure out how they got into our home?"
Those words exploded in the Konoha shinobi's ears like thunder.
That's right.
They'd been so overwhelmed by the sudden victory and how to deal with the prisoners…
They had completely overlooked the most critical question.
How had Kumogakure infiltrated?
If this wasn't clarified, then today it was four thousand from Kumo.
Tomorrow it could be five thousand from Kirigakure.
The day after that, ten thousand from Iwagakure.
Konoha's defenses would be meaningless.
A chill spread through the air.
"Damn it!" Tsunade's face was full of remorse. "I completely forgot such a crucial issue!"
"Daimyo-sama is right!" Minato's expression turned grave. "This is our failure!"
He suddenly turned around and shouted toward the Anbu behind him, "Take all captain-level Kumo prisoners to the Interrogation Department!"
"Tell Ibiki and his team to report immediately!"
"I don't care what methods you use, even if you have to crack open their skulls, get them to talk!"
"I want a full report on the routes and methods they used to enter the Land of Fire. Not a single detail can be overlooked!"
"And that Mabui the Raikage mentioned," Arashi's gaze fell again. "She must know something."
"Yes!"
Several Anbu vanished instantly.
The atmosphere atop the wall grew cold and tense.
Until this hidden danger was dealt with, no one could rest easy.
(To be continued.)