When Arata gave such a firm confirmation, the shoreline fell into an eerie silence.
Aside from the howling sea wind—and the distant rumbling from the Land of Whirlpools, which was still steadily sinking—there was not a single other sound.
To cleave a massive island cleanly in two… an attack on that level was beyond the imagination of everyone present. They simply could not fathom what kind of realm one had to reach to unleash such power.
Even the Kage-level fighters there were, for the most part, younger than Uzumaki Suigetsu and had never lived through the Warring States period. They had no real concept of beings of this tier—existences typically referred to as Super-Kage.
And to sink an entire island with a single strike—even among Super-Kage, that was unquestionably the very pinnacle.
Among those present, the only one who had even brushed against such a level of power was likely the Mizukage of Kirigakure, whose village possessed deep roots and a long history.
The other three Kage, however, found it hard to believe that an attack of this magnitude could really have been unleashed by Arata alone.
He was only nineteen years old.
Even if someone started cultivating from the moment they were born, reaching such a level should have been impossible.
Their ignorance showed—if they knew that decades ago there had been two individuals who reached this same realm at roughly that age, they wouldn't know what expressions to wear.
As for the Uzumaki clan, upon hearing that their homeland had been destroyed by Arata himself, many of them flared with anger on the spot.
Only Uzumaki Suigetsu remained relatively calm. She understood that Arata must have had his reasons. Moreover, if not for that decisive slash earlier, it was far from certain the Uzumaki clan could have escaped intact.
After all, Uzumaki Suikyō had already burned away his entire life force to unleash the strongest Adamantine Sealing Chains—yet he hadn't managed to hold back a single enemy.
The remaining Uzumaki were even less capable of resisting an army of twenty thousand. Without Arata's strike, what awaited them next would have been nothing but a brutal massacre.
With that in mind, how could she blame him?
She hurriedly grabbed the few clan members who were about to argue with Arata and shouted loudly,
"We're leaving—now! The battle from here on isn't something we can take part in!"
By this point, she was fully convinced that Arata was the one who had sunk the Land of Whirlpools. A Super-Kage–level powerhouse dealing with an allied force of twenty thousand was hardly a problem—so she hesitated no longer.
What's more, she trusted her sister's judgment. A genius sister of unparalleled talent would never choose an ordinary man to become her grandson-in-law.
Seeing the Uzumaki clan begin to withdraw, the allied army instinctively prepared to give chase—especially Yoshida Eiichi, who was more anxious than anyone.
But the moment they took a single step forward, Arata, standing in their path, drew the short blade at his waist.
"Iaido: Quickdraw Slash."
A thunderous boom erupted as an invisible slash tore through the ground in front of tens of thousands of troops, carving out a bottomless chasm!
The sheer power of that strike instantly stunned everyone who had been about to advance. In that moment, they were all secretly grateful they hadn't taken even one more step forward—because that single step might have meant bidding farewell to this world forever.
This quickdraw slash hadn't relied on Arata's Rumble-Rumble Fruit ability at all. He hadn't even used Armament Haki. It was a purely physical slash—nothing more.
Yet the power it unleashed was staggering.
It seemed that after his recent leap in physical prowess, even such a simple strike had reached a realm he could never have imagined before.
Arata didn't know exactly what level Mihawk from the pirate world stood at—but he was confident that if he faced him now, he would have a real chance of winning.
At this point, no one in the allied shinobi forces dared to stop the Uzumaki clan's retreat anymore.
Even Yoshida Eiichi, the most fixated on the sealing scroll, felt a surge of lingering fear.
He had been the one charging ahead the fastest. Arata's quickdraw slash had practically scraped past the tip of his nose before slamming into the ground.
Despite being a Kage-level fighter, he was actually more cautious with his life than most. In his own view, he was a great craftsman—someone capable of forging powerful ninja tools that even Super-Kage couldn't create.
His life had to be preserved, so he could invent even more powerful tools.
Arata's single slash made him realize even more clearly that he absolutely should not be the one leading the charge in this war. If he died by accident, it simply wouldn't be worth it.
What truly caught his eye, however, was the short blade in Arata's hand.
That weapon had merely been forged years ago, back when Arata was still a Tokubetsu Jōnin, using all his accumulated savings by some ordinary Konoha toolsmith.
Yet in Arata's hands, such an ordinary ninja tool was displaying terrifying power.
For the first time, Yoshida Eiichi felt doubt toward his lifelong beliefs.
Could it be that the strength of a ninja tool wasn't determined solely by the craftsman—but by its wielder?
Unfortunately, there was no one to answer that question.
Taking advantage of the allied army's shock, the Uzumaki clan steadily withdrew from the battlefield, heading in the direction Arata had indicated—toward Uzumaki Mito.
Among the clan, aside from Uzumaki Suigetsu herself, almost no one had ever met Mito in person. Most of what they knew came from legends.
As a result, there was no shortage of murmurs and speculation about the elder they were about to rely on.
Uzumaki Suigetsu's feelings, however, were deeply conflicted. On one hand, she was about to reunite with her sister after many years. On the other, it was the Uzumaki clan itself that had abandoned Mito back then—yet now they were bringing their entire people to seek refuge with her.
As a younger sister, she truly didn't know how she should face her.
Once the Uzumaki clan had completely vanished from sight, not a single ninja stepped forward to stop them. That alone showed how thoroughly Arata's strength had cowed everyone present.
Arata then spoke coldly,
"Those who wish to live—leave now.
Those who don't… there's only death waiting for you."
The moment those words fell, chaos erupted within the twenty-thousand-strong allied army.
Even the Third Mizukage, famed for his intellect, found himself torn between advancing and retreating.
He might once have questioned Arata's strength—but now, after seeing him casually unleash such a terrifying display of power, how could he possibly underestimate him anymore?
And it was precisely at moments like this that a bold voice could change everything.
Yoshida Eiichi leaned closer and whispered to the Third Mizukage and the other two Kage,
"What are you afraid of? He's just one man. Let the allied forces wear him down with combined techniques first—then we strike together and take him down!"
The eyes of the Kage-level fighters immediately lit up.
On their own, they had no hope of defeating Arata.
But a massive shinobi alliance wasn't limited to individual combat—they could unleash coordinated techniques powerful enough to surpass Kage-level attacks altogether.