"They found out, all right. They came out to stop us."
Yagami looked at the Den Den Mushi as it mimicked Hiruzen's expression and gave a faint smile.
"But after Hanzo and I exchanged a few moves, he was kind enough to let us pass."
The moment those words left his mouth, the Hokage's office fell silent.
Then...
"What!?"
"You fought Hanzo?"
"And Hanzo actually let you pass on his own?"
The Konoha higher-ups could no longer hide their shock.
Hanzo of the Salamander ruled the Land of Rain like an absolute authority. He was not the kind of man who simply stepped aside for others.
If Hanzo had been that easy to reason with, the Land of Rain would not have dared to stand between three great nations during the Second Shinobi World War.
Hiruzen raised one hand, calming the voices in the meeting room.
Then he looked at the Den Den Mushi and asked in a steady voice, "Yagami, what was the result?"
After all, based on Yagami's performance on the Sunagakure battlefield, his strength had clearly reached Kage level. Not only that, he was among the stronger ones.
And Hanzo was no ordinary opponent either.
He was the man known throughout the shinobi world as the Demigod.
Naturally, Hiruzen wanted to know how far Yagami had gone against him.
The moment that question was asked, every high-ranking member in the office quietly focused their attention on the Den Den Mushi.
They wanted to know as well.
This answer would give them a clearer measure of Yagami's true strength.
"There wasn't a clear winner."
Yagami smiled lightly.
"But honestly, that guy's strength was only average."
"…"
The corner of Hiruzen's eye twitched.
"Hanzo's strength… was average?"
For a moment, he did not know whether Yagami was being too confident, or whether Hanzo had deliberately held back.
Hanzo, the Demigod of the Shinobi World, was only average?
Who would believe that?
The other Konoha officials exchanged glances, their expressions just as complicated.
Yagami ignored their reactions and continued as if he had only mentioned something minor.
"Right. There's one more thing."
"When I first arrived on the battlefield, I fought two Jinchūriki from Iwagakure."
"The Four-Tails Jinchūriki, Roshi, has been seriously injured and captured."
"As for the Five-Tails Jinchūriki, Han… he escaped."
The room froze.
Then the Hokage's office exploded.
"What!?"
"You already fought Iwagakure?"
"You captured Roshi, the Four-Tails Jinchūriki?"
"Hahaha! Onoki must be losing his mind right now!"
"Yagami, I knew you wouldn't contact us just to report that you had arrived at the front!"
Voices rose one after another from the Den Den Mushi.
Shock.
Excitement.
Disbelief.
All of it came through clearly.
Capturing a Jinchūriki was no small matter.
This was far more valuable than capturing someone like Ebizō from Sunagakure.
A tailed beast was one of a village's greatest strategic weapons.
If negotiations broke down after the war, or if Iwagakure refused to offer enough in return, Konoha could simply keep the Four-Tails for itself.
That alone would strip Iwagakure of one of its greatest deterrents.
And if they wanted their Jinchūriki back, they would have no choice but to pay a heavy price.
How much?
That would depend entirely on Konoha's mood.
In other words, from this moment on, Konoha already held an absolute advantage in the future negotiations with Iwagakure.
Hiruzen's face showed unconcealed joy, though he quickly forced himself to remain calm.
"Yagami," he said, his tone serious, "explain the situation in detail."
"It's simple."
Yagami leaned back slightly and began recounting what had happened.
He explained how he had rushed to the battlefield alone.
How one large-scale attack had wiped out hundreds of Iwagakure shinobi.
By the time he mentioned killing six well-known Iwagakure jōnin by himself, the Hokage's office had already gone completely quiet.
Then he continued.
He spoke of facing two Jinchūriki at the same time.
He spoke of overpowering Roshi, the Four-Tails Jinchūriki.
And finally, how Han, the Five-Tails Jinchūriki, had chosen to retreat.
By the time Yagami finished speaking, the entire meeting room was so silent that even the sound of a needle dropping could have been heard.
Only now did Konoha's higher-ups truly understand what kind of strength Yagami possessed.
He was not merely Kage level.
He stood near the very peak of that realm.
Perhaps he was already comparable to monsters like the Third Raikage of Kumogakure, or Onoki of Iwagakure.
Of course, that was only their guess.
The only person who truly understood Yagami's strength was Yagami himself.
While Konoha's headquarters was filled with shock and excitement, Iwagakure's own command post was wrapped in a suffocating silence.
A post-battle meeting was underway.
But compared to Konoha's rising momentum, Iwagakure's atmosphere was heavy enough to crush the chest.
In this battle, they had lost hundreds of shinobi.
Six jōnin had fallen.
And more importantly, Roshi, the Four-Tails Jinchūriki, had been captured. His life and death were still unknown.
For an army of eight thousand, those numbers alone might not have been fatal.
But their high-end combat power had been nearly cut in half.
That kind of loss could no longer be treated as a normal battlefield setback.
"Lord Han…"
Kagerō's expression was bitter as he looked toward Han.
"What should we do now?"
His voice was low.
Six jōnin had surrounded Yagami together.
Five of them were dead.
Only Kagerō had managed to return alive.
Even now, a chill still remained in his heart.
If he had reacted just a little slower…
If Han and Roshi had not arrived on the battlefield when they did…
Then he, too, would have become another corpse added to Yagami's record.
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