Ōnoki's eyes widened in complete disbelief.
This was impossible.
The main battlefield was between Konoha and Sunagakure. Iwagakure's role was only to pin them down. Small losses were understandable, but this level of casualties? Completely absurd.
Sunagakure had no reason to ignore Konoha and suddenly attack Iwagakure. What would they even gain from that?
And given how Iwagakure's forces were positioned, it shouldn't have been easy for Sunagakure to crush them so thoroughly.
No matter how hard he thought about it, Ōnoki couldn't understand how this had happened.
Worse still…
Even though Ōnoki had always been disappointed in Kitsuchi — even though he felt his son had failed to live up to the expectations that came with being his child — Ōnoki still acknowledged him as his own.
He absolutely, positively did not want to hear that Kitsuchi had met a tragic end.
"Kitsuchi, he…"
The intelligence ninja below spoke quickly.
"Lord Tsuchikage, it was a trap! We walked straight into Sunagakure's trap!"
"When Lord Kitsuchi led us to intercept the retreating Sunagakure forces, a massive object suddenly appeared on a nearby dune."
"It was the Sun Disk."
"Because it was buried under the sand, completely hidden, we couldn't see it at all."
"The Leaf forces didn't give away any hints either."
"On the surface it looked like Konoha was chasing them and Sunagakure just happened to retreat in that direction. But in reality, the Sand forces deliberately led us there."
"That Sun Disk is ridiculously powerful."
"Every time a beam of light fired, it hit one of our Iwagakure shinobi without fail. Even jonin couldn't dodge or block it."
"It was terrifying."
"In just a few minutes, thousands of our people were dead."
"Lord Kitsuchi fought until the very end."
As the ninja described the scene, Ōnoki pictured it in his mind. His eyes turned blood-red with grief and rage.
"Rasa!"
He could almost hear Rasa's mocking voice in his head.
——Ōnoki, you've always wanted information on the Sun Disk, haven't you? This time I'll let you see it up close.
Ōnoki had desperately wanted intel on the Sun Disk.
Now he finally had it.
But the price had been far too high.
Over a thousand Iwagakure shinobi dead — many of them elites. And worst of all, his eldest son, Kitsuchi, had been killed by the Sun Disk's attack.
Ōnoki's mood was black.
This loss hurt just as badly as the previous defeat at the hands of Orochimaru's forces.
"How could this happen?"
"How could this happen?!"
Ōnoki forced himself to calm down.
"Sunagakure was losing. Konoha was pursuing. Kitsuchi led our forces to intercept them… and the exact spot where they met just happened to have a Sun Disk hidden there?"
"Was this some kind of play between Konoha and Sunagakure?"
"On the surface they're at war, but in secret they're working together?"
"Did they set Iwagakure up?"
Ōnoki's expression darkened.
"But that doesn't make sense either. Jiraiya really was crippled. If this was all a scheme to trick us, Konoha paid far too high a price for it. Hiruzen wouldn't go that far."
"No… wait. If Hiruzen had actually wanted Jiraiya dead from the beginning, then it all fits."
"This wasn't Konoha and Sunagakure working together."
"It was Hiruzen Sarutobi and Rasa working together."
"Sunagakure attacking Hiruzen's reputation in the Weekly was just a smokescreen!"
"A complete illusion!"
Ōnoki felt this theory was very plausible.
But then his anger exploded again.
"Who gave Kitsuchi permission to lead our forces into that ambush?!"
The intelligence ninja froze.
"Lord Tsuchikage… wasn't that your order?"
"My order?! When did I ever give such an order?! I didn't even know Sunagakure was retreating!"
Ōnoki stared at the ninja, his voice cold and heavy.
"It seems Kitsuchi walked right into their trap."
"Sunagakure is full of cunning bastards. They set him up, and he was too stupid to realize it. He thought it was a golden opportunity and charged in with our entire army like an idiot!"
"Utterly foolish!"
"Completely and utterly foolish!"
Ōnoki's voice was filled with grief and fury.
"How could Kitsuchi be so stupid?! He got so many of Iwagakure's elite killed! I'm furious!"
---
News of Iwagakure's devastating loss spread across the entire ninja world almost immediately.
But what truly shocked everyone was the Sun Disk itself.
"The Sun Disk is terrifying!"
"It's gone way beyond the level of any normal ninja tool!"
"It can fire incredibly powerful beams, distinguish between friend and foe, move at insane speed, hit with massive power, and fire multiple shots at once… It's basically 'see it, die instantly.'"
"This is ridiculous. How is anyone supposed to fight Sunagakure when they have a weapon like this?"
"One Sun Disk is basically worth an entire army."
"No — it's stronger than an entire army."
Some Iwagakure survivors who had witnessed the massacre looked completely broken.
"I'm done. I'm leaving the battlefield. I don't want to fight anymore."
"Sunagakure isn't something we can beat."
The Leaf forces felt the same.
This wasn't just about winning or losing anymore.
This was something that completely shattered everything they thought they knew.
"We can't fight this. We literally can't!"
Orochimaru frowned deeply as he reviewed the reports from his intelligence team.
"The Sun Disk."
"Effective killing radius: three kilometers."
"Attack method: laser beams."
"Can attack multiple targets simultaneously, fires continuously, and can distinguish between friend and foe."
"A massive ninja tool with almost no weaknesses. The moment Sunagakure ninjas are near it, they gain an overwhelming advantage. Every other village is completely outmatched."
"The only way to deal with it is to destroy it."
"But that's extremely difficult."
"You'd need to launch an attack from within three kilometers that still has enough power left after traveling that distance to actually destroy the Sun Disk. It's nearly impossible."
"The only thing that might work… is a Tailed Beast Bomb."
"But the only village that can currently control a Tailed Beast Bomb is Kumogakure."
"And even then, it's just a maybe."
"Sunagakure will definitely have countermeasures ready."
Orochimaru looked up.
"And Sunagakure already has four of these Sun Disks."
"Should we even keep fighting this war?"
"If only we could get our hands on the blueprints…"
Orochimaru's eyes flickered.
"I remember Danzo had quite a few spies planted inside Sunagakure…"