The battle that broke out in Kumogakure could truly be described as earth-shaking.
But for the news to spread normally, it would still take some time.
However, Iwagakure, which had been constantly keeping people watching Kumogakure's movements, received the news at the very first moment.
"What?"
The moment Onoki received the report, he slammed the table and stood up in shock. Immediately after, a "crack" sounded from his waist, his expression changing as he cried out in pain, "My waist! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts!"
"Tsuchikage-sama!"
Kitsuchi hurried forward to support him, preventing him from falling off the chair.
After a long while, once he had finally caught his breath, Onoki asked, "What do you mean by Kumogakure disappeared? Even if Konoha launched a surprise attack on Kumogakure like they did on the Land of Grass before, that would at most be a defeat. What do you mean by disappeared?"
Kitsuchi's expression was a bit troubled, "We don't know the exact details either, but according to questioning the surviving Kumogakure villagers at the scene, Aoba and the leader of the Akatsuki attacked Kumogakure together."
"The first batch of ANBU ninja we had monitoring the area around Kumogakure were all caught up in it and lost contact. By the time the later scouts arrived to investigate, Kumogakure had already become like this."
As he spoke, Kitsuchi took out a sheet of paper resembling a photograph and handed it to Onoki.
"This is the scene recorded by them using a secret technique. The survivors of Kumogakure said they witnessed the power of a god."
Onoki took it, staring blankly at the image, and asked in disbelief, "Are you sure this is Kumogakure?"
At the center of the image was a massive crater, along with a gigantic fissure stretching several kilometers.
Aside from a few lonely, relatively low mountain peaks in the distance, where was there even a trace of Kumogakure left?
Kitsuchi spread hiz hands helplessly, "To be honest, I don't really believe it either, because this is simply not something a ninja could do!"
"The power of a god… indeed. To cause a scene like this, aside from divine power, I'm afraid there's no other possibility," Onoki murmured to himself, then fell into a long silence.
"Tsuchikage-sama… judging from this, Konoha and the Akatsuki should be on the same side now. And there's also the order from the daimyo. Do we still need to send ninja squads for support?"
Seeing Onoki remain silent, Kitsuchi hesitated as he raised the urgent issue at hand.
Originally, they had planned to send a few ninja squads to trail behind Kumogakure, just for show.
But now that the entire village of Kumogakure had turned into a huge pit, with barely any ninja left, those few squads they had originally dispatched could now be considered main forces.
"Is this something you even need to ask me? Do you want Iwagakure to turn into another Kumogakure?"
Onoki glared irritably at his son, who had never had much of a mind of his own.
"Then I'll go notify them right away."
Kitsuchi didn't think much of it. He was already used to this.
"Wait!"
Onoki called out to him again.
"Tsuchikage-sama," Kitsuchi stopped and waited for instructions.
Onoki fell silent for a moment, then said through gritted teeth, "Go tell Kurotsuchi as well. She can come back to inherit the position of Tsuchikage at any time."
After saying this, his aged body seemed to shed a burden of a thousand kilograms, and he sat back down in relief.
He recalled the words Aoba had once said to him.
Konoha's unification was already unstoppable.
It was just that, if back then during the Chunin Exams they had chosen to participate in Sunagakure's plan...
'Forget it. It has only been less than three years since then. If we had agreed at the time, Iwagakure probably wouldn't be in much better shape than today's Kumogakure.'
The era personally created by Senju Hashirama back then was now being personally overturned by his descendants.
———
And yet, the instigator of all this, Aoba, had just finished buying clothes for Uchiha Hikari and walked out of the clothing store.
Uchiha Hikari was clearly shopping in a clothing store for the first time.
It might even have been the first time she had ever bought clothes outside.
At the beginning, she was extremely reserved, even too embarrassed to come out and show Aoba.
Only after trying on several outfits in a row did she gradually relax.
In the end, though, she still chose the blue dress that Aoba had recommended at the very start.
It wasn't to cater to Aoba. She genuinely liked this outfit herself.
However, considering that it was winter, Aoba had the shop owner bring over several pairs of thick, warm black stockings, as well as a few down jackets.
When Uchiha Hikari saw such long stockings, she was originally a bit resistant, because she felt they would be inconvenient.
But under the strong recommendation of the female shop owner, she still put them on to try. They were indeed very warm and didn't affect her movement at all, so she stopped resisting.
Watching from the side, Aoba couldn't help but secretly give her a thumbs-up, 'No wonder you deserve to run such a big clothing store.'
After packing all the other clothes into a sealing scroll, the two of them left the clothing store and continued toward the Senju ancestral residence.
But after coming out of the clothing store, Uchiha Hikari no longer had any interest in questioning the Senju clan and the Uchiha clan.
Because they were still within the commercial district.
The current Konoha commercial street, because Aoba had become daimyo, was even livelier than before.
Even some of the small stalls were hanging signs celebrating him becoming daimyo, along with slogans like ten percent off everything.
So Uchiha Hikari's gaze was immediately drawn to the dazzling array of shops and goods.
At that moment, Uchiha Hikari suddenly stopped, staring blankly at a small stall by the roadside.
Aoba paused, looked over, and asked, "Do you want to try it?"
Uchiha Hikari didn't say anything, but the movement of her throat swallowing already gave her away.
That small stall mainly sold three-color dango.
'Could it be that this thing is etched into the Uchiha clan's genes as a hobby?'
'Otherwise, how can so many Uchiha like eating it.'
However, when Aoba handed a box of three-color dango to Uchiha Hikari and she took a bite, her first reaction was to frown.
"So sweet!"
Aoba was a bit surprised and also picked one up to try. It was very sweet, but it was already much lighter than what Uchiha Izumi made.
"It's your first time eating this?"
"Yes."
Uchiha Hikari nodded, "It seems like a lot of people in the old Uchiha clan liked this, but it's my first time eating it."
"It's much tastier than soldier pills."
As she spoke, she picked up another one and put it into her mouth.
"..."
Watching Uchiha Hikari eat like a little hamster, Aoba's gaze grew a bit complicated for a moment.
Uchiha Hikari's experiences were countless times worse than Naruto's in the original story.
He couldn't help reaching out and touching her head.
"Hm?"
Uchiha Hikari quickly stepped back, looking at him with a wary expression.
But she still didn't forget to stuff dango into her mouth.
Aoba was amused by her reaction.
"Let's go. Konoha still has plenty of good food. While I have time now, I'll take you around to try it all."
═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═
[email protected]/AmbitiousTranslator
🥳Joining P@treon keeps me motivated and eager to work diligently, so please consider joining.🥰 You can access upto 20 advance chapter through P@treon.