"But… aren't you afraid that once we recover, we'll retaliate?"
Ōnoki's voice trembled slightly as he spoke.
Before he could even finish, Jiraiya let out a mocking laugh.
"Recover? And then what? Even if you do recover, what difference would it make? You think you can beat Konoha? Or maybe you can defeat Hoshiyomi?"
"Come on, Ōnoki… let's be real. By the time you 'recover,' even I might be able to take you down."
Ōnoki stared at Jiraiya, then glanced toward Hoshiyomi, who stood quietly in the distance.
He wanted to refute the words—but nothing came out.
Because deep down, he knew Jiraiya was right.
He was old now. His strength had long since begun to fade.
Meanwhile, Konoha's top fighters—Hoshiyomi, Jiraiya, Orochimaru, and the others—were all in their absolute prime.
At this point, Konoha alone could stand against the other three Great Ninja Villages without faltering.
The rest of the world, after two devastating ninja wars, had already fallen into decline.
The strength gap was too wide—even ten more years wouldn't be enough for them to catch up.
Though it hurt his pride, Ōnoki couldn't help but feel a sense of relief.
Relief that Konoha's current generation had inherited Hashirama Senju's will of peace,
and not Madara Uchiha's will of domination.
If Konoha had chosen Madara's path—using overwhelming force to rule the world—then the other four Great Villages might have already been wiped off the map.
Once, he would have dismissed such words as nonsense.
But now, having personally witnessed Konoha's top combat power with his own eyes, Ōnoki could no longer deny it:
Konoha truly had that level of strength.
With Hoshiyomi leading five thousand Konoha shinobi, they had completely crushed Iwagakure's elite forces.
If Konoha wanted to, they could probably sweep through all four villages with ease.
And Iwagakure was the perfect example of that.
"So then,"
A calm voice suddenly broke Ōnoki's thoughts.
Hoshiyomi's figure appeared before him without a sound.
Ōnoki flinched instinctively, looking up at the man he now had to look up to—both physically and spiritually.
Hoshiyomi sighed lightly and raised two fingers.
"I'll make this simple for you, Ōnoki. Iwagakure has two choices left:
Surrender… or disappear."
Those words were so arrogant—so absolute—that Ōnoki almost lost control of his anger.
"You bastard—!"
"Hmm?"
Hoshiyomi tilted his head slightly, eyes narrowing.
Ōnoki clenched his fists, wanting to shout something back—but then he saw it.
The subdued Five-Tails lying defeated nearby.
And behind him, his exhausted Iwagakure shinobi—all staring at him, silently pleading.
They wanted to live.
Those desperate, expectant eyes… they broke the last of his resistance.
He was the Tsuchikage.
No matter what, he could not allow his village to be destroyed.
That was his duty—the burden of a Kage.
Taking a deep breath, Ōnoki finally lowered his proud head and spoke through clenched teeth:
"We… surrender.
This war… is Konoha's victory."
His voice wasn't loud—but in that moment, it echoed across the entire battlefield.
Almost instantly, Konoha shinobi erupted in a thunderous cheer,
their shouts rolling like waves through the mountains.
After so many years of blood and death—
the Third Great Ninja War had finally come to an end.
The Iwagakure shinobi, though bitter-faced, couldn't help but feel a small relief in their hearts.
No matter how humiliating it was, they had survived.
Their families would live.
Shameful as surrender might be… it was still better than extinction.
As long as they were alive, there was still a future.
"Good."
Hoshiyomi gave a satisfied nod as he looked down at the defeated Tsuchikage.
Then he turned to Jiraiya and the others with a faint smile.
"Alright then. It's over.
Let's clean up and head home.
The war's done—it's time we go back and celebrate properly."
Ōnoki lifted his head in disbelief, staring at Hoshiyomi's retreating back.
"That's it? It's just… over?"
Hoshiyomi glanced back with a small grin.
"What, you wanted another round?"
Ōnoki shook his head, still dazed.
"No, I mean… you're just going to let Iwagakure go? You're really sparing us?"
"Of course it won't be that easy.
Wait for Konoha's negotiation team."
Without saying another word, Hoshiyomi turned and left with Jiraiya and the others.
As for negotiations—he didn't have the patience to deal with that kind of tedious business.
That sort of thing was best left to the professional negotiator, Shikaku Nara, his "tool man" for such matters.
Of course, while Konoha wouldn't go so far as to slaughter Iwagakure's shinobi,
that didn't mean they'd walk away empty-handed either.
They'd make sure to extract a hefty price from Iwa for their defeat—Konoha wasn't about to miss such a golden opportunity.
After all, while Hoshiyomi loved peace,
he wasn't exactly a saint.
...
And just like that,
the Third Great Ninja War came to an end.
Within half a month, the news had spread across the entire shinobi world.
Most people found it hard to believe.
After all, just a few days earlier, the latest rumor had been that Iwagakure had betrayed Kumogakure,
and the war had once again plunged into chaos.
Because of that rumor, the price of food in every village had suddenly spiked.
But now—barely two days later—news broke that the Third Ninja War was over.
Anyone hearing that would find it impossible to believe.
However, once the details spread—how Hoshiyomi, leading Konoha's elite, had crushed Iwagakure's forces,
and even fought Four-Tails and Five-Tails at the same time and defeated them both—
well… everything started to make sense.
At this point, people had become numb to shock.
It was like the endless "breaking headlines" on UC News—
at first, every "shocking" story was fresh,
but after being shocked day after day,
you eventually got used to it.
Before long, the entire shinobi world had reached a kind of unspoken consensus:
"No matter what miracle Gekko Hoshiyomi creates next—it's no longer surprising."
But while the rest of the world had grown accustomed to Hoshiyomi's miracles,
one man was so furious he flipped a table.
BANG!
In the Uchiha Clan compound, the former clan head Uchiha Yamashiro slammed his hands down, overturning the tea table in front of him.
His face twisted in rage as he shouted:
"Useless! All of them are useless!
Are the Iwagakure shinobi nothing but trash!?"
Beside him, the newly appointed clan head, Uchiha Fugaku, stood quietly, speaking in a low, cautious tone:
"Father, please lower your voice.
Itachi is still napping… and besides, the walls have ears."
No sooner had Fugaku finished than his father roared again:
"You idiot! The Uchiha are already on the brink of life and death, and you're worried about that kind of nonsense!?"
Uchiha Yamashiro was seething.
Hoshiyomi's sudden and overwhelming victory over Iwagakure had completely ruined his plans for rebellion,
throwing everything he'd prepared into chaos.
If Hoshiyomi had been present, he probably would have sighed in disbelief,
thinking to himself how the story had once again gone off-script without him realizing—
and then, expressionless as always,
he'd have simply crushed the rebellion before it could begin.
Fugaku looked at his enraged father, silently complaining in his heart.
Seriously… why couldn't this war have lasted a bit longer?
If it had, he might have had an excuse to go to the battlefield and avoid his father,
who was growing more irritable by the day as his end drew near.
Just as Fugaku was lost in thought,
his father suddenly slapped his thigh and shouted:
"No! We can't delay any longer!
Fugaku, send the word—gather all clan members at the shrine for a secret assembly!
We're out of time!"