"Send ten thousand Iwa-nin to surround and kill Garp?"
When Kitsuchi directed this question at Onoki, every Iwa-nin nearby couldn't help turning toward their Tsuchikage.
They wanted to know the answer too.
If the Third Tsuchikage nodded, that would mean Garp could still be defeated by human effort, that the new era didn't belong to the remnants of the old just yet.
If not… none of them dared imagine that possibility.
"We can't kill him."
Facing Kitsuchi's desperate gaze, like a drowning man reaching for his final straw, Onoki shook his head weakly and gave a merciless answer.
"We can't kill him… can't kill him… hahaha, we actually can't kill him."
Kitsuchi muttered the words under his breath, head lowered. Then, as if struck by a massive shock, he suddenly burst into hysterical laughter like a madman.
"Kitsuchi, calm yourself."
Onoki's voice trembled. The sight stabbed straight into his heart.
This was his pride, his beloved son.
"How do you expect me to calm down?
Old man, do you know why I'm still alive waiting for you?"
He covered his tear soaked face with one hand and grabbed Onoki's collar with the other.
"It's because Garp told me to deliver a message.
'This war ends here. I don't want to hear of Iwa-nin stepping foot into the Land of Fire again.
If it happens a second time, I will personally visit Iwagakure… and take a walk through the Tsuchikage's office.'"
"Tell me… tell me right now, how am I supposed to calm down?"
The moment the final word left his throat, his laughter abruptly cut off.
Then, before the stunned eyes of everyone present, Kitsuchi spat blood and collapsed to the ground.
"Kitsuchi…."
Onoki stared blankly at his son lying motionless in a pool of blood. His mind went numb.
"Tsuchikage-sama, Kitsuchi-sama… he… he's dead."
Kenzo, an Iwa-nin, rushed forward, checking Kitsuchi's breathing, heartbeat, pulse, and pupils. Then he delivered news that made even Onoki's weathered eyes overflow with silent tears.
"….."
Onoki didn't speak. He simply closed his eyes.
Kitsuchi's death came suddenly, but to him, it wasn't unexpected.
Hundreds of Iwa-nin had died. His son's lower body had been crushed beyond recovery.
Kitsuchi had already stepped halfway into the Pure Land.
The only things that kept him alive until now were Tsunade's emergency treatment, the need to deliver Garp's message… and the final shred of hope, asking whether ten thousand Iwa-nin could kill him.
If Onoki had said yes, Kitsuchi might have endured a little longer.
But Onoki couldn't give him the answer he wanted, the answer that might have kept his son clinging to life.
As the Third Tsuchikage, he couldn't send ten thousand shinobi to die.
As a man born between the old and new eras, he knew better than anyone the weight behind the title "Hero of the Shinobi World."
"Tsuchikage-sama, what do we do now?" Kenzo asked carefully.
"Gather the bodies. We return to the village."
With that order, every Iwa-nin except Kenzo moved at once, flash-stepping toward the basin's edges to collect the remains of their fallen comrades.
"What about Garp?"
Seeing that Onoki avoided mentioning Garp entirely, Kenzo had no choice but to bite the bullet and ask.
He didn't want to tear open the Tsuchikage's fresh wound, but there were still Iwa-nin fighting on other fronts.
"…"
Onoki suddenly looked up, like a grieving tiger robbed of its cub. His gaze was cold, feral, and sharp enough to pierce straight through Kenzo's eyes.
Even this battle-hardened Jonin felt his scalp go numb and cold sweat run down his back.
Thankfully, that murderous glare faded after only a few seconds.
Otherwise, he truly suspected he might collapse on the spot.
"Notify all Iwagakure shinobis on every front, withdraw immediately and return to the village to await orders."
Onoki drew in a long breath, forcibly suppressing the rage boiling inside him so he wouldn't take it out on Kenzo.
"And prepare a letter of surrender. Send it to Konoha."
He looked once more at Kitsuchi's lifeless body lying before him.
"Forgive me… Tsuchikage-sama," Kenzo whispered, kneeling.
Onoki still said nothing. He didn't even glance away from his son's corpse. He simply waved a hand for Kenzo to retreat.
Three hundred Iwa-nin killed, he couldn't take revenge.
His own son was killed, yet he still couldn't take revenge.
And now he had to lower his head and beg for mercy with a surrender letter.
Such humiliation… It was unprecedented in the history of Iwagakure.
Yet he could only grit his teeth and accept it.
Because the man standing before Iwagakure… was the greatest powerhouse of the Warring States Period.
A man who once stood at the very gates of Iwagakure and, before the eyes of thousands of Iwa-nin, used his iron fists to beat the First Tsuchikage to death, then left as casually as a drifting cloud.
Garp the Fist!
And he had been one of the eyewitnesses.
…
The moment Onoki's surrender letter was released.
It was like dropping a nuclear bomb into the shinobi world. Shockwaves rippled instantly across every land.
Major villages, nations, and hidden factions all sent their spies in Iwagakure racing to uncover the truth.
As information surfaced, Kitsuchi's death, the three hundred slain Iwa-nin, a name long buried since the end of the Warring States Period resurfaced in the minds of every major power.
Hero of the Shinobi World.
Foremost of the Three Legends of the Warring States.
A man who overshadowed even the Senju brothers and Uchiha brothers.
…
Everything related to Garp's exploits was dug up at unprecedented speed. With the Third Great Ninja War already in turmoil, the entire landscape of the shinobi world shifted overnight.
The direction of the Third Great Ninja War, Konoha's fate itself, was forcibly rewritten by the return of a hero.
For the first time in ages, Garp's name and his glorious legends of the past echoed across the shinobi world once more, shaking the entire era to its core.