That night, Konoha's camp was overflowing with celebration.
Sunagakure's camp, on the other hand, was buried in gloom.
Although Rasa had indeed been rescued, they had still lost the battle's commander and suffered a crushing defeat.
When Rasa finally regained consciousness, he was dazed for a while. Only after hearing the explanations of his comrades did he fully understand what had happened.
And once he did, he broke down and cried for quite some time.
The dark circles under his eyes had already been obvious before, but after that bout of wailing, they looked even worse.
Early the next morning, after the sky had fully brightened, Yagami and Kushina walked out of the same tent together.
Now that the relationship between them had crossed that final line, there was naturally no need to keep using separate tents.
Still, the two of them had done nothing that night.
They had simply rested.
After all, they were still on the battlefield.
And Kushina had yet to fully recover, so there was no way Yagami would do anything that might put a strain on her.
"Good morning, Lord Yagami!"
"Good morning, Lady Kushina!"
On the way to headquarters, the two were greeted again and again by the surrounding shinobi.
The first few times they had been addressed so formally, it had felt a little strange.
But by now, both of them had already gotten used to it.
There was no need to answer every single greeting. A simple nod was enough.
Yet even that small acknowledgment was enough to leave Konoha's shinobi excited for quite a while.
That was the kind of influence true strength and achievements brought.
The moment Yagami and Kushina stepped into headquarters, Yagami immediately asked,
"So, are we continuing the offensive today?"
During yesterday's battle alone, he had killed more than five hundred enemy shinobi and earned thirty thousand Prestige Points.
His total reserve had now climbed past ninety-three thousand.
He was only one step away from the one hundred thousand mark needed for a high-level draw.
So naturally, if Sunagakure's forces showed up again today, he intended to use the chance to push straight past that threshold.
"Haha, no need to attack today."
Nara Shikaku, who had been seated there for quite some time already, smiled with complete ease.
"I'd say Sunagakure's peace envoy is most likely on the way to our camp as we speak."
His expression was calm and confident.
The other jōnin commanders all nodded in agreement when they heard that.
Clearly, they had complete faith in Nara Shikaku's judgment.
"Oh? You're that sure?"
Yagami was genuinely surprised.
He knew Sunagakure would surrender sooner or later, but he hadn't expected Shikaku to pin down the timing so precisely.
"Hehe, at most, two hours."
"...Alright."
Seeing how certain Nara Shikaku was, Yagami could only sigh inwardly.
Shikaku's mind really was something else.
If he was speaking with that much confidence, then there was an extremely high chance he was right.
Which meant Yagami's high-level draw would have to wait just a little longer.
Funny enough, he had actually been looking forward to it.
Thinking that, Yagami brought Kushina over and sat down with her.
"Kushina, want some snacks?"
There was nothing to do for the moment, and waiting around was boring.
So Yagami directly pulled out a huge assortment of snacks from his system storage and piled them onto the table in front of Kushina.
Lately, his draws had brought him all kinds of random food.
And since luck wasn't by his side right now, all those snacks had just been sitting in his storage space, practically stacking up into hills.
After all, the higher the level of the lottery, the greater the amount of miscellaneous items it spat out. The cost went up tenfold, and the quantity of random junk followed right along with it.
For high-level draws, even snacks came in absurd quantities.
A thousand packs at a time.
At this point, Yagami felt like he could open a little shop.
A specialty store selling every kind of snack and random household junk imaginable.
Boom.
A small mountain of snacks landed on Kushina's table.
Kushina was stunned.
So was everyone else in the conference room.
For a full second, the entire room fell silent.
Then—
A blur rushed across the room like a whirlwind and skidded to a halt right beside Yagami.
The sudden gust even blew Yagami's and Kushina's hair upward.
"C-Captain Yagami... could you maybe give me some snacks? Just a little?"
Akimichi Chōza stared at the mountain of snacks with shining eyes.
His hands rubbed together nonstop, and the longing on his face couldn't have been more obvious.
Yagami blinked.
He had nearly forgotten.
There was someone in this room whose appetite was even more terrifying than Tenten's.
Looking at the usually imposing Akimichi Chōza now standing there like a nervous newlywed, Yagami suddenly found it hilarious.
Smiling, he waved a hand.
"Go ahead. Take what you want."
There were several more snack mountains just like this one still stuffed inside his system storage anyway.
Honestly, he would've loved for someone to help him get rid of them.
Keeping all that clutter in storage was a pain to look at.
"Alright! Thank you, Captain Yagami!"
Akimichi Chōza was overjoyed. Without the slightest hesitation, he scooped up a huge armful on the spot.
Even so, the amount he took was probably only around one-tenth of the pile.
Seeing everyone else still staring blankly at the mountain of snacks, Yagami laughed and said,
"Come on, everyone. We're all just waiting anyway. Might as well pass the time."
There was no way he and Kushina could finish all of that by themselves.
Once Yagami said that, the atmosphere in headquarters started shifting fast.
By the time Orochimaru and Yurimaki arrived, the place already looked less like a command room and more like a snack party.
"Report!!"
As the snack gathering carried on, time gradually passed.
About an hour and a half later, a shinobi came rushing into headquarters with an excited expression.
But the moment he saw the tables covered in snacks, he froze for a second.
Then he quickly came back to himself and shouted,
"Report! Sunagakure's peace envoy has arrived!"
Hearing that, Yagami lifted his head and glanced at Nara Shikaku.
That guy's brain really was ridiculous.
Not even two hours.
And it had happened exactly as he said.
"Who came?"
Orochimaru, seated at the head of the room, set down the dried apple slice in his hand and looked up as he spoke.
After entering the room earlier and seeing everyone eating, even he had been drawn in.
His appetite had been stirred up a little too, so he had joined the others and taken part in the snack feast.
"Sunagakure's Rasa... and the others."
The Konoha shinobi answered honestly.
"What? Rasa... is still alive?!"
Orochimaru's face instantly filled with disbelief.
He looked so uncomfortable it was as if he had just swallowed a fly.
At that moment, even the dried apple slices on the table no longer seemed appetizing.
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