The Valley of Clouds and Lightning—once a sacred training ground for jinchūriki—could no longer even be called a "valley."
The combined explosion of the Tailed Beast Bomb and the Greater Spiral Wheel Void was far more than a simple 1+1 equation.
Within a radius of several kilometers, entire mountain peaks had been flattened. At the center of the former valley now lay an enormous crater—over a thousand meters in diameter and more than a hundred meters deep.
A severed river rushed violently into the pit, carrying rubble and debris in its raging current.
Inside the crater, exposed rock layers had been scorched into glass-like crystalline formations by the intense heat.
From the ruins, the mangled body of Gyūki, the Eight-Tails, struggled to rise. The crystallized ground around it cracked and crumbled.
"Cough… Big bro~ are you okay~"
Blood sprayed from Killer Bee's mouth, yet he still spoke in his familiar rap rhythm.
In full tailed-beast form, Bee had used his body to shield the Raikage from the blast—but his own back had been torn open, flesh shredded to the bone.
"Bee!"
The Fourth Raikage hurried to support him as the tailed-beast form faded.
If Bee hadn't protected him at that moment, the one lying gravely wounded right now would have been the Raikage himself.
Lifting Bee onto his back, the Raikage sprinted toward Kumogakure at top speed.
The earlier explosion replayed endlessly in his mind, leaving lingering fear.
The village…
When Raikage A finally reached the outskirts of Kumogakure and stood atop a mountain peak, his heart sank.
At the center of the village, it was as if someone had erased an entire region with a giant eraser.
The Raikage Building was completely gone.
Several surrounding peaks had been blasted in half.
Cloud ninja lay scattered everywhere, either dead or gravely injured. Thick smoke filled the air as medical teams rushed back and forth desperately trying to save lives.
The wails of the wounded pierced through the haze, stabbing directly into the Raikage's conscience.
"Lord Raikage!"
Two figures landed beside him—Yugito Nii and Dodai.
"Bee!"
Seeing the heavily wounded Killer Bee, Yugito's pupils trembled.
As a fellow jinchūriki, she knew Bee's strength better than anyone. Without the Nine-Tails' involvement, he was the strongest jinchūriki of this era.
Yet now, he had been reduced to this state.
"Bee protected me…"
Raikage A clenched his fists.
He had once feared losing Bee the way he lost his father, the Third Raikage, and had forbidden him from leaving the village.
But today, it was that same brother who had saved his life.
"What happened to the explosion in the village? And the two enemies?"
After handing Bee over to the medical ninja, Raikage A questioned Dodai.
The veteran jonin, trusted deeply by the Third Raikage, answered gravely:
"By the time I arrived, the battle was already over."
"Where are Darui and the others?!"
The Raikage shouted.
"Darui, C, and Samui only suffered minor injuries. But Mabui was too close to the blast center… she's still undergoing emergency treatment."
Dodai's lone eye reflected the devastated ruins of the village.
"As for the casualties:
Two jonin confirmed dead.
Two jonin and three special jonin critically injured.
Seven chunin confirmed dead, and sixteen more drained of chakra—status unknown."
"Additionally, the explosion destroyed the village center. Civilian casualties are estimated at no fewer than two hundred."
Kumogakure was built among mountain peaks, unlike Konohagakure which was located on flat plains. The terrain had absorbed much of the shockwave.
And since Kumogakure was fundamentally a military village where most residents were ninja, those civilian casualties were also counted among combat losses.
Even so—seven jonin and special jonin, over twenty chunin, and more than two hundred lower-ranked ninja and civilians dead or injured—
This was devastation on the scale of a catastrophic wartime defeat.
And to make matters worse, the village's strategic weapon—the Eight-Tails jinchūriki Killer Bee—had been critically wounded.
BAM!
Raikage A slammed his fist into the mountain beside him, blasting a two-meter-wide crater into solid rock.
"Did you capture the enemies?!" he demanded through gritted teeth.
But Dodai could only shake his head.
"According to Darui and C's reports… when the explosion began, the two floating enemies vanished."
After a pause, Dodai voiced his conclusion.
"They… were likely not human. They were summoning beasts."
"What?!"
The Raikage's eyes widened in fury.
Those two enemies who had held off dozens of Kumogakure elites were merely summons?
"How did they even get into the village?!" he growled.
Dodai explained:
"I've questioned the gate guards, the ninja who encountered the suspect with Killer Bee, and interrogated the merchant caravan that entered today."
"It appears the attacker used genjutsu to control the caravan leader and entered under the name 'Danzo.' This is his sketch."
Dodai handed over a quickly prepared portrait.
To gather this much intelligence in such a short time already spoke to his efficiency.
But when Raikage A saw the sketch—a cheerful, harmless-looking young boy—his rage only deepened.
"Mobilize every intelligence network Kumogakure has! Find this man at all costs!"
He crumpled the portrait in his hand.
"Post a bounty at the Underground Exchange! Seventy million ryo! And anyone who provides verified information will receive ten million ryo!"
A seventy-million-ryo bounty was already higher than that of many jinchūriki.
The Six-Tails jinchūriki Utakata, for example, only carried a fifty-million-ryo bounty.
Of course, the Raikage didn't expect the enemy to actually be killed through a bounty. The real purpose was to spread information—force other villages to pay attention to this mysterious figure and create trouble for him.
Kumogakure had spies in every major nation. If this man appeared again, they would know.
"Yes, sir!"
Dodai immediately dispatched a ninja to carry out the order.
"And…"
Looking at the ruined heart of his village, the Raikage finally forced out the words he hated to say.
"Agree to Konoha's ceasefire."
RUMBLE…
The storm clouds scattered by the explosion gathered once more over Kumogakure. Rain began to fall, carrying the bitter scent of smoke as it washed over the village's wounds.
The pain of war weighed heavily on the Hidden Cloud.
In the year Konoha 54, news of a mysterious ninja attacking Kumogakure spread rapidly across the ninja world.
All villages dispatched spies to investigate Kumogakure's losses.
Not long after, Kumogakure accepted Konohagakure's ceasefire terms.
The final flames of the Third Shinobi World War were extinguished, and the ninja world stepped into a brief period of uneasy peace.
At the same time, in the underground black market, a new name appeared on the bounty lists:
A mysterious ninja known as "Danzo," codename "Shura."
Seventy million ryo.
Even providing useful intelligence would earn ten million.
Meanwhile, far away in the Root base beneath Konohagakure—
After seeing the newly updated bounty poster bearing the name "Danzo," Shimura Danzo flew into a furious rage and shredded the notice to pieces.
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