Outside the Konoha battlefield.
The white Clay Bird had grown much larger. Though it kept flapping its wings, it barely rose and fell.
The telescope had slipped onto the Clay Bird's back without anyone noticing.
Kurotsuchi's expression held thirty percent shock, thirty percent fear, and forty percent helpless confusion.
She had watched the battle from beginning to end.
Leaving aside Konoha's impregnable defensive barrier.
The Fourth Hokage Namikaze Minato alone was powerful enough to rival Otsutsuki Toneri.
The Fifth Hokage Uchiha Senyo was even more unfathomably powerful.
Even that newly appeared Ōtsutsuki clansman had been no match for him.
It was not as if such powerful figures had never appeared in the Shinobi World, but that had been Hashirama Senju, back when the Five Great Ninja Villages were founded.
But Hashirama Senju had been a dove who advocated peace.
This one, however, was an Uchiha.
The Shinobi World would indeed undergo enormous changes, but the source of those changes was not Black Zetsu and Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki, who had been working with him.
It was Konoha.
Now that Black Zetsu had been defeated by Konoha, what would Konoha do next?
The answer was obvious.
Whether Iwagakure or Kumogakure—which had not publicly surrendered yet—neither had a Jinchuriki anymore.
Nothing could stop Konoha from unifying the Shinobi World.
And Kurotsuchi had even seen Madara Uchiha appear at the end.
Madara Uchiha might even have surrendered to Konoha.
"Deidara..."
"What should I do? It looks like I can't avenge Grandpa..."
Kurotsuchi was utterly helpless. In the end, she was only a young girl who had grown up under Ōnoki's protection.
She was only eighteen now.
Faced with a Konoha this powerful, all the ninjutsu she had studied for so many years had become useless.
Confronted with a future devoid of hope, Kurotsuchi's mental state