"Lord Hokage! Fourth Hokage! S-Something happened! Something terrible happened!"
A desperate, almost shrill voice rang through the Hokage's Office as the doors slammed into the wall with a bang.
"What is it? What happened?"
Minato Namikaze, who had been straightening his clothes in preparation to visit the Sunagakure delegation's guest residence, frowned slightly and looked at the Anbu Ninja half-kneeling on the ground, completely flustered and gasping for breath.
"I-Iwa... Something happened at Iwa!"
Still unable to catch his breath after hearing the Hokage's question, the Anbu Ninja could only force out those words.
"Iwa?"
At those words, Minato Namikaze's expression changed dramatically, his heart tightening.
Something happened at Iwa? What could have happened?
Did they make some move? But what could they possibly do? Under Chiba's restrictions, what could they even accomplish?
Their movements are confined to that courtyard. Everything they do is under our watch, and any unusual activity should be detected immediately.
What could they have done to make the reporting ninja lose his composure like this? What urgent matter could there be?
Or did they make some move capable of sabotaging the Peace Alliance?
In that instant, Minato Namikaze was utterly baffled. He could not think of anything Iwa could do to cause an informed ninja to panic so badly.
And the more incomprehensible it was, the stronger the sense of foreboding that rose within him became.
Vaguely, he felt that Iwa had unleashed some decisive trump card—or perhaps a desperate, all-or-nothing blow.
And it was a blow Konoha would find difficult to withstand.
"The Iwa envoy... the Iwa envoy... gulp..."
After hearing his Hokage's question, the Anbu Ninja seemed to still be trapped in an overwhelming sense that disaster had struck. He had yet to calm down. After blurting out the only useful words, "the