"Why...?"
As though his entire throat had been gripped shut, Chiba's eyes widened. With unprecedented shock and disbelief on his face, he slowly turned his neck, inch by inch, with mechanical difficulty, struggling to look behind him as a despair-filled question slowly escaped his lips.
Yet that despairing voice was already hoarse, like sandpaper. Every word seemed to take all his strength.
At this moment, Chiba's body was not the only thing nearing its end; even his voice carried the air of someone at death's door.
It was as if, from the inside out, he had already become a centenarian.
"How... how could this..."
"No... impossible..."
At that moment, the terrifying ocular pressure that seemed to draw out their deepest fears abruptly vanished. Yet the two attendants showed none of the relief that should have come with the disappearance of that oppressive terror. Instead, their faces were filled with extreme shock and horrified disbelief, as if they had witnessed something utterly impossible.
"You...!"
Even the Third Hokage stood frozen several steps behind and to Chiba's right, one hand stiffly suspended in midair. It was as though he had wanted to stop something, but had not made it in time.
At this moment, all of his usual composure and unreadable calm had completely vanished.
His face was filled with utter disbelief.
There was even a trace of fear in it, as though he had realized he had made a mistake.
The expression of someone who had committed an enormous, irreversible error.
"I'm sorry, Chiba."
At that moment, Yukina—the only person present whose expression remained calm—gently withdrew her left hand. Looking at Chiba as he slowly turned around, she softly yet resolutely offered him a sincere apology.
Yet within that apology, a look of determination flashed through Yukina's eyes. Even her entire