"Lord Third Hokage, the night is over."
Inside the separate tent, the Anbu Ninja who had suddenly appeared raised his head slightly and presented a scroll.
"This contains all the information."
That was all he said.
"Is that so... I understand."
Hearing this, the Third Hokage—who had suppressed the helplessness in his heart and straightened his back the moment the Anbu Ninja appeared—nodded. Not the slightest hint of discouragement showed on his face or in his eyes. An air of reassurance radiated from him.
Then, he accepted the scroll and spoke.
"Yes!"
The Anbu Ninja responded. Then, with a flicker, he vanished from the separate tent.
His mission was to relay information. Now that the battle had only just ended, the Nine-Tails had been sealed once more thanks to the Fourth Hokage turning the tide. But for ninja like him, this was when the real battlefield began. The village was neither large nor small. Though the area destroyed by the Nine-Tails had not reached deep into the village, it still covered a considerable expanse. There were also countless wounded throughout the village, and manpower was clearly insufficient. He still had much to do. Gathering information as quickly as possible and delivering it to those who needed to know, allowing the higher-ups to determine the most advantageous postwar measures at once, was also of utmost importance.
The report he had just delivered was only an initial tally. Much detailed information still needed to be collected. He could not stop yet!
"Has Uchiha Nobuhiko's defeat truly been confirmed? Was he killed by Chiba, or... was he defeated and escaped?"
After the Anbu messenger left, the Third Hokage subconsciously touched the scroll in his hand and murmured to himself.
As he spoke, the melancholy and helplessness in his eyes slowly faded. He had