A little over ten minutes earlier.
Pure Land of the Underworld, atop a high slope somewhere.
"What exactly happened here?"
Dressed in a black combat uniform, Hiruzen Sarutobi stared in shock at the sky full of flames and the enormous black hole that sent chills down his spine.
Standing beside him was Shimura Danzo, who had previously activated the Reverse Four Symbols Seal without hesitation, trying to eliminate Aramaki, Konoha's great enemy.
The two old friends had died only moments apart.
Coupled with a certain twist of fate, it was hardly strange that they had met here.
Danzo had also been surprised when he saw Hiruzen arriving shortly after him.
He had been especially shocked and furious upon learning that Hiruzen had died at the hands of Aramaki, whom Danzo should have replaced.
But they were already dead. What could they do?
Left with no other choice.
The two could only focus their attention on the current situation in the Pure Land.
"It looks like this place has been invaded as well, and there's a good chance the invaders are from the Otherworld."
Danzo, who had arrived only a little over ten seconds before Hiruzen, stared grimly at the black hole continuously spewing countless figures into the sky.
Hiruzen Sarutobi was rendered speechless upon hearing that.
What was happening to the Shinobi World?
Both the human world and the Underworld had been invaded at the same time. Everything had happened far too suddenly.
Take himself, for example.
That morning, he had still been sitting in his Hokage office, drinking tea and smoking. By the afternoon, he had been killed and sent to the Pure Land to check in.
He only hoped his wife and Asuma would not be too heartbroken.
"That is!"
Suddenly.
The two nearly simultaneously noticed a vast,