No one had expected the Ninja Alliance, upon which everyone had placed such high hopes, to suffer a crushing defeat.
Rather than a crushing defeat, it would have been more accurate to call it a complete annihilation.
The bombardment of the Eight-Tails' Tailed Beast Bomb, the charges of the Third Raikage, Uchiha Fugaku, A, and Hatake Sakumo...
Especially Uchiha Yuzuru's final slash, which directly claimed the lives of several thousand Ninja Alliance shinobi.
Of the ten thousand shinobi in the Ninja Alliance, fewer than a hundred remained alive, aside from the commanders stationed in the rear.
Even those fortunate enough to survive had been cast beneath a shadow.
Shimura Danzō, Genji, and the others did not even hold a meeting to discuss what came next before returning to their respective villages.
When they had first faced the Third Raikage and the others, they had still been confident that constant reinforcements could win them victory.
But Uchiha Yuzuru's earth-shattering final slash had completely severed their hopes of revenge.
Though wielding such tremendous power could not have come without a price, no one wanted to gamble the lives of their village comrades on whether Uchiha Yuzuru still had bullets left in his gun.
As the shinobi from each village returned, news of the Ninja Alliance's defeat shook the entire Shinobi World.
Iwagakure.
Kitsuchi looked at Ōnoki with eyes full of admiration.
This time, the Ninja Alliance's assault on Kumogakure had only involved a thousand shinobi from Iwagakure.
Most of them had been genin, while the few chūnin were already past their prime and had little prospect of further achievement.
Their deaths were still heartbreaking, but compared to the other villages, Iwagakure's losses were practically negligible.
"Lord Tsuchikage, you truly had the foresight."
"You didn't see it then—Uchiha Yuzuru's slash was simply too