Tsunade stumbled and rushed back to Hokage's Office, followed closely by Shizune. The office was in a mess, with broken tables and chairs and scattered documents telling the owner's previous thoughts. Tsunade ignored it all, she threw herself into the pile of rubble, rummaged through it with trembling hands, and finally caught the three scrolls from Root Base.
Her eyes were fixed on the second scroll, which detailed the method of sealing Kaguya by brother Sage of Six Paths - Chibaku Tensei.
"No... no..." Tsunade muttered to herself, her face paler than the broken blood moon outside the window, "The scroll says that Chibaku Tensei takes the target Chakra as the core and wraps it with earth rocks to form a new star. The moon... the moon itself is the cage that seals Kaguya!"
Shizune covered her mouth, a terrible thought took shape in her mind, "You mean..."
"Black Zetsu didn't lie." Tsunade's voice was distorted by fear, "When we killed Black Zetsu, it was like breaking the lock cylinder. Kaguya, the "key", broke free from the keyhole, and the "lock" of the moon, because it lost its core, was breaking from the inside. Collapse! This is not a simple release of the seal, this is... This is the last insurance left by Sage of Six Paths, or a trap of death! Once the seal is forcibly destroyed by an external force, the entire moon will disintegrate and turn into hundreds of millions of meteorites, completely cleaning the earth and preventing Kaguya from re-entering the earth!"
Outside the office, the entire Konoha was in chaos. The earth was trembling more and more violently, as if an invisible giant hand was shaking the whole world. In the sky, huge fragments of the moon were dragging dark red tail flames, like stars in mythology that sent down punishment, falling slowly and unstoppably towards the earth.
"Run! The sky is falling!"
"Mom! Mom, where are you!"
Cries, screams, and the roar of collapsed houses intertwined into a doomsday symphony.
"Water Release·Breaking the current!"
"Earth Release·Earth Style: Earth Wall!"
Kakashi and Sasuke acted separately, leading the ninjas who could still fight to maintain order and evacuate the people. Kakashi created water flow to extinguish the flames caused by the falling small meteorites, while Sasuke used Susanoo's skeleton arm to block some larger debris and protect the evacuating people below.
But all this is just a drop in the bucket. Facing the disintegrating planet, personal power seems so small.
In the corridor of the hospital, Shikamaru slowly raised his head, and through the window, he saw the apocalyptic scene. He saw the crowds of people running and crying on the street, the smashed houses, and the huge shadow that was getting closer and closer in the sky.
There was finally a trace of fluctuation in his empty eyes.
"Choji, Ino." His voice was hoarse as if it had been rubbed with sandpaper.
"We are here!" the two responded immediately.
"Hel me up."
Choji and Ino lifted him up from the cold ground. Shikamaru's body was still weak, but he forced himself to stand upright and looked at the door of the operating room. Behind that door, lay one of the most important people in his life, a teacher who might never nag him or play chess with him again.
"Teacher Asuma..." he whispered, "you said that the "jades" of Leaf are the children in the village and the future. Hokage is the chess piece that exists to protect "jade". And we... exist to protect "jade" and "king"."
His eyes swept across the panicked young nurse in the corridor and the helpless villagers outside the window.
"If you give up here, if you let the village be destroyed like this... how can I have the nerve to see you."
He took a deep breath, and the confusion and pain in his eyes were replaced by a decisive sharpness. He pushed away Choji and Ino, and walked towards Hokage's Office step by step. Each step was taken very steadily, as if the lost person before was not him at all.
In Hokage's Office, Tsunade has fallen into despair. The scroll does not provide any solution, only an accurate prediction of this doomsday scene.
"Is... is there really no other way?" She collapsed on the ground, exhausted Hundred Healings Jutsu's body could no longer support it.
"There is a way."
A steady voice sounded at the door.
Tsunade looked up and saw Shikamaru walking in. His face was still pale, but those eyes were burning with the fire of the Nara Clan Inheritance thousand years of wisdom.
"Shikamaru?"
"Lord Hokage, now is not the time to despair." Shikamaru walked to the window and analyzed calmly, "The collapse of the moon cannot be stopped. What we can do is not to stop it, but to destroy it."
"Destruction?"
"Yes, completely smash the largest fragments before they enter the atmosphere." Shikamaru said, "As long as you break them into small enough sizes, most of them will burn up in the friction with the atmosphere, and the rest will not be able to cause a devastating blow."
"Easy to say!" Tsunade smiled bitterly, "How much power does that require? Even Tailed Beast Bomb can only destroy one of them. There are thousands of pieces in the sky!"
"So, Naruto and Sasuke are needed." Shikamaru's eyes turned to the two people who had just rushed to the office. Naruto had already heard about it from Kakashi, and Sasuke's Rinnegan made him see more clearly than anyone else how huge the threat in the sky was.
"Me and Cranetail?" Sasuke frowned, "Our Chakra has been almost used up in the battle just now."
"I know." Shikamaru nodded, "But you are the only ones who can possibly do this. Naruto, your Six Paths Sage Mode, has all the power of Tailed Beast, and your Truth-Seeking Orb can annihilate everything. Sasuke, your Rinnegan, has space capabilities."
Shikamaru spoke faster and faster, and a crazy and bold plan took shape in his mind. "Sasuke, use your Heavenly Hand Power to carry out ultra-long-distance space displacement with Naruto. Naruto, you have only one mission, use the strongest power to aim at the largest fragments and blast them to pieces!"
"This is impossible!" Sasuke immediately retorted, "Taking a person through such frequent and long-distance space jumps will destroy my eyes!"
"That's better than the world being destroyed!" Naruto shouted back, "Sasuke, now is not the time to care about personal gains and losses!"
"I'm not thinking about personal gains and losses, idiot!" Sasuke was also angry, "I mean the success rate of this plan is almost zero! Every jump consumes a huge amount of pupil power, and I can only support it ten times at most, or even less! How many debris are there in the sky? Can't you see it?"
"Then use it ten times to get the effect a hundred times!" Naruto strode up to Sasuke and looked directly into his eyes, "Sasuke, don't you want to protect the village? The village will be gone now! Why are you still hesitating here?"