"King?" Shikamaru didn't look back, his voice was so low that it seemed like it was squeezed out of his chest.
Naruto looked at his back, his figure was obviously similar to his own, but at this moment he seemed extremely heavy.
"Teacher Asuma told me before when we were playing shogi." Shikamaru spoke slowly, "He said, Leaf's "jades" are the children in the village who have not yet grown up and are our future."
Naruto listened quietly.
"And "King"..." Shikamaru paused and finally turned his head. In those eyes that were always lackluster, there was a depth that Naruto couldn't understand at the moment. ""King" is the person who exists to protect "Jade". Generally speaking, this person is Hokage."
He turned his head again and looked at the weakly beating electrocardiogram curve in the ward.
"But now I feel that what the teacher said is not entirely correct."
"The "King" is not just one person. It is the will of all of us. It is the will that is willing to stand up and use one's own body as a shield to protect the children behind when danger comes. Hokage is the strongest representative of this will, but each of us is part of this will."
"Asuma teacher, so are you, Sasuke is too, so am I."
Shikamaru's voice was very calm, without any ups and downs, but it was like a stone dropped into Naruto's heart, causing thousands of ripples.
Protect those behind you.
Become Hokage.
It turns out that these two things were the same thing from the beginning.
Naruto clenched his fists, feeling that something vague in his heart became clear at this moment.
"I understand." he said.
At this moment, Sasuke walked out of the ward next door. He changed into clean clothes, and his left eye was wrapped with a thick bandage. His face was still pale, but his eyes had returned to their former calmness.
"It's so noisy, the end of the crane." He leaned against the door frame, "Can't it be quieter in the hospital?"
"Sasuke! You're awake!" Naruto saw him and immediately grinned, "How are your eyes?"
"You can't die yet." Sasuke said calmly.
It had been a while since he woke up. Tsunade used Mystical Palm Technique to help stabilize his pupil power, but that Rinnegan was temporarily unusable due to excessive consumption.
He looked at Shikamaru who was kneeling on the ground, and then at Asuma in the ward. He didn't say anything, just stood there quietly.
Some pain requires no words.
Suddenly, a rush of footsteps broke the silence of the corridor.
A Perception Squad ninja rushed over. His face was covered with sweat and he looked panicked.
"Where is Lord Hokage?!" he asked eagerly.
"Tsunade's mother-in-law is in the office!" Naruto replied immediately.
"What happened?" Sasuke frowned.
"No... I don't know!" The ninja gasped, his voice trembling, "An hour ago, at the eastern border of Land of Fire, the Natural Energy readings of Valley of the End suddenly began to drop sharply! Just now, the Natural Energy in that area... was completely Zeroing!"
"Zeroing?" Naruto was stunned, "What do you mean?"
"It's just been drained!" the ninja almost shouted, "It's like being sucked up by a bottomless pit! Moreover, at the moment of energy Zeroing, we sensed an... an indescribable Chakra reaction!"
"Indescribable?"
"Yes! The intensity of that Chakra surpasses everything we know! Ten-Tails... No, it is hundreds of times stronger than the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki we sensed before! No, it is a thousand times ten thousand times! Our perception crystals all burst the moment that Chakra appeared!"
Sasuke's expression changed.
His intact right eye, Three Tomoe's Sharingan suddenly appeared.
"Valley of the End..."
Black Zetsu's last words rang in his mind again.
Opened the real door to hell.
"Go quickly Hokage's Office!" Sasuke made a quick decision.
Several people immediately rushed to Hokage Building.
When they arrived, the office was already in chaos. Tsunade was facing a huge map, his face ashen. Kakashi and Shizune stood aside, their expressions equally solemn.
"Lord Hokage!"
"You are here." Tsunade raised his head, his voice hoarse, "You have all heard about the situation."
"What on earth is that?" Naruto asked.
Tsunade did not answer, but pushed a scroll in front of them. It was one of the three scrolls about Kaguya Ōtsutsuki that A gave her.
"This is...Kaguya?" Naruto looked at the portrait on the scroll, the woman with the third eye on her forehead, which made him feel an inexplicable palpitation.
"The disappearance of Black Zetsu has released her last shackles." Tsunade said, "She has come out of the seal of the moon. Valley of the End That terrifying Chakra is her."
The office fell into a deadly silence.
Kaguya.
The ancestor of Chakra.
A god who can only seal but cannot kill even Sage of Six Paths.
The people, who had just struggled out of a world-ending crisis and were exhausted physically and mentally, had to face an even more desperate enemy before they had time to take a breath.
"Are you kidding..." Naruto muttered to himself.
"This is not a joke." Sasuke's voice was cold, "This is reality."
"Then... what should we do?" Shizune's voice was vibrating.
Fight against Kaguya? How to fight against it? They had just spent almost all their strength to solve the crisis of the moon's collapse. Naruto and Sasuke were both in the weakest state, and Five Kage was also seriously injured.
But the enemy is Ancestor of Chakra in its heyday.
This is not a battle at all, this is a one-sided massacre.
"Haha..." Tsunade suddenly laughed in a low voice, his laughter full of bitterness and self-deprecation. "It's great, very good. First it was Pain, then Akatsuki, then the moon, and now it's Kaguya. Do you really want to destroy this world?"
She punched the table, and the solid wood table instantly turned into powder.
"Tsunade mother-in-law..."
"Enough!" Tsunade stood up suddenly and looked around everyone, "What's the use of crying! The enemy has appeared! We are ninjas, and the mission of ninjas is to fight! No matter who the enemy is, no matter how strong it is, all we can do is to pick up weapons and fight until the last moment!"
Her words were like a heavy hammer, awakening the nerves paralyzed by despair in everyone's hearts.
That's right.
What else can be done?
Escape? Where can you escape?
Surrender? Does Kaguya need human surrender?
There is only one way left.
"Kakashi." Tsunade ordered.
"Here."
"Immediately summon all the ninjas who can still move and gather at Village Entrance to prepare for the battle."
"Yes!"
"Sasuke."
"..."
"Can your Rinnegan still work?"
"Not at the moment." Sasuke replied.
"Then support from the rear. Your brains and experience are equally important."