"Guards! Someone, come protect me!"
The Daimyo of the Land of Lightning's screams nearly filled the entire residence, and the folding fan in his hand had long since fallen to the floor.
Bewildered samurai and several Kumogakure shinobi guards rushed into the room, surrounding him tightly as they warily scanned every corner.
Yet in the end, they found nothing unusual.
"Lord Daimyo, what happened?" a Kumogakure jonin asked in a low voice.
He had noticed the unprecedented, near-breaking terror on the Daimyo's usually composed face.
"Konoha... no, it's the Fifth Hokage! And Sunagakure—the Fifth Kazekage, that madman Gaara—they've all gone insane!" The Daimyo of the Land of Lightning spoke incoherently, pointing at the pitch-black communication screen. "The Fire Daimyo... the Wind Daimyo... they're all dead!"
"They were killed just now! The next one... the next one could be me! Hurry, strengthen security! Notify the Raikage immediately—have him send the strongest shinobi here at once!"
The Kumogakure jonin's expression changed drastically. Though he did not know what had happened, the Daimyo's terror and his mention of the deaths of two Daimyo could not be baseless.
"Yes, sir!"
He immediately turned and issued a string of urgent orders to his subordinates, while personally pulling out a communication scroll to contact Kumogakure.
Daimyo's Residence, Land of Earth.
Unlike the hysterical Daimyo of the Land of Lightning, the Daimyo of the Land of Earth fell into endless silence after his initial scream.
He sat in his chair, pale-faced, his fingers gripping the armrests tightly.
Having spent his entire life calculating and scheming, he could now clearly feel just how close death was.
What was even harder to believe was that they actually dared lay hands on a Daimyo.
How dared those lowly shinobi?!
"Sunagakure has turned against us, Kirigakure has gone dark, and the