"Lord Kazekage!"
"We've searched everywhere. We haven't found a single suspicious trace of the enemy!"
A Sunagakure Ninja knelt on one knee and called loudly to the Third Kazekage hovering in midair.
The ruins of Rōran—or rather, what had now become a massive crater—lay below. Somehow, a large amount of groundwater piped in from the Land of Rain had also connected to it.
Murky water had begun seeping through cracks in the earth, slowly pooling at the bottom of the crater.
The Third Kazekage was frantic. A towering purple pillar had shot into the sky earlier, and countless civilians had seen it. Yet when he arrived, he couldn't find any trace of an enemy.
All he found was the stone toad in the very center...
The Iron Sand Wings on either side of the Third Kazekage beat furiously as he flew above the toad, gazing down at the lifelike statue.
It was an extremely old toad. Even the wrinkles in its skin were visible.
But the statue was incredibly heavy. The Kazekage had tried to move it, but it wouldn't budge in the slightest.
As time passed, the muddy sand and water collecting at the bottom of the crater completely submerged the stone toad.
After searching everywhere and finding nothing, the Kazekage and the Sunagakure Ninja had no choice but to return to the village.
Several days later,
a shocking piece of news swept across the entire Ninja World.
Iwagakure, one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, had been completely uprooted. Even the stone peak where the village stood had been blasted apart!
The Tsuchikage, Kitsuchi, and the other high-ranking officials had vanished as if they'd evaporated, and their whereabouts couldn't be confirmed.
When the Iwa Ninja who gathered afterward dug through the shattered peaks and ravines, all they found