A Bag of Rice, How Many Floors... Shinra Tensei

Kitahara Kaede naturally had no idea about everything that had happened in the Hokage's Office, but he had still noticed something.

Someone had entered his room, and it had not been his mother, Kitahara Yoshiko, coming in to tidy up. For one thing, ever since he had become a ninja, his mother would not casually enter his room anymore, since there could be all sorts of secrets inside that ordinary people should not know.

His mother understood that well enough, since Kitahara Kaede's father had also been a Chunin. She had that basic awareness.

And even if she had tidied up, she would not have so carefully restored everything to its original position.

As long as the other party failed to perfectly reproduce a few minor details that Kitahara Kaede had deliberately concealed, it was enough to prove someone had been there.

Anbu? That fast? Kitahara Kaede thought to himself.

After thinking about it, he knew it must have been the Anbu investigating him. Fortunately, aside from the Diary, he had nothing shameful to hide, so there was nothing he could do about being searched.

After all, this time he really had approached one of the village's core secrets—the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox Jinchuriki.

Kitahara Kaede then looked around the room and, after confirming that nothing had been left behind, finally went downstairs to eat.

Because being a ninja was such a dangerous, uncertain profession that often required him to leave on missions, whenever he ate at home, Kitahara Yoshiko would always prepare as much food for Kitahara Kaede as she could, as solemnly as possible.

After eating and washing up, Kitahara Kaede returned to his room and began today's Diary entry.

[Ichiraku Ramen tasted pretty good. If there was one place in all of Konoha that could be considered absolutely safe, it would probably be Ichiraku Ramen. Even if the village got wiped out and everywhere else was destroyed, this place would still be perfectly fine.

After all, it's Ōtsutsuki Ichiraku. Hahahahaha.]

At the same time, Hatake Kakashi sensed that the Diary was updating. He found a safe place and opened it.

Ichiraku Ramen?

He knew that noodle shop, but it did not seem particularly special.

Ōtsutsuki Ichiraku? What kind of title was that?

Hatake Kakashi had long grown accustomed to the occasional meaningless nicknames appearing in Kitahara Kaede's Diary.

[A bag of rice, how many floors? A bag of rice, carry it to the second floor. A bag of rice, how many floors? A bag of rice, carry it to the second floor. A bag of rice is so tiring. A bag of rice wants me to wash it. Mouthfuls of mud. Who gave you a bag of rice? Shinra Tensei.]

Looking at the meaningless words that had appeared in the Diary, Hatake Kakashi only felt exhausted. He could not understand any of it. Could it be that Kitahara Kaede's entry today would be another complete mess?

Suddenly, a video appeared below.

Hatake Kakashi immediately began watching.

The first thing he saw after opening it was a pair of feet. An orange-haired figure rose into the air under the gaze of a crowd.

"Flight? The Light-Weight Rock Technique?" Hatake Kakashi was immediately puzzled. There were quite a few ninjutsu in the Shinobi World that could launch someone into the air, but very few that allowed actual flight.

He then looked again at the figures watching below. They were clearly all dressed as Anbu, the same as when he had served in the Anbu. The armor they wore was also different from the green tactical vests commonly worn by Chunin and above.

But among them, he saw two familiar people. One was a purple-haired Anbu. Although she had not turned around to reveal her face, she should have been Uzuki Yugao, Moonlight Gale's lover.

The other was a blonde woman with twin ponytails, dressed in green and bearing the character for "gamble." He knew her as well. Wasn't she Konoha's princess, Senju Tsunade, one of the Sannin?

"The Red Cloud Black Cloak... Uchiha Itachi's organization?" Hatake Kakashi reacted instantly.

In the footage, Pain continued ascending as he spoke.

"Accept pain. Know pain!"

"Accept pain. Know pain!"

"Those who do not know pain can never understand true peace."

Pain flew higher and higher, gradually rising level with the sun.

The scene shifted to a pair of Rinnegan, rings of patterns surging within those eyes.

"I will not forget Yahiko's pain. From this moment on, let the world know pain. Shinra Tensei!"

As Pain spoke, he unleashed the Super Shinra Tensei. In an instant, with him at its center, all of Konoha was flattened in one blow.

One strike—village annihilation!

The video was very short, but the shock it brought to Hatake Kakashi and Uchiha Sasuke was unprecedented.

Since Konoha had been founded, it had never faced such a crisis. Even during the Second and Third Shinobi World Wars, when the fighting had been unimaginably difficult, the battle lines had never been pushed into the village itself, much less had the entire village been flattened by a single ninjutsu.

Under such a terrifying attack, how many ninja could possibly survive?

Although ninja wielded supernatural power, their bodies were rarely strengthened. They would still die when crushed like that.

Not to mention the vast number of ordinary people in the village. After that one attack, could even a hundred people in all of Konoha have survived?

"Th-This... how is that possible..."

Uchiha Sasuke froze, completely dumbfounded.

He had never imagined that someone's strength could reach such a level. Even Uchiha Itachi, whom he hated beyond measure, could never possibly accomplish something like this.

That power had definitely surpassed the level of a Kage.

"Uchiha Itachi is part of that organization too, isn't he?" Uchiha Sasuke suddenly realized. Uchiha Itachi wore similar clothes, and so did that shark-faced freak.

That meant they all belonged to the same organization.

Hatake Kakashi's expression became incomparably grave, because he too realized that Uchiha Itachi was part of that organization.

Of the two members of this organization currently known, one was Uchiha Itachi and the other was Kisame Hoshigaki. Both were Kage Level experts. He had originally wondered: if such an organization existed, just how terrifying would its leader have to be to keep these S-rank Rogue Ninja under control and make them serve him?

And now, the answer was obvious.

The leader of this organization had appeared, shouting bizarre things about accepting pain and feeling pain, before flattening all of Konoha with a single move.

Like a god walking among men!

For the first time, he realized that the Shinobi World might run far deeper than he had imagined.

He recalled the world-ending beings mentioned in Kitahara Kaede's Diary. He had never taken them seriously, because with his knowledge, he had never heard of any ninja capable of something as absurd as destroying the world.

But now, he had finally seen it. Someone really could wipe out an entire village with a single strike. Given enough time, perhaps he could even destroy the world alone?

Konoha was no ordinary village. It was, in effect, a military fortress—and yet it had been annihilated so easily?