A Bag of Rice, Carry It Up Several Floors, A Bag of Rice, Carry It Up to the Second Floor, Spicy Heavenly Star

Kitahara Kaede naturally had no idea about everything that had happened in the Hokage's Office, but he 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 rarely entered his room casually anymore, since it might contain many secrets unsuitable for ordinary people to know.

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

And even if she had cleaned up, she would not have carefully restored everything to its original place.

As long as the other party failed to handle some of the small details Kitahara Kaede had deliberately concealed, it was enough to prove that someone had been there.

"Anbu? That fast?" Kitahara Kaede thought to himself.

With a little thought, he knew it had probably been the Anbu investigating him. Fortunately, aside from his Diary, he had nothing shameful to hide, so they could investigate all they wanted.

After all, this time, he really had gotten close to one of the village's core secrets: the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox Jinchuriki.

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

Since being a ninja was such a dangerous, uncertain profession and he often had to go out on missions, Kitahara Yoshiko always tried her best to prepare extra food for Kitahara Kaede whenever he ate at home.

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 was probably Ichiraku Ramen. Even if the village were destroyed and everywhere else was ruined, this place would still be perfectly fine.

After all, it was Ōtsutsuki Ichiraku. Hahahahaha.]

--

Meanwhile, Hatake Kakashi also sensed the Diary updating. He found a safe place and opened it to take a look.

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 already grown accustomed to the occasional meaningless nicknames that appeared in Kitahara Kaede's Diary.

[A bag of rice, carry it up several floors, a bag of rice, carry it up to the second floor. A bag of rice, carry it up several floors, a bag of rice, carry it up to the second floor. A bag of rice is so tiring, a bag of rice needs me to wash it, there is mud in every mouth, who gave you a bag of rice? Spicy Heavenly Star.]

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

Suddenly, a video appeared below.

Hatake Kakashi immediately began watching it.

When he opened it, the first thing he saw was a pair of feet. An orange-haired figure rose into the air under the gaze of a crowd.

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

He then looked again at the figures watching from below. They were clearly all dressed as Anbu, just as he had been back when he 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. Though she had not turned around for him to see her face, she was probably Uzuki Yugao, Gekko Hayate's lover.

The other wore green clothes and had blonde twin ponytails, with the character for "gamble" written on her outfit. He knew her as well. Was that not Konoha's Princess, Senju Tsunade, one of the Sannin?

"Red Cloud Black Cloak... Is this Uchiha Itachi's organization?" Hatake Kakashi immediately realized.

In the video, Pain continuously rose higher as he spoke.

"Accept pain. Understand pain!"

"Accept pain. Understand pain!"

"Those who do not know pain cannot understand true peace."

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

The scene shifted to a close-up of the Rinnegan, the rings within those eyes surging endlessly.

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

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

One strike, and the village was destroyed!

The video was very short, but the shock it brought to Hatake Kakashi and Second Pillar 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, no one had ever pushed the front lines into the village, much less flattened the entire village with a single ninjutsu.

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

Though ninja possessed supernatural power, their bodies were rarely enhanced. They would still die when crushed like that.

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

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

Second Pillar froze, completely dumbfounded.

He had never imagined that anyone could possess such power. Even the Uchiha Itachi he hated beyond measure could never have achieved something on that level.

That power definitely surpassed Kage Level.

"Uchiha Itachi is part of that organization too, isn't he?" Second Pillar immediately realized. Uchiha Itachi wore similar clothes, and so did that shark-faced monster.

In other words, they 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 known members of this organization, one was Uchiha Itachi and the other was Kisame Hoshigaki. Both were Kage Level experts. He had originally wondered what kind of terrifying existence the leader of such an organization would have to be in order to keep S-rank Rogue Ninja like them under control and make them serve him.

And now, it was already obvious.

The leader of this organization had appeared. He shouted strange things about accepting pain and feeling pain, then wiped out all of Konoha with a single move.

Like a God of the Human World!

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

He thought of the world-destroying existence Kitahara Kaede had mentioned in his earlier diary entries. He had not taken it seriously at first, 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. There really were people who could destroy a village with one strike. Given enough time, perhaps Pain could even destroy the world alone.

Konoha was no ordinary village. It was, in truth, a military fortress. Yet it had been wiped out so easily?