Orochimaru looked around. Everywhere he glanced, he saw nothing but ruins, with Anbu and Root shinobi flung aside by the blast's shock waves strewn all around.
On the other side, the layers of defensive walls built with high-level Earth Release had collapsed with a crash. Several battered figures were staggering out.
"Cough... Cough, cough!"
Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu were covered in dust, their eyes still filled with terror. In front of them, Danzo was already filthy and utterly disheveled.
"Danzo?!"
Sarutobi Hiruzen leaped over in a few bounds and asked urgently, "What happened here?!"
"Where's the enemy?!"
"Cough, cough..."
Danzo offered no explanation. He coughed violently twice and gave Hiruzen a complicated look.
The instant their gazes met, Hiruzen understood Danzo's hint.
It was related to the Hyuga Clan again...
And it had something to do with the Rock Battlefield incident he'd reported a few days ago.
"Lord Hokage!"
In the distance, the Uchiha, Nara, Yamanaka, and other members of the clans who had remained in the village arrived in quick succession.
They had already been on their way, and had witnessed the brilliant golden light with their own eyes.
When the leaders of the clans saw the scene before them, as if it had been wrought by divine punishment, they all drew in a sharp breath.
"Get the wounded help first..."
Hiruzen forcibly suppressed the turmoil in his heart and passed the order down the chain of command.
That night, time passed exceptionally slowly in Konoha.
Panic spread through the upper echelons like a swarm of locusts, but under Hiruzen's iron-fisted control, the news was kept strictly confined to the ruins of the Hyuga Clan Compound.
Though the heads of the major clans were deeply shaken, they understood that stability mattered more than anything else at that moment. They agreed to give the same account to the public:
"A highly dangerous foreign invader launched a surprise attack and was defeated by the Hokage and the Advisory Council working together."
Ordinary civilians might have believed it.
After all, there had indeed been few casualties, and most of the dead were from Anbu, Root, and the Hyuga Clan.
But some people would understand just how troublesome an enemy capable of causing such destruction...
Could be.
For example, Tsunade, who had just been hurriedly "invited" back from a casino on the other side of the village.
She stood in the middle of the corridor at Konoha Hospital, with stretchers constantly being carried past her feet.
The stench of blood filled the air. Because of her hemophobia, Tsunade couldn't stop trembling.
Fear and reason were locked in a fierce struggle in her once-confident eyes.
But as the First's granddaughter and one of Konoha's finest medical ninjas,
She still fought down the urge to vomit and flee, her forehead slick with cold sweat, and gave orders in a steady voice.
"Separate the critically injured! Set the lightly wounded aside for now and wait for reinforcements..."
Tsunade's voice trembled, but her resolve to command the scene remained unshaken.
By the time everything had been arranged, dawn had broken.
The morning breeze, carrying the lingering heat of yesterday's battle, brushed against her and helped her regain some of her strength.
She wiped the cold sweat from her forehead and hurried to the Hokage's office, full of questions and desperate for answers.
When she reached the top floor of the Hokage Building, she heard a heated argument erupting inside the office before she could even open the door.
"That guy named 'Ao' has already come right to our doorstep! The Hyuga Clan must have found something important at the Rock Battlefield—that's why he acted like this!"
"And you still want me to let the matter drop?! Instead of questioning Hyuga Hiashi, you're going to restrict Root's investigation?!"
"Hiruzen, you'll regret this!"
"Danzo, I'm the Hokage!"
"..."
"Bang!"
The door was roughly shoved open, then slammed shut behind him.
Shimura Danzo strode out, looking utterly disheveled and livid.
When he saw Tsunade, who had just arrived at the door, he paused. A flash of vicious impatience crossed his single eye, but he turned on his heel and left without a word.
Tsunade knitted her brows.
If Danzo was this angry, then the situation was far more serious than she had imagined.
"Old man, what the hell is going on?!"
She pushed open the half-closed door and strode inside. "And who's Ao? What does he have to do with the Hyuga Clan?"
"Oh, it's you, Tsunade..." Sarutobi Hiruzen rubbed his brow behind the desk, looking tired.
"Orochimaru, you're here too?"
Tsunade looked toward the window. Her former teammate was gazing at the Hyuga Clan Compound, lost in thought.
"Yes..."
Orochimaru turned around, his tone carrying a hint of deeper meaning.
"After all, the Hyuga Clan... is hiding a world-shattering secret."
The Tenseigan, a sage's eye.
The scroll that the mysterious man named Ao had crossed thousands of miles to reclaim.
Orochimaru felt the ancient scroll tucked in his sleeve, lowered his eyes, and listened quietly as his teacher and former teammate explained everything.
Could there be a secret in this scroll that even Lord Qinglan and I haven't discovered...?
"Is that so?"
Tsunade furrowed her brows, pondering what she had heard.
Every word of Teacher Sarutobi's account seemed almost absurd.
A mysterious man named Ao had barged into Konoha without warning, mercilessly killed three high-ranking members of the Hyuga Main Family, then expressionlessly broken the legs of seven or eight Branch Family guards.
And his reason for doing so was...
"The Hyuga Clan stole something of his."
"What kind of nonsense is all this?"
Tsunade abruptly raised her head and looked at Hiruzen, confusion mingled with irritation. "He barged into Konoha and caused all this destruction just to get back something that belongs to him?"
"And would the Hyuga Clan really steal something?"
Hiruzen shook his head with a rueful smile and pressed more tobacco into his pipe.
"That's the official account Hyuga Hiashi gave."
"It does sound absurd, but given Ao's strength, there's at least some logic to it."
"But..."
He suddenly changed tack, his voice gradually lowering.
"Based on the clues Danzo gathered, the actual sequence of events... was likely a much darker story."
"The Hyuga Clan found something very important."
"So they concealed their discovery and brought it back to the village. And that thing... mattered so much to the Hyuga Clan that they were willing to break with tradition and hold a celebration at a time like this."
"They placed it in their secret vault and arranged for several Main Family elders to guard it in shifts. As a result, they drew the thing's owner—Ao—back to collect his debt."
"He fought his way through the secret vault, reclaimed what belonged to him, and took a pair of Byakugan from the Branch Family as interest."
Hiruzen paused, a complicated look flashing through his eyes.
"But the Hyuga Clan doesn't seem to have given up. Or perhaps... they got a taste of the benefits that thing could bring them."
"They were willing to take another risk. After Ao left, they sent people back to the Rock Battlefield to take the thing again."
"And that's what brought on the golden light that pierced the Forest of Death last night."
The office fell into deathly silence.
"Pfft..."
Orochimaru, who had kept silent all this time, finally couldn't hold back a hoarse snicker.
Both of them turned to look at him almost at the same time.
What are you laughing at?
Before you continue