Emergency Meeting

More than an hour had passed since the meteor fell.

The smoke and dust had yet to disperse. Ash-gray haze blanketed the entire wilderness like a massive burial shroud. In the distant crater, the second meteor lay quietly embedded in the ground. The surrounding earth had been scorched black, and the air carried the smell of searing heat and faint blood. Occasionally, chunks of rubble rolled down from the crater's edge, producing hollow echoes, as though tolling the final death knell for those twenty-three thousand dead.

Inside the command tent, the atmosphere was so oppressive that it was hard to breathe.

Yamanaka Inoichi pressed his fingers to his temples, veins bulging. His senses stretched toward the ruins, trying to locate the Chakra of survivors amid the shattered rocks and dust. Each time he found one, his expression eased slightly—but that relief vanished in an instant, because there were far more lost than found.

"The Fourth Division... has fewer than six thousand survivors." His voice was dry, as though scraped from the depths of his throat. "Twenty-three thousand men. Casualties exceed seventy percent."

No one spoke.

Izumo Kamizuki stood beside the sand table, the wooden pointer in his hand hanging in midair, unsure where to place it. The area labeled "Fourth Division Main Force" had already been covered with black Xs denoting "total annihilation." One after another, densely packed together like a field of gravestones.

The tent flap was violently thrown open.

The Fourth Raikage, A, strode inside. His Lightning Release Chakra Mode still crackled around him, blue-white arcs dancing over his shoulder guards, but his steps were far heavier than usual—not from exhaustion, but from rage suppressed to its absolute limit. He did not sit. Instead, he walked directly to the sand table and slammed his fist against its edge.